Eizo

The decision that Azami and Ayuna made to identify themselves (and Akari) on camera spurred all the rest of us to want to do the same. In my case, I realised Azami was right-it would be better for me to make sure that it was really Fumiaki in those videos, rather than getting my parents to do it. Of course, they'd need to know, in the end, but for now keeping it quiet was probably for the best.

They didn't show us changing or bathing, no doubt because that would have been weird, just stills of us hanging out in our rooms or just sitting there or whatever. There were a few different clips, and a couple of stills, and all I needed to do was confirm that it was us. Easier than I expected and yet now, standing by the vending machine contemplating drink choices, it was hitting me.

There had to have been a creepy reason for being surveyed to such an extent, and now that I knew we were actually being recorded, and that those recordings had potentially been distributed…I didn't know what Fumiaki would do or say if he had been lucky enough to survive and then find this out with me. I couldn't imagine it, at all. I mean, obviously he wouldn't have been much pleased with that, but even so. Though, I had to wonder, if the culprits had wanted to engage in voyeurism or whatever, whatever happened to just installing cameras in our school changing rooms? Why the set up?

None of it made sense to me, and it was making my head hurt.

I picked up my bathroom bag and figured that, hey, may as well put it in the bathroom. I left my suitcase and piles of things as they were and went over to the little door that I assumed had a bathroom in it, and tugged at the doorknob. The door opened easily, and I looked around.

"Maan, this is small." I said to myself, looking around.

It was small, but the sink and the actual shower looked new and fancy, all white and gleaming. I was pretty sure that the sink was marble of some sort. The entire thing looked like it belonged in that fancy hotel Fumi and I had once gone to for a charity fundraiser last year, not in this poky room with worn-out green tiling that looked like my middle school. The tiny cupboard affixed to the wall didn't seem like it belonged either-it was wooden, the paint peeling and the mirror on one of the doors slightly scratched. I shrugged, and took out my toothbrush and paste from by bag, put it on the sink, then shoved my other things into the sad cupboard.

Then I looked up.

What the…..I stared, fully aware my jaw had practically dropped to the ground. Whirling around and still looking up, I saw another in the opposite corner. I dropped the bathroom bag and rushed out of the little bathroom and out of my room.

"FUMI!" I called. "Fumi, you gotta come, quick!"

"What?" Fumiaki opened the door to his bedroom, opposite to mine. "What is it?"

"Have you been in the bathroom yet?"

"No, I'm still sorting out my things-it looks like our phones have been take-"

"Oh, never mind about that, there's something freakier!"

Fumi raised an eyebrow at me, and waited for my answer:

"There're cameras in the bathroom!"

I heard someone approach the vending machine, and turned to see Azami.

"You're done?" I asked. "You okay?"

"Yeah…it wasn't bad. I thought they'd show us actually…"

Azami trailed off, clearly unable to voice the thought out loud, but I just nodded.

"No, they wouldn't. That would just be making it worse, after all, and they seem like they care."

"Mhm."

Azami looked over at the vending machine, frowning slightly.

"Ah, you want something? I'm still deciding."

She didn't look at me, but pointed at one of the cans. I decided to punch in an order for both of them, and paid before she could say anything.

"It's on me, really." I said.

"Oh…thanks…"

The machine duly spat out our cans, so I bent down to get them. I was about to hand one to Azami when I noticed that she was staring into space.

"Hey, Azami? Are you okay?"

She blinked a couple of times, and her gaze looked slightly out of focus before she looked at me.

"I asked them if they'd found anything of Akari leaving." She murmured.

"Leavi-" It took me a moment. "Oh, you mean, on the night she died?"

"Yeah…."

She bit her lip, looking concerned. I tried to give a reassuring smile.

"Oh, that's not as bad as my mess-up, is it?"

"I…still, the others are going to be upset, aren't they? After all, we decided that we weren't going to…right?"

I nodded.

"I know, but Azami, don't worry, okay? I'll take the brunt if it comes to it. But I don't think it'll come to that."

Azami nodded in response to that, slowly and carefully. We were waiting for the others to finish identifying themselves so we could be group interviewed, but I wanted so badly to whisk her away somewhere else so we could just forget about it for a moment. It had just been one thing after another, it seemed, now this investigation was re-opened.

"Aza-nyan, come on!"

Akari was annoyed, but clearly she couldn't be that annoyed if she was still using that nickname, or so I though. Azami did get up, but she pouted at her sister.

"Ah, Aka-rin, there's nothing else to do, and I'm just hanging out with Eizo-chi. Come join us-we can start a new game, right?"

"Sure, sure-it's starting to get a bit dead anyway."

"You're only saying that because I'm winning." Azami said archly, raising an eyebrow at me.

I just waggled mine in return, and then snuck a glance at Akari, only to see that her expression hadn't softened. If anything, she looked even more severe as she started to twist strands of her hair tightly around her fingers.

"Hey," I told her. "lighten up, it's fine."

"No it isn't. Azami, come on, we can't just stay here where anything could happen."

Azami's expressions changed rapidly before eventually settling, now frowning herself, with eyes slightly wide and mouth open

"But that-this is Eizo-chi!" she gestured. "Nothing's going to happen!"

"You don't know that, do you? After all, Fumia-"

"Hey, are you saying because Fumi killed I might kill too?"

Akari shut her mouth abruptly and stared at me. Azami's mouth downturned, and when Akari noticed she closed her eyes, took a breath, and then opened them.

"Technically yes, but not for that reason. Because of the fact he's dead now. You've already lost one family member, so your note will have targeted whoever is left, right?"

"My….mum and dad? But-"

Azami jumped in before I could finish, not that I really minded as such.

"Akari, he didn't get a note. He wasn't one of the ones to get a note, and we didn't, either."

Akari's gaze flickered at that, but became stony once more as she turned back to me. She continued twist strands of her hair

"It's not like ALL of us needed a note to know the dangers. " she pointed out. "Don't you know that it applies to all of us?"

"Yes, bu-"

Azami paused as Akari tugged at a lock of hair and ended up pulling a couple of strands. She stared at the dyed candyfloss-blue blankly, and then Azami got up and put a hand on Akari's shoulder.

"Okay then, we can go," she then turned to me. "Play later, Eizo-chi?"

"Sure, sure, no probs. I'll grab one of the boys or something and best them instead!"

Azami seemed pleased with that, and turned to walk away with her sister. I watched them for a while, and heard Akari tell Azami that Fumiaki's death put me in a more desperate position before they were too far out of earshot. I sat there, then gathered up the remains of our game and went to find someone else to annoy.

And then of course the next day, we had found Akari dead and so there had been no 'later.

Perhaps, then, it was no bad thing that everything was snowballing-perhaps then there'd be answers for all of us. Because wasn't that the cost of our silence-never, ever knowing? Ah, this is tiring. If there wasn't Azami, I wasn't sure I'd do such a good job of standing straight and keeping my head up, as silly as that was. I hated that any of this was hurting her more than she'd been hurt already, but I was so glad she was here, so glad I'd at least been able to see her again. I sighed, and with such thoughts in mind, scrambled for something to say that would at least lift our spirits a little, just for a moment. .

"Hey, do you remember once, we decided to try and catch leaves?"

Azami frowned slightly, and tilted her head.

"Catch leaves?"

"Yeah, when they were falling from the trees?"

Azami tilted her head slightly and appeared to try and think about this.

"I think so. Had we gone out, that day, after school? It was getting dark, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah, we'd been hanging out at the park, but it was windy when we were walking back-you almost lost your hat."

"Purple knitted, with a flower."

"Yeah."

It was kind of a dorky hat-I think her mother had sent it to her, but it looked cute on her. Of course, I was biased when it came to that kind of thing, but even so. It had been cute, and so had she.

"And you couldn't catch any-you flailed around for ages, right?" Azami continued. "People stared, but I didn't mind and I don't think you even noticed."

"Nah, too busy trying to catch those leaves," I said wryly, starting to laugh at the memory. "But you…you caught one almost straight away and you just waited for me to notice. I felt pretty silly once I did, but in a funny way."

"Yeah, that sounds…that sounds like me. And sounds like you?"

I laughed again, shaking my head at the memory.

"Oh, that was definitely me. You know, we should do that again one day-I'm sure I'll be better at catching leaves now I'm older."

"Hasn't the time for that gone?" Azami asked. "Gone with…"

She trailed off, and indicated somewhere in the distance. Stupidly, I looked over in that direction, as if on the other end of the corridor I'd see our teenage selves, bent over laughing at our own frivolity. I shook my head and stepped closer.

"Nah, course it's not. I mean, we may get stranger looks than the last time, but why not make it the time?"

"Make it the-maybe…."

Azami blinked as she trailed off, and reached out for one of the drinks. I'd forgotten I was holding it, and held it out to her, but that moment I realised how close she was standing to me. I was sure that I had been going to say something else, but that, too, got forgotten as I looked at her, just looked at her. Cataloguing and remembering every feature to cherish, just as I had when I was younger. Because yes, we had been young and unhurried and silly with it, but I had loved her.

I loved her.

Azami was looking at me in a way that I hoped was the same, searing and searching. She had the drink now, and held it tightly in both hands, knuckles turning white. The intervening twenty years had changed her as much as they had changed me, but she was still pretty. I blushed, thinking of all the things we'd never had the chance to explore, and wondering if there was a chance for that, too. It wasn't fair to expect her to have missed me the same way I missed her, not when she'd had so much further to climb back up, but…

Everything seemed quiet around us, it was easy to forget that we were standing by a vending machine in a police station. I swallowed nervously, then tentatively lifted my now free hand to…to do what? I wasn't sure myself, but Azami's gaze flicked to it and she showed no sign of hesitation or disinterest, so I decided to see where we went.

Then somewhere in the distance a door slammed, and I came back to my senses. Azami startled, and stepped back, and I shook my head, blinking, disoriented. I felt my cheeks heat even more.

"I…um, I…."

Footsteps came down, and I looked over to see Friede heading down. I took a few breaths and then nodded to her.

"Hey, did you want a drink?"

"It's alright, I'll get one myself."

I stepped to the side, and let her punch in the order that she wanted, aware that she was now standing between me and Azami. I glanced past her, but couldn't get a sense of Azami was thinking. In the end, it turned out to not matter as by the time Friede chose her drink, a detective had come back to take us to the room we'd been in before so we could talk.

…

Friede

Neither we nor the detectives could glean any new information from the revelation that we were being recorded as well as surveyed. I didn't think it'd really crossed our minds that there could be some other, bigger reason beyond simply trying to scare us-and boy, had that worked. And we'd all been trying to find out if there'd been anything other than the bedroom recordings, but either there hadn't, or the detectives were hiding it from us in the hopes we'd slip up and confess all.

Or maybe they were still out there, somewhere, and they were hoping we'd somehow lead them to those videos.

I was looking back now, and wondering if any of the times a creepy man had stared at me a little too long hadn't just been because they were men and creepy, but because they recognised me from videos like that, shared around to give them thrills, giving them the extra thrill of staring at me in the supermarket getting groceries and imagining me a few years younger and undressing for bed instead. As if I was an object for their entertainment. Of course, approaching 40, looks were slowly starting to drop off but I assumed it was because I was now considered an older woman, and nothing more. But now…

I had fled from the others as soon as I could, and not just because I knew they were still judging me after Akagi, but because I couldn't look at them knowing that not only could they have experienced similar things, but that if other recordings did surface then the truth would be out there. I wanted to be sick, but I couldn't, not while in the police station where someone could hear and give me their misplaced pity. So I ducked into a toilet, splashed water on my face and stared at myself in the mirror.

Akagi looked a bit like me, people had said. I hadn't seen it at the time, believing Lucius with his golden locks to be more similar to me in appearance. But now…I hated it, but I could see it. It was not so much a physical appearance that we had in common-even if we did loosely share a resemblance (though no more than any resemblance Akagi shared with Tsubasa). More that everything I'd never hoped I would pass on ending up being replicated in him.

I stared at myself, really seeing the horrifying person that the others had been so shocked by. In truth, none of this was what I had wanted, not really. I hadn't looked down at my twins when they were new-borns and wished them to misery forever. I really hadn't.

But then again, I hadn't wanted them to be twins in the first place.

Look what happened to twins in the end, after all. And even ordinary siblings, like Yuri and Yuki. I didn't understand how it was Mai had clung onto her wish for a large family, even if she had just stopped at two. Didn't she look at them each and every day and realise that anything, absolutely anything, could tear them apart? And that, if they loved each other even slightly, the process of the ripping would hurt so much more?

"Upupupu, why're you all so glum?"

"The fuck do you think?" Sen'ya retorted as we filed into the room for the fourth time now.

I stiffened my shoulders and took up my space, trying to not look at the closest crossed-out photographs that had been affixed to the stands nearest to mine. Of course, it was impossible to ignore that now, there were two more. One of Moeka, from before and one of Yuri, from now. The only question was, which one of us would end up replaced with a crossed out photograph? As Sadie tried to calm Yuki down a little and shepherd Azami into her place, I fixed my attention on the bear as he jumped excitedly in his throne.

"Aww, but you're really living up to expectations, you know? This investment really is paying off!"

"Let's just get on with it." Eikichi said briskly. "It's bad enough that this has happened again, do you really need to rub it in our faces?"

"Awww, but your actions are all so riveting, don't you want the most amount of screentime? After all, it could be any one of you next, right?"

"Sc-screen time?" Teiichi asked cautiously.

"And what do you mean by 'investment'," Kimiko asked. "Is our being here financially motivated?"

"Ah, I've said too much, I'll ruin the suspense if |I answer your questions! God, I thought young people these days only cared about drama, not plausibility! Anyway, let's get cracking, we're wasting time!"

"That's what I was saying before…." Eikichi sighed.

Sighing, I moved away from the sink and grabbed paper towels from the dispenser and wiped my face, before throwing them away and heading out, keeping my head down so that if any of the others were still in, they wouldn't ask me to meet with them afterwards or anything. I still wanted to talk to them…just, not now.

"…..will you be coming home…?"

"….a lot going on….I will try…..keep busy…."

"…..go back to work….."

Hearing Mai and Juro's voices talking, I slowed slightly, wanting to eavesdrop even though I knew I shouldn't. But wherever they were, they were out of sight and too far for me to really hear much more than snippets of what they were saying.

"…..but she's missing Akio, I think…I'll have to message him to remind him to talk…"

"I'm sure he'll remember, he's not….."

"…ah, but he's got plenty on his mind too….."

"…..don't want him to…."

"….will be okay…."

And then, a few more indistinct murmurs that were warm and soothing-clear sweet honey against warm caramel-before finally Mai spoke.

"Mmm, see you later, then…"

I sped up, quickly, looking straight ahead this time and walking as fast as I could. I was not too far from the doors, and with relief I slipped through them, and headed back to my hotel.

When I got back into my room, I checked my phone, and then sent a text message to Tsubasa, needing to tell him what I had just discovered, wondering how he would react to it. After all, my own last message had been: If you're going to make me talk to him, there's no point in you being here, a statement that was as much a lie as it was the truth. I wanted so badly to turn back into Tsubasa's arms and have everything be okay for it, the same way we had started being together. I wanted us to be able to talk again in the way that Mai and Juro still talked to each other, whether through sign or texts or text-to-speech on his part, I wish we could just talk. I missed the early days, when we were newly married, before the twins had arrived.

But there isn't anything else left to say really, is there?

Nausea rushed back, and I dropped my phone, hearing it fall to the floor but not being able to care as I rushed to the bathroom and bent over the toilet. I retched and retched, but nothing came out, and eventually, defeated, I sat there, trying to catch my breath.

And I wished for words I did not have.

…

Takaaki

The alternative to Ayuna's invitation would have been to just lie around in my hotel room waiting for the next call-in, the next shocking revelation. So even though I wasn't entirely sure I was up to it, I decided sure, why not. Surprisingly, the only other person to accept the invitation was Eikichi-surprising both for the fact it was only and that it was him. I'd been getting the distinct impression that the past was little more than an inconvenience to him, what with his job and his fiancée and all that. Not that wasn't a valid issue or anything, but still.

As it was, we ended up deciding to meet at a small place outside of Eikichi's hotel, rather than mine or Ayuna's. I wasn't sure why Ayuna had not offered, but I had no idea about the quality of any establishments around mine-I had been subsisting on a mostly convenience-store diet and copious cereal bars. And, of course, leftovers from the lunch Mai had cooked yesterday. Thinking of that, my stomach rumbled, reminding me I hadn't eaten at all since last night, but it didn't much sense to go to a food-based establishment on a full stomach, so it was what it was.

I made sure I had whatever I needed and left my room without a backwards glance, and took my time ambling down the streets as I checked the directions, looking at the sights and sounds. It seemed like any other ordinary city to me, and yet I knew that it really wasn't. Once upon a time, this place had been where my life had revolved. And I know that my social life had actually existed back then, so no doubt I'd visited many different places, yet here I was not recognising any of it.

Then again, it was entirely possible that whatever establishments I had frequented 20 years ago no longer existed. Logically, that was what happened with time-things drew towards the end of their existences, and that was that, for all sorts of reasons. A little part of me couldn't help but think that perhaps what had happened to us had ended up being the beginning of the end for the city, too. After all, Hope's Peak had ended up closing in the end, hadn't it? I wondered if the person who had done it had ever dreamed that would be a consequence.

When I found the place, Eikichi and Ayuna were both already there, sitting at an outdoor table that had large plants either side of it, though not in front. Which was good, because I did not want to fight through a forest to sit down. Eikichi had changed his shirt, and Ayuna had straight up changed outfits-though it didn't look that different from the one she'd been wearing this morning.

"Am I late?" I asked, more out of intellectual curiosity than out of any concern.

Ayuna raised an eyebrow at me.

"On the line."

"Exactly how I like it," I replied, deadpan. "Have you ordered yet?"

"I did, but this one here wanted to wait for you." Eikichi indicated Ayuna who pulled a face.

They did that a lot, didn't they, before? I didn't react, just grabbed the small menu card and had a look, picking out something quickly without too much thought-after all, as long as it tasted good, who cared? Ayuna waved a waitress over, and we both gave our orders.

When the waitress went away, we did not immediately launch into conversation. Instead, we sat there, looking at each other. Eikichi twirled a coffee stirrer in the way that he would twirl pencils sometimes, while Ayuna seemed to be psyching herself up. I just waited-after all, it was no bother to me.

The only thing was, it gave more time for me to remember things.

"Hey, listen up!"

Sen'ya clanked his spoon against his bowl and stood up, and we all looked over at him, curious.

"What is it?" Ayuna asked. "What's wrong?"

"I just wanted to tell you, that I think I know who the traitor is."

Shock rippled, and everyone exchanged looks with whoever it was they were sitting next to. I was sitting on my table, which according to Eikichi rendered it 'completely unoccupiable' so I looked over at Kimiko, sitting with Teiichi and Ayuna at the other table. The question of well, who is it, formed on all our lips. But none of us were able to voice it.

"Then, pray tell, who is this traitor?" Lilian managed eventually.

She was utterly calm, resting her chin in her hands, though she was pale enough for the butterfly tattoo to seem even starker against her skin than usual. Sen'ya clicked his tongue at her, frown deepening as he held the spoon aloft.

"I said THINK, not DEFINITELY SURE. I still need to check a few things out before I jump to conclusions-I don't want things to get out of hand. But I will figure it out for sure, so if you are the traitor….."

As far as I could tell, as he turned his head so he could look at all of us (not, admittedly, a strenuous task), he did not linger on any one in particular.

"But why not just say who it is?" Sadie asked curiously.

"Yeah, tell us, tell us!" Yuki declared. "I wanna know who the meanie is! It isn't me by the way!"

"Pfft, I know it ain't you, silly," Sen'ya shook his head. "But like I said, I don't want to go around flinging crap without anything to back it up. We've nearly fucking died because of jumping to fucking conclusions.

"Why are you telling us this, exactly?" Eikichi wanted to know.

"But what if whoever it is tries to hurt you?" Teiichi asked, almost at the same time.

Eikichi and Teiichi looked at each other, and the latter blushed. Eikichi shook his head and indicated for Teiichi to go on.

"I, just, surely announcing yourself like that might make them panic…you gotta be careful, okay?"

Sen'ya rolled his eyes, but the hand holding the spoon trembled, just a little. Noticing this, he snatched it away, putting the spoon down.

"Yeah, I know. But that's why I'm telling you. If I wind up dead, you'll know who did it."

I shivered suddenly, despite the warm weather. Were premonitions real, or just something our pattern-seeking minds made up to make the world seem neater? This was obviously a question with no real answer depending upon the perspective but all the same, I could not help but wonder if it meant something.

"Right, well." Ayuna let out a breath and sighed, leaning forward slightly. "Well. Sorry, I know I was the one who invited you guys here."

"I'm surprised none of the others decided to come." Eikichi commented.

"I think Mai said something about needing to go into work, but I'm not sure about the others." Ayuna said.

"We still need to find out what exactly they were called in for yesterday."

Eikichi didn't need to clarify that he was talking about Eizo and Azami. I just nodded absently, as did Ayuna.

"I'm going to try and get them to meet altogether soon any way, I think we need to. But I suppose it's best I run the idea by the two of you first so it's not such a shock."

"Why would it be a shock?" I asked.

"You're the most against it, from what I can tell." Ayuna said.

"Against what?"

"Telling the truth."

The two of us stared at her, and I wondered if she was joking, but best I could tell, she wasn't. The waitress came back with our orders, and set them down before jetting off to help a table that had just called for her.

"Why?" Eikichi asked in a strained whisper, after a glance to make sure the waitress was far enough away.

"Don't you think it's time, at this point?" Ayuna said. "Those videos are a game changer, and it doesn't take a genius to realise what those mean."

"Are you alright, by the way?" I interrupted.

Ayuna looked questioningly.

"It may have been harder for you than most, is what I think he's driving at." Eikichi said. "But anyway, why?"

"Like I said, knowing that we were being recorded with the goal of being distributed-wherever the rest of that footage is, someone could come across it someday. The truth could come out anyway, don't you realise?"

Eikichi stared at her, and rubbed his face.

"I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around that, to be honest."

"It makes a certain kind of sense though, really."

Eikichi looked up at this, glaring sharply at Ayuna. She sighed, sounding almost pensive.

"Does it?"

Ayuna blinked at us for a moment, and then nodded.

"Yeah…yeah, it does. In a way. But yeah…I know we were keeping it in to keep us safe, but would that really apply now? Would it not be better to get it out into the open before we're confronted with it just like that? I know that nobody…."

She paused to lower her voice more than she had already, then continued:

"I know that nobody died in their bedrooms, so the issue isn't immediate, but even so….."

Now, this was true, but it wasn't unreasonable that they'd find other indicators. I had been trapped in my room when Kimiko had died. Akari had gotten up in the night and walked towards her own death. Lilian had spent ages in her room writing the notes for Monobear. Who knew what else others had gotten up to in their rooms that could point to the truth?

She trailed off again, and then shook her head.

"Besides, aren't you all tired?"

"Tired of what?" I asked, still mulling over what else could be found.

"Holding it in. Because I'm tired."

Eikichi had opened his mouth to say something, and then he stopped. I, too, had nothing to say to that. Ayuna gave us both a sad smile, and she started to eat the cake that had thus far been neglected. I did the same with my own, and eventually Eikichi did too.

We didn't talk the rest of the time, just finished our snacks and drinks, and then split the bill between us before heading our separate ways. We had not come up with an answer, but that did not seem to matter so much.

Because really, what else was there to say?