Chapter 4: An Azure Uproar Part 6 (Deadly Life)
Remaining Students: 9
Sayori (Doki Doki Literature Club): Ultimate Poet
Bede (Pokémon): Ultimate Gym Leader
Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (Fire Emblem: Three Houses): Ultimate Prince
Saki Nikaido (Zombie Land Saga): Ultimate Biker Gang Leader
Reyn (Xenoblade Chronicles): Ultimate Tank
Minori Ichinose (Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure): Ultimate Bookworm
Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic The Hedgehog): Ultimate Pilot
Satou Kazuma (Konosuba) Ultimate Thief
Ray (The Promised Neverland): Ultimate Strategist
Sayori's POV
No… no no no no no no!
Why… Why is this happening again?
The killing… the deaths… the murders… the end of lives… however you want to put it, I never wanted to see it again. Especially after Hachiken, Tsuyu, and Pietro days ago… what I went through last time, it had rocked me to my core. And to make matters worse… we have to play the killing game again.
This unfair game where the only true winner is Monokuma, while we losers send someone else to die for their mistakes in order to save our skins. Accusing one another, sending a person off to be executed, this is just all wrong! So much so… that my body is starting to shake.
My legs started to wobble until they gave out, leaving me on my knees quivering.
"Sayori! What's going… ah!"
Tails arrived with the others in tow, gasping at the sight in front of our eyes.
Saki approached me from behind and helped me back to my feet, "Up you go… you alright, Sayo?"
I immediately shook my head as I turned away from the dead bodies. If I looked at them longer, I'd end up losing my lunch… and my dinner… and breakfast too. Ray walked up to them and checked their condition.
"Tch, two murders at once… even if you can successfully pull off one successful murder, you'd be crazy to attempt to kill two. Whoever did this might be sick in the head…"
Reyn scratched his head, "Eugh, that sounds about right, I mean just look at 'em!"
"There's a possible chance they could have been killed by two separate people, you know?" Bede brings up as Minori nodded in agreement.
"Even if they might have been killed the same way, two people may have just had the same idea… or maybe they decided to work together?"
Tails shook his head, "A team-up murder? Who would benefit from that? Only one person gets to graduate, so there's not really a point to collaborating on a murder… unless they want the person they're working with to be the one to graduate, while they die instead…"
I wanted to block my ears and prevent myself from hearing anything more about this. I'm sick of the murders and accusations, we're all supposed to be friends but now… we're back to being suspicious of one another. This motive was already getting people to distrust each other, since we'd be watching everyone's moves on the cameras, but now… it's really starting to upset me.
And it just kept getting worse…
"…."
"D-Dimitri? You good, Your Highness?" Kazuma asked as the prince just stared at the corpses.
"…"
He slowly stepped up to them, placing a hand on Kale's shoulder with his head hung low. After about half a minute, I heard his right fist clench up tight as he turned to us with a scornful expression.
"We investigate every inch of this room, and wherever else on this twisted campus. Do not leave ANY evidence undiscovered, for we will need all of it… all of it, to send the perpetrator to their well deserved execution."
Dimitri… just what is going on with you?
I and everyone else was looking at him with confusion and hesitation as he continued to speak with a tone that he's only ever used once, back when Finn got killed. He snapped at me then for assuming that it was an accident, but he apologized soon after. Right now though… I can't help but feel like I'm seeing a completely different person than the kind, noble leader we've come to know all this time…
"Their end will be pure comeuppance for the crimes they have committed tonight. I'll see to it myself that they will receive justice for the dead… no matter what it takes…"
When he finished his statement, he glared at us to get to the investigation and I immediately let out an "Eep!". I never thought I'd be so scared of Dimitri, even with his strength he always used it to help us out, now I'm just picturing him crushing someone's skull with just one hand… After that experience, I stood outside the room with my head in my hands.
Can I really investigate and put the pieces together? Me? Someone who can't tell the difference between the words restitution and revolution? Someone who is easily swayed by sweets? Someone with rain clouds in her head, constantly pouring down and flooding her mind?
"Sayori? Hey, if you think you can't investigate on your own… I can lend a hand? Or a tail or two, heh."
I look up to see Tails, Saki, and Reyn all around me. Kazuma, Bede, and Dimitri had started to finish their investigation, so we were the next ones up. The room could only hold so many people after all.
Reyn pats me on the shoulder, "If we all put our heads together on this one, we can get through it easy-peasy."
"We've gotta do it for Konata, right? She's our dorm mate, so we gotta take down the jackass who decided to off her! You with us?"
Saki held her fist out in the middle of us four, with the other two bumping it and waiting for me to join in.
…
…
Ugh, come on Sayori! Hachiken was able to stand back up and investigate when he was scared, do what your (honorary) big brother would do! Even if you're scared… you just need to help everyone survive, that's most important right now. It's like a murder mystery story, and it's my duty as literature club president to see it through to the end!
Well… even if I hadn't read many of those, ehehehe… I bumped my fist with theirs and Dorm Force Four was born! That's the name that I started calling us in my head… I can come up with a better one later.
Investigation
Okay, where to start? I think right about now when we get that file from Monokum—
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
"What? I haven't said anything yet." Monokuma says as I catch my breath.
"You still just appeared out of nowhere! That's not very nice!"
Monokuma chuckled as I pouted at him, "Puhuhuhu! Girl, you should know by now that I don't do nice. Anyways, the new issue of the Monokuma Files is here! Get it while it's hot, I got some nice variant covers on this one…"
Reyn took one look and was disgusted, "Agh, keep this stuff to yourself, furball…"
He handed me my file and the cover I received was one of Monokuma in a red white and blue outfit… with a super large chest. I couldn't cringe any harder, it was so hard to look at. I mean his chest was bigger than Yuri's! I'm just gonna turn the page so I can try to forget that…
Victims: Kale, Konata Izumi
"The time of death was around 9:40 pm for one victim, and 10:00 for the other. The bodies are located in the I.T. Zone Woods security station."
So one of the girls died around the time their shift was supposed to be over, while the other died twenty minutes later, if only we came over here to get them sooner… Wait, hold on a minute… yeah they both died at different times… and also…
"You didn't put how they died in here, what the heck?!" I told the bear.
He just tilted his head at me innocently, "I didn't? Huh… my bad. Welp, too late now! You're the ones investigating, so find it out yourselves."
I heard Ray sigh from the outside as he reacted to what he said.
"About as lazy as an actual bear in hibernation, just leave already so we can actually get stuff done."
Saki grunted in agreement, "Yeah, beat it, bear."
Monokuma crossed his arms and waddled out the door in a huff.
"Fine! I know when I'm not wanted! I'm gonna brush up on my piano and become a real Bear-thoven! You'll see…"
"GO AWAY!" All of us just shouted as he finally left. Now I'm thinking of Monokuma in a Beethoven wig and outfit, but at least it's a better thought than the big chest.
"Monokuma File #3" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
"Sayori, a moment please?" Bede says as he pulls me to the side and begins whispering in my ear.
"Bede, what's wrong?"
"Meet me at Kale's Lab when you have the time. I'll explain once you get there."
Her… lab? I do remember seeing her go into her Ultimate lab a few times, so maybe there could be something we could find there… ah, but wait!
"How are we supposed to get in?" I whispered to him and he whipped out an e-Handbook.
Was that Kale's? I… don't know how right it is to take that off her dead body, but… I guess if it helps us then I guess that might be okay. She probably won't mind… For now, it's time to see what we can find here.
I looked around the room to find nothing out of the ordinary, so it looks like the only thing to do is check the camera footage. Nope, nothing else to check but that. Not a single notable thing here except the cameras…. Ugh, okay, I guess we better look at the bodies.
I was hesitant to touch them, so we did a quick 1-2-3 Not It and Reyn was the unlucky one out of the four of us to get a closer look.
"Aw come on, that's not fair…"
Tails bit his lip before speaking up, "Sorry, we'll just get what we can here real quick before moving on. You can do it, Reyn!"
"Okay…" Reyn groaned as he began reluctantly observing Kale and Konata's bodies.
He lifted their heads up to find them lying atop a table of bloody vomit, their mouths still dripping blood themselves. I couldn't bear to look at it too long, so I just jotted it down in my handbook and turned away until Reyn put their heads back down. The fact that their skin looked so off color along with the vomit… they might have put something into their bodies accidentally…
Tails figured that out as well as he pointed something out to Reyn, "Check those mugs, anything in them?"
The big guy picked them up and showed them to us, they had some blood inside but you could tell that it was coffee.
I look in the corner and see… a coffee machine! I don't really drink coffee that often, I much prefer hot chocolate and sweeter drinks as expected, ehehe… Anyways, it looks like this one has been used a while ago, since the coffee in the container feels warm instead of hot. It must have been turned on while these two were in here. Must have either been some awful coffee beans… or someone tainted them.
"Bloody Coffee Mugs" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
"That's all we got?" Saki asked as Reyn shook his head.
"Nah, I found somethin' else… There, on the back of Kale's neck."
There was a small wound right there on her neck, like something was injected right there. Like when you get a shot at the doctors, used to hate those as a kid but I'm starting to get better now that I'm older. I wouldn't get a shot right at the neck though, so I feel really bad for what poor Kale went through before dying…
"Neck Wound" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
Okay… now is the time to check the cameras and see what we've got here. We've all got different footage recorded from all of the shifts today, so I immediately went with the timeframe where I would be on duty: 4:00pm-7:00pm. I played back some of the stuff I had seen before falling asleep, but one of them caught my eye in particular.
It was of Kale leaving the Ultimate lab building, carrying something.
"The Ultimate Labs… I've been using mine a lot to get tools and equipment I need, but I didn't think Kale was someone who was interested in going to hers very often. At least I assumed she wouldn't, I probably have been too busy to notice someone as quiet as her entering and leaving the place." Tails tells us while watching.
Saki put her arms behind her head and grunted, "Meh, never really went to check mine out. Just thought it was a dumb place for science nerds."
Tails put his hands on his hips in response, "Hey! I resemble that remark."
"Heh heh, you know I didn't mean that as a bad thing, little buddy! You're the coolest nerd around." Saki tousled his hair, which I did too because it's too hard to resist.
"Knock it off, it tickles…" Tails tells us.
Reyn chuckles at the sight, "Me too, I wanna have a go!"
The three of us just kept stroking Tails's furry head before he soon brushed us off.
"Okay, that's enough. I guess we'll have to go see what's in that lab later on. Just to see what she could have been holding while in there."
"Awww…" I groaned in disappointment as we stopped petting him.
He was so soft too! But he's right, even by zooming in she was holding that item so close to herself that I couldn't tell what it was. Just what could she have taken?
"Camera Footage #1" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
"I think there still might be some footage here from my shift we could use… let's just take a quick look…"
"Wow Sayori, you managed to keep track of a lot that's happened during your observation?" Tails asked curiously, but I awkwardly laughed in shame.
"A-Actually, I ended up falling asleep… all three of us did. So I'm just trying to see if there was anything I missed while I was in La La Land."
Reyn raised an eyebrow, "No kidding? Even Dimitri? I mean the man did look tired, but even someone like him ended up getting some shut-eye?"
"Hey guys… it looks like someone couldn't stay snoozing for long… that pervert, Kazuma…" Saki points at the monitor for the security station camera.
And just as she said… Kazuma was seen exiting the station. I look at the time on the screen and see that it was 5 o'clock, still taking place during our shift! He couldn't have gotten out of here until he was done, not even for a bathroom break!
"Camera Footage #2" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
But the doors in the security station were supposed to be locked on both sides so…
"How did he get outta here…?" Saki asked the question for me.
Tails quickly flew over to the door frame and his eyes went wide at something.
"The lock for the door… it's been melted off! The door itself can still close, but anyone can just come in and out no problem!"
"Melted Door Lock" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
Saki slammed her fist into her palm, "Looks like we got our man… let's kick his ass so he confesses right away. I've been waiting for this…"
"Hey hey, we still don't have any proof he did anything! We still have a lot more evidence to—"
"Nah, that joker Kazuma's definitely suspicious… I got some more footage right here…"
Reyn brings up some more camera footage at 9:45 pm, and I gasped as I saw Kazuma re-entering the security station at this time.
"H-Hold on, that's around the time Konata died…
"That's it, I'm gonna go find this bastard!" Saki growled and Tails stopped both her and Reyn from storming off.
"It can't be that easy! There's got to be more layers to this mystery than it seems at first glance, so just… be patient okay? Please?"
Tails looked them in the eyes until they finally settled down. After he and I breathed a sigh of relief, we listed all that we had down in our e-Handbooks before deciding to move on.
"Camera Footage #3" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
"Are you all done investigating?" Minori asked us, Ray right next to her.
"Y-Yeah, we are. Go ahead, hope you find some nifty stuff to use!"
I raised my hand up to tag her in, but she and Ray looked at me confused so I gave myself a self-five before wishing them good luck. The other members of the Super Dorm Defenders, name #2 on what to call us, went off to prepare themselves mentally. I, on the other hand, had a date with Bede at the Ultimate Labs… well not an actual date, we've only now become friends!
"You're late." He states and I softly chuckled.
"Sorry, things just took too long over there. So much camera stuff, y'know?"
Bede just shook his head before scanning Kale's e-Handbook onto her lab door and we walked in.
This lab was filled with more stuff than I thought, there's a bunch of pedestals with weird people and items that look to be related to them. It was like a mini hall of fame! There's this fat purple cat who's wearing some ancient Egyptian clothes, a pretty blue-skinned woman with long hair and a staff, a super serious purple alien guy, a boy with spiky hair and silver armor on his chest… and there's a big one with this girl with big spiky hair!
"These have to be people she knows from her reality. Universe 6, hm?" Bede says while reading from one of the books on the shelves.
I couldn't help but get lost in here, learning about other worlds was pretty interesting. I wanted to know more and more about how her universe was different from mine, and meet the people of her own planet. I think Saki and that girl with the spiky hair could get along well. I then spotted another picture off in the corner, of some creepy alien guy with blue skin.
I approached the item near his picture and gasped.
"Bede, look at this! It's poison! A special kind of it too…"
He stood by my side and helped me look it over, "This needle looks like it's been used, and there's also an empty bottle right next to it. Why would you not throw it away?"
"Maybe they were in a rush?" I suggested.
Bede returned the bottle to its place on the stand, "Perhaps… Hm, this murder is quite ironic after looking at this. Someone with that much power was felled not by a test of strength, but by a lethal injection…"
I nodded sadly, "Yeah… I don't think anyone here could beat her in a fight, so having her being taken down like this is such a surprise."
"Poison Needle" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
"Empty Poison Bottle" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
"There's something else I've found that's quite surprising as well… look through this."
*Bonk!*
"Yowch!"
Bede tossed me something, but then it hit me in the forehead. He sighs before handing it to me normally.
"Ehehehe, whoops. Oh, a diary?"
I flipped through it and looked at all the kinds of entries written down here. It detailed Kale's whole experience in the killing game. From the first few trials and sharing a meal with Hachiken & I… to some moments she shared talking to Dimitri and Tails for the maze challenge. Actually, there's a lot here about her and Dimitri talking to each other about their problems… I wonder if she knew why he's acting the way he is right now…
"Just skip to the end, we're wasting daylight." Bede rushed me and I stuck my tongue out at him before I got to the last page.
I began to read it aloud:
"Everyone's so on edge right now because of this whole situation with the traitors. I'm starting to have my own suspicions too, so I think I have to take action before anyone else gets hurt. I've decided to find some way to get rid of a person I think is one of the traitors. If it turns out I'm wrong…
"Hey, the rest of this page got ripped out!" I exclaimed as I saw the inside of the diary cover.
Bede placed the diary back where he left it,"Exactly, someone's trying to make things a whole lot more complicated than it needs to be. But what is sticking with me more is the fact that Kale had her own plans to take care of one of the traitors…"
"I still don't even know if there are any.. I just can't believe it until I see it I suppose… even if seeing isn't believing." I uttered as we walked out the lab.
Bede sighed as he entered the evidence into his handbook.
"It doesn't matter if there are or aren;t right now, she took actions as a reaction to the very idea that there were. We'll see whether or not said plans succeeded or not in the trial. Two people are dead…and their murderer or murderers are still here, that's the only thing we should be focusing on here."
I looked at him for a second and noticed that he's really started to care more about trying to help all of us survive. Back in the first trial he did his own thing and didn't even try to work together, while in the second trial he got mesmerized by Teruhashi and fought against us… now Bede's on our side to try and solve this case.
I can't help but be proud of him.
"Kale's Diary" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
"Missing Page" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.
*Ding dong bing bong*
Wait, wha—
"You know, after much careful consideration… I've decided to end the investigation early!"
HUH?!
"Since we didn't get a trial last time, I've been itching to have another one for quite some time… oh wait, that's just fleas. I also would like to inform all of you that since Headmistress Sird was unable to witness a trial herself yet, she will be in attendance here. So if you're planning on jumping me, I'd really like to see you try now… Puhuhuhu, see you there, my wonderful students!"
Oh come on… we don't have nearly enough to figure out the whole picture. I still haven't figured out how all of this stuff fits together! It's like having a box of puzzle pieces, but a big chunk is missing so you can't solve it!
"Stop thinking too hard about it and let's go already." Bede states as he already starts to walk down the stairs.
"B-But… we can't get through this trial with so little evidence…"
He sighs and turns back around to give me a serious look, well… more serious than usual.
"If you don't put what you have to good use, what would happen if you're suddenly given too much to utilize? Put in the same effort in this trial you would have done if you had more evidence, am I clear?"
After taking a second to better understand what he meant, I softly nodded and walked ahead of him. As soon as I arrived, I waved to my dorm mates again with a smile.
"Okay everyone! Let's get through this trial together!"
Dimitri greeted all of us with that same intense glare that he gave us earlier, before quickly looking away and entering the elevator first. I wish I got the chance to check up on him before this trial got started, since we'll probably be going through a lot of stress there, but I just was too busy. I wanted to put my hand on his shoulder to let him know that he could tell me what's going on with him, but he looks like he's only focused on the trial. If I break his concentration, he might break me…
"Oi, Sayo!"
Saki poked me on the cheek to bring me back down to earth.
"Huh?"
"Haaah? That's all you gotta say? Let's get our heads in the game, trial time! We've got your back, y'know?" Saki gave me a confident smile.
Tails chimed in wearing a grin of his own, "The three of us teaming up will make this quick and easy!"
"Hey, aren't we forgetting someone?" Reyn asked as he walked up to us.
I giggled and answered his question jokingly, "Oh yeah, hey Ray we're over here!"
"What?!" Reyn let out as we all laughed at him.
Then Ray actually came over when I called him.
"Is this important?" He asked.
I smiled back at him, "It's okay, I just wanted to mess with Reyn. You can go now."
"Heh, it's way too easy to do, right?" He chuckles before walking away.
"Ha ha, very easy…"
I giggle alongside Tails and Saki as Reyn turns back to us with annoyance.
"Why you… agh, I can't stay mad at you guys, bring it in!"
Reyn hugged us all tightly, which I think was his own form of revenge, as we descended further and further down. That moment was a welcome distraction from how roomy this elevator feels now, we've just now reached the single digits when it came to the number of people left. It really would have gotten to me if I didn't have these three here with me, and the others here too… even if some of them make me nervous currently…
*Ding*
Right when we got out, I tensed up after seeing someone at the back of the room… Sird, just where Monokuma said she would be. With her around the pressure is definitely on! That creepy stare of hers is probably gonna make me even more nervous than I am right now, but I can't let her get to me. It does look like she's already getting to some other people though…
"Hello again…"
She acknowledges Bede, while he keeps his head down and heads to his podium. If I could see his face, I'd probably see him clenching his teeth. Dimitri, however, stares daggers back at her.
"Your Highness…"
"Hmph…" He grunts before standing at his podium.
We all gathered up, everyone was now in their correct positions (although I had trouble finding mine, they really need to put our names on these things). All of us glanced back and forth at each other as I attempted to swallow my fear. Bede's right… I got to use the evidence I have as if it was a lot more. This is it, I need to prove that I can debate with the best of them…! There was no going back.. No other way forward until we cast our votes…
The person who killed Konata… the person who killed Kale… whoever they are… we'll find out together… In this class trial!
Next time… the trial begins! I'm glad to see you all again, peeps! I'm just now letting you all know that this December will get pretty busy. This weekend I'm heading to Fan Expo San Francisco, so I'll be attending that to go to Artist Alley and meet Sonic himself! (I'll be wearing an Ai Mizuno shirt in case any of you see me.) I'm also potentially getting a seasonal job this month too, so I'll be pretty busy with that. I'll be sure to release a new RenAi chapter before the week ends and hopefully release the trial chapter by Christmas as a holiday gift for you all. We'll see what happens though, see you all next time peeps! Can't wait to see your comments as always! - Renegade Braveheart