Chapter 3: Misalignment in the Stars (Deadly Life Part 1)
Warning: This is a Danganronpa fic. Things can be pretty bad, especially regarding gore and the foul language used. Although, if you've made it this far, I don't think that kind of stuff bothers you anyways, sooooo…
Everyday was the same here…
His parents were always too busy with their work to ever give him any attention, so every day just felt like a drag.
With every day passing, it's like the light in his life was slowly being drained, until there wasn't a single colour left to enjoy.
Just an endless routine where he didn't even know if the people close to him only talked to him because of his parents.
That's what a day felt like to someone like Dae-Hyun.
Just an endless trudge through a life he had no care in living. He just wanted to have genuine connections, but his home life made it rather impossible.
So on he went, walking forward in life, with no real aspirations for himself.
That was until one day…
As Dae-Hyun was walking down his regular path back from school. He hadn't really fully been paying attention, as he never truly does. Everything around him muddled into a rather grim grey colour, almost as if he himself refused to see the light of anything.
Normally, he'd ignore the sounds around him, even when someone tried to speak to him. He was a rather difficult kid to get the attention of..
So then why… Why did he stop on the sidewalk, looking into a park.
And not just at the park… For once, Dae-Hyun was actually looking at someone.
There was a girl currently on the swing set, swinging around like she was having the time of her life.
But this girl felt different than anyone else he had ever encountered.
For once, this girl shone a rather bright colour, completely contrasting the dull colours around her.
After looking at her for a while longer, Dae-Hyun did something he hadn't really done before in his life.
He started a conversation. Walking over to her, he kept watching her on the swing. "Hey there…" Not that he had many social skills in the first place.
Seeing Dae-Hyun, the girl offered a smile, "Hello there." Already, she was pretty friendly, especially to someone who had just spoken to her randomly.
"I've… Never seen you around this park before." Dae-Hyun passed by this park every day, and he would have remembered if he passed by someone like her. "Are you from around here?"
Slowly, the girl brought her swinging to a halt, before pointing off towards a building not too far from here. "Actually, I live over there."
Following her gaze, Dae-Hyun was able to spot the exact building she meant.
An orphanage. "You're…" He turned to look back at her.
However, she didn't really seem to mind. "Yeah… I've been living there for a while." She began to swing herself on the swings again.
One of the reasons Dae-Hyun didn't see much value in living his life was because his parents almost never had time for him.
And yet, here was a girl who didn't have any parents, who still seemingly found joy in things. "What's your name…?"
"Ming-Hee." She responded, slowing down the swing again. "What about you?"
"... Dae-Hyun." It was weird for him to even have to give his name out, given most people already knew who he was.
But this girl didn't have a clue. It was refreshing.
He didn't know it at the time, but this would turn out to be one of the closest friends he'd ever have…
…
…
…
It had been a few days since Dae-Hyun had met Ming-Hee, and now, there was a rather different look in his eyes.
No longer was he functioning on autopilot. Now, he had something to look forward to whenever he came back from school.
Behaviour like this didn't go unnoticed by his father, who stopped him. "Dae-Hyun? What's this behaviour about?"
For a moment, he didn't want to answer. "I… I made a friend."
Hearing that, Ji-Hu smiled at him. This was the first friend he had ever heard Dae-Hyun having. Of course, a friend of his would need to see the life that he lives, so his father offered him something. "How about you have them join us today after school. I want you at my work later tonight."
Now, Dae-Hyun wasn't exactly sure about this, but so far, Ming-Hee had spoken to him without much care of who he actually was, so maybe things would turn out well. "Alright…"
…
…
…
"Woah…" Ming-Hee called out as she walked around the studio, her eyes sparkling slightly with every new thing she saw. "This is where your parents work?"
"Yeah…" Dae-Hyun tried to pretend it wasn't a big deal, especially since that normally affects people's opinions on him.
But she didn't really seem to mind.
As the two walked further into the studio, they would be stopped by various people wanting to talk to Dae-Hyun.
While he wasn't very responsive, Ming-Hee was. She had a very welcoming and friendly nature. To the point where most of the people ended up speaking to her instead.
Something Dae-Hyun didn't mind, given he didn't want to speak to anyone else either.
That was until. "Well, aren't you a cute one." It was one of the stylers for the show that was currently being worked on.
"Me?" For a moment, Ming-Hee was a bit confused.
"Yes! Of course!" The styler raised her hands in the air. "Do you mind if I style your hair?"
For a moment, Ming-Hee looked over at Dae-Hyun, trying to figure out what she should answer. This was all new to her.
However, he didn't really seem to care too much. "Just go for it."
"Wonderful!" The woman didn't really seem to wait for an answer from Ming-Hee, given that Dae-Hyun gave the approval.
And off she was, leaving Dae-Hyun in the dust completely. "Eh…" He didn't really have anything else to do, so he decided he'd follow along anyways.
When he finally got there, they were already almost done styling her hair. He just walks rather slowly.
"Oh! There you are!" The woman called out as she was putting the finishing touches on Ming-Hee.
As Dae-Hyun looked over at her, with a simple change of a hairstyle, she already looked pretty different.
"Aww…" The woman cooed, looking at the girl in the mirror. "Like a doll."
"Thank you…" Ming-Hee was rather happy to hear that about her appearance.
Shaking his head, Dae-Hyun let out a sigh. "I'm sorry about this." Maybe she was getting way more attention than she was used to.
However, Ming-Hee's eyes only sparkled. "Don't worry about it! I quite like this."
"Honestly, girl." The woman said, lowering herself so the two of them were on similar levels. "With a face like this, you could be a young star."
"Um!" Well, Ming-Hee wasn't expecting to hear something like that. She quickly looked over at Dae-Hyun for a bit of help.
Instead, he could only look at her, almost lost in thoughts. After a few seconds, he snapped out of it. "I… I can see it."
"Really?" This was the most praise Ming-Hee had ever received, so it felt unearned. "But… I've never acted before."
"Oh, honey, don't worry about that. There's classes for things like that." The woman seemed rather content with herself, having potentially found a young star.
From that point, Dae-Hyun could only really watch from the sidelines, but he wasn't ever disappointed by what he saw. Maybe the reason she had shone so brightly the day they had met was because she was destined to be a star like this.
Ming-Hee didn't really seem to mind having cameras aimed at her, and had a rather bubbly personality towards everyone who wanted to speak with her.
In no time, she had already gotten herself a role on a sitcom that had been airing at the studio. It wasn't one of the main cast, but it was a rather important recurring character.
Seeing his friend getting so much positive attention did put a rare smile on Dae-Hyun's face. Her life was about to be completely transformed for the better, and that was a good thing.
…
…
…
Over the next several months, Ming-Hee had grown a lot since her first role, having already taken on two more prominent roles in other shows.
Honestly, her life was seeming pretty great at this point, the only downside Dae-Hyun found with the entire thing was the fact that she never seemed to really get any good managers.
At this point, Ming-Hee had already gone through four managers, and she was currently on her fifth.
Of course, all four of them were probably his fault, given how high of a standard he has, something they couldn't reasonably achieve.
If the way they wanted to manage her wasn't to Dae-Hyun's expectations, he'd be sure to let them know in a… rather rude way. After a few times of telling them off, they'd always quit, leaving the void open for someone else to fill in…
However, maybe this was finally the manager that would be good for Ming-Hee.
Given that class was over, Dae-Hyun had quickly made his way over towards the studio to try and see how Ming-Hee was doing.
However, when he got there, she seemed rather tired. "Is everything alright?"
Letting out a small yawn, Ming-Hee tried to wave it off dismissively. "Don't worry about it… I've just been rather busy." She slowly nudged over at her schedule.
"How's your new manager treating you?" Dae-Hyun walked over to take a look at it, before pausing.
"What?" He mumbled out, taking another look at it.
There was barely any time for anything on this. "Where's your manager?"
Ming-Hee tilted her head to the side, trying to think. "He should be in the other room. He's getting things ready for my next appearance."
Quickly, Dae-Hyun found himself in the next room, looking around for anyone who stood out to him.
And of course, off in the distance was a man who was seemingly trying to get things started. Quickly, he walked over to him. "Are you Ming-Hee's manager?"
Recognising the kid, the manager seemed to smile. "Ah, how was school, Dae-Hyun?"
But he didn't care about that right now. Instead, he lifted up the schedule. "How does this schedule make any sense… How's she going to fit school into any of this?"
Her manager took a look at him, the once friendly face quickly contorted into an expression of annoyance.. "School? She's a star, she doesn't have to worry about things like that."
Dae-Hyun felt himself getting more annoyed with those words. Not only were they completely ignoring her studies, the schedule didn't leave her any time for herself. It was an awful one. Somehow, out of all the managers she had over the year, this one was by far the worst one. "She can't live with a schedule like thi-"
Almost as if something had snapped in the manager, he turned to look at Dae-Hyun, shoving a bunch of papers into his chest. "Well then, I'd like to see you try doing something like this. Although, it might be a little easier, since you won't have to deal with an annoying brat like yourself."
But, it had almost the opposite effect on Dae-Hyun, who instead held onto the papers. If he was the one in charge, then he could work closely with Ming-Hee, and he'd be one of the few people who would actually be able to make a schedule that would be normal for her."Fine…"
"What?" The old manager raised an eyebrow, clearly not having expected that as an answer.
Clutching onto the papers a little tighter, Dae-Hyun seemed to have a look of determination in his eyes for the first time in his life. "I will be the one to manage her."
He'd do a better job than any of the others before him. He'd be the perfect manager for Ming-Hee…
Upper Repair Ship
It was dark…
It was dark and there was no way out at the moment.
All Melody knew was that an asteroid must have hit the repair ship, and Benjamin closed off the doors.
As for why the lights were out at the moment? She didn't really know.
Her current location was between the circular hallway and the ship's core.
In fact, Melody hadn't moved. Without a keycard, she couldn't exactly open any of the doors that were around her, and walking around ran the risk of her hitting her head against the wall.
So she just sat there, her mind racing with thoughts about what was happening with the others. Even her earpiece didn't seem to work, so she couldn't exactly call for help.
For now… She was alone… Waiting…
…
…
…
After what felt like an eternity, which was in reality probably only ten minutes, the door opened up, causing Melody to look around. She knew it was the door to the circular hallway. "Hello?" She called out, hoping that whoever it was was there.
Footsteps stopped. "Melody?" It was Gennosuke. "You're in here?"
Hearing that it was him, Melody let out a rather large sigh of relief, as she felt like was no longer in danger. "Y-Yeah!" Quickly, she got back up onto her feet. She wasn't really able to see him much, but she reached out to try and see where he was.
Once she brushed his arm, Gennosuke responded. "How long were you stuck in here? Why didn't you call out?"
"I… I tried!" Melody didn't know why nobody answered, but maybe the walls were soundproof. "And only for about fifteen minutes…"
Letting out a sigh. Gennosuke passed by her, scanning the card to enter the ship's core.
Still a bit spooked by what happened, Melody chose to stick near Gennosuke. "How… How'd ya get here? Wasn't it pitch dark on your side too?"
Letting out a small chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "Absolutely… But after a while, I was able to use the wall to navigate myself here."
After a few seconds, he had to stop, because he could have sworn he saw a light that shouldn't be there.
Quickly, a silhouette could be seen, raising her hands. "It's just me…" It was Winter. Seems she was stuck here during the entire ordeal.
Seeing her, Melody let out a sigh of relief. If the ship core was fine, then it meant that the rest of the ship was fine.
A few seconds later, to reinforce that idea, the lights quickly flashed back on, blinding all three of them, who had mostly been in darkness.
When Gennosuke finally gained his vision again, the first thing he did was look at Winter.
She seemed to be a little bothered, adjusting her kimono, but otherwise not saying anything else.
Letting out a rather big sigh, a smile soon appeared on Melody's face. "See, everything is back to normal."
That was reassuring. If the lights were back on, then that meant the emergency was over.
"We should still go down to see what happened." Winter suggested. "I can't seem to hear anyone on the earpiece anymore, so something must have happened to the control room."
Gennosuke slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, I agree. And with the doors being closed, I have the only keycard unless Gigi decided to show up."
The group of three was just about ready to head down to the lower floor…
And that's when it played…
.
"A body has been discovered! Finally, after so long! Please, everyone make your way towards the docking zone! We're landing this… Wait, landing isn't exactly the right term. Whatever, we're docking this ship."
.
For a moment, Melody felt herself freeze up at the mention.
A body? Again?
Sticking his hands in his pockets, Gennosuke turned his attention towards the other door. "We should probably get to the lower floor." Moving over towards the door, he scanned the keycard, before making his way over to the staircase.
Watching him leave, Melody eventually turned her attention towards Winter, who didn't immediately make her way towards the door. "What's eating you, doll?"
Glancing at her, Winter shook her head. "There's nothing wrong. I'm just a bit shaken up by what happened to the ship."
And a bit worried about the body, but she knew it at least couldn't be Michael, given he had stayed on the station.
However, as they reached the stairs, all of their attention was taken over by something else.
On the ground was a blaster.
Melody tilted her head to the side. "What's that doing here?"
Gennosuke shrugged. "I don't know, but we should probably grab it."
The person to grab it was Winter, who put it away. "I'll keep it on myself. Hope you don't mind."
Melody didn't seem to have much of a problem, and quickly went down the stairs.
However, Gennosuke did stay behind a bit. "Are you sure?" He flashed her a smile.
Winter shook her head. "What use would I have for something like this?" She twirled a finger around her hair.
Letting out a small chuckle, Gennosuke shrugged. "I suppose. But it might be evidence for the trial."
"Then it will be safe with me." Winter didn't seem to see any issue here. "Unless you suspect me of something, in which case, you should probably say it."
"No, no… Nothing like that." Gennosuke was going to choose to say nothing else and go down the stairs to follow Melody.
Watching him go down, Winter stepped forward, heading for the stairs.
Space
It was a terrifying thought.
Space was already terrifying, even with being tied to a ship.
So how much worse would it be if there was nothing keeping you in place?
This is the exact situation Seira found herself in as she clung desperately to a satellite on the station.
Breathing in, her vision was a bit shaky as she tried to take everything in. Slowly, she looked over at Laki, who was holding onto the same satellite as she was.
However, her expression was much different.
Calmer.
Laki was taking this better than Seira ever could.
Soon, the astrologist's eyes slowly trailed over towards her tether cord, following it until he reached the bit that had been severed.
They had been completely cut off from the ship, a few minutes after the asteroid had hit it, sending them flying.
Another deep breath, as she was attempting to calm herself down, but it was near impossible, given the circumstances.
If she let go, she'd wander aimlessly in space.
That's when Seira's eyes finally focused on the part that was making her the most nervous.
Hae-Won was still floating around aimlessly in space, somewhere between the station and the repair ship. And the only reason she was even there…
As soon as the airlock doors closed, it cut right through all three ropes, sending all three girls flying off from the momentum from earlier. Laki was lucky enough to have been thrown directly towards the station.
However, Seira and Hae-Won hadn't been so lucky.
Looking around, Hae-Won considered her choices, before looking at Seira, who was trying to talk in a panic, but sound just couldn't go through.
Something had happened to their earpieces. That much was evident when Edison tried to tell them something, only to be cut off. Whatever the asteroid hit, it took away their communication.
There wasn't much time to think, so Hae-Won had to think. Looking over at Seira, she was still floating aimlessly besides her.
"Dammit…" She mumbled out to herself, before noticing that behind Seira, the station was. If she could push her with enough force, then it's likely that she could make it to the station.
The only problem became Hae-Won herself, who would almost certainly strand herself in space if she did a move like that.
However, she was never one to worry about herself. "Shit…" Hae-Won's mind was made up, as she quickly pushed Seira back with enough force to send her towards Laki, leaving her floating around in space in turn.
Looking over at Laki again, Seira wanted to say something to her, but the sound wouldn't reach her, given their earpieces weren't working.
However, that's when she noticed something.
A look of intent in Laki's eyes.
"What…" Seira started to mumble out, trying to piece together just what she was planning on doing.
As soon as Laki started to adjust her body, facing towards the repair ship, with her legs still firmly planted on the station, it became all too clear just what was going to happen.
She was going to jump towards the ship.
"Wait! Laki that's-"
Because they couldn't hear each other, Laki completely ignored Seira as she leaped off the station, leaving her all along.
However, after a few seconds of watching Laki float away from the station, it became very obvious that the repair ship wasn't her only target.
Right in the middle of that trajectory was Hae-Won, who was still helpless in this situation.
As Laki grew closer, it was very clear what was about to happen.
As soon as she collided with Hae-Won, the two began to drift back towards the repair ship, impacting right against the window of the communication room, before latching onto something for safety.
Seeing all of this unfold, Seira couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
Now the only thing left for her to do was return herself. The only problem was that she wasn't as brave as Laki was, so she'd be stuck here until someone came to rescue her…
Airlock (Lower Level)
Nothing… Nothing made any sense…
Gigi remained crouched by the body, either out of horror of the condition of the body, or just general confusion.
"How…?" Edison mumbled out, looking at it.
None of it made sense…
How was Dae-Hyun…?
Slowly, Gigi stood up, taking a few steps back… They had just seen Dae-Hyun? So how could he have been the body floating out in space…? "I think I'm getting a headache…"
Edison was almost having the same headache as she was, so he wasn't going to be much help.
Letting out a rather loud sigh, Gigi turned towards the door. "We should meet up with the others…" She didn't want to leave the body alone, but they probably wouldn't get the information they needed unless they met up with Monokawa.
But May was still stuck on the station, so it would probably be best to get her too. "I should move the shuttle." Edison made his way towards the door. "And then Dolly can dock the ship, right?"
That probably wasn't the worst idea. After an asteroid like that, most people probably wanted to get off the ship in the first place.
With nothing else to do, the two of them quickly moved out of the room.
Communication Room
This is the spot where Gemini and Michael had brought Atlas for the time being. They didn't want to return to the low oxygen station, but there wasn't much else they could do with it.
Upon seeing the body, Tatiana glanced away. "Did you just bring a corpse to me?"
"He's not dead." Gemini shook his head. Although, he understood the sentiment, given that a body discovery announcement had just played out. "We found him unconscious."
That seemed to ease Tatiana's nerves, as she let out a small sigh of relief.
However, there was still the matter of the actual body.
"Should we… Go check up on Gigi and Edison?" Michael slowly stood up.
For a moment, Gemini wanted to agree, however, he had a much bigger priority. "I think I want to find Seira to make sure she's OK."
Hearing that, Tatiana glanced over towards the control room. "Hey! Benjamin!"
When Benjamin walked into the room, she turned to look at him. "Did you find Hae-Won, Laki, and Seira?"
Slowly, Dolly shook her head. "They aren't on this part of the ship! I think something happened!"
Tatiana figured that the three of them wouldn't be visible, given they went through the upper airlock, but she was still hoping.
That's when… Suddenly.
A loud BAM could be heard from behind.
When the group that was here turned to look over at what had happened, they all saw Laki and Hae-Won had slammed into the window to the communication room.
Placing her hands on her hips, Tatiana shook her head. "I thought I told those two to stop fighting."
To be fair, it did almost seem like Laki tackled Hae-Won into the repair ship.
I mean… That is what happened, technically, but-
Letting out a sigh, Michael hung his head low. "I don't think they are fighting."
Examining it closer, Gemini realised something. "Their tether cords are cut off-" Quickly turning around, he ran off towards the stairs leading to the upper level.
However, on the way there, he almost bumped into Lorelei, who was walking down the stairs. "Hey! Watch it fuck face!" They called out, seeing Gemini run up the stairs.
Airlock
If the tether cords were cut off, then that meant they were stranded in space.
And there was something Gemini was very quick to notice.
He didn't see Seira.
Checking inside the room, he noticed that the three tether ropes that they would have used had all been cut off by the door closing. "Why would…?" Gemini mumbled out, shaking his head.
Quickly putting on the suit, he hooked himself to the ship, and pressed the button, sending him flying right out of the ship.
While he had seen Hae-Won and Laki already, they had made it back to the ship. Gemini's target right now was to find where Seira was, and bring her back before he worried about those two.
Luckily it didn't take very long to find her, given that she was very visible against the station.
Floating over there, Gemini quickly landed on top of the station, slowly making his way over to where she was.
As soon as Seira spotted him, the shaken she had felt the entire time began to reside, and she felt a huge sigh of relief wash over her. Still, she wasn't going to make any movements until Gemini reached her.
Once he had finally arrived at the satellite she was stranded on, Seira jumped away from it, lunging towards Gemini in a hug, sending them off course for a bit, but it was fine! He was still attached to the ship, so nothing would happen.
She wanted to say so many things right now, but the important thing was getting back on the ship first.
Mostly given that Gemini wouldn't hear any of it.
Holding onto her tightly, he managed to make his way back into the airlock.
However, things didn't end there for Gemini. Quickly, he made sure Seira had a cord to hold onto… And then he jumped right back out, aiming for the lower part of the ship.
That's where he found both Hae-Won and Laki, holding onto the ship's exterior. Extending his hand out, the two of them reached over for him, and they were all able to get back.
Once everyone was back in the ship, Gemini hit the button, closing the airlock doors, allowing everyone to speak again.
"Never a-fucking-gain." Hae-Won took a deep breath of actual oxygen as she leaned against the wall next to her. "What the fuck just happened."
Why did the door close on them? She almost sacrificed herself to save Seira, and while she doesn't regret that decision, it's not one she ever wants to do again.
Seira had quickly moved over to hug Gemini again. "Gemini… I-" Her words were a bit shaky, and it's obvious she was terrified.
Letting out a small sigh, he returned the hug. "It's alright now… Let's just get out of here."
"That was fun." Of course Laki didn't seem to mind this entire ordeal.
Hae-Won wanted to start yelling at her, but it would be in bad favour after Laki had jumped in to save her, so she just shook her head and moved over towards the doors.
Docking Zone
As the ship finally docked, and the doors were opened for everyone, they were greeted by two people.
Edison, who had piloted the shuttle back so they could attach the ship, and May, who still seemed rather tired.
However, a quick note of who was around quickly informed her who died. "Huh…?" The look of confusion on her face was apparent, but that'd just need to be something they figure out in the trial.
When they were all finally gathered, Monokawa finally made his presence known. However, upon seeing that only Dae-Hyun had died, he seemed rather annoyed. "What? Not even a second one? You guys are lame."
It didn't take long for Melody to clue in to who died…
Given the other fourteen people were here, that only left one obvious missing person. "D-Dae-Hyun…?" She mumbled out, glancing around, trying to find out where he was.
With Edison being one of the only two people who had seen the body, he knew for a fact that Dae-Hyun had died.
However, actually bringing that fact up to Melody was already proving more difficult than he could ever imagine.
Seeing his unease, Gigi let out a sigh, turning towards her. "I'm afraid to say that it's true… He was the body that we found."
Slowly, Melody shook her head. "No… That can't be-" She was choosing to be in denial, even if everything pointed towards it being the truth.
She just couldn't believe something like that.
Soon, a laugh could be heard, breaking Melody out of her thoughts. Turning towards the source, she saw Monokawa covering his mouth with his paws. "Oh please! Don't tell me you actually cared about some loser like that."
Slowly, Melody's face twisted to a rather angry frown. "Don't speak about him like that-"
Michael had to stop her, as she began to take a few steps forward. "Don't let him rile you up."
That seemed to snap Melody out of it. "I…" She had never felt this much anger mixed with sadness before, so she quickly took a step back. "Sorry…"
"Aww… That's not fun." Monokawa let his arms droop a bit. "I thought you were going to hit me, and then I'd get to activate a rule."
"Monokawa…" Nova let out a small sigh. "You can't be trying to force them to break a rule. They must do that on their own accord." Her visor switched to joy. "Enough about that, it seems to me that we have another murder on our hands."
"Please stop acting excited." Hae-Won shook her head. "It's irritating, y'know?"
Quickly, Nova's visor switched to a sad expression. "You don't have to say it like that."
"Are you here just to waste our time?" Gennosuke was leaning against a wall, crossing his arms. "Or are you going to give us what we need for the investigation?"
Wow. They were really getting tired of this. "I suppose I can give everyone what they want to start the investigation." Tapping away at the screen on her arm, soon, everyone would get a notification, signifying that the station report had been updated.
The first person to even open it up was Melody, who needed to see it with her own two eyes just to confirm what she was trying to deny…
Was Dae-Hyun truly dead?
.
Station Report
.
The victim this time is Kim Dae-Hyun, the Ultimate Talent Manager. The cause of death was asphyxiation. He also had a puncture wound in his left shoulder, as well as blunt force trauma to the back of his head. Time of death is unknown.
.
Looking at the station report, Melody slowly felt her entire body shake.
She had already been told about the news, but even to this point, her blind optimism made her refuse the very idea that Dae-Hyun was dead.
And yet…
There was no mistaking what she was looking at right now. "I…" She felt a few tears rolling down her face.
Dae-Hyun was truly dead? The last conversation Melody had with him was about his past students… Then she didn't see him at all for the rest of the day.
And now…?
He's dead?
Slowly, Melody lowered her watch, a distant look in her eyes as she glanced at the ground.
Seeing this, Michael took a few steps forward. There were a few things he wanted to say, he just wasn't sure how to say them. "I…"
"You don't have to say anything, Mac…" Melody said rather somberly, wiping away one of her tears. "Where… Where is the body?"
For a moment, Gigi didn't want to answer the question, but she felt like she had to for her sake. "I found it in the lower airlock… If you want to come see it for yourself, you can come with me."
Based on the station report, the body seemed to be in a rather bad state… But Melody knew she had to go see the body.
She had to have some form of closure. "I'll go…"
Seeing this, Gennosuke shook his head. "Then, I'll go with you two, I guess…"
With a group already formed to investigate the body, everything else seemed to split off.
Most people went back onto the ship, while a small handful decided to stay on the station.
Kitchen
Given that she was the person to find the body, Gigi felt like she should be the one to investigate it.
They even had it moved into the kitchen just in case anyone wanted to investigate the airlock and go outside.
While this was all nice and fine, what Gigi hadn't expected were the two people who joined her.
Gennosuke wasn't exactly someone who screamed investigator to her, especially since he tended to lean towards the lazy side.
The only thing of value he had done so far for them was voting Ian correctly, but since then, nothing else had really happened.
And lastly…
Melody…
She stood off to the side, looking down at Dae-Hyun, tears still running down her cheeks since she noticed that he was one of the people that was missing.
Now, she couldn't stop looking at his body.
Frowning slightly, Gennosuke shook his head. "Are you sure you should be here? You might get too emotional."
Slowly, Melody turned to look at him. Words wanted to leave her mouth, but she was still coming to terms with just what was in front of her.
"It's her decision whether she wants to be here or not." Gigi knelt down next to the body. "I think it's probably better if she is here."
For now, investigating the body was the highest priority.
According to the station report, Dae-Hyun had suffered three different things.
First of all, the one thing Gigi wanted to get a better look at… "Gennosuke, can you help me out here?"
"Don't really want to, but…" He let out a sigh as he approached the body. What she wanted was pretty clear.
Quickly, the two of them were able to remove the space suit from Dae-Hyun, placing him gently on the ground.
Just like the station report said, he had been stabbed in the left shoulder. But Gigi pretty much already knew that, given the puncture hole in the space suit from when she first discovered the body.
As for the wound itself? It was rather small. Smaller than a knife would be…
"What do you think did that?" Gennosuke had moved away from the body, and was now looking down at Gigi.
"Hard to tell…" The referee trailed off. "We'll have to look around here to see what we can find."
Looking at the rest of his body only made Gigi feel a bit sicker, given that Dae-Hyun's skin was exposed to the vacuum of space. It wasn't a sight she ever thought she'd have to witness, and yet here she was.
However, the part that she was most curious about was the back of Dae-Hyun's head.
According to the station report, he had suffered some blunt force trauma to the back of his head. Turning him on his back, she was quickly able to see where exactly. "Do you see this?"
Instead of seeing, Gennosuke moved his hand over to feel the back of his head. "There's a bump here." The station report was correct on this. "What do you think he hit?"
"Hard to tell right now. We don't have much to go off of." Gigi moved Dae-Hyun back on his back. "We'll have to look around some more…"
From one last look, that seemed to be everything Dae-Hyun had to offer injury wise. "Hmmm…" And yet, she wasn't done investigating the body quite yet.
Slowly, Gigi moved her hands over towards Dae-Hyun's pockets. The first one didn't have anything, however, she almost cut herself on something in the second pocket. "Ow…" She said rather monotonously as she removed her hand from the pocket.
"What's in there?" Gennosuke asked, reaching in. He played it more carefully than Gigi did, and soon, he pulled out a knife. "Hmm…"
To him, he didn't recognise the knife.
However, Gigi was different, taking a second to look at the knife, she knew exactly where the knife was from. "That knife… it belongs to Tatiana…"
Snapping his finger, Gennosuke figured out the murder. "Then Tatiana is the killer."
"Why would Tatiana plant her own knife onto Dae-Hyun?" Gigi shook her head. "There's no blood on the knife, so there'd be no reason to deposit it onto him. If Tatiana was the killer, it's likely she just would have kept the knife with her, and nobody would suspect her."
"You aren't good at taking jokes, are you?" Gennosuke let out a sigh. Adjusting the knife, he handed it over to Gigi. "You should probably have it… I don't feel like questioning Tatiana."
Which was probably for the best, given she trusted herself the most with something like this.
Given that the body had pretty much fully been investigated, Gigi stood up. "Actually, I'm going to go find her now. Do you think you two could finish the investigation?"
Gennosuke shrugged, not really caring too much. "Yeah, I'm sure we could finish things up here. Wouldn't be too hard to look around."
Speaking of looking around, that's what Melody has moved around to do.
While she wanted to investigate Dae-Hyun's body, her legs still didn't let her get any closer.
In fact, even turning to face him was becoming too much. So instead, she wanted to take a look at things around the room. The first thing that caught her attention was the wood pieces broken all over the ground.
Approaching her, Gennosuke took a look down. "Hmm… Not sure what this is for… But it looks like it might have been from a pole."
That's the exact thought Melody had in her mind, so he only reinforced it. "Yes, I believe so as well." Her voice was a bit shaky, but she was still trying to sound her usual cheery self. "Hmm?"
However, that wasn't the only thing that was visible amongst the rubble of wood.
In fact, a small metal hook was visible on the ground. Picking it up, Melody investigated it closer. "Oh…" There was blood on the tip. To further note, there was also wood at the bottom of the hook, similar to the rest of the wood.
Now that she got a better look, one conclusion became very obvious. "These are from the same thing?"
Something Gennosuke had already figured out. "Good observation."
Whatever it hit, it must have hit it with enough force to break it. That would cause damage to something.
But Melody wasn't done investigating just yet. "There's something else I noticed." She moved over towards one of the counters, stopping to look at it. "Here."
Gennosuke slowly moved over towards it, glancing down at the counter.
The part of the counter she pointed at was the edge of it that seemed to have a crack, almost like something hit it. "Like something hit it really hard." Melody seemed slightly proud of herself for noticing this, and also voicing out what the narration just fucking said.
For a few seconds, Gennosuke thought about it. "Yeah, that probably wasn't there before. We should take note of it."
As Melody kept looking around, the energy she had slowly faded away. She wasn't really finding anything else of value… But that couldn't be it… She still had no idea who killed Dae-Hyun, and she knew she couldn't give up until she found who-
"Woah there." Gennosuke called out, seeing what her mind was thinking of. "Don't expect to figure everything out right away, that's not how the last trial worked."
"But…" Melody held her arm, looking away. "I have to figure this out… I need to know who bumped off Dae-Hyun…"
"And?" Gennosuke pulled out a lollipop, placing it in his mouth. "You can't really investigate the entire place, so you should leave it to the others."
Looking at him for a few seconds, Melody let out a sigh. "You seem to be taking this rather well…"
Shrugging, it was very obvious he wasn't too bothered. "I try not to let things like this affect me. It's not in my nature."
Looking up at him, Melody was going to say something else, but she noticed one thing…
Something on the ceiling. "Huh?" Moving past Gennosuke, she stood in the center of the room, looking up. "I never noticed that."
Following her lead, Gennosuke glanced up, noticing the hatch door that was above them. "Huh, never noticed it either." Not that it really bothered him.
Looking at it a bit close, Melody was able to spot something that looked like a latch ring… "Hmm…" That did get her thinking, but she couldn't really figure out anything else beyond that. "I think that's everything."
"Feels like it…" Besides, Gennosuke was getting bored looking around this area.
Or like… At all. Investigating wasn't really his thing, after all.
Airlock (Lower Level)
Despite the trauma that Seira just had to endure, she found herself back here. However, not to investigate the body, given that it was moved into the kitchen so that the airlock could still be used.
She found herself standing in front of the suit.
"Do you want someone to go with you?" A voice called from behind her, and it wasn't one she ever expected to offer any kind of help.
Mostly because it was Laki.
"Um…" Seira glanced off to the side. Trusting Laki in any capability was a bad idea, even if she did jump at the opportunity to save Hae-Won.
That didn't remove the bad she had caused.
Rubbing her arm a bit, Laki shook her head, glancing at the ground. "It's fine if you don't want me to join."
The only problem is that investigating wasn't her strong suit, so she wanted to do something that only she could really do, and the closest thing right now was going back into space.
Taking a deep breath, Seira reached over, grabbing the helmet. "Alright… You can join me, but I have my eyes on you."
A sparkle appeared in Laki's eyes as she reached over to grab one of the suits.
Now that the two girls were ready, they stepped out into the main portion of the airlock, ready to get blasted out into space.
Moving over towards the button, Laki went to hit it, but paused slightly. "There's blood on the button."
Now, that was curious to Seira, who moved closer.
Sure enough, there was a small point of blood on the button. "What's this doing here?"
Laki shrugged, but instead of trying to think of more answers, she simply pressed the button, ejecting the two girls outside.
Now that the two were outside, Seira had a single goal in mind.
Why did the communication line go down? That was pretty important. Slowly moving her way alongside the edge of the ship, Laki was close behind her.
Soon, the duo made it to the area Seira knew she saw the ship being hit.
Only to see… Monokawa?
And he was repairing something?
Turning towards the others, he began to speak.
Well… He tried to. Dumb fuck forgot how space worked.
Clearly annoyed by this, Monokawa went back to fixing the satellite.
And…
A few seconds later, static.
And an angry voice. "What the hell are you two doing here? Can't you see I'm trying to work?" It was Monokawa, somehow able to speak to them.
"We're just curious!" Laki called out, which was something Seira was able to hear now.
That meant… "You fixed the communication system?"
"Duh! Why wouldn't I? The motive's over, so I'm going around fixing all the damages. Oxygen is last, because that's funnier." Monokawa let out a small laugh, before floating away, unimpeded by the space around him.
Letting out a small sigh, Seira turned to look at Laki. "This makes investigating easier, at the very least."
Now she could talk to the people on the ship. "Whoever's in the control room, could you bring the ship closer to where it was originally." They had to try and get as close to where the body was discovered as possible.
After a few seconds, Dolly called out. "On it!
Slowly, the duo would feel themselves moving away.
For a bit, they didn't see anything, but Laki was able to spot something back towards the airlock entrance. "Oh! Oh! Almost there! Can you get us closer?"
As soon as Dolly made any attempt to do so, the ship began to move back. "Nope! That's as far as I can reach!"
"It's fine." Seira used the ship to guide her back towards the airlock. "This should be enough to allow us to reach what we see."
The first thing that caught Laki's eyes had a bit of blood on it. "What's this?" Grabbing it, she examined it pretty close. Closer than she needed to, because she already knew what it was the moment she grabbed it. "A tattoo needle?"
Seira got closer to inspect it. "With some blood on it, as well." What was that doing in the airlock?
Holding onto it tightly, Laki looked around, trying to spot anything else. And she did! From what she could see, it looked like some kind of paper. "Oh! Oh! We should go grab it!"
"I'll get this one." Seira called out, floating towards it.
Until…
Seira found herself unable to get any further. "Huh?" Glancing back over at her tether, it had reached the limit, meaning that the paper was just out of reach. "Dolly, are you sure you can't get any closer?"
"Yup! That's the limit! Why? Do you need to get something?"
Letting out a sigh, Seira shook her head. "Yeah, but it's fine. It just seems to be a piece of paper, I don't think it will be important."
Still, that nagging feeling in her head told her otherwise.
Looking around, there didn't seem to be much else to offer. "Should we return back?"
This was directed towards Laki, who seemed far too distracted to answer at the moment.
Waiting a few seconds, Seira decided to try again. "Laki?"
That seemed to snap her out of her thoughts. "Oh! Yeah! We should go back!"
Strange behaviours, but Seira didn't want to say anything
Ship's Core
Wanting to get away from anything involving the body, Winter found herself back on the upper floor.
More specifically the room she had been trapped in during this entire ordeal.
Honestly, if she could just do some investigating alone, that would be the best, however…
There was someone who decided that now was the best time to be pestering her.
"Why back here?" That person in question was Lorelei, who stopped a few steps behind her.
Letting out a rather annoyed sigh, Winter turned to face them. "Why did you follow me up here? I don't recall saying I was going to investigate with you."
Shrugging, Lorelei wasn't going to leave her alone. "And why not? We had a pretty nice conversation earlier, didn't we?"
Winter decided it was best to keep walking. "While that is true, everything after that wasn't exactly pleasant."
Waving their hand dismissively, it was clear that Lorelei couldn't care less. "Whatever, that's meaningless now. Are you sure you want to investigate this place alone?"
For a moment, Winter stopped walking, closing both her eyes.
It was true… She didn't exactly want to be alone on this ship, especially right after a murder had happened. They're numbers were slowly dwindling down, and she didn't want to add onto that.
"Fine." Winter finally answered, turning to look at Lorelei. "But try not to ruin the investigation. Some of us would like to live the trial."
"Um? My life's at stake too, you know." Lorelei rolled their eyes, placing a hand on their hip.
For a moment, Winter only watched her, before shaking her head. "If you say so."
"Don't tell me you think like, I'm the killer." Lorelei's face changed to one of disgust. "I have a bit more class than that."
"Oh? You do?" Winter covered her mouth, in fake shock. "You could have fooled me."
Yeah, Lorelei wasn't going to take any of this. "Whatever, are you going to start investigating or not?"
"I was going to wait till you stopped pestering me, but it doesn't seem like it will be the case." Winter let out a little laugh, before she composed herself again. "Very well, we should probably start looking around now."
"Fucking finally." Lorelei rolled their eyes.
There wasn't much of note in the ship's core that Winter didn't already know about, so she moved directly through the room, heading towards the circular hallway.
"Come on! You can't still be mad at me." Lorelei let out a laugh, following her.
"You don't get to dictate how I should feel." Winter wanted to get rid of her at the moment, but she was also preoccupied with investigating.
Now that she was in the circular hallway, she took a peek down to the lower hallway. "I've never looked at this part."
However, looking even further down, Winter noticed something quite interesting. "What's that doing here?"
"Hmm?" Lorelei was a bit curious themselves now, so she peeked over the edge as well, looking down to the bottom.
Further below the lower hallway, there was a glass floor, and on top of that glass floor, was a rope. "Who the fuck ditches a rope here?"
But that wasn't the only thing that was down there. It was much smaller, but next were three melted splotches of… something white. "And whatever the hell that is…" Lorelei added a few seconds later.
"It's not a bad place to hide things, honestly." Winter hummed out, moving away from the railing. "I doubt anyone would normally look down there to investigate anything."
"But… You did." Lorelei was quick to point out.
Twirling a finger around her hair, Winter shrugged. "I was just curious about what the view looked like. So call me lucky, honestly."
But what were those even doing down there? Were they hidden there on purpose, or did someone drop them like an idiot?
Well, they wouldn't get anywhere standing around there theorising. That was something to bring up during the trial with everyone else.
"I think that's all that we'll find here." Winter hummed out, turning her attention over towards the supply room. It was pretty much the last room to look at on the upper floor.
Walking over towards there, however, Lorelei seemed to spot this. "Hey, what's this?" Leaning down, they picked up something.
Stopping in her tracks, Winter eventually backtracked to see what it was. "Hmm?" It seemed to be some sort of fabric, more of the darker side.
"Why do we always find things like this?" Lorelei pointed out, rather annoyed. "First it was Michael's hair, now it was this."
Shrugging, Winter couldn't make much of it, given how small it was. "I guess we can't figure out much about this yet." Still, it was curious nonetheless.
Now that that distraction out of the way, it was time to continue down the path-
However, before they could enter the supply room, someone else would be walking out. "Oh…" May hummed out, looking at the two of them. "I didn't know anyone else was up here…"
"What were you doing in there?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow.
"Hmm… I was investigating." Real vague there, May.
Seeing an opportunity to save some time, Winter decided to humour her. "Did you find anything interesting?"
"Well… It was a different investigation." May pulled out a small map that she had drawn. "I'm just marking down the doors and vents on each floor." A brief pause. "There are no vents on the second floor."
Yeah, that wasn't anything Winter really cared about at the moment. "Well, we don't want to get in the way of that." She stepped out of the way to let May through.
"Wait." Lorelei called out, given she wasn't done with this conversation quite yet. "Anything of interest about the doors?"
May stopped walking, thinking for a moment. Soon, she pointed over towards the door leading to the staircase to the lower floor. The one they could literally see right now in the circular hallway. "These two doors are still closed, meaning it wasn't used during the murder…"
"Every other door was opened at some point?" Winter hummed out.
May slowly nodded her head. "Yeah…" But that's all she had to say. Now she was probably just going to find somewhere to rest.
That left Winter and Lorelei alone once again.
"I don't trust her one bit." Lorelei was the first one to say. "We should go investigate the supply room anyways."
Humming to herself, Winter was still watching her leave. Once May was out of sight, she turned to look at Lorelei. "It would probably be for the best anyways, given she was only looking for vents.
Entering into the supply room, it was hard to see that May would have found anything, given just how the room was laid out.
"Why the fuck are there so many boxes?" Lorelei barked out.
And they weren't wrong, there were boxes on the shelves, on the tables, honestly… Everywhere, even scattered in the corner on the floor.
Looking at all the boxes, suddenly, Winter didn't feel confident looking through all of these. "I don't want to search all of these in hopes someone hid something."
"Who was even in this room?" Lorelei walked away from the pile of boxes she was looking at.
Tapping her chin with a hum, Winter had to recall a bit. "I think it was Gennosuke. It was either him or Melody, given they both came from that direction a while after the asteroid hit."
Thinking about it for a moment, Lorelei shrugged. "Honestly, I think that's going to be the best we get out of here." The thought of searching through every individual box was agonising, and she'd rather get executed instead of dealing with that.
"Then our work is done." Winter was fine with this as well. She didn't share the same sentiment as Lorelei did about being executed, but looking through each box was a hassle.
Besides, if they missed something, surely Monokawa wouldn't start the trial, right?
Navigation
Given that they were in charge of making sure Atlas was fine, Michael and Gemini didn't really have much else to do. They'd just need to wait for him to wake up to ask him what happened.
However, they weren't the only person there, as Tatiana had followed them. "What exactly happened while I was trapped?"
That felt like an important question to ask.
Michael let out a sigh, shaking his head. "We saw a body floating out in space after the asteroid hit, so we went to explore."
It was the first time Gemini was hearing some of this, so he was listening to it. Until Michael stopped talking, which forced him to pick up the rest of the pace. "On the way to the lower airlock, their group ran into me, who had fallen off the second floor."
"How'd you manage that?" Tatiana raised her eyebrow.
Letting out a small sigh, Gemini felt a bit embarrassed. "The lights went out on the upper floor. I was completely in the dark, except for three lights. I tried to follow those lights… And fell right over the railing."
"And that's where we found you…" Michael pointed out.
Nodding his head along, Gemini placed his hands on his hips. "Honestly, it was a miracle that I managed to grab onto the lower railing. After that, we ran into Atlas, who was unconscious. Gigi and Edison continued on, while myself and Michael decided to carry the body." Even if Michael didn't really help too much with the carrying.
"Ah, yes." Tatiana nodded her head along. "I suppose then, Gigi and Edison made their way to me when they realised they needed to retrieve the body from space."
That all made a lot of sense. Anything else that needed to be said would be said during the trial.
"But then…" Gemini thought for a moment. "You said you saw a body floating in space? I don't remember Dae-Hyun getting on the ship."
Michael glanced at the ground. "Dae-Hyun boarded the ship with us after we saw the body floating around."
For a moment, it looked like Tatiana's brain lagged behind as she tried to process the information she was given. Soon, she shook her head. "That doesn't make any sense to me." She was never bright when it came to things like this.
Honestly, these weren't exactly the three people who would be the best at trying to solve these things…
Suddenly, there were some movements as Atlas began to stir a bit.
"Oh?" Michael got a bit closer, hoping to help him wake up, but instead, the moment Atlas woke up, he chose to go directly into fight mode.
Which involved kicking his leg up, which connected with Michael's stomach, sending him flying back a bit.
"Holy sh-" Gemini called out, not really being able to stop him from hitting the ground.
Michael let out a small groaning sound as he stayed on the floor.
Both Tatiana and Gemini quickly rushed to his side, to make sure he didn't break anything, given he almost smacked his head right against the console.
"Where the fuck am I?" Atlas wanted to clutch his head, but he was unable to. Slowly, he managed to get back onto his feet using a bit of momentum.
Having made sure that Michael was alright, Gemini let out a sigh, turning towards him. "You were knocked out in the kitchen, so we moved you off the ship, and into navigation." That way they could still watch the repair ship from a distance. Especially since Seira was going back outside despite the horror that had happened.
Taking a deep breath, Atlas moved over towards a wall to lean against. "Fuck man… What the hell…" He had never really lost a fight, given his martial arts expertise.
But to be made a fool of?
"Those fucks…" Atlas narrowed his eyes in frustration.
Slowly, Michael was able to get back on his feet, clutching his stomach in pain. "I don't know how anyone could beat you…" He hits like a truck.
"They jumped me shortly after the ship got knocked, and then the lights went out." Brief pause. "Not my lights, like the actual ship lights."
Tatiana let out a small laugh. "Ah, right. That would be Benjamin that did that…"
"Bastard…" Atlas shook his head, before mumbling something under his breath. "Those two fucks." Hard to tell if he was speaking about Benjamin and Dolly here.
Two? Now Gemini was starting to get some information. "Do you know who did this to you?"
"Weren't you fucking listening? It was dark as shit in there, I didn't see jack shit after the initial ambush. Fuckers probably knew something like that was going to happen. They knew they wouldn't have been able to take me in a normal fight."
"So… That's the only information you're able to share?" Gemini was a bit disappointed, given it was almost nothing.
Shaking his head, it was clear Atlas had one last thing to say. "I know I injured one of them, so look for anyone with an injury."
"Oh?" Tatiana was curious to say that. "You connected a hit?"
"Yeah, fucker tried to sneak up behind me, so I twisted my body around and delivered a swift kick to them." Atlas seemed rather proud of himself. "That'd teach them to fuck with me!"
"And… What happened after that…?" Michael felt the need to ask.
"Oh! Well, then the other fucker knocked me out." Atlas was less proud to admit that part. "It was something pretty hard that hit me in the back of my head. I must have ended up bleeding."
"You were bleeding." Gemini let out a sigh, shaking his head. "But it wasn't fatal, obviously."
"Tsk. As if something like that would actually fucking kill me." Atlas was just too angry to die, it seems.
"I guess we don't need to stay here anymore, given you are back up." Gemini was only here to make sure Atlas recovered.
"Wait!" He quickly shouted out, preventing the escapist from leaving. "… Who died?"
A smug look appeared on Tatiana's face. "Oh? You assume someone died? Weren't you unconscious during the body discovery announcement?"
"I'm not fucking stupid, you know." Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Something like that can only mean something bad happened." Sure, he wasn't killed. But that just meant that someone else had to be killed. "Besides, from the looks of it, you really want to do something else."
This was directed towards Gemini, who didn't say anything to counter it. "I'd rather be investigating, so…"
"Now. I ask my question again. Who… Died?" Atlas was getting rather impatient here.
Not that he really cared or anything, but there was one person he didn't want it to be, so he wanted to be safe.
"Dae-Hyun…" Michael was the one to finally answer.
Hearing that, Atlas shrugged. It was clear that he didn't care about this victim. "Better him than me."
Hearing this, Tatiana seemed to get a bit defensive. "You can't just say-"
However, before she could finish what she was saying, Gigi walked into the room, her eyes immediately landing on Tatiana. "You."
Looking around a bit, she wanted to make sure that she meant nobody else. "Me?"
"You're the only one standing there." Gigi was a bit rude when she said that. "I want to ask you a question about your knives."
The expression on Tatiana's face was pure confusion. "What's wrong with my knives?"
Pulling out the knife they had found on Dae-Hyun, Gigi pointed the tip at her. "We found this on Dae-Hyun, so I wanted to know how it got there."
Of course, she knew that Tatiana more than likely had nothing to do with this, but she also wanted to try and be a bit intimidating in her interrogation.
"He took… My knife?" Yeah, Tatiana was a bit confused. "I can show you to my station, if you'd like." Although, that confusion didn't last long.
"That's good enough for me." Gigi turned towards the door, making her way out, with the knife thrower following behind her.
Seeing the two of them leaving, Gemini turned to look at Michael. "I think we should go explore elsewhere…"
"Did you have somewhere in mind…?" He was at least happy he was being included. "They probably investigated the entire ship by now…"
You want to know who wasn't being included. "What about me, fuckers?" Atlas stomped his foot on the ground. "Do you just want me to stay here?"
"You should probably sit back and recover." Gemini crossed his arms. "You were injured, so we don't want you to overwork yourself."
As much as Atlas wanted to argue against that, he knew he couldn't. "… Fine…" He moved over to a chair, sitting down on it. "Pisses me off."
Now that that was settled with, Gemini turned to look back at Michael. "I'm not quite sure… I think we can just check around this area, see if anything has changed."
From the sounds of it, it was almost pointless to do something like that, but he also didn't want to argue. "Yeah… That sounds good…"
Control Room
After the events of earlier, Hae-Won honestly needed a breather, given she had a lot on her mind.
From the conversation with Tatiana, to Laki jumping in to save her… To even Dae-Hyun being found dead.
There was just a lot going on at the moment…
"Is everything alright?" Dolly, the only other person in this room right now, asked.
Hae-Won slowly turned to look at the doll. "Yeah… It's fine. Just a lot of shit happened today, y'know?" Her attention was absorbed by the view outside the room.
While the stars were beautiful, the thought of going back out in space froze her in place.
Still, seeing someone like her acting like this… It made Dolly concerned. "We can always talk it out!"
Hae-Won shook her head. "Right now might not be the best time to talk it out, y'know. Someone died, so that should be our priority."
"Then… How about after the trial?" Dolly suggested.
Hearing that, a small smile appeared on Hae-Won's face. "Yeah… I think I can do that…"
But now that their small talk was over, it was time to get down to business.
She wasn't on the ship, so she didn't really have much of an idea of what happened after the asteroid hit. "Dolly, what happened on this ship?"
"Well, the last thing I remember was Edison yelling about something, and then before he could even say what it was, the ship got impacted by the asteroid. I got worried that there would be a crack in the ship, so I turned on the emergency lights, and then closed the doors and vents."
As Hae-Won spoke, she idly tapped away at the screws on the buttons that Benjamin had to press. "Are you sure you only pressed the ones you were supposed to?"
Crossing her arms, Dolly seemed rather ticked off. "Of course I only hit the ones I needed to. Stop asking such useless questions."
From the looks of it, Dolly was telling the truth, so Hae-Won didn't really have much of a choice besides backing off. "Alright, I'll choose to believe you." Besides, accusing everyone like this was something she wanted to try and avoid for the time being.
However, she was still a bit curious. "How were the lights when they went out?"
Crossing her arms, Dolly didn't exactly seem too happy. "Oh? That? I could barely see anything. The red lights would only come on occasionally."
That's about what Hae-Won remembered when Lorelei tried it the first time.
Still… She decided to press it, causing the lights to go out. The others were probably still investigating, but it was fine. She just wanted to see.
After a few seconds, the red lights came on, before going dark again. "This is inconvenient." Walking through the ship would have been hell for anyone.
"What's that!" Dolly quickly pointed over at something that was glowing in the middle of the room.
After a few seconds, the lights came back on, only to reveal that Nova was there. "Oh! You were pointing at me."
"What the hell was glowing." Hae-Won narrowed her eyes. It sure as hell wasn't her visor, given it wasn't shining any light until she spoke.
As the lights faded away, Nova understood what they meant. "Oh? This?" The glowing thing moved around, and when the lights came back on, she was holding her blaster. "It glows in total darkness! Isn't it awesome."
Shaking her head, Hae-Won turned off the emergency lights. "Why would you have it glowing in the dark?"
"Duh!" Dolly raised her arms. "That way you can find it in the dark!"
"Exactly!" Nova seemed to agree with her. "Besides, it's just a design choice. I find it looks better if it glows in the dark."
Hae-Won still found it pointless, but she wasn't about to argue with the overseer over something so miniscule. "Whatever… Why are you here anyways?"
"Oh! The lights went off, so I thought that maybe there was an emergency."
"No, there weren't any." Hae-Won moved away from the control panel. "Was just testing out the lights. They're fucking annoying."
"I suppose so, yes." Nova tilted her head to the side. "Especially on the second floor."
Now that she brought it up, Hae-Won felt like she had heard something familiar before. "What's different about the lights on the top floor?"
"The emergency lights are actually broken on the top floor. Instead of giving off a red light, the entire floor will be covered in darkness." Nova explained, but waved her hand dismissively. "However, you should already know this, and even if you didn't, some people experienced it earlier today."
Was there any significance to something like that? Hae-Won wasn't too sure, but it was a good idea to keep something like that in mind. "Thank you." What a weird day to be thanking her of all people.
Clapping her hands together, Nova was more than welcomed to help. "Anytime you have any questions, feel free to ask."
"Who's the killer?" Dolly asked without any hesitation.
Activating her jetpack, Nova flew out of the room without answering anything else.
"Aww…" Dolly pouted slightly. "I thought that'd work."
Watching Nova leave, Hae-Won let out a small chuckle. "Why would that ever work?"
Airlock (Lower Level)
Finally, Seira and Laki had returned from their trip from outside the airlock. As soon as they stepped back in, Seira made sure to hit the button to close the doors behind them. "We didn't manage to get a lot, but we know the communication satellite was hit, and we found a bloodied tattoo needle." So it wasn't completely a bust.
Moving over towards the hook, she unhooked it. To wrap it up, she pressed a button, which pulled in the rest of the tether cord, so she didn't have to do the work. "We should go see the others now."
"Yeah…" Laki was still a bit unsure of this all. Taking off her own hook, she moved it over towards where the others were.
But then… an idea formed in her head.
Now Laki had a rather determined look on her face as she walked further into the airlock, her suit completely detached from the ship.
"Laki, what are you doing?" Seira seemed a bit confused, given they had just gotten everything they could from outside. There was no need… "Aren't you coming back with us?"
"We haven't gotten the paper yet." Laki said, as if there was actually a way to get it.
Shaking her head, Seira began to step forward. "But we can't get any closer without the ship deciding to turn around, so we should just drop it." As much as she wanted to go out and get it.
And yet, Laki wasn't fine with an answer like that…
If that paper was related to the murder, they might need it to solve the case.
Hovering her hand right over the button, Laki thought long and hard about this entire thing.
"Wait!" Seira wanted to move in to stop her, but she also didn't want to get ejected out. "Laki! You should think this out! This isn't the answer to what you want to do! What do you hope to accomplish with this?
Staring at the button, Laki had to think long and hard about this. "Getting the paper." Laki turned towards the button, slamming it down.
"Wait don-" Seira's voice was cut off by the doors slamming close, blocking off the two girls from each other.
It was only a second, but Laki had been launched out of the space station.
And while normally, the tether would prevent her from going too far…
It no longer existed for her, so she just kept going forward.
And there was nothing Seira could do, but stand around helplessly.
"Edison!? Can you hear me?" Seira's voice was filled with urgency as she looked out the window, trying to see if she could spot Laki.
After a few seconds, a response could be heard. "Yeah? What's the matter?" The fact that she was panicking couldn't be a good thing.
"It's Laki! She ejected herself out of the station without a rope." Seira finally spotted Laki floating in the distance. "She's on the lower floor airlock side."
Shuttle
For the most part, Edison decided he was going to stay in the shuttle, that way if anyone wanted to get to the station, they would be able to.
Which is exactly what happened with Gigi earlier, and now what was happening with May right now.
"Where do you want to go?" Edison looked over at her as she embarked on the shuttle.
"Eh…" May sat down on one of the seats. "Honestly… I don't have much in mind… I think I'll just stay here…" It was obvious she was tired.
After a few seconds of silence, Edison decided to ask her a question. "Did… Did you do any investigation?"
"I don't really stay in one place…" May pointed out. Last time, she mostly just went around asking everyone what their watch total was, and doing math. Now this time, she spent it looking at the doors and vents.
At least this time, she'd have an image to show everyone else, instead of having to walk them through math.
"Oh! That's actually pretty helpful!" Edison wasn't exactly sure how helpful, but it was worth asking. "Any-"
However, he was cut off by a rather urgent voice.
"Edison!? Can you hear me?" It was Seira, talking to him for once. What a rare day.
But he couldn't worry about that right now, it sounded like she wanted something. "Yeah? What's the matter?" If she was panicking, and asking him of all people for help, something serious had to have happened.
"It's Laki! She ejected herself out of the station without a rope." As soon as Seira said that, Edison felt himself freeze up a bit, almost as if registering the information.
"She's on the lower floor airlock side."
That's all the information he needed…
Given the urgency of the situation, Edison didn't even bother responding. Instead, he moved the shuttle forward.
Looking out the window, the first person to spot her was Edison. "There!"
Laki was in the middle of tumbling around in space, but that didn't matter to her. All that mattered was the paper that was floating away.
As she reached out for it, she finally realised that she had failed to account for a way back. "Um…" Which meant endless floating for her. At least she had finally gotten the paper.
However, Edison wasn't about to let her fly off. "We should…" Ah, he wasn't good when it came to being under pressure. At this rate, they wouldn't reach Laki in time. "I don't know…" He quickly shifted the direction of the shuttle, hoping to form a path where Laki would bump into the side of the shuttle, but he still wasn't sure if this would be enough.
Sure, the shuttle was faster than Laki was, but she was much too far.
Given that she hadn't really done much this investigation, May stood up, walking over to the controls. "Hmm…" She hummed out, looking at the distance of Laki, and how fast both her and the shuttle were moving.
Finally, when she figured out the correct pathing, May reached out for the controls. "Do you mind if I…?"
May had already proven herself before, so Edison wasn't going to get in her way. "Go right ahead." Sure, he was smart, but even he was prone to panicking, especially if someone else's life was on the line.
Now that she was in control, May angled the ship, hoping to meet Laki at a certain point, almost like she was trying to form a triangle.
With the angle being right, the three of them felt Laki slam against the side of the shuttle.
On the outside, Laki managed to quickly grab onto the shuttle, holding on for dear life, all while clutching onto the paper. "AH…" She let out a sigh of relief.
Still hadn't failed at anything crazy like this…
May stepped away from the controls, letting Edison take over again.
"Right!" Sitting down, he began to pilot the shuttle back towards the airlock.
Once the shuttle had made it to the airlock, Laki jumped off of it, landing safely back into the airlock.
Turning towards Edison, she only offered a wave, despite being able to FUCKING SPEAK TO HIM.
Before he could wave back, Laki quickly hit the button, closing the airlock door, blocking him off completely.
"What were you thinking!?" Now that the other door was open, Seira could freely yell at her. "You could have been lost forever! That side wasn't pointed towards the station!"
Clutching onto the paper, Laki didn't seem to realise just how bad things could have turned out. "Hey… I got what I wanted."
"But you didn't know Edison would have been around to save you." Seira pouted slightly.
For a moment, Laki stopped to think about it. For a brief moment… She had felt panic when she realised she didn't have a way back.
That was definitely a new feeling to her. "I… I'm sorry…" She finally brought herself to say, but to compensate for it, she raised up the paper.
Well, Seira couldn't stay too mad, especially since Laki managed to get what they wanted. "Alright… Fine." She was safe, and that's all that mattered. "What does it say?"
Right, Laki hadn't even checked it out. Looking at the letter, she narrowed her eyes. "It's… it's a letter? With a map."
The map in question seemed to lead from the docking zone all the way to the kitchen, following a completely straight path through the hallways.
"Huh…" Seira mumbled out, absorbed by the map for a few seconds, until her focus shifted over towards the letter portion of the paper.
However, reading the contents, her face began to pale up. "What…? Did Dae-Hyun have this on him?"
Thinking for a moment, Laki nodded her head. "Wouldn't it make sense?"
This was definitely something that would need to be brought up at the trial…
Ultimate Knife Thrower Station
Walking into the room, it was almost the same as always. "So…" Tatiana trailed off, taking a step forward. "If Dae-Hyun got a knife, it was more than likely from my own station." She walked over to the knife rack which was rather easily accessible by anyone.
Gigi followed behind her, and while she was originally going towards the knife rack… Something else caught her attention completely.
Something was off about the stage. "Tatiana…" She mumbled out, looking over.
"Hmm?" The knife thrower turned to look at her. "Yes? What's the matter?"
It's likely Tatiana didn't notice because of her bad eyesight, so Gigi wasn't going to blame her. "The curtain on the stage has fallen."
Hearing that, her head quickly turned towards it. "What do you mean?" Quickly running over towards the stage, she jumped up without any issue. "Hmm…"
Slowly following behind, Gigi managed to pull herself onto the stage. "Oh, my bad. Only half the curtain has fallen."
It didn't take Tatiana long to piece together exactly what had happened. "Haha! They took the rope."
"Oh? There was a rope, wasn't there?" Gigi seemed to recall one being present when they did the show.
Nodding her head along, Tatiana decided to explain. "Yes, that rope was used to open and close the curtains with ease. But it seems that it's now missing."
"I don't recall seeing a rope anywhere…" But Gigi also didn't explore everywhere on the ship, so she could have simply missed it somewhere. "If Dae-Hyun took a knife, do you suppose he also took the rope?"
Nodding her head, Tatiana seemed to agree with the statement. "Besides me, he's the only other person to have spent a lot of time here. I could see him taking both of these things."
But then that only raised the question about what he was planning on doing with that sort of information…
Now that her focus was off the curtains, Gigi got off the stage, moving over towards the knife rack from earlier. "Hmm?" While one knife was obviously missing, a second one was also-
"I have that one." Tatiana quickly explained, pulling out her Luna knife. "Don't worry about it. I grabbed it yesterday after I was done cleaning up."
Oh, then that narrows down when Dae-Hyun could have grabbed the knife. "Were all the knives there when you grabbed your knife?"
"Absolutely!" Tatiana struck a pose. "He must have taken it either last night, or this morning. I haven't been to my own station since then."
What was being said made sense, so Gigi had no reason to doubt it. But Dae-Hyun even had a knife in the first place… And bringing it onto the repair ship… Just what was he planning to do?
Garden
Now, there wasn't really any reason that Gemini found himself here.
Honestly, there wasn't anything to investigate, but something was just itching at his mind.
"Oh…" Michael looked around. "I haven't been here in a while…"
However, as soon as the two boys took one breath of oxygen, they'd realise that this was the best fucking shit ever.
Holy fuck.
Back to normal oxygen. "Honestly, we probably should have stayed in a garden." Gemini concluded, shaking his head.
"I… I did for one night, actually…" Michael revealed, holding his arm. "Although this was before the oxygen became a problem…" Slowly, he lifted his hand, pointing over towards the shed. "Actually, I stayed over there…"
Oh right, there was a shed in there. "Notice anything odd about it when you stayed?"
Slowly, Michael shook his head. "Not that I remember… If you want to check it out, we wouldn't be wasting much time…"
Gemini had to think for a moment. Exploring somewhere related to the case would probably be a better use of their time, but still… After the last garden was used, he just wanted to make sure they weren't forgetting anything important.
Marching over, he stopped right in front of the door, looking for any kind of handle. When he couldn't find one, he slowly looked over at the button.
Pressing the button to open the door, Gemini was surprised that the door still actually worked. "I thought all the doors were busted." He let out a small hum.
Michael shrugged, stepping in after he did. "I guess this door works differently…" Probably on a closed system, compared to the rest of the doors.
Looking around inside, Gemini didn't seem to find anything of value. "Ah, it's what I thought… A bust." Everything was still here.
However, Michael seemed to remember something from the last time he was here. "Well… It might not be a bust…" Quickly, he turned towards the device near the door.
"Hmm?" Gemini raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"
Looking over at it, Michael approached it. "Oh… Right… That tracks when people enter the room… So we can look at a log."
Well, there was no harm in checking it out. Gemini decided to check the logs. As soon as he opened it up, nine different times opened up.
.
November 25th, 2045, 2:12pm
November 25th, 2045, 2:16pm
November 27th, 2045, 10:02pm
November 28th, 2045, 7:05am
November 29th, 2045, 2:46pm
November 29th, 2045, 2:48pm
November 29th, 2045, 6:31pm
November 29th, 2045: 6:33pm
November 30th, 2045: 11:32am
.
Two major things jumped out to Gemini at that moment. "Huh? It's already 11:32?" It didn't feel like that much time had passed since they all got on the ship, but maybe the stress made it pass by faster.
The other thing he noticed was… "2045?" Gemini found himself repeating.
It was odd…
It was odd because it didn't feel wrong. It's like his body knew it was 2045.
"Yeah? What's wrong with that?" Michael turned to look at him.
Thinking about how he wanted to phrase it, Gemini leaned his head back. "Hold on, let me use an example… You lived through the year 2040, right?"
What kind of dumb question was that…? "Yeah… I know I did. Of course I'd remember that…"
"Well, would you be able to say what happened those years? In pretty accurate detail? Something that wasn't a major event."
Michael was about to say something, but he found himself cutting off.
Despite something like that being five years ago, there wasn't an awful lot that he remembered. Sure, he remembered major events, but the rest of it sort of just blended together. "It's all a blur…"
"That's what I feel about the last three years." Gemini nodded his head along. "I know they happened. I know I attended Hope's Peak… But I don't remember a single moment of being there. It all just… Kind of blends together."
Michael began to think about those things too… And found that it was the same for him. "Right… When I saw the year for the first time… I didn't even stop to think about it…"
It almost just felt… Normal.
The fact that it was 2045 didn't feel off. However, the fact that he didn't remember the last three years was definitely a problem…
Placing a hand to his forehead, Gemini shook his head. "Worrying about something like that won't help us out for the trial. We should just focus on the times… It seems that the only people who opened this today were us just now." But that didn't really seem helpful. If anything, it allowed them to have an accurate time for once.
Before the two boys could move out of the garden, however… A sound played out from the speakers.
.
"I think that's enough time for you all to be investigating. You should have all found what you needed to find for this trial! So please, everyone meet up at the docking zone on the station, and we'll tell you where to go from there."
.
"Great…" Gemini hung his head low. "We didn't even get to investigate anything useful. Today was not my investigation." At least last time he… He probably did something.
Michael too… All he really did this investigation was get kicked by Atlas and follow Gemini around.
They hadn't really found out anything useful for the trial.
"I guess I'll just have to think of something during the entire thing." Still, Gemini wasn't going to let himself be beat over it. "Let's get out of here."
Docking Zone
Now that everyone was gathered onto the ship, just as Monokawa requested, he made his presence known by floating right out of the vent in the docking zone. "There you all are!"
Now, obviously, some people had some questions. "Why are we boarding the ship?" Seira was one of those people. "I thought the trial grounds were on the station."
"They are!" Monokawa raised a paw up. "But this one is only accessible via the repair ship."
Hae-Won crossed her arms, shaking her head. "It's almost as if you knew someone would die on the repair ship."
"Um, I would hope someone died on the repair ship. The entire motive was based around it." Monokawa crossed his arms. "Now enough chattering, let me go pilot this thing-"
Suddenly, the ship began to move itself away from the station.
"Wow!" Dolly called out. "He's so good, he can control the ship with his mind!"
"That's… That's not me…" Monokawa almost seemed disappointed.
"Ah! Sorry Monokawa." It was the voice of Nova coming from the speakers. "I know you wanted to, but I think I'm the better pilot of the two of us. I'm worried you are going to crash this."
"It was once." Monokawa seemed a bit infuriated.
After a few seconds, Nova's voice could be heard again. "It was more like five times… Please try not to ignore all your other mess ups. I'm just tired of always crashing, so I'm going to be the one piloting this time."
"Ugh!" Monokawa let his body fall to the ground, almost like he was going to have a temper tantrum.
As opposed to normal, where there'd be an elevator to ride down to the trial ground, the fifteen remaining people all stood around in the docking zone room, unsure what to do.
"Wow! Sure is roomy here!" Dolly called out.
"Not appropriate." Gigi shut it down immediately. Today wasn't the time for humour, given the entire situation they found themselves in.
"You know, I'm curious why there even is another trial ground." Gemini pointed out. "Wasn't the last one good enough?"
Monokawa shrugged, not really seeming to care. "Sometimes, it's good to change up the scenery a bit, you know."
Gemini didn't really seem to understand, but he wasn't going to ask any further questions if that's how they were going to be answered.
"Will this one also have a few of the stars?" Seira had her priorities completely straight when she asked that.
Only she could ask the important questions in life.
"Obviously." Monokawa rolled his eyes. "All the trial grounds have a view of the stars. Don't ask any dumb questions."
"How many trial grounds are there?" Winter asked, knowing her question wasn't dumb.
"At least two." Thank you Monokawa.
When the room calmed down, Melody spent a bit looking down. From the looks of it, she was the only one that was truly devastated. Sure, the atmosphere wasn't anywhere as normal, but the others didn't seem to care about him as much as she cared for him…
Noticing this, Michael got a bit closer. "Hey… We'll find who did this… Alright?"
It was reassuring to have someone like Michael by her side. "Right… We will." She tried her best to smile at him, but the pain was still very apparent behind it.
As they got closer, an announcement could be heard.
Like the last time, a voice of a woman played out, one they didn't recognise.
"Now entering Trial Ground Beta."
"You know…" May hummed out, thinking for a moment. "Who's the one speaking?" It sounded like an actual person, so…
"Who that is doesn't matter!" Monokawa raised his hands up in the air. "It's nobody on this station."
That only raised questions for May, but worrying about them now wouldn't do her any good. "Alright…"
Soon, they got closer to the new trial grounds. This one was different from the last one they had gone to. Instead of being a cylinder, it was a dome on the top of the station.
"Ah…" Edison looked a bit disappointed. "It doesn't look like we'll be dealing with zero gravity for a bit."
"I think I'm done with zero gravity for a lifetime…" Hae-Won shook her head. "Being trapped in space will fuck you up."
As the ship docked to a part under the station, they were greeted with a new trial ground. It's almost like every new trial would be at a different location! Fascinating!
As the doors opened, they were greeted with the eighteen podiums like last time, however, two new picture frames had added themselves to the list. One for Ian, and one for Dae-Hyun, both in black and white, and with red X's across their names.
Quickly, Melody glanced away from the podiums, not wanting to look at Dae-Hyun's picture.
But the reality became all too clear when she remembered just where her podium was.
Taking a deep breath, she moved over, taking a place directly beside his picture frame.
For a second, Melody looked over at it, before glancing away.
Frowning slightly, Michael glanced over at her. "It's going to be fine… We'll find out who killed him."
Leaning her head back, Melody nodded her head slightly. "I… I hope so…"
Not only did she want to find out who killed Dae-Hyun… She wanted to find out why he died. Who would want to kill Dae-Hyun, of all people?
Once they all stood around their podiums, their order was the same as always… Edison, B̶e̶n̶o̶i̶t̶,̶ Seira, Winter, Gigi, Gemini, Benjamin and Dolly, Lorelei, Michael, Melody, D̶a̶e̶-̶H̶y̶u̶n̶,̶ Laki, May, I̶a̶n̶,̶ Tatiana, Atlas, Gennosuke, and Hae-Won.
Like the last time, a silence slowly filled the room, similar to how space itself was…
Soon, several pictures appeared, each with one of the participants.
.
An image of Laki, that look of glee was no longer in her eyes, instead replaced with emptiness.
A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶D̶a̶e̶-̶H̶y̶u̶n̶,̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶n̶d̶i̶f̶f̶e̶r̶e̶n̶t̶,̶ ̶c̶o̶v̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶m̶o̶u̶t̶h̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶e̶y̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶b̶s̶c̶u̶r̶e̶d̶.̶
An image of Hae-Won, her hands in her pocket, leaning back against a wall.
An image of May, eyes closed, engrossed in a nap.
An image of Benjamin standing in the background, with Dolly taking the foreground.
An image of Seira, gripping onto her Leo necklace, looking up into the stars.
.
Just moments ago, Dae-Hyun had been alive…
.
An image of Lorelei, not paying attention. Instead, opting to mess around on her watch.
An image of Gigi, whistle in mouth, and a red card at the ready.
An image of Atlas, irritated, glaring down at whoever would even bother looking his way.
A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶I̶a̶n̶,̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶d̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶s̶,̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶c̶h̶i̶e̶v̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶g̶r̶i̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶e̶.̶
An image of Michael, his hood was removed, but he averted the gaze with the camera.
An image of Edison, inspecting one of the flasks, which appears to be bubbling.
.
And yet, despite that, he ended up being the body that was discovered floating in space…
.
An image of Gemini, one hand on his hips, the other one holding onto a slice of pizza-
A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶B̶e̶n̶o̶i̶t̶,̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶n̶e̶r̶v̶o̶u̶s̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶r̶u̶b̶b̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶m̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶c̶a̶r̶s̶.̶
An image of Winter, eyes closed, slowly sipping away at a cup of tea.
An image of Melody, a bright smile on her face as she danced away.
An image of Tatiana, one hand covering her eyepatch, while the other twirled around a knife.
An image of Gennosuke, hands close to his head as he attempted to read someone's mind.
.
This one was going to be one hell of a confusing trial…
And that's the investigation done for this chapter! I think this is the most fun I've ever had for an investigation, because there was still a lot more than just investigating going on the entire time. A lot of extra stuff :D
Having said that, now I'm really curious on where the theories will be for this case :o Already got some decent theories from just the sixth daily life alone, but now you have way more to work with. This should be interesting to say the least!
Also damn, only one body. What the hell am I doing with this fic? Something must CLEARLY be wrong with me. I should be replaced by someone more competent or SOMETHING.
Haha, moving on, this was definitely a chapter I wrote much quicker than I thought I was going to, given that I posted the last daily life on the 13th, and I only had about a thousand words written for this one.
A thousand words that I had to delete half of because it no longer lined up with my plan for the investigation. So yeah, all things considered, this was written pretty quickly. Now there's more of a chance I can write the last three parts before the end of the year :o that would be amazing if I could end up doing it.
But don't get your hopes up, the last week of the year, I'll be back at work, so there's a high chance that I don't finish this by the end of the year.
But since I'm also finally in trial territory, that means I can go absolutely mental with my writing :D
Till next time, I hope you all enjoy the trial that's about to happen. Let's see if it can even stand in the same field as the Chapter 2 trial :o
Participants Remaining: 15
Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]
Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]
Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]
Giustina "Gigi" Giulio - The Ultimate Referee [Nekoja]
Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]
Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]
Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Computer Security Specialist [CandleFire45]
Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin]
Melody Eleanor Hopkins - The Ultimate Tap Dancer [Prince PokePersona]
Lakshmi "Laki" Krishna - The Ultimate Lucky Student [Sempi]
May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]
Tatiana Novak - The Ultimate Knife Thrower [ExtraMeme]
Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]
Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]
Kim Hae-Won - The Ultimate Tattoo Artist [Weekaro]