Liar, Liar

“Let’s see… Who shall be revealed today?” The bear entered the crowd, pacing back and forth, stopping briefly in front of a student on occasion, just to inspire a little fear. “Ah. Perfect. Keiko Nanako. Would you please step forward?” The bear pulled the girl up in front of everyone. “Yet another classmate hiding their true appearance…” 

“Let’s see who you REALLY are!” A dull blue light surrounds the girl briefly before… Her true appearance is revealed.

The unfortunate nature of this world is that if you agree to do something, you have to do it.If you say you are something, you have to be that. So when she said she wasn’t scared, or at least implied it, Keiko had to take this on the chin. However, it was much harder to hide in this form that it was in the other. These big eyes and tiny form expressed things too easily.

“This doesn’t mean a-anything, I am… I’m still…”

She wrapped her arms around herself. Despite her age, her small stature made her seem a lot younger. The oversized sleeves of her suit made her look like a child playing dress up. Despite her angry expression, tears were gathering in her eyes. She really was pathetic, wasn’t she?

“This doesn’t mean anything to me!”

She whirled around, a feat that would be much cooler if she still had her cape. She began to  stomped, though anyone who took a second to look would realize she was doing her best not to break into a run. However, maybe running would have been the better choice.

“Uh uh uh~” He scolded as she turned to run. “I’m not finished~” That… didn’t sound good. “You know… Just expecting you to learn more about them from their appearance is… a terrible practice really. Judging a book by it’s cover as the expression goes. So… I’ve decided I’ll give a fact about the people I reveal… For example… Not only has Keiko been hiding her appearance, but her talent as well! That’s right! She’s not the SHSL Hematologist! She’s something much less impressive.” Okay, ouch, that was unnecessary. “She’s the SHSL Game Master! Ohohoho~” His eye gleamed brightly. “I wonder what kinds of games she has been the mastermind behind? Have any mutual killing games under your belt? Clearly I know the answer, but do the rest of you?”

At some point as Kurokuma spoke, whether due to fear of punishment or due to what he said, Keiko has come to stop. Not a sudden one, but a jittering one, as if she was deciding whether this was worth stay or not. It seemed to stupid, but she could not help but force down tears as she spoke. It was just so frustrating.

“O-of course I haven’t! I don’t play anything sick like that! I just… Want to have a bit of fun. And I can do that and study hematology at the same time. I’m not… This doesn’t mean anything to me, you- You damned VR beast!”

Barako nodded at her as she described her cases. A concerned look appeared on her face as she described the exact symptoms.

“I understand Keiko. Everything you’ve told me is fascinating from a cultural and scientific standpoint. That you’re taking on this genetic disorder by yourself is amazing… but- may I ask?”

“Why call it Himura? That seems like an… unusual name for a genetic disorder. Is it after someone? Or…”

“It wasn’t my intention at first, but I didn’t exactly go seeking the case out. It came to me. I was already up to my wrists in it before I realized.”

There was a sort of warmth in her smile. Ah, sweet nostalgia for the days before it became strange. Back when she was so young she hadn’t noticed what was going on.

Barako blinked for a second. ‘She’? Barako wondered who Keiko was talking about there with that little Freudian slip, but she decided it would be rude to ask.

But she didn’t interrupt or stop Keiko. In fact she seemed to be paying attention quite closely.

“Wow. That’s quite interesting actually,” Barako said, “I’ll admit elements of it seem akin to Malaria. But otherwise I suppose that is interesting. If I may ask is it a genetic disorder? Or is it caused by a bacteria or pathogen? OH! You say it’s only been recorded in a few cases? Have you tried looking up symptoms in other parts of the world? If it’s only in Japan could it be related to something regarding the environment?”

Barako may have preferred languages but it seemed she was still well versed in other things. And she enjoyed the notion of meeting someone as an intellectual!

Keiko perked up right away? She was interested in actually hearing about this? It was honestly astounding. She was used to people getting squeamish as soon as she started talking medicine.

“It’s genetic. The two cases I work with, one who is actively collaborating with me, and the other I study posthumously, were a pair of twin sisters. Identical twins, so when one of them had it, so did the other. Unfortunately, nobody knew about it until too late and one of the twins had a severe reaction to some medication she was placed on. I believe, I have it written down somewhere, they believed she was simply anemic and planned to put the other sister on the same medication if she developed the same symptoms. As for other cases, it does seem to be primarily focused in Japan, but there have been cases elsewhere. So far, I’ve found one other in Canada, and another is China.”

She really needed to stop smiling over such a dark subject, but she did anyway. Nobody had ever accused the girl of being socially graceful.

“Ah. I see,” Barako nods at her words, “honestly I know of a… bizarre case myself. My friend Ken-san, he has an acquaintance who, according to him, had an unusual phenotype in her blood that made her unable to donate or receive blood. Apparently she was a ‘useless’ individual.”

“I’ve never heard of this ‘Himura’ though… what are the symptoms, if I may ask?” Barako leans back a bit with a concerned look.

“Hrm? Oh. I guess I should mention… I have a bit of an odd history is all,” Barako says, “pay it no heed.”

“That’s a cruel way of putting it. Just because her blood type mean she n’t donate, it doesn’t mean that she’s useless. What a bad way of wording it. I would say unique instead. It must be quite a pain for her though. I do hope she’s careful.”

Keiko frowned for a moment. She couldn’t help but wonder a little about that person. It would be nice to meet them...

“Himura, well, it has to do with deficiencies in the blood. It comes in waves, either a deficiency of white blood cells, or the blood doesn’t oxygenate properly. It can be treated, to a certain degree, but the problem comes from the shifts. If a person is being treated for the lack of white blood cells then it switches, the body can react extremely to the medication and this can be fatal. There are a number of other effects too. It’s quite painful for the subject, so normally she’s- Ah, normally they are on painkillers, but my research focuses on determining the switch between the two phases. The most important thing, I believe, is that the patient education, and... Ah, I should stop talking.”

And why would they? Sharing a name with Seiichi was….. weird. And he didn’t want things to be weird between them when they were friends. Or under any other circumstance. It was a small, but important mater- and one he wanted to put behind him as quickly as possible.

“I’m very interested in chemistry, though. Or, uh, any science, really. I’m just much better at them than…. other subjects.”

Like history. Or any sort of language. Or the arts. Or…. just about anything really. But he did practice, and study- especially those subjects he didn’t like. If they didn’t come to him naturally, that was all the more reason to work twice as hard to keep his grades up. Speaking of coming to him naturally…

“It’s on page 62, what I’m trying to recreate…”

It was a simple experiment involving Lead nitrate and potassium iodide to create what he had thought was a pretty picture of golden flakes inside a bottle. It may take some time, but he’d been hoping to maybe recreate it. See if…. these things were the same in this fake world as well. Laws of nature. How much they mattered here.

But, ah….

“I can’t…. find safety goggles though… Or lab equipment- do you know where….?”

She gave a little shrug as she flipped through the book to the page he suggested. Well, that certainly looked easy enough. But yes, even for that, they would need safety equipment. She would be a shame to her field if she suggested they work with out it.

They? Yep, she’d already made herself part of this. Thank Keiko, you were even invited.

“Chemistry is pretty interesting. It can be fun to work with, but it’s more math then I like at times. Still, this looks like a fairly fun experiment. Here, let me help you find everything. Then, maybe I could help out? It seems fun.”

Plus, he seemed so tired all the time she worried bout him messing up. she was pretty sure zoo keepers had to be more alert than this. The girl crouched down and began going through the cupboards under the lab tables. That was where things had been kept at her school.

“Hrm,” Barako nodded at Keiko thoughtfully as she rested her hands on the table.

“I’ve heard of a few bizarre cases myself… although I’m not sure what you were referring to by mistranslation,” Barakp states as she looks Keiko over.

“HTH occasionally does professional work for medical industries. But for things like new diseases or concerns that could effect a global populace there are government establishments that communicate information like that, yes? I would hope that the bureaucracy of this country would not fail on such a level.”

Barako paused for a second before observing Keiko and smiling a bit.

“And in case you’re curious… I’m AB+. Universal acceptance. From what I can gather about myself it was intentional I’d be born with that,” Barako stated.

Well that was… interesting.

“Well, it’s mostly a thing of the past these days. However, when it comes to niche research, sometimes things slip through the cracks. You’ll occasionally get researches trying to translate things themselves because there’s just not enough attention on a specific cause to have government establishments take a look at it yet. Others take priority.”

She gave a small sigh. Just because it hadn’t happened in a while didn’t mean that it couldn’t again.

“My area of specialty is one of those. My research mainly focuses on a so far nameless blood disease that I’ve taken to calling Himura. Since not many people are looking into it, and it’s so rare there are only a few dozen cases world wide, getting research in Japanese is really a pain. So, that’s why I think your talent is so important. Well, one of the reasons.”

Keiko gave her a small nod. That was exactly what she wanted to know. all, well, part of it.

From murder to investigation to trial, the past many hours have been unreasonably eventful. To think that something as hyped up as the Homeschooling Initiative could turn into something like this. It was terrible, and as a result of the terrible situation everyone was in, Nao found himself acting in ways he never thought he could nor would. Allowing one of his classmates to kill another? He could rationalize it as much as he wanted, but the majority of his class, including himself, still hated hated him for that.

In order to collect himself, as well as to avoid the judgmental eyes of the others, Nao spent the first few hours following the trial in his room, idly counting the minutes by as he stared up blankly at the ceiling from his bed. Eventually, he lost count of the time he’d spent in his room, and gave up, deciding instead to nap. Yet, he couldn’t quite do that for as long as he wanted, either. He managed to doze off for a few minutes at a time, but repeatedly awoke, disturbed by memories of the recent events.

Sighing, Nao got out of bed. There wasn’t much he could do in his room, so, as much as he wanted to avoid the others, he decided to investigate the newly provided areas. If he saw anyone around, he’d just try to ignore them. Surely, many of his classmates would do the same to him.

Nao navigated to the hub, and from there, he warped over to the library. That was a good place to start, he thought. By visiting the library first, he could find some books to read ahead of time, in case he decided to stop investigating prematurely.

The darker furred bear’s gift became obvious almost right way when she went to travel to the kitchen. There were so many new rooms to explore- Is that a library? Oh goodness, it was. Aside from the specified books in the other rooms, Keiko had very little to read. Everything in her real room had been read enough. She could still enjoy it, but it was her nature to seek out new and exciting things. Surely the library would have something amazing for her!

She made her way out of her VR room and to the hub. From there, it took her net to no time to get to the library. and what a lovely selection they had. She was greatly relieved to see so many fiction books here. She was tired of non-fiction, non-fiction, non-fiction. Life wasn’t all about work. Sometimes people just wanted to have fun. She went right for the fantasy section on the second floor. If only she had the chance to find something good before the sound of tapping annoyed her out of her daze. Darn it, couldn’t she just distract herself a little?

The girl let out a loud sigh and put the book she’d selected back on the shelf for later. She could find it again, certainly. The girl mad her way back down the stairs to find the source of the sound. Ah, of course. 

“Excuse me? I don’t mean to be rude, but could I please speak to you for a short while? once I’m done, you are free to go back to your reading, as I plan to do myself.”

“Oh dear!? Have I offended!?” Barako shouted as she politely bowed at Keiko.

“My sincerest apologies. I have no ill intent or will towards you, Nanako-san. I am merely…” Barako rubbed the back of her head. Shit this was going bad. Best to correct this post-haste.

“I should explain. I see you have… pained feelings regarding Domnul Ravenholm? I can see why he’d be attracted to someone with your… talent” Barako said simply.

“… how about we sit and chat? This is partially my fault and I should rectify this…” Barako stated as she took a seat at one of the tables in the lab.

“… so… what exactly do hematologists do as opposed to regular doctors and physicians?” Barako asked.

“Ah, no, no! Please do not be sorry, ma’am! I am not offended. I was just worried I might have done something wrong to make you dislike me.”

They she goes, giving Barako a nervous look. She followed the other girl to the seat, carefully adjusting her cape so that she didn’t end up sitting on it funny. Capes here not easy to deal with at times.

“Domnul? Ah, well... Ravenholme-san is... Nice. Not my friend, but I doubt he means any harm. He’s just... Strange. I’m sure you will see that eventually.”

The girl only seemed more nervous when her talent came up. it always felt awkward talking about what she did.

The world did look different once you’d slept on things. 

Things returned to normal. Or what was now normal, in this fake world.

Somehow just moving on, despite everything that had happened. Trying to keep up with class that no one knew if they would ever return to. Ignoring that he’d never run into two of them anymore. One, he wasn’t particularly sad about. The other, he….

Well, that was just life.

Move on, that’s all anyone could ever do.

So Seiichi had found himself in the chemistry lab that had now opened up. He liked chemistry. It wasn’t as good as biology, but sciences came easy to him. Anything he could touch with his hands, make sense of in that way- not that he would touch most of these things with his actual hands, no, that wasn’t what he was here for. He’d stumbled across something in his studies, and wanted to recreate the experiment. For clarity.He’d taken the book with him, it was lying on one of the tables- right next to the sink. But as he went about searching for safety goggles, he heard someone else enter, and turned to see a familiar face (though all faces were familiar now, in this place).

“Ah, Keiko, hello!”

“Ah, hello Sasaki-san. I did not expect to see you here. A budding interest in chemistry?”

She didn’t know anything about zoo keeping. Hell, she didn’t know much about animal care. It was never something that she had time to experience. As a result, she didn’t know if a background in science was required. It was needed for most things, though...

She walked over to the sink and picked up the book there, originally hoping to rescue it from potential water damage. Now that she had it though. Had he been the one to bring it there?

“Research has been pushed back due to mistranslation?” Barako asked.

“What kind of research? And what manner of mistranslation are we discussing?” Barako asked honestly as she approached the girl.

“And… hema… OH YES! You study blood? I suppose that would make sense why you…” she paused as she suddenly gained a very cross expression.

“Hang out with him,” Barako said. She made it clear who she meant pretty apparently in her voice.

“I certainly hope you don’t take him seriously,” Barako said as she looked back up at Keiko.

“A-ah...”

Keiko’s eyes widen in fear. Barako had seemed so nice, then suddenly she turned. If only this was surprising. Keiko knew she would make enemies with the company she chose.

“I don’t really hang out with him, it’s more that I worry. I was worried at first that he was serious about it but I worry there are... Underlying issues.”

She gave a somewhat pained smile. It was clear how much she was suffering from her contact with him.

Barako looked at the keyboard of the chemical lab. She looked it over for a bit and tried to input some numbers to see if they’d work. Assuming they didn’t, Barako stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Hrm… probably for the best they’re locked up… still though-” she stops once she hears someone enter. Barako looks over to see the scarlett clad girl enter the chemistry lab.

“Oh… are you uh… Nanako-san?” Barako asks. She had seen her at the trial and investigating with Lucian. That must’ve been… nice.

“Ah, yes, I’m Nanako. Keiko Nanako. I’m the Super High School Level Hematologist. I must say, I’m quite a fan of yours. Translation is a very important talent, especially to those in the medical field. You can’t imagine how far back research has been pushed by mistranslation.”

A time in hell could make you forget who you are. It could wear away and tear away your sense of self. Keiko certainly didn’t feel like herself. Hair a mess despite the virtual reality and hat off kilter, she’d been a waiting for something like this to happen. Like a dog trapped in a painful place, she’d learned it was best not to leave the simulation. Why bother when her fear would rear up and try to force her to stay out of it, consequences be damned? Learned helplessness had always come easy to her.

In the end, she was one of the first to gather, and thus was fully prepared to see the victim. She counted, carefully, each person that arrived. Seeing them, she knew only one person could be missing, and that person was very likely dead. It was like a sore, leaking wound. She had liked that girl. Her soft eyes and nervous smile. The type of person you’d want to pat on the head and say she made you think of your little sisters. Of course she would be the one to die.

“I bet she never wanted to leave.”

Research lead to knowing things about your classmate and their leg status. It was obvious what Reina got from this. Even risking death, Keiko bet she wouldn’t give up her legs so easily. It was dreadful, but only worse when she saw the body.

She knew blood and medicine. It was her talent, after all. She’d never bled out first hand, but she’d read accounts. As such, she could not help but let out a small whine of sympathy. She was so small. No, not Reina, a corpse was corpse. An object. The mind was gone, fried out of the real body. The pile of pixels on the floor was small and helpless looking. She really did remind Keiko strongly of a similar girl. That’s why it hurt so much, she had to assume.

“I’m sorry I never got to hear you play.”

It wasn’t fear but sadness in her voice. A life cut off before it truly began. How could anyone hold in the desire to weep? How could anyone be scared when she just felt like crumpling and crying? Everyone here had such wonderful futures to look forward to, and yet one of them had died in such a slow, horrific way. And she had the gull to apologize to them in her death. What a sad silly girl.

When you die, you’ll have to ruffle her hair and call her a silly fool.

Any historical look at knights would tell you that they were thugs. Brutish thugs aligned with the rich. It didn’t stop the world from idolizing them, though. Any student with google would tell you that Omasu was a waiter. A cool, silly waiter who happened to dress up like a knight. That didn’t stop Keiko from thinking he was stupidly cool.

After giving herself an afternoon to steam off and deal with her emotions, she was ready to get to know her classmates again. It was more important than ever. She had to form alliances. Nobody wanted to be the mousy girl in the corner than nobody noticed. That was a recipe for death. Even people you don’t like make an impression. It’s hard to kill someone who had acknowledged in the past.

So, the knight was a good choice. For some reason, she could not thinking of him as the waiter. He was a knight, and that was it. A knight, a paladin. Someone just and strong, someone she would like to get to know.

It’s funny how we fill our heads with all these impressions, isn’t it?

“Excuse me, sir.”

A smile as she approached. Honestly, it was strange to have waited in the hub until he came by, but she did it anyway. She was definitely going to over analysis this later.

Keiko had noticed early on that everyone seemed a little more freaked out about this than she did. It was before the gathering that this had occurred to her. Maybe because she had expectations like this from Hope’s Peak. Of surprises and pranks, and people pretending to be in danger. That’s what she expected. Hope’s Peak was an elite school, so of course they’d go all out with the introduction of a new course.

That’s what she told herself.

She was completely straightfaced when she arrived at the hub and, surprise surprise, there was another bear. Of course there would be. She was kind of hoping for something interesting, like a lion or a tiger. Lions and tigers and bears? It’s more likely than you would think. Still, a bear was what was expected. His words weren’t though.

A murder game?

They were there to kill.

That wasn’t a very nice idea, and it would really suck for an orientation. Why do it then? Was this some kind of prank or cyberstrike? Some kids trying to play with them. Unfortunately, she could not shake how feesible this all sounded. Kidnapped, the machines altered. It made a lot of sense.

She really didn’t like that.

It was her nerves that kept her mouth shut during the whole presentation. During the presentation, but no the murder. Was it odd she didn’t really feel anything during it? Well, of course. That was because she’d never considered Shirokuma to be a person in the first place. Destroying toys didn’t scare her, but her classmates did. She really hoped nobody was taking the bear too seriously.

It didn’t seem like they were, at first, when brave souls chided the bear. Then the fear started to come out. She combed her fingers through her red hair. What to say? What would keep the fears at bay? Why was it that she didn’t fear the black bear, but feared her classmates? You’re really pathetic, her mental voice sounded, nagging like always. She didn’t really want to hear that right now. The girl scoffed, at herself rather than the bear, but it wasn’t as though anyone would notice that.

“…You’ll give people hearing damage, firing off a gun like that…”

Why are you like this?

No passive-aggressiveness to be found here, I’m afraid. Reina’s just that used to responding in extremely sincere ways.

“I w-would suppose…I still d-do think we should a-at least learn to be self…um… is the w-word self-sufficient? We’re all g-going to move out e-eventually…and I would t-think most of us are b-best not getting by o-on convenience store meals o-or something alike…” She twiddles her fingers slightly. “It gets…It gets a l-little lonely sometimes, being an o-only child. I was…lucky, I t-think…To have a best f-friend in I-Issei…But w-wow! I d-didn’t expect you to b-be part of such a b-big family…Twins t-then triplets? It must be a r-really active household…”

Deep down, Reina forced down the twinge of jealousy in favour of being happy for the Nanako family household. Having siblings meant that if something unfortunate were to happen to one of them (say, an accident, for instance), there was at least someone else to pick up the slack for their parents - or as Keiko has succinctly put it, someone to be “falling back on”. Even if her own parents always reassured her that it was okay, she herself…Well, some things are better left unsaid, more implied.

“I do…S-Surprisingly I’ve developed a f-fondness for the Indian s-style of curry over our own J-Japanese, but I c-certainly like both all t-the same… I’d be more than h-happy to try some of y-your curry, Nanako-san!” She smiled.

If only Keiko was capable of being down to earth, and not completely paranoid for once in her life. Alas, she was not, so everyone gets greeted by the paranoid girl. She wasn’t sure Reina was sincere, but would pretend she was to avod further conflict. What a mess of a human being.

“It’s true that many of us will have to learn eventually, but not all of us. We’ll move out, most of us, bu some of us live lives of luxury where we never need to learn to cook, while others will eventually marry and then have someone else to take care of them. For example, my father never learned to cook because either his mother, or mine, was there to cook for him. But, that aside, it’s good to know how to cook.”

She gave a nervous hum and played either hair for a moment before gathering supplies. Though Keiko was a good cook, Kamary was not, and thus I’m just going to mostly skip over this part. Assume she’s doing well.

Lucian reached up and covered his lips with his hand, poorly stifling a giggle. “That would be unfortunate. Hm. They probably thought of that, and if Abe-san hasn’t come through here yet, she wouldn’t know the difference anyways, right?” 

He lit up as soon as she mentioned comparing notes. “Mirific! Oh, but you don’t have to go now. We can just chat here for a bit, da?” He shifted closer to her, reaching out and letting his fingertips brush against the back of her hand.

“We’re practically colleagues, right?” Lucian smiled again, a rather bright and friendly smile, really. “Besides that, we’re classmates, so we have plenty of time.”

“I guess that’s true. I would hate to mess things up though. I would love to explore this room, though.”

Oh god, he was touching her again. He was really strange and definitely had no sense of personal space. Well, that was going to be fun. There went her once chance to flee without being rude. Well, she was stuck here with him now. Lovely.