the list contains two people but you're still 3rd

Dear Takumi Misawa-kun Misawa Takumi

I know you’re going to see my handwriting and throw this out, but writing this provides me a bit of comfort. I’m going to pray you’ll read it, even though I don’t deserve it. My hands are shaking and I can’t see the paper why did I

I’m sorry. I know we made a lot of promises, and now I can’t keep them. Well, more accurately, I suppose I broke them all in one fell swoop. I really did want to leave with you. I wanted to leave this place with you, Suzume-san, Kazuki-kun, Mien-kun… I wanted to leave with everyone. I wanted to get to know you better. I wanted to make more pancakes with you. I wanted us to work together once we escaped.

This place changes people in ways I cannot fathom. The people we thought would never be able to kill did it so easily. I did it so easily. I’ve become a very different person from when I first entered. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. Just promise me you won’t let it change you anymore. Things must hurt so much right now, and everyone has left you, but I think you’re the best out of all of us. The only one who can get through this all and escape.

This is a dumb letter. I’m sorry. I’m not good at expressing myself. I can’t even do it face to face. Just… this was stupid. I’m going to throw this away.

I’m just sorry. That’s what I’m trying to say. You don’t have to forgive me, and I don’t expect you to. However, you will always be the 5’2” boy who walked me down the aisle at my fake wedding. You will always be one of my closest friends. And I’ll always love you a lot.

- Eri

God, he just felt empty.

So yeah, Takumi Misawa sat a patiently watched as two of the people he was had been closest to were ripped apart by machine gun bullets. He didn't bother picking up the pieces this time, didn't bother thinking about a burial. There didn't seem to be much point in it, after all, and he didn't see why he should care about it after all. Shit, what had happened to him? Takumi could notice it, could tell plain as day, but he couldn't muster the energy to try and change it.

Well, no point in worrying about his own psyche. There was a shit-load to be done, and Takumi didn't much want to waste time. There were four students left that had to survive. He barely knew them, compared to some of the dead. But, all the same...Takumi could still remember tea and vomit and park benches and video games. It felt far away, but if Hideki, Meike, Rin, or Adrian died, then who would be left. Three people? This had to stop at some point, at some point before they all bit it.

Okay. Phase 1 of the plan: Get the files. They didn't seem all that useful, but what the hell? It wouldn't take that long to pick them up from Eri's room, and maybe somebody else could get more out of them than Takumi had.

When he had entered Akito's room after the boy had died, there had been a strange feeling about the whole thing. This time around, Takumi felt nothing odd about entering Eri's room. He retrieved the files, flipped through them to check that they were still there, and glanced around to see or there was anything else of there.

There was a note, and Takumi paused before decided to open it. In the end, he really couldn't come up with a good reason not to at least see what was in there, could he? Hell, maybe there was something useful in it. Takumi couldn't throw up a chance at gaining information, slim as it was.

There was silence in the room as Takumi read the letter. He didn't get it. Eri mentioned wanting to leave with Kazuki and Mien, but Kazuki and Mien had wanted her to live. How could she tell him not to let this place change him after murdering Suzume. A bit like stabbing him in the back and telling him not the bleed, wasn't it?

And giving him some kind of weird compliment at that. Takumi was in no way the best of them; no, he was somewhere in the lower quarter. Among the best of them was Suzume Shiratori, who was clever and brave and would have changed the whole damn world if she had the chance. And Eri killed her in some strange sort of revenge against him. Someone like Suzume should never have died on account of someone like Takumi, and how the hell was he supposed to forgive Eri for that action?

The fake wedding felt like years ago. Throwing coins in the fountain; that was a childhood memory. What did any of that matter? Eri said she loved Takumi, but killed the person he loved, and did it in a way meant to spit on everything he had believed in. Takumi didn't know that much about relationships, but he was pretty sure that constituted as a toxic one. 

Shit, he really just didn't get it. Suzume had been killed, yes, but Takumi didn't feel an overwhelming urge to murder Hideki or Meike as some kind of sick revenge. The vast majority of the people he was close to had died too, Why were their reactions different? Which was correct? Were any of them correct?

This was getting him nowhere. Takumi had his own letters to write and a man to track down. He needed know what to do with the letter, though. He didn't really feel like destroying it wouldn't do anything for him at this point. Instead, Takumi folded the paper and put it in her dresser. No point in burning it or anything melodramatic like that. He wasn't even angry at her, just...just something.

The files were under his arm and there was no further reason to be here. Takumi quietly left the room, closing the door behind him.

Now why was Monobear still sticking around the area after offering the case file? Who knew, right? Whatever the case, when the other students appeared, he laughed to himself. “Upupupu~ Don’t you guys feel like…someone important is missing? You should be more concerned than that!” He reprimanded the students.  “I thought all of you cared about each other: Wanted to escape together or something…hilarious like this. But shouldn’t you be looking for someone?” He gestured towards the hall, containing the dorm rooms before disappearing.  Only one room was open. The room in question belonged to Suzume Shiratori, but who was there? Was Suzume there, or was there another victim? Only time would tell though, wouldn’t it? Or would they be able to save…whomever was in distress? 

At this point, that outcome was…very unlikely, for as he went to her room, he spotted the one he loved, Suzume Shiratori. She was sitting against her bed, blood all over her mouth and hands. Right in front of her was a wastebin that was filled with vomit and blood. And, on top of her bed was a long black ribbon that looked like it could be part of a dress. Stained with blood as well, it faced away from Suzume. 

Looking for someone? For who? It wasn't as if every one of them hung out together all the time. It knew there was a desire among the group to escape together, which was strange as Takumi had not heard much talk of that, but that didn't  really tell him anything. Escape would obviously be first on everyone's minds. And he couldn't exactly fault anyone for keeping him out of the loop, could he?

But Monobear's tone, and that way it almost seemed to look at him right before it left made Takumi feel the beginnings of fear. What the hell did that mean? Kazuhiko was dead, Hideki and Eri were here with him, which meant that the one missing was either Rin, Masa, Adrian, Meike, Chiemi, or...Suzume. And by the tone, it meant that one of them was more than likely the newest among the dead. 

That was enough to send him running, whistle already in his mouth. Takumi had no idea if Hideki or Eri were following, and didn't really take care to notice. The sinking feeling didn't leave him. That bear's words had shaken him enough that he made a beeline to Suzume's room, which had a worryingly open door.

Takumi skidded to a halt upon entering the room. The whistle dropped to the floor, unused. Not that he didn't alert the others to the situation, though. At the sight before him, Takumi screamed, something strange and unintelligible. He didn't hear it, not really, and simply fell to the floor after his voice gave out on him.

His vision went black, but with some effort Takumi blinked the world back into focus before he fell unconscious. There was blood, yes, fine, but that didn't mean anything, now did it? He had bleed before, and it was an awful lot of blood but people had survived way worse that that, hadn't they? Eri and Chiemi...Eri and Chiemi had lived! That didn't normally happen with hanging suicides but they had lives and they hadn't fallen into a coma and they both still had their memories so a little (a lot) of blood didn't mean anything not anything at all.

He got back to his feet as shift as he could considering the circumstances, almost knocking over a waste basket. Grabbing it before it slipped and setting it back up correctly, Takumi noticed a whiff of vomit (and blood but blood was everywhere in here not that it mattered now did it?). Suzumes? Someone else's? The person who did this? It didn't make any sense.

There was no pulse, not on her wrist or on her neck. No signs of breathing. But people had survived worse, Takumi had seen people survived worse, and this situation wasn't normal, this didn't even have to be Suzume, after that shit Kazuki had pulled, that shit had fooled Chiemi so maybe this was fooling him, and Suzume could do it way better than Kazuki anyway he was sure, was so sure that this didn't have to happen.

The proper emergency techniques for these particular circumstances didn't help matters at all. Takumi had nothing else to fall back on, no petty hopes or naive optimism. He was crying, making a pathetic attempt at sucking in air, a desire to continue to breath that was driven on by sheer human evolution and not any choice of his. Takumi wanted to bang his hand against the bedpost until it bleed, but was held off because Suzume had told him not to, hadn't she? That seemed longer ago that just around a week.

He loved her. Had he said that? Certainly not enough, anyway. This wasn't how the story went. They got out of here, they were supposed to get out of here. See the whole world, weren't they, good or bad, whatever. Grow old together. They were going to live until they were fucking a hundred. 

That was probably the moment when Takumi was supposed to grow up and face reality, wasn't it? If it was him, Suzume wouldn't fall apart, wouldn't she? The correct thing to do here was simple enough. Examine the room, find the evidence, discover the killer, send them to their death, then find a way out of here.

And yes, Takumi knew suddenly that he had fucked up. Should have told Suzume everything he had found, won't make that mistake after the next trial. Let everyone in on it, find whoever was doing this, break them down and watch everyone else walk out of this damn park, that was a better plan, then. As for Takumi...Yeah, he didn't know, or really care, what would become of him. 

He wiped away tears and snot again and again, but it didn't seem to make every difference. But he forced himself to look at the scene again, look Suzume in the eyes. Blood on the mouth, on hands. A fight, then? The blood soaked ribbon said the same thing. A woman, most likely. Someone who could take Suzume in a fight, which had to rule out some of them.

Takumi might have been barking up the wrong tree on this. Takumi didn't care. There were an awful lot of things Takumi didn't care about during this period of time. He made his way to the doorway, bloody ribbon in hand, and stood in the frame. His legs weren't shaking anymore, the situation not hitting him fully, perhaps. He was the only one in this room, and if everyone else was coming to take a look, then...

"Show me your arms. Legs. Whatever." If there had been a fight, then the signs would not have disappeared that quickly. Takumi knew well enough how dulled scratches looked, how bite marks showed as they began to fade. Whoever thought they could get away with this was working under a rather flawed assumption.

Takumi quickly formed a list of the remaining survivors. In the time of the investigation, he could get information about the ribbon easily enough, had enough time to search down everyone. Weren't many places to hide, and no one was even going to, since that would sure make them look suspicious come trial-time.

Find the killer. Find the mastermind Watch everyone walk out of here. Make this the last kill on the island. Takumi was important, certainly couldn't do it all by himself. But Suzume Shiratori would have burned this place to the ground before giving in, and if she couldn't then Takumi was going to do as much as he fucking could in her steed. 

It probably wasn't the best response. But what else could he do? His head felt heavy, the air seemed to choke. But it didn't matter. It really didn't matter. There were a lot of things that Takumi did not care about in this moment of time.

There was something very wrong about the path to the cafeteria, something Takumi noticed as soon as he looked down. A red stain leading to the kitchen. That had to be a cooking accident, right? Tomatoes or ketchup or juice or something like that. It wasn't like somebody would have actually killed over a motive as silly as the last?

But even he knew that was wistful thinking. Takumi pinched his nose, trying to block the metallic scent out. Not that it did him anyone good; the smell of blood was already ingrained in his head and it was not going to go away. Not ever, probably. 

There was nobody there to act like he had it together for. Takumi stood in front of the closed door, shaking on his weak legs. Looking at a dead body was something that he could 'get used to', not really. He was terrified to go inside, to realize that another one of them was gone. Was it naive that Takumi had thought it might actually end? That the information they had gotten might stop the game in its tracks.

Takumi took his usual deep breath, a swung the door open, eyes still squeezed shut. After a few seconds he cracked one open, adjusting to a blurry slight of a person laying in a pool of blood. It was the pastry chef, then? Takumi hadn't seen him around lately, but...but he had been a friend.

Right. Right, he couldn't go to pieces. They had done this before. Takumi slowly walked out of kitchen, and out of the cafeteria. His secret was still on the door, and it felt strangely out of place after all of the death. Takumi hadn't even noticed before, but now it seemed silly, and he absentmindedly pulled it down and crumpled it in his pocket.

Outside, Takumi purchased a whistle and blew it sharply, letting the loud noise resound through the mostly-quiet park. "H-hey! I found.-I mean-Kazuhiko is..." He couldn't finish it, really. Takumi hadn't been forced to do this. He quickly returned to the kitchen and put his gloves on. He wasn't going to start looking until anyone got here, since that would look a tad silly. 

There was a pause, and Takumi squeezed his eyes closed, alright preparing himself for a good talking-to. Or no response at all. Perhaps he should have opened this conversation with an apology. Honestly, he had been pretty awful that day, especially venting at Eri after her friend had just died in front of them. But starting up with a reminder of that day would probably just make everything worse, right? This was not a problem he was used to having! 

Perhaps it would have been more appropriate not to come and see her so soon? But no, time was not a luxury that Takumi really had at this point in time. He needed Eri’s help, and to be completely frank, he had no clue what was going on. Perhaps by giving her the information he had compiled, Eri would figure things out with her own gift. As a translator, this kind of thing was right up her alley.

Besides, after today, Takumi really didn’t want to leave things up in the air. It was a cliche that ‘life was short’, but you tended to stop groaning at that statement when you see nine people die, two people try to commit suicide, almost die underground, and then find out that there’s a high chance the world outside has burned to the ground. After all of that, petty grudges seemed silly. 

The door opened, and Takumi quickly snapped back to attention and tried to look decently nonchalant. It was a little more difficult that it really should have been, but his mind was on the outside world right now. What would everyone do if they fond out? Would they be desperate to leave, to find out what happened? Desperate enough for murder, possibly? 

No. No, he trusted them all. But in the back of Takumi’s mind, he remembered the conference room and the console. One or more of them…had to be ruining this?

Woah there. Eri was there. Stop spacing out.

“Ah? Make wh-Oh, the cookies!” Takumi had almost forgotten about the cookies. He had made them while preoccupied, and had been preoccupied for pretty much the entire time afterward. “Y-yeah, they're for you. I mean, if you want them! I know I’m not really great as a baker or anything, but I followed the recipe so they should be at least alright. I mean, edible at least. Not that I would give you anything that wasn’t edible I mean I-“

Talking to people had never been Takumi’s best skill.

“Oh, t-thank you!” Takumi reflexively grinned nervously at Eri. He really wasn’t sure if he expected to be let in, even after the girl had opened the door. He felt a sudden surge of happiness at that response. If he and Eri were marked for some kind of early grave, then he wanted to clear the air between them. The ultimate form of ‘don’t go to bed angry’.

Takumi’s thoughts were turning a little dark, so he followed her into the room. Eri was confused too? What in the world had Kazuki left her? At any rate, the second half of the mystery would help both of them figure out what was going on. But here wasn’t really the greatest place to talk about it, huh? Maybe they should find a place out of the mastermind’s reach?

“You too, huh?” He frowned up at the camera. “Perhaps we should find a place that’s more, uh, secure?” The grave he had set up for Soh behind the building seemed to be a good choice. “We should probably bring everything we have.” 

So Takumi… struggled through making a batch of cookies just for her. As a goodwill gift? To break the ice?

Hell, it didn’t matter why he did it. The fact that he did it at all was more than what Eri had been anticipating when she opened this door. A sinking sense of guilt fell on her stomach. He thought he needed to apologize for her outburst. He felt bad enough to try and go out of his way to make her forgive him.

He hadn’t done a thing, and here he was…

Eri shot him a smile and gingerly took the plate out of his hands. “No, I’m sure they’re lovely… Thank you, Misawa-san. You didn’t have to do this.”

She sat the plate down next to those infuriating files, pausing to shoot them a dirty look. Useless papers. “Mmm, I tried, but…. Nothing. Perhaps if we think together we ca—” Eri cut herself off, following Takumi’s eyes to the camera. Right. If they did strike gold during this conversation, it would be dangerous having the mastermind know that they know. They already knew that Eri and Takumi had the things that they did, but obviously they were useless alone.

This was starting to get more and more dangerous, and not in the way it was before.

“You’re right,” she agreed quietly. “You likely know this place better than I do… do you have any ideas?”

Just as Eri was gathering up the files with no small amount of contempt, Takumi spoke up one more time. And she froze.

But he still couldn't really understand why she was so okay with it. Eri had made a legitimate point when she mentioned how Takumi hadn't been there for her after Mien's death. She certainly would have been there for him. And then instead of acting properly and making it up to her, he had instead got into an argument that ended with Takumi venting about all of his problem instead of listening to Eri. She had a right to be angry, and he couldn't get why she wasn't.

Possibly, Eri was simply less petty than Takumi. Was that why Kazuki had put on her the mastermind-stamping detail? Eri was clever and diligent, but she was also the kind of person who could do this kind of thing without the kind of baggage that Takumi would. But...Eri had her own kind of baggage, didn't she? And he felt a sudden pain and the realization of how close she had come to dying. 

It was strange that Eri was like this now, wasn't it? Takumi knew enough about hanging suicide to know that were generally successful. Adding that in to the possibility of permanent damage and amnesia, both of which could commonly result from failed attempts, it was a fucking miracle that Chiemi and Eri were alright. He would have been confused, would have been worried, but Takumi was honestly too relieved to even give that any more thought.

"'Lovely' might be giving my attempts too much credit." He noted with a little smile of relief. Time to get his mind on the task at hand. "I tried to figure out my stuff as well. Getting your input will probably be invaluable." He watched as she followed his eyes to the camera. Always being watched like that...And not only by the mastermind, apparently? Takumi hadn't given much thought to the whole 'this is being broadcast' thing, especially after finding about that the world might not even exist anymore, but he guessed it might be a legitimate possibility.

"Yeah," He nodded. "I know a couple of places." He led the way down to the back of the hotel, using Soh's gravestone as a marker to make sure he was out of sight. It was kind of a strange place to come to, but Takumi felt that it was somehow a proper destination for talk against the mastermind. To first of them to take Monobear up on his offer, the first to try murder, if that bear was to be believed. Maybe the person who set up most of the graves thought he didn't deserve a place with the rest of them, but Soh was a victim of this situation too. Deserved the same validation the rest of the dead did.

"Eh? N-no! I mean, you really don't have to apologize! I wasn't there for you when I needed to be and instead of owning up to it, I just took out all my frustration on you. I-I thought I was helping, but it was wrong of me! Please don't worry about what you said, because I think you were probably in the right there, Eri."

As per the usual for Takumi's babbling, he didn't really know what he was saying until it came out of his mouth. And by the time that had happened, it was generally too late to fix anything. He had most likely overstepped his boundaries with the name thing before he had even realized he was going to do it. Takumi had one plan for fixing this problem: pretend it didn't happen and hope Eri didn't notice.

So Takumi wasn't really the best at managing his problems.

"A-anyway, we should probably try and figure this out. I'm sure you have a lot of stuff to share too, so, uh, you can share first!" Takumi's ears he gone red rather soon, and his face was sure to follow. In order to hide it, he quickly turned to the ground, suddenly very interested in the well-being of his shoes.

The whole ‘Everything Takumi had found with the Monokey’ situation probably should be dealt with as soon as possible. After having a fairly nice hot meal to settle his bones from his near experience with death (he was being a little dramatic, alright), Takumi was prepared to deal with the problems of the day. Which apparently included the ramifications of skulking around through an abandoned amusement park, trying to hide from a evil, stuffed bear who wanted them to kill each other.

Takumi didn’t much like thinking about what his life had become. That probably wasn’t good for his blood pressure.

But when Kazuki had told him to use the key and start figuring things out here, he had implied that Takumi was supposed to do it along with Eri. And her feelings about him notwithstanding, he intended to follow through with that plan. They had to trust each other over here, no matter how the place tried to eat away at them. After all, mistrust and an inability to talk to each other had caused all of the deaths here, hadn’t it?

He wanted to tell all of them, really, but something stopped him. The red circles on Eri’s face, and his own. And then Eri laying on the ground, no breathing. Takumi himself screaming and banging on the trap door, stuck in totally darkness. And then Monobear threatening Suzume. They had targets on their backs, targets put there because of what Kazuki had left them. They were all in danger here, but bringing anyone else under that umbrella was too cruel. Even if Eri didn’t like him, she was his best bet.

So, as a peace offering, Takumi had tried his hand at making some cookies after his meal. He wasn’t exactly a master baker, but following a recipe wasn’t too hard. Mind you, Takumi had heard that the best food was made by altering the basic formula, but he preferred to try it by the book. So he had measured and stirred very careful until he had baked a small plate of chocolate chip cookies.

Standing in front of the door to her room, though…Takumi had to admit that he was a little nervous. Okay, more than ‘a little’. Generally, he was a bit of a jumpy sort of person, but when it came to talking to others, especially in a manner that included confrontation, he was even worse. When he had gotten into an argument with Eri earlier, Takumi had been exhausted and just exposed to another execution, so he had been rather off-kilter.

He put his hand against the door, but didn’t knock quiet yet. Eri…didn’t hate him, did she? After everything had happened, they couldn’t go back to the people that they had been, that was for sure. But not all of it had to have a negative outcome. You made choices, possibly mistakes, and then did the best you could after that. Keep moving on, all they could do, right?

Takumi closed his eyes, breathed in, and knocked on the door. “Hey, it’s Misawa. Hello. I was wondering if we could discuss the things Jurou-san left us. I have…I found out a bunch of stuff, and it’s confusing me”. Takumi had put everything he had taken into his cleaning bucket and carried it with him to Eri’s room. It would be best for him and Eri to find a blind spot to have their conversation in, but that hurdle could be jumped after he knew if she even wanted to talk to him.

…. Like with what Takumi found, maybe. If he took his master key and investigated, he likely found something vital to their investigation. A clue to who the mastermind is — a way to put all of these pieces together. Eri couldn’t very well go and ask him just like that, though; not after all of the terrible things she had said to him and Suzume. Her nerves were raw and frayed from Mien’s execution and Kazuki’s betrayal. She had been irritated and terrified and lonely, and ended up pushing someone else away.

She used up all of her will yelling at him in the first place. Eri didn’t have enough left to apologize.

Just as she was flipping through her own file for the hundredth time, a knock came at her door. Eri jolted, head snapping up to look. Who was that? Chiemi? Chiemi wouldn’t bother knocking, would she? She’d just call through and await being granted entrance. Everyone else was too uneasy of her to try, so, who…?

…. Takumi?

Eri sat in her chair and stared at the door, unblinking. Even if they were the only two given something important to investigate with, she struggled to believe he was willing to talk to her. She hadn’t pulled any punches, after all.

As much as she loathed talking to the person she had essentially betrayed, she was getting no where on her own. She was at her wits end. Despite a ruined friendship, Takumi was still there and he was willing to talk. That was enough for now.

Eri opened the door. “Misawa-san,” she nodded. The formality hurt, but she didn’t see him appreciating jumping right back to their first name basis. In one hand he held his cleaning bucket, sans the cleaning items. In the other, he held… cookies. A plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. “… Did you make those?”

Perhaps it would have been more appropriate not to come and see her so soon? But no, time was not a luxury that Takumi really had at this point in time. He needed Eri's help, and to be completely frank, he had no clue what was going on. Perhaps by giving her the information he had compiled, Eri would figure things out with her own gift. As a translator, this kind of thing was right up her alley.

Besides, after today, Takumi really didn't want to leave things up in the air. It was a cliche that 'life was short', but you tended to stop groaning at that statement when you see nine people die, two people try to commit suicide, almost die underground, and then find out that there's a high chance the world outside has burned to the ground. After all of that, petty grudges seemed silly. 

The door opened, and Takumi quickly snapped back to attention and tried to look decently nonchalant. It was a little more diffcult that it really should have been, but his mind was on the outside world right now. What would everyone do if they fond out? Would they be desperate to leave, to find out what happened? Desperate enough for murder, possibly? 

No. No, he trusted them all. But in the back of Takumi's mind, he remembered the conference room and the console. One or more of them...had to be ruining this?

Woah there. Eri was there. Stop spacing out.

"Ah? Make wh-Oh, the cookies!" Takumi had almost forgotten about the cookies. He had made them while preoccupied, and had been preoccupied for pretty much the entire time afterward. "Y-yeah, there for you. I mean, if you want them! I know I'm not really great as a baker or anything, but I followed the recipe so they should be at least alright. I mean, edible at least. Not that I would give you anything that wasn't edible I mean I-"

Talking to people had never been Takumi's best skill.

"Oh, t-thank you!" Takumi reflexively grinned nervously at Eri. He really wasn't sure if he expected to be let in, even after the girl had opened the door. He felt a sudden surge of happiness at that response. If he and Eri were marked for some kind of early grave, then he wanted to clear the air between them. The ultimate form of 'don't go to bed angry'.

Takumi's thoughts were turning a little dark, so he followed her into the room. Eri was confused too? What in the world had Kazuki left her? At any rate, the second half of the mystery would help both of them figure out what was going on. But here wasn't really the greatest place to talk about it, huh? Maybe they should find a place out of the mastermind's reach?

"You too, huh?" He frowned up at the camera. "Perhaps we should find a place that's more, uh, secure?" The grave he had set up for Soh behind the building seemed to be a good choice. "We should probably bring everything we have." 

The trap door led to a long, narrow concrete passage with a faint light at the end. As Takumi approached it, he would notice that tunnel expanded into a small windowless room.

What he found upon stepping inside was a chair in front of a bank of video screens, the sort that a security guard might use to keep an eye on a non-murderous amusement park, showcasing activity in the maze and the outside hall. Below the screens was a console that would allow the little booth’s operator to manipulate the mirrors, causing them to shake and emit noise in order to terrorize any unlucky student who progressed through the maze. So much for there being real ghosts in here.

Kazuki Jurou had been down here at one point, if the graffiti’d Kazuki was here on the wall was any indication.

There was also a stack of books underneath the console. Evidently the person manning it had decided to catch up on their reading while they worked. Each book showed the signs of having been read many, many times: the pages were yellow and dog-eared, the spines worn and creased. Each had a bookmark wedged in it. If Takumi opened them, he would find the marked pages highlighted as follows: 

(There was a neatly-written note on the first bookmark, apparently from the mastermind to whoever manned the booth. K and M - I don’t care if you read these while it’s your turn to be down here, but if you spill anything on them you will be sorry.)

The King James Bible, pg. 200: I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins.

The Tale of Genji, pg. 135: You that in far-off countries of the sky can dwell secure, look back upon me here; for I am weary of this frail world’s decay.

Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe, ‘The Masque of the Red Death,’ pg. 41: But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys…there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.” 

Where other stories were highlighted in pieces, nearly the entirety of ‘Red Death’ was marked up with ink. The last paragraph in particular had stars and arrows around it.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

And just as Takumi finished reading, a familiar voice echoed down the hallway toward him. His luck had been much, much too good so far. That wouldn’t do at all.

“You’re not a very good spy, Cartographer-kun,” said Monobear. Takumi could not see it, not from the booth, but there was nothing else that voice could belong to. “You saw all those cardboard boxes earlier and you didn’t even take one to sneak around in? What an amateur you are! There was an exclamation point above my head from the moment I heard your footsteps!”

It tutted with mock disapproval.

“You’ve been looking through my things, running around my amusement park, and now you’re reading my books? You seem a little obsessed with me, Cartographer-kun! Your little girlfriend will be je~alous! Maybe I should have a headmasterly discussion with her. One on one. If you reeeeeally want to be with me instead, I could even dump her for you!

It paused.

“At the bottom of a lake, maybe. Upupupu!”

“You kno~ow,” the bear called again. “There’s another story in that book that I think you would find veeeeeery relatable right now. It’s called ‘The Cask of Amontillado!’ A man lures his very good friend into the catacombs beneath his house, and then, well…upupupupu~!”

With a loud bang, the trap door at the end of the tunnel slammed shut. The screens all shut off with it, plunging Takumi into total darkness. This was followed shortly the scraping sound of something large and heavy being moved over the door to conceal it…and block it. Kazuki had taken the key, after all, so the bear had to improvise.

For the love of God, Mono-tresor.

If Takumi managed to calm himself down and search the walls of the booth with his hands, he might feel a set of grooves in the concrete where Kazuki Jurou had written his own name. Another door. (Maybe Kazuki had left his mark there on purpose, in case another person ever found themselves trapped down here.) If he pushed, it would slide open like something out of a science fiction movie and reveal a path to the surface, just outside of the hotel. A failsafe. Of course. No self-respecting mastermind or accomplice would ever leave themselves with only one way out of a situation, after all.

He reigned in his will and walked forward in the room, toward a electronic set-up. Looking at it closer, it looked similar to those one would see in a guard station. The different computer screens seemed to show the maze and the hall, which caught Takumi by surprise. Of course he knew they were being observed, but seeing it up close like this was unnerving. The rest of the console consisted of multiple buttons and switches that Takumi cautiously pressed because why not? They appeared to be there to mess with the mirrors, and he recalled the mentions and rumors of ghosts in the mirror hall.

Of course there were no ghosts. That was silly and illogical, and Takumi had never believed a word of it, not even once.

Under the console seemed to be an interesting amount of items. Takumi reached under and pulled out the first object. It was a book, a book that certainly had been read and studied over, judging by the folded pages and yellowed color. It seemed like their were more books under the console as well. So these books were most likely personal possessions of the person who ran Monobear? Probably prized possessions, at that. Why had they been left down here? To assuage boredom? To remind the mastermind of something? 

Takumi opened the first book, a King James version of the Bible, to a page marked with a bookmark. The writing mentioned people by the initials of K and M. The K must be Kazuki, the mole, and the M would be...Masa? He had worked with the the person in charge, at least enough to design the park and everything in it. Which meant that Kazuki and Masa didn't own the books. So his first suspicions had been correct: neither of them had been running the show.

Takumi read through the books. The marked passages from the Bible and the next book, The Tales of the Genji, were fairly dark. Dying for their sins? Secure people looking back on a decaying world? To be completely honest, it reminded him of the files he had been looking at earlier. Voluntarily trapping themselves away somewhere while the world burned around that. Everything he had found pointed to that event happening, although Takumi himself couldn't remember a second of it. Was this amnesia? But no, that didn't make sense either.

Reading through the next passage, the one from Masque of the Red Death, that idea became even more apparent. Takumi had read that story in school, when he was younger, and he remembered feeling anger at the actions of Prospero. What was the point of hiding away and having a party as disease and death ravaged the city and countryside? Did the person in charge of Monobear feel the same way, then? Did they feel sickened about shutting themself away while all their family and friends were doomed to different fate.

Takumi felt more sudden worry from his family. Despite all of the problems they had gone through, those bad memories were not what he recalled. Instead, there was his mother serving them all dinner, his father teaching him how to tie his shoes. His grandfather sitting beside him watching him map, his brother giving him a handmade bracelet as a gift. What right did he have to been hidden away while they were stuck in the belly of what was seeming like a real apocalypse?

Hell, what right did he have to live in the grand scheme of things? Takumi Misawa was a cartographer, generally considered to be a profession that had become irrelevant centuries ago. What the hell good was that supposed to do for anyone? 'Oh look, Misawa doesn't know how to cook well or survive with limited means, but at least he can draw a map of this place'? There were plenty of people with useful skills who could have been given a place on the proverbial ark instead of him. 

Was that...was that what the mastermind thought? Was this some kind of sick justice?

Thinking like that wasn't going to help anyone. Takumi flipped to the next notable part, the last paragraph of the story. Takumi didn't need to read it (he already knew how it ended), but he did so anyway. That kind of dramatic retribution had fallen on Prospero's party, the same as it had to them.The logic was twisted, but it was there, wasn't it? But who would even think to do this kind of thing?

Suddenly there was a voice. Takumi dropped his flashlight in surprise, whipping around to face the voice while trying to pull his knife out. He could fight Monobear, couldn't he? It was just a bunch of wires and electronics, right? Takumi could stab it until it broke, could do that to every single Monobear he saw until the mastermind ran out of them. Why not? What was stopping him?

But as the bear spoke, Takumi stayed still, feet glued to the ground in fear. Was it making a joke with those jabs at his spying skills? Hearing something that like joke was frankly unnerving, especially after everything he had learned. And part of him was still afraid of Monobear's seemingly inescapable view and powers. Even though Takumi knew the secret behind it, he still feared for his life and for all of theirs.

Mouth dry, he couldn't respond to any of the mocking. It couldn't do anything to Suzume, right? That would be completely against the rules or something like that. Suzume hadn't killed anyone, so Monobear had no right to execute her. Finding a sudden will to speak again, Takumi managed to sputter out "T-that's cheating! You can't!" He then reflexively winced. That had sounded a lot cooler in his head.

Then that thing mentioned 'The Cask of Amontillado' and Takumi saw where this story was going with the sinking feeling of a man who knew he was doomed. Another story he knew a little bit about; written by Edger A. Poe, where a man was lured into a dark place and after that...

The trap door shut. The screens shut down.

And then there was darkness. 

"Eah! What's happening!" Takumi ran up to the door as fast as he could, although he had to stumble around in the darkness a little bit before he made it. He pushed and pushed upward, but something was blocking the door. He really was trapped in this dark, underground place. And nobody knew he was here. Nobody was coming to save him.

"Help! HELP!" Takumi yelled, banging on the door with his bare hands. But to no avail, it seemed. He felt the panic setting in Death had always been possible in this place, but it was always a step removed from Takumi. Others had dealt with their brushes with death, but Takumi had not really came close before. Now it was staring him in the face, and there was nowhere to run.

He lay down in the tunnel, coming rather close to hyperventilating. Takumi couldn't see anything and couldn't even hear anything other than his own screams and banging. So this was it, then. At least Takumi had left a contingency plan behind him, to help the others, but for him this was the end of the line. A meaningless death in the middle of darkness, with no answers to his questions. This was completely wrong. He couldn't...It shouldn't...No...nonoNONONONO-

No.

Takumi stared up into the blackness. He was never a very put-together boy. He cried a lot, for one,, and he got too scared to present in class. But even so, in a dire situation like this, things somehow turned out different. As terrified as he was...Well, it was just like a band-aid. Rip it off, swallow your fear, keep going. Okay, so he might die. But Takumi was certainly going to die if he just lay there and frankly? He wanted to live. 

Alright. No problem. This wasn't normal life. Terrorist groups and serial killers and robot bears and mutual killing and the destruction of the world as they knew it...That was video game stuff and Takumi could deal with video games. This situation do was like a game, a puzzle. And in video games, there was always a way out.

Takumi's first plan was to break through the trap door. But no, he couldn't do that was just his body strength. Takumi had a small frame, and was never really one for physical strength. He could wait for help, but it was more likely that no one was coming for him. So...he didn't to know his surroundings, then. Maybe that would even be something he could use to pry upon the door. Like a makeshift bomb or something like that.

He made his way back to the room, holding one hand on the wall to guide him. Takumi stumbled a few times, but that was alright. First, he decided to check the console, but in the darkness, he couldn't even tell what anything was. Second, Takumi felt along the wall, trying to get a feel for what was in the room itself. Maybe there was a second room down here that he had missed beforehand? It was a long shot, but what else did Takumi have to go on.

Suddenly, his hand felt odd markings on the wall. Takumi felt them out, revealing the name 'Kazuki Jurou" carved there. He frowned. Takumi had seen Kazuki's graffiti earlier, but he wasn't sure why the other boy had did it. Well, not that Kazuki had a reason for anything he did, but still...Better than nothing. Takumi ran his fingers over the name, picked at it, and even pushed on the wall...

The wall slid open, surprising even Takumi. He really hadn't expected that to do anything, to be completely honest. But that did not dull his relief.

"MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!" Takumi yelled, feeling oddly ecstatic about his new lease on life. He scrambled up the part, finding himself out of the dark catacombs at last. he had never considered himself claustrophobic before, but now it felt like a decent possibility. Great; he was now afraid of high places and enclosed places. Takumi was going to end this experience as even more paranoid than he had been before, huh?

Well, who cared? He was alive, and that was the only thing to worry about. Takumi had even more questions after looking through the conference room and the trap door room, but he could figure those out. For now he was starving, and a good hot meal would do more than constantly worrying. But after that, Takumi would have to get down to business.

Well, after laying down for a decent while, Takumi was no closer to finding out what exactly was going on in this place. Pictures of them that no one could remember? Photos of a destroyed city that was perfectly fine the last time he checked? Robotic bears? This was way too much insanity for one day. So, the logical and sane next step for Takumi was to get up and keep looking.

Well, maybe it was not ‘logical’ or ‘sane’. But it appeared that he had gotten away with going around in the basement, and the bear hadn’t made a fuss. If now was a safe spot, Takumi was going to make the most of it while he could. So yeah, he was going to check one of the other places on his list and he was going to do it now. Maybe there was something that would clear up any of the hundred questions he had right now.

Takumi walked up to the mirror, and leaned forward onto the sink, his own face blinking back at him. Did he look any different than he remembered? It seemed as if there were less pimples, but maybe that was just in his head. Were his eyes different, was he any taller than before? What could account for the fact that Takumi had been in that yearbook? He was still Takumi Misawa, sixt-seventeen years old, about to enter Hope’s Peak…right?

This was getting him nowhere. Takumi sighed and picked his bucket back up, knife and all. If he was ever going to get to the bottom of this, he needed as much information as possible. So his next destination was going to be the conference room. It looked to be a fairly important place, at the end of the hall on the second floor. And it had been locked to them the entire time.

Takumi made his way down to the room, as quietly as he could. He didn’t want to draw any attention to himself. Well, to be fair, he was a shady looking kid running around the hotel with a cleaning bucket, so he probably should phrase that as ‘anymore attention’. Takumi tried to look less shady than he had before, although that was a bit of a challenge.

There was anything or anybody around the room when Takumi found his way there. So he was in the clear, huh? Or at least he probably was. Takumi was still sweating, though, so it seemed that his fears were still not going to go away. He wondered if he was ever going to be okay with this kind of stuff.

Probably not. But Takumi didn’t have any better ideas on what to do. So instead, he slipped his key out of its hiding place and unlocked the door after a moment of hesitation. Number two out of three, huh? Once he got through this place, Takumi would be over halfway done with his investigation. Yeah, he’d just think of that. No reason to be afraid of whatever was here. No need to be afraid.

Even in a non-murder game scenario, the room probably would have looked ominous. It was dominated by a long mahogany conference table surrounded by high-backed chairs - - the kind of set-up one might imagine super villains gathering around as they discussed their latest plan for world domination.

An examination of the room would reveal that at least two people had been in here fairly frequently. Two chairs were pulled out at the far end of the table, the surface between them littered with playing cards. Evidently the masterminds enjoyed poker. At least one of them enjoyed smoking, too, judging by the ashtray on their side of the table.

Also on the table was an assortment of documents. Most had seen liberal application of a large, black marker, obscuring their contents, but each is prefaced with FROM THE DESK OF HEADMASTER KIRIGIRI. Bits and pieces of the text can still be made out.

—the worst, most despair-inducing incident in the history of mankind has made the outside world unsafe for—

Students of classes [REDACTED] will voluntarily seal themselves in locations [REDACTED], safeguarding hope for the future —

—cannot guarantee that members of this terrorist group have not infiltrated—

—who thought it was a good idea to let the a fucking serial killer in I mean really—

There was also a handwritten note that had apparently been used to track a series of bets the two masterminds had made with one another over who would kill and die during each ‘round’ of the murder game. Takumi himself was one mastermind’s predicted victim of round one. Eri was the other. 

One wall of the room was a white-board with all of the students’ pictures taped to it. The dead were marked with large black X’s. Eri and Takumi’s pictures were circled in red. In the bottom corner was a single French phrase in blue ink: le déluge.

Dammit, he was good with maps. That was it; fucking maps. How the hell had that gotten him here?

Well, there was no point in wasting time standing around and feeling confused. Takumi made a conscious effort to put one foot ahead of the other and walk around the room, examining what he could find. It seemed like the chairs were used by two people? The person who ran Monobear and Kazuki, maybe? Looking closer, they appeared to have been playing cards, and one of them had been smoking, if that used ashtray meant anything. That must have been Kazuki, right? Takumi tried to recall if anyone else in this place smoked.

No. No don't think about that too hard. It hadn't been anyone here, right? There was just no way.

Next were a whole bunch of papers that Takumi started flipping through. Headmaster Kirigiri, huh? He didn't exactly look into his fellow classmates before entering Hope's Peak (reading all of their accomplishments didn't help his ego, frankly), but he knew a decent amount about the school. And Kirigiri was the headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy. So obviously whoever had obtained this papers had a great deal of power.

The words on them didn't make much sense to him personally. 'Worst, most despair-inducing incident in the history of mankind'?  That was a little...dramatic. Takumi was beginning to stop thinking of this place in the same framework as his normal life. It was just too out there for him to handle if he couldn't separate those two worlds.But the way the papers said the outside world was 'unsafe', put together with the picture of Tokyo and the lack of response to Takumi's radio...Something out there was entirely wrong.

He felt a pit in his stomach. His family back in Yokohama. How were they? If the outside world was unsafe, then what might have happened to them? And then he couldn't help but to cry. Takumi didn't know how long he just leaned there, head against the table, sobbing into the mahogany. Were the even still alive? His mother, his father, Sho, his grandfather...They had their problems, but he loved them.

But he couldn't stay there for long, or someone was going to find him. So Takumi flipped back through the papers, looking for anything else. Maybe a 'Hi my name is X and I'm going to stick a bunch of kids in an amusement park'. But instead...students would willingly seal themselves away? The yearbook flashed in his mind. But no, they would have remembered that, wouldn't they have? Takumi didn't remember agreeing to shut himself away anywhere.

The rest was all terrorists groups and serial killers and did you know that Takumi woke up at 8 o'clock every day to draft maps on his computer and send them to scientific groups? Because in all this chaos, even he was beginning to forget it. What did his mother look like when she smiled, again? How did his father's cooking smell? What was his brother's favorite game?

Takumi wanted to go home.

The next sheet looked like a bet between two people? One had written down Takumi's name and the other had picked Eri for the first round's victim, but the rest of the bets were unreadable. Looking at the two names gave he an odd feeling, different from the fear about his family. He wondered if they often thought he was going to die, or snap and kill someone else. This game in general had gone according to plan, but Eri was still alive, and dammit so was Takumi. Not everything here was  going exactly the way these two had suspected it. They could still surprise them.

The last thing Takumi examined was the wipe board. There were pictures of all of them, black x's marring the faces of the dead. His and Eri's were circled in red, and that did managed to get Takumi's heart beating. So they did have targets on their backs? And then suddenly he thought about Eri's suicide attempt, and wondered if steps against them were already being taken.

Meanwhile, there were French words on the board too. Takumi himself knew absolutely no French, but he knew a decent amount about world history, enough to know the phrase 'Après moi, le déluge'. 'After me, the flood', then. Takumi had no idea what that had to do with anything else in this entire room, but obviously it meant something. Why else would it have been here?

Fulfilling his role as a Super High School Level Janitor, Takumi rummaged through the trash can because, well, because it was there. There was no reason to have any stone unturned in this place. In the trash were some random items that didn't mean much to Takumi. A cigarette pack, candy wrappers, and mascara? Were these left by the people who ran Monobear.

Come to think of it, where were the people who ran Monobear? They weren't in here, and he doubted they could hide under the trap door for this long. Takumi had gone through this place enough times that he probably should have found them. But they had to be hiding somewhere, and everybody know that the best hiding place was in plain...

It suddenly felt to quiet. Takumi couldn't move, couldn't even breathe. This was a realization straight out of a horror movie, and he couldn't believe it, could he? He could trust every one of them...They were his friends...Why would anyone...

He saw Eri and his faces again, circled in red ink. Then Eri lying on the ground, breathing as he tried CPR.

Takumi snapped back quicker than he would have expected, still moving stiffly from the cold blood in his veins. He wrote two notes, hiding one in the same place he hid the key and keeping one with himself. There was a possibly people with a whole lot of power were gunning for hims, and Takumi was playing exactly into their hand. He didn't know how long he had, to be completely honest. 

Well, Takumi had to make the best of it, then? He quickly locked the conference room back up and then ran back to his room. Takumi then hid the second note, being careful to make sure the cameras wouldn't catch his actions. Then he picked up a flashlight and threw it from hand to end. It was of a decent make, ready for spelunking or the like.

Well, no time to waste, right?

After all the insanity that happened that day, Takumi was ready to call it a night and head to sleep. Not exactly the best birthday that he had ever had, but it could have turned out a lot worse. He still felt a sinking doubt that he could have done more for Eri and Chiemi. But the others probably were better than that than he could be. Instead, Takumi needed to focus on what he could do.

For example, that key that he had been neglecting. Maybe Takumi had been too scared to use it, maybe it was as simple as that. He had decided that he’d rather live than dead, and though he had yo-yoed on that particular point fairly often. But part of that didn’t seem completely correct. Takumi had his grocery list of flaws, but he always tried to deal with his fear, and he had a surprisingly good track record of succeeding. 

So maybe it wasn’t fear for his own life that had stopped Takumi. Maybe it was the possibly there in the back of his mind that he simply wouldn’t find anything that would help them. That he would either find nothing at all or something that…might prove some of his ideas about the world outside. It seemed unlikely, but then Takumi remembered his radio. Why couldn’t he reach any help?

Well, even if that possibly existed, Takumi couldn’t hide. He owed this to Kazuki, and to all of them, living or dead. So he went to the cafeteria and took one of the kitchen knives, it’s weight too heavy in Takumi’s small hands. Not that he would be able to take on Monobear with that. Like, seriously? Who was Takumi kidding? But still, the knife made him feel a little better just by having it. He tucked it away in his new cleaning bucket.

Takumi’s maps had shown him three good possibilities for locked doors. There was some important looking room on the second floor, a closet in the basement, and the trap door that Kazuki had found. All of them seemed like they would be equally useful for Takumi’s purposes, and he wasn’t quite sure which one he should try first. The basement seemed to be the creepiest, so he figured he’d choose that first and get it over with.

He tip-toed down to the basement, one hand holding his bucket and the other prepared to whip out his knife in case he needed to. Every little noise and creaking of the floorboards, made Takumi jump or stop in his tracks. He giggled nervously at himself, brandishing a knife at thin air. If anyone could see Takumi now, they would most likely laugh in his face.

There was a creepy feeling in the air as Takumi found the basement closet, although that was probably his own fear talking. He took a deep breath, reflexively drawing his arms into chest, trying to make himself smaller and less noticeable. He could have sworn he heard a voice, but after whipping his head around a couple of times, Takumi couldn’t find anyone who would have made it.

He was just being pathetic about this entire situation. Takumi sighed to nobody but himself, looking at the closet. He fumbled taking his key out of its hiding spot, almost dropping it onto the floor. He placed the thing inside the closet’s lock, hearing the click of it unlock. It should have felt victorious, but Takumi instead felt even more frightened. He put his hand on the knob and closed his eyes.

This was just the first of three. Takumi could handle it. He could do this, no problem! It wasn’t scary at all, right? Just a closet in the basement. Takumi had one of those at home. Why was he making such a big deal about this entire situation?

One is filled to the brim with fashion magazines. They all seem to feature the same blonde-haired, blue-eyed model, either as the covergirl or a significant part of the interior spread. Takumi will probably recognize her as Junko Enoshima, SHSL Fashion Girl. She was supposed to be a part of a separate incoming class in the same year as Takumi and company.

Another has nothing but a yearbook with the Hope’s Peak Academy insignia on the front. But hang on. This doesn’t add up at all. The pictures in the book are all of this class…the one that, to the best of their knowledge, never made it inside the school. It seems impossible, but there they are: Chiemi acting opposite Mic in a school play, Athena helping Akito and Yuiko with a homework assignment, Suzume and Kazuki chatting happily together on the sidelines of one of Mien’s soccer games. Several pictures even feature Takumi himself, either with Suzume or as part of a group with her, Eri and several other students. Everyone looks very, very happy.

In the back of the book, someone has taped a photo that doesn’t fit with the others. It’s not Hope’s Peak. It’s not any of the students. It’s Tokyo. Or the rubble-strewn, half-recognizable remains of it, anyway. There is a message on the back of the photo in looping, girlish handwriting: Happy graduation to my bestest best friend! DON’T FUCK THIS UP OR YOU’RE WORTHLESS TO ME. Love love love, SHSL Despair! 

(If Takumi flips through the fashion magazines, he will notice that the handwriting on the photo is identical to Junko Enoshima’s autograph.)

And finally: a box of files containing early schematics of the execution machines and the Monobear robot. Of particular interest is the fact that the robot can be pre-programmed, so that its controller need not necessarily be behind the wheel every time it makes an appearance. All of these designs and schematics are signed Masa Sasaki in the bottom right-hand corner. 

The plot thickens!

Well, no reason to get hung up on the thing that was no longer here when there appeared to be plenty in the closet itself. Takumi first stood on his tip-toes and brought down the highest of the boxes. This too had dust on it, and once again he tried his best not to cough or drop the box. It wasn't extremely heavy, but it was clearly filled up with something.

Takumi eagerly peered through the contents to find...fashion magazines? What the hell did those have to do with anything? Did Monobear get bored or something like that? He tried to hurry, but these things had to be important. Why would they be here if they weren't? After flipped through the magazines, Takumi began to recognize a certain girl. The magazines said she was Junko Enoshima...That name didn't ring a bell for him, even though it felt as if it really should. He figured he'd take one of the magazines, one with her signature, and try to figure it out later.

The next box was considerably lighter than the first, to the degree that Takumi thought it was empty before he looked inside. Upon inspection,  however, there was indeed a yearbook. Hope's Peak, huh? Well, it made sense that the kidnapper would have wanted to study the school, so Takumi shrugged and opened it. He wasn't prepared for what was inside, though. Was that Chiemi and Mic at school? But they were going to be in his class; they hadn't been to Hope's Peak beforehand! And as he kept flipping, the pictures got even weirder until he finally saw the picture that he had been half-expecting since his classmates' images had started turning up.

The boy in the picture was undoubtedly Takumi Misawa. He wore the uniform of Hope's Peak, neat and pressed. His smile was slightly crooked, like it always was in pictures. There was a pencil tucked behind his right ear. Suzume and Eri were beside him, grinning as well, and some of the other students milled around in the background of the photo. This had to have been photoshopped, right? But no, Takumi had no reason to have his picture taken. He hadn't had a new one in years. So how the hell was that even possible?

At the end of the yearbook was an even more frightening picture. A city in ruins, a city that looked so much like Tokyo. Takumi's idle fears came right back up. What had happened out there? Why was Tokyo looking like that? Was this photoshop too? On the back of the picture was an even more worrisome message, in girly handwriting that Takumi swore he had seen before. He glanced back at the magazines to have his suspicions confirmed. Junko Enoshima again, huh? What did she have to do with all of this?

The last box was filled up with schematics, and Takumi felt bile in his throat looking through them. These were the machines that had killed Miyuki, Mic, Athena, Mien, and Kazuki. And that was...Monobear?! It was silly that Takumi was so surprised to see how it worked. Of course it was a machine; what else would it be? Did this mean that whoever had done these had made multiple Monobears to keep them in line? And they were made by Masa, huh? Takumi knew there was something up with that guy, but it felt strange that there was nothing else in here to link Masa with the kidnapping. Why would he hide all of his involvement, but sign each blueprint individually? 

Takumi's head felt as if it was splitting. He had done nothing but ask questions since he opened that closet, but none of them had been answered. He just felt even more lost. Takumi tucked the yearbook and Monobear schematics into his bucket, right on top of the fashion magazine, and hid them the same way he hid the knife. This needed more investigation, but staying down here too long was dangerous. That robot could find him.

Takumi stacked the boxes back up carefully, closed the door, and then locked it back up again. He quickly returned the key back into its hiding place, and mildly but deliberately walked back to his room, stashing his new finds under his bed carefully, hiding his actions from the camera in his room. Lying on his bed, things didn't make anymore sense than they had before. He was no detective, and he had no idea what was even going on. To be honest, he really only knew one thing for sure.