The Play's The Thing

With nary a word to stop him, Kibin gently took Amaya’s hand and patted it while speaking in a soft tone,

“Pain, pain, go away~!”

Only once he had done so did Kibin realise just how much of an idiot he looked right now. Blushing in sheer embarrassment, Kibin tried to hurriedly explain himself,

“E-Eheheh, I um, I’m sorry, I’m just used to doing that for my little sisters. Every time I hear anything to do with bruises or scrapes instinct kicks in…”

Attempting to move on from his tiny social faux pas, Kibin addressed her comment,

“Ehehe, really? I suppose I am kind of like a parent. It sounds weird though, I mean, I can’t exactly say I gave birth to a mechanical bird…”

He chuckled nervously, still embarrassed. Time to find another topic quick,

“So, um, while we search, tell me a bit about you; you said you’ve got a brother called Kouta, right? Is he theatrical like yourself?”

“Er, yes. The bruise was caused by an unfortunate accident with a treadmill, actually. I don’t often exercise for a reas-”

Amaya’s voice faded away as Kibin patted her hand. It wasn’t an uncomfortable or awkward silence... rather, Amaya was touched by Kibin’s kindness. A smile worked its way on to her face, which hadn’t truly happened ever since the trial. When she saw that Kibin felt a bit embarrassed, Amaya was quick to reassure him, waving her hands in a placating gesture.

“N-no, no, you’re quite alright, Kibin-san. T-that’s actually... really nice of you? I knew you must be an excellent older sibling, but your sisters really must be lucky to have you to take care of them. I’m grateful that you showed me this small kindness, so don’t feel bad!”

Rolling her eyes, Amaya huffed and gently nudged Kibin in the ribs in a good-natured manner when he mentioned literally being Kibin’s parent. Because he invented Touka, she supposed he did give the robotic toucan life, in a way.

While searching, Amaya made sure to occasionally check up at the ceiling. Touka must be around here, and Amaya was determined to find her. As she checked behind a potted plant, she heard Kibin switch topics.

“Oh, Kouta! Well, he’s not really a theatre kind of person, but he has a Youtube channel where he posts his music and draws comics! I guess you could say he’s a little theatrical in his own way... he’s quite the character.”

Suddenly remembering the events of the past day while discussing their families, Amaya’s face fell considerably. The videos left a considerable impact on Amaya, and she couldn’t help but show it.

[[♫♫]]

The trial and rather surprising execution of Jiro Oshiro left the students exasperated and exhausted. They had successfully found and sentenced the killer but for what? Only to spend another waning day in the vault. To many, it was less of a victory, more of a cruel prison sentence.

The vault was quiet post trial. Many students went about their business in a solemn way. After all, they had witnessed so much death for just one day. First, discovering Tadashi Takuyo’s body early in the morning, only later to see Jiro get shot in the head. Most of them went straight to their apartments whilst others chose to investigate the grates leading down the other corridors in Mamori Central.

The images of their loved ones potentially being killed had certainly taken it’s toll on many. How much longer did they have to suffer?

Regardless, as usual, time went by at a painstakingly normal pace. Eventually, Monokuma was announcing it was nighttime and many students went straight to bed. Tired maybe? Or was it a subconscious attempt to prevent another murder?

…

Ding Dong Ding Dong

“Gooooooood morning everyone! It is now 7am, time to greet another beautiful day!”

That annoyingly positive voice was beginning to get ingrained into the brains of the students. Bed at 10, wake at 7. It really was like prison. Regardless, each student begrudgingly awoke and the remaining 17 made their way to the reception area to meet for Atsuko Fujimoto’s scheduled morning meetings. They sat there for about half an hour chatting about what had happened the night before, or at least, some of them. The students deliberated that indeed If a student was found guilty of murder, then they will most certainly be executed. There was a wave of hope that what happened to Jiro would prevent any further killings however, most of them knew, that given the circumstances of the motives provided, no one could say for certain.

It was then, that they were joined by an unwelcome guest.

“Puhuhu! Good morning suckers!”

…

“Wawah? You don’t look to happy to see me! Man, that’s depressing…”

…

“Jeez, ok I get it! You don’t like murder! No need to give me the silent treatment! That isn’t very nice! Besides, you’re gonna like what I have in store for you! Your world is about to expand, follow me!”

With that, Monokuma bounded out of the reception hall. The students glared at each other and promptly decided to follow. What did he mean by… expanding world?

Monokuma brought the 17 down to where the elevator to the trial room stood. He toddled over to the grate on one end of the room, next to a sign that said “Area 2.″ He used his own ElectroID to scan the machine next to it and watched as the grate rose into the ceiling, allowing access to the new corridor.

“Here is a new area for you to frollick and play! Have fun!”

And with that, Monokuma vanished as he normally does. The students crept into the corridor and as they did, their ElectroID’s beeped once more

Beep beep! Vault Mamori Map has been updated.

The students checked their maps.

A new world indeed. It was time to explore.

“It’s alright, don’t worry about it! Eagerness is never a bad thing! It’s a sign of passion, and a passionate person is something to admire. Besides, I have absolutely no idea where Touka’s flown off to. She just tends to go off on her own, so we could be looking at a lengthy search…”

He sighed, his hands resting on his hips in an annoyed parent fashion,

“Of all the things I’ve ever given A.I. programming, Touka was the worst possible one that could’ve developed the ‘curiosity’ dataset….She could be anywhere….”

Sheepishly, he turned bck to Amaya,

“Eheh, if you’re sure, Kibin-san. I suppose I’m not at my top performance this day, but I’m glad that you don’t mind. I’m not the best with search and rescue missions, but I have found my cat after she went missing for a day! I mean, she was in the cupboard and didn’t look very lost, but I still found her.

What Amaya didn’t mention to Kibin was that she was exceptionally good at tracking down people that skipped rehearsal. While no one dared to skip rehearsals anymore, Amaya never knew this particular skill would be used to track down a mechanical toucan.

“Well, this way should take us to the second floor… should we keep going that way? I’ve only checked out the area with all of the exercise supplies and now have a large bruise to show for it, so I don’t think there’s much of interest in there. I’ll let you lead the way.”

As they walked and Kibin told her about Touka’s unfortunate curiosity, Amaya giggled a bit.

Kibin had been in his room since the trial, chewing his nails in nervous succession; what’d happened to Oshiro, surely that had been a hallucination, right? Or it was a set-up! Yes, that HAD to be it!

Oh, who was he kidding?! It had to have been real, he was right there! And so was everyone else! Trying his hardest to suppress the urge to scream, Kibin took a deep breath and stood up; there wasn’t much he could do, but for now, maybe he could try and focus on something else. Namely, his still missing mechanical toucan, Touka.

Starting with the hallway his dorm was located in, he looked high and low whilst trying to remember if he’d seen her around before then; ever since he woke up in the vault, he couldn’t remember a thing, but he did recall his dorm door was open the first time he’d arrived there. He quickly came to the conclusion Touka must’ve booted up and decided to have a look around herself.

Sighing and non-profanely cursing Touka under his breath, Kibin noticed Amaya down the hall and ran over, surely she would help him!

Were those footsteps she heard? Amaya turned around slowly and came face to face with Kibin, who at the moment appeared slightly distressed. Well, he was a welcome sight right now, even if he was worried about Touka. From the sound of it, Kibin wanted her to help search for his dear bird companion.

“Of course I’ll help you, Kibin-san! Touka is very important to you, and I’d hate for you to be separated from your feathered friend for any longer. Let’s go find her immediately!”

Amaya started walking with purpose to her right. After a few paces, she realized that she had no idea where they were going. Sheepishly, she turned around and walked back to Kibin. 

“Er, haha... In my haste to look for her, I just started off in a direction. Sorry about that. Where should we look for her first? Any corners of this vault Touka might particularly like?”

[[♫♫]]

[[♫♫]]

After what seemed like forever, the elevator finally ground to a stop. The grated doors opened into a spacious, brightly decorated room with what appeared to be 20 podiums all facing each other in a circle. 

On the throne overlooking the court, sat Monokuma who was visibly gleeful over the situation.

“Ohohoho! Welcome to my Courtroom! Snazzy riiiiiiight?”

The bear sat himself on his throne, wiggling his butt until he got comfortable.

“Each one of you has a designated seat, so please, come stand where you see your name.”

Each one of the students anxiously stood forward and stood at the podium that was labelled with their name. [The order of the students is the order of the roster from left to right] However, something eerie stood in the place of two podiums.

“What are those…” one of the students piped up.

“Hey hey HEY!! Don’t be rude! We don’t want to leave anybody out just because they died. Friendship penetrates even deaths barrier…”

“Anyway, enough jibber jabber, let’s dive right in shall we….”

It was now or never. It was time to solve the murder of Tadashi Takuyō the Super High-School Level Choreographer.

[[♫♫]]

Ding Dong Ding Dong.

That familiar bell rang throughout the Vault, causing everyone to freeze where they were. It had been what? 3 hours since Tadashi’s body was discovered.

“Well well well…. Well well well well well well well well. It looks like you have all been busy busy bees! However, I’m bored, so let’s get this show on the road shall we? The Trial room awaits you past the barricade and down the stairs. I will be waiting for you there!”

With that, the screens shut down. The students stopped what they were doing, some bidding farewell to Tadashi’s body as an act of respect before gathering in front of the large grated entryway that led to a set of stairs descending further into the vault. None of them could look each other in the eye.

With a great creak, the barrier began to lift into the ceiling, allowing the students to descend into the abyss.

Once they reached the bottom of the stairway, they were faced with a medium sized square room with a high ceiling. There was nothing here except for a large statue of Monokuma settled neatly in the centre of the floor. to each side there was a number of grated entryways much like what was blocking the way down here. 

Beep beep! Vault Mamori Map has been updated.

The student’s electroIDs all pinged off at the same time. Each one of them went to look at this so called “updated map”

So this is where they stood? What were these other areas? It didn’t matter, they had a task at hand. They stood and waited until they heard the ominous laughter of Monokuma. As if by magic, the Statue of Monokuma rose into the ceiling revealing a door into a rather spacious elevator. Once everyone had gathered inside, the doors shut and the students began to descend deeper into the vault. No-one spoke that entire journey down. There was no trust anymore, anyone could have killed Tadashi.

“Understood,” he said flatly, keeping a focussed gaze on the taller boy’s face. “I’ve just arrived, so regrettably I have found nothing yet.”

In a fluid motion, the sculptor turned to face Amaya, offering her a nod that was on the verge of a bow. 

“There is no need for thanks,” he said, a bit of emotion creeping into his steady tone—confusion? Discomfort? With little more than a blink, Yuta went on. “I’m actually overjoyed to assist my classmates~” 

Face expressionless as ever, he uttered a brief, “I’ll be off,” and strode away. With Kibin’s suggestion in mind, he started with the television, inspecting it from all angles and the surface it rested on. He did not expect to find much of note and was not all that well acquainted with televisions in the first place, giving it delicate, almost cautious touches. He intended to search the room as thoroughly as possible; after all, he had heard what awaited them should they fail in the upcoming trial. 

Kibin nodded; he was still worried about Amaya but if she was that adamant that she was okay, he’d trust her judgement,

“Okay, just please don’t push yourself too hard.”

Before going with Amaya to the wardrobe, Kibin looked back towards Yuta; the sculptor seemed to be happy just to be able to help, which was both admirable yet oddly morbid considering there was a corpse situated literally only a few feet away from them. Nevertheless, Kibin stood up with Amaya,

“Thanks, Yuta-san, we’ll come and see what you find once we’ve searched the wardrobe. Just, um, be careful, okay? We dunno what might be lying around or lurking in here…”

Without further ado, Kibin walked to the wardrobe with Amaya and helped her sift through the contents; could there be evidence in here?

“~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!”

Upon hearing the TV turn on, Kibin urged Amaya to leave their investigations for now to come and see what Yuta had found. As expected, seeing the video Tadashi had been exposed to was chilling in every sense of the word. However, though Kibin wanted to get as far from the TV as possible right now, he looked to Yuta as calmly as he could,

Well, the wardrobe was disappointing. After rolling up her sleeves a bit and digging through its meager contents, Amaya and Kibin found nothing helpful in the end. 

“Ok then... that was disappointing. Not like someone would just shove something incriminating in Tadashi’s own closet, right? Well, we could all look at the bed, o-or the bathroom, or, er-”

She cut off her sentence as Yuta turned on the TV. Curiosity getting the better of her, Amaya joined her friends in front of the TV. When she heard Tadashi’s band-mates on the screen, her blood ran cold.

“Yuta-san... I am beginning to doubt that these films are staged. I’d like to think I do a good job of staging scenes, and this tape seems horribly real. But why... why would someone do this?”

She let out a sigh, shaking her head. Floundering a bit, Amaya decided to look on the bright side for a moment. 

The shaken voices of two other students caught his attention. Kibin and Amaya—he noticed their efforts in examining the desk drawers. With his hands tucked behind his back, he approached them. 

“N-no...! I can help out with the investigation, really. What’s a body gonna to do stop me. right? Just g-give me a minute and I’lll... I’ll calm down. Really, I will. This is no time for panicking, as that will only waste time. Besides, it’s not like we do anything about Tadashi-san’s death. We can only try to find who did this, and then we can all go home to our families.”

Amaya’s words came out a little harsher than she intended, and she inwardly winced a bit. She mumbled an apology to Kibin, feeling awful about snapping. She was going to be useful here, consequences be thrown to the wind. Even if that meant having to sacrifice personal comfort, not investigating would make Amaya feel worse. 

“Now, let’s see... Well, Kibin, you’ve already checked the desk and found the Epipen, so maybe I’ll check the bed. Or maybe I should check the wardrobe? Yes, I’ll check the wardrobe next. If you’d like, Kibin, you can help me. I’m not sure how reliable my hands are right now.”

Taking a deep breath, she addressed the newcomer to their small group. Yuta’s face was a blessing at this moment, and Amaya was truly grateful he arrived at that moment. Three heads were better than two (unless you counted Tadashi), right?

Kibin couldn’t believe someone was really dead, an honest to god body. His legs had caries him to Tadashi’s room but now they were so jelly-like he could hardly stand. Unable to deal with going near the body, Kibin decided to look at the things in the room itself;

“Hmm, the d-desk looks like a g-good place to s-start….”

Hearing Kibin beckon someone over, Amaya decided to focus on him and rushed over to his side. It was better than focusing on either the body or the crying of some of her classmates. Anything would be better.

“H-hey, Kibin-san.... How are you... er, holding up, I suppose? Eheheh...”

Well, she tried.

“Oh, who am I kidding? Someone I’ve never talked to is lying dead in his own room, tied to a chair! 

Amaya was about ready to start babbling on about Tadashi’s body when she saw what Kibin was doing. She faltered for a second.

[[♫♫]]

Tadashi Takuyō, the Super High-School Level Choreographer was Dead.

At first, it felt like time had just screeched to a halt. Kimiko, Osamu and Maguro stood there whilst they listened to the pitter patter of Hiroto’s feet as he legged it out of Tadashi’s Apartment to warn the others. Whilst he was gone, an announcement played over the monitors.

Ding dong ding dong!

“A body has been discovered! after a brief period of investigation, a class trial will convene in order to find the culprit! Good luck!”

Within minutes, the rest of the students arrived, stunned to see Tadashi’s lifeless body sitting peacefully on the chair.

“Wahay!!! Wahaha! A dead body at last!”

Suddenly, Monokuma had appeared, pushing his way through the crowd and sitting on Tadashi’s desk. He tapped his little feet three times before throwing his hands up in the air.

“Ok, so I might have told a teensy wittle bittle bit of a white lie yesterday. The murderer of Tadashi Takuyō will get to go free… if they get away with it!”

The class looked among each other with confusion. So, someone here really did commit a murder?

“What I mean by that is that you guys will have to conduct an investigation to find out how, why and where Takuyō-kun was killed. Once you have all that figured out, you can take a stab at whodunnit! This will be decided in the all famous, all wonderful Class Trial. What’s a class trial you may ask? Well I will tell you!”

“At the end of the Investigation period, you will all convene in the Trial room to battle it out among each other in order to find out who the culprit is. It will be a game of the Culprit vs the Class. If you guys (the class) manage to correctly vote the right culprit then you will win and the culprit will be punished! However, if you vote the wrong person, then the culprit will walk free and the class instead will be punished! After that, your mutual killing life will continue!”

“And what do I mean by punishment you ask? Well, to put it simply…

“Execution.”

A word that could send shivers down anyone’s spine. Now they had to play a game of Cluedo in order to survive? They watched as Monokuma hopped around out of the room, leaving them to deal with the corpse in front of them.

[[♫♫]]

Kimiko Wakahisa, Maguro Ando and Osamu Morishige are selected by Atsuko to search for the missing person. However, an over interested Hiroto Hoshi tags along, following the group on their mission to find them. The stood out in the hallway as they noticed a door left ajar…

 [[♫♫]]

Ding Dong Ding Dong

“Gooooooood morning everyone! It is now 7am, time to greet another beautiful day!”

It appeared that like the nighttime announcements, Monokuma will function as an annoying alarm clock as well, waking everyone up at 7am. Unless they were severe morning people, the students rose from their slumber in grumpy moods. After-all, the night before bore some distressing news. Either way, Atsuko Fujimoto had requested that all of the students meet in the reception area in the morning to have a meeting. The kids left their dorm rooms and made their way to the reception area and as they all slowly trickled in, Atsuko took count of all who entered.

The students sat on the sofas and awaited further instruction. Atsuko looked down at her list with a concerned look on her face. She scanned the group twice over until she bit the end of her pencil.

Someone… was missing.