days 4 + 5! Since its, technically day 5 where i am

Day 4: Honestly not much changes for surgeon!Minori. They’re still into fashion, so they’re aesthetic isn’t too far away. They don’t wear wigs, though.

Day 5: Fashion doesn’t stop for summer weather. They probably wear a lot of big floppy hats, too, but I’m not good at drawing those. 

@royal-despair

Petra Sakai - SHSL Jazz Singer

Seojun Tsoi - SHSL Internet Troll

Chiyo Oshiro - SHSL Chess Player

Manobu Hasekura - SHSL Architect

Elizabeth Vos - SHSL Surgeon

Ethan Townsworth - SHSL Criminal Psychologist

Minori Saeki - SHSL Accessory Maker

Cantrella Dianne Montgomery, Jr. - SHSL Dressage

Takeshi Morishima - SHSL Video Editor

Josefina De Belasco - SHSL Wedding Planner

Leonhard Vogel - SHSL Doll Maker

Tezuka Saki - SHSL Sailor

Raiden Asashoryu - SHSL Sumo Wrestler

Izaya Fánróng - SHSL Fireworks Maker

Chiasa Watanabe - SHSL Marksman

Takuma Mitsukuri - SHSL Acoustic Guitarist

Florizel Cecily - SHSL Illusionist

Kai Schmutz - SHSL Gravedigger

Runa Knightly - SHSL Writer

[TW for suicidal ideation and almost a suicide attempt]

Angels and demons? That’s not something people would quickly believe. Hadn’t Akemi been so slow to believe it herself, even when it was right in front of her eyes? No, she couldn’t tell the truth. Not when no one would believe her, when they would tell her she was wrong and just try to cover it up. Even at fourteen years old, she knows that this is the outcome she will face.

So when the police come asking questions, she just cries. Real tears, fake tears, it doesn’t matter. When they see the little girl crying, they get her a shock blanket, help her try and calm down. Enough time passes, and she is able to tell them exactly what they want to here. And so, Akemi goes home.

She goes home, and she is alone. Her whole life she has suffered, and she had vowed she wouldn’t anymore, but then…she went to that place. Hell. Figurative and literal Hell. And she suffered, oh did she suffer. The suffering of her past made her compassionate, but this suffering was different.

It hardened her and it made her terrified.

She is alone. There is no one who would believe her, aside from those who also survived. There is no where she can turn. She is alone in her studio, sitting in the dark, and she can’t get Silliamas’ voice out of her head.

Alone in her studio, Akemi picks up a razor.

Hands trembling, she sits with it poised above her wrist, enough to indent, but not enough to break skin. Time passes and she sits. How long has it been, she can’t tell. Minutes? Hours? It doesn’t matter.

Time passes, and Akemi puts the razor down. She puts the razor down and picks up a pencil. This is how she has survived this long, and this is how she will continue to survive. She draws and draws and draws until the sun rises, until she is so burnt out that she has to sleep, the memory of Omen’s face as he reaches for salvation fading slowly, slowly. The words of Ramiel lull her to sleep, repeating, gently, over and over.

“O child… so young, so innocent… you have suffered before this and that you have suffered again… the LORD has allowed us to feel such sorrow at this. But you are so strong, our beloved Akemi. Live! Live! Cast off the shadows of doubt and despair and shine brilliantly! We know you can.”

The angel floats before you, its screens changing from eyes to… a flow of beautiful images. Flowers and windmills and children laughing. Smiling and happiness. Things meant to fill the heart and lift it.

“Fear not, but do not worship us, for we are an angel of the LORD. We are Ramiel, the Angel of Hope. We have been keeping the souls of your fellows from the hands of the Demons… and shall see that those beloved children who passed are given a happy birth.” It holds out its hands to you, those who survived. A dozen limbs or more, almost offering a hug… you can heart its heart. A roaring engine that pushes smokless flame out of its mighty wings of steel.

“O beloved children, the LORD has allowed us to feel pride in you. You have been so strong and suffered so much. We are allowed to wish that this had not passed. But man is allowed to chose their own fate in the world, and some choose the path of the wicked and treat with the enemy.”

Its screens flicker and go staticky for a momment, the images upon them becoming staring eyes and dancing flames

“We have come unto you, to say this. That your Choice is as an act of the Divine. Let not despair seep into your heart, beloved children, and you shall see a world better than the world you saw yesterday.”

And then it is gone.

And you stand where it all began. In the great hall of the Castle. The sound of sirens and shouting. Policemen beat down the doors with a battering ram. They enter, they clear the castle.

They take you all to the city. They interview, they question

They dismiss stories of angels and demons and blood sacrifices. They call it A terrorist attack. They let you go home…

[ Akemi Saito, Akiko  Yukimura,  Lorena Tachibana,  Ryouta Himura, and  Robin Statlender have SURVIVED]

[End Survival Despair- Scenario: Per Aspera Ad Inferi]

Ten ten thousand talons reach through all the dark corners of this trial-room. Silliamas hangs in the air, his limbs disappearing into infinity as they writhe like snakes. And they reappear, reaching for your soft soft flesh.

“I don’t care if you guessed right you wretched brats… This game is over! That one keeps his wish… and you all die! I liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed~! Zaaaaaaaazaaazaaaza!”

Omen’s eyes widen, and he stares at Silliamas for a moment… then he grins. “That’s what I’m fuckin’ talking about.” His tense posture relaxes somewhat, though his hands stay clenched into fists, and he steps back. Away from his podium. Away from the others. Away from the pit that they’re all about to be thrown to.

The talons reach with murderous intent, the sky flashes with lightning and the thunder sounds over the screaming of damned souls

AND THEN THERE IS LIGHT AND THE ROAR OF AN ENGINE AND THE BLESSED TRUMPET

The sky freezes, as if someone just pressed… pause. And then it shatters like glass. Falling away in a million pieces, it shows a beautiful light that hums with a divine engine… And from the Light descends an angel.

With five screens for faces and eight gentle limbs, it descends. From its back, exhaust ports vent divine fire into a great halo around it. “FEAR US, O ENEMY, WE HAVE COME”

And in its hands, forms a blade of fire.

Silliamas screams bloody murder as his arms rush to attack the angel, to destroy it, only to be lopped off in swings of the divine blade and fall uselessly to the ground.

“YOU AREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE, YOU SHIT! YOU WORTHLESS IDIOT THING!”

As the sky had shattered, so too shatters the confidence that had been on Omen’s face. “What the fuck is this? Silliamas!” An edge of panic is in his voice, confusion…and, if you listen closely, you may catch a glimmer of genuine fear.

“FEAR US, WE ARE COME, FOR WE ARE THE THUNDER OF GOD!”

The blade of fire swings through the air, limbs falling away from Silliamas’ bulk. How the demon screams, throwing podiums at the angel. Its eight limbs move in tandem and its screens show eyes that stare through the demon.

The angel is winning, pushing Silliamas back to the Pit…

“BEGONE, O ENEMY! TROUBLE THE BELOVED CHILDREN NO MORE!”

And So the demon is driven into the Pit…

“I’m not going alone!”

The talons reach.

And Omen is grabbed, claws digging into soft flesh to drag him down.

He cries out in pain as his skin gives way, Silliamas’ talons gripping him, clutching him, yanking him between his and Lorena’s podium… Omen tries to grab onto something, anything, and succeeds in closing his hands around the podium, for several seconds.

“Wait! Wait, no, this wasn’t part of the deal!” Omen sounds desperate. For the first time, he is really panicking and actually afraid. “Let go!”

Despite his efforts, his grip gives way to the pull of the claws hooked into him, and he falls roughly to the ground. Pain shoots through his knees and hands, but before it can register he’s immediately dragged backwards. He tries to grab something, anything, grasping at the ground as he’s pulled towards the pit. There is no handhold; all he has to show for his efforts are bloody scrapes as he desperately reaches for anything to slow the inevitable.

At least, until he reaches the pit itself.

Omen clutches the edge of the hole, fighting with all of his might to hang on to this last solid connection to this world. The talons in his flesh are tearing into him, weighing him down, pulling him. Screams of the damned rise up around him, and his expression is a mask of utter terror.

The weight of his sins is a load to bear.

“P-please, I..!” He cuts off as his grip starts to give… and his eye rests on the angel. A moment of hesitation passes, but then Omen reaches up with one hand, reaching towards it, wordlessly begging for his soul.  And the angel surges forward, fire divine venting from its backs as its heart hums and sings, a glorious engine driving it.  It loves him, for he is human. It cannnot do anything but love him. A half-dozen hands reach for his.

Put your hands up and reach for the sky

He grits his teeth against the pain and the weight pulling him down.

Cry for absolution.

Time seems to stand still. Ramiel’s outstretched hand, offer of Salvation, is right there, right there…

Omen’s fingertips brush across his Chance, but his hand closes on air as another clawed hand reaches up behind him, grasping him around the throat and pulling. Silliamas yanks him from Ramiel. His eyes widen as he realizes that he’s failed, and…

He loses his grip, dragged down. Down… down… A terrified and anguished scream escapes him as he falls into Hell itself, as penance for his sins.

The demons gained one soul.

Huh. This was new. This…feeling. It was burning, deep inside Akemi. Anger? No, this was different. Rage? Fury? Whatever it was, it was almost blinding, and her whole body shook with the feeling.

“You’re not listening!” Her voice rose as she spoke, tears burning her eyes. “This isn’t some…some personal vendetta! You're the one here that dislikes Omen! How many times have you two fought?! I don’t hate him, I barely even talked to him! I wanted further proof, that’s all! Because I was going by the evidence, something we should all be doing! Not relying on our personal feelings! Which, by the way, you are the only one who has been doing that, so I have no fucking clue why you think otherwise!”

She was seething, hands curled into fists at her sides. She tried to take deep breaths, calm herself down, but it just wasn’t working. The words just kept pouring from her mouth, especially as Silliamas confirmed what she had already been speaking.

“Fuck you! Fuck you! You’re the fucking selfish one! So, what? I want to live, how does that make me selfish? I want as many people as possible to survive, how does that make me selfish? But you! You’re willing to damn us all to Hell for the sake of one other person? And why? Up until this trial you were always fighting with Omen! What the fuck changed?”

Stop now, Akemi. You know what happens when you run your mouth. You have the scars, mental and physical. You know how this will end.

After her accusation, Akemi fell silent for a while. She needed to calm down a bit after making such a bold statement. Not to mention the arguing was a bit too much for her. However, she was glad to have Robin’s support, and even shot him a small smile. But then…Lorena confessed.

Was…was Akemi wrong? Lorena confessed, not Omen. That wasn’t supposed to happen. This was wrong, something was wrong.

“Tachibana-senpai, I…I’m so sorry you had to go through that I…I know what that’s like, I’m…I’m so, so sorry.”

She sniffed, wiping her eyes with the end of her sleeve. She had to be strong, though. Her emotions couldn’t cloud her logic, she had to make sure the class got this right, that they didn’t just settle without being completely sure.

“I…I just…I don’t know if…I’m sorry, but I…don’t know if I completely believe you. At least…not yet I…I don’t, but…”

Deep breaths, stay strong.

Keep your head up, Akemi. Chin up, stay focused, stay resolved. You can do this.This is what you’ve been waiting for, ever since you stepped foot in the library. This is the day you’ve been waiting for, the day you can possibly walk free.

“I…have a theory of my own, if…if you don’t mind”

On her podium, she placed a few items. A book, and a photograph. Everyone else may have seen the photo already, if not at least a few of the others. She leaves it there for now, instead, tapping the book.

“Before I…point fingers, um, this is a book with…history of this place. It tells of how the demons were summoned. That is, uh, Silliamas, Kalesha, and Ulluka. The Granter of Wishes, The Midday Lady, and the Nun of Filfth. It’s…honestly fairly wrong, but…it talks about a cult and…how they summoned those three and they…they sacrificed one hundred and one souls to them in order to…to fulfill a goal. I think this…confirms that Siliamas has…the power to…to grant wishes. If anyone wants to…read the book, I’ll just, um, leave it here…”

She let’s go of the book, and then picks up the photograph, showing it to the room, displaying….

There’s a timestamp on it - it was taken about two years ago. It shows the steps leading up to the Torii gate of a shrine, and there’s a cat walking up the center of the stairs. Taking another few seconds to look at it, you notice that the tail splits into two about halfway down… It’s a photograph of a Bakeneko!

“I found this in the couch in the room with all the, uh, eyes. Um, most of you have probably already seen it, but, uh, if you haven’t…here it is. It’s…suspicious, at least, um, I think it is. The picture with…the overall aesthetic of the place…eyes…um, I accidentally summoned a giant mouth that breathed purple smoke…animal skulls…dead animals in general, it, uh…It matches the…the aesthetic of one of us here…I’m sorry, but I…it’s too suspicious.”

Don’t lose your confidence, kiddo. Look up from the ground. Look up, up, up….up at Omen.