Kohorin

"Uhm, sorry, I didn’t really have anything in mind, I just… There…aren’t a lot of us left and I—I mean…I just thought…"

Kouta took a little breath and tried to sweep all his thoughts into a neat little pile. What was he even going to talk to her about? He’d really just reached out to her on instinct, so he wasn’t sure where to go from there…. He was probably just bothering her at this rate. That isn’t what he wanted at all!

"Nope. I'm completely over that now."

She lied. She was getting there, but wasn't quite there. She'd probably get there someday. Sooner? Later? Who knows.

"Haven't you figured it out yet?.. I'm naturally a liar. I lie to protect myself- to keep myself sane. Hell- All that screaming I do? It was just to keep people away from me. If anything, this is closer to who I really am than I was before..."

That's right, Kohori, you can't just keep people out of your life forever.

"It only takes someone breaking through those barriers for you to realize how fragile you really are..."

She let out a sigh. It wasn't filled with melancholy, or regret, or sorrow. It was kind of just there... It almost sounded... Happy? Was this a good thing to her? Perhaps. Maybe you're just reading too far into it. Who knows. I'm not your character.

"I... wanna fight something."

Of course Kouta couldn’t go through the day without literally running into someone. He’d been so distracted. How could he focus on where he was going when so much was going on? Hopefully the other person wasn’t hurt or angry or…

"Er, I’m sorry! I—"

Kouta blinked. Ah, it was Kohori. It was almost hard to recognize her. His fiery teammate was all washed out now. Even if they weren’t close, it was hard not to worry—seeing anyone so defeated like that, in a situation like this. There weren’t many of them left…

Still, he felt like he understood it now. Almost. He had to be feeling at least a fraction of what she must have felt back then, right?

Someone he loved was a killer, too. Someone he loved died, too.

His posture relaxed, giving Kohori a hesitant glance before speaking.

"Ah- You're... Murakami, right?"

She spoke when someone bumped into her. Not that she could fully blame him, her thoughts were still a bit elsewhere. But it was strange. If she were being herself, then she would have gone off, screamed obscenities, but. Did she really mean it when she did that before? No. It was a defense mechanism, it was something she did to protect herself, and right now. Well, she couldn't really think to do that.

"... Sure, I guess. I mean, I don't know what you want to talk about, but Anything's better than moping around... You wanna talk here or somewhere else or..."

Of course, things like that are easier said than done; but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be done! So Kouta found himself in the workout area, a place his friends seemed to flock fairly frequently. The strong friends he consistently burdened and relied on.

He wanted to be strong, too. It looked like he wasn’t entirely alone in that sentiment.

"…Uhm…it’s Izumi-san, right?"

Kouta nearly flinched at his own question,it was hard not to be a little on edge. The way she was attacking that punching bag, it seemed like she could easily lob his head clean off his shoulders with a punch—or at least break some bones. Not that Kohori was that short tempered. Probably. She seemed nice enough in their dungeon crawl. Everyone was still really on edge though…after what happened in the trial…it was better to be cautious and careful and ask questions. Probably.

It was okay to be cowardly every now and then for the sake of caution, right? Still, it was important to at least try to be strong. In a situation like this.

"That’s…would you mind if I train here for a little, too? I’ll try to stay out of your way."

"Hm? Yeah, that's me. And you were... Murakami, right?"

A simple reply. Of course. They had never been properly introduced, even if they went together to the dungeon, but the only reason she went was she needed to blow off steam for other reasons and her roommate happened to be going and Akira is one of the few people here she could actually stand.

She wasn't too offended by his approach. She had had her outbursts and she knew it. She was aware people would be afraid of her. Well, some of them. It only made sense. Drive people away, don't form bonds. Don't trust... She'd been doing a damn good job of that now hadn't she? Whatever.

"Huh? You wanna train here? I don't mind it really, but I think I've had enough punching things for now, so you don't have to worry about being in my way, okay?"

With a deep breath she pulled the gloves off of her hands and threw them too the side. She clinched her hands into fists a couple of times to get them used to the open air again before walking over to a nearby vending machine... Were there vending machines here before? Well, if there weren't there are now. How else would you keep hydrated during a workout? Luckily, they didn't cost any money, so she just pushed a button and a bottle of water popped out. Walking back over towards where Kouta was she took a seat on one of the benches and took a large drink from the bottle.

Wow, really? The one time she voted for someone other than herself they were wrong… That didn’t do much to improve her mood, but seriously, what does anymore? Trapped in a murder game with a handful of murderers running around… not very good for one’s mental wellbeing if I do say so. And it didn’t help that every one of her electronic items was MIA. Gone. Vanished. They weren’t even there when she first went to her room. What the heck?!

But it’s not like there was nothing to do here… That workout area opened up last time… Speaking of areas opening up, shouldn’t a new area open up soon? Why hasn’t it opened up already… Perhaps some greater forces are having technical difficulties? Probably. Either way, she needed to blow off steam, and we all know that punching a boxer doesn’t work well for that… So let’s go punch a bag instead.

With that, Kohori made her way to the colloseum, and down a stairwell that opened up into the workout area underneath… Wait, wasn’t the last body found in this vicinity?

"God fucking damnit."

Kohori had mostly remained silent thus far in the trial. And by mostly i mean completely. Heck, even including the investigation the only time she talked was when that asshole walked into her room and started rifling through her belongings. Now she understood why.

"Ah, I see. So you’re saying I did it because my name was /written in a fucking book./"

The emphasis though.

"That’s why you came into my room uninvited and went through all my fucking belongings. Just fucking great. What even made you think I had something to fucking hide in there? I mean, you couldn’t even figure out the fucking murder weapon last time, why should anybody fucking believe you?"

WOW KOHORI.

She turned to Reika.

"Seeing as I’m apparently the number 1 suspect right now, I assume you want a fucking autograph, right?"

She walked over to Reika’s podium and picked up the pencil, writing out a message at an angle with no regard for the lines on the paper.

While the image provided doesn’t show many specifics, it’s the general gist of her handwriting. The top line on the E is more exaggerated, and the dots on her i’s are connected to where the pencil would have ended by a thin line. Also notable is that the capital letters are much larger than the rest of the text, as is a bit hard to depict without actually having photoshop. The lines are also a bit thinner. B/ Now, back to actual narrative.

She casually-exaggeratedly drops the pencil back down into the notebook and stomps back to her podium.

"There, is that good enough for you?"

"Yea aight, sounds good. Pretty reasonable demands."

This was going better than Akira expected. Hell he was actually rather pleased with this. What could possibly go wrong.

"So,  since were roomies you wanna tell me a bit more about you? All I really know is that you and that shorty are dating? Speaking of, if she’s over and I’m not in leave like a sock or something on the door so I know not to enter yea?"

"Ok, look. As much as I appreciate what you're trying to say..."

There was a long pause. As she thought very carefully about the right words to use. It was obvious this answer wasn't going to be pretty.

"As much as I appreciate it... I don't. Want. The. Rest of the world to know when I'm having fucking sex!"

Wow. Redundant.

"I mean seriously! It's fucking bad enough that she shared my sex life with the rest of the class back there, but I'd rather not tell fucking everybody exactly when we're doing it, hear me?!"

Ok, you pissed her off again. But at least she's not breaking Akira's nose. Instead, she's rubbing the bridge of her own.

"Look. I /assume/ you're not the type to stay in your room all day. So if you just left a note or something saying around what time you'd be back we can make sure that we're finished by then... Do you have any fucking sticky notes or something? We can use them to communicate when we're going to be out... Or maybe we can get the fucking bear to install instant messaging or some shit on our id cards. Who fucking knows. I just don't want /everyone/ knowing any more than they already fucking do!"

"Aight then."

Well she was certainly direct. Hopefully this wouldn’t be a terrible experience. Oh boy she has some things to tell me. She better not pull out a fucking roll of tape.

"So whatcha got to say?"

"First off. I don't care that you punched me in the stomach and knocked me out. You probably realized it, but I don't take hits very well. Any hits. At all, but I knew that getting into it, so you don't need to worry about it."

Well, that was one way to begin.

"Second off, I'm in a really bad mood right now, and need to blow some steam, so don't piss me off."

Wait, THIS is a bad mood?

"Thirdly, the half of the room with my bed is mine. Don't let your stuff creep over there. And fourthly..."

Kohori took a deep breath.

"... I'm really not comfortable with this roommate situation at all. I'd much rather have my own room, if it's just sleeping in the same room, I can deal with it, but if I need to do anything like change clothes or something like that you'll need to leave. Is that fine?"

The roommate swap came across as a bit of an annoyance. Sheesh. She finally got a room all to herself which meant she finally could just be alone… For a couple of hours. Well. Who the hell was she stuck with now? … Akira Wilde… Akira… Akira… He was the pink haired… GREAT. She was stuck with HIM now. Who the hell decided this? Fucking assholes. Well, better go deal with this kid. And so she left for her new room. He’d have to show up there eventually… And luckily… He was already there.

"Hey. I’m sure you’ve already heard, but it looks like we’re fucking roommates now."

Her voice wasn’t as irritated sounding as it normally was. In-fact, it seemed semi calm.

"Seeing as we’ve already met, we can skip the introductions. I’ve just got a couple of things to tell you."

Hoshi might be mildly surprised Kohori hasn’t started yelling yet. Or at least gone, ‘fuck!’ She’s actually slightly worried.

"Don't worry about me."

Her voice seemed to be in it's normal tone... Well, as close to normal as it could with her throat being dry and grating. She cringed a bit, rubbing at her throat. Not that rubbing one's neck can do anything to soothe the inside.

"I just need to distract myself and take a nap and I'll be fine..."

She spoke through her teeth.

"Fuck!"

This was sick.

Hoshi stands there as Robin and Zeta get pulled off. She defaulted, because she’s not going to vote for anyone ever, and was basically too distracted by angry dubstep princesses. However, there’s a long, dark moment where she exhales shakily into Kohoris’ ear, before she bites her bottom lip, sliding herself down so she can’t see the screen.

"I don’t like this." She mumbles unhappily into Kohoris back.

However, once dismissed by Monobear, Hoshi takes a step back, one hand still tucked onto the other girls’ shirt, before she glances at the elevator. “… come on.” She says, softly. Thankfully, she plans on going back to Kohoris’ room rather than her own, otherwise there would be a very awkward conversation about why Aki Sato is rifling through her dresser drawers for a condom.

"...Yeah."

That had been entertaining. After being unpleasantly awoken from her nap, Kohori had ended up with yet another unwelcome guest, abeit one much more welcome. She… Well, she wasn’t even sure what kind of mood she was in now… But upon arrival to the trial room her foul mood returned. She took her space in the court room, now trapped between empty podiums on either side, and looking out to the class, she placed her hands down on her podium and spoke.

"I don’t even fucking care. Don’t bother me unless it’s important."

Kohori glanced over the room. The trial was over. The execution was over and that was that. Kohori’s reaction to the execution would probably have been ballistic… Had the chosen actually died. But no. Instead they got off easy. Good for them. As for the rest of them here, well, there wasn’t going to be any getting off easy next time. For all she knew, the next time they set foot in here, the two people standing in the podiums next to her would be dead.

After that whole debacle, Kohori knew who she didn’t want to affiliate with and who she would rather have on her side… Well, partially. Most of the class she was undecided on still. Whatever. She considered herself a loner anyways.

"WHO THE HELL IS MIRANDA SINGS AND WHY ARE YOU VOTING FOR HER?"