Crosssed Swords | Kimiko & Orpheus | Chapter 5 | Monotheatre | RE: OH BOY, HERE WE GO, LADS
[TW: Snobbish Insults???]
With all that had started swirling around in her head even before the trial had started to take some pressuring turns, there was absolutely no chance of Kimiko managing to keep up with the ins and outs of what was happening. Somehow, she voted, but that was her only further accomplishment- and it turned out to be completely wrong anyway, the roulette spinning not once but three times as though to rub it, to land on-
âKuru-chan- hey, wait! No! How is THAT fair- you canât just keep going for it untilâ!â
âŚThis was⌠really the most personal one yet, wasnât it?
Atsuko had already moved in on the Takaku hug real estate, so all Kimiko found herself capable of was letting her rage peter out, expression slowly fading into one like sheâd been punched in the gut.
At least until Ryuu spoke, that was- Kimikoâs following words speeding up the more she continued, as though she feared not being able to get them all out.
ââŚRyuu-chan⌠weeeeell, thank you for not making me break my promise to you, hee, buuuuut⌠I think I know why..! I donât think I wanted to believe it, but every time Iâve interacted with him since- and call it SOME kind of actress sense maybe, hee, but the more I think about it- I was REALLY telling the truth when I said I donât think weâve EVER really been seen as friends or people Orpheus Edler cares about, because Iâm sure heâs TOTALLY fakingââ
A sneer interrupted Kimikoâs speech, coming from none other than Orpheus Edler. While a smile was present on his face, it was of a sinister nature.
âOh please, Kita, donât act as if youâve even had a clue before you read about that secret in this very trial. Youâre flattering yourself far too much, though there is one thing I should correct before anything else. After all, the lot of you were never deserving of my dear brotherâs kindness to begin with.â
Once these words left his lips, Orpheus took his glasses off and placed them on his podium, looking around with an aloof expression on his face before he bowed - though it was clearly meant as a mocking gesture.
âGood day, everyone! My name is Chronos and I was admitted to Hopeâs Peak as the Super High School Level Clockmaker for the 82nd Winter Class. Sans one exeception, it is absolutely not a pleasure to make your acquaintance.â
Straightening out after Chronos introduced himself, his eyes settled on Ryuunosuke and Kimiko again, his polite smile not leaving.
âNow then, allow me to make good on what I have promised - though this timeâs murderer already revealed one aspect I wished to explain. Honestly, I cannot believe we actually took you out of the suspect pool, despite the fact that youâve only been with Umenoyakakutani since 10 pm. Plenty of time to get rid of any scents, isnât it? And looking back now, your behaviour makes now perfect sense as well. Hmpf, my senses must have been truly dulled by your idiocyâs influence. It is high time that I remove myself from you cretins.â
âAh, but it simply wouldnât do to leave you all alone in that corner, wouldnât it, Yoshida? After all, I do believe that it is time to reveal that Nokuboâs murderer had been Kita all along! How you were so quick to defend the culprit, how you oh-oh-guiltily ran away when I simply told you that I had you still included in my suspect pool⌠My, the two of you do make for a perfect, murderous pair, wouldnât you agree?â
Between Ryuu stealing her thunder and then Orpheus- no, Chronos then also stealing a fair amount of the stuff before dropping all of THAT, Kimikoâs expression had developed into one that was akin to being slapped as many times as there had been revelations. But to her credit she recovered fast enough, stepping out more from lurking around Akiâs side to face Chronos more as she closed her hands into shaking fists.
âHey! Donât you DARE start trying to throw this on us so you can get away with what YOUâVE been doing too! This is an AWFUL thing to lie about! Do you KNOW how many people trusted you? And besides- THATâS your evidence against the both of us? Come ON! Youâre just saying that to scapegoat us and pull the focus off you being an ass! I ran away because you basically THREATENED me annnnnnd I didnât need or want to be around you any longer- and that note DID say they didnât even want any of this! And why wouldnât Ryuu-chan just kill YOU if he killed because of this motive!â
âEven if I did do something like kill Kubo, thatâs still totally different to you! You MADE the choice to kill Ryuuâs hostage AND string us all along, despite trying to get us all to shut up and sit down and not do anything rash or whatever! Could you GET any more controlling? At least I didnât feel like I had to act as someone else to be liked or listened to at school or whatever! However we got you instead, I feel super sorry for the real Orpheus- if he even EXISTS!â
Her voice was starting to strain even with her usual volume being applied, a couple of breaks appearing here and there. But Kimiko pressed on anyway for another jab.
âWere you really just stringing ALL of us along as classmates and friends for the sake of it? I wouldnât be surprised if YOU were one of our killers-!â
Chronos rolled his eyes, as if heâd gotten bored of this argument already. Crossing his arms before his chest, a low âtchâ could be heard from him, before he took the word once more.
âDo you honestly believe that this is the only evidence I got to unmask the two of you as the murderers you are? Especially with Yoshida saying that it wouldâve been too perfect if I died in a mistrial? In context, that speaks volumes. Not to mention that those were merely few amongst many - and for you to even say that your crime was lesser than mine is ludicrous. After all, you may have been under the influence of a drug when you killed Nokubo - Iâll be courteous enough to give you that -, but you cannot say the same about đ now, can you? This was your choice - you could have come clean about your crime, but no, you let someone else die in your stead. I will take Yoshidaâs words on this account; what a coward you are, apologizing through some anonymous note that I couldnât be bothered to take seriously to begin with. After all, why believe a liar?â
âAs for why Yoshida didnât go for me - well, thatâs something I would like to know, too. Maybe, he was as much of a coward to go for me? Or he thought that killing someone I considered aââ, there was a pause, but it was barely noticable,âgood ally would truly hurt me. Well, that was a miscalculation on his part - while I am⌠displeased that he is gone, as he was one of the few whose company I sincerely enjoyed, Iâve never been enough of a fool to develop any kind of attachments to anyone in a mutual killing game. What a ludicrous thing to do, given how easily this class is to backstab each other.â
âOh and stop victimizing yourself. All I said to you was that I still have you in my suspect pool. That is hardly a threat - merely a friendly reminder that Iâve been onto you for the longest time after Umenoyakakutani and me went through the case again. Which brings me to the next point - if I had really murdered Nokubo, do you honestly believe I wouldâve put so much effort to go through a murder again? To go back to the crime scene and recount everything that occured? No, I simply wished to know the identity of the killer, so I knew from whom to steer away from.â
âAs for me blowing up this cretinâs grandmother, that is easy to explain; when I made the suggestion to withhold pressing buttons like absolute fools, I meant it. After all, it is not like as if Iâve been eager to dirty my hands. However, given how quick some of you were to kill off hostages left and right, I didnât see any reason to not give my hostage at least a fighting chance. Granted, they still died, but at this point? With Yoshida trying to get me killed? Oh, I do not feel any remorse for doing so anymore. And I was right to withhold that information from him, given what heâs done now, hm?â
âAnd I wouldnât expect for a mere mongrel like you to understand why I opted to don my brotherâs identity. Your reasonings as to why I did it couldnât be farther from the truth. I couldnât have cared less if you didnât like me - all I did was to act as my brother wouldâve done; aside from the first motive, that is. He would have been kindhearted enough to either save that cretinâs grandmother or not pressed the button at all. Honestly, he wouldâve been much to good for the likes of you. Everything I did was for the sake of my brother - not like you need to know why anyway.â
âSo yes; aside from one person I still consider fondly - dead students not included -, I have never trusted or liked any of you. Why should I, given our predicament? It is your fault alone if you werenât able to look past my act until now. Iâve grown tired to be empathetic towards you people. There is no merit in doing so anymore.â
â⌠That aside, I do owe you an apology, Yanagisawa-san.â
On that note, he turned to Sandwich and bowed to the other, with his face being more subdued than it was before.
âI should have voted for either Kita or Yoshida instead of you. My apologies that Iâve not put more focus on our actual murderer than you.â
With that said, he turned to Kimiko again.
âYou can try and defend yourself all you want, but I am absolutely positive at this point that you were Nokuboâs killer. Denying it is useless.â
At some point through Chronoâs latest bout of speech, Kimiko had started shaking more noticeably than she could possibly hope to hide by just closing her fists, voice growing thicker in a way that betrayed incoming tears- but still she stared down Chronos with all the fury of, well, a wronged magical girl.
âYou have absolutely NO right to talk about confessing to stuff or not- youâve been acting as someone WAY nicer this WHOLE TIME! Are you saying that if you killed someone in this situation you would have come forward and confessed? Oh! Right! Clearly not! Since youâve been sitting on this whole hostage thing AND your gross personality this WHOLE TIME! And of COURSE you might have killed again- you just said it! Youâre b-bored with us! And to borrow Yanagiâs words, someone just has to get away with this twice and theyâre FREE! Youâve been doing everything- everything else to deceive us! So why not helping Umenoyakakutani too-!â
âIâm sure Ryuu-chan was only talking about it being perfect if YOU got picked because of dealing with what you did! Ryuu-chan would NEVER- heâs always been su-super kind to me, ever since he got my hostage- an-and I hope heâs not lying to me too, but heâs not like YOU! We werenât even TALKING about last case! I just wanted to check your handbook since Iâd found you out, and then you start SCARING me instead..!â
âAnd- and donât you DARE start getting all choked up over Yvon now either! Thereâs no WAY I can ever believe you cared at ALL now, even if you say you DO still like someone here- e-even if I thought weâd m-made up and we hung out a-and I was getting to know- getting to know Orpheus and I was st-starting to make friends andââ
But her determined stance was all for nothing. The sheer amount of poison it felt Chronos had directed at her specifically all added up onto the crushing pressure that had really made itself known ever since Takaku had that burst of bad luck, snapping the thickness in Kimikoâs voice and changing whatever words were coming next into a loud hiccup of a sob that just⌠didnât stop; an incredibly nasty echo of her crying to the representing Edler previously. Her mouth opened once, twice more as though to try again, but ultimately her crying won out, the argument ending on Kimikoâs side with a gesture that looked like an attempt to flip Chronos off before she all but slunk back to Akiâs side- with a little bit of distance. In case she was lying too, maybe.
As Kimiko ranted on and on, Chronos looked at his nails, clearly displaying that he hadnât been rattled one bit by this whole argument unlike her. Then, he deemed it was time to speak again.
âNo, I wouldnât have, which is why I cannot fault you for escaping your punishment to a degree - but at the end of the day, you are still the one who caused two deaths. That is an undeniable truth.â
âAnd oh please, do you think I would wish to spend more time with Umenoyakakutani with how much sheâs grating on my nerves? It was pure coincidence that she was in the tunnels as well when Iâve made my way there. I couldnât have possibly predicted something like that now, could I? Oh, but of course you will say otherwise anyway. Ah well, good thing I do not care about your opinion anyway, you murderous, lying brat.â
Another sneer escaped him as he shook his head.
âNot to mention that you only hear what you want to hear, hm? You forgot a tiny little word there; âtoo perfectâ. Which means that something else must have been done before and what else could it be if not escaping punishment for murdering Mr. Bruckhard, while hoping that Iâm getting chosen to get executed instead? Ah, but what am I thinking, of course a fellow murderer of our classmates would try to help out the other, hm? What a wonderful pair you two make! It makes me gag, honestly.â
âHonestly though, get your ears checked. Didnât I just say that I am displeased at most upon Mr. Bruckhardâs demise? I am fairly certain I did, so if you could stop spouting nonsense, I would appreciate it. Then again, a mere cretin like you will never stop speakingââ
âOr sobbing to get yourself sympathy from others. Tch, with how this class has conducted itself so far, I wouldnât put it past them to forgive you because you feel âoh-so-very-sorryâ for what youâve done. Ah well, not like I expected much from you simpletons anyway.â
Chronos pulled a face of disgust at Kimiko, before turning to Ryuunosuke once more - with a sinister and serious expression on his face now, instead of the mocking smile he wore prior.
âAs for you, you absolute lowlife, what else can I say than this? While I wouldnât have done it any different if I were the killer - aside from making it obvious right afterwards that Iâve done the deed -, it still doesnât change the fact that you are a coward who would kill others to satisfy their own needs. And yes, before you go ahead and bring forth your grandma again, I know Iâve done the same in the first week. However, at least I didnât get two people killed over this. And it wasnât anything personal against you when I made my decision to save my hostage after how bloodthirsty and illogical my fellow peers turned out to be, while you⌠well, not that I particularly blame you for your hatred, as Iâll never forgive the one who killed my hostage, but oh well. You canât say the same now, can you?â
âThat is exactly why trusting delinquents like you was never an option - Iâve been right to keep this to myself or else, I am certain that you wouldâve gone ahead and tried to kill me sooner.â
âNot that you would have succeeded, of course - I never let my guard down around you lot, because I know that trusting other people - especially in a situation like this one -, is absolutely foolish. Ah and if you plan to attack me now, like the violent hooligan you are, then let me say thisââ
At this point, one of Chronos hands went into his pocket and⌠it stayed there, though it appeared as if he was gripping something..
âIt would be ill-advised to do so, as I have taken measurements to protect myself if the need arises. As long as no one aims to harm me, I will do absolutely nothing. However, while I quite dislike violence, I will not hesitate to protect my own life if someone threathens it. After all, I will get out of this disgusting place and return to my brother. You have my word on that, mongrels.â