Crescendo

Rozalina felt like a monster. Whether she was one or not she left up to the general public. She couldn’t decide that for herself. Either way, she would die feeling like a monster. She would… die. She was going to die.

Tears welled up in her eyes again, but she blinked them back. She wasn’t ready to die. She didn’t have the peace about it that Eris had.

She looked at Charger and cleared her throat. If these people wanted an explanation, she was sure as hell going to do her best to give them one.

“I… I simply cannot bring myself to refuse a challenge. Besides, Eris hinted that she knew more about me than she should have. I wanted to know. I had to know for sure. After that… I did not resist what was happening. I should have told Eris what she was doing was a bad thing. I am sorry I have let all of you down.” She hung her head, dejected.

“I believed Kumi. I do not know why. Maybe it was just fear. But I… I can not forget Clara. I would rather die remembering her. I know… it is selfish.” She smiled weakly at the thought of her girlfriend. She couldn’t believe she had done this to her… but she planned to go down fighting for Clara’s sake.

When Shirou spoke, she looked to him. The one person she had grown attached to during their time here. Her neighbor. His words caused her to tear up, and she nodded. “Clara Yamaguchi. Please… try to find her. Tell her of what I did. Tell her I love her.”

Rozalina could see a couple students voting, and she knew it was for her. The pit in her stomach grew until it threatened to swallow her whole. She felt sick, and she felt shaky. Weak. Not at all as strong as she tried to be constantly.

She was grateful for the questions. Grateful that someone was willing to at the very least listen. She knew there was no hope for her now, but someone - no, two people now - were willing to hear her out. As Vale approached her, as he spoke, tears formed in her eyes. She quickly hid her face and wiped them away with a sniffle.

“I…” The violinist balled her fists at her sides, staring at her podium before finally lifting her gaze. She looked at Vale, then she looked at the rest of the students. “I felt I had no choice. I could not bear the thought of forgetting Clara.”

She wiped at her eye with her sleeve. Now wasn’t the time to be so weak. She had to be strong, even now.

“Eris-san called me out with a note. The note was seen in my trash can, yes? She challenged me. I did not know what she wanted or why, but I could not refuse. When I met her in dining hall, she wrote a note for her death. She had me write one for mine, as well. She gave me a knife, and she had one of her own. I did not want to use a knife, so I did not use it.

“She called it a duel, but to me, it was a fight. Easy fight. I knew it would be me or her, so I chose to save myself. She cut me in the process, but I… I strangled her. I killed her. I wish I had not done it, but I did it.”

Rozalina still didn’t like this, especially with that redhead over there getting angry. They didn’t need any fights here, though… if they did start fighting, Rozalina could definitely win. She could take these scrubs. She nodded to herself.

Anyway, they didn’t seem to be making much progress. Rozalina bit her lip, nervous. She felt like she should have been contributing more, but…

Oh, someone was addressing her. She looked at Kayo, a bit dumbfounded. Did she own more shirts like that… Well… She looked down at her shirt, which, admittedly, was full of purposeful tears, just like the one pointed out as evidence. “Ah, I…” Before she could answer, someone else was talking to her. Her gaze found Mitsuki, and she hesitated before giving a small nod.

Then, Conor was offering her a notebook. So there was that, too… The focus seemed to be on her, and it was so much pressure. It was so much. Rozalina held up her palms and shook her head no. “No, I… Allow me to do this.”

Rozalina felt so intimidated in this trial room. She’d never been in a situation like this, and it was all too much for her. She wasn’t built for this. She wasn’t a lawyer. None of them were lawyers, as far as she knew. Yet here they all were, and several people were trying their best. Or, what Rozalina could only assume was their best.

The violinist listened quietly, unsure of how to handle herself. It wasn’t until there was a break in the conversation that she stepped up to introduce herself.

“I am Rozalina Dolinski, Super High School Level Violinist.” She gave a slight bow, looking around the room at her classmates. She decided then to take this opportunity to address something that had been turned in her direction.

“That note in our bathroom…” She glanced at Shirou. “Yes, it was for me. Slipped under my door, late at night. But I threw away. Who can say I was only one to get a note from Eris-san?”

Rozalina rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she made her way to the dining hall with the others. She usually awoke sooner than this, but she’d been up late the previous night, so this time, the announcement actually woke her. She wasn’t sure what all of the commotion was about, but she followed along obediently, just a bit nervous. She stuck toward the back of the group, so she was among the last to figure out what all of this was about.

That was… a body. That sure was a body. Even Rozalina, dense as she was, knew Eris wasn’t simply asleep. She was too still, and too… uncomfortably positioned, really. Besides, those bruises…

It wasn’t a pretty sight, and Rozalina wrinkled her nose, brows pulling together. She felt her heart sink. If this was really happening, if this wasn’t some magical play put on by Kumi, that meant there was a murderer among them, even if it wasn’t one of the students. Someone here had clearly murdered this girl, if the marks visible on her neck were any indication.

The violinist watched one of the other students feel for a pulse and come away empty. That was it, then. Eris was gone. And they had to, what, again? They had to investigate? Oh, boy. Rozalina’s throat went dry. So this was on her shoulders.

She looked around at the other students, some of whom had already gotten to work. She wondered if any of them would want to team up with her, help her out a little, but she couldn’t find her voice to ask. She simply stood there for a good while, afraid and confused.

The first hit was when they were told they would never be leaving. Shun had learned to be away on his own for a few days at a time, but forever was a pretty long dang time. Forever meant he’d never see his home again, or any of his family, or…or anything! Ever. It was hard to understand at first. It didn’t seem real, like it could actually be true….But, the person in the mask was intimidating enough for Shun to consider it.

He thought that would be the end of it. That was about as much tragedy Shun could take in a day, and so there wouldn’t be any more, he thought. Unfortunately, he figured wrong. It wasn’t being told of their ‘mutual killing’ that surprised him much (although that was still dang weird), but rather that someone would step up to Kumi. He silently rooted her on at first but then they-

They….they….th…..

Shun’s breathing grew shallow and his heart was pounding in his chest. He’d never seen so much blood before. They just, they just outright stabbed her! She’d done nothing and all of a sudden they just- How could they do that? Was that going to happen to everyone? Would he be next? Why was there so much blood-?

He made no effort to calm himself down as he couldn’t avert his gaze from the people injured on the floor. He slowly took a few steps backwards, until he hit a wall behind him. His hand covered his mouth first, but then as he slowly sunk to the ground, the other hand came up to cover his whole face.

Someone was just stabbed right in front of him! Stabbed! She could be dead, or dying! He didn’t believe anyone else would even have to try to kill each other before that Kumi person came along and did it themself. The images just kept replaying in his head, as he tried to make sense of it all. Shun tried to keep quiet but the tears and sobs just came right out of him. 

The violinist quickly made her way over to him, lowering herself to the floor beside him. She sat back on her heels and reached out to place a hand on his shoulder compassionately.

When they were asked to leave their rooms, Rozalina wasn’t sure what to expect, but she was among the first out. If something was going on, she wanted a front row seat. Sure enough, something was definitely going on.

The violinist watched as an unfamiliar face… er, mask? emerged. Just as she’d gotten used to Aoiko, there was another one of them! Things didn’t seem quite right, though. This person clearly wasn’t wanted here, for some reason. If Aoiko didn’t want them around, Rozalina was suspicious - and for good reason, apparently.

Kill? Was she hearing this right? They were supposed to kill each other to get out of the castle?

“You are yanking my leg. It is joke,” she said to no one in particular. It was such a good joke, she could almost laugh. But she didn’t. No one seemed to be.

Rozalina crossed her arms over her chest, her brows furrowing. She didn’t feel comfortable here anymore. She looked around at the others, watching each of them to see how they were taking the news and how she should be taking the news. The group was left to accept this, left to… Oh no.

While Rozalina wasn’t paying attention, a girl had approached Kumi, and… She couldn’t believe that had really just happened. She gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. She was about to rush to the girl’s aid when she saw a couple others assisting her. Good, she was taken care of…