Lets all be friends, okay?

Pat pat pat

Yumemi could somewhat feel these, perhaps just because of her love for getting pats, allowing her conscious to go from from deep black to somewhat more colourful and aware.

Her eys slowly fluttered back open and she felt a mild wave if cinfusion over her. Why was she on the floor? Ah she probably had another sleep attack didn’t she? But no…her mind cleared and she could now remember what happened, that being Fukai deciding to knock her out via chloroform. Mmm….that made sense and even now she still didn’t feel like she would attempt to retaliate against anything Fukai decided to do to her, even if she knew the dangers of it. She had just become overwhelmed in a sea of sadness that it was just easier for her to go along, couldn’t say she disagreed with Fukai saying she was ‘useless as always’ either

She brushed herself off and stood up and decided to lean on Yajiro

“Sorry Yajiro-san for passing out and being just a little distraction again”.

To say Yumemi was sad was an understatement . One of her best friends was now dead and she didn’t know exactly what to do, she hadn’t exactly been helpful during investigation or anything. She just wished Marshmallow-san was still here and she could be a better friend than she had been or at least be able to say she was sorry.

“Um well I’m not really helpful or anything but um”

She decided that she may as well start and present the first piece of evidence, it was the least she could do to try and avenge the death of her friend

“I think it might be a possibility that Marshmallow-san might have been chloroformed…um my group found a used rag, paint remover and bleach in the toolshed and um if you use those together they make hypochlorite, which is basically chloroform but can also damage the brain, blood and the nervous system”

Yumemi had seen the blood splatter on the floor, well there was really no doubt about it now, once more, someone was dead. As soon as she did she clutched onto Yajiro’s arm, something she seemed to always do when she was scared, it reassured her a little.

She closed her eyes though, not wanting to stare at the blood splatter for too long, she needed to just…try to mentally prepare herself for the inevitability of the dead body she would be seeing soon enough. She felt that they were moving and Yumemi opened her eyes for a moment. It was only a moment.

The first green haired person only made Yumemi grip onto Yajiro tighter. It was probably well known at this point that Yumemi was afraid of Fukai and she had been hoping that during this investigation phase that she would be able to avoid her, she didn’t want to get in the way of her, especially considering she was on “thin fucking ice”. Her eyes soon glanced over to the other green haired person past them.

“MARSHMALLOW-SAN!”

Lying there on the grass was one of her best friends and before she knew it she had let go of Yajiro’s arm and was bolting over to the body. Please somehow be okay, please be somehow okay, please be somehow okay. It was apparent though when she arrived at his body that that would not be the case. Seeing him in this condition only made things worse, it was one thing to have him die but to kill him in a way that seemed rather brutal just seemed unnecessarily cruel to her. At that point she just collapsed and started bawling her little eyes out.

She would make him all the wishing stars she could to make sure he is at peace and is happy and safe in the afterlife, whatever it was after she sadly would have to condemn another friend to death.

But wait…Fukai said that her wishing stars were stupid and didn’t work and wouldn’t help anyone. Those wishing stars had really been her form of a coping mechanism because as long as she could give her wishing stars and wish that they would be okay in the afterlife, ‘knowing’ that somehow her wishes would come true it brought her comfort. Now though….she felt like she couldn’t do that anymore and without her coping strategy Yumemi was left with a little empty hole in her heart.

She barely even notices Yajiro patting her back as she cried, her thoughts began to run wild as she began to, in addition to the crying, have a panic attack. She hadn’t talked to Maestro in a while she had been a terrible friend, she could’ve at least tried more while he was alive now she can’t do anything with him ever again. Maestro had also said to her right from the beginning that he would try his best to protect her and she had promised that she would too the best she could but….once again Yumemi was a failure. Such an ironic outcome that out of the two of them she was the one still standing. Yumemi frowned more, he probably hated her for basically suddenly abandoning him and then failing her to do what she had promised. Why did her best friend have to end up like this, she didn’t want this, she hated this, she wanted her friend back so she could be an actual friend to him and see him smile but alas there was nothing Yumemi could do. There was probably nothing she could do now either she was barely any useful to anyone during investigation, that much was true. Yumemi began to hyperventilate both from how heavy her crying was and her panic attack. Oh god oh god oh god–

Calling Ama and herself  ‘Hyenas’ and 'despicable’ (me) had gotten Yumemi honestly a little more than annoyed and you could see this on her face  

Don’t call us Hyenas and despicable Chika! This was an accident, no one wanted this to happen! So please stopstopstopstop and please don’t be mean to the dead either! Even if they did happen to be a killer, it’s in really poor taste when someone has died as well"

She takes a deep breath in and leaves a few seconds to calm down.

Oh good Nakano had the same kind of frustrations as her , shorty squad unite! Also he was being kind enough to say to them that he wasn’t saying they were unforgivable (although his sans sprite did scare her a bit). Still one thing caught her ear that Nakano said at the end caught her attention

She raised her hand high to get the attention of everyone, her face now dead serious even though she was shaking a little

The anxiousness in Yumemi’s chest fluttered down a bit again once the debate continued. So she might be in the clear? She might not have hurt anyone? It would be a dream if she hadn’t honestly.

Wait nope she wasn’t in the clear yet and now they were accusing her and…Ama? That just wasn’t right at all! She crossed her arms and bit her lip, trying to figure out what she should say

Um well first um thank you for thinking that I might not have done it Yajiro-san (kinda..) and Fukai I’m um….surprised? But I appreciate it (even if I’m not completely sure myself)

Especially since Fukai was the one saying she outright did it and also the fact that Boufana said this wasn’t premeditated just really added to her conclusion 

But please don’t say that Ama and I caused a glitch to make it happen. I know this was an accident and everything but I know Ama-chan didn’t cause a malfunction

She didn’t really have any solid evidence here, she was just defending a friend and trusting her heart

Since her last statement Yumemi had remained silent, she felt isolated now to be honest. She looked at the door to the room and frowned, looks like she wouldn’t be leaving. She turned back her focus onto to the others, trying to take in what they’re talking about.

But oh! Something she could answer! She didn’t care if it made her more of a target, in fact she was at this point welcoming it. Yumemi tried to wipe her tears from her face and took in a deep breath so her voice wasn’t as wobbly as before

Um I agree with Fukai…like I said earlier I would never do this to a precious friend so um as much as I hate to say it, I agree that someone else set this up and just used me as the person to face p-punishment…“

Her voice trailed off quietly, god she hadn’t thought of punishment, she did hear it last time but she imagined it was a lot worse seeing it. What would Boufana do to her? Maybe she shouldn’t try thinking about this for a moment although as much as she wanted to try and remain calm she felt her anxiety levels rising more.

So there Yumemi was crying her poor little eyes out. She had seen people looks at her after she had started and now felt really embarrassed and self conscious about it.

Then people began talking and Yumemi grew more and more worried, the conversations were moving too  fast for her to keep up but she had heard in pretty much every statement;

Yumemi was the prime suspect

Maybe she just shouldn’t have said anything the first time, then no one would think of her as, in Chika’s words “someone disgusting” and she wouldn’t be crying. Yajiro would’ve told everyone though so the end result would’ve always been being called out for lying and becoming prime suspect.

She though for a moment and decided to speak up about the conclusion she came up with right from the very beginning, it was no longer time for denial.

You'r right Fukai-san…I think I did do it maybe…um I decided I should just say it since I really don’t want to hurt any more of my friends because of my um…‘disgusting’ mistakes…..

She looked up and around at the others trying to read their faces, to her she doesn’t even mind if Fukai has to decide the vote.

To be honest after Yumemi explained what had happened within the gaps she was somewhat zoning out, narcolepsy was getting the best of her even though it’s literally the worst time to fall asleep. She was going to preserve though! Even if it does mean just listening for a while. Besides she felt like she didn’t have any information about….magic? list last time with the potions so she was going to let the others work out Chika’s magic powers.

It isn’t until AIZA speaks up that her head snaps to attention, suddenly looking quite alert for a girl that was almost asleep 2 seconds prior

Buttons?!

Yumemi shuffled looking uncomfortable despite trying her best to look somewhat calm despite her surprised exclaim.

AIZA-san um I don’t think any buttons had anything to do with it at all….especially not people pressing buttons…ummmm"

She paused for a moment. seemingly in thought

You um mentioned that there were electric stuff there? Maybe it was just a malfunction or something

Yumemi breathed a sigh of relief when Fukai began talking though,even if she is afraid of her, it was an easy enough question and it let Yumemi go back to relaxing a bit more although she was rather confused as to exactly why Fukai was asking her that. She was sure she mentioned it….

Oh sorry I thought I mentioned that Kurizuka-san was the one we suggested we split up, which is just why I was confused as to why she was looking for bugs while I was apparently trying to see what was wrong with the ride alone. Sorry that I might not have said that before…I’m tired

Yumemi still stood hugging onto her pillow and listening to what Yajiro was saying. He was bringing up good points as usual but she still didn’t feel the need to speak up again quite yet as she hadn’t gone to the ride prior to being broken. Well that was until Yajiro started directly talking to her.

Aaa maybe she shouldn’t have just freaked out but she couldn’t help it when AIZA had mentioned the buttons and now she was getting called out for lying. Oh Yumemi….

Then other people chimed in as well, putting her into the suspect pool just for having a nice day in the park drinking Bepsi and eating ice cream and then later being one of the people at the body first, crying her little eyes out.

She was anxious and scared but she also didn’t want to let Yajiro down since he had been so patient with her, and helping her with a lot of problems she’s had all this time. She was also being suspected anyway so she may as well continue.

Breathing in to prepare herself, Yumemi quietly continued her account.

“Um okay….um so when we split up I headed to the outer panel, which was about a 3 minute walk from the entrance to the ride and ummm when I got there I saw the puppy car chasing something…um I guess that was Fukai…”

She gives a quick glance towards her

“Um I tried to stop the car though to help–but it just kept on going…um so…um so…”

Yumemi seems to get a bit more anxious

“I pressed a random button on the panel to try fix it on my own, and um, the music came on so I thought maybe I fixed it but then it turned off pretty quickly when um…the cart crashed….”

Yumemi blinked at Yajiro. Even if she had explained last time she felt Yajiro did a better job than she had and well af least he knew what actually happened to her. But!!! She could still say something because she knew a couple of things that he hadn’t mention. Aaaa she hoped it would be of some help, or at the very least fill in the blanks.

She raised her hand in order to try get everyone’s attention.

“Um if you don’t mind Yajiro-san could I say what happened after we split up?”

She looked at him once again and fiddled with her fingers. Oh well she was going to start talking she supposed….

“Well um when Yajiro-san and Yoshikage-san split, Ama-chan, Korizuka-san and I went to the Pokemon Snap ride while Fukai-san destroyed a poor little plushie and left…”

Yumemi looks downwards sadly but sighs and continues

“Ama-chan and I sat down in the ride but it was broken so Kurizuka-san suggested that we split up to see what was wrong” She pauses for a moment “I guess that it was only Kurizuka-san and I that checked it out? Ama-chan ran off with Yoshikage-san”

Yumemi rocked on her heels

Yumemi felt sick to her stomach when Boufana announced it was trial time. There wasn’t enough time to say goodbye to Kurizka-san there wasn’t enough to time she felt to find evidence that would do her justice; that and just a complete lack in confidence.

On the train Yumemi said nothing, only looking at her feet and holding her pillow close to her chest. What was there to say? Despite her hopes and dreams of everyone getting along there was indeed another murderer somewhere among them no matter how much she tried to deny it. On any other day when she was feeling sad she would write in her notebook like Yajiro suggested, but now she just didn’t have the energy too.

And now finally they arrived back at Hopes Tower, it was a familiar sight which was at least somewhat refreshing but once again it was really no time to enjoy the scenery, she had to be serious™ if she was going to find out what happened to poor Kurizuka-san besides she needed to focus on at least something, she wasn’t going to let herself fall asleep.

Floor 3 was a little bit intimidating really with so many screens surrounding them, all displaying Boufana-san’s face, instructing her to step in front if a screen. Looking around nervously at the other classmates she steps in front of a screen and is greeted by a blue car. She honestly hadn’t seen this car before apart from the brief glimpse when they first arrived at the park. Despite it looking like a nice, friendly car Yumemi couldn’t help but glare at it, she despised these things now no matter how ’UwU’ they were.

“Why do we have to drive cars?”

No matter how much she hated the cars though there was no way around it, these were the rules set by Boufana-san.

“I really hope we can figure out what happened to Kurizuka-san at the end of this….”

Oh! Before she could really just stare at the screen AIZA-san piped up and brought up a point that she could acgree with