Sleepless Citizen

Hello, children. Sawsome here, with some unfortunate, yet bittersweet news.  It is with a heavy heart that, due to general inactivity and disinterest with the game, Sleepless Citizen will be ending thusly. 

However, this does not mark the end of the story, as there are still players interested in the events that would have unfolded. Due to this, and a feeling of personal obligation on my own part, I will be releasing a small novelette detailing the remaining chapters of Sleepless Citizen. 

This will include a perspective of the mastermind, integral endgame plot details, a condensed synopsis of the remaining murders and subsequent trials, and more. 

While it won’t be an immediate priority for myself, expect this to come as a long Google Doc within the next few weeks, along with occasional illustration and any art assets we had planned to use for the finale. Although this journey ends, I readily prepare for the next and hope to make it an impressive, efficient, and engaging story for an active community of roleplayers.  Thank you so much for your time, patience, writing, and stupendous characters. Best wishes in the future for everybody involved, and I hope to see the writing of everybody in the mod team and the cast in other projects.  P.S.  Keep your eyes peeled for the #3....

E.O.

Ah so they had to continue this....Yumemi wasn’t quite thrilled to continue this trial, even though it was her best friends one; she was too depressed and tired at this point.

And then the screen with the collection of Fukai’s shows up and her face goes a bit pale (also #mood for being an experiment or whatever was going on with Fukai)

“Oh no now even more Fukais can bully me.....” she says quietly with a frown, she didn’t want to be even more sad or anxious than she already was and she didn’t really want a swarm of Fukai.

“Um this doesn’t have to do with Kaoru or Marshmallow-san sorry Yajiro but um I was wondering if I could maybe say what I saw when I found Fukai...?” She raised her hand a little as if to get their attention, which they would probably need in order to hear her since she didn’t feel like projecting either

“Um well I was by myself in the toolshed since I didn’t want to bother other people who wanted to investigate or anything” or rather, everyone just left her so she didn’t really have a choice “And I heard Fukai scream when I was in the toolshed um and she was in the same position you all saw when you came....” was it bad to say she had been a little bit relieved? Yes, yes it was

“Oh, how kind of you, dearest Yajiro, for considering the state of your verdant ally. For one, I’ll confirm that she is not guilty of the deaths that occurred during the closure period. If any of you were concerned to vote on a culprit that was absent, I shall put that to rest. Not too hard, right?”

Repositioning herself at the exit door, she continues her line of thought. “As for her health, she is unfortunately comatose as her body is receiving special treatment. I hoped to save such a revelation for after the trial, but Fukai is a bit special. No other human being could have survived impalement like that, but the girl is resilient as shit, and for good reason. You can all ask about that once this is all over. But for now, here’s a little teaser!”

The screens above the mainframe light up, revealing the immediate image of, unsurprisingly, Fukai Miki. Still wearing the same clothes as at the time of her attack, she floats upright in a large, futuristic glass tube full of an unknown, presumably viscous blue-tinted liquid. 

As the camera pans out, much more surprisingly, are similar looking teenagers that deeply share Miki’s resemblance, with green hair, toned skin complexion, and same facial expressions of deep rest.

The screen cuts out seconds later, after sufficient evidence of the girl’s living existence became clear. 

“Hope that did it for you, because I could wheel her out if y'all wanted! Though she’d probably die if I did that, so I recommend continuing with the trial before my patience runs out.”

Well THIS was an interesting location… Pretty cool, honestly. Or pretty hot, actually. Yajiro sort of wonders if it’s possible to like. Wreck it. Not that he’s about to. But he’s curious about what would happen.

Either way, all that stuff about being nervous about what’ll happen, tenseness, whatever? Yajiro is feeling none of that per the moment. A little bored from the long ride over here, but he’s been getting used to being bored lately. And by lately he means for the last few months, and entire chapters. Wild. Now though, even with his memories a little jumbled up, Yajiro’s ready to go with the trial. Does he had a concrete answer? Nah. Will he enjoy talking it out anyways? Heck yeah...

“Hey, so! First off, question: Where’s Fukai? And what’s her status?” Yajiro asks with a smile directly at Boufana.

What tf are you doing to her. Because uh, girl, stabbed. Nanomachines? Son. WAIT, SHE HAD CALLED HIM HER SON, TECHNICALLY. Okay he was getting majorly distracted now, that’s enough of that.

“Thennnn next I guess, just an fyi, the sword that stabbed Fukai came from an unused(?) cabin next to the two we were using to stay in. There were some gold leafed ones, but that one wasn’t, I think. Same collection though. That cabin’s not far at all from where Fukai was stabbed, it’s actually really close. If anyone else saw anything when that happened, or like. Someone carrying a katana or whatever it was, feel free to speak up. About anything else too, of course.”

You were the one everyone saw near her when they came, y’know Yajiro. Was there something else about that? Well, there was the weird shit he’d seen, but he had no idea wtf was happening there actually. He’s not convinces reality is working properly at the current moment. Or at least the common definition of was working properly was, to his knowledge. He’s been teetering on the edge of dissociation for awhile, but he could still try to puzzle this (hah) out at least somewhat, from what he remembers.

“Uhhhhh, other than that, Kaoru-kun was actually dead, found in the lake and all, had a slit throat AND a knife in his chest, nice, nice… Uhhh the rope tied on his ankle or whatever was cut off on one side near the knot and not the dangly bit. It was like the one we found before in the shed. So presumably it’s the other side of it. Unless it was the same one, somehow. Or like, a second cut rope. Uh. Hopefully someone else checked on that.”

Since he sure hadn’t. Probably should’ve. Honestly, this was all so spread out that he was already forgetting wtf had even happened previously. HAD he checked that? He… doesn’t actually know.

“Only thing I could tell about it was that whoever tied it knew how to tie a good frickin knot! A+, knotcrafting’s an art, or something. Oh! But it DID seem like the knife in ‘em was probably the one we saw that was missing before? In the holster…. Thing. You know. Shed. Uh…. that’s all I got for the moment. Someone else feel free to fill in the gaps, lmao.”

“And here we are again, only this time, for the first time!” Boufana breathes in, relaxing upon every student’s entrance into the room. “Home, sweet home! Well, my home. If any of you are curious, the hulk of metal you’re looking at is none other than yours truly!”

“Yep, that big girl right there is your beautiful teacher, Miss Boufana (Deeznuts)! Appearances can be deceiving, lol!” She struts towards the machine, knocking lightly on its stainless steel hull. “Normally, AI systems aren’t this large. But I’ve always been the brains of the family, so it’s only natural my system is the largest! After all, I control what goes on in Japan! Not only that, but I gotta manage all the people to murder on the outside, too! Imagine how much work it is...I mean…sheesh, give a girl a break, right?”

“Anyways, I’m sure you’re all just itching to start the trial back up after our long, long recess. Feels like a month passed, if I’m being honest! Of course, even with all that extra time I so generously handed out, I’m sure you’re still nervous. So just remember...sucks to be you! Although, you may not have it as bad as the intruder among you!....Oops! Well, you know what they say, trust your fellow man! Unless they’re trying to kill you all. So I guess, well, don’t trust em’, lol!....

…trial restart? Trial restart!”

After being escorted by a set of autonomous cars to the nearest bullet train, you and your other classmates arrive in a timely fashion only about two hours after departing from Fuji Five Lakes. The trip is tense, an atmosphere of frustration firmly gripping the nearly silent ride. It’s eerie how used to near silence one can get, with the soft noises of the train itself blurring into a monotonous white noise.

The elevator ride is mostly the same, merely switching the backing track. Frustration blooms into anxiety, the threat of what could be if this trial goes wrong suddenly a lot more tangible.

Arriving at the fifth floor to find the new trial room leaves a strange feeling in the pit of your stomach, a reminder of the past tragedies you’ve already gone through. The circular room radiates heat from the middle where a large mainframe sits, the walls littered with monitors, giving way to small alcoves where consoles are. The room is far more futuristic than the past settings you’ve had for trials, with an even more oppressive atmosphere, computing systems humming softly, and blinking lights scattered throughout. Above the mainframe is a jumbotron, and once every member of the class has stepped inside it, along with every other screen in the room, flicks on. They display video footage from all across the globe, except from Japan itself. The jumbotron shows off some well dressed folks in a casino, gambling and chatting. Everyone in all the footage across all the screens look peaceful, calm, happy, going about their days normally. As if they were blissfully unaware of your plight, forgotten in the sea of sleepless.

If anything, you feel lucky. The state of the trial before you were given the recess was clearly grim for everybody but the culprit, whose actions against the other victim nearly went undiscovered. Thankfully you were all given a second chance to discover the identity of the perpetrator of this double homicide, which nearly turned into, oh baby, a triple.

Your watch vibrates and rings to notify you of, unsurprisingly, the end of your opportunity to explore the area for more clues. A familiar blonde expresses, once again, the necessary actions to take to resume the trial process.

“Hey kids! Oof, what a day, right? Sorry if I’m about to make things worse, but it’s about time to head to Hopes’ Tower, lol! This time, we’ll be meeting on the newest floor, courtesy of this chapter’s generous death-bringer. And while I would have been fine with the death of just one person, two works just as fine! Remember to be back by your curfew, kids! I’ll be watching.”

And so, with the announcement made on your watches by Boufana, the investigation period has come to a close. And interestingly, instead of returning to the campsite, the new trial location now follows the same pattern as before: to a new room in Hopes’ Tower, once again.

You have learned that Kaoru was killed along with poor Minato, and there was clearly meant to lack evidence. Luckily, no crime is absolutely perfect, and your collective investigations as a student body may be able to track down the culprit behind this absolute mess.

As opposed to the first investigation, the second has revealed new information, at the disastrous cost of losing Fukai’s involvement, though thankfully not her life. The idea that three people could have died within a single closure has wrecked your nerves, and the chip on your shoulder feels like it couldn’t be any heavier than it is now.

Victim: Kaoru Hanazaki

Cause of Death: Exsanguination

Time of Death: 1:00AM-2:00AM

Location of Body: Middle of Fuji-Five Lake

After the intense, harrowing close-call with Fukai, your investigations have been reinvigorated with a new, fiery passion to bring justice to the culprit responsible for so much violence. You all start investigating the scene of the attempted murder, though the absurd amount of blood in the way is nearly gut-wrenching.

Sora, Haruna, and Chika, however, find themselves distracted by something else. Out, far into the lake, a small radius of bubbles mildly float to the surface of the lake. It hasn’t stopped, and from that slight concern, Sora decides to go out and investigate the source of it. It becomes clear as the party approaches. You understand what it likely is already. 

From the party’s perspective, there seems to be a school of fish surrounded and poking something floating in the water. Sora uses the fishing rod to prod and poke them away, attempting to see what they're messing with. It is quickly revealed that, horrifyingly....

It's Kaoru's body.

Boufana appears on your watches, with a blank background behind her, like how she originally appeared before she started physically appeared. Despite being there, many can see she still presides physically, still holding Fukai.

"What's up, gamers! Let's get this corpse, LOL! A body has been discovered! To those who found it, it would be recommended you take to the nearest dock. You'll get your Discovery file then! Tata~~!"

The watch shuts off. How anticlimactic. You and many others watch as the corpse is gathered and placed onto the dock.

CW: Extreme Graphic Violence

The scene is scattered and chaotic. Yumemi is panicking and watching many of the students to go work to help, while Yajiro asks the viridian victim, “Hey Fukai, what the FUCK?!” 

Those two seem like the first responders, and we're here early enough to help stop the bleeding. Everybody else migrated towards the screaming a little while after.

Not moments after you all arrive, Boufana does so as well, almost as if waiting for the perfect attendance. She pushes her mouth to the side of her face and hums as if she was looking at a phone she’s considering repairing or tossing.

“Well...if it’s up to me...” 

“Alright, I think two victims is definitely more than enough for this time around, lol. Let’s give this player a 1-Up for her hard work!”

Picking Fukai’s blood-stained, pierced body off the ground, the pained girl gives little resistance, already feeling woozy from the loss of blood, and the numbing pain in her back.  And if she thought it couldn’t get worse, it does! Boufana quickly recedes the sword from Fukai’s back, causing a massive outburst of blood, and all the color to be drained from Fukai’s appalled face. Seconds after, Boufana’s own hand is plunged into the existing hole. Fukai herself feels a strong tingling sensation, and then passes out moments later.

Turning to the horrified audience, she explains in two simple words in the most American accent she can muster. “Nanomachines, son.” Slowly pulling her hand out, it’s revealed that the wound has already been closed to a miraculous degree. The pigment of the skin there looks far whiter, but the crisis seems to have been avoided! “Well, then....carry on, kids! Gotta find a killer to catch, right?”

At Chika’s final direct words to the iron-clad supervisor of your School of Murder, the blonde replies with a dramatic, showstopping drum solo to bring the sonic excitement to an eleven! Her beats are stylish, energetic, and professional, and her rhythm is nearly mechanical!

“Ha...Ha....Ha....how was that?! Awesome, right?!” You give her no response. “Oh, come on! At least give me some constructive criticism! Whatever.” She shrugs, still holding onto the sticks. “Well, you guys got me. And way faster than I expected you to, lol! I dunno if that’s a testament to you all being smart, or stupid. And I don’t think I ever gave an answer to that.” She sighs, still smiling. “Well, then! I guess the intruder doesn’t want to give themselves up honorably after all! I would think somebody of such high moral stature would end this game by now! Too bad! Looks like we’ll have to go with Plan B!”

Boufana pounds her drums vigorously, for another ten seconds, before reaching an ultimate climax of noise. At it’s pinnacle, she shouts:

“RECESS!”

“That’s right you little shits. You’re all free to re-investigate! And I encourage you all to do so properly again, because you might just find it to be a bit easier!”  She moves off of her drum-set, and repeats herself firmly. “What are you guys waiting for!? Scram! You’ve got half the time you received for the first investigation! Make it count!”

So, in the end, she’ll let you all off the hook after all. At least, in some way.

Curiously, both Chika and Sora have yet to deliver any helpful words to the trial. Looking at the two now, they both look pretty tired and dejected. What gives?

“We both investigated to the best of our abilities, but even a genius like myself could not produce any theories.” She huffs with indignation. “I even brought a variety of advanced investigation tools!....Until that robotic wretch confiscated them!” Grumbling and muttering in English, she points out Yumemi’s small indictment.

“HEY! Why would I even be impacted by this motive? I spent my entire life outside of society, I think I would be the least suspect here!” This whole trial, from the start, has seemed like a lost cause.

Almost everybody here agrees: this isn’t fair. Evidence is weak, scattered, obviously intentionally sparse, and Kaoru didn’t even show up! Who let him out of class?!

Oh! She looked over at Nakano is surprise, she could help! Even thought last time she was only an inconvenience

“Well I think most people know bleach is deadly, thats why a lot of people make those sad drink bleach memes...”

She didn’t know why people made those, it was really sad, she didn’t want people hurt!

“And considering paint stripper strips off paint and smells quite toxic I think it would be easy to presume what it would do to the body. These are common household items as well, so I don’t think you would have to be a scientist like myself to mix them I think perhaps the killer may have seen them together and thought it would make and extra deadly combination, without specifically knowing the effects or it could be um...”

"Fukai you're valued and I care about you, you did just knock out Koizuki which was rude though." Nakano hums, "Can confirm though, no fresh wounds on Fukai." 

"Um, Koizuki, now you're awake again, do you know how difficult this chlorofill mix would be to make? Like could anyone do it or would they need to know how. Um, I suppose Yoshikage might also know the answer to this."

Nakano considers Yajiro's testimony for a moment, "Could a wound like that be from fall damage? Or I guess that kind of bruising could be from, um, someone just going ham I guess. Seems strange though, to knock him out and then kill him in such a... inefficient way."

"Aaa, not to sound... suspicious but um, could we wait until we know for sure the killer has injuries or marks or something...I'm fine with turning out pockets, a little uncomfortable with that. I mean, I will just... if we can wait that would good." Boy is discomfort. He grips Akira's hand tightly for a moment. 

“Fukai, no one’s existence is any more important than others, if you aren’t needed than neither are any of us. None of asked to be born either, unless there’s some fricken cosmic weirdness going on. But thank you. Just… If you want to do things like that, I’d prefer if you do it to me, I guess. I don’t know." Which, well, yes. But that’s enough of that. More importantly, to get this out of the way… Yajiro frowns.

“So Kauro-kun is either sleepless or dead then, huh?” Still not the right name, but whatever. That was fun to know. He shakes his head. He’s still tempted to try leaving… Instead he looks at his own watch.

“Anyways. I’m not sure I agree with the cause being strangulation, though, because the discovery file said like…” He looks at it, again, squinting. Reading hard. He wants to say international hammerhead but he is very certain that is not correct. “Ah… Internal hemorrhaging, or something. So like, at the very least he didn’t die of suffocation, I think. Seems more likely that it was what was going on with his chest, which I think Hiroto-kun just assumed was crushing…? But obviously I don’t know for sure. Something bled internally at the very least.”

Technically other things could have happened, after all, and that have just been to cover it something, but uhhh. Whatever.

“Ah, for injuries, I don’t think I have any either, though like. One of you would have to check to make sure, obviously. Same for everyone else, since word isn’t enough. Thank you for that though, Fukai, if Nakano-kun and Akira-san agree, then that’s probably fine.” He’s not even 100% sure that the culprit is the one who’s injured, since obviously they have another person unaccounted for, that they now have like no way of knowing if Kaoru was involved or something too, somehow. He hadn’t seen him though. Shame. Mmm… He squints back at the watch.

“Uhhh, that’s sorta all the info I got. The murder, or at least the time of death happened at like, 2:17am, yeah? So… probably not a lot of testimony there, but just in case, did anyone hear or see anything in the night, or something? Or just, you know. Have any more clues to share before we all get searched, I guess.”

Slowing down and coming to a halt on the drums, Boufana looks up with an excited look on her face. “So, how’d you guys like my—oh, awwh.” She hums disappointedly. “I’m really pouring my nonexistent heart into this, so at least give me some constructive criticism!”

She pouts in annoyance, and turns her head to the side.

“Anyways. Trial Attendance is mandatory, or else you’ll be turned into a Sleepless. I feel that I insinuated this on our first go-around.”

Needed, needlessly, needed. All three said the same damn thing to her, huh. Dunno, maybe part of her wanted to be punched or something. Or maybe didn't. What did she want, she wondered.

"It's ok!! Fukai's whole existence isn't needed, right? She never asked to be born, but here she is, so she's going to do needless things to fill up her needless life!"

She clapped her hands together and grinned, in an uncomfortable manner. Of course, she knew this wasn't what any of them meant. Particularly Nakano and Yajiro, probably. She was pretty sure Hiroto genuinely considered her pointless, but that didn't actually bother her any. What was done was done.

"...!! Oh damn, Fukai forgot to try to steal Tutu-tan's watch, huh? Whoopsies!! Maybe next time. But she did like, check out his muscles and stuff. He's pretty below average, so she doesn't think it would take a whole lot to overpower him or anything. Almost anybody here could do it if they had like... the angle advantage and stuff, especially if he was already knocked out with the chlorofil thingy. Uhm. Yeah, dunno EXACTLY how he died since there's a couple of options, she guesses, but strangulation seems pretty likely. You can like. Stomp on somebody a lot in a lot of times in a row to do the whole crushy thing, easy to do after he was already dead. Is a bloody mouth enough to leak that much?"

She paused for a moment. What else did she know? There was almost nothing. Somebody had a knife or shears, and maybe a wound? ... Ho hum.

"Right, Fukai climbed the mountain a bit in her spare time after finding like, nothing, and the mountain was pretty clear, too, so it doesn't have to be somebody who can climb, either. Fukai's trained in that, by the way. Mountain climbing? She took lessons for a long time. That's pretty cool. Fukai is pretty cool."

She twirled her finger around in circles on the dirt, drawing a spiral outwards, going on and on until the edge hit against her thigh. Mm.

"The blood lead through a bush, too, but the bush didn't have any blood on it itself, so it wasn't cuts from bramble that caused a wound. And the trail kinda stopped. Fukai already noticed that Lulu-tan wasn't here, but, like... he used to be cool, but then he stopped talking to Fukai, so."

It was more or less thought vomit spilling from her mouth, hardly a meaning or a direction to what she was saying. With everything she said, what even was the timeline she was trying to provide?