#(ab)normal days

Kicking over the destroyed bot and tossing some of the chips and wires toward the students, Karoshi once again turned to face them. Any amount of humanity this bear might have had in its expressions was now gone.

“You might be wondering why I gave you this warning. Look at your PDAs, you ungrateful slobs!”

Their PDAs beeped, displaying new pictures now. Pictures from security cameras in local stores, at street lights, inside of buildings, or displaying photos taken from an eerily close distance through a cell phone.

The subjects? They were all too familiar to the remaining students. Their loved ones on the outside were there. They were being watched. Karoshi-kuma knew where they were.

“If you try to hurt what I love, I can do the same to you just as easily.”

As the bear said these words, the electricity suddenly cut, leaving the students surrounded in a vague darkness that was only illuminated by their PDAs, or by the sinister glowing of Karoshi-kuma’s eye and the occasional spark from Muffin’s scrap heap. The brightest source of light came from the countdown clock displayed overlooking the city. Its timer was shorter now, much shorter. There was only a couple of days left before it would hit zero, and it seemed to be counting backward a little faster than it should be.

This wasn’t a game. And even if it had been at one point, it clearly wasn’t anymore.

As the students hurriedly gathered, spotting more and more bots by the second along the way, they converged to see Karoshi-kuma, standing atop a stage set up out front. Next to him, sat an odd shape covered in a sheet.

The bear paced atop the stage, truly looking at the end of his rope.

“Took you long enough! I almost had to take some drastic measures! And I never take drastic measures! That is...unless someone else does first!”

The bear stopped next to the covered shape, standing just behind it.

“But, unfortunately, some of you ungrateful kids just don’t seem to know how to avoid looking a gift horse in the mouth. A free job, free food, free healthcare, comfy beds, a roof over your heads...and then you just had to go and do all of this.”

Their PDAs lit up with images of the destroyed, flooded mansion. Opened doorways. A bloodied corpse. A dented bot. A group of students dragging Keiichi away.

“I’ve been generous. I’ve been exceedingly generous, and you bastards decide...that you’d rather threaten and misuse my loved ones? Treat my city like this? Threat my creations like this? It doesn’t matter! You know the rules! There is no trial without a murder. And no murder without a little bit of motivation. Some of you are already feeling the effects of the first one...but I’ll let it be my little secret what I’ve done to you all. You’ll all start to feel the effects soon enough, anyway.”

Karoshi-kuma laughed, grabbing the cloth covering the shape and pausing.

“This second part isn’t a motivation. Just a warning. A promise, even.”

And then it tore off the sheet, revealing a familiar face underneath.

...

Everything had gone chaotic. A motive had yet to be released, as far as the students knew, but before they knew what had hit them, there were rusted,mangled Karoshi-security bots patrolling the streets, and nothing seemed to be going right.

Their panicked, frantic scourge through the city was abruptly ended by the sound of Karoshi-kuma’s voice, blaring through their PDAs in a voice very unlike its usual chipper self. It seemed angry, vengeful, and ready to kill.

It was almost like clockwork. Héloïse woke up that morning feeling something horrible in the pit of her stomach. There were too many days of peace, and no one was killing off their classmates again. Perhaps it was because of the larger number the last motive brought? No… it couldn’t be. That bear was just waiting. Waiting for them to get just comfortable enough, or maybe just anxious enough, and then send them into terror all over again.

It was like clockwork.

The gymnast made her way outside the apartments, her gym bag on her back, so that she could go straight to the mall afterwards and take her mind off of things to work out (maybe, if she was lucky, she’d see a friend there today… but it had been so long, that deep down, she knew that there was no chance). Héloïse stood at the back of the crowd, watching the bear pace in front of them from between the legs and bodies of her classmates. As soon as he started actually talking to them, Héloïse already wanted to get away from here.

She crossed her arms, listening to his every word, taking in all the weight of what he was saying… secrets. That was it?

Héloïse raised her brow, looking around the crowd to see everyone’s reactions as they checked their PDAs… and also noticing those who haven’t. Does that mean… it… it must be that one….

“...”

There was no reason for her to check either -- she knew full well what her secret must’ve been. It was always the same thing, when it came to stuff like this. Like… clockwork.

Though he knows he should feel uneasy about Karoshikuma's morning announcements. But he's not. Not as much as he should be. But as he wanders down the stairs after the others, he can't help but wonder what they will be told today. Quite frankly...Lex hopes that it won't be something as...dull as the past three motives. Yes he knows that any type of incentive to commit murder is a serious one but...for someone is so determined to corrupt their ideals and morals, Karoshikuma hasn't been particularly...interesting.

Leaning against the entrance, Lex frowns. Once again, Karoshikuma is much too enthusiastic and much to hypocritical. But as he continues to talk...Straightening up, Lex's eyebrows arch upward. "Secrets, huh?" He murmurs. 

(Smoking tw)

Things had been tough for one Yoshiko Maki. She had only just started to leave the apartment building, finding that she felt better the more she started to rely on her friends here.

Her face fell upon receiving the order to meet outside the apartments. Her heart started to race, and even though she doubted that it was another murder... The anxiety was there.

She made her way down to the front and... Wow. She wasn't positive what it could be. She opened her PDA, heart speeding up. She held the electronic with shaking hands, staring as her mouth slowly widened.

She had forgotten about that. Maybe tried to repress it. She didn't want to have to think about it, about what happened, about the outcome. And it didn't even fully say what happened, leaving her mind to imagine millions of scenarios.

If she wasn't worried before, she was worried now.

Akihiko knew exactly how awful this was going to be when Karoshi-kuma had summoned the class. He knew that there was going to be someone else tempted by the purple bear's words and motives. His stomach tightened and he faced towards the ground to try and disappear into it.

Part of him was hopeful though.

He had spoken to so many people over the few days after the trial. He felt that he understood them all the better and that - maybe, just maybe - they understood him. It was odd how connected he was to certain people now. They were all too kind and treated him better than they deserved. A small smile came across his face. His chest felt warm with admiration for the people around him. He was convinced that no matter what the motive was, they would survive it. No more death, no more anger... They just needed to continue to work together! 

His thoughts were cut by the mention of secrets. 

Akihiko tuned back into the speech at the tail end of things. It didn't take much for the demon prince to piece together what price they were asked to pay before the bear could be satisfied. What could he truly do to Akihiko? Reveal his name and human lineage to the world? The other kids in Shibata beat him to that punch already. It didn't matter if they doxxed him since that was practically public information. 

He didn't particularly want to look at his PDA but he thought it'd be good to rip the bandaid off as quick as possible.

And oh what a sight to see, what a pain to feel. 

The words on the screen made his eyes widen in absolute fear. His hand trembled as his grip tightened around it. A familiar name, a familiar act so worthy of a demon prince. Oh dear, oh dear, what have you gotten yourself into? He could hear something in him taunt as the memory took over. A ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, a ▇▇▇▇▇, a sin that could never be forgiven. Akihiko felt the weight of his cards burn into him as each word kept piercing into his very soul.

He bit back a cry. He didn't deserve any attention or any sympathy. Every thought made his head spin and he didn't know what to do. The prince was useless in situations like this. He... took a step back, adding distance between him and the rest of the class. He took another, bringing the PDA close to his chest so they wouldn't see. Now he was finally looking up at them but all he saw was:

▇▇▇▇▇▇.

He almost dropped his PDA in shock but thankfully it was pressed to his chest. He could only stare dumbly as tears were already pricking at the corners of his eyes.

"I- I'm--."

Now he decided to speak up but quickly stopped himself before he could say anything else. He shut his mouth closed, turning away from them. Maybe they didn't hear him? Everyone else was reacting to differently. Akihiko kept his eyes trained on the ground as he chose to disappear away from the rest of them.