#azaki

Being forced to be in costume... to participate in some... joke of a dance like this when he was still mourning. If he was being forced to do this, he might as well make the most of it, Ren figured, and as such, decked himself out in a tuxedo mask cosplay. He lucked out for Monokuma to have stocked a mask like that... unless it was intentional. At that point, it wasn’t like the composer’s tastes were a well-kept secret.

Ren had been... hovering, more or less. He wasn’t interested in gossiping or socializing, and the food and drink was the only thing that kept him around, rather than being holed up in his room wallowing in self-pity. He’d become a real weenie, hadn’t he? In every sense of the word. Miserable. Cowardly. Nasty to people who didn’t deserve it. Angry. Just.... so much. It was all overwhelming, and he didn’t want anything to do with it anymore.

But something that was provided with this ‘ball?’ Booze. Booze was provided. Ren had a few experiences in the past with alcohol, and all of them were when he was at rock bottom, like he was at present. Nothing good ever came from it, but... the temptation was kind of hard to pass up. He’d forget everything by the morning, and everything would be fine and dandy, right? ... Hrg.

Ren took a plastic cup and filled it 3/4th’s full with straight vodka, which was... NOT something anyone should be doing. No flavoring mixed in, no nothing, just pure, clear alcohol, which he downed in a few gulps, ignoring the burning sensation as the fluid slid down his throat and sat uncomfortably in his stomach. Naturally, it wouldn’t kick in right away, so it was the time to grab himself another cup before his body could say no. Which he did. 

This one, he stared at for a little bit, not drinking right away. As his blue-haired friend approached, however... Ren knew exactly what he was going to say, so the blond chugged it down before a word could leave Azaki’s lips. So there. Haha. Urgh. 

That felt terrible. The boy set the empty cup on a table.

Ren was fucking pissed. He’d already nearly whacked Monokuma for denying him from getting things in Nao’s room, which could have resulted in who knows what, but he had sworn to himself if he figured out the culprit, he’d give them a good beating before the trial even started. Fortunately for the culprit, Ren hadn’t figured anything out yet. Though that had left him in a, well.... far more frustrated position. It was as if the anger was growing with each tick of the clock.

His whole body was burning, and not in the intoxicated with love way. Pure, seething rage was fueling his every action, causing him to be... quite a bit more violent with evidence and other discoveries.

As a result, Tomo had been tagging along with Ren the whole way. Someone had to prevent Ren from doing something stupid, and Tomo had ever so graciously volunteered for the miserable job. Poor guy.

Well, at some point during the investigation, Ren just needed a breather. This wasn’t going well, and if he wanted to be able to think straight, he needed to stop and hit something. So that’s what he did, and his target was a wall in the hallway. The idol smacked the side of his fist against the wall a good five times in a row while shouting explicatives. Spackles of water flew away from his eyes with the violent motions, landing on the carpet with a soft plip.

Kukuru was nervous.

Well, it was normal to be nervous. It was a Valentine’s Day/White Day event after all. She’d spent the time preparing some honmei chocolate for the person she was closest to. Giri choco was something girls gave to guys or co-workers whom they held platonic feelings for.

Honmei choco on the other hand...

Well, for anyone from Japan, it was easy to tell what honmei chocolate meant. And the only way at this point Kukuru felt comfortable with a certain confession to Azaki Kouzai was to give him the honmei chocolate. She felt like such a wuss for having to confess through some chocolates, but it was clear from them and the decorations that she’d put her heart and soul into crafting them.

She approached the blue-haired boy and awkwardly held out the chocolates. She had placed them into a basket container that she had crafted herself. There was a lot of dedication put into this from the fear inducer.

“Ah, Azaki-kun... I made you these honmei chocolates... I hope you like them.”

Valentines day... huh. Maybe this was a good occasion to try to toughen up again, like Tsubomi. Despite how long it had been, she still seemed to be holding up just fine compared to some of the others. Without additional food being brought in, the hostages were... well. Getting hungry. Tsubomi was strong though, like a nice, sturdy pillar. Despite being smaller in both age and height, Tsubomi was someone that Ren looked up to a lot. It would be fine... Just fine...

Ren swallowed down his pride and went ahead and asked the bear to make chocolates with the girls. If he did that, he’d actually be able to give some to Nao in time for the snow top to possibly return the favor on White day. But.... was it really going to be white day?  ... What was the date of the last day they all remembered, anyway?

Ren took a seat in the cafe, brooding over the date and the task at hand: chocolates. Chocolates were very serious, of course. Was he supposed to make a cake? What if Nao didn’t like chocolates? Was it ok to confess like this or was that just dumb? Too cliche? And how to go about it all. Hurgrggrgr.

As time went on, the more he realized... he didn’t really care about leaving anymore. Sure, there was Tsubomi and Mei-chan, but everyone else in his life wouldn’t really... miss him. Miss Ren as Ren, anyway. If the murders just... stopped, then... the place was a decent spot to live in. Quiet. Out of sight. With a handful of people who liked him for who he was.

After a handful of riveting conversations in the main room, Ruka decided he had enough with hollow introductions and began to wander the halls to the left. The first door he opened unleashed a blizzard into his face. Well, that was the source of the cold it seemed... Lots and lots of snow outside. On the other hand, it appeared they weren’t locked inside whatever this was, just a journey out would be incredibly cold and dangerous. Who knew how far away the closest town was?

Unfortunately, the ice outside wasn’t enough to clue him into their location. Not near the equator at the very least?

Sighing, he closed the door and made his way down to the furthest door.... which appeared to be locked. Ok, he supposed that was a place he was not supposed to go and turned around to the main room. Except, that appeared to be locked too. Fantastic. The best he could do was sit by the door to the undiscovered room and wait for rescue or something or other.