#cc chapter 3

*DINGINGINGINGINGINGINGINGINGINGING-*

The above two things are suddenly the only things that fill your ears, interrupting whatever else was going on. The clearly prerecorded, booming voice also directs the students to stay away from the kitchen, and follow proper Apollo Luna Fire Safety Procedures. So what do the students do? They ignore the rules and run to the kitchen as fast as possible! Some more hesitantly than others, but eventually everyone is on their way there.

No no NO! He was so careful - so tedious in trying to make sure that this never happened again. You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to monitor two handfuls of students t make sure they don’t tear eachother limb from limb, but not only was it difficult.

“No!”

It was downright impossible. 

Takashi pinched his bridge with his left hand; his right was fidgeting around in his pocket, but it could be seen form the indentation that he was shaking it in frustration. After a minute, he opened his eyes again, and looked around at the rest of the students.

“This wouldn’t have happened if we all just had a little bit of trust in one another. You think, being as many kids short as we were when this Hell started, that we would have learned to fucking trust eachother, and just listen to what we’re told. I’m not asking for blind faith here, I’m just talking about being- no you know what, forget it.” Takashi turned on his heel in almost perfect form; he wobbled a bit and nearly fell over, though.

“You all clearly don’t want my help. In fact, you’ve outright rejected it! Have fun poking around another dead body. There’s plenty of other places to investigate, and I’ll be there, solving this freaking murder for you again!”

It’s been three days since MonoMANU announced the motive. The threat was for the third day… and no one is dead. The city is tense. Will MonoMANU make good on its threats? Was it just bluffing? It seems as though twelve students have made the unspoken agreement to call the robot’s bluff.

In the afternoon, a message pops up on your ElectroID, summoning you to the theatre, and you know. You know it wasn’t bluffing. Nobody acted, and now someone must pay the price.

The mood is tense when the robot appears. “Well well well!” it exclaims, “It seems you’ve all picked the hard way to play, hmm? I told you not to take that outsider’s advice. Let’s see, let’s see… who’s going to get mangled first?”

On its screen, all of the students’ faces appear, and the robot cycles through them fast. No one is breathing. No one can breathe. The robot cycles through the pictures for what seems like hours, until it slows, and…

“Neo!” it cries.

Neo blanches. “Wh- what?”

All of a sudden, a pair of MANUs appear, smiles on their faces, and grab Neo in wicked metal claws. They drag the utaite forward – they’re kicking and shouting for help, but they can’t break free.

“Any of you try to help Neo,” says MonoMANU, “You’ll get yourself roughed up too!” Some of the ones who’d stepped forward to help pause, a pause long enough for Neo to be pulled right up to MonoMANU. “You like to play guitar, don’t you? You use it for your original songs, your precious, precious original songs. You want to make it big one day, right? Famous songwriter Neo? Pretty hard to do that when I break your fingers beyond repair!”

“No!” Neo shrieks, “No! Help me, please!” They thrash in the MANUs’ grip, their fans whirring at top speed in fear. In their desperate bids to escape, their limbs flail wildly, and-

There’s a thud, and everything goes silent. Neo’s kicked MonoMANU, hard enough to crack its screen.

“Ke… keke… kekeke…”

“Wh-”

“Now you’ve done it… You’ve broken my rule!” it cries, “No violence against the headmaster! I was lenient with Hayashi, but this time there’s no holding back!”

Neo screams as electrical currents surge through the android’s body. Their body goes rigid, and smoke billows out of their mouth, nose, and ears. Second after excruciating second ticks by, and finally the MANUs let go. Neo drops to the ground with a thud.

Shinno Kitaki is dead.

“Hrrngh! Hrraaah!”

25. Takashi was letting himself go. He hadn’t been through a hardy workout since his root beer meltdown with Hideki. It seemed like nobody else could see but himself (which was the case), though Takashi could feel a Russian gut forming by his stomach. 26. He had blamed the situation, and being too busy working out his brain coming up with ideas to get off of the christing moon! Admittedly, that does take considerable thought, but was no excuse he would take for becoming lax with his exercise. Why the sudden motivation. however? Well, that’s the word right there. Motive. 27.

The title of Marine Biologist isn’t tied to a specific part of the body. What would MonoMANU do to him in the event that he was unlucky enough to be chosen? Maim his limbs, cut out his tongue, or if they decided to not bother thinking which part mattered more to him, than simply lobotomized. Takashi didn’t like either option, but murder would always be the worse, in any scenario. 28. Speaking of, both scenarios required him to be in peak physical shape. Whether it was assisting in their escape, which would happen, or resisting whatever crippling punishment he may receive, his health was more important than ever. And as Takashi struggled to have his arms support his 29th rep of the sixty-something kilogram weight, he thought himself as too weak to do save anything. His goal... was thirty... and after he hit that he could start to work out his-

“OOooowwfffffffFFF-!!”

Purin had little to think about when it came to the mysterious message from an equally mysterious sender. After the initial surprise and commotion had ended, they found themselves pondering more important things, such as where to get their exercise in and how to handle everyone’s reactions to them being maskless.

So that was how they found themselves climbing a tree in the entertainment district’s park. At the base of the pine tree was Ian Fleming, the electric teenager’s electric sheep. It was doing its own sheep thing, just as usual. Purin walked it sometimes for the extra company (and to have an audience). Plus, in theory it was a good attack sheep. In practice, though, they failed to notice Ian Fleming stir until they themselves spotted Yukiko.

“Hey, Yu-- Licorice-chan! Ufufufu, think fast!”

It’s late in the day, and business as usual. Nothing changes on Apollo Luna, it just follows the same rhythms until MonoMANU interferes, and even then, there’s a rhythm to those times that have become awfully familiar.

Maybe you’re bored, maybe you aren’t, but the point is that whatever you’re doing this afternoon is something you have done before, many times before, simply because there’s not much else to do. You know you want out of here, but there doesn’t seem like much of a chance of that happening anytime soon, so the same-old-same-old it is. Maybe you’re looking for a change of pace, or maybe the pace has become frighteningly comfortable.

Whether you’re seeking it or not, the change of pace finds you.

Your ElectroID pings, telling you you’ve gotten a new message, but when you check, it’s not from any of the other students. It can’t be from MonoMANU either - it’s only been three days, it never sets out a motive less than a week after each trial.

The sender has no name attached, some anonymous sender. Intrigued, or apprehensive, you open it up.

I pro□□bly don't̻ have mͬuch ti□e ̸s͊o I ᷇ne□d you to read □h̝is and re□ember i͝t. You have to work to□□ther. Kil□□ng ̮each other and ̒liv□ng in distrust, th̫͝at's wha᷃t tͨhe̊y want. ̭You're all bet□□□ t̸han th̞at. Belie□e̒ in each ot□□r̜. You ca͡□ ͆do this.

All was silent on the western front. Purin sat outside the Demeter’s Bistro, eating synthetic mochi. They stuffed it in their mouth, facing away from the street. Even thought their talk with Tsukiko had left them feeling more confident, they still felt bare without a mask.

On the ground beside them was their new electric sheep, Ian Fleming. They had placed a gourmet salad on the ground, having failed to realize the sheep didn’t even eat food.

Ian Fleming baaed the warning signal, having heard the footsteps before Purin. The stunt double squeaked in surprise, stuffing the rest of the mochi in their mouth and then taking a big gulp of synthetic apple juice. They swallowed and then they slowly, oh so slowly, turned around.

”Um, hey! How are you...? I’m yes. Uh, I mean good!”

Was that supposed to be a smile? Whatever it was, it sure didn’t look flattering -- And that was from an object point of view.

In the early afternoon, you notice that something on your ElectroID card has changed! The security clearance colour has gone from blue to green.