#cc open

The crowd in the movie theater was quick to disperse following MonoMANU’s announcement. Though some lingered behind to have their questions answered, it was not long before the area was abandoned, left behind for better spaces to properly realize the severity of the motive, and what exactly was at stake...

Well, almost abandoned.

E.L.L.A finds themselves wandering the theater, examining the posters of films long gone hanging upon it’s pristine walls. A exact replica of a mid-twentieth century cinema, a precise copy of architecture near extinct due to the combination of destruction caused by The Tragedy, and the plain disrepair and rot 164 years could bring, and they couldn't even get themselves to properly focus on it. A shame, really.

The removal of something vital to your talent...in their case, they found it somewhat hard to be concerned. Replacements for lost IO parts were easy to come by now in days, so it wasn't as if disabling their eyes, or ears, or whatever else was required in order to properly observe others would be permanent. Yes, they doubted their captor would provide these things to them so easily, but with the added factor of a mysterious benefactor attempting to rescue them, they doubted they could really be inconvenienced for very long.

If they were drawn in the lottery, all that had to be done was adapt. Adapt and ensure that they won’t be seen as a potential target for murder-

The sound of footsteps upon tiles interrupt their thoughts, finding themselves turning to see where they had originated from.

Neo sat against the wall at the crossroads in the middle of the street, staring upward. It was dawn, and pale, fake light gradually replaced the starry, real sky. Moe and Tsukiko had been dead for a few hours now, and Neo didn’t know what to think anymore than they did previously. One thing was for sure, though: they hadn’t even tried to sleep, for they knew that they would fail. While they could plug into their recharger and forcibly power down, it wouldn’t be a comfortable sleep, and they didn’t want to imagine the nightmares.

Instead, they had been thinking, about what Moe had said to them before she had died. 

It’s okay, I think. To… want people to know you? And… being nervous about it… and stuff. But… you just told me, right… Kitaki-kun..?  So… I know you.

Did Neo even know Neo anymore? Was there ever a Neo at all? Were they Neo, or were they Shinno Kitaki? It was hard to tell. They had been hiding behind ‘Neo’ for so long...

So maybe it was time to stop hiding. Who knew how long they would continue to live? Death was so close in Apollo Luna, and life was cheap. If they died here...

Grandpa and grandma... Ken and Itsuka Kitaki had built Neo with their own hands so that they could have a child, and they named that child Shinno, 新之, Shinno with the character for new. New life, a new experience, a new human being created with love and care. It was why they had chosen the pseudonym Neo, for it also meant new, but it... it just wasn’t the same. It covered their name with something else, their name chosen so deliberately, their name which carried the history of the Kitaki family.

With new resolve in their mechanical heart they decided that from now on they would be Shinno Kitaki and they would be proud of it. They stood slowly, and as they did so they registered that someone was nearby.

Two. Two potentially game changing secrets that had been revealed to the Anthropologist. She could have thanked Shou for revealing it, if the timing hadn't been concurrent with a trial for murder. The tension that had encompassed the room made it near impossible for them to determine who was reacted to the tap dancer’s revelation, and not at any of the other revelations actually relevant to the trial.

They find themselves in the salon, laid down against  the massage table as one of the MANUs on hand worked out the tensions of the investigating all nighter. But the slacking of their body seemed to do nothing for the questions that swilled through her mind.

...Shou was out, considering he received the secret, and he at least seemed smart enough to not try and pass off their own secret as the one given to them. Also excluded was Neo, Purin, Tsukiko...They would have been able to feel it with Moe’s body...Hideki, Hideki was a maybe. But seeing his concerns had more to do with his name, they placed him in the “Not likely” column for now.

So, that would then leave them with seven people who were potentially an android.  And the number of suspects they had for their own secret was....seven people. 

Great.

Clearly more information had to be reviewed and uncovered before they came to a conclusion. Their attempt to recollect what was written about their classmate in their public bios on the school website was interrupted by the sound of the salon door opening.

No! He had patrolled, hadn’t he? Takashi had been all around the campus and the commercial district that day, seen just about everyone, It would be stupid to even think he hadn’t seen anyone suspicious, and that means that this scenario could not have happened. Yet here he was thinking it, at the base of the lake, and against the sight of what floated in the water just so he could keep his hypothesis status ambiguous. 

“No... That’s impossible.” Did anyone here the bell? The telling sign that Moe was definitely dead? Takashi hadn’t. Too many people were staring at the scene for there to not be an alert. Their captor was dilligent and cunning, and surely would have sounded it as soon as appropriate.Moe had to still be alive!

Takashi threw off his coat in one fluid motion, appropriate since it ended up skimming the edge of the pond anyways, then sprung into the lake with good form. His motion made him appear like a creature that belonged there. The ocean did practically raise him, and it showed in every stroke. He grabbed Moe’s head and shook it around. Non-responsive. Could be unconscious, but they needed to be back on land to do anything about it. With one hand on the hoodie and the other pushing against her back, Takashi swam Moe to shore. This was no Hasslehoff rescue. Everyone was in panic, and a life was in danger, at best. Takashi didn’t bother calling for help when he practically tossed Moe’s waterlogged body out of the water and into the grass, himself following shortly after.

“Somebody here specializes in medicine, right? I need some help! Somebody has to help me, damn it! We need to get air into her lungs. Keep count for me!”

"Kaoru-san...."

How had it ended up like this? Clive wondered as he stared down at the section of road that had swallowed up Kaoru Hayashi mere moments ago. Today had been one disaster after another it seemed.

Earlier that day, everyone had received two secrets as MonoMANU's latest motive, one of their own and one of their classmates. And while Clive's was not something he'd kill for, it was very upsetting to see put in text, and he'd felt miserable since the motive announcement. The other secret he'd recieved had hardly been on his mind at all, except when Purin had texted him to ask about their secret. He'd agreed to meet up with them, but had time to kill and had spent most of it moping. Until he'd run into Kaoru.

He didn't know the gamemaster very well, but she seemed like a kind person, and when she'd offered to try and cheer him up, he really couldn't refuse. Tossing a very bouncy looking ball of elastics seemed like it could be fun...But it'd all gone wrong.

The ball had slipped from Kaoru's hand, and Clive had failed to catch it and the ball had crashed into a display case, breaking the contents.

And that's how it'd all gone to hell. MonoMANU had shown up, and called all the students to the shop and Kaoru had been killed with a trap door. Somehow he'd escaped with his own life but...He shouldn't have. It was his fault Kaoru was dead. He'd Jinxed her, somehow. Usually his luck wouldn't allow him to escape from that unharmed, so he must have stolen hers. He'd jinxed her and now she was dead.

They stared down at the ElectroID in their hands. Stared at the words on the scree. Stared at the secret... It wasn't even bad, it was just... it was private! Nobody had any right to know this sort of thing! They would deal with it when they were ready!

And the other secret... No, they didn't want to know this! It was- it was horrible! They had no right to know this, and someone else doubtlessly wanted this hidden! They chucked the ElectroID away from them. 

Oh, god, they couldn't breathe. The fans in their chest whirred fast and hot, forcing their breathing to quicken and their heart to pound hard. They scurried to gather it up and then fled from the lounge.

They bolted from the campus and were headed straight for their apartment, where they could hide under a cocoon of blankets and cry crocodile tears until l they burned themselves out on emotion in general. They ran as fast as they could and-

Their foot missed a step and they fell forward, slamming their front into the stairs up to their apartment, winding them.

Hikaru Sato had been dead for a whole day now. That meant, according to the paper on which Neo was writing the date every morning, it was the 12th of April. Nothing interesting had happened on the 12th of April that they knew of, but there it was.

They had claimed the apartment over the games shop yesterday afternoon and had spent all day moving their things out of the dorm room, without touching any of their roommate's. With the revelation that there wasn't really an Osamu Toriyama, they felt like they didn't know the boy they had shared a space with for over a week. They hadn't touched any of Osamu's things, either; that was all left there, a memory of the dead boy. But by about eleven in the evening, the other half of that room was completely empty.

Neo awoke to an apartment filled with piles of things that had just been dumped on the floor and, after going back to the dorm kitchen and having something for breakfast, they had gotten to work finding places for things. By the time they were done, the apartment was organised and cozy. Yes, Neo could live here. It was a satisfying feeling. If they just focussed on the room, they could almost forget about this place's atrocities.

It was about noon now, and Neo rested on the wooden steps that led up to their new lodgings, leaving against the wall of the games shop, enjoying the warmth of the day, and thinking about life. It was almost calm. Almost. But their spirit was still a little uneasy.