Ika blinked, not recognizing what happened really. "[Mr. Shiloh Lee? Are you okay?]"

Jasper tried his best to help Shiloh Lee down gently, but he managed to push away, take a few steps, before he went down.

"[Shiloh Lee!]" he screamed, loud, quickly falling to his knees. Jasper tried to adjust him to his back, in a panic.

His eyes were unfocused and his breathing was even more shallow and raspy. At first, he didn’t seem to be responding, but as Jasper started to roll him to his back he managed another "[S-sorry....]" But it was barely a whisper. 

"[Babe, baby, what's wrong, please-!]" Jasper was hyperventilating, panicking.

"[L... love....]" And then Jasper's hands were on his chest in an attempt at CPR. He grunted at the pressure at first but wasn’t really responding to it, almost like he wasn’t even processing that Jasper was freaking out. He was kind of just... laying there, but his lips started to try to move; it was just little wisps of breath escaping right then with the force of each push.

"[Shiloh Lee, speak, please, please, please, please, please!]"

Shiloh Lee’s chest compressed and relaxed with each faux pulse Jasper gave, but the longer time passed, the hollower Shiloh Lee’s eyes seemed to become.

"[Sh-Shiloh Lee, Shiloh Lee I love you, I love you so much, please, please hold on!]" He was practically screaming, hyperventilating, as tears were freely flowing down his cheeks. He quickly pressed his lips to Shiloh Lee's, not a kiss, but trying to blow oxygen into his lungs. He pulled back and pressed on his chest again. "[Shiloh Lee, keep speaking baby, please, please!]"

"No. No. No." Tadao sucked in a breath, checked his pulse, and pushed Jasper to the side in order to do some CPR themself.

It was useless, they knew it was.

"Fuck. Naloxone? Nalmefene? Do any of the infirmary areas have those?" They asked.

"[NO!]" Jasper screeched, and shoved Tadao away. "[Don't don't I don't want him hurt I don't want anyone hurting him!]" He was screaming, shaking, absolutely in full on panic mode. His hat had long since fallen off. He was shaking, he was covered in tears... He was a mess. He screamed, just a pure, pain-filled scream, and pressed on Shiloh Lee's chest a few more times, before trying to breathe into his mouth again. "[PLEASE!]"

Shiloh Lee's eyes weren’t moving and trying to focus anymore, and there was no breathing. No response. "[Shiloh Lee, you can't, you can't, you can't!]" Jasper was screaming, pressing on Shiloh Lee's chest uselessly.

"I know more than you." Tadao used all of their strength to push Jasper away. Which was a lot, he was going to be bruised.

They knew it's no use and too late, but they started CPR anyways, Shiloh Lee's ribs cracking under the pressure.

The intercom crackled to life again.

“This is… unprecedented, but is my duty to inform you all that another body has been discovered in Lodge One. We will be sending you the file momentarily. You may wish to make your way there, but as investigations are already underway I do not believe another formal gathering is required.”

“[NO!]” Jasper screams. He falls to the ground, screaming, sobbing, as he pulls at his hair.

As Tadao, Jasper, and Shiloh Lee moved their way into the common area of Lodge 1, Shiloh Lee found himself stumbling and struggling to continue walking. Jasper quickly went over to support him, putting an arm around his waist. "[Shiloh Lee, what's wrong?]"

It took a moment for Shiloh Lee to respond. It looked like he was shaking. "[...I... I uh.... 'm fine, d'worry.]" His words were more mumbled and slurred than usual, and he seemed a bit dazed.

"[You don't look fine, you don't sound fine,]" Jasper replied. He tightened his hold on Shiloh Lee. "[Babe, what is it?]"

Shilloh Lee trembled while Tadao exchanged a few words with Ika in a foreign language, as Ika peered out from Shiloh Lee’s bedroom. Tadao stopped their conversation and turned to address Shiloh Lee, instead, the more pressing topic.

"[Hang on.]" 

Tadao kneeled next to Shiloh Lee and tried to take his wrist in order to check his pulse, feeling his clammy skin upon contact.

Ika left the door cracked and joined up with them, wondering what was up. "[What's happening?]"

"[H-He just started feeling sick, I don't... I don't know...]" Tears started to form in Jasper's eyes as he panicked. "[Babe, please, please what... What's wrong?]"

"[Do you need water maybe?]" Ika asked.

"[What did he take. How much.]" Tadao addressed Jasper from their position next to the couch.

"[I-it's, ah....]" Shiloh Lee trailed off, forgetting where that was going. His wrist was pretty limp in Tadao's hand, and he leaned hard on Jasper. "[D... ah... f-fuck, sorry,]" Shiloh Lee's eyes grew increasingly unfocused and his breathing became shallow. Instead of cooperating and sitting down, though, he tried to push away and take a few steps as if insisting that he was okay and could keep going.

Everyone heard it, and at this point, everyone knew what it meant. Somebody was dead, and another trial would start up soon. They would investigate the grisly scene of the crime, and then decide which of their own had butchered another, sending the murderer to their death. Most likely, none of you were excited about it. Hopefully so, at least. Perhaps a few were happy that it had occurred before something could happen to them? Maybe somebody was hoping the body was of somebody they disliked? Whatever you all felt at the moment, everyone made their way to the lake, to find the corpse that awaited you.

There, on the shore of the pristine, clean lake, lay the small body of a manmade cyclops. Aite, or Sorano Amanjaku as most of you now knew, was a bloody, messy, lifeless body in the sand. Every inch of their body was utterly soaked, and a trickle of water ran from the corner of their mouth onto the ground beneath them. The regular boring hoodie they had always worn was replaced by a cool blue sonic aesthetic hoodie, now stained with partially matted blood along a sweeping gash on their side. Traces of blood clung to their wrinkled hands, and a sandal was missing from one of their feet. Angry, and terrified, their eye looked up at the false sky above, frozen in that gruesome state.

Whoever had killed Aite, it seemed did not do so peacefully, or quickly. Neither did they leave you a pretty body to investigate, but at least fate had caused it to drift near the lake shore so that it may be found at all. It was likely a few of those who were here now, looking at this scene, were happy, in some twisted manner, to find it was Aite to join the victims of this game. A fleeting comfort, as soon another would join them, innocent or not. Even in death, Aite was dragging somebody to hell with them. Hopefully, it would be their killer who did so.

In the midst of the deep, dark forest… It seems like the start of a fairy tale. One where children walk hand in hand and climb the trees and have fun adventures for years to come, where fairies, pixies and magical folk pop out and dance and where evil beings lurk only to be defeated and banished in the end. One where everything was all good in the end, where evil was gone, all gone.

And this forest could have been magical too, if not with gnomes and talking creatures then with the chirping of birds and the ruffle of leaves as a small animal dashed through. Yet it is silent, devoid of movement, devoid of… Life.

It could have been a fairy tale. But you, my dears, are not so lucky.

In the midst of the silent, shadowy, motionless, morbid, deep, dark forest, a horror story began.

Yoshiro Watanabe, the one who held life and death between his fingers, who fought for people to live throughout all his own life, lies motionless with blood oozing out of his wounds and a hand hanging near his eyes. Hours before he was changing bandages, preventing blood from being spilled and relieving pain to the best he could. While you may hate him, like him, love him, it’s hard to deny that he worked hard for the lives he was destined to save.

And yet he couldn’t save his own.

Isn’t it ironic that he died in a place with no life at all?

The room was definitely supposed to be locked. So Kurokuma had been referring to this, right? A room for the stars and the studying. The peace and the care. Plenty had spent tranquil times in this room, and the body inside was perhaps tranquil as well.

Inside the gaping doorway of the observatory, laid a girl right towards the center of the room.

Ochako Senchamoto cuddles her knees to her chest, damp with water the spread onto the floor beneath her. A strong and calm girl with a changed heart. She’d done plenty of things in her far past, but had shown no intentions of doing so again in her future. Yet… something happened to leave her lying there, on the ground motionless. For who knows how long.

The rest of the room seems still, peaceful, accentuating her body in a morbid manner. Pieces put into place, nothing along the walls or floors. It was haunting.