#pjopen

Although Enou had been delivered to the scene of the announcement, he didn’t see to have much of a response either to being toted or to the apparent upcoming sacrifice.

“.............”

Try to impress me just this last time, got it? The bear’s words were in Kirie’s mind as he looked at the brutal scene before him—three of his classmates dead, an unwelcome stranger with an unsettling smile . . . was this truly the end? 

“No . . .” Kirie eyed Aiko’s lifeless body with discomfort. The memory of Kyohei’s gruesome state was enough to make Kirie wince right there, a hand flying up to his mouth as his mind reeled. More than anything, he knew he needed to keep going, to push forward just as he had been telling the others. Who was this girl who called herself Yin? Who would pay for this series of murders? If this was to be their last investigation, their last trial, Kirie would summon every ounce of strength he had to reach the end.

“No one . . . no one here would do such a thing!” Kirie clutched the front of his shirt, forcing himself into a steady stance. Drawing in a shaky breath, Kirie extended a hand to point to Yin. Even from such a short time, he knew she was dangerous, but he addressed her all the same. “If you did this to our friends,” he started quietly, “then we will find out. That’s a promise.” Kirie gave an assured nod before turning to face the other students. “Please . . . we can’t lose to this now. For Yoshida-san, Tachibana-san, Noriaki-san . . .“ A pained look crossed his features. “Miki-san, Yoshinoya-san, Morikawa-san, Ishikawa-san, Senge-san . . .” 

“We can’t forget them. We can’t let them down . . . so let’s finish this!” Kirie straightened himself up with an impassioned look of determination in his eyes. He looked at every face around him, every classmate he had come to know since they had woken up in this building so many days ago. 

Her smile continued, even despite the reactions of the students. While she could mostly detect glares, she ignored them, deciding that it was best to be positive.

Hahaha, who was she kidding, she hated being positive! Suffering brought her joy, and she wanted to milk the despair from each and every one of the students, living or dead.

"I'm sure you all have questions for me, such as, 'who are you', 'why are you holding a dead body', and 'where did you come from'? Well, that's the funny part! I'm a lot of people, actually! I'm Yuu, I'm Chiasa, I'm Aito, and more recently, I'm Aiko! But, since you lot love your names and all of that, you can call me Yin. That's what I was told I was named, anyway. Might as well stick with it, y'know?"

She let that sentence sink into their brains for a bit. Most of them had to be confused by this point. She liked that. Their slow intelligence, the way they failed to keep up with her. It was all so rich, so beautiful.

"Now, where did I come from? Well, I've been here, sleeping! This is my home, after all! As for the body, well. I needed it. One lucky customer gets a freeeeeee answer as to why! But first, let me alleviate the rest of the confusion!"

She didn't even notice the blood on her hands as she spoke. While she wanted to clean it off, as the feeling of dried blood bothered her immensely, she wanted to play the goody-two-shoes part for a bit and help these chumps figure out what was going on.

"No, I did not kill Aiko, but do I know who did it? Weeeeeeell... that's for me to know and for you to find out, huhuhuhu! After all, you hold trials for a reason! No use breaking that rule now, right?"

She giggled, a high-pitched laugh that seemed genuinely cheerful. She was sure they would buy it, even if she did look like a murderer.

There wasn’t muh Haru could at that point. Except there was, but it was a disgusting idea. Why was she considering that? It was disgusting. She wasn’t a bad person, after all, was she? If she could... If she could, she’d ask Monobear to kill just her and free everyone. Her parents would understand, wouldn’t they? It’d be a needed sacrifice, wouldn’t it?

Was this... even a motive? Misato wasn't sure - the bear just seemed to tell people to kill. Surely nobody would kil-

Wait, no, she thought that before. And she was proven wrong time and time again. So, by Murphy's Law, someone would kill. This was an all-or-nothing situation, really. It's almost as if whoever killed would be helping them find out who was behind all of this. Not really a favor, but it worked out in its own weird way.

Rather than heed the words of the bear, she decided it would be best to just act as if nothing happened, and so she plopped down at the cafe, patiently waiting for someone to come and talk to her. Once she heard the footsteps of someone approach her, she turned and smiled at them. She hadn't worn her scarf since Yuu died. It felt wrong to, honestly.

Haru was growing tired of all that death. At first she thought all those deaths made her physically sick. Then she realized she got physically sick physically sick. Right, it was probably stress, wasn’t it? Haru’s mother once told her something about stress lowering your immunity or something like that. Made sense, she used to be pretty healthy before... Stuff happened. Then her health worsened. Granted, she didn’t get sick all that often, but before... Well, before that, she almost didn’t get sick at all. It’s amazing really. So she was very useful and stayed in her room resting and crying.

He had to do it.

He had to go and protect her.

Misato didn't know if she was pissed, or if she was flattered. It almost seemed like a mix of the two.

Fuck Chiasa Matsushita. For killing Yuu, for killing the one fucking person here she loved.

Accident or not, she wanted to find Chiasa's corpse and snap her spine.

How she even remotely considered liking Chiasa, she would never know. How Yuu liked her, even, was beyond her as well.

Everything... stung. She felt dead inside, almost, like a part of her was dead when Yuu passed.

He should be here right now, standing here. Not her. She didn't know what his letter meant - how was she supposed to help when nobody trusted her?

Even when he was dead, he was still an idiot. But he was her idiot, so she would try to make him happy. For once.

She wanted to go on a date with him. But it was too late, now. She didn't even have a picture of him, nothing. He was just... gone. Like he didn't exist in the first place, like he was just a figment of her imagination.

Her tears were bitter. She hadn't cried since... since the orphanage. Did anyone here even know about that? Did she even tell Yuu about it?

How many regrets did she have to live with? How many times did she have things she wanted to do, but couldn't? Is this what it was like to... to feel, to be human? How had she missed out on this?

And then she remembered. Him. The man who set her on this path, the man she sent to hell. It was his fault. She was only ten when her mom died, and when she ended his life. She hadn't lived with regrets after that; she felt everything was perfect, and that vengeance solved everything. But now... now she was unsure. Maybe Yuu knew that sacrificing himself would help but. Knowing him, she doubted it.

Any other trains of thought were interrupted by someone approaching her. She assumed they heard her crying, or just wanted to explore with her. Either way, Misato had to put on a brave face, like Yuu wanted her to.

One of the first things Kirie had done after trial was collect the letter Yuu had left for him—it was an unusual thing, intruding on the darkened bedroom of a deceased classmate, but there was not much that wasn’t unusual about their circumstances. Kirie noticed that a few letters had already been claimed when he reached Yuu’s room. After returning to his own room to read it, the boy did not emerge until the following day.  This was becoming routine—a murder, a trial, a new floor . . . but that did not make Kirie any less wary as he travelled the halls alone. Part of him was curious about what might be on the newly opened floor, but when he arrived, he began to wish he had never opened that door.  The foul odour was noticeable even from where he stood, and it only grew stronger the closer Kirie crept to the locked doors. Taking a thick grasp of his fur coat, he pulled it up over his mouth and nose and moved towards the centre room. 

Kirie reeled back at the sight. Blood and the charred remains of a room stretched out in front of him—the sight was so gruesome that Kirie didn’t even take notice of the game machines and ball pit at first. Clenching his teeth, Kirie stumbled back in disgust and let the doors close. 

Noticeably paler, he turned to make his way back to the lower floor when he noticed a classmate entering from the stairs.