ST☆RRE

The floor dropping out from under both Starres clears up any doubt you may have had about that idea that two people could possibly be executed at once. Then again, Sakiko had said so herself — the game had no consideration for their own individual identities.

As far as it was concerned, this was just an execution for Starre.

Same old screen; same old song and dance, though this time it was a duet. A single spotlight envelopes Tsukiko and Sakiko standing on clear ground — now wearing their masks, immaculately clean, just as Starre had always presented herself up until now.

Suddenly, the scenery changes. Like a scene out of a sci-fi movie, their surroundings glitch and pixellate into what appears to be a nighttime cityscape. Now, they stand on a roof, and twinkling stars speckle the sky above.

And then you hear sirens.

At some point, the new mayor left the courtroom; now you see them standing on a hovering platform above a horde of faceless policemen. They’re clad in a brown coat and a deerstalker, and after glancing down at the criminals below like one might regard trash on the road, they remove the bubble pipe from their lips say one thing.

“After them.”

[♫☆♫]

With a collective roar and thundering footsteps, the policemen give chase. The girls’ reaction is immediate — they take off, leaping from rooftop to rooftop and dodging obstacles with the speed and skill of people who have trained all their lives for this precise moment. Gunshots fire from the policemen — clearly this is absolutely necessary, since it is absolutely necessary for them to die in this execution. The chase is impressive to watch, but it can’t go on forever. You can’t help but wonder where the catch is.

The catch, it turns out, comes quite literally when their way after leaping to another rooftop is blocked by stone walls popping out of the ground around them — prison walls. With nowhere to go but down — and judging by how high up they are, that could only result in the execution ending prematurely — the criminal duo can only watch as the policemen come to a sudden halt at the edge of the building before them, aiming their weapons.

They don’t shoot, though. Instead, the new mayor blows more bubbles out of their pipe, and then drops it to the ground, where a loud rumbling noise precedes the rise of something out of the ground where the policemen stand, pushing some of them screaming off the side. The remaining policemen clear out of the way, revealing an enormous circus cannon emblazoned with a star on either side.

(There’s a Starre at the edge — in one swift and familiar movement movement, plunges her hands into her pant leg and pulls something out, bringing it to her teeth—)

The new mayor furrows their brows and says something to the policemen, but they’re too busy loading the gem into the cannon to listen to their instructions.

(And she throws it to the side, where it drops — one second, two, three, four —)

BOOM!

The entire structure shakes — not just the buildings, but the whole virtual reality, because that’s what it is, isn’t it — and you notice a gaping hole in the side of what’s supposed to be more cityscape, revealing the forest, of all things. While the new mayor and the policemen are distracted, the first Starre screams something at the second — the second shakes her head furiously, the first points again — until finally the first Starre picks the second up and, with all of the strength in her body, throws her into the side of the virtual reality, towards the hole. You see her just barely grasp the side and struggle to pull herself up — there’s gunfire directed at her, now, and there’s blood, but she still —

The camera cuts back to the Starre (Sakiko?) still on the roof, looking at the new mayor, a mischievous grin crossing her face. The new mayor kind of just… looks at her.

And she looks at them.

And they look at her.

And she looks at them.

They sigh, shaking their head, and give the order to fire.

The footage cuts out just before the cannonball makes contact, but the sickening splat resounding throughout the courtroom tells you all you need to know.

After some time passed and hushed whispers passed between the two —

(I’ve got to tell them — no, they don’t deserve it — stop it, I have to tell —)

— Tsukiko dislodged herself from Sakiko, gathered her courage, and addressed the courtroom.

“Um… I wasn’t here, but this was probably super confusing for you all, so… If you’ll listen, I’ll tell you exactly what happened, or at least, what I remember. Maybe it’ll help you figure out future murders better.

Rover… Rover-kun and I had talked about this before. Um — breaking into Shinai, that is. So with this motive threatening everyone there, he came up to me and said that, if we were going to do it, then it had to be now. And I agreed with him. But I hadn’t been able to find the hidden cameras — I knew there had to be hidden cameras everywhere, but they’re really well hidden — so that’s why we took the linens from Yu… from Kurosawa-kun and Usui-san’s rooms. I wanted to hide us from whatever cameras were there, so that the mayor or the mastermind or whoever would have a hard time figuring out what exactly we were planning.

Rover-kun and Ohara-kun had seen the entrance to the facility before. It looked like the mayor was the only one guarding the door. So he suggested that if we got rid of the mayor, then we’d be able to get inside without any trouble. I thought it was a really good idea because — because I didn’t think that killing the mayor would count — h-he’s not a student, why would we have a trial —”

Her voice caught, but she steadied herself, and then continued.

“… I asked… Abiko-kun to help us, too. We already knew he wasn’t the mastermind, and since he’s a robot, I thought he might give us a unique advantage over the mayor. He agreed to help us, so… We decided to spend the rest of the day tailing the mayor, seeing how he moved around. Setting things up. We even had code names. Ghost for me, Phoenix for Rover-kun, and… heh, Abiko-kun picked Yamada. We figured out that he knew a lot of secret paths throughout Meridian so he could get to places really fast. Abiko-kun set up weapons — his baseball bat, Rover-kun’s chainsaw — in the observatory, just in case things went bad. But really, we wanted to poison him with the tranquilizers from the kennels that Rover-kun had. We regrouped, and then went to put our plan into motion.

Abiko-kun set up a grenade trap near the facility entrance while Rover-kun distracted the mayor. Ohara-kun was helping us, too, so he was guarding the other grenades — I had four in the capsule. So Rover-kun was distracting the mayor, and I was going to sneak up on the mayor to inject him with the tranquilizer. But the mayor figured out something was going on, which… wasn’t good. He got mad. Really mad. And then he tried to leave, but Abiko-kun came back at that time… We told him to grab the mayor, but the mayor grabbed him, and then shot him…

Rover-kun got… super angry. He pulled out his — Ken’s — Uoya-kun’s — the sword. And he charged at the mayor, and cut his leg. The mayor went down, and I went to the closet, and I thought the mayor was going to kill us and I wanted to stop him so badly so I saw the chainsaw and I… I grabbed it… and I started it… and I went over to the mayor… and… I…”

(Screaming coming from her, screaming coming from the mayor, blood spraying into her mouth and all over everywhere —)

“… I killed him. Rover-kun wrote a message on the wall in the mayor’s blood — find the mastermind — I-I don’t know who the mastermind is, or why he wrote that, but he — he also drew on the mayor’s face. And Abiko-kun… I don’t remember much, it felt like everything was fast-forwarding and in slow motion at the same time. I remember going to the bathroom and getting rid of my ruined gloves, washing my face. I carry an extra pair of gloves with me most of the time. Then I met up with Abiko-kun and Rover-kun again, and we went to the facility. We blew up the door, and went down the stairs, and there was another door, and we blew that up, and then I realized Abiko-kun wasn’t with us, so Rover-kun went on ahead and I tried to go back to get Abiko-kun, but…

The explosions must’ve, like — the ceiling started falling, there were rocks everywhere, and I thought I was going to die I thought I was going to die there in the stairs underground — but I didn’t, I was just… stuck between the rocks, forever… And then I kept getting notifications on my keycard, I got the file for the mayor, and I freaked out so much because there wasn’t supposed to be a trial for him, a-and then Rover-kun — well, I didn’t think he was dead, but Abiko-kun — h-he must have been a lot more damaged than I thought, he died because I dragged him into this — and when that happened, I knew I had to get out. I don’t… I don’t know how I did it, but I felt the same adrenaline I feel whenever I’m in the middle of a heist. I managed to dislodge the rocks blocking my way and I ran, I fucking ran as fast as I could over here, but… but I was… too late…”

Tsukiko’s explanation devolved into dry hiccups, and she clutched at her own sides, trying to hold them in. Sakiko, on the other hand, stared at her in blank awe.

“So that’s what you were doing, that’s why you left… without even saying anything to me… ? W-Why… was it because we fought?”

“I-I’m sorry, Saki-nee… I was so mad, y-you didn’t think they were real, you — you kept talking about how we had to look out for ourselves, how we could only trust ourselves, and you kept trying to micromanage everything I did because you just wanted us to live and I — I — !”

Suddenly, Tsukiko looked up with renewed fervor.

“But it’s not her fault! Sakiko didn’t have anything to do with this murder! She really didn’t know anything, it’s my fault she was forced into this situation — so please! Don’t hate her for what I did! S-She was just… you were trying to protect me, weren’t you? E-Even after everything I did… everything I said… y-you just wanted to keep me safe, didn’t you… ? Please, please don’t hate her! I’m the one who killed the mayor and got Rover-kun stuck in Shinai and Abiko-kun killed!! She didn’t do anything wrong!!!”

And then Sakiko jumped in.

“No, I should apologize… I-I didn’t know that’s how you felt… everything, everything has been my fault —”

“Stop it!! Stop blaming yourself for everything, it isn’t your fault, I’m the reason why we’re being executed! Your life doesn’t revolve around me! You’re a person on your own, Saki-nee, why can’t you see that and just start acting like it?!”

That… now, that made Sakiko pause. Methodically, she put the grenade back in her pants and just… looked at Tsukiko, words feebly falling out of her mouth.

“… But… I tried, I… I trusted someone, I trusted Kayoko-chan… but she voted for us, s-she… she killed you… !”

Tsukiko glanced over at Kayoko, and then back at her sister.

“Exactly. She voted for me, not you. You’re innocent. I’m the one who killed the mayor. I’m the reason we’re about to die. If you should be mad at anyone, be mad at me!”

With that, Tsukiko whipped off her mask, revealing bloodshot eyes and a tearstained face smeared with dirt.

After a moment of just staring at her, Sakiko did the same.

“I… I can’t be mad at you, Tsuki, I just… I didn’t want you to die… I don’t want you to die… I don’t us want to die, I don’t want to die here… !”

But they would. They both knew that more than anything.

“Tsukiko Akatsuka!”

Instantly Starre’s head snapped up to stare directly at Mei — and down the barrel of an assault rifle pointed directly at her. Her heart plummeted down to her stomach, and she almost lost her grip on the handle of the grenade.

There were other things that Mei was saying — platitudes, that’s all they were, Starre had nothing left to live for so why should she care — but at the forefront of her mind was that name.

(Tsukiko Akatsuka.)

Shigure joined Mei in the standoff, pulling out a gun of his own, but she hardly registered it.

“T… That’s…”

(Tsukiko…)

“That isn’t… you don’t understand, I’m not trying to save myself, that’s not my —”

(Tsukiko was going to —)

Suddenly, an all-too familiar rickety creaking sound rang out from the door to the trial room; muffled at first, but became clearer and clearer. It was the sound of an elevator descending, but who… ?

The doors opened.

There was Starre — another Starre — hands on her knees, panting, covered in dirt, and absolutely drenched with blood.

“Hah — forgive me, I was — I was trapped, don’t — I can explain, don’t vote yet, we can work this out —”

And then she noticed all the weapons in the room.

“… What the hell — put those away, that’s dangerous, Sakiko, put that down — !”

Worn out as she was, the second Starre dashed over to the first, clasping the hand with the grenade and plucking pin out of the other, putting it back in.

“T… Tsukiko… ?”

“Now… I realize you all likely have many questions. I shall answer them to the best of my ability. But first I must ask you not to vote for me — for us — because —”

But she was interrupted.

“It’s too late, Tsukiko… They already… they’ve voted. They’re going to kill us, they’re going to kill you, Tsukiko, Tsukiii… !”

The first Starre, Sakiko, embraced the second, Tsukiko, choked sobbing noise wrenching themselves from her throat. Meanwhile, Tsukiko just… stood there, her expression twisting into one of horrified realization.

“… They voted? Oh my god. Fuck. Shit fuck dammit… ! Did you tell them about —”

“N-No, I couldn’t, t-they would have voted anyway because the game sees us as one person, a-and they’d have cared more about… about Rover than us, Tsuki, y-you’re going to —”

“D-Don’t make it sound like I’m the only one dying here, they’re going to kill you, too… !”

Tsukiko pulled Sakiko close, as though that would stop their impending demise.

Meanwhile… well.

“— I didn’t kill him, I didn’t kill him, I didn’t kill him —”

A yee-haw! from Kayoko’s side of the courtroom.

Starre looked up, eyes wide behind her mask, fixated on that one point.

“Su… Kayo… ko… ?”

That was it, then.

They had decided they’d rather risk their collective safety than dare vote for a boy who should have died long ago.

She was going to die.

(She was going to — !!)

She drew in a breath, hating herself for how shaky it sounded. Her shoulders trembled, and she hated herself for that, too. She just couldn’t be strong, could she? She’d lost it, she’d utterly lost it — and now she was going to lose the one thing that couldn’t be returned.

“Y… you all… h-hah, you have no idea what you’ve just done, do you… ?”

One step back. Two.

“You decided you’d rather protect… h-him, y-you don’t even know him, how could you know him, Kayoko, how could you… ?”

Her legs wobbled too much for it to be called standing still.

“You’d give him a victory, you’d have let him win, y-you… and you’ve killed…”

(Faces, places, flashing through her mind, and always at night. Always shrouded by masks. Always… them.)

“… heh… I won’t… I-I still… You won’t, you won’t, you decided you’d rather die than vote for him, so — !!”

In one smooth moment, Starre’s hand slipped into her pants, pulled out a green orb, brought it to her lips, and then lifted it high in the air.

[♫☆♫]

It was a grenade.

She pulled the pin from her teeth, and in a terrible voice, she shouted:

"Listen, Mayor! If you so much as lay a hand on her — if you take so much as a step towards me or her — I will not hesitate to destroy this entire courtroom, and kill down everyone in it! This is a live grenade! I’ve removed the pin — you have no power to stop it! From the moment they spared Rover, they’ve consented to their own deaths!”

Surely she wasn’t serious… She wouldn’t dare, would she?

(Everyone. Everyone had betrayed her in the end. Even —)

But in the world did she mean when she said—

Starre had only just begun doing internal damage control from her outburst when she was accused once again by Nyk, of all people.

“T-That’s…”

For once, she actually looked… scared?

“That’s… absurd, t-that — I didn’t kill him, I didn’t kill him, how can I… I don’t know who killed him, I didn’t kill him… !”

For the most part, Starre seemed content to just stand there in frustration — at least, until Toshio spoke up, at which point one would have seen her stiffen up ever so slightly, and briefly touch her mask.

(That line of gems dotting her mask — small white gems —)

“That’s ridiculous, why would I lie about losing my keycard?”

There was an edge to her voice, one that could only be attributed to that of a person who was slowly — or not so slowly — losing their cool.

And then, Kayoko, God bless Kayoko Tanaka, spoke up in her defense, pointing out something not even she had thought to bring up before.

“… Yes, of course. Such a crime would have been impossible to commit without getting absolutely drenched with blood. You may search my person as much as you like; you will not find a single speck of blood.”

She should have left it there. Really, she knew that she wasn’t in a good state of mind — how could anyone be, with votes punctuating what felt like every other sentence, so many that she could hardly keep up with who they were even for. Starre prided herself on her mental strength, but even she couldn’t bear the strain this trial kept loading onto her.

Something about what Mei said made something inside her snap.

“So… now you see what a problem protecting Rover was… Now you’re condemning the ‘third person’ for allegedly doing something you all were so desperate to do…”

“Well, why not die for him? It’s not as though you people are above sacrificing yourselves for ridiculous reasons, for people you barely even know — and now you care, content to just throw it away — if that’s the case, then why not vote for Chiyo? She’s said time and again that we can’t vote for Rover, we simply can’t vote for Rover — you really don’t think she would sacrifice us all just so Rover can escape? Because if you really think the killer would let themselves die for that — that red-haired lying brat — how stupid do you have to be?!”

She wasn’t making sense. She knew she wasn’t making sense. But her volume rose, and all the resentment that had built up since day fucking one just erupted from her throat like a geyser.

“None of you have any idea what you’re doing — none of you! You honestly think there’s a chance Rover could have done it?! Chainsaws require two hands! However strong he may be, he would have had to rev it up! You idiots — and I, I —” and her expression faltered, just a bit “— I was in my room the entire time! I didn’t leave, I did not commit this murder! I would never protect Rover! I have people that actually matter that I need to be alive so that I can protect them! So stop fucking voting for me!!”

Haruka may not have been threatening any physical harm, but Starre still pulled Kayoko protectively to her side when Haruka slammed the keycard onto her podium. She peered down at the image, mouth falling open into a slight “o,” but didn’t show any other signs of surprise. She didn’t even react when Haruka flipped her off.

She knew the girl didn’t like her. Why should she be offended by the personal opinion of someone she didn’t care about?

And still, people continued talking to her, however much it felt like they were actually just talking at her. All the while, she stood there, brows furrowed, gears turning in her mind with every word. Her head turned from person to person, arms still wrapped around Kayoko. She couldn’t be bothered to think of how out of place the display of affection was, especially coming from Starre of all people.

She listened, and looked, and when Mei was finally done brandishing that bastardization of what was apparently once Kimi Inaba, she found that she couldn’t bring herself to be impassive any more.

“This situation is precisely why we should have executed Rover in the first place. It’s disappointing that it took until now for you all to understand.”

Her arms fell from Kayoko’s torso, but she didn’t push her away. She was more focused on the frustration bubbling up in her chest at this whole situation — at these people, who just —

“I’ll say it as many times as it takes. I did not kill the mayor. All the ‘evidence’ you have right now is circumstantial. I. Did. Not. Kill. The. Mayor. Call me as many names as you like. This is the truth.”

Yeah, okay, repeating it is totally going to make people believe you, Starre.

“I also don’t think that Rover killed the mayor, because of the new mayor’s words — the killer is among the living. Think back to that trial where we realized Hinata and Seiji were missing. Did the previous mayor not say that the killer must be present at their trial? If they have the power to execute Rover even while he is in Shinai, they would certainly have the power to extract Rover for this trial.”

“There. I’m defending him. Does that change your opinion of me now? You all seem to love Rover so much, and despise the people who don’t share that unconditional sentiment, even at the expense of everyone’s safety. I never wanted you all to vote for Rover. What I wanted was for us to find the killer. In the event that we cannot, however, Mei is right — Rover does have a mark on his record already. He was certainly involved in this murder, and it is possible for us to execute him, according to the new mayor. I reiterate — I did not kill anyone. And if you think I did…”

Her tone turned dark, and her expression twisted into something nasty.

The flyer — the handwriting. Starre looked impassively on as Isamu addressed her in Haruka’s stead, and as Haruka herself addressed her with her actions, but in her mind, she was…

(Careless — !)

She even managed to keep a straight face when Chiyo all but accused her of murder, or at least being involved with the murder. However cold Starre’s blood ran beneath her skin, however much she wanted more evidence to come forth — and, to be quite honest, there probably was going to be more evidence to come forth — she couldn’t escape the immediacy of her situation.

… Being accused, that is.

“… I’m not pretending, Chiyo. I did not kill the Mayor. I did not kill him, or Mitsusuke, or anyone else. I really did lose my keycard in the forest. I’m telling the truth.”

She could go on, but — but what Toshio had said — she went over everything in her head, over and over, trying to piece together the precise string of sentences that would get everyone to just leave this train of thought alone.

That… wasn’t happening any time soon, though, was it.

“Does anyone have a photo of the note in the fort?”

Everything had devolved into chaos, but Starre could still pick out when she was being addressed.

“The linens in Ran and Yutaka’s — wait, you went into my room?”

Duh, Starre. That’s kind of what happens when you leave your door wide open. Honestly, she’d expected it, but that didn’t mean she had to be happy about it.

Seeing Kayoko so distraught made Starre’s heart twist sharply in her chest, more so than seeing somebody (something?) die right before her eyes. However desperately she wanted to rush over and comfort her, though, she remained rooted to where she stood. This wasn’t the time for such displays of emotion. Not from her. She’d been strong in trials before; she’d be strong now.

Especially when suspicion began to shift over to her.

Fortunately, Starre had had ample time to ponder what she would say in the event something like this came up.

“… Usually that would be correct, Chiyo, but in this case, I’m afraid to say you are wrong.”

What?

“After the motive announcement, I went into the deeper part of the forest on my own… where I encountered one of those horrific creatures. I managed to escape, but I realized soon after reaching safety that I had dropped my keycard in my haste, which I had been using as a makeshift flashlight. I was… able to convince the previous mayor to permit me entry to my room one time only, but since I wasn’t sure if the new mayor would do the same, I propped open the door both to Owlet and my own room during the investigation. Some of you may have seen that.”

“I never removed any linens from Ran’s and Yutaka’s rooms, for the party or otherwise. I didn’t even realize they were missing… So, to answer your question more fully, whoever came into possession of my keycard must have been the one who entered Owlet and removed the linens.”

She gritted her teeth, glancing back at Isamu.

“The new mayor said that the killer was among the living, not that the killer is alive. Rover may be alive, but he is not among the living — he is not among us. The true killer is likely somewhere in this room.”

A pause.

“… I’d like my keycard back, thank you.”

Although Starre’s investigation didn’t go the way she wanted to, she couldn’t say that she really had any high hopes to begin with. Besides, she did manage to find out some… rather interesting things. That had to count for something, right?

So why did she feel so… lost?

When she entered the elevator and subsequently the courtroom, she had the air of someone trying deliberately to stay out of anyone’s direct line of sight. A befitting characteristic of a thief, perhaps, but she was a phantom thief. Here, though, she had to play detective. So, going against her entire reason for her existence, Starre slunk over to her podium and just… stood there, listening, as she had done so often before.

Listening.

Calculating.

(And, uh, sticking her leggy out real far when Chiyo was making the rounds. Thanks.)

Eventually, though, Kayoko’s name came up as a… suspect?

“Nyk… If you don’t have anything useful to add to the discussion, then I’d advise you to keep your mouth shut.”

Jeez.

“I can vouch for Kayoko’s testimony, as I was with her when we discovered Seiji. I, too, believe that Rover is alive.“ way to sound unenthused starre "At any rate, about the note… We can discuss aliases all we like, but has nobody noticed the times written down? The timeframe appears to be from 6:00 — 6:13, whereas the mayor was killed at 12:00 AM. I can’t say whether the time on the note was meant to refer to the morning or evening, but since the motive was delivered less than twenty-four hours ago, I’d hazard a guess that whatever activities this note indicated took place in the evening. Did anyone see anything suspicious around that time?”

She paused, allowing others a chance to answer her question and gathering her own thoughts, but then —

CRACK!

“M-Mitsusuke?!”

She’d known, of course, that he was a robot, but seeing him go down like that, so inhuman —

(And she’d known he was injured, she’d spoken to him, but she didn’t think he’d — !)

Still, she didn’t move from her podium, instead gripping the sides as though to keep herself anchored in place. She could only watch.

(Not even when the ping of keycards being updated resounded throughout the trial room did she make any move at all to pull out her own.)