trying to make a dollar out of 15 dreams

Another death, another day.

When the bear had oh-so-kindly escorted the bunch of them to where the newest addition to the skeleton war, Katsuki continued to hide under a modified blanket, with only three holes for their own needed purpose, while it reached down to their hips. It wasn’t like they weren’t allowed to not do that– and no one had told them that it was weird this week. Then again, they didn’t bother to go anywhere for the longest time.

(…They really should get over it. But human emotions were so stubborn, and not even psychologists are free from the cycle of grief! In time– perhaps in time, they’ll be fine.

…

…Aaaaaaaaaas if they weren’t already fine!!)

At the sight of the corpse, they were eerily silent, standing as perfectly still as they took in the whole scene. The smell of blood in the air, how the corpse was just… doing everything that human limbs should never do. The state of the neck– my, they were staring very intently at that, before checking their card for the file.

…

“…”

They casually pulled the blanket off themself at the sight of the corpse, tossing it into the air as they quickly grabbed the edges, and folded it in half, before repeating it until the blanket was small enough for the positive psychologist to place it over the handles of their scooter.

And they had a grin on their face as they started down at the horrifying scene of this week’s newest murder.

…

…They didn’t really look like themself, did they?

“My, my my–” they winced at the sound of someone screaming, sliding on their headphones– which are not in the sprite because I fucked up, “–my goodness gracious! Isn’t this just a little twisted? Now, this is the part where everyone investigates this case right down to it’s bare bones, no? And give some helping hands to others– and put your best foot forwards! Or in this case, do the opposite of that–”

They clapped their hands together in a seemingly gleeful manner.

“…I guess I should save my jokes for the trial, no?”

With that, they strolled on over to Aideen with scooter in hand.

“Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey Aideen! What did the medulla say to the pons?” They don’t even let her give them an answer– “Darling, you’re all I dream about!”

im so funny. they probably slap their own knee because they found it funny

Shion Tsuzuki.

The resident thereminist, and one of their classmates. She appeared to have been close to the late Kenichi Kagata and Daisuke Fujiwara. Capitalist, doesn’t understand English. Doesn’t like insects. No, probably despises insects.

A list had appeared in the psychologist’s mine as they heard the thereminist speak of all the possible notes that they could take on her from the times that they’ve been around her. And it was rather lengthy in size! Most people did, after all.

Katsuki clearly heard the malice that was hinted in the other’s voice– but they could care less about that. At least they got an answer to their question, rather than being ignored by most of the class. Hah, maybe people were going to keep their distance now! Wouldn’t that be great?

(And you can go back to the blissful little facade that you had before coming here.)

“Thank you, Shion Tsuzuki.” Their voice was cold in comparison to their usual tone, which exhibited something… well, warmer that that. “I hope you have a pleasant day.”

With the removal of their scarf and a cough, they carefully exited out of the elevator to take a look in the direction that Shion had oh so graciously directed them towards.

“Ayacchan… you might not want to look…”

They stopped briefly at the sound of Yui, eyes casted down with a very blank expression on their face. Not want to look? That meant the worst had happened, no?

…

Their head was blanking at the moment.

“No– I’m not going… to not look away. I might as well…”

(But you could save yourself the pain.)

As soon as they saw the pile of debris with a charred person-like corpse on it– they– they–

…

…Were they supposed to cry? In front of people?

(denial could be one but they knew that it wouldnt bring back the dead. nothing can. the people who are dead– stay dead. especially if they’ve been burnt into a crisp. god–)

Of course, they planned out how to react to something like this if it ever came up– but those were incomplete for many, many years. It had been… years since the case closed for her incident, but there was no way that they could prepare for something like this. Even if they were warned– even if they knew that this would eventually happen, and that they had to prepare on saying goodbye to someone without getting to talk to them one last time– 

They just had no clue on what to do.

It was too soon of a goodbye– hell, they didn’t even get to talk to her again– even if it was a text. Those texts that they had sent upon waking up at some point… they never sent, did they?

[text] jazzy did the trial end

[text] uugh i feel so sick … talk to me later, okay?

…

what do i say what do i say what do i say what do i say?

So they–

“…Hahaha…”

–did the same thing that they always did.

no no that is not what i should do dont–

“What a shock! Honestly, I’m actually surprised… I sure didn’t think that you’d… kick the bucket before me, Jazzy!”

And they thought that joking about it would relieve the ache in their heart. However–

but newsflash: joking about your crush being fucking dead is never going to numb the pain because you have to face reality ___

you can’t just ignore and joke about the idea that she’s fucking dead and you weren’t there at the trial because you were fucking sick and look– look! she’s dead! and you couldn’t– you can’t–

you… can’t tell her that you ______ her anymore. you fucked up, ____. you fucked up. you fucked up. what utter BULLSHIT–

–they felt like the world really, really hated them.

(And it was justified, after all.)

“…I was hoping you didn’t. I wished you lived for another day. But I can’t do much about it now. I… can’t really do anything now. I…”

Was Katsuki talking to a corpse? Yes, yes they were.

“…Goodnight. Sweet dreams, Jaz. At least, that’s what I wanted to say to you again. But not like this– not like this.”

cough cough

…

They didn’t have anything else to say.

And they slowly picked up a piece of the debris that Jaz was lying on, and took it with them, before scootering right on over to the elevator.

Trial Island.

Wonderful place, isn’t it? By that, it was probably a place that many students would rather skip, if not for the lingering threat of punishment for those who do so. However, attendance was something that was demanded– or rather forced from every student, unless with reason not to attend.

But there were those who decided to skip the trial regardless of this threat.

And they ended up in the same manner that an unfortunate person would have to face after being voted on by the rest of their peers.

By this time, every single student should be aware of the punishment that came along with an unexcused absence. It wasn’t a detention, nor it was additional homework (wouldn’t that be better than this?) but rather–

Ding!

The elevator doors finally opened.

And a voice called out to everyone when the doors opened, a small, but audible–

“…Hello?”

[♪♪♪]

…

…

…

Outside of the elevator doors stood a familiar (or rather, strange) figure in white, their mouth covered with a scarf. A scarf? Why a scarf? Well, for good reason. Their stance was uneasy, their face was ghostly pale– they didn’t look like they were fit to be standing, to say the least. Despite the scarf partially covering the person’s face, almost anyone (by name or by their sins) would have instantly known that this was the missing person from the trial.

(Wouldn’t they be punished for skipping soon?)

But there was no punishment or bear claws extended to serve a swift punishment. Instead, Katsuki Ayano stood there, unscathed by any visible wounds, injuries, and was certainly

alive.

(Unfortunately. Hey, wait, were they riding a scooter– with sandals?)

“… Hello? Hello…? Is… that the right word? I am rather confused at the… moment.”

Their words were muffled, and their voice was very hoarse, but they tried their best to be as audible as they could possibly be. After all, being sick while trying to speak is difficult in most cases– especially with a scarf around their mouth.

“As… evident in everyone’s departure from the trial room.“ A wheeze. "A… um… oh, right. Apologies. It’s rather… hard to talk like this. Augh. Wǒ.. bù xǐhuān shēngbìng..”

After saying that, they quickly scanned the crowd of students taking their leave from the trial room area for those certain people– oh, there was Kuma! (A muffled sigh of relief came from the positive psychologist.) Well, the correct name would be Kumashiro, but Katsuki doesn’t know that yet. And there was Aideen, and then there was Date, Yui–

“…”

“…”

But where was she?

(Did something happen? Maybe they didn’t see correctly– no, they’d spot her purple hair instantly. Did she… she…)

(…)

“…Pardon me, but… where is Jazzy? Or, uh… Jaz-san. Did… did she leave before I could get here or…”

Were they oblivious to the obvious idea of what could have happened to her– or were they denying it?

The answer to that is– is…

…

(C'mon. Exhibit positive attributes in these times. You are a positive psychologist, right?

…

“Secrets, huh?”

And like everyone else, they also picked up one of the secrets when they flew out from the bear’s grip. Might as well, right?

“Hahaha, it’s not like these are that bad. What’s the fuss about these darn secrets? It’s not like…”

Their eyes trailed down to the secret that was on their paper, humming along to a tune as they read it. Over a short span of time, their expression faltered from being carefree and cheerful, to… uh.

…

Shock…?

“… Actually, I take back my words on that. What kind of secret– why would–”

this is not your secret.

but does this not touch upon your life?

“… Zǔzhòu zhège dìfāng dìyù.”

…

They didn’t understand why they were having these negative emotions swelling up in them. This wasn’t their secret– the poor unfortunate person wasn’t someone that they knew. It’s not like they had a secret as extreme as this one entails.

But the whole paper seemed to radiate a very, very unwelcoming vibe to it. Could it be the last sentence? A single word? What was it that was the source of their fear? Oh, but they didn’t know. They couldn’t understand it themself.

They folded the extremely crumpled piece of paper into squares, and simply held onto it. Their eyes were casted downwards onto the floor, looking like a mixture of sadness, but at the same time, they looked like they were disturbed as well.

“… Ah… I sure hope this person didn’t have friends or family.”

(… Well, that sounds a bit harsher than expected.“

And they rolled away on their heelys, continuing to hold the paper in a hand.

Man, this whole “surprise the other half of the class is here!” thing was throwing a big wrench into his plans. Important plans! Like learning how one properly uses heelys.

Very important plans.

… To be serious, after something so huge and game-changing as a merging of classes, it did make Sora feel a bit goofy, just… well, asking to do plain classmate stuff. It was already strange enough in these circumstances, and he couldn’t help but wonder if the whole thing felt a bit fake. …

Bah, as if it mattered! This wasn’t a time for thinking about difficult stuff. (Like most of the time was.) This was a time for learning how to use weird skates from the reigning sovereign.

“Knock knock, it’s Nishida! Now a good time?”

There was a muffled noise coming from behind the positive psychologist’s door at first, almost similar to be... scratching...? No, maybe something scraping against something else? Either way, it stopped a few seconds after Sora spoke. And Katsuki carefully opened the door wide enough to see who was in front of her door, before they proceeded to open the door some more.

“Hahaha! Hello Nishida-san! Of course it’s a good time. It’s not like I have anything to do in this place! L-O-L.”

The execution passed on by, and all Ayano did was watch. She watched it all the way through, not batting an eye at any part of it– until the very last scene where Kenichi… was pretty much fucking dead. Yeah, he was fucking dead. There’s no possible way he’d survive that.

When the execution ended, she calmly strolled out of the trial without a word, hands delicately folded behind her back. She didn’t seem to mourn, nor did she seem to be furious, but simply… serene. As if she didn’t see someone being horribly executed. As if… she was back to her old self.

Perhaps it was a way that she coped with things. Or maybe she didn’t care.

(…It was better than crying, right?)

At least, that’s what she asked herself as she rolled out, disappearing from the rest of the class for a while.

—-

There was a lot of things happening all at once, but by the time they were able to verbally react to any of them, they were… in a strange place. This wasn’t Kaze at all. And– and there were other students here, from the other class that was going on.

(…From the sea? Well, that was an unpleasant thought.)

Katsuki was about to crack a joke to ‘lighten the mood’ when their attention was captured by a guy wearing… a cowboy costume? Well, wasn’t that an interesting sight! They grinned at the sight of Shin, letting out a few chuckles from their system before they went completely silent, carefully listening to what he had to say.

…Oh. Well, that sure was a shame for a killer to get away with it. Ha ha ha.

Ha ha.

well, death has to eventually come back for her. it’s gotta.

They waved a hand in the air to grab Shin’s attention, heelying in a single circle, before stopping in the very same place that she was before.

“Howdy right on back to you, Hayayayayashi-san! Heeheehee. Howdy. That’s something that people in the Wild West would say, wouldn’t it? You’ve got the outfit and everything! A+, 10 out of 10!”

They briefly paused, before continuing,

“…But it is quite a shame that your last killer got away. Thanks for your little information, Hayashi-san! Hope you guys can all figure out who was the culprit for your class’ last trial.”

“…Good luck.”

With that, they simply rolled away with their hands carefully folded behind them, whistling along to a particular tune.