CHAPTER 3 · 5 · Suffocating

I don’t remember anything.
For all I know, my life is worth nothing.
Why do I even bother?
What is my reason to live?

“That’s pretty fucked up. I’d make an announcement, but you’re all here already, so…”

When I opened the door, I found Ciel dead, attached to the grand piano, standing in the middle of the room…
And when Lois went to look behind the piano, I heard a click—when she screamed, I thought she was going to die.
Without even thinking, I jumped to protect her, but… Somehow, as I grabbed her, the gigantic piano fell down
crushing him.
It feels oddly like… He died a second time.
But it doesn’t end there. When Lois screamed, it probably wasn’t out of fear for her life…
It was because she saw Mina, the Ultimate Detective, hanging from the ceiling – dead.

I can’t take my eyes off her.
Even when Lois starts to scream again, I find myself unable to move.
“NOOOOOOOOO!”
She jerks herself away from me. Her voice becomes higher pitched with every syllable.
“THIS IS MY FAULT! THIS IS ALL MY FAAAAAAUUULLLTT!”
Despite her loud sobs… I still can’t move.
I’m powerless.
Meanwhile, I can tell that people are moving around… But I still jump when a voice comes in-between us.
“C’mon, you’ve done nothing wrong.”
This hoarse voice belongs to Chris… somehow, hearing her makes me even more confused.
“N… No, you’re…”
“You were caught in a trap, this isn’t your fault.”
“H…Ha…”
“Now come on… look at this guy…”
On the surface, it feels like I don’t understand a word that she is saying. But when she says “look”, I reflexively turn my head to look at Lois.
She is staring at Chris with a red face, and tears streaming down her cheeks… It hurts to see her like this, but even then, I can barely… react…
“The second you screamed, he jumped blindly to protect you.”
Lois turns her gaze to me, conveying nothing more than confusion.
“The both of you deserve to take a break outside together, okay?”
“…”
After letting out a loud sniffle, Lois stands up and heads straight to the door.
I imitate her like a mindless robot.

…
Years have passed.
…Actually, it might have been days…
Hours…
Minutes.
At some point, I leaned against this wall… and I stayed here, empty of feeling, for an unknown amount of time.
Just now, I… think I found consciousness again.
“If you don’t want to investigate, I can’t force you…”
“What are you talking about..? We have no choice.”
These soft, loving voices…
Ah. Right. Across from the door, Alice, Jan and Akiro are leaning against the wall, in a similar way to me.
I couldn’t tell how long they’ve been there.
“But I can tell you’re not ready yet.”
“…I can’t assume that you are either.”
Alice stays silent for a few seconds.
I can’t stop myself from staring at them.
“Semantics. I’ll head back in right now, and you’ll take a few more minutes to prepare yourself, okay?”
“… …If you think I’ll be more helpful this way, then… Okay.”
“I just want you to…”
She interrupts herself to let out a long sigh… Before turning her attention to Akiro.
He’s standing next to Jan, the farthest away from me out of the three of them.
“What about you, Akiro? How do you feel?”
“Hmm… I can’t leave Jan alone, so…”
“Okay. I’ll do my best, and… you two can wait until you’re ready.”
Staring at the ground, Alice turns towards the door, but Jan grabs her hand, stopping her.
“What..?”
“…”
He opens his mouth to say something, but closes it right away. He hesitates for a few seconds more.
“No… sorry… You’re doing great. I’ll take a second to put myself together, and I’ll be right there.”
“…Yeah.”
From the side, I can see a slight smile on her lips, but it leaves as soon as she turns to the door again.
She notices me, but doesn’t say anything, and walks back into the Music room.
…
Once again, we stand there in silence.
Are we supposed to go back inside?
When Ciel… When Ciel’s body…
… My bottom lip is shaking. I don’t want to think about it, and yet, the entire sequence of events replays in my head.
… … For some reason, I turn to look at Jan.
“Jan?”
I’m able to speak clearly, but my voice doesn’t feel like my own.
“Yes?”
Still with a soft voice, he responds immediately. He looks at me with that… it’s that sad good pupper look again… but with something more to it.
“Earlier, when you said… You talked about Ciel…”
Putting my thoughts together turns out to be much too difficult. In actuality, I have no idea why I’m even saying this, and I have to make it short.
“He recently decided to use he/him, so…”
“Oh…”
As his gaze falls straight to the floor, in one way or another, his face becomes even paler than it already was.
“Okay, I’ll… use that from now on.”
“Hmpf…”
Akiro grabs his arm softly.
I guess…
I know neither of them are happy, and my entire being is miserable, but…
They remind me of the first tragedy we experienced together… When Alice and Akiro were the ones hugging each other. Seeing them like this made me feel better, somehow… And even now, the three of them are still there for each other.
Everything inside my heart feels dark, but that knowledge sparks a light somewhere that I can feel.
“Akiro, I…”
“Yes..?”
“We have to look at the bodies at least once, but since there are so many people inside… let’s investigate the rest of the school, the three of us.”
“Okay.”
“…You’re not very talkative.”
“…It annoys me… that you’re forcing yourself to talk.”
“…”
“…”
“Blep.”
“Why..?”
“…I’m speechless.”
“Sowwy.”
“…”
Jan shakes his own arm slightly, with Akiro still holding it.
“Let’s…”
Finally, the Ultimate Writer sighs. It’s not hard to tell he has a lot of pent up emotions.
“Yes.”
They make their way towards the door together, but Jan stops before entering.
He looks at me hesitatingly. I wonder if there’s something he wants to tell me.
After a few seconds of silence and Akiro staring at him, the latter is the one to ask me something.
“A-Are you feeling any b-better, Neo?”
…
“Hm?”
What?
Who?
Me?
…I guess… Whatever they have going on grounded me somewhat.
Now that he asks… I should probably make a better effort of pulling myself together.
“Kind of.”
He looks at Jan, then at me again.
“That’s… good to hear.”
Jan sends a smile in my direction – a stronger one than Alice managed earlier – before leading the other boy inside.
…
I don’t know what I’m expelling, but I sigh.
At least I’m… calmer, now. I’d say that’s the word. It’s hard to think anything for myself, but seeing Alice insisting on going back inside helps me consider our need to investigate.
It’s just…
Even if we do, Mina won’t be able to…
…
There’s no way.
I still don’t believe it.
Is there any way I can turn back? Is there any way to fix this? It’s hard to believe that there isn’t.
Yet, something forces me to focus on the present…
And I finally turn my attention to Lois, sitting on the ground beside me.
She is perfectly still and silent, staring into nothingness, almost like a doll.
“Lois…”
Something has changed, has it not? In the present, it’s her and I.
“Can you tell me why?”
“W-Why what?”
The fact that I stuttered makes me feel… once again, more real.
“Why… Do you…”
She narrows her eyes, and I wait for her to finish…
…but she doesn’t.
“I don’t, I don’t understand…”
“We probably won’t get that stupid file until we’re all inside again.”
“Huh?”
“The Kumakuma file, is it not? We’re going to need it.”
“…Huh?”
“Last time, Kumakuma threatened Chris to bring her back inside… I sure wonder why he isn’t doing the same thing for us.”
“…”
She stands up without looking at me…
“We have no choice now.”
…And she heads back inside.
…
Though my organs feel heavy, I follow her lead.

Is 10 people a lot?
In this context…
No.
No it isn’t.
Coming back inside makes me feel horribly sick, but I force myself to pay attention to… everything. Everything I can.
Blood oozes from underneath the piano…

I want to die.

Mina’s body… isn’t hanging from the ceiling anymore. It has been moved to the floor by whoever…

I want someone to kill me.

Impossible to ignore, Isabella is leaning face first towards the wall, crying incessantly.

Why don’t we do it together?

“Aight, can I do my thing now?”
“Aaaah..!”
Chloe screams in surprise, but she finds nothing to say.
The white bear appeared from behind her.
I think she was trying to comfort Isabella.
“Maybe you bastards will hate me less if I help you somewhat. So. Want my Kumakuma file or not?”
“…Please give it to us.”
With her fists clenched, Chris answers… in a shockingly calm voice.
“Heh. That feels nice.”
Our Monopads beep loudly.
“There ya go. Good luck. You’ll need it.”
Kumakuma walks across the room and leaves through the door.
…
Everything is both real and unreal… Will I ever feel okay with what is happening?
I have no other option than to check that—
A loud *BANG* makes me jump in place.
“Gh…”

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

From where she’s standing, not far from the door, Chris punches the wall repeatedly. She has her teeth clenched, and refuses to yell, but…

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

We all stare at her, her frustration speaking directly to us.
Except…
“You’re gonna hurt yourself.”
With a sigh, Keith walks up to her and leans on the wall next to the spot she’s punching. She leaves her fist in place, against it.
“Fuck…”
Her voice is almost a whisper, difficult to hear over the sound of her heavy breathing.
“Please stop. I’m serious.”
She narrows her eyes, and stays still for a few seconds, before finally letting her fist fall along her body.
“I’ll keep my energy… for later.”
“…Yeah.”
Keith closes his eyes.
…But I can’t… My mission is to… Open that Kumakuma file now, isn’t it?
A simple action… That, I’m able to do. I take my Monopad out of my pocket and tap the “Kumakuma file” app…


…
Right as I feel like I’m about to faint, the image changes on its own.


Mina…
It’s hard to believe that she’s… gone.
But her body… is right there. Unmoving. Something compels me to get closer, to take a better look…
The cord was removed from around her neck, leaving dark bruises behind.
…I don’t know if I could have brought myself to do such a thing, but… someone shut her eyes. Thankfully.
Her face is swollen, her bruised limbs spread weirdly against the floor… and one of her knees is visibly broken, with a bone sticking out.
I can’t…
My breath is short.
I can’t imagine… I can’t accept… That something so violent… Happened to someone so small…
So… innocent.
“I have a bad feeling.”
“Aah!”
Once again, I jump. Chris, who must have walked up to me… to Mina’s body… at some point, ignores it.
“…No, that can’t be right.”
“What… do you mean..?”
“Sorry, I…”
She looks away.
“Let’s gather clues first and foremost…”
“O… Okay.”
Chris leaves my side already, and I…
I feel weak.
I feel useless.
I’m so scared to turn around and look behind me.
I…
“What are you waiting for?”
A shiver crawls down my spine. But why?
Lois walks next to me. She looks at Mina’s body, and… doesn’t react. At all.
“Shouldn’t you be going around asking for people’s testimonies?”
“Why… Me?”
“Why, I thought you wanted that role.”
Despite her dry tone, she grabs my hand.
…
Her hand feels so soft against mine. Her grip is firm, but friendly.
“I’ll be your sidekick, as long as we work through this.”
“O-O-Okay!”
Damn it… Damn her… Damn it.

Right. Right, I can do this.
Forget about everything else. Apparently, that’s one thing I’m good at. Forget about everything else and focus on asking for testimonies.
I need to take a deep breath… and think of everyone here… every survivor.
Haaa… Fwaaa…
…
“Keith.”
“Lois.”
I was doing my best effort, but he walked up to us by himself.
“You look hesitant.”
“...Sure, probably. Since you’re here, next to… her… I’d like to get your permission before I inspect her body.”
“Before you… what?”
L…Lois shoots me a disillusioned stare.
“I’d like to inspect her wounds. Normally… she would do it…”
Keith is having trouble looking either in our or Mina’s direction…
And I’m probably making it easy for myself by just looking at him. I want to close my eyes, and…
…
Haaa… Fwaaa…
“Of course. Try your best.”
Keith hesitates for a split second before forcing himself to kneel next to… the detective’s body.
Gh… I want to scream… My brain is screaming..!
Lois takes a step back, still holding my hand, and I have to do the same.
Watching Keith poke around her lifeless corpse… time feels so sl o w. . .
When he stands up all of a sudden, if feels like the Earth is shaking.
“There’s no doubt about it… Someone used their hands to strangle her.”
“Huh?”
“How can you tell?”
He sighs. I don’t think he’ll look either of us in the eyes anytime soon.
“Why do I keep having to…”
He interrupts himself to clear his throat loudly, and starts an entirely new sentence.
“I have… practice in identifying domestic abuse.”
“…Oh.”
“She is entirely bruised up, and… and has multiple fractures… including an op… an open fracture, on her knee… on the right…”
He’s shaken up, but… I can’t let it get to me…
Haaa… Fwaaa…
“If you can tell she was strangled by hand, shouldn’t you be able to identify… whose hands they were?”
Keith tries to inhale as well, but it comes out as an ugly sniffle.
“She would, but I’m just…”
“Okay…”
Lois squeezes my hand harder.
“It’s fine, thank you. Neo, do you have anything to ask Keith?”
“Huh..?”
…Right. Focus.
“Uuuh… K-Keith…”
Haaa… Fwaaa…
“Your… alibi, please.”
Unexpectedly, he reacts by looking me right in the eye. His expression is hard to read – though one emotion I can’t miss is anxiety.
“The crime took place at night, right..?”
“Mina’s… the Kumakuma file says 11.05PM.”
“Hm. But we don’t know anything about Ciel’s d…eath.”
Don’t scream.
Stop screaming.
Gh…
“You’d have to tell us your alibi from last night to this morning.”
Haaaaa…
“But…”
Fwaaaaaaaaa…
“I spent the n, the night in my room. This morning, I headed straight to the library.”
“Why?”
“…I found some helpful books in the library, for my studies. I want to get back the time I’m wasting here…”
“Tha-That’s true. We talked about it.”
“Ah. I see. When you say you went straight to the library…”
“I didn’t eat breakfast. Alice, Akiro and Jan most likely didn’t see me.”
…At least he’s honest, but…
“But when… was that?”
“...Just now.”
“Just now?”
“I mean… I’d barely stepped into the library when I heard you scream.”
…
“Right. You were the first one to show up.”
“I was quickly followed, but… yes.”
“Hm-hm. If you’d shown up any earlier, you’d have found me inside the library.”
“Ah?”
“...Now that you mention it, I assume most of us won’t have alibis for last night. I was in bed long before 11, and I woke up early. The trio saw me in the dining room.”
That’s… true, isn’t it? Last night… she mentioned that most of us tended to go to sleep early.
But how could she have known…
“What about Neo?”
…
“We went back to our rooms very early… And I ate breakfast with Alice, etc… Then I searched for Lois, and found her in the library.”
“We..?”
Ngh… I’ll never… I’ll never be o... kay…
Haaa…
“Ciel and I...”
“…Ah.”
…
We stand in silence for a few minutes…
But every time I even so much as think about my surroundings, about where I’m standing, my heart beats a thousand miles faster.
“We should continue our investigation.”
Y-Yes…
“Hm. I’ll stay here… with… her.”
…
I don’t know what to say… And before I can think of anything, Lois tugs me away from him… and her.
“Decide on someone to interrogate next.”
Right. Right…
I look around the room… mostly. There is one person I’m… curious to talk to.
Oscar is sitting in a corner, on his own, with his head buried inside his scarf. I lead Lois towards him, but… he doesn’t acknowledge our presence.
“O-Oscar.”
“…Yes.”
I… My… body shakes all over. With just one word, his raspy voice shakes me to my core.
“When we discovered Ciel’s body, you tried to leave because…”
She leaves room for an answer, but he doesn’t provide one right away.
With just a white shirt underneath his scarf, he somehow looks even more enormous than usual. Yet, it is apparent that he’s trying to make himself look smaller – hiding his face in his scarf, folding his shoulders in, he’s…
“I thought… she could be in her room…”
Staring at the floor with empty eyes, he buries his face even lower.
“…Avoiding me.”
“You were in the midst of an argument, weren’t you?”
“…I meant to…”
He takes a deep breath, going as far as to pull the fabric of his scarf over his entire face.
“I can’t believe I… Can’t believe I…”
…Could it be..?
Could he be hiding his face because he’s…
“Actually failed to protect…”
My own breathing is picking up speed… I… I accidentally squeeze Lois’ hand, before half-whispering to her:
“L-Let’s not bother him too much…”
“No.”
He clears his throat and pulls his scarf down, holding it against the bottom half of his face…
Nervously.
I don’t know what I thought before, but… I wish I had never had to see him comfort himself like this. This scarf was given to him…
… …No, it reminds me of… I can’t…
“You need to investigate. I have to help… now.”
“Y-You’re right…”
But how can I..? His voice… It’s almost indiscernible, but to someone like me, it’s painstakingly obvious…
For the first time, it is filled with emotion.
“Do you have an alibi for the timeframe between last night and this morning?”
“...No. I was in my room, by myself. This morning, I was doing light exercises in my room when I heard the announcement.”
“So y-you… Didn’t come out until you heard the body discovery announcement…”
“Yes. I dressed up in a rush. When I arrived, there was everybody, and… Ciel, in the middle of the room.”
His hand falls to the floor, and his nose forward.
“I’m so confused…”
…
It feels like I’m being hit behind the head, but from inside my head.
“Is that all?”
“I think so.”
“If that’s the case, we’ll leave you alone for now.”
“Okay.”
As if in a rush to do so, he lets his gaze fall into nothingness again.
Oscar… Somehow, he and I are…
But before I can complete that thought, Lois drags me away.
… “Is she holding my hand just to drag me around?”
Having that thought brings me back to a ground I didn’t realise I’d left.
“Let’s talk to Isabella before she starts to cry again.”
I guess at some point she must have stopped crying. Following Lois, I find her leaning against a wall by herself, not too differently from Oscar.
I try to look for Chloe, but… she’s looking at… the pia…
No.
“I went to bed at the same time as Chloe and Chris. I have no alibi for the night. Chloe and I were in the Make-up room when we heard you scream. Leave me alone.”
…Ah.
This isn’t enough to phase Lois.
“It was just Chloe and you?”
“Yes.”
“When did you get to the Make-up room, exactly?”
“I didn’t look at the time.”
“D-Do you have no timeframe at all..?”
Isabella turns her head to avoid looking at us completely. It’s hard to tell if she’d done her full make-up, because her entire face is messy.
“We have a stupid indication. Ask Chloe.”
“Why would we ask Chl—”
“Uhm… Hello…”
By the way she grips my hand, I can tell that Lois was surprised to hear the gardener come up from behind her.
“Sorry, I was… … What can I help you with?”
She is pale, and her soft voice intensifies her sickly demeanour. Yet, I can hear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, strength behind it.
Basically, she is being brave.
“Fuck it, I guess… Isabella told us you were in the Make-up room. Do you know what time it was?”
“Ah… Well… I didn’t look at the time, but… It was some time after the morning announcement, and… we saw Neo walk up the stairs.”
“Huh? Me?”
“Yes, you… Came out of the auditorium, and headed straight to the stairs.”
“What were you doing in the auditorium?”
“I, I don’t…”
The room is spinning around me, I…
I need to focus.
Haaa… Fwaaa…
Haaa… Oh. I understand.
“I was looking for you, duh…”
“Don’t you “duh” me.”
“Huh?”
She rolls her eyes, but Chloe continues:
“Well, when Isabella and I arrived upstairs, we didn’t see you, so you were either… inside a room, or upstairs again…”
“You noticed the Music room as soon as we went to the third floor. You must have been in the library with me.”
“That’s… maybe, since we just went into the Make-up room…”
“Good. That gives us a fairly clear idea.”
“I, I guess…”
It feels foggy to me.
“Where was Chris?”
“Oh, uh…”
Chloe looks taken aback.
“She actually… Went into the gymnasium, instead of upstairs, in that moment.”
“Interesting…”
Is it..?
“And, uhm… If I may…”
“You may.”
“I tried to… look at the body… uhm… Ciel’s body…”
“Oh please no…”
“I’m, I’m so sorry…”
…Ah, I said that out loud.
“No, it’s a good thing that you did.”
“Y-You don’t have to, so…”
“Exactly. What did you find?”
Chloe’s shy attitude would usually make me feel better, but…
No, just… No…
“Well there’s… nothing we can do to… look at him again…”
She inhales sharply, but I can’t hear her exhale.
“Uhm… Completely… crushed.”
“…Fuck. Okay.”
“And... But… Part of his hand… his fingers are in view… just outside the piano.”
“Huh? Seriously?”
I would rather not. Honestly, I would rather not.
“Y-Yes… I tried to look at everything, and all I could confirm was that… There is a pool of blood underneath the piano… Three of Ciel’s fingers are in view, inside the pool, with… with some blood even underneath his nails.”
Why..? Why?
Wasn’t Benjamin enough?
Why do I have to go through all of this?
“So, uh… A lot of blood.”
“I guess so...”
“Is that all?”
“I, I think so.”
“Then we should question Chris next…”
Lois scans the area until she finds the Ultimate Gymnast, sitting across the room with… something strange in her hands.
“Do you agree, Neo?”
“Y-Yes.”
I let her drag me again, and… I wonder…
“Why does she need me anyway?”
I guess that’s a question for later…
If there is a later.
“Good. Finally. Someone.”
“What?”
Chris watched us walk in her direction.
“I’m sort of making sense of this contraption. I should share.”
“This… contraption?”
I can’t help but wonder if she’s not just keeping herself busy…
“That… What you called a trap, right?”
“Yes.”
It’s hard to evaluate how Chris feels about Lois right now. She shows us a long, black wooden… I think..? Thing that she’s been holding. There’s a wheel at the bottom of it.
“These…”
With the top of her head, she gestures to three other similar objects spread around her.
“…Were the piano’s legs.”
“Oh.”
…Oh.
They were…
Okay.
“How did they get removed?”
“My best guess would be that they were sawed off. Plus there’s those wheels at the bottom of them all, they look like they were glued on.”
“But… I don’t remember the piano ever having… wheels...”
“We already know who to ask about that.”
…
“If you’re interested, there’s some more stuff about the piano.”
“We are.”
Not… really.
“Remember those… rings that Benjamin used for his trap previously? The same ones were used here. Well one of them was used that I can see.”
“...The killer had someone to look up to, I see.”
Ugh…
“Same glue and all, I’ll bet. So the piano, when we saw it, was being held in place… somewhat arbitrarily… by those cords.”
Putting the piano leg down on the floor, Chris leans over to point at cords coming out from behind the piano. One appears to be stuck in some… cylindrical object that I don’t recognise.
“Well I’m trying to use my knowledge of setting up my gym to make sense of this, but this is out of my realm…”
“What is it?”
“All I can think of is one of those automatic hose rewinders? But in this case, there’s a rope inside of it.”
“A hose… a what?”
“Y’know. There’s one in the dome. You just have to press a button or sumthin’ and the hose goes right back in.”
But what’s that got to do with…
I’m… I’m just too confused.
“But I… I didn’t press any buttons…”
…
Lois finally lets go of my hand.
“If I understand well, this rewinder is what brought the piano down… when I tripped on it.”
“You tripped on it?”
“Not really… I barely touched it with my foot…”
She looks… extremely depressed.
But what can I do? I’m too… shaken…
“I don’t mind taking a look at that…”
Chris hoists herself up to walk closer to the rewinder, avoiding the pool of blood on the floor…
Ciel’s… blood…
How?!
She bends over and pushes the side of it, barely, with the tip of her finger—
*BRRRMMM*
“AAAAH!”
A dull noise makes me jump—The top of my head suddenly hurts, almost like I actually jumped high enough to hit the ceiling.
“What is it?!”
On the other side of the room, Oscar stands up abruptly, hesitantly looking up from the inside of his scarf.
“N-Nothing, it’s over, I’m not touching it again!”
“It’s… Extremely sensitive, huh...”
Imagining what just happened, I feel like I’m going to throw up…
Like my insides are nothing but vomit.
Chris barely had to touch the rewinder to make it tug on the cord, moving the piano a few centimetres along the floor.
It feels like someone is stabbing me in the neck, screaming at me that Ciel is hurting.

“What kind of bastard would come up with something like this..? This is… way too much.”
“I wonder…”
Lois stares at me—
Like she thinks I have the answer.
Like she thinks I’m not melting in place, drying in place, turning to dust.
After finding two bodies hooked in the middle of a room…
As if one wasn’t more than enough…
As if two weren’t more than enough…
As if three…
Three…
Because the first one was…

“Aah..!”

A memory, like reality, stands in front of me.
A pole replaces the piano.
A gymnasium replaces the Music room.
In the middle of the room, instead of that dreaded instrument… a pole, but it barely matters. Covered in nails, an individual slams their body against it.
Nailing themselves to it.
Their face is blurry, but the blood that spurts from behind their head as they hit it violently, again and again, against the pole and the nails, is clear as day.
“S-Stop!”
Are they responding to me? Are they looking at me? Their voice is but noise, and their face… I can tell it’s familiar, and yet, I can’t see it.
Could this loud sound be their own laugh? Disregarding me, they continue to mutilate themselves.
“What are you doing?! Stop! You’re insane! Sto-”
Murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer
Then, behind their laugh, a whisper…
Murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer
I look around me, to discover flames surrounding me.
Murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer
Engulfing me, they whisper the same word over and over…
Murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer
“Stop…”
Murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer
It’s so hot… why am I here? What made me come here? Why didn’t I stay in class, with everyone else? I never meant to see this.
Murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer
I didn’t do anything to cause this.
Murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer
So please…
Murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer murderer
“Stop… Stop… Stop… STOP!”



“Get a hold of yourself, man!”
Hah…
Hah… Hah…
“Look at me!”
Hah… Hah… Hah…
…
“What?”
Chris is holding me by both forearms, staring at me from… In front of…
Haha… What a nice angle to look at a beautiful girl.
“Neo?”
“S-Sorry.”
Wait, no, she couldn’t have read my thoughts.
I just…
I’m unclear what happened. I’m still inside the Music room with Chris and Lois, but… that much is obvious, isn’t it?
I didn’t travel to some other place… did I?
“N-Neo, you started moving hectically and saying… weird stuff.”
“I, I did?”
A bead of sweat falls down my temple… though the heat is gone.
What happened just now…
…This wasn’t mine, was it?
Chris looks worried.
“I’m, I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be. This is my fault.”
“Huh..? H-How?”
“I’m the one who made that thing move again... Sorry. Sorry, I really didn’t mean to.”
“N-No, it’s okay!”
…This is reality.
Whatever I saw just now isn’t something that happened to me. I don’t know what it was, but…
The beautiful Chris in front of me… I’m so glad to be here with her...
And being here with her means being here with…
“Tch…”
Slightly behind the gymnast, Lois turns her back to me, clenching her fists.
“I hate…”
…
“Tch.”
After a few seconds more of gritting her teeth, she turns towards us again, focusing her attention on Chris.
…
Regardless…
“If you’re done, let’s do what we came here for. Chris, please share your alibi with us.”
“Huh?”
My behaviour must have been weird enough that it made the Ultimate Gymnast lose her edge…
“Oh, uh, okay, sure.”
Though it appears to have had the opposite effect on Lois.
“First of all, you appear to have gone away on your own this morning.”
“Y-Yes… About that…”
“Yes?”
“Hmm… No, never mind.”
“Hah?”
“N—I’ll give you the actual info you need, of course. I might just… keep the details for when or if they’re needed.”
“And how do you intend to be the judge of that?”
“C’mon, Lois.”
…Even though I’m siding with Chris, my heart beats faster when I talk to her.
“She’s shaken enough as it is... We’re already lucky she’s willing to tell anything at all… Aren’t we?”
Chris lets out a chuckle – nervous, but not insincere. Lois, meanwhile, narrows her eyes.
“And why should I trust y…”
She shakes her head before letting out a long sigh.
“I don’t have a choice, do I? I’ll be damned.”
“S-Sorry…”
“Just let me talk, will ya? I have testimony to give you, don’t I?”
“Yes, please.”
“Right…”
Chris laughs nervously once more before continuing:
“You should already know that Isabella’s morning routine consists of going to the Make-up room before anything else. Since the three of us… Isabella, Chloe and I, agreed on going together, usually we wait for her to be done before we all eat breakfast.”
“And I’m too demanding?”
“Of, of course not…”
…Judging by her glare, she might have been trying to joke, actually.
“Well, anyway, no one’s forcing us. Certainly not the twin-tail lady, at least. Which might be exactly why I was able to ditch this morning.”
“Why, though?”
Also, twin-tail lady..?
“Hah…”
She crosses her arms.
“I wasn’t fully expecting a murder to have happened, so… I was allowing myself to act as randomly as I wanted. Now that we’re here, it might be difficult to justify…”
“The more you justify yourself, the more suspicious you’ll seem.”
“Hm. Fuck. Okay. Well, I wanted to exercise a little bit in the gym before breakfast. Do some actual gymnastics.”
“Oh?”
“Y—”
“Alright, you’ve changed my mind. If you don’t justify yourself, you’ll seem suspicious.”
“That was quick…”
“See?”
Chris lets out an even longer sigh than Lois did before her.
“Passed by the gym upstairs the other day. You know, the new one.”
“Yes…”
We were there just then…
“Dunno if you saw him too, but Oscar was in there exercising all by himself.”
“I did... actually.”
“Ah, that’s grand. Well, I saw him and I started feeling a little bit guilty.”
“...For watching him?”
“...”
“...”
*blink blink*
“Well now I do.”
“Okay, so why did you feel guilty then?”
“Hm. Well, I normally wouldn’t pass up on exercising, but since we’ve been there… I’ve been finding excuses.”
“Ah...”
Somehow, this sounds about right – this sort of sentiment, coming from her specifically.
“But Oscar was still keeping in shape, apparently. And when I started thinking about it, Chloe’s been gardening ever since the dome opened, and Isabella’s been keeping up her make-up ritual every morning.”
“I see…”
“I felt all the more guilty about the fact that in my head, I’d been complaining about Isabella’s insistence on doing it first thing in the morning. ‘cause I wasn’t even practicing my talent, so what right did I have to complain? I’ve been acting no different from a talentless nobody.”
“You tell me.”
“But in our situation, there’s no use just feeling sorry about myse—”
The Ultimate Gymnast interrupts herself to shoot a glance in Lois’ direction, but quickly moves on…
“…So I decided to take matters into my own hands. If I don’t manage to be the genius who gets us all out of there somehow, at least I’ll have been practicing the one thing I can do… to start the day off, at least.”
“So you were planning to use the same time Isabella was using to put her make-up on to exercise in the gym.”
“That’s right. Today would have been the first time, but… You know what happened.”
…I… know what happened.
“When did you come upstairs?”
“…When I heard the announcement, I ran like my life depended on it. Ran right past Jan and stuff, and ended up arriving at the same time as the girls, even though they were one floor above.”
“I see… Anything else?”
Sharply, Lois turns her gaze towards me.
“Huh?”
“Any other question for Chris?”
“Oh, uh, w-wait…”
Jeez… Give me a sec. I feel weird, right now.
Let’s see…
“That would be… your alibi for the night, right? I mean, what we should ask you.”
“Do you actually expect me to have one? I was in my room, sleeping. But there’s no way to prove that, is there?”
“There might not be… Regardless, you’re still claiming to have been in your room the entire night?”
“Yeah.”
“From… before 11, right?”
“Hm-hm. ‘side from Keith, pretty sure we all went in early.”
“What?” “Oh..?”
“Hah..!”
Hearing our reactions, Chris’ eyes widen. Reflexively, she turns her head to look into Keith’s direction – and I follow her gaze, but Keith doesn’t pay attention to us.
He appears to be busy talking to Chloe… It’s almost too convenient.
“No! Never mind!”
“Are you sure?”
Looking at us again, Chris lets out a loud hiccup after swallowing her spit.
“Yes, I… definitely mixed things up, so forget about it.”
“Chris…”
“I’m serious. Slip of the tongue. I have nothing to say about him that he hasn’t told you.”
“Alright.”
Lois crosses her arms. Surely she’s thinking the same thing I am…
This is a suspicious slip of the tongue.
Still… It can’t be anything else, right? Because Keith is just…
…
… … Right.
“Y-Yeah…”
Though by the tone of my own voice, I can tell that I’m only trying to reassure myself.
“And Keith’s kinda like you, you know?”
“Ah? How, how so?”
Chris has found a brand new type of edge to be on.
“A… About… Wanting to make up for lost time and practicing your talent. He’d actually just decided to do the same thing, for his. Kinda.”
“Y-Yes. Exactly.”
“Yeah…”
…
“Exactly?
“Here, listen to this.”
“Wh—”
Lois slides past Chris, and places herself next to me, almost… against me.
“Wh-What, listen to what?”
Because she’s distracting me, if anything… But when she points towards one of the walls with her chin, I let my gaze follow her direction.
“I’m not asking for much, am I? Just come back here.”
Isabella hasn’t moved at all. She’s extending her arm in Chloe… and Keith’s direction.
“I guess… we were done here, so…”
“What’s the matter, though? I’d assume you know Chloe’s not hanging out by Mina’s body for pleasure.”
“Ugh…”
“Just making sure she’s safe.”
…
Hesitantly, Chloe advances towards the make-up artist.
“Who’s to say the killer isn’t planning to hurt more people? A savage like this…”
When she reaches her, the latter, narrowing her eyes, grabs her by the arm.
“And just like I always knew… the most innocent of us always end up being targeted.”
It’s clear that Chloe doesn’t know what to say, or think – she looks back and forth between Isabella and Keith with such speed… her head might fall off eventually.
“If that’s so, then Chloe might be better off on her own.”
“Hmpf. Keep telling yourself that.”
She forces Chloe closer to the wall, while Keith turns his head away. It looks as though he’s already giving up.
“But now I know that I was right.”
…

… …

… … … Following this odd declaration… No one says anything for a while.
Chris, Isabella, Chloe… Keith, Oscar… Lois, and I… in this room with two mangled bodies, in complete silence.
This is absurd. It makes so little sense I might… I might even… laugh.
“Well, I wish we were done, but there’s more work ahead of us.”
…
“Mr. Devin?”
“Y-Yes?”
“Will you follow me?”
I don’t understand her.
“Of course!”
I wonder whose fault that is.
“Good to hear. And you…”
She turns to Chris again.
“What will you do?”
“I’ll… stay here, I guess.”
“It doesn’t sound like you… want to.”
“Uhm… duh.”
…All things considered, that was obvious.
“Still, I figured out this trap thing, and… well… this is still… Ciel’s body.”
She closes her eyes.
…
“I wish I could run away, but… I can’t leave a friend behind.”
… … I open my mouth, but… nothing comes out.
“Not again.”
“Then keep an eye on your purple friends.”
“Huh?”
When she opens her eyes again, they’re evidently teary.
“Not without their flaws, they’re still here.”
“…”
Her gaze shifts to behind us – where Isabella is whispering something to a wide-eyed Chloe.
“…It’s hard.”
“Hm?”
“Accepting that the clock is ticking… for everybody.”
“It shouldn’t have to be that fast.”
Lois is the one to sigh.
“And yet. Let’s go… Neo.”
“No “Mr. Devin” this time?”
…As if to ignore any question I may have outright, she walks past me and towards the door.
I can’t say I’m dizzy, but… my connection to being here, in this very room, somehow feels blurry.
Not that my vision is. I just feel… distant. I’ve been feeling this way since this weird “memory” showed up.
And leaving feels scary, but… something compels me to forget it, and I follow Lois outside.
“We have someone else to interrogate, don’t we?”
“Y-Yes…”
These people have been missing from the scene of the crime for a bit.

We start to make our way down the stairs, when I stop dead in my steps.
A loud thought echoes in my mind:

“Whose?”

“What is it?”
“…Blood.”
For some reason, in the stairway from the…
… … between the highest floor and the one before… there are a few, small bloodstains scattered around.
“Huh. Nice catch.”
Nice..?
“But whose could it be..?”
Just hearing that question, I feel cold.
“…Mina’s, I assume.”
“What? Why?”
“I just didn’t notice any blood on Ciel.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Hah?”
The words came out of my mouth before I could even think them. My whole face feels frozen.
“Oh, you’re the boss, I guess.”
She turns around, and leaves already.
She says that, but I’m the one to follow her blindly.
And why is she so annoyed with me? I… My reaction… isn’t that weird, is it?
Lois…

…

By the time we reach downstairs, my heart has gained more than a ton in weight inside my chest.
It feels lighter when I notice Alice, Jan and Akiro outside, a couple metres away from the entrance… But I wonder if it should.
“Here you are.”
“Oh… Neo and Lois.”
A world with Alice… is one worth living in, isn’t it?
“Come take a look. I think we found the origin of that smell Jan mentioned this morning.”
“A smell?”
Ah… right, that rings a bell.
“Before we came in, Jan mentioned a bothering, ashy smell around here.”
“But… I didn’t notice anything.”
“And yet, it’s even still there. You just have to come closer.”
No choice but to. Alice, Akiro and Jan are standing in line, in that order, in front of a… slightly dark spot.
Getting closer, I realise that a very small amount of grass has burnt.
“Huh?”
How was… burning involved in this?
“Hmm… L-Like I was saying… It doesn’t look like just burnt… burnt grass, maybe.”
“Oh, right, what did you mean?”
“Well Jan said… … there was more than that, uh, that smell. And, and if you look closely, uhm… there are ashes scattered around too.”
“Yeah? Show me.”
Akiro crouches to point to multiple spots among the burnt and regular grass. Alice, Lois and I all bend over to take a look… Indeed, once you notice them, the scattered dark grey ashes are difficult to ignore. They stand out – there has to be something up with them.
“Ah!”
Alice reacts rather strongly.
“You’re right! There’s no way the grass created that.”
“S-See?”
“Hm-hm. So… something must have been burnt right here.”
“But how does that relate to the case?”
“I don’t know…”
“Jan… Jan didn’t n-notice it yesterday.”
“And..? Like you just said, it could just be that he didn’t notice.”
“No!”
It’s Akiro’s turn to react strongly.
Most importantly, though, I’m confused… It feels like we’re talking about Jan as though he’s not right here, but he is.
Standing silently behind his two friends, he reciprocates my glance.
“What’s weird is that no one else noticed. But he was right.”
“Exactly!”
Akiro clenches both his fists, his demeanour so fervent I wouldn’t be surprised if he started jumping in place.
“Since Jan has a, has a special sense of smell… y-you can trust that he would have noticed it yesterday alrea, already.”
“Since when... does Jan have a special sense of smell?”
“That’s certainly not a trait I would have expected from the Ultimate Pianist.”
“Could it be?”
“Oh.”
Jan finally speaks up in a soft voice, and advances as he does, placing himself in-between Alice and Akiro.
“Could it be… That I’m such a sensitive person?”
He looks at no one in particular. His smile is… difficult to describe. “Bitter” would be the closest descriptor, but I wouldn’t say it’s exactly accurate.
“That would be a blow to my ego.”
“For some reason, I’d been led to believe you didn’t have one.”
“Hmm... You did mention it like it was bothering you… And you were surprised we didn’t notice it.”
“So it stood out to you?”
“…Yes.”
Though he looked at me just a minute ago, it would be difficult to catch his gaze now.
“Regardless of proving anything, I think I’d have concluded you have a sensitive nose.”
“Yes, he does.”
“So we have Jan’s word that the smell, and assumedly, the ashes and burnt grass only appeared at some point during last night and this morning.”
“Yes.”
“That is, if you weren’t out at night.”
Akiro opens his mouth to say something, but doesn’t.
“I wasn’t.”
…Funny enough, if Akiro had defended him again, it might have started to make one of them sound suspicious.
“…So, just like everyone else, you’re saying you spent your entire night in your room.”
“I did.”
“Which gives us no alibi, does it?”
“If, if we didn’t go to our room s-so early… maybe we could have prevented something from happening…”
“No, I wouldn’t worry about something like that, Akiro.”
Her manner of speech the same as always, but her voice warmer than usual…
“W-Why?”
“Multiple reasons. Mostly, it might have only delayed the inevitable.”
“We… don’t know that.”
“…Unfortunately, we’ll find out.”
“Hah…”
“And it would have put you in danger. I’d rather you don’t hang out alone at night.”
“I, I already have a mom, currently.”
“Hehe.”
“And, also… Well, yeah… There’s a reason we do it… go to bed early.”
…Even though it’s hard to put words on what they are precisely, I’d say there are multiple, in fact.
“If you can’t help us on that front, there’s still something we need to ask you about.”
“Oh?”
“Ah, right… The piano.”
“What about it?”
“If I recall… we were just looking at it with Chris. Its legs were sawed off, so she showed them to us, and there were wheels on them.”
“Wheels?”
“Yes. Small wheels, like you’d find on an office chair… though sturdier, I assume.”
“Uuuh, yes.”
“Yes to what?”
“They, they must have been for something else… initially… ‘cause a piano like that would weigh… anywhere between 300 and 500 kilograms.”
“By your reaction, I assume those weren’t on the piano initially.”
“N-No they weren’t.”
“Jan? Do you remember?”
“…”
“No?”
“Surely I would have noticed… if the piano had wheels.”
“O-Obviously! The height would have been all wrong!”
“That’s true.”
Still speaking in a low tone, Jan turns his gaze in Akiro’s direction without looking at him.
“The height..? What do you mean?”
“J-Jan would have sat down and… noti, noticed that the keyboard was higher than usual.”
“Hmm...”
“Plus I’ve leaned on this piano a million times, and it never moved.”
“You’re not very heavy, Alice.”
“…”
The two girls exchange a glance.
It feels like they just shared something, but I have no idea what it is.
“It did not have wheels.”
“...I believe you.”
She sounds like she wants to reassure him. She quickly moved on from Alice.
“So, uh… why does it have wheels now..?”
“L-Like the lady said, gu-guess we’ll find out.”
“I… don’t feel confident.”
Oh…
Me neither.
“Did you find out any other information?”
“Hmm… We checked… their rooms.”
…
“Anything interesting?”
“Ciel’s is closed, and Mina’s open. That’s probably something.”
“Huh…”
It… feels like it.
“I th, I think Mina’s door was messed with… maybe… maybe you should look and give us your, your opinion.”
“I see. If that’s the case, we should corroborate our findings later.”
“Sounds fair enough.”
“Is the smell still bothering you? We should probably move too.”
“No...”
Jan turns his head slightly to stare at the burnt spot on the ground.
“The smell is the least of my problems.”