CHAPTER 3 · 6 · Dominating

We left to the dorms while Jan, Alice and Akiro headed back inside.
Without hesitation, Lois guns it towards Mina’s door. She stops in front of it and bends over slightly, inspecting the doorknob.
“Damaging school property is prohibited.”
“Huh?”
“That is one of the school rules… isn’t it?”
“Ah, uh, that’s right… I think.”
Still staring at the door, she asks:
“And does this count as damaging?”
But I don’t even know what she’s talking about.
“What? I uh, I have no idea.”
“…”
She marks a pause before continuing:
“Guess not. I mean, the lock doesn’t look damaged, but…”
She yanks the door back and forth.
“It’s out of commission.”
“C-Can I look?”
“Of course.”
…I don’t know the first thing about locks or how they work, but I can’t stay passive to the point of not even taking a look.
Lois steps away, leaving me room to bend over in the exact same pose she did.
Our doors open thanks to our handbooks – they don’t have a keyhole. If they did, I would have looked for scratch marks, or anything around or inside it, but… anything else might be out of my league.
After confirming that the door can’t click and lock, I try running my hand around the knob, then the frame…
“Ah..!”
“Did you find something?”
“Hmm…”
“Maybe I should compare it to my door…”
I quickly take my handbook out of my pocket and rush towards my own room. After opening it, I slide my hand at the border of the door.
“Yeah… I think Mina’s door was messed with.”
“How so?”
“There are some nicks and bumps on the frame at the same height as the locking system…”
Hesitantly, I close my door again.
“I don’t know what they did, but we can probably assume someone forced Mina’s door open.”
“Hm-hm. It definitely makes the most sense.”
She crosses her arms.
“Maybe if we’d brought Ciel’s handboo—ah!”
Her eyes widen at her own realisation.
“I gu… I guess it’s lost forever.”
…
I…
…Look slightly to the side. Staying silent is, frankly, the best I can do right now.
“Okay… Let’s take a look at her room, then.”
Without comment, I follow Lois inside. Mina’s room… It’s a room just like anyone else’s.
I close the door behind me and take a good look at it, but nothing about it looks out of the ordinary.
“That’s… odd.”
“Hmm?”
Turning around, I think I know what she means.
For whatever reason, there is a chair on top of Mina’s bed.
“I don’t assume... someone else did that. Did they?”
“Uuuh…”
I get closer, but there isn’t much else to see. It’s a chair… on a bed. Definitely odd.
“How does this have anything to do… with what happened..?”
…“to her”.
“A chair… in this place…”
After taking a few steps towards the bed, Lois looks up – and when she sees the ceiling, her entire body tenses up.
“What’s wrong?”
Only after asking do I think to raise my nose. But as to what made Lois freeze…
Hmm…
All I see is scratch marks on the ceiling.
“She… She didn’t…”
“What?”
Surely Mina didn’t make those, did she? She’s so…
“She didn’t know.”
“What?”
It’s like I don’t know how to say anything else. But seeing the blood drain from Lois’ face… Though I don’t know why, I, myself, start to feel tense as well.
“There’s no way she knew.”
Panting, she lets her chin fall to stare vaguely in my direction.
“She didn’t…”
“Lois, what are you talking about?”
Sharply, she raises her eyes to the ceiling again.
“The… trap door… she didn’t know about it…”
…
Huh?
“…Did she?”
She grabs the sides of her head…
“What do you think happened?!”
“There was no way she knew about it… She wasn’t supposed to… know…”
…I… I’m not sure I…
I look at the ceiling, then Lois, repeatedly. What I do understand is… evidently, the marks correspond to where the trap door is situated. But…
My gaze falls on the chair, fallen over on top of the bed.
…
We can’t assume…
“If she… If this… is our fault… No!”
She turns her head to the floor with gritted teeth.
“No…”
“But… even if she found out about the trap door, what does it change now?”
“Don’t you get it?!”
Ouch.
She, she sounds hurt.
“Someone was picking her door… She… She…”
My blood turns cold. Before I can fully process it, I notice that Lois’ panting is getting gradually more erratic…
“She… Aah..!”
…And suddenly…
“AAAARRGHH!”
…She falls to the floor.
“Aaah! Lois!”

“Not again”, I think.
“You never get used to it”, I think.
“When will it stop?”
But these thoughts feel far away… blurry.

Slouched over, she holds her abdomen with one hand, holding herself up against the floor with difficulty with the other.
“Ha… Argh… H… Gh…”
Her shoulders are moving hectically… I can tell… She’s struggling to breathe!
“Lois..! What’s happening?!”
Panicking, I kneel next to her, but I don’t know if I can… touch her… or anything.
“Nnnnhh… T… Why..?”
“Tell me! What do I need to do?!”
“N… Nothin… g…”
Her voice is almost a whisper, difficult to make out. Her head is stuck staring at the floor, and I can’t see her face.
“O-Of course not..!”
“Ugh… gh… Yes…”
“L-Lois…”
“Sh… Sh… Shut up!”
…
I do.
And as she stays curled over in silence, I wait…

…

… …

… … …Until she takes a deep breath.
“Phhh… Phew…”
“Are you… feeling better?” I ask timidly.
“Mostly… yes.”
She makes herself sit up straight, still holding her abdomen with her left hand.
“Why do I have to go through this... Even here?”
“What happened?”
My face is drenched with sweat.
“I’m not going to tell… you. Forget it, if you will.”
She stands up awkwardly.
“We have to win this trial… regardless.”
“Regardless of what?”
“Regardless of me, Neo.”
…
“I wish you understood that.”
Standing up above from me, unmistakably weak, still trembling… still, Lois’ presence dominates over me. From where I’m kneeling on the floor, she looks like a power beyond my grasp.
One I could almost never stop gawking at…
But unwilling to question her authority, I stand up as well.
We need to keep investigating.
“...”
She closes her eyes before turning away from me.
She could be in pain…
Or she could be frustrated.
“Let’s say… we cannot confirm, for sure, what this chair had to do with the crime. So far, we can tell that the door was forced open.”
“…Yes.”
“Do you see anything else out of the ordinary?”
“Hmm...”
I look all around me. I can’t.
Without waiting for my answer, Lois heads towards the desk and opens every drawer. In one of them, she finds a notebook, which she opens without hesitation.
That’s… Wait, that’s a good lead, right—
“Ah.”
“Ah?”
“Well, take a look.”
I come closer shyly to look inside the notebook… and quickly understand her reaction.
Everything Mina wrote… is in some sort unknown alphabet.
“She used a secret code…”
“Are you sure? Maybe it’s a language we don’t know…”
“No. I’m certain of it.”
“…Oh, uh, okay.”
“Guess this won’t help us.”
She puts it down neatly, and closes the drawers again.
“Unless we find a translation sheet, or something…”
“There wasn’t one inside that I saw, so good luck.”
“Ah.”
Apparently, she’s moving on.
“I can’t see anything else here….”
“Is that really it, then?”
“…”
She marks another pause.
“Whether she was strangled or hung relies on Keith’s testimony.”
…
“If he’s saying the truth...”
“Which… he is. Right?”
“… … Then I don’t want to spend any more time in here.”
“Huh?”
Silently, she opens the door and leaves.
…
If he’s saying the truth…
I take a last look around.
Mina…
Mina… You didn’t deserve this.
Leaving in turn, that’s what I think.

Outside the room, I find Lois examining her own handbook.
“We don’t have many clues, do we?”
“Sh-Show me.”
It feels weird… it being just the two of us. I’m divided… I wish I could spend more time with her like this, but at the same time… I want to be with everyone else so bad.

Confirm they’re still here with us, at all times.

Lois steps beside me and shows me the screen.

- OUTSIDE : patch of burnt grass.
- OUTSIDE : ashes on and around the burnt spot.
- VICTIM’S ROOM (DETECTIVE) : evidence that the lock was picked.
- VICTIM’S ROOM (DETECTIVE) : a single chair on top of the bed.
- VICTIM’S ROOM (DETECTIVE) : scratch marks on the ceiling.
- STAIRWAY (3F TO 4F) : small bloodstains on the steps.
- MUSIC ROOM : two bodies. After the body discovery, something caused the piano to fall over, crushing one of the victims.
- MUSIC ROOM : legs of the piano found sawed off, with wheels at the bottom of them.
- MUSIC ROOM : a hose winder with a cord inside, connected to the piano, on the floor.
- VICTIM’S BODY (DETECTIVE) : multiple bruises, multiple fractures, bruised neck as the cause of death.
- VICTIM’S BODY (CLOWN) : found partly nude. The body was destroyed, only leaving its fingers in view, lying in a pool of blood, with blood up to underneath the nails.


That… feels like very little indeed.
Most importantly… I don’t know what to make from any of it.
“But where could we possibly look?” Lois whispers.
“Should we bother to look at where the killer gathered these items..? It was night…”
“Do we know where any of that is?”
“They were at leisure to go anywhere they wanted. Assuming they put the room together after Mina’s death… after 11PM.”
“Hmm…”
I try to consider the items in question… I think back to Chris’ testimony.
“We know there was one of these hose winders inside the dome, right? We also know they used items from the storage room, just like Benjamin.”
Lois stares at me with a curious look, before shaking her head – in a fashion more akin to shaking her own thoughts away than dismissing what I said.
“If we’re lucky, they’ll have left some sort of clue there, but…”
Sighing, she puts her handbook back in her pocket and heads straight outside.
…
Someone killed Mina, the Ultimate Detective…
And… the same was done to…
… …
… … … It may not be our fault, but what we’re doing feels ridiculous.
Still, we have no choice – and knowing full well that is what she thinks too, I follow her… Lois… the mysterious Ultimate.

We walk in silence to the dome…
Inside of which we find nothing of note…
Though I notice, once we walk out of it, that my heart and lungs felt lighter inside of it.

We then walk to the storage room, looking everywhere around us…
But yet again, nothing looks out of the place.

“Damn it…”
…I’m out of ideas. I already thought I was from the get go.
“If we can’t find anything… Let’s ask the others what they think, instead of wasting time.”
“Okay.”
I truly have nothing to say.
I let her lead the way up the stairs again.
With every step I take, I feel my body getting tenser… But I don’t want to think about anything.
Walk up the stairs…
Follow her…
Don’t listen to yourself.

Despite my best efforts, when we walk into the Music room, seeing the pool of blood extending on the floor, I freeze.

And at that exact moment…
That dreaded voice echoes throughout the building.
“Hey… You didn’t expect me to give you all day, did you? How about we get moving? Right… You know the way, don’t you? You’re not that dumb… are you? Oh, and you have no choice.”
… That confusing announcement can only mean…
“…It’s over.”
Just as we joined everyone else… it’s already time to go.
“Jeez, I… I don’t know that we’re ready…”
“Hmm… B-But… I also want to get it over with…”
“And… If I may… I don’t think staying here any longer will do us any good.”
“That’s… not untrue.”
Alice looks in my direction.
Right.
I’m in the way.
After I move awkwardly to the side, she searches for Jan’s hand, not too far behind her, before extending the other to Akiro – but he’s already moved behind the pianist.
Perhaps he wanted her to lead the way, despite what he said. That she does…
Passing by me, the trekker and the writer are looking forward, but I can’t help but notice that the pianist is looking back.
I wonder if he’s saying goodbye…
Though maybe that’s what I wish I could do.
Chloe and Isabella pass by me as well…
Leaving Lois, Chris, and Keith lingering inside the room…
…Wait, no, that’s not right.
There’s another person, at the back. Still sitting on the floor, he doesn’t move.
“What kind of scum would do this?”
“…I thought we were better off keeping our energy for later.”
“Listen to yourself. You’re thinking out loud.”
Keith is standing next to Mina’s body, and Chris next to… the piano.
Each with their fists clenched.
“Gh… Both kids… I know we’re not that far apart in age, but… That bastard must have known. They must have known. Tch.”
Shaking her head, refusing to take her eyes off the floor, Chris takes a sharp turn towards the door.
“You’re coming with me… Ciel and Mina.”
She passes Lois, then me, with large strides, muttering…
“I’ve got your back.”
…
If Chris can leave…
Why am I stuck in place?
What is it that keeps us from moving? Myself, Lois, Keith, and…
…
After a few long seconds of complete and utter silence, Oscar, with a grunt, stands up.
Without saying anything – without acknowledging us – he makes his way towards the door…
But he stops right in front of it… Right next to me.
His face still deep inside his scarf… I can’t read him usually, and it hasn’t changed yet today. I have to assume he hesitates, before spinning on his feet and looking at the middle of the room…
At the two of them again.
For some reason… For a bit, I forgot about Oscar. About his implication with Mina, about his testimony, about the emotion in his voice. It left my mind… I guess I must have been focusing too much on myself.
And here I look at him…
His eyes blank as always, his nose buried inside his treasured scarf…
For the first time…
The Ultimate Bodyguard
‎‎‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‎‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ sheds a tear.