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ultimaterpgmaker:

shsl-onnagata:

Yuu’s plans that day included somehow squeezing an infirmary bed into his dorm room, but that would come later. For now, he was going to get a bite to eat. And, as may be expected by now, he wasn’t alone. Yuu was wheeling Mitsuru along when he unexpectedly saw the door to Lucian’s room open. Yuu stopped by the entrance and looked inside and it was… Hiyuu.

“Uh… Hey?”

Lucian reacting with the intensity he did caused Yuu to jump and cry out as well, and probably jerking the wheelchair in the process. Thanks, Yuu. …Why did he think it was a good idea to call out to Hiyuu in the first place? He probably hated him for sending Lucian to the grave, and he really wouldn’t blame him for feeling that way… But when Hiyuu spoke about looking for them anyway, Yuu raised an eyebrow.

“Oh… really? What about?”

Things Mitsuru hated about his new : how fucking slow he was on the uptake.

“WHO THE SHIT —”

(How was he supposed to know Hiyuu was there, dropping things off — dropping things off where, they couldn’t have gone that far in that amount of time, and Yuu screaming and shaking the wheelchair didn’t make things even more reassuring —)

He calmed down quickly, sure, but that didn’t mean he was relaxed in any way.

“Fuckin’ hell, gimme some warning before mouthing off like that, Kurusu. Can’t expect me to feel terribly obliged to go along with whatever you’re gonna ask next if you don’t, am I right?”

Yeah, even that was kind of a sad attempt at being derisive. Hard to sound adequately irritated when your heart is still going a mile a minute.

So much excitement!  So much yelling!  But when things had calm down, he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, feeling bad for spooking them both.

``Ehehe... Sorry Sagara-kun, Kouzo-kun!  Didn’t mean to spook you guys too!  It’s like getting lost in a haunted house!  Spooks everywhere you turn!”

He refocused on Yuu, as he had been looking for him earlier.

``I mean... Um.  Yeah!  I was totally looking for you guys!  You see... Well...”

He checked around, and then brought his voice down a few notches.

``I wanted t’do some more explorin’ with you guys if you wouldn’t mind.”

He looked away from them and at his feet, shifting the balance between his toes and heels.

``I love cycling!  I love it so much and I’ll do it here, there, and anywhere.  Heck, that’s how I met Kouzo-kun in the first place!  But...”

There was a pause and he reached up and began to nervously fiddle with his tie.

``I used to kinda use it as a way to kinda deal with all this... um.  You know... business... But that isn’t gonna cut it anymore!  When I was searchin’ around with you guys... even if I wasn’t a big help, I felt like we were GETTING somewhere!  That’s why... THAT’S WHY...”

He dropped to his knees and then pressed his hands and forehead against the ground in the most extreme bow he could muster.

``PLEASE TAKE ME INVESTIGATIN’ WITH YOU GUYS AGAIN!  PLEASE!  I PROMISE I WON’T GET IN THE WAY!”

ch. 8 ⦾ hiyuu (feat. mitsuru, yuu) ⦾ continue forward

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ch. 8 ⦾ hiyuu ⦾ strange hill

He was beside himself at the results.  His hands went for his hair in a panic.  They were all wrong!  They were about to execute an innocent man!  The shirt?  Circumstantial!  The chipped fake tooth?  A set up!  All of it was a lie.  What was Koharu coming up with?  That Hiyuu was an accomplice?  Everything just happened so quickly that when Monobear said that Lucian was in fact the killer…

“L… Lucian you–”

He clasped his hands over his mouth in nothing short of complete shock.

``Why Lucian?!  WHY???  WHY DID YOU THINK KILLING SOMEONE WAS A GOOD IDEA?!  WHYWHYWHY???”

Even as Lucian tried to reassure him with a smile, even as he wept in his arms… Hiyuu just looked straight ahead to the wall across from him, mouth agape.  There was just one thing that was on his mind, and one thing alone.

Who are you?

Even until his very last breath, he was lying.  He would be okay?  No.  No you wouldn’t.  Monobear was going to take you away and destroy you, just like he did everyone else.  He was leaving you behind, and with what left?  A legacy of falseness and questions he would never have answers to and almost no one he could fully trust.  There was Julia but… could he really trust her when her significant other seemed so sure that Hiyuu would be the type to assist in a murder?

He didn’t watch the execution video, like always.  He just… squat down beneath his podium and plugged his ears tightly.  A sniffle.  He was crying, but he wasn’t some sort of wretched mess this time.  Confusion wracked his brain, making it impossible for him to fully accept and address the moment correctly: shock, in other words.  When the room lit up, he rose to his feet, spreading his hands across his face to wipe away any tears that had fallen in the process.

”…”

He was quiet, far too quiet for someone with his disposition.

Lucian was no immortal.  Lucian was… Yuuki Kobayashi?  Who was he?  Who was this person that Hiyuu had started to get close to in the past couple of weeks?  How many more secrets did that man have exactly?  Hiyuu closed his eyes tightly.  Is this what betrayal felt like?  He needed some alone time indefinitely.

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ch. 7 ⦾ hiyuu (re: mitsuru, lucian) ⦾ keep it light!

“Last night, why?”

He wondered why his bathing habits had anything to do with the trial.  Mitsuru seemed adamant on putting the blame on himself or his new roommate.  Maybe today Hiyuu was feeling particularly sensitive, but he came out to have a good time and he was honestly feeling so attacked right now.

``And I’m not lyin’!”

A pause.

``Or tigerin’, or bearin’, or any other animal either, Kouzo-san!”

He couldn’t give into the pressure!  Everything would be okay, he just had to remain positive and focused on finding a solution.  Besides, Julia, a real lion if there ever was one, was already quick to tell Mitsuru to lighten up herself.  He wished he was half as articulate as her.

Then came Lucian’s confession about his fear.  He had already known this, but Hiyuu found it so brave that he decided to share that fear with everyone!  What a dynamite way to show that you’re more powerful than the fear itself.  Hiyuu cupped his hands over his mouth and cheered from his corner of the trial room.

``Nothin’ wrong with being afraid of the red stuff!”

Lucian’s defense seemed to center around him being a vampire.  In truth, it made Hiyuu quietly nervous… Would that really hold up well, he wondered?  Surely everyone understood his seriousness at this point as it had been brought up multiple times throughout the course of their stay aboard the ship.  It’s not like he just started saying these things this trial.  Out of the get-go he let everyone know just what he was.

Though a vampire afraid of blood, that was pretty paradoxical, wasn’t it?  He’d have to ask about that one later.  Hiyuu figured he missed it during one of Lucian’s lore sessions, very interesting, yes, but a brain could only hold so much information at one time!

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ch. 7 ⦾ hiyuu (re: yuu) ⦾ 異議あり！

Hiyuu couldn’t decide what he found more ridiculous, the idea that everyone should beat up Renjiro or that himself and Lucian were the ones responsible for Malachi’s death.  It was an offensive line of conjecture that he wouldn’t take lying down, that was for certain.  He pressed his hands against the podium and leaned forward.

“Don’t go slinging mud at Lucian and me just ‘cuz we’re roomies!  That ain’t fair!”

A quick pause.

``It’s… it’s getting scarier and scarier to live here.  The people I can trust is sort of… getting smaller.  It’s really scary, and we just thought that if we shared a room that it’d be less scary!”

He squinted, taking a good look at the small tooth-shaped object.  It … couldn’t have been Lucian.  He didn’t want to believe that for a second.  He refused.

``W-Well… eheh… Sometimes Lucian does tell these stories that are a little on the spooky side, I’m not gonna lie– but that’s a totally different kind of scary!”

He paused, trying to stay as calm as he could for someone suspected of murder.  Stay calm for himself, stay calm for Lucian’s sake too.  It wouldn’t help either of their cases to distressingly spit out the first things that came to their minds, obviously.  He took in a deep breath.  In and out.  Focus.

``A vote that I cast for Miss Najwa… It killed her.  I think about it every time I cast a vote at these dumb trial things.  Since then I’ve… I’ve always voted for myself because I… I couldn’t ever imagine myself killin’ another person.”

His voice was significantly smaller than before as he felt himself getting worked up over giving voice to feelings pent up for weeks.  Come on!  You gotta stay focused!  Lucian’s depending on you!

``And Lucian knows that… He knows as much as I though Malachi was, you know, scary and a nogoodnik that I… would never want him dead.  Nobody deserves that, not even Malachi.  I would rather have Malachi here right now looking at me with his weird, creepy stare and make-you-wanna-pee-yourself-and-in-not-the-good-way sort of grin than having to figure out who killed’em!”

It felt strange saying those words considering all of the bizarre things Malachi did and said during their time together, but it was true.  Defending himself and Lucian from the suspicions of others was emotionally taxing, to say the least.  He would much have preferred enduring Malachi’s ominous presence than go through this.

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ch. 7 ⦾ hiyuu ⦾ chilly

“It’s true!  I do wear a men’s small, and sometimes even a kids large if they got a cool pattern or somethin’ on it.  One time I saw this CRAZY t-shirt with like, dinosaurs and motorcycles and just HAD to make it mine!”

A series of rigorous tests to prove his innocence… he was ready!  He hopped out from the other side of his podium and smiled at Julia, giving her a small wave as he approached.  He appreciated her asking how he was doing considering last trial’s events.  Truthfully with Malachi gone though, he didn’t particularly feel threatened by anyone.

``Let’s get this STARTED!”

He took to undoing the buttons on his shirt and loosening his tie up.  She had wanted to see the upper parts of his arms too, didn’t she?  He didn’t mind exposing himself in such a manner; it was just his body.  He didn’t have any unsightly features that would make anyone uncomfortable.  Just an extremely boyish frame with a touch of definition around his stomach.  A soft body with a freckle here and there.

But!  It seemed as he was free of anything incriminating.  He was thankful.

``It’s kinda chilly in here…”

When Julia gave him the okay, he quickly put on his shirt again and wrapped his arms around himself.  Burrr…  His shirt felt warm and he was very happy to have it on again as opposed to the ill-fitting shirt he wore seconds ago.  He made it back to his podium and gave the class a quick peek.  Who could’ve done it?

He really didn’t have any idea.

``Kouzo-san… That’s a little awkward.  How the heck am I gonna erase hearing that from my brain?”

He trailed off, wondering if there was a more subtle way of saying what he had just said.  The imagery that entered his head just made him feel very uncomfortable.  As Mitsuru had said it so loudly, he figured he’d have to do quite a bit of peddling back in his room to drive it out of his head.

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ch. 7 ⦾ hiyuu ⦾ swing batta batta!

Hiyuu spent most of his time in the elevator scrolling through the evidence list, trying to make heads and tails of it.  He was looking for that moment all the detectives had on televisions shows, that moment of clarity where everything fell into place.

Come on Miss Noelle, help me out here!

“…mmnngh…”

This was already trial seven and that moment just hadn’t come to him.  A hot dog may have safely stored within his person, but other than the unnecessary gas that would come later, it didn’t do much for the investigation.  He focused in on what he assumed was the murder weapon, then, where it was hidden.  He hadn’t made an opening, or close-to opening, in a trial since Rie Kano chewed him out so many weeks ago.

``You’d have t’have a pretty strong swing to crack someone’s head, right?”

``I should know ‘cuz… ehehe… I’ve kinda bumped mine a few times.  You should ALWAYS wear a helmet, y’got that everyone?  It’s super important!”

He pondered a bit before continuing.

``The hiding spot was pretty clever.The perp had to have been p-retty familiar with the place to pick a place like that, no?  I mean… I’unno, I’m kinda just guessin’.”

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At some point Yuu comes by wheeling Mitsuru. "Hey, can we check around your room?"

``Sure!  Absolutely!  Miss Julia took a gander earlier, too!”

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``Let's check out the restaurant!"

It’s pretty clean, which is perhaps for the best. At least you’ll be able to eat in relative peace.

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... "why?"

``Mmm... w-what?”

He looks around.  Where the heck is he?  He’s in Julia’s room, on Julia’s bed no less.

``Investigatin’ can take a lot out of a guy, y’know?  Guess I just um... k-kinda took a little bit of a cat nap!  Eh... ehehe...”

He put up his hands and started shaking them as he started slowly bouncing out of the bed.

[jitenshabin-blog]

ch. 7 ⦾ hiyuu ⦾ the wicked witch is dead (?)

Another announcement…  He counted on his fingers. This would make seven, right?  Seven murderers, or maybe less?  There could be a repeat offender amongst them.  Lucian announced himself heading out to which Hiyuu told him he would catch up with him in a second.  He wanted a little bit of time to stabilize himself and his emotions.  Steel up like everyone else did.  The amount of people he trusted was… dwindling significantly.

There was Julia and then, by extension, Koharu.  He trusted Yuu since he had always been so helpful to investigation efforts.  Lucian went without saying since they had recently decided to dorm together for safety’s sake.  Renjiro was someone he could trust, too.  He wrestled Malachi a couple of days ago during the trial altercation, after all!  That left about a handful of others he had to be careful of.  Mental preparation completed, he slapped himself on the cheeks a few times and threw himself onto his feet. 

He could do this.  He could do this.

When he ever made it to the scene, he found it difficult to hide behind anyone else like he had always done in the past.  He would likely have to view this one significantly closer than others in the past.  Even catching a glimpse of Noelle’s murder scene was painful, so he just hoped and prayed it wasn’t one of his ‘allies’.

To see that it was Malachi… made his stomach feel tight, but, with his face down against the floor, it made looking at him marginally easier.  Even after his demise, just being in such close proximity with him still made him feel uneasy.  He was getting flashbacks of the previous trial.  Goosebumps.

“… . .”

Even if he as a threat was eliminated, he was dead.  Hiyuu didn’t like Malachi, but he didn’t think he should have… died necessarily.  Maybe living on his boat for this long and the stress made him go crazy or something?  He didn’t want to believe that Malachi was a bad person, just a bad person by circumstance.  They had talked during the beginning, he had seemed pleasant!

… or was that a guise, too.

No.

He didn’t want to think like that.

As he was about to peel out to do some exploring, something unusual caught his eye.  A person who he hadn’t seen?  He shuffled forward, squinting a bit… was that…

``Kouzo-san?  Waitwaitwait… is that… you???”

He looked just… awful.  It was great that he was alive but at what cost?  He had thought the recent trial had brought death for him, he thought it had wiped him off of the mortal coil entirely.  But… in such a crippled and battered state… would death be better?

``You’re okay!  Okay, well, not like… okay okay, but you’re okay!  Geez… I just said okay a lo– oop!  I said it again!”

There was no way death was better.  He knew that very well.  He felt particularly motivated to do his best, seeing that Mitsuru was back at it albeit in a weakened state.  His emotions were mixed; sobered by Malachi’s death, yet elated that Mitsuru hadn’t perished.  Now wasn’t the time to doddle on either, it was time to find Malachi’s killer!

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Someone remind me to do a part two with Akihiko wearing Hiyuu’s clothes and Mitsuru wearing the other Mitsuru’s clothes.

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His post trial routine had been the same since he had first came on the boat.  Hiyuu would take Hercules and hop on the rollers in his room and go as fast as he could.  He would go so fast that sometimes his body would just start to go limp due to overexertion.  Before that could happen though, he would slow down and toss his haggard body into bed and pass right out.  It was his reset, his chance to start the next day fresh.

What did Lucian do, he wondered.  He knew his strategy wouldn’t work for everyone.  He was concerned, but he knew he wasn’t the best at getting people to cheer up.  Maybe... silence was the best answer?  He had heard someone tell him that before.  But no more that two minutes out of the elevator did his curiosity and desire to help get the better of him.

``Wait wait wait wait...”

He took his hand back and hopped in front of him.

``You’re acting totally strange!  And heck, you hand is shaking and during the trial, why did you try putting all the focus on you??  You could’ve ... you could’ve died you know!  That’s so ... so dangerous!  You should be more careful!  But what’s wrong???  Are you sick?  I’m not good at making chicken noodle soup but I will make it for yo– oh no... the recipe I know has garlic in it... No matter!  I’ll exclude it!”

A fountain of Hiyuu’s thoughts rattling out of his mouth like a semi-automatic gun firing... marshmallows, a whole lot of nothing.  His concern was there however, albeit in a strange way only the courier could express.

Holding Together || Lucian || Execution Reaction ATTN: Hiyuu

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The touch upon his shoulder snapped him out of that dark place he was slowly being dragged into.  He perked up immediately, his cheeks still wet with the tears he had been crying moments before.  He pawed at them to get them off his face, he needed to be strong for his friend, after all.  His eyes were a little puffy but his smile shone through.

``Yeah... Let’s–”

At such a proximity, he could tell that now Lucian was in need of support.  He got up onto his feet.  There was nothing he could do for Mitsuru now.  He didn’t know what Lucian meant by Sagara and Amashiro looking for someone recently executed.  A glimmer of hope shone through that he would be okay but...

No one ever came back from an execution.

For the first time since he boarded the trip, he didn’t listen to his inner hope.

He clutched his chest.  It hurt doing that...

He refocused his attention on Lucian, his eyes filled with concern.

``Let’s get out of here!  Trial’s over and... erhm... YEAH!  It’s all done and...”

He was all too curious as to why Lucian seemed to be acting so peculiar.  As such, he felt all too aware of his tendency to ramble.  Without saying much more, he started out of the room, grabbing a hold of Lucian’s hand as he did so to accelerate their pace.  Something didn’t feel quite right...

Holding Together || Lucian || Execution Reaction ATTN: Hiyuu

Lucian’s hands trembled as the results were tallied. He knew they were going to be wrong, he just knew it, but there was part of him that hoped….

….

He stared at the results in confusion, reading the names through again to make sure he was interpreting them right.There were a lot more votes there than there were students…. And a lot of them were for dead kids? But hadn’t he just said… and hadn’t everyone voted for Shuichi, aside from Shuichi himself? A chill ran up his spine.

They were wrong, of course, even about what Shuichi’s talent was. He didn’t have much time to dwell on it, though, before the execution started. The … exe… It started out fine but quickly devolved into just blood and shouting and he just knew it was bad and he couldn’t watch.

A tight fear settled in his chest as he angled his face to the ground, squeezing his eyes shut and gripping his podium tightly, trying to control his breathing. There was a knowledge knowing that if people had listened to what he said…. that would have been him, not Mitsuru. Static rang through the room and then Yuu started yelling about “finding Misturu” and “getting towels.”

Slowly, Lucian looked up, his heart thudding against his ribcage. Then there was… Mitsuru might be alive? He could feel his hands shaking and that strange almost light headed feeling, so he turned and took a step towards the elevator. His feet felt like lead.

He stopped, though, and turned to look for Hiyuu… who was curled up in the floor crying. He was… He was going to go get Hiyuu, and this would be alright. They were both alive. Hiyuu wasn’t hurt.

His movements were a little stiff, and his expression betrayed that he was having a hard time holding it together, but he made his way over to the cyclist and put a somewhat shaky hand on the other boy’s shoulder. “… Hiyuu.” He managed after a moment. “We… um…” Lucian extended his other hand as an offer to help him up. “W-we should go…” Keep breathing slowly. Help Hiyuu right now.

(Why had he confessed like that? There had to have been an easier way to help Hiyuu than just blurting out the first thing that came to mind. What if they’d voted for him? And in the end it hadn’t even helped. What if-)

“… Kouzo is… probably okay.” A forced smile. “Sagara and Amashiro are looking for him, so please…” His voice wavered. Hopefully Hiyuu would come. He didn’t want to leave him here, but Lucian really wanted to get out of this room.

[jitenshabin-blog]

How I feel right now.

[jitenshabin-blog]

ch. 6 ⦾ hiyuu ⦾ monobear theater

The sixth trial proved to be the most trying of all.  For the entire duration of his capture, he remained perfectly still and quiet, eyes glued to Malachi’s weapon.  Why him?  Well… who else could he overpower really.  He hadn’t felt such helplessness in such a long time.  When he was finally released however, he held onto his wrist and looked at it closely.  Though he had been released physically, he still felt quite mentally trapped.

He felt a slight bump when his former captor tossed some candy his way.  He looked down at it, and then at Malachi at which point he picked up the candy from the ground and even looked poised to throw it right back at him but–

Randomizer activated…now selecting…

And the winner is…

Mitsuru Kouzo!

“!”

Fate was too cruel again.  But there had to be some hope for them, right?  He had managed to pull himself out of shock just in time to make a vote for someone who everyone was actively discussing.  People he trusted were voting for him, that much he was able to ascertain.

“But he was always on your side. And you just lost one of your chances to find the real mastermind.”

``B-But…”

What sort of rebuttal could he had possibly have made?  No matter what he would say or even wanted to say, it would’ve been impossible.

Let’s do a quick revote!  We haven’t voted for a mastermind before and uh… we were just practicing!

Or…

Don’t punish Kouzo!  He didn’t do anything wrong!

“Oh, and don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Slime-kun. You’re next.”

But maybe there was something he could do?  Provide some sort of distraction?  Anything.  If there was a will there was a way right?  He couldn’t just keep standing there and watching his friends disappear before his eyes.  He took off in a sprint, maybe even fast enough to cause a woosh in Lucian’s frilly garments.  But no matter how fast he was, the chains were faster.  It didn’t stop Hiyuu from jumping out, arm out stretched to try.

``K-KOUZO-SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN ! ! !”

After a moment of airtime, he crashed unceremoniously to the ground, even managing to do a somersault in the process.  But he knew what was coming.  It came every time, and he… just didn’t want to see it.  He didn’t want to acknowledge it.  It was already enough knowing that those who murdered were still on the loose, and that he had no choice but to find his other friends… killed by them.  Without any justice.

…

When he was sure the execution was over, he brought his knees up to his chest and hid his face in them.  He needed a minute, or several.  It was a lot for him to take in.  Their repeated failure, the fragile line between trust and distrust, everything was just a mess.

He was certain that this was all his fault.

[jitenshabin-blog]

ch. 6 ⦾ hiyuu ⦾ class trial (re: mitsuru & lucian, attn: julia)

There was a very big difference between watching horror on the movie screen and seeing it before your very eyes.  He had never looked at a murder victim too long but… the sight that he most recently saw in the normally locked room.  Even if it was brief, it was long lasting and it left him feeling extremely uncomfortable.

When Mitsuru ever said his name, he must’ve lept forty feet into the air, clinging onto his podium for dear life.  He looked over to him, and then down at his feet.

“… It…”

He felt the tears coming very quickly.  Saying what he saw meant he had to acknowledge it and, in a way re-experience it, unwillingly admitting that it was real.  What he had seen was real, what he had smelt was real.  That this entire time all of them were…  It didn’t take very long for Hiyuu to become a blubbering mess.

``I-It was awful… AWFUL.  S… ALL OF THEM WERE THERE!!!  All… all of o-our dang classmates!  DEAD.  B-But… it looked like there was some people… people who I’ve never seen TOO… I… I didn’t stay long enough to keep looking and… And I don’t think it has much to do with… t-this trial l… like Mr. Lucian said but… b-but…”

He hopped up from behind his counter and shuffled over to Julia’s podium, leaving a note on it before heading back to his own and folding his hands onto the top of the platform, burying his face into them as he just sobbed it out, his small frame quivering as he tried making himself as quiet as possible.  He figured Julia, who had proven herself far more useful in trials than himself, could use the evidence he had discovered earlier to help catch Rie’s killer.

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Hiyuu doesn't appear to be thrilled with his finding. He takes the paper, refolds it, and puts it into his pocket.

Hiyuu has obtained one (1) unsettlingly detailed teeth drawing!