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sabraeal · 3 years

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All That Remains, Chapter 8: The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Could Conjure [Part 5]

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Obiyukiweek 2021, Day 3: Strength Upright: Compassion, Courage, Self-Control Reversed: Weakness, Doubt, Discord

Once upon a time, a troll makes a mirror.

Is that not how we started this story, so long ago? How so many start: a vile creature forges an object. Who and what change in the telling; a troll makes a mirror, a god conjures a box, knowledge grows in a garden. In the end, it is all the same: what is once contained is opened, unwitting. Or lost, foolishly, in a heart so cold and cruel that it becomes bent to another purpose entirely.

But that is merely an allegory, a fiction composed to cover the raw edges we leave when we rub against each other. For that is the truth, is it not? There is no fell creature, no capricious and omnipotent beings to blame for our misery. There is only us, carving our place in our story by smoothing pieces off another. A snow queen is not made from frost and cold but by the blades of others, slicing slivers from her flesh until only ice remains.

That is the truth we cannot bear: the only monsters we face are the ones we have made. The only poisons we drink are those human hands have brewed.

And it starts like this, always: a girl in a garden, remembering the image of a rose, and wondering, how could I have I forgotten?

“You were quiet at dinner tonight.” Shirayuki hasn’t been at court long-- or rather, in court, privy to all its secret signals and capricious undercurrents-- but she knows that this is as close to an “are you all right?” as Haki can come. If confrontation is only allowed the glint of a knife, affection is stifled to a hint of warmth, a fire made in a room one is forbidden to venture. “I hope that the meal agreed with you.”

A flash of pharmacy white flutters at the corner of her vision, frustratingly out of reach. It’s been so long since she’s been there, since she’s thought of anything but silverware and schottische; when she tries it’s like a hundred voices shouting at once, each demanding to be heard. Just like being at Lilias, heads bent over a knotty problem--

“Shirayuki.” The consort does not crouch; it’s best, Lady Mihoko often remind her, to pretend one has no anatomy beneath the waist. But Haki does perch on a cushioned stool, her brows drawn tight over the elegant line of her nose. “You are not...indisposed, I hope?”

A solid shake dispels the fog mired around her. “What? Oh, no! I only...” It would be a mistake to speak of loam between her fingers, of the satisfaction of hearing a pod snap from its stalk. “I didn’t have much to say with my, erm, conversational partners.”

Royal brows raise to stunned arches. “Is that so? I would have thought you’d find much in common with Lord Kazunori and Lord Seiichii.”

They had both been older men, southern lords drawn to court for Seiran’s summit. Kind enough, but they spoke to her as they would their own daughters, which is to say: warmly, but brief. Not of any topics that one might sink their teeth into, lest it leaving lines around her mouth.

“I think they were more interested in talking to each other than to me,” she admits. In part because of her sex, and in part because-- well, her body may have been in that chair, obscuring the twining gods and goddess painted across it, but her mind had been a wing away, wondering if it was yet time to harvest the roku berries, or whether this year’s crop of apprentices knew akegi from yura shigure. “It seems there’s much to discuss before they all meet for, ah...discussion.”

Haki hands her a rueful smile. “There always is.” With a sigh, she sweeps to standing, as statuesque as any marble in Wistal’s halls. “Well, I suppose there’s nothing for it. I’ll have to ask the majordomo to find you some more scintillating seatmates tomorrow.”

“Ah..!” Tomorrow. Never had a day seemed so far away, so much more than a handful of hours between dawn and dusk. At Lilias, the nights had wavered between seasons, some so short she hardly slept between sun set and rise; and others so long that she woke in darkness, only to leave the lab in the same. But still, none seemed so long as this, and for no reason at all.

“Is something wrong?” Haki turns to her again, concern rumpling the curved lines of her mouth. “Do you have plans...?”

“No!” Shirayuki rushes to assure her. “It’s only...you mentioned dinner, and suddenly I felt so...”

“Weary?” Haki offers, when she won’t. Her eyes soften with mouth to match, smile turning her from heavenly to beatific. “I’m not surprised. You have been hard at work these last few months.”

And hardly anything to show for it, in Lady Mihoko’s learned opinion. Shirayuki bites back a groan. She would be sixty before that woman found her approaching passable, and even then, she still wouldn’t be good enough for a prince’s wife. Not when his children might have some chance, no matter how slim, of seating their sullied bloodline on the throne of Clarines.

“Perhaps you have earned a break.” Shirayuki blinks, staring up into the consort’s glowing face. “A private dinner seems in order. A night of no pressure of expectation.”

It sounds too good to be true. “Oh, no! I couldn’t--”

“Give me but a moment.” Haki hesitates at the door to her boudoir, lips lifted in an impish grin. “Perhaps my good brother might find himself available as well?”

Her mouth snaps shut. It’s been ages since she saw Zen, just the two of them. He came to dinner rarely-- understandable, with the summit only weeks away, and entirely under his purview, despite Seiran’s tacit position as host-- and where he went, Mitsuhide and Kiki went too. Haki had been her closest companion these past few weeks, the only friendly face, but Shirayuki longed for someone who didn’t look at her and see a princess, but--

Nervous energy courses through her, jolting her to her feet. Her hands itch, wanting for something to do, and with no plants to hand, they land upon the package on the receiving table. It’s wrapped in humble brown paper, folds clean and crisp, twine tightly tied. Haki’s medication, she realizes, dropping it from her numb hands. Made in the pharmacy. There’s a note on top-- instructions. She’d recognize them anywhere; after all, she’d written more than a few of them herself.

It’s curiosity that makes her pluck it from where it sits. It’s been ages since she’s been in the lab, but her knowledge hasn’t faded; there’s no harm in seeing whether there are any mistakes. An apprentice could have made this, after all. The dose does, as Garack was so fond of saying, make the poison.

She flips open the card, already flushed with the thought of being useful, but--

It’s not some apprentice’s writing at all. Oh no, she knows this spidery scrawl all too well. It was on every jar at her bench, every treatise she read late into the night.

It’s Ryuu’s.

Ignorance is bliss, they say. Always with a laugh, but stewing beneath it is envy and longing in equal measure. A pining for times past, for a childhood never quite as innocent as we remember.

For that is what we miss: innocence. Not the not-knowing, but state of not needing to know. The trust we felt towards those who always knew in our stead, who kept us safe from the dangers that pressed in around us. The ones who protected us with little lies; the small pauses to omit what might scare us, the careful editing to make our worlds the giddy fantasy we dreamed.

But there comes a day where all children must grow up. There is a day we must know these things for ourselves, so that we may see the world with clear eyes. For even innocence can be a cage, should some other hand try to lock you within it.

Ignorance is bliss, they say, but oh, only if they can keep you from knowing what it is you do not know.

May I ask you a question? the little girl asks, her gaze no longer on the garden, but the horizon beyond. It is bent in her vision, the glass made in such a way that each diamond blows out the edges, warping the world around it. She had never noticed when she looked only at the garden so near to it, but now...

Now the imperfection is all she can see.

Anything, the sorceress replies, her fingers wrapping around the caps of her shoulders. They’re cold, as cold as the glass beneath her palms.

The girl looks at their reflection, at the way the wave of the glass make those fingers bleed into talons. Where have the roses gone?

Shirayuki’s hands tremble, her eyes tracing every last loop, every hurried curve. “I didn’t...”

Haki peers around the jamb, letter folded in her hand. “Did you say something, my dear?”

This is the closest she’s been to Ryuu in months; even from where she holds it, the scene of lavender and akegi shigure waft from its paper. Not scented, not on purpose, but just from being left in a desk’s cubbyhole with his hastily tidied samples. His parchment smelt the same in Lilias, fragrant as the hothouses themselves.

Her chest can hardly contain her breath. “I didn’t realize that Ryuu was overseeing your treatment.”

A shadow flickers over the sorceress’s face, her grip painful for but a moment before she is her usual smiling self. A moment that could have been imagined, if only the girl was so sure it was not.

Roses? the sorceress asks airily. I’ve never grown any roses.

“Excuse me?”

“It only makes sense,” Shirayuki hurries to add, placing the card back atop the package. “He’s taken over for Chief Garack, and she always oversaw the royal--”

“Shirayuki.” Her name is firm from Haki’s lips, just shy of a scold. “I’m quite sorry but...who are you talking about?”

So many tales speak of trust as a blade, one that may be used to cut, that breaks when forged from brittle iron. A weapon, wielded and forgotten on the battlefield once the story is done.

But you and I know better: trust is a spell, woven to protect. It is a shield, unseen but always felt; sense by faith and not by fingers. And when it wavers, it does not break, does not shatter like a blade upon a stone; no, nothing so dramatic as that. Instead, it frays, unwoven one thread at a time, unnoticed until--

Until the hole can no longer be ignored.

She doesn’t leave the consort’s chambers meaning to break her curfew; oh no, when the door closes behind her, Shirayuki has every intention to head straight to her own. Her feet drag beneath her, weary from contorting herself into a mold that barely fits. There’s nothing she’d like more than to divest herself of all these courtly trappings and pass effortlessly into oblivion.

But she turns a corner, her mental map of the palace resolving, and she realizes: in one direction is her room, and in the other, the pharmacy. It’s late, but Ryuu would still be there, committing his last-minute thoughts to page while the offices emptied around him. She misses him, a longing so intense it aches.

It would only be a short visit. If Izana brought her before him in the morning, trying to act as both judge and jury-- well, Ryuu would be her physician, once she and Zen finally managed to make it down the aisle hand-in-hand. It only made sense to keep a cordial relationship with the man who would bear the next branch of the Wisteria tree into the world.

And if she missed him, the boy who straddled the line of friend and brother and son both-- there was no need to explain that to the king. It wasn’t as if Izana made a habit of confessing his ulterior motives to her. Though strangely, she thought he might understand that better than anyone.

Or all but one. And he...

Well, if there was a single person who might know where he went besides her, her feet were carrying her to him now/.

Were you to ask the girl, she would say she had not chosen night on purpose. The sorceress had housed her, fed her, loved her in her way; even with the image of the rose burned behind her eyes, she trusted her still, in the desperate way one does when one knows they should not, but cannot bear to contemplate why.

Opportunity chooses for her; the late afternoon sun burns hot, and when they finish their dinner, the sorceress excuses herself to lay down in the dark, to merely rest her eyes-- and does not wake, not even when the door creaks as the girl slips around it. The moon guides her steps when she walks into the garden, bright as the day itself, but she does not need it: her feet carrying her better than memory could.

There is one there, just as there was this morning: a petal, pink and sweet, fragrance so familiar she knew it even without sight.

Come out, she murmurs, digging her hands into the earth. Come out my lovely, my dear. I have been searching just for you.

A tendril spirals up from the ground, tentative. It flips and flaps, and oh, she is too shocked, too awed to help it. Even still, it finds her, wrapping around her finger, and with a single drop of blood the bush emerges, whole and dirt-smeared, from the soil.

What, it murmurs, impatience tinging its words, took you so long?

In the day, the pharmacy is all rush and chaos: apprentices burning tinctures and ushering patients to their rooms; masters emptying drawers as soon as they are filled, only for other herbalists to hurry to replace them. Guards arrive with injuries and nobles with ailments, no moment ever dull while the doors are open.

But at this hour, when the lords and ladies are all tucked in their beds-- or are at least pretending to be-- and the work is done, the pharmacy sleeps. There is no herbalist at the front desk, only the push bell Ryuu despised when she was his apprentice, since it always meant she would be pulled away from him or he away from his project.

A necessary nuisance, he called it once, and Obi had laughed. Just like me, eh, Miss?

She no longer remembers what she said-- it was early enough when he was one still, though she’d like to think she was too kind to say it-- but now she wishes, even if just for a moment, that she could tell him how much of a gift he was to her. How much he had made tedium bearable, even when she hadn’t known it for what it was.

Instead she bites her lips, rubbing at the ache in her breast. It’s hardly the first time she’s forgotten to say what matters, but-- but this won’t be her last chance. Obi might be away now, but he will be found, and she will tell him...

Everything. Every last thought she had since the moment they last spoke; her apologies and her worries, her failures and her triumphs. Because Obi hearing them-- that’s what makes them real.

Her hand wraps around the third door’s knob by habit; even now she expects to open it and see her projects spilled across her desk, to see a curtain closed beneath the other, and a window open between them. To see it waiting for her the way her heart waits for them, empty and waiting to be filled.

But there’s nothing of them there anymore. Nothing besides memories that no longer fit over the space it has become.

Her feet carry her onward, down to the last room, a sliver of light slipping across the hall where it’s been left ajar. She still expects to see a curled mass of blonde hair bent over the desk, long tables sprawled with books and half-finished studies, a bottle of roka medicinally sitting in the corner. But instead--

Instead it is a dark one, a riotous shrubbery of walnut and teak in desperate need of pruning. That had been her job in Lilias, along with Yuzuri’s helpful hands, but is seems no one here has yet talked the Chief Herbalist to task.

Give it a few years, Garack would tell her, and he’ll have herbalists as eager to get into his hair as you three were with me.

She leans against the jamb, a sigh slipping past where her heart clogs her throat. Ryuu had once fit beneath a desk half this size, and now he towers over it even seated, looking more and more like Shidan with each passing day, a man overgrown by time and deadlines.

“Ryuu.” It’s a palpable hit when their eyes meet. Everything else about him might change, but that gaze, so wide and thoughtful-- that never does.

Until now. One moment they spark, a fire lit behind blue glass, and the next...

It gutters, his gaze slipping away.

“Shirayuki.” His voice is so much deeper than in her memory, so much older. And colder too. “Excuse me, Lady Shirayuki. Is there something you need?”

“No.” She clings to the doorway, too aware of how fine her dress is, of how little it belongs in this place, his sanctum sanctorum. How little she belong here, now. “I saw a card you wrote to the consort, and I...wanted to see you.”

“A card?” His eyebrows twitch; she can no longer tell if it’s in surprise or confusion, not on this stranger’s face. “Ah. The powder for her migraines. Did you want some as well?”

“No, I’m-- I’m well.” It feels like a lie, even as she says it. It wouldn’t have, only hours ago. “I just...I’m here for you.”

His knuckles blanch where he grips his pencil. “Well, you’ve seen me. I trust you know your way out.”

You’re too late, too late, the roses say, their sing-song jangling in her ears. I’ve been hidden away for so long, and even now I cannot find him. The betrayal in their voice is thick when they ask, How could you forget us, your flower and your boy, when we have always grown together?

“Ryuu.” It leaves her lips cracked, broken; her mouth no longer knows how to form the shape that calls to him. “I know it’s been...a while, but please don’t think that I didn’t want to-- that I wasn’t thinking about you. I just...”

His pencil pauses on the page, but he does not speak. He just looks at her, the way he would at a stranger, and this room is suddenly a desert and ocean both, too far and deep to go by foot alone.

Still, there is nothing she will not brave, not for him. “It was hard to come,” she admits. “I’m not allowed in the gardens, and I’m not allowed to take patients. Coming here, watching everyone working the way I always have...”

It would have been like watching someone eat a feast while she was starving.

His eyes soften, even if they don’t precisely thaw. “I know that you’re marrying the prince, and that you don’t have time for m--” his lips press tight-- “this. I’m not upset because you’ve set your career aside.”

“But you are...” Her words limp as she says them, wounded fawns searching of an elusive mother. “You are upset.”

His hands flex as he places them on the wood, utterly silent. “I knew...” he breathes, so harsh it scrapes her own throat too. “I knew you’d have to give things up--important things. But...”

Ryuu had always spoken slowly, thoughtfully. But still, these moments when he meant what he said, when he composed rather than conversed-- it had never taken him to long to tell her what he meant. He trusted her, knew that even if his words came out garbled or his message was lost in a sea of ellipses, she would salvage it, gluing it back together with his intention.

So when he sits silent, it wounds her almost as much as his words.

At last his gaze lifts again from his work, but the glare he fixes on her-- “But I never thought you’d let one of them be Obi.”

Her mouth works, but the well from which she draws her reason is empty, leaving only pain in its wake.

“I didn’t...I didn’t let him leave,” she murmurs, more wind than whisper. “He never told me he was going. He just left without even...”

Saying goodbye. As if all these years had meant nothing at all.

“There’s a guardsman,” she says instead, her voice trembling toward something approaching even. “He said he saw Obi leave with--” a woman-- “someone.”

Ryuu grunts.

“He ran off with Torou, once.” She wants the words to come easy, but each one emerges from her trembling, the way her fingers are against her skirts. “On the way back from Tanbarun. That’s...that’s probably what this is. An old friend that needs help, and then he’ll come right back--.”

“He won’t.”

Each breath is a stab, deep in her chest. “You don’t know that.”

“I do.” He stands; a production with how much of him there is now. Cautiously, his hand extends, a fist hovering over the knotted wood of his desk.

It takes all her courage to take the first step, and all of it again to take the next. On and on until she’s crossed the room, hand outstretched, quivering beneath his own.

His palm opens, and into hers falls...a seed. Tiny. Blue. As clear as glass.

“An orbia seed?” Shirayuki lifts it up to the light, the plumule a hazy bead nestled in its luminous cotyledon. It’s impossible to tell by sight, but still, she’s sure-- it would germinate, if she planted it. “I was collecting these before we left.”

“I know.”

“It’s funny,” she murmurs, a smile lifting her mouth. “I never did find a blue one.”

“I know.” His explanation comes in fits and starts, a path never worn in the telling. “I had one. I gave it to Obi.”

“You...?” The thought catches in the light, just like the seed between her fingers. “Oh. Oh. But...” Her mouth curls, a silent question: why?

“I don’t know. I thought he might...” Ryuu’s shoulders twitch, as narrow as Obi’s when he first blew in with the wind. Before he settled into the man he became. “When he was ready...”

Of course. Her hand closes tight around the seed. Obi had what she needed all along. And she’d never known, not until...

Not until he was gone. “Where--?”

“I found it on my desk.” Ryuu’s fingers flex, falling by his side. “The morning after he left.”

Where did he go? the little girl asks, desperation choking her as surely as her tears. Where can I find him?

How should I know? the roses reply, thorns in their words as well as their stems. You are the one who left me buried under the ground. How could I watch him when you let us be trapped together?

“Did you...” Her mouth works, cutting itself against her question. “Did you tell Zen’s men, when they came? Do they know that he...?”

Said goodbye, she cannot say, to someone at least.

“No.” Ryuu blinks, his eyes as round and innocent and blue as ever. “They never did. Come by I mean.”

This is not the first time we have spoken of betrayal, is it? Of the wound that never heals, the jagged cut that scabs over only to be ripped open anew. The injury that teaches one to be wary, lest one be inflicted again.

But that is only after the wound is made. When it is first done...

Well, it is strange how long a heart can bear a blade through it without ever feeling the killing stroke.

“You are thinking,” Haruka remarks, with no small amount of disapproval. “I can tell.”

Shirayuki blinks down at her place setting, expecting to see broth dripped across the tablecloth, or perhaps the edge of her sleeve dipped in yolk, maybe even her tea dribbling over the edge of her cup--

But there is nothing. The white linen is pristine beneath her gold-rimmed plate, her sleeves and elbows tucked up and off the table, and if anything, her beverages of choice are picturesque in their vessels, juice beading with moisture and tea gently steaming. “What am I doing wrong?”

It, historically, has been the wrong question to ask the marquis, sure to send him into a silent huff that will stretch from first course to fifth, disapproval deepening with each sorbet. In his vaunted opinion, the fact her inexperience might cause her to trespass the unspoken rules of good manners is bad enough, but to not know precisely when and how it was done-- now that was truly unforgivable.

However, today he merely settles back in his seat, rubbing his fingers against the cloth tucked over his lap, and fixes her with his unerring gaze. She doesn’t shrink beneath it; oh no, instead something in her chest shifts, almost as if-- as if it grows.

His lips twitch, just the slightest upward tremor. “Nothing.”

Her mouth opens, then closes, stymied. “Then how did you know?”

A single, noble arch lifts. “Because you have never once stopped.”

It is to the tiger-lily the little girl turns, after the roses. They are a pompous flower, no doubt, as proud and self-important as any big cat, but despite their bluster, they are honest. The noblest flower in this garden, hearty and constant, and though they sniff when she kneels down upon their bed, dirtying her hem, they listen.

Have you seen him? she asks, heart lodged tight in her throat. Have you seen my precious boy?

“So what is it,” Haruka murmurs into his glass, “that has you so engrossed, young lady?”

Her lips press together, teeth plucking at the scar. “You told me once that I should know who is my ally, and who is my-- Zen’s.”

The rim has hardly touched his lips, but Haruka sets down the crystal, hands folding behind his plate. “I did.”

“But those are not the one two options, are they.” It’s not a question, not anymore. “Sometimes they may seem to be one or the other, or both at the same time, but really-- it’s their own, isn’t it? Everyone is just trying to do what they think best.”

“That is...” The marquis takes in a steady breath. “A very mature way to see a frustrating problem.”

“The consort has said that she is my friend,” she says slowly, each word shaken loose from her heart. “But she is also lying to me.”

“Is she?”

Haruka, she had said once, these long skirts tangled around her legs, binding fast as any chain, he’s hard to read.

Is he? Zen’s hand was cold against hers, like touching marble. Izana’s had been the same so many years ago; she wonders if it might be a problem with their circulation, perhaps passed down from a parent, but this doesn’t seem the time to ask about his mother’s medical history. He’s always seemed clear as crystal to me.

Though, he continues, mouth set in a rueful grin. After a childhood of lectures, maybe it’s easier. I can tell how stupid he thinks I am just from the degree of his eyebrows.

His brow is furrowed now, a tight knot over the bridge of his nose. There’s no angle, no lift, and Shirayuki isn’t quite sure what that might say about his perception of her intelligence. If it were anyone else, she might even call it concern.

“Is she lying to you,” he asks, posing it like Lata when he wants to ask something particularly perverse as a rhetorical. “Or are you not asking the right questions?”

Her fingers clench tight on her lap, linen rucking up between her fingers. She likes this far less than Lata’s. “Your Grace...”

Now his brows raise, shock stark on his face, “Yes, Miss Shirayuki?”

“Do you...?” The words stick in her mouth; to ask them is to admit defeat. No-- distrust. That the best interests everyone has been working towards are not her own. “Do you know where Obi is?”

I have seen no precious boy, the tiger lily trumpets, as proud as ever. Only a little girl loved by all who see her. How lucky she is to garner such attention!

I care not for me, the little girls mutters, impatient. Where do you think he has gone?

Away, away. The flower bobs beneath its own self-importance. He has been taken away. Down and gone and buried with the roses. Perhaps you are the better for it.

“No.” It’s the truth; he wouldn’t bother to lie to her. “As of now, his location is unknown, even to the king himself.”

She licks her lips, nails biting into her thigh. The orbia seed burns a hole in her hip. “Are they looking for him?”

A shadow ripples over his face, gone before she can follow it to its source. “Someone might be.”

“I mean Zen,” she clarifies. “Or Izana.”

“I know,” he replies, voice impossibly gentle from such a forbidding mouth. “I think we’re ready for the next course, don’t you?”

Innocence and ignorance, truth and illusion, trust and betrayal-- we have meditated upon each, as if they are but separate concepts that can be held to the light and have each facet revealed in turn. But surely you seen that they have all brought us here, to this part, to this singular place: a knife buried in a breast, a garden made into a cage. A girl in each, who has finally seen the truth beneath the illusion.

We should rejoice, should we not? For these girls who might free themselves, might heal themselves? But yet you do not, do you? For you know the trick of it:

A wound does not truly begin to bleed until the blade is removed. And a girl like this--

Ah, her hand is already at the hilt.

For once, Shirayuki is relieved that it is her round-faced guard that awaits her and not a more experienced one. Or worse yet, Kiki, who would anticipate her before she could get a word in edgewise.

But luck is on her side; this dear boy springs from his place on the wall, every muscle tense with anticipation, quivering to do his duty, and she-- she is ready to take advantage of it.

“Ready, my lady?” he asks, bouncing on the balls of his feet, a hound eager to be given his leash. “It’s off to the ballroom next, isn’t it? With Master--?”

“Not today,” Shirayuki informs him swiftly. “I need you to take me to the king.”

The color leaches from his face. “The...the k-king?”

She nods, tight, officious. The sort Lady Mihoko gave her maids; the sort that belonged alongside a command obeyed.

“But, my lady...” He shuffles on his feet, loath to disappoint her. “Don’t you need an appointment to see His Majesty? I don’t think you can just go right in and--”

She’s already walked past him, chin held high. “He’ll see me.”

It may seem humble before the dawn, its petals as rumpled as bedsheets, drawn over its head like a child-- but when the sun casts its fiery crown over the garden, it is the convolvulus that is ascendant. It needs no dazzling pattern, no fanciful pinwheel of petal and sepal to make itself stand above its floral brethren, but only purity of color. For there is no other here that is so purely white, that has a color so simply blue. The tiger lily might roar among the plots, but it is to the convolvulus it bends, when it rises from its nightly slumber.

The little girl watches as the sleep falls from its petals, witness to its splendor. What, it asks, ruffling its delicate mane, could have made you seek me out, girl?

There is a not-insignificant portion of her life that has been spent waiting; not in the way of most of her colleagues-- for water to boil, or a titration to drip, or even for a letter of acceptance to arrive-- but for men with nothing else to recommend them but birth to decide they’re bored enough to receive the royal pharmacist. Shidan had called it fundraising and Kazaha glad-handing, but Shirayuki can admit now, as she flies past Izana’s steward, leaving him and her guard in her wake, what it really is:

Insulting.

The view always arrests her when she enters the royal solar, and this morning is no different; the sun setting, finishing its bright arc through the sky, but the angle of it, with the windows as they are-- it sets the king’s hair alight, a halo burning.

A target, she names grimly; and she the arrow. With his steward calling her name behind her, she takes a determined step toward him.

“Have you not heard then?” Izana asks, hardly bothering to look up from his papers. “I already approved your request to be excused from dinner.”

Shirayuki hauls up short, skirts swishing around her ankles. “Dinner?”

“Yes.” His brows raise, as does his gaze, already bored. “My brother already spoke about at length this morning. So if you seek to move me as well, please note that I have already stepped aside.”

“I...” She blinks. “I wasn’t here for that.”

Interest sparks in his eyes, quick as a struck match. “Then by all means, scold away. At least--” his mouth quirks, too amused-- “I assume that is your intention, marching into my office unannounced as you are.”

“Forgive me.” The steward presses a hand to his heaving breast. “Mistress Shirayuki--”

“It a force of nature,” his master replies, mouth curling like parchment corners. “So I have often had occasion to find out. You may leave us.”

“Your Majesty--” Izana merely lifts his brows, and the man stutters to a stop. “Of course. As you wish.”

“Now,” he hums as the doors close. “Just which wind sent this storm spinning into my office?”

Bound here you might be, but I know the trick of this place, the girl says, kneeing at the bed’s edge. What roots grow here touch the roots of all the morning’s glory. And you who wake with the sun-- you keep the closest watch on the horizon.

If there are any in the garden who know of my precious boy, she continues, the breeze rippling the convolvulus’s ruff. It would be you. So tell me, please...have you see him?

“It’s Obi,” she admits, heat stinging her cheeks. “I want to know the, er, status of the search.”

Izana blinks.

Oh, how kind it would be if this confusion was feigned, if it were all just a show to drag out her loyalties; to force her to admit that even if Zen was her heart, she could not turn her back on her home. That this was simply another moment where she would show him that friendship was strength, and the walls he erected himself were merely a folly.

But there is no smug satisfaction buoying his words when he asks, “The search? Didn’t Sir Obi leave my brother’s employ months ago? The beginning of the summer, I believe--”

“He didn’t quit,” Shirayuki insists, even as the seed weighs heavy between her skirts. “He disappeared, and Zen said he had put men out to search for him.”

A flower has no face, but the girl need no smile, no hooded eyes to discern the sorrowful bent of its stem.

I am but the morning’s glory, the convolvulus sighs, and when the night comes, I fold myself tight. Your boy does not pass me in my waking hours, so perhaps it is that he travels in the night.

But what does that mean? asks the girl. Why would he only travel at night? He is but a boy, a boy, and he walks in day.

The convolvulus is quiet, swaying in the garden’s eternal summer. I do not know, he admits. I do not know at all.

“Ah.” His eyes soften, no longer the unrelenting velvet of the night, but the waves of deep water, and Shirayuki finally has cause to find out: to experience Izana’s pity is a thousand times worse than his disdain. “I am not privy to the movement of my brother’s men, so long as I do not need them in attendance. He must not have put in his last report...”

“Please.” Her hand flies up between them, earning her an incredulous lift of a brow. “It only makes it worse that you are being decent about it.”

His laugh surprises her. “So you’d like me to gloat?”

“No.” Her breath saws out of her, great heaves that shake her shoulders. “I want you to grant me leave to find him.”

“You?” His brows raise, even his eyes widen, but to his credit, he does not ask, but what could you do? Instead his mask settles back over his face without a ripple, the king staring out from behind it. “It would be a waste. I have heard from your tutors that you are making good progress. Lady Mihoko even ventured to say you might make a passable princess, if you pushed out an heir fast enough.”

Her mouth twitches. Only yesterday, she would have nearly fainted with relief, but today-- “What praise.”

There’s a stern tilt to his mouth, a forbidding set to his eyebrows; if she didn’t know any better, Shirayuki would call it concern. “As I recall, our agreement did address this.”

“Then you mean...?”

“Yes.” He nods, splaying his palms across his desk, almost as if he were bracing himself. “If you leave the palace grounds, you forfeit your chance to be the one at my brother’s side. A princess leaves such things in the hands of her guardsmen--” his mouth twitches-- “and her husband.”

You want her to go, do you not? Even now you quiver at the edge of your seat, begging this little girl to open her eyes, to keep them open, to see through the illusion and run as fast as she can. You want her to leave the garden, to break through the last of this enchantment and leave safety behind.

But tell me, what would you do, with the knife quivering it in your chest? To forget it is to live with the pain. To remove it is to be free.

An easy choice, you might say. Who could live with a blade in their breast? Ah, but do not forget:

There is no way to know if the wound is fatal until the knife is removed.

“There is something I wonder, Mistress Shirayuki.”

His musings shatter the brittle silence between them; that fragile bulwark that has kept her in his skin. Now that it’s gone, she trembles, every muscle in her body fighting the urge to cross the king’s study and shake him until decency falls it.

A hopeless quest if there ever was one. “Is there something else you could possibly say to me?”

She says it sweetly; most would hear only that-- the tone rather than the content. But Izana has not sat so long on his father’s throne by being that sort of man; no, his mouth curls, amused.

“No. It’s only...” he hums, gaze lifting from his paper. “I wonder when you started to think Obi left.”

Then what do you know? the girl says, anger and bile rising in her tone. What good are you?

A flower cannot smile, but she feels teeth when it replies, I know that it will cost you, and cost you dear.

Izana might as well have struck her. Shirayuki rocks back on her heels, only just catching herself before she trips over her own hem. “I-I...what do you...?”

“When you came in here, you first talked as you had before.” Long fingers knit beneath his chin, though he does not deign to rest on them, not alert as he is. A cat before a kill, still toying with with the prey between his paws. “You insisted on his disappearance-- the implication being, of course, that you deny his own agency in his departure. Kidnapping or coercion, one might say.”

She cannot see its teeth, but Shirayuki isn’t so foolish to believe there is no trap. “Y-yes..”

“But now you come to me and ask after my men.” His mouth quirks. “You ask for my permission.”

“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?” she asks, fingers clenching in her skirts. “A princess wouldn’t depart without the approval of her liege.”

“Of course.” He waves a hand, as if all those rules she spent late nights learning mean nothing at all, as if they were worth less than the paper on which they had been printed. “A princess would. But you, Miss Shirayuki, you--” his eyes spark, the way she only saw that night in Lilias as he closed the gates-- “you jump from windows. You follow a flower into a cave. If you truly believed your companion in danger, I doubt there is a single promise that would keep you by my side.”

She cannot breathe, let alone hazard an answer. Not when even a flutter of an eyelash could give her away.

“Which begs the question, doesn’t it?” His gaze fixes her to where she stand, pins through a moth’s wings. “Just what reason would make him leave?”

Me? the girl cries, already thinking of her lovely red shoes, of the boat they bought her down the river. Why me?

Because my dear, the convolulus hums. It is your fault that he has left.

The doors swing open, and the steward steps inside, sparing her an infuriatingly smug glance. “Sir Lowen, Your Majesty.”

“A moment,” the king tells him, “Mistress Shirayuki and I are nearly done her.”

The man nods. “I will tell him to await your will.”

Shirayuki blinks. “What--?” It’s trial to catch her breath, to make her heart stop pounding in her breast. “What is Mitsuhide doing here?”

“You need an escort to your dinner, do you not? I thought he would be the most palatable option for you.” Izana fixes her with a meaningful look. “I do hope you find your answers, Mistress Shirayuki.”

You don’t know me. Obi’s gaze is raw in her memory, too gold. You don’t know anything about me.

You know how he is. Zen’s smile curls at the edges, brittle, like parchment pasted to vellum. Obi has always come back on his own before.

Zen will take care of it. Mitsuhide won’t meet her gaze. I’m sure Obi will be back any day now.

“Don’t worry.” It’s a miracle that the words don’t catch between her teeth, the way she’s clenching them. “I will.”

A hand wraps around a hilt. A breath shudders. And with one, swift tug--

The blade moves but an inch.

#obiyukiweek21 #obiyuki #akagami no shirayukihime #snow white with the red hair #my fic #All That Remains #snow queen au #ans #YET ANOTHER CHAPTER #WHERE I DO NOT REACH THE END OF THIS PART #it's coming guys #really it is...#...one day....#but at least you get this small glimmer of hope #FOR NOW

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fumiko-matsubara · 3 years

Text

June 22, 2014 ー 13:41

Characters: Chiba Ryuunosuke, Yamazaki Jenny, Nakamura Rio, and Maehara Hiroto

Word Count: 2.3k words

Author's Note: I've just been wanting to write anything about these particular four lol

"What are you two doing here?"

Nakamura and Maehara purposely avoided Miki's intense stare as she interrogated them.

"I was just getting something to eat but then I saw you two across the street..." Nakamura answered innocently before finally letting herself meet Miki's gaze. "So I just thought of saying hi... didn't expect to bump with this guy though," she pointed a thumb towards Maehara.

Verbally unresponsive, Miki blankly stared back for a few seconds, seemingly taking in Nakamura's answer, before moving her gaze towards Maehara's instead and raised an eyebrow, prompting him to speak up.

Maehara immediately looked sideways, avoiding her gaze once again. "Well, you told me last week that I should cancel my date with Remi-chan and that's what I did so now I have nothing to do-"

"Bullshit," Miki cut him off, clearly not amused. "That was last month, you bastard."

Nakamura lightly scoffed at that.

"I uhh..." Maehara trailed off, his gaze darting everywhere until they landed into Miki's hair. "Your hair!" He cracked a tight grin, obviously trying to change the topic. "It looks cute today!"

"I know," Miki answered dryly. Her hair is currently tied into loose twin dutch braids. "I see myself in the mirror everyday."

"Nevermind that, there's something I wanted to ask you," Nakamura butted in, "who's that guy? He looks familiar." She gestured towards the person standing next to Miki, who had worn his bucket hat down to his face, making it almost impossible to make out his appearance.

The said person let out a deep, seemingly annoyed, sigh at the question. "You can't even recognize me and yet you decided to follow us for almost thirty minutes straight?" He breathed out.

Nakamura immediately recognized that voice. "Chiba-kun?!" She exclaimed.

"Wait, Chiba?" Maehara took a step closer towards the guy to get a closer look at him.

Chiba clicked his tongue in irritation, pulling down his bucket even further while turning his head away. "Yeah, it's me."

Maehara stood almost awkwardly by the aisle as he watched the other three go over some make up products and try them out.

...or rather it was Miki trying out the products onto Chiba while Nakamura was going through the shelves.

After their mini confrontation by the street, Miki soon had told them that she was out with Chiba to shop for make up products to use for his future stages.

"The red palette was getting kinda boring lately so I thought of experimenting with colours on him and see what fits him the best," she explained to them earlier.

Maehara admitted that, aside from what he saw or heard from his older sisters, he doesn't know that much about make up since he was more of a skincare kind of guy.

Almost 30 minutes have passed ever since Miki and Chiba settled themselves at the testing corner of the aisle, and Maehara felt like he should entertain himself with the skincare section of the store instead of awkwardly waiting for them to finish.

As he was about to excuse himself, he saw Nakamura suddenly approaching him.

"Hey, so I just saw this tint right here," Nakamura held up a product in warm pink colour in a shape of some plastic tube Maehara can't make out of, "and I thought it would look good with your skin tone."

Maehara blinked in confusion. "But I don't really wear make up though-"

"Relax~ The colour's not that pigmented and it won't even feel like you have something on your lips at all!" Nakamura breezily reassured while opening the tube's lid.

Maehara quickly stiffened when Nakamura suddenly grabbed his chin. "Now stay still," she ordered.

"Hey this is kinda..."

"Don't get any weird thoughts here, Maehara-kun~" Nakamura quickly cut him off without missing a beat.

Meanwhile, Miki slowly leaned backwards to examine her work so far. "Oooh the warm purple is kinda sexy with the faint gold!"

"Oh! That does look nice on him, miss!" A nearby clerk praised when she took a closer look.

"Right?!" Miki grinned before turning back to Chiba. "You holding up there?"

"This is nothing," he shrugged. "Though I have to be honest, I'm slowly starting to get embarrassed with all these people around..."

Miki smiled reassuringly at him in response, gently brushing away loose strands of hair from his face. "Well, at least people here hardly recognize you. So perhaps that helps a little, right?"

"Yeah, it does..." Chiba softly replied, his gaze following Miki's fingers as she went through the lip products she has scavenged so far. "What happened last week at class was borderline torture."

Miki stiffened at his remark, clearly remembering the exhaustingly chaotic events that had occurred in less than an hour that day. "Aha..."

Chiba just rolled his eyes at her lack of response. "Say, can you hand me a smaller mirror? I want to take a closer look on what you've worked on so far while you keep looking for uhh... whatever you're looking for, I guess."

"Here," Miki handed him her own compact mirror, before returning her focus to finding the right colour for him. "Ohh this is nice!" She barely heard him say.

"Umm miss?" Miki approached the clerk who had praised her earlier. "If you don't mind, I was wondering if you could help me with selecting the right lip colour that would go well with his eyeshadow?"

She then laughed sheepishly afterwards. "I'm not too well-versed with things like colour theory, you see..."

"No worries, I would love to help!" The clerk smiled brightly at her in return. "Just let me take a closer look again so I can help you find the right fit!"

"Oh that kinda looks sexy, don't you think?" Maehara commented as he and Nakamura watched Miki do her work.

"That's what I thought..." Miki almost whispered, carefully applying the chosen colour onto Chiba's lips.

"Must be nice," Nakamura suddenly blurted out after quietly watching for a while.

"Which is...?"

"Working on those kinds of lips," she answered.

Miki hummed in agreement, now blending out the pigment with a small brush. "I find it easier to apply technique if your workspace is wide enough."

"No wonder I struggled with this guy..." Nakamura let out a disappointed sigh, barely gesturing towards Maehara. "There's barely any space to work on with how small his lips actually are."

Miki nearly choked at the revelation. "Wait, they are?" Failing to suppress an amused grin, she turned to look at a now annoyed Maehara to see it for herself.

"Oh, the colour's nice. Good choice," she first complemented, taking note of how well the faint coral tint goes with Maehara's warm skin tone and brown hair. "You did a great job applying it, Rio. It doesn't even look like he's wearing anything on his lips."

"Ahee~" Nakamura grinned widely at the. compliment.

Miki cracked a smile. "But yeah, somehow it made it obvious how small his lips actually are," chuckling, she turned back to Chiba and continued her work. "Even I just noticed it."

"I don't know how I am supposed to feel right now..."

Nakamura nudged Maehara with a cheeky grin. "Hey, at least she basically said the colour looks good on you~"

"I would honestly be more convinced if she wasn't still mad at me..." Maehara sighed in disappointment.

"If only you never lied to me~" Miki hummed, not even once looking at him.

Maehara groaned in response. "C'mon Miki, that was way back in April. Can't you just drop it?"

"I think we're done here!" Miki suddenly announced, standing up straight after minutes of leaning.

Maehara sighed again, not surprised that she was purposely ignoring him. He's more than aware that last month's discourse with Kaho truly had him lose Miki's trust. He just didn't think that she was the type to hold grudges for this long.

"I don't know about you, but I think it'd better if you just stop bringing it up to her every other day?" Nakamura said in a low voice, quirking an eyebrow at him. "Like no offense, Maehara-kun, but if I we're in Miki's position right now I'd be annoyed too."

"Rio, can you help me put back the testing palettes to their shelves?" Miki called out now from the other end of the aisle.

Sending Maehara one last look, Nakamura walked towards the taller blonde. "Sure~"

Maehara was then once again back to awkwardly standing by the shelves. However, it didn't take too long for them to return the testing products to their respective shelves.

"Say, Ryuu. You want me to remove all that now or are you planning to just leave it on?" Miki called out despite her hands currently full.

Chiba was examining Miki's work through the long mirror on top of the shelves. "Hmm I think I'll just leave it on and take it off myself once I get home," he answered, running his hands through his hair. "The shadow work is not heavy enough to look weird to wear in public.... thankfully."

"Yeah it doesn't look like you're wearing much," Nakamura commented, walking away from the counter near the aisle and towards him.

Most of the heavy shadow work Miki had done were on Chiba's lower lids and on the outer corner of his eyes. Hence why, unlike earlier when he had them half-closed, which made them look more obvious, they were barely noticeable now that he was looking ahead.

"Kinda looks like you're just wearing eyeliner with some colour here and there," Nakamura added with a slight grin. "You look good though, by the way."

"Thanks," Chiba replied almost shyly, though his following smile was making it more prominent. "My stage makeup is much heavier than this, especially the shadow work. Miki tends to go all out around my lower lashes especially..." He explained to them briefly, though more to Maehara since the guy looked kind of lost for a moment.

Maehara nodded in understanding. "Ahh that explains why it doesn't feel the same as last week's..."

Chiba hummed in reply, proceeding to mess with his hair again. "It's getting hotter outside but I can't leave my hair loose like this. I don't have anything to have it up," he briefly gathered his hair again, as if he was planning to tie it into a ponytail, but soon let go of it.

"...can't even wear it down with all the makeup now," he sighed, brushing it again with his fingers.

"Just tolerate the heat and make do with the bucket hat," Nakamura suggested, handing Chiba his white bucket hat which now that he thought about it, he had no idea how she even got a hold of it in the first place.

Maehara watched as Chiba brushed all of his hair backwards before putting on the hat. "Hey, don't pull it too down."

"Nah I'll look weird otherwise."

Maehara raised an eyebrow at his response. "What are you talking about? I'm pretty good-looking myself-"

Nakamura let out a gagging noise.

"but even I can- Will you stop that?!" Maehara hissed at Nakamura, who only stuck her tongue out to him in response.

Taking off the bucket hat, Chiba approached the counter where Miki was still waiting in line. "Miki, do you have anything with you?" He asked rather tiredly. "Hair tie, clip, a beanie, or just anything I can use?"

"Let me check," Miki quickly went through her tote bag. "Ah I have my beanie, though it's those bigger types..." She brought out a red beanie and handed it to him.

Chiba happily took it from her hands. "Oh I have one like this in blue, thanks!"

He went back to where Maehara and Nakamura stood and immediately wore the beanie. Tucking the rest of his hair behind his ears, Chiba looked at the mirror in mild satisfaction. "Hmm yep I guess that does it."

"Cute," Nakamura cheekily commented, thus ruining Chiba's composure as he broke into a shy smile.

"Be quiet," he muttered, turning his head away from the now grinning duo.

"Is it even fine for you to be seen with us on a Sunday afternoon?" Maehara suddenly brought up when they left the store.

"I think it's fine," Nakamura answered before Chiba even opened his mouth. "We took pictures last week and I posted some of mine on twitter too. So, it shouldn't be surprising to people that 'Lead Guitarist-kun' is hanging out with people his age on a weekend."

Miki hummed in agreement. "He's just a rather popular member of a local band in this town," she then scoffed, "not a damn celebrity for him to be not seen in public."

"That's true but I'm talking about us being class E students," Maehara turned to Chiba. "Since the reason why you even hid this whole band thing from us was so that people won't find out that you're a class E student technically participating in club activities," he elaborated.

Chiba nodded in confirmation. "You're right. But as they said, it's fine."

They all came to a stop before the pedestrian lane, waiting for the stoplight to turn green.

"We're not wearing our uniforms, so it'll be hard for people to even recognize you guys as students from class E.... let alone wonder why I'm hanging out with you," he reassured with a small smile.

"Exactly," Miki agreed before wincing when the sunlight suddenly came back. "Anyways, you guys got any place y'all want to go to? I don't like the sun..."

Maehara scoffed at her last remark. "Are you a vampire or something? Anyways, I want to go-"

"If you say Marui, I will deck you."

"Come on now. I didn't even say anything!"

"That place is on the other side of the town, you dumbass, and I'm about to die here."

"A little sunlight won't kill you!"

Nakamura just watched the two continuously bicker and turned to Chiba with a grin. "There's a cafe nearby just across the lane. Wanna go there and get some of their iced offers?"

"That works," he replied with a fairly amused smile.

#I actually don't know where I'm going with this one lol #but I'm not too mad hehe #yes I managed to name all 5 of my kids in a very short one shot #life is good #assassination classroom #ansatsu kyoushitsu #assassination classroom oc #ansatsu kyoushitsu oc #target on #chiba ryuunosuke #yamazaki jenny #nakamura rio #maehara hiroto #my writing #target on moments #current timeline

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okamarinosuzoki · 3 years

Text

What I love (KinAtsu)

also available on ao3 :)

Atsushi sighed, letting himself fall deeper into the bath until he had water under his nose. The whole Defense club was with him but the room was surprisingly silent. It was one of those days where they were just all thinking about different things and didn't really need to talk to each other. Even Io and Ryuu, who were usually arguing over everything, were just whispering quick sentences from time to time and laughing quietly at private jokes.

All in all, it was a very slow day. Atsushi had a hard time keeping his eyes open and, after saving En from drowning two times after falling asleep, he had placed the blond's head on Yumoto's shoulder who was silently playing with a plastic duck. He was about to definitely close his eyes when the younger of the group spoke.

“Say, Atsushi-senpai, what is it that you like about Kin-chan-senpai?”

Well, that was unexpected.

Io and Ryuu stared at Yumoto, jaws and eyes wide opened, En snickered in Yumoto's shoulder about the “Kin-chan-senpai” part (and who was he to laugh when he was always called “En-chan-senpai”?) and Atsushi gasped before he could remember he was underwater. He choked before turning to spit the water out of the bath (ignoring En's disgusted exclamation).

“W-Why do you ask, Yumoto?”

He shrugged before answering.

“Well, Kin-chan-senpai is always saying he likes how reliable and kind you are. But you never mentioned what you like about him.”

Okay, that was a strangely bright observation from Yumoto, but he was also growing up and maturing after all. That, or the flush on his face was due to another fever. Which was more realistic.

Even though Atsushi wanted nothing more than going home to avoid this embarrassing question, he knew all eyes were on him and he couldn't just stand up and leave. He tried to think about something to avoid this conversation, but in front of Io and Ryuu's curious eyes, Yumoto's innocent's ones and En's mocking smile (maybe it was time for him to find a new best friend), he sighed before deciding he could answer.

“I...” He blushed when all his friends leaned slightly toward him. “I really like how serious and reliable he is. He never takes what he does lightly, always giving everything to make sure it's perfect and never forgets anything. Even though his work takes an important place in his life, he still finds some time to think about me. He is always so happy whenever I ask him if he wants to go somewhere during our days off, it makes me feel quite bad about not trying to understand him sooner... I just– I just like everything about his personality.” He seemed to hesitate before putting a hand in front of his face to hide his blush. “And he's really cute...”

The silence that fell in the room after his words was the most embarrassing moment in his life. He caught a glimpse of Io and Ryuu's red faces, embarrassed by his confession, Yumoto's eyes shining and trying to look discretely at En, whatever that meant, and En's mocking smile growing larger. Those reactions were to be expected, he was just glad no one else had heard him.

If we were in a manga, that would be the moment where Kin-chan would appear at the door, claiming he had heard everything... Atsushi thought, bashfully

[...]

Kinshirou sighed, his body slowly relaxing as he entered the hot bath. After days of intense work for the Student Council, they were finally free to go home earlier. The Defense club hadn't finished cleaning their room though, and with the upcoming graduation ceremony, they had to tidy up quickly if they didn't want to be three doing it next year.

He sighed when he thought about next year. Atsushi and he weren't going to the same university, meaning it was going to be harder to keep in touch. He felt like he had wasted so many years because of a stupid misunderstanding, years he could have spent getting closer to Atsushi, instead of ignoring him. He was sad, knowing he wouldn't be able to see him every day, but he was trying to stay positive. At least they would still be able to text and call each other.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't realise Arima and Akoya had joined him in the bath. He jumped, surprised, when Akoya opened his mouth.

“Senpai, is there something in particular that you like about Kinugawa-senpai?”

He had just time to catch a glimpse of Arima's eyes widening before he understood the question Akoya had asked him. His cheeks reddened so suddenly he could feel the heat emanating from them.

“W-Why- I don't-”

“I mean.” Akoya cut him. “You are always saying how grateful you are to him since he forgave you... But I guess he isn't someone that special.”

Kinshirou frowned at his words.

“You obviously don't know what you are talking about.” He answered harshly. “At-chan has hundreds of amazing qualities. Of course he is incredibly kind for forgiving me, but he is also generous and brave. He always takes care of everyone around him and never mocks them. He is a good listener and gives great advice, always making sure there are the best ones. The only thing I could reproach him could be the fact that he takes care too much of other people and make their happiness a priority over his own needs. “He bit his lips, refraining from smiling shyly. “But that's also something I love about him.”

The only thing that should have answered him was a long silence, but a sudden gasp behind him made him jump. He dared to look, hoping that it wouldn't be who he was thinking about. But luck wasn't on his side as the whole Defense club was standing next to the bath's door.

Atsushi was standing in the middle of them, his face completely red and his lips stretched in an awkward smile. Suddenly, Kinshirou wanted to pass out. As if this wasn't enough, Akoya added to his embarrassment.

“No one talked about love though.”

Yep, time to drown.

#boueibu #kinatsu #kinugawa atsushi #kusatsu kinshirou

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alexhogh7137 · 4 years

Text

The Battle Between Love and Fire-

Ivar the Boneless × Reader

Chapter Seven is here...

Chapter Eight: Dracarys

Chapter Nine is Coming Soon...

Word Count 1.8k

Warnings: Mentions of blood, gore, fluff, mentions of beatings (may be triggering)

When you walk alongside Ivar and Hvitserk, you see the three guards that put you in that horrid cage. The other two that helped carry you, were behind them, waiting for their fate to be sealed. Hvitserk nudges and smirks at you.

"What?"

Hvitserk "Nothing, I just think that you are going to enjoy this a great deal."

"Oh I will. I didn't deserve what they did to me, so they deserve what they are going to get."

Hvitserk chuckles and throws his arm around your shoulder, "I like you, princess. You are going to fit in very well here in Kattegat."

"Thank you, and I like you too Hvitserk. You've helped me these past two days and I cannot thank you enough. I owe you."

Hvitserk "Don't worry about it, Y/n. It was my pleasure to help you. Ivar would have done it himself if he could."

"I know. I feel for him."

Hvitserk "As do I, princess. But he is Ivar, he does not like pity."

"I understand how he feels. My people in Wessex, they know how my father is. And yet they don't show me pity, they just simply look the other way when I come out of my chambers with fresh bruises."

Hvitserk "He beats you-?!" He gets cut off by Ivar starting the ritual.

You whisper and lean into his shoulder, "I will tell you after, but yes he does. It is a very long story."

Hvitserk "Okay, I am sorry. Just know that as of right now."

"Thanks."

…

Ivar takes a seat right in front of his people and reaches out for you to join him, to which you gladly take his offer.

Ivar "Are you ready, princess."

"Yes, my king. Thank you for giving me justice. You don't have to if-"

Ivar "Nonsense! I care for you a great deal, Y/n. These three deserve what they are about to get. You are not the first person to be treated that way."

"Really, who were the other's?"

Ivar "Hvitserk's late beloved, and two others. So yes, I am happy to do this."

"Okay." He kisses your knuckles and then looks at his people.

Ivar "My good people, you all know these men very well! You know how they have tendencies to take their power a little too far, don't we?"

"Yes!"

Ivar "What you do not know, is that these three guards threw princess Y/n into a cage we keep for intruders! People who disobey and people who defame my image! Not innocent women who simply came for help, for a better life! They also did that to Thora, my brother's late lover. She also did not deserve that. Two others were also thrown without my word, without my ruling! Now do we allow that?!"

"No!"

Ivar "So what should we do, my people! Because surely princess Y/n, among others deserve justice for what they have done to them, do they not?!"

"Yes!"

Ivar "So, what shall we do to them huh?!"

"Hang them!" Some shout.

"Sacrifice them!" Another shouts.

Ivar chuckles and then looks at you, "What do you wish for me to do, princess?"

"I do not care, just kill that one first." You point to the man in the middle.

Ivar "Yes, my princess. Question...ax, dagger or sword?"

Him asking you that question, gave you a tingle that you couldn't ignore.

"Dagger, my king. Make him suffer." You see his jaw clench in excitement. He kisses your forehead and then gets up and walks right up to the man you pointed at. He turns around one last time and takes out his dagger.

Ivar "Your future queen, has decided that I do this personally! To which I am happy to do. Do any of you object?" No one objects, making Ivar look at his brother in amusement.

Hvitserk "Do it, brother! Make him scream-" when Ivar is about to do it, Ubbe and Torvi arrive back from their travel's.

…

Ubbe "What is all of this hmm? And who is she?"

Ivar "This is my soon to be queen, Ubbe."

Ubbe "Oh is that so? Well, what is your name little sis?"

"I am Y/n, princess of Wessex."

Ubbe "Oh how nice. Now Ivar, why are three of our personal guards waiting to be killed, hmm?"

Ivar "They threw Y/n into our cage, Ubbe. I did not command it, I did not even know that she was here! They kept her in there without my knowledge for over eight hours."

Ubbe "Are you serious?"

Torvi "Are you certain?"

Hvitserk "Yes, they admitted it."

Ivar "I won't allow another woman to be thrown in that horrid cage that isn't meant for them. First it was Thora, then it was two of your allies, now Y/n. I won't allow it...surely you would agree, yes?"

Ubbe "Yes, it was just a shock is all. But it must be done. Y/n, it was nice to meet you. I look forward to getting to know you shortly, hmm?"

"Yes of course."

Torvi "How long is your stay?"

Ivar "Indefinitely."

Torvi "Oh how wonderful." They walk away, not even mentioning the emerald green dragon that sat calmly by your side. Which you thought was strange.

Hvitserk sits down next to you, waiting for Ivar to get the job done as much as you are.

Hvitserk "Continue Ivar." Ivar clears his throat and turns around to face the man.

"Please my king...I will not do that again. Give me another chanc-"

Ivar "YOU HAD CHANCES! I GAVE YOU FOUR, AND YOU STILL DISOBEY MY ORDERS! I told you, when we have visitors you send them straight to me. And what do you do? You put them in the cage for hours on end!"

"I AM SO SORRY, IVAR! PLEASE HAVE MERCY!"

Ivar "Mercy? MERCY?! DID YOU GIVE Y/N MERCY? HUH?"

"N-no."

Ivar "Let me ask you something. Did she tell you who she was, hmm?"

"Y-yes."

Ivar "Huh? I didn't catch that."

"YES!"

Ivar "Yes. That is what I thought. What else did she say to you huh?"

"She..she told me that you knew that she was coming. She told me to just talk to you."

Ivar "Mhm..and did you? Did you come tell me that?"

"N..no. I didn't trust her! She has a fucking DRAGON!"

Ivar "I KNEW THAT SHE HAD A DRAGON! YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT!"

"Please Ivar."

Ivar "You threw the woman that I have grown insanely close with in a dark, isolated and cold cage for over eight hours! She could have starved to death, she could have died from hypothermia! It is beyond freezing in there, for a reason!"

"Please, i-i am not ready for Valhalla!"

Ivar "Hmm..strange. 'cause I can hear the Valkaries wings coming down to bring you home right now!" The man screams out one last time before Ivar digs his dagger into his right eye. Hvitserk cheers and throws his horn of ale in the bastard's direction. Ivar doesn't stop there, he digs his other eye out and then slits the man's throat. To everyone's surprise, he is still gurgling. Ivar looked at you and then at Ryuu. You know what he is asking of you and you think about it for a moment. He didn't just put you in that cage, he also put your dragon in there with you. You make up your mind and rise from your seat. You walk over to Ivar with Ryuu on your shoulder.

"Dracarys." Ryuu blazes the man from head to toe while the people of Kattegat cheer. Ivar stood there in amazement at your dragon. After he was dead, it was the two others' turn.

"What about them?"

Ivar "I will simply hang them."

"Good, the two behind them don't deserve to die, Ivar. They followed his orders, nothing else."

Ivar looks at them kneeling on the floor, begging for mercy and then back at you.

Ivar "Okay princess, if you say so. I will allow them to live."

After the two others were hung, Ivar had his people clean up the bodies.

Hvitserk walks over to the two men that you saved, uncuffing them from the floor.

Hvitserk "You owe her your lives, do you understand that?"

"Yes." They both said.

Hvitserk "Because of her, you both live to see another day." That is when you walk over.

"Th-thank you! THANK YOU!" They practically chanted.

"You are very welcome. I know that you simply followed orders. Now if you ever betray me, I will burn you alive."

They swallowed deeply, "Yes. Yes princess."

"What happened to not using your dragon's to kill?" One said.

"I will allow them to kill for me if it is justified. If you betray me or your king ever again, I will burn you alive. Do you understand?"

"Yes." They both said.

Hvitserk "You can leave." They both ran for their lives. Ivar was behind you and Hvitserk the whole time.

Ivar "I have never met a woman so powerful before you, princess."

"I-I don't know where that came from." He walks towards you, cupping your cheeks.

Ivar "Your rage came out, my sweetheart. Your pain from your father, your pain from your past came up...that is why you said those things."

"You are right. I am not usually like that."

Hvitserk "But you have a reason to be, Y/n. Don't feel bad for setting rules, you are a princess."

"Okay."

_____________________________

Ivar had matter's to take care of with his brother Ubbe and his wife Torvi, leaving you and Hvitserk alone.

Hvitserk "Hey."

"Hey."

Hvitserk "Do you want to tell me now? If you are ready.."

"Sure, Hvitserk."

He sits down next to you and listens to you tell your story of your past. You explained to him your father's ways and his behavior. When you get to the beatings, you can see Hvitserk's behavior change abruptly: tears filled his eyes and his jaw was clenched. But eyes never left yours.

"So that is why I understand how Ivar doesn't like being pitied. But for me, I have never experienced empathy, sympathy or pity. I just had to fight my own little battle by myself because no one else would dare go against my father."

Hvitserk "I don't know what to say."

"Yeah."

Hvitserk "Well you aren't there anymore, Y/n. You don't ever have to go back if you do not wish to."

"I have to eventually, Hvitserk. I have two dragon's at home waiting for me. Oh my gods MY DRAGON'S!"

Hvitserk "Y/n, what is it?!"

"My dad, he...he will change my dragons! I trained them to be loving unless told otherwise! His dragons were much different."

Hvitserk "What do we need to do?"

"I need to get my dragons."

Hvitserk gets up, "So let's get ready to get your dragons and bring them home. Where they belong."

@hvitserkmarcosource @ivarsgoddess @youbloodymadgenius @a-mess-of-fandoms @ivarzeitgeist @kaitieskidmore1 @fadedprincess @more-stuf-f @herestherealproblem @heavenly1927 @saldelys

#the battle between love and fire #ivar the god #ivar the boneless #alex hogh andersen #marco ilsø #marco ilsoe #hvitserk lothbrok #hvitserk #jordan patrick smith #ubbe lothbrok #torvi vikings #vikings

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love-of-fandoms · 4 years

Text

Cherry Blossoms (Hanzo Shimada + OC) Chapter 13

Chapter 13 of Cherry Blossoms (Master List)

Pairing: Alpha Hanzo + Omega OC

Word Count: 2422 words

The day after Halloween, an extremist anti-omnic group began a coup in Hong Kong. They had taken control of the airport, and were running through the streets attacking any omnics they came across, and in turn any organics with them. Winston sent a team out.

Danny startled awake at the sound of a ringtone going off. When she cracked her eyes open, she was met with the view of a bare chest. There was some blue ink on the chest, and following it to the shoulder it was attached to she could see it was Hanzo’s dragon tattoo. Upon gaining more awareness of everything, she could feel two strong arms around her waist.

With a squeak, she shot up, looking around. The arms around her tightened in protest, but she broke out of their hold in a panic. Hanzo startled awake at her forcefully tearing herself from his arms, and one hand reached up to rub his eyes to get the sleep out of them.

“What’s wrong, ‘me-” he cut himself off, eyes opening a bit more at the sight of a heavily breathing Danny. Almost instinctively, his arms went back around her, pulling her back down into his chest. “We fell asleep watching the movie, remember?” he prompted gently, and Danny took in a deep breath his scent flooding her nostrils and calming her almost instantly. She sighed happily.

“Y-yeah,” she murmured, nuzzling back into his chest and closing her eyes once more. “C-can we sl-sleep a little longer?” she asked, her lips brushing his chest as she spoke. Hanzo was thankful her face was against his chest and she wasn’t able to see the bright pink flush that had come to his cheeks. “Please?” Hanzo puffed out a sigh.

“I need to answer my phone,” he said, voice low and rough with sleep, and Danny sighed, throwing her arm out to Hanzo’s bedside table, grabbing his phone and holding it above her head.

“Here,” she grumbled, and Hanzo blinked, staring at his phone for a moment as he processed what was happening, and the domestic contentment that filled his chest. He took his phone gently from her hand, going to missed calls and calling back Winston before raising his phone to his ear. The scientist picked up after barely one ring.

“Hanzo?” the archer grunted.

“Yes Winston?” he grumbled, hand absentmindedly raising to stroke through Danny’s hair. She wasn’t asleep, but a small smile was on her face as she rested atop him with her eyes closed. The feeling of domesticity was so pleasant that the passing thought went through Hanzo’s head. It wouldn’t hurt for every morning to be like this. For once, the thought didn’t even alarm him.

“There’s an issue in Hong Kong,” Winston said, and Hanzo’s brows furrowed.

“What is it?”

“Some anti-omnic extremists are running around attacking omnics and omnic-sympathizers, we’re sending a team out,”

“And I’m on this team?” Danny’s head lifted a bit, looking up at Hanzo with a pinched face of concern.

“Huh?” she mumbled, and Hanzo gave her an I’ll tell you later look, hand still stroking through her hair, and Danny sighed, slumping back against his chest.

“Yes, McCree, Hana, Reinhardt, Lucio, and Tracer are being sent to the airport to take out their central command,” Winston said. “You, Torbjörn, Angela, Brigitte and I are going to take out the smaller groups in the streets,”

“When do we leave?”

“As soon as you all can get ready and down to the hangar,” Hanzo let out a heavy sigh, glancing down at Danny for a moment before raising his eyes to the ceiling.

“I’ll be right down,” he said, before ending the call and putting his phone to the side. Danny peaked up at him with a questioning gaze.

“What’s going on?” she asked blearily. Hanzo sighed again.

“I need to go to Hong Kong,” he said, his hands going to her shoulders and prompting her to sit up. She sighed, sitting up and scooching over Hanzo so she could swing her legs over the edge of the bed. He sighed fondly, large hands falling to her hips and lifting her up. Danny squeaked as Hanzo put her back on his other side, plopping her down and gently pushing her shoulders back down. “You can still sleep,” he told her, standing from the bed and pulling the covers back over her.

“Are you sure?” Danny asked, though it was clear to both of them that she was going to take him up on his offer whether it was genuine or not as she settled into his pillows with a sigh, eyes already slipping closed. One of her hands grabbed Hanzo’s comforter and tugged it up to her face, breathing in his calming scent of flowers and tea. Hanzo huffed out a chuckle as he quickly changed out of his costume from the night before and into his usual loose robe.

“Sleep,” he commanded softly, leaning down to peck her forehead without really thinking about it. A smile slipped onto Danny’s face as she slipped into that calm, dizzy state that came right before sleep. As such, she didn’t notice the pink that came to Hanzo’s cheeks when he realized what he had done. He quickly slipped out of his room, eyes widening when he saw Jesse McCree standing right outside his door.

“Mornin’ Hanzo,” McCree grinned at the archer, tipping his hat, and Hanzo nodded back, beginning to walk down the hall in the direction of the hangar. McCree followed, his spurs clicking as they walked down the hall. “Have you seen Danny?” the cowboy asked, and Hanzo raised an eyebrow at him. “Just didn’t find her in her room earlier,” he shrugged at the look, and Hanzo sighed.

“She fell asleep in my room last night,” he said, and Jesse hummed mischievously. Hanzo’s lips tugged down into a scowl. “What?” Jesse shrugged innocently.

“Awe, nothin’,” Hanzo grunted, and he could have laughed in relief when they finally reached the hangar. Winston was there, along with 7 others, and he cleared his throat when he saw the final two heroes walk in.

“Alright, gather round!” he called, and began the brief. “Anti-omnic extremists have taken over Hong Kong’s airport, as well as sending out smaller teams into the streets to attack any omnics and omnic-sympathizers they find. We’re going to have two teams: Mercy, Torbjörn, Brigitte, Hanzo, and myself will neutralize the terrorists in the streets, while McCree, Lucio, Reinhardt, D.Va, and Tracer will take back the airport!” Angela’s face pinched in worry.

“Winston, we’re still technically illegal,” she piped up. “Will this be okay?” Winston nodded.

“HKPD knows we’re coming, and the chief said that he’ll be thankful for the help,” he assured her, and Angela sighed in relief.

“Well, at least we know we won’t get arrested, might die, but not get arrested,” Torbjörn cracked, and Lucio grimaced.

“Honestly, I’d rather not go through the whole ‘getting arrested’ thing again,” Lucio sighed, and Hanzo’s brows rose in question, and Lucio backpedaled, sensing the imminent questions. “But uh, let’s go to Hong Kong! Not worry about my record…” the musician chuckled, scratching the back of his head nervously.

“Shit!” Torbjörn exclaimed as a group of maybe 15 anti-omnic extremists rushed towards them. Everyone’s eyes widened when they saw multiple members of the group pulled out small bombs, arming them and preparing to throw them.

“Brigitte!” Winston called, but Brigitte grunted in frustration, shaking her gauntlet frantically.

“My shield isn’t working!” Hanzo’s eyes widened, pulling out an arrow and taking a deep breath. A blue energy began to glow around him, solidifying into his dragons.

“Ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau!” he shouted as he loosed the arrow, Sanda and Akarui spiraling forward in their mighty forms with his arrow, taking out the group that was rushing towards them. The few stragglers that were left found themselves screaming as the bombs their comrades had armed went off.

“Uh, we got a problem!” sounded through their comms, and Winston held tapped the comm in his ear.

“What is it, McCree?” he asked.

“We need back up, D.Va got hurt in the initial breach and there are way more than we expected,” McCree’s worried voice sounded through the comms, and Winston exchanged a worried look with the others.

“We’re on our way,” he said, before turning to Hanzo.

“Hanzo, you can get there quickest, go and provide support until the rest of us can get there,” the archer nodded, before running and grabbing an awning to swing himself up to the roof of a building. He ran off in the direction of the airport, eyes widening at the huge hole in the side of the main entrance.

“Where are you? It’s a big airport!” Hanzo demanded into his comm, McCree’s response crackling through only moments later.

“Right past the security checkpoint by the main entrance!” Hanzo’s eyes narrowed as he continued to run, soon enough hearing gunfire. Any civilians he encountered on the way, he told to get out of the airport, find somewhere safe.

“Vamos esculachar!” he heard Lucio shout as he rounded the corner, seeing, like McCree had said, the team huddled up by the security checkpoint. A green glow surrounded everyone as Lucio healed them up best he could, and Hanzo’s eyes narrowed as he saw a huge mec suit walking towards them. It had two huge turrets on its shoulders, which began to glow red as they fired up.

“Watch out!” he shouted, firing an explosive arrow at the mec, which barely phased it. McCree turned to Hanzo, seeing where the bow was firing and turning just in time to dive out of the way as the mec began firing. Reinhardt, who had just finished off a small group of attackers, turned to face the mec with a roar-like shout.

“For the crusaders!” he roared as he slammed his warhammer to the ground, a series of cracks lining the ground and rushing towards the mec, who had barely anytime to react before they were knocked off their feet. The person manning the mec let out a scream as they fell, the armor denting enough that it had surely injured the person inside. McCree jumped out from the barrier he had hidden himself behind then, pulling his peacekeeper out and shooting at the weak spots on the mec with deadly precision.

“It’s HIGH noon!” he shouted as the mec exploded, and everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as the impending threat seemed to be subdued.

It wasn’t to last however, McCree standing up and beginning to walk forward.

“Come on, we still need to finish them off,” he called, and Hanzo ran over and stopped Tracer from following the others.

“Stay with D.Va,” he told her. “The others will be here soon, until then we can’t leave her unprotected,” Tracer nodded, determination in her eyes.

“Got it!” she affirmed.

Almost 36 hours after the team had departed, they finally arrived back at the base. Exhausted, those who weren’t injured hightailed it back to their rooms, while the less fortunate ones had to stay and be treated by Angela.

Hanzo, only having some cuts and bruises, began to leave the hangar when he saw Danny running towards him. The corner of his lips quirked up in a small smile at the sight of her, and he barely had times to open his arms before she was barreling into them.

“Is everybody alright?” she asked, and Hanzo nodded, wincing when she gave him a tight squeeze. Perhaps his ribs were bruised as well… “Oh! I’m sorry! Are you hurt?!” Danny quickly pulled away, and Hanzo had to suppress the distressed noise that wanted to come out of his throat when she took her warmth and scent with her.

“I’m fine,” he assured her, but Danny narrowed her eyes, a hand raising to lightly prod his ribs. Hanzo let out a hiss of pain, and she sighed, grabbing his hand.

“Come on,” she began tugging him down the hall towards med bay, glancing over her shoulder at the others still in the hangar. “You too, Jesse! I need to look at that arm!” Jesse chuckled, tipping his hat at Angela before jogging to catch up to his little sister and the archer.

“You know how to fix his prosthetic?” Hanzo asked, surprised, and Danny nodded.

“I spent a year on the road with his sorry ass, I picked up a few things,” she grumbled, and Jesse chuckled.

“She’s better at fixing this thing than me at this point,” Jesse said, and Danny rolled her eyes.

“That’s because you only have one hand to fix it with,” she shot back, and Jesse shrugged, an indulgent smile on his face. She swung open the door to the medbay when the reached it, gesturing for her two shadows to sit as she began rifling through the cabinets.

“Where the hell are the biotic fields?” she murmured to herself, letting out a triumphant “Ah HA!” when she finally found one. She turned back to Hanzo, gesturing for him to take off his robe, which he did with only a slight blush. Danny very pointedly avoided looking too much as his toned chest, instead focusing intently on placing the biotic field above his ribs and turning it on.

“He gonna live, doc?” Jesse joked, and Danny sighed, pouting.

“I’m doing everything I can, but I don’t think he’s gonna make it,” she said softly, and Jesse gasped, putting his flesh hand to his chest in ‘shock’.

“Oh no!” he began fake sobbing, and Hanzo scoffed, reaching out a hand to shove the cowboy’s shoulder.

“I’m not dying anytime soon,” he grit out, and Danny smiled, nodding.

“You better not!” she chirped, giving Sanda and Akarui a pat on each of their heads when they peaked out of his tattoo. “Otherwise I won’t get to see these adorable little dragons again!” her voice raised in pitch, and Hanzo raised a brow.

“You’ll only miss the dragons?” he challenged, a small smile on his face as he knew she was only joking. Danny hummed, glancing up at him.

“I mean, I guess I’ll miss you too,” she sighed, and Hanzo chuckled, reaching a hand up to ruffle her hair. Danny pouted, but allowed him to do so begrudgingly.

“I’m not going anywhere anytime soon,” he assured her, and Danny gave him a soft smile.

“Good,”

…

“What am I? Chopped liver? My arm’s sparking over here!”

“Sorry!”

#cherry blossoms overwatch #overwatch fanfiction #hanzo shimada #hanzo x oc #hanzo x reader #alpha hanzo #abo fic #alpha beta omega #missions #fluff #cute #Jesse McCree #Winston overwatch

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lumilasi · 4 years

Photo

UPDATE: added her civilian outfit + updated rest of her bio

Her bio below

Age: 34 when Kain and Ryuu arrived in her place the first time, 40 now

Sexuality: lesbian

KEI’S QUIRK EXPLAINED

Quirk name: Knight (Pros in normal, cons in bold)

SWORD MODE

When in this mode, her attack will always cause damage regardless of the opponent’s defenses and invulnerability. How severe it is depends on the opponent, but the attack will always have some form of impact.

She can also easily break through physical emitter attacks that require offence tactics, such as Ice or soil-based quirks that aim to immobilize you.

she can switch between her two modes fairly quickly by default, making her a very efficient fighter.

The strength of her attacks depends heavily on her physical health; if she’s feeling weaker, her attack efficiency is weaker too, as well as the speed in switching between her two modes.

She tends to be on her other mode by default, so Kei needs to physically switch herself into the offensive mode, and when she does that, she can’t use her shield mode abilities.

SHIELD MODE

“Shield mode” basically makes her immune/highly resistant to any types of attacks, and this includes non-direct emitters like brainwashing. She has this mode on by default constantly.

Quirk-erasure skills are the only exception to her immunity, though only indirect emitter types; any quirk erasure that requires physical contact won’t work on her.

Like with the sword mode, her defense strength and stamina depends on her current fitness.

RANDOM FACTS

- “Kei” means Knight, and “Reidou” means “mother” and “home”

- Her new name was given to her by an elderly couple who took care of her for a while after she managed to flee the commission agents after her (by luck), making them think she was dead.

- Her original name basically means “fire heart autumn child”, a nod to her strong willed nature, warm color scheme and the fact she was born in fall.

- She often likes to wear tank tops and cardigans. For shoes she either wears those brown boots or sandals, all the time. Sandals for exceptionally warm weather, boots for any other weather. She refuses to wear any other kind of footwear.

- She was a very skinny and petite as a child, but due to her quirk grew much more strong framed overtime.

- Like said, Kei isn’t truly a villain but more of a vigilante. While she’d lost her trust in the system, she wanted still to help people, despite knowing it was risky as it could potentially reveal she was alive.

- She drinks a lot of coffee, and does frequent a bar Aizawa sometimes goes to with Mic and Nemuri. She has even talked with the pro-hero at times and they kinda get along. Aizawa has his suspicions that she’s a Vigilante of some sort, but never asks questions about it.

- She works in a local coffee shop of the village she’s living in. As a result Kei drinks a shit-ton of coffee, and usually black. She also occasionally suffers from Insomnia.

- She’s not that bothered by Ryuu and Kain’s sometimes brutal and violent antics, because she has seen first hand how the supposed “good guy side” sometimes does even worse bullshit.

- Rankure gives her grey hairs with her gullible nature and tendency to end up mixed up in random schemes, but she loves her anyway. As long as she doesn’t get mixed with the big wigs on either side, she’s fine with her antics.

- Kei was the one who taught Wasabi how to use the staff, because he saw her train with it one day and thought it was cool, so he wanted to learn it too.

PERSONALITY

Kei is pretty calm and stoic for the most part, with a dry and sarcastic sense of humor. She is very distrustful of strangers due to her past experiences, and it takes her a while to warm up to people, apart from those she sees are obviously in great need of help; even with them, she won’t share her personal history easily. It took her a long time to tell her story to Rankure and Wasabi for example.

She can be pretty intimidating when angry, and overall has big “momma bear” or “Mama Lion” energy as Rankure describes it.

Because of her past, and guilt issues, she can take topics touching her history very personally, getting overtly aggressive to people’s faces for these issues, such as people being insensitive over death, child abuse, or when people ridicule somebody for questioning things reasonably (namely anything about the hero structure) She’s generally known for having the kind of temper that can go from zero to a hundred in a snap second if you rub her the wrong way.

She’s also not very fond of heroes, but doesn’t really hate them knowing most are just puppets for their leaders, not realizing how badly flawed the system they uphold is. Nowadays she just prefers minding her own business, running the small coffee shop and being the rational one in her found family.

BACKGROUND STORY:

Kei’s parents were friends with Akashiro’s wife, and she used to babysit Kain when he was very little, before the boy was fully locked up in the facility his dad worked in.

After his quirk manifested, Kei began to notice problematic signs from the way his father treated the boy, and how often he had to go through “clinical checks” that always seemed to leave the boy shaken.

Initially, the child did not want to tell her anything about what was going on despite her concern, but eventually relented, which prompted the then-teenager Kei to confront his dad about it. He told her to keep her nose out of his business however, stating it was a government matter, the situation with Kain.

She kept arguing over this with Daiki (Kain’s father) for months, after seeing more and more worrying signs in the boy, until one day he lost control of his quirk one time she was visiting the laboratory. After yelling at Daiki’s face she was dragged away and thrown out forcibly, told to return home.

After this incident, her and her family began to feel like they were being followed, and one day as they headed for a holiday trip, their car swayed off the road due to a sudden storm, and caused it to fall to the sea; Kei managed to survive thanks to her quirk, but her parents died. (she later found out the car had been tampered with as someone *cough*theherocomission*cough* wanted to get rid of her and her family as they knew too much about Dr. Akashiro’s work)

She initially suffered from amnesia, and was taken in and raised by an elderly couple in a smaller more rural town, who also gave her her new name, named after the old woman’s late mother. Once her memory returned couple years later, she initially wanted to find out what happened that night, returning to the capital secretly. She quickly realized that trying to dig into this could be too dangerous, so she decided to leave it be. This trip inspired her to become a Vigilante though, as a bit of a way to make amends over her guilt for what she felt was her fault; her parents dying and an innocent boy being left behind in a horrid situation.

Years later, she ran into a young woman who was carrying a troubled looking child, being chased by a bunch of gangsters. Kei, being reminded of the kid she hadn’t been able to save, decided to step in and managed to drive off the gangsters by sheer intimidation thanks to her strength and durability that her quirk gave her. She allowed the pair to stay with her, not caring that the woman - Rankure - had a bit of a criminal record, let alone what she learned from the little boy, Saname.

She’d seen this all before, but this time, she could help.

Then, many, many years later, she was almost discovered by some government agents who’d heard rumors about a liability still perhaps being alive. Kain showed up however that day, basically steering them away from her and making them fully think it was a false alarm.

As an expression of gratitude and another form of amend to Kain, Kei allowed him and his friend - whom she knew was a dangerous criminal, if not known around there - to stay as long as they promised to not cause trouble, which both agreed to.

#my art stuff #bnha vigilante oc #my bnha oc #boku no hero oc #kei Reidou #my hero academy oc #bnha oc #character bio #character reference #updates may occur #Lumi's art scribbles #Lumi's chaotic creations

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writing-radionoises · 4 years

Text

satisfaction

ship: minor shin soukoku / akuatsu

genre: hurt/comfort, redemption

prompt: akutagawa finally gets his redemption and joins the ada

notes: this is my little series right now, i just call it ada akutagawa and i mostly just wrote this because it’s what he deserves

also, aro/ace spectrum akutagawa

A hit from the left. A hit right from the right. "Rashomon, demonic armor!" The colors of Akutagawa's vision begin to blend together, muddling up, and he knows well his disgustingly weak lungs are giving in. It hurts. He's so weak, even to Atsushi's pathetic blows. He knows Atsushi is holding back, too, especially after all the god forsaken blabbering Akutagawa did. He's just so... tired. Akutagawa doesn't even register falling to his knees, Rashomon slinking away from it's armor form and instead choosing to curl around it's owner in a protective manner, as well as it could without hurting him further. Atsushi stands in front of him, barely a cut or scratch on him, but he looks tired, as well. His regenerative ability has gotten better. Akutagawa begins to cough into his hand, crimson red now staining the pretty white silk on his shirt. "Akutagawa," Atsushi starts, breath heavy as he speaks, "No... Ryunosuke. You don't even talk of the mafia fondly anymore. I'm not quite sure you ever have... You only talk about how much they hurt you, how much they hurt Dazai, and Kyouka, and all other sorts of people. Ryunosuke... Are you satisfied?" The phrase hits hard, like a punch to the chest, and it only makes Akutagawa wheeze more. He isn't. He's thought about leaving the mafia time after time, there's always something holding him back. It's always one fucking thing. He's planned it out and everything, Higuchi even said she'd help him leave, she'd leave with him, too. They even have everything packed back at the apartment. All the essentials. And yet... There's still one thing holding him back. "I... I hate it here. I hate it here so fucking much..." Ryunosuke starts, looking back up at Atsushi, "But... Gin..." "Don't think about Gin for once," He says, he's gotten down on his knees in front of Akutagawa, bringing them to the same level, "You've cared for her your entire life, you've been a stand in parent since the age of like... Four or five, it's really amazing, Ryunosuke," Atsushi says with a smile. "But-" "But, you never should have had to be that. And you don't need to be that anymore. You're like, twenty now, right?" Akutagawa nods. "She's sixteen. She can take care of herself and make her own decisions. The mafia has never once posed as a threat against her, and Gin is a strong woman. You raised her that way," Atsushi insists, "She can hold up against the mafia easily." Ryunosuke feels himself tear up, and he begins to rub at his eyes with his blood stained sleeve. He feels Rashomon curl around his tighter, like a hug, almost. "Wh, why are you telling me this?" Akutagawa replied, his voice is trembling. It's disgusting. "Ryunosuke..." Atsushi responds, he reaches out a hand and cups the left side of Ryunosuke's face, despite all the blood and tears, "Ryunosuke, leave the mafia. Please." "I... I don't have anywhere to go..." He answers. It's a lie. He has many places to go, but it'll be hard trying to reform his identity completely. It's be hard to completely erase Ryunosuke Akutagawa from his world, especially after everything that he's done. It would be easy if Akutagawa just killed himself. Atsushi's hand pulls away from his face, and instead reaches out to help Akutagawa up with a knowing smile. "Then come join the Armed Detective Agency, Ryunosuke." -- It's easier than Akutagawa ever anticipated. Though, it's mostly because of all the leg work Higuchi and Gin put into this. Gin was much more happy than Akutagawa thought, as well. She was happy Akutagawa was finding a path that wasn't about protecting her. Just a path to make him happy. ... But she decided to stay behind, like she did every time Ryunosuke offered to get her out of the mafia, too. The mafia is home to Gin. They didn't beat her and berate her most of her career, like they did to Ryunosuke. It's obvious why she'd feel that way. It only took a few days for Atsushi to secure a place in the agency for Akutagawa. From what he heard, Atsushi, Kyouka, and Dazai all vouched for him. "Fukuzawa is a kind man. He would never refuse you, or anybody in need," Atsushi had said. He was right. Within at least two weeks of Atsushi finally convincing Akutagawa to leave the mafia, Akutagawa had moved into the agency living quarters. He ended up moving in with Atsushi, with Kyouka having finally gotten a place of her own. It wasn't tough for Akutagawa to move in, he really didn't own all that much. Living in the mafia is tough, because everyday could be your death day. There was no point in owning a lot. ... What was hard was living without Gin for the first time in sixteen years. He called her every night, thought about her every second of the day. Sometimes, it was all her could think about. At least in the mafia, Akutagawa would know where she was. But now, he has no such privilege. Soon enough, the test for joining the agency came up. Of course, Akutagawa had no idea it was a test, like usual for agency members. The test must have took longer to develop, due to Akutagawa having already known just about everyone at the agency and mafia, he was hard to fool. They ended up pulling from the guild. A girl named Lucy, a former guild member, posed as a threat by holding Atsushi hostage, saying she wants to take revenge for what the agency did to the guild by blowing up the entire building, coffee shop and all. She gave Akutagawa the choice of saving Atsushi or join forces with her to blow up the whole building. Akutagawa managed to get Atsushi out of the hostage situation, putting his own life at risk instead while Kyouka "disarmed" the bomb. In the end, Akutagawa passed the test and joined the agency officially. -- "You should get rid of that coat, you know," Dazai said. Most of the agency members where in the coffee shop on break. Akutagawa had ordered a tea while Dazai sipped at an energy drink. "I don't think you're in the position to really say that," Akutagawa protested calmly, "It means a lot to me." "It was mine," Dazai replied, "Do you really want to keep those memories?" Akutagawa paused, setting down his cup of tea. Dazai was right in a way, the coat carried so many memories of the abuse he endured, and even before that, it carries the memories of the abuse Dazai endured. ... It was gifted to Akutagawa because Dazai often ended up lending it to him after Dazai hurt him. Akutagawa got injured and suffered so much at Dazai's hand that the coat was already practically his before Dazai officially gave it to him. There are so many blood stains on this coat, so much blood on innocent people on it. It has at least three generations of child abuse in the mafia on it. Akutagawa felt his hands begin to shake as he quickly picked up the cup of tea again, trying to mask his anxiety. "I don't want to think about that, Dazai-san. Don't remind me." Dazai dropped the subject. -- "Ryuu-san," Atsushi starts, "Are you okay?" He's sitting beside Akutagawa on their shared couch, sharing a pot of tea after a long day of work. Akutagawa had come to appreciate Atsushi's company, Atsushi had a way of making him feel comfortable and safe. ... He liked cuddling Atsushi, too, but that aside. "I think I made Dazai-san uncomfortable today. We were talking about the coat I wear, it used to be his..." Akutagawa replied, "I think I only remind him of his past, of his time at the Port Mafia... I don't think he wants me here at all, I've only complicated his life..." Atsushi sets down his cup as he pulled Akutagawa in for a hug. Atsushi smells of vanilla and early gray tea, hints of lavender from the laundry detergent he uses. His hair is soft, and the pressure of his hugs always manage to calm Akutagawa down. ... He's just so nice, it's not fair. "Ryuu, he wanted you to be here, remember? He vouched for you to be at the agency," Atsushi reminded him softly, and Akutagawa can feel Atsushi start to run his fingers through his hair, "I think he just wants you to be happy and safe, Ryuu. He's just not too great at conveying it. Don't think too much of it, okay?" Akutagawa nods slowly, burying his face in Atsushi's shoulder. Dazai-san can hate him all he wants, Akutagawa could care less, as long as he had Atsushi. As long as Atsushi is here, the whole world could end and Ryunosuke wouldn't bat an eye. Atsushi is just that special. -- "How do you tell if you like someone?" Ryunosuke asked. He was over at Higuchi's new apartment, helping her make dinner. Gin was coming over later today, they were going to have a little family dinner as a celebration of Higuchi getting her new job. She landed a job as a manager at a bridal shop, and she's never been happier. Akutagawa is just happy to see her finally get the happy ending she's been working so hard for. "Like, romantically?" Higuchi asks, looking over to Akutagawa as she fries up some vegetables. "Yes," Akutagawa responds, "I'm having complicated feelings on someone, and I've just now realized that... I've never really had a crush on someone." "Ah, you're on the aroace spectrum, right?" Higuchi asked, to which Akutagawa nodded, "Well, crushes are weird. It's hard to explain romantic attraction. I guess you can start with questions, do you want to pend the rest of your life with this person?" Ryunosuke thought for a moment before nodding, "I think it'd be nice if I did..." "Do you have any sexual attraction towards that person? Not that that really matters, but it's good to consider." Akutagawa continues chopping vegetables as he thinks, then nodding a no, "I don't think so. Though I wouldn't mind having sex with him, if that's what he wanted." "That's pretty new for you," Higuchi replied, snatching the cutting board Akutagawa was using and dumping the rest of the sliced vegetables into her pan, "I mean, it sounds like a romantic crush, but I'm not great at romance, so take my words with a grain of salt." Akutagawa smiled a bit, "Thanks, Ichiyo." The blonde chuckles a bit, "Of course, Ryunosuke." -- After leaving a sealed envelope on Atsushi's desk, Ryunosuke went downstairs to join the rest of the agency for a celebratory lunch. Kyouka stayed upstairs with him, too, saying she'd cover for him to make it less obvious that Ryunosuke left the letter. He sat down beside Atsushi, who had apparently already ordered him his favorite tea, and was now chatting with Dazai. "Hey, you got rid of the coat!" Dazai comments, looking over to Akutagawa. Today is the first time in years that Akutagawa went without wearing the coat. He nodded, "Yes, you made me realize something a couple weeks ago. I decided to toss it today, and I'll get a new one at some point." Dazai smiles, "You've come a long way, kiddo." Akutagawa rolled his eyes, "Don't call me that." Kyouka comes down the stairs, brushing off her skirt as she promptly gets on the table Atsushi, Dazai, and Akutagawa are sitting at, standing on it. Akutagawa snatches his cup from off the table to prevent it from spilling. "Everybody, I have an announcement," Kyouka says, as most of the agency looks up at her, "I adopted a rabbit, his name is Shigeo." The agency starts clapping at Kyouka looks down, then continuing, "Wait, that wasn't the announcement... I mean, correction. The real announcement is that Kunikida and Dazai's wedding date has officially been confirmed, and it'll happen within a couple weeks. Kunikida is placing invitations now." Everyone in the coffee shop begins to clap and cheer this time as Kyouka smiles, sitting back down on the table. "You didn't tell me you were engaged!" Atsushi said, looking back at Dazai. "Ah, you had more important things to hear, didn't want to overwhelm you with that," Dazai explained, "But it seems everything solved itself, hm? So, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to be the best man?" Atsushi smiles and nods, "I'd love to!" Akutagawa is barely paying attention to their conversation, finding himself looking at Atsushi with a slight smile. "Hey," Kyouka says, nudging Akutagawa with her foot, "Maybe you'll be the one getting married next year." Akutagawa blushed, hiding his face in his hands, "Don't say such foolish things." "I mean it, though," she said, "You make him happy, Akutagawa. You've come such a long way, everyone at the agency is proud of you." Akutagawa lifts his head up, looking back at Kyouka before looking at everyone in the agency, having a fun time, laughing, smiling. ... It feels nice to be part of something like this. "I think... I am finally satisfied."

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #atsushi nakajima #ryunosuke akutagawa #dazai osamu #kyouka izumi #higuchi ichiyo #gin akutagawa #shin soukoku #akuatsu #fanfiction #writing #writer #writers

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heartbreak-tm · 4 years

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chatlüge | elise | trial 4 results, re: man

Elise could not be described as happy.

She was relieved, of course, knowing that somehow, someway, Vivian’s struggle to live turned out in her favor. Vivian Faust deserved to live, no matter the blood on her hands, Elise was assured of it. But happy?

Not quite.

There was the itching threat of punishment, or punishments, lurking in the back of her head. Someone innocent could die, and what for? For a woman who killed two people. And Elise helped her escape, figuring full well her guilt, regardless of the consequences.

Vivian Faust would likely not do the same for her.

… But that’s fine.

She sets Chise down gently, softer than she’d ever handle anyone else in the courtroom, and sets her shoulders back firmly. Haru wanted no regrets, wanted no wailing, no tears, so she would do the heiress one better.

Elise smiles while the others speak, but it is far from a kind smile. Rather, it’s a smile that doesn’t give anything away at all. A cringing smile she had come to know well in pictures and videos of a dead man. A smile befitting the heiress of the Adelard name.

“Right… right… shut up, Damper,” she swears after Bellamy’s words, tiredness in her voice belying her apparently newfound poise.

“You’re just making more of an ass out of yourself. Everyone is right, that self-righteous offering of yourself at Chuu’s feet is going to go unheard. All you’re getting out of it is a chance to feel better about yourself, to feel like you’re doing the right thing.”

A sneer.

In a place where doing the right thing goes unrewarded. Elise’s actions were going to go unrewarded, too, and she knew it well. But she wouldn’t regret it.

Not even if...

(Her eyes drop to Chise, to Jojo, to Vivian, to every other empty podium in the room. God, were there really so few of them left?

Something like terror strikes her, and she blanches. But she won’t give anyone the satisfaction of seeing her scared. Not yet. There’s more to be said.)

“Anyway… if you,” she starts, turning to Haru and Ryuu, maybe Bellamy, too, “want someone to hate when this is all said and done, hate me.”

Her smile widens, and her heart thuds faster, more painfully in her chest.

“Those who genuinely believed in Vivian aren’t… at fault for this. They just wanted to have hope. Is that a crime? So leave them be. Instead, you should throw your anger and hatred at me, who selfishly begged for Vivian’s life. Leave her alone, too. But you can hate me, scorn me, attack me… all you want. I won’t fight back.”

And she scoffs, rolling her eyes and folding her arms. It looks almost like the woman you know.

“God, that sounds so self-righteous of me, doesn’t it? And right after I told Ulysses off, too… well, feel free to hate him. I won’t take on his massive portion. But for the rest? Don’t touch them. I had and still have my reasons.”

Elise is not a good person, but everyone else in this room… everyone, even Vivian, even Haru, is. Akira was. Tsubame, too. Shinji. All of them.

Elise Jeanne Adelard is just selfish and self-righteous. She’s everything she accused Ulysses of being and more. She's just projecting, like a child.

“Hate me. And only me.”

Well. And Ulysses too.

(She won’t bother asking Vivian about the questions, she already has an idea of one of them.

Watching Dax hug Vivian across the room... Elise decides that she still trusts her. Foolishly, probably.

But it's fine, this way. It's fine.)

#Ch 4 #Trial #Elise #submission

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dkronpa · 4 years

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Chapter 4: The Sky is Just a Skip Away ~Trial~

//YIKES!! This chapter took some time to complete but it is finally here! This trial had a lot of ground to cover, coming up to a word count just shy of 11,000 words! I hope you all enjoy it, and I’ll get to work on the post-trial!

-Class Trial Start! All rise!-

“Now! Let’s begin with a simple explanation of the class trial! You’re votes will determine the outcome of this, you will debate on a variety of topics regarding the murder and then try to identify ‘whodunit’. If you can correctly guess the culprit, then the culprit alone will be punished…but if you guess the wrong one. I’ll punish everyone besides the culprit! And that person will earn the right to graduate!”

“Alright, let’s get right into it…which one of you killed them?” Amaterasu-san started.

“Huh?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t play dumb. I know one of you killed Doi-chan and Mami-chan. You better fess up before I lose my patience.”

“You still talking in that same monotonous tone somehow makes this a whole lot creepier.” Yokozawa-san commented.

“I get you’re pissed off about what happened, but you must have learned by now that brute forcing your way through these things will just cause more trouble than it’s worth.” Sly-san said.

“I don’t care. I want their killer dead.” Amaterasu-san spat.

“If that’s all you want, then say no more!” Graves-san piped up, “after all, looking at it logically, we only really need to consider three people as the culprit in this scenario. After all, majority of us have alibis!”

Majority of us…by that, she means…

My logic follows!

“Graves-san, Okanaya-kun, Kurosaki-san, and Sly-san all have alibis for the time of the murder. After all, they were together far before it all went down. I joined them a little later, but to say I have a solid alibi…”

“So then! Between Ryuu, Rina, Junpei, and Amaterasu herself! One of you guys must be the culprit!” Graves-san declared.

“Huh?! I’m a suspect?!” Kirishima-san exclaimed. Graves-san is saying someone out of us four is the culprit due to alibis…I wonder how this argument will pan out.

-Non-Stop Debate (1)-

Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets

Kirishima-san’s Account/Kirishima-san’s Mistake

Graves-san’s Account/Graves-san’s Mistake

Amaterasu-san’s Account/Amaterasu-san’s Mistake

Karma: Since half of us already have alibis…it’s up to you guys to debate who the culprit is!

Rina: Th-there’s no way I’m the culprit! I was in my lab all day! I never even went to the 3rd floor!

Junpei: Yeah, I was in my lab as well. I never left it cause I was working hard on the computer.

Sly: We’ll need some evidence of what you’re saying.

Amaterasu: …

Kobo: Hey, it’s suspicious if you keep quiet! Maybe you’re the culprit!

Amaterasu: Don’t even suggest that.

Ryuu: (If we can start disproving some of these accusations, it’ll be a good start…Graves-san said only 3 people need to suspected, so…)

I agree with that!

“Actually, out of us four, Yokozawa-san has an alibi. In fact, I’d like to know why you haven’t brought it up yet Graves-san, since you were the one that told me about it. Graves-san was by the fountain at around 10:40pm, the time of the murder. From there, she could see into the window of Yokozawa-san’s lab. He was sitting there the whole time.”

“Yep, that’s true!” Graves-san nodded.

“Then why didn’t you say that upfront?!” Okanaya-kun yelled.

“It’s good to get the brain going quickly. So, I decided to give Ryuu an easy one to start off with.” She smiled. Okanaya-kun clicked his tongue and looked away.

“But in that case, it means Nagata, Kirishima, and Amaterasu all are lacking alibis for the time of the murder.” Sly-san stated.

“Are we even sure she actually saw Junpei-chan? I mean, from the middle of the courtyard?” Amaterasu-san questioned.

“Sure, I couldn’t tell at the time, but Ryuu and Yuuki are the only other blond guys and they were with me when we heard those gunshots go off.” Graves-san said. “Ah, now that I think about it! That means Ryuu also had an alibi for the time of the murders, he has a bunch of witnesses to the fact!”

“Which just leaves us with Amaterasu and Kirishima, huh? Well, obviously that ain’t right. Everybody knows Kirishima couldn’t kill anybody, let alone two people. Meanwhile, it’s impossible for Amaterasu to have killed those two in particular. Anyone else I could’a seen.” Okanaya-kun said.

“Huuuh? Thinking like that isn’t helping! We need to really suspect those two, y’know? I mean…did anybody seriously think any of the culprits so far actually seemed capable of killing?” Graves-san asked.

“Karma has a point.” Kurosaki-san agreed.

“What the hell…don’t mess around. There’s no way I’m the culprit.” Amaterasu-san said.

“N-neither! Not a chance!” Kirishima-san added.

“Though it’s true that neither of you have alibis, right?” Sly-san asked.

“W-well…yes.” Kirishima-san confirmed. Amaterasu-san crossed her arms and looked away, confirming Sly-san’s suspicions.

“Then let’s play the game of lies! Which one of our suspects is lying this time around?!” Graves-san cheered. Amaterasu-san and Kirishima-san? No way, they’re both the last people who would murder someone, especially in a case like this.

-Non-Stop Debate (2)-

Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets

Amaterasu-san’s Account/Amaterasu-san’s Mistake

Graves-san’s Account/Graves-san’s Mistake

Kirishima-san’s Account/Kirishima-san’s Mistake

Firecrackers/Fireworks

4-Way Battle Royale/Abandoned Meeting

Karma: Since Amaterasu and Rina are the only ones with no alibi…one of them must be the killer!

Rina: Th-there must be some mistake, there’s no way I could have killed them!

Amaterasu: And if an alibi is all you have on me, then you clearly don’t know how these trials go. Unless there’s actual proof connecting either of us to the crime scene then you can’t name us.

Yuuki: Well, nothing actually links anybody as far we know…

Karma: But, but! Everyone at the battle royale has an alibi cause we heard the gunshots! Not to mention I can personally vouch for Junpei’s whereabouts!

Kobo: Then it’s probably Amaterasu. Can’t be Kirishima.

Sly: Don’t count someone out so easily.

Ryuu: (I’m not sure if I can prove either of them as innocent with what we’ve deduced thus far…but maybe I should think about what makes them suspicious. The established alibis are the problem, so can I do something about that?)

No, that’s wrong!

“Graves-san, you’re saying that because Amaterasu-san and Kirishima-san weren’t present during that moment we heard the gunshots, one of them is the killer?”

“Pretty much! Or maybe both of them are the culprit and are working together! That would be a twist!” Graves-san proposed.

“No…we can’t say that’s correct. After all, it’s entirely possible that what we heard wasn’t gunshots. Kurosaki-san was poking around the labs earlier and found that a box of firecrackers in Amaterasu-san’s lab were opened and two firecrackers were taken. The same amount as the number of gunshots we heard in the courtyard.”

“Huuuuh? Firecrackers from the Ultimate Thief lab? Isn’t that something that can tie Amaterasu to the crime then?”

“Not necessarily. If someone went snooping around in the labs beforehand, they could have easily discovered those firecrackers. It’s not like Amaterasu’s lab has a lock on it.” Sly-san argued.

“Exactly! It was easy enough for me to discover them!” Kurosaki-san added.

“Right, I think we might be able to assume that the noise we heard in the courtyard was actually firecrackers, and not the gunshots.”

Ding dong, guess who’s wrong!

“Nope. I still pretty much think we heard gunshots! Maybe the killer took the firecrackers as a red herring or something? Make sure you don’t fall for the killer’s trap now, Ryuu!” Graves-san smiled brightly.

-Rebuttal Showdown Vs. Karma Graves-

Truth Blades:

Firecrackers

4-Way Battle Royale

Kurohiko’s Gun

Yokozawa-san’s Account

Karma: Sure, I agree that it’s possible for the noise to have been some firecrackers, but don’t you think gunshots and firecrackers make totally different sounds? Surely somebody would’ve been able to distinguish the noise. But since everyone agreed it had to be gunshots, they must have been gunshots!

Ryuu: The fountain in the middle of the courtyard is a good distance away from the Talent Lab building, from that distance it would’ve been a lot harder to tell the difference between two such noises.

Karma: Hmm…maybe! But it doesn’t change the fact that everybody heard them around the time of the murder! Since that’s the case, it couldn’t have been anything but gunshots. I mean, why would the killer have to gain from setting off firecrackers at the exact same time they were gonna kill two people? How would they even coordinate that?

Ryuu: (There’s a sound argument here, but not a perfect one. Somebody clearly contradicts this argument!)

I’ll cut through that argument!

“No! You’re wrong! Not everybody heard the alleged gunshots at that time. Yokozawa-san was working in his lab at the time of the murder, that much you’ve already confirmed. However, he never mentioned hearing any gunshots around the time of the murder. Not everybody that should’ve heard the shots heard them!”

“Yeah, it’s true…even though I was working in my lab the whole time, I never heard anything suspicious.” Yokozawa-san confirmed

“Yokozawa was working hard though, maybe he just missed them?” Okanaya-kun suggested.

“No, that’s not it. There was a reason that’s already been revealed by Yokozawa-san.”

Here’s my proof!

“Yokozawa-san and Kirishima-san did an experiment during the investigation. One of them stood outside in the hallway whilst the other stayed inside the crime scene with the room door closed. No matter how much noise either of them made, the other couldn’t hear them.”

“It’s true. I can confirm as much, made it that much harder to focus on my own investigation.” Sly-san confirmed.

“S-sorry about that, we just wanted to make sure, but because of that I’m sure the walls to the Talent Building are all soundproofed!” Kirishima-san said.

“Interesting…so that means what we all heard could not have been the killing shots. Since we shouldn’t have been able to hear any noises from inside the building, the noises must have come from outside. So, most likely, they’re the missing firecrackers.” Kurosaki-san summarised.

“And it’s not, like…I dunno, they were shot through an open window or something, right?” Okanaya-kun asked, “Just making sure we’re covering everything.”

“As in a sniper? No, that would’ve been impossible too.” Sly-san said. Right…because of that…

Here’s my proof!

“Sly-san’s investigation revealed that Kurohiko-san was shot with a pistol whilst Asano-san was killed with a revolver. Neither of them were killed with sniper bullets, so that kind of murder method isn’t a possibility.”

“So, the killer was definitely in the room with them. That much is definite.” Amaterasu-san concluded.

“Then doesn’t that just bring us right back to what I was saying? Whoever didn’t have an alibi had to be the killer. Amaterasu and Rina.” Graves-san said.

“No, we can’t say they’re the only ones without alibis anymore. Since we never heard the gunshots, we can’t say we were all together at the time of the murder. That 4-way battle royale can’t be considered a solid alibi anymore.” I explained.

“Sorry, but I don’t agree with that part.” Sly-san interrupted. “I think the 4-way battle royale can still be considered an alibi when you consider the timeline of the events. First of all, you know when the murders took place, roughly. Right?” Yeah, the Monokuma File mentioned as much…

My logic follows!

“The murders took place between 10:40pm and 10:45pm, as stated in the Monokuma File.”

“Right, and Kurosaki was the last one to turn up to the battle royale though really, he, Okanaya and I basically arrived at the same time. That was at 10:50pm.”

“Then that means Karma-chan was by herself before that.” Amaterasu-san pointed out.

“True, however with how soon us three turned up to the meeting place, it meant Graves wasn’t left with enough time to come down from the third floor and get to the fountain before 10:50pm. Due to that, it means us four all have alibis.” Sly-san explained.

“That’s, like, a whole half of us!” Kirishima-san exclaimed.

“Not to mention Graves already gave Yokozawa an alibi too. So, he’s in the clear.” Okanaya-kun reminded, “W…wait…then doesn’t that mean there’s only one additional suspect?” One additional suspect…? Is he talking about…?

It’s you!

“W-wait…are you talking about me?” I asked.

“Nagata was the only one that gained an alibi from the firecrackers trick. He arrived at the fountain just before the went off.” Sly-san said.

“Not to mention, he did come from talent building path, right?” Graves-san grinned, “Ahhhhh, I get it. Ryuu must have killed those two and then tried to use those firecrackers as a last-minute alibi when he saw all of us at the central fountain. Honestly, we should’ve seen it coming when those firecrackers didn’t line up with the time of death. Those firecrackers were, what? 20 minutes after the murders? More? Sloppy, sloppy work.”

“Ryuu-chan?” Amaterasu-san’s stoic expression faltered. Dammit! She said I was away for a long time after I left for my walk, don’t tell she thinks…

“N-no, I didn’t do anything like that! I was walking a lap of the grounds and noticed you guys had gathered at the fountain by the time I reached the talent building.”

“Well, did you notice Graves-san sitting there before everyone else had gathered?” Kurosaki-san asked.

“N…no, I didn’t. I was kind of in a daze of sorts, so I wasn’t really paying attention to anything for a while. S-sorry, I know it’s a weak reason-“

“I believe him.” Okanaya-kun suddenly said.

“Huh? You believe a bunch of lame-o excuses like that?” Graves-san’s brows furrowed, “I get you don’t always understand what’s going on but if you’re really gonna side with him, shouldn’t you at least wait to hear a good reason to?”

“Nagata’s way too honest, don’t you guys think? It kinda pisses me off sometimes. Nagata was the one that brought up the firecracker possibility in the first place, y’know! Why would he do something that was gonna destroy his own alibi?”

“That’s…” Graves-san frowned, “I guess that’s a good point. Even so, he’s suspicious.”

“So what? Everyone’s suspicious all the time during a class trial! There’s plenty of tricks that could’ve been used to create an alibi, so why’re we deciding it’s Nagata so soon?! We don’t even know what happened yet. All we’ve been doing is naming people and hopin’ an accusation will stick!” Okanaya-kun lectured.

“Okay, okay-“

“Nah! You all haven’t learned shit! Alright, you just leave this to me, I’ll guide us to the truth this time. Let’s start all over and look at this from the beginning! The crime scene!” Okanaya-kun grinned.

“Wh…what’s with you all of a sudden? Someone put a quarter in you or something?” Graves-san sighed, “Fine. Let’s see how this guy’s methods hold up. Should be fun.”

“Then we’re going to look at the crime scene, right? Then in that case, I propose we actually discuss the second important matter of this trial- namely which order the victims died in.” Sly-san said.

“Right…Monokuma’s rule stated that only the first body counts in the class trial. It’s important to know who died first on the off chance that the killer of Herr Kurohiko and Mademoiselle Asano are different.” Kurosaki-san said.

“That’s quite the theory to bring up suddenly.” Amaterasu-san commented.

“I’m just saying, we should be ready for anything.”

“Now…let’s go! Let’s look into who died first!” Okanaya-kun said far too enthusiastically. Even though he was angry with me, he still stood up for me. Okanaya-kun…thank you.

-Non-Stop Debate (3)-

Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets

Kurohiko-san’s Gun/Kurohiko-san’s Knife

Asano-san’s Gun/Asano-san’s Knife

Room Setup/Trashed Room

Room Divider/Empty Room

Note on Asano-san’s Body/Asano-san’s Empty Pockets

Yuuki: For a reason we can get to later, Herr Kurohiko and Mademoiselle Asano ended up in the Ultimate Romance Expert’s Lab

Rina: And whilst they were there, the killer arrived at the scene…and shot both of them. So, then…which of them died first?

Kobo: My gut says Asano but I ain’t got a reason to think that, really.

Rina: Right. It was just as possible that Kurohiko-kun was the first one to die. So then what do we do to figure out who it was.

Kobo: No clue! But I’m sure there’s evidence somewhere! There always is!

Amaterasu: You jumped into a topic without knowing how to go about getting answers? Idiot.

Kobo: I didn’t pick this topic, Sly did!

Ryuu: (Knowing who died first will be an important part to the case. If there’s any way to figure out who could’ve been shot first, that’s what we need to figure out.)

I agree with that!

“Going off the evidence, and my own suspicions on what happened, I think it was Asano-san who died first. In between the bodies was that divider, right? That divider had two separate holes –presumably, bullet holes- but neither of those bullet holes were at the right height to have hit Kurohiko-san’s heart. One of them, however, was the right height to hit Asano-san’s head.”

“It’s not just that either. The bullet that hit Asano didn’t go all the way through, whilst the one that hit Kurohiko did go all the way through. I’m led to believe that Asano was shot through the divider and the divider slowed the bullet down enough that it didn’t go all the way through.” Sly-san added.

“Then what about Kurohiko-kun? The killer was nearby him by the sounds of it, but on the other side of the divider from Asano-san?” Kirishima-san questioned.

“That’s another confusing point as well. By that logic, the killer would have had to stand where Kurohiko’s body was and shoot Asano through the divider and then turn and kill Kurohiko who would be right next to them, but that doesn’t sound possible at all. Surely Kurohiko would’ve run right after Asano got shot, and vice-versa.” Sly-san frowned.

Okanaya-kun clapped his hands once to gather the attention, “then for now, we’ll look at something bothering me! Why the hell did those two go to Kurohiko’s lab in the first place?! Talk about a weird place for both of them to be!”

“Is it really so weird for Kurohiko-kun to be there?” Yokozawa-san asked, though it was said more like a jab.

“Maybe not! But it was definitely weird for Asano to be there! So…let’s discuss, yeah?!”

-Non-Stop Debate (4)-

Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets:

Kirishima-san’s Account/Kirishima-san’s Mistake

Note on Asano-san’s Body/Asano-san’s Empty Pockets

Ultimate Assassin’s Lab/Ultimate Explorer’s Lab

Yokozawa-san’s Account/Yokozawa-san’s Mistake

Kobo: It’s totally weird for both Kurohiko and Asano to have been together, right?!

Karma: They were both friends, that’s not weird at all.

Kobo: Nah, something about the situation is weird! I bet there was a plan to meet up!

Rina: Oh! Oh! And if that’s true…maybe the killer went there planning to kill one of them…but got surprised by the other!

Kobo: Yeah! That’s the type of theories I’m looking for!

Amaterasu: That still doesn’t answer any of the other questions…

Ryuu: (Hmm…I think it’s easy to prove why they were there together, but what does it mean?)

I agree with that!

“Okanaya-kun is probably onto something there. It’s likely that Asano-san and Kurohiko-san planned to meet at the Ultimate Romance Expert’s Lab that night. There was a note found in Asano-san’s dress pocket that detailed a scheduled meeting half an hour after night-time. A time just ten minutes before the murders occurred.”

“Ah!” Kirishima-san gasped, “th-then the reason I saw Asano-san when I was leaving my lab earlier…she was going to that meeting?”

“You never mentioned you saw Asano-san.” Yokozawa-san pointed out.

“O-oh…sorry. Just after night-time began, I left my lab to go to bed and I bumped into Asano-san on the way out. We just said our hellos and went out ways, but in hindsight…she must have been going there.”

“Why the hell would she turn up so early to the meeting? It wasn’t for another half an hour, right?” Graves-san asked.

“Asano was brought up with strict rules. Remember, she wouldn’t even speak unless asked to when we first met her. It’s entirely possible she was taught to be that early to meetings.” Kurosaki-san theorised.

“So, like, what were Asano-san and Kurohiko-kun going to meet about?” Kirishima-san asked.

“That’s still unclear. It must have important if it was arranged via note instead of being asked in person. Maybe whatever they were meeting about was a dangerous topic they couldn’t discuss in the open in case the wrong person overheard them?” I suggested.

“Like a shootout.” Graves-san said casually. Huh…? A shootout? What’s with a suggestion like that? “It’s totally possible, right? Maybe the two were planning to go on a spree and that’s why they met up? A merciful killing compared to letting us all suffocate to death. I can totally believe Doi convinced Mami into doing that.”

“Don’t be so stupid, you didn’t even know them.” Amaterasu-san said.

“And you did? If you were so close, how come you weren’t included in their little plan?” Graves-san grinned. Amaterasu-san clicked her tongue and looked away. A shootout…a shootout? “Besides, there’s totally evidence that one of them took the weapons for a shootout.”

The evidence that something was taken for a shootout…?

Here’s my proof!

“You’re referring to the revolvers that went missing from Sly-san’s lab, right? Do you think that either Kurohiko-san or Asano-san took them?”

“Of course! Nobody else was walking around with a gun, right? They totally were the ones that stole them! And they were planning a shootout before the killer came along and killed them both!” Graves-san smiled.

A shootout…a shootout? Ah! “Graves-san…might be onto something.”

“What?” Amaterasu-san glared.

“N-not a shootout in the way that Graves-san suggested, but something similar…if I’m right, I don’t think Kurohiko-san and Asano-san had any malicious intent in their plans. I believe Kurohiko-san and Asano-san were actually agreeing to a duel.”

“…huh?” Yokozawa-san said. “Wh…what do you mean?”

“Uh…okay. Let’s look at it like this. We know that someone shot through the room divider and ended up killing Asano-san, right? Well, I’d say the setup was something along the lines of…Kurohiko-san and Asano-san stood across from each other and the room divider was slid into place. The two then took aim and fired and in a stroke of…I guess you could call it luck, Kurohiko-san managed to kill Asano-san without even seeing her.”

“L-like some kind of suicide pact?!” Kirishima-san exclaimed, covering her mouth in shock.

“No, that would imply that the other killed themselves afterwards but that doesn’t make sense.” Sly-san objected. Right…it couldn’t be like that because…

Here’s my proof!

“The different types of bullets. Sly-san told me that the bullet in Asano-san’s body came from a revolver, but the bullet in Kurohiko-san came from a pistol. The difference in gun types means that whoever survived the duel didn’t kill themselves afterwards.”

“Yeah…it’s basically confirmation of what we suspected anyway. There were two different killers this whole time.” Sly-san said.

“T…two killers…” Yokozawa-san’s face seemed to gain a green tint, “Urp…o-oh god…”

“At the very least, can we agree that Kurohiko was Asano’s killer? We already agreed she died first so-“

“No.” Amaterasu-san spoke suddenly. “No way…I refuse to accept that. A duel? A suicide pact? Who cares, there’s no way either of them killed the other. It’s gotta be some other kind of explanation…”

“Amaterasu-san-“

“No!” She snarled all of a sudden, and without warning the stoic mask that Amaterasu-san always wore was shattered and replaced with an expression that can only be compared to a wolf baring its fangs. “They…they wouldn’t do that…! You’re telling me they were just gonna sacrifice their lives like that?! Some kind of sick agreement where only one of them lived…wh-why…? Why would they do that? Why wouldn’t they tell me?”

“Probably because of how you’re acting now.” Okanaya-kun said suddenly, “If they told you their plan you probably would have tried to stop them. I think they did this for the same reason we had that battle royale. They…wanted to end the killing game as well.”

“End the killing game?” Amaterasu-san looked down at the floor, “a sacrifice like that…yeah. It’s like a message saying, ‘you don’t have to play anymore’, right? We could’ve discovered the truth and it would’ve been some sappy moment where we all vowed never to kill.”

“And they didn’t know about the battle royale cause we didn’t think to tell them. Shit!” Okanaya-kun cursed.

“If anything, the battle royale would have made them carry out their plan quicker.” Kurosaki-san said.

“Doi-chan…Mami-chan…!” Amaterasu-san gripped her podium with enough force that the wood creaked, “they should have spoken to me about this…we could have found another way out!”

“I’m not sure if we could’ve.” Okanaya-kun said, “we were running out of oxygen. We had no options, y’know? Everyone but you, Nagata, Kirishima, and Yokozawa were involved in something that meant sacrificing someone. We had no choice. It was just a race to see whose plan finished first.”

“Then where does this leave us?” Yokozawa-san asked, “I mean…we know now that Kurohiko-kun killed Asano-san. Does that mean that Kurohiko-kun is the culprit?”

Kirishima-san gasped. “Ah! Then that would mean…”

“No execution…” I finished. Really? Asano-san died first, which would mean this trial is for her, according to Monokuma’s ‘first body’ rule. Right?

“Then we’re at voting time. Monokuma?” Graves-san said.

“You sure? Is it really time? Seems a little anticlimactic, but I got no problem-“

“Wait!” Huh?

“Nagata? Something up?” Okanaya-kun asked. I’m not sure…but I just felt like I needed to object for some reason.

“So, it’s not just me. Something doesn’t fit…that rule Monokuma put in place about the ‘first body’, are you all interpreting it correctly?” Sly-san said.

“Yeah? Asano died first, so she’s the one that class trial is for. So, the culprit’s Kurohiko.” Okanaya-kun explained.

“What if that isn’t it though?” I said, “thinking out loud, but…wouldn’t it make more sense for the rule to be talking about the body we discovered first? Wouldn’t that mean this trial is about finding Kurohiko-san’s killer?”

“Huh?! Kurohiko-kun’s killer?!” Kirishima-san exclaimed.

“I suppose the rule itself is pretty unclear, isn’t it? Monokuma, you willing to tell us more?” Kurosaki-san asked.

“Hmmm…I mean. I kinda like where this is headed. I think I’ll let you guys duke it out for a bit and if you entertain me enough, I might let you guys in on that juicy info! In fact…”

Here comes the segue!

“I figured this is where the discussion is heading anyway, so how about we just jump right into it? Presenting our very own morphenomenal trial grounds!” Monokuma announced, pulling out the key we had seen several times before. He turned it and we all slowly rose into the air.

-Scrum Debate, Begin!-

“Who is the class trial for?”

“Doi Kurohiko!” – Ryuu, Amaterasu, Sly

“Mami Asano!” – Kobo, Rina, Junpei, Karma, Yuuki

Karma: Haven’t we finished already? The culprit has been decided!

(Sly-san!)

Sly: Nothing has been decided yet. We have a lot to go over still.

Rina: Monokuma’s rule says the first body will be the one we argue about in the class trial!

(I’ll deal with this!)

Ryuu: The rule never once specific what ‘first body’ really meant though! We discovered Kurohiko-san first, so he could easily count as the ‘first body’ too!

Karma: Mami died first, so this trial is for her!

(Amaterasu-san!)

Amaterasu: Mami-chan might have died first, but that doesn’t mean the rules dictate her as the first body.

Junpei: What’s the point in even arguing about this? We know the whole story, so let’s just go to voting.

(I’ll deal with this!)

Ryuu: It’s too early to start voting when we still haven’t figured out the truth behind Monokuma’s rule!

Yuuki: If Kurohiko isn’t the culprit, you’re saying we still have an undiscovered truth?

(Sly-san!)

Sly: We can easily uncover the truth if we keep discussing a little longer!

“This is our answer!”

“Everyone, you have to listen to us! The killer we’re looking for isn’t Kurohiko-san! I’m sure of it now. Monokuma’s rule didn’t refer to the person who died first, it meant whoever we discovered first!”

“When we got to the room, Kurohiko was the one we found first. We only found Asano after Kurosaki pulled back that curtain.” Okanaya-kun said.

“Right…the curtain! The culprit must have drawn that curtain to hide Mademoiselle Asano’s body so they could guarantee that this trial would be for Herr Kurohiko.” Kurosaki-san concluded.

“Son of a bitch! Then that means they must have known how the rule worked beforehand, right? Monokuma, did you tell anyone that rule before today?!” Okanaya-kun demanded.

“Lemme think…oh! I completely forgot; I totally did tell someone the first day you all got here! They were asking for a lot of clarification on the specifics of the killing game and…well, I guess two bodies came up.” Monokuma covered his mouth with his paws and stopped himself from laughing.

“A-and…? Are you gonna tell us the rule?” Yokozawa-san asked.

“If you must know, Nagata is totally right! Since it was Doi Kurohiko’s body that was discovered first, this class trial is totally about discovering his killer! You guys wasted a whole lot of time figuring out who killed Asano!”

“Wasted?!” Amaterasu-san snarled.

“Then we still don’t actually know anything!” Kirishima-san said.

“No, there’s no need to think about things like that. After all, we’ve gathered a lot so far. For now, we need to focus on Kurohiko’s body. There’s a clue there that hasn’t been properly explored yet. Something we can look at to discover our culprit’s identity.” Sly-san said. The clue in Kurohiko’s body? That’s probably…

My logic follows!

“The gun that was used to kill Kurohiko-san wasn’t found at the crime scene. Unlike Asano-san, who was killed with a revolver, Kurohiko-san was killed with a pistol.”

“A pistol, huh? You said that the revolvers went missing from your lab, right? Is it the same for that pistol?” Okanaya-kun asked.

“Impossible. My lab doesn’t carry pistols, it never has. That’s where I’m confused. I never took the time to look at the other talent labs so I don’t know if anybody might have firearms of some kind? There are a few I would think might.”

…Sly-san’s lab doesn’t have pistols.

And if Sly-san’s lab doesn’t have pistols…”I know who the culprit is.”

“Huh? Out of nowhere?” Kirishima-san tilted her head.

“It should’ve been obvious as soon as Sly-san said about that pistol! I just…yeah, it just clicked there. The culprit…”

The culprit…is you!

“Graves-san, it’s you.”

“Huh?!” Yokozawa-san startled.

“What the hell? It’s Graves?! How the hell did you figure that one out?!”

“I’m guessing I’m in the minority here, but I’ve actually gotten to see Graves-san’s lab. Twice, in fact. She has a lab fully equipped with firearms, gadgets, I even saw a grappling hook in there. I’ve seen every lab, and Graves-san’s is the only one other than Sly-san’s that comes equipped with guns.”

“I see. I figured Graves would be a likely suspect, but because I hadn’t seen the other labs, I couldn’t be sure. I wondered if maybe Kurosaki or Okanaya had antique guns that could have been used…”

“Nothing like that.” Okanaya-kun said.

“Same here.” Kurosaki-san added.

“Then it really could only have come from Graves-san’s lab. Even so, how does that make her the culprit? Anybody could have walked right into Graves-san’s lab and took a pistol.” Yokozawa-san said.

No, they couldn’t have done that. Nobody can just walk into Graves-san’s lab.

Here’s my proof!

“Graves-san’s lab is fully equipped with different types of passcodes, retina scanners, fingerprint scanners, everything. The only reason I got in was because I met Graves-san up there during the investigation. I can only presume that she was putting away the pistol she used to kill Kurohiko-san.”

“So even if someone could get past a passcode, they couldn’t get past things that would actually require Graves’ physical body.” Sly-san summarised.

All of the eyes went to Graves-san who was playing with her snapback. Has she even been listening to this? She was so quick to accuse everybody earlier, so what’s with this sudden disinterest? “Graves-san, don’t you have anything to say? You’re being accused of the murder.” I say.

“Oh, I heard.” She stared at us with a smile, “Soooo…?”

“So?!” I repeated.

She folded her arms behind her head, “I don’t plan on kicking and screaming if that’s what you’re expecting from me! I got waaaay more class than that, homeslice!” She said that, but I could see her foot tapping out a rhythm. Was she nervous now?

“Shouldn’t you still be trying to refute it?” Amaterasu-san said.

“I don’t really have to. You’re accusing me even though I have an alibi, remember? I was at the battle royale, remember?”

“You were the first one there, and I think I touched on it earlier but even though I was the last to arrive; myself, Herr Knives, and Herr Okanaya all arrived within the same minute. You had a good 5 to 10 minutes where you were by yourself.” Kurosaki-san said.

“And? There’s no way I could’ve committed the murder and then gotten to the plaza before the rest of you with time to spare. I mean, let’s look at the timeline. Between 10:40pm and 10:45pm, Mami and Doi both die. Mami dies first and in the next few minutes, Doi dies. Meaning the killer had to be in the room in any time up until 10:45pm. If I were the killer, I would have to get rid of the weapon, edit the scene how ever I needed too, then run all the way down three floors and then reach the fountain all in a 5 minute timeframe before the rest of you show up.”

“Th…that’s…” I start.

“I-isn’t that impossible?” Kirishima-san said.

Graves-san clapped her hands and cheered, “correct! It’s totally impossible to accomplish all of that!”

“Hmm…is it though?” Kurosaki-san pondered.

“Come again?” Graves-san smirked, “don’t tell me you’re losing it? Nobody here is fast enough to do all of that.”

“Ahahah! Possibly! However, I think there’s still some interesting pieces of information we’ve yet to discuss. For now, maybe you could retell that whole sequence of events for us? If you’re confident enough in your own words, that is.”

“Sure. No problem.” Graves-san said. I looked at her shoes, and they were still tapping away. Did Kurosaki-san figure something out, or is he just winging it? Maybe if I listen carefully enough, Graves-san will say something and slip up.

-Non-Stop Debate (5)-

Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets

Orange Power/White powder

Note on Kurohiko-san’s Body/Kurohiko-san’s Empty Pocket

Yokozawa-san’s Account/Yokozawa-san’s Mistake

Kurohiko-san’s Gun/Kurohiko-san’s Knife

Room Divider/Empty Room

Karma: I don’t know why I’m even repeating myself, but like I said…There’s no way I could’ve committed the murder and then gotten to the plaza before the rest of you with time to spare.

Kobo: We all got to the plaza at 10:50pm and if you say you were there since 10:40pm, it’s a good enough time frame to have done it!

Karma: I mean, let’s look at the timeline. Between 10:40pm and 10:45pm, Mami and Doi both die.

Rina: Asano-san got shot by the gun Kurohiko-kun was holding…then Kurohiko-kun was killed by the real culprit.

Karma: Right! Mami dies first and in the next few minutes, Doi dies. Meaning the killer had to be in the room in any time up until 10:45pm.

Yuuki: Hmmm? And what were your reasons that it couldn’t be you?

Karma: If I were the killer, I would have to get rid of the weapon, edit the scene in which ever way I needed too, then run all the way down three floors and then reach the fountain all in a 5 minute timeframe before the rest of you show up. Is that really possible?

Rina: Hearing it all out loud does make it sound impossible to accomplish.

Karma: Exactly! So, I’m innocent!

Ryuu: (There’s something wrong here, I’m sure of it. I don’t think my logic has been wrong so far, so there should be a problem somewhere!)

No, that’s wrong!

“Kirishima-san, what you said isn’t true. Kurohiko-san didn’t kill Asano-san with that gun he had. The gun Kurohiko-san was holding was a BB gun.”

“Huh? Really?” Kirishima-san tilted her head, “Oh…Sly-kun might have mentioned that to me during the investigation…maybe…”

“Wait. A BB-gun? Are you sure?” Yokozawa-san asked.

“Definitely. I guess I forgot to mention that the revolvers that Kurohiko and Asano took weren’t the only weapons that went missing from my lab. A BB-gun also got stolen.” Sly-san said.

“What use does the Ultimate Assassin have for a BB-gun?” Amaterasu-san asked.

“Target practice for when you don’t want to waste good ammunition. Plus, the pellets are easy to sweep up. However, I don’t see what this has to do with the issue at hand.”

“H-honestly, I don’t either. But when I heard Kirishima-san say that I felt like I needed to point it out.” I admitted.

“Awwww, you were making me think you were on to something there! Don’t get my hopes up like that!” Graves-san pouted, “well, if we’re done then-“

“It brings a whole new set of questions now, don’t you think? For example, what must have been swapped with the BB-gun?” Kurosaki-san asked. Graves-san cocked an eyebrow. What got swapped with the BB-gun, that was…

My logic follows!

“That would have to be the gun Kurohiko-san shot Asano-san with, right? That was the other revolver that was taken from Sly-san’s lab.”

“Correct! The culprit swapped the revolver that killed Mademoiselle Asano for the BB-gun! Meaning, they killer then had possession of the revolver in question!” Kurosaki-san said.

“So what? That doesn’t change anything.” Okanaya-kun said.

“…ah!” Sly-san’s eyes widened, “don’t tell me that the revolver is the same as that revolver?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Yokozawa-san asked.

“We…we saw someone with a revolver right after the murders. Kurosaki, did you-“

“I only just realised myself, actually. It’s quite embarrassing how long it took for me to piece it together. But yes, we did see someone with the revolver right after the murders took place. Right, Nagata-kyun?”

The revolver…? Someone had a revolver right after the murders…?

It can only be you!

“Graves-san brought a revolver to the battle royale…! Are you saying that the missing revolver and the revolver that Graves-san brought are the same weapon?”

“Full points! If that was all Mademoiselle Graves was in possession of the revolver, then it means that she went to the Ultimate Romance Expert’s lab after the murders and took the gun from Herr Kurohiko. If that isn’t enough evidence to indict her, then what is?”

“Ohhhhhh noooooooo!” Graves-san exaggerated with a flat tone, “…soooo?”

“You’re still saying ‘so’ after hearing that?!” Okanaya-kun growled.

“If you wanna know how I got the revolver then I’ll tell you. I was chilling by the fountain and I heard something fall into the bushes around the side of the talent building. When I investigated, I found the gun. I figure that it was probably Doi disposing of the gun right before he was murdered.”

“You found a gun in the bushes and didn’t even investigate further?!” Amaterasu-san barked.

“I had prior commitments! I couldn’t go wandering off at such a crucial time. Plus, the perfect weapon just fell into my lap for the battle royale. No way I wasn’t using it.” Graves-san reasoned.

“I’m calling so much bullshit on this! There’s no way any of what you just said was true!” Okanaya-kun yelled.

“Besides, even if I’m lying you still have another issue. Namely, how I could’ve possibly gotten from the third floor to the fountain in less than five minutes. Sure, I admit I could’ve run from the entrance of the building to the fountain in less than a minute, but all those stairs are another story.”

“Th-that’s…” Kirishima-san frowned.

“I know you guys aren’t used to Ryuu being wrong whenever he makes an accusation, but he’s missed the mark this time around. Sorry to say that I’m really not the killer. Or, what? You want to examine my statements again?”

“Actually, I would.” I said, “after coming this far, I can drop it until I’m satisfied with the answers. I’ll explore this possibility until every possible route has been mapped out.”

Graves-san sighed, “Fine. Have it your way. If you wanna pursue this until you’re satisfied, don’t come crying when you don’t like the truth.” Don’t like the truth? What’s that supposed to mean? No…there’s no point in trying to make sense of what she’s saying. I just have to focus on this trial.

-Non-Stop Debate (6)-

Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets

Sound Experiment/Sound Heard

4-Way Battle Royale/Abandoned Meeting

Ultimate Secret Agent’s Lab/Ultimate Paranormal Investigator’s Lab

Orange Powder/White Powder

Ultimate Assassin’s Lab/Ultimate Explorer’s Lab

Room Setup/Trashed Room

Karma: If you’re so worried about that gun, I’ll have you know that I found it in the bushes after hearing it fall into them.

Amaterasu: That’s such a bullshit excuse, you seriously think we’ll believe that? There must be evidence on how you got the gun!

Karma: Duh if there was it would’ve been presented already! That’s not even the biggest problem. There’s still the issue of how I could have gotten from the 3rd floor to the fountain in less than five minutes. Even I’m not that fast.

Yuuki: You definitely could have used a tool to get down from the 3rd floor quickly.

Karma: Keep deluding yourself, broski.

Ryuu: (I refuse to let this go. I know there’s a light at the end of this tunnel as long as I keep searching!)

I agree with that!

“…Kurosaki-san is right. Graves-san used a tool to get from the 3rd floor of the talent building to the ground, giving her enough time to get to the fountain in that five-minute time period. All she had to do was use the grappling hook that’s in her lab.”

“Oh yeah, you did say there was a grappling hook in there, didn’t you? So, Graves used that?” Okanaya-kun said.

“If she attached the hook to the window on the 3rd floor, she could descend to the ground easily. This is the solution to the time problem you presented, Graves-san!”

“Does it though?” She asked, “I mean, sure. Logically if I did all of that, then it would all be sorted out. But isn’t there a few problems with the theory? For starters, I can hide a gun in my jacket, but the grappling hook is a totally different story! It’s waaaaaay too big to carry around without someone noticing me carrying something of that size!”

“Couldn’t she have hidden it in the bushes?” Amaterasu-san suggested.

“In theory! However, it meant I would have to go all the way to the ground floor during the investigation period, grab the grappling hook from the bushes and then get back to my lab on the 4th floor without being caught. Do you seriously think that’s possible with everybody moving about?”

“You’re the Ultimate Secret Agent though, it’s not impossible.” Sly-san argued.

“But…Kurosaki and I were at the entrance for almost all of the investigation. We didn’t find anything like a grappling hook, and we didn’t see Graves out there either.” Okanaya-kun said.

“Then maybe she left it attached to the window!” Kirishima-san suggested.

“Sure, let’s look at that theory! The three possible labs I could have used would be Doi’s, Junpei’s, and Sly’s. But those are impossible. Sly ran away to check his lab when we all discovered the body, so he totally would have noticed the grappling hook attached to the window. Junpei was in his lab the whole time, so I wouldn’t have been able to use it no matter how sneaky I was. Plus, Junpei’s lab window faces onto the courtyard so we couldn’t have entered the building without spotting it.”

“And we don’t really need to go over why descending from the crime scene would have been a bad idea.” I admitted. Seriously…? What the hell?

“Wh-what about descending from the 2nd floor?” Okanaya-kun said.

“If you want that timeframe to work, I would have needed to descend from the 3rd floor. I didn’t have time to go to the 2nd floor. Meaning no matter how you cut it, I couldn’t have done it! It’s impossible!”

“No!” How…? Did I seriously get it wrong? But how does that make any sense? Nobody else could have gotten the pistol except for Graves-san. What am I missing? What am I not thinking of?

“Calm down, Nagata. You’re stressing out too much.”

“Okanaya-kun?”

“Maybe it’s blind faith, but you ain’t steered us wrong yet. So…something’s fishy here. I dunno what yet, but there’s definitely a way to make this all make sense! You just gotta throw a theory out there until it sticks!”

“A theory…until it sticks?” I repeated.

“That’s incredibly stupid.” Sly-san deadpanned.

“So stupid that’s it on brand.” Amaterasu-san added.

“But he’s right, isn’t he…?” Kirishima-san said.

“Yeah. It’s totally like our Okanaya-kun to say something like that.” I smiled.

“O-oi! Why are you all talking like I’m not here?!” Okanaya-kun growled.

“For now, let’s try it out. If we’re just throwing out theories, then we can just say whatever lame thing comes to our head.” Kurosaki-san said. “Right! Time to get into the mind of Herr Okanaya. I’m a little scared to see what comes from this.”

“Asshole, I’ll punch you!”

-Non-Stop Debate (7)-

Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets

Asano-san’s Gun/Asano-san’s Knife

Kurohiko-san’s Gun/Kurohiko-san’s Knife

Orange Powder/White Powder

Sly-san’s Account/Sly-san’s Mistake

Firecrackers/Fireworks

Room Divider/Empty Room

Karma: Y’know, I think this is by far the dumbest thing you’ve all agreed to do.

Yuuki: Never doubt how dumb we can get! Now, where to start?

Rina: Maybe the killer used a set-up to clean up the evidence after they left!

Amaterasu: Or the killer can turn invisible. That would be cool.

Sly: A stupid idea…? Maybe they messed with evidence in an unnecessary way?

Yuuki: Hey! That’s way too intelligent a suggestion! You have to think like Okanaya!

Sly: I’d rather not.

Kobo: You’re all a bunch of bullies!

Ryuu: (Ah…wait a second, what was it that person said? Could it be…?)

I agree with that!

“Sly-san…you’re right. The killer messed with the crime scene in a weird way. Kurohiko-san’s gun is the BB-gun, which was swapped out for the revolver he used in the duel with Asano-san…why did the killer do that? Surely it would have made more sense to swap the revolver with the pistol…”

“What do you mean?” Kirishima-san asked.

“If you swapped the revolver with the pistol then you could have some ground to argue some kind of double suicide or even murder-suicide case. Either Kurohiko-san kills Asano-san, swaps their guns, then kills himself, or they both kill themselves from the start.”

“The bullets would then match the guns they were found with, if Kurohiko was holding the pistol. That’s a good point.” Sly-san agreed.

“Right. But they didn’t swap it with the pistol, they used a BB-gun. They used a 4th, completely unrelated gun. Why? There would be no advantage to doing that.”

“Unless the 4th gun wasn’t unrelated.” Kurosaki-san said as he bit into his nail, “but that would mean…surely not…Nagata, what would the most logical reason be for there to be a 4th gun involved in this case?”

The most logical reason?

…no. “No, Kurosaki-san-“

“N-Nagata-kun?” Kirishima-san said nervously. If he wants the most logical reason for a 4th gun to be involved, then is he seriously implying that…?

My logic follows!

“…a 4th person? Kurosaki-san, are you implying that there’s-“

“An accomplice. At this point, it might be the only logical explanation for all the things that don’t add up.” Kurosaki-san said.

“H-hold on a damn minute! There can’t be an accomplice, don’t you remember the rules? The only person who gets to graduate is the one that kills somebody else! An accomplice gets nothing out of helping a culprit!” Okanaya-kun reminded us.

“What if the accomplice didn’t care about that rule?” Sly-san suggested. “This is a killing game. Thinking within the confines of the rules will limit our ability to judge properly. Especially seeing as this is the only explanation that seems to make sense. And either way, Graves is involved in this case.”

I only became aware of it there, in tandem with the tapping foot, Graves-san was drumming her fingers on her podium, “Are you serious? You’re so desperate to pin this on me that you’re gonna fabricate an accomplice. The culprit might have put the BB-gun without calculating the implications of putting it there.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that they could only get the pistol from your lab. You’re involved. As the culprit or as the accomplice, I’m not sure yet.” Sly-san said.

“Y-you think Graves-san might not be the culprit?!” Kirishima-san exclaimed.

“It’s a possibility. And this killer definitely knew what they wanted to do with the crime scene. A few ways they tampered with it show that much.” Sly-san said. By the way the killer tampered with the crime scene, he means…

Here’s my proof!

“The room divider had an extra bullet hole. At the very least, the killer knew they wanted to spin the idea that they died in the shootout. This killer knew how they wanted to sabotage the crime scene.”

“Right. This was either planned ahead, or one of them knew exactly how to set up the scene afterwards.” Sly-san agreed.

“…honestly. I think it’s obvious who Graves’ partner in crime is, right? We shouldn’t beat around the bush. There’s only one person she’d convince to help her.” Okanaya-kun said.

…the accomplice or the culprit? Either way, the one Graves-san did all this with has to be…

The culprit…is you!

“Yokozawa-san, you’ve been quiet for a long time now.”

Yokozawa-san was hugging himself tightly, if he were any paler, he’d turn transparent. “M-m-me? C-c’mon…y-you’re joking or something, r-r-right?”

“Yokozawa-san, you were there with Graves-san when Kurohiko-san was killed, weren’t you? You helped Graves-san tamper with the scene afterwards, and you hid the pistol and grappling hook, right?” I asked.

“Th-that’s ridiculous…I…I wouldn’t…” He attempted to form any kind of sentence as his legs shook underneath him, threatening to give out any second.

“Nagata-kun, doesn’t Yokozawa-kun have an alibi?! How could he have taken part in this?!” Kirishima-san objected.

“No, Junpei-chan’s alibi came from Karma-chan, remember? Karma-chan was the only one to claim that Junpei-chan was in his lab at the time of the murder. But now that we know she was assisting in the murder, that alibi doesn’t exist anymore.” Amaterasu-san said.

“N-no! I really was in my lab! I swear it!” Yokozawa-san yelled, “B-besides, there’s no evidence of another person being at the crime scene! The gun…that’s just a baseless claim on its own! You can’t prove anything with that alone!”

“Just denial then? Fine, we’ll break through it.” Sly-san said. “I’m sick of this trial, its been going on way too long. Let’s hurry up and get this done.”

Don’t shrug me off!

“You’re wrong, I’m telling you! Don’t just decide for yourself that I’m involved! I have nothing to do with this! I just stayed in my lab the whole time, I swear, so please believe me!” Yokozawa-san pleaded.

-Rebuttal Showdown Vs. Junpei Yokozawa-

Truth Blades:

Note on Asano-san’s Body

Note on Kurohiko-san’s Body

Asano-san’s Gun

Kurohiko-san’s Gun

Firecrackers

Junpei: It’s not me! It’s not me! It’s not me! I didn’t do anything wrong; I swear! I was in my lab at the time of the murder, I didn’t have anything to do with those deaths, so please believe me already! I don’t wanna dieeee!!

Ryuu: Yokozawa-san, you need to talk calmly, or we can’t learn anything! If you’re not the culprit then you need to argue it!

Junpei: I…I can’t be the culprit! I can’t be the culprit! Nothing places me at the scene! And even more to that point…there’s no real evidence of a 4th person being involved! So, you can’t claim I have anything to do with this!

I’ll cut through that argument!

“Yokozawa-san, whether you want to admit it or not, there’s definitely evidence of a 4th person being there. We covered the note found on Asano-san’s body earlier and how it was probably sent between Kurohiko-san and Asano-san, however, we haven’t covered the note on Kurohiko-san’s body.”

“A…note on Kurohiko-kun’s body?” Yokozawa-san repeated.

“I'm scared he's going to kill her; we need to put a stop to this before another trial can occur.” Sly-san recited, “yes, it was in Kurohiko’s pocket.”

“…what?” Yokozawa-san’s expression seemed lost. Further than disbelief.

“It implies that whoever sent the note knew that somebody was going to die very soon. It wouldn’t make sense for Kurohiko or Asano to have sent it seeing as they never seemed to be planning to stop another murder plot. If anything, it seems like this was an exchange between the culprit and their accomplice.” Sly-san theorised.

“If Graves sent that to Yokozawa, then isn’t it totally possible that Yokozawa went there without any plans to kill? It just kinda happened…?” Okanaya-kun suggested.

“It’s possible. Seeing Doi-chan with the gun and Mami-chan dead, maybe Junpei-chan panicked and…” Amaterasu-san’s voice trailed off.

“That’s…where did you get that note…?” Yokozawa-san asked.

“Like I said, Kurohiko-“

“You…can’t be serious…why would that…? A-and the BB-gun? It was a BB-gun? Not a handgun?”

“It was modelled to look like a handgun, but it wasn’t real.”

“Yokozawa-kun?” Kirishima-san said.

“No…no no no…no, this can’t be happening…” He murmured to himself, clutching his head, “This isn’t happening. I’m just gonna wake up any second now, right? After all, even after all that, even if there’s an accomplice, there’s no evidence It was me…ah, that’s right…”

“Huh?” I said.

“Th-there’s no evidence that the accomplice was me! It could have just as easily have been Amaterasu-san or Kirishima-san! You have nothing to link me to this!” Yokozawa-san laughed, throwing his arms out to the side. No, there’s evidence to connect Yokozawa-san, I’m sure. In fact, there’s that strange piece of evidence we found all over the crime scene…

Here’s my proof!

“No…there’s evidence. Unlikely evidence, but evidence, nonetheless. Yokozawa-san when I bumped into you by the fountain the other day you were carrying food to your lab. Not just any food, it was bags upon bags of cheese balls.”

“Wh-…so?! Are you gonna criticise my diet?!” Yokozawa-san snarled.

“Not at all. What I’m interested in finding out is how much cheese dust would get on your skin and clothes after eating all of those bags after all this time. After all, there were traces of orange powder found all over the crime scene.”

“Orange powder…? Fuck off, are you seriously suggesting that the orange powder was from some cheese balls?!” Sly-san said.

“You didn’t see the amount of bags Yokozawa-san was carrying, if enough of it stuck to his clothes, then it would be impossible for him to have messed with the crime scene without some of the cheese dust fallen from his clothes. It’s stupid, but it’s what happened.”

“What, so you’re saying Yokozawa didn’t change the whole time he was there?” Sly-san said.

Yokozawa-san’s face flushed as he tried to speak, “W-well…the thing about that is, um…you know how whenever you plan for something there’s always one thing you forget…?”

“Gross!” Okanaya-kun grimaced.

“The main one I remember if that there were some traces of the orange powder on Asano-san herself, if Yokozawa-san was tampering with the crime scene while Graves-san was running back to the fountain, then it would Yokozawa-san shot through the room divider with Asano-san’s gun. That was probably when the powder got on Asano-san’s clothes.”

“That would also explain why the other bullet hole didn’t match up with Kurohiko’s wound. After all, Graves would have easily been able to make those line up.” Sly-san said, “and then Yokozawa must have also set off the firecrackers.”

“Huh…the firecrackers?” Yokozawa-san said, “Th…that’s impossible. Yeah! Hold on, that’s definitely impossible for me! I would needed to set off the firecrackers by the entrance, right? But don’t firecrackers have short fuses? If I set them off, I would have needed to rush all the way back up those flights of stairs and get into my talent lab without any of you catching up to you. I’m not exactly against saying I’m not the athletic type.”

“We were searching the other labs though. You had plenty of time to get back to your own.” I argued.

“I couldn’t have known you would do that! Do you think I’m dumb enough to take that kind of chance if I was involved?! There’s no way I would take that chance!”

“Then…it just means you did some other way! There must have been some way for Yokozawa-kun to have done it without getting caught!” Kirishima-san said. Right, I’m sure this is the last line of arguments that Yokozawa-san has. Once I break through here, there will only be one question left to answer…

-Argument Armament Vs. Junpei Yokozawa-

Junpei: I’m not the culprit and I’m not the accomplice! I just stayed in my room, I was trying to figure out the wi-fi password, remember?! There’s no way I’d want anything to do with Kurohiko-kun’s murder! I liked Kurohiko-kun and Asano-san! I’m innocent, I’m telling you!

Junpei: I didn’t set off those firecrackers, I couldn’t have gotten back to my lab before you all caught up with me, right?! It’s all inconclusive, and I won’t accept anything that doesn’t 100%, no! 1000% proves my involvement!

Junpei: Why am I getting treated like this?! Graves-san is the suspicious one, right?! No matter how you look at it, I’m not the one that should be getting grilled like this! I’m innocent, I’m innocent, I’m innocent! I’m way too weak to kill anybody, even Kurohiko-kun! I could never fire a gun! I couldn’t do it!

Ryuu: This is the end!

Junpei: How could I have set off the firecrackers?!

From the 3rd floor window!

“It was easy to set off the firecrackers without getting caught. If you just opened a window on the 3rd floor and dropped them from there, the problem of getting caught would be gone.”

“Gh…!”

“It’s unlikely he used his own lab window because we would have seen the flash. Most likely he set off the firecrackers at the same time he retrieved the grappling hook for Karma-chan.” Amaterasu-san reasoned. “You…you two killed Doi-chan. You two made Mami-chan’s sacrifice mean nothing. If you think I’ll ever forgive you-“

“Hold on. There’s still one more crucial thing we need to make clear. Graves-san, Yokozawa-san…which one of you two was holding the pistol that killed Kurohiko-san?” I asked. Graves-san and Yokozawa-san looked at each other for a moment.

“You…you lied to me-“

“Don’t say something unnecessary-“

“I killed Kurohiko-kun. But there’s a lot more to it than just that. So…if you’ll hear me out, I’d really appreciate it.”

“I said stop!” Graves-san’s tone suddenly changed. She was pleading to Yokozawa-san. “Whatever he says is a lie! I killed Doi!”

“No, she didn’t…urk, I can’t even explain it properly. Look, Graves-san was the one that swapped the BB-gun and revolver so clearly, she never held the pistol. Not to mention there’s no way I would have put that note in Kurohiko-kun’s pocket, I didn’t even touch Kurohiko-kun’s body. I would let Graves-san touch the pistol; I was too scared to let it go. Graves-san gave me a list of things I should take care of at the crime scene. I threw that list away but it’s in my lab, sitting in my trash can.”

“What the hell…did you seriously not plan to kill him…?” Okanaya-kun asked.

“Of course not! But…I thought he was coming at me when I saw him with that gun and then Graves-san and I shot at the same time…! I didn’t know which one of us killed him! I got scared and then…then Graves-san just started tampering and then produced that list and said she had to leave…”

“You bitch, you fuckin’ trick him into this and then leave him to it?!” Okanaya-kun growled.

“It’s all a lie, he’s lying!” Graves-san denied.

“You orchestrated everything…but despite that, the one that killed Herr Kurohiko was Herr Yokozawa…which means he’s the one we have to vote for.” Kurosaki-san tipped down his hat.

“I know…I know…b-but it’s fine. I just want this to be over…” Yokozawa-san looked at his feet, “I even stopped shaking. Funny how that works out.”

Yokozawa-san…”Alright. Let’s finish this off, I’ll go over this case again just to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

This is the truth of the incident!

Act 1

This particular case starts off with one of our victims themselves. Kurohiko-san realised that pretty soon the oxygen concentration would be past the point of no return so he communicated to Asano-san that he had a plan and told her to meet him in his room in the talent building at 10:30. After night-time. Asano-san agreed to meet him and went to the room at the appointed time, then Kurohiko-san presented Asano-san with his plan: a shootout where only one of them would survive. A sacrifice in order for everybody to survive. Asano-san must have understood that there was no way to save everybody with this motive, so she agreed. The two set up the divider in the room and then walked their 10 paces before shooting. Kurohiko-san managed to shoot before Asano-san could raise her gun, I presume, killing her instantly and leaving a hole in the divider. What he couldn't have anticipated was the next series of events.

Act 2

A little beforehand, our culprit, or rather, the real ringmaster behind this case, had managed to catch wind of Kurohiko-san's plan and followed him to the meeting. Learning the objective, they first went to Yokozawa-san's lab to grab Yokozawa-san, telling him that Kurohiko-san was plotting to kill Asano-san and that they had to stop him. They rushed to their own lab and took one real pistol and a BB-gun. This was the moment the ringmaster tricked Yokozawa-san, giving him the real gun but telling him they were both BB-guns.

Act 3

The two made their way upstairs, at the same time Kurohiko-san had just finished killing Asano-san and was leaving the room only to be confronted by the ringmaster and Yokozawa-san. Being caught red-handed with the gun, the ringmaster ordered Yokozawa-san to shoot and at the same time...he and the ringmaster shot their weapons at Kurohiko-san. Of course, the ringmaster's gun just fired a pellet. The bullet from Yokozawa-san's hit Kurohiko-san in the heart, killing him instantly.

Act 4

Yokozawa-san must have freaked out when Kurohiko-san died but the ringmaster was quick to act. They convinced Yokozawa-san that they couldn’t tell who the real culprit was. So, the two worked together to stage it like Asano-san and Kurohiko-san had gone out in a double-suicide. The ringmaster for the case have Yokozawa-san a list of things he needed to do to set up the crime scene, this included using Asano-san's gun to shoot a second hole in the divider but the problem was that Yokozawa-san didn’t know where to shoot for the bullet to line up with Kurohiko-san’s heart. In addition, Yokozawa-san couldn’t have known that the ringmaster was actually swapping out Kurohiko-san's gun with a BB-gun, otherwise he would have realised the truth much sooner.

Act 5

Then, the ringmaster took the grappling hook they had on them already from their talent lab and used it to quickly descend from the third floor and rushed to the central fountain before anybody else turned up for the battle royale. They never bothered hiding the revolver because they could simply use it in the fight and nobody would think anything of it. All that was left to create the fake alibi by having Yokozawa-san drop the firecrackers from his room.

Maybe officially it says Yokozawa-san's the culprit, but the one really responsible for orchestrating this whole murder plot is you...Karma Graves, The Ultimate Secret Agent!

“And that’s the truth behind this whole case. Did I get anything wrong?”

“No, not really. It’s pretty much like you said.” Yokozawa-san admitted. I looked at Graves-san but she kept her gaze fixed on the floor, “I…I wish I knew why this all had to happen. I just don’t get why, Graves-san? Why did you do it all…?”

“…do you realise what it’s like to want to save someone but also want to see them dead?” Graves-san murmured.

“Huh?” Yokozawa-san turned to her.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. Let’s just get on with it, that’s what always happens at this point, y’know?” Graves-san said.

“Is this really okay? To vote with how things are?” Kirishima-san asked.

“I think so. I don’t think they’re lying anymore. I really think we’ve reached the end this time around.” Kurosaki-san said.

“Are you definitely sure this time? Geez, this took a long time to get to, but you know the drill! Pick who you believe is the culprit from the buttons in front of you! It’s time to pick your culprit, will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? What’s it gonna be? Who’s it gonna be?!” Monokuma cackled as we all silently locked in our answers.

The roulette wheel lowered and begin to spin around before landing on Yokozawa-san’s face. The usual bouquets of flowers popped out and the coins poured out like a waterfall to celebrate the end of the trial and the results of the voting.

The fourth trial was over.

#DKronpa #chapters #fanganronpa #fangan ronpa #danganronpa fangan

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