Ch.4 Deadly Life Part 1: Of Straws, Snipes, and Surprises

Fujiko

They're gone... they're both gone all at once. I'm trying my hardest to inherit Kana's boldness. I need to step up and try to be a real leader like she was. And it seems like Chimon's entire sense of identity's been flipped completely upside-down, so I want to take care of him for Monterio's sake, too. He was always so protective. But it's hard. I've never been a very strong person, especially not on my own. I'm not smart like he was. If I was still the same girl I was before I got here, I'd tell myself I'm only really good for looking pretty and encouraging people who know better. But that's not enough for me anymore! I need to take action!

"Wow! Two down? You guys really are getting better at killing! I'm impressed!" Monokuma announces from below us.

"I'm not buying anything you're selling! Just give us the stupid file and get out!" I command, trying to muster all of the classic Omori swagger that I can.

"Hehe! I'm surprised you all still have it in you to talk to me that way! It's almost charming!"

"Something feels wrong," Gou murmurs.

"Right? Like he's finally dropping the friendship facade," Tozen agrees.

"What? Wha-Wha-What? There are no facades going on here! You really are my beloved chickadees! Just chickadees that I've gotta keep in line! Anyway, here's the wonderful Monokuma file!" He stretches his arms way beyond what he should be able to in order to hand them to us.

It's at this point that I silently start to think of Monoinu. Obviously, we've seen a ton of them... him? Still never got the hang of the that plurality thing. But it's been a loooong time since I've seen the one who likes us. He's probably had to start going more undercover, considering the microphones. I guess we won't be getting much help from him this time around. I kinda miss the sweet pupper! The other members of the hive mind are so cold and they're only ever nice to us when they want scritches.

"U-Um, can you read the file for me, Chimon?" I whisper to him. We're still huddled pretty close together, so he holds his copy in front of the both of us.

"The victims are Monterio Mukai and Kana Omori. They were discovered in the playground. Evidence indicates that they did not die too far apart time-wise; they both died sometime between 9-10 am. Cause of death is a fatal wound to the chest," he reads softly, voice wavering.

TRUTH BULLET: MONOKUMA FILE

"Okay... we oughta get investigating now," Gou announces.

"Waitwaitwait. Before we go off gallivanting around as usual... I have a concern," Yuu interrupts.

"Ye ALWAYS have a concern," Wakumi grunts, stomping on his foot.

"GAH! Holy shit, that hurts really freaking bad!"

"Were you the type of soccer player to flop?" Gou teases.

Yuu grimaces. "It's not flopping if you're actually in major pain."

"Can we just get back to what we're supposed to be doing? What's up, Yuu?" Tozen redirects.

"There are two victims. If there happens to be two killers, or a killer and an accomplice, we can't let them investigate together. Since there are only eight of us, any pair will only be able to monitor each other, so we need to make sure there's someone innocent in every pair," he elaborates.

"Ah. That is a wise concern. I hold your prudence in high regard," Azumi compliments, though she's slightly trembling from all of the stress of the situation.

"We could draw straws to determine who gets teamed!" Ren offers. Not missing a beat, we follow Tozen as he runs down the whole way to fetch some plastic straws from the kitchen. Everyone keeps a close eye on him as he cuts them into pairs of different sizes. He shuffles them up and we all draw.

Gou grabs my hand and gives it a reassuring squish. "Heya, investigation partner."

"May we redraw? Please?" Azumi asks, looking extremely uncomfy.

"NAY. It ain't like you're me first choice, either, ye entitled wench, but we gotta. Ye and I'll cover guard duty, savvy? I'll give ye no quarter if ye attempt mutiny." Wakumi snaps her eyepatch so hard that I'm surprised she doesn't even flinch from pain.

She sighs. "If I must. I am unadjusted to combat, but attuned to my body, so I will serve my best as guard."

"Be nice to each other, okay?" Gou interjects.

"No promises, bucko!"

"Since the dancers were killed with arrows, it's probably best if we search the training grounds. Think we can cover that, Yuu?" Tozen asks. He nods.

Chimon sighs. "Like always, we need to check the victims' bedrooms. I definitely want to search Monterio's, if that's okay with Ren--"

"Of course it's okay with me. This is important to you."

"So I'm assuming you can handle Kana's room with Gou, Fujiko?"

"You got it! We'll get the job done!" I vow. "I drank my morning coffee and I'm high off adrenaline! Let's do this!" I crack my knuckles, being careful with the fingers that are wrapped in bandages.

"That's the spirit! How about we join back up in around an hour to search the actual crime scene?" Gou plans.

"Sounds like a plan," Ren confirms. He runs his hand through his hair-- the blonde is getting really apparent by now-- and he, Chimon, Gou, and I make our way to the dancers' rooms, which are directly across from one another.

I have to believe that we can do this. We haven't failed any yet. The first could be beginner's luck, the second could be a happy coincidence, but three makes a pattern! I fiddle with the ring on my left pointer finger; Kana had two-- a matching one with Monterio and a matching one with me. She's connected to me forever and always. Her sense of dignity and power is what I'm gonna use to make this happen! I'll bring the dancers' souls some relief and get them the justice that they deserve!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Azumi

Tozen and I walk deliberately, falling a considerable amount of space behind our partners as we think. They're both dashing across the hall and up the stairs, despite the fact that Yuu is still gimpy from Wakumi's earlier outburst. "I do not want to do this," I sigh quietly.

"I'm sorry, Zu. What even happened between you two to cause the sudden friction?"

"I was told something about her, and she heard the conversation through the motive. I shan't divulge its contents, for I feel it is not my information to share, but it is information that particularly pains me specifically." I get a sudden image in my head of her throwing Bisque's present to the ground and it shattering from the impact. I close my eyes and take deep breaths, using the banister to steady myself as we glide up the stairs.

"AYE, WENCH. You're too slow, pick it up! Ain't ye s'pposed ta be an athlete, ye lily-livered, delicate li'l peasant?!" she bellows from the third flight of stairs.

I sigh. "Are we going to keep this tolerable, or not?"

She snorts. "Tolerable fer me or fer you? Cause those are very different things."

I roll my eyes. Tozen looks at me, does the zip the lip signal, and winks. I also do so, tucking the pantomimed key into my non-existent pockets. Quiet game it is, then. If she wants to act like a petty child, two can play at that.

And we are going to the perfect place; an actual playground. It hurts my soul to see that not only one, but two murders have occured here. But it is currently my job to assure that no further corruption occurs here. Wakumi stands right by the door, ready to confront anyone who tries to enter. I, on the other hand, take notice of the multiple tall structures, so I perch myself on one to get a good birds-eye view. The thin bars are no match for me! From here, I have a view of both bodies and a wide range of vision in case there happens to be a secret passage.

It's actually rather entertaining to watch Wakumi get restless and bored. She starts off standing dutifully, rigidly. Then she starts anxiously tapping her foot as she scans the place. Then she starts actively pacing, grunting to herself and occasionally slinging an insult my way. I simply give her a cheeky grin and say nothing. She begins flat-out rolling around, seeming to pretend sword-fight with the air before screaming out of nowhere. I yelp, falling from my position and having to catch myself by flipping so that I don't land with a thud. But I slip anyway. Thank God I didn't seriously injure myself. She cackles. "Har! That's what ye get fer being SO mature an' givin' me the silent treatment."

"This area right here is slippery. Do you suppose it might have been cleaned up? Now that I think of it, it looked a bit shiny, so I probably should have anticipated the possibility that it's slick," I acknowledge, ignoring her taunts.

"Aye! Looks like an ideal spot ta tussle," she smirks devilishly. I suddenly see her lunge for me, and I twist out of the way, quickly perching myself back on the guardrail. She cackles even more than before.

TRUTH BULLET: SLICK SPOT

She continues to try and swipe at me haplessly, giggling to herself. "Yer evasiness is top-notch."

I sigh impatiently. "Don't you think that the two of us distracting each other could be bad for guard duty?"

She groans. "Fiiiiiiiiiiiine." She practically launches herself off the play equipment, and the distance of her jump is, as much as I hate to admit it, remarkably impressive. She could likely perform trapeze if she dedicated herself to learning it.

However, her execution is faulty, and she ALSO trips and stumbles. As if in revenge, I physically cannot withhold myself from bursting out into laughter, which causes me to fall yet again, but this time, onto the soft foam below us.

"Argh! Quit yer twitterin' laughter, ye sound like a one o' those stereotypical parrots. Look, there's a wee hole in the foam o'er here. It's pretty far from the rest o' the action, innit?"

I make my way over there to inspect. She's correct. A few yards from the play equipment, there's a small hole. It is not a perfect circle. It's more like a tear than a uniform hole per say. Even so. "What does your instinct tell you? Is it related or not?"

"Lemme test somethin'." She starts stomping and kicking at the ground rowdily, trying to cuff it up with her boots. The result is a resounding... no. The foam is surprisingly resistant to wear and tear. "Fer sure related."

TRUTH BULLET: FOAM TEAR

"That little thing was enough to trip you up?"

"You're an insufferable piece o' garbage."

"Wakumi Furutani... truly the world authority on who does and does not qualify toward being insufferable."

"What's that s'pposed to mean?! Swear you me, I'll blow ye down!"

It's then that I realize that the jabs I'm making are doing absolutely nothing to improve my mood. "I apologize. I understand that you are dealing with me inasmuch as I am dealing with you. I shall cease my taunting." She grumbles contrarily. "What? Do you want me to continue bothering you? Do you simply want something to be bitter over? You understand that if either of us has the right to be bitter, it's me?"

"I can do whate'er I want with the fuckin' pottery!" she groans exaggeratedly.

"You spit on his memory! That boy was like my own flesh and blood, Wakumi, and he did this purely so that—!" I pause and take a deep breath, realizing exactly the conclusion that this sentence will take. "Joanie and Bisque did this purely so that we would all stop fighting, and I intend to honor that. Please. Let us not make worthless, petty arguments with one another. That would be a worse offense than breaking the gift, because we promised."

Her eyes take on a glossy, reticent appearance. "Doesn't seem much like any o' ye care much fer promises, honor, n' the like. But do what ye will. I'll leave ye be."

I simply cannot understand her. We must have fundamental differences in how we comprehend human values. That makes me rather curious. "Wakumi... do you believe that any of us can make it out of here alive?"

Having been avoiding eye contact for the past several minutes, she finally stares at me with her piercing red eyes. "There's no choice but ta make it. I may not like any o' ye, but I recognize that we all got far too much we still gotta do."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gou

Kana's room is as in-your-face wow factor as she was. There's a neon sign in the shape of a rose taking up a large portion of the wall across from her bed. Black ribbons are draped all along the two side walls. Her shoes are held in a complexly shaped black metal shoe rack. It's organized, but not to the point of obsessiveness, and she has a pile of speakers just chilling in the corner reminding us that, as classy and stylish as she was, Kana wasn't a snob.

"Gosh. I've been in here a lot, but never without her in it. It feels like... um... like a being in a drawing of places that are in ruins now, but the drawing is of them in their former glory. Does that make sense?" Fujiko compares, running her dainty fingers along one of the ribbons wistfully.

"Of course it does. Are you okay? It feels a bit off putting being in the bedroom of someone who's passed, and I didn't even have as strong of a relationship with her," I empathize.

"I'm... I'm okay. We gotta get to work, right?" She stands up straighter and we scour around. Her nightstand has very little of importance, and her closet, while chock-full of really nice garments, is absolutely void of clues.

We check under the bed. Aside from a crate with a couple of small stuffed animals, nada. The desk is the last place to search. There are a couple of metal boxes— one filled with medals from dance competitions, one filled with jewelry. "Huh. Why didn't she ever use any of these?"

"Oh! She'll sometimes change her earrings or something like that for competitions, but she always, always has a ring on her finger. It's similar to mine, see? Those things are... sort of like those friendship necklaces that connect to each other, in a way. But she has one from Monterio, and she refuses to take it off. Keeps saying that if she wears any other rings, they'll clash!" Suddenly, her excitable expression fades. "Ah... it's weird. I keep using wording like, 'refuses,' and 'keeps saying,' when it should be 'refused,' and 'kept saying.' I don't like it."

"Yeah. Using the past tense when talking about someone you care a lot about... I get it. It's a rough adjustment. U-Um, I'm assuming, that is!"

She gives me a strange expression, like she's trying to puzzle it out. I'm not ready to talk about that, especially since Fujiko and I haven't spent an overwhelming amount of time together since we got here. She smacks her lips as though pretending to put on lipgloss, and then she nods. "Okie dokie!"

There's yet another box, this time not cold metal but instead wooden and seemingly decorated by children. It's plastered with stickers and beads and glitter glue and all sorts of things like that. It doesn't go with any of the rest of the decor, but it seems to have been treated with exceptional care. I feel nostalgic just looking at it.

"Aww. It's so cute!" Fujiko opens it ever so delicately, sighing with a slight smile on her face. "Oh, envelopes! She must keep important letters or cards in here! That's double cute!"

"Do you think we should read it? It feels a little privacy-invasive."

"We don't really have a choice. We've found no clues at all so far, and this is kind of our last chance," she reasons. So we start to peruse her letters. I find some really well-meaning birthday cards from what appears to be aunts and uncles, adorably dumb little inside jokes with her siblings, sweet notes from Monterio. Fujiko helps, too, but she reads significantly slower. That's fine by me, but she seems to be getting somewhat agitated. "O-Oh! This looks important! Can you read it aloud?"

"Sure," I confirm. She hands it to me. The envelope has the words, "For if I Kick the Bucket," printed on it.

"Surely someone will find this, so I'm not worried, but I'm sorry in advance for how short this is gonna wind up. Hopefully the meaning I'm trying to express will come across in this letter, even though I'm absolutely shit at writing. Obviously, this is just a fail safe. Everyone else has had something to remember them by, so I figured I'd write a note just in case.

Please. Open the envelope in my top desk drawer. Listen up, gotcha? I left some things that are dear to me in there. Survive, everyone— I know you've got the moxie and the strength, so dig down deep and do what has to get done. Have faith in yourselves and rely on each other, okay?!" I narrate.

TRUTH BULLET: KANA'S NOTE

She squeals and frantically opens the desk's top drawer. Sure enough, there's an envelope right at the top, and Fujiko rips it open like it'll explode if she doesn't go quickly enough. There are a ton of pictures in there. The one in front seems to be from Halloween; Kana and Monterio are both dressed up as detectives. There's also one of the two of them, seemingly a few years younger, holding awards from a competition. A note on the back indicates that this was the first. Next comes one with the two of them and people who are clearly their siblings. There's a ring— which Fujiko instantly points out is the match to her own— and a small button that, upon closer inspection, looks like it comes from her detective coat. And then...

"What the fuck?!" she suddenly shrieks, dropping the envelope on the floor.

"What?! What happened?!"

"A picture with me in it! We haven't taken any photos this whole time!"

Oh shit. Something is seriously wrong. "What do you mean, a picture with you in it? Like, she found a picture of you?"

"No, it has both of us! And I swear to hell and back that we only just met when we got here! I don't remember taking this!" She shoves the picture in my face. Wherever they are, it's sunny. That couldn't have been taken here at all. Fear starts to flow through me.

"Crap. How the hell—?" I turn it around and find a note scribbled on it. "Randomly discovered this in my pillowcase. Sorry if it's crinkled, I have no clue how long it's been there. I DON'T REMEMBER THIS HAPPENING. Hopefully it'll help y'all figure out wtf is going on."

TRUTH BULLET: KANA'S ENVELOPE

"We should just take the whole envelope with us. If this picture was so important, and Kana mentioned the whole envelope, the rest of the stuff in here is probably going to come in handy, too."

"O-Okay," she nods, trying to swipe anxious tears out of her eyes. "I don't even know what's happening anymore. I'm not smart enough for this."

"You ARE. We can do this, Fujiko. You have to believe me."

She shivers. "You don't doubt me, do you?"

"Nuh-Uh. If I'm honest, this seems planted. But I wanna keep it anyway."

"C-Can we hide it from the group? A-At least until the trial is done?" she pleads.

I bite my lip. "We tell them once the trial is done. I don't want anyone getting distracted from the situation right in front of us. But we can't hide it forever."

She nods, still quaking. "O-Okay."