Chapter Text
December 19, 20XX
A girl, who had been part of the recent missing case involving three other girls, has recently been found by police in an abandoned building near XXXX. She has been hospitalized ever since she had been found, but soon after her first check up with Dr. XXXX, she jumped off XXXX hospital’s roof. There seemed to be no indication of abuse when she was admitted, the police are investigating as we speak to solve this case.
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February 14th 20XX
The case involving four teenage girls from Miyamasuzaka Girls Academy has been declared unsolved. Police are still willing to receive any information the public can find. This has been-
*Beep*
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My head hurts… Did I oversleep? I should get some food and then head over to Phoenix Wonderland. We have a script to look over after all.
My eyes were closed, but I could feel that my surroundings were different from what I last remember.
Weird… Why am I sitting on some grass? I was back home taking a quick nap after school. Wait… Grass?
I slowly opened my eyes and tried to get used to the light surrounding me. I seemed to be outside some mansion and near the entrance of a never ending forest. The mansion was painted in dark colors and it was worn out, some of its windows were broken or just had the frame there. The atmosphere seemed cold and it was somewhat lacking color, my school uniform seemed to stand out the most, especially with my yellow cardigan.
“Mmm… Where?” I heard a familiar voice nearby and immediately turned over to look at the source of it. Nene was waking up behind me and our eyes immediately met. “Tsukasa? What are you doing here?” She asked, rubbing her eyes and slowly sitting up.
“I was going to ask you the same thing. Though I’ll assume this isn’t the place where you’d usually take a nap, right?” Nene looked at me confused before she began to take in her surroundings. Her eyes widened and looked around frantically. “H-how did we get here? Where are we?” She quickly moved to my side and tugged on my sleeve.
“I don’t know, but it’s nice to know you’re with me.” I replied trying to comfort her, which seemed to work, although her cheeks began to look a little pink. I stood up from where we were and helped Nene get up on her feet, she still held onto my sleeve as we began to walk around to see what we could find. It wasn’t long until we began to find more people laying down on the grass unconscious. I got to identify some of the people laying unconscious while some seemed familiar.
“Saki! Touya! Wake up! Are you guys alright?” I shook them slightly and they both began to wake up. “Brother? What are you-?” Saki began to speak but I cut her off by hugging her and Touya. “I’m glad you’re both alright.” I muttered, even though I had no idea I was this worried about them.
Once the two of them began to take in their surroundings, Nene and I got bombarded with questions we both couldn’t answer. Within a few minutes of us explaining our situation, the people around them began to wake up. Minori, Shizuku, and Akito were a few of the ones I immediately recognized, while two others I could kind of recognize from somewhere. One was a long haired girl with white hair and beside her was a girl with purple hair tied up in a ponytail. I think that would be Emu’s senior and her friend.
“Where are we?” The girl with purple hair asked. “I-I don’t know.” The white haired girl replied. “Mafuyu!” Saki turned to look at her and approached her carefully, “Are you alright?” Mafuyu nodded and the white haired girl showed her hand as if to also reassure Saki that she was alright.
Once everyone was able to stand up, we decided to try going inside the worn down mansion as the forest felt… Odd… I could easily feel that if I were to go in unprepared, I could easily get lost in there for a long time. Akito approached the entrance quickly and tried opening it, the doorknob rattled for a bit. It seemed locked from the inside. Shizuku looked at the nearest window and called out to see if anyone was inside.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Shizuku?”
A figure began to draw close to where Shizuku stood. Shizuku smiled and looked relieved. “Shii, it’s you!” She smiled innocently and tried reaching out to her sister. “Be careful, part of the window is broken, you could get injured.” Shiho reprimanded and Shizuku looked at the window carefully. “Oh, you’re right! Thank you Shii!” She smiled again and Saki approached the window where Shizuku was.
“Shiho, could you help us open the door here? Also is everyone else with you?” She asked and Shiho nodded. “There’s more people inside, let me go and try opening the door for you.” Shiho then walked away from the window, her footsteps were nearing the entrance and the doorknob rattled once more before clicking. She opened the door to reveal the inside of the mansion, it seemed to be old fashioned or inspired by the Victorian era. It was quite elegant, but a little unsettling. Darker colors were prevalent in the furniture and wallpapers with some hints of red or gold. The only light sources seem to stem from the chandeliers hanging above us, some lamps on top of some tables and a few candles on the walls.
Shiho motioned for us to follow her further inside, the nine of us followed her inside and I closed the door behind us. We then reached a dining area where ten more people were. Quickly inspecting those there, I managed to make out some familiar faces.
“Nene! Rui, Rui look!! It’s Nene and Tsukasa!” Emu squealed in joy as she ran towards Nene and held her in a tight embrace, Rui just smiled at Emu’s reaction to seeing us again. Saki ran towards her friends and held them in a tight hug as well. Mizuki seemed to recognize Mafuyu and the white haired girl beside her. “Kanade, Mafuyu! You guys are okay!” They ran towards them and hugged them. “Mizuki c’mon let them breathe a bit.” A girl with short brown hair looked at them as Mizuki pouted, she then turned to look at Akito and sighed.
“What are you doing here Akito?”
“I could ask you the same thing Ena.” They both glared at each other but Ena softened her gaze a little. She seemed relieved to see him there. Shizuku hugged Shiho as soon as Saki let her go, Minori quickly ran towards a blue haired girl and a pink haired girl to hug them. Touya met up with An and a blonde haired girl with short pigtails.
Everyone seemed to somehow know each other, or well, to some degree. We all huddled up into groups of four, most of them being people who knew each other the most. Nene and I grouped up with Emu and Rui, Saki went with Honami, Shiho and Ichika. Touya and Akito went with An and the blonde girl. Mizuki was with Mafuyu, Kanande and Ena. Minori and Shizuku went with the blue haired girl and the pink haired girl.
Silence surrounded us, we all just kept looking at each other. We didn’t know where we were or how we got here, but if all 20 of us seemed to know each other to some degree, it can’t be a coincidence… Right?
“So, uh, does anyone know how we got here?” Nene spoke up but her voice was too quiet. I realized that Kanade tilted her head to the side as if telling Nene to ask again, but she just hid behind Rui. I cleared my throat and spoke up. “Does anyone have any ideas as to where we are?” A lot of them murmured quick no’s and shook their heads. Silence quickly filled the room again and we all stood there awkwardly.
Footsteps began to echo in the distance, gradually getting closer. Everyone froze, was someone else here with us? How many others are trapped in this place like us?
Suddenly a head began to poke out from the entrance to the dining room we were in. It was a girl about our age with teal hair tied up in long twintails with curls by the end of them. She wore a dark green suit that gave off a steampunk vibe, she also had a small top hat on top of her head, and she wore a monocle on her right eye. Her suit had lots of frills and ribbons and she held a closed dark umbrella in her hands.
“Good evening my esteemed guests. I’m sure everyone is concerned as to where we are and how you got here. Please take a seat and I’ll explain what I know. Have you done any introductions?” She asked as she pulled up a chair from the table and sat down. We exchanged glances but shook our heads. “We should get that out of the way then, my name is Hatsune Miku. I am one out of the many of us out there. I’m sure I look quite different from the versions you are all used to. I’m a virtual singer from this sekai, unfortunately our creator and her friends have left this sekai behind. But me and a few others still live here.” Miku crossed her legs and looked at us, as if she was expecting for us to introduce ourselves.
“I-I’m Hoshino Ichika! I’m part of Leo/Need, a band made with my friends. I play the guitar…” Ichika spoke up and then slowly became quiet as all eyes were on her.
“My name is Tenma Saki, I’m the keyboard player of Leo/Need!”
“I’m Hinomori Shiho, I play the bass.”
“Mochizuki Honami! I play the drums!”
Miku turned to look at the group beside them and motioned for them to continue.
“Y-yes! I’m Hanasato Minori! I’m part of "More More Jump!”
“Kiritani Haruka, pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“I’m Airi Momoi, used to be in a lot of variety shows but now I’m part of More More Jump!”
“I’m Hinomori Shizuku, I’m an idol but I do some modeling gigs too.”
“My name is Azusawa Kohane! I perform with Vivid Bad Squad!”
“Shiraishi An, I’m Kohane’s partner whenever we do duos outside of Vivid Bad Squad.”
“I’m Shinonome Akito, I’m part of Vivid Bad Squad, but I have my duo unit Bad Dogs with Touya.”
“I’m Aoyagi Touya, Akito’s partner and part of Vivid Bad Squad.”
Before I realize it, it’s now my turn to introduce myself.
“My name is Tenma Tsukasa! I’m the world’s future star and troupe leader for Wonderlands x Showtime!”
“I’m Ootori Emu! I love things that are super wonderhoy!”
“K-Kusanagi Nene, it’s nice to meet you…”
“Kamishiro Rui, I’m the director and I make most of the props for Wansho.”
“I’m Yoisaki Kanade, the composer for N25.”
“Asahina Mafuyu, I write the lyrics!”
“Shinonome Ena, the artist for N25.”
“I’m Akiyama Mizuki! I love cute things! Oh! And I make videos for N25!” Mizuki smiled and seemed to do their best to cheer up the mood.
Miku smiled and nodded. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I’ll be responding to a few of your questions now, just know I don’t have the answer to all of them.”
“I think this question is on everyone’s minds, how did we get here?” An quickly took initiative and looked at Miku, awaiting her response. “I’m not so sure about that, all I know is that I suddenly felt like people were coming in quickly. It’s been a while since we’ve received any visitors.” Not being really satisfied with the answer, Shiho asked another question. “Then why are we here?”
Miku grew quiet, she played with her thumbs and seemed to be thinking about something. “I do not know. But maybe there’s something here that could help you get answers. Feel free to look around. The first floor and basement are available for exploration. I’m heading elsewhere for now. I’ll be back soon. Dinner is served at 9 pm. I’ll see you then.”
“Wait!” Minori reached out to stop her but Miku left the dining room. Silence seemed to be the only thing consistent with us, I’m not sure if it’s because we’re shocked, or if it’s another reason. Not really handling silence well, I decided to put up a bit of a show. Mostly for Saki’s sake, I don’t want her to worry too much about the situation.
“Well then everyone! Shall we head out on this quest for exploration?” I stroke a pose while pointing at the exit of the dining hall. “We should split up and cover some areas. My group and I will search outside.” Kanade suggested and everyone seemed okay with her suggestion. “Miku said the basement and the first floor were available for exploration, we’ll look at the hallway further to the left.” An replied and began to head out along with the members of N25.
“We’ll take a look at the basement.” Rui raised his hand to call the attention towards us. “We’ll take over the right side of the building!” Minori exclaimed. “That leaves us with the rooms in the middle, we’ll take those.” Ichika replied and we all began to head out.
My troupe and I began to look for the entrance to the basement, we figured it should be near so we split up and looked on different sides for it. “Ah, I found it!” Nene exclaimed as Rui motioned for me and Emu to follow. Nene opened the door leading towards the basement and began to look for a light switch. Once she found one, the steps ahead of us began to light up. Rui began to go down the stairs and I followed suit, Emu and Nene following us soon after.
Once we reached the end of the stairs we could see some storage units in the distance, beside the set of stairs, there was a laundry room with two washing machines and two dryers. We each looked over the storages to see what each of them had. There were five units in total, Rui looked at the first one which seemed to be filled with food such as bread, cereals, and a few fridges that had milk and other refrigerator foods. I opened the second unit to reveal a large freezer area with different types of meats, it was sure cold in here. The door could easily close if one person came on their own, it’s best if two people were to come in so one could hold the door.
Emu opened the third unit to show cleaning supplies, Nene opened the fourth and her face went pale. “Nene, are you alright?” Rui looked at Nene worried. “T-this… This is a morgue…” Nene took a few steps back and Rui took a closer look, sure enough, the room Nene had seen was a morgue. He closed the door and went to open the next one. Emu sat on the floor with Nene to help her calm down while I followed Rui to the next storage unit. He opened the door and his face immediately changed. He closed the door quickly and placed his hand on his head.
“I’m having a hard time to think if we should tell the others about this room.” He sighed, Emu just tilted her head in confusion. “The fifth storage has a few items that could be considered weapons, though most do work as tools for gardening or any other activity, there’s a few items there that are actual weapons like swords.”
“What the hell? Who keeps things like that in the basement?!”
“For now let’s reunite with the others. We’ll have to tell them about this unit and hopefully no one gets the wrong idea of this. Although the idea of that being the first to come up is quite concerning.” Rui whispered the last part to himself, he must be stressed from this situation and may be overthinking his own thoughts.
We went back upstairs and met up with Saki’s group in the dining room. We all waited around for the others to come back and one by one the remaining groups came back. Mizuki’s group was the last to arrive as they had been looking outside the mansion.
“Alright now that we’re all back, we should discuss what we found. We went to the left side of the building, we saw some bathrooms and five rooms with four beds each. I guess there’s a room for each group. Oh and we found a greenhouse growing some fruits and vegetables along with some flowers.” An explained their findings to which Rui grimaced when she mentioned the vegetables.
“The middle part of the building had a set of stairs, but they were blocked off. We also took a closer look at the entrance and it seems that was the living room the entire time!” Ichika crossed her arms and looked around nervously, she had always been somewhat shy. I would guess that having all eyes on her still made her nervous.
“On the right side of the building was the kitchen and the dining room we’re in, we also saw the entrance to the basement and some of the virtual singers cooking!” Minori spoke about her findings. Everyone then turned to look at us to tell our findings in the basement.
“In the basement there’s a laundry room and five storage units. One for shelf foods like bread and rice, a freezer for meats, and a cleaning supply. There was also…” Rui trailed off trying to figure how to tell the others of the two remaining units. “T-there was a morgue and a tool room.” Nene spoke up. “The tool room has stuff for gardening and some tools for repairing things, b-but…” Nene began to tremble and Rui placed a hand on her shoulder, letting her know that he’d take over. “The tool unit also has things that could be considered weapons such as swords.”
The room grew quiet. We already anticipated this reaction, but seeing Saki’s face be so concerned, I just couldn’t stay quiet. “But they might be props! We didn’t check that thoroughly, but I’m sure they’re props!” I blurted out which in turn, made Rui look my way somewhat concerned but slightly mad at my exclamation. I’ll mentally take note of not letting myself blurt out more things just to deescalate a situation.
“The morgue is still somewhat concerning…” Ena muttered.
“A-anyhow! On the outside there seemed nothing wrong, the forest just seemed a little, endless… Kanade wanted to explore it, but I think we would have easily gotten lost there.” Mizuki explained their discoveries.
“You did good by staying out.” Miku suddenly entered the dining room with Luka and Meiko following her with two food carts. “Please take a seat everyone, dinner is about to start.” Everyone took a seat at the long table as Luka and Meiko began setting down plates for all of us. They gave us some pasta that looked right out of an expensive restaurant. I could see everyone hesitating to eat, especially after the previous topics we were discussing.
Emu was the first to take a bite of the food, Nene looked in shock at her and began to panic before Emu finished chewing and smiled. “This is super wonderhoy!” She smiled before grabbing some more and eating. Soon after everyone began to eat. Miku showed us a quick smile before she began to speak. “I looked around and tried to find information as to why you all were transported here. I unfortunately didn’t find much other than finding out you all have a sekai to go to.”
I choked on my food for a second before being able to swallow it. Does this mean Saki has a sekai as well? If she does, that means Touya has one too!
“I’ll be doing some more research, for now please try to relax while you stay here. For some ground rules, our curfew is at 10 pm. It’s advised to stay in your dorms until the morning. Our morning period starts at 7 am and breakfast is at 8 am.” Miku then left the dining room and wished us a good night.
Once everyone was done with their food, Luka and Meiko picked up our plates and cutlery, Rin and Len would then guide us to our dorms. If An was right, there were five rooms with four beds each. That’d mean we’d be divided in our groups. Our room was beside Vivid Bad Squad and in front of Leo/Need. We were the closest to the greenhouse’s entrance.
Today has been a long day, I wonder if we'll be able to sleep after all this. Nene and Emu took the beds on the right side of the room while Rui and I took the ones to the left. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I could feel my eyes grow heavy. Soon enough, I fell asleep.
The next morning came by quickly, I was woken up by a knock on our door. “Brother? Are you awake?” I heard Saki’s voice from the other side. “Yeah, I’m up!” My voice sounded groggy and I was struggling to stay awake. “Alright, just wanted to let you know that breakfast is soon according to Rin!” She replied and walked off before I could thank her.
I woke up the rest of my troupe so we could head over to breakfast. Emu had an idea that we should try to cheer everyone up with a small show later in the day. We all agreed to do so and even began to think on making one the next day once we had more time to think about one tonight.
Emu decided to race us to the dining room and sprinted off before the countdown started. I ran behind her as Nene and Rui just looked at us from afar smiling. “I won!” Emu cheered as she arrived at the dining room. “Hey no fair! You didn’t even finish counting down!” I yelled, catching my breath. Rui and Nene coming in a few seconds after me. “I didn’t know you were a sore loser Tsukasa.” Nene teased and Rui chuckled. “I AM NOT! I’m a star! Stars aren’t sore losers!” I complained and a few others giggled at our antics.
Miku then came into the room and greeted us. Kaito and Len were pushing two food carts behind her. “Good morning, I assume you all had a goodnight’s rest?” We all nodded and some even murmured a quick yes. “That’s good, I’m glad you were able to do so. I do have some unfortunate news.” Silence quickly drew over us, my heart began pounding in my chest and I could feel a knot in my throat. “I’m afraid you are all staying here until further notice. But, there is one way to exit. I do hope you do not consider it though.” Miku twiddled with her thumbs as she looked around.
“In order to leave, one of you must kill another. But that doesn’t guarantee freedom for all, only for the one who did the deed.” Everyone stayed silent, if Miku were to drop a paper clip, I’m pretty sure you’d be able to hear it all over the mansion.
In order to leave we’d have to kill someone? No… No way. This is some sort of weird dream. This has to be right?
We then heard the sound of porcelain breaking, we turned around to see Honami trembling and panicking. “I-I’m so sorry! I’ll clean this up right away!” She apologized frantically as she crouched and began to pick up the pieces. Kaito took her hand and smiled at her warmly. “Allow me to help you, it’s alright.” Honami’s eyes began to water as she muttered an apology and continued picking up the pieces of the porcelain cup she dropped.
“I do apologize for the announcement, but worry not, I’ll look into a way for you all to be able to exit this sekai.” Miku bowed and left the dining room. Kaito finished helping Honami and took the broken cup with him as Honami dried the floor with a napkin. Len had left as Miku gave her announcement but came back soon after with some cleaning supplies and helped Honami clean up.
I stared at the breakfast they had given us. They gave us some pancakes and we were able to add our own toppings from the ones in front of us, but I think I had lost my appetite, even though my stomach felt empty. I didn’t want to eat.
“So that’s why the morgue was there…” Nene muttered quietly as she trembled in fear. Emu held her hand and tried to calm her down. I had to do something to cheer them up. Miku did say it was an option she hoped none of us would take, which means we just have to be patient and we’ll be able to go home without anything happening.
“C’mon everyone, it’ll be alright!” I put on a facade and decided to make it my duty to keep everyone hopeful. “We just have to be patient and we’ll find a way back home!”
“But for how long should we wait?” Akito replied bitterly. “Uhm, that uh…”
“We could pull our own weight by helping Miku find answers as to how we could go back home.” Rui replied. “If we can, we should also find things to do in the meantime. Maybe by doing some chores we can find clues as well.” He continued and shot me a look. He seemed to remain hopeful and with him by my side, we may be able to convince the others to stay positive.
“You’re right, Miku does hope we don’t come to that, so we should try to help her find answers!” Mizuki chimed in. Eventually the atmosphere calmed down enough for us to eat something. I still couldn’t stomach this feeling of dread within me, but I’d do my best for Saki and everyone else. They’re all counting on me after all.
After breakfast, we decided to divide each other to see what we could do. We mostly decided on rebuilding part of the mansion as a few things did raise some concerns about its structure. I was mostly in charge of finding some materials we could use in the basement with Touya, other than the usual tools and a few wooden planks, it didn’t take long for us to come back up. We dropped the materials off with Rui, An, Haruka, and Akito before looking around for more things that needed to be patched up.
While walking, I noticed Kanade on the ground in the greenhouse and ran over to her, my brotherly instincts taking over. “Kanade! Are you okay?” My voice must’ve been quite loud because Kanade quickly covered her ears and nodded. “Ah, sorry, I raised my voice too much.”
“It’s alright.” She replied taking her hands off her ears, I helped her sit up and let her rest by the nearest wall. “I’m sorry, you must’ve been busy yet you stopped to help me.” Kanade closed her eyes as she took in large deep breaths. “Not really, I was just looking to see what more needed to be patched up. There’s not much to do when we only have two places to look around.” I replied and she chuckled. “Mind telling me what happened? I was concerned that someone had done something.”
Kanade turned to look at me and furrowed her brows. “I think I’m just a little tired. I’m not that good when it comes to physical activities or being in the sun for too long.” Without thinking, I moved her bangs to the side and checked her temperature. Her forehead was somewhat warm. “Hold on, let me go get some water for you.” Kanade seemed a little hesitant, but nodded. A bit concerned for her, I noticed Touya was nearby and asked if he could get Kanade some water while I stayed with her. He agreed and said he wouldn’t take long. I sat beside Kanade, who in turn looked surprised.
“I thought you were going for water.”
“You seemed a little scared to be left alone, I thought you could use some company until then.” Kanade smiled softly but something seemed to be in her mind. “A penny for your thoughts?” I asked while faking a grandfather’s voice, she looked surprised at my impression but ended up chuckling.
“I’m just concerned about everyone. Everyone wants to go home, I’m sure of it, but the only way to do so is to kill another. I do like to think no one is considering that option. Maybe if I had my computer with me, I could make a song that will calm everyone down.” Kanade looked somewhat melancholic. I guess I kind of relate to her feelings.
“Yeah, I think I can relate to what you’re feeling. Emu wants to put on a show for everyone, I do so as well, I do think we’d be able to cheer everyone up with one. Maybe I could even turn that frown on your face upside down.”
“You mean a smile?” She asked and I nodded. “Yeah! Honestly, I do wish everything would go back to normal soon. But I know moping around won’t do any good. I want to help everyone smile as much as I can until we go back home.” Touya then opened the doors to the greenhouse and began looking for us while holding a bottle of water. I motioned for him to come over and he quickly came towards us.
“Are you alright Kanade? Tsukasa told me to bring you some water, I thought some cold water might help since the greenhouse is kind of warm.” He gave Kanade the water bottle and she smiled softly. “Thank you Touya.” She tried taking the cap off but was struggling to do so. She looked over to me with pleading eyes. I smiled and helped her take the cap off, as soon as it was open she began to drink water. “Slow down a little, don’t finish it up in one go, you’ll get sick.” Kanade slowed down in drinking the water and sighed once she had cooled off a bit.
“Thank you both, I don’t know how long I would have lasted without it.” She pressed her face to the bottle and enjoyed the cool feeling on her cheek. “It’s no problem, if you don’t mind me asking, what were you doing here?” Touya asked.
“Oh, I wanted to look at the flowers. I was just a bit curious if they had any white carnations.”
“White carnations?”
“Yeah, they were my mom’s favorite flowers. I have a lot of good memories with them, so I wanted to look at them to calm down a little.”
“They were? ”
“Yeah, my mom passed away when I was young.” Kanade looked somewhat sad.
“I’m sorry for bringing it up.” I mumbled and Kanade shook her head. “It’s alright, you didn’t know.” She smiled softly. “Would you mind helping me look for them? I didn’t see any before I collapsed.”
“Of course! Leave it to me! As a star, it’s my duty to help those in need!” I replied enthusiastically. “I’ll do my best to help as well.” Touya smiled and we both helped Kanade stand up.
“Is it alright if I hold onto your arm Tsukasa?”
“Go ahead, I’ll be here to support you.”
“Thank you.”
We began to look around the greenhouse for any signs of white carnations. At some point, Honami came by with some sandwiches and the four of us had a small picnic in the green house. Touya walked back with Honami to see if anyone needed any help. I stayed with Kanade to keep looking for the flowers.
“Tsukasa, over there! I think it's a white carnation!” She pointed at a small field of white flowers and quickly began to run over there. “Wait! Don’t push yourself too much!” I quickly followed her just to make sure she wouldn’t fall down. By the time I reached her, she was sitting down looking at the bed of carnations in front of her. Her gaze was soft and she just looked at them fondly.
I sat beside her and looked at the flowers. They were beautiful, even though I wasn’t much of a person to sit down and enjoy little things, I felt at peace. We sat there looking at the carnations for a few minutes before Minori and Airi entered the greenhouse looking for them. “Tsukasa, Kanade! We have to meet up! It’s urgent!” Airi ran to our line of sight and waited for us to follow her. I helped Kanade stand up and we walked towards Airi.
“Hey Kanande.”
“Yes?”
“Would you mind if I were to accompany you the next time you look at the carnations?” Kanade looked surprised for a second before nodding and smiling at me.
“Sure.”
“Alright, I promise to look at them with you again.”
The four of us made our way to the dining room, it seemed like that place was now our meeting spot. Once we set foot inside, we could see Ena arguing with one of the virtual singers and Mizuki was trying to calm her down. Upon closer look, we saw it was Luka.
“What’s going on?” Kanade asked and Ena turned to look at her. “What hasn’t happened? This note was here when Luka and An came by to start setting up the table for dinner!” Ena grabbed the note and passed it over to us.
“ If a person doesn’t kill within 12 hours, tomorrow’s breakfast will be poisoned. ”
I frantically began to look for a clock. 8 pm. This means that someone has to kill another in order for everyone else to survive. But why poison everyone? No it can’t be.
“When Luka and I came in, we saw the note left there. I don’t know who else could’ve left it there.” An looked around trying to see if anyone had any clues. But no one seemed to have any ideas.
“This doesn’t look good. So according to this letter, if no one is dead by 8am, will all of us die by poison? Why would they tell us that they’ll kill all of us if no one is dead before morning?” Kohane muttered, shaking slightly. “There’s no way to prove that’ll happen.” Mafuyu spoke up. “Besides, where would they get the poison or something that could kill us? Given the number of places available, I’d doubt anything here can kill us by ingesting it with food.”
She has a point, back in the basement, none of the things there could kill us right away if we were to be poisoned. Is this note trying to get us to turn on each other out of fear?
It’s likely to be the case, but I won’t let that happen!
“Mafuyu has a point. Out of all the things in the basement, none could poison us and kill us right away. Whoever wrote it must be bluffing.” Mafuyu glanced at me before looking at Kanade, who had been holding onto my arm for a while. “We can’t deny the possibility of it happening though.” Haruka replied.
Haruka is right, there’s no way to make sure that it’s a bluff. And we can’t take that risk. Who knows what will happen if we skip breakfast, maybe lunch will be poisoned instead, or maybe even dinner. How long would we be able to hold up without eating out of fear of being poisoned?
For now we all decided to eat as much as we could. We would take the risk and hope that maybe we could make something ourselves from the things in the storage and greenhouse. After dinner, we all went back to our dorms. Emu decided to set up a pillow fort and have a sleepover in the middle of the room. We all grabbed our pillows and blankets to make it.
It was fun, I wonder if everyone is doing something to cheer each other up. We fell asleep one by one and I think I was the last to fall asleep.
…
…
I can’t sleep. I looked over the clock above the door. 4am. I’ll walk for a bit. It’s only a while until the morning starts, maybe I can make myself useful by guarding the cleaning supplies before breakfast to make sure nothing goes missing. I stand up carefully and quietly leave the room. Using one of the candles nearby, I take it with me to the basement. It’s a little scary being in the basement this late, but I would do what I can to protect everyone.
Walking down the stairs to the basement, I realized one of the storage units was left open. Maybe someone forgot to close it. I quietly closed the door and sat down in front of the cleaning unit’s door. I yawned but did my best to stay awake.
What if someone stayed awake after we all went to sleep and grabbed the poison? I should make sure everything was still there.
We made a list of things in each unit so we could keep inventory of them. Since we don’t know how long things would last, it’s best to keep a record of everything.
“Alright, the bleach is still here. Laundry detergents too.” As I looked at the list and the items in front of me, I began to realize my shadow growing taller.
Wait, my shadow is getting taller?
I wanted to turn around and see who was behind me but…
*SMASH*
I fell face first to the ground, it began to feel cold… That’s weird… It was sort of warm earlier… Why am I getting cold?
I could feel a warm liquid drenching my hair and trickling down my neck. My eyelids began to feel heavy.
No… I can’t fall asleep here… I need to protect everyone. They’re all counting on me to keep them safe…
I promised Kanade I’d look at the white carnations with her again…
I promised…
I…