BLAST OFF!

Makoto Tobioka 飛岡 実 SHSL Falconer

[travelingcolors-deactivated2020]

Haguro-san, Yamagata | Japan (by Hideyuki Kamon)

[parantica]

[carcerare]

the hope duo | tsukino | re: execution, items | trial->casino->ice cream parlor | attn: makoto

[dreaminggirleudaemonics-deactiv]

Tsukino nodded. She didn’t know how Makoto felt, but the name of Hope’s Peak brought her sadness. What would’ve this class been like, if they’d all just gone to school together? Friends? Enemies? Just like a school anime? It was unknown, and that didn’t sit right with Tsukino.

"The new area should be up soon, right…? We get one every trial or so. So that’d make it the final one."

Luckily, Makoto did have a good response. Thank god someone smart came to the analyzer’s aid.

"And… Area five is right near Hope’s Peak. It’s most likely where Lambert-san came from. I don’t know what they were doing, but Fukuyama-kun found some notes from them that I took a look at… Kawaneko slashed through them, so they aren’t entirely readable, but you can kind of make out what they said. Well, sorta. They’re in English."

Tsukino produced another note and held out her hand to show it to the falconer. On it read: 'COLLEC? FOOD

MEET U? WITH HANA

AND (?)AMIKO

PATROL F?R SIGNS OF L?FE’

"I wrote it down to the best of my ability. I’m not very sure on what it says, though. Hopefully there’s a translation place somewhere…?"

Gee, if only she could speak English.

"I also think… They - erm, Kawaneko and Kuroneko - must’ve closed area zero off for a reason, right? Not just to mess with us. Maybe that’s where they could sneak in? It’d either be there, or area five."

[shsl-falconer]

Makoto put her chin in her hands as she listened to Tsukino speak, a gesture which only served to accentuate an already unhappy expression. It seemed ages ago that she had left her home to travel all the way to Hope's Peak. Her mother and father had insisted on coming with her as far as Shinjo so that they could see her off on the train, though she'd told them they didn't need to. She had assumed she would see them again soon.

"Right. One last area. But at least two people will have to die again before we can see what's in there, no? Murders seem to always create two casualties, and there aren't many of us left."

Grimacing as though she had tasted something bitter, the falconer removed her hands from her chin to take the note that Tsukino offered her. For once, maybe her vague grasp of English would help her in this situation.

"< Collec -- ? Collect? Food. Collect food. Meet -- ah... meet -- Hana. And -- er... pah... patt -- patrol signs of... > "

Makoto stopped at the end of the note, eyes still narrowed with concentration.

"I can read some of this. The first part, here, says that they were trying to gather supplies... things to eat. Food. Perhaps Lambert-dono wasn't lucky enough to have a convenience store or restaurants to borrow from."

"Er... I think Lambert-dono may have been trying to find someone. Here it says 'meet'. So there must be more people wherever they came from. Perhaps they've banded together to survive? Something terrible seems to have happened outside of this place, as well."

[pizza-yolo]

[fat-birds]

national zoo pygmy falcon.

[samuraicinema]

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island - Hiroshi Inagaki

[fruitsoftheweb]

[fairy-wren]

expressive peregrine falcons

(photos by sdwildgene)

[carcerare]

the hope duo | tsukino | re: execution, items | trial->casino->ice cream parlor | attn: makoto

[dreaminggirleudaemonics-deactiv]

Thankfully, the girl had arrived. Tsukino held a small fear that Makoto wouldn’t have come, and just left her here, all alone. Now that she was here, however… What was there to stop the falconer from killing her?

…Hopefully good morals.

"Alright, good." Tsukino said, taking a bite out of her ice cream.

Tsukino put the ice cream to the side and faced Makoto. There was a different worry in the air for her: the cats. She had a whole theory whether or not the cats wanted them to find the body. Or even to discuss it. She spoke quietly - even though they probably wouldn’t hear her anyways - just to try and not get their attention.

"Yeah. Their name was Graham Lambert, the Super High School Level Shepard. I found their ID. And… I clicked on the maps page, and it showed something like this."

She produced a rather crude but accurate drawing of what she saw. (Just imagine it was on paper.) After handing it to Makoto, she continued.

"The ID card shut off after that, and wouldn’t turn back on. Those areas are most likely, ours. But then… what about Hope’s Peak?

Taking the ice cream back, she took a bite. She looked to Makoto, expecting a (good) response. At the very least, it was pleasant to have someone to bounce ideas off of.

[shsl-falconer]

Frowning, Makoto instinctively leaned forward and bent over the counter to better hear Tsukino. Whatever the two of them were doing, she couldn't help but feel like some sort of conspirator, sneaking around and speaking in hushed tones. This wasn't the way she did things -- but recently, she hadn't been feeling much like herself, anyway. Makoto simply listened in silence as Tsukino explained the origins of the dead stranger, though the falconer didn't recognize their name or title.

When Tsukino produced a paper, Makoto extended a hand to take it and studied the drawing with narrowed eyes. The diagram was circular, divided into five parts. In the center was a small triangle labeled 'city hall', and on the outside of the circle...

"As you say, these five divisions here must represent the areas. I believe the most recently opened area was number four. So, soon... the last area should reveal itself, should it not?"

"As for your question..."

Makoto fell silent, staring at the small shape drawn on the paper.

"If there was indeed some building labeled 'Hope's Peak' on the map, then surely that must be the school campus. Perhaps that's where Lambert-dono came from. Surely they couldn't have been hiding out in this place without us noticing for so many weeks."

"...If Lambert-dono did come from beyond the fence and managed to sneak in here, then there must be a way to sneak out as well."

[odysseus-laertes]

Red Samurai

[carcerare]

the hope duo | tsukino | re: execution, items | trial->casino->ice cream parlor | attn: makoto

After the trial was over, the only one to approach her was Makoto. Which didn’t really shock her. Everyone else was slowly crumbling. And, instead of lashing out, they were going to collapse in on themselves.

Tsukino intended to lash out. Hopefully, the bird girl was thinking the same thing.

"Meet me in the ice cream parlor in an hour from now. I have things to take care of, quickly."

trial room->casino

After exiting the trial room, she immediately went to the casino. She’d realized that she had six coins that she hadn’t spent, and decided to do that. When she put four of them in, she got…

Health Slimming Instant Coffee

Who knew caffeinated beverages could be considered healthy? This brand of coffee promises to be exactly that - with an added bonus! Drink this homely brew and you’ll be dropping the pounds in no time with the help of special ingredients such as Semen Cassiae and Dietary fiber: Delicious! Despite all it’s health benefits, it’s taste leaves a lot to be desired.

Hair Extensions

Made to blend in and look as though it’s natural! This one in particular comes in black.

Coiled in Algae

A sad short story about the romance between a mermaid and a sailor. It’s the hardcover edition, and it certainly looks like it’s well used.

Pokémon 3DS Decals

An obnoxiously bright sticker set to apply to your handheld console. They could probably also be used elsewhere, should you so desire to slap a grinning Pikachu somewhere in your life.

…Pretty much all were useless. She didn’t even like coffee. (Although, the short story seemed promising.) Nevertheless, she took the items to her capsule room, and placed them in there.

casino->capsule room->ice cream parlor

Next, she went to the ice cream parlor to wait. While doing so, she made herself a big sundae. Who cared about health at this point? It’s not like there was anything incredibly healthy to eat besides sushi and gross coffee, apparently.

Whenever Makoto arrived, she would see Tsukino in the middle of eating a ridiculous chocolate sundae, complete with sprinkles and chocolate syrup. Was this the only reason she had the meeting at the parlor? Yes.

[shsl-falconer]

There was nothing more that Makoto had to say after she spoke her piece during the trial. Everything she was thinking, she'd already put into words -- well, almost everything. She still had one person left to talk to, though every muscle in her body was telling her to go lie down for a while instead of using precious sleeping time to approach a girl she barely knew. But at the rate things were going now, she had no choice. This was for 'his' own good.

...

An hour later, an exhausted Makoto shuffled into the ice cream parlor with Tadakatsu in tow. Not even her falcon seemed pleased today, at least if one were to judge based on his hunched posture and the dark gleam in his red eyes. As the falconer took a seat at the counter, the hand that she propped against the counter left a smear of mud on its otherwise pristine surface. If possible, her hands seemed even filthier than before.

"Hello."

Makoto glanced at the extravagant sundae out of the corner of her eye, but made no comment about it. Or was it the spoon she was looking at?

"I'm here, as promised. Where would you like to begin...? With that dead stranger who was killed the other day?"

[carcerare]

Makoto votes for Haru.

[carcerare]

Bite The Hand | Makoto | School Trial [RE: Chinatsu, Haru]

Chinatsu’s outburst made Tadakatsu flap his wings in alarm, beating violently against the heated air of the courtroom. He didn’t like it in here. Makoto could tell that much, and she lifted a gloved hand to stroke at a spot just below his neck. It usually calmed him, but this time, he did nothing but give her finger a sharp bite. Fair enough.

Blinking back at the landscape architect, Makoto shook her head.

"Isn’t it a little late to be surprised by this?"

"Think about it — the very first week someone died, it turned out to be an accident. What Shunsen-dono did didn’t even qualify as a proper ‘murder’. But we sent him off to the chopping block all the same, because we didn’t want ourselves to be hurt instead of him."

"Perhaps it wasn’t fair. Perhaps it was cruel. But it didn’t change the fact that he died, and we had a part in killing him. Maybe we could have saved him, at some price, but no one wanted to bother taking the risk for a stranger."

"People aren’t that different from any other animal, you know. They’ll do anything to save themselves when they’re backed into a corner. Even lie, or cheat, or kill, or sacrifice someone else in their place."

"…Even someone who seems as mild-mannered as you do, Ikezawa-dono."

Her chest hurt a bit, but that was alright. She would apologize to Kazue again later, explain to herself again why being this way was the correct course of action to take. It had to be. She couldn’t be wrong. She was never wrong.

(Except when she was, of course.)

[carcerare]

A Little Bird Told Me | Makoto | School Trial [RE: Haru]

"<What a shame.> I thought that if you two had met, we could get rid of more suspects right off the bat.”

“Fukuyama-dono still has a roommate, if I’m not mistaken — would it not be quite difficult for him to wander off to the hotsprings and then take a bus trip unnoticed? Never mind barging into someone else’s room to steal their hair… that would require a keycard, and a  lot of luck, no? And his natural hair comes nowhere close to matching the strands.”

"…I hope you don’t mind me saying, but you seem a little hasty with your accusation, Ikezawa-dono. Perhaps having your hair checked would be in order? As a precaution.”

[carcerare]

Chicken Scratch | Makoto | School Trial [RE: Hisato, Haru]

Makoto seemed more interested in picking at a callous on her palm than she did with looking at the rest of her classmates, though her head did cock slightly to one side or another as she listened to the rest speak. After Hisato finished what he was saying, the falconer lifted her head and gestured in the white-haired boy’s direction.

"…Fukuyama-dono, weren’t you the one who found those hairs in the hot springs? If you brought them with you, we could at least compare the length and texture to those of the people in the room. Especially the ones who we already know to have black hair in the first place. It may help speed things up if we find out whose head they belong.”

"If this killer is the same one as Kojima-dono’s, then… I would much prefer that we put an end to what they’re doing as soon as possible. If they get away with this — "

"…"

“Ah, right. One other thing. Fukuyama-dono, Ikezawa-dono,

did you actually meet each other face to face when you saw the bus pass by?”

"Also, isn’t it worth noting that the bloodstains in the hot springs were found in the men’s area of the bath? Surely if he was accompanied by someone there, the culprit would have been a man as well.”

[carcerare]

Makoto | Fine Feathers | Body Reaction / School Trial [RE: Kasper]

And so the magician was gone. He had always struck Makoto as a bit of a suspicious character — always grinning at the strangest times and rambling about fate — but that didn’t mean that she wanted to see him wind up lying dead on the ground. The smile on his corpse’s face didn’t make her any more comfortable than it had when he was still alive.

After a short while, the investigation period ended and Makoto found herself in the trial room with Tadakatsu once again. Each week was beginning to feel like a strange case of deja vu, an endless Groundhog Day time loop. The only difference was the gradually emptying podiums that surrounded them. Well, that, and her ever-decreasing lack of care for her appearance. If anyone could have used a bath (besides the dead magician, who must have had his fill of them), it was Makoto.

"Long. He said the hair was long and black.”

"It’s not mine, I don’t use dye."

Rubbing one eye with a dirt-covered hand, Makoto turned to face Kasper as she answered the girl’s question.

[carcerare]

Answer me, fiend. Did you say there were -- black hairs in the water? How long were they?

"The hairs? They were pretty long, like… there’s no SHSL Hairdressers here, so people’s hair must be getting pretty long by now!"