私たちは溺死している

[Task 6] The Crow's Nest || [Nabiki]

Technically speaking, he probably shouldn’t be up here at all. Monobear never gives them a specified time for how long their investigations are supposed to take, and they’ve never entered a trial without enough evidence yet, but… that doesn’t mean there can’t be a first time. Especially now, when freedom is so close at hand for everyone.

One more trial, and everyone will go free. Everyone but one person.

With that in mind, he should be investigating harder than ever, right? Even if he’s alone right now, that doesn’t mean he should be sitting around not doing anything, right…?! Sure, he wasn’t made for detective work, but he’s managed to get okay at it out of necessity, right? Watching the others find clues and piece them together, learning from everyone… the thought that it might actually be fun if it wasn’t so horrible and real is a hard one to swallow.

But it is for real — his feet carried him here, to the watchtower, and the scenery from the windows reminds him of that much once again, the barren landscape sending a familiar shiver down Junpei’s spine. That landscape is what they’re all investigating for the chance to escape to, right? For the chance that their family and friends and people that are waiting for them — that they might be out there, still. Manami, Sachiko, Yuki, Chiyo.

"…Aah, I can’t waste any more time here—!"

He raises his hands to his own face, turning away from the window and slapping himself lightly on the cheeks to bring himself out of the fugue. Energized (at least, a little) he heads for the stairs, but before he can take the first step, another face appears below him.

"—Ah, Kaname-san…! I was just… "

"…Taking a break, I guess… I can’t get anything about what happened this time to make sense in my head…. But that’s not really new for me, yeah? Have you had any more luck?"

#ic #shslhighfive #task 6 #junpei

Nabiki strolled with leaden heels around the third floor of the prison, watching with tired eyes as the sturdy floor beneath her passed in dull shades of grey and brown. Given their current circumstances, there was any number of things she could be doing that would have been exponentially more productive. But try as she might, the navigator could not talk herself into ceasing the repetitive pacing, hands shoved deep into her pockets as she stared blankly at the faded surroundings. Images of the past few weeks flashed through her head, distracting her from the almost wonderful reality of their current situation: were they all able to successfully pinpoint the culprit of Katsuragi's murder as they had so many times before, and assuming the bear wasn't lying... They would be set free.

As tantalizing as the prospect seemed, there was still something pressing crudely at the back of Nabiki's mind that put rather a bad taste on her tongue, contrasting sourly with the otherwise happy prospect of the future that they faced. That was... the very outside which they were all rallying allowance to. Though she had not spent an especially long time staring out at the barren scenery that had appeared beyond those promising glass windows, she had seen more than enough to deduce that things had certainly changed since their abduction. A chill ran down her spine as Nabiki thought back to her home, her father, the sea, and the happy life they had once lead. Would things indeed be different once they escaped? Though this was no time to be indulging her own wandering mind, the navigator felt a sudden urgency beneath her boots and turned toward the staircase that rose upward from the third floor.

She was in the watchtower before she could count to five. However, something rather unexpected stood in her path to the wall of foggy glass: another person. Nabiki gawked for only a beat, before clearing her throat and nodding her head stiffly in greeting.

"Ah, Nakagawa-kun! Salutations," she said stiffly, eyes widened in the aftermath of her mild surprise. "I was -- just, ah. On my way up here to... look for clues, ain't that right? Yeah. 'Course I was," Nabiki said with a small, guilt-ridden smile. It seemed as though she and the diver both had been faced with similar issues. She rubbed the back of her head with a subdued laugh, finally shaking her head in defeat.

"...Nah, that's bullshit. I'm in th' same boat, kid -- no luck whatsoever. Been tryin' my darndest, but... I can't seem t' find anythin' worth a damn in this place. So I figured I'd head up here t' clear out my brain a little, yeah? We're a pair of ace detectives if I've ever seen one, Nakagawa-kun," Nabiki chuckled quietly, placing her hands on her hips.

[Task 6] Bad Rack

Oh thank god someone else thought the same thing. Miwa gave a small laugh and raised her eyebrows at the naval navigator.

"You really think that? How immature, Kaname-san!"

"…Kidding, I thought so too."

The small laugh grew slightly, Miwa’s bandaged hand covering her grin. She hadn’t had a lot of bonding time with this girl, so hopefully she wouldn’t get angry at her little joke.

She followed the girl into the Warden’s Office and took a brief look around. Where would they even begin to start? Miwa was surely the competitive type, but she was starting to think she wasn’t cut out for this detective stuff. She should stick to rolling balls at pins….if she could. The thought wiped the smile from her face.

"Yeah, why can’t all clues be as obvious as that one? Do these killers really want our lives to be that much harder before they try to kill us? Let’s take a look around, then…"

Miwa began to look around the desk area and frowned when she found nothing of interest. Some people have all the luck! Junpei and Misaki found some impressive stuff in this very room…if only she could do the same right now! Come on, Miwa…channel Sherlock Holmes! Don’t be Watson! Think, think! Racking her brain for answers, the bowler plopped herself into the Warden’s chair, pressing her fingers to her temples.

"We just have to act like we’re in a film noir, Kaname-san! What would one of those old-timey private investigators do?"

Initially, Nabiki felt her cheeks flush with a feeling of embarrassment. Drat -- why had she mentioned something so foul in the first place? Of course, a proper lady such as Fujikawa would never be able to empathize with something so repulsive, so uncouth... What, what was that?!

"Eh? H-hah... Hahah! You sure tricked me for a second there, Fujikawa-san...!" Nabiki said with a tinge of surprise about her, eyes widened in a combination of shock and discomfort. The navigator nodded her head and let out a slow, quiet proceeding of subdued laughter.

She really ought to have learned by now not to judge people based on such petty and baseless impressions, but... It was too late to fuss over something so pointless. Nabiki allowed herself to chuckle at the moment of calm, the slackening of tension. It felt nice, to let down her guard for the time being, although the tension in the air was a near-constant reminder of the vile fate that had grasped Jinta just a small distance away from where the two of them stood. But before long, she had cleared her throat, intent on refocusing on the task at hand. Eyes hardened, she nodded intently at the bowler and continued to search the perimeter of the room.

"Well... I reckon, first, they'd pull out their handy-dandy magnifying glass, an'... Twirl their mustache like this... And then shout 'europa'! Or... 'Eubeka'? Shit, of all times for me not to remember..."

With a small sigh of disappointment in her own abilities, Nabiki placed one hand on the edge of the sturdy table and poked her head under it, surveying the large area on the floor beneath the table for anything of interest.

"Sheesh, this is harder than it looks. You see anythin' over that direction, Fujikawa-san? I guess I ain't so good at detective work, or, y'know, detectivin'..."

#ic #shslstrike #miwa #task 6

[Task 6] Bad Rack

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

Miwa stepped aside and let Nabiki take a gander at what had caught her attention. A bucket in a puddle of…whatever that was. Huh. She was stumped. Did one of the toilets break leaving someone to resort to using a bucket? No no, if that was urine it probably would have smelled a lot worse.

"The heck is all of this liquid? Juice? Oil? Wasn’t Katsuragi-kun wet too?"

What kind of liquids were yellow? Apple juice? Vinegar? Oil? There wasn’t a very large quantity of stuff that fit the profile. Still, she wasn’t sure.

"And this bucket….it’s on the ground."

Miwa in that moment resisted every cell in her body that urged her to say, “Katsuragi-kun kicked the bucket!” Every fiber of her being banded together to keep the insensitive phrase from escaping her lips. The only beings that would be able to appreciate the thought was her and any telepaths in the area.

Nabiki leaned forward to inspect the strange scene upon which they had stumbled, though she never took a full step into the office -- it felt like disturbing a crime scene, somehow. It might not have been so strange had the scene in question not been so utterly confounding, of course. A bucket, of all things? And... A puddle of some sort of yellow liquid. Though initially, the navigator had to admit, it did look remarkably like a puddle of urine... The unpleasant odor was surely lacking, wasn't it? She felt her nose wrinkle up despite itself, and she cast an uncertain glance at Miwa. It seemed that the bowler was thinking the very same thing.

"I'll be honest with ya', Fujikawa-san. I didn't get close enough t' his body to notice somethin' like that... I'd prefer t' keep my distance from, e-eh... Dead people, y'know? But I'll take your word for it," Nabiki muttered, lifting one hand to tug at the starch white collar of her military jacket. Her gaze shifted back to the questionable puddle on the floor and she frowned.

"Hope this don't sound too crude of me, but... Doesn't that sort of resemble, y'know..." she said stiffly, pointing one finger in its direction. "Eugh, gross, I know," Nabiki added, a humorless laugh leaving her throat dry. "Reckon we should keep lookin' around, Fujikawa-san? Aside from this bucket, I don' suppose we've got much t' go off of."

Nabiki glanced around the Warden's Office, finally daring to step inside the eerie room. After taking great care to step around the yellow puddle, she hesitantly took a few paces around the massive table in the middle of the room, eyes peeled for anything that might be of concern to them or to the case.

#ic #shslstrike #miwa #task 6

[Task 6] Bad Rack

Things didn’t exactly have the same effect as they did a couple weeks ago. Stuffed bears talking didn’t send a chill up her spine, her wrist finding new levels of pain wasn’t too alarming, and seeing a dead body didn’t rattle her to the core. In fact…she was sorta expecting this to happen. There was no reason not to! The photograph…the article….and the motive? It was not a matter of if but when.

Looking down at Jinta’s body, Miwa noted that he didn’t look nearly as malicious as he did in the picture. He just laid there….blank. Expressionless. He had met the same fate as Boa…would Misaki end up the same way?

That wasn’t the mystery on their hands at the moment. What was important was to find who did this. Seeing as how he fell from the third floor, Miwa thought it was best to try her luck up there. Avoiding disturbing the glass shards that lay strewn about the staircase, she climbed upward.

"…Uhm."

Well she was definitely right about this floor. From the stairwell she could see the Warden’s Office door slightly open. And…was that something laying in the doorway?

"And this is?"

She approached the scene cautiously as to not mess anything up. Hopefully someone would come help and give her their opinion on what this was.

Jinta Katsuragi… Their own super high-school Club President. As had so many before him, the blue-haired boy, too, had seemingly fallen pretty to the antics put on by that nasty bear. Weary eyed and heavy footed as she paced the perimeter of the crime scene, Nabiki's shoulders slumped with a devastating lack of inspiration. The sight was unsettling, there was no doubt -- but even that being said, she found it difficult to admit that this whole grisly ordeal came as a surprise to her. Death was beginning to feel like almost an everyday occurrence within their dreary prison walls. The navigator shivered at the familiarity of the forlorn look which had overwhelmed Jinta's otherwise lifeless expression.

Nabiki could not look at the body for more than a few moments before the color had all but drained from her face and she had instinctively taken a few steps back. Of course… staring at Jinta in this state would accomplish nothing. Just as had been protocol so many times before, finding evidence would be the only real way to avenge the fallen president now. Taking a shaky inhale, the navigator glanced upwards only to notice a bit of movement at the top of the staircase from which Jinta had assumedly fallen. She squinted before carefully starting up the stairs herself, in pursuit of whomever she had just seen. Perhaps they would be able to accomplish more as a team.

"Ah, Fujikawa-san," Nabiki said uncertainly, approaching the blonde girl from behind. The bowler appeared to be standing in the doorway to the Warden's Office, attention seemingly captured by something within. She glanced over Miwa's shoulder and into the dimly lit room, raising one eyebrow in thought. "…Sorry t' interrupt. D'you see somethin' in there?"

#ic #shslbowler #miwa #task 6 #perhaps

TASK 5 || Making It Count [OPEN]

Nabiki Kaname… like Kaori, he hadn’t seen much of her since the trial. She had been close with Ai, even closer than he was, and the few times he had caught sight of her since, she had been… the word that comes to mind is listless. So, in a way, having her yell practically in his face in shock at what his and Misaki’s discovery is almost something of a relief — although he doesn’t get much time to contemplate it, seeing as she’s forcefully shoving the evidence back into his possession.

"It’s fine, Kaname-san, don’t worry about it. I was just as shocked when I found it, I mean… Asaihara-san was with me, so seeing her in the picture — I panicked a little bit, too." He folds the paper up and tucks the picture inside, replacing them safe in his pocket now that he’s sure the majority of the room’s seen what he was trying to show them, looking back up at Nabiki after it’s been securely stowed away.

"I know what you mean about it being confusing, though… I’ve been thinking about it since we found it, but I can’t make sense of any of it. The Most Despairing Incident, especially… I can’t remember anything about that, no matter how much I try— but… I guess it’s not worth thinking about while we’re still stuck in here, right? Speaking of which, Kaname-san…"

The diver takes a breath, seemingly working up to something.

"…This is going to seem sudden, especially since we don’t talk a lot, but… do you mind if I ask you for… for a favour? You can say no if you want, I understand."

#ic #shslhighdive #task 5 #junpei

Nabiki shifted where she stood, uneasiness radiating off of her being. Although there was something inherently calm about the diver, the nature of their situation called for nothing if not throwing off any hopes of a rational mind. She narrowed her eyes as Junpei spoke, rubbing her hands nervously on the sides of her pants, as though the photograph had plagued her in some way. No matter how she looked at it... it seemed odd. Wrong. Suspicious. Of all people... Misaki and Jinta? Boa? Nabiki's head ached at any meager attempts at comprehending the oddity, so she shook the thought away as much as well as was possible.

"'Shocked' might be puttin' it lightly, Nakagawa-kun. Did you see that? Asaihara-san was holdin' a chain, for God's sake! Sends a chill down my spine, it does. Ain't it the sweet ones you always have to look out for?" Nabiki shuddered, crossing her arms in a protective manner. She glanced around the room warily, before refocusing on the diver. "...'M sorry, that wasn't kind a' me to say. It's just... I can't help seein' the whole ordeal as unusual, y'know?"

"The Most Despairing Incident... Whatever it means, it sure sounds like somethin' that son of a bitch bear'd be fond of. He sure likes to rile us up with those big words an' ridiculous threats. All I can pray that is, for once, he ain't keen on lyin' to us. Even then..." Nabiki trailed off, the grim thought bringing her mood down even further. They would simply need to wait it out... Eventually, they would find a way out. If they only worked together...

"A favour, Nakagawa-kun? I reckon I'd be more than willin'. Anything to get my mind off of what's been goin' on lately."

TASK 5 || Making It Count [OPEN]

Ever since the reveal of the new room, there hadn’t been anything even vaguely resembling peace — unrest, confusion, doubt, and fear had been running uncontrolled through everyone, it seemed like. Certainly, they had been running through Junpei, and from the look of the other seven students he was hardly the only one.

The watchtower had been one thing, but then there had been the picture and the document… After talking about it with Misaki for a little bit, she had given him possession of both. The torn document had been folded and placed in his pocket for safekeeping, the picture on top of it — he hadn’t had a chance to show everybody yet, and something like this… something like this was something everybody deserved to see.

Because of that, although his heart sinks in the familiar way when he hears Monobear’s voice over the loudspeaker, there’s a silver lining — everybody will be gathered in one place. If he shows everybody then, then it’ll be easier — although depending on what exactly Monobear’s ‘good news’ is, whether they’ll be up for hearing anything more is…

Well, there’s no way to know until they get there. And when they do — when the conditions of the next motive are revealed—

"…Escape…?!"

Seven… those doors will open if seven people are left. They can find out what happened — they can all get out—! Or… seven can get out, at least.

…It’s huge — it’s monumental. Only one more person has to die, and then they can all go— but he stops the thought there. He came here with an idea in mind, didn’t he?! No matter what the motive is — no matter how earth-shattering it is, there’s something else everyone has to know, too. He needs all the help making sense of it he can get, after all.

"Um, everyone!"

Junpei raises his voice, clearly uncomfortable, but his tone has an uncertain resolve to it. “I know this really isn’t a good time, but… since you’re all here anyway… Asaihara-san and I found something in the Warden’s Office, hidden in the wall. A picture and a document. I have them here—” He pulls them out, then, holding them out for people to see.

"The document says something about the new Hope’s Peak class after… ‘The Most Despairing Incident of Mankind’, I think…? And the picture…"

"…I don’t even know what to think of that, really… does anyone know anything?"

#ic #shslhighdive #junpei #task 5

Seven...

Though the news ought to have come as a surprise to the girl, Nabiki was presently finding it a bit difficult to become enthusiastic -- be it a feeling of a negative or positive nature -- about anything at all. She felt as though her livelihood had been leeched right out of her veins, and as a look of what appeared to be both excitement and nervousness filled the faces of her classmates, the navigator merely nodded solemnly. It was good that there seemed to be a number of bright ideas being spoken by the people in the room, and for that, the girl managed a small smile of optimism. Perhaps there was hope, after all.

The resentment which she felt towards the bear would have been useless to act upon: it would have resulted only in further inconvenience for the entire class (what remained of them, that was). His voice was grating, and the content of the words filled her with an animosity fiercer than any she had experienced before. But... It was certainly not worth it. Not when they were so close to escaping. Despite his "generous" offer, though, the fact remained. One more of them would need to die. A chill ran down Nabiki's spine, and she glanced up at the sound of a sudden ruckus from Nakagawa and Fujikawa.

The woman glanced over to peer at the photograph which the diver had brought to their collective attention, lowering her eyebrows in confusion at the sight of it. There stood Hoa, Asaihara, and Katsuragi... With various objects in their hands, all of which served to alarm Nabiki significantly. And then there was the document. Her eyes trailed over it quickly, and the content was nothing short of disturbing. She turned to the boy in alarm, eyes widened.

"Oy, this ain't some kind of joke, is it, Nakagawa-kun!? The Most Despair Inducing Incident of Mankind... shit. Sounds like a movie title or somethin', don't it? This is such bullshit! If anyone here knows anything, you had better come out an' say it right away!" Nabiki shouted, thrusting the document back into Junpei's hands. She was met by no immediate confessions, unsurprisingly. Her shoulders slouched.

"...Pardon me, I got a little carried away, eh? This is just so goddamn confusin'! How come they're tryin' to mess with our heads like this, after all we've been through? It ain't right."

Gun-Shy [open starter]

highpresidential

It was a depressing sight, honestly. Jinta couldn’t exactly empathize on what his classmate was feeling right now, but he wanted to help her somehow. He had just gotten back from the fourth floor along with the others, and didn’t really want to think too hard about new problems; at least for now. Instead, he sought out to help others with their problems in the hopes that his free time would be spent positively instead of negatively. But what if she wasn’t really up for his company? This wasn’t the first time he’d use others to help himself regardless if the other party would be bothered. Even he knew that they weren’t the closest friends. Would it really be wise to try to console her? For all he knew, his presence could make things a lot worse… Then again, they always say that misery loves company. Perhaps he was over thinking it. They also say you never know until you try, so the hell with it. Working up his mental strength, Jinta proceeded to walk up to the girl.

"Yo," he greeted casually.

It was obvious she was forcing herself to respond, but he didn’t try to stop her.

"Ah yeah… We finally got to see some of the scenery around this prison. It was quite the sight if I had to say!" he tried to sound excited despite the despairing truth to their situation. It wouldn’t help anyone to make her more depressed than she already is.

The President sat down next to her to make the mood more amicable.

"So did you eat yet? The day always starts better with a good breakfast! Or so I’ve heard," he tried to avoid the more depressing topic.