Post-Trial I Afterparty

[cellpreservation]

[They're down two of their number, and who knows how many more will follow, but for tonight at least... They have a chance to rest.

The school has already been cleaned, leaving no signs of the deaths that occurred on this very day, but that's just as well. After looking around to make sure of that much, Yuta marches into the kitchen and, after a bit of looking around, ends up gathering some snacks: boxed crackers and apple slices that aren't perfectly even in cut but look, he's not the chef of his group, he did his best. These he sets out on some plates in the cafeteria before finding his usual seat to lounge in, eating some apple slices off of a smaller plate he grabbed just for himself.

And then, he waits - to see who trickles in, and who doesn't.

Where is your character in the aftermath?]

Comments

[keyringwitness]

[The gesture is appreciated, Kuro, even though Yasu can hear the madam scolding her for such sloppy presentation just looking at the apples. Still, she takes a few bites, and the taste does seem to ease her out of her crying jag.]

T- Thanks, Kuro... Chloe? Um, which- n- nevermind.

If you say so... I don't really feel like I did anything, in the end.

[copycut]

[ Yuta is the one who cut the apples! Of course, the cherries were all her... ]

If you're not sure which name to use, you can always call me onee-chan instead~ [ huhu ] Most people call me "Kuro," though, so it's fine if you want to, too.

[ She watches as Yasu nibbles. Even if it's not the most enthusiastic eating in the world, Kuro looks satisfied with the result. ]

No, you helped a lot. All of your conclusions pointed us on the right track. Just because things got a little chaotic doesn't mean you didn't add anything of value.

[keyringwitness]

[Coming from anyone else, Yasu would've deflected that compliment, saying that everyone else did the hard work and that she just led everyone off in the wrong directions... but considering how she and Kuro worked together, that'd be an insult to her, too, so Yasu has no choice but to take the agonizing torture of the praise.]

Y- You were, um... really smart, too. You had a lot of good ideas.

[copycut]

Of course! I'd expect nothing less from myself. [ She flips a lock of hair over her shoulder, playing up her preening response to the praise just a bit. ] Maybe some magic doesn't play by the rules I'm used to, but I'm still the one who knows all about that kind of thing.

[ With that said, Kuro leans a little closer. She's still smiling, but her energy drops into something sly and almost conspiratorial. ]

Hey, Yasu-chan... You like mysteries, right? I got something weird out of that vending machine. Do you want to see it?

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu can't deny it: Kuro is extremely cool. While the "onee-chan" remark seemed silly at first, now she's wondering if this is what having a big sister is actually like... especially when she leans in and brings up mysteries. Yasu perks up immediately when Kuro leans in; apparently, even a traumatic real-life murder mystery isn't enough to dampen her interest.]

Y- yes... did you find a book or something?

[copycut]

Hm~m, not exactly. Wait here— I'll grab it from my room.

[ After today, she isn't sure if Yasu would feel particularly at-ease being brought to an acquaintance's room, regardless of the pretense. It's no trouble for her to make her way there and back quickly, though. When she returns, it's with a message in a bottle—albeit one that was clearly opened and reinserted at some point. ]

The other day, this came out of that weird vending machine. Let's take a look at it together!

[keyringwitness]

W- Wait, is this...

[Kuro had to be joking, right? There's no way something like this would just pop out of the- wait, Yasu was taking care of a nanny goat after it tumbled from the machine, this wasn't that implausible.]

A message bottle? Like, um, from And Then There Were None?

[copycut]

Bingo! Here— If you don't believe your eyes, [ she encourages, ] why don't you pop it open yourself?

[ There's a lot more words there than Kuro has had time to write herself, after all. ]

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu pops the cork on the message bottle like a bourgeoisie socialite opening champagne on New Year's Eve, eagerly diving in (previous sadness all but forgotten), then-

She recoils, and thought she can't see them, Kuro gets the feeling that her eyes are wide as saucers.]

W- W- What?!

How... how is this possible...

[Without waiting for a response from Kuro, Yasu begins rapidly flipping through the pages and god DAMN that girl can read fast.]

[copycut]

[ That's... an interesting reaction. Kuro leans in such a way that she can see the pages in Yasu's hands—even if the rapid flipping makes it a bit difficult to keep track of where she is in the text. ]

Huh...? What is it?

[keyringwitness]

This... whatever it is...

It's about the mansion where I worked. The island, the people who lived there- everything is correct, it's just... s- seven years in the future, I think?

[yasu has been under the impression the entire time that her world was distinctly nonmagical in the traditional sense what is happening]

[copycut]

Oh...? How interesting. [ peering even harder now ] I guess that just goes to show what we already knew. This place is outside of time, so both you and this bottle can exist here at the same moment.

[keyringwitness]

It's... probably just a story. [Probably.] I mean, you're right, but I can't imagine how...

...

...alright, Rokkenjima does have a lot of similarities to the settings of many different closed-circle mysteries, but I can't think of a single reason why anyone would commit a s- serial murder there.

[copycut]

Not to sound callous, but isn't that exactly why? Like the saying goes: Life imitates art. If Rokkenjima resembles the setting of a closed-circle mystery, then it should create the circumstances necessary to produce one.

[keyringwitness]

[That remark sets gears turning in Yasu's head that will only reach their destination weeks from now.]

I, um, guess so. M- Maybe life is art, if you think about it... no, that just sounds pretentious.