Despair's Last Resort: Part Thirty Five

Chapter 4: Crashing Tides - Deadly Life II (Investigation)

The two ran out of the restaurant and into the lobby. Takara had no idea where Satoshi was planning on taking her, but if he had a clue of some sort it was worth checking out. Satoshi went into the boys locker room. Huh? The locker rooms? Why would they need to go here? Takara followed through the girls locker room, coming out in the pool area. Before she could ask Satoshi why he brought her here, the scent of the room filled her nostrils. Normally, she wouldn't pay much mind of it, but this smell was nearly the same. This is what she smelled on the kitchen floor and in Minoru's smoothies! She knew what this was called, it was right on the tip of her tongue.

"Chlorine. You noticed it too, huh?" Takara turned to see Miyako had materialized behind her once again. How was that girl so quiet in the first place?

"Noticed it?" Takara asked.

"Near the body and in the kitchen." Miyako added. "The heavy meat smell made it hard to notice."

"You can't help but wonder if that was done on purpose." Satoshi said.

"Well, we don't have a way to know." Takara said. "So you think the culprit took some pool water or something?"

"No, Masaru told us that it wasn't water." Satoshi said. "But that's not the only thing chlorine is found in."

"Cleaning products use them, especially those with bleach in them." Miyako said.

"What? Most bleach doesn't have chlorine in it though." Takara said.

"Maybe in Japan, but other places in the world use chlorine bleach all the time." Satoshi explained. "And it's not like chlorine bleach is completely nonexistent here, you know."

"True, true. So someone put chlorine in Minoru's smoothies." Takara said. "But where did they get it from if they didn't use the pool water?"

"This might help." Miyako said. She pulled out what looked like a hastily torn off label and handed it to Takara. "I found it hanging out of the kitchen's trash can." The journalist carefully examined the label. A small oval shape on the label indicated that it was bleach, and another section had a warning that it included chlorine.

"Do you know where the container for this is?" Takara asked.

"No." Miyako bluntly stated.

"Oh well, it's a start. Now we know what that smell was." Satoshi said.

"But why would someone put this in Minoru's drinks? And when did they do it?" Takara asked. "Hold on, I need to go check Minoru's room for something."

"Right behind you, Kara-chan!" Satoshi said. The two left the pool and went into the lobby, quickly making their way upstairs. They opened the unlocked door to Minoru's hotel room and went inside. Takara ignored the look of the room and went straight for the mini-fridge. She opened it, finding more smoothies inside.

"Minoru mentioned that he put half of the smoothies in the kitchen fridge, and kept the rest with him." Takara explained. "I need to check these to see if there's any bleach in them as well." She grabbed around six bottles and set them down on the desk. She opened each of the caps and took a quick whiff in each bottle. The smell of chlorine wasn't in any of them. The culprit had been relying on Minoru drinking one of the smoothies in the kitchen. "These are clean." she told Satoshi.

"That makes sense. The only way someone else could enter is if they were his neighbor, and that's impossible since I've been gone this whole time." Satoshi said.

"That's all I'm gonna find here." Takara said. "You should probably go off on your own for a while. I have a feeling the trial's gonna start soon and you deserve a chance to examine the body for yourself."

"Good idea." Satoshi said. "I guess I'll see ya at the trial!" He walked out of the room, leaving Takara alone. Feeling guilty, the journalist took the drinks she grabbed out of the fridge and placed them in her bag. She was about to leave when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Sitting on the nightstand was a strange book. She looked at the name of the book as she picked it up.

"Hope's Peak Academy Student Profiles"

What was Minoru doing with this?! No, now wasn't the time to ask questions. She stuffed the book in her bag and left the room. She didn't have much time left, at least that's what her gut told her. There was one more thing she needed to check before the trial started. She returned downstairs and went into the kitchen. Scaning around the room, she found Ryouta sitting down at a table. "You all done with your examination?" she asked.

"No, I was just sitting here because I feel tired!" Ryouta said. "Of course I finished my examination! Though I didn't get much out of it."

"Well, what did you get?" Takara asked.

"First of all, I'm no doctor, so I can't go too deep into him to find out what exactly happened." Ryouta explained. "I had to work with what I could see. But from the looks of it, he was definitely poisoned. He probably didn't even know it until it was too late. There's no way for me to know when he was poisoned though. It could've been during the time the lights were out, or it could've been before."

"How long were the lights out for anyway?" Takara asked.

"They went out around 7:30." Ryouta said. "If I had to estimate, it was around fifteen to twenty minutes before the lights came back. Wait a mintue, why am I telling you this?! Can't you read a clock?!"

"I wasn't paying attention at the time." Takara admitted.

"I shouldn't even be talking to you! No one except that Satoshi has an alibi, so any one of you is the culprit for all I know!" Ryouta shouted, pointing a finger at the journalist.

Takara sighed. "You're a broken record, aren't you?" She walked away and made her way to the kitchen. She wanted to find the container for the bleach. Hopefully it was still here. The label was, so the container had to be as well, right? Before she could open the door, the sound of the monitor turning on caught her attention. She really hated seeing that stupid footage of Monokuma relaxing all the time.

"Time stops for no man, and no bear while we're at it." Monokuma said. "And unfortunately for you, the time to investigate has come to a close. Even though the storm outside has ended, the storms inside all of you are still raging in your search for the culprit. Anyway, I think it's time we begin, don't you? Please proceed down the path behind the hotel and report to the mountain, alrighty?" The monitor shut off.

Just as she thought, the investigation was already over. Oh well, the bottle wasn't needed she supposed. Hopefully what she found was enough to discover the culprit. She walked outside, the storm gone just as the bear had said. It seemed to disappear pretty quickly, which only further proved the idea that their "headmaster" was behind it all along. She walked down the path and entered the clearing, all the other students waiting there for her.

"It's like dere weren' even a storm in da first place..." Kazumi said.

"I know, there aren't even any puddles I can go splash in!" Kumiko said, her arms crossed against her chest. Why was she so disappointed in that?

"This place just keeps getting stranger and stranger, huh?" Masaru asked.

"It's only strange if you hold on to your obsolete sense of what's normal!" Monokuma said. "You all continue to hold on to the values of the world you once lived in, which you should've long forgotten by now! Yet you keep clinging to it desperately, which is why you're going through this scenario once again."

"I don't believe we asked for a speech on whatever it is you're talking about." Ryouta said with a scowl.

"But it's true, you know! The amount of actors has already dropped to half!" Monokuma said. "And after this, it'll drop below that!" Takara glanced around the clearing, realizing that he was right. Sixteen of them had arrived at this resort, but only eight of them were left standing. Even though the amount of empty chairs continued to grow, it hadn't felt like so many of them had been lost.

"If that's your attempt at trying to bring us down, it's not gonna work." Satoshi said. "We miss all of our friends, it's true, but we're still here because they'd want us to keep on going for them. And if that means having to persecute one more of us, then that's what we have to do."

"That was pretty corny." Miyako stated.

"...You didn't have to say that." Satoshi said.

"That was more than corny, it was downright cliched!" Monokuma said. "I'm getting out of here before Teruya gets worse. I'll be waiting at the trial room, so hurry up and head into the cave so we can begin!" He vanished.

"I can't help but wonder how he's able to do that." Arata said.

"No time to wonder about that, we need to get going." Takara said. The students entered the cave and made their way towards the platform. Just as Monokuma said, half of their original number were going in, but less than that would be leaving. It was anyone's guess as to who the culprit was this time. No one had an alibi except for Satoshi, so anyone could've done it. Reaching the platform, they all gathered onto it in silence. Masaru pressed the button and they moved forward.

Minoru wasn't the kind of person who seemed like a target, and yet someone decided to end his life. He tried to take responsibility and looked out for the others, and now he was dead. The storm wasn't truly over, as it still lingered in their hearts. They would find Minoru's killer no matter what. The platform slowly stopped at the docking station, allowing all of them to get off. The group stood in front of the doors, hesitating to open it. They had already suffered this three times, must they really go through it all a fourth time? They had no choice, leaving the answer as a "yes". Taking in a deep breath, Takara pushed the doors open, trying to erase her worries. Everyone walked inside as the curtains revealed the fourth trial of life and death.

8 STUDENTS REMAIN