( ...he's going back to picking at his food, but literally, just tearing the toast into little pieces. )
I thought you were over faking anything with ME, considering I already saw through it when we were first years togeTHER, but I suppose you haven't grown up that MUCH.
[... what he's trying to do, which it is and that's why he cuts himself off, glancing back at natsume for a moment before getting up to make sure the door's locked.
... he doesn't think aira or helena would be coming by to check on natsume anytime soon, since subaru'd volunteered to stay despite the uneasy that comes with the skylight above them, but... there were others who would no doubt want to peek in, and he doesn't feel like having them in here too.
after that... subaru comes back over, plopping himself on the bottom bunk and more accurately into natsume's lap. his head, anyway, it's easier to stare across the room and know there's air, there's space.
...]
How... do you deal with like, seeing dead people?
[not. the spirit sort, which is what it sounds like when he asks at first, distantly curious.]
( good boy. natsume moves his food before subaru has the chance to ruin it, setting it to the side when the weight falls in his lap, and he blinks slowly down at him. his eyes move up, across the room, and his hands leave his food to settle on either side of himself. )
They're no different than the liVING. ( you just know they're not part of them, no matter how solid their form looks, how sometimes it feels if you don't push past it... not minding the numbing cold that comes with their touch. ) Have you seen a ghost recentLY?
so something did occur. it's a bad feeling in his stomach, twisting and turning, and suddenly he really, truly isn't hungry anymore. being out of the loop always makes him a little nervous, a little anxious, but his voice is soft to stay steady. )
I divorce it from my mind and come to terms with it laTER, in front of a toilet and a sink with plenty of handSOAP. ( to put it vaguely enough. he's gotten a little more used to it, so usually it's just washing his hands until they're raw, even if he isn't the one who committed murder, even if he never had blood on his hands in those cases either. ) What happened while I was aSLEEP?
[that's what subaru remembers doing too, once all was said and done. he can still feel the stickiness of the blood in his palms, though, and how the marble-like eyes were soft but firm within them. his stomach churns and he saws at the feelings, cutting them off harshly the way he'd ended up doing laying in the nurse's office until he felt well enough just to
leave. he'd wanted to spend time with keigo to get his mind off things, but... amami was there, so...]
... So yesterday, we found a total of nine bodies. One of them was burnt to a crisp the same way that fake Clamor had done, it was cut in half and hung up above both entrances... Another was hung up -- whole -- over the elevator...
[the rest'll come in a proper gathering, all the evidence laid out once everyone has had their peace with the situation, of who's died and who it could possibly be, because whether or not the school detectives who found and poked around at everything come together on that log to tell what they found subaru wouldn't. really want to say anything about it so soon.
natsume'd just woke up, after all.]
I found an arm. And a pair of eyes. I'm really glad you have such pretty gold ones, Natsume, it's been hard to look into pretty much any normal students' eyes 'cause they're the same color.
You're the only one who's glad for the color of my EYES.
( they otherwise invite distrust. he can't blame them, but it hurts, a knife between his ribs every time. )
...What an over-the-top show of murDER. ( maybe they need a drama club in this school. still: subaru obviously isn't taking it well. how could he? so natsume lays his hands on subaru's head and cards his fingers through his hair a little, the way he does to anyone when they're upset, the way he's been treated when he was a kid. ) I suppose everything's been taken care of by NOW... I'll have to talk to the others and see what they found—
( but he can't move, with subaru on him, so he lets that drop. )
[it feels a little odd, to be comforted by natsume of all people like this, but he closes his eyes and forces the habitual nerves that come from someone enacting something on him that he didn't agree to aside; it's his best friend, and any other day he'd crave something new, something interesting, from the other like this.
... it's just that the way natsume's nails slide through his short hair feels like claws ready to pry.]
You and I aren't alike in this SENSE, Baru-kun. Your feelings will rot you from the inside OUT.
( like a pumpkin and its seeds. no, natsume could've stood to talk about bodies and murders and everything else he's decided needed compartmentalizing, the weight of a young rokuro arata heavy between him and komaeda, but, well.
( we won't talk about how he knows. burnt badly like the fake clamor had done it, torn in half... the other whole... but in front of the elevator, huh? because people use the elevator and it'd be easy for them to see? though who would willingly enter a school after seeing that, maya or the transfer students aside, so it was meant for them... and nine people means it's the largest incident to-date, which he's somewhat grateful for, as cruel as that is.
there must be people missing friends now. poor things. )
You wouldn't like it any better when it's fresh THOUGH, I promise YOU.
I dunno, I think I prefer what I did to my hand myself.
[not as much blood, of course, but... yeah. maybe that's just because subaru had a choice in it more than a crime scene.
...
it's not easy to talk. but it's easier with natsume than anyone else, easy to be distracted and focus on the body beneath him and not on the school in the distance, as far away as his words are.]
Gonbei-chan... the one I found, I mean, was a third year like me, and he died with a knife lodged in his back. Like, how moviesque could you get? I didn't think that sorta thing actually worked, but I guess they nailed him just right.
There was another one, uh... down by the faculty offices, that was pretty diced into. Two of ours [transfers] in the elevator, posed like they were sleeping too.
[.........]
The others didn't really... feel like they matched the same M.O. as the ones downstairs, but they were all one of us there too.
( ...a lot of transfers, and two potentially different mysteries. they can take them one at a time—first set subaru talked about first. his mind is still dragging a little, body heavy with sleep, but it's starting to work out thoughts. )
We'll just focus on the ground floor THEN. For NOW. ( he seems slightly more willing to talk about that one anyway, which sends warning bells ringing in the back of his head, but he brushes them aside. for now. ) Someone should've tried harder to wake me UP... Ugh.
( would've been nice to see it for himself........... well, not nice, but. nice. )
I really wanted to pour water on you, but I was stopped.
[..... by a roommate, maybe, or his own conscious gripping his hands tight hissing don't...]
Uh, one of them didn't look like she had any injuries, but the other had a pretty bad cut? From here, [he traces natsume's chest, across it and down] to here. The kind you see in old movies, I guess, one strike and they're dead. But that was all they had.
... They looked pretty peaceful though, like they were just sleeping.
( he would've hated the water but better than trying to pick through this after the fact, maybe. )
Odd for someone to die without any WOUNDS, but I suppose that isn't the first time we've had it hapPEN. ( sometimes people just drop dead. like clamor. ) And strange for them to be posed so niceLY, when the others were obviously...
( ...he closes his eyes. mmmm. )
They sound slightly more personal—or raTHER, the motive for their murder WAS. The two posed might have just been in the wrong place at the wrong TIME, and since they didn't have the qualifications the others DID, they were treated a little niCER. ( ... ) And if the one that was halved was burned the same way as the pool boDY, it's likely it was due to fire maGIC, though the number of people who know how to wield that is a little larger now than beFORE.
Yeah... I figured that, about their posing. They just seemed so different than the others.
[too bad they can't narrow down fire magic anymore. what a pain.]
I dunno about the halved kid, but the other two students were third years like me. [...oh] And the guy with the knife in his back had his eyes taken out, but they were still on his body.
[it was gross. to put it in the most detached way.]
( oh, they still can, especially keeping in mind some other things he's just said, but it's okay. subaru will get there. so will the rest of you. )
...We should find out if they had a common eneMY, or if they slighted the wrong person somehow recentLY. The use of magic implies the perpetrator is involved with the occult club run by Lucifer-san ( and our beloved late Master Clamor ) so it might not be too bad of a place to START... Though Goto-kun said they were group-learning sleep spells rather than fire magic when I questioned them last month regarding something simiLAR.
[your faith in us is so good. don't make me accuse local arsonist akira fujioka he's so baby]
Sure, Natsume, I'll just shake 'em awake and see what they've got to say.
[... natsume doesn't deserve that. subaru gives him an apologetic look and sighs, sinking his weight down further. sorry to your legs.]
Also, you're not going anywhere anytime soon. Natsume, with how people've been acting, you're the first one they'll think about -- even if you were sleeping, they can say "oh, maybe he was possessed again" and try and say you did it, even as a last bid sort of thing. [... maybe, maybe not... maybe they'll think better of him, maybe...] I don't want a target on your back, by the group or by whoever did this. Let us take care of it, okay?
[let me take care of it.
... he's turning his face again.]
You're gonna be more interested in the other set, anyway.
( natsume bristles, and it doesn't quite settle when subaru gives him that sorry look; he Meant talk to other people, fellow students, maybe find someone in the club since he mentioned them and see if any of them know if any of their number was playing with fire and might've had a grudge--
it doubles when subaru refuses to let him join, even with... even with fine reasoning like that. not everyone knows he knows fire magic now, but there are people who do, and he hunches back against his pillows.
but. fine. the other set. natsume stays quiet for longer, just so subaru knows he's unhappy, before he opens his mouth again. )
[he knows natsume's unhappy. he's making a lot of people unhappy this week actually what's one more. maybe he'll be able to make people smile next week, or the week after, but the start of the month has been nothing short of agonizing.]
... Two of our people that died up there were people you were pretty close with.
[cautious. reluctant. natsume would have his suspicions later anyway, and this is good enough reason to come out with it if it means natsume won't involve himself.]
Oh, ( he says, and then he doesn't say anything else.
rikki and sai-chan... rika and saihara. saying they were close to him is stretching the truth but at the same time, it isn't--
he can think of people they were much closer to, after all. amami comes to mind, for one, and then he disappears when natsume wonders if either of then knew that he ■■■■■
well. it doesn't matter now. sorry to subaru, though, because without realizing it his hands have found something to grip and that happens to be subaru's hair; he forces themselves to let go, orange strands falling from his reddening fingers and his white knuckles turning back to a more living color. natsume breathes in and holds it, thinks about the warmth of rika's hands and the way she'd looked when he apologized, thinks about shuichi's one dear hope and wish that they could get through a trial without an execution at the end--that no one would have to die--selfish, for people who deserved closure, but a wish that mirrors itself in the cracks of natsume's heart.
he lets the breath go, slow and soft, and half turns to busy himself with fluffing his pillow. ) I see; you're RIGHT, I am much more interested in this ONE. Not that any loss of life is more important than the other, BUT--
( but something in his chest twists when he thinks about them, and he meticulously smooths out the wrinkles on his pillow before he turns back around, expression neutral. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Baru-kun.
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Natsume.
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I thought you were over faking anything with ME, considering I already saw through it when we were first years togeTHER, but I suppose you haven't grown up that MUCH.
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[... what he's trying to do, which it is and that's why he cuts himself off, glancing back at natsume for a moment before getting up to make sure the door's locked.
... he doesn't think aira or helena would be coming by to check on natsume anytime soon, since subaru'd volunteered to stay despite the uneasy that comes with the skylight above them, but... there were others who would no doubt want to peek in, and he doesn't feel like having them in here too.
after that... subaru comes back over, plopping himself on the bottom bunk and more accurately into natsume's lap. his head, anyway, it's easier to stare across the room and know there's air, there's space.
...]
How... do you deal with like, seeing dead people?
[not. the spirit sort, which is what it sounds like when he asks at first, distantly curious.]
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They're no different than the liVING. ( you just know they're not part of them, no matter how solid their form looks, how sometimes it feels if you don't push past it... not minding the numbing cold that comes with their touch. ) Have you seen a ghost recentLY?
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[... he turns his head into the other's lap a bit.]
But I meant more, like, the part before they're a ghost.
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so something did occur. it's a bad feeling in his stomach, twisting and turning, and suddenly he really, truly isn't hungry anymore. being out of the loop always makes him a little nervous, a little anxious, but his voice is soft to stay steady. )
I divorce it from my mind and come to terms with it laTER, in front of a toilet and a sink with plenty of handSOAP. ( to put it vaguely enough. he's gotten a little more used to it, so usually it's just washing his hands until they're raw, even if he isn't the one who committed murder, even if he never had blood on his hands in those cases either. ) What happened while I was aSLEEP?
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leave. he'd wanted to spend time with keigo to get his mind off things, but... amami was there, so...]
... So yesterday, we found a total of nine bodies. One of them was burnt to a crisp the same way that fake Clamor had done, it was cut in half and hung up above both entrances... Another was hung up -- whole -- over the elevator...
[the rest'll come in a proper gathering, all the evidence laid out once everyone has had their peace with the situation, of who's died and who it could possibly be, because whether or not the school detectives who found and poked around at everything come together on that log to tell what they found subaru wouldn't. really want to say anything about it so soon.
natsume'd just woke up, after all.]
I found an arm. And a pair of eyes. I'm really glad you have such pretty gold ones, Natsume, it's been hard to look into pretty much any normal students' eyes 'cause they're the same color.
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( they otherwise invite distrust. he can't blame them, but it hurts, a knife between his ribs every time. )
...What an over-the-top show of murDER. ( maybe they need a drama club in this school. still: subaru obviously isn't taking it well. how could he? so natsume lays his hands on subaru's head and cards his fingers through his hair a little, the way he does to anyone when they're upset, the way he's been treated when he was a kid. ) I suppose everything's been taken care of by NOW... I'll have to talk to the others and see what they found—
( but he can't move, with subaru on him, so he lets that drop. )
Would you like to talk about IT?
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... it's just that the way natsume's nails slide through his short hair feels like claws ready to pry.]
... What's there to talk about?
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( like a pumpkin and its seeds. no, natsume could've stood to talk about bodies and murders and everything else he's decided needed compartmentalizing, the weight of a young rokuro arata heavy between him and komaeda, but, well.
well, well. )
Whatever you'd like to talk aBOUT.
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idly,]
Blood's a lot stickier than I thought it'd be.
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( we won't talk about how he knows. burnt badly like the fake clamor had done it, torn in half... the other whole... but in front of the elevator, huh? because people use the elevator and it'd be easy for them to see? though who would willingly enter a school after seeing that, maya or the transfer students aside, so it was meant for them... and nine people means it's the largest incident to-date, which he's somewhat grateful for, as cruel as that is.
there must be people missing friends now. poor things. )
You wouldn't like it any better when it's fresh THOUGH, I promise YOU.
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[not as much blood, of course, but... yeah. maybe that's just because subaru had a choice in it more than a crime scene.
...
it's not easy to talk. but it's easier with natsume than anyone else, easy to be distracted and focus on the body beneath him and not on the school in the distance, as far away as his words are.]
Gonbei-chan... the one I found, I mean, was a third year like me, and he died with a knife lodged in his back. Like, how moviesque could you get? I didn't think that sorta thing actually worked, but I guess they nailed him just right.
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And the other seven boDIES?
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[.........]
The others didn't really... feel like they matched the same M.O. as the ones downstairs, but they were all one of us there too.
[haha....... he doesn't wanna name names...☆]
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We'll just focus on the ground floor THEN. For NOW. ( he seems slightly more willing to talk about that one anyway, which sends warning bells ringing in the back of his head, but he brushes them aside. for now. ) Someone should've tried harder to wake me UP... Ugh.
( would've been nice to see it for himself........... well, not nice, but. nice. )
What were the injuries on the posed ones LIKE?
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[..... by a roommate, maybe, or his own conscious gripping his hands tight hissing don't...]
Uh, one of them didn't look like she had any injuries, but the other had a pretty bad cut? From here, [he traces natsume's chest, across it and down] to here. The kind you see in old movies, I guess, one strike and they're dead. But that was all they had.
... They looked pretty peaceful though, like they were just sleeping.
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Odd for someone to die without any WOUNDS, but I suppose that isn't the first time we've had it hapPEN. ( sometimes people just drop dead. like clamor. ) And strange for them to be posed so niceLY, when the others were obviously...
( ...he closes his eyes. mmmm. )
They sound slightly more personal—or raTHER, the motive for their murder WAS. The two posed might have just been in the wrong place at the wrong TIME, and since they didn't have the qualifications the others DID, they were treated a little niCER. ( ... ) And if the one that was halved was burned the same way as the pool boDY, it's likely it was due to fire maGIC, though the number of people who know how to wield that is a little larger now than beFORE.
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[too bad they can't narrow down fire magic anymore. what a pain.]
I dunno about the halved kid, but the other two students were third years like me. [...oh] And the guy with the knife in his back had his eyes taken out, but they were still on his body.
[it was gross. to put it in the most detached way.]
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...We should find out if they had a common eneMY, or if they slighted the wrong person somehow recentLY. The use of magic implies the perpetrator is involved with the occult club run by Lucifer-san ( and our beloved late Master Clamor ) so it might not be too bad of a place to START... Though Goto-kun said they were group-learning sleep spells rather than fire magic when I questioned them last month regarding something simiLAR.
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Sure, Natsume, I'll just shake 'em awake and see what they've got to say.
[... natsume doesn't deserve that. subaru gives him an apologetic look and sighs, sinking his weight down further. sorry to your legs.]
Also, you're not going anywhere anytime soon. Natsume, with how people've been acting, you're the first one they'll think about -- even if you were sleeping, they can say "oh, maybe he was possessed again" and try and say you did it, even as a last bid sort of thing. [... maybe, maybe not... maybe they'll think better of him, maybe...] I don't want a target on your back, by the group or by whoever did this. Let us take care of it, okay?
[let me take care of it.
... he's turning his face again.]
You're gonna be more interested in the other set, anyway.
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it doubles when subaru refuses to let him join, even with... even with fine reasoning like that. not everyone knows he knows fire magic now, but there are people who do, and he hunches back against his pillows.
but. fine. the other set. natsume stays quiet for longer, just so subaru knows he's unhappy, before he opens his mouth again. )
ExPLAIN.
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... Two of our people that died up there were people you were pretty close with.
[cautious. reluctant. natsume would have his suspicions later anyway, and this is good enough reason to come out with it if it means natsume won't involve himself.]
Rikki and Sai-chan. They were found together.
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rikki and sai-chan... rika and saihara. saying they were close to him is stretching the truth but at the same time, it isn't--
he can think of people they were much closer to, after all. amami comes to mind, for one, and then he disappears when natsume wonders if either of then knew that he ■■■■■
well. it doesn't matter now. sorry to subaru, though, because without realizing it his hands have found something to grip and that happens to be subaru's hair; he forces themselves to let go, orange strands falling from his reddening fingers and his white knuckles turning back to a more living color. natsume breathes in and holds it, thinks about the warmth of rika's hands and the way she'd looked when he apologized, thinks about shuichi's one dear hope and wish that they could get through a trial without an execution at the end--that no one would have to die--selfish, for people who deserved closure, but a wish that mirrors itself in the cracks of natsume's heart.
he lets the breath go, slow and soft, and half turns to busy himself with fluffing his pillow. ) I see; you're RIGHT, I am much more interested in this ONE. Not that any loss of life is more important than the other, BUT--
( but something in his chest twists when he thinks about them, and he meticulously smooths out the wrinkles on his pillow before he turns back around, expression neutral. )
What were their condiTIONS?
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