Masked Hope (Nagito x Fem!Reader)

(Deadly Life Pt. 4)

"As the light of justice shines upon my mask. . . I expose the hearts of malevolent evil. . . Justice Complete! The center of justice that is pierced by justice! The lead star of justice that shines in the night sky! That would be me. . . Sparkling Justice!"

"Wh-What the heck. . . was that?" Hajime questioned.

"That. . ." She huffed. "Is Sparkling Justice's catchphrase."

"An unknown serial killer. . .has a catchphrase. . .?" Peko asked for confirmation.

"I read it in a magazine in the library." Sonia explained. "There has only ever been one person-- a journalist-- who has ever interviewed Sparkling Justice. . . The article was written in their native language, so I tried translating it. However. . . in the end, that journalist was punished by Sparkling Justice, too. . ."

". . .No good can come from getting involved with a serial killer." Nagito sighed.

"The serial killer might not want to hear that from you." Peko added.

"Um. . . this is all I know about Sparkling Justice." Sonia started. "That's to the masks, nobody knows their true age or gender, making them a very mysterious individual. . ."

"Hey. . . isn't that kind of a stretch?" Hajime cut in again. "To say that there's a serial killer hiding in our group. . ."

"No, it does not mean they are in our group." Sonia denied. "It is possible the serial killer was lurking on this island all along before they decided to murder Mahiru!"

"Th-That's probably not possible. . ." Nagito sighed.

She looked down in disappointment. "But. . . that is the only thing I can think of. . . I mean. . . no matter how much I think about it, I simply cannot believe it! That one of us is capable of committing such a horrible murder. . . No matter how much I think about it, I simply cannot believe it!"

She held her hands close to her chest and started to cry.

"S-Sonia. . ." Hajime tried.

The mask doesn't necessarily mean one of us is Sparkling Justice. . . If anything, the killer could've put it there as a red herring. But I understand her feelings that no one could've done this.

Then again, Teruteru did it. . .

"Uh. . . Mikan, you had something to say too, right?" Hajime redirected the conversation.

"W-Well. . . compared to the others, what I have to say isn't that important. . ." The nurse mumbled. "S-So. . . please don't get your hopes up. . . and be disappointed. . ."

The brunet sighed and motioned for her to continue. "I get it. . . so just get on with it."

"Um. . . I tried my best to perform the autopsy, and I was able to find out. . . Mahiru was definitely killed by a blow to the head." She confirmed. "She was probably. . . struck from behind by one blow. . . Based on the scar. . . the weapon is clearly the metal bat. But every dark cloud has a silver lining, as they say. . . um. . . it looks like Mahiru didn't suffer."

"What does that mean?" Hajime asked.

Seriously, Hajime. . .?

"Ah, um. . ." Mikan stared at the ground, trying to find a good explanation. "There's no doubt. . . that she died instantly."

". . .Her death was instant?" He repeated.

She nodded. "And. . there's another thing I found. . ." She went on. "Um. . . during the autopsy, I discovered this in Mahiru's pocket."

She handed Hajime a bloodied piece of paper. As he read it, I peered over his shoulder to do the same.

"I was going to tell you in person, but I couldn't find you so I put this in your mailbox. About what we discussed earlier, is it okay if we change the place and time? I want you to come to the beach house on the second island at 2:30 p.m. It seems there's someone who wants to interfere with our meeting. Let's keep it a secret. Until then, let's try not to see each other for a while. It would be bad if they started suspecting us for no reason. -Hiyoko Saionji"