Despair's last gambit

Chapter 6- the end of the beginning

It took the ultimates some time to find the mutilated body. Sayuri began to weep floods of tears upon discovery, she had fallen in love with Nizey and their relationship, though not official, was acknowledged by the rest of the ultimates. Aiko did her best to comfort her, as a mediator she had often acted as a go between when the two flirted and she was  thus no less sad to see the corpse on the floor, more so for the effect it had on Sayuri.  Blake tried to act as normal as possible, Mieko's death wasn't his fault surely;he had to kill to survive and she had just been the unlucky person closest to him when the fourth time limit began to run out, as much as he tried to calm himself the guilt weighed heavily on his conscience. Though he was there upon their discovery of the newest victim he was conspicuous in his absence when Mieko's body was discovered by Shinsuke. Shinsuke and Mieko had shared a very close bond, Mieko even referred to him as 'Senpai' despite their equal standing and Shinsuke had embraced this role and called her 'Kōhai' in turn. Shinsuke did his best to turn away from Yuko when she embraced him, but Yuko was still able to glance tears forming in his eyes. When he composed himself Shinsuke Swore that he would kill the traitor with his bare hands for murdering Mieko, Juvi however stood pensively at the back, clearly pondering something about the scene of the crime. When everyone else had left the scene she knelt down next to Mieko's dead body and began to examine the knife which was still in Mieko's hand.

The others opted to stay together and examine the other corpse again, excluding Sayuri and Aiko who stayed together outside the room since Sayuri didn't believe she was able to look at the body without breaking down again. Sayuri was a full five inches taller than Aiko and her long hair often brushed her face when Aiko hugged her but Aiko didn't say anything, she knew sayuri needed her now. Sayuri fought back tears as long as she could before she began weeping again, Aiko gently rubbed her back and said " if nothing else we know he valued you, Nizey didn't care much for the world; you're the only thing in this world I think he truly loved." Aiko knew this wouldn't be a great deal of help but if nothing else it would be start to helping Sayuri think about the positive influence Nizey had on her life instead of about his death. Meanwhile Blake was absentmindedly pacing the room, merely pretending to investigate since he could think of nothing besides his betrayal of Mieko. It was eventually Yuko who broke the silence when she noted there was no blood trail in the room despite his hand and head being missing.  Leading everyone to Ponder where they  could have gone, they were evidently not in the room but it would have been impossible to carry them out of the room without dripping blood. Yuko also confirmed it would have been  difficult to wash the blood  away especially since there was no evidence any bleach or mop had been used in the room.  Cadence suggested it could have been melted or burned but there was no evidence of this either.

From their hidden room inside the building Maddie and Kalo watched on, "they're doing too much detective work." Kalo said angrily slamming the control board with his fist. " I'll just have to frustrate them then " Maddie said with an air of condescension before flicking a switch.  The foundation members barely had three seconds to react to the beeping before a small explosion tore through the room, the blast  wasn't powerful enough to kill any of them but almost all of them were thrown off their feet. When everyone came to, their ears were still ringing from the sound of the explosion preventing them from communicating but they eventually noticed the body was now in flames and unable to coordinate a response they each independently began frantically searching for something to put the fire out. Cadence was able to eventually locate a fire extinguisher but froze in place realizing her NG code prevented her from grabbing it, instead she dislodged it with her foot and rolled it towards the body where Kichiro was able to grab it and put out the fire. When the smoke cleared and everybody regained their hearing the first noise they heard was a scream from Yuko and when everyone turned towards her they discovered a horrifying sight.

Brook lay dead against a broken pipe.

Aiko and Sayuri ran in and were shocked to discover her corpse. Brook had been a prankster but always harmless practical jokes and she was the entertainer of the whole foundation. She was arguably the most innocent among them all. Her face was fully blue  and there were black splotches near her mouth,  blood was also trickling out of a small cut on the back of her head where she had hit the wall. It was clear Brook had been poisoned from her blue face and the black liquid in her mouth. When Ken looked at her wrist he saw her NG code "breaking an object," when the bomb exploded she had fallen against the pipe and broken it triggering her code and causing her death. The foundation members mourned yet another dead comrade. The two despairs celebrated a fortuitous death.

Juvi arrived to break the tension, she seemed to have something on her mind but the sight of Brook's dead body meant it would have to wait.   Shinsuke and Blake remembered that before Brook's demise they had been putting out the body on fire and began to investigate the charred remains. The clothing was now in tatters and there was nothing recognizable left of the body. Whilst the two were focused on the body Yuko turned to Aiko, "Aiko-Chama, why won't Shinsuke-chan talk to me? Does he not love me anymore nyan?" She asked, Aiko looked nervously at Shinsuke "I'm sure he's just focused on getting us out of here and he just hasn't had chance to speak to you yet. I'm sure he still loves you." Aiko responded trying to be confident and reassuring. Yuko turned to look at Shinsuke before responding to Aiko "I hope so nyan, I still love him." Juvi then stated that there had been a blade in Mieko's hand when she had died and there seemed to be something strange about the the murder scene. Blake froze in horror at the mention of Mieko but nobody noticed, Kichiro stated with so many people already dead everyone should stay together for safety's sake. With that everyone departed.

Back in their hideout Kalo was quietly confident, "you aren't the only one who laid a trap." He said with a menacing smile as the foundation members were walking through the corridor.  Aiko and Sayuri were lagging behind, Sayuri turned to Aiko and lamented the fact she would no longer  have Nizey around to protect her and she was scared, "I'll always be here for you Sayuri, I'd be a terrible leader if I wasn't" Aiko said with a reassuring smile. Sayuri was briefly silent "then... do you trust me enough to tell me your code ?" Sayuri asked nervously; Aiko took a deep breath in " my code... is that I can't turn left" Aiko said scared  at how vulnerable this made her, "what about yours?" Sayuri gave a light smile before allowing Aiko to view her bangle 'touching a wall.'

The tender moment however was ruined when Kalo pressed a button and a hidden crossbow at the end of the corridor shot a bolt directly at the group. The bolt headed directly for Yuko who was frozen in fear as it moved towards her, Shinsuke however sprang into action "Yukako get down!" He shouted as he tackled her to the ground and the bolt flew mere inches above them. For a split second Kalo felt despair at his plan failing but a familiar sound got everyone's attention and caused him to laugh maniacally.

Shinsuke's bangle gave off the familiar tune as his face began to turn blue.

Yuko was shocked as Shinsuke squeezed her hand to show her he was still breathing. "I'm sorry Yuko-chan... I love you." He said weakly before his eyes closed. Yuko began to cry as she realized Shinsuke had wanted to reassure  her all this time but couldn't or else it would kill him. Sayuri knowing the pain she was going through made her look away from his corpse and Yuko cried into Sayuri.  Everyone else was saddened by the ever increasing death toll the game had extracted but knew something had to be done, they didn't have time to mourn his passing; they had to keep on trying to discover who had placed them in the game.Sayuri paused to give Yuko time to mourn whilst everyone else continued moving towards Mieko's corpse. However before  they could reach her they reached the time limit and everyone was put to sleep once more.

Juvi was the first to awake, across from him lay Aiko; her mouth covered in melted chocolate and drool running down her cheeks. Unconscious she had been unable to chew or swallow the chocolates which caused her to choke to death and making her the fifth victim.