#liar satsuki - chapter 20 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fortunespeak · 7 years ago

Text

Chapter 5: The World

There’s no announcement, this time. The speakers remain silent, for days, and you wonder if.... maybe it’s all over already.

Over the days, some of you may have checked the employee area, seen the screens in the camera room fill with static one by one. You can barely see anything on them anymore. The cliffs, the theme park, the chapel, the fairy tree.... all is consumed by the grey static.As though this entire place faded to nothing on the screen, taking along with it the memories. Maybe it took along The Fool as well. Maybe it took along everything that made this place so dangerous.

Now that it’s quiet like this, it seems just like an abandoned resort. It shouldn’t be so empty. It shouldn’t be so quiet.

But it’s not peaceful. There’s still bulletholes in the stage. There’s still blood in the arena.

You wish there’d be more rain, to wash it away.

But the world has been stopped. All remains as it is, exactly as it is, the only sign of the passage of time being the food slowly rotting in the restaurants and the general store.

And then, one day, The Fool sits on the stage. As they’ve done so many times before. Their legs dangling over the edge, staring straight ahead, unmoving, silent.

Some of the others have already come here, the presence of their host and yours drawing them there. Watching carefully for what would happen next.

What had they said before? Find the one who’s responsible for all of this. The one who came to them before, who’s idea this way.

....One of you.

One of the five people still alive had the blood of the rest of the group on their hands.

The blood of eleven people.

The Fool doesn’t move. They’ve stopped along with the world around them. Until all of you have gathered in front of them, and are looking at them, mistrustfully, expectantly.

Only then do they speak.

“......You could just confess now.”

Their voice is so soft that you have to strain to hear it. But it grows to a more normal volume quickly. Still, it retains the tone you do not know from them. The strange way the static seems to shift into a soft hum, a whisper.

“It’s your last chance to. Spare your friends the pain of having to convict you and confess.”

It’s not an order, or even a request. It’s a thought, and one interrupted by what might have been a small chuckle, and a shake of their head.

“Of course you won’t. It’s not in your nature to care.”

They turn their head to look at each and every one of you, their red eyes boring into you, and you feel.... you feel something, more than a lingering threat. The gun hangs loosely on their hip, in a black holster, where the red cloth would usually be.

Natsume Nannini, SHSL Support. 20 years old. A dancer and an assistant in equal parts formerly, only taking her first few careful steps as whatever she is now that she can’t be defined by being the best friend and helper anymore. Maybe she never was. Maybe she got sick of it a long time ago.

Satsuki Tsutsumi. SHSL Vigilante. 19 years old. A fighter for justice, or a liar and criminal. Has she been lied to more while she was here, or lied more herself? How can you trust someone like that, who has shown time and again that she is willing to accuse anyone but herself of wrongdoing?

Omen. SHSL Cryptozoologist. 21 years old. What do you even know about him? That he is vile and rude to anyone he meets? That he has no respect for the living or dead? That rather than helping you investigate, he instead spent time clinging to your kidnapper? Hasn’t he already made his side abundantly clear?

Katherine Ueda. No SHSL. 18 years old. They do say child stars never grow up healthy. And look at her, her crying and screaming, her tantrums, how quickly she was willing to give her life away to a girl she had not been romantically involved with for more than a few weeks. Someone like that, someone that emotionally unstable, that unpredictable... Who could say what she was capable of?

Magnus. SHSL Alchemist. 19 years old. You don’t know his face. You barely know his name. He’s been the positive influence, the ever helpful, ever cheerful friendly guy helping you out, but you don’t know him. How much does a mask hide? Is the copper and glass mask really the only one he is wearing?

Perhaps it is that that the Fool’s silent staring makes you feel. You may have come here as a team, maybe. Ready to work together to uncover the truth.

But with the way things are, who can you really trust?

With the knowledge that one of these people is the one behind it all?

The Fool jumps down from the stage, their movements smooth and silent, and walks to the courthouse, disappearing into its dark, cold depths.

And you.... you have only the choice to remain in your stopped world, or follow.

Of course, you have to follow.

The air is still cold in here, the smell of blood weak, but not gone- will it ever be gone?

No one has cleaned up since the murder. The chandelier is still fallen, the cold emergency light still the only thing keeping this place from falling into perfect darkness. It is all the same as it was during the last trial, with two differences:

Akira Ueno’s- The Fool’s body is not lying in the room anymore. And Kohana’s podium remains empty after you all take your places.

The room is too big now. Too big for a group of five and their captor. And said captor’s cat, still lying on their desk. Too big entirely. Cold and empty and dark. It truly feels like you are on your own. It truly feels like you are the one on trial.

The Fool shifts in their seat, and you hear a soft thud as they put something on the desk in front of them, pointing into the room. The gun. That damn gun. Their hand withdraws, but remains close to it. A reminder, maybe. They do not follow that threat up. Instead, they are silent. It takes an eternity for that silence to be overcome.

“This is the final trial.”

Their voice rings through the room.

“One of you, one of the students we brought here, is behind this.”

They lean back in their chair, but there’s a tension in their posture that’s usually so relaxed.

“Find them, and you can go. The gates will be open, your transport will be provided, you will be free. Return to your families. Or your jobs. Whatever it is that draws you back out there.”

The wave dismissively, obviously uninterested.

“But if you fail....”

Their hand falls back down to its position on the desk, close to their gun.

“Well. Let’s all hope you don’t.”

Was it another threat? The continuation of one? If it was, they delivered it in such a bored, nonchalant voice that it hardly struck you as one.

“Discuss, now.”

#fp trial #fp chapter 5

0 notes