"Urgh..."
I woke as if sunlight had disturbed my sleep.
When I slowly looked around, the cause was the TV mounted in the corner of the ceiling.
"Ahem, an announcement from Private Kyusen Academy! Good morning, everyone! It's another fucking wonderful morning! Now then, please live out another despairfully energetic day!"
It seemed that childish announcement would be the “sunlight” here from now on.
"...Phew."
Thanks to that, I was starting the day in a foul mood from the very morning.
Ding!
Just as I was thinking that, my Monophone chimed with a notification.
"...?"
When I checked what it was, I found a text message.
- Shoko! Sleep well? I hope your bed was at least decent too.
And it was a message from Shu.
"Shu...!"
Of course. If it was a phone, it ought to have some kind of network that let us contact each other freely.
Thinking that, I started reading the messages she had sent.
- If that annoying announcement woke you up, could you come straight to the dining hall? I think everyone else will be gathering too.
- But don't come rushing out without even washing your face, like you did when we were kids, okay? It's a bad habit. See you later! :)
"Ugh... I wish you'd forget about that sort of thing... Haha..."
I remembered the time, before I received the Child Detective Commendation, when she had hurriedly wiped my face for me.
It was fortunate that it happened right before I went onstage. If she'd noticed during the ceremony, my career as a detective might have ended right there.
Click!
As though trying to forget that memory as quickly as possible, I switched on the bathroom light with a little more force than necessary.
"...Oh."
Despite its cramped appearance, it was a fairly nice bathroom, complete with a bathtub.
"...Huh?"
But my face in the mirror was far from fairly nice. It looked closer to rotten.
That wasn't merely my impression of my disheveled appearance.
"W-what... is this...?"
The ends of my neatly braided hair had been dyed an unpleasant shade of red.
Had I dyed it without knowing? No. There was no way such a ridiculous sentence could make sense.
"D-don't tell me..."
Then, something occurred to me.
- Your memories have been manipulated to a certain extent!
The unprecedented bombshell Momono had dropped last night.
Surely that had been true. Did that mean this inconsistency, too, could be a trace of forgotten memories?
"W-what happened...?"
Thinking that couldn't be possible, I cautiously pulled out one strand.
Swoosh...
Unexpectedly, it came out easily, without any sensation at all.
"...Huh."
Of course it did.
That single strand—or rather, surely every single red hair—
"This... isn't my hair...!?"
It had a dry, unpleasant texture, like a wig.
More chillingly, countless strands of that wig hair were knotted into my own hair like leeches.
"Damn it, this is disgusting..."
No matter if it was a trace of forgotten memories, and no matter how much I agonized over it—
"...I need to pull it all out."
There was no way I had such vile tastes, so I was about to get rid of every last one without hesitation, but—
"...Urgh?!"
Tremble...
The moment I resolved to do it, my hand began shaking as if refusing.
"W-what... is this...?"
Then, the instant I reflexively thought that I wouldn't pull them out, the shaking stopped just as reflexively.
"...Damn it."
This was the worst feeling, the worst morning.
Still, the sense of duty ingrained in me as a detective urged my exhausted body to wash up.
What the hell did this academy do to me...?
Even the fierce spray of water wasn't enough to wash away this unpleasantness.
*
*
After getting myself ready as quickly and neatly as I could—
Whirr...
I entered the annex dining hall, somewhat tense.
"...!"
Just as Shu had said, everyone was there.
Some were eating, some were talking, and some were lost in thought.
"Ah...! Shoko, there you are!"
"Hey, Keisha. You're late."
And some, like Shu and Tsurudo, welcomed me.
"Ah, good morning. By the way, everyone really is here."
"Naturally! Nothing can stand against hunger!"
"Right? More importantly, go get some food already, Shoko. You're hungry, aren't you?"
Where Shu pointed stood a serving counter on the scale of a buffet.
Western, Chinese, Japanese—just as the Monotwins had said, it was of a quality that would leave nothing to be desired even if we lived here our entire lives.
So they're going to feed us well, at least...? How annoying...
Though I was skeptical, my plate soon filled with foods I liked but normally had trouble getting to eat.
"...Thank you for the meal."
Then I sat between Tsurudo and Shu, muttering the customary greeting awkwardly before putting food into my mouth.
"I-it's delicious...!"
They say food that looks good tastes good too, and it really was exactly as they said.
"Right? I was surprised too. I wondered whether they'd put poison in it, but apparently not."
"Yeah, if I were going to be poisoned to death, I'd almost want it to be with food like this."
I gave the two of them a suitable response and kept focusing on my meal.
"...Heh."
"...!"
In the middle of it, my eyes met Hiranui's, seated diagonally across from me.
"I'm glad it suits your palate, Detective."
"..."
"Oh, don't glare at me like that. At mealtimes, there are neither enemies nor allies. That's my rule."
"...Fine."
After all, that look in his eyes resembled a mother's expression when she was pleased to see someone eating well.
"Hm...? Hey, Tana, why aren't you eating anything? I mean, you're pretty far from the type who goes on a diet, aren't you...?"
Then Tsurudo asked Tana, who was sitting across from him.
"Umm...? Ah..."
Sure enough, she was only looking around and smacking her lips, without eating anything.
"Well, Tana is, um, a vampire, so she can't eat normal food. It tastes like poop... Splat splat pfft..."
"Hey, you! Don't talk about poop while we're eating! You're going to make me sick!"
"That's an outdated verbal slip even before you can call it a comeback... Couldn't you make a more creative joke?"
"More importantly, does that mean you have to go hungry?!"
When I asked, Tana said she would bring in the word “friend”... then hesitated for a moment.
"...Ah! No, that's not it! Um, the air vent? Tana's food was in there!"
"The air vent...? Ah, the one in our private rooms?"
Judging from Tsurudo's words, she meant the passage built into the wall that connected to every room.
"Umm... It wasn't there last night... but when Tana woke up this morning, pop! it had appeared! A 'blood fountain'!"
The air vent in Tana's first-floor room had a floor, and when she woke up, there had been a dog bowl full of “blood” sitting on that floor.
"What... So does that mean you can survive on blood alone?"
"Not exactly! Like you saw yesterday, Tana can eat raw meat too! But that's like ice cream! Eat too much and you get a stomachache!"
"I see... Ah, then wasn't that something the Monotwins arranged? They're the only ones who could suddenly make a fountain like that, right?"
"Ah, is that so! Those guys were nice! Tana wants to see them again! Tana wants to be friends!"
At that, Tsurudo gave a bitter smile and was about to retort that she shouldn't befriend people who fed her from a dog bowl, but—
"Upupupu!"
Speak of the devil. They appeared without warning and cut him off.
"M-Monotwins...!"
Everyone's eyes and attention turned to them in an instant.
"Good morning, everyone! So, does the food suit your tastes? Well, even if it doesn't, we couldn't care less."
"You bastards!! Don't you know the saying that you don't mess with dogs while they're eating, but people are fair game!! Focus, focus!! Why are you making such vacant faces!!"
"What kind of proverb is that, beneath not just dogs but even people!?"
"Rekida, what are we supposed to do if you've already been influenced by them...?"
While Karafuru calmed Rekida down, Momono casually began counting on fingers she didn't have.
"Let's see, sixteen plus four hundred minus four hundred... Hawawa?! All sixteen of you are still alive!? How could none of you kill anyone or get killed all night long!"
"..."
Contemptuous silence. That alone was our answer.
"Honestly, you hopeless idiots!! We told you, didn't we? If nobody kills anyone or gets killed, you'll never get out of here! Are your brains just decorations!?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Do you think there's a psychopath among us who'd kill someone after just one day because of that kind of threat?"
"Mm, just as Kadra says. Even if killing were the only way to guarantee our memories and our escape, I'm confident that none of us is a potential murderer capable of committing such an evil act!"
"Oh, that was a close one. Good thing I'm not a potential murderer—I'm just a murderer. Heh."
At Hiranui's shameless joke, we all frowned slightly.
"...Hehe."
But when the Monotwins started laughing as though we were pathetic, our frowns deepened completely.
"Hehehehehehehehehehe... Pff... Narita, what did you just say? 'There are no potential murderers like that among us...?' Pfft!"
"Hey... What's so funny?"
Despite Komada's question, they laughed for a little longer before—
"Yup, we heard you loud and clear!! Now, we'll show you exactly how childish and delightfully bullshit that statement is! Upupupupupupu!!!"
They snapped their heads up and shouted as if they intended to split the sky in two.
"Sonoconsigliere... You'll tell us whether it's sophistry? What do you mean?"
"Of course! We're going to make you all into those potential murderers, nice and proper! Ah, although perhaps a few of you no longer need it?"
"...?"
The next moment, the Monotwins' eyes darkened.
"Let us ask you one thing... If there were people inside this academy who forced you to take part in this killing academy life... what would you do?"
And we who received that question were no different.
But it wasn't an easy question to answer, and a brief silence passed.
"W-what would we do? Is that even a question! Of course, we'd find them, then go, 'You little bastards!!' and..."
That one remark from Rekida shattered the thin line.
"I'd say report them to the police... but before that, they deserve a few good hits, don't they?"
[Fuck, I'm getting pissed just imagining it. (＃｀д´)ﾉ]
"...Those bastards can die, for all I care."
After hearing several opinions, the Monotwins nodded repeatedly in satisfaction.
"Good. Then let us ask again... What would you do if those 'fucking bastards' were inside this academy right now?"
"...!!"
This time, no one could open their mouth.
Because we were flustered? No.
It was because we didn't feel the question was worth raising our hands and confidently answering, any more than 1 + 1 = 2 was.
"Oh? You're all making quite an expression! The headmasters are pleased!"
"Heh, it worked perfectly! Don't worry! What we're saying is unquestionably the truth!!"
Everyone knew that. That was why the air surrounding us all began filling with venom.
"T-tell us... Who are they...?"
At last, Kadra asked in a trembling voice.
"Ahh, what should we do? Now that we're actually about to tell you, we're feeling a little sad about it~"
"Huh!? You said you'd tell us just now, so why are you changing the subject! You little—"
Ubauchi's words were mercilessly cut off.
"Ultimate Black."
"Ultimate White."
At the two words Monono and Momono uttered—
"...What?"
"Oh? You still haven't figured it out? Then we'll spell it out for you!"
The question we voiced once more—
"The reason you're suffering this hardship is entirely because of the Ultimate Black and Ultimate White hidden within this academy!"
—brought another nail driven in by them.
"I don't understand... No, more importantly, those are colors!! Can they even have an Ultimate talent attached to them!?!"
"Calm down, Tsurudo. The point is that they're going to be the motive that makes us commit murder, isn't it? Explain properly."
But Kitsui alone was unfazed by that nail as she asked.
"Exactly... You can't leave unless a killing takes place—that was the first motive, right!? Hah, how softhearted!!"
"That's right! And this is the 'second motive' we've prepared...!"
Immediately, their two voices became one again.
"If one of you finds the Ultimate Black and Ultimate White hidden in this academy..."
Their merged voice resembled the very thing I had always been wary of throughout my life.
"And succeeds in personally killing even one of those two...!"
"...Don't tell me."
Yes. It was precisely—
"We will immediately end this killing academy life and send all of you home!!"
The devil's whisper.
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