Day 7 Private eting with Maria Otonashi – Kazuki Hoshino’s Room
I tell Maria everything I know.
No matter how hard this outco may be for her to accept, she can’t do anything about it.
Yuri has already chosen as the target for Murder. Maria knows this can’t be changed.
For that reason, we simply sit on my bed, our hands clasped together. As if trying to rember the shape of each other’s hands, we squeeze them over and over, intertwine our fingers, and just savor the sensation.
For the last ti, we feel each other’s touch.
“Kazuki.”
Maria says my na.
“The truth is, I’ve been keeping sothing from you.”
“…Huh?”
“I don’t have the Misbegotten Happiness now.”
Not sure why that’s significant, I simply look at her.
“I can’t be certain, but I feel it may have simply lost its power temporarily. I’ve encountered sothing like this before; however, it’s possible this could be a characteristic of the Ga of Indolence.”
…Wouldn’t that be considered, y’know, pretty huge?
“Why didn’t you tell ?”
Maria looks down for a mont, then explains with our fingers interlinked.
“I am a Box, not a human. I’ve explained to you often that I exist for others. Maria Otonashi… No, Aya Otonashi must exist this way. What supports in this is the Misbegotten Happiness. Despite this, I can’t call upon it here. So what am I?”
“You’re…Maria.”
“…So this is how it is now?” Maria squeezes my hand so hard it hurts. “I can’t even protect you anymore?”
“…Maria.”
“Hmph, so Double I am. If only I could die in your place.”
Maria’s bad habit is rearing its ugly head again.
It’s that horrible tendency to put herself down so quickly.
“…Stop. I would never want that.”
“I know! I know that desire is purely my own selfishness!” she shouts.
My eyes go wide at how blunt she is about it.
“…What?”
So she’s aware of it herself? Didn’t she honestly believe that all she did was to the benefit of others?
“You let know that several tis during that week not so long ago. This is simply my own pride at work…”
With that said, Maria fixes with a stern gaze.
“But still! I’m still a Box!”
I can’t help but fall silent in the face of her intensity.
She knows, but she still can’t change herself. The reason is the firm resolve within her. If that were to change, then I have no doubt she would no longer be able to remain who she is.
“……Sorry for yelling.” Maria looks away awkwardly. “It’s just that it frustrates . I can’t accept this outco.”
“…It’s okay, Maria. If what Yuri says is true, we will et again.”
“I don’t care. That doesn’t do anything to change the fact that the Kazuki here in front of will be gone. Right now, I’ll lose you, and that’s certain.”
“……Maria.”
I find the idea of coming back to life hard to believe, too.
“…Kazuki, as I just told you, I can’t say that I’m a Box as I am now. Which is why I can’t protect anyone. It’s possible all I’ll be able to do from here on out is watch Yanagi suffer. Within Kingdom Royale, I’m just a powerless girl,” Maria says. She reaches up and cradles my head against her chest. “That’s why, even if it’s just a little, I think it’s okay for to express Maria Otonashi’s true feelings.”
She whispers to .
“I’m sad.”
Her lips brush against my ear.
“I can’t stand the thought of you dying. It pains . I hate it. It hurts. I want to be with you.”
I suddenly rember when I knelt and extended my hand to her within that classroom of endless repetitions.
“I may be powerless. I may be nothing more than an ordinary Maria Otonashi now. But—”
Back then, though only for the briefest mont, she had been a re powerless girl.
And now, within the Ga of Indolence, she is helpless again.
“—But I still want to protect you, even if it ans throwing away my life.”
I can’t see the expression on her face as she says this.
But I do know the answer I need to give.
“I’m sorry.”
I made this decision when I chose Maria instead of Yanagi, after all.
“No matter how much it hurts, it’s not your job to protect here.”
I decided when I chose her, the one who made who I am now.
“When you don’t have your box, it’s my job to protect you.”
I will defend Maria.
And I will defend my normal life.
I will defend the normal life that Maria doesn’t want.
Day 7 Kazuki Hoshino’s Room
And then, I am run through by an invisible sword.
•Kazuki Hoshino, dead via Death by Sword
GA OVER
• Winners
Yuri Yanagi (Player)
The King; killed Kazuki Hoshino on the seventh day by choosing him for Murder, killed Koudai Kamiuchi directly on the sa day. Survived.
*Victory conditions were fulfilled by the deaths of Iroha Shindo, Kazuki Hoshino, and Koudai Kamiuchi.
Maria Otonashi
The Double; survived.
*Victory conditions were fulfilled by the death of Kazuki Hoshino.
• Losers
Iroha Shindo
The Prince; executed for failure to follow the schedule.
Daiya Oomine
The Sorcerer; died due to hemorrhagic shock after his carotid artery was slit with a knife by Koudai Kamiuchi.
Kazuki Hoshino
The Revolutionary; died via Yuri Yanagi and Koudai Kamiuchi’s Death by Sword on the seventh day.
Koudai Kamiuchi
The Knight; killed Daiya Oomine directly on the sixth day. Killed Kazuki Hoshino with Death by Sword on the seventh day. Died due to hemorrhagic shock after being stabbed in the abdon with a knife by Yuri Yanagi on the sa day.
Day 1 The Common Area
I heard this was a ga of kill or be killed.
I thought I was appropriately attuned to the danger.
But there’s no way I can deal with this. No one could imagine this sudden ga over.
The knife pressed against my throat digs in. I’m on the floor, and I can feel blood flowing down the back of my neck.
“I got distracted.”
A girl with nice features is speaking in front of .
“I got distracted when I saw it was you, Kazuki. I suppose it’s because so part of wanted to help you. Maybe that ans I’m still immature.”
This girl is simply blinking like so sort of machine without the slightest change in expression, and what she’s saying ans absolutely nothing to .
She loosens the grip on her knife a bit, then continues:
“Anyway, I’m gonna tell you about myself for future reference. Only until that bastard Kamiuchi arrives, though, so it won’t be much. Damn, guess that ans he’s alive, huh? He’s the one I really wanna kill.”
What is she talking about…? Who is Kamiuchi? Hell, who is she? Why does she know my na?
“I don’t have any amazing physical abilities, and my IQ isn’t off the charts. My mory isn’t photographic, and I don’t experience synesthesia. I don’t have a single one of those easy-to-understand special abilities. So why am I the way I am?”
The blood-drenched girl tells with no emotion on her face.
“Because I have focus.”
She carries on matter-of-factly.
“Take the sprint, for instance. The first thing I do before I run is clear my mind of distractions. I block out everything, like thinking I can beat so-and-so, or that I’m at a disadvantage, or that winning here could take into the national tournant or whatever. I simply analyze what an ideal run for the day will look like by examining things like the condition of the track and the state of my white muscles, along with the rest of my body, and then I run a ntal simulation. Once I’m crouched in the starting position, I focus exclusively on sound. I ignore all extraneous noises, and I concentrate solely on the crack of the pistol. Sound travels around 1,125 feet per second, though, which is slow. I actually start as soon as I hear the very beginning of the shot, but I can’t do that in my head. So I base my start on the feeling of overtaking the sound itself. I run according to the simulation I put together beforehand. No excess thought is needed. That’s why, after I run in a tournant, I have no mories of the sprint itself.”
Having said all that, she turns her emotionless eyes toward .
“Oh, sorry. I guess I got a bit long-winded. The main point is that by channeling all my energy in a single direction, I can summon abilities that people might call exceptional. I’m good at that, end of story, so I’m not a superhuman. Yeah, I suppose that information will prove helpful to you.”
I can’t make any sense of it. She must have lost her mind.
I realize the back of my head is wet. I can deduce what type of liquid it is, but I can’t check to be certain… And I don’t want to.
Sothing else catches my attention.
“Uh, ah—!”
Maria’s body is lying on the ground.
And she’s not the only one. I see other prone, motionless forms, too.
“I might be angry, just a little. Koudai Kamiuchi’s atrocities are one thing, but then there’s that stupid bitch, too. She tricked without a care in the world, not just in this ga, but in regular life, too.”
I’m not sensing any anger or other emotions from her expression, though.
“That bitch Yuri said she hung around with because she knew I liked her. And she didn’t even like . She just wanted to make suffer. She’s horrible. When she told about it, I couldn’t co up with any plan besides a dying ssage even though I knew they were gonna kill .”
I’m through trying to make sense of what she’s talking about.
“Still, I don’t think those emotions had any influence over what I did here. You don’t need emotions to win this. I was already prepared by the ti they finished explaining Kingdom Royale.”
“……Prepared?”
“Yeah—prepared to maintain the focus needed to keep killing until victory is certain.”
Then, without the slightest change in expression…
…she kills .
I begin to lose consciousness soon after she slits my carotid artery.
As I slip away, maybe it’s just my mind playing tricks on , but I think I hear a wailing scream. As the voice enters my ears, I finally rember.
Right, she’s the student council president.
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