Seventh.

[trustwellness]

The past week has been tense, despite everyone's best efforts to lessen the heavy atmosphere of worry and dread; the deadline for the incentive has been creeping ever-nearer, and the potential for consequences to come down – not only on you, but on those who have already suffered and died in the name of this "course" you've all been put through – has been difficult to ignore as time goes by. But whatever one may be feeling about it, the world keeps turning and time moves ever-forward; Friday morning dawns eventually, heralded with the usual ringing of chimes and silence laying heavy over most of the university. Perhaps things have been uneventful; checking the first few floors may imply that, for those of you that are feeling hopeful. Searching lower down, however... Well, things may not be as acceptable as they seem, let's put it that way. >Explore?

Comments

[sportadork]

[first few floors clear of murder... UH well. let's go check out the ballroom, then.]

[trustwellness]

[It looks like quite a few things have changed in the ballroom. Someone was busy in here last night - it looks like they were decorating for some sort of event, but it doesn't look like they finished.

That doesn't mean that no events happened in here last night, however; the fact that there's a person lying on the floor in here is enough of an indication that something may have.]

[sportadork]

[oh GREAT. THAT'S JUST GREAT. EVERYONE HERE IS A GODDAMN DICK WHO CAN'T NOT MURDER FOR ONE GODDAMN WEEK.

well let's go see who the body is.]

[trustwellness]

[The person in question is lying on their back and nothing is horrendously amiss with their face, so identifying them shouldn't be too hard, actually, despite the fact that they're lying in a large pool of blood.

The blood is also covering a good amount of the clothes this person is wearing; however, her expression is strangely peaceful despite all of that, bright orange hair haloed out around her head. She doesn't stir as she's approached, there are no movements or sounds to acknowledge anyone's presence in the room - nor are there any signs of life.

There's no room to question it; the conclusion is clear.

Orihime Inoue is dead.]

[sportadork]

[... really. he doesn't know what's the worst thing about this. that someone he cares about is dead, again? that someone else he cares about killed, again?]

... Someone didn't trust that we could save our friends. [it's that. it's probably that.]

[elepe]

[...

This is fine, this is very fine, holy shit this is not fine? Who the hell did this to Orihime, of all people? She never did get to talk to her, or try to patch things up, or...]

Orihime...oh Tapus, Orihime...

[feistytrader]

[...His immediate instinctive reaction upon seeing this is to try and reach out and wake her up somehow; he even steps closer and reaches an arm out.

But... She's dead, with that much blood there's no way she's alive, and he slowly retreats his arm and quietly stares at her while he tries to process this. Orihime...]

[oyashiromama]

[Hanyuu's a little late. Couldn't leave and have Elda worry-

...her heart kind of stops when she reaches the ballroom. When she sees that distinct hair color.] No... No, I-

[Oh shit-] Someone- w-where's Kimihiro, we have to... He can't see this.

[tsugomori]

Let him know, you mean?

[ ... But, he thinks it may be too late for that... the announcement already went out. ]

[oyashiromama]

Yes... Yes, and- he won't want to see her like this.

[After the memory he'd received, again, the poor boy.]

[tsugomori]

No, no he wouldn't.

[ Honestly, he understands... the pain of losing your loved one here. ]

It's a shame someone fell victim to the motive again, but I suppose I could see why it happened.

[oyashiromama]

...Yes. At least, this time, we...

We know...a little more why this took place, from the start.

[tsugomori]

[ "What would I do without you?"

Mikazuki steps into the ballroom at some point, and he's ... well, he's looking at the body, and that sure is her dead body. He doesn't have anything else to say at this point. It's surely a pity, isn't it? His hand goes to touch his bracelet that she had made for him... but he lingers anyway in the room. His attention goes to the others. ]

[foundfate]

[You know, it figures that this would be the one time he doesn't over sleep and miss out on the investigation.

After checking other parts of the building he finally makes it to the ballroom, only to see a mess of familiar orange hair and feel his heart jump into his throat. He wants to scream, to react in some way at all, but the shock of it all just freezes him in place.

Give him a moment, he needs to process what he is seeing.]

[tsugomori]

Watanuki-- how about we just move away from here?

[ Mikazuki comes by, moving to be in front of him, and yeah it's -- it's too late but he doubts him lingering here is going to help. ]

[foundfate]

[That actually spurs him to try and push past Mikazuki, interestingly enough.]

She- she looks like she's sleeping, she can't be-

[feistytrader]

...She's dead.

[There's no point in beating around the bush or sparing Watanuki's feelings at this point.]

You don't have to look.

[At the same time, he turns to look at Mikazuki.]

But if he wants to, just let him.

[tsugomori]

[ He'll just nod. ]

Of course.

[tsugomori]

[ ... He's not good at stopping people from doing anything it seems ... but there's something, he just... he just shouts-- ]

Watanuki!

She's already...

[ He'll come after him. But he won't stop him, although unfortunately he doesn't think it'll be a good idea for the man to linger -- for emotional reasons and because someone needs to investigate Orihime's body (something he won't do). ]

[foundfate]

[Watanuki will manage to take a good 3 or 4 steps in before the combined efforts of Silver and Mikazuki finally get him to stop. He feels all of his energy rush out of him in one fell swoop, and he falls to his knees.

She's gone. She's really gone.

Andddddd there's the tears finally.]

[oyashiromama]

[Before the investigating starts... Hanyuu can spare a moment. She'll kneel down and hug him, and then murmur to Mikazuki and Silver:]

I... I'll look over her. Can you...please, help him out of here?

[feistytrader]

[...Well, that part's easy.

Silver puts a hand on Watanuki's shoulder, then gently scoops him up to carry him out of the ballroom.]

[tsugomori]

[ Mikazuki nods, and then he just... well Silver just scooped him up like that. He'll just try not to look at the dead body and then head back further into the room for Things... ]