trusthell | Week 3.

Week 3.

WEEK 3
Another week has passed; two more Survivors are gone. Pearl and Caren both had someone to fight for, someone worth killing for; perhaps it's for the best to hope that somehow they've found peace despite not being able to collect on the Kingmaker's incentive.

Saturday is given to regrouping and sleep; there aren't any bodies to be found on Sunday morning. That doesn't mean the night passed easily, though - it seems another piece of your personal puzzle may have fallen into place while you slept...

Following that spiral staircase up to the second floor will reveal something strange; those stairs definitely lead far higher than you remember, up to a previously inaccessible third floor. Go ahead and explore as much as you like; consider it your reward for a job well done.

SURVIVORS REMAINING: 23

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week two of Trustfell! Save your threads for coins and the coming week's activity check; don't forget to check in to this week's activity check and submit your memory regains!

The text and calling posts are still active, for the sake of contacting the jerk who's keeping you here, to be used at your leisure!]

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Fish have- okay, never mind.

[NEVER MIND.

The next game goes to Cherryblod, which means it's Misa's turn to share a secret.]

O-oops! I lost!

[ Did she lose her touch..? ]

Um...Misa-Misa has to sleep with the light on...normally, she sleeps with a baseball bat under her bed, too, but, she doesn't have anything she can really use for something like that here, other than those big green gloves...

You're afraid of the dark?

That's understandable.

[Especially here.]

The dark, thunderstorms, tight spaces...Misa-Misa's really bad with stuff like that. It's all in my head, but...

That doesn't make it any less valid.

[She also loses the next game.]

[ N-no way.. ]

Misa-Misa, um, was really, really bad in school, too, in terms of grades and all...she's the worst at things like math and stuff. I did pretty badly on my entrance exams, and I had to take them three times before I was able to get into Towa University...

That's nothing you have to be embarrassed about, either. You have other talents besides academics, that's all.

In fairness to Misa-Misa, the second time she took them there were, um, extenuating circumstances. But I'll save that for another secret...

Assuming, of course, you can get to it.

I'll do my best.

[Of course she wins the next round. Of course.]

Actually... there's something I've been considering telling you anyway. So I'll just use this game as an excuse to get around to admitting it.

I used to be a criminal.

[ ...oh boy. ]

What...kind of criminal, Cherry?

Let's say 'the kind Kira would have killed and not thought twice about it' and leave it at that, unless you win another game.

...If you win the next game, then...Misa-Misa will tell you why she wants to find Kira so badly.

Alright.

[...The next game goes in Cherryblod's favor.]

[ Good. Misa slams her cards on the table, perhaps a little harder than she would have liked.

She's serious now. ]

...Misa-Misa was 17 years old. She had only just started modeling, just started getting shoots around Tokyo. Things were ordinary. Misa-Misa's mama and papa, they supported her, too. They loved her. They cared about her.

One day, a burglar broke into her house, with a knife in his hand. He didn't think anyone was home. And the robber...he killed my parents. Both of them, right in front of me. I tried to call the police, but I couldn't do anything but cry and cry until they got there. And by that time, the robber had already gotten away.

The trial...that was the worst year of Misa-Misa's life. Every day, I had to go to that courtroom and look at the man who killed my parents. And the longer it went on, the more and more his lawyer defended him, the more Misa-Misa felt her stomach twist on the witness stand...the more people started to say that maybe, just maybe, the robber who broke into Misa-Misa's house didn't do anything wrong. Maybe he was just falsely accused. Maybe Misa-Misa made the whole thing up.

That maybe got bigger and bigger, until one day, the judge let him go free. There just wasn't enough evidence. That's what he said.

...So I couldn't do anything. I fell into the deepest, darkest, most horrible despair. I still modeled, of course, I had to smile for the crowd, but, I didn't know what to do with myself anymore. I won't get into the details. It was bad.

...And then, it wasn't. Because Kira...he killed Misa-Misa's parent's murderer. I don't know how, or what made him choose him, but, one day, just like all the other ones. A heart attack.

...I see. I'm so sorry.

[That's awful. You'd have to be heartless not to sympathize with her at least a little, after hearing that story.]

No wonder you want to meet him so badly.

...This whole damn system's broken. That's what Light told me, when I told him what happened. Light's the one who helped me out, when I wanted to do nothing but just lay down and die. And when Light told me that he wanted to look for Kira, too...

I had to do it. I can't say no to that. I can't say no to Light, and I can't say no to the idea of seeing Kira. I need to find him, so I can thank him...

[ Throughout her whole story, her expression was serious as can be, but right now, with the whole thing over, all she can do is just look down and start to shake a bit...the tears are starting to well up, now. Deep breaths... ]

I-I'm not saying that what Kira's doing now is right...but he was my hero, back then. He's not gonna be the one who changes the world, though.

That's gonna be Light. I told you.

Edited 2016-03-14 19:23 (UTC)

I believe you. That kind of experience... Must be awful to go through, and you're strong for surviving.

...I wouldn't know for certain what it's like, because I've only ever been on the other end of it.

It was the worst. I was utterly miserable...but for a while, after that, I was Kira's biggest fan. I had thought that the person or whatever who had punished the man who killed my parents...I wanted to do anything for them. ...That was just my grief talking, though, I think. All that pent-up emotion from that year of non-stop hell I had to go through was coming out through my gratitude for Kira, but...

I think that's just because I...ever since then, I can't stand the thought of evil. Of injustice. Of criminals like the man who killed Misa-Misa's mama and papa...

...So I'm going to beat you in this game of blackjack. And then you're going to tell me about what you did. Got it?

Of course.

[He doesn't throw the next game, but she wins it anyway. For a moment or two, he's totally silent.

When he speaks, he's calm. His voice doesn't shake, nor does he look away from her.]

...I was in organized crime. A high up gangster, for about a hundred years. I did the dirty work of a gang known for dirty work, and they called me 'Cherryblood'. I must have killed... not a thousand people, but close.

There are hundreds of people like you in my world. People who've lost family, friends, lovers, because I killed them.

The difference is that I'm still alive.

[ ...He wasn't wrong. Someone like that...it's the kind of person that Kira would go after without losing even a wink of sleep over it.

A member of a mob. Someone who killed nearly a thousand people...not even Kira killed that many criminals, and yet, Cherryblod, sweet Cherry, murdered that many for no greater good, no just cause...

She wants to be angry. She wishes her blood was boiling right now. That's the way it should be when dealing with someone like this, right?

Instead, she's just...terrified, trying to stand her ground, barely able to look him in the face. ]

...Why?

[ She knows the why doesn't matter, but, even so... ]

...Because it was fun, and I was good at it.

[If it were someone else, he might be able to deliver that line with a smile.

Instead he's just... sad. He knows Misa will never forgive him for this, considering her circumstances. Nobody should forgive him for that, even without personal history affecting things.

But he really did like her.]

[ Oh. ]

...How could you?

[ Someone who's a criminal for fun...Misa's literally staring down the kind of person she detests most in the whole wide world, and yet, it's the last person she wanted someone like that to turn out to be.

He had been so sweet, too, always wanting to help, always comforting her, and yet...

She wants to scream at him, to cry and shout, but her rage doesn't come out as more than a tepid whisper at best, despite how upset she is. She can't raise her voice.

She's too terrified. ]

What makes you different from him, huh?! You and the burglar, you and the Kingmaker, you're all the same! You ruin people's lives, you take children from their parents, you make people suffer because it's what you're good at?!

You're...you're disgusting! That's pure evil! I...

I trusted you...

That was two hundred years ago, Miss Misa.

[He's calm, still. There's no desperation to prove his innocence in his voice.

What would be the point?]

I know you have no reason to believe me, but I haven't done that sort of thing for a long, long time. It doesn't make up for what I've done - it never will - but I've lived a peaceful life since then.

I didn't lie to you. The people here... are people I want to see go free, back to their own homes and families. Even you.

Even if you hate me for the rest of your life, I still want you to be safe.

[He starts putting his cards away, neatly.

This conversation is probably close to over.]

Two hundred years or two hundred seconds, you're still guilty as sin in my eyes. Still the worst kind of person...

[ She wants to believe him. But there's so much blood on his hands... ]

You've lived a peaceful life. The kind of life that the families of the people you murdered can never have now, because you slayed them because that was your idea of a good time...

[ She's going to be sick. That many lives, she can't even put a value on it. How can you make amends for that?

A person like him deserves a heart attack. And yet, here he stands. ]

What made you stop?

My wife.

[That's a question he can almost smile at. Almost.]

I fell in love with a much better person than myself, who would never allow me to even think about harming someone unjustly. If I had to give up that kind of lifestyle for her - so be it. That's the easiest choice in the world to make.

...Good afternoon.

[He rises from his chair.]

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happysweets - 2016-03-14 20:22 (UTC) - Expand

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cherryblooded - 2016-03-14 20:23 (UTC) - Expand

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