Chapter 14

Yuma’s apartment was messy, but it was obviously the kind of organized mess where she knew where everything was and she didn’t want it moved. You and Satou took a seat on the couch, which was mostly clear but smelled of mothballs.

Yuma pitter-pattered around in the kitchen for a while, which appeared to be the cleanest area of the flat due to its lack of use. She came back with three mugs of jasmine tea.

The smell brought up bad memories of being in Minoru’s care. You reached into your bag for your Perrier bottle. Satou gave you a look of disapproval as you drained it for the third time today. You gave her the same look whenever she accepted Minoru’s drugs, so the two of you were even.

You’d have to find a convert location to refill it. You kept a larger bottle of vodka in your backpack, but you couldn’t whip that out just anywhere, given your age.

“Do you have a bathroom I can use?” You asked, alcohol still fresh on your breath. Yuma made a face but said nothing, just nodded towards a side door.

It’s just a cup of tea, you told your rapidly beating heart and sickeningly stirred gut. Still, anxiety and terror clawed its way up the back of your throat, made you want to scream, “No! I don’t want it!” Just a cup of tea.

You refilled your water bottle with vodka, chugged half its contents, and refilled it again. Then you flushed and washed your hands to give the illusion you did something more proper, like piss or take a shit.

You were swaying a little as you returned to your spot on the sofa. You were careful to breathe through your mouth to avoid any more flashbacks.

Satou and Yuma obviously hadn’t spoken since you left.

“So,” you said, breaking the silence, “Living in a simulation is pretty rough, am I right?”

Yuma’s eyes widened. “So you do know,” she said. “I was beginning to think it was just a lucky guess.”

“Yeah, I know. What do you know?” That was the real question. Was she also a transmigrated girl? Or some sort of self-aware AI? You were leaning towards the latter. You were also leaning too far to the left. Your head was practically on Satou’s shoulder.

“We live in a video game called Academic Pursuits. I don’t know what kind of game it is or who the player is. I have a feeling it’s a murder mystery game and the player will be the final victim if they can’t find out who the perpetrator is.”

You nodded along. She knew less than you thought. That was likely a good thing. It would be much harder to seduce her if she knew her seduction would result in the loss of her sanity.

“What makes you think it’s a murder mystery?” You slurred your words a little. If she noticed, she was kind enough not to point it out.

That’s when she pulled out a cork board as long as she was tall from behind the couch. You blinked at the link chart in front of you. It was covered in pictures and scraps of paper, all connected with red string.

“It began a year ago, at Haruki High. Have you heard of it? Two students died there, Hiro Yamada and Kimiko Noa. Both murdered.”

Hiro and Kimiko’s school photos stared down at you from the board almost accusingly. “Why couldn’t you save us?” They seemed to ask with their vacant eyes and frozen smiles. You had bad dreams of them at night. “I didn’t know,” you told them over and over again. “I didn’t know what would happen.”

You couldn’t give the same excuse to Aina’s parents, however. When they asked the same question, you could only scream and cry yourself awake. Minoru warned you what would happen, after all. You went against her anyway.

They may have been sucky parents, but they didn’t deserve to die.

Yuma’s rambling pulled you out of your own dark thoughts. “I know, I know the police said Kimiko’s death was an accident! But the drugs she OD’d on were never found. No one knew about her drug habit before her death. Isn’t that suspicious? Plus, she was a student at a prestigious academy. Where would she have found a drug dealer?”

“We believe you,” Satou said suddenly.

Yuma looked at her so hopefully that you knew it was the right thing to say. “You- You do?”

“Yes,” Satou said, “But how does what happened then connect to now?”

“I think one of the students at Haruki High killed both Hiro and Kimiko. Eighty percent of Haruki High graduates continue on with their education at the University of Tokyo, which means there’s a good chance the killer is among us!”

Yuma was right. Minoru had a hand in both deaths, even if Kimiko’s death wasn’t intentional, and she was attending university here.

“We need to end the game quickly, before anyone else dies!” She said with a passion burning in her eyes.

“How can we help?” Satou asked. Yuma looked at her as if she were the sun and the moon and all the stars. You didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing.

“Really? Most people would have said I’m crazy and left by now…”

“Aina and I aren’t most people. So, where do we start?”

Yuma was quiet for a while, tearful with gratitude, before roughly wiping away the wetness of her eyes on her arm. She quickly got up and crossed the room to where her backpack was sitting by the door. From it, she pulled a thick file.

“Just having another set of eyes would be helpful. I bribed a cop to get all the information on the investigation into Hiro and Kimiko’s deaths. However, I’ve been looking at it so long that I think I’ve gone blind to important details.”

“I hate to burst your true crime bubble, but even if we figure out the murderer, the police aren’t likely to listen to us,” you told the two excited girls. You literally gave the police the yandere girls’ names and they did nothing about them. They had failed you. You had given up hope in them.

“Then we’ll make them listen,” Yuma said precisely. “Anyway, this isn’t just for justice. This is for safety. The killer is still out there. They’ll probably kill again. I don’t want myself or anyone I know to be the next target.”

What a fool, you thought but said nothing more. Still, your pessimism hung in the air like a hanged man.

“Let’s get to work,” Satou said at last, reaching across the coffee table for the police files.