Part 25: Serpentine

The thread voted to break from the plans and hitch a ride on Ox, so that's what we're going to do.

[BGM: Slithering]


I didn't make this choice because I wanted to betray anyone. I made this choice because I realized just what I was dealing with. My conversation with Ox. My conversation with Pig. And my conversation with Snake. All of these put together, I had realized what was really happening here. And I knew how to stop it.

I walked to the cafeteria with confidence. Most everyone was grouped at the center, though once again I noticed Snake making a move at the chessboard.

Hey everybody!

Mouse.



Did you find a Minor Trinket?

I'm worried that by the tone of that question, no one else has.

So we all failed, huh?

Hey, we don't need to worry. After Snake brings things together, we can search as a group! We still have time.

I'm not sure about that.

Let's keep things optimistic, okay? We can't give up hope!

For now, let's turn our attention to the screen. I believe the round is about to commence.

Snake was right; the speakers kicked on moments later.



Round 9 has ended. Now, let us see how the race has progressed.



The Rat has hitched a SNEAKY RIDE on Ox.



The Ox has begun to STAMPEDE and moved to the 14th space.



Thanks to the SNEAKY RIDE, The Rat also moves five spaces.

The Tiger has failed to make a move.



The Bunny has begun to HOP and moved four spaces.

The Dragon has failed to make a move.



The Snake has attempted to SERPENTINE. The SERPENTINE has failed! The Snake does not move.

The Horse has RUN one space.

The Sheep has failed to make a move.

The Monkey has RUN one space.

The Rooster has RUN one space.

The Dog has failed to make a move.

The Pig has RUN one space.



Now, Round 10 has begun. Do your best, and choose wisely.

[BGM: Mousetrap]


As expected, I was immediately faced with outrage.

Mouse, what the hell is this?

Hey, I thought we were going to let Snake do their Serpentine thing and all fall back in line?

Why'd you change your mind, Mouse?

Because if I hadn't, we'd all be dead.



Isn't that right Snake?

Wh-what?!

Oh my. What a claim.

I'm not quite sure what you mean, Mouse. Would you care to elaborate on that?

Breathe. I was the leader of our mock trial team. This was just a debate. I had this.

[BGM: Dance of the Snakes]


Oh, I'll elaborate alright. In fact, I'm going to give you a beautiful grand finale just like you wanted. Right here, right now, I'm going to expose everything about this stupid race.

Well please, go ahead. I am quite curious by what you mean.

Let's start with explaining why you decided to not follow the plan.

Right, right. Your plan. I must say, it was awfully convenient that everyone after you in the order decided to start freaking out like that.



I heard from Pig that she did it because you made her afraid of the possibility that the traitor would be able to rush ahead and win the race.

Oh? Pig, you blamed me for your defection?

I-I-

No, no she didn't. She simply said that she grew more worried after talking with you. I wonder, did anyone else have a similar experience?

Now that you mention it, Snake did pop by when Monkey and I were searching together and said some scary shit. ...Not that I was scared, of course.

But perhaps he was deliberately priming us to betray the group.



He talked with me, too. Didn't tell me to start sprinting. But I chose to after our conversation.

Interesting pattern there, Snake. Care to comment?

Well, I suppose when you frame it like that, you could construe ill-content.

However, I was merely talking with anyone I came across as I searched the school. I was worried about what might happen if the person with the ambitious personality decided to start acting out, and I shared those fears with my teammates.

In truth, I was also gauging their reactions to see if I could figure out who it was. But still, it's a stretch to try and pin the blame on me for the actions they took because they were scared. Besides, I question the point of all that work just to bring everybody back to the same space.

You're right, it is a lot of work. It doesn't really make sense to me.

Then we are in agreement?

No, not really.



Because it does actually make sense if you weren't trying to bring everybody back to the same square. Sure, that's what you said your ability does. But as you've pointed out, people can lie about their abilities pretty freely.

Ah, I see what you're getting at. That's why you said 'everyone would be dead'. Let me see if I can guess what you're about to say.

'The only reason someone would go through all this trouble would be to try and survive. My ability must let me instantly go to the finish line if everyone besides me is on a separate space.

'That's why I deliberately goaded the people after me to break formation, and then I came to the people before me to clue them in to a false plan.'

There's a certain amount of sense to your story. But unfortunately, a story without evidence would be categorized as fiction.



Unless, of course, you have some evidence about my ability's true nature?

I don't have evidence per se, but I do have something to bring up. It is a tremendously difficult task to get everyone on a different space. With such a high-skill requirement, it would make sense for the reward to be something stronger than 'everybody goes to the same space and you get a 5 space lead'.

That's your reasoning?

Mouse, I hate to say it, but Brian has never been the best when it comes to game balance. Surely you can look at other abilities and see how wildly uneven in terms of strength they are.

Why can the same not be said of me?

Sure, some abilities might be a bit stronger than others, but your supposed ability is miles weaker than anything else!



Perhaps he simply has a grudge against me.

Mouse, this can't be it, can it? You've ruined our chance at teamwork due to suspicions built with such slim evidence?

Hold on, there's more.



We come at last to the final branching point for this route, but it's not a simple binary [X or Y] choice- no, this time we're in a deduction, and whether we can properly suss out what's really been going on on this route and ask the right questions/take the right actions each time we're prompted is what determines what path we go down. ...That being said, it's kind of hard to get a forum thread to successfully deduct things when the questions give away some of the context, so we're just going to successfully deduct everything here, and in the bonus update post-route I'll go into the actual deduction breakdown, as well as show off what happens if you get it wrong.

Therefore...



What if I could prove your desperation to separate us onto different spaces was beyond reasonable. Prove that if the ability really was what you said it was, you'd have no good excuse in acting the way you did.

Seeing as I haven't once acted to separate us, I'd be curious as to how you would go about doing that.

Please proceed.

It really is a difficult thing, having us land on 11 different spaces, especially since we were working as a group for so long. You barely did it when there were 7 of us active.

You had no chance when there were 11 of us.

Mouse, you're not about to say what I think you are, are you?

Damn right I am.

[BGM: Constriction]


Snake, I'm accusing you of the Origami Cat Killings! And I believe your motive was to separate the rest of us onto separate squares, by force if needed!

Furthermore, the reason you needed to do this was because your ability allowed you to instantly get to the finish line if we were all separated. And you wanted to get to the finish line before us because you have the 'ambitious' personality type!

For real?!

No way! There's no way that's true, right?

Mouse, you're saying this is the asshole behind all those killings?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

Oh my.



Mouse, I'm afraid I may have indulged your delusions a bit too long.

I know you're searching for neat answers to difficult problems, but you can't really believe I murdered those 3 people, do you?

I don't. I believe you murdered those 4 people.

Well then. I suppose I have no choice but to listen as you try to prove it.

Frankly, I'd be impressed if you even managed to tell a story that halfway made sense.

But I am intrigued as to what you'll try. So go on then.

Mouse, are you sure about this?

Trust me, I'm certain. I guess I'll start at how I started suspecting you to be the killer in the first place.



Ox told me to think about who would commit these murders in this way. And when I started thinking about that, I realized something about these murders.

There was an awful beauty in these murders.

What?

The bodies were all unmarred, killed without much injury, killed almost instantly. Each time a body was found, there would be an origami cat nearby, and each time it was found in some bizarre state.

I can almost picture it now- in a demonic school, the Cat moved like mist and peacefully killed us in impossible ways. Wouldn't you say there's something poetic in these murders?

Poetic? I don't get what you're referring to.

Murder is murder. There's nothing beautiful to be found in it.



Perhaps, but think of it this way: even if you dislike poetry, you'd rather read good poetry than bad, no?

Tch.

You're right, Snake, that what I've been saying is ridiculous, but deep down you agree with what I've been saying, don't you?

I find it a preposterous leap to suspect me over something like that. The murders were all bloodless simply because messy murders would leave more evidence. The locked-room setups were meant to sew doubt and put us in a state of paranoia where we couldn't think straight.

Those were likely all motivations as well, but this wasn't the only way to solve those problems. At your core, Snake, you're an idealist. If you had to kill, some part of your subconscious wanted it to be in a seemingly 'elegant' method.

Unharmed bodies. Unsolvable mysteries. A calm and methodical battle of wits, not vicious and reprehensible murder.



If Horse were to kill us all, he'd start swinging a knife without restraint. If Bunny wanted to kill us, he'd grab a pistol and ambush us one by one. If Rooster wanted to kill us, he'd hit someone over the head with a bat and run.

But if you wanted to kill us, you'd use poison and trickery. Plus, you're obviously the only one who can fold an origami cat.

As I've told you, I do not possess such skills.

I respectfully disagree.

Do you have anything of substance in your accusations? Theorize about motives all you want, but the fact of the matter is these murders were, as you called them, 'bizarre impossible situations'.



Take Sheep's death for instance. How on earth could I do something like that? You all saw the room, it was impossible to enter unless you had a key. One key was with Tiger at all times, the other inside the room. This crime is impossible for me to commit.

And with that, your accusation crumbles.

Impossible, you say? That may be the case if everything was as we believed it to be. However, we made one false assumption!

We thought Sheep was dead before you and Dragon came across her body laying limp in the room. Of course we'd think that!

Of course you would! It's correct.

No, it's not.

She wasn't killed until after Dragon left the room!