Part 87: Hostage

_{content warning: suicide}

[BGM: Silence]


As usual, I just pressed 'run'. Then I went to the cafeteria with Dragon. Dog, Bunny, Pig, Horse, Sheep, and Monkey were all there. Separate from the group stood Ox.

[BGM: Ox's Logic]


Mouse. Dragon. How kind of you to join us here.

Oh, don't mention it. I can't help but notice we're missing some people.

I wasn't able to locate Snake's group in a quick fashion. However, I believe that this should be enough.

So, what're we doing here?

Ask him.

Horse gestured to Ox.

He's clearly the one running the show.

Right. Ox, I don't mean to be pushy, but could you tell us why you gathered us here?



Well, first off, I thought we all already agreed to meet up in the cafeteria anyways.

Oh! That's right, we did say that. Sorry, I kind of forgot.

We did too! Just totally slipped our minds, whoops, how clumsy.

Whatever. As many of you know, a Trinket has been used on me. At the end of this Round, I will be executed.

No!

However, I can still survive if I find out who poisoned me.

Really? But... how are you even possibly going to figure out who poisoned you? Do you know already? Are you psychic?

…

Ox breathed a sigh of heavy responsibility.



I have spent much of my life acting as a leader. A reformer. Even back in middle school, I turned my class of delinquents into model students.

I grew up in the rough part of Hightower. I saw how out of control it was. And that's why I became a prosecutor. By helping to shape the judicial system, I could help control society.

It's admittedly a hard and uneven job. Control is a difficult thing to maintain.

But it has to be maintained, or else people will fall to their vices. That's the natural progression of things. With that in mind...

[BGM: Steadfast Gallop]


...I will now be taking control of this group.

As he said this, Ox pulled out a pistol with a silencer.

Woah!

What the hell?!

Where did you get that?

On the second floor. It was hidden particularly well in one of the classrooms. It is... disturbing to me that I was able to find it, and makes me worry what else may be stored in this building.

However, none of that particularly matters at this point. After all, a mere pistol elevates me to being the biggest threat in the room.

What are you going to do with that?



Perhaps this is selfish of me, however, I do not wish to die yet. If I can live by killing my poisoner, then that's what I shall do. So then, let's begin.

Ox, hold on a minute. Do you know who poisoned you?

Admittedly, I am not yet clear on the culprit's identity.

Then don't worry. I know everything.

Well, that seems a bit like hyperbol-

Everything.

O-Okay then. You have the floor.

Thank you.



So, I tried to investigate who could've poisoned you.

Ahem.

Er, Dragon and I tried. In particular, I tried looking into what Brian meant when he was talking about 'a tool of corruption'. He said your death would come about by 'the one who helped a malicious cover-up'. And he called it ironic, which I thought was a particularly strange word choice.

How could something like that be ironic? And there was a lot of distancing words involved there... 'Your death will be caused by the one.' Why not 'You'll be killed by'?

What are you getting at, Mouse?

As I investigated, I found out many interesting things. For one, I heard that the Chief of Police, Chief Bowen, wanted to close the case quickly, without incident, no matter what.

That he did.

I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty fishy to me.



I also heard that the Chief of Police and the Chief Prosecutor are very close. Close to a point where they'd cover for each other.

I am not supposed to lend credence to such rumors. ...However, I cannot deny the rumors, per se.

Anyways, that's when it clicked with me. I realized why Brian called the person a 'tool of corruption'. Because they weren't the ringleader. They were just someone used in a larger scheme.

They were you, Ox.

What?

In the grand scheme of things, you're fairly young for a prosecutor, Ox. And this case happened a few years ago. So how did such a fresh faced prosecutor land the lead prosecuting role in a fairly high profile murder trial?

Well, I showed a lot of promise from a very young age. I was top of m-



Ego talking. No one in the real world gives a shit about all of that.

How would you know, you're still a student!

Ox, I hate to tell you like this, but you were chosen because you were easily controlled. You were naive, and inexperienced enough that the Chief Prosecutor was easily able to rig the trial in your favor without you even noticing.

What?! There's no way that's true! Why would the trial even need rigging? Everything pointed towards Morris!

Exactly! I haven't heard of a single case which reached trial with a plea bargain that was such an open-and-shut case. To fight something like this, it's always because the defense sees weakness in the prosecution's case. And my father was not a dumb defense attorney.

So how was everything smoothed over so well?

I don't know, but that doesn't mean I did anything wrong!

Ox, I can't claim to know what's really going on with that trial. However, there was something fishy about it. And, like it or not, you helped cover it up.

That can't be!



Ox's face was flushed with anguish. I felt bad, but it was the truth.

So wait, then why did Brian say he'd be killed by himself?

No, that's not what he said. Brian was saying it'd be Ox's fault. Ox's potential killer, however, is someone entirely different. That would be the poisoner. And I also know who that is.

For real?

Bunny, Pig, you two told me where your group had searched. Would you agree that those searches were fairly comprehensive?

Mostly, yeah, I'd like to say we did a fair job at that.

Then I assume you stumbled across the locked safe in the Spanish classroom, then?

Locked safe?

Oh, that locked safe!



Yeah, well, we tried to crack it, but we just had no clues on how to open it. Ultimately, we just dismissed it as a red herring.

No you didn't. There's no way you thought a locked safe was a red herring. You know what I think?

What?

I think you already opened that safe. I think you found Snake's Major Trinket, and it let you poison other participants. I thnk you re-locked that safe, and you poisoned Ox.

What? That's ridiculous, Mouse. We searched that room as a group. If I did something like that, surely Pig and Dog would've seen it.

Oh, but they did. That's why you're keeping Pig at arm's reach at all times, right? Because you're threatening her to keep quiet, or else you'll stab her with a knife.

Ridiculous!



You're the victorious personality, right? That type can win with two other people. That's what you promised Pig and Dog if they cooperated, right?

Such wild theories.

Pig, Ox has a gun right now. If Bunny tries anything, he'll be shot. Tell us, is he threatening you?

…

He is! He totally is!

Bunny has a traitorous personality and he poisoned Ox and he told me that if I said a word about it he'd stab me with his knife and I was so scared but he prom-

Okay, we get the gist. Well, what do you have to say to that, Bunny?

Tch. Okay, maybe I have a traitor personality. But I wasn't the poisoner!

Wait, what?



I made Pig use Kavka's poison! She was the one who activated the Major Trinket, so she's the one who needs to die if you want to live Ox!

Th-that's totally untrue! Think about it – why would he bother going through with that?

He knew he'd be dead one way or the other if he was caught anyways! It's a nonsense claim.

I did it so you'd be fully onboard! Don't try to weasel your way out of this! Or do you want Ox to die?

Well, I don't want to die!

So you admit you're lying to try and kill Ox to save yourself!

What? No, no, that's not what I meant.

[BGM: Silence]


Okay, I have a confession to make. I pressed the button. That's right, it was me. So just put a bullet through my head and we'll be done with this.

This is certainly turning out unpredictably.

Wh-what should we do?

Mouse?



Okay, so we're already locked into what ending we're getting – and there's not much difference between the two options here on that front, either – as what this choice actually boils down to is whether we want Ox to live here. That said, we already know the deal with Kavka's Toxin – if Ox drinks the blood of the person who pushed the button, he'll be executed on the spot. The thread seems to like Ox a lot, so I'm going with the choice that ensures Ox will live...

I think Bunny's argument makes the most sense. It's a sensible precaution.

Yeah! That's what I'm saying!

I told you it was me.

Dog, I have a hard time understanding why you went along with all of this in the first place.

Why me? Seemed like something to do.

Like hell that's your reasoning. You've got the other traitor personality, don't you?

Oh no, you've caught me.



Why are you debating this, Ox? I already told you who you need to kill if you want to survive.

If I want the group to survive, I already know who I have to kill.

*bang!*

Ox held up the gun to Bunny's head and fired it right between his eyes. I immediately turned away, but I could hear the body hit the floor. People screamed. Ox turned to Dog and fired again. More screams. I wasn't looking.

Ox, you have to believe me, I really didn't input the code!

I wish I could believe you, Pig. I wish I could.

*bang!*

Gunfire. A body hitting the floor. Deathly silence. ...Slurping. Wait, slurping? Ew, was Ox drinking Pig's blood?! Fuck, that was what he had to do, wasn't it? God, that's disgusting! Fuck you, Brian!



Hopefully that should do it.

That was horrible!

How can you do such things with a straight face?

Believe me, I can only maintain my composure due to years of training. I feel like fainting after that. I... don't think I will be okay for quite a long time. But at least we will all live for a long time thanks to that.

Was it necessary?

I believe so.

But Pig...

Pig was willing to risk all of our lives to save her own. I can empathize with her decision... but if you make that choice, you have to be willing to accept if things go the other way.

[BGM: Mousetrap]


He said that, but I had trouble looking right at him. What had happened was... horrifying. To act in cold blood like that... How could Ox do such things without blinking?

With that settled, the rest of the race went fairly plainly. Dog and Bunny turned out to be the ones with deviant personalities, so there wasn't any need to be suspicious of one another. We only needed to find a total of nine Minor Trinkets with those three dead, so we reached our goal much faster. After that, we all just used the Trinkets each round until we escaped as a group.

It should've been a happy ending. Nine of us got out alive. ...No, it was a happy ending, wasn't it? But I felt so cold. It was hard for the events involving Pig and Ox to sit right with me. So for the rest of the race, I kept my distance with the other members. And even after we had all escaped, I was determined to not talk with any of the others ever again.

In the end, Ox, Tiger, Snake, Dragon, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, and myself got out alive. But Bunny, Dog, and Pig died. And I couldn't help but wonder if I could be happy with this ending.



[Ending – 3 of Spades]

If someone with a deviant personality gets their hands on Kavka's Toxin, they will start by targeting a perceived threat. In this case, that would be Ox.

However, Mouse may be able to determine the identity of the poisoner, despite confusing interference. In that case, the deaths present in this version of the race will be minimal.

Unfortunately, they won't be the right deaths. And so, we search for another path.