Night one

[ghettobatman]

[Well, Matt didn't see anything. But he experienced it with all of his other senses - terrifying, overwhelming, inhuman, monstrous, horrifying, disgusting, infuriating.. Those kids didn't stand a chance. And neither would he, with his sense dulled.]

[It makes his world on fire burn a little brighter, and Matt may or may not have busted a few knuckles punching the foliage.]

[Regardless, once he's suitably calmed down, he'll seek out ahoge, sans panties. This might take a while, but somehow, he'll locate him.]

Hinata? May we speak?

Comments

[ghettobatman]

We really need all the information we can get, Hinata.

[A pause.]

How about the murders? Was it similar to this?

[hopefragment]

[A stuffed bear, yeah. Yeah, Hinata wouldn't believe it if he hadn't been there himself.]

Not... similar to this, no. Togami... Togami was stabbed with an iron skewer from beneath the floorboards of an old building we were in. He was like... our leader. He'd vowed to protect everyone and make sure no one was killed, and then... he was the first victim.

But... there was enough evidence that we were able to piece it all together and solve that Hanamura was the one who'd done it, so... Monokuma executed him. Hanamura's... was... the Super High School Level--

[He pauses a moment here. He was going to say 'Cook,' but Hanamura's words: call me Chef! rings through his mind instead.] Super High School Level Chef, so Monokuma buttered and breaded him and dropped him in a volcano like a piece of fucking tempura.

[Oops, he sounds really, really upset about this now that he's talking about it. He's never had to put the executions into words before, and it just makes him angry, the level of absurdity.]

[ghettobatman]

[Of course he was. The more Hinata goes on, the more he thinks about how crazy that all sounds. Crazier still, he finds himself believing it.]

[Doesn't that make him the crazy one?]

So it was a trial, and investigation. A so-called justice system, ran by Monokuma?

[but he can see Hinata starting to get upset, and though he's tense himself, he's putting a hand on the youth's shoulder]

I'm sorry. [what else can he say, other than "I'm going to make it my mission to find that bear and torture him within an inch of his life."]

[hopefragment]

Yeah. None of us are police or detectives, so a lot of it was... well, Mioda was able to use her talent as the Super High School Level Musician to tell voices apart, and... we were lucky. With all of us working together, we were able to reach a conclusion.

[Well, most of them.]

That's the thing, though. It was just us. The "trial" was when we were able to argue and present points for each other. There were no lawyers or anything involved. It was just... us. So in that respect, it's... kind of like here. At least we have you and Detective Skye, which... kind of adds some legitimacy to these proceedings? It doesn't help when there's no evidence.

[That's a lot to say, and though Hinata's shoulder is stiff under Matt's hand, he doesn't exactly push his hand away, either.]

Don't apologize. It's... it's not your fault, you know?