Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Trapped In Purgatory ❯ Lesson 5: Investigation ( Chapter 5 )

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Trapped in Purgatory

Lesson 5: Investigation

By: Revamp/Melissa Norvell

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The group showed up as they agreed to do. They gathered around the table after making their way through the carnage that took place. The once happy hallways of their school were now filled with blood, guts and horrific scenes of dismemberment and death. The walls and floors stained with blood of the slaughtered and all that watched were dead eyes and the eyes of those who wished to see them dead.

It was eerie hollow.

Even now, they knew that killing could still take place where they were. It didn't matter if it was a no kill zone, that rule only applied if everyone was willing to adhere to it.

“Did anyone find anything?” Shiko asked, standing behind one of the seats.

“That dome is all the way around the school,” Raiga was the first to hand out information. “There's no way we're getting out of this shit.” No matter what they'd try, nothing was going to penetrate it. The only way to get through it would be to find the switch that controlled it.

“I went on the roof and there's nothing there, either,” Kazoo added. “It's like it has no holes or anything. I looked for a weakness and I couldn't find anything. It's like a fucking terrarium in here.” Raiga was right. There was no way that they were getting out of there by brute force.

“We tried to find any staff and teachers but no one's around,” Osmond reported his findings. “It's just students.” He didn't think that he was going to find anyone, but he still wanted to have that hope. Then again, hope was a fickle thing that was thrashed by cold, hard evidence.

“The classrooms are dead, so are the offices, and the principal's office,” Roxy added. “We couldn't get in. They were locked.” She found it very odd. It was like the staff was conspiring along with the mastermind. There was no doubt in her mind that they were in cahoots.

“No one's below, either,” Ryuunosuke checked around, and it was as if the students came on a day that the school was closed down.

“There's no internet in the library.” It was just as Liam thought. They were completely cut off from the world.

“All of the student council members have been killed,” Persephone brought another devastating piece of news to the surface. “There were all dead in the meeting hall.”

“We can't find Mr. Mandio anywhere,” Monica also mentioned the fact that the founder was missing.

“I was also unable to find the masked gentlemen at the gymnasium,” Kaizer added. “I searched thoroughly for anything that could aid us in escaping but nothing remained. I did notice several things missing, however - fencing swords, bows, arrows, shot puts and other things that could be used as weapons.” No doubt the student body already raided everything they could in order to find things to kill each other. It was funny what people would do once paranoia took over them.

“Shot puts? I guess you could throw them at someone's face. Sounds like a lot of trouble to me.” When she thought about it, Monica wouldn't want to lug around something so heavy. Then again, there might be some desperate people out there who didn't have a choice.

“I can't find any secret switches or anything for the dome, either,” Izayoi closed her eyes and frowned. “I don't think it exists in this school.” If it did, then it was hidden away very well.

“We're not in any better of a position than we were initially,” Kasuga found the point of this investigation unnecessary. They could have not done anything and be more knowledgeable.

“We just feel that much m-more helpless,” Arata agreed with her. Things looked as grim as they were from the beginning.

“Not good,” Akagi slouched.

“Well, that was for nothing,” Osmond folded his arms over his chest and sighed.

“It's beginning to look pretty hopeless, isn't it?” Okasana could feel the weight of the situation being piled on her shoulders already.

“We haven't killed anyone,” Persephone held up a finger matter-of-factly. “That's a good thing, right?” She looked around the room to see if any of her fellows agreed with her.

“I guess that's positive,” Liam wasn't entirely sure it made a difference.

“That's a plus, but it doesn't solve our problems,” Monica knew that it was only a matter of time before they were forced to make that decision.

“It looks as if we will have to adapt for the time being.” It was like Kaizer was saying all along - adapt or be killed. Those were their only options.

“I wonder w-what's going on a-around the school,” Arata glanced out of the window in thought. He could only imagine the unspeakable carnage that lay before them.

“I think we all know,” Ryuunosuke closed his eyes, “we just don't want to accept it.”

“It's right in front of us. How can we not? There are bodies everywhere.” Ignoring the facts didn't make them not exist. Raiga knew they couldn't just turn a blind eye to all of this.

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Taiga ran as fast as his feet could carry him. The entire time, he was running away from the other students trying to kill him. He felt as if he was in a hostile environment with his men, more than he was at a school full of teenagers. He glanced behind him and noticed that no one was there, so stopped by a stoop to catch his breath. Panting, he leaned over with his hands on his knees. `It doesn't do any good. No matter how many times I go around this, it makes no difference. I'm trapped and hell if I can figure anything out. This whole shitting thing is painted like a blue sky with clouds.'

The yakuza's resting period didn't last very long before he caught glimpse of another student charging at him with a machete in their hand. The blade barely scratched his skin as he evaded the deadly strike. The student's blade dug into the stairs behind him. Taiga took off running again. There really was nowhere he could go without nearly getting killed around there.

`I've got to get somewhere where they won't try to kill me. Everyone is blood-thirsty in this school, and who knows where Raiga is.' Before he could think about anything else, a girl came from the side and swung her baseball bat, nearly hitting him in the face as he dodged the strike. “I just hope he's doing better than I am.”

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Akagi returned to his dorm room, only to find a letter that was fastened to the door with a kitchen knife. He was a little confused as to what was going on.

“What's this?” The baseball player questioned as he ripped it down and began to read it.

Please report to the video room. There is material that you need to view there.

Akagi arched an eyebrow and looked around to make sure that no one was in sight or hiding somewhere to attempt to kill him. However, no one was there. Dark blue eyes glanced back down at the note in his hands. “What do they mean? What material? Man, what is this? I guess I have to go to the video club's room.”

He could only hope that he wasn't going to be ambushed or murdered there when he arrived.

When Akagi walked in the door, he saw Okasana there as well. She turned to him and asked if he had been called in there as well. Akagi nodded and asked what all of this was about. The psychologist had no idea. She just found the note that she had on her dorm room door.

“So did I,” Akagi noted. “What does this mean, though? Is this some kind of trick from another student?” Maybe they were both being set up to be murdered. A serious expression crossed his face as he scanned the room for signs that seemed off.

“It seems highly unlikely. I believe it's from those men in the suits. They must be disappointed with our protests,” Okasana didn't think any of the other students would take things this far. Most of them were paranoid or out there slaughtering each other. They would be far too preoccupied to deal with the two of them.

Sitting on the table next to him, Akagi spied a disc. It just looked like a typical blank disc used to burn songs on, and it had his name scrawled on it crudely in blue marker. “I don't want to watch it,” Akagi knew there was something on it that he didn't want to see. No way in hell was he giving in to their cheap scare tactics.

Okasana took hers in her hand and held it up. “I've debated on watching mine as well. Perhaps we should ignore them.” If they did, then they wouldn't be subjected to the horrors concealed in the discs.

“Maybe we should break them,” Akagi suggested, “that way we won't be tempted to wanna look at them.” He didn't want to be tempted into seeing it later, or the unknown grinding on his mind and persuading him to give into temptation.

“What if it's important? We should look at this logically,” Okasana had the feeling that something was concealed on there that they were meant to see. It might not have been something that would make them happy, but it was something important. “It may be a new rule.” If it was anything like that, she didn't want to simply throw it away or destroy it.

“Then maybe we should watch it,” Akagi was still conflicted. He didn't want to see what was on it at all. “Man, we risk it either way.” There was no good side to this. Nothing good was going to come from it at all. A sinking feeling washed over him as he continued to stare at the crudely made symbols.

“There are discs for all of the students,” Okasana noticed that they were lying around the room, placed at several computers. The possibility of it being a new rule wasn't so farfetched.

“I don't know what to do,” Akagi felt confliction and stress building up inside of him.

“We should begrudgingly watch them,” Okasana bowed her head in defeat. “We have no choice.”

The baseball player glared at his disc with hatred. He really didn't want anything to do with it, but Okasana was right - there was nothing they could do. This little mind-game would result in the both of them losing no matter how much they tried to resist.

“We should do this before my fear intensified anymore,” Okasana just wanted to get it over with. The more she paused, the more feelings blossomed inside of her.

“I'm too emotionally drained to fuck with this shit. I haven't been sleeping well at night. I can't sleep at all, not in the past two days. I keep losing the will to care about this. The less to dwell on the better.” Akagi's stay at the school was deteriorating his sanity. It ate away at his soul and shook his bones. The fact that he was no longer a high school student, but a spectacle of a blood sport disturbed him more than anyone could ever imagine.

The light-blonde took her disc out. “However, the human psyche is remarkably resilient. When you cannot take anymore, you do so. When you feel pushed to the brink, you continue to trudge on. That is the mentality we must have. If we cease to care,” she slid the disc into the computer's drive, “we will just get murdered.” More than anything, they had to remain strong.

Akagi closed his eyes and he put the disc in with a look of distraught on his face. “You're right,” he agreed, “let's just get this shit over.”

He took a deep breath as the disc proceeded to play. The screen was dark for a moment, and then the screen violently cut to a picture of one of the bag-heads. He sat comfortably in a plush business chair with his fingers laced together.

“If you're watching this, you have been avoiding the killings,” the figure started off. “We can't have you interrupting the natural flow of our operation. Such rebellious youth…It's been brought to my attention that you need a little motivation. The more you resist killing, the more encouragement will be supplied.” He then held a hand out as if to display something off screen to his right. “For now, enjoy my feature presentation.”

Then, the screen turned black for a few seconds before it faded into an image of Akagi's two-story house. It towered over the other houses around it like an imposing shadow. The baseball player's face lit up with confusion and dread. “What the hell? That's my house.”

Just then, the film crudely cut away and showed a blood-splattered room of a girl. Whoever had the video camera was taking amateur video and just walking around his house. The camera shook with each step as he took in the sights. Beside of her pink and white bed laid a small-framed girl in a blue and white Lolita dress with spiral, dark blue curls. She didn't move and was soaked with blood.

Akagi's eyes widened as he took in the sight of his sister's body. “What…the hell…This is a joke, right?” It had to be. At any moment his sister was just going to pop up and smile, laughing at him and telling him he was funny for freaking out like he did. She had to. She just had to.

The camera cut to the next room. It was in his extravagant living room. There was blood on the table in the center of the room and strewn across the lush, deep red carpeting. As the camera man walked over to the table, he saw his mother lying on the ground. She was face down and covered in blood. The figure that was holding the camera's shadow was cast across her back.

Akagi felt panic and anxiety flood his form in a wave. He didn't understand what was going on. Did someone murder his family? Was it the camera man? What was going on? “This better be a joke…I mean, this can't be real…it just can't.” He ran his hands through his mohawk as his voice shook.

Then, the screen cut to his father and Akagi felt like vomiting when he saw the scene. His father's body was leaned up against the wall by the front door. Above him was a coat rack and his blood splattered across the wall and all over the floor. His head was missing and he didn't think he wanted to know where it was.

The baseball player's skin turned blue on his face, and he had to try to force down the bile that welled up in his throated and threatened to expel itself from his stomach. Tears flowed from his eyes, and he couldn't take it anymore. “What the fuck is this?! No! This can't be true! It can't be! No fucking way!” He slammed his fists down as his body shook. His knees felt weak and he wanted to pass out.

Okasana stared blankly at her screen with tears flowing down her reddened cheeks. She was horrified. It was like she had experienced a murder. “My family…” Her voice was distant and shaky. Okasana was stunned as she continued to stare at the screen, where her mother, father and two sisters laid around the living room, sprawled out in various positions. Like Akagi's family, they were splattered with blood. “I…I can't take this anymore.” Shaking, the platinum blonde girl gripped either side of her head and sunk to the ground and sobbed. “They can't be dead.”

“What kind of fucked up shit is this?” Akagi continued to stare at the screen. It all felt surreal, like a horrible nightmare.

“If you take from us, we will take from you. Failure to comply with our demands results in punishment.” That familiar voice that they had heard when the first announcements of murder took place was now ringing in their ears.

“This can't be real,” Akagi wouldn't accept this. There was no way that he was just going to believe this was his fate.

“This isn't a game…” Okasana spoke in a small voice. “If we don't kill each other or play along with their wishes, they'll kill everyone around us until we have nothing left.” That was the tactic that they were going to use against them. The hooded men were the most despicable of people. When they wanted something, they were intent on getting it.

“How did they know? I mean, I just found out I had a sibling. She was…my half sister…” Akagi sunk to the ground at the memories that flowed through his mind. The tall, lanky male sunk to his knees, weeping as his hands hung onto the machine. He didn't even get to really know his half-sister, and now he never would.

“That…has to be what's on the other's discs. I can't do this, Akagi, “Okasana began to break down. “I can't live like this, nor can I allow them to kill anyone outside of the school.” She didn't know what to do, and she had never felt so hopeless in her life. She was forced between two decisions that she didn't want to make, and in the end there was nothing to benefit her.

“I don't think we can stop them, even if we could try. They know shit about us, more than any school should know. I'm really freaked out,” Akagi felt himself falling apart. He felt himself slowly losing his sanity and giving in to the bag-head's wicked ways. “Who knows what they'll do to us next. I feel like we're in a glass jar and we're ants, and the mastermind is a big-ass magnifying glass aimed at us trying to burn us. We can only run so far before we're sizzled.”

“We should warn them. We should tell them about this,” Okasana knew that the damage had already been done, but she didn't want the others to suffer the emotional trauma that she had.

“Man, some of them will look anyway, like Raiga,” Akagi knew that the yakuza was stubborn. “He'll want to know if his brother will be okay.” The baseball player didn't even want to know what happened to poor Taiga or what Raiga's reaction would be to finding his brother's corpse.

“I don't know what to do,” Okasana turned to him with a feral look of panic in her eyes. He could tell that her mind had deteriorated substantially.

“Man, you know the human mind better than I do-“ Akagi started to speak, but just then they heard the doors open and turned simultaneously to see Raiga standing there before them.

Raiga looked at them as a moment of silence passed between them. He held up the note. “I guess you guys got this note.”

“Man, don't do it,” Akagi pleaded with him.

“I agree,” Okasana wanted the yakuza to listen to reason. “I wouldn't do it if I was you.”

“You guys look like y'just seen a ghost,” Raiga couldn't help but notice how washed out and pale they were. Whatever the deal was with that note, it must have been serious.

“I would have rather seen one,” Okasana would have taken anything compares to what she saw on that disc.

“What happened?” Raiga wanted to know what disturbed them so much.

“Those discs,” Okasana paused for a moment, “they've killed out families.” She didn't want to say that, but there wasn't a nice way she could word it.

“They're dead, man,” Akagi continued to explain, “and someone was walking around in my house looking at them. It was gruesome.”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Raiga immediately rushed over to the computer, throwing paper into the air as he frantically tried to find the disc with his name on it. His heart rushed and Raiga felt a sense of panic overtake him. Pulling out his disc, he shoved it into the machine. Like Akagi and Okasana, he heard the same message and the camera began to roll.

It showed what looked like an empty street. Blood was splattered all over the pavement and a harsh wind was heard every now and then, garbling the speakers. A woman with black hair in an elaborate kimono lay on the ground, battered and bloody. Along with her, there were many dead yakuza. Taiga was absent from the murder scene.

Raiga's eyes widened in shock. “How could they have done this? I don't understand…Where's Taiga? Is he dead or alive? Did they only get our mother?” Something about that situation didn't make any sense.

“What about your father?” Akagi questioned.

“My father died,” Raiga brought that fact to light. “He was assassinated when Taiga and I were little. That's how I became the house head. I just gotta wonder…where the hell is little bro?” If they didn't murder Taiga then was he able to get away? Was he out there, somewhere? Not knowing his whereabouts was killing him.

“Be happy he's not there.” To Akagi, it seemed like a blessing in disguise. “That means he might be alive, right?” He could only have had some hope for the younger yakuza. Maybe he was away when that horrible slaughter took place.

“Maybe that's why…” Raiga looked thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe he was out when she got killed or he was at the main hose. It looks like she got murdered in the street…but how could that have happened? Wouldn't someone stop `em? It's in a public place.” He slammed his fist down as tears burned his eyes. “So that's it, huh?” He seethed. “If we don't start takin' lives, they're gonna do shit to us.”

“They're trying to break us down, and I can say that it's working.” Even now, Okasana felt herself falling more and more into an unending hole. “I didn't care so much about my own life as I do about others. When they kill people around me, I can no longer take it. What would you do? What is the proper gauge of life? Could you sacrifice your life to save others?”

Raiga was the most composed of them all. As a yakuza, he dealt with death all of the time. She hoped that he would have had an answer of some kind. Okasana desperately hoped that he would have some sliver of advice for her.

She wanted something to keep her sanity.

“I could, but I'd rather try to save everyone here than kill myself,” Raiga didn't want to have to come to that fork in the road, not immediately.

Okasana looked to Akagi. Raiga didn't say anything that would help her at all. Maybe Akagi had an idea of what to do.

“I'm not sure what I'd do,” Akagi paused for a moment, trying to gather himself. “If I keep rebelling, I'll have everyone dead. When I get out of here, I'll have nothing to go back to. If I kill people, I get blood on my hands but I save people closest to me. Man, I don't want to kill anybody. What the hell do we do?” He was so conflicted over what to do, or even if his actions were worth his efforts. At this point right and wrong were blurred severely and he felt as if his head was going to explode.

“That's up to you,” the yakuza knew that everyone reacted differently when put into that situation.

Okasana uttered his name in a sympathetic tone. The three of them were going through all of this together and they shared the same pain.

The yakuza wiped his eyes. He had to toughen up. Raiga couldn't let this devastate him. That's what the bag-heads wanted. “This is about survival. There's not a fair about this. Whose lives mean more to you? The students or people y'know outside of the dome? What'll y'do Y'gonna kill y'rself?”

“I can't kill myself,” Akagi knew he didn't have the guts to pull that off. He'd be better off letting someone else kill him.

“I know what I'm going to do,” Okasana had a look of resolve as she arose from her position.

“That's one of us,” Raiga noticed the newfound strength in the psychologist's voice. He wondered what she was planning, but at the same time he trusted her with whatever she was going to do with herself.

“Should we warn the others about the harm these discs can cause to your mind?” Okasana didn't want them to endure any more pain than they had to.

“They'll open them if they want. We can't stop `em. I think we should have a meeting about this. I wanna check on everyone and see what they're gonna do,” Raiga knew that something this traumatic was going to require a meeting. Above all things, he had to make sure that everyone in his group would remain in their right mind. It would be essential for their advancement.

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Back in the meeting room, everyone was seated around the same table they had met at before. It was silent for a moment before Raiga spoke up and asked everyone if they saw the notes that were on their doors. Roxy noted that they led them into the audio-visual room. Kazoo told everyone that there were discs in the room.

“They…” Izayoi paused momentarily before she continued with a look of sorrow on her face. “They killed our families…” She was choking back tears as her face reddened. “Because we didn't kill each other, they said they're going to keep killing unless we start attacking each other.”

“My parents died a long time ago,” Kazoo informed everyone, “but other people I cared about were on those discs. They were all dead.” His face tilted down, crestfallen as the vivid images on the disc ran through his head.

“I'm scared,” Shiko began to weep. “I want out of here.”

“Even if we c-could get out, they would probably k-kill us as we stepped out,” Arata knew that they wouldn't let them out that easily. They specifically said last man standing, that's what they meant.

“I don't get it. My father is a famous baseball player, Steel Arms Sekiya, the fastest pitcher…in all of Japan.” How could someone just murder him and get away with it? Akagi didn't understand why no one was making an effort to capture the man who killed him.

“A lot of our parents are famous,” Izayoi pointed that factor out. “Maybe someone will hear about it and find out. There's got to be news coverage, right?” Surely a bunch of famous people going missing or ending up dead was cause for a huge event over the news. Izayoi didn't think that something like that was going to go unnoticed.

“Then why hasn't anyone come for us? It's been a couple of days, but we haven't come home from graduation,” Leo knew that someone had to know about it. It was just odd that everyone seemed oblivious to it. No one's tried to get through the dome from the outside. They didn't hear anything. Then again, maybe the dome was sound proof and they couldn't hear anything.

“I don't have a family, so no one would miss me,” Monica knew if someone like her went missing, no one would care much.

Kazoo was a little confused. “Then what was on your tape?”

“My fellow sukeban. They were all killed,” she closed her eyes and a heavy frown was carved on her face. “Whatever means most to you, they'll take away.” Her fellows were like family, the only family she had. Now they were no more and she was alone once more.

“I guess we have to kill now,” Kaizer was very complacent about making such a grim realization.

“You sound like you want us to kill each other,” Osmond could swear that Kaizer wanted them all to die and could care less if any of them did. What kind of cold-hearted douchebag was he?

“Whatever gets me out of here faster,” the white-haired boy didn't care about them dying. In the end, it was every man for themselves. If they got in his way, then he was going to kill them. Kaizer wanted out and he was going to get out one way or another.

“You barbaric-“ the model started before Roxy lifted her arm and held it out.

“Osmond,” her voice was stern as she leveled him with a serious gaze, “it might be what we have to do, if our other plans fair. We've tried to find various things, ways out, but nothing works. The question would be, what can we do that we haven't already?” Roxy wanted to approach this in a calm matter. She didn't want her team mates killing each other.

Osmond paused for a moment, looking thoughtful, “good question.”

“Nothing,” Kaizer retorted. Why were they thinking of alternatives? Didn't they see that this situation was hopeless?

“We could try harder to find the switch that operates the dome,” Kazoo suggested. “Maybe we need to retrace our steps.”

“Waste more time, so they can kill your families,” Kaizer folded his arms over his chest. “You must really hate your relatives.” Didn't they get it? If they kept stalling, more people would die that they cared about. It made no sense for them to continue this charade.

“How c-can you say that? A-Are you not affected by what's o-on your disc?” Arata was confused. The white-haired boy talked about everything like it never mattered. How cold was this guy?

“I'd care if I had anything to lose,” Kaizer brought that little fact to light.

“H-How can you have n-nothing to lose?” Arata didn't understand. Didn't he have family? Didn't he have someone that he cared about?

“I have nothing to lose,” the white-haired teen stressed the issue.

“You…” Akagi seethed. He was getting pretty damned tired of this guy's disrespectful attitude.

“Don't hate me for being so weak as to let your feelings overshadow your sense of logic. I've seen men get blasted to bits, truly primal instincts and even cannibalism. Desperate times call for desperate measures is a statement none truer than that of a soldier.” This school turned into a battlefield, something that a strategist like Kaizer knew of very well. War did a lot of things to people. It turned them into animals, and the students of Shinjinku were no different than soldiers.

“Cannibalism,” Osmond looked a little disgusted, “man, that's freaky. None of you get any funny ideas, okay?” He backed up, glancing around the room.

“Disgusting! I wouldn't eat any of you!” Shiko squealed. The very thought of doing something like that was sick.

“I doubt we're going to eat each other. You're all stupid if you believe that crock of shit,” Monica thought they were taking things out of proportion.

“Someone might,” Shiko trembled, just putting the thought into her mind made her paranoid.

“Can we not argue about this? I'm creeped out enough,” Persephone would have been happy if the conversation died out all together.

“Kaizerschmarren would eat someone,” Osmond glared at the white-haired man. He did say that he had seen cannibalism. He bet the other male experienced it firsthand.

“I'd eat you first, pretty boy,” Kaizer shot him a sly smirk as the model let out a `no' and reeled back in horror.

“I'll eat you all if you get any more stupid,” Leo grumbled. This conversation needed to die and soon.

“I'd let you,” Raiga winked playfully.

“God damn it, Raiga,” Leo grumbled. Of all of the time for him to make a sexual joke it had to be when he was being serious.

“Hey, that was my tame response,” the yakuza could have gave him the dirty response to that sentence.

“Guys,” Izayoi felt sweat run down her forehead.

“Can we get to the picture, please?” Kazoo thought they were getting off-topic.

“Dipshits,” Monica huffed.

“Indeed,” Kaizer agreed.

“Kaizerschmarren could be more helpful,” Roxy added her thoughts.

“Just, no more talking about cannibals,” Liam was highly uncomfortable by that subject.

“What if the school's not taken over by a serial killer?” Ryuunosuke spoke up. His question went against all of their previous thoughts and caused Roxy to turn around.

“What are you suggesting?” Monica was a little confused. If that wasn't the case, then what was?

“What if it's one of the teachers? I mean, there are no teachers here. The only people here that aren't high schoolers are those bag heads.” It made sense to the martial artist. Maybe it was an inside job.

“They're behind it…so it might make sense,” Leo didn't think that was such a shot in the dark.

“But, someone is controlling them,” Kasuga pointed out.

“What about the fact that we can't remember the graduating class?” Akagi wanted to know what would cause them to lose their memories like that.

“How does it all tie in, though?” Monica wanted the theory to be coherent if she was going to believe it.

“Well, there are n-new drugs that can e-enduce neurochemical r-reactions that lead to you forgetting b-bad memories. They are m-mostly experimental, however. That…is o-one way it can occur,” Arata brought up a scientific advancement in medicine that might have brought light to their situation.

“What? Are you saying there's more than one way?” Akagi didn't know such medicine existed, much less alternate ways of augmenting a person's memories.

“There is a t-technique called auditing th-that can delete memories from the un-unconscious part of the mind called the Reactive Mind and re-refiles them in the Analytical Mind where th-they can be of use but n-no longer painful. It is mostly used t-to make you happy, however,” the scientist suggested one of the alternate methods to them.

“You retain your memories though with the second one,” Monica mentioned the flaw behind the theory that the second method was used. Their memories weren't `refiled', they were simply gone.

“If they are giving us pills, they must have been doing it for a while,” Kazoo looked thoughtful. There were several ways to slip pills to them that they wouldn't have been aware of. It wasn't so farfetched.

“Perhaps they g-ground them up and p-placed them in our food,” Arata suggested something that made sense.

“Do you really think they would do something like that?” Izayoi didn't want to think that something that sinister was happening all of that time. Besides, wouldn't the food taste weird? It just seemed odd that no one would have noticed.

“Why would it not make sense?” Ryuunosuke thought it was a good way to slip them medication they would otherwise not take.

“What if they killed all of the teachers?” Izayoi brought up another suggestion that they probably hadn't thought about. “What if they have nothing to do with this?”

“The teachers here are strange,” Leo noted. “I think they knew about what was going on.” The rock star wasn't about to think that they were mere innocent bystanders. That was bullshit.

“You…really do?” The singer arched an eyebrow. Could they have really been that foul-minded?

“I think they all have a part in this. It's convenient that they all decided to disappear before graduation. None of them were in their classrooms the morning of graduation. Don't you guys find that strange?” Leo wasn't letting that fly at all.

“Come to think of it,” Ryuunosuke looked thoughtful, “Leonardo is right. There weren't any teachers on campus.” It was as if they knew that they shouldn't have shown up that day. That wasn't a sign that they were innocent, it was a sign that they were either told not to show up or knew it beforehand.

“Sorry to interrupt your meeting, but I have a special package for each of you.” They suddenly heard that familiar voice that sent chills up their spines. Each student turned around to see that one of the bag-headed minions was standing right beside of their table.

…To Be Continued