endless_june | June 16, 1999 -- later in the day

[ Can't win 'em all on charm alone and also she can't scream at him all evening.

Okay. If that's the way she's playing it... let's see, did he remember to lock all his ground-level windows? ]

[Thoroughly. Curtains are drawn, as well.]

[ How about the upper windows?? There's a tree growing close to the walls. The branches aren't quite good enough to make for an easy climbing experience, but Minako grapples her way up despite the scrapes and scratches and whoops lost her ribbon in the branches somewhere. ]

[Looks like he hadn't quite anticipated a determined Minako, as the upstairs window is not locked. Which is odd, since he probably SHOULD have since, well, Minako.]

[ Nobody ever anticipates Minako, that's her thing. And this way she doesn't have to break a window, win-win. HUP leaping into whatever room this is. ]

[Minako may get the overall sense of something WRONG the moment she enters the house. It's stiflingly silent in the house, as if no life existed at all in it. From the looks of the room, there's a good possibility that it's Hiroshi's. In fact, there seems to be the scattered papers of what may be his homework sitting on the desk.]

[ Minako would be peeking at his answers if there weren't bigger fish on the line right now.

...Okay maybe she'll take a look, maybe she'll find his diary and figure out where this business with Alice started and just how bad it is. ]

[It's revealing... but possibly not in the way Minako was expecting.

The earlier pages are written in his standard calm, professional tone, although even at this point he seems to be talking about very odd things, like people spying on him, or Alice acting strange, or whatever.

However, the further into the pages she goes, the more frantic and unhinged his writing becomes. His handwriting is more messy, more jagged. Ideas leap from one conspiracy to another. And throughout it all, there's a recurring question: "Who sent the letter?"

The last one just devolves completely into one long list of the same phrase:

Shigetsuna isn't real
Shigetsuna isn't real
Shigetsuna isn't real]

[ ...Hiroshi.

Hiroshi.

What the hell, dude, what the hell.

This might not be about love after all. Is Alice messing with him? She doesn't seem the type, but... Minako folds up a couple of the pages and sticks them in her pocket. Evidence! Evidence is important. ]

[Either way, Hiroshi doesn't seem to be in here, at least. Maybe he's downstairs?]

[ Nothing else suspicious here? Under his bed, in his sock drawer...

OKAY that's enough messing around, down the stairs it is. ]

Hiroshiiiiii~. Hiroshi, guess who?

[ Not startling him in his mental condition seems like a good idea. ]

[As Minako heads down the stairs, she might catch the faint whiff of something that grows a little stronger as she goes down. It smells vaguely...

coppery.]

[ What is that smell.

It cannot be what she thinks it is because that would be ridiculous. Gonna hurry towards the source of wherever that smell's coming from, visions of Hiroshi on the floor halfway through a classic seppuku right out of the movies running through her head. ]

[The smell is strongest in the kitchen. The good news is that it's not Hiroshi.

The bad news is that his parents have definitely seen better days. From the looks of things, they've been dead at least a few hours. Scraps of paper are littered about their bodies, which look as though they've been stabbed rather thoroughly.

One of the scraps looks like it has a small design on it, but you can't be sure.]

[ Minako is not exactly an expert in forensics, certainly NOT up to analyzing the crime scene in that kind of detail, and all she can tell is "not dead for days" and "not, like, JUST killed, probably". Oh my god. Actual dead people, dead people she knows, this is not a drill, this is serious, this is something seriously awful...!

Okay. What's on the scraps, she kind of wants to know that, did someone break in, was it Hiroshi, what does it mean if it WASN'T Hiroshi, were they being murdered before or after or during that phone call with Maya... ]

[If she comes up close to the scraps, there's one lying next to a broken plate -- which looks oddly incomplete -- which looks vaguely odd. It's a red color...

...and it looks an awful lot like an official symbol. Maybe of some organization. Or school.

Mind, she may not get much of a chance to analyze the scrap. Something just leapt out of the walk-in cupboard behind her -- and she may be feeling something sharp entering into her back.]

[ It definitely stands out. Practically fills her vision. Huh.

She's on the floor, when did that happen.

...Oh.

She's bleeding, when did that happen. This kind of thing only happens on TV! Or in England! It's not supposed to happen in Izumizaki, this boring sleepy little town where nothing exciting ever happens!! ]

[If she lifts her head, she'll be just in time to see Hiroshi. It's pretty obvious why he didn't show too much of himself at the door; his bright white scarf and hair are both dotted red, his hand tightly grasped around something white which seems to be cutting into his own hand.

Also, he might be trying to stab you more.]

I WON'T LET YOU SACRIFICE ME FOR YOUR STUPID DAMNED RITUAL! I WON'T! I WON'T!

[ Oh. Oh shit, this is real, this is real, she has to get away! Or fight! Or... whatever she has to do, it's starting with ducking and rolling away, not the best idea with a deep stab wound in her back - HOLY SHIT HIROSHI STABBED HER this is hard to process - yeah okay maybe she can talk it out instead of losing more blood and shifting around what else he hit, what else is in there? Liver, pancreas, kidneys, she didn't really pay attention in any of that in biology but none of it is supposed to be ripped up by knives, right? ]

What?! Nobody's going to sacrifice you! We've already done the ritual!

[ Just play along with his logic no matter how completely nuts it is. The truth doesn't matter right now. If he didn't believe he wasn't in danger from SOMEONE, he wouldn't be trying to kill her. ]

YOU CAN'T FOOL ME ANYMORE! SHE SENT YOU, RIGHT? JUST LIKE SHE FOOLED MY PARENTS! MARIA SAID IT HERSELF: YOUR PRECIOUS "SHIGETSUNA-SAMA" WON'T GRANT WISHES IF ANYBODY DISBELIEVES, RIGHT?! IF ANYTHING'S OFF WITH THE RITUAL?! THAT'S WHY SOUJI'S DEAD! THAT'S WHY YOU WANT ME DEAD! I WON'T HAVE IT! I WON'T I WON'T I WON'T!

[He lunges after her, sharp object -- is that a PLATE SHARD? -- still in hand, as he attempts to stab her more.]

[ WAIT A MINUTE ]

Souji's dead?!

[ She's cornered and feeling pretty unsteady to boot - she brings up her arms to block, it's better than being stabbed in the face?? Her mind's racing a mile a minute - what's most important here? Keeping Maya safe, keeping herself alive... she really wishes she could manage both, or even one, she really doesn't want to die for so many reasons, but one of those reasons is that Hiroshi might very well be gunning for Maya next! Or Maria or Alice or whoever else he's blaming for this.

The doors are locked, the downstairs windows are locked... break a window? Distract him and run for the door, run to the closest house... not happening, he may be a scrawny nerd but he doesn't have a bloody stab wound in him and that means he'll be faster. If she wants to seize any chance at running away, she'll have to hurt him first. With that goal in mind, she grabs at the plate shard with her bare hand and goes for his face with the other, manicured nails out and ready to gouge. ]

[He reels for a moment at the scratch, which gouges pretty deeply into his cheek -- but that seems to have only amplified his own terror, and he drops an elbow onto her head to stun her. He won't let her kill him! He won't!]

[ Minako winces and drops to the floor like a sack of potatoes. ]

How... how could you...?

[ That didn't work... that didn't work at all! This can't be happening this can't be happening this can't be happening, isn't the heroine supposed to come out of this kind of thing just fine, maybe a rescue party will break down the door... This isn't the time to rely on that kind of happy ending fantasy! She's not going to give in without a fight, not ever! When he comes in to stab her again... She's going to outright tackle him maybe she can get him to fall on his own plate shard let's see what happens from there CARPE DIEZ ]

[Guh, she's really determined to kill him, oh shit...

No such luck, we're afraid. Plate shard in hand, he starts stabbing even more frantically until the shard finally shatters in his hand. Get away get away get away...]

[ Minako is a bloody wreck by now, the less said about the details the better. Her torn and shredded hands are still slowly stretching out to his face. ]

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