Trash Panda

Leaking Worlds

What just happened?

Sho gaped at Haruka as the girl run off down the corridor, tears streaming from her eyes. She was fine just a minute ago, so what caused the sudden change in her attitude? He reflected on what she said last.

“Th-that's it, huh? Ah... ahaha... yeah. Of course. Y-you two...”

She had been referring to the way he had approached Suzume, right?

“You... guys... to-together...”

Sho’s eyes widened in disbelief. It finally clicked: he was stuck in the middle of a love triangle. How did that happen? There were plenty of other guys much more attractive than he was, both in looks and personality. He had never had something like this happen before, nor had he ever even considered it possible.

Sho was roused from his thoughts when Suzume abruptly pushed him away. She called desperately after Haruka, but the other girl didn’t stop running. She was too far gone. He knew he should have gone after her, but he was still stunned from the revelation and his feet were glued to the ground. Suzume bent down to retrieve Haruka’s discarded cell phone and walked back to him, apologizing repeatedly for shoving him earlier.

“It’s okay,” Sho said quietly, shaking his head. “I just can’t believe she ran off like that…”

Suzume’s next words took him by surprise.

“Sho.... did..did you know about this?”

“No!” Sho said, taken aback. “I swear, I had no idea.”

“Was.. was this my fault? Did I make her run away? This is my fault isn't it?”

“It’s not your fault,” Sho interjected. “I didn’t realize how she…” he hesitated, shifting his weight uncomfortably. “I should have seen it sooner.” He hated seeing Suzume look so dejected. He wanted to gather her into his arms and tell her it would be okay, but look how well that worked out last time.

“Please, we have to go after her… And we need to make sure everyone understands to stay together or we are going to get ourselves killed.”

Sho stared down the black pit that was the open doorway. He found new resolve to go inside and look for Haruka. After all, it was his fault that she ran off alone. He couldn’t live with himself if anything happened to her in there. Sho hurried after Suzume, turning on his phone again to use the light to guide them through the darkness.

“Hold up,” Sho said when he caught up with Suzume a couple meters down the hallway. “I’ll walk in front –and I won’t take no for an answer.” He gently brushed past the girl and lit up the passage with his phone light.

The inside smelled of dirt and rotting wood. It wasn’t a very inviting odor, but it did help with the whole “haunted” aspect. Sho shined the light across the walls and the floor in front of him. The wallpaper was peeling badly, revealing worn out wood beneath. The most disturbing thing, however, was that there was no sign of life anywhere. The building was silent apart from the creaking of the floorboards they stepped on. Sho didn’t catch sight nor sound of rats, bats, or bugs. Usually abandoned places like these were riddled with them.

Then, he spotted a flash of movement up ahead. Could it be?

“Haruka!” Sho called out. His voice sounded much too loud, ripping through the silence of the empty building. Without thinking, he reached for Suzume’s hand and took off down the hallway, guiding her along beside him. Hopefully Toby would keep up if he was following (Sho hadn’t really looked back to check).

He stopped where the old corridor took a sharp turn to the right. The figure he had seen earlier was gone. He felt a wave of frustration. How could he lose her so easily? Then he noticed the door. It stood alone on the right side of the hall, the paint on it was faded and peeling just like everything else in the wretched building. The sign above it read “1-6”. Maybe Haruka was inside.

Sho reached for the handle and gave it a turn…

D E A T H N O T E – "Who, me?"

Y'all can go do things with your new groups until the next meeting. Private ideas for catching Kira can be discussed in pms, if you have any. If you're going to act any of them out in the IC, go ahead. Just don't explain any of your tricks so Kira has to figure it out him/herself :)

D E A T H N O T E – "Who, me?"

X started when the paper airplane landed on his lap. He had been zoning out, tired of the meeting already. He never did have a long attention span for anything other than analyzing a hard case, and all they were doing here was sharing their initial thoughts that were not even based on hard facts. He glanced up, looking to see where the plane might have come from. He caught sight of L just turning away and decided it must have been her. His interest piqued, X unfolded the note and skimmed its contents.

Upon finishing, he raised a brow and shot the little girl a questioning look. He supposed he could understand why she would think such a thing, but she hadn’t been afraid to share her ideas with everyone up until now. Well whatever the case, he decided to humor her. He was curious about what would happen anyway.

“The television broadcast may be a good idea,” X agreed. “However, if Kira is here among us –we can never assume he isn’t– then he already knows our plan. I think any methods to draw Kira out of hiding should be done tactfully and in private. I also believe we can make more progress if we divvy up into smaller groups. We should have at least two. Obviously Kira can’t be in all of them, so we will have that to our advantage. And even if Kira isn’t among us, we will be able to work faster with less arguing.”

---

M nodded in silent agreement. It wasn’t a bad idea. Besides, he was sick and tired of listening to the back-and-forth debates going between the eleven detectives. If they worked in smaller groups of six or less, they would be able to come to decisions much faster. Then there was the issue of the probable Kira in the room. It would be risky, but not impossible for the shadowy killer to slip into a meeting such as this. He quietly looked at each detective in turn.

But who could it be?

“I like that plan,” the chief spoke up suddenly. He shuffled some papers around in front of him. “I will divide you all up into three groups. The members will be as follows. Group A: C, L, X, and, erm… Richard. Group B: M, R, W, and Y. Group C: G, H, and Q. Everybody got it? Good. I believe that is all I wanted to go over during this meeting. We will meet again tomorrow night at six. Hopefully some progress will be made by then. You’re all free to go.” The chief organized his things and left the room.

M looked at his new group mates. R looked reasonable enough. She had been quiet for most of the meeting. W looked… eccentric, to say the least. Lastly, there was Y. He would most likely be the most difficult to handle, as he had already proven himself to be quite argumentative. Overall, the group was an interesting assortment of people. M smiled to himself.

Let the games begin.

Leaking Worlds

CondorTalon said
You can... but you don't have to. I assume that at the very least Sho, Suzume and Toby will follow, but that won't necessarily have to be true of anyone else. Each of the two floors contains seven classrooms, and each classroom leads to a different world, so...

Yeah, I think our little group is joined at the hip by now :p

Leaking Worlds

I'm assuming we're all going to follow Haruka to the city of flesh?

Leaking Worlds

“Please. Just make sure you don't leave. Don't leave us, alright? Safety in numbers... and don't leave me.”

Sho stared at Suzume. Okay, he was sure of it now: she liked him. He marveled at how he hadn’t noticed earlier. Then again, for all his popularity at school, Sho had never actually dated anyone before. Most of the girls he knew were either air-headed or manipulative. They weren’t the kind of people he would even try to form a lasting relationship with. However, he got a different feeling from Suzume. He suddenly realized she was still waiting for a reply, and he was still staring at her.

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere,” Sho said in a soothing tone. Suzume was trying to encourage everyone by smiling, but he could tell that her happiness was just an act. She was probably scared out of her wits, just like the rest of them. He hesitated, and then moved over to stand beside her, putting one arm around her shoulder.

“We’re gonna make it back from wherever this is,” Sho assured her, returning a smile of his own. “And apparently we’re gonna save the world while we’re at it. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be fun; I’ve always wanted to be a superhero.”

D E A T H N O T E – "Who, me?"

I think I'll add my post here tomorrow, so I have some time to work out how I want the rest of the meeting to go

*Kinda just winging this part* >_>

Leaking Worlds

CondorTalon said
And thus the major plot point of the game is revealed.EDIT: Summer, the writing was right by the entrance. They didn't actually venture inside yet.

Oh I thought it was just inside because Haruka saw it after the door was open. My bad :P

EDIT: I like my description, so I'll save it in a word document for when they do go inside XD

Leaking Worlds

“Well, no, not a flashlight, but I do have my phone.”

“Whatever works,” Sho replied with a shrug. He reached into his bag to retrieve his own cell phone, setting it on a flashlight app. He finally had a good use for the stupid thing. He gestured for the other two to join them at the entrance.

Near the door, Haruka had stopped and was staring at something on the wall. She looked shell-shocked. Sho hurried to her side and followed her gaze to the dark red lettering. He read the bloody looking message, and it only increased his sense of urgency. There was something so deadly here that the entire world was in danger? It was hard to believe, but then again a lot of unbelievable things had happened in just the last fifteen minutes. He couldn’t afford to play ignorant.

“Cryptic,” Sho breathed. “We should… we should call the police. We’re in over our heads.” He turned off his phone’s flashlight app and tried to dial up 110. “What the…? No signal? It was working fine just ten minutes ago!” He heard the rising panic in his voice and took a deep breath. He had to keep a level head. Freaking out wouldn’t help anyone.

“Okay,” Sho said. “So we’re on our own. Supposing this message is for real, that means we’re trapped here with some dangerous… thing. I propose we stick together until we find our way outta this place. No one should wander off by him or herself. That’s all I’ve got for a plan. I’m not big on horror movies, so I don’t really know how these sort of situations play out.” He looked at the others in turn. “Any more ideas?”

Leaking Worlds

Aaand Sho is happily oblivious to the fact that he's stuck in the middle of a love triangle. Huzzah XD