Chapter Text
ROUGHLY ONE MONTH BEFORE THE KILLING GAME
Huff…Huff…
Who knew this would be so hard…? It never looked heavy in hollywood…
████ struggled as they lugged a large instrument case down a flight of stairs, stopping at a shuttered and locked door.
No-one’s here…Good.
They pulled a key out from their pocket, pulled up the shutter and unlocked the door. After quickly looking to make sure the coast was clear and no-one was watching them, they put both hands back on the instrument case and pushed it inside.
“Hnnn…You’d think they put…Wheels on these…”
But through their overexertion, they didn’t notice the sound of footsteps not too far away.
“There!”
They had pushed the instrument case into the centre of the room, next to a chair or bed similar to that of a dentist or hospital. Not too hard to procure, they had the right connections.
They wiped the sweat off their brow with a sigh.
“Finally…Now we can get things started for real…”
They started to lean down to unlatch the case when-
click.
“You really shouldn’t work with the lights off, ya know. Messes with your eyesight.”
“Wh-!?” ████ spun around, raising their fists in a defensive pose. “You! H-how did you-!?”
“Uh, Ultimate Detective. Remember?” Hotaru smirked and winked. “Comes with the territory, hon~”
They scowled, gritting their teeth. “You…Well what’re you gonna do now, huh?”
“Hmm. That is indeed the question.” She swung her leg back, putting a hand to her chin. “People at school have been looking for you for a while, you know.”
“They don’t understand.”
“Uh-huh, course they don’t. Save the monologue. But yes, you’ve been missing a while, people have been looking for you, aaaaand…”
She pointed to the instrument case. Specifically to the small holes drilled into the top.
“I’m pretty sure I can guess who’s in that trunk.”
…
████ tensed their fists, pressing their mouth into a line.
“So that’s already kidnapping. Murder if you don’t open that soon, those holes are only gonna do so much. And I can see your little toolkit over there.”
She pointed to the table at the back of the room, littered with various knives, blades, pliers and an electric drill.
“Soooooo kidnapping with intent to maim? Kill?…So still that’s an attempted murder charge.”
“So what!?” They spat. “No-one understands! They NEVER will! So if you’re gonna arrest me, just let me-”
“Who said I was gonna arrest you?”
████ stopped.
“…H…Huh…?”
She shook her head. “I mean. I have no intention of arresting you. That’s boring. And I hate boring.”
“Then…What’re you doing here…?”
“Because y’know what else is boring? Your plan.”
“Excuse me-!?”
“I mean, torture? Yeah no I get it, but talk about played out. Seriously, pliers? Probably stolen from grandad’s toolbox? What is this, baby’s first torture porn?”
She stuck her thumb down and blew a raspberry.
They folded their arms. “Okay, why do you care about this? If you’re not gonna help me, why are you so interested?”
…
The detective shrugged her shoulders.
“Because it’s fun. And I’m bored.”
They raised an eyebrow. “Fun…?”
“Yeah. I mean, nothing interesting has happened the past few years at all. Things get stale, you know? And your plan is the perfect backdrop for the two of us to shake things up! Riiiiight?”
She spun around, mapping out with both hands.
“You can make most of the decisions obviously – you can be the mastermind behind this operation, so to say – but I can help wiiiiith…The fine tuning! Yeah! Then things will be MUCH more interesting~!”
“Interesting? How?”
She turned back around. “You hate Hope’s Peak, don’t you?”
…
“…What they did…” They tensed a fist. “I can’t forgive. I can never forgive.”
“So this can be the perfect way to get back at them! To stick it to the man, show them what for!”
Her expression turned serious.
“To show how easily shaken their so-called foundations really are.”
She grinned. “Whaddya say?”
…
████ thought for a moment, before nodding. “Alright…But what’s your plan?”
…
A smile spread across Hotaru’s face, her expression turning sinisterly excited.
“Tell me…Do you know what a killing game is~?”