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1. 市（いち）~ Town
“You know what we should do? A killing game.”
Tsumugi set down her virgin strawberry daiquiri. Kaede, who was nursing a Shirley Temple, leaned across the bar towards her, eyes sparkling as she awaited her response. So Tsumugi said the most eloquent thing she could think of:
“Haha, what?”
“I don’t mean a for-real killing game,” Kaede added, waving a hand as she took another sip of her drink. “I mean a simulation! It’d be an amazing send-off for graduation this spring, don’t you think? We get all our classmates together, pop some VR helmets on, get someone to DM as the mastermind, and boom! We’re all racing each other to see who survives to the end!”
“Um,” Tsumugi said. “I didn’t think you were into that sort of thing.”
The smile startled off Kaede’s soft lips. “What? Why not?”
“It’s kind of violent… and messed up…”
“But that’s why it’s fun! And that’s why we’re not doing it in real life,” Kaede insisted. “It’s like one of those murder mystery dinner parties. It’s all the thrills and chills with none of the kills! It’s nice that our school life’s been so peaceful so far, but if we don’t do something to spice it up, it’ll just be boring!”
Tsumugi considered this as she sipped her daiquiri. The bartender, a tall and courteous man with a neatly clipped beard, dried a glass further down the bar as he listened to another patron vent their woes. Teens like her and Kaede weren’t technically supposed to be here, even if they were Hope’s Peak third years, but… the bartender had taught her to mix drinks, and he was an all-around chill sort. He didn’t mind them hanging out. She wondered what his opinion of killing games was. Or fake killing games, she supposed.
“It seems like a lot of work,” she decided at last. “You’d have to figure out who’s coming… The VR world would help a lot with establishing a setting, but… then you’d have to pick a mastermind, without letting anyone know who it is…”
“Oh, I was figuring you’d do it.”
Tsumugi choked on her drink. “Buh?”
Kaede shone her friendliest smile on her like a spotlight. “You’d be a great mastermind! You’re sweet, and quiet, and unassuming. No one would ever think it was you! Unless they were, like, some kind of total despair weirdo.”
Heat rose in Tsumugi’s face. Oh gosh. How did you even respond to something like that?
“Plus, with your cosplay talents, you could take on all kinds of disguises!” Kaede continued, pointing at her with enthusiasm. “It’d be a great way to show everyone what you can really do when you put your mind to it!”
Oh gosh. Kaede was going to talk her into this, wasn’t she. Tsumugi could already feel her enthusiasm grow. “Hmmm, when you put it like that…”
“Besides, it’d be easy to pick a mastermind without letting anyone know who it is! Memory erasure and manipulation is a staple of killing games,” Kaede continued, nodding her head firmly as she folded her arms. “Then you can make us all blank slates and dress us up the way you want!”
“Well, I think I wouldn’t change our Ultimate talents any,” Tsumugi replied, feeling herself smile, “but I had some thoughts on how to tweak that expectation—give a surprise to the audience.”
“Ooh!” Kaede snap-pointed her fingers. “An audience! That’s another thing! Who would you have the audience be?”
Tsumugi stared into the middle distance thoughtfully. “Hmmm… I don’t really care who the audience is… I think it would be fun if there was some way to have audience participation, though.” She grinned brightly. “Wouldn’t that be fun and original?”
“I love it!” Kaede gushed.
And that, right there, was the nail in the coffin. Tsumugi loved Kaede’s passion, her enthusiasm, her bright eyes, her precious smile. But most of all, she loved sharing her own passion with her, and see her reflect it. Boring, dull, plain old Tsumugi normally couldn’t ever hope to draw the eye of a girl like her. But if she made a world she could cosplay a thousand times over and never get bored… if she could make it so fun for Kaede that she’d want to do it over a thousand times with her… if she could share it in turn with the world and hook them on her world, her world for her and Kaede… The very concept filled her to the brim with heart-pounding excitement.
“I’ll do it,” she promised, leaning in close, intimately close, so close she could smell the maraschino cherry on Kaede’s breath. “I’ll enthrall the whole world with my cosplay!”
“That’s the spirit! I’m with you all the way, Tsumugi!” Kaede cheered. She winked as she picked up her glass and swirled it. “So d’you think you can convince your bartender friend to give us free refills?”
“I think you’d have a much easier time charming him into it than plain old me.”
She clasped her hands under her chin and turned the doe-eyes up to eleven. “Awww, pleeeeeease?”
And there it was. Tsumugi sighed. “I just can’t say no to you.” But she was smiling as she said it.
“Yesss! I knew you’d come through!” She giggled. Despite not having had anything alcoholic, she seemed half-drunk on the atmosphere. “This is so much fun. We should go out on the town more often, Tsumugi!”
2. 荷（に）~ Baggage
“…and… that’s it!” Tsumugi announced to the room, specifically the display room of her cosplay atelier, jittering with nerves she was sure she was hiding poorly. “I put in a lot of thinking of an interesting setting and fascinating twists. And with my cosplay talent, I’m sure I can keep it fresh not just for all of us, but for the audience, too! What do you all think?”
“I think it sounds awesome!” Kaede declared, clapping her hands together as her eyes shone. “It’s got a real Matrix vibe to it, doesn’t it? And peeling the mystery layer by layer will keep everyone guessing!”
“It does sound intriguing,” Shuichi admitted, hand on his chin. “Are you sure there won’t be any real danger, though?”
“Oh, absolutely!” Tsumugi lied brightly. There were some issues with the simulations she’d run (which she’d had to hide from Miu and K1-B0, who were helping her set this all up), But if she admitted that, no one would want to play. Kaede’s good time would be ruined. She’d never get to run her one-woman cosplay show. It was fine. She’d make it work before go time. The important thing now was to get everyone to agree to join.
Ran, seated backwards on a chair with his arms folded on the back, gave her a thoughtful look. “And you said once we’re hooked up, we’ll forget all about what you told us, so it’ll feel like a real killing game, right?”
“Of course!” Tsumugi extended a finger and mustered as hard a smile as she could manage. “It wouldn’t be any fun for any of us if we already knew what the mystery was.”
“No need to worry!” K1-B0 chimed in, hands on his hips as he smiled. “Everybody’s memories will be backed up, and in case of an emergency, I’ll have a fail-safe installed to end the game early if need be. But we won’t need to do that! Tsumugi, as the game-runner, will keep her own memories so she can keep an eye on everything and ensure it all runs smoothly!”
Ran raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that true?”
“Well, yes. I’m going to be the DM. Or would that be MM, for MasterMind…?” Tsumugi pondered this until a pointed cough from the crowd brought her back to reality. “O-oh! I-in any case, yes. I’m setting it all up, so I have to know what’s going on, right?”
“Gonta not sure about this,” the great hulking gentleman said slowly. As apologetic as he looked and sounded, he still continued, “Gonta not want to hurt anyone, even if it not real…”
“Nyeh…” Himiko, half-asleep where she sat on one of the love seats. “It sounds like a big pain… I kinda don’t wanna bother…”
“Hmm… No offense, but it sounds like the kind of thing that could go wrong in a lot of ways,” Ryoma pointed out, tugging his beanie down his forehead. “You’re going to be messing around with our brains, after all.”
Internally, Tsumugi panicked. “U-u-umm—”
“Oh, don’t be party poopers, guys!” Kaede interrupted. “It’ll be totally fine, I promise. We’ll all have a lot of heart-pounding fun, and then when it’s over, we’ll all wake up together and laugh about it! Besides, Miu pitched in a lot with the technology, and even if her personality’s rotten, her inventions are second to none!”
“Damn right they are!” Miu barked, slamming a booted foot on one chair and rocking a thumbs-down. “I ain’t gonna let any of you steaming turds question how fucking amazing my—BITCH WHATCHU SAY ABOUT MY PERSONALITY?!”
That got a laugh out of the room. Kaede caught Tsumugi’s eye, grinned, and winked.
She clasped her hands over her chest, where she felt her heart flutter. Oh, she just couldn’t bear to let Kaede down.
“It does seem a waste to let such a unique opportunity pass,” Korekiyo mused. “Personally, I’m quite intrigued to see what you’re capable of, Tsumugi. Especially the punishments, kehehe… Your idea has my rousing endorsement.”
“Oh, because an endorsement from a creep-o like you is soooo convincing,” Tenko grumbled, rolling her eyes.
“If you don’t want to play, then don’t,” Maki told her, voice clipped. “That’s what it comes down to. Arguing about it is pointless.”
“Sounds fair to me!” Kaito agreed, grinning. He raised a fist of confidence. Tsumugi wished she could be a fraction that self-assured. “I’m all in! If nobody’s getting hurt for real, then it’s all in good fun. And I’m gonna win for sure!”
Maki snorted. “You sure you want to make that claim when you don’t even know if I’m playing yet or not?”
“It does seem unfair to include someone of her particular… strengths,” Kirumi pointed out, eyes shut in thought. “Perhaps if there were a handicap…?”
“I’ll write in a plotline where she falls for Kaito,” Tsumugi offered.
“You want to die?” Maki snapped while Kaito whined, “Hey!!”
And that got another laugh out of the room. With the crowd softened, Tsumugi worked that angle, that there could be ‘handicaps’ assigned, for a few minutes. One by one, the ones who’d been reluctant turned around and agreed, or at least capitulated. That left only…
“Oh, we are done talking?” Angie said cheerfully, looking up from her sketchpad. “Okay! Angie’s good for anything!”
…and Kokichi, who was sprawled on one of the couches, chin on his hands, legs kicking slowly in midair. If anyone could completely ruin this, it was him and that faux-innocent, thoughtful look on his dumb baby face.
“So, just to recap, this is all for fun, and you guarantee nobody’s going to get hurt for real in this mutual killing game,” he said. “Do I have that right?”
“Absolutely,” Tsumugi insisted, irritation prickling at the edges of her upturned lips.
He rested a finger on his smile. That thoughtful look had turned predatory. “You aaaaabsolutely guarantee? 100%, cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die, stick-a-needle-in-your-eye guarantee?”
“U-umm…”
“Because I was just thinking that an Ultimate Detective would make this game too easy to beat!” he added, switching back to boyishly chipper. “Right, Shuichi?”
“Well, I’m not going to remember what Kaede just told us,” Shuichi pointed out, smiling nervously. “It’s easy to say it would be easy to deduce now, when we already know the answer, but I don’t think it would be that simple once we’re in the thick of it.”
“Yeah, give her some credit!” Kaede chimed in.
“Y-yeah! I worked hard on this!” Tsumugi agreed, latching onto their (her) support. “If you think plain old me can’t make a fun killing game, you can just sit it out!”
But that made Kaede pout. “Awww, but I wanted everyone to join in! It won’t be the same without everyone.” She raised a finger and grinned. “Just think: people are gonna think Kokichi’s the mastermind for sure! He’d be a perfect red herring!”
“Haha, aww, shucks. You flatter me,” Kokichi laughed. He smirked and caught Tsumugi’s eye again. “Hmmm… I’d hate to be a spoilsport, too… How about this, then? I’ll bet Shuichi’ll survive to the end and figure out all your tricks! That makes it more fun, right?”
This isn’t about your crush, it’s about mine! Tsumugi wanted to yell. She clutched the hem of her skirt instead. “Sure,” she forced out. “If that makes you happy.”
“Great!” he chirped. “Shuichi, make sure to show everyone how amazing ace detectives are, ‘kay?”
Shuichi frowned. “I can’t tell if you’re serious or you’re making fun of me…”
Kokichi laughed an extremely fake-sounding laugh and didn’t reply.
“Oh, who cares?” Kaede beamed. “It’s just Kokichi being Kokichi. More importantly, this is gonna be so much fun!! I’m also really looking forward to seeing if you can beat Tsumugi, to be honest. That is a fun twist!” She grinned over her shoulder at Tsumugi. “What d’you say? If Kokichi’s betting on him, then I’m gonna bet on you!”
Tsumugi beamed back. “Sure!”
However, over Kaede’s shoulder as she teased Shuichi and joked with the others, Kokichi caught Tsumugi’s eye. The faint smile, the narrowed brows… He knew about the simulation issues somehow. She was certain of it. In short, until it started, he held her game in the palm of his hand, and he wanted her to know it.
Well, fine. Fine! She could be more than plain old Tsumugi when she wanted to be. That’s what the Ultimate Cosplayer was all about. If he was going to bring his own baggage into this, then she’d add a few more twists of her own.
3. 讃（さん）~ Praise
“My name is ***** ********,” Tsumugi said up to the camera, smiling with all the vivacious viciousness of the character she was playing, “and I’d be perfect for a killing game because I don’t believe in anybody.”
So began the spiel she’d prepared for the fictional version of Kaede she’d prepared for the background of her killing game. Her cospox prevented her from actually saying the name, which had seemed a nuisance at first but then later seemed a stroke of brilliance, but since it wasn’t really her, she could cosplay this version all she liked. Which counted for all their other classmates, but she’d saved her favorite to finish. The best for last!
Once she was finished, she hit the end-record button on her remote. The red light on the camera leering down at her shut off. “Whew,” she breathed, pressing a hand to her chest.
“Good work,” said her bartender friend from the mini-bar. “Care for a daiquiri?”
“Actually, I’m way more into Shirley Temples!” she chirped, whirling around while still in character. “Heehee! I can’t wait for the game to start. I’m gonna ace it and make Tsumugi proud!”
Her friend smiled as he prepared her drink. “I’m sure Tsumugi would be very happy to hear that… Kaede, was it?”
“Nope! I’m a nameless character who just happens to be made in the image of someone named Kaede Akamatsu,” Tsumugi replied in the tones of a confidante. She swirled herself onto a bar seat, the seat rolling a few seconds before it came to a stop. She put a stop to her act, too, though she still spoke in Kaede’s voice, to lean forward on the bar. “Characters like that are made all the time. And isn’t it fun to cosplay your OCs?”
“I’m afraid I wouldn’t know. I’ve never cosplayed before.”
Tsumugi gasped, loud and theatrical. “You should!! You’ve got such rugged good looks!” She supposed. For a man. “You’d draw a lot of eyes in the right costume!”
He slid her the grenadine-infused soda. “In that case, I must pass. Bartenders aren’t meant to be the center of attention.”
She pouted. She had to give him that one, though. How disappointing.
“Besides, I’m much more interested in the tweaks you’ve made to your game,” he added. “Creating a fiction where your classmates are actually normal people whose memories have been modified to make them believe they’re Ultimates is an intriguing twist. When would they learn that that, too, is a lie?”
She perked. “At the very end, of course! Whoever wins—and I’m banking on Kaede, but Maki and Kirumi are strong contenders, too—will get fed the idea that I’ve been hosting dozens and dozens of killing games, but now it’s over…” She trailed off, tilting her head. “You know… I started with the concept of a world I could cosplay over and over again without ever getting bored, but it dawns on me… Since it’s all virtual, I could literally do exactly that, couldn’t I?” She grinned as she took a long drink of her Shirley Temple. “It’d be like a copycat—no, a cosplaycat crime! Ooh! You’re such a wonderful sounding board!”
He bowed his head. “I live to serve.”
She finished off her drink, set it down, and sucked on the maraschino cherry. The cocktail glass made her feel like such an adult, which was funny, considering the drink itself was non-alcoholic. From graduation to when she turned twenty, she’d be in a sort of non-adult, non-child limbo, wouldn’t she? The thought made her purse her lips and twist her tongue. A moment later, she produced a cherry stem tied with a neat knot.
“Say,” she wondered, flicking it into the trash, “where’s the name Shirley Temple come from? It’s kind of an odd name for a drink, isn’t it?”
“Most drinks have names you might consider odd,” her friend replied. “But this one in particular is named after a child actress.”
“A child actress, huh…” She twirled the glass, then raised it. “Could I get another?”
“No more strawberry daiquiris for you?”
She smirked to project all the confidence she’d need. “I’m tired of virgins.”
He smiled back and took her glass to the soda mixer. “So you say, but you’re just requesting a different virgin.”
“It’s not so different.” She leaned her chin on her hands and thought of Kaede, the real one. “It’s just… bubblier.”
“And bright pink.”
“Hmm? What about pink?”
“Just that it’s a color that suits her—or rather, you.” He topped the glass with a maraschino cherry, then slid it over to her. “A dirty Shirley Temple, for the brilliant mastermind-to-be.”
She giggled, flush with pleasure, and knocked that drink down too. It might be non-alcoholic, but she was feeling a little drunk on the atmosphere all the same. She hoped—no, she was certain Kaede would love this idea as much as she did. She couldn’t wait to bask in her praise!
4. 死（し）~ Death
Actually, Kaede hated it. She hated it to death, as it were.
As Tsumugi waved good-bye to the audience, not as wonderful Kaede, not as bombastic Junko, but as plain old her, she reflected that she’d failed to convey her love to her love after all.
Whatever. At this point, she was just plain done.
Rocks fall; Shirogane dies. Exit, stage right.