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They needed a break. They had been going at a full speed pace fighting shadows every time the fog began to set in. It had become an occurrence every few weeks to the point they were all worn out from returning home late at night and crashing together at each other’s places until morning. Then they would get up for school and start it all over again.
With the recent addition of Naoto Shirogane to the group, they were all being urged to take better care of themselves, especially with their upcoming exams. It was as good an excuse as any to crowd the entire investigation team into the Dojimas’ small house together for a game night.
“What! How?” Chie groans, exaggeratedly falling onto her back with her arms spread out in defeat.
“He's just good at this too,” Yosuke tells her, only slightly less upset at the results of Yu’s guess regarding the culprit, caught somewhere between awe and envy.
Yukiko is snickering at their antics while she picks up the tossed about pieces of the board game, colored tokens and various cards. “Clue is a unique sort of game though, isn’t it?” she comments, clearly enjoying herself. “Don’t you think so, Naoto-kun?”
“It should just be simple statistics,” the detective said, leaning back where they’re sitting deep in thought.
“No! It’s totally more like poker! You’re supposed to read people and make them slip up on what cards they have,” Yosuke argues, leaning in eagerly and scooping up a few cards. He shows off a simple shuffling trick much to a few of the others' amazement.
Kanji doesn't seem convinced though, crossing his arms and grumbling. “What's the point if you can't trust your gut! My guess was almost right! I just didn’t get the room right.”
“Almost doesn’t take the cake!” Teddie chips in, grabbing his own green piece from the board and holding it up to the light admiringly. “More importantly, why were you the murderer, Rise-chan!”
The girl in question squeaks and leans back at the accusation. “Me?! I didn’t do anything! I’m just playing the red piece!”
“That’s what they all say, Miss Scarlett!” Teddie eggs her on, pushing the evidence card of the lady in red into her face.
“Yu! Save me!” Rise calls out and the investigation team leader can only smile fondly at his friend's antics.
“Well? What’s your secret, partner?” Yosuke urges.
Yu stretches his arms out above his head before he settles into a noncommittal shrug.
Both Teddie and Yosuke groan at not being given an answer, like they were being deprived, but Naoto gives him a look like they had expected as much.
“We should really get back to studying like we were supposed to be doing all along,” they suggest, trying to gather the group's focus back from falling apart as they chatter amongst themselves. The only thing that stops to unite them at the moment, however, is Rise’s suggestion of "Just one more game, pleaseeeee."
Yu looks around the group and he can't deny them anything, especially when they're all looking the happiest they've been in weeks. “One more, and if anyone can beat me, I'll buy everyone Aiya’s.”
That gets everyone fired up as they reset the board in preparation, circling in close to sit knee-to-knee with each other. Yosuke shuffles the cards and places the winners in the tiny envelope, slapping it down onto the center of the board.
“Alright, no peeking. No cheating. No funny business,” he warns, casting a pointed look at Teddie, who salutes him in return.
After the first game they all know the rules. Rise, with her scarlet piece, rolls the dice first. She moves a few spaces and passes to the next person to her right to go next. It’s slow to start, but by the time the first person, Kanji, reaches a room it’s almost instant chaos once again.
“Alright, here goes nothing. I think it’s Rise, in the Kitchen with the knife!” he declares, pointing a finger in the girl's direction.
“What? Why me!” she counters just as quickly, looking both hurt and upset. “Does this have something to do with my cooking again!?”
Kanji looks puzzled for a moment at the accusation before catching on and raising his hands up over his head innocently. “What? No! I’m just making a guess. Jeez!”
“Besides, he’s wrong.” Chie sighs, leaning over to show Kanji the card in her hand that contradicts his claim. The crime wasn’t committed in the kitchen. Then, she snatches up the dice to take her own turn. “Here, do the honors for me?” she asks, holding the dice out to Yukiko since they are sharing the yellow piece. Yukiko rolls and moves their piece while Chie scribbles away on their Clue notepad the information gathered thus far.
“Which room should we go to?” Yukiko asks her. “We can make it to either the Library or the Billiards room.”
“Oh! Let's go to the Billiards room. I have an idea!”
Yukiko moves their yellow piece into the room on the board, settling it on top of one of the chairs in the room while Chie writes something and taps her arm to show her. “Oh, yeah, let's go with that," she agrees.
“Well?” Yu asks patiently for their guess.
“We think it could be Yosuke, in here, with the wrench. I’ve seen how you swing things around in the TV. Probably tried to do a trick twirling it and hit poor Mister Body,” Chie accuses, waving her pencil at him.
Teddie gives a scandalized gasp and Yosuke shoves him. “Why are you surprised? You know it’s not me!” He slaps down the card from his hand showing he had been holding the one for Mr. Green. The same color of the piece they were sharing. The bear looks down at it, his face falling a fraction. It only lasts for a moment though before he’s whirling around to cast the accusations down the line of friends.
“If it wasn’t us, then it’s got to be Kanji!”
“Hey, hold on, we haven't even rolled the dice yet!” Yosuke complains, snatching the said object before Teddie can launch them across the room in an overzealous throw like he had last game. He gives the dice a shake and drops them above the board with an attempt at style that falls flat as it doesn’t even roll, landing directly on mere two. “Can we even make it anywhere on the board with that? We’re right next to the kitchen but we know it’s not that,” he sighs.
“Secret passage!” Teddie declares pointing at the arrow to the shortcut that leads across the board from the kitchen to the Study.
“Oh! That’s actually a good idea, Ted,” Yosuke praises, perking up and moving their piece through the kitchen to the study. Once there, Teddie leans in expectantly towards Yosuke practically vibrating with bearly contained excitement.
“Now?” he asks.
“Yeah, yeah, have at it,” Yosuke agrees, leaning back to give Teddie a clear space. Good thing too, as the bear launches himself across the board at Kanji, narrowly missing flipping it entirely. The bigger boy catches Teddie with a strong grip to hold him up and away from anything fragile in his path.
“Kanji did it! In the studying room!”
“With what, my bare hands?” the boy counters combatively, pulling the wriggling bear under his arm, nooging a fist into his head.
“Your fists are a deadly weapon,” Yosuke points out unhelpfully.
“Oh! If we combine Kanji’s fists and my legs we’d have the ultimate fighter!” Chie chimes in, sending the group into an uproarious commotion until another of them speaks up to reign them in.
“Yosuke, your guess won’t be valid unless you name an official game weapon,” Naoto reminds him.
Yosuke makes a pained face but waves a hand to show he's thinking about it. “Um, what are the choices again? Oh! The pipe!”
It's Rise's turn to prove him wrong, pulling a card out of her hand and leaning in to show the group. The very same pipe Yosuke had just guessed.
“Sorry, Yosuke. Good try though.” She tries to be encouraging even as she lets him down since she knows the boy takes things so competitively. Thankfully, Yosuke gets quickly distracted by Kanji tossing Teddie back over to him and dealing with the resulting lap full of bear.
Turning back to the game from watching the scene, Yu sees Naoto scribbling away at their notepad deep in thought. “Your turn,” he reminds them, picking up the dice and holding it out to them.
The young detective glances up taking what is offered with a polite nod. “Thank you, Senpai.”
“I've told you there's no need to be so formal,” Yu tells them watching the way Naoto shakes the dice in hand as if they had studied the best way to make it look professional. Their toss is solid, the dice rolling across the board and stopping just before hitting Yu's knee.
“A six,” Naoto confirms, leaning to see the number it had landed on. “That gives me a few options. I could double back to the Billiards room to see if part of that guess was worth pursuing. Knowing it’s not Yosuke—”
“Damn right it’s not!”
“—I’ll turn my focus to you, Senpai.”
Naoto lifts their gaze up from the board and to Yu, who just returns it with open interest waiting for the last piece of their guess.
“I’ll state for the record that it could be Narukami, with the rope in the Billiards room,” Naoto says, glancing around the group for their reactions. Most of them are looking over their cards and grumbling. Kanji scratches his head with a loud sigh. Then, Yukiko leans over to see the cards that Chie is holding and pulls one from the other girl's hand. “We have the rope!” she declares with a delighted giggle.
The breath the room has been holding is collectively let out. Another one down and the choices get ever slimmer. Suspicions are forming and one can almost see various strategies that are being used whether it’s a simple checklist Kanji is carefully keeping track of or Yosuke inspecting the others faces for answers on what they might have hidden away.
The turns go a bit faster as they all move to try and solve the mystery of the game first.
It’s not in the Ballroom, Kanji says.
It’s not in the Conservatory, according to Naoto.
Rise’s been holding the wrench and the dagger cards.
She’s looking pretty confident when her turn comes around. The only possible room left is the Lounge. There are only two weapons left and she's putting her money on it being the revolver. The only question left is which of the remaining suspects it could be.
“Oh! OH! I bet I know it!” she says, rocking in her seat excitedly. She turns her head to face Yu, her hair tossing into Yosuke's face in the process. He sputters and moves to get up from his seat with the excuse of tracking down Teddie who has been gone looking for snacks for a suspiciously long time.
“It's gotta be Naoto in the lounge with the revolver,” she says proudly followed by several seconds of silence as everyone realizes they are lacking a way to counter.
Yu stares at his own cards intently. Yukiko has to pry hers from Chie’s hands as the other girl has curled up asleep next to her on the floor. Kanji tries to flip through his own, only to drop them.
For a moment it seems like no one can counter the claim and then Naoto eyes one of Kanji’s cards that have fallen face up. They pick it up and offer it back to him with an amused smile. “The Revolver.”
“I knew that sounded familiar!” he claims, turning to present the card across the circle of friends before he throws a fist up into the air in victory.
Rise gives him an unimpressed look. “You know that doesn't mean you win, right?”
“Y-yeah but I still proved you wrong, didn't I?” Kanji says, happy enough with that for himself. He leans back just in time to avoid Rise pulling a hairband from her hair and flicking it in his direction like a slingshot.
Yu silently checks off the new findings on his paper, aware of Naoto's eyes on him still. It's his turn and with their dwindling odds and player attention span he figures now is a good time to make his move.
“My turn,” he tells the detective, “and I think I’m going to make an official accusation.”
“We already know the location and now the weapon for sure, but are you so certain you know the culprit?” Naoto asks him. “There are still several possibilities after all.”
“I'm pretty confident in my guess,” Yu tells them with a soft smile. The one he uses when he’s trying to let others down easily. Naoto just returns the expression with one of their own of piqued interest. They patiently lay their cards face down on the board and wait.
Yu picks up the tiny, closed envelope in the center of the board and hands it over to Naoto. “Open it for me, please?” he requests as he moves the pieces of his guess across the board to their proper locations.
The candlestick is placed into the lounge. Then he picks up his own piece, the white token, and places it next without bothering to roll the dice.
“So you’re placing your bets on yourself being the culprit?” Naoto confirms as they open the envelope and pull the cards from it, laying them out onto the board between the two of them.
The Lounge. The Candlestick. Ms. White.
Rise gasps next to them, pulling her attention away from bullying Kanji as she sees the reveal. “How could you, Senpai! Not only winning, but you’re the killer too!”
Yu gives a sheepish look at her and bows his head. “Not intentionally. Just the luck of the draw.” He silently thanks Yosuke’s poor shuffling skills as well for giving him three character cards. That came in the clutch for him.
“To think I had been so close,” Naoto laments. “I guess I’ve still got a ways to go learning your strategies.”
“So…what was your plan then?” Kanji asks, eager to learn as well.
Yu has a hard time boiling it down to any one thing. Luck. Patience. A little card counting and purposeful omission through silence. He lifts his gaze thoughtfully to the ceiling, listening to a clock chime in the house somewhere. It’s late. Possibly midnight. “If I had to say, it was just wanting to watch everyone have fun together from the sidelines.”