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Mutsuko groaned as she entered the cafeteria, seriously, what was so important that Maekawa had to get all of them in the cafeteria at this time? Behind her, Erina was grumbling to herself, probably something about Ikeda if he was the reason behind this midnight meeting.
It seemed like they were the last ones to arrive; everyone else was standing awkwardly around one of the tables. Not understanding the hesitation, Mutsuko made her way towards Maekawa, who was awkwardly positioned at the table.
"If no one is going to sit I'm taking this spot." she said, pointing to the empty seat next to Maekawa.
Of course Ikeda just had to open his mouth. "I mean sure, if you fancy sitting really close to your would-be-killer."
'Maekawa?' She thought as she gave him a glare. But that didn't make sense, why call a meeting if that was the case? It was only upon looking back at Maekawa that Mutsuko realised who he was referring to (and probably why no one wanted to take a seat). One Ogura Noriko was being pinned to the table, uncharacteristically quiet.
Ogura, one of the smaller students in the group, was going to kill her? Or was that comment just a part of Ikeda's typical taunting?
Maekawa let out a loud groan, "god can everyone just sit the fuck down so we can start talking?"
"So um… what's …going on?" Yokoi was the first to talk. "You know, with Maekawa, Ogura and I assume Matthias?"
Mutsuko glanced over at the latter, the tear stains along with his red eyes only making her more curious as to what went down.
"Well, me and Isoda were practicing our instruments when we heard someone shouting so we went to check it out." Ninomiya explained, rubbing a hand along Matthias' back, "we found Matthias crying and begging Ogura not to do 'it' and uh…" he rummaged through his pockets, "we also found this note next to him."
He held up a crumpled piece of paper, the writing too small for Mutsuko to make out any words.
"Do you want to have the honors of reading it out?" Maekawa offered, the sarcasm dripping from her words.
"I wouldn't call it an honor but… sure I guess. I already read it out once."
The note's contents were, shocking to say the least: revealing all the current bleeding members and the confirmation of the second sabotage. Moments after Ninomiya finished, absolute chaos broke out. Denden began to cry to Hirose, apologising profusely for causing him to get dragged in; Tei shouted at a nonchalant Ikeda, clearly distraught at his willingness to side with the bleeding and betray him; Yokoi moved over to Matthias' other side, offering even more comfort.
In the middle of it all, Mutsuko looked over at Ogura, who had yet to say a word. The smaller girl stared back, her uncovered eye lacking its usual sparkle.
"What are you looking at?" Erina's voice pulled her out of their "staring competition".
"Just spacing out, everyone is too loud." She hastily lied. Honestly, telling the truth probably wouldn't result in anything given the current mess but then again, it was Erina she was talking to.
"Agreed," Sou echoed, "can we just end it?"
"Let me do it." Mutsuko instinctively closed her eyes, bracing herself for whatever a tired Erina came up with, which certainly was going to be stupid.
A stomp.
"Everyone shut the fuck up!" her voice boomed throughout the cafeteria.
Silence. "Get off the table." Came Sou's grumble moments afterwards.
She quietly muttered about at least getting the job done as Maekawa took charge. "So, anything else before we move onto our next big problem?"
"Actually, I wanted to hear from Ogura." Yokoi responded. "I mean, out of the current bleeding, its clear both Matthias or Denden were forced into enacting the sabotages…" She glanced over at the two aforementioned students. "And well, I can't help but be a bit curious about whether Ikeda's statement regarding Nishiguchi and Ogura actually holds water."
Almost all eyes turned towards Maekawa, who seemed hesitant to let Ogura talk.
"She has a point Maekawa. I want to know what kind of plan she was coming up with if I was the recruit after today's sabotage." Hirose added on.
That, paired with Shishikura gently holding her wrist, was enough to get her to back down. She let go of Ogura's collar, letting her sit up. "There, talk."
Ogura continued to remain silent, fiddling with her sleeve.
"Well if you don't want to I could—"
"No. It's only right that I explain everything." Ogura swiftly shot down Ikeda's suggestion. "I was the one who came up with the plan."
"Whatever you say."
"It all started after Ikeda revealed the truth about Hidemi's identity. She came to me afterwards, begging for me to save her and Ikeda. Few hours later, I would receive the note from Monomoko declaring that I was a bleeding member along side Ikeda and Hidemi." She started. "The initial members, it felt intentional. A prime opportunity to fulfill my promise to Hidemi served on a silver platter."
"But why leave out Matthias?"
"She couldn't know." Her answer was simple. "As you have heard or seen, if she found out about our roles, she'd never allow me to proceed with my plan. Taking her note would not only prevent her from finding out, but absolve her of any guilt regardless of the final outcome of the trial."
"That explains why he was crying when we found the two of them earlier."
"Ok, so what was your plan?"
"From the get go, I knew I wanted to target Nishiguchi. There was no other option." Sou's hand reached over to grab hers, sending her reassurance after the confirmation of Ikeda's statement. "But in order to maximise our chances of success and escape, there had to be minimal clues. Which is why Hirose is crucial — his medical knowledge is the only way we would have a body without wounds, and thus a body without clues."
"But Hirose would never cooperate with us. That is, unless we brought in collateral." Ogura looked over at Denden. "It was quite simple to rationalize: Cooperate and they'll be able to escape together. Betray and the chances of them coming out of this game alive go down drastically."
Hirose and Denden exchanged hushed apologies and reassurances as she continued on. "But there was only one last problem. That being Yaitabashi. After…" Ogura made a notable pause to compose herself. "…After Akiba's trial, it was clear that he was the biggest hurdle to overcome. So it was pertinent that we recruited someone he would never expect to be the bleeding."
"But why not make me the target?"
"The plan involved a mass poisoning of the student body. Not deadly but just enough to warrant Yaitabashi's herb expertise, making it much easier to isolate Nishiguchi if Kumada asked for Yaitabashi's help."
"As if I would agree to kill Mutsuko!" Erina countered, slamming her hands on the table.
"Don't lie, you would do anything if it meant guaranteeing your escape." Ikeda's words hit their mark head on, stunning her into silence. Mutsuko quickly tugged on her jacket to get her to sit down before she could do anything else.
"Anyway, with the recruits settled, the next was the murder plan. Had things gone ideally, me and Hirose would go through the available supplies in the school. One for the aforementioned poisoning, the other to allow for a painless death for Nishiguchi."
"Wait I don't get it," Tei interjected, "what's with your obsession with giving Nishiguchi a painless death? Isn't that just more cover up work than just stabbing her?"
"Because none of this is her fault. I would only be disrespecting her if I went for such an approach." Talking about her would-be death certainly made Mutsuko uneasy, but she couldn't help but feel almost moved by Ogura's… thoughtfulness? Consideration? You know, if it wasn't her on the receiving end of said death.
"Regardless, with all the specifics ironed out, all that would be left was to follow through with the plan. On the night of the third sabotage, Kumada would slip in a light poison into dinner." Mutsuko grabbed Erina's arm, to try to reassure her that she wouldn't have betrayed them like that. "To add onto the chaos and confusion caused by the mass poisoning, Ikeda would pull the fire alarm. Ideally, it would separate the unaffected students to make it harder to get alibis."
"Wait. Wouldn't it have been really obvious who the bleeding were based on who was poisoned?" Ninomiya asked.
"It would have." She answered. "That's why any bleeding members who didn't have anything to do were to knowingly take the poisoned dinner. Reduce the number of clues pointing back to us."
"That's messed up." Shishikura mumbled.
"You say that as if shoving a bunch of teenagers into an enclosed facility to murder each other isn't messed up enough." Ikeda shrugged.
"There was no choice. It was that or severely reduce the chances of success."
A heavy silence hung in the air, the rest of the students sharing tiny glances at each other.
"Is that all?" Maekawa grumbled.
Ogura nodded, "without proper knowledge about the chemicals and substances we have here, it's impossible to know how the actual murder itself would have played out."
Sou mumbled a "I'm sure we would've caught her in the end.", which Mutsuko greatly appreciated, giving his hand a light squeeze.
"So, um… is the meeting over?" Shishikura finally asked after another period of silence.
"Pretty much. But I want Yokoi, Tei, Nishiguchi, Yaitabashi and Kumada to stay back for a bit. The rest of you guys are free to go."
The students who were not named exchanged worried glances with each other before slowly getting up and leaving the cafeteria. Mutsuko was surprised Maekawa was letting Ogura go but just from the list of people remaining, she could guess what she wanted to talk about.