Chapter Text
Everything from the second Chihiro woke up this morning, they knew something was off. A deep seated feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was deeply wrong. His eyes stared down at his slender small fingers, and watched as he slowly flexed those muscles. That was when the programmer noticed that his skin felt damp with sweat and the beating of their heart was loud in their chest. It took everything within them to force himself to breathe. Light eyebrows came together in a concerned expression as the programmer tried to figure out what exactly was wrong. Was it a nightmare? The programmer tried to remember if they had any dreams last night.
A sharp spike of pain went through Chihiro’s brain. He hissed as his hand went upwards to protectively hold the area. Bright lights speckled their vision, for a few moments the entire world seemed to be glitching. The fragile programmer almost thought they were going to pass out before they forced themself to close their eyes and take deep breaths. Closing their eyes was definitely the right call, that seemed to relieve some of the discomfort.
Just when the programmer thought he was in the clear, a sudden lurch in his stomach told him otherwise. With barely opened eyes, he scrambled towards the room’s private bathroom. His face was pointed towards the toilet as his empty stomach heaved and convulsed, nothing came out but drool. When his stomach settled enough for Chihiro to pull up, he wiped the tears away from his face. Why was his stomach empty?
Deep breaths, let’s just get cleaned up-
BING BONG, DING DONG.
Oh goodness. Not now.
“Pupupu~ Good morning, students! It seems like something could have happened in the middle of the night!” It was short and simple. It filled the programmer with dread.
Chihiro stood up and took a calming breath. They were not going to face the day like this, they got ready to take a shower. The shower succeeded in physically making the young adult feel better, but mentally their mind kept racing. They just couldn’t shake the feeling that everything was wrong, it was so strong. Nearly all consuming. And the more he thought about it, the more he came convinced there were even more memories of his that were missing.
The programmer stayed in the shower for a very long time, much longer than they should have given the bear’s ominous warning. Maybe Chihiro was scared that once they left the safety of their room, whatever was wrong would attack them like a monster. For far too long private living areas have been a safe place to them. He would be brave, he would be brave. Chihiro tried to self motivate.
As soon as Chihiro stepped outside of their dorm room, there was that bear again.
BING BONG DING DONG.
“A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin!”
One more deep breath Chihiro, you knew this was going to happen when the bear spoke up tauntingly earlier. So cruel to make something so cute like a teddy bear so evil.
-
It didn’t take Chihiro long to find where everyone else had gathered. It was inside the girl’s locker room. The body of Celeste Ludenberg was strung up grotesquely between two pieces of gym equipment. Blood was dripping off her head down the rest of her body. Written in her blood on the wall behind her was the words “BLOOD LUST.” Kyoko was bent down examining the corpse’s legs.
The headache that felt like a metal spike being shoved into his head suddenly returned, as did the bright lights in his vision. Glitching, glitching. In brief flashes Chihiro could see himself where the corpse of Celeste was. Was…..was that supposed to be him? Was he supposed to die last night?
Chihiro shook their head as their ran out of the room, they didn’t make it far before the dry heaving started again. This was awful. How could they even think such a thing? None of this made sense.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” The programmer softly muttered in between heaving.
“Hey, Fujisaki. You alright?” A deep casual voice was heard before a soft large hand was placed on the young man’s back. “I didn’t realize you two girls were so close. Though I can’t hardly blame you, it’s messed up what’s in there.”
Chihiro trembled and whimpered for a moment trying to calm down. “I’m sorry-“ They started to repeat until they actually turned to look at the man attempting to comfort him.
The murder, his murder flashed in his mind. This man was his murderer. This was his friend. This man was Mondo Oowada and in this timeline, he killed Celeste Ludenberg instead.