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It's during the investigation of Wolfgang Akire's murder that Eva Tsunaka brings up a mystery quite perplexing to him.
"I see," she says, in response to him pointing out the metal shrapnel on the floor. "You should have noticed that detail sooner. I, for one, found it six to seven minutes ago."
Despite her stern words, her lips are slightly quirked upwards. Damon's face scrunches up in spite of himself.
What was that? Such an odd phrasing of what should be an innocuous chastisement, and accompanied by such an uncharacteristic expression?
Could Eva be trying to hint at something to him?
Six to seven. Those two digits must be relevant to the case. Eva, as the Ultimate Mathlete, must have cottoned on something he missed.
"What aren't you telling me?" He asks. She startles.
"Excuse me?"
"The way you emphasized six to seven," says Damon. "As the Ultimate Mathlete—" her expression sours at the reminder of her talent. "—You must have noticed something involving numerical reasoning. You should communicate it outright; after all, I don't have your talent. I can't figure out mathematical equations with your speed and skill. Time is of the essence when it comes to unravelling this crime scene."
Eva sharply exhales, staring at him in a long, few seconds of silence. Her lips are pinched together.
"A… numerical equation," she says. Her voice trembles for reasons unknown. "…Well, rest assured that it isn't related to Wolfgang's murder. Hiding information about that would be stupid."
"It would," says Damon. "Which is why I really hope you're being forth-coming with me about this six seven-"
"Could you say those last two words again? For posterity," Eva says. Damon squints.
Is this some sort of indirect hint she's giving him? Could the topic she desires to allude to be forbidden by the hosts of this killing game, or at least, something she believes is forbidden?
"Six seven," Damon says carefully. Eva's strained smile fractionally widens. "Regardless, I do hope you're sharing everything you know. If this… six seven business turns out to be relevant later on, it would be quite troublesome for the group."
"You won't have to worry about that," Eva says, tittering giggles slipping from her lips. Damon curses himself internally for thinking the sound is cute.
God, why does she have to be so adorable even when she's being troublesome?
"But if you're sure," Damon says. "We'll refocus on getting alibis." And then, hesitantly. "…but I'll ask the other students in case they can corroborate on details about this numerical conundrum."
Eva releases yet another shaky breath.
"I- wouldn't advise doing that," she says. "I mean, surely, the other students would be drawn like sharks to blood in the water by the Ultimate Debater asking them such a useless question…"
Is she pulling the wool from underneath his eyes? Could she… be the blackened?
Damon immediately reprimands himself for thinking this thought. Eva Tsunaka would never do something like that to him—she's his strategical ally! She trusts him, doesn't she?
He has logically and rationally determined that she would never do such a thing. Damon Maitsu does not do blind trust, and his decision to temporarily cooperate with Eva for the benefit of this case is founded only in the purest of logical and analytical reasoning.
Reassured by his own intellectual internal monologue, Damon decides to approach none other than Cassidy Amber, the Ultimate Gamer, in search of another alibi.
"Oh, and by the way," he asks at the end. Immediately, Eva slaps a hand over his mouth.
"Gah!" Letting out a muffled scream, he smacks her hand away. "What was that for?!"
"…Rest assured, you don't want to bring this up," she says. Damon scoffs.
"I'll bring up whatever I deem important to the case. And if you're not going to elaborate, I may as well get answers from others," he says. "Cassidy, what do you know about the-"
"Cassidy, we need to go do important stuff," Eva interrupts. And then, with a slight smirk. "We'll be back in six to seven minutes."
Cassidy bursts into laughter.
"Say that again," she snickers, raising her fists up and down in rotation. "Six seven!"
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Says Damon, raising a brow. Now is his chance to fish for information!
Cassidy smirks.
"It's super important stuff, Bargain Bin," she says. "But I'm not surprised you don't get it."
Damon gasps.
"So it was important," he says. "Eva, care to explain?"
"…She's obviously just lying to distract you," Eva says. "We need to move on. We don't have time for-"
"Nuh uh!" Cassidy says. "It's super important. And I mean suuuper important. Until you solve this burning mystery, young Padawan, you cannot hope to solve the many mysteries that lay ahead!"
"Just tell me what it means," Damon huffs. How troublesome. They're all being so troublesome.
"You gotta figure it out yourself! Sheesh, Bargain Bin, get with the program!"
So it appears as though she's leaving him to his own devices.
"…Tch," he says. "Fine."
Damon leaves to find more alibis, and furthermore, to ask more people about this strange mystery. No fulfilling answers are found.
Ulysses, when prodded (Eva interrupted him before he could actually ask the question again), says, "Yes, well, I do believe I have six to seven recorded mentions of the numerical mystery of which you speak."
"…And what exactly would this… 'numerical mystery' be?" Damon asks. Ulysses flips through the pages of his notebook and sighs.
"That is something I've been trying to figure out myself," he says. "Whenever this strange number is brought up, reactions generally tend to be shifty and amused. Any prodding about this is met with nothing but vague and unhelpful remarks."
"That matches my experience," Damon huffs. "Well then, let me know if you stumble on any good leads."
"That won't be necessary," says Eva.
Eva keeps cutting him off like this… Oh well, as the Ultimate Mathlete, she must just find the sight of him stumbling around attempting to find answers about a mystery she deems pedestrian highly embarrassing.
That is the main reason he chooses to follow her away without protest. Not just because he trusts her—that would be stupid.
"Fine," he says. "You are the Ultimate Mathlete, after all. I would be a fool not to regard your input more highly than the others'."
"Indeed-"
"That's the only reason I'm acquiescing on this," he elaborates. Eva squints at him scrutinizingly.
"I never implied it wasn't," she says.
"I'm not overcompensating for anything," he elaborates. "Only being logical."
"You keep disclosing information that was never asked of you," Eva says. "I believe you've done this… six to seven times now."
Alright, that does it. Those goddamned numbers are definitely relevant somehow.
"Eva," he says. "…You'll tell me… if that information ever ends up being relevant to the case, right?"
"…Of course I will, Damon," Eva says. Well then, if the Ultimate Mathlete is securely on his side, he has nothing to worry about.
It's not that he likes her or trusts her blindly or anything stupid like that. He's just—
"—Being rational," he murmurs. Eva blinks at him.
"What?"
"I'm just being rational," he clarifies. "After all, as the Ultimate Mathlete, you're the most trustworthy in this regard."
"And I believe it's the sixth or seventh time you've brought up that specifically," Eva says.
Before he can retort, Tozu's voice blares over the intercom, signalling to them all that their presence is required at the trial site.
It's go time.
"This is our first trial," Eva says. "We must prepare and learn well—it won't be our last."
Okay, that was too awkwardly worded—Damon has a feeling he knows exactly what's going to come next.
"In fact," she says. "I believe six to seven trials may occur before we have any hope of escape."
…
Damon considers whacking her on the head, ultimately refraining because he would make a fool of himself and possibly sacrifice a useful ally in doing so.
During the class trial, suspicion ends up falling onto Diana. She was undeniably present at the crime scene, and she certainly could've covered up her wound from a struggle with Wolfgang through her talent, but…
Damon can't bring himself to believe she's the killer.
Only partially because she was nice to him. The other part is based on logic and facts. Factual logic. Damon won't elaborate on it, but it's there.
Still, unfortunately for him, his classmates don't get his superior reasoning, forcing him to resort to playing nice with Tozu in order to exonerate her.
"Okay," Damon says, swallowing down his humiliation at Tozu making him 'ask nicely' in order to gather the information he wants. "Tozu, may I please know what factors decide when a class trial can be considered 'over'?"
Tozu makes a show of thinking about it.
"Why, since you're so polite, I'd be a fool not to tell you!" He says, but before Damon can relax, raises a finger. "But I will need you to answer one more question for me."
"God, what is it now?" Damon scoffs.
"It's quite simple, really! Nothing of much consequence," says Tozu, flicking his fingers with a grin. "What is the summation of twenty plus twenty plus twenty…"
He trails off with a flourish. Cassidy sucks in a breath in anticipation, murmuring, "Ooh, this is gonna be good…!"
"—Plus seven?"
Damon blinks.
"That's- That's such an easy question," he says.
"Could you please state the answer?"
"Sixty seven." Without hesitation. Cassidy bursts into laughter. Kai groans. "I don't understand what the big deal is."
"Could you repeat that?" Asks Tozu.
"Sixty seven."
"Could you please state the individual digits that comprise the number in written form?"
"Six… Seven?" If he'd been confused before, this had multiplied it tenfold. Why does Tozu of all people want him to say this number so badly?
"Say it again…" Tozu says, voice tinged with an unusual mirth.
"Six seven," responds Damon. "Now, can you tell me the answer, or not?"
"Perhaps I may want you to repeat it, ah… six to seven more times. Just to be certain."
"Siiiix Seven," Jett says, making the same hand motion Cassidy had before. Okay, something is definitely going on.
"What does that mean?" he snips. This numerical mystery is clearly something important… So why is no one filling him in?
"You'll find out eventually, my dear student," says Tozu, only stoking the flames of his burning need to know. But then, before Damon can dwell on the factors further, he finally gives the explanation Damon's been asking for.
The trial advances, and the matter is forgotten.
Eva Tsunaka, his only friend in the killing game, is the culprit. She tries to frame him, calls him twisted, calls him a killer.
In another universe, maybe, Damon would've remained quiet while contemplating why exactly he'd put his faith in her and if that faith had ever been returned. But in this one, in a divergence somehow apparently spawned by the number sixty seven, when Eva speaks about how isolated she is after the trial, Damon objects.
"What about me?" He asks. Then, realizing he sounds unnecessarily clingy, amends—"You had me as an ally. As the Ultimate Debater, I could've found a way to persuade Tozu out of taking your life."
"You were the worst of them all," Eva says, her words like daggers in his heart. The sensation is entirely unfounded. Why is he so hurt by the fact that she believes him to be disloyal? If she wants to misinterpret his thoughts, that liberty is hers and hers alone.
"I can tell exactly what you're thinking, and it's exactly why you were the worst," she says. "I- I thought… I thought you were a paranoiac loner liemaxxer just like me…"
Damon doesn't know what half of those words mean. How could this be? For the Ultimate Mathlete to have a vocabulary exceeding his own, that of the Ultimate Debater's?
Perhaps he's been falling behind—Especially considering his current failure to solve the numerical puzzle Eva had posed during the investigation.
"But in truth, you're just a larper chud! I bought into your tsuntsun-deredere nonsense and was completely oblivious to the truth of the matter."
Eva speaks Japanese… Of course she does, it would be obvious, considering her name—Damon does, as well, but he's unaware of this pormanteau she's brought up. Despite being the Ultimate Debater, it would seem as though he's got a long way to go.
Perhaps this time in the academy could be spent honing his vocabulary.
Tsuntsun is a word meaning grumpy or cold. Deredere means lovestruck.
Cold-Lovestruck? Grumpy-Lovestruck? What could that mean? Is she insinuating his entire personality insofar was the result of a crush?
"No, that's wrong!" He interrupts. "Tsuntsun-Deredere means, in literal translation, Cold-Lovestruck. However, none of my behavior up until this point has been the result of a crush. I, as the Ultimate Debater-"
"Bweh," Eva says. Even knowing she's a killer, Damon can't help but find it adorable. "You're such a normie. Larp Larp Sahur, Damon."
I… I don't know what any of these words mean! I'm the Ultimate Debater, goddamnit! I need to pull myself together—
"Tung Tung Sahur is AI slop," Kai interjects.
"I thought we were both in agreement that everyone was out to get us," she says. "But you quickly made your fraudulence apparent."
"No, that's wrong!" Damon says. "Fraudulence, according to the Oxford dictionary, means activity that is intended to cheat somebody, usually in order to make money illegally. Financial motivations, or rather, lack thereof, notwithstanding, at no point did I engage in any activity intended to cheat anyone! My words have been nothing but honest—"
"Sometimes excessively so…" Wenona notes.
"—Therefore, your statement is objectively incorrect." He finishes with a flourish.
"…" After a few moments of staring at him with her cold glare, Eva's gaze softens.
"Maybe you are a chud," she murmurs. Damon doesn't know what the hell that means. "But that's okay. You're my little chudling."
Maybe, in another universe, she would've followed up with 'a little pogchamp', or some other phrase that Damon doesn't understand, but in this universe, Tozu cuts them off.
"Enough of all this… sentimentality!" He says, almost amused. "The execution will begin in six to seven seconds!"
Damon is half expecting Eva to make another comment about the reference to those two numbers, but instead, her face falls in panic, hands clinging desperately to the podium.
"I'm going to live!" she says.
…Of course, she doesn't.
The hours pass by in a blur. Eva Tsunaka, the one person he trusted, the person who betrayed that trust, is dead. She was a liar.
She was his friend. His only friend.
And now, what does he have left? Everyone in the group hates him, even more so now that they know he hid Wolfgang's blackmail. He's probably made himself the priority target for murder, and the primary suspect if someone else dies.
If he does perish, will anyone even mourn him? Or will they all internally sigh with relief, mentally thanking the killer for getting rid of someone they all despised? Will his Mom and Dad never even know what happened to him?
…Will he ever see them again?
The thought makes him curl up into himself harder, the damp tears streaming down his cheeks impossible to stifle.
He wants to go home. He wants his Mom and Dad.
He sees her in his sleep and in his hours of wake. Eva Tsunaka, the Ultimate Liar Mathlete. An endless pyre, fire searing him in agony. She reaches out to him. He takes her hand.
And then, she lets go, throwing him into the very abyss to which he sentenced her.
It's only once Kai becomes his roommate again that the thoughts go quiet, the presence of another human making his mind forcefully relax.
As the two of them lay there together, Damon finally finds himself able to think rationally about everything that's happened.
Eva is gone. The best thing he can do is pull himself together now… find a way to end the killing game so others don't have to die.
And he has just the lead.
"Hey, Kai," he says. "Before… Before Eva died…"
"Huh?" Despite his previous bleariness, Kai immediately perks up, looking at Damon with fierce worry.
"…She kept saying something to me," he says. "Do you— Do you think you might know what it means?"
"I-I mean, I might," says Kai. "You know I'm not good with brain stuff, but, like, you can ask me! I'll tell you if there's anything I know!"
With that assurance, Damon steels himself, sucking in a breath and preparing to tell Kai that which he has been questioning for so long.
"Kai…" he starts, voice weak and shaky. But Kai remains quiet, listening raptly in anticipation.
Nothing to do but say it.
"What's six-seven?"