r/whowouldwin • u/OddDirective ​ • Sep 23 '22

Event Character Scramble 16 Round 1A: OOPArts

This round is now over! Here's the voting link, and remember, if you're in Scramble, voting is mandatory! Voting will run until Thursday, 10/13!

Round 1A: OOParts

Hub Post

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Bracket

The following round is for matches 1-6 only- if you're in matches 7-12, sit tight, because you're in round 1B, which will be posted in a few days.

DAY 2

Your Players and your Reaper wake up in another part of the City- starting conditions for each Mission are decided by the Game Master. Damn them. They’re at an underpass, Support Reapers manning invisible walls all around, but with the barriers seemingly pointing you in one specific direction. When they’ve all collected yourselves, they receive their first mission: Obtain a gold-handled God Hand. You have one hour. Fail, and face erasure.

That’s not a lot of time. Worse still, there’s only one place that sells tools like that, and it’s across the City. Your Players, under direction from your Reaper, make your way there, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is you get there, and there’s still some on the shelves- they can all get one! The bad news is, there’s not enough for the amount of Players here. As they lock eyes with another set of players, everybody knows what that means…

Scramble Rules

Let ‘Em Know Who You Are: Every participant this season received four characters on their team, but many of them might not be a household name. To aid with readability, please give a brief introduction and summary of your characters, with enough information so the average reader can get excited for your team before starting.

This World Ends With You: Your writeup will depict a scenario where your team succeeds. Even if your team has a one in a million chance of overcoming the odds, show what they’d need to do to come out on top against the challenge in front of them!

Everybody Has Their Own World: Writers are allowed to make changes to their characters in their narrative to fit their story, such as allowing power stealers to gain more powers, teaching martial artists new techniques, or having characters gradually grow in strength between rounds. However, you are not beholden to following what your opponent is doing. When facing another team, you are only required to write their characters as they were submitted. This is to help with ease of research, and make things more fun for both sides.

Round Rules

Setting: This round’s original setting is Cadoi City, a shopping building in the northeast corner of Shibuya. The fight will take place as your Players race to obtain a rare item, and as such will be inside or near a store, though they also have to journey to get to the store from wherever they woke up.

Key Points: The main idea of the round is the following. Your Players have to obtain a rare item from somewhere they are not, and have to find where it is exactly. When they get there, they must fight off the opposing team in order to obtain the item, but in the end they do and their opponents do not.

Post Limit: For this round, writers will be limited to 5 posts, or 50k characters. While it is fine to go a little bit over, anything that far surpasses this limit will be automatically disqualified. This limit does not include intro posts, or analysis of the matchup.

Due Date: Write ups will be due at 11:59 PM CST on Sunday, October 9th. That’s about two weeks. At that point, the thread will be locked, and voting will go up for a few days afterwards.

Flavor Suggestions

Hustle and Bustle: Your Players have to make their way to the store or other location where the rare item is, and to get there they might run into barriers that the Game Master has erected to slow Players down from doing so. How does that journey go, and are they going to be fast enough to get there first?

Economical Shoppers: The rare item in question can be anything, from a Gundam model kit to a new video game to even something more ephemeral, like a famous person’s signature. Regardless, the victory condition is just to obtain this item- do your Players try to win that way, or are they trying to take down their opponents first and foremost? Do they try to steal the item away from some other team, or are they trying to defend their haul from some other raiders?

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u/Proletlariet ​ Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 06 '22

He hauled her up, 21’s knife to her throat as he wielded the girl as a human shield.

“Sorry lass. Hate to be rough with a lady, but I don’t think your big friend’s in a right state to listen to reason.” He brandished the wrist dagger meaningfully. “For your sake, I hope she’ll have ears for threats.”

Susie ground her teeth together. “Put Max down you bastard.”

“Last chance kid!” Hob barked. “You don’t have any more options.”

Susie’s clenched grimace curled up into a grin. “Shows what you know.” She pursed her lips and let out a shrill whistle. “Yo! MT, do the thing!”

“Who’re you talking to kid?” Hob demanded.

21 looked about frantically for threats but the street was empty.

“Jaysus!” He heard Edward gasp.

21 followed his gaze. He was staring at the blade of the knife. There was something caught inside of its polish surface.

A silver fist erupted out of the knife and clocked him solidly across the jaw. He dropped the girl as he reeled.

Surprised by the sudden movement, Hob’s twitch reactions squeezed off a round that struck Susie square in the chest as Max looked on in horror whizzed over Susie’s head as Max threw her full weight against her legs to knock her down.

The fist sprouting from the knife extended into an arm, then a torso. An entire silver person emerged out of the knife’s reflective surface.

MT

Occupation: Tulip Olsen’s Reflection

Crimes: Abandoning Her Post, Assaulting a Mirror Officer of the Mirror Law

Edward backed away from the silver woman warily.

She cracked her neck to the side, grunting in discomfort. “Ugh. Tight fit. Screw you Susie, you know I hate doing that.”

“‘Cause you’re lame and it’s awesome.” Susie grinned.

“Girls in mirrors.” Edward muttered. “Fantastic. Of all things, magic. Pure bloody magic.”

He thrust the knife at the new arrival. It scored MT’s side and glanced off her metal skin.

She caught it by the blade before he could pull back.. MT arched an eyebrow “Didja expect that to work?”

“Not especially.” Edward admitted. “But this might.” Like a magic trick, one of Hob’s grenades slipped out of his sleeve into his palm.

“Hey!” Hob cried.

Max hurried over and shielded MT with her body. “Edward, stop!” She begged. “Listen to me, the guards are coming any second. If we keep fighting they’ll catch us.”

Edward gave her a puzzled look. “How’d you know my name, girl?”

“Who cares?” Hob barked. “Girl’s three for three on right calls. I say she knows something.”

“Everybody close your eyes, quick!” Max shouted.

Hob might’ve had a point about Max’s uncanny foresight but blinding himself was a step too far.

Still, he did so on a hunch.

Bloop!

Chunk.

FWASH!

Something clattered to the ground and rolled into their midst. There was a loud pop. Even with his eyes squeezed shut the burst of bright white seared into his vision.

“A flashbang?” Hob shouted over his ringing ears.

When he opened his eyes he saw row upon row of Monokumas filling into the street. They poured like liquid out of windows, doors, alleyways. Every one of them was dressed up in mascot sized riot helmets and flak vests. They waddled in lockstep behind ballistic shields like the world’s cuddliest testudo.

“Bull shit.” He groaned.

“We have to get back to the base.” Max said.

“You mean my base.” Hob growled. He bit the pin off a grenade and lobbed it into the mob. About a dozen were blasted apart but the rest quickly clustered in to fill the gap.

They took off running.

Hob took the lead, leading them down familiar streets through narrow alley chokepoints where the swarm of Monokumas would be forced to file through.

They burst out of a side street and into town square.

“Just a couple blocks.” Hob told them.

Edward clambered up a telephone pole for a lookout. He leapt back down, his face as pale as a sheet.

“Something bad, right?” 21 moaned.

Monokumas filed in from every street. They were boxed in on all sides. The horde closed in. Tighter. Tighter.

Susie let out an enraged roar and began cutting them down in tens.

She had the right idea.

“Last stand people. Make it count” Hob tossed them each a grenade except Edward. If he wanted to play pickpocket, fine, but Hob wasn’t gonna let him double dip.

21 took down about as many as Susie, credit where it was due. He muscled into their midst folding their riot shields in half with his bare hands before spilling their robotic entrails on his wrist blade. He even managed to split one of them clean in two.

Edward was having a little more trouble piercing their hides but where there was an opening he found it---Hob watched him slip around one of them as it lunged, pry open a panel on its back, and stuff the stolen grenade inside before kicking it back into the crowd to detonate its fellows. At least he’d put the stolen bomb to good use.

Hob lobbed his last grenade and switched to the pistol. He couldn’t do much with the bastards hiding behind their little shields.

He stuck close to Max and popped any one of the bastards who ventured out of formation to try and get to them.

“Hold on, are we actually winning?” 21 panted.

It was hard to believe, but he was right. It was slow going but their numbers were thinning.

“No! There’s more.” Max gasped. Blood trickled from her nose. Her legs went wobbly and she nearly collapsed before MT caught her. “There’s a…”

And then they dropped a tank on them.

Fifteen tonnes of heavy armour came crashing into the square crushing Monokumas undertread.

As 21 looked up from the Monokuma he was pummelling to see it bearing down on him his adrenaline addled mind flashed to an idle conversation he’d had once about Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive.

All the other henchmen had made fun of 21 when he admitted he found the truck in that movie terrifying. The thought of an enormous unstoppable hunk of metal that hated him and him specifically gave him the willies. Staring down the APC as its engine gleefully revved for his blood, he felt entirely justified.

21 threw the Monokuma he was holding at it (which did nothing) before performing tucking in and rolling to the side (which saved his life by a few inches).

The APC barred their path forward. They could double back, but the Monokumas behind them would surely slow them down enough for it to crush them. It shifted into lowest gear and began to crawl cruelly forward.

Susie reached for the pin on the grenade Hob had given her.

“Don’t!” 21 grabbed her arm. “Sloped armour dude. It’d bounce right off and blow us up.”

“Good call.” Hob said appreciatively.

It was better not to mentioned he’d learned it from a CoD loading screen.

“We’ve gotta do something.” Susie hacked frantically at its armour but the axe 21 had watched slice through a building did little more than scratch the paint.

21 looked to MT. “Hey, can you stop it? Maybe you could flip it over?”

“I’m made of metal, I don’t have super strength!” She griped.

21 caught his own reflection in its reinforced windshield.

“But you’ve still got powers.” He said.

Both she and Hob realised what he meant.

“Back at my base, in the armoury, there’s a metal glove thing.” Hob told her.

“A gauntlet.” 21 corrected.

“Shut up. It’s got a big backpack attached. Looks high tech. Bring it to me.”

They were rapidly losing ground. Its inexorable advance had only a metre to go before it crushed them against the shield wall.

MT swallowed. “Seriously? You can’t think of anything else?”

“I can think of somebody getting flattened into scrap metal if they don’t hurry their ass up.” Hob snapped.

“You don’t know what it’s like in there.” MT said. “Look, maybe I can---”

“No time.” Susie scooped her up and hurled her bodily through the windshield glass. It swallowed her without so much as a ripple across its surface.

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u/Proletlariet ​ Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 07 '22

“She’s gonna hate you for that..” Max said feebly.

The distance between them halved, then quartered. It’d sped up its progress as though punishing them for robbing it of a kill. The cold metal of the shield wall pressed into their backs as they finally ran out of room. 21 sucked in his gut and prayed to every deity he knew, at least half of them fictional.

He was a little surprised it was Slifer The Sky Dragon that came through for him but salvation didn’t have to be tournament legal.

Behind them, Monokumas scattered to the wind like bowling pins. The shield wall parted like the Red Sea and onto the battlefield strode their scruffy 5’11” Noah.

He charged through and slammed the tank with an open chest splash and it rocked back on its treads, momentarily stalled.

Their saviour looked like a homeless man and dressed like an incredibly lazy imitation of The Godfather---a full three piece suit hanging sloppily off his broad shoulders. He scratched idly at his unshaven chin. “Sorry, that was a pretty late entrance.” he said. He didn’t sound like he was sorry at all.

One of the Monokumas made the mistake of trying to hit him from behind. He lazily scooped it onto his back without looking. The man made a motion like rolling his shoulders and with a mute crunch, the robot snapped like a pretzel stick.

“Who exactly are you?” Edward ventured.

“Oh yeah.” He yawned. “Sorry, I never get these right. The name’s Tetsuya Naito. I’m with the Future Foundation. I’m here to get you outta here.”

Tetsuya Naito, Ultimate Slacker

Occupation: Future Foundation Agent

Crimes: Disrespecting The IWGP Championship Belt

Before any of them asked what a Future Foundation was, Naito carelessly strolled ahead of them. He crooked a finger at the tank. Its engine revved to the challenge. It backed up to the edge of the square and once again roared ahead at ramming speed.

Everyone died out of its path. Everyone but Naito.

Naito took off his jacket.

“The hell are you doing?” Hob snarled. “You can’t save us if you’re dead!”

Naito took off his tie.

Susie shook her head. “No way, he’s got this. I bet he’s gonna suplex it.”

Naito unbuttoned his shirt but got stuck on the collar.

“I change my mind he’s gonna die.” Susie said.

MT flew out of the windshield carrying the strange gauntlet Hob had described. A disabled Monokuma cushioned her fall and was crushed flat. Hob hurried over and snatched it out of her hands.

“Finally.” He muttered. “Hey Chippendale, quit stripping and duck!”

“Huh?” Naito said.

Hob slipped on the glove and backpack, pointed two pinched fingers at the APC, and spread them apart.

The air crackled. The tank split vertically down a flawlessly smooth atomic cleavage. The two halves separated around Naito, leaving a Monokuma driver to dangle in the air for half a second before before the wrestler snatched it out of the air and cracked it like an egg with an atomic drop.

The momentum carried the two halves of the vehicle careening off in opposite directions for another two blocks before they wobbled, fell over, and exploded.

Susie and MT’s mouths hung open.

“We had that the entire time?” MT balked.

Hob made a finger gun with the gauntlet and blew away imaginary smoke. “Next time you steal someone’s base kid, take inventory.”

After a day’s worth of running, fighting, and ceaseless bickering Edward was almost too exhausted to scout ahead of the group. Still, running across rooftops was a much needed chance to clear his head. Hob and 21 were full enough of chatter, and now with three young girls along for the ride it was enough to split his skull.

Naito, the newcomer, was quiet, but after his baffling introduction that only made him more a source of damnable uncertainty.

Hob’s safehouse was a crumbling two storey structure with iron bars on every window. A tattered handwritten banner across its entrance dubbed it “MUTANT TOWN CITY HALL.” Several of its walls had been crudely painted over in white with the same stylised ‘M’ on Hob’s jacket armband.

They gathered at the entrance. A plethora of heavy locks barred the door. Hob withdrew a keyring from within his coat. He went to unlock them, then hesitated.

“Waitasec. None of these are broken.” He scrutinised the three girls. “My men’ve got the only spares. How’d you ladies get inside without busting it down?”

Susie smirked. “Who says we didn’t?”

Something caught Edward as off---an unplacable detail of the scene had been altered, but what?

The door locks clicked and it swung open. Edward got his answer.

Max stood on the other side still bleeding from her nose, looking woozy but pleased with herself.

Edward whistled. “Quite a knack for tricks you’ve got. Did you do that the same way you knew my name?”

Max opened her mouth but MT shushed her.

“We don’t know if we can trust them yet.” She explained sternly.

“Not the worst call.” Edward admitted.

They filled into the building. Inside it was warm, dry, and brightly lit. The ground floor held a handful of metal chairs and several labelled stacks of latch crates. A side hallway lead up onto a set of stairs along with two doors: one marked as an exit, another hand-labelled “ARMOURY” in the same white paint as the graffitti outside.

Some of the stacked crates were in clear disarray. Hob immediately set about reorganising them, grumbling to himself all the while.

The girls headed for the stairs, 21 tailing them uncertainly. Edward moved to join them but a firm hand landed on his shoulder.

Naito wore a serious expression at odds with his careless manner.

“We need to talk”

21 found the first floor remarkably liveable. It had more in common with a rec hall than 21’s idea of a mutant militia compound. Given the apocalyptic scenes they’d crossed to get here, none of it felt right.

In the centre of the room there was an ugly green couch in front of an entertainment centre, which Max immediately collapsed on. MT drew aside a much patched curtain covering a barred fire escape window to let in some light then took a seat herself in a corner armchair. The poor thing creaked beneath her weight. Judging by multiple rings of duct tape around its legs, she’d been testing its limits for a while.

A wood counter separated the common space from an adjacent kitchenette complete with an old gas stove and a refrigerator. Susie stood hunched over the open door basking in the cool glow. She noticed him staring and looked up.

“Yo, butterfly boy. You want something?”

Did nobody else feel weird relaxing in the middle of a death game? Well, when in rome.

“Yeah sure actually. I’ve been really jonesing for a…”

Susie bit down on a can of soda and proceeded to chew and swallow the fizzing shrapnel without discomfort.

“...monster.” 21 trailed off.

On second thought he wasn’t thirsty.

“Sure go ahead. Make yourselves at home.” Hob skulked up the stairs clutching something under his arm. “Not like this is somebody else’s. Lousy kids.”

1

u/Proletlariet ​ Oct 07 '22 edited Oct 09 '22

Hob tossed his gift into Max’s lap. “Whuh?” She blinked herself awake.

“Hey kid, Max was it? Listen.. I’m sorry about the camera.” He gestured to the box in her lap. A brand new digital shooter, still in the box. “I found this with the electronics while I was reordering the supplies. Figured you could use it.”

“Don’t think that makes up for shooting at her.” MT scowled.

Max shot her a look. “MT, you don’t have to be my guard dog. It’s fine.” She took the camera. “It was a mistake. We’re all pretty high strung after waking up here.”

“I was thinking about that…” 21 said. “You guys seem like you’re pretty set up. How long have you been camped out here?”

Susie muttered to herself while counting on her fingers. “Like four days.”

“Are you shitting me?” 21 turned to Hob. “Dude, no way we were out for four days. We gotta tell Edward.”

“He’s busy chatting alone with his new boyfriend. Let him find out on his own time.” Hob considered them skeptically. “You’re sure?”

Max pulled herself off the couch. “You wanna see the proof?”

She lead them across the room to a heavy metal door.

“You lead us to the bathroom.” Hob said, nonplussed.

“I might have done some remodelling.” Max admitted. “MT helped a lot. She’s really handy with tools and stuff.”

“Now that you mention it, it is weird that the lock’s on this side.” 21 pointed out the prominent keyhole just above the knob.

“Actually, it locks from both." Hob corrected him. "That’s the door to the armoury.” Hob pinched his forehead. “The hell were you thinking?”

MT snorted. “Susie kept sneaking in and talking to herself in the dark.”

“I was not talking to myself…” Susie muttered.

Max unlocked the door. Inside the room was pitch black.

“It’s my dark room.” She explained. She flipped on a lightswitch. It was a mostly unremarkable closet sized bathroom with a toilet, a sink counter strewn with photography paraphernalia, and a wall length mirror. The single window was completely blacked over with dark tape, as was, strangely enough, the mirror.

Strung across a clothesline were dozens and dozens of photographs depicting everything from the devastated skyline to armies of Monokumas swarming through the streets.

“I’ve been documenting.” Max explained. “For when we…”

“If we.” MT corrected.

“If we get out.”

Max picked out three photographs of the sun setting over the city. “See? I’ve been tracking every day with a picture at sunset.” Max checked her watch. “Shoot! That’s now.” She opened the cabinet and came out with a camera identical to the one Hob had broken.

Max glanced apologetically at Hob’s gift, setting it down on the countertop.

“I appreciate the thought, but my heart belongs to analog.” She confessed.

“I’m more concerned about where the hell you found two of those antiques.” Hob shook his head. “Unless you somehow managed to patch a bullet hole.”

Max gave MT a conspiratorial smile. “Fixing it would’ve been a headache---I’d need lots of special tiny tools. They’re actually both the same camera. But that’s---”

“A secret.” MT cut in. “It’s another trick we’ll explain if we decide to trust you.”

“I…”

Max seemed eager to elaborate but MT shook her head and she clamped up.

“So you can predict the future, teleport, and duplicate things.” 21 listed off. “How many superpowers do you have exactly?”.

“Just one.” MT told him. “But it’s a good one.”

Edward spread his arms. “Alright, you’ve got me alone. Now are you going to give me answers or stick a knife in my throat?”

Naito had insisted on dragging him into the armoury for their little chat and things had only grown more suspicious when he locked the door.

Naito ran a hand through his mane of scraggly hair. "I guess I'll just cut to the chase. My guys sent me in here to pull you out of this mess."

He mumbled through his words as though exhausted from the bare effort of speaking. Combined with the racket of the foul smelling engine vibrating away in the corner of the room, it was an effort even understanding him.

"Your Future Foundation, yes. You said as much." Edward studied him. "How do you intend to do that? There are over a hundred imprisoned in this city if that bear is to be believed."

Naito shook his head. "You didn’t hear me, huh? I said you." He jabbed a finger into Edward's chest emphatically. "In order for everyone to have a future, we need to clean up the mess that Ultimate Despair made of the world. You're the only one here who can do that. I don't have the time or energy to waste on the enhancement talent and neither does the Future Foundation."

"Out of everyone here, I'm the only one that counts? I can't say it's not a boost to my ego, but you're off your rocker mate." He made for the door in disgust.

"They're extras. Just props!" Naito called. "Like it or not, you are the only one who counts Desmond."

"Wh--"

But before Edward could interrogate his strange words, there came a scream from the hall.

“What was that?” He snapped to attention.

Naito yawned. “Go see if you have to. It’s not worth my time.” He reclined against a rack of rifles, shooing Edward along.

He crept out into the hall and shut the door behind him.

MT and Susie were having a shouting match in the entrance room. Out of habit, Edward eavesdropped from the shadows below the staircase rather than making himself known.

“...was not cool! We’ve talked about this Susie, you can’t keep making me go back in there.”

“I had to do something, okay? We were gonna get flattened. It worked out so quit whining about it already.”

“It worked this time. You don’t know what I had to do to get out of there. Every time I go back into the mirror, I’m never sure I’ll be able to get back out again.”

“So you’ll go in to save Max, but not me. Is that it?”

“UGH! It’s not like that. You’re such a child.”

“No, you’re a child for being too scared to use your badass power. Max has stepped up. Max is keeping us alive and that kid’s scared out of her mind. We’re stuck in some crazy death game, and if you can’t get over yourself and pull your weight you’re gonna slow us down.”

“Susie that isn’t fair. In the mirror world there were things that wanted to kill me or trap me. I--”

“No, I get it. Better to trade your friends’ lives than maybe run into the spooky mirror monster that none of us except you have seen. Know what I’d respect way more? If you quit pretending to care, manned up, and just killed me yourself.”

MT’s slammed her fist up into Susie’s stomach eliciting a pained wheeze. She started to turn towards him. Edward flinched reflexively back under the stairs..

He heard heavy metal footfalls above his head as MT climbed the steps.

“I’m done for the night. Have fun on guard duty alone.”

Now what was that about?

21 had just finished helping Max unscrew the bars off the window and set up her tripod on the fire escape when MT tromped up from the ground floor with clenched fists and a stormy expression.

“Woah, what happened?” Max asked her.

“Susie happened.”

“Is this about her throwing you?” 21 guessed. “That’s gotta be pretty demeaning, but if it makes you feel better I’m pretty sure she could do that to all of us.”

MT fixed him with a sour face. “I’m going to bed.” She announced.

“Wait, then who’s guarding the entrance with Susie?” 21 asked.

“Do it yourself.” MT told him. She entered the Mutanimal barracks and slammed the door behind her.

Max looked at him expectantly. “Well?”

21 sighed. “Yeah alright.”

He descended the stairs like the entrance to a dragon's lair.

Hob needed a minute of clear headed silence. Since both storeys were occupied with his unwanted guests, that left the roof.

Max had set up her tripod on the fire escape outside, which blocked the normal route, and so he'd had to stand atop a bunk bed in the barracks and climb up through its skylight.

He admired the view. Even with the rest of the city in ruins, Mutant Town was home.

He checked his headset and found it working again. Maybe the damaged receiver needed height to find a signal.

"Hob checking in. You still there Herman?"

"We changed shifts." Sally's voice crackled over. "What's up Hob?"

"The guys squatting out our base are just a bunch of kids." Hob told her. "Managed to get back in without kickin' 'em out. Wouldn't feel right to do that to 'em."

"Aww, is that a conscience I hear?" Sally snarked.

"Yeah, yeah.." Hob muttered. "Tell the men to get their asses in gear. We're sitting on major firepower." He flexed the Godhand gauntlet experimentally, feeling the crackling subatomic energies at his fingertips. "We play our cards right, we can get control of this situation. Maybe come out ahead."

"The city's dead Hob. I don't think any of us are coming out ahead." Sally said quietly. "What's you're next move?"

Hob mulled it over. "I had a deal with Karai to bring her the Abstergo job VIP---not as a prisoner or nothin' she just wants to talk." He added quickly before she could interject. "I'm thinking we trade him to her in exchange for the Foot Clan's cooperation busting out of here."

"I knew there was a catch Hob. There always has to be, huh?" Sally sighed. "Whatever. If he finds out you're using him it's on your head. Over and out."

She left him hanging with the ring of bitter disappointment in his ears. Sal didn't get it. Everybody used everybody else. That was just the way the world worked.

So why was guilt gnawing at his throat?

As the sun set, the lights in the windows below him grew brighter by comparison. The only stubborn light for blocks in the dead city.

That light suddenly cut out.

Had the kids not been refueling the generator?

He caught the sound of shattering glass. A scream. It came from the fire escape.

1

u/Proletlariet ​ Oct 08 '22 edited Oct 09 '22

Hob hopped down onto the fire escape. He shoved passed Max’s tripod, toppling it, and ducked in through the open window. It was pitch dark, but Hob's mutant eye adjusted quicikly. He saw Max lying on her back surrounded by hundreds of mirrored glass shards. Blood ran down her arm but she seemed otherwise unhurt. She pointed trembling to the open bathroom door.

Hob raced over to the open doorway.

The scene was completely bloodless but that just made it all the ghastlier.

The side of the door he could see was heavily dented. The sink counter looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it---an entire corner had been shattered off dusting the floor in ceramic debris. The faucet's metal was warped into an upside down arch.

Slumped against the fractured counter lay MT's lower half. Above the hips, it just ended; nothing but a perfectly smooth solid metal surface. There was no sign of her torso, arms, or head. If Hob hadn't seen her walking around the same day he might've interpreted her severed legs as some macabre disembodied sculpture.

"Ah hell..."

Hob heard a heavy thud from behind him.

Max was right behind him on the floor. She seemed to have slipped and fallen backwards. She clutched her camera tightly in one hand and her face with the other. Through the cracks in her fingers Hob noticed a long fresh scratch across her cheek which he must've missed it earlier. Her nose was bleeding again too.

The lights flickered on again. Susie and 21 came pounding up the stairs. Edward and Naito joined them shortly.

They saw the body.

The tablet Monokuma had given him vibrated through Hob's coat.

Ding, dong! Bing, bong!

All their handbooks chimed. The bear's goofy voice shattered the reality of the gruesome scene.

"A body has been discovered! Please proceed with the investigation! After a short while, the Class Trial will begin!"

"What are we supposed to do?" Max gasped.

"Sleuth, I guess." 21 shrugged. "Anyone here investigated a murder before?"

Everyone shifted testily. Nobody volunteered.

"Well I have." 21 did his best to inject confidence into his shaking voice. It wasn’t a complete lie. He had found 24's killers in the end, even if his approach mostly involved threatening everyone he knew. "First thing we need to do is look around and figure out what happened."

Susie folded her arms. "She got cut in half. What else is there to say?"

“How about ‘where’s the top half?’” Edward interjected. “Could she have been dumped out a window?”

21 clapped his hands together. “Okay good start. Someone wanna get on looking for the rest of her?”

Naito wordlessly sauntered off.

“We really trusting that creep with MT’s body?” Susie complained.

“You could’ve volunteered for the task yourself.” Edward pointed out.

Susie stuffed her hands into her pockets. “Someone’s gotta stay here with Max.” Susie brushed aside Max’s hair, wincing at the cut on her face. “Who did this?”

“I-I don’t know.” Max stammered. “I was heading to the bathroom to develop my photos and then all the lights went out. The bathroom door opened and I saw somebody standing over MT’s body. I sort of panicked, so I took a picture. I think they saw the flash. Then ran at me and swung something.” Max pointed at something lying amidst the shards of glass strewn all across the floor. “I think it was that.”

21 stooped and picked it up. It was an especially large hand mirror frame.

Hob groaned. “That’s Pigeon Pete’s. He likes to have conversations with his reflection. This was the only way we could keep him from hogging the bathroom.”

21 gave it a heft and found the solid wooden handle had a decent weight to it. That definitely would explain the glass everywhere. There was so much of it he almost couldn’t believe it had all come from a single mirror.

“The glass must’ve broke and cut her when the killer swung.” Susie said, voice level with seething fury. “I swear I’ll thrash whoever did it.”

Max grimaced in discomfort. “For now, could you settle on getting me a cotton swab or something? My face is pretty gross."

21 had a bit of first aid training so he volunteered to clean her up. Susie insisted on supervising which didn’t do much to steady his hand.

The cuts on her hand were mostly dry so they just wrapped it up with bandages. The still bleeding scrape on her cheek, Susie dabbed with alcohol. The most they could do for her nosebleed was a box of tissues.

“Thanks. That’s a lot better.” Max pushed herself off the couch. A look of determination set in on her face. “I’m gonna try to develop my pictures.” She said. “If the picture I took can catch the killer, we won’t have to waste time being suspicious of each other.”

Edward waved 21 over. “Found something else you may want to have a look at.”

He held up a screwdriver by the tip. The plastic handle was covered in blood.

“It’d rolled beneath the sink. I thought it odd.”

It certainly was.

Another strange detail caught 21’s eye. He peered through the open bathroom door and saw himself peering back.

“Wasn’t the mirror covered?” He asked.

“Yeah.” Susie agreed. “MT had this stupid hangup about mirrors despite her power. She made Max cover it up with tape around the same time as they replaced the door.”

He searched the room for the missing tape. He found one strip of it lying sticky-side up in the sink.

“Here’s one piece.” He showed Edward. “But where’s the rest?”

Edward considered it. Then he knelt by MT’s body and gingerly removed her shoes.

Susie bristled. “Hey, the hell are you doing?”

In response, Edward revealed the shoe bottoms. Two balled up wads of tape were stuck to her soles.

21 frowned. “How come there’re two wads?”

Edward shrugged. “Perhaps there was another source?”

It came to him. “The window.”

It was uncovered, and, unlike the other windows in the compound, unbarred.

“Could that explain the dents on the door?” Edward mused.

21 examined it thoroughly. There were three roughly fist sized indents in the heavy door.

“What about them?” He asked Edward. “Looks like they could’ve been part of a struggle. I mean, the sink’s busted up too, right?”

Edward didn’t look convinced. “Look.” He took the door’s handle and swung it shut. The side of the door with the dents was facing them. “Whoever made these dents did so from inside the room.” Edward explained.

“So they could’ve entered through the window.” 21 realised.

Edward made to reopen the door and then paused.

“What’s up?” 21 asked. But then he saw for himself.

Sitting in the lock on their side of the door was the key.

And that's it.

There was supposed to be a whole murder mystery and class trial scene I planned out including sketching floor diagrammes, but somehow I managed to drag myself through so much filler I left neither time or enthusiasm to finish it.

It feels like something just went wrong over the course of trying to write this and I ended up bogging everything completely down. It's unfun to read and it wasn't much fun to write either. I'm honestly ashamed to present something like this. It's sloppy and not up to the quality of what I know I can write.