Broki-chan, completely forgetting about the book, quickly looks under the chair to see what she was pointing at. He realises that it was the book fairly quickly as he grabs it and places it on the table as Monika stares at him. He looks over to Ishi as he says, "Oh it's just- just something Sakura gave me before she died that is but for some reason the handwriting is almost unreadable, to be honest, I don't know how someone managed to have such bad handwriting". Before Broki-chan can react, Ishi quickly grabs the book as she says, "let me take a look". She begins to quickly skim through the book, looking up at Broki-chan every so often with a puzzled look. Once she's finished reading, she closes the book as she looks at Broki-chan and says, "well that book is very interesting, in all honesty, I think I've actually seen this handwriting before, but I don't know where from, do you mind if I-".
Before Ishi can finish what she's saying, they're both surprised by Kioko butting into their conversation with a rather loud "Hi guys, whatcha up to?". Kioko looks over at Ishi, then quickly at the book before glaring at Ishi who glares back at her. Ishi sighs and looks back at Broki-chan, gripping the book tighter as she says, "Look I'll try and translate this, and I'll try to give it back to you soon". Ishi quickly leaves and rushes around the corner, all while Kioko continues to stare at her. Kioko quickly turns to look back at Broki-chan, stepping slightly closer to him as she says "I- okay so first off, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about Sakura's death and I wanted to give you this". Kioko holds Broki-chan's hand for a second and she lets go of what she's holding before backing away from Broki-chan. She tilts her head and smiles at him as she says "I've gotta leave to deal with some things but hopefully that can help you". Kioko turns around and quickly leaves the same way as Ishi, just as Broki-chan looks down to see what Kioko gave him.
It was a key.
It was fairly small with some tiny patterns engraved into the key in a deep winter blue, contrasting with the shadow grey. Near the top of the key, there were the letters 'SK' scratched into it. Whilst he's looking at the key, he looks up to see Monika staring at where Kioko just left before he looks back down at the key and says, "I think I've seen this key in the library before but I'm not sure I'm going to see if I can find Nahoko then go to the library okay?". Monika doesn't respond for a few seconds as she looks over to Ishi walking past Kioko in the distance before she says "Huh? Oh yeah sure, you go do that Broki-chan, I-I'm going to keep an eye on Kioko, I don't know why but I have a bad feeling". Broki-chan shrugs as he says "Oh okay" before Monika floats into the ground. Broki-chan puts the key in one of his skirt pockets before looking for Nahoko.
After a bit of searching, Broki-chan finds Nahoko, hiding under a rather tall cherry blossom tree on a hill, overlooking the auditorium, as she sobs. Broki-chan sits next to her and looks at her, asking "Hey are you okay?". Nahoko looks at him, tears dripping down her eyes as she says, "Oh I'm okay it's just I thought I saw something scary and when I get scared, well you saw it, I just start crying, I'm sorry for running away, it's just that I didn't want you to see it and-". Before Nahoko can finish her sentence, Broki-chan cuts her off by hugging her, making Nahoko blush. "You don't have to apologise, I understand," said Broki-chan as Nahoko hugs him back, still blushing. Whilst they're hugging, Nahoko mutters "You know that I would do anything for you, Broki-chan but thank you for the hug, I'm okay now" before she notices something on Broki-chan's shirt.
Blood.
Just a drop or two on his white shirt, almost indistinguishable from red paint.
Nahoko lets go as she says, "There's something on your shirt, I'll get it for you". Broki-chan doesn't respond as he looks at someone with a mask like Monika's near the auditorium, smiling at him. Nahoko doesn't wait for a response as she proceeds to lick the blood off which works to some success with only a small stain being left there. After she licks the blood off, she has a slightly disappointed look, almost as if she was expecting it to be something or someone else's blood. Broki-chan doesn't react as he continues to stare at the masked person whilst Nahoko looks at him and says, "Everything alright Broki-chan, what are you looking at?". Broki-chan looks at Nahoko as he says "Oh it's nothing, I just thought I saw something" before he looks back over to where the masked person was only to find that they were gone without a trace.
He stands up, looking down at Nahoko who was still sitting as he says, "Well now that I know that you're okay, I'm going to head to the library because someone gave me this key and I think I've seen something like it there before". Before Broki-chan can take another step forward, Nahoko grabs his hand, quite forcefully to the point she almost pulls him down. Broki-chan looks back at Nahoko, confused, only to see her grinning as she enthusiastically says, "I'll help, let's go to the library together so I can help you find what you're looking for". Nahoko stands up and lets go of Broki-chan's hand as he politely says, "Oh no that's okay I can do it by myself". Nahoko puts on the puppy-dog eyes as she says "Please Broki-chan?"
"No."
"But c'mon, I can help you find stuff related to that key you were talking about."
"The answer is still no Nahoko."
"Okay but do you even know where the library is?"
"Well, no but I can find out where it is easily, isn't there a map in the school?"
"I mean yeah there is, but one, you aren't allowed in the school and two I already know where the library is, and I could easily sneak you in."
Broki-chan sighs very loudly, thinking about his decision before saying, albeit in an annoyed tone, "Fine." Nahoko smiles at him and walks next to him before they both head to the library. Whilst they're walking past the auditorium, Monika emerges from the floor, making Broki-chan whisper to her "Now is not the time Monika, just talk to me later". Monika doesn't respond and just simply floats back into the ground. Broki-chan looks over to Nahoko, seeing her wiping away a tear or two before smiling at him, gleefully. However, whilst they were walking, Broki-chan couldn't help but notice that Monika emerged from the floor behind them, still watching.
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Once they're in the school, Nahoko rushes Broki-chan into the library, hiding him in a corner before Nahoko quickly rushes out of the room and then quickly back in with a school bag and places it on the table. Broki-chan takes out the key and places it next to her bag with Nahoko inspecting it for a few seconds before looking in the non-fiction section. Broki-chan looks around the library for a few seconds.
It was an average school library with many books. The bookshelves had some dark undertones in the wood, setting the atmosphere of the room along with the chips and scratches on the bookshelves, making it look like they have been there for a while. However, the bean bags and the tables looked relatively new which contrasted with the rest of the room. While Nahoko was skimming through books, Broki-chan decides to head to the science fiction section, picking up a random book and skimming the ending which read:
'Before Will could respond, the robot threw him out of the window and onto the grass outside. Will tries to get up but fails due to being in too much pain from the robot hitting him. However, despite the rain dripping from his face, slightly impairing his vision, one thing he could clearly see is Sophie, approaching him with the same spear the robot used to stab Benny, blood still dripping from it, as the robot stares into his soul with his face being the only really thing lighting up the grass. Will tries to crawl away from him but he's too late as Sophie catches up to him, realising that this is probably it, he moves his body to face upwards so he can at least die without his robot companion, Elio- ARG-02, having to watch. Sophie stays quiet as the robot slowly lifts the spear, as Sophie slightly trembles, and the robot's grin grows wider. "Goodbye Will," says the robot in a monotone voice as he's about to stab Will.'
Broki-chan quickly closes the book and puts it away, suddenly remembering that he doesn't like that book due to the ending where the villains win before he looks over at Nahoko, brainstorming before looking back at the books. After a few minutes of silence between the two, Nahoko makes an 'a-ha' sound before she quickly walked over to her bag, pulls out a UV flashlight and whispers to Broki-chan "I have an idea Broki-chan, maybe we could try using this on the cover of every single book, there might be a hidden message on one of them, just wondering though who did you even get this key from?"
"That's a good idea, I got it from Kioko, she said that it could help me, I have absolutely no idea about what she meant by that, but I don't know this key feels weird, almost like I've seen it before but at the same time I've never seen it, it's just like a distant blurry memory, if you get me?"
"I mean no not really, but I guess, I'll just agree with you, so did you find anything else besides this, it might give us some clues as to what the key can help you with."
"Well, I- uh- no I haven't found anything other than the key; I mean it's not like I found a strange book or anything that would be uh- weird". Somehow Broki-chan felt like he could almost sense Monika facepalming at his terrible cover-up from a distance.
"Look up?" said Nahoko as she tilted her head in confusion whilst she was staring at a book. Broki-chan looks at her, replicating her confusion as he says "Look up? What are you talking about?". Broki-chan walks over to her and looks at the book she had the UV light shining on which had 'LOOK UP!' scribbled onto the cover. Both of them almost simultaneously looked up at the ceiling, with Nahoko also pointing her UV light at the ceiling as well. The ceiling did in fact have writing on it, however, one thing that was interesting about it is that the handwriting was almost as bad as the book Ishi took. Nahoko tries to read it for a few seconds before giving up and saying "Huh, this is bigger than I thought."
Nahoko looks at Broki-chan and Broki-chan does vice versa, just as the warning bell rings and Nahoko says in a sweet tone "But it's nothing we can't handle right?". Broki-chan, upon hearing the bell, says "Shouldn't we be getting out of here, now that class is starting?". Nahoko smiles at him, saying "No it's fine, I'll just say that I have a study class besides unless a-". Nahoko is cut off by the sound of heels tapping against tiles. She looks slightly panicked from the sound as she says under her breath "shit" before she quickly pushes Broki-chan behind the beanbags and whispers "Hide here". Nahoko doesn't even get the chance to turn around as she hears the heel-tapping sound stop and someone loudly saying "Nahoko Kamiyama, didn't you hear the bell? You should be getting to class right around now".
The click sound surprised Broki-chan almost making him jump, unlike Nahoko who looked fairly unfazed. Broki-chan looks a bit shocked as he asks "Is- is it a trap?". Nahoko shakes her head in disagreement as she says "No, a trap click would be much louder, but it was almost like a door unlocking click, we should probably try to check to see what it unlocked, it could lead to some clues about what's going on". Broki-chan makes a mm-hmm sound before they both begin to check every bookshelf; however, they find nothing related to the sound. Nahoko starts pacing as she ponders what the click sound could have unlocked. After a few minutes of pacing, she comes to a realisation as she says "Aha, it has to be the boiler room that's been locked ever since I started school here". She quickly takes her bag and grabs Broki-chan's hand as she looks up at him and says, "We should probably quickly check there, don't you think?". Broki-chan nods in agreement as he says "Yeah, good idea".
They both sneak over to the boiler room quickly and quietly, avoiding anyone still roaming the silent halls. Once they make it to the boiler room the first thing they notice is that the door was swung open, tapping back and forth against the wall due to the slightly opened window blowing in a slight breeze nearby. Just as Nahoko is about to walk into the boiler room, they're both jump-scared by the sound of the bell going off. Nahoko quickly rushes Broki-chan out of the school the moment she spotted some of the students moving to their homeroom classrooms. They get out of the school before anyone notices, Nahoko looks around to see if anyone else saw her before looking back at the school to see if any teachers were after them. Whilst Nahoko has her back turned, Broki-chan's heart starts beating faster as he quietly approaches her bag, the UV flashlight sticking out of it. He quickly takes it and hides it behind his back, just as Nahoko turns around and says "Okay. I think we're in the clear, I'm going to inspect that book to see what's up with it but for now I got to go and get back to my homeroom asap, so I guess I'll see you later Broki-chan".