By now, there were only ten of us left, gathering inside Takuma’s room, the second murder scene. Four men, and six women. Some were already frightened out of their wits, but some were just utterly unbothered at all.

“Are they really being … murdered?” Megumi was trembling as she wanted to clarify once again.

“As my expertise could humbly tell, yes,” our young doctor responded confidently with a smile, as though mimicking our foreign friend’s most unpredictable first eccentricity ever. Interesting, but still wasn’t cute enough.

“The main differences though, lie on the expressions, and the murdering methods,” our young police summarized assuredly with a smile, as though mimicking her twin brother’s most predictable usual eccentricity ever. Much better, but still couldn’t beat the original one.

“Who … who can be so cruel …, and did … these kinds of horrible things?” Kaede cried in fear, and was unable to stand anymore. But still consoling her even more terrified little sister in her hug.

“Is there anybody … besides us here!? Like strangers? Huh? Ryouta-kun?” Kazuki asked almost voicelessly. His face was already out of colors.

Yes, strangers. I had seen one before. I turned around to Fionna, and she seemed to be immediately aware of me gazing at her. But she couldn’t care less.

“No, it is impossible. Our location is so deep in the wild forest, and there is no other island around, not even phone signal could reach here. We … we also don’t reserve any transportation means. In here, we could really be considered as being cut off from the outside world,” Ryouta explained stressfully.

“What!!?” Megumi almost shrilled.

“But …,” he added uncertainly.

“We can’t see cars,” Kaigo shrieked awfully.

“We can’t see ships,” Ringo shrieked awfully.

“But what about the airplanes?” The twins joked excitedly while flapping their arms like a pair of birds flying in a circle in front of us. Not exactly the best way to express the current situation.

The atmosphere was still tense before the most silent woman broke in. She noticed something that I noticed before. Her tone was cold, though.

“Where did you hurt your head?”

Our reunion leader was surprised a little. He gently touched his wound again, but groaned a little.

“Ah, this …, ack … I was attacked … by someone after I found Kazuki-kun at the outside … probably. Someone … from behind. Then, I lost conscious for a while before regrouping with you all again.”

Everyone were flinched. The still living victim added.

“Yes, though I couldn’t see his or her face at all. They … should be a young adult around our age. They must be the …,” Ryouta was trying his best to identity that unknown person.

Elena cut in impatiently.

“Ok, that could be left for now. After all, that could be just a disguise to confuse us all. More importantly, it seems that we are trapped in here. We can’t swim over, or walk a long trip through the dangerous forest. When will the bus come again, Ryouta-kun?” Elena asked as calm as possible. Everyone was curious why did she skip over that important lead. Isn’t that obvious? She was focusing on our safety first.

“As … as scheduled only … on the fourth day morning, 9 a.m. Since we can’t use anything around here to contact the others. I afraid nobody will know what is going on here,” Ryouta explained regretfully.

Kazuki almost threw up, and squatted down. He has a minor hemophobia. I went to support him.

Kaigo suggested a brilliant idea with his twin sister’s left index pointing up inside her glove.

“Then we must … investigate.”

The remainders were shocked, and staring at him, and of course at her too.

“Are you two really in such a good mood?” Kazuki was angry while still covering his mouth.

“Better than doing … nothing,” Ringo who had the same idea with Kaigo from the first place also had her twin brother’s right index pointing up inside his glove on her speaking turn.

“What do you mean? Playing detective? Want to solve our friends’ murder cases?” Kazuki was really agitated. I tried to calm him down.

The twins elegantly moved forward, and looked down at the knelling demonstrator from above with an absolutely intimidating air.

“Then let me ask you!” Kaigo exclaimed.

“How are we going to survive knowing that there is at least one murderer lurking around?” it was Ringo who actually asked

Kazuki couldn’t say anything in return but furiously averted his sight from them. He was still irritated over their suggestion of ‘for intelligent only’ play. But he also couldn’t deny the fact that a murderer was still hiding around here, somewhere.

They have actually gotten some point there. Instead of spending the still long and pointless remaining days left cowering in fear of being murdered before the rescue to come, we could try to catch the murderer first, to avenge our friend, and ensure our safety. It really is a ‘for intelligent only’ suggestion that could have only come out from just the kind of them. I wished I could think reasonably like that.

Our reunion … just ruined like that.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Don’t worry, have some faith in us,” Ringo started the speech soothingly.

“We will find out the murderer,” Kaigo completed the speech soothingly.

“I will also help to expose the culprit,” Fionna surprisingly interested in this risky operation as well.

The twins’ eyes almost rolled out.

“Per … that is exactly the best choice we can picky-picky now …,” Kaigo cried, and nodded satisfyingly.

“… to prevent any more picky-picky murders … fect.” Ringo cried, and nodded satisfyingly.

We wasted some minutes to regain our humanity. On our front and rear were perfect beings after all.

“Wait a second, how are we supposed to catch the murderer? Are they hiding in the forest?” Ryouta asked unconvincingly.

“Instead, they might be one of us here, … not a disguise at all” Fionna suggested an interesting logic. We all turned to her. Elena seemed slightly offended.

I argued, at last I had my chance to speak out.

“That is impossible! I have seen someone in the middle of the heavy rain when I was at the outside as well. She was standing just beyond the garden’s barred gate. … she was still holding a blood dripping knife, the same knife with the one we found in the forest, and bloods were stained all over her too. Maybe, she is the one who attacked Ryouta-kun. She is the murderer!” I explained the situation as briefly as possible to everyone.

“Hoo? She?” Fionna asked placidly when the others were still unable to imagine that very unlikely fact. The twins’ eyes were already sparkling like stars.

“Yes, she looks like a young woman. All in white, white face, white long hair, holding a white book, wearing white dresses and a large bonnet. In fact, I am thinking that … her look really is … resembling you from far away. Only differ in your hair style and its color … and your clothes too. Though I could only see her left eye, but … most strangely, … she has gotten the same rare purple eye like you.”

Fionna suddenly touched her white shocking face with both of her hands. She even tilted her head, and folded her left knee backward.

“Whoa! A doppelganger! I wanna meet that cutie!” she expressed in her usual calm countenance despite trying to look cute just now. Is she really as eccentric as the twins? Or even more? Or just trying to make fool of me?

“… and the knife!?” The twin asked desirously while each holding each of my hand. They basically teleported!

“It … it should still keep by Elena in her drawer,” I was confused by their interest. But they immediately let go of my hands after they know that I didn’t have that wonder thing, and swiftly replayed to its true owner.

Elena nodded weakly, while struggling out of the twins’ creepy hands. But they were still looking at her in awe. Just why?

“Did anyone see it besides you?” Ryouta asked, still couldn’t believe at the fact that there is an unidentified one in his area. He contradicted himself. He also wanted to believe in us.

I turned to Elena.

“Did you really not see the young woman I talked about? When you were behind me that moment?”

“Nope.” the potential witness averted her eyes. She looked unsure.

“You sure you weren’t just seeing some illusions? What you were seeing …,” Ryouta must make a decision. He is one of the victim after all.

Despite of being offended by distrust, I was even calmer that I thought I could, and retraced back for a moment.

At that time, the scene was really dark and foggy. The rain was very hard that made me shivering in cold, and seeing things blurry. The strong gust blew the bushes, so it looked like fluttering? Then how to explain its white color? Ah, maybe that was because of the thundering’s flash? Was that even possible? But I was still pretty sure that I wasn’t hallucinating at all. She really existed for that short amount of time. But also thinking back of it logically now, it was almost impossible for anyone to be able to be so suddenly appearing out nowhere in the wild forest, moreover in gothic dresses? Then, there was no trace had been left behind either, and I was the only one who had witnessed it. Nobody was going to believe in me. Not even I could convince myself.

“Um …, at that moment, I really do believe that there is someone other than all of us here. But, maybe I was wrong, that location ….”

I suddenly remembered something important, really important. An evidence that could prove that white girl’s existence. It is a thing that was exclusively given by herself, for me only. I quickly groped my pocket. Thank God, it was still there though soaked already. I pulled it out slowly and carefully because it is the only key to solve this case, to prove that there really is another one lurking around us. I showed it off to everyone in the room.

“This is the other thing we … I got when we were playing in the forest. A letter from her. But I had forgotten about it until just now.”

By now, nobody asked why we wandered into the prohibited area before. What was even more important than cracking the actual murder case itself? Everyone paid no attention to our previous fault but to the mysterious letter which I was holding. Though its ink had smeared a bit, it is still readable.

“Snow White …,” Elena repeated that wonder woman’s nickname based on the letter.

“Did anyone here have sent …,” Kaigo asked.

“… this love letter to Yoru-kun? So sweet!” Ringo said the last two words as though teasing me. But it was Kaigo who poked me.

All of them didn’t need to answer nor shake their head. Megumi sighed tiredly. Doubtlessly, it wasn’t from any of us.

“Too bad, Yoru-kun,” Ringo said sadly.

“My condolence, Yoru-kun,” Kaigo said regrettably.

“Ha-ha-ha. How lame those sentences are? Is she an elementary kid, or something? Are you a pedophile, Yoru-kun?” The twins further added jokingly.

“Is it possible for anyone to be living or hiding in the forest? By your honest opinion,” Elena asked Ryouta, unconcerned by the eccentricity of the twins.

“Should … should be … not much of a possibility. There are so many kinds of wild and dangerous animals in the forest. Even though they could somehow manage to survive during the daytime, they couldn’t escape from the wolves that usually appear at night hunting for foods by using their very sensitive smelling. Nobody can survive from the attacks of a massive group of wolves.”

“Yes, we heard them howling when the sky was getting dark.”

Elena turned to me, and said seriously.

“I am very sorry, Yoru-kun. There is no doubt that the letter itself is legit, and that Snow White, or the disguised person who attacked Ryouta-kun will be considered as the main suspect for now. But that fact still couldn’t prove that they must be the perpetrator behind all these murders. Though she was all bloodstained like you have said, yet still not impossible for even another unknown person to be concealing around here besides us and the Snow White if she ever existed, considering every one of us aren’t lying about the fact that they aren’t that letter’s author. Nevertheless, they aren’t our top most priority now. We will start from investigating every each of us first.”

“So precisely,” Ringo gave a thumb up for Elena.

“You are still thinking that the murderer is among us? But didn’t you just say that it isn’t impossible for the others to be hiding in the forest? Right!?” I didn’t understand at her contradictions at all.

“Not precisely,” Kaigo gave a thumb down for me.

“Yah. Like I said. Though it is almost impossible to be hiding in the forest in our normal perspective. There is still too much information that we don’t have about what is being inside of the forest. Maybe they have even built their own secret base, or something. And even ….”

“Yes, that is what I am talking about. Somebody else is here! But …, just for this chance of killing!?” I asked rather harshly.

“Stay tuned for more!” the twins advertised enthusiastically.

“It is just one of the premises that I think it is still … possible,” Elena couldn’t look any longer into my glaring eyes.

“Then what is the main reason that makes us must doubt at each other!?” I was starting felt irritated.

“Not doubting at each other. But we will just be searching for the clues that will lead to the perpetrator. At least their crime partner is one of us,” Elena answered persuasively to ease my anger.

“What do you mean!?” I was surprised, and confused at the same time.

Ringo asked with a police’s suspicion.

“Have you ever thought why things were just too … coincidence?”

Kaigo answered with a doctor’s knowledge

“Yes, those two were … drugged.”

The twins starred at us with dignity.