[Action]

[misterious]

[ She watched Makoto Naegi die, the squelch of flesh and viscera, the crunch of bone, the dull thump...thump...thump of the machine that mashed him to a pulp. All the evidence pointed to the fact that he was dead, yet she found herself wishing it wasn't true. In spite of all her efforts to keep emotions from clouding her judgement, the guilt of letting her ambitions come before the life of another gnawed at her mind enough for false hope to creep in.

Maybe he lived.

After all, his body fell into the trash room below. It was unlikely that it would have been cleaned up and whisked away elsewhere. If she could see it, she could confirm that he was dead, once and for all. She might also uncover some clues behind the mastermind who had set the trap with her in mind.

She concealed herself in a garbage bag and had her classmates drop her down the trash chute. The fall was longer than expected.

The death was instantaneous. Or it should have been, were it not for the fact she had woken up in yet another school. After giving herself a minute to adjust, her best course of action was to get a lay of the land and gather as much information as she could. ]

[ You might have felt a pair of eyes watching you in the public areas today, the slightest glimpse of a girl, pale and willowy, wandering in the shadows, or in some corner just within earshot. She observes but never approaches, maintaining a neutral expression regardless of what's going on around her and walking away as soon as anyone makes a step in her general direction.

Maybe she wasn't watching you after all. Maybe she's a ghost. Can something more ghostly exist in a town of dead souls? It is a mystery.

After a few hours of reconnaissance/creeping, she's slipped into the library to peruse the science stacks. With a wall at one end, there's only one way in and out. She's mindful of that opening, keeping an eye on it, just in case someone feels inclined to corner her and confront her. ]

Comments

[misterious]

[ She pauses, considering her words. This means:

a) This "Yurippe" person has met nearly everyone here
b) She's capable of some level of "process of elimination" deduction, so she's not a complete idiot
c) There's no point in dodging the question or lying... probably. ]

...Kyouko.

[tenminutes]

Nice to meet you Kyouko. Your family name isn't Tachibana, is it? You just look like you could be related to someone I used to know here, that's all.

[misterious]

It's not.

I don't have any siblings to speak of, either. Was this "Tachibana" a friend of yours?

[tenminutes]

Well, I gathered an entire team of people to harass and fight her because I thought she was an angel for a long time because she had superpowers but we made up.

[ That's a friend right?? ]

You just look like you could be related, that's all.

[misterious]

[ More important than your systematic bullying of a little student council president... ]

What would convince you that something like angels exist?

[tenminutes]

What would convince anyone that angels exist?

[ Obviously the clear solution. Because she basically decided Kanade was an angel because she had superpowers and she knows now that that was a stupid assumption but still, she won't discount the possibility. After all. ]

We're in the afterlife, would it really be that surprising?

[misterious]

Considering that that this is the first time I've died, I don't know what to think.

[ Not that she sounds bothered by that. ]

[tenminutes]

The only time you ever will. You can't die after you're already dead, you know. You can just get 'offed' so to speak.

[misterious]

'Offed.'

[ This is a prompt to explain. ]

[tenminutes]

Well, you can't die again but you can completely experience having your head chopped off and you'll be fine in a few hours.

[misterious]

Regeneration? Revival?

[tenminutes]

Probably closer to the first one. It's not really revival, since we're still dead when everything's said and done.

[misterious]

Why does it happen at all?

[tenminutes]

What, you mean like how do people get injured? They're stupid, obviously.

[misterious]

[ Her expression almost sours (maybe, it's hard to tell) ]

Why do people heal?

[tenminutes]

We're dead already. What else are we going to do?

[misterious]

Cease to exist.

[tenminutes]

That's not the point of this place. You know why people end up here right?

[misterious]

[ She nods ]

So we regenerate again and again, unless we "move on."

[ How unpleasant. ]

[tenminutes]

You're catching on now. That's the only way out, too, but alternately-- you can stay here forever if you want. I won't stop you unless you try to take away anyone else's choice.

[misterious]

[ Wow, did this girl just threaten her? It's not something she's taking personally, but it does raise the question of who this girl thinks she is. ]

...Stop me with what?

[tenminutes]

Whatever's necessary, obviously. Though I'd prefer not to.