[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

slams into here

[optimistical]

[ It's been a pretty good day for Naegi so far. He's been adapting to the whole afterlife thing, which isn't too hard since he kind of already came to terms of being dead on the day he arrived and by attending school again, it made the transition easier. Returning to a normal student life is certainly something that he's more than fine with, after dealing with everything with Monobear, so he's quite happy to get back to what he's used to. ]

[ So, today, he has decided on hitting up the library. He has to finish this assignment somehow... Sigh, as much as he missed the normal days and attending school again, he kind of didn't miss all the homework and tests. Way to spend a Sunday, huh? Gathering a few books and having to go through them all just for a bit of info. Sigh, well, at least it shouldn't be too hard, so he can probably spend the rest of the day relaxing after he finishes. This is a pretty alright day, if he doesn't say so himself. ]

[ That is, until he notices a certain someone and he nearly drops his stack of books. ]

K... Kirigiri-san...?

[ No, that can't be her. No way. It's probably just someone who looks completely identical to her, right down to the gloves. It really can't be... ]

No, why are you...

[ He honestly doesn't know what to say, but god, he's really hoping that his eyes are playing tricks on him because she shouldn't be here, she should be alive and solving the mystery behind Hope's Peak and Monobear!! ]

KYAAAAA

[misterious]

[ Just by saying her name, he makes her want to crumple at his feet, apologizing for everything she's done, but she holds back. She has to stay composed.

If she puts her emotional response aside, she can focus on the facts. His presences confirms her suspicion that this is a place where the dead reside. The answer only raises more questions, which she can't answer herself. The best course of action is to communicate and gather information from others. ]

That's not important.

...Tell me what you know about this place.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 1/2

[optimistical]

[ N... Not important?! Everything about this is important! Why is she here? Did someone kill her? Was it Monobear? Did she also fall into the Mastermind's trap? What the hell happened?! ]

[ Okay, calm down, Naegi. Panicking never really helped anyone, but god, how can Kirigiri be so calm? Is it because she doesn't know where she is? He supposes that's possible. Some deaths are instant, right? That would probably mean the person wouldn't even know that they're dead, so if that's the case, he would at least be relieved that she didn't suffer when dying... That's one plus side of it all. ]

[ He fumbles, trying to find the words to answer her request. ]

This... I guess you can call the afterlife. Some of our previous classmates are here, like Kuwata-kun, Ishimaru-kun, and Fujisaki-kun, but not everyone... [ Such as Oogami-san, Mondo-kun, Maizono-san... ] Ishimaru-kun said that people don't tend to show up in the order they die.

[ The reason why for that? Don't even ask Naegi. He has no idea and he doesn't even have a clue for the reason behind that. ]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[optimistical]

But what do you mean not important? You showing up here means...

[ He just mentioned that this is the afterlife. Kirigiri should now know what her arrival here means...!! ]

W-What happened?

[misterious]

[ She's calm because her default is to never show anyone emotions, no matter how scared and weak she feels right now; being vulnerable would just make everything worse, especially when he asks her what happened. She grabs another book, adds it to her stack and brushes past him, heading to the tables beyond the stacks.

She's deliberately choosing to ignore that question. ]

The order of death doesn't matter, does it? Interesting...

[optimistical]

[ She's... just going to keep ignoring his question about her death, isn't she? This is starting to feel pretty familiar... He supposes he shouldn't dig too much, especially since it's a touchy subject like death, but he's just really upset to see her here. She honestly was the last person he thought he would ever see here... ]

[ He turns and with a bit of a silent sigh, he follows her to the table. ]

[ He nods. ]

Yeah, like I died after everyone here, but we're still missing a few people who died earlier, like Maizono-san...

[ If Maizono was here too and arrived at the same time with Kirigiri... Naegi's head would just be spinning and he would be an even bigger sea of shsl feelings. ]

I don't know why it's like that, though.

[misterious]

There's no use dwelling on it.

[ She reaches out as if she's trying to pat him on the shoulder, but pulls back. She doesn't want to touch him; it wouldn't be right to try and comfort him after what she'd done. She didn't have the right to do it.

She smooths her hair back, instead. ]

Let's focus on what we can do.

[optimistical]

[ She has a point. He'll have to nod in agreement with her. ]

What do you know so far?

[ Well, besides from what Naegi has told her. It looks like she's been gathering info, considering her stack of books. Has she read a few of these already? ]

[misterious]

[ Probably, but she wants to make sure that science makes just as much sense here as it did where they came from. The fact that they're on another plane of existence sort of flips everything she knows on its head. ]

People come here because they can't move on. In other words, they have unfinished business that keeps them from accepting their deaths.

[optimistical]

[ And another nod. Man, he's nodding a lot, isn't he? As least he's not parroting everything she says, like he usually does... ]

While attending high school, for some reason.

[misterious]

Perhaps the deaths of everyone here were untimely.

[ Look at how many people from Hope's Peak showed up. ]