Blades of Despair

-Chapter Seventy-One-

Identity

This chapter is told from Miyagawa's perspective

Morihei and I had arrived at Yoneda's dormitory as per Morihei's suggestion. I was admittedly quite nervous that Morihei was pushing me to learn something that I'd be better off not knowing, but I knew at that point that there was no going back. We had to learn the truth, even if it was uncomfortable, unsettling or downright unbelievable.

"You need to go through the folders that Yoneda kept aside," Morihei instructed. "There might be something that will help you understand the events that led to the beginning of the killing games." I frowned at the vagueness of her words.

"Can't you just tell me what I'm looking for? If you already know, you'd save me a lot of time," I muttered.

"The problem is that I can't say for certain that you will find anything, but these folders helped Yoneda deduce that I was a... traitor. They also helped Nishi and Morino solve the riddle of Iowa's identity in the last trial. I'd wager that Yoneda didn't burn every last piece of important evidence."

"You can't say for certain... typical..." I muttered again, but Morihei didn't respond. I looked down at the stack of folders in front of us, found the one belonging to Ori and scooped it into my arms.

"You're not going to read your own first?"

"I've lived the life that is likely described in mine," I reminded her, "reading my own folder would just be me retelling my own life's story, which I can do from memories alone." Morihei bit her lip, as though she wanted to say something in opposition to my claim, but she merely nodded and watched as I opened Ori's file and began to read.

From an early age, Ori seemed to have been hounded with events of great fortune and misfortune, and they were all described in great depth in her folder. She had told me on our first day at the academy that her luck operated on a cycle – if something good were to happen to her, a misfortune of equal measure would happen soon afterwards and vice versa. Reading through her file made me realise that this was harrowingly true; she had once won the biggest lottery jackpot in world history but was struck by lightning as she was travelling to the bank to cash her winnings. Then there was the time she scored the highest mark on an exam at school, but then her mother fell ill. I frowned – I had not known that Ori's talent affected other people; I had thought that her talent brought about events that happened to her exclusively. I couldn't recall a time during the killing game where her talent had directly interfered with another student. Her talent had helped her discover the identity of several culprits, or allowed her to find crucial pieces of evidence, but those were indirect instances of her talent. I shall have to clarify with her later, but I should be cautious approaching such a delicate topic with her. But something doesn't feel right about this. If Ori's talent affects others, then why didn't she say anything when she was introducing herself? If Ori's bad luck posed a threat to the rest of us, why didn't she warn us? Did she forget? Or is there another reason?

"You have that look on your face," Morihei snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?"

"You've figured something out, haven't you?"

"No, I haven't. But I do have some questions for Ori when I next see her," was all I said before putting her folder down. "I'll start on mine now, I guess." I wasn't keen on the idea of reliving some memories of my past – I had long buried my past in the corners of my mind, opening them to Ori only after the first trial. Are there really connections between my story and Seiko Academy? I was doubtful, but Morihei's suggestion to look through these files had unsettled me. I tried to quickly evaluate any parts of my life that could be related to the killing games, but conjured nothing. My life, though filled with sorrow and misfortune, was solely my own and had no bearing on the events of Seiko Academy. But I could not explain why I felt my hands tremble slightly as I gripped my file and opened it onto the first page, where I was greeted with words that horrified me.