SDRA2 Redux: Trouble on Jabberwock Island

Chapter 3 - Part 2

POV - Nikei

DING-DONG, BING-BONG!

"Dear students. It's now 10:00 AM. Good morning everyone! Please have a lovely day in this sunny tropical paradise! Love, Monocrow."

Morning came once again. I mentally checked myself, noting that I felt just as distant from the deaths as I did yesterday. Whatever had happened to my emotions, it seemed as if it may have been permanent. I sat in bed for a few minutes trying to piece together the few clues I had to go on - this terrifying and bizarre killing game... but no matter how I looked at it, I could not find an answer.

Ugh... I hate this... I hate this soooo much...

Sighing, I got up from bed and went to the resturant of the motel.

Sausages and hash browns were for breakfast.

As I put together a plate of food for myself, however, I paused. Deep in the back of my mind, something just didn't feel quite right... but I couldn't figure out what it was. There was a nagging feeling deep within my gut, and it wasn't just how loudly it was growling from hunger.

Hmm... well, if I can't remember what it was in a place like this, perhaps it wasn't super important...

I sat down and began to eat. Mikado walked in a few moments later, and soon my best friends arrived as well, talking and laughing as usual. As they sat down beside me with their plates, the rest made their way inside and got food as well.

For some reason I was unusually hungry, practically shoveling food inside my mouth as my friends continued their conversation.

Then it dawned on me.

Why is everyone... cheerful?

It wasn't until then that I realized what was bothering me. Four people had died gruesome, violent deaths within the past eleven days, two of which I was very close to. I had been witness to half of them, and I had seen all four of the corpses.

By all logic, I should still be depressed, still feel a fresh pain and anguish in my heart, still feel like I didn't want to eat or could only barely manage to get out of bed... but I didn't. I felt... just fine.

I shouldn't be just fine. They shouldn't be just fine. We shouldn't be just fine.

But even I knew one didn't just get over four traumatic deaths within a single day.

Something happened to me... to all of us. Something's wrong.

After breakfast, Kokoro stood up and cleared her throat.

"Guys, there's something I need to tell you." She said.

"What?" I asked.

"I am... non-binary." The cosplayer said.

Everybody reacted with disgust, horror, everything negative at this relevation.

Kokoro Mitsume, the girl known far and wide as the Ultimate Cosplayer... was non-binary.

"My dad thought of me as a girl." Kokoro explained. "He tried to mold me in his image of an ideal girl by purging "undesirable" personality traits and interests, which in his mind, were creating cosplays and spending time with friends. He freaked out when I ignored his demands."

"Y-you couldn't create cosplays...?!" Teruya stammered in horror. Kokoro nodded solemnly.

"True." They said. "I ran away from my dad. I wanted to represent myself as a girl. I wanted to create cosplays. And most importantly, I wanted to forge a personality for myself."