SDRA2 Redux: Trouble on Jabberwock Island

Chapter 4 - Part 1

Monocrow Theater

The identities of my traitors have been decided for a while now, however information about who they are will not be disclosed here. Let's just say that it will be a big plot twist. One that will shock the remaining survivors and the readers to their very core...

POV - Nikei

Chapter 4: Roses in Life and in Death

- Daily Life

I rubbed my eyes, half expecting to gaze upon my bedroom at home. Instead, I was greeted by my plain but pleasant room of the motel. The events of yesterday came flooding back, the image of Setsuka's frozen body followed by her corpse being made into a smoothie jolting me upright.

Shinji...Kanade... two more of my best friends had died, had been brutally murdered. Along with Yoruko, Emma, Yuri, and Hajime... Sure, Setsuka had died too, but it didn't matter. She had been my closest friend. And now she was gone forever.

The gruesome death of my friend caused me to feel hungry, so I got out of bed, got dressed and practically ran out of my room.

However, when I got there, breakfast was noticeably different, but not in a good way. It felt eerily quiet without Setsuka's smiling face, and the Ultimate Yakuza didn't liven things up. Two people were gone; two lives lost...and it showed. In such a short space of time, I had really grown fond of my classmates. It wasn't like losing two strangers, I'd lost two friends.

Eight glum faces, I included, sat around the dining table, not a single smile in the room. There was no Kanade. Her absence made the restaurant feel emotionless and empty, stripped of any character or personality. The charm that the Ultimate Alchemist brought to breakfast each morning had disappeared.

Time to talk about what had happened yesterday. It was horrible to think about but sitting there in silence pretending that nothing had happened was only going to make us all feel worse.

Red filled my vision as the imagery of Shinji and Kanade's corpses and Setsuka's frozen body filled my head. It was too much.

"Anyways... anyone else feel kinda okay about three more of us dying yesterday right now?" Teruya coughed uncomfortably.

In fact, nobody replied.

Teruya giggled nervously. "I'll take that as a yes."

Of course, Mikado was concerned when he saw me barely eating breakfast. "What's wrong, Nikei?" He asked.

Regretful about how he might react to Setsuka's death, I nodded. "I'm okay. I'm! OKAY!" I shouted.

"That's clearly a lie." Mikado said.

I noticed someone was gone.

"Where's Kokoro?" I asked.

"I tied them down to their bed after the trial..." Syobai said. "It's safe if Mitsume doesn't kill anyone during breakfast."

"At least we survived the third trial!" Iroha pointed out.

A flash of realization sparked in Sora's eyes. "...Ah! This, of course, means the 4th island should be available to us now."

"Let's go after breakfast, then!" said Teruya, to everyone's agreement... well, almost everyone.

Hibiki was shell-shocked. She hadn't quite processed what had happened yesterday. It was quite a bit to take in all at once, after all. Setsuka, her friend, was just gone. Never to be seen or heard again. Never to make her laugh, smile, or give her gifts again. As was her sister. To say she was visibly traumatized might have been the understatement of the century.

Teruya sighed, rubbing Hibiki's back and pushing some toast closer in an attempt to get her to eat something.

"I know it's hard, Pinkie... we're all feeling it, too," nodded Mikado. "But we just got to keep our chins up and work together!" I smiled and nodded in agreement, but I could hear the regretful emptiness hidden in Mikado's words.

First Island seemed to be the main tourist-y place, Second Island seems more fun, third island was for some party night...I guess...but, what makes Fourth Island different, I wonder?

We began our exploration of island 4 as soon as we'd finished our breakfast. We had to find out what was now available to us.

Syobai had untied Kokoro, thankfully.

There were some ruins and a library.

Hotel Mirai from the first island was back, with the cottages and a crude cottage made for Teruya.

This Island seems more historic with its ruins and library... I'll explore said library tomorrow.

Next, I decided to check inside the nearby Store. As soon as I laid eyes upon it, I knew that this was no ordinary store. There was the usual fare of snacks, drinks, T-shirts and pamphlets about the island, but there were also houseplants, works of art, a suit of armor, a massive decorative vase, building blocks, perfume bottles, gummy vitamins and a giant drawing mannequin displayed all around the room, as well as numerous other random objects. Against the wall sat a black and white vending machine labeled as a "MonoMono Machine".

We gathered in the diner. Once we were all seated at the table, it was time to discuss what we had found.

"So, what did everyone find?" Kokoro asked. "Me and Teruya found a beach house!"

"Me and Sora discovered a pharmacy," Syobai contributed.

"Me and Hibiki found this diner," Mikado shared. "That is the only thing we found."

"Oh, really?" I spoke. "I actually found a lot while exploring here. I found a store, a library, some ruins and Hotel Mirai. We have a new living quarter."

My pockets rattled with coins - Monocoins, as they had been printed with Monocrow's face on the front.

There was little else to do now. I had about an hour until Nighttime started, so I went to the camp store and spent my Monocoins on the MonoMono Machine. I was surprised to find that the palm-sized plastic capsules could contain anything from fresh food and drinks, books, jewelry and clothes to small live animals, video games, dolls, random objects and tchotchkes, full-sized furniture items and even weapons! But my heart relaxed as I saw that each of the weapons were mere replicas and not suitable for causing harm.

I decided to head to Sora to talk to her.

"Hey, Sora?" I asked.

"What?" The pop sensation asked. She then turned angry. "You think you had the audacity to talk down upon me? A star amongst the lowly rocks and mud of all of you lowlifes...I feel like I'll fade into obscurity if I have to suffer here for much longer...hmph!"

"It's not about that," I said, taken aback by how mean she sounded.

"I gave you a gift, and this is what I got..."

I handed her a stuffed bear with a pink ribbon wrapped around its neck.

"Of course! A star needs to be pampered~ and you delivered, say...might you be my number 1 fan? You wouldn't mind doing more stuff like this for me would you!?" Sora was happy, holding the stuffed bear.

What if Sora was made more a jerk by Yoruko's death?

I spent the remainder of the evening with Teruya and Mikado, trying our hardest to cheer up Hibiki. Remembering how Setsuka had been like a big sister figure to us prior to her execution, we talked and reminisced about the figure skater, laughing at good memories and crying alongside her. It thankfully seemed to have an effect: as Nighttime drew near, Hibiki had actually managed to crack a small smile.

I headed to my cottage.

I turned off the light and flopped into bed, my exhaustion having caught up with me. I tried to make sense of everything I'd learned, everything there was to think about, but my head was spinning. I still felt as if maybe this was all a dream, and I was about to wake up in any moment. But it was real. I knew that. In the end I fell asleep quickly, clinging to the duvet as an imaginary voice told me everything was going to be okay. I was blissfully unaware of the horrors that the next three days had in store.