Despair's Insanity - an II x DR fic

OFDH - 4

Man, the rooms up on the fourth floor aren't comfortable at all. The mattresses don't even have bed frames up here; if I hadn't kept the proper sleeping position, I bet you I'd have a sore back! Thank goodness I don't, because I'm not in the right place to be cranky! I have to be the beacon of light in these dark times, because who else would be?

Well, perhaps my best friend! Once I got my shirt on, I left my room to go see that exact person! I knocked on his door eagerly, and it opened in a matter of seconds.

"Oh, hey Lifering."

"Hi Blueberry!" I couldn't help but smile at his presence, and pointed my thumb down the hall. "We gotta prepare for the next session of first aid class! I'm thinking about talking about seizures and epipens, because Pickle mentioned it yesterday, and I think that would be good to know! Cause they might do CPR for all that in spite of what I said." Blueberry gave me his usual absent nod, and I let him walk out, standing for a moment while he stretched out his arms and cracked his knuckles. Probably my least favorite thing about his morning routine, but we've been working on his daily routines for weeks now.

He used to wake up after noon every single day, and eat one meal. Now he actually gets up at five like me, and has a self care regimen! Of course, after we get all cleaned up, Blueberry and I either exercise, or get ready for important events. Oj's asked me to teach first aid to whoever will come, which I happily agreed to. Blueberry heard about it first, and he eagerly (or- as eagerly as he could) offered to help me.

As negative and cranky as he looks, he's hands down one of my favorite people to be around. Of course, he signaled he was done with a meager thumbs up, so I led him down the stairs to the third floor, and noticed one thing immediately; the water was on the third floor now, about two inches high. It's a good thing I put on my sandals- I would've been miserable in socks! Blueberry never wore anything but heavy sweatshirts and baggy sweatpants, with a pair of raggedy tennis shoes. The groaning he made was expected, and I could only imagine how uncomfortable the poor guy looked.

"This entire thing is a waste of time," he mumbled angrily, "I don't understand why it's still an issue."

"Well hey, look on the bright side! At least you and I are still here, right?"

"...I guess."

I got to the nurse's station and turned the knob... but it was locked. I knocked three times roughly as Blueberry stood behind me, and I heard a shrill, blood-curdling scream from the other side.

I didn't hesitate once I heard that. I made sure Blueberry stood back a bit, and felt the wall. It didn't seem very tough, and with one punch, I made a hole all the way through to the other side. What kind of terrible construction is this??

I didn't question it- and just continued punching or kicking as hard as I could, eventually making a big enough hole for me to get through. The scene I walked in on... well, it sucked.

Bomb was crumpled to the ground, on his knees, shaking Pickle violently as he laid in the bed. He sounded absolutely hysterical, sobbing and yelling for him to "wake up". I could feel a lump in my throat as I walked over and pat his shoulder. He looked up at me, only crying more. I looked at Pickle, and saw his eyes closed. His skin felt cold, and I pressed my fingers against his wrist to feel for a heartbeat, though I had a pretty good idea on the situation. Of course, he didn't have any heartbeat... Pickle's definitely dead.

"What ha-" I couldn't even finish those two words before the Fan fella appeared behind me, making me jump.

"Aww, how tragic! And I had called him the protagonist, too. Isn't that a shame?"

"The protagonist?" What was he saying? Was this stupid game not enough for him- did he really have to decide who would take over the entire thing? I didn't want him to answer, so I shushed him before he said anything else. "Forget it- I don't care. My question is- what now? The rules say something about a trial..."

"They sure do! You guys are given an undefined amount of time to investigate what happened here! But I will tell you one thing- it wasn't a death caused by his goofy fall yesterday! This was COLD BLOODED MURDER!"

"THIS IS ALL M-MY FAULT!" Bomb cried out, before he went right back to sobbing over Pickle's corpse. Fan looked at me, smirked a bit, then snapped his fingers. In an instant, a weird mechanical device came out of the floor and clamped around Bomb's stomach, yanking him away from Pickle and holding him upright.

"It sure is! But that's not why I have you trapped... you broke a rule last night!"

Blueberry must've come in through the wall hole, because he suddenly was standing next to me, somewhat surprised. "What did he do? Kill Pickle?"

"I'm not telling you who killed Pickle, are you stupid? Bomb broke a different rule, and Pickle did too! They both fell asleep outside of the respective hotel rooms! But Pickle's dead, so I can't punish him."

Bomb frantically tried to shove the device off his stomach, but the grip only got tighter, and Bomb's face started to look a little blue. Fan snapped his fingers again. In a puff of his usual fancy smoke, all evidence that he and Bomb were ever here disappeared- even the tear stains on the blanket covering Pickle had dried. I was just left there with a corpse. A corpse of a man I never even met. Seeing something like that is upsetting- and I would be a liar if I said tears hadn't rolled down my face, even if it was silent.

This poor person- with nobody to recover them...

A beeping noise suddenly came from the doorway and I turned towards it. Oj and Soap had come in through the door, both with very different expressions on their faces. Soap was horrified, but Oj... his face was stone cold. He shook his head and looked at me.

"Have you touched the body in any way?"

I stammered for a second. "N-No-! I just felt for a pulse and that's it. I haven't done anything else."

"...you kicked in my fucking wall."

"Can you blame me?!" Oj stared for a while longer, then shook his head, already beginning to look around the room.

"No, but we need to figure this out."

"What about Pickle? Shouldn't we pay respe-"

"You heard Fan, right? He said an undefined amount of time. We could have all day, or we could have an hour. If you wanna grieve, get the hell out and let me gather evidence so we don't fuck this up."

Blueberry and I looked at each other, and I could only sigh. He had a point, as insensitive as it might've been. I tried to brush off the fact that someone among us was a murderer, and began to look with Oj. Soap must've been too overwhelmed, cause she quickly left the room. Oj sighed.

"Ok- look. Why don't I go ask the other patrons if they saw anything, and you two can investigate the room for me." Blueberry nodded.

"I can look at the body," he said. Oj turned to me, and I stared at him for a second, not sure of what to say. I guess that wasn't what he wanted me to do, cause he looked pretty aggravated when he left, yelling down the hall at someone.

I guess it's time to find what we can, then. What fun.