Despair's Little Game (Book 1)

2. Money isn't Everything

Byakuya Togami turned the corner towards them, he looked very annoyed, as usual. He glanced over at them all before looking away, and closing his eyes. "It seems as though not everyone important has died."

Just by saying that simple sentence, Toko's face glowed red and happiness came to her eyes, she drooled as she sighed, "Master thinks I'm important... "

Everyone tried to ignore her odd remarks. Byakuya continued talking as if nothing had interrupted him.

"Kirigiri wanted to meet with you all before this time limit expires. She's been investigating the dead bodies so that we may reveal the attacker as quickly as possible." She asked me to find you all over safely. As much as I hate being ordered around, Kirigiri is the only other one in our group with any sense, so I figured I could do this one favor. "

"That's nice of you Byakuya!" Aoi said, smiling as she got up.

Byakuya cut through Aoi's words, "My actions are not out of kindness. I have simply agreed to this once because it is the most beneficial thing to do."

"Righhhht" Aoi snickered slightly.

Makoto got them back on track.

"Guys let's go, if Kirigiri needs us to be there then we can't keep her waiting. We only have less than 25 minutes and who knows what might be in our way! Let's go!"

Aoi picked up Makoto again and they all followed Byakuya down the destroyed hallways.

Byakuya talked a little about the situation around them.

"Most of the Future Foundation heads are dead. The only ones remaining appear to be Munakata, Sakakura and Mitari. I'm quite surprised all of you managed to survive through all this chaos happening around us."

"You're one to talk" Aoi muttered behind him, "I thought you wouldn't be able to survive ten minuites without your little squad of helpers."

"Do not insult m-master! H-he is a-above all of u-us!" Toko growled at Aoi, "H-he is g-godlike compared t-to e-everyone else!"

Byakuya probably would have glared at them both for bickering so much in normal circumstances, however these were not normal times. So he could only tell them to shut up until they got to their destination.

Kyoko Kirigiri has examined each of the bodies she had come across. She would draw a simple and clear diagram of the body and any interesting details inside of her pocketbook, and after she was confident she was done, and there was nothing else left to discover, she moved onto the next victim.

Ryota Mitari had followed her around the building. He sometimes asked questions but mostly he kept to himself and was quiet.

A few times they had been caught in a fight or somebody had tried to attack them and they would evacuate the area. A particularly crazy event had happened when Kyoko was examining a living room, which had been armed with traps from the floor up.

The body of Izayoi Sohnosuke had been discovered there and while examining the crime scene, she had been almost killed when a trap was activated by a scared and angry Ando Ruruka, when the floor had collapsed.

However Kyoko had been saved by Kohichi Kizakura. He died shortly after, as he had opened his left hand, setting off his forbidden action and poison was injected into his veins. He then fell down underground into the infinite depths.

Kyoko realized that her time was windling. The longer it took to figure out who the attacker was, the more people would die. Her friends were slowly creeping up the list of "soon to be dead" and she couldn't let that happen.

So when she ran into Byakuya she formed a plan quickly and asked him to bring her Makoto, Aoi and Hiro. She looked up from her deep thoughts and saw Byakuya leading a group of people over to her area.

Kyoko spoke up to the group and they watched her.

"I need to talk with Makoto, Aoi, Hiro and Byakuya. You three need to get to a safe place and quickly. There's only about 20 minutes till the timer goes off. "

Komaru nodded at Kyoko and grabbed Toko's arm, dragging her away. Ryota followed them hesitantly.

Makoto, Aoi, and Hiro entered the room and sat down. Byakuya remained standing.

Kyoko stared at them for a moment. Then began.

"I have investigated the bodies of the victims. All of which have been Future Foundation branch leaders. Most of them have been killed by a knife wound to the chest. Only a few have died from the Forbidden Action Poison,"

Kyoko kept her emotionless stare as she spoke, "During this time I have also discovered many of their Forbidden Actions. However now they are all dead, so that information is not of any importance anymore. For now, we need a plan. How can we get out of here without killing? I have reason to believe we aren't even in the same building as before. I have to assume that we are actually underwater. "

"Whaaaat? We're under water??" Hiro stared at the walls in horror, "This is insane!"

"Quit it with the yelling, we have to make a plan. Otherwise no one will be able to escape." Byakuya stated, pushing his glasses further up his nose and staring at his bracelet, "Why don't we make sure of the things we can't do? It would narrow down the things we would be able to achieve."

"And how do we do that?" Aoi stared up at Byakuya. Byakuya looked away and closed his eyes.

"Everyone needs to tell us their forbidden action," Byakuya said simply, "That will narrow down the list of possible actions we will take."

The room went quiet for a moment. They all looked around at each other. Aoi spoke up first.

"Well mine is getting kicked or punched..." She shifted nervously as they turned their eyes onto her, "Now I feel exposed..."

"Don't worry about it, Asahina. We're your friends, you can trust us." Makoto said, smiling, "I would say mine but you already know what it is. Running in the halls."

"I can't look people directly in the eye." Byakuya's voice rang out.

"That's a weird one, but I suppose it would make sense..." Aoi contemplated, "what about you, Hiro?"

Hiro looked at his bracelet again as if he had forgotten. "Mines touching clear objects, I haven't been able to tell our fortunes at all today! I could have predicted what would happen to us all with 30% accuracy!"

"Didn't I tell you to quit whining?" Byakuya looked as if he would hit Hiro on the head, "this was supposed to be a rather quick acknowledgement. Stop wasting our time-"

That's when it happened. Everything happened so quickly. It was all a blur. Everything went downhill from there.