I finally fully understand what the real situation was going on right now. It wasn’t just Elena alone, even Kaigo and Ringo had already gotten all those peculiar actions planned beforehand. To protect Kaede who was somehow blackmailed, to catch the real murderer who might be still blending among us, the remaining 8 people.

“Kyaaaaaaa …!!!”

But before I could think of anything useful to identify that God damned murderer, it seemed that they had already presented themselves out first in front of the other 6 people whom had left us earlier by the shrill cry of Megumi and Chika.

The two of us who were still in the room were startled.

“What was that!?” I asked.

“Let’s quickly check it out!”

The two of us impatiently ran out of the room toward the source of that danger signal. We had a very bad feeling about this. What had happened to them? Did a murder have happened again? Or it was Kaigo and Ringo who had caught the murderer first? Or even they had finally met with that incomprehensible Snow White? Actually, there are still so many possibilities that could be think of, but we had already reached the right wing’s starting corridor first.

From there we could see what was going on the first floor’s main hall. All six people were still out there in front of the main stairs. No one had died, thankfully. But, all of them weren’t standing together. Instead, they had divided into two groups, and facing each other. It was a one versus the other 5 people stage, and that single person was pointing at them, using her right hand which was wielding something black.

“Fionna …!!” I shouted.

“What are you doing with that gun!?” Elena also shrieked at her.

But that long purple-haired young woman ignored us, and still continuing to mark that dangerous weapon’s light red laser at each of her five enemies’ forehead by turns with the gorgeous main stairs as the background. Tough, she was still looking as calm as though the usual circumstance, the others were already dumbstruck, and unable to move by the sudden appearance of a pistol pointing directly at them. But also, as expected, the twins were still looking as eccentric as though the usual as well. They were just grinning on it, and didn’t afraid even the slightest before that senseless threat declaring in front of them.

After a boring while, the illegal arm wielder finally put her right hand down, and even smirked a bit. The tense atmosphere was decreased slightly. The twins, then, felt the need to announce in a contrasted mode.

“Wow, there is even more protection at this point. It is way cooler than …,” Kaigo started the joke joyfully.

“… the other strange things found before. But, she just pointed a gun at a police. How dare her. Huh,” Ringo ended the joke annoyingly.

“This isn’t a joke anymore! Why does she have a pistol!?” Megumi asked furiously while she was still so frightened.

“Why do you bring that weapon to this reunion, Fionna-chan?” Ryouta asked in pale.

“Are you the one … who killed all of our friends?” Chika was still trembling, and hiding behind Ryouta.

Despite being interrogated so wildly, our foreign friend just answered in an effortless tone, and laughed while still playing with her firearm’s laser covered by each of her five delicate left fingers by turns again.

“I have just always been taking this with me wherever I go since I was a kid. Besides, this is just a replica of a rubber bullet gun, for self-defense purpose only. Harm nothing. Ha-ha.”

“But still, why did you …,” Megumi still couldn’t finish her sentence normally in fear.

The performer carried her laser-off arm but not wielding it anymore, and slowly moved forward to show it to the others. After everyone had been convinced, Megumi angrily asked.

“Why did you suddenly point that thing to us, then!!?”

The white young woman didn’t even look guilty, and coldly said.

“I am just testing out to see what will it look like when all of you are really facing up with the real culprit, for your own good as well. But, it seems that every each of you are just some scaredy-cats.”

The twins were the ones who looked furious now, and simultaneously said.

“Except us-us, Okay~!?”

“You can’t be playing with that kind of thing around. It is dangerous!” Ryouta was starting to be enraged as well.

Fionna returned back all those unhappy concerns with one unsociable and direct checkmate.

“Who is the one more dangerous now, me or the culprit that is hiding between us?”

No one could disagree with that truest statement.

“That is why we said that we have … even … more … protection … now,” the twins said with desperate mocking gesture.

“But, what if she is the murderer herself?” Megumi protested stressfully.

“No, she wouldn’t. Though she doesn’t have any alibi at all for the first two murders, we still …,”

“What!?” the rich daughter was raged and impatient.

“… believe in our special and cute Fionna-chaaaaan~!!!,” the twins suddenly teleported to that foreign woman’s either sides, and showing her off as though she is the real MVP in front of us again. Of course, Elena and I were also dumbfounded in place, and still couldn’t understand at all about what really is inside of these twins’ insane head.

“Why!?”

The blue and red ones were already waiting to be asked by that clichéd but most anticipated question since ages. They excitedly readied themselves to give their ultimate reason out. They nodded to each other for the confirmation to start. Took a deep breath, and said together confidently and absolutely.

“Just because she doesn’t have any alibi at all for the murders themselves, has utterly mean that she isn’t the murderer herself,” They paused for a moment, and then said the rest after a full smirk.

“Otherwise, it will be too … lame.”

Such … advanced theory shouldn’t be able to be comprehended by most people.

“What a joke!?” The blonde woman couldn’t believe at their farce.

I, too, couldn’t accept that kind of reason. Do they think that all cases in this reality are just as interesting as those specially made-up fiction mysteries? But, Elena seemed to have a different opinion, and was still seriously considering about it. Maybe she had caught up with something. She suddenly moved, and held my right hand with her left to start pulling me together quickly to their location down the main stairs. We stopped right in front of those five-people’s group, and were facing with that foreign woman directly. The long black-haired detective was still holding me firmly.

“But I don’t believe you! Now, give me that gun!” Elena said resolutely while giving her right hand out.

But that purple-eyed woman didn’t even flinch, and moved forward so swiftly that she seemed to be leaping toward me. She was still ignoring my friend, and just looking into my eyes straightforwardly. She suddenly touched my face with her unoccupied left hand seductively, and slowly slid downward as she spoke with an enchanted aura.

“Why do you just believe in my Mr. Yoru so much? Is he really that special? … I am so … jealous,” the woman immediately looked ten times more attractive as she tilted her head to observe me even more keenly.

“Yeah, yeah. Though he is a fake!!” cried the twins out of nowhere. I never fully understand what they said.

My startled heart pounding response was a little too late, and her hand had already stopped on my chin. She felt just like the devilish tyranny queen who was just playing with one of her thousands of servants however she likes. But, the purplish empress still gave a full contented smile in the end.

“Come, come. Welcome to our team as the sixth!” hailed the twins out of nowhere. What again?

“Maybe you really are one of us ….”

One of …. What? Who are you really!?

I felt the complete eeriness just like the first time I saw the Snow White. And now that her hand was so close to me. I just realized that her fingernails are also painted in dark purple, and a little too long for even a normal woman. She really looked like a female devil right now with her cold as ice hands.

But that stunning moment didn’t last long. Someone had suddenly caught her naughty hand off my lower face with her right forcefully. Even this seducing young woman was surprised for a moment. I looked to my right to see who was the one that had awakened me. As expected, she was Elena, who had always been helping me since middle school. Furthermore, she had already somehow stolen that gun so fast that I couldn’t see anything but just feeling that she had let go of my right hand just a second ago. Is she really that clumsy Elena?

“He will definitely … not be the one of you!” My ally gazed at her sternly. An even more suffocating tense atmosphere had been risen around us. This time, it was her who shone the red dot, on that gun owner’s head, with her left hand.

“Hoh?” Fionna smiled to her right hand which had her weapon stolen.

“I had already suspected you from even before the murders begin. From the first place, how could you come here!?” Elena asked without any hesitation to the most unexpected reunion member here.

All remainders were as though immediately getting some wild ideas here. The ruckus couldn’t be prevented. Yes, I had forgotten about that even I had also already realized it from before. Fionna was still unconcernedly looking at her, acting silly.

“Who contacted you to come here? Who invited you? Who has your contact to begin with?” Elena further cornered her. She, then, turned to the leader of the reunion.

“I … I also don’t know. Fionna-chan is the one who contacted me as though she had already known about the reunion, asking if she could participate. And of course, there is no reason to turn her down at that time. Actually, there is another …,” Ryouta was cut after recalled that most out of ordinary thing from the most silent girl in our class.

“Oh my …. Don’t tell me, she …!” murmured Megumi who had thought of something very unlikely.

“Who told you about the reunion!!?” Elena asked fiercely at her.

After a moment of a disturbing silence, the lone woman who was still collected, said generally before turning to the leader who was still confused.

“It is from somebody among us right now. Why don’t you ask the other one?”

The coolest female turned again to the hottest one.

“You should have known better than me. My truest identity …,” Fionna said with an absolute smile and confidence that looked like a smirk.

“What!?” Elena couldn’t understand her, and still hadn’t let her stolen weapon down a bit and strongly gripping that white woman’s left wrist.

“I never know … just by being myself … will earn so much hate, … right? … Ms. Elena?”

Everyone just didn’t understand a bit, but also couldn’t do a thing to force her to give the satisfying answer. She continued with a slightly tilted head and a warm smile.

“If you really don’t trust me, why don’t you fire at me?”

Elena and the others just had their eyes opened widely. But the twins just had the mansion’s entrance opened elegantly, in front of us with a gesture as though a servant and a maid welcoming us to go to the outside.

“I dare you …,” The fearless woman was looking devilishly at her armed enemy despite she was still armless. Her opponent even looked more cowered.

“What if I say I am the Ms. Snow White that Mr. Yoru saw at the first night? I double dare you,” The sentence was even heavier and deeper than the first. What was she talking about? Why did she use the Snow White’s name?

“What if I say I am the one who killed those 2 persons later? I triple dare you,” Darker atmosphere was dwelling around us.

“What if I say I am the one who poisoned the latest death? I quadruple dare you,” The daring woman had had her eyes glaring even more arrogant. Even I was already at my limit.

“What if I say I am the one who blackmailed the latest prisoner? I decuple dare you,” Elena was already at her limit as well for unconcernedly saying like that about our poor friend. Chika moaned confusedly from behind. The black-haired woman beside me fixed the gun’s aim right on her opponent’s center forehead unwaveringly. Point blank.

“Oh Em Gi! There is a rocket fly by …,” shouted by the twins with rapid dramatic pointing movements to the ceiling between the strained members. But, nobody was going believed in them. After all, they shouldn’t be able to see that from the inside of the mansion

“What if I say you are …,” The woman in front of me really didn’t afraid of death at the slightest. But the gun is unreal from the first place, so why should she afraid then ….

*Dooorr.

Everything seemed so unreal. This was a nightmare, right?

A fire was shot, like a cheap firecracker sound that was too loud, and had exploded right close to my head. My right ear was hurt deeper, my hand immediately protected it. Who played that? I turned around, but nobody seemed like playing with anything like that. They were utterly dumbfounded for something on my behind. Then, it was from my previous front-side. Yes, that was right.

Elena shot Fionna, with a real gun. Her gun isn’t fake at all, not even close to a rubber bullet gun, and it was still omitting thin smoke. Its cartridge fell onto the floor with a coin like sound. I couldn’t face my up-front. She was aiming at her head before, right?

“Aww! Aww!” a sound from a woman.

“Eww! Eww!” a sound from a man.

The twins were trying to separate them. Ringo was taking from Elena’s arm, and Kaigo was taking from Fionna’s. They were pretending as though had used all of their strengths to pull those two quarreling reunion mates apart for fun. But in reality, they were just making the situation much more dramatic and worsened.

Apparently, everyone was shocked at the fact that the gun is real. Even Fionna herself had had her alluring eyes widened for a millisecond, maybe because of Elena’s unexpected resolution. Elena was also blanked for a while for actually had fired a genuine gun, though had caused nothing but just a thin twitching graze on Fionna’s right upper cheek, under the corner of her eye. If … if only that white woman didn’t turn her head slightly to the opposite as she was right now, maybe … maybe it wasn’t just a scratch that she would have been gotten by now. Also, I was really grateful for the twins who had already opened the main door in front of us, so there isn’t any more furniture damaged again during this reunion. They are, indeed, very right, even on the future.

Realized that they really couldn’t separate them apart by just using some physical rules, they had their strategy changed into a persuading one. The two of them exaggeratedly lowered their upper body 90 degrees to the still disputing members.

They said together simultaneously in different voices that made it very hard to hear.

“For now, whatever the reason it might be, just believe in your ‘nii this time, ‘kay? you do believe in your ‘nee every time, right?” Kaigo’s eyes were in pleading mode.

“For now, whatever the reason it might be, just believe in your ‘nee this time, ‘kay? you do believe in your ‘nii every time, right?” Ringo’s eyes were in pleading mode.

“Pleaseeee~!?” they were pretending so pathetically to their supposed little sister.

Cute!

Somehow, Elena really heeded their irrational request, just like how unreasonable they were believing in Fionna without any condition previously. She finally released her solid gripping, and Fionna had also not forgotten to skillfully take back her gun and sheathed it in its holster on her upper right thigh after she had pulled up her short black skirt a little just for that milliseconds. She, then, gracefully curtsied to thank her, though she was still slightly rubbing on her right wrist after that because of the pain Elena caused.

As for the others, especially Megumi and Ryouta. They also only needed to be convinced a bit by those two weirdoes to act the same. Those peculiar twins really somehow had the fullest amount of charisma, acting and persuading skill. In the end, all of us were really following their illogical persuasion.

“She might even be the one who will be protecting us instead with that gun, if the real murderer really does show up, and trying to attack us, right?” Kaigo asked convincingly.

“If we really are so scared of her to may be attacking us instead with that gun, then, we just need to stick together for at least two people behind her, right?” Ringo asked convincingly.

“At the very least, none of us nor even the deaths had ever suffered any damage from that gun, left?” The twin joked together.

Once again, they were so right and left that not even a person could have ‘left’ that.

“Maybe we should search on the others too,” Megumi was still doubtful of whether the rest of us really had already shown all of our cards.

“That is what we are talking about previously, and Ms. Fionna is the first one who had shown it to us,” Kaigo said happily.

“In a rather cool way, though,” Ringo said unhappily.

“We must also try to take a look in all of our rooms,” Ryouta asked despite the mansion is his.

“Yes, to be cautious for another her!” Elena challenged at Fionna. Clearly, she still had no trust for the latter. She just unwillingly obeyed the twins’ earnest request, not to argue too much with her.

That foreign young woman just replied with a hospitable smile, but then, immediately changed to another threatening countenance when everyone was already leaving. She suggested as she was bending over to pick the fallen cartridge up, with her handkerchief of antique motif.

“While we are at it … why don’t we code name our target to make things easier? By the name of Bi ….”

“No …!” Elena gazed at her sternly over shoulder as though would be quarreling with her again.

She smiled to no one as she was putting the things inside her skirt pocket. She opened her naughty mouth to say even more.

Like the pronunciation of a car’s ‘a’.

Quickly realizied that the second different in opinion would be even more unstoppable, the good-hearted twins swiftly changed our pace again.

“All right!” Ringo announced excitedly with a right punch to the air.

“Let us go plundering!” Kaigo announced excitedly with a left punch to the air.

The two of them leaded us to search in every each of our very own rooms, starting from the rightest right wing which ‘happened to be’ the previous gun owner’s room. All of us were participating together, except the one who had their room searched, had to be waiting at the outside corridor while waiting for their body to be fully searched after that by the same genders. In fact, there is no need for all members to be searching in the same room at the same time. But actually, there are only 2 reasons behind this.

At the outside, everyone was acting as though it is just a common search for something ordinary. It isn’t like any murder had happened inside the room, so everyone doesn’t need to be afraid that they might have somehow tampered the scene, and could help the searching progressed much faster. But, at the inside is the most real and pathetic truth. There are already too many distrust between every each of us. Even the one who was waiting at the outside must need to look cautiously not to be framed by those exploring team. This really is the most terrible thing ever for any reunion party. The very fact that all of us were searching in a larger group inside of a still living tenant room than those previous 3 murder scenes had made me felt the most miserable.

The twins had volunteered to be waiting at the outside together when one of their rooms was being searched. Such thoughtful.

Maybe, they just wanted to slack off two times in a row?

Never mind them.

At one particular moment inside Kaede’s room, the one who was the cause of this searching expedition was looking up at one unimportant corner of the ceiling expressionlessly. Realized that I had noticed that peculiar behavior, she, then, threw her face away, and continued her job. I followed her previous gaze up, but nothing was there. Just what was she thinking about again?

Nothing is there, right?

Kaede, sorry for searching your room without your permission. I will make sure they didn’t mess with anything in here, on your behalf.

Everything just went peacefully till the end.

Now, we had all finished in thoroughly searching all of our bedrooms one by one together, except of those who had already deceased. As we were descending along the main stairs, the stepping suddenly felt like writing something down for me. I immediately remembered a particular thing that might could help to clarify my falsely accused and still being quarantined underground childhood friend.

“Did you happen to find Kazuki’s diary before?”

“Who did you ask?” the twins were asking simultaneously.

“Me …?” the young woman asked again.

“Me …?” the young man asked again.

I was irritated.

“Whoever! just answered it!!”

“Nope-nope-nope, my cute Mr. Yoru,” the twins were answering as though plagiarizing Fionna’s previous seducing tone at the same time.

“Besides, what is the use of that thing?” the man asked disgustingly.

“We had already said that we aren’t interested at the very least in the ‘whydunnit’ part!” the woman exclaimed disgustingly.

I was going to argue with them more as I very disliked their current behavior. But, Elena had caught my hand from my behind, and shook her head. This time, it was me who was thoughtlessly following her advice.

In the end, nothing new is added into the dangerous or strange things discovery list. There really is only one possession that is potentially enough to be a critical personal accessory out here in this reunion, being introduced on this second day by this usually quiet young woman.