Chapter 34- Tears

People die...

That's how it was in this cruel world.

Death always came to us at some point in time, but never have I thought it would turn out like this.

This feeling was worse than death. This overwhelming feeling that covered my entire body was overpowering me and dragging me down to the ground. The pull of gravity was bigger upon my body and I couldn't help but fall down with a crash.

Tears came to my eyelids as I looked before me.

Sakura. Her body was just slumping forward on a chair with her head hanging down. She didn't move a limb. She didn't even look like she was breathing.

Please Sakura... please move...!

I looked at Sakura with tears daring to leave my eyelids. I just wanted her to move. I wanted to avoid the fact that she was dead. I didn't want to believe that Sakura, out of everybody, died.

But her body was right in front of me now. Her cold, dead body was sitting on that chair with no movements at all.

She really was dead.

Sakura Ogami is now dead.

"N-No... Why did this have to happen...?" I said while moving my hands over my mouth.

This was different from the last deaths. I barely knew Sayaka or Leon or anyone else for that matter except Chihiro. And I know I mourned over his death more than anyone else's. But, Sakura was also my friend. She was my friend and now she was really dead.

"Not again..." Makoto said with a sad look on his face while looking at Sakura's body.

"Sadly... this was inevitable," Kyoko explained to us with a stern look on her face as well.

"Of course... They killed Sakura..." I heard a cracking voice and I turned towards the doorway to look over at Aoi. She looked like she was on the brink of crying with her shaking legs.

"Hina..." I said with a sad look on my face.

"Of course they killed her. I'm gonna... I'm gonna go get the others now..." Aoi said as I then watched her rush out of the room and into the hallway.

I looked at the empty doorway with some sort of guilt weighing inside my chest. Aoi must've been feeling the worst out of all of us. She was the closest person to Sakura than we ever were. Even though I would consider myself to be Sakura's friend, Aoi was like her best friend.

The two were always together and seemed to always have fun. And now, Sakura died. I didn't even consider how Aoi must've felt about all this. She's probably crying right now over it.

"I feel so bad for Hina," I said with a soft voice as I turned to the other two.

"Yeah... she seems pretty hurt by this," Makoto said with a small sigh. "But, why Ogami out of everybody?"

"That's the question I'm going to answer," Kyoko said as she stepped forward and walked up to Sakura's body.

Kyoko walked up to the small chair Sakura was sitting on and started to look around her body. If this wasn't a murder, I would think that this was very weird...

But, me nor Makoto said anything as we just watched Kyoko at work. She looked so focused on what she was doing as she inspected every part of Sakura's body.

It barely crossed my mind about how good Kyoko was at inspecting dead bodies. It was like she was some sort of professional. That she knew what she doing.

Time passed rather quickly in silence. Me and Makoto just watched Kyoko at work.

I didn't know what to really say to this. Sakura was actually dead. I could barely push through with Chihiro's investigation. How could I possibly be able to push through with Sakura's.

My hand twirled the necklace on my neck as my palms continued to sweat nervously. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to say. All I knew was that my heart was being crushed over and over again.

Seeing this happen was far worse than what death could have given me.

And before I knew it, while me and Makoto just watched absentmindedly with Kyoko at work, Aoi finally came back after so much time passed.

"I got everyone..." Aoi said with the same depressed look in her eyes while entering the room.

I looked towards the entrance of the room to see the three other people enter. Sho. Yasuhiro. And... Byakuya.

As my eyes met with Byakuya's for a split second, I quickly turned away from him and back to Sakura's body. I didn't want to say a single word to Byakuya. Not since he's been somewhat avoiding me these pass couple days.

I bet he didn't even know about the scar on my leg even though a big bandage was wrapped around it.

And then there was... Sho as well. She also seemed to be avoiding me at the moment. She didn't even meet eyes with me when I looked over at her. Probably since she "accidentally"attacked me and Aoi. I wouldn't admit it out loud, but I was a little scared of the murderous girl at the moment.

"Uwah! O-Ogre?!" Yasuhiro said with a shocked look on his face as he looked over at Sakura's body.

"Oh. So she's dead, huh?" Sho said with a wicked smile on her face.

"Ogami's been killed? I see..." Byakuya said as he looked somewhat deep in thought.

Kyoko then stood up from her search of Sakura's body and turned to everyone else. "You heard the announcement just now, right? So you know what this means."

"Ogami was murdered. And by someone in this very room," Byakuya explained as he gazed at everyone.

Someone in this room really killed Sakura...? That was a hard thing to believe. To believe that Sakura out of everyone was really murdered by someone in this room. Well... a few people I wouldn't be very surprised of if they were to be the ones to kill poor Sakura, but still!

How could someone just murder Sakura like that?!

"A-And we're going to hold another class trial..." I said with a stuttering voice. A chill went down my spine just thinking about it.

"But it's not just 'someone in this room'" Aoi said as she then moved her gaze over to Yasuhiro, Byakuya, and Sho. "It was one of you! Hagakure, Togami, Fukawa! One of you killed Sakura!"

I looked over at the three with raised eyebrows. "Wait... what?!"

"You're accusing us before we've even begun the investigation?" Byakuya asked Aoi.

"I don't need to investigate anything!" Aoi argued with Byakuya and I saw a tear travel down her face shortly after that sentence. "Because you hated her. You hated the sight of her! One of you did it, I know it!"

I felt myself move my gaze once again over to the three accused murderer. Yasuhiro, I would be a little surprised if he was actually able to successfully murder Sakura. Sho, I wouldn't be surprised if she murdered Sakura. But, it could also be Toko and not Sho. She seemed like the type to want to kill Sakura.

And then Byakuya... the boy I thought that I know well and actually wasn't all mean and scary... could he possibly do this...? I wouldn't be surprised very much seeing as how he reacts to a killing happening. Treating it like some sort of game. So, it could possibly be him. I mean, I suppose I didn't know him like I thought I did.

"Well I, for one, am glad it was Ogami. She was working for the mastermind, after all," Byakuya said with a small smirk. I swear to god, if I had the power inside of me at the moment, I would slap Byakuya across the face.

"How can you say that now?!" Makoto asked with a shocked look on his face.

"Sorry, I don't have time for your squabbling. The next game has already begun," Byakuya said while looking at Makoto. "If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at whoever killed Ogami."

I clenched my fist at my side tightly. I couldn't believe that son of a bitch. The time me and him spent together is thrown into the trash. I couldn't believe that Byakuya would act this way towards Sakura's death.

Maybe the Byakuya I saw wasn't actually who he was.

This is how Byakuya really is...

"I'll be pissed at whoever I want. That includes everyone in this room, especially you, Togami," I said as I quickly walked to the door. "I have to get this investigation done."

"Henka, wait!" Makoto said as he rushed to the door and towards me.

"Just let her go. It doesn't really matter at the moment," Byakuya said to Makoto as soon as I closed the door behind me.

I walked down the hallway absentmindedly. I didn't know where I was going or what I was going to do, but I just didn't want to be in that room with everyone else. At the moment, I felt an overwhelming feeling that was engulfing me whole.

I then felt a large lump form inside my throat and tears started to build up inside my eyes.

Why was I about to cry...?

Now wasn't the time to cry like a baby. I wasn't a baby! I never was a baby and never will be... I couldn't cry anymore. I couldn't sob in tears now. Not when Sakura was dead and she was counting on me and everyone else to find the killer...

At this moment... crying wasn't okay...

Not... okay...

Not............ okay.............

***************

"H-He's terrible... He's a terrible monster," I said as I tried to hold back the tears coming into my eyelids. "Wh-Why is Dad doing this to me...?"

I felt the bruise on my arm start to hurt more as my younger sister kept me in her arms. "It'll be okay... you'll be okay..."

"D-Does he just want me dead...? Wh-What does he want from me?! I-I try my best and I try to smile... b-but I can't..." I said, stuttering like crazy to keep the tears from leaving my eyelids.

"Sometimes you don't need to smile," My sister said calmly.

She then pulled me out of her right embrace and looked at me in the eye. Her face was still covered by that binding white light, but I could make out her lips curving up into a small smile.

"Our younger sister would love to have you help," She said as she moved a hand to my chin and lifted up my face. "You really do hate mom and dad, right?"

"I-I mean... I-I can't since... th-they raised me..." I said to my sister.

"But dad hurt you again... right?" My sister said as she moved an agile hand to my arm. Putting a soft touch on the large bruise my father made on my skin. I flinched slightly from her cold touch. "Oh, sorry... I didn't realize it would hurt so much..." She moved her hand away from my skin. "Our sister is going to make sure that you never get hurt again. We'll make sure that you have some hope inside your life."

I looked at my younger sister in disbelief. What could she possibly do...?

"You only have to say yes..."

I looked at my sister as the calm smile stayed on her face. I didn't know what to really say to her. I wanted to say no. Because... even though my parents hated me and put me through living hell... They still raised me, and cared for me. I had to be grateful they at least kept me inside their house.

But... did my parents even love me? Did they even care about how I felt in this situation? Every day a new scar appeared on my body. Every day, my father slapped me in the face.

How could I possible love someone who did these horrible things to me...?

I nodded softly.

"Wonderful..." My sister said as she then grabbed my hand. "Don't worry, Haiyū. It may hurt a little bit, but after, you'll have a bright hope inside your life. So... remember...

"It's always alright to cry."

************

The memory hit me like lightning in the air. What my sister said that day... everything else was too fuzzy and I could barely remember what happened after that. But that didn't matter to me.

All I cared about were my sister's last words in that memory.

"It's always alright to cry."

Crying couldn't be that bad. Even if someone saw, I would have to let out this depressed feeling inside my body one way or another.

When a tear fell down my face. I didn't know what it was for.

Was it for Sakura's death...? The killing game...? Or was I just crying or the sake of crying? Whatever it was, it didn't matter to me as I continued to sob quietly.

I immediately ran down the hallway and straight into the nearest bathroom. I knew no one would come in here so I was safe to continue crying.

I stood over the sink and continued crying. Tears fell down my face and fell into the sink. My breath was caught up in hiccups and my quiet sobs that I could barely breathe right.

I just had to let the rest of my tears fall out of my eyelids before looking at my reflection in the mirror.

I looked at my hair and saw the white of it was still in its fancy braid trailing down my back. The crying brought more pain to my stomach where my cut still was. And then my eyes were tear-stained.

I took a deep breath and started washing my face with water from the sink. I just had to face the fact that people die sooner or later. And sometimes the way people die comes sooner than we think.

Sakura just happened to be the next victim in this murder.

I sighed deeply as I stood up straight. Maybe if I stayed calm and didn't look people in the eye, they wouldn't see my face and my tear-stained eyes. That was my best chance at not getting embarrassed.

Especially since I still needed to investigate. I needed to investigate for Sakura.

So, I sighed deeply and made my way out of the bathroom. I walked down the hallway to the rec room again. I just hoped Byakuya or anyone else were inside and I was relieved when I only saw Kyoko.

I guess everyone else went to go do their own thing.

I entered the room and walked up to Kyoko.

"Did you find anything interesting here?" I asked.

"See for yourself..." Kyoko said as she moved out of the way of the body. "I suggest taking a look at her head."

I nodded softly at this and took a deep breath. It was a dead body. It was a little weird to be putting my hands on it. Especially since this was one of my close friends. But I had to do this for the investigation. I had to.

"For Sakura..." I said softly as I then started to observe her body.

Everything on her lower half seemed to be perfectly fine. And then when I looked down at her shoes, I saw something very strange on it.

"What is this...?" I said as I bent down and examined her shoe. One half of her shoe was covered in some sort of yellow power or dust.

But where could it have come from?

"It seems you noticed it as well," Kyoko said.

"What is it though? I haven't seen anything like this before inside the school," I said as I observed the dust.

Maybe it came from the art room? Was it some sort of paint or material from there that was put onto the shoe to make it look like that? But that didn't make much sense when seeing it.

"There are still plenty of areas to investigate. Maybe the answer is hidden inside another room," Kyoko explained to me.

"Yeah. I'll check some of the rooms after looking around some more," I said as I got up and took the time to observe the upper half of Sakura's body.

I didn't see anything unusual until I moved my gaze to her face. I could make out some blood stain coming down her chin but stopped at her mouth.

"That's weird..." I mumbled to myself as I observed the blood mark. Where could this have come from...?

"In the Monokuma File, it says that Ogami threw up blood sometime before," Kyoko said as she looked down at her handbook.

"So... she vomited blood..." I said as I thought about it for a second.

Vomiting blood was a sick thing to think about. But once I could put all the pieces together, I could only come to one conclusion. A conclusion that involved a small bottle of something traveling down her throat.

I would have to add a specific place to my investigation list...

Looking around some more, I found fragments of a glass bottle on the ground. Right near where Sakura's body was. Inside the Monokuma File, it specified that Sakura experienced a blow to the head. Could this possibly be the killing blow? Was a glass bottle the thing that murdered Sakura?

It seemed the most likely answer when observing it. But, if this was a murder, I thought the killer might have been a bit more stealthy so... I couldn't say for certain just yet.

I then found a locker against the wall. It was wide open and inside you could see hand prints. They were made out against the wall of the locker and the back. But where could these handprints have come from? Did the killer possibly hide in there and waited for their victim to arrive.

So... it had to be a planned murder.

"Henka, there's a pool of blood near the back of the room," Kyoko said to me as I was observing the locker.

"Oh yeah. I was gonna look at that next," I said to Kyoko as I walked near to the back of the room and looked down at the small pool of blood on the floor. "How did this blood travel here when Ogami is in that chair on the other side of the room."

"It's rather interesting," Kyoko said as she kneeled down. "Maybe something happened that we aren't seeing..."

I sighed deeply and looked around the blood. There wasn't anything unusual. Nothing around the blood gave me a clue of what may have happened or anything at all really. Not until I looked at the magazine rack.

"One of the magazines are flipped upside down," I said as I kneeled down at the magazine rack next to the blood.

"Unless you or one of the other girls here read these magazines. It is rather odd," Kyoko said as she picked up the flipped over magazine from the rack and opened it up. "And it seems we've found a clue."

"What is it...?" I asked as I walked to Kyoko's side and looked down at the page.

On the page as clear as day was a word written in blood. It stained the page in a pink color and I could make out the word Fukawa.

I raised my eyebrows softly at this.

"That's a little odd..." I said as I looked at the words.

"Yes. Why would Fukawa's name be written in a magazine?" Kyoko said.

"Didn't Hina say something about Fukawa being one of the possible killers? Maybe that's it," I explained to Kyoko.

"Do me a favor Henka. Once you leave to investigate the other rooms, ask Asahina about this for me. I would like to know more about how Hagakure, Togami, and Fukawa could be the killers," Kyoko said as she put the magazine back down. "But it seems Fukawa is the most likely suspect."

"It could be a set-up though," I explained to Kyoko. She then turned to look at me. "Why would Fukawa write her own name in a magazine? Maybe someone was trying to frame her!"

"You are rather smart, Henka," Kyoko said with a sigh as she walked back to Sakura's body. "I'll let you think about it. If I do everything for you, you will never solve the mystery yourself."

I sighed softly at Kyoko's reply. Of course Kyoko would act that way. She was super smart and mature and she seemed like the type to keep quiet about most stuff. She always seemed to know what to say and what was going on around her.

So I believed that Toko was set-up. She may have been here... or maybe the killer just chose a random name to frame. But it seemed rather lucky that the killer was able to figure out whether or not Toko was one of the prime suspects.

So who could actually be behind this...?

I then walked to the door of the rec room. I was about to leave until I looked down and saw something sitting on the ground.

It was a protein bottle.

A bottle that you would drink your protein from. I was about to pick it up before—

"Don't touch it," Kyoko said quickly as she walked up to me and kneeled down. "I want you to observe how it looks now. And look closely. Look at every little detail of what the scene is."

I looked at Kyoko in confusion before doing what she asked. I kneeled down on one knee and looked down at the bottle. It seemed to be laying on the ground.

Perhaps the killer or Sakura took it in here...

But then, something else struck my attention quickly.

If I didn't have sharp eyes, I may have missed this small and important detail. I looked down at the can and saw shards of glass sitting below the bottle.

Below.

That didn't make much sense to me. Why would the glass shards be below this bottle? Especially since it was sitting under the door where we broke the glass pane to get inside. The glass should've been from the door since I didn't see any shards of glass in sight.

So... how come this bottle was sitting on top of the small shards?

"Seems you noticed then," Kyoko said as she suddenly got up, along with me. "You noticed how the bottle was positioned."

"Yeah, I did. But what does it mean...?" I asked Kyoko.

Kyoko stayed silent for a moment before turning away from me. "Think about it."

I was about to let out a moan of complaint but kept it to myself. I walked out of the rec room and towards the one room where I needed to go. It was the one place where it could have some solid evidence for this trial.

The chem lab.

I was about to travel up the stairs before I rounded a corner and bumped into someone.

"Hina...?" I asked suddenly as I looked to see the athletic girl standing before me.

"Oh Haiyū... h-hi..." She said with a small smile. "Are you doing okay? I saw you run out of the rec room earlier. You looked like you were about to cry."

"Don't worry about it. I'm fine. I'm more worried about you than anything else," I said to Aoi.

"M-Me...? Why would you be worried about me?" Aoi asked with a furrowed brow.

"Since... you know, Ogami died. You were the closest one to her out of all of us. I thought you would be a little sad about it," I explained.

"I'm not just sad... I'm fricking pissed!" Aoi said with a sudden angry look coming across her face. "Whoever killed Sakura is seriously going to pay! I-I can't believe someone would do something like this..." Tears sprang to her eyelids.

"Well... I'll make sure we find the killer! Don't worry!" I said with a small smile. "I needed to ask you about something anyways."

"Huh? What was it?"

"Why do you think that Togami, Fukawa, and Hagakure could be the murderer?"

"Because it has to be one of them!" Aoi exclaimed. "Sakura specifically asked to talk to those three!"

"Wait... Sakura asked for those three out of everyone? How come?" I asked.

"She just wanted to talk with them! I don't know much!"

"Then... how do you know about this chat Sakura had? I-It's not like I'm suspecting you or anything... I just wanted to know where you got this info from," I said with a nervous chuckle escaping my mouth.

"Oh, Sakura talked to me about it last night. She told me she wanted to speak with those three. That's all I know though. So, it had to be one of those three since they were with her last night. And not to mention they absolutely hated Sakura."

"Hey, hate is a strong word!" I said to her with a nervous look. "But thanks for the information, Hina. This will help a lot."

"Anytime... Just, please... find Sakura's killer..." Aoi said as she gazed down at the ground.

"I'll make sure I find them. Trust me," I said with a small smile before walking past Aoi and up the stairs to the fourth floor.

As I walked to the chem lab, I thought about what Aoi told me.

She told me the solid evidence about how it had to be those three. Byakuya, Toko, and Yasuhiro were all asked by Sakura to meet with her there. But, did someone really take that moment to kill Sakura right then?

I'll have to think on that.

But, at the moment, Byakuya, Yasuhiro, and Toko were my prime suspects. All had a reason to kill her and I couldn't believe what any of them said without finding the evidence myself.

I made my way to the chem lab and entered to find myself pause at the doorway almost immediately.

Who I saw in there made me want to turn around and leave immediately.

Byakuya.

He looked over at me and I looked over at him. Both of us in silence. I didn't know what to say to him, so I said nothing as I walked pass him and over to the shelf of chemicals.

I felt an awkward silence hang in the air as I continued to inspect the cabinet. So, health and medications in sections A and B of the shelves. And then, section C was full of the deadly poisons.

That was the reason I wanted to look inside this room.

The blood from Sakura's mouth could potentially came from one of the poison bottles. They would definitely kill her for good. So, poison could also be a prime suspect of killing blow.

And then, there was a powder laying along the ground.

Yellow powder.

It was scattered all along the base of the shelf and I had to avoid stepping in it to reach over to the cabinets. Which hurt my back a lot leaning forward so much. A bottle was also broken at the base of the C cabinet.

That must've been where the yellow power scattered along the ground. Someone knocked it from the shelf and it made its contents spill all over the ground like that.

And then there were some sort of footprints on the ground as well. Footprints that seemed to be all around the A section. And they only were at the A section of the shelves.

So, someone clearly was here. Most likely the killer. But the A section was where the protein was. How come the footprints were here and not in the C section where the poisons were? Was this an accident or on purpose?

What really was going on here...?

"Are you mad at me for a specific reason?" I heard the cold voice from behind and I turned around to look at Byakuya. His icy-blue eyes staring right at me.

"Do you want to tell me why I could be mad?" I snapped at Byakuya.

"We seemed completely fine just two days ago. What could suddenly happen to change our relationship?" Byakuya asked.

"Well... let me think for a second. The fact that you were cold jerk to everyone else these last few days. Being happy about Sakura's death. And I believe you deserved that slap across the face because of it," I explained to Byakuya. "And I bet you didn't even bother to know about the large bandage around my leg."

Byakuya then looked down at the bandage. "What exactly happened?"

"Exactly. You don't know what happened," I said with a pissed off look and Byakuya just seemed confused. "Sho attacked me and Hina inside the cafeteria yesterday. She cut my hip and put a large scar around my leg. And yet... you had no knowledge about the attack whatsoever."

"I didn't know a single thing... The pig Fukawa didn't tell me a single thing," Byakuya said. "Are you alright now?"

"No. I'm not alright if I'm being honest. My friend was murdered last night and now I'm realizing I had a cold jerk as a boyfriend," I said as I felt yet another lump enter my throat.

I felt the things me and Byakuya did together come back to me. Reading together in the library. Exploring the new floors together. Having conversations with one another. Hanging up Chihiro's dead body... Him helping to try and prove my innocence in the last class trial. When I confessed my love to him...

How naive was I?! The first day I met Byakuya, he was a cold hard jerk. Not one sign of affection or care was in his eyes. And all of a sudden he acted like he cared... Could a person really change that fast.

The hard truth came to me like a bullet from a shotgun.

"If you didn't love me... you could just say so."

"What...?"

"Forget it. I don't have the time for this," I said as I quickly walked pass Byakuya and out the door.

I walked to the hallway and tried my best not to break down again. I couldn't waste tears on someone like Byakuya. I bet he never actually loved me like that. He only wanted to use me probably. I was in love with him and he use that to his advantage when he wanted to kill.

I'm so naive to actually believe in someone like Byakuya!

Then the familiar chime of ding dong, bing bong rang throughout the hall.

Class trial time.