Day two; before noon, after investigations

[terci]

[Well.. waking up to find Kuzuryuu dead was something Dipper had not expected. And he honestly felt terrible about it. Because of what Mahiru told him, he immediately thought that Kuzuryuu was someone bad and didn't trust him, and in the end he died... it wasn't a nice feeling.

After investigating with Mabel, Dipper decided it was time for another talk with Mahiru. She did know Kuzuryuu prior to this game, maybe she had any ideas that could help crack this case?

He looked around for her for a little while, before finally finding her in the laundry room. To which he waved and walked over.]

Hey, Mahiru. Uh.. is now a good time to talk?

Comments

[photonement]

Yes.

[Mahiru turns around in a rush; her hair is sticking out every which way from underneath the bandages, and the light lipstick she won at the carnival is already smudged from the tears she has clearly been shedding in the past hour. She draws the strap of the camera up off and over her neck and slides it to Dipper across the tiled floor, much less carefully than ever before.]

I need you to look at the two most recent pictures, then delete them. The buddy cops are responsible.

[Should Dipper comply, the reason why she calls them such a thing so confidently is immediately obvious, because the setup is so elaborate. With her camera, in her room with the door shut, she has taken a picture of the screen of a mobile smartphone, twice. In the first the display on the phone is a photo taken of some completely different strange screen where the name Mahiru Koizumi has been selected. In the second, similar: "INNOCENT".

She lets the latest dress shirt hang on the line alone and lowers her hands from the pins to look at Dipper properly.] I'm sorry I've been so stern about this so far... I knew he wasn't guilty but even then I still said--I was sure they'd convert him at some point and I've never been so wrong before in my life.

You look alright. Is Mabel-chan OK?

[terci]

[He picks up the camera and looks at the two photos, tilting his head slightly]

Huh? How did you get these photos? [The buddy cops are responsible... so these are the pictures of how they figure out who was innocent or guilty?

Speaking of, he deletes them as he was asked and walks over, handing the camera back to her.]

And uh.. I guess that makes sense why you told me not to trust him. [It still sucked that he had to die before Dipper could fully trust him]

Mabel.. she's fine. She's trying really hard to not get upset about this, so she can help me figure out who killed him.

[photonement]

They had that cell phone and they gave it to me with a note explaining more about it. I'm getting worried they're seriously gonna do strip searches. But I figure this game wouldn't be fair if the VIPs could fake something that elaborate, right? So... I'm gonna trust them. They need my help with the hardware for circulating their results; they designated this drop point. At the trial tomorrow, probably -- not today or anything -- the whole group will find out about the arrangement, that I don't have the power, and they can keep my stuff to go on without me, and they're still anonymous. I figure nobody will want to kill me just for that. I don't know if that's good enough... do you feel like there's any safer way for us to handle it? Now more than ever I want to do our best to help and stay alive...

[She takes the camera back more gracefully, with a grateful nod, and focuses on Dipper, struggling to keep herself being delicate.]

That's good. I saw you two were doing a really thorough investigation. Were there more... indications?

[terci]

I think that's probably a good idea, because then if they find anyone guilty they can tell you and you can inform everyone else. [He places his hand to his chin]

But if the VIPs get an idea about that, they might try to kill you.... [That wouldn't be very good.]

And I don't want to say anything yet, but Mabel and I have a general idea of what went down, at least. We've got a list of suspects too, but again, I don't want to throw ideas out there and have them be wrong..

[photonement]

In the worst case scenario... it could be a way to sacrifice ourselves and give them another day to work. But that's a bad way to think. It's not the kind of letter I want to write them... do you have anything you wanna say to them, Dipper, or do you want to stay out of it? Either way, the real big action later depends on what results the cops get tonight, probably.

[nodding at his description of their progress]

I see... This is such a waiting game... I'm not sure how much longer any of us can afford to hide. Especially when...

Well, when Mabel-chan is such good friends with Ibuki-chan...

[terci]

I think I should probably stay out of this and focus on figuring out Hiko's murder. [Okay but wait the last thing she says.]


...what do you mean "especially when Mabel's such good friend's with Ibuki"? [That sounds alarming]

[photonement]

It's just... now that he's--gone--and I know for sure not trusting him was wrong, but somebody still wanted to do that--

I can't stop thinking about it and getting guilty! Lying to my friends. I figured Mabel was always going to find out about this, so it seemed like it'd be safest to keep her as the only other one who knew. But if she tells Ibuki... then Ibuki-chan will know I lied, and what if Peko-chan learns about it from her?

I figured that I could protect you since if they thought I was unpaired and had no role there'd be no big reason to kill a classmate instead of somebody else. Was that another mistake? What do you think?

[terci]

Oh.. I see.. [He rubs the back of his head]

I don't think you have to worry about Mabel telling them, though. Because.. well it's kind of already said and done? I don't think there'd be a point to bring it up now that.. y'know.... [He's dead]

[photonement]

If you really think Mabel wouldn't tell Ibuki, that's good enough for me.

So I guess there is no reason for them to know.

[She does still look sad.]

Maybe I'm morally obligated to tell them anyway... but...

[She buries her face, briefly, in a dress that belongs to her, and pulls it away.]

I don't know! God, I have to stop only talking to you about depressing things. We should hang out for real some time...

[terci]

[He offers her a small smile]

It's fine if we only talk about kind of depressing stuff I mean, it's good to get that stuff off your chest at least? And I don't really mind being the person you want to talk to.. [He kind of sucks at comforting others because he's awkward and bad at these kinds of things but at least he'll listen]

[photonement]

Yep, I'm glad you're okay with talking to me! [Mahiru can smile at that.]

Tomorrow, though, what do you wanna do? I get the feeling both of us would really rather stay away from the rides.

[and then Mahiru died in the teacup ride while Dipper got hurt on the train]

Oh, do you wanna try to win that costume from the carnival?

[terci]

[What a wonderful way to the end the night]

Eugh no. I'm staying as far away from any lamb costumes as possible.

[photonement]

We'll see about that!

[She waves him off. So much laundry to do! And living!!!]

[terci]

Pssssh! You guys can try all you want to get me to preform the Lamby Lamby Dance but it's not happening! [He says that as he heads out the door so she can finish her laundry. And live!!!!!!]