[ There was no special motive, no breaking point. Emi had considered it since the game was first explained to them with the offer of a wish. In all honesty, she didn't really believe it could be granted, even if the Witch was being perfectly truthful about her capabilities. It sounds ridiculous even to her -- maybe especially to her. If peaceful coexistence was really as easy to come by as that, there never would have been any need for any of the things they'd done. She almost hates the idea of it -- the idea of rendering so many things meaningless.
But that's just being vain and childish. If there's the slightest chance of truly obtaining something like that for everyone, for her family on both sides, she'd be far more upset with herself for letting it slip away.
She's not particularly eager to be the first, because there are too many unknowns at this point. There's bound to be something hidden in the fine print that she doesn't know about yet that she'd know how to work around once she had an example to learn from.
But it's not like she's invulnerable herself. If someone else has a wish to fight for, she could lose her own chance.
So -- she'll risk it.
She settles on the grating girl with the blue hair without too much thought. She'd overheard the things she'd said to other people -- the things she'd said to Shadow, especially. He wasn't really a youkai, as he'd made clear plenty of times, but it didn't matter; her insults toward him insulted plenty of her precious people at the same time. So, really, who better to be a sacrifice for the sake of establishing her ideal world?
(And judging by the other interactions she's overheard, she really doesn't expect anyone would miss her.)
So, she plans things out over the course of the next few days, slowly and calmly. She spends some time in the garden and looking at the supplies. She fills up a small perfume bottle with some insecticide in the shed while no one is looking, and takes a spare steel stake. She experiments with the lock on her own window and figures out to get it loose.
And when Thursday night comes, she's ready. Their rooms are close enough together that she can keep track of her movements fairly well, for the most part; and when she knows she's out, she quietly leaves through her own back window, and slips in through Erika's.
She sits in the bathroom in the dark and waits patiently. ]
[Erika did what she'd done every night, set up a duct tape seal, on both the door and window. It was too bad about the faulty window pane, but what was a mystery without some limitations? She'd surely find a way to secure that alibi too...
When she was done, she opened the door to the bathroom, light trailing in as she reached for the light switch.]
[ Emi quickly pours the bottle of insecticide out into a washcloth as soon as she hears the door, and... then... waits some more, with a wet cloth in her hands, trying not to breathe in too deeply while she waits for this tape ritual to be over with. She can use this to her advantage, anyway; there won't be anywhere to run once they've been duct taped into a room, and no one would else would be able to enter it without warning.
[ She reaches out immediately to grab Erika's shoulder and drag her in, and presses the washcloth to her face as she tries to get her in a tight hold. (Which isn't exactly easy; she usually leaves the restraint jobs to Daidarabotchi.) ]
Good evening, Furudo-san.
[ It's a little strained under the circumstances, but it's still her usual calm and gentle voice. ]
[She let out a surprised squeak as she was painfully yanked inside the room. Her eyes watering as the rag found her face. Chloroform? ...No, that wasn't it. But it wasn't anything good.
She wasn't going to just submit to this would-be murderer. It was obviously not a proper murder if the victim saw the culprit.
In an attempt to get free, she raised her foot and aimed the heel of her EGL shoe at her assailant's foot.]
[ Emi does wince a little at that, though more because it's unexpected than anything. She's gone through exponentially worse pain that for Jiro plenty of times, and she'll gladly do it again.
It just makes her tighten her hold. ]
I understand, I'd be fighting this if I were you too.
[ She frowns slightly as she tries to keep the cloth in place. Ugh, maybe she should have tried to make chloroform out of her nail polish remover and some bleach after all. This stuff had almost made her a little dizzy just from sitting here and smelling it from a distance, but maybe she's just more sensitive to it. ]
[her petite little frame wasn't suitable to shrugging off caustic inhalations, but it did give her an advantage in making herself a little bit harder to hold onto. Letting her arms go limp, she shoved herself forward until she could slip down underneath her arm. The hold she had on her shoulders would get smaller the more she tried to hold on as Erika's head fit underneath her grip and she backed away, until she was left with the flower head-piece she wore in her arms.]
Gah!
[She took a breath of much needed air, coughing on finding that even being away from the rag didn't stop the noxious fumes, though it did help her dizziness, a little.]
Hah... what the hell is that?! You don't even know to get chloroform?!
She stared down her opponent, more irritated than actually angry]
She collects herself quickly though, dropping the flower decoration she was left with on the floor. ]
I thought everyone would associate me more with something I made out of nail polish remover than with something that kills insects. I do want to get away with it, after all.
[ She smiles, though she's very much cursing this internally. ]
I guess you have a higher tolerance for this than I do. It's kind of funny, isn't it?
[ Being a biologist's assistant with a palm covered in burn scars at least means you almost always have at least one glove on you.
At the knife, she raises an eyebrow. Honestly, she'd rather stick with the stake after that reaction, but if she's looking for something that won't be traced back to her, someone else's weapon would almost certainly be better. ]
Why would I do that? I'd rather not be stabbed with a stake. Call it a personal indignity. And what would you do if someone had seen you remove said stakes? You would surely be caught immediately.
You've decided to kill me. I could possibly engage with you in self-defense, but that's hardly a role befitting a detective. It is within my rights to help you create a truly worthwhile mystery, however. Therefore, I shall do that instead.
You understand, right? I won't stand for having a rusty object shoved in me while I sleep like some vampire. If you're going to kill me, you better make it good.
Have you even thought about what to do when my blood spray hits you? --Wait here. I have some plastic bags you can wear. They'll keep your clothes clean.
[ She'll go ahead and take the knife, then, and look it over, still keeping Erika in her peripheral vision.
While a part of her can feel a bit of respect for this level of dedication to an ideal, when it comes to what that ideal actually is, she can't understand the mindset at all. Who would go along with this for the sake of making a good mystery? It almost feels like it's cheapening the sacrifices others have made. ]
Do you have a preference for where I do it? You want to make it look like the killer was left-handed, right?
[sighs, as if she's so put upon] Here... this is what we'll do. I will lay down on the bed. First, put on the garbage bags and take off your shoes, put them on this side of my body, then wrap your bare feet in more bags. Then, stand on this side of me here... drive the knife firmly, right here.
[she pulls open her corset a little to draw an outline on her abdomen.]
You'll hit a kidney. I'll go into toxic shock and be dead within a few minutes. Let the blood run out until it forms a puddle around your shoes. People will come to the conclusion you were standing there, and it'll appear I was stabbed with a left-handed assailant while I slept.
When you're done, take off the bags, step into your shoes, and walk back out the window. Take the bags with you and hide them where no one will find them. If someone just finds messy bags somewhere, you're finished. Get back to your room, wash off the blood, and hope no one can tie your shoe size or shoe pattern to the puddles.
--You didn't think to bring someone else's shoes, did you?
I only really felt like breaking and entering once this week, and somehow I think asking to borrow someone's shoes the day before someone else showed up dead would raise more questions than it would prevent.
[ She'll go ahead and get into her designated position, but she doesn't get into the plastic immediately. ]
If you're about ready, would you mind closing your eyes? I'd prefer it if no one's last image of me was one where I'm draped in bags.
No, no no. You can't afford the extra movement to the sink with my blood leaking everywhere. Just leave it behind. It will hide the fact I cooperated with you and make people think I was drugged.
[ She quickly gets the protective plastic situation under control, and then there's a brief pause -- not because of any second thoughts or moral dilemma, but to cut off a small piece of duct tape from the nearby roll and press it down over Erika's mouth.
After her whole spiel about it earlier today, it only seems appropriate. ]
Good night.
[ And with no hesitation at all, she plunges the knife in. ]
[Of course there was no controlling her movements after she was stabbed. Her eyes bulged open, in tremendous pain, and she tried to cry out, trying to rock herself to sit up but not having the strength to do so, for some reason.
Namely, lacking the life to do so. Blood poured out of her wound and onto the bed. Erika's face would grow steadily more pale as she passed out from the shock of having a kidney punctured.
After a minute or two of convulsing, she would go quiet, still.]
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But that's just being vain and childish. If there's the slightest chance of truly obtaining something like that for everyone, for her family on both sides, she'd be far more upset with herself for letting it slip away.
She's not particularly eager to be the first, because there are too many unknowns at this point. There's bound to be something hidden in the fine print that she doesn't know about yet that she'd know how to work around once she had an example to learn from.
But it's not like she's invulnerable herself. If someone else has a wish to fight for, she could lose her own chance.
So -- she'll risk it.
She settles on the grating girl with the blue hair without too much thought. She'd overheard the things she'd said to other people -- the things she'd said to Shadow, especially. He wasn't really a youkai, as he'd made clear plenty of times, but it didn't matter; her insults toward him insulted plenty of her precious people at the same time. So, really, who better to be a sacrifice for the sake of establishing her ideal world?
(And judging by the other interactions she's overheard, she really doesn't expect anyone would miss her.)
So, she plans things out over the course of the next few days, slowly and calmly. She spends some time in the garden and looking at the supplies. She fills up a small perfume bottle with some insecticide in the shed while no one is looking, and takes a spare steel stake. She experiments with the lock on her own window and figures out to get it loose.
And when Thursday night comes, she's ready. Their rooms are close enough together that she can keep track of her movements fairly well, for the most part; and when she knows she's out, she quietly leaves through her own back window, and slips in through Erika's.
She sits in the bathroom in the dark and waits patiently. ]
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When she was done, she opened the door to the bathroom, light trailing in as she reached for the light switch.]
1/2
Finally, the door cracks open, and-- ]
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Good evening, Furudo-san.
[ It's a little strained under the circumstances, but it's still her usual calm and gentle voice. ]
I'm sorry for coming in without an invitation.
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She wasn't going to just submit to this would-be murderer. It was obviously not a proper murder if the victim saw the culprit.
In an attempt to get free, she raised her foot and aimed the heel of her EGL shoe at her assailant's foot.]
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It just makes her tighten her hold. ]
I understand, I'd be fighting this if I were you too.
[ She frowns slightly as she tries to keep the cloth in place. Ugh, maybe she should have tried to make chloroform out of her nail polish remover and some bleach after all. This stuff had almost made her a little dizzy just from sitting here and smelling it from a distance, but maybe she's just more sensitive to it. ]
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Gah!
[She took a breath of much needed air, coughing on finding that even being away from the rag didn't stop the noxious fumes, though it did help her dizziness, a little.]
Hah... what the hell is that?! You don't even know to get chloroform?!
She stared down her opponent, more irritated than actually angry]
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[ Damn it, if she wasn't alone right now--
She collects herself quickly though, dropping the flower decoration she was left with on the floor. ]
I thought everyone would associate me more with something I made out of nail polish remover than with something that kills insects. I do want to get away with it, after all.
[ She smiles, though she's very much cursing this internally. ]
I guess you have a higher tolerance for this than I do. It's kind of funny, isn't it?
[ because you are more of a pest than she is ]
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[She wasn't totally unfazed by any means, her eyes watery and face red.]
Really, this crude manner of killing is just insulting. Did you put any thought into this? At all? Do you even have an alibi?
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[ Still definitely present tense. ]
I've planned it out, yes, though I can't say I have much of an alibi. But I'm sure I'm not the only one.
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You assume? Mais, non! You must have an alibi. At least some accomplice to vouch for you.
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[ So. Yeah. ]
I wouldn't trust anyone here enough to risk that.
[ One comes close, but... ]
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No one. I thought it would be easy to inconspicuously dispose of is all.
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...Listen, I'm going to help you, since it's obviously your first murder.
[She moves to pull a knife from the inner folds of her dress.]
Use this. Have you got gloves at least, so you don't have fingerprints? Which arm is your dominant arm?
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Yes, and right.
[ Being a biologist's assistant with a palm covered in burn scars at least means you almost always have at least one glove on you.
At the knife, she raises an eyebrow. Honestly, she'd rather stick with the stake after that reaction, but if she's looking for something that won't be traced back to her, someone else's weapon would almost certainly be better. ]
You're not going to try to stab me with that?
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You've decided to kill me. I could possibly engage with you in self-defense, but that's hardly a role befitting a detective. It is within my rights to help you create a truly worthwhile mystery, however. Therefore, I shall do that instead.
You understand, right? I won't stand for having a rusty object shoved in me while I sleep like some vampire. If you're going to kill me, you better make it good.
Have you even thought about what to do when my blood spray hits you? --Wait here. I have some plastic bags you can wear. They'll keep your clothes clean.
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All right.
[ She'll go ahead and take the knife, then, and look it over, still keeping Erika in her peripheral vision.
While a part of her can feel a bit of respect for this level of dedication to an ideal, when it comes to what that ideal actually is, she can't understand the mindset at all. Who would go along with this for the sake of making a good mystery? It almost feels like it's cheapening the sacrifices others have made. ]
Do you have a preference for where I do it? You want to make it look like the killer was left-handed, right?
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[she pulls open her corset a little to draw an outline on her abdomen.]
You'll hit a kidney. I'll go into toxic shock and be dead within a few minutes. Let the blood run out until it forms a puddle around your shoes. People will come to the conclusion you were standing there, and it'll appear I was stabbed with a left-handed assailant while I slept.
When you're done, take off the bags, step into your shoes, and walk back out the window. Take the bags with you and hide them where no one will find them. If someone just finds messy bags somewhere, you're finished. Get back to your room, wash off the blood, and hope no one can tie your shoe size or shoe pattern to the puddles.
--You didn't think to bring someone else's shoes, did you?
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[ She'll go ahead and get into her designated position, but she doesn't get into the plastic immediately. ]
If you're about ready, would you mind closing your eyes? I'd prefer it if no one's last image of me was one where I'm draped in bags.
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Are you going to leave the poisoned rag behind?
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Or is it some rag that belongs to you personally?
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You had better pull this off.
[she'll lie down now, face up]
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[ She quickly gets the protective plastic situation under control, and then there's a brief pause -- not because of any second thoughts or moral dilemma, but to cut off a small piece of duct tape from the nearby roll and press it down over Erika's mouth.
After her whole spiel about it earlier today, it only seems appropriate. ]
Good night.
[ And with no hesitation at all, she plunges the knife in. ]
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Namely, lacking the life to do so. Blood poured out of her wound and onto the bed. Erika's face would grow steadily more pale as she passed out from the shock of having a kidney punctured.
After a minute or two of convulsing, she would go quiet, still.]