[The worst part is, he can't argue and say Shadow is wrong. He did lie, and he did dive into this game without really considering the consequences. People are dying, really dying, and it's all going to hell right now. He can't fix this, not as 'Watanuki Kimihiro, a piece in this game of witches'.
So, he just sags a little, defeated.]
...Just...don't hold it against anyone else. None of them had anything to do with this. It was all me.
[Hopefully the letters he left with a couple people will be enough.]
[Watanuki's defeated posture makes Shadow pause, just a little. But his anger clouds his judgement, a pall of red fog covering his logic with rage at being tricked and used. No one uses him, not anymore. He is not an object. He is not a weapon! He is a person, and he's sick of people treating him like he's some sort of toy!
He levels the gun at Watanuki's head]
Goodbye, Watanuki.
[but he can at least offer a very simple kindness--]
[He's come this far. He can't turn back now -- Watanuki is a liar, but he wouldn't lie for him. And quite honestly, Shadow doesn't trust him not to fuck this up more.
So, Shadow fires twice into Watanuki -- once in the back of the head and once squarely in the chest. Both are slightly off their mark-- Shadow vows to work on using his non-dominant hand more if he makes it out of this alive.
And it feels good. It feels good to see his body shudder with the impact of the bullets. It feels good to get vengeance on the idiot who possibly doomed them all. And before he can really stop himself, he puts three more bullets into Watanuki's torso]
[He sure is. Shadow sits on the edge of the bed, regarding the corpse with cold indifference. He was... hoping something would change -- hoping the mansion would melt away, hoping to wake up back in his room at the Foundation. Or even better, his room back home. He sits there for a good five minutes, watching Watanuki's blood ooze out onto the floor.
When he's certain that nothing is going to change, he sighs]
... I don't know what I was expecting.
[he feels sort of numb to it all, now. He doesn't regret what he's done, but he does wish it had done... more.
First things first -- he needs to figure out what to do with Ruler. Shadow heads back to the bathroom and gazes down at the snoozing detective, reflecting on what the Bird Witch had told him. He didn't know anything, huh? He didn't even know what he was doing when he was summoning him?
Shadow doesn't know if that's the truth or not... was Watanuki really that incompetent, or was he acting the fool? He couldn't be too careful -- Ruler could be hiding everything, too. He didn't want to think poorly of him, because Shadow respects the crap out of Ruler... what a pain.
He grabs the servant under the the arms and drags him out of the bathtub with significant effort — turns out, humans are pretty heavy when you don’t have super strength. There goes his plan to just put him in the sitting room. Plan B… well. Frame him.
He drags him into the main bedroom and sits him in the chair by the desk. Shadow places the gun in Ruler’s dominant hand and uses his fingers to pull the trigger twice more, putting two more bullets in Watanuki’s corpse. Then he sets the gun on the desk.
Now to rifle through Watanuki’s belongings a little. There should be some unanswered letters around here, somewhere? Shadow moves carefully, climbing over the bed to avoid the body and the puddle of blood. He looks under the bed, under the mattress, in the desk, in the end table, in the closet, and in and under the laundry hamper.]
[Damn Shadow, this sure is a frame job! Let's see if you can get away with this.
Also, by rifling though Watanuki's things, Shadow will find some interesting stuff. He won't find all the letters, Watanuki knows better than to hide them all in one place, but he will find some things:
1: two notes in the same, neat handwriting.
"That girl I saw - is she the one you and the other witch are trying to help?"
"I see then, I will have to figure that one out another time.
I have some questions, if you could tell me as much of the original 'plans' for the game as you feel possible - it might not do much, but any little detail may end up helping."
2: One note in a different kind of handwriting:
"That's true.
But I'd like to hear the full story from you at some point. And how you met them."
3: A response to the second one, written in the bird witch's handwriting, which has been scratched out but is still readable:
"I can't keep doing this, you need to know the truth: I'm-"
...it looks like he gave up on writing that note, though.
4: And finally, there's a drawing of a bunny-thing that is wrapping up a little cockatiel in a big hug.
5: Wait no I lied, Shadow's most recent letter is in the room too.
EDITING IN THIS: there is also this kimono hanging up in his closet.]
[Hmph. If nothing else, the presence of these letters confirms even more that Watanuki was the Witch -- though his reaction to the death of the bird was solid enough already.
But everyone else needs to know. They need to know that their mild-mannered cook has been lying to them wholesale. Though it looks like he was already losing his nerve, based on letter number 3. Unfortunately, he hasn't examined enough handwriting to tell who wrote each letter, but they're clearly meant for the Bird Witch. The neat handwriting is probably from Ruler, given the context.
He frowns as he reads those ones, especially. If Ruler had really been in on it the whole time, would he be playing the fool in the letters as well? He looks over at the sleeping man in the chair and frowns, feeling a pang of guilt.
… no time for that, though. He had chosen his path, now he had to follow it through.
He takes his own letter with him and scatters the others on the bed after he's climbed back over, once again avoiding the blood.
Rouge would be either horrified or proud. Possibly both.
He notes the kimono, but aside from being a pretty piece of clothing, it doesn't mean anything to him.
He checks his shoes to ensure he hasn't tracked blood anywhere before he locks the door to the room. Then he opens the window and flips the lock. He climbs out, checks that he hasn’t left behind any fur or quills. Then he slams the window shut so it locks behind him.
Hopefully the bushes around the mansion aren’t toxic — he snaps off a part of the bush with his gloved hand. As he walks backwards to the stone-lined pathway, he sweeps his footprints away with the plant, obscuring the shape, size, and outline of his footprints. Once he’s back on solid stone, he tosses the piece of plant to one side.
Then, down to the boiler in the basement. Shadow removes his glove, the bandages, and his letter and tosses them into the fire. (And starts a fire, if there isn’t one.) Cotton gloves and cotton bandages burn readily, as does the paper. He ensures it’s all ash before he leaves, mixing them in with the rest of the debris. By now, it’s approaching 2:30 am.
Then, it’s just a matter of cleaning up and setting up an alibi. Shadow takes a thorough bath, rinses the bottoms of his shoes in the sink, replaces his glove and re-wraps his bandages. He grimaces — his hand hurts a lot and is pretty swollen. There’s a partially drunk bottle of fine, aged bourbon on his desk in his room, and he takes it with him to the library.
He drinks about half of what remains in a few gulps, to numb his guilt and his painful hand. It’s not long before he’s every bit as unconscious as everyone else in the mansion]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
So, he just sags a little, defeated.]
...Just...don't hold it against anyone else. None of them had anything to do with this. It was all me.
[Hopefully the letters he left with a couple people will be enough.]
no subject
He levels the gun at Watanuki's head]
Goodbye, Watanuki.
[but he can at least offer a very simple kindness--]
Tsubasa.
no subject
He's laying face-down on the ground defenseless, Shadow. What do?.]
no subject
So, Shadow fires twice into Watanuki -- once in the back of the head and once squarely in the chest. Both are slightly off their mark-- Shadow vows to work on using his non-dominant hand more if he makes it out of this alive.
And it feels good. It feels good to see his body shudder with the impact of the bullets. It feels good to get vengeance on the idiot who possibly doomed them all. And before he can really stop himself, he puts three more bullets into Watanuki's torso]
no subject
hm.]
no subject
You're next.
no subject
Watanuki Kimihiro is dead.
Go take care of that witch-hate-boner, Shadow.]
longtag. its gonna be a longtag.
When he's certain that nothing is going to change, he sighs]
... I don't know what I was expecting.
[he feels sort of numb to it all, now. He doesn't regret what he's done, but he does wish it had done... more.
First things first -- he needs to figure out what to do with Ruler. Shadow heads back to the bathroom and gazes down at the snoozing detective, reflecting on what the Bird Witch had told him. He didn't know anything, huh? He didn't even know what he was doing when he was summoning him?
Shadow doesn't know if that's the truth or not... was Watanuki really that incompetent, or was he acting the fool? He couldn't be too careful -- Ruler could be hiding everything, too. He didn't want to think poorly of him, because Shadow respects the crap out of Ruler... what a pain.
He grabs the servant under the the arms and drags him out of the bathtub with significant effort — turns out, humans are pretty heavy when you don’t have super strength. There goes his plan to just put him in the sitting room. Plan B… well. Frame him.
He drags him into the main bedroom and sits him in the chair by the desk. Shadow places the gun in Ruler’s dominant hand and uses his fingers to pull the trigger twice more, putting two more bullets in Watanuki’s corpse. Then he sets the gun on the desk.
Now to rifle through Watanuki’s belongings a little. There should be some unanswered letters around here, somewhere? Shadow moves carefully, climbing over the bed to avoid the body and the puddle of blood. He looks under the bed, under the mattress, in the desk, in the end table, in the closet, and in and under the laundry hamper.]
no subject
Also, by rifling though Watanuki's things, Shadow will find some interesting stuff. He won't find all the letters, Watanuki knows better than to hide them all in one place, but he will find some things:
1: two notes in the same, neat handwriting.
"That girl I saw - is she the one you and the other witch are trying to help?"
"I see then, I will have to figure that one out another time.
I have some questions, if you could tell me as much of the original 'plans' for the game as you feel possible - it might not do much, but any little detail may end up helping."
2: One note in a different kind of handwriting:
"That's true.
But I'd like to hear the full story from you at some point. And how you met them."
3: A response to the second one, written in the bird witch's handwriting, which has been scratched out but is still readable:
"I can't keep doing this, you need to know the truth: I'm-"
...it looks like he gave up on writing that note, though.
4: And finally, there's a drawing of a bunny-thing that is wrapping up a little cockatiel in a big hug.
5: Wait no I lied, Shadow's most recent letter is in the room too.
EDITING IN THIS: there is also this kimono hanging up in his closet.]
DONES
But everyone else needs to know. They need to know that their mild-mannered cook has been lying to them wholesale. Though it looks like he was already losing his nerve, based on letter number 3. Unfortunately, he hasn't examined enough handwriting to tell who wrote each letter, but they're clearly meant for the Bird Witch. The neat handwriting is probably from Ruler, given the context.
He frowns as he reads those ones, especially. If Ruler had really been in on it the whole time, would he be playing the fool in the letters as well? He looks over at the sleeping man in the chair and frowns, feeling a pang of guilt.
… no time for that, though. He had chosen his path, now he had to follow it through.
He takes his own letter with him and scatters the others on the bed after he's climbed back over, once again avoiding the blood.
Rouge would be either horrified or proud. Possibly both.
He notes the kimono, but aside from being a pretty piece of clothing, it doesn't mean anything to him.
He checks his shoes to ensure he hasn't tracked blood anywhere before he locks the door to the room. Then he opens the window and flips the lock. He climbs out, checks that he hasn’t left behind any fur or quills. Then he slams the window shut so it locks behind him.
Hopefully the bushes around the mansion aren’t toxic — he snaps off a part of the bush with his gloved hand. As he walks backwards to the stone-lined pathway, he sweeps his footprints away with the plant, obscuring the shape, size, and outline of his footprints. Once he’s back on solid stone, he tosses the piece of plant to one side.
Then, down to the boiler in the basement. Shadow removes his glove, the bandages, and his letter and tosses them into the fire. (And starts a fire, if there isn’t one.) Cotton gloves and cotton bandages burn readily, as does the paper. He ensures it’s all ash before he leaves, mixing them in with the rest of the debris. By now, it’s approaching 2:30 am.
Then, it’s just a matter of cleaning up and setting up an alibi. Shadow takes a thorough bath, rinses the bottoms of his shoes in the sink, replaces his glove and re-wraps his bandages. He grimaces — his hand hurts a lot and is pretty swollen. There’s a partially drunk bottle of fine, aged bourbon on his desk in his room, and he takes it with him to the library.
He drinks about half of what remains in a few gulps, to numb his guilt and his painful hand. It’s not long before he’s every bit as unconscious as everyone else in the mansion]