#either way this hits without even mentioning amaterasu
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Red Strings Cannot Be Broken
@yatoriweek2020 Soulmates prompt. Gomen, gomen, it’s totally rushed and I since I suck at action scenes, fair warning it’s minimized as much as possible lol and I can’t help but think angst when I write this ship ;-; Aged up, Hiyori is 19. Total idk canon divergence.
Just as Yato, Bishamon and their Shinki’s reach the scene, Father cackles and drives a katana through Hiyori’s corporeal body. “You’re all such gullible idiots! She was always your weakness son. Three years we’ve done this dance and I was always one step ahead.”
The young woman stumbles backwards and collapses, holding onto her stomach. A reddish stain forming, seeping through the fabric and growing in diameter every second that passes by.
“So now what are ya gonna do?” the grinning sorcerer questions. “For betraying me, I will take away everything you love!”
“You sonofabitch!” The stray god screams and makes a move to rush forward.
“There’s no hope for her, see.” The man points the sword back at the dying girl with a menacing smiles. “Poor girl, if only she hadn’t met you.”
“Yato,” Bishamon yells as she takes off towards Father. “You get to Hiyori!”
A battle ensues between the goddess of war and the sorcerer as Yato rushes to the young girls side. He picks her up, cradling her body in tears. “Hiyori, don’t die on me, please!” But it really was too late, for her breathing had ceased and he could find no pulse. “Fuck!!!”
“Yato what are we gonna do?!” Yukine shakes him. “W-We can’t let her just die!” The poor boy was still in agony over his time of betraying the stray god and now the guilt of losing Hiyori was slowly taking hold. Nora stays quiet, hugging to the boy to keep him from doing anything rash.
“There’s only one thing I can think of…” the man mumbles. As the fight around them escalates, the pair watch a puffkine appear above the body.
Reading off his master, Yukine’s eyes widen. “I-Is that a good idea?!”
“I don’t know.” Her soul didn’t appear as an ayakashi, so that was a promising sign. Yato places her body back on the ground and stands before the floating spirit. There was no way to know for sure what would happen and no time to think it through. Performing his spell, he turns her into a regalia, but instead of giving her his family name of ne, keeps the human name Hiyori and makes her vessel name Majoki.
They watch as the woman they knew as Hiyori manifests, standing before them. “W-Where am I?” She questions the trio. “Who are you?”
Yato grabs hold of her by the arms to keep her from turning around and seeing her body too soon. He smiles. “I know this must be confusing right now, but I just want to tell you before it’s too late…” he leans his forehead against hers and closes his eyes. “I love you Hiyori. Soon I pray, it’ll all make sense again, but just remember I love you.” He whispers something the others two couldn’t hear, then pulls away and kisses her hand before releasing them.
He then turns to his Shinki. “Nora, make her see,” is all he quietly says, indicating to the girl to break the seal of the Gods greatest secret.
“But Yato, that might destroy her.”
“I pray it won’t. Please keep her safe for me Nora.” He places a final kiss on Hiyori’s confused cheek. “Come Sekki, we must finish Father right here and now before he does any more damage.”
Yukine transforms into a sword and the pair rush off to assist Bishamon. The boy asks Yato what he’d told Hiyori before they’d left and the God simply answered with, ‘remember me.’ But there was no time to question further. They needed to focus for Father was as skilled as any of them and a powerful sorcerer that could conjure and control ayakashi to attack them. This would be a fight to the death, either theirs or his.
Nora pulls Hiyori away behind some trees, and away from the current fighting. She hesitates for a moment unsure of exactly how to accomplish her task. As Chiki, she could wield the liberation spell that broke the secret, but without it, she would have to trigger it. The strange part was, normally telling a Shinki their true name would do just that, but Yato had given the woman back her real name and it didn’t do anything. Hiyori just appeared to have no memories of her past life.
“Do you have any idea who I am?” Nora questions, but receives a ‘no’. “How about Yato, the one who just spoke to you?” Again, the woman pauses, then shakes her head slowly no. “Yukine? The boy?” Nothing.
“That man… that man said he loves me. He sounds sincere, but I don’t remember anything. Were we in a relationship?”
“Sort of. You’ve been together for I think 3 years now. Inseparable, and you loved him too.”
“I did?”
Nora nods her head. “You… you died trying to save him.”
Hiyori’s eyes widen at those words. She was dead?! “I’m dead?!” Her hands fly up to her head, palms flattened against the sides as a suddenly whirling sound rustles in her brain. The noise grew, a myriad of voices, images hurtling through her mind so quickly, she couldn’t process what was happening to her. “No, no, no!”
The young girl grabs hold of the woman’s arms to keep her steady as she starts to shake uncontrollably. “Your name really is Hiyori. Hiyori Iki. You saved the god Yato once from getting hit by a bus and it turned you into a hanyou. After that you two became inseparable. You were with him when you found Yukine.”
“I don’t understand any of this!” Tears pour down the woman’s face. She was utterly confused at what this girl was telling her and yet somehow knew it was all true. How did she know it was true?!
It was a good sign to Nora that Hiyori wasn’t transforming into an ayakashi yet, but as the woman’s mind fought to unlock the secrets of her life, the pain appeared to be excruciating and the risks of being consumed were great. When she herself had learned the truth about her life, for some strange reason it never affected her and that was why she could wield liberation. Yukine too surprisingly had come through the process without completely breaking down.
“Over time, you and Yato grew closer and closer, and you helped him a lot. I believe it’s because of you that he’s completely changed for the better. You and Yukine are his family. Father, the guy they’re fighting now, he’s trying to destroy it all and he killed you because he knew your death could kill Yato too. But the only way to bring you back in a way, was to turn you into a regalia. That gives a lost spirit purpose again.”
Hiyori wanted to scream and run away. This was madness. A god, spirits, bringing back people from the dead?!! She could hear the battle raging just out of her sightline. And this girl. “Who are you then?”
“I’m Nora, one of Yato’s regalia like you. He calls me his little sister. We used to work for Father in the old days but we’ve both been betrayed by him. Yato realized it sooner than I did, but that man was only using us to wage his war with the Gods of Heaven.”
Great now Gods of Heaven as in plural. Hiyori’s head was spinning, and she felt like throwing up. “I love you Hiyori. Soon I pray, it’ll all make sense again.” Is what the man had said and even though her brain was not comprehending everything going on, her heart was telling her to remember it all... To remember... Hiyori gasps, “Remember me…”
A sharp pain shoots through her head, so she cradles it in her hands from the sudden spike. ‘Remember me…’ Hiyori cries out once and her vision goes black.
Hiyori Iki, 19 years old. Born to Sayuri and Takamasa Iki, brother of Masaomi, and born on June 28th. Everything about her life flashes as images in her minds eye. How she’d met Yato at the age of 16 through a near-death experience. Becoming a hanyou, The Far Side, the Gods, everything was rushing back in the blink of an eye.
As quickly as it began, it ended, and a final memory paused like on a movie screen. It was an image of Kofuku holding up the matching making tablets… ‘I— remember…’ Her feelings for Yato had started long before the god of poverty had interceded, but perhaps, that goddesses intervention truly sealed their bond eternally in a red string of fate? ‘That’s right…’ she’s starting to put the connections together. Learning who she really was should have driven her insane. It hurt, but…
Hiyori’s eyes open and finds herself lying on the ground with Nora kneeling beside her.
“Oh, thank the Kami’s you’re back,” the girl breathed out a sigh of relief. “I didn’t know what was going on, you just suddenly collapsed again.”
“Thank you, Nora,” she sits ups slowly. “I-I remember who am.”
A strange, invigorating energy was thrumming inside of Hiyori and she wondered if this is what the weapon aspect of a Shinki felt like. But Yukine had never mentioned feeling an odd sensation, and even weirder, she didn’t sense a regular weapon in her soul. The name Yato had given her was not of a normal tool but matched her abilities even while she was still alive.
She turns to Nora, “I need to help Yato. We need to help Yato.”
��There’s nothing we can do unless he calls for us,” the young girl replies. “And he probably wouldn’t want you anywhere near the fighting.”
Hiyori lifts up her hands and focuses on them, reaching deep within her very essence and feeling the energy burning inside of her. Nora watches in fascination and downright amazed surprise when they begin to glow. She’d become the perfect weapon to defeat a sorcerer.
“I don’t care what Yato thinks,” the woman steels her resolve. “He needs my help.”
With Nora following close behind, Hiyori rushes over to where the Gods were fighting. They see others had joined in the battle. Kofuku & Daikoku. Tenjin, Ebisu, and several others that Father had not yet brought to their knees. Amaterasu and Heaven’s army had already suffered devastating losses prior to this event, and this fight with his son, was Father’s last obstacle. The two girls stand at the top of a hill surveying the battle, and when Yato senses them he turns to look.
That lapse in focus also catches Father’s attention. He breaks away from one attack and rushes towards Yato.
“Call my name now!!” Hiyori screams to the stray God.
He hadn’t planned on letting Hiyori anywhere near this fight, but overwhelming energy flooding off his Shinki was something he’d never heard of or felt in his life. Without another second of hesitation, he screams, “Majoki!!”
The flash of light from the vessels transformation was not only blinding but sent out a wave of energy that sent Father flying backwards from the shockwave. Even the other Gods stopped what they were doing in confusion. No new weapon manifested in Yato’s hand, only a red tasseled cord wrapped loosely around his neck.
Whatever miko abilities Hiyori had in life were now amplified ten-fold as a Shinki. Her connection to Yato and their love for one another transcended death because of their tied fate and as his regalia turned her into his strongest weapon against this kind of foe. How do you fight a sorcerer? With sorcery.
“Whoa what the hell powers does she have now?!” Yato hears Yukine asking him in his mind. “Even I can feel her!”
“Y-Yeah, even I’m surprised,” the God answers back. It all felt a little strange because it was so different than any other Shinki he’s ever had. Hiyori’s powers didn’t flow from a tool… Yato became the tool.
“Bind his powers Yato. He is nothing without his magic.”
“But how?! That’s a Shinki’s ability not a Gods.”
“You shall wield us,” she responds in his mind with no hesitation. “All you need to do is strike Father once and I will send the power through Sekki. Once he’s wounded my magic will seep through to affect the spell. Then you all attack for he will be a mere human.”
“We can do this Yato,” Yukine responds as well. “As a team.”
“No,” the God breathes out with a smirk, “as a family. Hiki!!!” He pulls his third vessel into the fray.
“Yato what are you thinking, three of us will sap a lot of your energy,” Nora scolds the God.
“Well then we better make this quick!”
“Guys!” He screams at the other Gods. “Let’s back him into a corner fast! I got a plan!”
After being thrown back, Father scrambled to his feet ready to take on the next challenger. With Yato’s call of collaboration, God after God along with their Shinki’s levy a multitude of attacks at the sorcerer forcing him into a defensive. There’s just too many things coming at him to counter. He tries to call ayakashi’s to his aid, but they are either killed off quickly or Hiyori and Nora combine their energies to control the spirits.
Finally, the constant barrage is taking a huge toll on the sorcerer and everyone can sense it. The male is using a significant amount of energy to fight back, and it’s rapidly depleting. A solid blow from Bishamon sends him hurtling into the trunk of a tree. He hits his back hard against it and falls straight down. Then, before he can get to his feet, Yato sweeps in with two solid strikes by Chiki and Sekki, cutting a deep gash over the sorcerers torso.
Father screams in searing pain as he feels the burn of Hiyori’s magic soak into his flesh. “No! No! No! this cannot be!!” It travels outward from the wound until it encompasses his entire body, binding his magic, and sapping any ability beyond a physical confrontation. He sinks to the ground, clutching to his chest and abdomen, in agony. “That bitch!”
“Oi,” Yato narrows his eyes and puts the blade of Sekki to the man’s throat, “don’t call her a bitch just because she out classed you.” It was starting to dawn on the stray God that his meeting Hiyori truly had a purpose.
The man grits his teeth as adrenaline from pain and anger fires through his nerves. “Fuck you!!”
“Tch. You thought you knew me, us so well that you thought you could manipulate things. But you never did old man. Your hate ends now.”
At that moment, the war goddess grabs the fallen sorcerer by the fabric of his yukata and yanks him to his feet. “Heaven has rendered their full judgement upon you. Amaterasu will make your death a painful one I’m sure.” With the help of some of Heaven’s soldiers, the mortally wounded sorcerer is flown away to receive his divine punishment.
Yato releases his Shinki’s and collapses from exhaustion. Thank the Kami’s it was over because he wasn’t sure how much longer he would have lasted. There would be a lot of explaining to do but it could wait. First things first.
“Yukine, Nora, could you two wait for me at Kofuku’s?” the stray god requests of his regalia. “I need to talk to Hiyori.”
“Don’t do anything else crazy!” Yukine shakes his finger, scolding the man.
“Come on,” Nora pushes at her friend. “I doubt she’d let him.”
Once the pair is leaving, he turns back to the woman sitting patiently beside him. “Hiyori…” he felt guilty that he wasn’t able to save her life, and now wasn’t sure what to say. “I’m sorry I failed you.”
“I don’t blame you,” she takes his hand. “It was my fault for getting in the way.”
“But Father was right, if only you’d never met me… o-or if I’d cut your ties sooner, you’d still be alive.”
“Yato, listen to me.” She cups his cheeks in her hands and holds his gaze. “Do not blame yourself for any of this. I made my choices and you honored my wish. Am I sad that my family won’t be able to see me anymore, of course? They’ll be heart broken, but we both know this was the only way to make my final wish come true because no matter what,” her voice softens into a smile, “I love you too.”
#yatori#yatori week 2020#soulmate prompt#yato#Hiyori iki#canon divergent#yatori fanfiction#noragami#noragami aragoto#yatogami#iki hiyori#red string of fate#yatori fan fic#yatori edit
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Howdy!
Hello! Odin here once again to talk about the final (and newest) member of the Five Gods of Phantom Lord: Heracles! Well then, without further ado, let’s get started.
Harrison is the newest member of the Five Gods, having been in training while ex-member Penny Polendina (Artemis) was with us. When Penny stepped down (wanting to return to her team), she did so while stating confidently that “The 5th position is in good hands.” And she was absolutely right.
Hazzah’s really shy, and not to great with new people, (not to mention he’s kinda insecure) but he’s suuuuper smart! In fact, he’s the one who got Penny fixed up after...
Anyway! Unlike the rest of us, Harrison never pursued magic, partially because he just wasn’t very interested, and partially because of other reasons that we’ll cover in a bit. However, he’s actually really strong, so combine that with his keen intellect and all of the training he’s gone through (thanks to the rest of us) and you have one hell of a fighter! That being said, he’s not exactly fond of fighting, so he’ll try and diffuse a situation and only take his stance if it’s necessary.
Anyway, time to get into his abilities!
First up, Blacklight abilities:
Hera’ found himself in quite the unfortunate predicament while we where away from our home timeline. While we where gone, he was volunteered by an ‘anonymous third party’ to be tested on in experiments involving the Blacklight virus.
Unfortunately, the virus took hold, and there where many months where his survival was thought to be impossible. However (as you can probably guess by the fact that he’s alive) he did survive the virus, and in the process developed a symbiotic relationship with it. This means that the virus keeps itself alive with nutrients he consumes, and in return the virus helps him in combat. Now then, Ima gon’ give y’all a rundown of what he can do!!!
Increased muscular strength: This is self explanatory: he’s stronger, faster, more agile, and more physically capable than he was before. He can even run on/up walls!
It also means that training his body is more effective than it would otherwise be.
Gliding: He’s able to use the air around his body to keep him aloft for a short amount of time, this combined with his massive j-
HOPS!
or that, means that he can travel past cities in seconds.
Consume: He’s able to consume anything he’s killed in seconds thanks to the Blacklight virus. He doesn’t use this ability unless it’s the only way for everyone else to survive, but it’s quite the boost. It heals him, restores his stamina, and feeds him too.
Accelerated Regeneration: So long as he isn’t taking damage, Hazzah is able to heal his wounds passively waaaaaay faster than any normal person would, as in, he can heal normally fatal wounds in a few seconds! It’s crazy!
Whipfists: the first transformation-based ability that he gained, they allow him hit targets from far away (the whipfists are stretchy) and also let him ‘web-swing’ which he can combine with his gliding to start travelling at quite the impressive speed. Unlike most of his transformation-based abilities (which is everything except the general buff and his consume ability) it only transforms one arm, meaning he can use another ability on the other arm.
Muscle-mass: a transformation-based ability that increases his actual muscle-mass slightly and massively increases his physical strength. He can also up this to Muscle-mass: Stage 2 which grants a much more noticeable increase to his actual muscle mass (as well as turning both of his arms red, not just his forearms) and giving a huge, and I mean HUGE increase to his strength and speed. He can’t keep stage 2 up for long though. Stage 1 (like most of his abilities) doesn’t have a time-limit.
Tendrils: Using tendrils made of viral matter, he’s able to pull objects into his target, hang them up, restrain them, or-
SMACK ‘EM IN THE FACE!
*sigh* yes , or ‘smack ‘em in the face’. Bloody hell Ama...
Hammerfists: The hammerfists are large (sometimes spiked) masses that take the place of Heracles’ hands. These masses are extremely heavy, absurdly so even, and this means he’s able to slam these down with some crazy force. If he want’s to, he can even use the force to put viral matter in the ground, and have that matter then emerge as deadly spikes!
Claws:These are pretty self-explanatory, his hands gain massive sharp claws that can cut through most enemies like butter, and he can also use them to climb.
Glaive: The glaive is a massive blade shaped like the head of an actual glaive, but similar in length to Hera’s entire arm! Like the Whipfist, it only take up one arm, meaning he can use another ability on the other arm. The glaive is also large enough to use as a make-shift shield (although he cant do that to much).
Shield: The shield is obvious, it’s a large shield that takes up one of his arms and shields him from damage.
Armour: The Blacklight Armour looks like full-plate armour, but in reality it’s all viral mater originating from his body. It’s not as good at shielding Harrison from damage as the actual shield is, but this keeps both his hands free. It also slows him down a little and stops him from gliding. A bit of a trade off, but worth it in quite the number of situations.
Spikes: Not to be confused with the spikes he can make via his hammerfists, the Spikes ability covers his forearms with large,solid spikes that he can either shoot out at massive speed, or use in melee combat. If he want’s to, he can fire these spikes at a pretty impressive speed. Even I have a hard time dodging them!
He can also choose to have this ability active on only one arm, but he normally has it active on both when he uses it.
The Ooze: The Ooze is a large amount of liquid, viral biomass that is highly acidic and massively corrosive. Heracles can control this biomass telepathically (although he does use gestures, I’m not sure whether or not that’s required). He can use it for everything from creating barriers, to long-distance combat, to crowd control (not a pleasant sight) and so much more!
Next, crazy intellect:
Heracles is crazy intelligent! He’s helped with the invention of the Dual-Core Dust Engine, which means when the dust has been used by (whatever the engine is powering) the energy generate by the dust is used to power the engine before using more dust!
And that’s not his only invention either! He’s made plenty of crazy stuff that’s been super beneficial for everyone!
So imagine how dangerous someone with this level of intelligence would be on a battlefield if they had a few decades of combat experience...yeah, that’s Hera for ya!
Now, before I go, I just want to mention something.
As you will have seen, I haven’t mentioned aura when describing his abilities. There’s a rather simple reason for this, he can’t use aura. We don’t know why he can’t, we’ve tried training him to do so, we’ve tried awakening it with our own aura, and loads of other things, but nothing seems to work.
I mean, at least he can regenerate, but still, it’s a little worrying.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now! We’ve finnaly introduced everyone! This means we should be getting a shout-out from a good friend soon, @neandrewtal who helped us get this account started!
So thank you from me and from-
AND ME! I’M GRATEFUL TOO!
I was gonna say ‘and from the rest of the Five God’s too’ but sure Ama...
OH...Yeah that works better.
Anyway! Thank you everyone, and we hope to see you all again soon!
3rd God Odin (and 2nd God Amaterasu) out!
#rp#Meet the Five#Meet the Five Gods#Five Gods Heracles#Five Gods Amaterasu#Five Gods Odin's Perspective
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Chapter 2: Lost in Sacrificial Fate ~Trial~
Wooo! The trial is finally done, this is a pretty long one so hopefully you guys don’t mind that. Hope ya’ll enjoy
Bold are blue statements
Bold and italic are yellow statements
“Now, let’s begin with a simple explanation of the class trial! You’re votes will determine the outcome of this, you will debate on a variety of topics regarding the murder and then try to identify ‘whodunit’. If you can correctly guess the culprit, then the culprit alone will be punished…but if you guess the wrong one. I’ll punish everyone besides the culprit! Now…where will this trial go? I hope it’s good!”
“There’s not really much to discuss though, is there? It’s kinda obvious who the killer is in this case.” Shinko-san started off.
“It’s obvious? But I still don’t have any idea, even after the investigation.” Yokozawa-san said.
“No need to worry, that’s why I’m here to show you all how this case went down. Simply put, Irunami died because of a freak accident when the lighting rig fell. Everyone in the audience is a witness to that. So, whoever was working the lighting must be the one that’s accountable. So, it has to be Okanaya that’s the culprit of the case!” Shinko-san declared.
“E-eh?! Me again?!”
“Did you seriously not even put that together? Of course, if the lighting rig was what killed Irunami-chan, then the one working the lighting rig would be the most suspicious.” Kurosaki-san sighed with a smirk.
“Bullshit! You can’t just say I’m the killer because of that! B-besides, surely that wouldn’t be reason enough for me to be responsible! M-Monokuma?!”
“Weeeeeell…even if its an accident, the one who ultimate caused the accident is still gonna be the culprit for that death.” It was an ambiguous answer that didn’t say Okanaya-san was the culprit.
“Aren’t we moving a little quickly?” Ishikawa-san interrupted. “To simply decide Okanaya-sama as the culprit at the start of the trial would be foolish. Shinko-sama, please keep your rash accusations to yourself, I would prefer it if you didn’t hurt our chances passing the trial.”
“Huh?! The fuck did you say to me?! Do you know who you’re talking to, bitch?!” Shinko-san growled.
“Save your breaths for the discussion, would you?” Amaterasu-san stepped in. “The problem here is if this case is an accident or not, and if it is an accident, does that necessarily mean it was Kobo-chan’s fault.”
“It definitely wasn’t me! I’m telling you all now!” Okanaya-san said again. Was Irunami-san’s death an accident…? We need to figure that out first.
-Non-Stop Debate 1-
Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets:
Broken Spotlight/Undamaged Spotlight
Okanaya-san’s Account/Okanaya-san’s Mistake
Lighting Rig/Metal Pole
Amaterasu: If you guys don’t decide whether this case is an accident or not, we can’t progress…
Toson: Obviously…The murder happened on accident….and Okanaya is responsible.
Kobo: Don’t just say that! This could’ve been on purpose!
Karma: You do realise that if it was on purpose then you’d have to be the killer, right…? You were the only one working the lighting rig
Kobo: N-no way! It ain’t that easy! The killer…could’ve sabotaged the lighting rig!
Karma: Oh! I guess that’s true! Then maybe the case is a real homicide!
Ryuu: (We first need to decide if this case is a homicide or an accident…how am I supposed to prove that?)
“No, that’s wrong!”
-
“Shinko-san, I don’t think Irunami-san died from an accident. When I was talking to Okanaya-san during the investigation, he told me that he made sure that the lighting rig was secured last night. So, if it really was secure, I doubt it would’ve just fell on accident at just the right time to kill Irunami-san.”
“Okanaya told you that…? Hmm…usually I wouldn’t believe the words of a suspect-“
“Didn’t we do that for you the last trial?” Kurohiko-san pointed out.
“-but I checked the lighting rig as well, just to make sure Okanaya didn’t fuck it up…and yeah, it was secure. Totally forgot about that.”
“How convenient of you to forget that.” Okanaya-san snarled.
“However, that doesn’t mean the killer isn’t Okanaya. It just means the murder was on purpose. With his own testimony, we know the lighting was secure the night before and that means the lighting rig needed to be released by someone. Namely, the only person working the lighting rig.” Shinko-san said.
“Huh…? Well, maybe it was sabotaged or something the night before and it had nothing to do with Okanaya-kun.” Yokozawa-san suggested.
“We all finished at 9 every night, so it’s not impossible to say that someone just snuck into the auditorium after we all left.” Ram-san said. No…simply getting would be pretty difficult because…
-
My logic follows!
-
“Shinko-san, you locked door at night after rehearsals, right? Then the door wouldn’t be unlocked until we started again in the morning.”
“Yeah, that’s right. I didn’t want anyone going in and messing with stuff without supervision. And because of that, nobody could’ve gotten into the auditorium outside of any rehearsal times.” Shinko-san confirmed.
“Could someone sabotage the lighting rig before the performances began that morning? We did not start the show until 12:30 or so.” Asano-san suggested.
“No, that’s not possible either. I was by the ropes for the lighting rig as soon as we got in that morning and didn’t leave until the murder happened, nobody had the chance to fuck around with the lighting rig.” Okanaya-san shook as head.
“I feel like you’re too honest for your own good.” Graves-san laughed.
“The honesty is appreciated though. Makes our job a lot easier.” Sly-san said.
“Did you do it though Okanaya-kun…? Did you kill Irunami-kun…?” Hachi-san’s voice trembled with a mix of anger and anguish.
“Hell no! Now that I know it wasn’t an accident, I’m gonna prove I didn’t have anything to do with this! Don’t worry Hachi, we’ll find out who did this and sent them straight to hell!” I believe him. I really don’t think Okanaya-san is the killer, so I need to prove that either there was a way to sabotage the lighting rig, or that the lighting rig didn’t need to be sabotaged.
-Non-Stop Debate 2-
Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets
Cables/Razor Wire
Shinko-san’s Account/Shinko-san’s Mistake
Lighting Rig/Metal Rod
Vent System/Bolted Vent Grates
Kobo: I’m not the killer…! I’m gonna prove it to you all!
Doi: Since Irunami’s death was on purpose…doesn’t that mean the killer had to be near the lighting rig?
Kobo: Yeah, but somebody else could’ve done that!
Ram: The door was locked…
Tsukiko: Could there be another way into the auditorium?
Tomoe: Maybe the killer used a set-up!
Kobo: Or the lighting rig didn’t need to be sabotaged!
Ryuu: (Something someone said…I think that might be the key to this.)
I agree with that!
-
“Ishikawa-san may be right. Even if the door was locked, there should’ve been another way to get into the auditorium. During the investigation, Graves-san decided to check the vent system and found that it went throughout the whole building. ‘Every floor, every room’ were her words.”
“It’s true! Look at all the dust on me!” Graves-san spread her arms to show off her dirty outfit.
“I wasn’t gonna mention it…but if there was another way to get into the auditorium…” Yokozawa-san nodded understandingly.
“Yeah. Then it’s way too early to say that Okanaya-san is the killer!”
“God, fine!” Shinko-san conceded defeat.
“So, at some point the killer went into the auditorium after we all finished up for rehearsals and messed around with the lighting rig. That’s good and all but where do we go from there…?” Graves-san asked.
“Well…I don’t know if this is worth out time or not, but…I wasn’t there for the moment that Irunami-san was killed, so I don’t fully get what happened. Could we maybe go over what happened?” Kurohiko-san asked.
“Same for me. I was backstage when it all happened, so I want a clarification too.” Amaterasu-san second.
“It’s important we all stay on the same page, so we should go over it.” Ram-san agreed.
-Non-Stop Debate 3-
Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets
Lighting rig/Metal Rod
Fog Machines/Dry Ice Buckets
Broken Spotlight/Undamaged stagelight
Kurosaki-san’s Set/Kurohiko-san’s Set
Shinko-san’s Filiming/Shinko-san’s Absence
Shinko-san’s Account/Shinko-san’s Mistake
Ram: When the show started…everything seemed normal…
Doi: I know that Kurosaki-san and I went on first…but after that I didn’t come back….
Tomoe: Shinko-kun’s movie played fine as well…There was nothing wrong with the movie.
Amaterasu: And afterwards was Sadao-chan.
Tomoe: Yeah, Irunami-kun came on stage…but when he called Shinko-kun to the stage…that’s when the lighting rig fell and struck him over the head…!
Yuuki: There was a broken stage light on the ground too. It must have broken off on impact.
Ryuu: (…this is just supposed to be a recollection of what happened…so why does something feel off?)
No, that’s wrong!
-
“…um…” Even though I objected, I don’t really know where I’m supposed to go with this. Everyone’s staring at me, so I need to at least raise the concern. “K…Kurosaki-san, about what you said…you said the stage light broke off of the lighting rig when it hit Irunami-san, right?”
“Is there something wrong with that? You’re not gonna suggest the lighting rig wasn’t the murder weapon, are you?” Sly-san asked.
“It’s not that. The spotlight had blood on it, so I don’t that it’s the murder weapon…it’s just…the part of the spotlight that attaches to the lighting rig…it isn’t damaged.”
“Huh? What do you mean it’s not damaged, does that matter?” Yokozawa-san said.
“Yeah, it’s definitely weird. The lights have this kind of metal hoop that goes right around the lighting rig’s pole. Makes it fuckin’ difficult to position then right. There’s no way one could fall off without that hoop being broken off.” Okanaya-san explained.
“Oh! Then it’s like a condom!” Graves-san nodded.
“It is definitely not like a condom.” Yokozawa-san said with disgust.
“Eh…? So, you’ve used one before?” Graves-san tilted her head.
“I see. It is good you are enjoying life, Yokozawa-sama.” Ishikawa-san smiled and giggled.
“Th-that isn’t it! M-more importantly, why isn’t that spotlight’s attachment broken off?!” Yokozawa-san threw us back into the discussion. It’s suspicious. Really suspicious.
“Ah~ Maybe we should take a step back!” Kurosaki-san suddenly chimed up.
“Oh great. I almost forgot about you and now my headache is back.” Shinko-san complained.
“Ehhhh!? Shinko-chan, don’t be mean to me!”
“Wh-who the hell are you being so informal with?! Die, will you?!” Shinko-san’s face flushed.
“Kurosaki, what do you mean by taking a step back?” Sly-san interrupted.
“Well, it’s pretty easy to tell why the spotlight’s attachment isn’t broken, right? There’s no need to discuss it at full length.” There’s no reason to discuss it at full length…then is the reason the spotlight’s attachment isn’t broken something simple…?
-
My logic follows!
-
“You’re saying that the spotlight that hit Irunami-san was never attached to the lighting rig, right? That’s why it’s attachment was never broken.”
“Perfecto! Nagata-kyun, we think so much alike!” I definitely don’t want to hear that from you…
“Wait, if the spotlight was never attached to the lighting rig then how did it manage to get onto the stage? Furthermore, how on earth was it able to strike Irunami-sama?” Ishikawa-san asked. That’s the new question, huh…seems we’ll need to figure that out next.
-Non-Stop Debate 4-
Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets
Fog Machines/Dry Ice Buckets
Broken Spotlight/Undamaged Spotlight
Kurosaki-san’s Set/Kurohiko-san’s Set
Air Cannon/Fog Vacuum
Trap Door/Regular Floor
Kurohiko-san’s Clothes/Irunami-san’s Clothes
Tsukiko: There must’ve been a chance for the spotlight to make its way onto the stage.
Kobo: Maybe it was always on stage…? But we just couldn’t tell.
Tomoe: Or maybe Irunami-kun brought it on with him?
Amaterasu: Or there was some kind of fancy trick used…like balancing the spotlight on the lighting rig…and it fell onto Sadao-chan.
Doi: Talk about suspension of belief…
Tomoe: Are we overthinking it…?
Ryuu: (How did the spotlight get onto the stage…? We need to figure that next…)
I agree with that!
-
“I think Amaterasu-san said. There was a trick used to get the spotlight onto the stage. When I was investigating underneath the stage, I found that there was a trap door that worked by alternating two different wooden panels between the stage and underneath the stage.”
“Ah! If that trap door was used, then the killer could get the spotlight onto the stage!” Ram-san concluded.
“Exactly. I think that’s exactly what the killer did!”
“That can’t be real!”
-
“Hold on now Nagata-kun, there’s a massive problem with that! Sure, I can understand the killer using the trap door to get the spotlight onto the stage, but if that’s the case then now did, they manage to hit Irunami-kun with the stage light and kill him?!” Hachi-san objected.
-Rebuttal Showdown Vs. Tomoe Hachi-
Truth Blades:
Broken Spotlight
Trap Door
Ram-san’s Account
Kurohiko-san’s Clothes
Kurohiko-san’s Account
Tomoe: Sure, the trap door could have used to get the spotlight onto the stage, but that doesn’t tell us how it struck Irunami-kun! Irunami-kun died right there on stage so how could the spotlight have hit him when it was underneath the stage?
Ryuu: Isn’t it possible that we’re missing something? There could’ve been some sort of set up used!
Tomoe: Some sort of set up…? There’s no kind of set up that would work! And there’s no way Irunami-kun hit himself so if there was no way for it to happen…then the spotlight wasn’t brought to the stage by the trap door!
Ryuu: (I can feel something in the back of my mind…some kind of new possibility with the evidence we have…)
I’ll cut through that argument!
-
“Actually…Irunami-san might’ve not died on stage like we originally thought.”
“H-huh?!” Hachi-san frowned.
“When I was investigating Irunami-san’s dressing room I found Kurohiko-san’s regular clothes in a bag-“
“You found my clothes and didn’t tell me?!”
“You wouldn’t have wanted to wear them. When Nagata-kun looked at those clothes there was blood found on them, if I remember.” Yokozawa-san recalled.
“B-blood on my clothes…?” Kurohiko-san paled. “H-hold on, y-you aren’t gonna accuse me, right?!”
“Doi-chan isn’t the killer.” Amaterasu-san said.
“I agree! I cannot see Kurohiko-kun being the killer!” Asano-san added.
“N-no, I’m not saying that. Kurohiko-san was in his stage clothing ever since his set with Kurosaki-san…after all somebody should’ve seen him enough times to prove that…”
-
It’s you!
-
“Kurohiko-san told me that he saw Amaterasu-san a lot whilst searching for his clothes. I’m sure she can confirm that Kurohiko-san was in his stage outfit the whole time after Kurosaki-san’s set.”
“Yeah, he was.” Amaterasu-san stated.
“Though how exactly does this all mean that Kurohiko isn’t the killer?” Sly-san asked.
“Th…that’s not really the point I was trying to make. Rather than proving Kurohiko-san can’t be the killer…his clothes actually prove that Irunami-san didn’t die on stage in front of us like we originally thought. Nobody would’ve been close enough to Irunami-san when that lighting rig fell for blood to get on those clothes…”
“So…you’re saying that Sadao died somewhere else?” Graves-san thought for a moment. “It makes sense…between that blood and the broken spotlight, it’s obvious that Sadao never made onto the stage.” Never made it onto the stage…come to think of it…someone mentioned something else that points to the fact that Irunami-san never made it to the stage.
-
Here’s my proof!
-
“Ram-san pointed out that Irunami-san died in his regular outfit despite the fact that she and Asano-san made a stage outfit for him.”
“Are you saying that…Irunami-kun was in his normal clothing because he was dead before he got on stage…? But, if that’s the case then what did we see on the stage?” Ram-san asked.
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking for a while that we kind of believed all this way too easily. I mean…we all saw Irunami-kun from the audience. So, that must’ve been him.” Hachi-san said.
…they have a point. I’m positive that Irunami-san wasn’t alive when he was on stage, so who was it that came on during his set...? “Let’s think of it this way then. If Irunami-chan being in his normal clothes proves he didn’t make it to the stage, then whatever had his stage clothes would be what appeared during his set.” Kurosaki-san said. Whatever…was in Irunami-san’s stage clothes?
-
Here’s my proof!
-
“There was a stunt dummy underneath the stage that was wearing Irunami-san’s clothing. Kurosaki-san, are you suggesting that what we saw on stage was that dummy…?”
“Oui! Very well done, Nagata-kyun~! If the killer utilized that dummy, then it becomes easy to act as if Irunami-chan is on stage!” Kurosaki-san explained.
“No, it doesn’t.” Hachi-san disagreed. “It explains the silhouette. But it’s not that simple…but there’s two other problems. One, why didn’t we notice? Second, how did the dummy move around the stage?”
“Okanaya-kun was right next to the stage, shouldn’t he have noticed if the figure on the stage was Irunami-kun or not…?” Yokozawa-san said. Not necessarily…if the killer used that thing then they could’ve stopped anyone from realising that it was actually a dummy.
-
Here’s my proof!
-
“Couldn’t the killer have disguised the dummy with the fog machines? There was a lot of fog on the stage that we could barely see who it was on the stage. Because of that, we just assumed that Irunami-san was on stage because it was his set.”
“And it explains why Okanaya-kun wouldn’t have realised despite being so close to the stage.” Ram-san continued.
“Okay…that takes care of problem one, but what about how the dummy was moved around the stage…? That still hasn’t been explained.” Kurohiko-san said.
“We’ve come too far to be wrong here! I’m sure if put our heads together we can figure this out as well!” Ram-san smiled. Yeah, she’s right…the solution is somewhere, we just need to find it.
-Non-stop Debate 5-
Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets
Kurosaki-san’s Set/Kurohiko-san’s Set
Remote Control Car/Broken Toy
Cables/Razor Wire
Air Cannons/Fog Vacuums
Dummy/Undamaged Dummy
Ram: The killer must have had a way to move the body around the stage! I’m sure we can find it!
Kobo: Should we just guess…? Maybe the killer used wires? They could’ve controlled the dummy like a puppet!
Tomoe: Did they use magic?! They could’ve done it with a trick!
Sly: Also, possible they carried the dummy around.
Karma: Or the dummy is haunted…and levitated around the stage by itself!
Doi: D-don’t say it’s a ghost!
Ryuu: (Someone brought up an idea that might be possible given what I know…)
I agree with you!
-
“Sly-san might be onto something. There might have been a method of carrying the dummy around the stage. When I was investigating underneath the stage, there was a remote-control car sitting there. The same car that Amaterasu-san was looking for to use in her performance.”
“Amaterasu was gonna use a remote-control car…? For singing…?” Sly-san raised an eyebrow.
“Not just any kind of remote-control car. This car was specially equipped and suitable for someone like the Ultimate Thief. This car was modified with a claw that would be used to pickpocket people.” I explained.
“I was gonna distract everyone when I was singing and use the car to steal stuff. Had it all planned out.” Amaterasu-san said.
“Right. If the killer used the claw on the remote-control car then it’s possible to transport the dummy around.”
“He’s right…the arm the claw is attached to is super long and I made sure the car wouldn’t tip over despite any weight on it. It totally should’ve been able to carry around the dummy.” Amaterasu-san confirmed.
“Then it’s settled. There are no more problems with Irunami-san not dying on stage like we originally thought-“
“I see your flaws!”
-
“Don’t fuck around now, Nagata-kun! There’s still a massive problem that you haven’t answered!” Yokozawa-san interrupted.
“H-huh…? There’s still more?”
“Geez, you didn’t even realise it…? Guess I have no choice but to explain…”
-Rebuttal Showdown Vs Junpei Yokozawa-
Truth Blades:
Asano-san’s Account
Kurohiko-san’s Account
Shinko-san’s Account
Okanaya-san’s Account
Ram-san’s Account
Junpei: You’re saying that everything has been proven but that’s not the case. You still haven’t explained Irunami-kun’s voice when he came on stage to do his set. If you can’t explain the voice then you haven’t really explained anything!
Ryuu: Are you really saying that after all the evidence presented that Irunami-san was still killed on stage?
Junpei: We all heard Irunami-kun’s voice, that’s undeniable! It was clear as day, he even called up Shinko-kun to the stage! There wasn’t anything unusual about his set until that moment, aside from the fog machines!
Ryuu: (I get Yokozawa-san’s point, but even so…)
I’ll cut through that argument!
-
“No, there was something unusual about Irunami-san’s set. When I was talking to Shinko-san about the performance he said it was strange. It was like Irunami-san was repeating everything he was saying during the rehearsal stages word-for-word.”
“Now that you mention it…” Amaterasu-san murmured.
“But that’s not all. Hachi-san, you and Irunami-san recorded your sets so you could watch them back, right? Would it not have been possible to use Irunami-san’s set from there when they sent the dummy out on stage?”
“P-probably…there are speakers underneath the stage. If you plugged the recorder in there, you could play it out over the speakers.” Hachi-san nodded.
“So…Irunami-kun seriously didn’t die on the stage…? And all of that stuff we talked about is seriously what the killer did…?” Yokozawa-san said in disbelief. “How…? How the hell did someone even come up with a plan like that?”
“It’s obvious, right? The killer’s just one crafty bastard.” Okanaya-san said.
“If that’s the case we can finally rule out Kobo-chan.” Amaterasu-san said.
“Oi!”
“But even though we’ve established the method, are we actually any closer to finding the killer…?” Ram-san asked.
“Hmm…well, the Monokuma File doesn’t mention the time of death, right? Maybe we should try and figure out when Irunami-kun died?” Yokozawa-san suggested.
“Check everybody’s alibis, right…? Yeah! We can do that! Let’s figure it out ASAP!” Hachi-san said with determination. The time of death…I wonder, do we have anything to show when it could’ve been?
-Non-Stop Debate 6-
Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets:
Monokuma File 2/Monokuma’s Mistake 2
Kurohiko-san’s Account/Kurohiko-san’s Mistake
Talent Show Line-up/Scraped Line-up Plan
Rehearsal Schedule/Night-Time Announcement
Shinko-san’s Filming/Shinko-san’s Absence
Kurosaki-san’s Set/Kurohiko-san’s Set
Junpei: Since the Monokuma File doesn’t include the time of death…do we have any way to pinpoint when Irunami-san died?
Mami: Irunami-kun must have died during the talent show
Kobo: During it…? How do you figure that?
Tomoe: It’s not impossible…did someone see him?
Mami: I do not believe anybody saw him…however, something could have happened…something that could have only happened during the murder. That would give us the time of death.
Yuuki: Was Senorita Asano always so cryptic?
Ryuu: (We can’t determine alibis without figuring out the time of death…so how do we go about figuring that out…?)
I agree with that!
-
“Yeah…something did happen. Something that could have only happened during the murder. Remember how I mentioned earlier that Kurohiko-san’s clothes had blood on them? Well, Kurohiko-san’s clothes could have only went missing during the set with Kurosaki-san. That must have been around the time of the murder!”
“That’s not necessarily true. Couldn’t Kurohiko have killed Irunami before the talent show and then simply changed into his stage outfit…?” Shinko-san asked.
“Nope! I can disprove that theory right now!” Kurosaki-san chimed. “You see, Monsieur Kurohiko and I shared a changing room and we were in there the whole time getting prepared for our set-in various ways, so he had no opportunity to kill Irunami-chan in his regular clothing. Not to mention that, even if he did, I would’ve noticed the blood.”
“V…various ways…?” Shinko-san repeated.
“Wh-why the hell are you saying weird things?!” Kurohiko-san protested.
“So that is the kind of man you are, Kurohiko-kun.” Asano-san nodded understandingly.
“And there wasn’t a chance for Doi-chan to kill Sadao-chan after his set either. I saw him too often backstage while I was searching for my car and not once did, I see him in his regular clothing.” Amaterasu-san joined.
“And in turn, I saw Amaterasu-san way too often for her to have a chance to sneak underneath the stage and set up all that stuff with Irunami-san’s body. In fact, I saw Amaterasu-san only a few seconds before the lighting rig fell and she should’ve had the remote for the toy car with her, but she didn’t.” Kurohiko-san said.
“So, you two are each other’s alibis. At least that sorts them out.” Yokozawa-san said. “So we know there’s about half an hour of time where the killer could’ve killed Irunami-kun whilst Kurosaki-kun and Kurohiko-kun were on stage.”
“A whole half an hour of knife tossing…” Kurohiko-san shivered from the memory.
“And majority of the others were in the audience at the time, right? So, they obviously have alibis.” Sly-san said. That actually brings our suspect list down…huh?
“Wait…is there anybody left then…? Wasn’t everyone either on stage or in someone’s sights in that time frame…?” I asked.
“Okanaya was working the lights in the wings. Would anybody see him…?” Sly-san asked.
“I was standing with Okanaya during Kurosaki’s set waiting for my turn, so he has an alibi for that time. We saw Amaterasu a lot as well, she was really pacing back and forth around backstage.” Shinko-san said. Then…who’s even left at this point…?
“One person.” Kurosaki-san said. Huh? “One person is left. Out of our whole group, only one person standing here doesn’t have an alibi for when me and Kurohiko-san were on stage. One person who nobody saw until the murder.”
“…w-wait…” It suddenly dawned on me. Out of everybody here, the only person that wasn’t seen until the murder…that was…
…that person is the culprit? That can’t be right though…
-
The culprit…is you!
-
“…Hachi-san?”
“Huh? What’s up?” Hachi-san asked, not quite realising it yet.
“If we go by everybody’s accounts, the only person left without an alibi for Kurosaki-san’s set would be you…” But can that be right…?
“Hold on, there’s clearly a problem with that! A big one!” Ram-san cried. “H-Hachi-san and Irunami-kun were best friends! It just doesn’t make sense for Hachi-san to be the killer, don’t you think?!”
“Friends?” Kurosaki-san repeated slowly. “Sorry, but if you start saying lines like that then I’ll start laughing. Laughing so hard I might piss myself, so please don’t start joking around.” It was quick. It’s always quick when Kurosaki-san’s malicious expression reveals itself that I can’t help getting caught off guard. “Friends don’t exist in the class trial, only victims and killers. Those are our only relationships to each other…”
“That’s not true!” Ram-san yelled, surprising everyone in the room. “…a-ah, what I mean to say is…I want to believe in the friends I made here, if I can’t believe in them then there’s nothing I can believe in…s-so, I want to believe in the friendship Irunami-kun and Hachi-san had…”
“R-Ram-chan…” Hachi-san murmured. They let out a breath and looked at me. “Okay…if you’re gonna try and point to me as the killer then I want some serious proof because not having an alibi by itself doesn’t mean anything.”
“If that’s the case, where were you during Kurosaki’s set?” Sly-san asked.
“I was preparing for my tricks and stuff. Irunami-kun and I had a switching places acting at the end of his set, so I had to set up for that, but I also had to set up for my own tricks. I didn’t have any time to go and kill Irunami-kun.” Hachi-san explained.
“So pathetic…” Kurosaki-san sighed. “I don’t even want to get into a debate because this is so pathetic…you were killing Irunami-chan and setting up all your tricks for the murder. Not the show.”
“Th-that’s not true…!” Hachi-san said.
“Kurosaki, can you just shut up…?” Okanaya-san growled. Kurosaki-san looked at him for a moment and smiled with a nod. “Let’s actually talk about this shit properly. Hachi, you’re saying there ain’t any evidence saying you’re the killer, but you actually got anything specific…?”
“S…specific…?” Hachi-san thought for a second. “…ah! I got it! The lighting rig! The killer obviously had to make the lighting rig fall somehow, but it’s not been established how that was done! If you can’t prove I could’ve knocked the lighting rig down, then I can’t be the killer!”
“They’ve got a point. The lighting rig was part of the killer’s cover-up so if Hachi-san didn’t knock it down, they can’t be the killer.” Kurohiko-san frowned. The method of knocking down the lighting rig…it’s true we didn’t decide on what it was, but will that really prove who the killer is?
-Non-stop Debate 7-
Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets
Okanaya-san’s Account/Okanaya-san’s Mistake
Lighting Rig/Metal Rod
Hachi-san’s Magic Classes/Irunami-san’s Hypnosis Classes
Rehearsal Schedule/Absence List
Air Cannons/Fog Vacuums
Tomoe: If you can’t connect the lighting rig falling to me…then I can’t be the killer!
Kobo: So, the issue is how the lighting rig fell.
Tsukiko: Perhaps the cables were severed?
Kobo: It’s stupid to say, but…maybe the wind knocked it down?
Toson: Dumbass, we were inside…there was no wind!
Amaterasu: Couldn’t Tomoe-chan have climbed up and released them?
Toson: You’re just acting to be voted for, aren’t you? Nobody could’ve climbed all the way up there!
Ryuu: (Let’s think carefully about this. The answer might be a little ludicrous, but if it’s the only answer…)
No, that’s wrong!
-
“No, Shinko-san…I think Okanaya-san may be onto something by saying it was the wind. When I was talking to Yokozawa-san, he started talking about these air cannons that Irunami-san was planning to use during his performance. Pretty powerful ones.”
“Powerful is an understatement, they could send a person flying from the other side of the stage.” Kurohiko-san said.
“Urp!” Hachi-san went pale. So…that really might be it.
“Who was in charge of setting up the air cannons for Irunami-san’s act?” I asked.
“That was…Hachi. Hachi and Irunami were helping each other set up their sets.” Shinko-san spoke, realising what everything meant. “H…hold the fuck up! Are you really gonna say that Hachi set up an air cannon to knock the lighting rig down?!”
“E-e-easy now! That doesn’t mean anything! S-sure, I set the air cannons, but someone could’ve changed their positions! Amaterasu-chan was walking back and forth between the wings and backstage, right?!” Hachi-san argued.
“Can you prove that Amaterasu touched the air cannons?” Sly-san asked.
“Can you prove she didn’t?! B-besides, if that’s all you got then I don’t have anything else to say! Those air cannons don’t tie to me at all! You can’t tie the air cannons to me!” Did I not already do that…? So, Hachi-san wants something more than what I already showed…something that might link to the air cannons…
-
Here’s my proof!
-
“Hachi-san, I have just one question. How do you do your wind trick?”
“…huh?” Hachi-san somehow went paler.
“You told me about those magic classes you gave to some of the group, and a wind trick. How did you do that magic trick…? Did you maybe use the air cannons?”
“I…I…”
“Not to mention that everybody who was at those magic classes has an alibi for the murder…! So even though some of us knew how to do that trick, none of us could’ve actually killed Irunami-kun!” Yokozawa-san said.
“So…it’s really true, huh…? Hachi-san really killed Irunami-kun…!” Ram-san covered her mouth.
“HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD ON!!!!” Hachi-san bellowed. “It’s all…circumstantial! Because…because…you still haven’t established where Irunami-kun died! Where did Irunami-kun die?!”
Irunami-san…the most likely place he died would be…
-
My logic follows!
-
“It would’ve been to risky to kill him underneath the stage. Kurohiko-san had left his clothes there, so he was definitely going to go there at some point. The only place I can think of…is Irunami-san’s dressing room.”
“But, other than on Kurohiko-kun’s clothing, there was no blood in there, correct?” Asano-san said.
“Irunami-sama had thick, curly hair, when he was hit, a lot of the blood would’ve been soaked in by his hair, so a lack of blood isn’t so strange.” Ishikawa-san said.
“So, you’re saying Tomoe-chan killed Sadao-chan and then took his body underneath the stage and set it up for the switch when the lighting rig fell.” Amaterasu-san clarified, “Then…isn’t there another problem, isn’t there…?”
“Another problem? What do you mean?” Kurohiko-san raised an eyebrow.
-Non-stop Debate 8-
Truth Bullets/Lie Bullets
Vent System/Bolted Vent Grates
Costume Rack/Empty Rack
Trap Door/Regular Floor
Hachi-san’s Account/Hachi-san’s Mistake
Amaterasu: The killer must’ve had a way to get Sadao-chan underneath the stage…the problem is that Tomoe-chan would’ve had to pass through the backstage area to get underneath the stage…wouldn’t that have been impossible…?
Toson: Right…Amaterasu was going back and forth around backstage…but she didn’t see Hachi at all….
Tomoe: Yeah…! Yeah! See? I’m not the killer then! Thanks Amaterasu-chan, you’re the best!
Ryuu: (I don’t doubt that Irunami-san was killed in his dressing room…was there a method of getting Irunami-san’s body underneath the stage without being seen?)
No, that’s wrong!
-
“That wouldn’t be a problem at all. Remember earlier how I mentioned the vent system? It’s possible for Hachi-san to move Irunami-san’s body through there, right? That way they could’ve gotten Irunami-san’s body underneath the stage without being seen.”
“Oh yeah! The vents are huge, it would be super easy to push a body through there or drag it!” Graves-san said.
“Nononononononono!!” Hachi-san pleaded. “It’s all wrong! This is all wrong I’m telling you!”
“With this…all the mysteries have been solved. Hachi-san killed Irunami-san, took his body to underneath the stage then set up the switcheroo trick to make it seem like he died on stage, then joined us in the audience.”
“…huh?” Hachi-san thought for a second. “…yeah! That’s not possible, Nagata-kun! Not possible at all…! Because if I was in the audience at the moment of the lighting rig falling, then how could I have pulled the lever to activate the trap door?!”
“A-ah…!” Th-they still have more in them…but I can feel it. This has to be the final hurdle before Hachi-san confesses…okay, I’ll break through this and end this trial!
-Argument Armament Vs. Tomoe Hachi-
Tomoe: There’s no way I could have been in two places at once, so I couldn’t have pulled the lever for the switcheroo trick! Your whole basis is wrong because I’m not the killer, I could never be the killer!
Tomoe: Stop it already…I just want to find Irunami-kun’s killer! I want to find the truth more than anyone, so why are you accusing me?! I’m innocent I tell you, I’m innocent, I won’t let you say I killed my friend!
Tomoe: Just leave me alone! It’s all a trick by the true killer, you’re being tricked! I won’t allow this killer to get away, so just stop it already! It’s impossible, completely impossible for me to be the killer!
Ryuu: This is the end!
Tomoe: How could I have done the switcheroo from the audience?
Remote Control!
-
“You could have easily activated the trap door from the audience, as long as you had its remote control.”
“R-r-remote?!” Hachi-san repeated.
“Kurohiko-san told me about it when he was explaining the trap door to me. He said that practically everything in the auditorium was remote controlled. Kurohiko-san, that includes the trap door, right?”
“Y…yeah. Trap door, speakers, fog machines, lights…everything.” Kurohiko-san confirmed.
“And if you were using remote controls, you wouldn’t have had a moment where you could safely dispose of them, right? After all, Hachi appeared right after the lighting rig fell…so, if we searched you, would we find the remotes?” Sly-san asked.
“Gh!”
“You clearly blundered when you volunteered to watch over Irunami-sama’s body, but if you did not it may have been suspicious that you did not wish to be with Irunami-sama after his passing. A conundrum you clearly had not prepared for…” Ishikawa-san theorised.
“And that’s that…any more objections, Hachi-san?” I asked. Hachi-san simply let their mouth hang open, unable to form any kind of coherent words or phrases.
“Hey, I’m still kind of fucked here…this was really complicated, so can we go over it all from the start?” Okanaya-san asked. Yeah…I’ll summarise these events and end this case once and for all.
“This is the truth of the incident!”
-
Act 1
This case is a pretty complicated one, so I'll try my best to explain it all thoroughly since it relied heavily on a certain trick. First the killer needed to prepare beforehand for the actual murder so they decided, with the work of Irunami-san and Shinko-san, that they would all work to put on a talent show as a cover for the murder. They were going to use their set time in the talent show as their alibi and as a way to frame Okanaya-san.
Act 2
First the killer prepared a dummy and dressed it up as Irunami-san. Then rigged the lighting bar for the actual talent show by setting up some of the air cannons to hit the lighting rig at full blast. They did this all the night before the talent show, knowing that nobody else from the stage crew would be around so they were free to do what they needed to.
Act 3
Next was the actual day of the murder, the first few acts went on as normal. However, at this moment, the killer went backstage to Irunami-san's dressing room and used a spare stage light to bludgeon him to death, dressed in Kurohiko-san's clothes to avoid the blood getting on their clothes. Next the killer got changed out of Kurohiko-san's clothes and into their own.
Act 4
Then they took the stage light and Irunami-san's body and placed them on the lift for the trapdoor underneath the stage by transporting them through the vents and swapped their bloody clothes out for the stage outfit on the rack, then hiding the bloody clothes in a bag in Irunami-san’s dressing room. Then they took the dummy dressed as Irunami-san and used Amaterasu-san’s remote control car to hold it up. Now it was ready to go on stage.
Act 5
The dummy went on as Irunami-san and the killer joined the audience through the vent, saying it was part of the trick Irunami-san was planning and waited until the dummy was hovering over the trap door and released the lighting bar by using an air cannon, letting it crash onto the stage. They then used the button for the trap door to switch the dummy with Irunami-san's actual body and feigned innocence, thinking we'd all believe the tech crew was to blame for Irunami-san's 'accidental' death and we didn’t even realise Irunami-san never made it to the stage because of the fog machines.
And this was the trick you used to fool us all...it’s curtains for you: Tomoe Hachi, the Ultimate Illusionist!
-
“And that’s all…did I get anything wrong…?”
“I…” Hachi-san was quiet for a moment before letting out a sigh. They then flashed a smile. “Wow, Nagata-kun! You really did it! You figured out all of my tricks and saw past my illusions!”
“H…Hachi-san…” Ram-san murmured.
“Oh? Is that it? Have you all decided now…? Well, if that’s the case, let’s all proceed to the voting tim-“
“Can we hold off for a moment?” Ishikawa-san interrupted. “I apologise, but before we proceed to the voting…how do we wish to handle this matter?”
“What do you mean?” Amaterasu-san asked.
“Do you not recall…? The motive for this particular trial?” Huh…? The motive…the motive, if I remember…
-
My logic follows!
-
“A wish…if the killer wins the class trial, they get a wish granted. Any wish they want.”
“Y-you’re not gonna suggest we let Hachi win the class trial, are you?!” Shinko-san growled.
“Why not…? If we allow Hachi-sama to win then we may be able to end this killing game. I fail to see any problem with this idea.” Ishikawa-san smiled.
“Th-that true…” Shinko-san murmured.
“Hold on now, we can’t trust someone like Hachi-san! They killed Irunami-san after all!” Kurohiko-san argued.
“Nagata…what do you think…?” Okanaya-san looked at me. What did I think…? I can see it from both sides…if I’m honest, my gut is telling me…
“…I don’t think we should let Hachi-san use their wish.”
“N-Nagata-kun?!” Ram-san squeaked.
“I’m sorry! I know it sounds cruel but…there’s no way this killing game would end that easily! There’s a trick to Monokuma’s motive, I know it! We just can’t take the risk! Please…Ram-san, I know it’s hard but you have to believe in me…I don’t like it either…”
Ram-san looked to the ground, tugging at her hair so much that her hairband was shifting out of place. “…alright then…I’ll…I’ll trust you.” She said with determination.
“No way! We can end this once and for all! We can’t let this opportunity pass us up!”
“It’s too risky! We can’t!”
“I sense the discord!”
-
“Ah…I suppose it’s pretty late in the trial, but if seems you’re all at an impasse. This is a very important topic, so I think it’s time for the morphing trial grounds…!” Monokuma announced, pulling out the key from before and causing the trial podiums to change formation.
-Scrum Debate, begin!-
"Should we let Tomoe use their wish?"
"We shouldn't!" - Ryuu, Kobo, Ram, Mami, Sly, Amaterasu, Yuuki
"We should!" - Tomoe, Toson, Karma, Doi, Junpei, Tsukiko
Junpei: We should let Hachi-san use their wish to end this killing game!
(Okanaya-san!)
Kobo: It’s way too risky! We don’t know if Hachi will use their wish the way we want them too!
Toson: We’ve already trusted a killer in our group, so what’s the difference here?
(Sly-san!)
Sly: I may be a killer, but I’m not the culprit in this case. These are two different matters.
Karma: We can prevent anyone from having to be executed. Isn’t that a good thing?
(I’ll deal with this!)
Ryuu: There’s no way Monokuma would let us fail a class trial without anyone being executed!
Tsukiko: Can we not trust Hachi-sama to do the right thing in the end?
(Asano-san!)
Mami: Hachi-san sacrificed their best friend in the group. Are we expected to trust them even after that?
Tomoe: Please, let me end this killing game once and for all! I can do it, I promise!
(Ram-san!)
Ram: Even if you say that…we can’t guarantee the killing game will end because of the wish!
“This is our answer!”
-
“I’m sorry everyone…I’m sorry…Hachi-san…but if we don’t vote correctly, who knows what might happen?! Our lives are on the line, can we really afford to be taking risks right now?!”
“You…you are right…” Ishikawa-san conceded. “Even though I do not wish the endless slumber upon anyone…what am I to do when there are so many other lives in front of me that could be jeopardised?”
“Shit…shit! Fuck this! Fuck this whole class trial, why can’t we just have it be easy?!” Yokozawa-san slammed his fists onto the podium.
“Then…you’re done…? We can proceed with the vote…?” Monokuma asked. “Great! Then please select who you believe is the culprit from the screen in front of you! Will you pick the right choice…? Or the dreadfully wrong one…? What’s it gonna be? What’s it gonna be…?”
We watched as the Monokuma roulette wheel spun around, out faces each passing the needle before it eventually stopped on Hachi-san’s icon. Bouquets of flowers popped from the sides of the roulette wheel…we had voted. And the class trial was over.
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Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 26
Spoilers, obv.
This felt like a big issue to us. I mean, in a literal sense it was a big issue. We normally are 20 pages of art (plus cheats). This is 23 pages of art, due to me completely fucking up and writing a 22 page script extremely early, thinking I'd go back to it and work out a way to compress it to 20. Except I forgot I had extra work to do on the script, so didn't leave enough time to rework it before Jamie had to get it. And then Jamie insisted on expanding a sequence by a page, because he loves you guys, or at least loves the comic.
I don't really think I could have compressed it without hurting the comic either. I compress the action at the start, and it leaves a reader cheated. I talked about false drama of cliffhangers last time, and if you don't have at least some manner of satisfying that promise, it's a cheat, and not in an interesting way people would thank us for. However, at the same time, that's not what we're really doing here. Equally, losing stuff from the back of the issue would move it into the next issue... and that is also sub-optimum, for reasons you'll see next time.
Put it like this: Jamie joked “can we split this issue in two?” and I took it entirely seriously, and started doing the math on making this a seven issue arc.
But no.
There's also one change which should be mentioned – we've gone up to $3.99 from $3.50. Why? Image suggested we should. There are very few Image books that are $3.50 now. The vast majority are $3.99. We've had our price set at $3.50 ever since 2006, with the exception of Immaterial Girl. We figured we should listen to our publisher. 50 cents across a decade seems reasonable, especially in an industry where $3.99 seems standard.
Anyway, let's do this thing...
Jamie/Matt's Cover
The Norns, and they are kind of core to this issue, so more of a connection between cover and contents than for most of the issue. For reasons that become clear this issue, The Norns and Baal step forward as alternative protagonists for the story structure. They are key.
There was considerable EEEK! Over the wearing of masks.
Nicola Scott's Cover
Nicola's wonderful. I've wanted a candid photo cover for most of WicDiv, and I'm surprised it's only turned up now. It's also delineating Sakhmet and Persephone, which is a key note towards the end of the issue.
The Image 25th Anniversary Cover
It should be stressed, this was Eric Stephenson's idea.
You may wonder how we did it.
This is how we did it.
In short: we did it like an episode of Playschool. The lighting being a lamp, gaffataped to a wall is a particular highpoint.
And then Katie-west worked her magic.
All the good jokes on the covers are Jamie's, which is very annoying, but makes me feel better when I laugh at it, as at least I’m not laughing at my own crap.
Page 1
I love the first panel. I almost put it in the newsletter, but decided we should save that thrill for context. It's very much in the establishing shot mode, and a promise. Jamie and Matt executing things like Minervas concussive wind blasts out of the swirling body is lovely detail too.
I did have something akin to a NOT AGAIN! As a line of dialogue from Minerva here, but was obviously killed for breaking tone. See later in the notes for other thoughts on that whole sequence.
And by the end of the page, we've changed direction entirely. No, this isn't going to be a straight fight. We have other narrative fish to fry.
Page 2-3
RISING ACTION was basically four issues of straight punchy, with a middle act of woe. We're not the sort to do that again, and immediately try and make this feel different. That first panel where we get a very human observation of a superhero event. A glance out the window, and shit is going down out there. There is a lot to try and ground this as we go on, even as it escalates...
I suspect Amaterasu's realisation is one of the cruellest lines I've written for her.
Heh. Okay – want to hear another example of me messing up? I knew I needed Amaterasu here, ASAP. But I had also set the scene at night, so her long-range-teleportation doesn't work. This led to a rewrite to bring in the Woden-designed-arm-piece from Rising Action. And it helps in other ways – we get the interaction with her mum, which says a lot about Amaterasu. I do like the idea of Amaterasu having left this piece of fancy armour lying around on her bedroom floor and her mum tidied it up.
Jamie pushed a panel from page 3 onto page 2, which is obviously a smarter call, letting him keep a steady angle on the three teleportation panels, which nails the effect. The breaking up dialogue to show that things are instantaneous is obviously one of our tropes.
The lettering on this sequence involved some messing around with layers to get work, and to make the fade in operate. Nice work, Clayton. This is also an area where my suspicion of sound-effects was entirely over-ruled.
Page 4
And hulllllo Baal's family.
This strikes me as a very WicDiv take on a reveal. It could have worked with just a reveal of his family – we'd want to see that. But to reveal that, and juxtapose it to the creeping monsters, so mixing the excitement of meeting new people with the fear of losing them? That's WicDiv, innit? Sigh.
This was also the page which went through the most colouring notes. Getting the exact level of reveal on the Great Darkness creatures, of how much they're in the light or not took quite a few takes. We're very happy.
Page 5
We are totally not rated PG.
Page 6-7
If you follow me on twitter, you'd see me doing a crowdsurfed suggestion for a line of dialogue for someone to say when they're pulling someone out of the way. That was this page, and Persephone pulling the tentacles. I decided that any dialogue was too much. It even makes it jokey (clearly not the intent) or slows down the action. Even a “NO!” felt too much for me.
We're heading more towards action here, and doing a beautifully rendered fight-scene in someone's garden. This feels a very us thing to do.
I believe I described the Amaterasu laser beam shot in the mode of a Quietly moment, that sense of a still moment in time. Jamie and Quitely don't have a huge amount of overlap as artists for me – Quitely is all about the 3D space of a shot, which Jamie simply isn't – but this captures something really furious. The colouring from Matt on the heat vision is particularly A+.
The push and pull of Amaterasu is very much her thing. Her bravery is an open question, as is her capacity for anger and violence. From Persey-Poo to incinerating her foes in a couple of pages doesn't exactly make me feel comfortable about her. So nice work, J ane M.
Also Good Job Baal's Brother on spotting the baddies.
Page 8
Jamie and my debate on exactly how to (er) Biggify the Darkness creature was quite a thing. Of course, the creatures are granular. We can't just make the grains bigger.
We were a little worried that Persephone firing red thorns being a little confusing, when red is Amaterasu's signature. We may end up tweaking them green in the trade. Not that we've seen anyone complain about it.
I think Amaterasu's living-Darkseid-stary-beam is my favourite regular power signature in this book.
Lots of careful unpacking on what is said on the phone, to ensure clear storytelling. That we never actually show the Great Darkness Creature back at the shard defeated is an unsusual choice... but we need to make sure that people know it HAS been defeated and Minerva rescued. Equally, we come back to the nature of cliffhangers we mentioned earlier. We've promised a fight against the Great Darkness, but are much more interested in introducing Baal's family, showing Amaterasu's complicity in this, Persephone's powers, etc. So you DO get a great darkness fight, just not the one you were expecting, which is hopefully okay as the one you were expecting is a lot less interesting than this. Hopefully.
The Phone is a Woden design, as referenced later in the issue. Baal can't just go down any phone. You'll see one on his living room table in last issue.
Page 9
This is the sort of page I'd have ended up cutting if I tried to reduce the issue... and why would I want to do a thing like this?
There was a discussion of whether ALL I DO IS WIN was too much. It eventually worked around to obviously it's too much, but WicDiv is too much, so that's all fine.
This is a lovely set of colouring from Matt here. The white and purple is just a delight.
Notice tiny Scarab-esque thing shooting off in the top right panel. In a moving medium the Great Darkness' nature would be a lot cleaner, but we do stuff like this.
Page 10
And we're back to grounded colours. Just turn this page and see how things change. Isn't that a delight? Matt Wilson For Eisner, etc.
Yes, Baal's name is Valentine Campbell. Obviously we chewed it over a bunch. Valentine has so many connotations seemed to be useful.
I find myself thinking that in the first half of the issue Persephone is almost back to volume 2 Laura. She's primarily an observer, one who is taken places and sees thing. That does tend to make Amaterasu's final line particularly pointed.
Lovely pair of expressions in that final panel.
Page 11
The title for this was originally ONCE MORE, leading directly into Baal's first line, and hitting the beat again. That changed when I realised I wanted to do the whole sequence as a nine panel grid.
This is the first time all the surviving gods have been in a scene together, and it's a circular table. Luckily, when I mapped the gods to the seats, the ones who are most important to interact are actually sitting beside each other – imagine how difficult it would have been if Baal and the Norns weren't seated by each other.
(We'd have done something else, clearly, and had the Norns standing like Persephone is.)
So I was trying to work out how to panel all this political-meeting style chat, and hit the bit where the gods vote. And I realised that as there were nine gods voting, it'd work really well as a nine-panel grid. That rapidly expanded to... wait, especially with Baal/Norns sitting by each other (so minimising the need for wide shots) I could do the whole thing in a nine panel grid. That allows you to cut between individual characters speaking, and not have to worry about the interactions for most of it.
That unlocked the way to best dramatically sell the Persepone's final line. If we build a structure, we can get an aesthetic effect by demolishing it.
It's not the first time we've done a Nine Panel Grid in our work, but its' certainly the longest. And if we're doing Nine Panel, it brings it back to Watchmen, which means that we should highlight that. Hence, the title altering to THE WATCH, which obviously has all kinds of connotations.
I go through this to primarily show how much fun this job can be. Stuff builds on top of other stuff, and you eventually end up with something much more full than the original idea. For me, pretty much nothing is as good as writing is when it's going right.
Which is the sort of thing I'll get depressed about if I think too much about it, so let's not for now, eh?
Page 12
If we're going to do the nine panel thing, we need to establish the scene properly. Two panels, built on a nine-panel grid superstructure.
Obviously this was a heavy described panel, as we had to cram in all the character beats for all the people. Baph's slouch is particularly on point. The coffee that Dio is hanging onto for dear life another. The Norns not getting a seat.
One thing I particularly like about this page? It forefronts the visual element of the table with twelve gods around which people may not have noted. This, on a page after a big title saying THE WATCH is more obviously a clock face.
Yes, Watchmen was a big influence on me as a writer. Did I mention it? I may have mentioned it.
Page 13
Oh man – look at Matt's use of shadow here. Baal in the darkness on last page was great, but passing from the shadow to light in the first panel.
When I first saw Jamie had put Minerva in plaid I worried for him. “Er... Jamie. Drawing Plaid is a lot of work.” He noted that as there was only a few panels with her in, it'll be fine. Jamie is not entirely foolish.
The page does show one of the things about the nine panel – as in, you get more beats... but you have to be pretty particular to choose those beats. 9 panel is good for a writer, for certain things (most important: timing), but you can do less with any one panel. On the plus side your beats are more deliberate, more delineated.
In this case, showing Persephone's is relatively “expensive” in page space, but clearly necessary – Baal is saying the stuff he's never said before. We need to see her response.
And yeah... Baal finally lays out his main motivation. I suspect for close readers or re-readers, things make a lot more sense.
The seventh panel is one of four two shots I can see in this whole sequence, to get an idea of how sparsely we tried to use them. Maybe 5 if you include the one with Woden asking “Does she get a vote.” Though I say this having only skimmed quickly, and am sure I must have missed one..
The non sequitur panel of the 8th is one of my fave things you can do with a rigid panel like this. Drop a silent panel and break it up.
Page 14-15-16
Honestly, this kind of shit is stuff I love. Just lock characters in a room and let them argue. Political dramas. Legal dramas. It's just a fascinating writing challenge – who speaks next and why. How to delineate the information, how to lampshade information is questionable, etc, etc.
I mean, in some ways this sort of debate is pure exposition – here are some statements – but the fact that each is immediately interrogated turns it into something else.
Basically, if left to my own devices, I'd have just done a 40 issue series in the style of 12 ANGRY MEN called 12 ANGRY GODS.
In terms of my outline, I knew that the pantheon would have a schism at this point. Until Brexit happened, I didn't realise that it would be by something as clear and true as a simple democratic vote.
The hand on Cass' shoulders is the sort of thing I'd have only done in a nine panel grid.
Yes, Baphomet, there was a time for jokes, and it was in the first arc.
PAGE 17
This issue, for reasons which we'll get to shortly, had some consultants' eyes on. That bit was fine. The thing which was tweaked then, and tweaked time and time over is trying to delineate the sides. The first draft simply hadn't sufficiently. Hell, the second or third lettering tweaks didn't do the trick completely. At least from the comments we've seen, no-one seems lost, so the effort seems worth it.
The problem is that each member of the debate wants to phrase their position in the best way possible and their enemies in the worst way, which actually leaves it hard to say what's actually go on. This led to Baal in the final panel actually bringing it together – the PRIORTISE THE GREAT DARKNESS vs STUDY is the key thing. ANARCHY had to be introduced explicitly by cass to describe someone else's position as a label before it could be used here too.
In terms of minor fact drops? One of the things people always ask is what's going on with the skulls. Here we just let people know they're ornaments.
In terms of the nine panel grid, I think the single hardest decision was letting go of showing the Norn's response to Sakhmet's threat. Alas, everything else is more important.
The second one would be Baal doing something like counting people around the room, to ensure that the reader knows that Baal thinks he's won. In the end, we highlight that later, and with the ellipsis in the eighth panel. And, of course, as always a Jamie McKelvie expression goes a long way.
Er... I'm writing too much about this stuff, but I hope it's useful for people who think about comic craft. And to double-triple stress, as always in these notes, I really am just telling the surface level storytelling basics.
Page 18
And the vote page. As said earlier, was where the 9 panel grid came as possible.
These lines were especially tweaked to sell the positions and why.
And Dionysus, for the first time in the scene, speaks. Obviously a key issue for Dio, where we move him into an explicit new position in the plot.
Page 19
Man, I don't even want to unpack this page.
But I can easily imagine how both Baal and Cass are feeling in the last panel. Uh... wait...
Page 20
Formalism doing its formalism thing.
This was written in a nine panel grid, but with descriptions of which panels are covered by Persephone's hair.
Page 21
And then we go into our quick cuts to move to the new status quo, the nine panel.
It's very much our aesthetic that we show the break-up but don't show the getting-together.
I suspect it's the sort of scene I'd like to talk about further down the line, but not now.
The gold prize for Jamie here are panels 3 and 4. For me, that's comic, and that's why I love comics.
Well, one of the reasons, anyway.
Page 22-23
Cass continues to be a gift for those who like reaction images.
The strangest rewrite of the issue for me was the “What's the saying about stopped clocks?” line, which was originally a lot more suggestive and less explicit. But 2 of the first 4 people to read it didn't get it in its more suggestive form, which meant that I was always going to dial back for clarity's sake.
So, yes, this is a Cass/Dio/Woden team-up for the Study side. Splitting your cast into smaller narrative units is a good tactic in a team book (I sort of learned it properly when I was writing my 9-core-person Uncanny X-men team). You also see it all over the place – if you listen to Community notes, you'll see how they split their cast into different arrangements and see how the characters interact. Having three characters who, on the surface, appear to have very different priorties come together under a larger banner is an interesting one.
In terms of the explicitly delineating at least part of the sexualities, this has been considered for a while. Let's start with Cassandra.
Early on in WicDiv, I saw a random comment of someone annoyed with something I'd said. Specifically me saying something akin to “I sometimes need room to discover a character's sexuality.” Her response – and one I completely get – was annoyance with suggesting people don't know their own sexualities. The “No, I know I'm Bi – don't say it's a phase. Don't say it's something I'm discovering.”
As I said, I get it, but that's not what I meant. I meant characters. Writing often feels like excavation. Not always, but sometimes, and especially in a book like WicDiv. You get to know them by writing them, sometimes in actually fundamental ways, ways which were always there but now come to the surface. For all my planning in WicDiv, it's also a living creature.
So when starting off, I always had a few feelings about Cassandra. There was the possibility that she was actually asexual. It would fit with her for a few ways, and the evidence for a reading of that was certainly there. However, I rapidly realised it caused huge problems inside the narrative in terms of what it was saying about asexuality. One of Cassandra's primary traits is that she doesn't experience the performances. If she's asexual, that implies that it's linked to that – especially when the performances have been linked so strongly to sex at various places in the narrative. I thought that'd be true even if we had another asexual character in the primary cast to show the contrary. I continued writing her and thinking, and having an awareness of the various potentials I saw in her. I didn't have to make a choice yet.
The flashpoint was issue 20, where I realised that it just was untenable for her to be asexual. Because if performances are linked in the readers' mind to sex, that eventually Cassandra does response to a performance is a sign that asexuals just haven't met the right person yet.
No. I'm not writing a book that suggests that.
There is also the real world thing that trans women are viewed through a hypersexual lens or an asexual one, which is certainly one feeds into the final dialogue on the page.
So everything re-arranged and solidified in the other way I saw them – a stable lesbian polyamarous triad. I saw with Imperial Phase ahead, that felt more and more necessary. WicDiv is... not a book where relationships are healthy. Every single romantic relationship in the book is openly dysfunctional. Relevantly, there is a lot of people doing polyamory very badly. It comes to a point where it looks like the book saying this behaviour is bad rather than this specific practise is bad. The Norns would be the counter-argument. In this issue, we show them in an private, loving supportive relationship that's arguably more unconventional than any other in the book.
We don't get to see any of the sex, of course, as it's none of our business and they're not there for the readers' pleasure. But with them in our story, it shows there's nothing implicitly wrong with kink, or polyamory or anything else... as long as you don't act like sentient burning trashcans.
That was the thinking. Some of it, anyway.
Oh – on the note of discovery, I only realised that she'd lean submissive as I wrote the page. It was a surprise to me as well, but seemed to align with everything else and make a lot of things make more sense.
In Dio's case, it was there as a possibility even as I first wrote him into the bible. I see myself writing around it in my notes, saying that I just didn't feel like sex was a big drive for him in the way it was for so much of the cast. The problem eventually came for the place to introduce it, and how, and in the same action where we move Dio towards the centre stage (or at least primary supporting characters) seemed to be it.
We've had a lot of supportive messages about both of these, so thank you. And thanks again to our consultants, who we will continue to high five at the slightest encouragement.
Page 24-25
This was originally written as a page, but Jamie insisted on MOTORBIKE DRAMA!
And how could we resist that?
I actually wrote a first draft of this, and wondered if it was too much, and then did a completely different end scene based on Persephone leaving the Shard. Arguing it over with Chrissy, we came down strongly on this. It's WicDiv. We crash motorbikes into walls for the sake of it.
Worth noting: this is a return to a non-cliffhanger ending structure. The “read the next issue” comes from the whole of the issue rather than a specific beat. This is about leaving it with a mood.
Favourite thing in colour – the circle of light on the wall, a half second before impact.
I'll give you one for free: Persephone is on the phone to one of her people, probably an agent. I could have put an explicit call in that to the dialogue, but it was too crass and fake, and the specific identity doesn't really matter that much. It's just someone who's clearly going to get her a new bike.
Also: the main reason why I wondered whether this scene wasn't too much, is because it is literally the lyrics to Icona Pop's I LOVE IT.
Page 26
“Hey, C, is referencing Kesha too much on the interstitial? It sort of is a trashy pop take on Watchmen's encroaching apocalypse feel.”
“No, that sounds like exactly the sort of thing you do.”
“Cool.”
See you next month, where we reach the penultimate part of IMPERIAL PHASE (I). It's just being put to bed, and we like it a lot.
Thanks for reading.
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