PART V: MURDERER

Misato stood up. After taking some time to breathe, reality set in. She’d killed someone. She’d killed a child. Misato stood up from Rinko’s limp body. She tilted her head, still looking at the girl. Misato stared into her lifeless eyes. Nothing. She felt no remorse or sympathy for the dead child laid out in front of her. It’s like it didn’t matter. All she knew is that Rinko deserved it.
She turned around to see Kyoko, who had three stab wounds in her neck. It’d stained her long, bright brown hair. Misato looked closer to see Kyoko’s similarly brown eyes looking around. She was still alive. Her chest would rise and slowly fall, blood pouring out of the neck wounds and the sides of her mouth. Misato rushed to her side. “Hanamori-san?! You’re still alive?!... How?!” The underclassman exclaimed, trying to force out tears. Kyoko coughed. “You killed her.” She said, trying to stay conscious. “What? No, I… I didn’t! She ran out of the room right after I swear!”
“You killed her...both Rinko and Murakami-san. I… looked out of the window to see someone falling… Ran down to the front of the school… It was Taeko.”
Misato froze. “No… what are you talking about? She killed herself”
“You’ve been lying to everyone for years, Misato. You killed her. You killed that little girl. And you felt nothing after.”
Misato covered her ears.
“No! I didn’t. I didn’t! I did nothing to that little girl! I did nothing to Taeko!”
“You’re such a liar, Misa-chan.” Kyoko laughed and laughed.
She couldn’t take it anymore. Misato got up, grabbed the knife that’d been used to attack Kyoko, and approached her upperclassman. But when she turned around, Kyoko was dead. She wasn’t breathing. Kyoko Hanamori was dead, just like Rinko. Misato dropped the knife.

Why did I even grab the knife?

Was Hanamori-san really dead this whole time?

… Was that really Hanamori I was talking to?

The front door to the classroom slid open. Misato spun around to face the door. Three girls stood in the doorway, all varying in height and ages. Misaki Ogawa, Asuka Takoyama, and Chiyo Shimizu. It was the three girls from earlier; Rinko’s presumed friends. The girls looked around the room in horror. “You… you did this!” Misaki cried out. “This wasn’t supposed to happen…” Asuka said, covering her mouth with her hands in shock. Chiyo had no words for what she was seeing. The girls assumed that Misato had killed both Kyoko and Rinko, even though she’d only killed one. “Wait…! I-I didn’t kill them! The… the two got in a fight a-and… Kyoko killed her and then herself! I swear!” Although she’d only killed one of them, she still tried to get away with lying. She slowly started to walk up to the three, trying to comfort them. “I’m sorry about your friend… I tried to stop Hanamori-san but she’d lost her mind. Let’s find a way out of here-”

“Taeko-san says she’s lying.” Chiyo said. Misato froze, hoping the other two would think Chiyo was saying nonsense. “Taeko-san saw it all! Hanamori-san was murdered by Rin-chan, and she… killed Rin-chan.” Chiyo backed up. Misaki grabbed Chiyo by her arm. “Murakami-san spoke to you again…?”
Chiyo nodded. Asuka reached into her skirt waistband, pulling out a pair of scissors. She held them to her side as she approached Misato. “I don’t believe that Murakami-san is speaking to her, you aren’t lying, right?” Asuka held some hope that Misato wasn’t lying. “...I… Of course n-”
Asuka pushed the scissors into the older woman’s gut. “Liars always start with ‘of course.’”
Misato pushed the girl away, keeping the weapon in her side to stop the bleeding. The push caused Misato to fall to the floor, landing her next to the knife. “What’s she saying now,

Chiyo-chan?” Misaki asked, gripping the girl’s arm. “Murakami-san says we should rip out her throat.” Chiyo replied.
Misato shivered, both from the realization that she could die there and from the scissors piercing her gut. “Wait… I-I killed Rinko but she’s the one who killed Hanamori-san! I’m telling the truth!”
The three didn’t care if she was lying or not. Whatever Taeko said was their law. Misato then remembered: the knife! She’d felt the cold handle of it when she’d fallen. Misato scrambled to grab the weapon, keeping her eyes on the girls. Her mind was racing with countless thoughts.
Why did this happen to me? Why is she doing this to me? This shouldn’t be happening to me. I don’t want any of this to happen to me. This shouldn’t be real.
Why am I scared of these children?

Misato stood up, gripping the knife in her right hand. She took a deep breath in, as she felt all of the remaining sanity and reasoning leave her body. She was now empty.
Before Asuka could touch her, Misato grabbed the girl by her shoulder and plunged the knife into her gut. The girl gagged on her own blood. Misato twisted the weapon left then right before letting the girl fall to her knees, She had no time to react.
Misaki and Chiyo gasped in horror at the sight of their friend, twitching and bleeding out on the floor. “Takoyama-san…?” Misaki said, hoping for a response from her nearly dead friend. Asuka didn’t answer. She was gone. Misaki screamed and turned to the door. Misato stepped over Asuka’s body, pushing Chiyo out of her way in the process. Chiyo fell to the ground and landed on her back. She quickly pulled herself up to see Misato repeatedly stabbing Misaki in her head. The girl went limp against the door. Misato backed up from her mess and turned to face Chiyo on the ground. Misato’s face was covered in blood, along with the new lilac suit she’d bought for the

reunion. It’s like she’d poured blood all over herself. But she didn’t, of course. She’d brutally stabbed two high school girls.
Misato stood over Chiyo, who’d become a quivering mess. She wanted to beg for mercy, but Misato obviously wouldn’t listen. So the girl kept her mouth shut. Until the older woman asked her a question.
“Taeko speaks to you?”
Misato asked. Chiyo frantically nodded her head. “Yes! Sh-She’s the one who told us to lock all of the exits before the assembly! She wanted to make you pay!” Chiyo began to get angrier, rather than scared. Misato tilted her head in confusion. “She wanted you to watch innocent children and your friends suffer!”
.Chiyo started to cry on Taeko’s behalf. “Why did you push her?...” Chiyo asked, looking up at Misato. Instead of answering, the older woman roughly landed herself onto Chiyo, taking her breath away. She couldn’t even cough before Misato pushed the knife into the girl’s forehead. Instead of immediately dying, Chiyo screamed in pain. It had only penetrated her skull. She tried wriggling away from her attacker, but the knife was stuck in her head. The blood from her open wound leaked into her tears. As Misato tried pushing it deeper and deeper, Chiyo’s pleas became more and more unintelligible. In an attempt to end the girl’s suffering, Misato lifted her lower body in the air and pushed down on Chiyo’s head using her upper body. The knife plunged itself into Chiyo’s forehead, abruptly ending her pain.
The room was now silent. Misato sat down on the corpse’s stomach, causing Chiyo’s body to spit up blood. It was over. Misato had done it.

“Why did you push her?...”

The question echoed through Misato’s mind. As she thought about it more, she began to laugh. And laugh. And laugh. She couldn’t help it. The question just seemed so dumb to her. “Haha… It was an accident! She jumped on her own!... Or… did she fall?”
Misato felt her own lies unravel. She didn’t remember what she’d told the police that evening. After all, it was a lie. A lie that she had to keep up for a decade.

A loud voice suddenly grabbed Misato’s attention.

Come to the roof, Misa-chan. Finish the job you failed to do 10 years ago. Just… no more killing. Please.