Danganronpa F6: Beneath the Surface- End

[JesusMonroe]

“This is certainly not ideal, but at least we passed.” Benjamin shrugged. “And for the curious, my challenge was to convince somebody I was the mastermind for 8 hours.”

[SaizotheSixth]

"...Do not bother. With the pain I have inflicted onto Benjamin, do I really deserve any influence like that..?"

Ivan looked downtrodden as he said this, facing away from the others.

"Personally, I don't care what you did, why you did it, or whether you think it was okay for you to do what you did." Haley pointed at Ivan's back. "What matters to me, right now, is giving my vote to someone who will probably use it. Whether it's you or the doc, I don't really give a shit! All I really know is that I don't want my vote, and I don't want nobody's blood on my hands. I refuse to kill in this game, and whether it's by voting for someone's death or removing someone in the game myself, I ain't gonna do it. So man up, pick up the sad sacks you call your balls, and take charge!"

[Cold52]

Matt said no words, he got up, grabbed a classy old bottle of champagne he managed to scrounge up from the cellar, popped its cork and began chugging it down till it was entirely empty and set the bottle down.

"Ow sweet merciful god that was one hell of a long time with no damn booze...ow uhh, the damn card said had to stay off the damn stuff for 72 hours. its like the damn stuff of nightmares." Matt said this with a completely straight face.

[Joker]

"I guess my jokes were really that bad." Klifford says, rubbing the back of his head. "I couldn't get anyone to laugh. But then again with the way things are, I wasn't really in the mood to try my best..."

The doctor sighs.

[Collin1002]

"Sorry, Doctor Pratt..." Oliver looked at him with a look of guilt on his face. "For what it's worth, I'm sure the children you care for love your jokes."

"Oh, and, uh, my card was to admit that I was a jerk and get people to call me that, or at least something sort of similar. Simple as that." Oliver then placed a hand to his chin in thought. "So Belphegor apparently has another challenge for us, eh? Lovely. I cannot wait to see what it is," he said, his tone clearly one of sarcasm.

[Doctor Nanjo]

Begin.

The big metal door in the basement swings slowly open. with a loud metal groaning noise.

The next area is just a square, stone room. On one side is a heavy metal set of double doors. Posted on the door is a note and in big block lettering across them it reads: CHALLENGE AREA.

The door on the left has similar print on it, reading OBSERVATION ROOM A. The one on the right reads OBSERVATION ROOM B.

In the corner of the room is a little coat room where there are benches for taking shoes on and off and places to hang clothes. On the rack are several matching sets of grey overalls.

Spoiler: Note

Rules:

1. All three tasks must be completed within 60 minutes, else deadly gas will flood the Challenge Area. Completing all three tasks is considered victory. At victory, these doors will unlock. At 60 minutes these doors will unlock.

2. The items that may be taken into the challenge are eyewear, any items which cannot be removed from your person, and the grey jumpsuits in the coat rack.

3. Teleportation magic may not be used to connect the inside of the challenge area with the outside.

4. Only Klifford, Benjamin, and Matt may enter through the main entrance to the Challenge Area. They must do so within six seconds of one another, or deadly gas will flood the area, killing those inside. Once all have entered, these doors will lock sealing them inside.

5. Timer starts when the first person enters.

6. Cameras will take pictures of the events within the Challenge Area at twenty minutes and every five minutes thereafter. Only one person may enter either Observation Room. Once someone enters an Observation Room, they may not leave the room until the end of the challenge. Each room gives sight through a different camera.

Spoiler: The March

Klifford, Benjamin, and Matt each take in the news.

"So a pediatrician, a mechanic, and a prisoner walk into a bar..." Klifford gives a goofy smile, obviously trying his best to look good in a foreboding-looking situation.

"We have a lot of skills between the three of us, that's for sure. I imagine that's why it's us. It's going to be like that," Benjamin says, as solid under pressure as ever.

Matt, on the other hand, looks very irritable, "Shit! I don't want any part of this! Damn shitty demon! Lemme compose myself for a minute before we do this!"

The three of them go over to the jumpsuits and begin changing. Soon, they look ready as they'll ever be. Matt has calmed down a fair bit and simmers with determination. Benjamin looks icy cool. Strangest of all, Klifford manages to give the others a debonair smile, which clashes with his usual demeanor.

The three of them go up to the door.

"Ready?" Benjamin asks.

"Yep." "Let's get it done."

The door opens and the three of them slip in without another word. The door makes a deep snapping noise as it automatically closes and locks.

In spite of everyone's protests, Daniel insists he enter Observation Room B and does so. Brandy quickly goes into Observation Room A.

The challenge is here.

[Please stand by while alibis are distributed.]

[Doctor Nanjo]

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

Time is up.

Oliver and Sebastian enter the little staging area where Ivan and Haley are just as Daniel and Brandy leave the observation rooms. The six of them ask one another furiously. Daniel and Brandy have no idea what happened, and nor does anyone else. They stare at one another in horror.

THE CHALLENGE HAS BEEN FAILED. 60 MINUTES ARE UP.

The truth resonates in everyone's head. Belphegor doesn't even have to say it. The truth of the matter is that the challenge was failed and that means...

The lethal gas.

The six of them have no choice. They go right up to the door and open it.

Spoiler: The Proving Grounds

They enter a rectangular stone room with a tank to one side bathed in an uncomfortable red light.

The place warps around them, shadows over everything. It feels like they're entering hell.

It's deserted. Nobody is there. Everything feels empty and hallow. It's hard to believe anyone was there to begin with.

In the other side of the room is an elevator.

They call it up and it opens in shadow like a steel mouth.

They step in. The only two buttons seem to go down. They hit the first one, nit bearing the idea of the second.

When the door opens, they're in a world with shadowy green light, but that's not what steals their attention.

Right across the room is a shiny looking pile of something.

They inch closer and closer.

It's meat.

It's raw, crushed, minced, shredded meat. It fills the air with the scent of blood.

They can barely hear Belphegor even as his voice rings out.

"A BODY HAS BEEN DISCOVERED. PLEASE TAKE THIS TIME TO INVESTIGATE."

Spoiler: ...

??? the ??? is dead

Spoiler: ....

Something deep within them doesn't stop them. They need to see it all. They ride the elevator down another floor.

One more floor deep into the depths of hell.

The sight awaiting them is unspeakable. Unfathomable. Horrible.

The overwhelmingly sickening smell of burning flesh.

The sizzling of something frying.

The wretched green light and the dancing white light of fire intermingling.

The stone room contains a furnace and something -- no someone -- is lying against the curved side of the furnace while white hot flames rave inside.

Cuts and burns mark his body. Chunks of hair are missing. His head hangs limp right next to the holes that the fire peak through. His face is charred.

Spoiler: .....

Benjamin Bledsoe the Star ??? is dead

[Doctor Nanjo]

"A BODY HAS BEEN DISCOVERED. PLEASE CONTINUE YOUR INVESTIGATIONS."

It's unreal. It can't be real.

They begin to discuss investigating everything. Everyone is reeling. Everyone is numb to the world around them. It was a disaster. A complete disaster.

Slowly they get organized. Somebody mentions how somebody is still missing. People begin to snap to their senses, realizing that if somebody survived, they could be in danger. They split into groups of two and begin the investigation.

Spoiler: Investigation Teams

Oliver and Sebastian - The Middle Floor Crime Scene

Brandy and Haley - The Bottom Floor Crime Scene

Ivan and Daniel - Everything Else

Spoiler: Resources

[MAP]

[EVIDENCE]

---

The six gather in the tribunal area. The shrine basically looks empty now with just six. Seems like nobody found where that last person went.

"Welcome everybody," Belphegor widens his arms as if to embrace everyone. "Things have become very difficult, have they not? You look like you all want answers."

"Unfortunately, the answers to all of your questions lie at the bottom of an ocean of partial truths and evasive responses. Each step you take into it might be your very last. I suppose this is the point where I should encourage you to stay ignorant and embrace the absurdity of the situation, the spectacle of it all. This game of wits is simply a front for another game, one which tests how you cope with death. Can you come to terms with it, something like this?"

"That is what interests me. We are getting down to the wire now. This is tribunal four."

"As always, here is your debt if you get this wrong:"

Spoiler:

"IF A MAJORITY OF YOU DO NOT VOTE FOR THE TAINTED, ALL LIVING PLAYERS ASIDE FROM THE TAINTED WILL LOSE SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT OF THEIR REMAINING LIFESPAN."

"Try to find your way out of this one."

[KamiPanda]

Seb, who had previously informed everyone that his card had been to convince someone else as to the identity of the mastermind and have them believe it for 8 hours, sighed at his podium. Truth be told, he'd expected Benjamin to die eventually, always the willing sacrifice that he was, but his death still seemed particularly brutal. And even that was nothing compared to the other corpse.

"If we thought those cards were cruel, those challenge rooms were on a whole new level," he mumbled, trying not to picture the scenes. "A room with a massive tank of alcohol for Matt, a room with a pachinko machine for Klifford - and I'll get onto that in a moment - and then a torture room for Benjamin. Someone has a very twisted sense of humour," he said, looking sidelong at Belphegor.

"At least two dead, and to make matters worse, the third is missing. Not to mention the whole area was supposed to be filled with deadly gas once they failed, which they apparently did. Things have been bad before, but this time is particularly bad. We need to do our best to get to the bottom of this."

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Seb began his testimony.

"I don't have much to report myself, outside of the investigation I did with Oliver. For that hour-long period after midnight I was mostly up in the tower room cleaning, trying to take my mind off things.

"Sticking around in the challenge lobby wouldn't do much good, so I left. At first I wandered the castle for a while. Everything was quiet, I didn't see anyone else, not even Oliver. Then at around 10 past I headed up to the tower room. Bruce was hanging from the ceiling, asleep probably. We can probably discount him from assisting in these murders this time, at least.

"Without much else to do I began cleaning. At 12:25 I took a short nap on the bed, for around quarter of an hour. The room still seemed clean when I awoke, so presumably no-one came in while I was sleeping. I returned to cleaning, then at 12:56 made my way back to the challenge area, worried about the state of the challenges."

After this Seb swiftly moved onto investigations, by far the meatier part of his report.

"I investigated the middle floor with Oliver. The focus of the room was a gambling machine, the aforementioned pachinko device. There was a wooden chair screwed to the floor in front of it. The machine is... particularly nasty," he said, making a face before forcing himself to continue. "To buy pachinko balls you have to pay in blood. Literally. 100ml of blood for one ball. The chair had a device that can clamp at your wrist to extract the required amount of blood. Glass tubes on the side of the machine stored it all, and there was about... two and a half litres of blood in each tube."

He took a moment to steady himself again before continuing. "Above the machine was a green light with a timer, reading 00:00. Above that was a description for the challenge: 'Win 500 pachinko balls'. And indeed in the payout section of the machine it seems they'd managed it, there were a little over 500 balls in there.

"Then there's the... corpse. I must admit, I've seen a lot of corpses now, but nothing even close to this. Completely crushed, in a vaguely circular pile. Even at the thickest it was only a couple of inches tall. A single hand had mostly survived whatever did it, but it was completely broken as well.

"I could just about make out the remains of one of the jumpsuits in the mess. I used my gloves to examine the scene as best I could; switching off like I did with Bennett helped me to cope, it was necessary work. A clump of unidentifiable brown hair was in there, which could be either Klifford or Matt's really, there was no way to tell. There were also the broken remains of Klifford's glasses, though I'm not sure that's proof enough. I also found a piece of metal wire, about 18 inches long, with a hook at the end. I kept searching after that but only found more pieces of the glasses.

"Next we examined the camera in the room. It can rotate any direction: we found it rotated towards the wall. Near where it was pointing there was a screw sticking out of the wall, which you could maybe tie something to.

"We were making good time, so we then examined the elevator. A magic circle had been carved into the floor, about three feet or so across. A rectangular hole had been carved right through the floor for some reason, at just some random place near one of the corners: you can see it marked on the map. The hole opened down into the elevator shaft, but was only just large enough to put a forearm through.

"Finally, just for completeness I should point out that I noticed Oliver was covered in red stains. Apparently it was a painting accident. It might not be relevant but better to mention it than not."

[Collin1002]

Oliver's normally snow white suit with the occasional dirt stain was completely splattered a bright red, much to the performer's disdain. "So we have Benjamin and someone else dead now... I hope the person we didn't find is alright," he stated with a small sigh. "Time to do this bloody tribunal business again..."

"So, I'll just get right into it. At midnight, I headed to the art room, alone, and locked myself inside, not wanting to possibly be attacked as I looked at the artwork. The portraits there were utterly majestic and beautiful, and I admired them for quite some time. They must have taken some time to produce. I wondered if I could produce something of quality like that, or at least something that could hold a candle to that beautiful artwork. I figured it would be a nice change of pace. As a man of the arts, I do love a good challenge, so I got to work."

"I grabbed painting supplies and a canvas, went to a corner of the room, and started painting. I decided to paint a portrait of everyone currently alive on the expedition... well, everyone who was alive at the time I was painting," he glumly stated. "I would have painted everyone, alive or not, but sadly, the canvas was too small. In any case, I began to sketch everyone, and it took quite some time, of course. I made a few blunders here and there, but overall, I was quite satisfied with it when I finished. And then I got to coloring everyone in."

"I fumbled a bit, but overall, I was proud of how well I was doing. I used a variety of colors, such as blue for Haley's hair, then yellow for Benjamin and Brandy's... and then I decided to grab the red paint for my own luxurious head of hair. I made quite a blunder going to grab it, and accidentally knocked it over. It got everywhere -- on the floor, on the portrait I worked so hard on, and on my pristine white suit! If it was not ruined before, it certainly is now. At least I have a change of clothes in my bag. I let out a cry of frustration and tore the portrait apart in a rage; it was ruined anyway. I then picked up the shards of paper on the floor and threw them in a nearby bin. Sadly, I couldn't clean the red stains from the floor, much less my suit."

"At about 12:25, I sat down and just thought for a while. I figured that being an artist maybe just wasn't for me. To try and get my mind off of things, I took out my flute -- which I had retrieved by now -- and started playing quietly to get my mind off of things. At one point during playing, I heard footsteps by the door, but they didn't interrupt my grand performance."

"Eventually, at 12:55, I stopped playing and left the room, firmly and tightly shutting the door as I left. I then decided to go back to the challenge room, and... that's it." He rolled his shoulders. "Seb perfectly described our investigation. God, that corpse was... the sheer thought of it makes me tremble. I had to hold myself back from vomiting several times..." He shuddered.

"In any case, let's find this infernal murderer. We will bring them to justice. I know we'll find them out."

[WinterCoat]

"Well, let's get this horror show on the road..." Brandy said. She looked tired and pale, as though her face had been drained of some of its color. "Jesus fuckin' Christ..."

"It was 'bouts midnight when I got in Observation Cell A. I figured that I might jus' be able to keep an eye on things even if Daniel couldn't. In that small, dark cell there was two buttons in front of a monitor, n' a chair. I was told some instructions 'bout how to proceed..."

Spoiler: Instructions

“Welcome to the observation room. You will be receiving real camera shots at 20 minutes and every five minutes thereafter. If, for any reason, things aren’t going as planned in the challenge room, then you have two options. The first is the button with z’s. This button will release gas which will knock out anybody in the same room as your camera, but only those in that room. The second is the button with the skull. This button will release a similar gas, but this gas is fatal. Again, this will only affect those in the room with your camera. Only use them if you are desperate. The knockout gas will keep someone out for around fifteen minutes.”

"Must've been in there 'bout twenty minutes 'fore somethin' was shown to me, like the instructions said would happen. The first picture I got was of a stone cell. Someone was bein' slid 'cross the floor of the room to the right. There was a green light on on the back wall, n' in front of the light, there was a unnervin' pachinko machine with tubes to either side of it, containin' a bunch of what seemed like blood. A wooden chair was placed in front of the machine, n' the person slidin' out of frame to the right is in their jumpsuit, but it wasn't Benjamin since was nothin' 'round the ankle. The motion blur of the picture made it obvious the person was movin'.

"After seein' that, I slammed that knockout button. I was thinkin' that maybe someone was bein' kidnapped, n' that maybe by hittin' the knockout gas button, they'd be apprehended, hopefully. I was jus' tryin' to be positive...

"At 00:25, the picture I was shown looked mostly the same, aside from the body bein' gone. I wasn't really sure what happened, since I should have knocked someone out... I figured that, maybe they were off to the side of the frame?

"At 00:30, the next photo was clearly showin' Matt n' Benjamin standing in the center of the room. They seemed to be talkin' to each other. Matt had his hand wrapped 'round a large bowie knife. He seemed to be casually carryin' it around. Benjamin didn't really have anythin'. Matt looked a little exhausted from somethin'. But... somethin' was wrong with the picture. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, though. The background definitely seemed the same as before, so maybe somethin' was off with them boys? It jus' felt all kinds of off...

"00:35 rolled 'round, n' the next picture showed the room lookin' normal n' without that weird feelin'. The knockout gas I used should've worn off at this point. The picture looked normal at 00:40, too.

"At 00:45, I was shown the pleasant sight of... a wall. I was only shown the wall for the rest o' my time in that room. At 1:00, I was allowed to leave."

Brandy sighed. "I s'pose I should get to my investigation results. Haley n' explored the bottom floor. It smelled to Hell n' back of burnin' flesh. The major points of interest were a table containin' tools, a wooden chair stained with blood with a strange mechanism behind it, and the furnace against where Benjamin was found. On the table, we found a bowie knife and a pair o' pliers covered in blood. An iron fireplace poker with a sharp end was sittin' there. The sharp end had dirt caked into it. Also on the table, there was a tape recorder.

Spoiler: Tape Recorder

"We should each complete each other's challenges."

"Brat, what the fuck are you talking about?"

"Trust me, it's a good idea." *CLICK*

"It's clearly Benjamin n' Matt on there," Brandy said. "Anyway, behind the table, we noticed there was a mess o' blood on the ground, jus' a couple puddles worth. We saw a drop fall and join the puddles. Up on the ceilin' we saw a grate there with blood drippin' from it. It looked packed with meat.

"We looked behind the chair n' saw a little machine with a meter. The needle in it rests on one side but can go all the way into the red zone. There was two pads on the top o' the machine. Each one could be yanked out n' applied to a person’s body where they would presumably take readings from the body and take info back through wires to the machine.

"The chair in front of the machine was coated with a good deal o' blood. Near it, teeth, more blood, hair, n' nails..." she seemed particularly squicked out by that part,"...sat on the ground. Around the chair was a long wire. It looked like that wire could be used to bind a person to the chair. One end of the wire had been severed while the other end had a hook.

"At the back of the room, behind the chair, was a green light. Under the light was a message which read: 'Make the person attached to this brain-readin' device feel pain such that the scale goes all the way to the end of the red zone.' Under that was a blinkin' timer which said '00:00.'

"Right across from the chair was that damn camera which was mounted on the ceiling. The camera was pointed at the wall right by it. We learned that the camera can point in any direction, obviously.

"Finally, we went on over to the furnace where the corpse was. Benjamin’s body had burns, cuts, and bruises all over 'im. He was missin' teeth n' clumps of hair. His jumpsuit was stained with blood. His face was pressed against the metal furnace n' was sizzlin', charred black. His hands were clearly broken. No wound on the body was clearly fatal. Strangely, his leg was sittin' in a small puddle of blood, and yet there ain't no wound on him that indicates why that pool of blood would be there. It was pretty far from the chair, as well. There was also a patch of blackened blood on the side of the furnace.

"We opened the door on the furnace and saw that there were two hot brands in there, which explain some o' the burns on Benjamin’s corpse. The fire on the inside seemed to burn infinitely n' at a very hot temperature for the sake of the challenge. A vent on the top drained the smoke.

"That's my alibi n' investigation. If I missed anythin', I'm sure Haley would love to fill in the details. I suggest the rest o' y'all give us any info you got so we can figure this out. We owe it to Benjamin, at least. We gotta work as a team. Teamwork makes the dream work, after all," Brandy said with a rather pained smile.

[Datamatt]

Daniel leaves the tribunal and comes back some minutes later, dragging a sofa and a chair behind him. He sets the sofa behind his podium and sits down, putting the chair in front of him. He leans back and grunts, putting his legs over the chair. He also takes off his hat and puts it on the end of the sofa's arm.

"Soldiers, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm still sore, which means I'm going to get what I did out as soon as possible." He yawns into his right hand. "I was in the second observation room at midnight. Brandy over there hit the instructions' nail right over the head, so I'm not gonna repeat 'em."

"Twelve twenty, I saw one of 'em hunched over in a jumpsuit near the left side of the frame. They were at a table. As for the room itself, there was a chair in the center, a furnace on the right side and a red light on the back wall. Couldn't tell shit about who was in that jumpsuit, and it was worryin' my guts."

"Twelve twentyfive, the guy's gone and there's some pliers and a fireplace poker on the table. That's it."

"Twelve thirty, same image. I was damn about to fall asleep." He sighs and rubs his face.

"Twelve thirtyfive, same image. The fire was burnin' so it had to be a different picture."

"Twelve forty, the fuckin' camera was pointing at a wall! I bet my ass some bastard in there sabotaged it for the murder! So, I hit the knockout gas by instinct. The three next pictures are just photos of the fuckin' wall, so I have no idea if it even did anything. But I'm sure someone in there was up to somethin'."

Daniel yawns into his right hand again. "As for my investigation, Ivan and I searched the challenge room on the top floor. There was a large tank with liquor in it on one of the sides of the room. Three feet tall, 'bout five feet wide. It looked pretty full from the front window, and under the spigot there was some tankard which had some drops of liquor, so it was used at some point. The writing on the challenge room said to drink thirty glasses of the liquor, and I'm damn sure that fuckin' drunkard couldn't do it to save his own fucking life." He grunts in annoyance.

"We investigated the observation rooms next. Nothing in either. They looked the exact same."

"Next, we searched the doc's shit. Dude had some sock poppet. I couldn't take looking at it so I just threw it off to the side. Ivan searched the doc's wallet, and there was a photo of I presume his wife and daughter. After the doc's stuff came the drunk asshole's, and the dude had a banged up wrench and a crumpled yellow note. Satan fuckin' stopped us from taking it and he stole it, of course, and said it'd make shit too easy. Motherfucker. His little helper, the animal, took Benjamin's letter and said it'd clean it up. Tough sell on the trust there."

"The art room looked used, and we know it's the singer's doing now. Last thing last, we go up the tower. Looked pretty clean I'd say, except for one small detail. There was a secret passageway in the wood, like this was some fuckin' shitty investigation book. We find a hidden door knob and pull the door open. Inside was a chain on one side of the wall and a key on the other, with an elevator in front with a call button. We go into the elevator and it's actually the fuckin' elevator from the challenge rooms. It showed the three floors. Plus, there was a keyhole, so we put the key in like good lads, and a secret fourth button popped up. Now, if only it fuckin' worked and got us out of here, because it fucking didn't - it didn't do jackshit, of course. Well, yet. We go down to the challenge area and press the button, and it goes up to the tower, where the secret room was. Ain't that handy for the scumbag killer? We closed the panel and headed back up."

He puts his hands behind his head and leans back on the sofa. "That's it."

[Southern Corn]

"Kee, I'm working on cleaning it!" Bruce's squeaks come from a corner of the room. "This stuff is hard to get rid of, you know!"

[Datamatt]

"Kee, I'm working on cleaning it!" Bruce's squeaks come from a corner of the room. "This stuff is hard to get rid of, you know!"

Daniel rolls his eyes and takes out a megaphone from behind his back. He toggles it on and puts it in front of his mouth.

"I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I SEE IT, YOU ANIMAL.

[Southern Corn]

Bruce shrieks in horror at hearing such a high frequency noise come from Daniel and flutters in shock for a few second, clearly traumatised.

[CaptainPancakes]

"I believe all that's left is me," Ivan said softly. "An honorable group of people is left waiting for an avenging..."

After clearing his throat, he continued.

"I guarded the entrance with Haley. After what she pulled last time, and with all my suspicions surrounding her, I thought it be best that she stay under my watch. This was at midnight."

He then crossed his arms, recollecting something quite troubling.

"...But after some time, Haley pointed behind me, claiming to have seen something. I turned around and saw nothing, yet Haley still claims that she truly did see something. A couple of minutes later, I allowed her to use the restroom and gave her a ten-minute time limit. This was around 12:30."

"...The witch then came back at 12:39, but she is most definitely suspicious..! I know I gave her a ten-minute time limit, but..! W-Well, she arrived, and claimed she did nothing except her...ahem, business. And after that, we had a very...interesting talk."

Ivan brought his baton to his forehead.

"It appears that the good doctor had something of a gambling problem. An addiction brought to him through the advice of Nail. He had a wife, kids, and was not making enough money. And so Nail suggested gambling. And thus, an unfortunate case of a compulsive gambler was born. At least, that's what Haley told me. Haley was very concerned over these challenges regardless. Benjamin's strength...and the case of Matt's Virtues and Vices card..."

"Well, regardless...Sebastian and Oliver returned, and the rest is quite straightforward."

[Doctor Nanjo]

"Alright. Good. So that covers everyone's alibi," Belphegor whistles.

"Also, you all should take this: It should come in handy when identifying the use of the magic circle later on:"

Spoiler: Spell Book

Clone spell: Generates a clone of the person with the help of a magic circle and some of the person’s blood. The clone will generate only when the room the circle is in is made pitch black. You can also optionally trace an outline with your finger of where you want the clone to generate. The clone can materialize clothes but not any other external things. Clone can optionally be animated to perform simple commands for about an hour.

Teleportation spell: Requires two different magic circles to work in two different locations. Once activated, anything that goes through one circle comes out through the other. The circles have to have a diameter of 1 meter.

Shrinking spell: Requires just a single magic circle to work. Can shrink any person standing on it once the chant is uttered, with the caster being able to specify the height to which the person should be shrunk to. Can work on inanimate objects as well. Spell wears off after about 30 minutes or when the caster says an unshrinking spell. Can also be used to enlarge things with the same restrictions applying.

Speed spell: Requires a single magic circle but works only on living beings. Can make the person standing on it go faster with the caster being able to specify how fast they’ll be able to go. Lasts for about 10 minutes or wears off when the caster undoes the effect of the spell.

Temporary blindness spell: Requires a single magic circle to operate as well as a possession from the person whom the spell is to be cast on. Person will not be able to see anything further than half a meter of radius from them for either 10 minutes or till the caster undoes the spell.

Night vision spell: Requires a single magic circle to operate. Person will be able to see anything in sight clearly for either 2 minutes or till the caster undoes the spell.

Flight spell: Requires a single magic circle to work. Gives the person standing on it temporary flight powers for about 5 minutes. Spell can also be undone by the caster.

"The first subject you should discuss is what happened at 12:20 in the Challenge Area. Where was each challenger, and what were they doing?"

Belphegor graciously hands the discussion back over.

[Southern Corn]

[Deadline is on 3rd September. Good luck.]

[SaizotheSixth]

"Just to be clear, Ivan and Brandy covered everywhere I was pretty well, so I'm not gonna waste time goin' over old information. For now." Haley put a finger to her chin. "But beyond that... if I had to guess good ole Kliff was running the pachinko machine. He never could resist the temptation, that rush when he won. A shame, really. I would've really liked to see him fight it. Then Matt would've been hard at working drinking away, though I do find it odd he'd be the one who failed... with his tolerance and how much he's been drinking, I would've expected him to make it. And... Ben was doing... I dunno. Secret spy stuff? I never really could figure him out."

[KamiPanda]

Seb looked a little shaken at the reveal that a secret passage from the challenge area, possibly the only way out of there, opened up right into the room he'd happened to occupy. "In theory that opens up the possibility of just about anyone being the killer, if they snuck through while I was asleep. I'm sure I'd notice if anyone simply walked through the tower room after I cleaned it, but... well, there's always the chance that they flew or did some other trick. I believe Brandy and Daniel are the only ones guaranteed to be in the clear.

"As for the current topic, to start things off one unidentified person was sitting at the table in the torture room, while a different unidentified person who couldn't be Benjamin was sliding out of frame in the pachinko room. I'd hazard a guess at someone having lost too much blood at the machine, which made them pass out, causing person #3 to have to drag them away. Daniel, were you able to see the person in the torture room's legs?" Seb asked. "Is it possible that was Benjamin? Otherwise he's the one dragging someone in the pachinko room.

"Logically I imagine the group started by investigating each challenge in turn. Starting from the top floor and working their way down, they ended up in the torture room last before deciding how they should approach the challenges. That's when Benjamin recorded the message saying that they should switch up who does what challenge. I wonder if he recorded it for all of us, for posterity just in case? In any case I think that means no-one completed their own challenge," he said, addressing Haley. "At the very least we know that Benjamin was the... subject, rather than the one inflicting pain, in his challenge. I can only hope his training helped him to cope with that.

"Perhaps they decided the alcohol challenge should be tackled last, otherwise it would lessen their ability to do the other two. So, then, they started with the pachinko machine. As far as I can tell nothing stopped them from all donating blood to purchase balls, but going back to my earlier theory, perhaps one at least donated so much blood that they became woozy. Someone had to drag them to the elevator so they could all attend the next challenge, but then Brandy knocked both of the people in the pachinko room out for 15 minutes. I think that would cover what happened around 12:20."

[Datamatt]

"As for the current topic, to start things off one unidentified person was sitting at the table in the torture room, while a different unidentified person who couldn't be Benjamin was sliding out of frame in the pachinko room. I'd hazard a guess at someone having lost too much blood at the machine, which made them pass out, causing person #3 to have to drag them away. Daniel, were you able to see the person in the torture room's legs?" Seb asked. "Is it possible that was Benjamin? Otherwise he's the one dragging someone in the pachinko room.

"No, I couldn't see anything." Daniel sighs. "Though, I do think the roles were reversed. Benjamin said so in the tape recording, so I find it likely either Klifford or Benjamin were the ones drinking the liquor. Otherwise, the mechanic would've drank more than they did."

[KamiPanda]

"Ah, I just realised the meaning of something," Seb announced. "The coloured lights in the rooms probably represent success or failure of the challenges. When Brandy first saw the pachinko room at 12:20, the light was green and the pachinko machine was already bloody. Daniel, meanwhile, saw a red light in the torture room and didn't see it change colour, however when we went down there afterwards it had turned green. They must have completed the challenge after the camera was turned around, which may have been the reason the camera was turned in the first place: no-one knew about the gas features in the observation rooms, so they just wanted to spare any onlookers the sight. And lastly, the light in the alcohol room never changed colour, so they must have failed that challenge. That lines up with what we know of things already, and somewhat supports my theory as to the series of events."

[Doctor Nanjo]

"Ahh, of course. THAT IS CORRECT. A RED LIGHT INDICATES A CHALLENGE WHICH IS NOT YET COMPLETE. A GREEN LIGHT INDICATES ONE WHICH HAS BEEN PASSED."

[Collin1002]

"If I had to guess," Oliver began, crossing his arms. "Multiple people helped with the pachinko room. They needed five-hundred balls, and they got one for each one-hundred milliliters of blood, correct? There is certainly no feasible way one person could give so much blood without dying, because that equates to fifty-thousand milliliters. But even then, that... that still doesn't make sense to me."

He shook his head, clearly baffled. "Even if all three of them gave all of the blood in their bodies, I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be enough. The average person has about... five-thousand milliliters of blood in their body. All three of them would equate to fifteen-thousand -- only one-hundred and fifty balls would be obtained. Unless... Ah! I think I understand now!"

Oliver triumphantly grinned, thinking he was onto something. "What if the magic circle Seb and I found was used to create several clones for that challenge?"

[KamiPanda]

"Ahh, of course. THAT IS CORRECT. A RED LIGHT INDICATES A CHALLENGE WHICH IS NOT YET COMPLETE. A GREEN LIGHT INDICATES ONE WHICH HAS BEEN PASSED."

Seb nodded. "Yes, that makes sense. Going a little further with this, Brandy said Matt looked 'exhausted' when she saw him later at 12:30: maybe he was the one who lost blood to the machine? So then the order would be something like 'Matt: Pachinko; Klifford: Torture; Benjamin: Alcohol'. I'm not sure why, exactly, Brandy saw him on his feet if he was meant to be unconscious from the gas then, but we can get onto that later. I have a few ideas about that, at least.

"Actually, Klifford's involvement in all this is... unusual," he then said. "He's the only one who never properly appeared on camera, and he wasn't recorded on the tape recorder either. In fact the only strong evidence we have that he was even at the scene is the glasses we found in the pachinko room."

"If I had to guess," Oliver began, crossing his arms. "Multiple people helped with the pachinko room. They needed five-hundred balls, and they got one for each one-hundred milliliters of blood, correct? There is certainly no feasible way one person could give so much blood without dying, because that equates to fifty-thousand milliliters. But even then, that... that still doesn't make sense to me."

He shook his head, clearly baffled. "Even if all three of them gave all of the blood in their bodies, I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be enough. The average person has about... five-thousand milliliters of blood in their body. All three of them would equate to fifteen-thousand -- only one-hundred and fifty balls would be obtained. Unless... Ah! I think I understand now!"

Oliver triumphantly grinned, thinking he was onto something. "What if the magic circle Seb and I found was used to create several clones for that challenge?"

"While it would be difficult, I think the aim of the challenge was to win the balls, by playing pachinko. I don't know how they did it exactly: was Matt lucky, or skilful? Did the others help? But either way they didn't need to 'buy' all 500 balls, only win them one way or another. In pachinko, you win balls by scoring and can use those balls to try and win more again. The balls are both your 'lives' and your score."

[Datamatt]

"Then where are the bodies? Should they not still be around?" Daniel looks up at Oliver.

[Collin1002]

"Then where are the bodies? Should they not still be around?" Daniel looks up at Oliver.

"Perhaps they disappeared when their purpose was done?" Oliver theorized. "They were made from magic, so... maybe it would wear off eventually."

[KamiPanda]

Seb shook his head. "The clone bodies don't disappear even after dying," he said.

[Datamatt]

"Burnt in the furnace, maybe? Or was it not big enough? Though that wouldn't make sense, because then Benjamin shoulda gotten barbecue'd too."

[Collin1002]

Seb shook his head. "The clone bodies don't disappear even after dying," he said.

Oliver sighed. "Damn it all, I really thought I was onto something there..."

He slumped his shoulders, clearly disappointed that his guess was wrong.

[WinterCoat]

"I'm not sure why, exactly, Brandy saw him on his feet if he was meant to be unconscious from the gas then, but we can get onto that later. I have a few ideas about that, at least."

"Well, maybe Oliver's onto somethin' with this clone idea, then. What if I only knocked out one Matt?"

[SaizotheSixth]

"Unless... eugh..." Haley shook her head, disgusted. "Unless they packed the bodies into the grate. Brandy and I did find a grate packed with what looked like meat that was still dripping blood above the table... wouldn't surprise me if they moved the bodies there after they were done."

[KamiPanda]

"I believe that was the same bloody mess we found in the pachinko room," Seb responded to Haley. "We didn't find any passageway to a secret area you could dump the bodies in, after all, so whatever was above the grate must be an area we know of.

"Anyway, like I said, you can simply win the balls. Cloning might be the answer to other questions, like Brandy said, but I don't think it's relevant to the pachinko challenge. Unless they simply made one clone only, which would tie it into the later potential clone usage. I suppose that at least would make sense, one clone rather than a full group of them."

[Collin1002]

"Right, well... hmm..." Oliver cupped his chin in thought. "There was a tube on each side of the machine, both filled with 2.5 litres of blood total, which adds up to five litres. That's about... five-thousand milliliters, which would net someone fifty balls. So I assume that the other four-hundred and fifty were won."

"And like I said earlier, the human body contains about five-thousand milliliters of blood, give or take. So either a single clone was used or, god forbid, Matt or Klifford themselves were used, their blood extracted for fifty pachinko balls..." He lightly shuddered at the thought.

[WinterCoat]

"If we go with the theory that they all swapped challenges, then it might well be possible a clone was used by Matt to play that pachinko game. It would explain how he seemed fine when he should've been knocked out, n' that maybe the guy bein' dragged off camera is somehow connected to it all," Brandy wondered. "Was it a clone? Was it the real Klifford or Matt?"

[KamiPanda]

"Actually, I'm sure I heard that the human body can only lose maybe... around 1/5 of its blood before it gets dangerous?" Seb said. "So that would only be somewhat over one litre. I guess that means a clone had to be used after all? So then... Maybe Matt cloned himself, using blood he extracted with the Bowie knife. The clone then 'donated' all its blood to the machine, after which it was definitely dead and had to be dragged away. It sounds like the clones aren't really alive, so I guess they thought this was an acceptable option.

"They must have made the circle in the elevator in order to have a pitch-black space, as per the spell's requirements. This would also mean, I think, that Klifford was the one dragging clone-Matt away? As the gas then knocked him out, and the 'real' Benjamin and Matt were seen, conscious, on-screen afterwards.

"Actually, it's not directly necessary that the clone be Matt. In fact, maybe it was Klifford, and Klifford was the one who operated the pachinko machine as well? We heard Benjamin and Matt talking about swapping challenges, but Klifford wasn't part of the conversation; maybe only Matt and Benjamin swapped. As an aside, that could possibly mean that the glasses we found in the bloody mess on the pachinko room floor were the clone's. At the very least that opens up other possibilities."

[WinterCoat]

Brandy nodded excitedly. "That makes sense to me, Seb. But... I am gonna have to raise one problem with this explanation. When I saw Benjamin n' Matt on the camera, it jus' felt wrong... What if, n' I understand that this ain't really founded on nothin', but it felt like there was somethin' wrong with 'em. I dunno... I can't help but feel like there might be a reversal at play here, n' the people I saw might not've been, well, originals. It don't make sense, I know, but I figure it's still early enough to propose jus' 'bout any idea n' see if it goes anywhere."

[KamiPanda]

"I know what you mean. That's just about the only explanation I can think of for the 'offness' you felt. But I really can't think of any other way to acquire 5 litres of blood from just three people, either..." Seb said. "The clones can be given 'simple instructions', how well does that match either Benjamin or Matt from what you saw?"

[Doctor Nanjo]

[Errata: The machine only had about two liters of blood in it. My bad. That should clear up a little confusion.]

[KamiPanda]

"So then, I suppose it's possible they all gave up blood to buy pachinko balls. Matt looked exhausted because he'd lost blood," Seb amended. "Then the 'Benjamin' Brandy saw was a clone? Because he didn't seem exhausted or anything. This clone could eventually be incinerated to dispose of it... or maybe it's part of the bloody mess we found, along with an actual person whose death counted as real for Belphegor's announcement.

"If Benjamin was the clone, then Matt was the only person conscious between 12:20 and 12:45. Benjamin and Klifford were the pair spotted at 12:20, with Benjamin dragging Klifford. I suppose Matt wanted to fake that Benjamin was conscious, for some reason, so made a clone of Benjamin and posed for the camera with it?"