thefoundation | RECORDING 15: THE FIFTH TRIAL.

The worst has happened... and now you're all here, in the living room where all the trials so far have taken place. As all of you enter, the Vessel is there - Ango, standing as firm and unyielding as ever, waiting for the time when the trial is scheduled to begin.

On one of the tables away from the center is a small enclosed box entitled 'VOTES', with slips of paper nearby and a pen. It's sufficiently away from what will be the 'main' action, but not enough to really give anyone complete privacy as they vote.

Once everyone is inside, the doors automatically shut and lock themselves, leaving you trapped in here with the Vessel...and each other.

One of you is a murderer...however, in this game, the guilty do not need to be voted out. As long as there are enough people voted out that matches the victims...then it will be accepted.

...But, can you really let someone get away with murder...?

The choice is up to you.

VICTIMS: Battler Ushiromiya and Giovanni Potage
PEOPLE TO VOTE OUT: 2

WEEK 5 VOTING

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How could I? [ There's a tremble here only for a second. ]

Because this is who I am, this is who I've always been.

But...

But you have amnesia. And you're a phantom.

[She... She trusted him. But now everything she thought he knew has been thrown into disarray.]

What... what do you mean-?

[ ......................... ]

Right, and right.

But... not in the way you're thinking of. Do you know what it's like to be stuck in one place for year after year after year? You don't. This place? We've been here mere months.

I was trapped in Psychedelica for so long I went mad. But every so often people would join me, and I would read their memories. That story I told you? It belongs to a boy named Kazuya.

Kazuya...?

[Horror. Sickness. The betrayal still runs thick, but he's answering her, and if nothing else--

She seeks understanding, even now.]

Why were you trapped? Or were you not able to remember that, either? And...

Why pose as Kazuya?

[ He laughs, but it's not like his maniacal laughter before. It's hollow, empty. ]

I remembered last weekend, thanks to his present. [ Moving on from that hurriedly. ]

Because I needed to get the shards from them...the shards of the kaleidoscope that can grant a wish. It's easier to lead the flock when you're part of it.

[He said they didn't ask enough questions. Well, she's asking them now.]

Present?

The grimoire. [ The one Subete tossed out last trial. Turns out some stuff might still be Subete's fault after all. ]

I still don't understand...

Why would that have brought back a memory for you? You were... from different worlds, weren't you?

It's how it works, I didn't understand it either.

[ Sorry some things are just Aquarion: LOGOS. ]

[Thanks again, Subete. She still hates this.]

...You wanted to wish to escape?

...no, not exactly.

[ So who knows where this is in the time space continuum, but he just sighs heavily and looks anywhere else but Marona. It might seem like he's clammed up but if she waits long enough, eventually he starts to speak again, though it's a whisper now. ]

I wanted...I wanted her to escape. It was my fault that she died in the first place and I told her it would be okay. So I needed to make it okay. I didn't care about me.

...but it doesn't matter anymore.

[AU where Hikage wasn't shot for like five hours of dialogue.]

...Then there was someone you cared about after all.

[Somehow, this is slightly reassuring, in spite of everything else. In spite of the fact that... he's right.

It doesn't matter anymore.]

...Could you please tell me the real reason you killed Mr. Battler?

[ He just grunts, sorry he's not answering the first bit. ]

That was the truth. I wanted his death to inflict despair on everyone... He was a nullifier, and he was close to a lot of the others who are left. I wanted to destroy his hope...

You don't know what it's like. The miasma never really mattered to me in the first place, when I've always felt this way. Despair, pain, agony, torture...hahahaaha...ha...

...I see.

[At this point, she just sounds... sad.]

I wish that, if you were a phantom all along... you could have been in my world. ...Well, you would have only had myself and the other phantoms to talk to, but... You wouldn't have been trapped like that.

I had...my sister....but I couldn't remember her. Not until it didn't matter anymore. She was always with me, I just couldn't see it...

I lied to her and I had to make it right, so I kept lying and lying and lying...and lying....

[ He trails off, covering his face with both hands. He can hide from her gaze, but he can't hide the slow drops of tears that trail past his sleeves. ]

[Oh, no...

She can't quite help herself, moving towards him, hesitant as she reaches out to place a hand on his elbow. It's probably a terrible choice right now, and there's a vague awareness of that in the back of her mind, but she can't not when he's hurting so much right in front of her.

Why did it have to turn out like this?]

Hikage...

[But no number of apologies, no amount of sympathy will ever be enough to fix any of this.]

[ He shudders when she touches him. but then he leans into it, as best as he can in a position like this, in a place like this. ]

Ha...that's not my real name. But even with that grimoire, I still couldn't remember what I was originally called.

[Then she'll hold him, in a gentle embrace. Silent for a moment as she carefully thinks this over. And then, her voice hesitant:]

...When I lost my family... a friend of my parents died, too. I used to call him my big brother.

You aren't him. And I am not your sister. [That's just how it is; lives like that could never, ever be replaced.] But even so...

If "Hikage" isn't your true name... would it be alright if I called you the same way I called him, back then?

Big brother.

I'm me. [ 僕は僕だ it's an epithet he's repeating for himself as much as he is Marona. He curls a little tighter and stills. ]

I'm not worthy of being called that. And I'm not your big brother. [ He laughs, swallowing his tears and turning them into an emotion he does understand, smothering everything else. ]

...but it doesn't matter, do what you want. [ It's the best he can do when he's this broken mess of a person, but it might mean something in that he hasn't pulled away. And he hasn't actually denied her properly either. ]

[Tightening her hug, just a little.]

...Big brother, then.

[Because he took the time to talk to her, even now.

In the end, he never did betray her. And selfishly, that's what matters most to her in this moment.]

...that's just like you. [ To keep pushing forward anyway. For just a moment, he'll return the hug. Then he pulls back. ]

I have a show to continue, I can't just stop in the middle.

[It's a proper hug for just that moment, but she releases him as he pulls back, nodding.

Go do as you must.]

RECORDING 15: THE FIFTH TRIAL.

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