Close Circle

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

All right, Yukichi. The people have spoken. I'll let you have your last words.

[KungFuCutbug]

"fucking tell me about it, Loren... I swear, you're like, one of the least deserving of having to witness all this chaos." [Pizzabug pushes themself to their feet, dusting off their clothes and looking at Yukichi intently.] "now let's see what Yukichi has to say."

[artsyGeek]

[Clef just. . Frustratingly glares at Yukichi.]

[Kennifer]

Kim just crosses her fingers.

[Cassie]

Yukichi's eyes faintly glow pink, star-shaped lights, and he starts to glitch in anger and change his clothes to his usual hoodie and pants.

"OH MY GOD! Are you dumb thinking I'd be working for that asshole police wannabe? I didn't get anything from him, and the vacation thing, all of it, is sincere!"

He facepalms.

"Gahhhhhhh, this is what my vacation ends in..."

[Subparman]

welp

... I don't like where this is going, meow...

[wingedcatgirl]

"... Tch. A calculated risk. And if the cops get rooted out in the end, losing a few people along the way is just cost of doing business."

[KungFuCutbug]

"...well, at the very least, we can actually sort of afford to lose a couple of innocents right now. like, I'd SERIOUSLY prefer if we didn't, I'm sure we all would, but... it's not the end of the world if we do. so I'm willing to take the risk. for now."

[TalesofUnder]

We'll see...

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

We're all going for a ride, with our special guest. I'll show you all how we deal with cops. Come on, everyone! Into the limos!

Everyone gets in while Carmello bags up Yukichi and shoves him in the trunk of his own personal car.



Minutes later, everyone finds themselves at an abandoned warehouse, with Yukichi tied up in a chair. Carmello comes up and puts down a stereo. He pops in a CD and the song “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealers Wheel begins playing. Carmello begins dancing to the song, pulling out a knife and heads to Yukichi, dancing all the way. He lets off a wicked smile as he slashes his face a few times before he digs in and cuts off his ear, Yukichi screaming in pain all throughout. Carmello talks into the ear to taunt Yukichi before he heads back to the car and comes back with a canister of gasoline and pours it all over him, stopping after the song ends, and making a trail. Carmello pulls out his lighter and sets the trail ablaze, sending flames that eventually reach Yukichi. He lights up like a candle, screaming horribly, from the flames and his bleeding spot where his ear used to be. Eventually the screams stop and the flames die down. Carmello walks over to the charred corpse and looks at the others.



Bad news, everyone. Yukichi was one of the innocents. The four killer cops still remain free and now they get the $300 that belong to the Fake Kiryu…



He throws the canister in anger.

[artsyGeek]

". . oh for FUCK'S SAKES! ALL OF THAT WAS FOR NOTHING?!"

[MadameButterflyKnife]

Chili glares at the sight. ...dammit! Great! You guys messed up, and now we've still got cops! Should've known he was too stupid to kill...

[KungFuCutbug]

[...]

<*internal screaming*>

[wingedcatgirl]

"Not nothing. More flips means more votecounts to analyze. And we know now that anything the fake cop said before was legit."

[Weirdguy149]

"...Somehow, I don't feel bad about this. I'm not even sure why. I just hope we find whoever decided to kill that guy from last night at some point."

[MadeOfMilk]

...I should have been clued in that this was a frame job...

[Kennifer]

"So he was framed or something? Fucking hell.

[Subparman]

T... The weirdo grownup wasn't a policeman, meow...

Gin falls silent after that, but he looks less in shock at Yukichi's innocence than... Unnerved. Almost suspicious.

[PointMaid]

...For crying out loud. This entire day was a mess!

Snakeweed sits and eats a cookie to settle her nerves.

[KungFuCutbug]

"SO IT WAS A FUCKING FRAME JOB AFTER ALL. GOD... FUCKING GODDAMN BULLSHIT FUCK!" [Pizzabug covers their head with both of their hands, letting out a loud, extremely salty groan.] "AAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. ...well, fuck. I think I know who I'm going after next. no, Soseki, don't worry, it's not you, but... gah, fuck, I dunno if I should say who it is on the off-chance I'm right and those pig fuckers come after me next."

[TalesofUnder]

...Think of it like this, Kato-san. If they decide to go after you after you say who you're suspicious of, then that just confirms your suspicions, doesn't it? Yeah, you'll be dead... but life is unfair sometimes.

[MadameButterflyKnife]

Chili looks to Snakeweed. ...are those more of those drug foods? Lemme try. Takes the mind off of all this.

[KungFuCutbug]

"or, even if I'm wrong, they might kill me anyway to try and get whoever I said miseliminated..."

"...you know what. I mentioned it earlier, we can sorta afford to take a couple risks right now, I guess there's no harm in saying it." [Pizzabug takes a deep breath, then...]

"the highest person on my suspicion list is Snakeweed. she's even shorter than Yukichi was, and none of us were able to tell how much height the stilts would've given her. it could've been enough for her to hang the Kiryu-impostor from the ceiling easily, but too much extra for Yukichi to have done it without hitting his head on the ceiling or something. and... apparently there was a chance she could've sedated Escargoon as well? based on something he said earlier. although... I feel like it'd make more sense for her to sedate Chili and/or Mike instead—her roommate and the Kiryu-impostor's roommate, respectively, if I remember right. that's... the only thing keeping me from being 100% certain about it, but... still. it's better than nothing, in my opinion."

[wingedcatgirl]

"Worth lookin' into with our night actions, for sure."

[MadameButterflyKnife]

Well, that's just great. Now I'm not gonna be able to sleep at night if that theory's true! Don't wanna get slaughtered in my sleep!