Part 2

Ran: Aya's got a choker on her neck. Interesting taste.

Ask Aya Toyama about the crest on her uniform (Investigation 4)

Ask Aya about the blocked tunnel

Use Temporary Points

Ran: Toyama, the crest on your uniform seems very distinctive. Did you make it yourself?

Aya: Ran-chan's asking about the crest, but your eyes are definitely pointed at my choker, mm?

Aya: That's what you really want to ask about, isn't it?

Aya points at the choker on her neck with a star bangle dangling from it.

Aya: Because you were insincere, I'm not going to tell you this time! Ask again later~.

Ran: (Well, that's not fair. I mean, how do you open a conversation asking about a choker?)

Ran: (Oh well. I guess I'll just ask about the tunnel instead.)

Miho: Even though I'd like for you to leave our school as quickly as possible as well, there really are no other roads out.

Miho: That said, is this some attempt at escape?

Miho: Whatever nefarious mission you infiltrated our school for has been completed, so you're trying to escape before we find out what it is you've done?

Ran: ...Come on, I'm just an ordinary highschooler who got lost, alright?

Miho turns away from us once again, as if we'd lost her interest.

Aya: Isn't she cute? She's like a housecat.

Ran: (I suppose I could see that. Though we don't really need more than one cat, and Sai's already the feral cat of this bunch.)

Ran: (Not to mention, I'm a dog person, not a cat person.)

???: Tama-chan, finished with your daily duties?

Tama: Asakura-san!

Tama ran over to them immediately. They were obviously close.

Ran: (Aaaaand in this pet metaphor, where Tama Indou is the cute pet dog, I suppose this lady is the dog's owner.)

Ran: (I can practically see Tama's tail wagging at seeing her owner, is what this is like.)

???: I'm Makoto Asakura (浅仓 真). You're Ran Ibuki, right?

Makoto Asakura

Investigation 7, Alacrity 5, Charisma 7 (what a mary sue look at these fucking stats)

Uniform is a western-styled suit. Adaptable and difficult to shock, but in a way that's less 'collected' than 'indifferent'.

Skilled in diplomatic speaking. Tama Indou acts nearly as a servant to her.

Responsible for maintenance and repairs at the school.

Really tall. 178 (centimeters) ??

Easily amused

Something's off about her

Indou's basically her lackey

Yano: delinquent

she's not going to hit me is she??

has dorm to herself, but sleeps in the top bunk? I guess it's not a big issue but.

Very pretty dorms

Makoto: Hoho. I feel like you're a pretty interesting person.

(Aya, in background: The math homework yesterday was so haaaaaaard. Miho help me!!)

(Miho, in background: Absolutely not. You're always lazy and you don't study, that's why you can't keep up with the homework.)

Makoto: Though you might feel a little lost at first, having just arrived, you'll find that the people here are great people. You definitely won't be bored.

Ran: Mm, yeah, everyone's been very friendly to me.

Ran: (Like Miho Takei.)

(Tama Indou, in background: Actually, I've been having trouble keeping up with the math homework too...)

Ask about the relationship between Makoto Asakura and Tama Indou (requires Charisma 7)

Ask Asakura about the tunnel

Use Temporary Points

Makoto: Even though I'm in charge of maintenance at the school, not even I can fix the whole tunnel.

She started giggling, for some reason, as though she'd said a really funny joke. Personally, I didn't see what was so funny.

(background chatter:)

Miho: I'll help you with the homework after classes are over, then.

Tama: Thank you, Takei-san.

Aya: Miho! Why aren't you helping me?

Miho: Tama isn't like you. Tama takes everything she does very seriously.

Miho: And you, on the other hand, just don't work hard enough. You've gotta stop spending all of your free time playing that guitar of yours, Aya.

Ran: (All the students pretty much have basically the same stance on the collapsed tunnel. Nobody seems to mind, even though it's such a critical issue.)

Makoto: You said you had something important to do and that's why you had to leave, though? What important thing is that?

Ran blinked. She had said that she needed to do something important as part of explaining her situation to Makoto, yes, but she hadn't expected Makoto to pick up on that immediately.

Ran: My girlfriend's missing. I'm looking for her.

Makoto: Girlfriend?

Makoto raised an eyebrow.

Makoto: Alright, then, if you run into any problems at school, don't hesitate to give me a call.

Makoto waved goodbye to Ran and then took a seat with Tama.

Ran: (Makoto and Tama, next to each other, look more like mother and child than anything.)

???: Good morning, everyone!

Ran: (Another new person. That'd be the sixth student, out of seven, then.)

???: Hm?

???: Ah, you're... Wh... why is there a stranger here?

Ran: (Yeah, we've heard THIS response a billion times today already.)

Ran: Good morning my name is Ran Ibuki I got lost and arrived here by accident.

???: Lost? Appeared here? How could that be?

The girl seemed a little panicked, and looked for support from the rest of her classmates.

Aya Toyama gave her a breezy wave of the hand.

Aya: Don't worry, prez, Ran-chan is a good classmate.

Miho: Nothing more than an extremely suspicious outsider.

???: Wait, let me get this straight. She's a good classmate but she's also a suspicious outsider.

???: Well, uh...

The girl took a deep breath.

???: Ran-chan, it's nice to meet you. My name is Koizumi Hyuga.

Koizumi Hyuga: I'm the class president. Welcome to our class!

Koizumi Hyuga

Investigation 4, Alacrity 3, Charisma 6

Uniform is a sleeveless dress with a short jacket with long sleeves. After being selected as president, she's decided to take the responsibility very seriously.

Often indecisive and hesitant, and often tends to go with the flow when others propose ideas or suggestions. Often falls into confusion when faced with unexpected situations.

Always blushing?

Seems like a very good and obedient person.

The design on her hairband is...?

Suitable for glasses 👓

Ran: Thanks, but my name is Ran Ibuki, not Ran-chan. Look, miss president, I'm just trying to figure out a way to get out of here. I don't plan to join the class, and besides I'm not even from here in the first place.

Ran: Miss president, do you know a way to get out of here?

Koizumi: tunnel_is_blocked.cannedresponse

Ran: (Getting really tired of THAT particular answer at this point.)

Ran: Okay, so, do you know when it might be fixed, then?

Koizumi: I don't know either, but it won't impact our school life at all, so miss Ibuki doesn't need to worry about it at all.

Koizumi: Okay, now it's time for you to get in front of the classroom and introduce yourself!

Ran: ...I am not joining this class. I just said that.

Sai: Get yourself up there, Ibuki. You love running your mouth, don't you?

Sai took a seat in the row second-furthest away from the front, still carrying that bag for her swimsuit in her hands.

Ran: (Well, now everyone's looking at me, including Sai.)

Ran: (If I keep refusing it'll just make my presence in the class really awkward. I don't need to push back against all six of them at once like this. I might as well go with it for now.)

Ran: (I wonder if Sai picked this moment to show up for some reason, though.)

Ran: Alright, then, as you wish, president.

Koizumi seemed very happy about this, and took Ran's hand, leading her up to the front of the class with an excited gait.

But she seemed too excited, and tripped over the corner of the lecture podium.

At that moment, Ran...

Reached out with a hand to try to help the president

Dashed forward to catch the class president (Alacrity 6)

Spend Temporary Points

Koizumi, in the middle of tripping over: Waaaah!

Ran: Whoa! Prez!

Ran dashed forward, catching Koizumi with her left hand, and grabbing her schoolbag with the right.

Ran: Are you okay, president?

Koizumi: A-ah, I'm f-fine, thank you...

Ran noticed that Koizumi had taken a very sharp intake of breath, as though she was panicked or scared about something. Ran decided to say something to try to calm her down.

Ran: (The past me would surely never have thought of such a thing.)

Ran: (It's all thanks to miss Sakura's support that I've become capable of engaging with and even helping strangers.)

Ran: ...Miss class president, you smell quite lovely this morning. What brand of shampoo do you use?

Koizumi: L-l-lovely? I'm lovely??

Koizumi: I- I don't remember, this morning while showing at the dorms I used someone else's shampoo...

Koizumi's hands, resting on Ran's shoulders, shook, and her breathing became irregular suddenly.

Ran: (Hm? Wait, what's this?)

Ran's right hand was still holding Koizumi's schoolbag, and she could feel a strange texture in her palm.

Ran: (What is this in her bag exactly? It's soft, not like a textbook at all, and when I apply pressure it makes a slight squeaking or crinkling sound...)

Ran: (A plastic bag? And it feels like there's something thick and slippery inside the bag.)

Koizumi: Miss Ibuki... I'm fine now...

Ran: Ah, I'm sorry.

Ran let go of Koizumi, who stood up on her own.

Only then did she notice that Koizumi's face was beet-red, and that Koizumi was studiously avoiding Ran's eyes.

Ran: Is there something wrong, president? Do you have a fever?

Koizumi: N, no, just...

Koizumi: When you embraced me I just- got a little nervous, and my heart started pounding...

Ran: I wouldn't have pegged you for a jokester, president!

Koizumi: Eh? No, I was just...

Koizumi: Nevermind...

The Interrupting Aya Toyama: Class president! Did I just see you and the transfer student embracing each other lasciviously?!

Koizumi: What?! No! Ibuki-san was just supporting me, that's all. You saw me fall, didn't you, Toyama-san?

Miho: Aya, don't make fun of Hyuga.

Aya: Okaaaay, got it.

Koizumi: My apologies. I've made a laughingstock of myself.

Ran: (First time I've ever heard anyone say the word 'laughingstock' out loud.)

Koizumi: Please, proceed with your self-introduction, Ibuki-san.

Ran: (...Wait. Shouldn't there be seven students?)

Ran: President, should I really introduce myself now? Isn't there someone missing from the class?

Koizumi: Ah, yes, she hasn't arrived yet.

Ran: (The class president's response seems a bit strange...)

Koizumi: Sakura-san hasn't shown up yet, but she woke up even earlier than I did this morning. I'd have thought...

Ran: (Someone with the same family name as miss Sakura? Makes me a bit worried to meet them.)

Miho: Hyuga, have you forgotten?

Miho spoke with her fingers interwoven together and steepled in a pyramid.

Miho: We picked lots yesterday. It's possible that she's the victim this time around.

Unsettling music begins.

Ran: (Victim??)

Ran ruminated on this strange word, a word which ought never to show up in a normal conversation between high-school students.

Ran: (What are they talking about?)

Tama: If miss Sakura was the victim... then she might already be dead, right?

Ran: Dead?

Aya: Gosh, the killer sure was conscientious this time, getting the task done right early in the morning.

Ran: What the fuck are you talking about-

Sai: Then, according to the rules, we're gonna have to cancel the morning classes and skip right to the coursework.

Sai picked up her bag and stood up from the desk. Ran just looked around in confusion, hoping someone would explain what they were talking about, but everyone else was also cleaning up their things and making to leave the classroom.

Sai: I saw Sakura earlier this morning while swimming. It's possible her corpse is somewhere around there. Let's go and-

Ran: HOLD ON!

even more unsettling music begins.

Ran: What the fuck are you all talking about?

Ran: That person who didn't show up... you called her...

Ran felt like the pressure was building up behind her eyeballs, threatening to burst unless she vented some of it off.

Ran tried to say her name, but she found she couldn't. She clenched her fists until her fingernails pierced the skin of her palm, and had to take several deep breaths before she could talk normally again.

Ran: That person, who hasn't shown up yet... what did you say happened to her?

Koizumi approached Ran, looking rather concerned about Ran's sudden bewilderment.

Koizumi: What's wrong? ibuki-san, are you feeling unwell?

Ran: Forget that! Answer me!

Ran's outburst stunned Koizumi slightly, who froze and was unable to answer her.

Miho, seeing the situation, intervened.

Miho: It's as they said. The person who hasn't shown up yet has most likely already been killed.

Miho: And the killer is one of the six of us.

Ran's brow furrowed.

She looked at everyone in the room, trying to divine if they were playing some practical joke on her, but there was no sign of it in their expressions.

The stress that immediately came upon her afterwards pushed her half to her knees, and she was forced to lean on the wall for support as she broke out into sweat again.

She felt the urge to dry-heave. That was a symptom of her... condition. But she didn't want to show her particular illness to anyone in this room.

She thought about the paper again.

Ran: You're saying... that you killed someone?

Sai: Well, yeah, that's what we've been saying.

Sai: Yeah, one of our classmates was killed by someone in our class.

Ran: (What's going on...? What the fuck is happening in this school? Just where the hell have I found myself??)

Ran: (Weren't things fine just a moment ago? How did it suddenly become like-)

The rest of the students at this point had encircled Ran, who was half-kneeling on the floor. They all looked more or less concerned about Ran.

Sai: Ibuki, what's the matter?

Ran: What do you mean what's the matter?

Ran: I don't even need to see the corpse. Just the nonchalant way you're all acting about a honest-to-god murder is enough to make me want to flail around like a crab thrown into a deep-fryer.

Ibuki: I've never seen a deep-fried crab that can still crack a joke like that.

Ran slowly looked up from the floor, to the other students. They all looked rather confused.

Miho: ...You don't look like you're pretending.

Miho kneeled down and began gently stroking Ran's back.

Miho: I'm the school nurse here. Let me take a look at you.

Ran: ...No, I think the person you should be looking at is the person who hasn't shown up to class.

Miho laughed a little.

Miho: You're absolutely correct. If you think there's nothing wrong with yourself, then stand up and come along, and let's go find the corpse.

Miho: Let's go. Yano, you can lead the way.

Sai: Sure thing.

Sai: Just a fair warning, I don't actually know if her corpse is actually there, all I know is that I was the last one to see her while I was swimming.

Miho nodded as she pulled Ran to her feet.

Miho: Well, it's probably somewhere around there. After all, Ann hardly ever goes to the swimming pool.

Makoto: That's true. I've never seen Ann go swimming of her own volition.

Makoto: It's most likely that she encountered the killer there, and was killed there.

Aya: Then we should get going quickly! It'll be too sad if we leave Ann there alone for too long.

Ran: Literally fucking collapses.

Ran's whole body shook, and she clutched Miho's wrist with unnatural strength.

Ran stared at Miho with such an intensity that even the normally unflappable Miho Takei was scared and twitched backwards.

Ran: That person who didn't come- the one you said- might have been killed- what were they called...?

Ran: ANSWER ME!

Miho: The person we're talking about is named Ann Sakura.

seven students. school uniforms

no way no way no way no way

it can't be miss sakura

no way

absolutely no way

Specifically, Ran liked sitting safe and sound inside her own house, looking out through the window at the passersby scrambling around trying to find shelter from the rain. It gave her a sense of peace and security.

One time, she told Ann about this, and her lover asked her,

"How would you feel if I were the one in the rain?"

Ran: (...How did I answer her, back then?)

Ran followed everyone else, and headed towards the place where Sai had last seen Ann.

Everyone else was discussing the murder with a lively tone as they walked together.

Tama: Why would Ann go all the way there, if she knew she was probably going to get killed?

Sai: Eh, she's always been pretty cooperative with the killers. She didn't resist much that one time I killed her either.

Aya: Ah, yeah, whenever it's Ann's turn to be the victim, the culprit's always rather fast to act.

Miho: Hey, wait up, don't let yourselves get spoiled just because Ann's so cooperative and easy to work with.

Miho: Otherwise, if we start getting too reliant on Ann's cooperativeness, then the rules will have to change eventually.

Sai: Shouldn't we just focus on who the culprit is, anyways?

Sai: If she really did die near the swimming pool, then wouldn't that make me the prime suspect?

Tama: What?? Miss Sai is the culprit?

Sai: Indou, you know that I love how straightforward you can be, but you're not going to find the truth this way.

Makoto: Well, of course, Tama's also quite capable of doing some very surprising things too.

Tama shook her head fiercely.

Tama: I just learned a bit from my books, is all. Because I hadn't had the chance to read so often before...

Tama: And even though miss Asakura knows my exact methodology, she's never exposed me before!

Makoto: Well, yeah, we read those books together, silly. Why would I expose you when I might use the same methods myself in the future?

Ran was thoroughly confused by this conversation. She scratched her scalp as she felt the pressure rise again.

Miho Takei slowed her steps down, drifting away from the group and towards Ran.

Miho: Hey, are you okay?

Ran: No... I'm fine...

Ran: Shouldn't you be happy that I'm suffering, anyways? I thought you disliked me.

Miho: Hey, don't act like I'm some kind of deviant who enjoys suffering. I don't dislike you, I just wanted to know why you showed up here at our school.

Miho turned and looked carefully at Ran.

Miho: Pale face, trembling lips, unnatural pupil dilation, headache?

Ran: A bit.

Miho held her hand against Ran's forehead for a moment.

Miho: No fever, at least.

Miho: Look, I can probably imagine what you're thinking.

Miho: You knew Ann before all this, didn't you? I can tell from your uniform, and I imagine the other students were able to notice as well.

Miho: So now you're losing it because you've heard that she's been killed and you can't wrap your mind around the idea.

Miho: The first time we had to do something like this we had pretty much the same reaction as you did, but once we got used to it we found that it wasn't a big deal after all.

Ran: What wasn't a big deal? Murdering your classmates? Speaking with light and airy tones about the dead?

Ran: Please just tell me- why all of this? You people have all really committed murder?

Sai: Oi, Ibuki, don't be so quick to judge things you don't understand.

Ran: Well, make me understand, then, dammit! Tell me what exactly it is that you've done!

Miho: Miss Ran, please calm down. Once we find Ann's corpse, we'll explain everything to you properly.

Tama: Please relax, miss Ran! Miss Ann will be absolutely okay, don't worry!

Makoto: Yeah, the temperature's already gotten pretty low. It'll probably freeze over very soon.

Makoto: Yano-san, consider avoiding swimming for the near future. If you cramp up in the cold water and drown, I'm definitely not going to jump in and save you.

Sai: Pfft, it's not like you do any lifeguarding even when it's not winter. Plus, I'm used to it already, nothing'll happen to me.

Aya: Ooh, once it snows again we can build snowmen in the courtyard again! Let's build a two-headed Miho in the snow, Sai-chan!

Sai: ...Are you doing it on purpose?

Aya: Ohhhh, right, that one time Sai-chan got killed, they hid your corpse in a snowman, didn't they?

Aya: Gosh, I still remember when I went to clean up the snow and dug up your corpse. It nearly scared me to death too! Ahahaha.

Makoto: That's Tama for you. Always surprising us with every new case.

Tama: D, dooooon't...

Tama's obvious embarrassment made everyone crack up.

Well, everyone but Ran.

Ran: (What the fuck.)

Sai: We're almost there. See the old showers up there? I saw Sakura go in there this morning.

Sai: I remember I thought it was odd, since I usually used the new showers myself. The old showers are much less convenient.

Ran: So that's where... miss Sakura is, right now?

Ran Ibuki rushed into the shower room that Sai had indicated. Clutching onto the doorframe, she stared at the girl who was leaning against the wall inside.

Ran's shoulders went tense. She didn't know what to do with her hands. Her arms spasmed meaninglessly in the air, as though she'd forgotten how to control her own body.

Finally, she wrapped her hands around her head, letting her fingers wander up and down her face like kudzu.

Ran pulled her mouth open using her hands, and finally let out a scream.

Without question, the corpse in front of her was the love of her life- Ann Sakura.

The girl's neck had a horizontal incision that split apart the muscle, exposing the blood vessels and the vertebrae to the air.

Massive amounts of blood had gushed forth from the wound, staining the shirt and continuing downwards. Sakura's black outerwear was covered in bloodstains.

Ran looked up, and, seeing Ann's long locks of hair coated in dried gore, was suddenly filled with an obsessive impulse to put those locks of hair into her own mouth, and lick them dry.

Ann always hated it when her hair got dirtied, after all. All Ran could think of was how she had to get her hair clean immediately, or else when Ann woke up, she'd surely be sad about the miserable state of her hair...

Ran's vision wandered downwards, towards the blood pooling on the tiles of the shower stall.

The floor of the showering area was tilted towards a drain, and Ann's blood had formed a river at this point, slowly dripping into the darkness of the drainage.

The drip-drip sound of the blood was like a sledgehammer slamming itself rhythmically into Ran's sanity.

Ran fell to her knees, barely managing to support herself with her hands, but this only caused her to slam her hands into the red puddle that was Ann.

Lowering her gaze, she saw her newly red-stained hands, and immediately began tearing into her own scalp with them in frustration.

Ran: Sakura... Aghhhhhh... Ann...

Ran's hands scratched even harder. If you looked closely, you could see blood and skin under her fingernails, now.

She felt like she was but a spider's web away from falling into the deepest pits of hell.

Miho: Miss Ibuki!

She seizes Ran's hands.

Miho: What are you doing?!

Ran: Miss Sakura... 's blood....

Miho: I'm telling you, Ann's fine! Your actions are what's really scaring me right now!

Miho: Calm down and just listen to us explain, okay?!

Miho: Miss Ibuki, Ann's not dead. She'll return soon.

Ran shook her head.

Ran: I don't understand... I don't understand a word of what you're saying...

Aya: Whoaaaa. Yep, corpse sure is right here.

Sai: Aw, damn. That means I'm the prime suspect doesn't it.

Makoto: As good a place to begin as any. Let's assume that Yano-san is the killer for now and begin investigations with that as the focus.

Koizumi: Then let's hurry and begin. Let's solve this case quickly and wake Sakura-san back up, so that we can cheer up miss Ibuki too.

Ran: I have lost my patience with the lot of you. You said there's a way to revive her, right? Tell me what I have to do.

Even though Ran felt terrible, her ability to reason hadn't completely shut off.

She'd gathered at this point that the students of this place treated murder as a completely mundane and normal occurrence.

In fact, if it weren't her beloved Sakura lying here in a puddle of blood, Ran could very well imagine herself as a detached clinical investigator, seeking the truth not out of a sense of need but out of sheer curiosity.

(Meanwhile, in the background:)

Aya: Ran-chan seems to be feeling terrible...

Miho: She and Ann likely knew each other before this.

Miho: She likely believes that Ann is truly dead, which is why she's acting like this.

Makoto: I heard in the classroom that she was looking for her missing girlfriend.

Makoto: Has she perhaps been looking for Ann?

Miho and Koizumi, simultaneously: Girlfriend?!?

Aya: Since when did you two get so well-harmonized?

Sai: I'll be straight with you, then. Identify the culprit and describe the steps she took to commit the murder. If you're completely correct, then Sakura will come back to life.

Ran: What kind of revival? I can't imagine such a thing.

Sai: The wounds will mend, the blood will regenerate, and then the heart will begin to beat again.

Sai: Before this... well, there was this one time that the culprit cut off all of the limbs of the victim and put them in different locations all across the campus, and even cut open the victim's stomach to expose their internal organs.

Sai wore a complex expression as she continued with a shrug.

Sai: We were able to witness the entire process of the victim's revival, that time. Trust me, compared to that, Sakura's injuries here are nothing.

Ran just covered her mouth in shock, imagining the grisly scene that Sai was describing.

Ran: (The revival she describes here is the type of revival that restores the existing body, and retains the soul of the deceased.)

Ran: (That means it can't be the Golem Delivery Service. Those folks reconstruct entirely new bodies for the dead, and don't retain the soul either.)

The Golem Delivery Service has been added to the Terms tab of your notebook.

Ran: (Could it be the Blood-Sculpting Gentleman? I remember that one could cause wounds to grow new tissue. That one could repair bodies the way Sai is describing.)

The Blood-Sculptor has been added to the Terms tab of your notebook.

Ran: (No, the Blood-Sculptor requires a massive amount of readily available blood on hand, and I don't know if it has the power to preserve the soul. I've never seen it use its powers on a corpse, either.)

Ran: (There's plenty of other anomalies related to revival... no, most of those involve retrieving the dead from a different plane altogether, leaving the 'original' corpse untouched.)

Ran: (I can't imagine what kind of power it'd take to enact revival on the original corpse itself...)

Ran: (In fact, with the revival conditions being so bizarre as this, perhaps we're not dealing with passive automatic criteria, but rather an active intellect observing and consciously deciding whether the dead should be revived or not.)

Ran: (...Damn, I can't figure it out. If only Lady Ihara were here. She'd surely be able to see the answer instantly.)

Lady Ihara has been added to the Terms tab of your notebook.

Golem Delivery Service

The Golem Delivery Service is an immaterial concept, wherein those who are killed with a certain method (which Ran has forgotten the details of due to memory loss) will be revived in the state they were an hour prior to their deaths. After revival, they will reenact their original selves' actions with complete disregard for the laws of physics, in an endless hour-long loop, which only ends when the person who was responsible for killing them suffers brain death.

Ran Ibuki, for the sake of preventing the discovery of the Golem Delivery Service anomaly, has been obligated three times to 'restore' the revived dead to their 'natural state', with her own two hands.

The Blood-Sculpting Gentleman

The Blood-Sculpting Gentleman is a black-haired housecat with scarlet eyes. Its vocal cords are standard for feline organisms, and thus it cannot speak human language. However, it is capable of understanding spoken language, and has formed a cooperative arrangement with Ran Ibuki due to this.

Capable of sculpting blood into any and all forms of animal biological tissue, without regard for the nature of the blood (i.e. it can create any species' tissues out of any species' blood) so long as the Blood Sculptor has sufficient understanding of the species and tissues involved.

After Ran offered the Blood Sculptor thirty-six bags of PR-brand frozen catfood and eighteen consecutive days of constant petting of the Blood Sculptor's head and stomach for three hours each day, the Blood Sculptor agreed to use ten gallons of whale blood to create a serpentine creature bearing features from many different animals (the details of the animals involved have been lost due to memory loss.)

The sculpted creature flew into the sky after two hours, and disappeared.

Lady Ihara

Full name Yukari Ihara, though she has admitted that this is a pseudonym.

Apparently an ordinary mortal human, based on current recorded interactions between Ran Ibuki and Yukari Ihara. However, her exceedingly sharp intellect and deep understanding of certain cognition-distorting anomalies (the exact nature of these anomalies are unknown due to memory loss) seem impossible for an ordinary human to possess.

Ran Ibuki is on cordial terms with her, and often receives assistance from her. According to Lady Ihara, she aids Ran because she finds Ran delightfully similar in disposition to herself.

Sai: ...Hey, Ibuki? Earth to Ibuki? You still there?

Ran: ...I understand. I was going to find the culprit anyways, no matter what- and if this can bring miss Sakura back to life, then all the better.

Ran: And when that happens, I will take miss Sakura away from this place.

Sai: ...Well, you'll have to ask her permission for that. But I guess that's none of our business.

Ran: Of course miss Sakura will agree. After all, she's my girlfriend.

Koizumi: G-girlfffffriend?!

Miho: Is that true? That's the first I've heard of it. Ann has never mentioned you to us before.

Ran: Never mentioned me?! Wh-

Ran: Forget it, we can figure that out later.

Ran: (A school that's been isolated from the outside world for a year without being affected at all, the linguistic abnormalities, the bizarre phenomenon wherein students kill each other and revive those who are killed by finding the culprits- and all the rest of the strangeness.)

Ran: (I have to stay wary. If I let myself believe that all of this is completely normal, I might become complacent and never find my way out.)

Ran: (Miss Sakura, you have to wake up, please. I'm nothing without you.)

Koizumi: Ah, uh, sure!

Koizumi: Let's do as Takei-san suggests. This will help Ibuki-san understand the 'coursework' at our school more quickly as well.

Ran: 'Coursework'?

Miho: On our syllabus, you might have noticed that we only have classes in the morning, and the afternoon is all 'free time'.

Miho: This kind of situation is what 'free time' means. We consider this a part of our 'coursework' as well.

Miho: Ordinarily, we compete fairly in every case, but this time we'll let you handle it by yourself. We'll give you all the help you need.

Ran: (What's in the bag?)

Ran: (A notebook... some stationery...)

Ran: (That's it. None of it looks like the type of stationery that miss Sakura prefers to use, either.)

Ran: (And there's something conspicuously missing...)

Ran: (Miss Sakura didn't bring her cellphone??)

Koizumi: We keep our phones on ourselves usually. That way we can call each other if we get into trouble...

Aya: I doubt Ann would have forgotten her phone. She's so reliable! I've never seen her make a mistake. She's the kind of girl who could brush her teeth without spilling a drop of water.

Ran: So... she didn't try to reflexively clutch her throat when it was cut, at all?

Ran: Or she was holding something that made her incapable of clutching at her throat at the moment of the incision?

Ran: (When the culprit attacked, the murder weapon was blocked by the vertebrae. The murderer had to apply multiple cuts afterwards to expand the wound to such a startling degree.)

Ran: (That's all the wound itself can give me, I think. Let's look at something else.)

Tama: Miss Ibuki seems very practiced at this.

Tama spoke in a quiet voice to Makoto.

Makoto: Probably watched too many police procedurals.

Tama: Police... procedurals?

Miho: I mentioned back when she showed up in the classroom. No matter how you look at it, her claims that she got here by getting lost are highly suspicious, not to mention her claims that she's just an ordinary high-schooler.

Miho: I suppose perhaps she has her reasons to keep her secrets, though.

Miho: What do you think?

Ran: Well, the way you all acted so cavalier about all this, I figured you'd have a whole procedure in place for this by now.

Ran: I can't figure out the time of death on my own. If any of you can do an autopsy for real, I'm asking seriously now.

Ran: If we have a timeframe for death, we can start questioning everyone for alibis and such. It'll help the investigation a lot.

Makoto: Wow, she does sound like she's on a cop drama.

Aya: I was too embarrassed to say any of those catchphrases when I was investigating! Ran's amazing.

Ran: Otherwise, right now the only timeframe we have to work with is Sai's testimony about when she last saw miss Sakura.

Ran: If Sai's not lying, then miss Sakura was killed sometime between Sai saw her, and when the class president reached the classroom.

Sai: I'm not lying. If I were lying, I'd just not say anything about having seen Sakura this morning at all.

Sai: If I hadn't said anything, you'd have literally nothing to work with to determine the exact time of death for Sakura.

Ran: That's not quite true. If you killed her far earlier, then it might serve you to lie about having seen her alive, when in fact she was already dead by that point.

Ran: Though, the fact that the blood's yet to dry puts a pretty solid hard cap on the timeframe. If you were lying and killed her earlier, it couldn't have been more than an hour to an hour and a half beforehand, tops.

Sai: ...If we're only operating in the frame of hypotheticals, I suppose I have to agree with you.

Ran: No matter what, miss Sakura's death can't be further back in time than that. So, let's start from the assumption that Sai's not lying, and start removing possibilities.

Koizumi looked happy that Ran was fitting so well into the group's normal dynamic.

Koizumi: Go ahead, Ibuki-san! We'll all cooperate with your investigation.

Ran: President.

Ran: You realize that, besides Sai, you're the most suspicious of anyone here?

Koizumi: E-eh?

Koizumi: Ooooh, I get it. Because I arrived last in class, so I had more time than anyone else to kill Sakura-san, plus I'm in the same dormroom as she is.

Ran: Correct. Then, besides the fact that I have neither method nor motive to kill miss Sakura, the person with the least suspicion to me is Tama Indou, who led me to class this morning.

Ran: After all, I was with her the whole time. It could only be her if Tama and Sai were co-culprits, and Sai was lying to cover Tama's window of opportunity.

Tama: ...co-culprits...

Tama: Would the culprit drawn by lots this time really look for an accomplice to help them?

Ran: Right, what's this about lots? You keep talking about that.

Miho: Let me explain. Put simply, the culprit and victim are all decided via lots. Of course, besides the murderer, nobody knows who drew the victim lot.

Miho: We can explain this in more detail afterwards. The details of the system are irrelevant to your investigation for the moment.

Miho: In conclusion, it's not very likely, but I suppose you can't rule out an accomplice situation.

Ran: Then in that case, you're not freed of suspicion either, since you and Toyama arrived at class simultaneously, and with accomplices being possible the two of you can't provide alibis for each other.

Ran: Finally, we have Makoto. Her suspiciousness is a bit lower than the class president's, but the difference isn't that much.

Ran: (Hm. We can't solve this trivially just by excluding those with alibis, huh.)

Miho: Don't forget- just finding the culprit isn't sufficient. You also have to accurately recount the killer's methodology to successfully revive Ann.

Ran: (The key is if Sai actually saw miss Sakura, as well as just exactly why miss Sakura came here in the first place.)

Ran: (I think this is all I can get out of their testimonies. Now...)

Ran reaches into her inner jacket pocket and extracts the notebook.

Ran: (Let's use the notebook.)

Ran: I've got some ideas, but I'd like to think by myself for a moment.

Ran: I'll find somewhere quiet to get my thoughts in order. I'll leave miss Sakura's corpse to you all.

Miho: W-wait, why not tell us what you're thinking so we can help discuss your ideas with you?

Aya: Yeah, wouldn't it be better to brainstorm collaboratively?

Ran, about to leave the shower stall, turned around to look at the girls one last time.

Ran: ...That would be nice, but...

Ran: How could you possibly expect me to trust you?

Ran looked around for a while to find a suitable place.

Ultimately, she settled on a patch of grass outside the school building, and sat down with her back against the schoolhouse's wall.

Ran: (Please help me.)

Ran: (You can have as much of my blood as you want. It doesn't matter. Please, find the correct Recall Point accurately, and let me save miss Sakura.)

Ran: Let's get started.

As soon as Ran said that, blood began leeching out of her fingertips, seeping down into the paper, which ate the blood like it was a hungry appetizer.

Ran's rate of blood loss grew and grew, but the red stains were completely absorbed by the paper.

The more the notebook drank, the more insatiable it became. Ran's blood flew from her fingers, making tiny splashes against the surface of the page.

Finally, the rate of bleeding began to outpace the rate at which the notebook could absorb the blood, and the page began to be stained in red.

Ran: H-hey! Stop!

Ran pulled her hand up, away from the notebook, causing a lingering arc of blood to splash out from her hand and land on the lawn in front of her in a crescent.

She wiped her fingers off on the pages quickly, getting all the remaining stains off. Naturally, her fingers remained woundless and unblemished, as was usual.

Ran: Look, I know I told you that you could drink as much as you wanted, but this is way too much! If you get drunk, who's going to help me here?

Ran sighed.

Ran: This is probably enough, right?

Ran flipped pages until she returned to the Reminiscence tab. As she'd hoped, a new recall point had been formed.

Ran: (I understand. So this is the recall point you've found this time.)

SPECIAL REMINISCENCE

At the communal sink, while Sai Yano was preparing to go to the swimming pool.....

Ran: (If I decide at that moment to go along with Yano, then I can see for myself whether she saw miss Sakura, and find out the exact time it happened.)

Ran: (You've given me lots of indistinct recall points before, forcing me to waste my time with multiple attempts. This time you've been pretty precise. I guess you want to work as hard as you can to help me revive miss Sakura as well, huh?)

Ran's opinions on Tama's school uniform are...

When Koizumi tripped and fell near the lecture podium...

When Ran first escaped the underground chamber

When Ran first left the old schoolhouse

While investigating Ann Sakura's corpse in the old shower room...