diary

[lovedanime]

A fuzzy rug dominates the floor of Mitarai's room. The bed is made and hosts a blue stuffed animal. There's one chair behind the desk, which has a very tidy array with multiple types of paper and pencils including three different mechanical ones. The centerpiece is a notebook.

Most apprentices have seen the notebook Mitarai got at the first afterparty thrown by Monika. The flame animations, perhaps, or some exchanges with Rantaro. What's less obvious is that these pages all come from the latter part of the notebook... the first few pages of the notebook are sequentially occupied by letters.

Comments

First Letter. Week 2 Saturday Night

[lovedanime]

Dear Tengan-san,

This is Mitarai. I'm writing from Fayflower University. If these letters reach you in time, PLEASE send as much help as possible to the sending location. Several people are in GRAVE DANGER!!!

We're in another country at the very least, though, so getting through to you seems all too unlikely... The sky is blue and not polluted red - maybe another world. Many of the "Apprentices" claim to be from different years, or that they aren't even human!

In one way this world is all too similar to the Japan we were protecting, though. The entire atmosphere outside the wall surrounding Fayflower induces "hijacking", which is very similar to the despair infestations. And the administration of this ersatz university offers us motives to kill each other.

They say we should work together as a highly specialized team, and some of the administrators don't even seem particularly fond of torture, so maybe their goal really is to weed out the Apprentices who could fall into despair. But this is just as bad! It's nothing more than what an educator who fell into despair would do! And even people who fell into despair shouldn't be executed if there's any other way to help them! Let alone the innocent victims of their crimes! I hate watching this so much...

---

I'm not proud to write this but I have to. At first I was totally in denial about the situation. I really thought you all would come to rescue us soon, just like you recruited me, just like we took in the survivors of the 78th class. After all, when they knocked me out, we were all together for the meeting, weren't we? Over a week pased, though,

We received a motive from the administration, and that was when I decided to fight back. I began drawing a new amazing anime. This might have been a little extreme, but at this point I thought at least showing the administration was worth the risk. Apparently there was an entrance exam in the past where they coerced "Mishima-kun" into committing murder and getting executed, among other casualties. So you can see there's been no time to waste.

As I started working in earnest, I ran into Yoosung Kim, the Apprentice of Gaming. He was worried about me working so hard, and he felt a void in his life without the video games he played. At that point I insisted only a real talent like my anime could get people out of a void like this place.

Why did I say that to him? Kim-kun was just trying to be nice to me, to everyone, and I pushed him away. I was just as bad as the detractors say the future foundation is! I don't even mean to dismiss the virtues of people without talent, or gaming as a talent... you could have found a place for Nanami-san, I'm sure of it, if only she was still here, right? And it's not like working together and checking on each other is wrong. Everyone tells me to take better care of myself, not least you. Back then I was so frustrated, though, I just ran away to make more anime.

The next day, we discovered the body of Kim-kun.

Grantaire, the Apprentice Revolutionary, murdered him and made his corpse into a work of art. Living up to his title, he described his motive as resources for the French revolution as led by "Enjolras". A radical sect, presumably. I wonder, though - would Munakata-san have done the same thing? Or maybe... Sakakura-san because he was so inspired by Munakata-san? But I think even if they didn't take a bloodless path to protect people, they would understand a killing game like this is precisely what the Future Foundation must prevent.

At the trial, everyone suspected me, because they found out about my stupid fight with Kim-kun. We had a very hard time solving the case. The main reason they didn't vote for me was because moving the body took so much strength. And eventually they found ropeburn on Grantaire's hands.

I need to be stronger, but obviously my anime wasn't finished in time to prevent any deaths. Which means I have to get stronger in other ways even faster... which I've never known how to do... Will I have to solve the cases if there's another murder? If! I must hold on to hope! We have to keep pursuing as peaceful a resolution as possible!

Without anime or the rest of you, though, I don't have any hope to hold onto... For lack of better options I've selected a temporary commanding officer, Lieutenant Hank Anderson. Nobody has a position like yours, Tengan-san, but at least he's the eldest of us. An experienced policeman, he claims to be in despair despite doing his best to help all of us. Perhaps he uses that term liberally to describe a milder disaffected condition like Kizakura-san? They certainly have similar preferences in beverages.

A lot of people here are supporting me in spite of everything, and I am very grateful for that! Poe-san and Waver-san believed in me at the trial, Terra is going to be my friend in honor of Kim-kun, and Monika-san gave me this notebook! She encourages everyone to share their real feelings with her. I usually only do that through anime, but people keep asking me to explain things and obviously won't exactly be impressed with draft anime, especially after how I was so prideful at Kim-kun. I just decided to pretend I was talking to you. Thank you for always understanding me and making me feel useful. Please rescue us. I really wish you could just pat me on the head and smile knowingly, one more time.

Respectfully,
Mitarai