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

Week 3 Saturday Night

[lovedanime]

Dear Tengan-san,

I write on Saturday night after another body discovery and execution. We got through the trial faster this time, which is why I have time to write this right away even though we seem to have made a tradition of always taking dinner together after these events. I want to think I was helpful, but on the other hand this culprit struggled much less than Grantaire.

Henry the Apprentice Cawmunicator was dead. During the entrance exam, he was roommates with Kim-kun. He took great delight in collecting the head of Grantaire after the guillotine went down. He bothered me after the trial like many of the others.

I misjudged him so much! Despite all his eccentric sadistic dark magic, Henry was just a soldier looking at the situation with a tactical eye. He brought the head to the administration, and he was armed. This was unwise, of course - we've been informed this person is not on the very top of the chain of command, and laying a hand on any member of the administration means death. Still, Henry was trying to help, and I never acknowledged him properly, just because he was a little spooky and I'm a coward.

This is where Viral, the Champion Survivor, comes in. A towering nonhuman man with claws, he was our de facto leader in several "adventures" like scaling the walll. All hopeful in spirit, yet all unsuccessful so far. When he saw Henry and Todd fighting, Viral believed that breaking up the fight would mean Henry would be judged as not breaking the rules. There's no pretty way to describe what happened next... despite his lack of intent to use the lethal force of his sharp claws, the force of his body still killed Henry.

I can't put into words how disappointed I am! We all believed in him, and this is how he repays us. The others were even tempted to not vote for his execution. The biggest lesson of this whole debacle is that we can't violate the rules lightly! That's literally all he was trying to protect Henry from doing!

I'm really starting to worry that we'll never fight back with the talents we have. I'm going to ask Connor, an android and the working partner of Lieutenant Anderson, if he thinks his abilities are going to help with anything besides homicide forensics. Terra is hosting the party, anyway, and I'm socially obligated to attend. At least I didn't say anything this trial that got people to hate me... too much.

Respectfully,
Mitarai