Seishou's Great Murder Mystery Gala (ch2)

EARLY RELEASE FOR MY $30+ PATRONS!!

It begins! There will be some jumping perspectives in order to cover both Claudine's and Maya's plans in this, since we all know they're both murderers, but the characters themselves don't. And also, they'll be addressing each other a bit differently than they typically do in canon for the sake of the formality of the event.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight.

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														Chapter 2.

Seishou is bustling with activity and people, most of whom are getting dressed and ready for the biggest event of the Open House.

All of Seishou's nine actresses, as well as the fifteen visitors from the three other schools, are presently in the prep room getting into their outfits and finishing their makeup.

Even though Akira and the others are mainly just meant to be fodder for the murderer to kill, they still get put into costumes worthy of their characters, as they will still be mingling with the guests to help set the stage for the mystery.

Everyone is dressed accordingly; Mahiru in a fancy dress and sunglasses, Futaba in a ricercar driver outfit with a motorcycle helmet under her arm, Kaoruko in a regal pink dress, and so on.

Claudine's own outfit is a traditional detective style of pants, formal work shirt, cap, and cloak. Maya, being a second detective, wears something similar, though hers is a bit more done-up to show that she is the Chief, and Claudine the Lieutenant.

Claudine has already decided on what she's going to do tonight; who she is going to kill and when. She already has it all figured out - the perfect plan to how she is going to 'escape' the gala undetected.

As she repeats her plan over and over in her mind, the excited voices of the other girls trickle in from around the room.

"Oh boy!" Karen is saying, adjusting her circus-performer-esque overalls. "Guys, I can't wait! This is gonna be so much fun!"

"Let's just hope you don't die right off the bat, Karen-han," Kaoruko giggles from behind a fancy handheld fan.

"Oooh~?" Karen grins. "Be careful, Kaoruko-chan! For all you know, I might be the murderer and maybe I'll come for you first!"

"I'd like to see you try."

"You can't trust anyone," Futaba says. "Maybe not even yourself."

"The only person who can trust themselves is the murderer," Junna chimes in. "Only they know they won't die, but they have the big responsibility of not getting caught, either."

"I can't wait to see what happens!" Nana claps as she stands up in her doctor's outfit with a long white robe and a stethoscope around her neck.

"Don't worry," Claudine says. "As the murderer, I'll be sure to give you all a great show!"

"Hah!" Futaba says. "As if the murderer would reveal themselves like that."

"Right!" Karen says. "I'm the real murderer!"

"No way, it's definitely Mahiru-chan~" Nana sings.

"E-Eh?"

Claudine smirks. Her little trick of confusing everyone from the start has already started to take effect. Revealing herself as the murderer would just seem like a giant bluff, because clearly the murderer wouldn't confess outright before the gala even started. It's all a big game of psychology.

"Hee hee~" Nana giggles. "This is amusing already. The audience will have to make a guess based on the personas we're acting out, but we, as friends, all kind of have an inkling as to who we think it could be just based off personalities and what we know about each other in real life!"

"It sure will be interesting," Junna says. "All right. It's time to go out. Let's have a fun night, everyone."

"Yeah!"

They call over the rest of the girls who will be acting with them tonight, all wishing to have a fun and investing performance. Only Akira poses a challenge in her eyes.

"I look forward to seeing what Seishou is capable of." She sweeps her gaze over all of them, but lingers on Maya a moment longer than the rest.

Claudine has to admit she would like to get rid of this girl sooner rather than later, simply so she won't cause problems. But she's going to stick to her master plan.

The group of twenty-four girls files out of the prep room and heads for the gala itself.

The ballroom is bursting with colors, lights, and energy. A buffet is set up off to one side, and there are chandeliers dangling with crystals all along the ceiling. A dozen large circular tables covered in white, frilly cloths are set up in rows, and more than half the seats are filled by prospective guests, who are dressed formally for the occasion. They all pause in their idle chatter when they realize the actresses have arrived, and a collective air of excitement and anticipation sweeps through the room.

As they walk through the tables to the center of the room, Claudine and the others get into character; she, Maya, Hikari, and Junna all act very professional, Nana is smiling calmly, Mahiru and Kaoruko are being stuck-up and snobby, Futaba is being charismatic and charming, and Karen is being her usual hyperactive self.

The lights dim a little, drawing everyone's attention to the center of the room, where Junna takes over to welcome everyone and explain things.

"Good evening everyone, and thank you for coming. We would like to officially welcome you to Seishou Academy's Open House 4-hour evening event - our Murder Mystery Dinner Gala!"

A roar of applause fills the room. All of the guests had already known in advance what the event would be, but they're immensely excited to begin watching it now. Squeaks and squeals go up from every table. Claudine hears more than a few enamored gasps of both hers and Maya's names, which reminds her that her character is supposed to be in love with Maya's. She grimaces just a little as Junna continues going over the rules for tonight:

"As you all know, we have a murderer amongst us tonight! Their goal is to create a crime scene or multiple crime scenes, and remain undetected until the event has ended later tonight. The job of the other actresses will be to try and figure out who the murderer is. Students from the prestigious schools of Siegfeld Institute of Music, Rinmeikan Girls' School, and Frontier School of Arts are also in attendance tonight and will also play roles in the mystery.

"The actresses will sit amongst you and migrate as they tell you their stories so that you may deduce for yourselves who you think the murderer might be. The killer will claim their victims with a simple three taps to the back of the neck. Every 30 minutes, the lights will shut off for fifteen seconds so the actresses may arrange themselves accordingly. During this time, we ask that you not turn on your cell phones for light, and we ask that you do not move around so we can avoid the risk of injury.

"Whoever has been killed will remain 'dead' for the rest of the performance. At midnight, whoever is left will be able to stake a final claim in hopes of accusing and apprehending the correct murderer. If the majority of the remaining people guess correctly, the murderer will lose and be caught. If the majority guess wrong, the murderer wins and escapes.

"Oh, and as a side note, people who are dead can't talk or move around to continue participating in the story, but they're allowed to get up to use the restroom or eat. It's not fair to make them lie there for four hours with their eyes closed."

The crowd murmurs in understanding before Junna wraps things up.

"With all that being said, please enjoy your dinner and the impromptu show we have prepared for you! We hope you enjoy our Murder Mystery Gala!"

The room breaks out into applause, and the actresses take their cue. Being the character of Maya's partner, Claudine stays close to her as they choose a table and begin mingling with the girls sitting there.

"Good evening, ladies," Claudine says, dipping her head. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Lieutenant Saijou, and I, along with my Chief, shall be rigorously investigating this gala to apprehend the murderer when they make their first move."

The girls all nod and smile before looking expectantly to Maya. She's been stoic thus far, but now she puts on her most charming, heart-fluttering smile.

"Good evening, my dears," she says in a low, husky voice. "I am Chief Tendo, an alumni of this prestigious academy. I had hopes of being an actress like you yourselves surely will be one day. However, my path soon digressed, and before I knew it, I found myself following the path of justice." She reaches out and takes the nearest girl's hand. "I vow on my honor to protect you all from the crook hidden amongst our ranks."

The girls all squeal, and the one with her hand being held blushes redder than the juice in her wine glass. Claudine quickly intervenes, remembering her character is jealously infatuated with Maya's.

"Ahem. Chief? Perhaps we should move along to the next table?"

"Of course."

Claudine smoothes out her hair. Right; she'd only done it for the sake of her character, and nothing more.

For the first twenty minutes or so, Claudine and Maya repeat their antics at each table, occasionally interacting with the other actresses here and there as they go.

The other girls do the same. Mahiru and Kaoruko clash a few times, since their characters' personalities are both snobby and haughty, and Nana tries to calm them down. Futaba poses her doubts about trusting someone as goofy as Karen. Hikari and Maya go off for a moment to have a professional businesslike conversation, and Junna joins in with them to start discussing plans of action to keep the guests of the gala safe.

Claudine keeps an eye on the clock for the first thirty-minute benchmark. She's thought this through for weeks now - how she's going to play this, psychologically-speaking.

It was difficult to decide on whether she should do this as people would expect of her or not. For example, if someone were to consider Claudine being the murderer, would they expect her to kill someone her character has animosity toward first? Or would they think her to play it the opposite way and kill someone close to her in order to throw people off her trail? Or would killing someone close to her be too obvious that she was trying to throw people off her trail, so she ends up killing someone she isn't close to after all?

She'd thought on it long and hard and eventually decided on a mix; she's going to play this to both extremes, killing characters people would expect her to and some they wouldn't. After all, she can always hope to frame someone else.

For example, she could kill Mahiru to make people think Kaoruko was the murderer, since their characters have already had some arguments. Or she could kill Hikari, who was a friend of Maya's and Junna's characters to rile them up.

She plans to kill Maya after an hour and a half or so in order to deter the idea that she could kill her own partner in the investigation, and therefore the culprit must be someone else.

But she also wants to save some of the bigger kills for later. After all, the flow of the entire evening's events will be decided based on how she plays this game, and who she kills or doesn't kill at which point in time. She has a great task to fulfill; she needs to make this whole event exciting and exhilarating, choosing kills no one would see coming to force the remaining characters into their spontaneous actions.

But I've definitely got to start things off with a bang…

She's already decided.

As the twenty-four actresses continue passing around one another, they all get very close to each other at times like they'd been told to do. This way, it could look like anyone was close enough to anyone else to be tapping them on the neck to kill them when the lights go off. Anyone and everyone looks like a potential suspect.

But Claudine knows she is the only true murderer here.

Though, there is one other person who knows...

Which is why she kills Nana first.

Joining in with both her and Junna at one table, Claudine quickly taps the back of the mastermind's neck three times as she's talking about her career as a doctor. Nana doesn't react or flinch or give away any tells at all that she'd been marked, but simply continues talking smoothly.

That's one of the things they'd practiced the most in their rehearsals - how to keep up the act and not show any reaction when someone tapped them, even if it was mid-conversation.

Claudine lingers to tell her own character's story before joining Hikari and Futaba at another table. She then reconvenes with Maya to keep up the Lieutenant-Chief dynamic before they part again to "gather more information," as Maya puts it.

Claudine then goes to where the Frontier girls are seated. She taps Lalafin there, then Yuyuko from Rinmeikan. Likewise, neither of them react or give any sort of tell at all, as everyone keeps talking and moving around, giving off the impression that they could also be tapping necks.

Claudine feels very confident about her plan already. She's been extremely subtle and good with her timing. The lights are set to go off in five more minutes, and then her first victims will all drop dead wherever they are at the time.

But she has one last life to claim.

She more or less thinks of Shiori as a younger sister of her own, considering how she'd helped her and Fumi through a few tough times. Killing her will lift most, if not all, suspicions off of Claudine; surely, even the real older sister Fumi wouldn't ever think Claudine could be so cruel as to kill the sweet and innocent Shiori, who is so fittingly playing the role of a florist tonight.

It pains her just a little, but as she moves to sit down beside Shiori and join in the conversation, Claudine taps the back of her neck three times. Shiori involuntarily jolts, but she quickly covers it up to make it seem less like a reaction to being killed.

"Ah! Lieutenant Saijou! You startled me! Were you still interested in coming by my shop tomorrow to pick up some flowers for your love interest?"

Claudine smirks, both as her character and for real to commend Shiori for the cover-up. In fact, that comment had even helped her out a bit; no one would think Claudine's character would have killed the florist whom she had plans with tomorrow.

"Ah, yes," Claudine replies. "That person has been giving me a bit of trouble lately. It seems they might be interested in someone else, so I'm determined to win them over by expressing my feelings in the language of flowers. I trust I can count on you for help, Shiori."

"Yes!" Shiori smiles. "I'll do everything within my power to help you succeed, Lieutenant!"

The girls at the table all sort of coo and smile. Claudine can tell none of them would ever suspect her of murdering Shiori just now.

The actresses get up once more and move around, putting their arms around each others' shoulders or ruffling their hair or swatting at each other depending on their characters' relationships - all actions that could very easily be misinterpreted as giving the three telltale taps to the back of the neck.

And then a few minutes later, right at 8:30 on the dot, every single light goes off. A few of the guests shriek in surprise.

Claudine and the other actresses stay put until the fifteen seconds are up.

When the lights come back on, Claudine takes in the sight of her first murder spree.

Shiori, Lalafin, Yuyuko, and Nana are all slumped over lifelessly at the tables they'd last been sitting at before the lights had gone off. Several of the audience members cry out.

"Oh my gosh!"

"Waaah, they're dead!"

"Aw noooo! The sweet florist girl got killed!"

At that comment, Claudine notices Fumi whirl around to glimpse her little sister slumped over in her chair. She has to visibly get back into character of being a school principal. Claudine plays along and acts in confusion with the others, looking to Maya.

"Chief! So many dead so quickly? Who could be behind this?"

Maya seems equally as shocked.

"I'm not sure, Lieutenant. To murder five people right from the start…"

"Five?" Claudine blinks, genuinely confused now. She'd only killed four. But when she takes a second look around the room, she finds that Ichie is also lifeless in her chair. Claudine hadn't recalled tapping her, though she supposes she had glided her fingers across quite a few people's necks in the past half-hour. It's possible Ichie had thought she'd gotten tapped and simply died to be safe.

But that doesn't particularly affect Claudine's plan, so she supposes it doesn't matter if she's dead so soon.

"Daiba-san!" Junna's exaggerated cry draws everyone's attention to where the 'doctor' is slumped over at her table. The other actresses start to gather around her.

"This is terrible," Hikari says. "To kill the Doctor right from the beginning..."

"Hmm~?" Karen purrs. "Kagura-san, if I recall Daiba-san was your family's doctor, wasn't she? Did she perhaps charge you too much for prescriptions to handle your stressful life as a politician, and so you've killed her for revenge?!"

"Of course not," Hikari says.

"Besides-" Claudine interjects. "Daiba-san was the one who treated you when you broke your leg in the circus, isn't that right, Aijou-san?"

"Indeed," Maya agrees. "Was she perhaps your secret lover, Aijou-san? Did she have an affair you found out about, and thus you killed her in a fit of rage?"

"E-Eh? No way!" Karen denies. "And speaking of affairs, I hear that you might be having an affair with Hanayagi-san, Chief Tendo! How do we know you aren't just covering for her? Maybe she's the culprit!"

"Ehhh?" Both Kaoruko and Claudine cry out at the same time. Claudine goes first.

"That's ridiculous. Chief Tendo would never have an affair… with anyone else…"

"Oh?" Mahiru sneers cruelly to fit her character. "Does Lieutenant Saijou perhaps have a crush on her Chief~?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Hey!" Kaoruko snaps. "Would you all listen to what I have to say for a second, you heathens? I'm not the murderer! If I was, I would have killed Lieutenant Saijou first, considering she is the one who gave me a speeding ticket! Me! The heiress of the renown Hanayagi family! Can you believe it?"

"Oy," Futaba grunts. "Doesn't Hoshimi-san look a bit suspicious, being the first one to react to Daiba-san's death and all?"

"Oh?" Junna challenges. "Are you trying to deflect attention from yourself, you reckless motorcyclist?"

"I'm not reckless!"

"Everyone please," Maya says. "Let us think about this as calmly and as rationally as possible. What were the occupations of the other victims, and what were their known relationships?"

"One was a Zookeeper!" Karen says. "She was friends with the Secretary and the Chef, but I heard she had bad blood with the Motorcyclist!"

"One was a Swimmer," Hikari says. "She was friends with the Mayor and with Aijou-san, but I heard that the CEO and Chief Detective had bad run-ins with her."

"One was a Gymnast," Mahiru says. "She was my friend, and she was amiable with the Pilot and the Engineer. But I heard the Doctor wasn't kind to her, yet she's dead as well…"

"The last one was a Florist," Kaoruko reports. "She seemed to be friends with everyone, though it's apparent that she and the Lieutenant had an arrangement of sorts set for tomorrow…"

It all sounds so hectic and confusing, which is the intended effect meant to puzzle the guests and make it a bit more challenging to follow. It requires them to get engaged.

As the actresses all begin bickering and accusing one another's characters, the audience members start to mutter and make some guesses amongst themselves. The 'dead' cast members open their eyes or wave or smile at the girls at their tables to reassure them, but they don't say anything or give any hints as they fold their arms and get comfortable to watch the rest of the mystery unfold.

Claudine feels as though she's given all of this a strong start and done well to avert peoples' attention from her. But she keeps her pride to a minimum; after all, the evening has only just begun.

After several moments of the girls trying to place the blame on others, they eventually all break apart and begin moving around the room again. Claudine stays close to Maya for the sake of her character.

"Say," she says to the nearest girls. "You two didn't happen to see anything suspicious, did you?"

All around her, the others are asking the guests similar questions or trying to make them think one way or another about the other characters. They want it to be an interactive experience for the guests, but they can't actually take any information they get from them seriously. One of the girls Claudine had addressed plays along and answers her.

"I'm not sure. But wouldn't you be suspicious of your Chief?"

"Ehh?" her companion cries. "No way! Those two are clearly secret lovers!"

"You think? I thought the Chief and the Heiress had a thing."

"I think that's a cover story."

Claudine smiles and slowly eases back. She's glad to have gotten the guests invested enough to start discussing things together in such detail. Her main goal here is to make sure they have fun. With her job done at that table, Claudine shares a glance with Maya.

"Well, Chief? Shall we continue investigating?"

Maya nods.

"Indeed."

All of the actresses move around the room, continuously doing a lot of gestures that could be suspicious or telling. Claudine is sure to throw in a few false motions as well. But she doesn't plan on killing anyone this time around. She wants the shock of the first mass-killing to put people in one mindset, and then throw them off by not killing anyone at all the second time.

In fact, she only plans on killing three more people tonight, in order to leave a good amount of suspects remaining at the end. The fact that she'd accidentally killed Ichie somehow hasn't affected her plans that much.

So as the minutes tick by, everyone continues acting per usual as the guests enjoy their meals and the experience. A few minutes before 9PM, everyone starts whispering.

"I wonder who it's gonna be this time!"

"I hope it's not the Circus girl! I hope she lives!"

"I think I saw the Heiress girl tap the Politician!"

"No way!"

"Please don't kill the Chief Detective! She's so cool!"

"Are you kidding me? She's totally the murderer!"

The actresses, even the 'dead' ones, share amused little glances with one another. They're all very glad their guests are getting into it.

Right on the hour, the lights go off, and more murmurs of anticipation fill the room. Claudine crosses her arms and puts on a pensive expression, ready to lead the conversation for when the lights come back on.

'How peculiar,' she'll say. 'After killing 5 people to start off, now they've abstained from killing anyone? What exactly is their pattern?'

The lights are turned back on, and for a moment all is quiet as people look around to see if anyone has been murdered. But of course, no one has. They'll all be baffled and-

"Oh no! The Barista!"

Claudine's eyes snap open as everyone's attention is drawn to a certain table. Tsukasa of Frontier is slumped over at her chair, very clearly deceased. Claudine's eyes widen in genuine disbelief.

I wasn't anywhere near her…

She was willing to accept the possibility that she might've killed Ichie by accident before. But now she's highly suspicious of that death, too. She knows for a fact she never laid a hand on Tsukasa.

And that can only mean one thing.

There's a second murderer.

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A/N: There isn't much rhyme or reason to the characters they're all playing and their relationships to one another (other than the lead pair). It's all just totally random crazy stuff to add to the fun atmosphere, so don't worry about any of that! Only Claudine and Maya's characters' relationships really matter.

I had a fun time writing the reverse-reverse psychology train of thought. I think Claudine would definitely over-think that sort of thing to the point where it didn't even make sense to her anymore.

The next & final big chapter will start with have both their POVs!