"Manipulation"-Mina

There was the audible sound of gasps filling the silent room. Students began to mutter amongst themselves once again, like things had never changed. How quickly their minds are swayed. I thought to myself. Are a few cheap words, really enough to change their feelings so drastically. . I never truly understood why people relied so much on emotions, talked about them so highly, like they aren't the same emotions that shatter people. I thought back to the day before, when I had met up with Liam, Asher, and Hikaru to discuss what we had heard from Heath. I spent the entire night thinking those things over, and I still couldn't come up with a concrete answer for anything. Maybe Heath's ramblings could be explained by some rich maniac with a mental disorder brought to power by their families status, but that didn't explain why the Japanese government was involved in a project like this. It also failed to account for the inconsistencies on this plan. If you assumed that Heath's only goal was to destroy the American government from the inside out, by creating the perfect "assassins" why would he openly promote students killing each other. Why would he openly sow disorder and competition between us. Even if it was a method to bring out the best of us, how much value would any of this hold if they only came out with one capable "assassin". It just didn't make sense it was beginning to make me more and more confused than I already was.

Thankfully the blackboard finally loaded up, and I turned my attention to Yukimura, who stood in front of the class, sipping on some wine. Like she needed to drink any more. I thought to myself. I fully prepared myself for a completely incompetent and unprofessional explanation from our drunken home room teacher, but to my pleasant surprise, (which was saying something) a video popped up on the screen. After a few seconds of rustling Yukimura finally was able to locate the play button.

It was like a jump scare.

Heath Salamanders pensive face popped unto the screen, causing multiple students in the class to physically react. On the screen, Heath smiled, as if he knew the exact reaction that this would get. Like he was watching us right now, through this prerecorded video. Even though I knew it was an impossibility, I simply couldn't shake the feeling. Heath began to speak in a crisp manner, his voice clear and distinct. "Good morning, future saviors of Japan." Heath began with a cryptic message

"I know that all of you must have profuse amount of questions that you want to ask, but unfortunately, not all of them will be getting answers. But, fret not, you may direct the rest of your questions towards your homeroom teacher. " With that, the camera panned out, to show a view of Heath sitting at his desk. it was a large brass desk with a gold plated name plate standing on the left side of his desk, directly under a curved, jagged shaped lamp. His hand moved to press a button and behind him, the wall split into a black wall with two golden numbers, 1 and 2. Directly under the numbers were too scrolls.

It was a completely over dramatic gesture, and I could tell that Heath took immense pleasure in that fact. Grabbing the scroll under the number one, Heath removed the silver clipping that held the scroll close. He turned the scroll over to face the screen, as he began to speak, reciting the same worlds scrawled unto the scroll with perfect accuracy.

"This test has been split into two parts, both pertaining to the analyzation of students academic, physical and social abilities. The first part of this trial will take place over a two week period and will serve two major purposes. One, as a way for the school to analyze and assign grades the aforementioned abilities. These grades with be posted on your KLP apps. These grades will be used to ascertain a class ranking for all of the first year students."

The first part seemed completely normal, and it would probably fit into a regular advanced school. Giving every class a ranking would also serve to propagate more competition, and incidentally, more murders. The only plot hole I could find is that it really didn't give much incentive. If a student, or even a class were willing to not do their best on the test, and not participate in the class competition, therefore not taking a single life throughout the entire school year, there was no punishment to reprimand them. It was a very open opportunity to spite Heath and the school directors. A peaceful sort of protest. One I'm sure many people are considering at the moment.

I tossed a sidelong look at Hikaru.

She looked back at me with a face of determination.

Idiot. I thought. There's going to be a catch.

Though there was still a part of me that earnestly wished that that wasn't the case. That maybe the infallible Heath Salamander had made a mistake, a miscalculation. But I knew that wasn't possible. And my suspicions were confirmed by the image that popped up unto the screen. Some students screamed, others closed their eyes, wishing to disappear. My blood ran cold.

It was an image of our classmate Charles, in 4k quality. 

 * * * 

To say that the image that popped unto the screen wasn't jarring would be a utter lie. I could tell from the reaction of the people around me that the wound of their dead classmate was still beyond fresh.

It was bleeding out.

I on the other hand, wasn't affected by it because of the fact that it was Charles. Just like the rest of the class, it was more of the message hidden behind that fact. The horrendously bloody reminder that this wasn't just a normal school, and that things could only get worse from here.

Heaths voice began to speak, while the image continued to be displayed on the screen. "Just last night the first murder of the school was conducted." Heath announced in an amused voice. In the next instance, a loud fanfare of trumpets and drums and even a choir began to play, and confetti dropped from the ceiling of the classroom and a huge image with the words, congratulations popped up unto the screen. "Use this as a chance to begin a new year, a new start to the things that have yet to come. To the development of the next generations of Japan, it's honored saviors." Health popped up unto the screen and was sharing a toast with somebody else that was just out of frame of the camera."

The class was completely silent. The gesture was so over dramatic, so shock inducing, and so disrespectful all at the same time tat the only sound that could express the feelings everyone in the room was feeling, it would be nothing . It made me feel mad, as much as I was shocked, just as much as I was downright confused. Heath took a large sip of the wine, grinning like a madman.

SLAM!!!

There was a loud sound of someone slamming their fist against the table. Every single pair of eyes in the classroom turned to face the source of the noise. It was Liam. Nobody could see the expression on his face in the darkness, as it was hidden by his curtain of ginger hair. I looked to my left and noticed Hikaru with a look of absolute devastation on her face.

These were the exact reactions Heath was trying to incite. Anger, and hopelessness. He was manipulating the feelings of all the students in the schools with a prerecorded video. With that, Heath continued unto his explanation, almost as though that horrendous section had never happened in the first place. "The KLP app will be updated, and the student, and class they are a part of in question will be receiving points. Meanwhile the class that lost a student will be deducted a certain amount of points, depending on how many KLP points the student killed had. Same with the gain. In this case, all students started of with 0, so their is no loss nor gain. To add, all classes start off with 500,000 points that could be spent however the class pleased."

That was a bombshell.

If classes gained and lost points proportionate to the students that were killed, it would create a kind of target system that put the highest earning students at a higher chance of being assassinated then the lower rank students. But, he didn't say anything about that system applying to the student themselves. It seems that others had come to this realization as well, as they reached for their phones desperately trying to find the name of the killer. However, Heaths next words dispelled the thought from our minds.

"As you may know, at the end of my speech in the auditorium I left a cryptic message about not getting caught. Well if your quick in the mind—Which I'm sure most of you are— you must have been able to figure out the consequence if a student from another class is able to provide definitive evidence that your were indeed the culprit." He paused and let his next words be taken by the silence. He was right. We knew exactly what would happen in that case.

Expulsion.

Along with the threat of murder hanging above our heads, their was also the threat of being expelled to the worst school in the entirety of Japan, maybe even the entire world. Japan's Delinquent Reform School. Some students described standing outside the front gates of the place and hearing the noises that come from inside the building made out of decrepit black stone, with flashing windows and lights, and screams, as 'Standing outside the Gates of Hell."

"For this specific reason, The school has decided to private the viewing of other peoples KLP points during times in the designated trials." It was such a simple decision that it felt dumb that I had even considered checking the app. It would defeat the whole purpose everything Heath was trying to accomplish with this program.

"Final rule about killing and expulsions is that you only have two weeks after a murder was completed to bring definite proof to said murder. Any time after two weeks the evidence is inadmissible, and cannot be used to force an expulsion. That's it for the first part of the test. Any further questions you have will need to be answered by your homeroom teachers. The next part of the test will be announced in two weeks, after the testing period has finished." With that, the video cut to black.

There was a long, dark silence as students digested what he said. Finally, the sensors in the room detected the lack of light, and it turned on the automatic, emergency light switch. A red glow fell upon the room, only illuminating the faces and figures of the students, leaving everything else to the darkness. The sound of Yukimura snoring at her front desk shattered the red tinged silence.

Even Hikaru, someone who usually had so much to say that it seemed she wouldn't be able to get it all out in her life time, sat in silence. Liam's expression of anger and disappointment was only amplified in the sharp red light. Most everybody in the classroom sat completely still, expect for Jean. She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat, eye's raving around the room.

Finally after 5 minutes of silence Jean finally broke the silence, an unsteady quiver in her voice. "Guy's, I think I know something about how Charles was murdered.