Autumn crept in taking Ex-detective Arthur by surprise, he's spent most of his time locked away in his house sulking about the lost case, until one day he received a mysterious note, inviting him to a thanksgiving feast at a large manor.
Arthur: Intriguing, it's owned by someone with a lot of money. The hedges are kept well and the field is cut perfectly. That note was interesting but how could anyone know where I lived?
He walks pass the golden fountain spewing out water, and is welcomed in warmly by a maid. Once he enters the dinning hall, he realizes quickly that he isn't the only guest invited here.
Arthur: (Eleven other people are sitting here and they all look fairly different, so it's safe to assume they don't know each other.)
He takes the one empty seat left at the end of the long marble table with golden trim around the edges. And that's when butlers and maids begin coming in with plates of food, setting them in front of each person, and then heading out one by one.
Maid: Please eat..
White Haired Girl: Well I don't know you all but I can't turn down a good meal so thanks for the food!
Well Kept Man: Perhaps we should introduce ourselves since clearly this strange invitation brought us all from different places. I'm Ivan, a prosecutor with a eighty seven percent success rate in terms of prosecution.
Arthur: (A Lawyer.. Maybe there's a connection between all of our jobs? Like we've all work in in jobs related to the law.)
Jet Black Haired Girl: I'm Yin hu, a successful business woman who works for my family's business. Nice to meet you all.
Purple Haired Girl: I'm Kaori, and I don't have a job yet..
Time passes as they sit there awkwardly, eating their food mostly in silence. The other guests slowly begin to make small talk with each other before suddenly the large double doors behind Arthur open with a loud creak. Everyone looks quietly to see a butler with a black ski mask over his face, walking in with a paper in his hand.
Ivan: Hm?
The butler places the paper onto the table and quietly leaves the room. Everyone stares at it for a few moments before the girl with white hair grabs it.
White Haired Girl: Alright I'll just read it since no one else wants to..
She reads aloud the contents of the paper, and everyone becomes increasingly disturbed as they find out they are in a rather Unconventional predicament.
Arthur: (So we're playing some kind of game of guess who, where a traitor is among this group of twelve huh? And whoever can explain in enough detail what the background of said traitor is, gets rewarded two point five billion.)
Yin: So we can't get up to go to the bathroom?
Ivan: Hmph..
White Haired Girl: But the traitor can lie can't they? So how can we really recite their story huh?
Red Haired Guy: Great question, but a better one would be something like what if we don't want the money?
Kaori: Well.. To prove I'm not the traitor I'll just explain my story to everyone if you all don't mind..
Arthur: (Traitor huh? I wonder if it has something to do with the consistencies. Like how Kaori seems to be the only one that doesn't have a job. She's also pretty young, but so is the young lady with the white hair.)
Kaori: I come from a small city in Hokkaido Japan, named Otaru. My family wasn't very rich and we lived fairly normal lives..
As she pauses for a moment, Kaori gets a bit nervous as she realizes everyone is listening intently to every word she's saying.
Kaori: About three years ago, is when things got a bit darker.. I met a girl around my age who persuaded me to follow her somewhere, and when she did I.. I was taken by an older woman with an Ox head for a mask. I was raised by her and escaped very recently, and now I'm here..
Ivan: Hm...
Yin: Thank you for sharing, I guess I'll go next.
Arthur: (Kaori seems to have a tragic upbringing, which further sets her apart, but I also went through something life changing a while back now too.)
Yin: I'm gonna keep it short, but to sum it up, I work for the Hu family business, and I live in Shanghai. I'm on a temporary trip here for Business purposes but it seems like those will have to wait. They aren't so important anyhow.
Arthur: (A rather vague story, but it sounds about right considering her appearance. I believe I've heard of the Hu family Business before..)
Ivan: I already explained I'm a lawyer, so I'll skip over that. I'm from Russia and I moved here because I enjoy traveling and just so happened to resonate with this place a lot more than my home country. My office is actually not too far from this manor, but I assure you I have nothing to do with this scheme.
He goes quiet and the rest of the room stays quiet alongside him.
Arthur: (No one is speaking because they don't want to get suspected I presume.)
White Haired Girl: Well my name is Rei and I'm from Japan just like Kaori! I moved here when I was younger and I've been a bit on the poorer side, but this whole traitor thing sounds pretty great for me so I'm glad I came here!
Arthur: (That adds up seeing as she was the first to start eating and she dug in like she's never tasted anything like that before.) Right then I'm Arthur from England and I'm an ex-detective who quit my job after failing a very big case.
Ivan: We should be suspecting each other I guess, so lets hear it then Arthur, what happened to make you quit your job?
Arthur: (He's insinuating that he suspects me..) Someone dear to me died while I was trying to figure out a homicide case, and then I was forced to give the case to someone else when they realized it was becoming personal to me.
Ivan: Hm I see.. Well that's all from me!
As he says this the girl to his and Yin's left uncrosses her legs and leans forward with her arms folded to her stomach and a cold expression on her face.
Light Blue Haired Girl: I work for the government and cannot explain further details openly with just anyone, sorry everyone.
Blonde Haired Girl: Hey I noticed before the rest of us gathered here that you had what seemed to be strange things attached to your leg, so I'm assuming you work in some military position, or maybe since you seem so bent on keeping it a secret, you're a spy or assassin. Could that make you the...
She pauses for a moment to see if she provoked any speech from the mysterious girl with blue hair but soon realizes the girl just doesn't seem concerned.
Blonde Haired Girl: Well I'm Yuna and I come from an investigation branch under the government as well. I specialize in finding people and locating potential threats. Which is why I noticed the strange weaponry on her left leg. In fact I believe I've seen her before.. Yes what was her name..?
The blue haired girl leans back with a bloodthirsty look in her eye as she flips one of the small knives up from the holster on her leg, and right before she throws it across the table Arthur lets out a loud a loud yell for Yuna warning her. Startled, Yuna nearly chokes on her own saliva before the knife hits it's target.
Arthur: Gh!?
Everyone quickly falls into disarray as they try to process what just happened, and then Yuna finally leans forward hitting the table.
Brown Haired Boy: What is wrong with you!!? I'm done with this whole thing!!
He swiftly climbs out of his chair and runs for the doors.
Ivan: You fool, the rules clearly state that we can't stand from our seats!
He continues moving and then stops abruptly at the door.
Brown Haired Boy: The door's.. Locked... Why is the door locked!? Let me out right this--
Suddenly a loud bang rings out and everyone is startled once again before a thud can be heard from behind Arthur. He stares down at his food trying not to look and see what has become of the boy behind him, and Rei grabs her mouth trying to keep her food from coming back up.
Light Blue Haired Girl: Now that it's quiet, I'll explain. The only real "Don't" stated in the rules is that we can't stand up from our seats, but it said nothing about attacking someone else.
Yin: This is absolutely disgusting! You must be the traitor, you shut her up because she was getting somewhere!
Ivan: I agree with you Yin..
Arthur: (But something isn't right..)
Light Blue Haired Girl: Call me Clover, I'm not a part of this farce even a little. But either way I won't share any more...
Ivan: So how do we win, just re-explain what she told us but try and fill in the gaps without her "dealing with us"?
Arthur: That's correct, but please allow me to speak for a second.
Clover: I'm listening mister ex-detective..
Arthur: As horrific as it was, what she did to Yuna and what happened to that young man actually showed me something important..
Yin: Well out with it!
Arthur: Everyone acted quite different toward what happened to Yuna, but for some reason Kaori didn't react much.
Ivan: That could just be her normal behavior toward blood..
Kaori: No it scared me too I swear!! You can't guess that it's me based on that!
Arthur: Not only that but Kaori, you came from Otaru right? And when you were "Taken" by that woman, you were still in Otaru correct?
Kaori: Yeah but what does that mean..?
Arthur: Well normally it wouldn't matter, but I had a case where someone escaped all the way to that place, and I noticed there was a rumor that a family lived there that knew how to use the already well known craftmanship that came with living there, but they used it to create deadly traps and such.
Kaori: None of what you're saying makes any sense, you suspect me off of a rumor!? It's not me!
Arthur: But the same trap was used here that was used in the rumors Kaori! And not only that, but you have a strange stain on your shirt toward your side. I've seen that before and it looks to be old blood that didn't wash out right..
Ivan: Arthur, if I'm not mistaken you didn't look behind you to see what happened to him, so how could you know it was the same trap!?
Arthur: It's a harpoon right? One used for fishing...
Yin: Yeah.. But still you knew that from an educated guess?
Arthur: Well to tell you the truth, I tested it out myself a while back.. It made the same sound, and my ears rang the same afterwards... Kaori is the traitor, and the part she left out of her story was that she had actually been taken in by a psycho who uses those traps on people!
Kaori: I.. I'm not a liar..
Arthur: Then one last thing to confirm.. Why are you so afraid of me guessing you? The only possibility is that you know what happens to you if we guess right...
Kaori: I... I'm not a liar, I swear..
Ivan: (Such a strange connection he made to her but it feels right.. A true detective at work...)
Yin: Well..? What happens now?
Clover: I'm going to assume the butler comes in with the prize for Arthur and we all leave, never to speak of this again..
Arthur: Kaori, by bringing us here you've made horrible things happen to people.
Kaori: N-no.. It was you all who did that, not me!!
Suddenly a noise that sounds like a music box begins playing throughout the dinning hall, and the walls begin to rumble.
Kaori: N-no wait!! Please don't do this!!!
Arthur braces himself as he notices three large holes unearth themselves from the walls, and before he could put together what it means, a loud bang sounds for half a second before everything turns pitch black for him. He wakes up in his bed and grabs his head..
Arthur: My head.. That felt too real to be a simple dream...
He looks to the side to see a suitcase sitting on a stool, and he immediately takes it, setting it on the counter in the kitchen area of his small apartment. Finally he opens it.
Arthur: It's the currency used in England. I'm assuming two point five billion's worth..
Days go by and he continues searching online for as much as possible, but not a single detail of what had happened that night could be uncovered. Eventually his suspicions were confirmed by the news that the daughter of a very rich family in China hasn't made it back, and has seemingly disappeared. Now all that remains of that faithful night is Arthur, and the large amount of money he made suddenly. The End--
Writer's Note: This was intended to be a super summarized one shot of a bigger story that came to me about two days before thanksgiving, so I might make it into a longer more fleshed out full story soon. Also this story's universe ties into another story I made a while back, so I guess I have to remake that one too at some point to tie them together. Hope you enjoyed this one so far even if it was short.. Happy Thanksgiving!!!