[GundamAce]

Scene 4: Shadow of the Serial Killer

◆September 16th, 10:00 Episode／Route A――――

"!?"
His eyes are overloaded with red coming from straight in front of him.
The room's interior has been dyed the color of blood.
In the pool of blood at Watase's feet
are chunks from two corpses.
And――there's one more corpse
in the room.

Like Kazami, the corpses are also wearing
radiation protection clothes.
In the instant she sees them――Kazami speaks up.
"I-It can't be...!?"
"Th-That corpse is...!!"
Jun bitterly nods her head, and answers.
"It's... Dojima-senpai's."
Watase breaths in those words.

He has no memory, but the name Jun said is very familiar――
"No way, that person was our...!?"
"Yes... like us, he was a member of Team A...!"
"Why... Why did this..."
Kazami and Jun fall to their knees.
（Wh-What's the meaning of this...!?)
Having already looked at the "corpses" in the institution, Watase would have thought that he was probably burnt to death.
But this case is different.
This corpse's life was taken away by someone's hands――
This was clearly a murder.

"J-Just what... the hell happened here...!?"
――Watase's body is held down by his trembling, and he can only stare at the bloody spectacle before him.
The corpse at his feet is wearing a researcher's uniform.
Seeing a researcher in this institute is not strange.
What is strange is that the researcher's body is riddled with countless gunshot wounds.
（Was he... gunned down?)
It seems like he was trying to escape, as he lies dead at the front of the door.
There are large and small holes over his body, but there's an especially big one in his stomach, where his now discolored intestines had been forced out.
His head had been smashed and his spinal fluid had leaked out, creating a slippery stain on the floor.

（Guh...!）
He instinctively turns away from the cruel looking death he has just noticed.
But there's the other body in the room... the corpse of the rescue team member that Kazami and Jun called "Dojima".
His case is even stranger.
His limbs had been bent in unnatural directions, and his fingers seem to have been tortured before they were snapped from their very base.
His neckbones had been twisted and smashed, the skin on the back of his neck had been torn off, blood still oozing.
His facial expression had been warped with anguish, his tongue loosely protruding from his mouth.
（Wh...What the fuck is this...!? Why did he have to die this way...!?)
It doesn't feel like an act committed by a human.

It looks like a giant hand grabbed him, then casually crushed him.
It doesn't feel like this was done by a human――but rather, a monster.
But nevertheless, the situation is strange.
Even though those two were gunned down, why was he killed in a different way?
"But... why? Why did Dojima-senpai have to be killed...!?"
Jun says this with her head hung down, but Watase says nothing.

――He's not sad.
It doesn't feel real, like he's looking at this scene from behind a monitor.
Even though it's his own comrade who's lying dead there――
（... I...!）
To Watase, who has no memories, it doesn't feel like his comrade "Dojima" died, but rather some stranger instead.
Such a pitiful truth.

※The image and text are still in the middle of development.