Chapter Text
Chiaki met up with the ultimate cosplayer during lunch break. She brought along a gaming console, a stack of papers containing various ideas that she had come up with the previous night, and a few printed summaries from different games that could help with inspiration.
The two girls sat in Tsumugi's dorm room, pouring over the large stacks of ideas in front of them.
The gamer had taken what she could remember from the meeting the previous day and compiled some of the most creative ideas into new, more elaborate ones so that she could fit as many possibilities in a scenario as possible.
"For example," she explained, placing a hand on a paragraph that she wrote. "If people want a killing game, there has to be some free time in between right? So during those free times, characters could interact in a more slice of life way."
"Wouldn't they be too upset to interact normally though?" Tsumugi asked. "I mean, some of their friends would have just been killed."
"Not necessarily," Chiaki reasoned. "Even if that happens, being around other people after something like that could help them to heal. So I think it could work."
Tsumugi noted something down on a fresh piece of paper and tapped her pen against the desk as she scanned the idea list again.
"What about the ideas about the post-apocalyptic world?" She asked. "I know we can't accommodate every idea, but I kind of really like this one."
"Post-apocalyptic scenarios are really common in stories and video games," Chiaki replied. "But I've never seen one with a killing game occurring alongside a tragedy that's already happening. Hmmm, unless, the killing game is part of the tragedy..."
The cosplayers eyes widened. "That's it!" She said, scribbling something down so fast that the gamer barely had time to blink and look over at her before she was done.
"What is it?"
"What if the killing game caused the apocalypse?" Tsumugi asked eagerly. "It could be some kind of trigger point, like maybe a chain of events take place after or during said killing game that leads to the world ending?"
"That could work," Chiaki mused. "The story wouldn't exactly have a hopeful ending if we do that, though."
"The story could have a sequel," Tsumugi pressed on, her eyes shining with inspiration. "In the second half, we could work on how to stop the tragedy."
"That's true," Chiaki agreed. "I really like that. It's just, I have a feeling they wanted a standalone story with a hopeful ending."
"Hmmm..." Tsumugi ran a free hand through her long hair as she thought. "Do you have any other ideas? I kind of really like the killing game and the tragedy being related."
Chiaki thought about it for a moment, closing her eyes for better concentration.
"Let's see,"she said under her breath. "If the killing game caused the tragedy... Oh, wait!"
She straightened up suddenly, a similar look of eagerness in her eyes. "What if the tragedy caused the killing game?"
"What?" The cosplayer asked, intrigued. "What do you mean?"
"Think about it," Chiaki went on, subconsciously tapping her foot in her excitement. "If a killing game caused a tragedy, we would have to depict the entire stream of events leading up to that tragedy otherwise it wouldn't make sense. But if the tragedy caused the killing game, the killing game could simply be part of all the bad things that were already happening in the world, so it would be easier to explain away."
"That's true, but there would still have to be a motive for the tragedy in the first place, wouldn't there?"
"that's where the antagonists come in!" Chiaki reasoned. "We can work out the finer details later, but maybe the villains of the story did something to cause the world to end, and once it did, they treated the characters like their personal playthings and cost them to have a killing game because they can now get away with anything. The characters would have to escape the situation and figure out how to stop the tragedy from happening! It has all the elements we discussed earlier and a hopeful ending at the same time!"
"The characters could even find out about the tragedy near the end of the story!" Tsumugi gasped, fresh excitement rushing through her as she began rewriting her initial notes. "Chiaki, this could actually work!..."
She frowned slightly, looking at what she had just written down. "If the characters were forced into a killing game because of the tragedy, I guess there's no way for them to find out about the tragedy near the end, though."
Chiaki frowned as well. The problem had occurred to her at that very moment as well. She glanced down at her gaming console as she always did whenever she was unsure of what to do, and flipped through the summaries of games she had brought with her.
At last, something interesting caught her attention. A game where the protagonist woke up with no prior memories of what had happened to them.
"They could have amnesia!" Chiaki exclaimed, showing Tsumugi the game summary. "They'd forget all about the tragedy, and they could wake up in an unknown location and be forced to participate without knowing why! They can solve the mystery as the story goes on, which could make for a good amount of tention and mystery. "
"A mystery story!" Tsumugi mused, beaming with even more excitement. "That's one of my favourite genres! And... it Actually could work!"
She jotted down a few final notes, pushed the paper away, and turned to look at her work partner. "These will be perfect! I thought we were only going to come up with something simple, but this, this is some next level fiction!"
Chiaki smiled back, happy that she was able to help. "I'm glad," she said. "These would definitely be a good starting point for the cosplay club tonight."
The sentence suddenly caused Tsumugi to remember something and she groaned, putting her head in her hands.
"The cosplay club tonight," she wailed. "In all the excitement of creating new ideas with you, I completely forgot that the headmaster wanted to sit in today."
Chiaki reached out a hand and gently patted the cosplayer on the shoulder. The latter could now feel flutters of anxiety bubbling in her stomach, making her feel sick.
"I'm sure it's going to be alright," Chiaki said soothingly, though she felt a little worried herself. She did not show it though. "We aren't exactly doing anything wrong. Once he sees that we are actually using it to hone your talent, I'm sure he would just let us continue without a hitch."
"I hope so..." Tsumugi said uncertainly into her hands. "But even if that is the case, do I really need this many people to cosplay with? I'm sure we are close to 50 at this point, and sure we aren't just hanging out in there but... well, I can't deny that part of the reason I'm enjoying this so much is because it feels nice to finally have friends for once."
She felt a bit embarrassed admitting it, but it was true. Tsumugi wouldn't exactly call herself a lonely person, but she could not deny that she still did feel invisible to the rest of her schoolmates most of the time until recently. It felt nice to actually be noticed, to be spoken to and to get a chance to talk about what she loved with other people in real life. Usually, she could only talk to online friends about her interests.
It was the whole other reason she first began writing fanfictions of her schoolmates in the first place. She was creating a world in which she was involved with them, where they could go on fun adventures together and do things they would never otherwise do.
Of course, she also made them simply because she had Been observing them for so long that it was fun to imagine them in different scenarios, but that was only her conscious reason. There were many subconscious ones as well.
"Even if that was the case, there isn't exactly a school limit on how many people can help you with practising your talent," Chiaki reassured her. "I've had to study all the school rules as a class rap, so I can promise that you're not doing anything wrong. I'm sure Taka would say the same thing, otherwise like he said at breakfast, he would have done something about it by now."
"I suppose you're right," Tsumugi side. "I'm just worried I guess."
"I understand," Chiaki set gently. "Hey, why don't we go get some food before afternoon classes start? Maybe take your mind off things for a little bit?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," the cosplayer consented.
She got up, and Chiaki picked up her things.
"Everything will be alright," the latter said comfortingly.
"I really hope you're right... "
And with that, the two of them exited the dorm room.
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Byakuya frowned to himself as he sat down in the library over lunch break. He was studying a heavy lawbook, one that was over 500 pages long, and he had not even completed half of it.
This did not bother him however. He was the ultimate affluent prodigy after all, so studying was second nature to him. He needed to know all the laws of the world if he was going to manage things as the air to his family. They had negotiations with all kinds of powerful People, so he needed to be as informed as possible on what worked wear.
Today however, something else was on his mind. He tried to ignore it, allowing himself to be absorbed in the book for another 20 or so minutes before paying it any mind, but he could not help but be curious about what happened just that morning.
He knew that his classmates had decided to partake in some kind of foolish cosplay club, one that was, Most probably, an absolute waste of time. Yet the headmaster of the school seem to have taken interest in it.
Byakuya was no fool, he knew that hopes Peak Academy had a high reputation, and if the school's headmaster took interest in what seemed to be a mundane cosplay club, maybe he had his impressions wrong about it this whole time.
It was certainly something to look into at least, something that could help him learn a little more about what people did at this prestigious Academy to home their talents. Perhaps that information could prove valuable to him in his pursuit to know how to go about working with the higher-ups.
Still, the idea of participating in such a thing seemed utterly ridiculous. Role-play? Costumes?
he scoffed to himself under his breath, turning a page on his book. There was absolutely no way he would be doing that, and any value that could be gained from observing their session was minimal at best.
However, curiosity was also getting the better of him. He could not help but wonder why the head of this prestigious Academy was interested in something that seemed so childish.
Was there really true value in such foolishness? Or was the head of the school not as high class as he had first thought?
If he allowed himself to go to one of these cosplay club sessions, would he be wasting three hours of his precious time?
Byakuya pondered the matter to himself all throughout lunch break, and it only bothered him more as he watched a group of his cosplay club loving peers walked past him on their way to the next lesson.
Perhaps there was no harm in giving it a try. After all, he had faced worse things, and it could give him a good judge of character on what kind of things the school deemed hi class, if nothing else.
Yes, he would observe the session tonight. He was quite sure that the others wouldn't mind, they seem to welcome new members as willingly as if they were always lacking of them.
This could prove interesting or invaluable, but regardless, he figured it was worth the experiment.
----------------
Tention was in the air that night. Normally, a new member joining the cosplay club would be a cause for excitement among the group.
But though they were all pleased that Satou was coming along for her first ever session, everyone was, to some degree, nervous as well.
The headmaster was going to be sitting in throughout the whole session... He was going to be watching them to see what they did, and if they did not live up to what he expected or turned out to be something he didn't like, they might have to stop doing this all together.
A few people came in that day thinking it was going to be the last session, with gloomy looks on their faces.
Mahiru in particular looked rather depressed, as she did not like the thought of her best friend having only to experience this once. She wanted this to be a positive, memorable, long-term experience for all of them, not something that would go down in her friend's memory as a cool thing that got cancelled because the school put a stop to it.
Tsumugi cleared her throat nervously as everyone sat down in a similar circle to yesterday. She and Junko settled themselves in the middle, the latter looking unfazed by the whole situation.
The fashionista seem to be one of the only people here who seemed unbothered. On the contrary, she seemed eager to get started, as though she was eager to see what could possibly happen next.
"I've been doing some thinking," Tsumugi began, clearing her throat nervously. "And I think I got a better idea on what kind of story we could do next."
A hand shot into the air. The cosplayer looked at it. It was Korekiyo.
"Pardon my intrusion," the anthropologist said apologetically. "But I noticed that there is more than one person observing us today."
He nodded towards the corner of the room.
As expected, Jin Kirigiri was sitting there, looking pleasantly relaxed as he watched silently. But he wasn't alone. He was accompanied by...
"BYAKUYA?!"
Aoi's shout sounded a lot louder than it actually was due to how silent the room had gotten.
The boy in question looked at her reproachfully. "I don't know why you're so surprised," he said. "I have the right to be here if I want to."
"Yes of course," Tsumugi chimed in quickly, "anyone is welcome to join if they want..."
"I'm not here to take part in this... childishness," Byakuya clarified. "I'm simply here to observe."
"Y-you can come sit with us in the circle if you want," Toko offered, indicating a spot beside her.
Byakuya shook his head looking annoyed. "No," he replied. "I would much rather reside here."
"Please, carry on," Jin Kirigiri interrupted. "Don't let us distract you."
"Right," Tsumugi said, clearing her throat again even more nervously. "Right, so... As I was saying..."
She riffled through the stack of papers that she had laid on the floor before her and extracted the notes she had taken that afternoon. "I have been doing some thinking, and Chiaki has been helping me with ideas."
Chiaki blushed slightly with embarrassment, but shown with pride at the mention of her name.
The cosplayer continued, "and I think we have a better idea on the kind of story we could craft."
Her voice grew in more confidence as she spoke. "We tried to incorporate as many ideas as we could into our first draft, and thought we could look over it together and see if you like it."
Tsumugi began explaining the concept of the killing game. She explained how a group of students would wake up in a location with amnesia, and be told to kill one another. She also explained that the survivors would eventually find out that all of this was taking place due to an apocalyptic tragedy taking place outside the killing game's location.
The others listened intently, intrigued by everything she was saying. Tsumugi explained how there would be free time in between each murder, so students could interact in a more slice of life manner, but that there would also be an overarching mystery as to how they got to where they were in the first place.
She also went on to explain the possible motives the characters could have for killing.
"I thought of a few basics," the cosplayer said. "Loved ones in danger, embarrassing secrets, money..."
"How about killing someone because they think the other person could be dangerous?" Asked Satou, speaking up for the first time. "Like they could be a traitor or a suspected villain or something."
"That could work as well," chorused a few others.
Satou smiled. "I'm glad I could help, even though I'm new here," she said.
Tsumugi beamed back and wrote the idea down.
"And wouldn't the characters want to know who killed who during the process of the killing game?" asked Kyoko. "If we are facing this as ourselves, we have two ultimate detectives in this room. If any of us were placed into a situation like that, I'm sure we would want to solve each mystery."
"Smaller mysteries in the middle of one big mystery, I like it," Sony agreed. "Could that possibly work?"
"You mean like, an investigation in between each murder?" Junko asked, her eyes widening.
"And a trial!" Sonia went on eagerly.
"That could be interesting!" Junko noted with just as much if not more enthusiasm.
"But what would happen to those who get caught? Or those who get found out?" Hiyoko asked. "I sure as heck wouldn't trust someone like that if I knew they were in my vicinity."
"All the better, more drama!" Junko cheered.
"Shouldn't they be punished for such a crime? for murder I mean," Byakuya asked.
Everyone turned to look at him. They did not expect him to speak up of all people.
"Dude, I thought you weren't participating," Yasuhiro commented, looking confused but please.
"I wasn't going to," Byakuya replied matter of factly. "But even I know that your slice of life idea would not work if the number of murderers in the group increases. If you are going to do this, the wrongdoers would have to be out of the picture somehow, otherwise some of your other concepts such as getting characters to spend free time with each other between murders would simply not work out."
"He has a point," Celeste reasoned. "After all, there would be enemies everywhere. It would only cause divide and mistrust."
"What do you suggest we do?" Maki asked, looking at the ultimate gambler.
"I suggest we go with my idea and subject the killers to executions."
"You just want to do something from mediaeval times," Miu said, rolling her eyes.
"No, it could work," Tsumugi said slowly, her expression donning with inspiration as she made yet another note on her sheet of paper. "It will create more drama, and solve our free time problem at the same time."
"Do we really need free time?" Himiko asked. "Sounds like a pain to me with all that would be going on."
"I think free time would be a good idea," Ibuki countered. "It would give the us, the characters, time to breathe after each murder. It's important, otherwise we would go crazy!"
There was a faint murmur of agreement there, though there were others who seemed to feel like they would rather have drama the whole way.
But no one seemed to object to the idea of executions, so they did not bring up a point against it just to get rid of free time.
The only one who did raise an objection to executions was Hifumi.
"Pardon me Miss Shirogane," he said. "But what would be the point of executing the killers apart from giving us free time? The antagonist of the story would have put the characters in there to kill in the first place right? Wouldn't it be going against their own words by punishing people for doing exactly what they wanted them to do?"
"It would be," Chiaki agreed, considering the matter.
"Unless the antagonist just wants to make everyone suffer, and will take any excuse to do it!" Junko jumped in.
Everyone turned to look at her now. It appeared the session was full of surprises that day.
"You said you wanted to play the antagonist, right Junko?" Makoto asked uncertainly. "Exactly what kind of villain are you thinking of embodying?"
"The most despair inflicting one possible," Junko replied with reverie, an almost hungry look in her eyes.
"Geez, if I didn't know you were simply excited to play a role, I would actually be scared of you right now," Kaede shuddered.
"I guess it just goes to show that she is a good actor," Tenko shrugged.
"What would be your villain motive?" Sayaka asked curiously.
"Didn't I just tell you? Man you guys are sooo slooowww," Junko said, though she did not sound angry. On the contrary, she sounded overly cheerful.
Junko lowered her voice, put on a dramatic expression and said: "despaaaaaaaiiiiir."
"You mean like, the opposite of hope?" Nagito asked.
"Uh yeah, I mean, you wanted hope to win right?" The fashionista asked reasonably. "So I thought that it would only make sense for despair to be the main villains' motive, and not just a theme for the story."
"That actually does make sense," Chihiro marvelled.
"Plus," Junko continued, "this works out perfectly with what we just discussed! We wanted murders and executions, and the only reason I can think of for the villain to do both at the same time without contradicting each other is to simply want to make people suffer as much as possible."
"You know, this idea is actually quite ingenious," Kyoko approved.
"I have to agree, as reluctant as I am to do so," Byakuya said from the corner.
"Really?" Tsumugi asked in surprise, preparing to write down even more notes.
"Naturally," Byakuya replied. "It would make sense that if the amount of suffering you speak of were to occur in a story or in any situation in real life, the person in charge would have to be someone as twisted as that."
"Then it settled, the main motive will be despair!" Tsumugi declared. "Maybe that's why the tragedy would happen in the first place too, because the villain just wants to make the whole world suffer."
They spent the next half an hour going over more and more ideas, and by the end of it, the group at large had agreed on a basic storyline.
At last, it became time for them to act out the first draft of what they had created.
"I don't think over 40 could be in a killing game at one time," Tsumugi said, looking around at them all. "I mean, we could, but it would take too long. Maybe we should divide into smaller groups."
"How about we go by class?" Mukuro suggested. "Just over 10 of us in each group."
"I like that," Angie piped up. "It would be much more easy to handle if we are split up, won't it?"
Everyone agreed to that proposition, but Tsumugi looked a little worried.
"I normally wouldn't mind," she said, "but if we go by class, I wouldn't be in two out of 3 run-throughs of the story. This cosplay club was the means for me to home my talent and well..."
She shot a nervous glance at the headmaster who was still sitting calmly in the corner.
"I don't want to give off the wrong impression."
Jin Kirigiri now smiled and looked over at
Tsumugi kindly. "I don't mind," he mused. "I'm actually interested to see how this will go."
"You won't, terminate us?" She asked uncertainly, fidgeting with her hands.
He shrugged, and then chuckled. "I never intended to in the first place."
The others stared at him, not believing what they had just heard. If he wasn't here to make sure they were breaking any rules so that he could ban the club, then why did he ask to sit in the first place? Was he into cosplay or something of the sort?
"Please feel free to carry on as if I'm not here," the headmaster continued. "I really just want to observe."
Tsumugi still looked a little nervous, but a hint of relief crossed her face as well.
"Alright," she said, a little more energetically. "Let's get class 78 to take the stage first, since Junko will be playing the antagonist and she's in your class."
Everyone got up and broke the circle, rearranging themselves so that they were sitting in rows like a proper audience. The students of class 78 walked up in front of the others and began to role-play.
Admittedly, it was very messy. They had no script this time, only a general idea on what they had to do.
None of them had prior acting experience, and without a script to guide them, they weren't exactly sure what they were doing.
Tsumugi stayed standing as well, playing the role of director more than anything else, trying to get everyone in check.
After the first 20 minutes, it became clear that they really, really needed some form of order of events before they could proceed any further.
"That wasn't bad," she called to the class as they settled back down. "But we should probably right a script before we start again."
The rest of the session was dedicated to seen plotting, breaking down individual sections of the story into smaller and smaller scenes so that they would have a better idea on what they wanted to do.
They had to admit that they were getting better at it, the more they discussed, the more ideas seem to flow from everyone as a group.
By the time 10 o'clock hit, they had already divided the story into six basic sections, and each one into two basic subsections. They had figured out which victims were going to die in the story for the first class, and who they wanted the killers to be. The only thing left was motivation for the killers, and how much would be revealed about each character as the story progressed, as well as individual liines of course.
"Today was great everyone!" Tsumugi encouraged, as they all packed up their things. "If all goes well, we should have our next meeting at the same time and same place. let's think about line ideas and how much of ourselves we want to put in our characters in the meantime."
"May I say something?" Jin Kirigiri asked, standing up and moving to the front of the room.
The others looked at him apprehensively again.
"Oh, uh, sure," Tsumugi replied uncertainly, stepping aside.
Jin smiled and nodded at her before turning to address the students at large.
"I have to say, I am very impressed," he commented. "Not only are you actually doing things in here instead of hanging out, you're creating original stories and plays, that you would then rehearse. Does anyone else know about these stories that you create?"
They all shook their heads.
"Well, I think it's a shame," he said bracingly. "After what I've observed today, I have concluded that what you're doing is something that has never happened in the history of the school. Three whole class is full of ultimates, all with different talents, coming together to create a new masterpiece? If this does not represent the hope that our school stands for, I don't know what does."
Everyone was speechless. They had no idea how to respond to such praise. They did not think they were doing anything special, they were simply having fun. But he apparently seem to think that they were now model students.
"I have a proposal for you," Jin went on. "How would you like to put on this play for an end of year concert?"
"You mean, like a performance? In front of other people outside the club?!" Junko asked, her eyes wide.
"I don't know, I have stage fright," muttered Mikan.
"That would be amazing!" Nagito gushed. "The opportunity to spread the kind of hope that we are creating to the whole world, I can barely express how honoured I would be!"
"It would be a goal to work towards," Peko mused.
"Definitely!" Exclaimed Kokichi. "I think it would be a great idea!"
"Wait, even us?" Hajime asked, indicating himself and Satou.
Jin nodded. "Anyone in the cosplay club," he replied.
"But Sir, with all due respect, we are from the reserve course," Satou said uncertainly. "I mean," she added quickly. "I would love two, but we're already getting funny looks from the teachers and..."
"I'll speak with my staff about that," the headmaster promised. "You all just keep practising, and recruiting whoever you see fit. this opportunity is too good to pass up."
"So it's confirmed??" Tsumugi asked, feeling overwhelmingly nervous but excited at the same time. "We are really going to perform this?"
"If you all want to," Jin encouraged.
The cosplayer beckened everyone into a tight crowd and they all began whispering and discussing among them selves.
Most agreed that it would be a huge honour, though others were a little more sceptical and unsure if their skills were even on par with beginner actors, let alone good enough to act in front of a public audience.
Overall however, the consensus was that it was something they would love to do, so after about five minutes, Tsumugi turned back to their headmaster and nodded at him.
"We'll do it," she proclaimed.
"Excellent," he smiled. "Well, I guess that's all for tonight. You should probably get back to your dormitories, it's getting late. Better to have a good nights rest, you have lessons tomorrow."
"of course," Tsumugi agreed. "Well, good night everyone! Let's meet again at the usual time!"
Feeling lighter than they had done all day, the club broke apart as they separated on their way to their own dorm rooms.
Everyone was talking loudly and excitedly, some were looking nervous, others overjoyed.
They were not being forced to stop after all! In fact, they were encouraged to continue, and to make it something that could be performed in front of a public audience for an end of year school concert!
Tsumugi returned to her room that night feeling lighter than air. A brand-new spring seemed to have appeared in her step.
"I need a word," said a voice behind her just before she could enter her dorm.
She spun around, surprised to see that Byakuya was standing right behind her.
"Oh, Byakuya? What are you doing here?" She asked, unable to hide her confusion. Didn't he have no interest in the cosplay club whatsoever? Why was he talking to her of people now?
"It's about your cosplay club," Byakuya replied, forcing the words out as if it was something he really did not want to talk about but was forced to.
"What about it?" Tsumugi asked, feeling wary again.
"I'm joining it."
"What?!"
"I'm joining it," Byakuya repeated, sounding annoyed. "I don't have to explain myself."
"But you do," Tsumugi protested, now going from wary to confused. "I thought you hated the cosplay club, that you saw it as childish."
"Would you have preferred it if my opinion stuck?" Byakuya asked.
"Well, no," the cosplayer admitted. "But, I still don't understand."
"Let's just say, that through my observations today, I was forced to admit that there were some ingeniousness behind the ideas you were creating, and wanted a piece of it," Byakuya replied. "I shall see you during our next meeting."
"Wait, what, how?" Tsumugi struggled to comprehend the second piece of shocking news thrown at her that day.
"Good night to you," Byakuya concluded, and he turned and walked away.
The ultimate cosplayer turned back to her dorm and opened the door.
This night was definitely full of surprises.