Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Nao must be in one of these rooms..!” Sara called out, somewhat out of breath after ascending the newly formed stairs. The rest all clamored behind her, looking around the second floor; some curious, some skeptical.

“There's… four rooms. If we split up into groups of three, we can explore three of the rooms at once.” Sou added, “I’d say we prioritize the unique rooms first; the left SP, RO, and MIR. Right, Miss Sara?”

“Er- Yeah. I’ll go with Keiji and Joe and explore the SP room.” Sara responded, gesturing the two she mentioned towards her and walking towards the SP room. The two- excitedly for Joe and somewhat reluctantly for Keiji- followed her.

“K-Kanna is curious about… the MIR room,” Kanna muttered, fussing with her hands as per usual. Her gaze flashed between Sou and Reko.

“I’ll take the kid to explore that one, then,” Reko said before Sou could get a word in, a somewhat cocky smile on her face. She gently grabbed Kanna’s sleeve and lead her toward the room.

Kai trailed behind them as well, and when Reko shot him a dirty look he offered but a small smile in return. “I am curious what the MIR stands for as well.”

“Then I’ll take the muscle gorilla and-” Gin perked up and said, but seemed to lose interest once he realized he was left with Sou. “I don’t wanna take the loner, woof…”

“Ahaha… no need to be rude…”

“If big sis Sara came, I could forget the loner was with us, meow! …Big bro Joe would be okay too, I think.” Gin said, hugging Mew-chan closer to his chest.

“You stay with Keiji, Sara. I’ll go with Gin and the others.” Joe said after a moment of consideration. Seeing Sara’s face- “I’ll be fine! It’s just a room, and if it’s a trap, we got more than enough horsepower to get through it!” Joe gave one of his signature, worry-melting smiles, and Sara couldn’t argue.

Once everyone was gathered at the door they were to explore, Sara pushed her’s open. Everyone else followed suit; faces met with warm, spa air- the stench of blood- or simply, in Gin, Q-taro, Sou, and Joe’s case… a completely blank room, with nothing but a cage in the middle.

Entering; “Meow… I don’t like this place…” Gin muttered, stepping ever so closer to Joe.

“Well, Miss Nao doesn’t seem to be in it, so… I think we’re free to leav-” Sou said, but was cut short by what sounded like the click of a lock. Turning around, he noticed that the door had been shut fast behind the four of them. “...Huh?”

Joe rushed up beside him, nearly shoving him out of the way to get at the door. “Is it locked?!” Joe desperately tried the handle to no avail. “Not another one of these puzzles..!”

Before he could even attempt to look around for a clue that would lead to escape, a blinding white light filled the room, as well as a suffocating feeling to all of their lungs.

Gin made a pathetic mewling wail as it felt like all the air was taken from the room. Joe banged at the door in case the others would hear or see it. Q-taro stumbled around aimlessly, attempting to find an escape in the fog. Sou seemed to accept his fate- simply sitting on the cold tile floor and trying to keep his breaths steady.

One by one, they slumped to the floor, their vision blackening soon after.

-

“Joe- Gin! Q-taro! Sou! Are you alright in there?!” Sara banged at the opposite side of the door, having given up on trying the obviously locked handle. “Say something!”

Keiji put a tender hand on her shoulder. “Sara, those four are more than competent. I doubt something came their way they simply couldn’t handle.”

Sara sighed. “But I heard Gin crying- I heard someone banging on the door!” Sara grabbed for the handle again, and to her surprise-

It opened.

She swung open the door at once, but what she was met with was a completely empty room, like the one the four had entered to begin with.

All the investigating in the world didn’t explain where those four went.

It was as if… they just… vanished.

-

“Are you okay?”

Gin’s consciousness slowly returned, and when he opened his bleary eyes he was met with something he never knew he’d miss this much.

Sunlight.

It made him harshly blink a few times- it was so much brighter than he remembered… but it was so nice. He hadn’t even realized the implications, yet. That he was outside. He was free. He just loved the feeling of warmth on his skin so, so much.

It took him a good half a minute to get accustomed enough to it enough to open his eyes fully. He looked around- at the sky, at the ground below him… a small smile formed on his face.

“...You seem pretty out of it.”

His vision now snapped to whoever was talking to him.

“Mraw- Loner?!”

Gin jolted up at once, claws unsheathed, and aimed a swipe at his face. Sou recoiled at the pain but took the hint and quickly backed off from his position next to Gin, his expression momentarily startled but he quickly let out an awkward laugh. “Ahaha… Ow… Back to your regular self already..?”

“W-Where are we, woof?!” Gin looked around, grabbing Mew-chan from where she’d fallen at his side and pulling her close. He looked at the sand and at the distant ocean- and… buildings? “Where’s big bro Joe? And muscle gorilla?”

“Joe is just over there,” Sou gestured vaguely to his left, where Joe was crouched over a limp Q-taro. Occasionally, Joe shoved at the other, but Q-taro didn’t budge. “So is Q-taro, but I don’t recommend looking at him too closely. I think the landing was too rough or… something of the sort. He seems to have broken his neck.”

“Meow…” Gin muttered, pulling Mew-chan even tighter to his chest. “Poor muscle gorilla…”

Joe looked over at the two of them and seemed to light up at the sight. He stood up quickly and ran over to Gin, lifting the boy up easily, and hugged him. “You’re awake!”

“You- can’t just pick a big boy like me up like that-!” Gin squirmed in his grasp, but soon took one of his hands off Mew-chan to return the hug.

With Joe’s added height, Gin could much easier see where the four- no, three- of them even were. And from what it seemed like… it was almost a tropical paradise. Was this their reward for escaping?

Escaping…

“Woof! Big bro Joe, what about the others?!” Gin pushed himself away from Joe, looking the older in the eyes. “They’ve gotta be around here somewhere!” Gin held his arms at his side and almost comically slipped out of Joe’s grasp, before running off in the direction he most strongly smelt the scent of people. His nose had never failed him before- the others must be… this way!

“Gin, wait up!” Gin heard Joe shout from behind him, but he was far too set on his destination to wait for him.

The smell was getting closer and closer, and Gin swore he heard people talking up ahead.

After crossing a large bridge, the scent finally led to a source. People, around seven to be exact were standing around a large statue. All seemed to be talking, sharing the sentiment.

Gin smiled, happy to be safe with his friends- But when Joe and Sou caught up to him, all exchanged a puzzled look. None of the three knew anybody in the group. Not a single person looked even slightly familiar, leaving them only lost and confused.

One of the two tallest seemed to notice the three first, a boy(??) with purple hair. He smiled slyly. “Fufu, seems more keep arriving.”

“There are only three? I thought we were all arriving in groups of four.” A smaller male questioned, wearing an odd metallic outfit. Come to see, Gin saw they all had weird outfits, weirder than Miley’s for some.

“There's a kid.” One of the seemingly more reasonable ones pointed out. “So it’s not just teenagers?”

All eyes were placed on them, Gin moving to hide between the only two he knew, but Sou hid behind him instead. The other tallest, a boy with white hair motioned them over closer. Everybody here looked to be around Joe and Sara’s age based on looks alone.

He grasped onto Joe’s sleeve with one hand, keeping Mew-chan safe with his other. Losing either in such a wide-open space would be terrible, even if it was freedom it was an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people.

“Wahh, I think you guys scared them” A pink-haired girl(???) stated, walking up to them while everybody else was far closer to the statue. “You guys also randomly fell here?”

Joe nodded softly, wary of them. “Yeah, we got locked in a room and woke up on the beach. Who are you guys, anyways?”

“Don’t you think it’s fair we hear you three’s introductions first..?” The white-haired boy responded, shrugging subtly. “Apologies if that sounded too blunt, but… you are the late ones, after all, aha!” He looked between the three of them- though it seemed like he was staring at Gin longer than the others, and it made him squeeze Mew-chan even tighter.

“I guess that makes sense,” Joe said, looking across the colorful selection of people laid out before him. “Well, I’m Tazuna Joe! Second-year at Sonobeno High!” He said proudly, broadcasting his voice so even the shiest at the back could still hear him. That did mean, however, that Gin nearly went deaf! So loud…

“A-and I’m Ibushi Gin, meow!” Gin said, almost surprising himself with the sudden confidence that came through him. These people didn’t seem so scary now that he’d already dealt with being… kidnapped and thrown into a random crowd once! “I’m a 6th grader, woof!”

“...It’d be suspicious to not introduce myself as well, then.” Sou walked out from behind Joe, acting as if he hadn’t been hiding at all. Still, he put up that ‘timid’ facade that he’d done the first time they met! “Hiyori Sou. I’m… a job-hopper, for lack of a better term.”

The purple-haired boy seemed to get curious at that final remark. “Job-hopper? I see…” He was clearly doubting Sou. “Fufu, I’ll start my introduction, lest my dear star steals the spotlight. Kamishiro Rui at your service, please just call me Rui.”

“Wha- don’t just go saying that!” A person standing next to Rui shouted very loudly. “AHEM, I am Tenma Tsukasa! World Future Star!” He boasted loudly, silently punching Rui’s arm.

“Ahaha, so we are all doing introductions now, are we? What if there are others to come?” The white-haired boy said in response to Rui and Tsukasa. “Ah, I suppose we could just… introduce ourselves again if others come along. I am Komeada Nagito, a student of Hopes Peak Academy, and I am the Ultimate… Lucky Student. I doubt it’s as good as the rest of your Ultimates, aha..!”

The other white-haired boy raised his hand, blinking slowly. “I have a question for the three- Ah, wait. My name is K1-B0, Ultimate Robot! Now, Joe, did you have a fourth person with you?” The robot(?????? These people are all so confusing…) asked, seemingly provoking more than just the three. Rui looked over at him, a certain glint in his eye at the word ‘robot’.

Joe’s once confident gaze faltered at K1-B0’s question. “Er- well… We did. He…”

“He died. Pretty horrifically, too, I’d say, although it was nothing compared to what happened to Professor Mishima…” Sou pulled at his scarf, a somewhat solemn expression on his face.

“W-What?!” The pink girl gasped, “Somebod- Two people died?! We just got here!” They looked over at one of the others, “Touya-kun, how are you feeling? You seem panicked…” They rushed over to the one they’d been addressing.

“I’m fine, Akiyama.” He brushed them off, eyeing Sou oddly. Distrust forming in his eyes.

‘Akiyama’ sighed. “So, what happened? You can’t just state that randomly.” They pouted, glaring at the three.

“...It’s not like we had anything to do with it!” Sou said, realizing that everyone was looking at the three of them as if they’d personally killed the two. “...Well, Joe voted for Professor Mishima, so I suppose he’s to blame at least a little… but Q-taro’s death? He just got unlucky! Broke his neck on impact. I guess… it was his turn to die.”

“I didn’t vote for Mishima! I voted for myself! You were the one without a vote!” Joe snapped back.

“Ahaha…” When Gin looked up at him, he noticed his face had gotten all… scary again. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“H-Hey now! It’s getting a bit dark here!..” ‘Akiyama’ interrupted, “Here, let’s get back to getting to know everybody, all that sorrow stuff is for later.” They said proudly, approaching behind Rui and attempting to climb him.

“Ah- Mizuki?” Rui tried to protest, failing.

Using Rui’s back as a ladder of sorts, they smiled weirdly. “I am Akiyama Mizuki! Editor for Nightcord at 25! I go to Kamiyama High School with these three dorks.” They said proudly, managing to point at Tsukasa and the boy from before simultaneously. Tsukasa smiled widely while striking a weird pose and the other just stood awkwardly.

One of the girls from the very back, closest to the statue, perked up this time. “Um! …I’m Akamatsu Kaede, and I go to the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles! I’m the Ultimate Pianist. It’s a pleasure to meet you all!”

“Haha… Ultimate Penis.” Joe said under his breath, laughing quietly to himself.

“Meow..? What does that mean, big bro Joe?”

Joe fell silent.

“...And, I guess since he can’t introduce himself, I’ll introduce him as well.” Kaede pointed to a small, oddly clothed purple-haired boy, who was chained to the statue. He slumped against it, seemingly unconscious. Gin’s eyes widened at the sight. “This is Ouma Kokichi, the Ultimate Supreme Leader… or so he says.”

‘Touya’, the unnamed boy stared blankly at Kokichi “Is he alright?..” He asked quietly, very little concern actually present.

Kaede looked over at the boy, a small smile forming on her face. “He’s fine! See?” Kokichi, as if by stage command, wiggled a little. Still wasn’t awake, but was definitely alive.

“Alright… oh, is it my turn now?” He asked, blinking. Tsukasa gave a slight frown. “I am Aoyagi Touya of Vivid BAD SQUAD. I am under your care.” He said, bowing deeply.

“Aaaalright!” A loud voice boomed over the crowd. Gin looked around frantically, trying to see where it was coming from- was it… from the statue? Maybe behind it? The few closest to the statue flinched at the sound, and it seemed to jolt Kokichi from his slumber. “Are you all done introducing yourselves already? It’s getting boring to listen to! I’ve got all but two crossed off on the roster, and that’s good enough for me! One Burgerberg Q-taro and one Tsukimi Shin; if they don’t show up sooner or later I’m gonna hunt those little brats down!”

From behind the statue, a relatively small black and white bear hopped up onto the top of it, holding a comically large microphone in one paw and a piece of paper that looked as if it’d been through Hell and back in the other. “I’ll be your host for this Killing Game, Monokuma! Puhuhu!~”

Mutters immediately erupted from the crowd.

“...Is this another one of Miley’s jokes? I’m really getting sick of her.”

“Not this bear again..!”

“ARRGH!? Rui, is this another one of your robots!?”

Monokuma seemed annoyed at the lack of utter, mortal peril amongst those he’d worked so hard to kidnap. “I have not a clue who Miley is, and no, I wasn’t created by any of you! I’m a completely self-sufficient bear, y’know!” He sighed. “Yes, the Killing Game means you all will kill each other. Scream now! It’s scary stuff!”

As if on command, Tsukasa started yelling. Rui impulsively covered his mouth, though, while giving a disapproving look at the other.

“Thank you. You all should be much more scared! This is life-or-death!”

“Yeah, but… Not like you kidnapped us from paradise, we were just in a different life-or-death scenario not ten minutes ago.” Sou said, looking unimpressed at the strange bear.

“Correction, I was in the Sek– Themepark training with my troupe.” Rui stated.

“I WAS in paradise, thank you very much!” Mizuki teased, “I was editing my group’s latest song! What in the world were you doing that was life-or-death? McDonald’s training?” They cackled to themself, Touya clearly holding back the urge to bite them.

Sou genuinely looked taken-aback, upon hearing that the one thing that connected the three groups of them wasn’t their prior danger. He ignored the ‘McDonald’s training’ comment- there were more important things at hand than that, Gin guessed. “Well, we three were kidnapped not even a day ago, and then- well, you already know Professor Mishima died, and the kidnappers threatened more to come. I’m just thankful we escaped before the Main Game… Ahaha.”

“...We were in a similar situation before we came here, too,” Kaede said, her shoulders tensed. “We were also kidnapped and thrown into a life-or-death situation by this same bear!”

“Puhuhu, seems my memory banks aren’t working today!” Monokuma laughed.

“...And Rantarou died. By my… own hands… I was just about to be executed for what I’d done- and then I woke up on this island! I don’t know why I’m here- but… I guess it’s better than death…” Even from as far away Gin was, he could notice her tearing up. “It was a fair trial… why was I freed..?”

“A-Are you guys okay?..” Touya asked, sweating slightly with wide eyes.

“Enough chit-chat! Let me explain what you all are here for before you start arguing again,” Monokuma said, pulling the paper closer to his face. “So! As you all know, if you were LISTENING, you all have been brought here for a Killing Game! An absolute splendor of human morality and despair! But, of course, this comes with rules.”

“Oh my God,” Kokichi finally seemed to wake up enough to articulate a sentence. “NOT AGAIN! WaaAAAAAAHHHHhh!” He shrieked, vibrating the entire statue enough for Monokuma to momentarily lose his footing.

Monokuma stared down at him. “CAN YOU NOT SEE I’M TRYING TO EXPLAIN SOMETHING HERE? SHUT UP!”

Monokuma took a deep breath. “ANYWAYS. I’ll have a rulebook for you to flip through if you forget these rules, but just don’t forget them and you’ll be perfect! Rule number one, and likely the most important for you all to remember, is that I cannot directly harm any of you brats, no matter how much I wish I could, unless you harm me first.”

“Before I explain the rest of the rules, I might as well explain what a Killing Game even is! It’s right in the name, but you lot don’t seem to be the brightest. Basically, your one and only goal will be to kill another! Get away with the crime, and you’ll be returned home! And, if you don’t… well, you heard what Kaede said, you’ll get executed! Puhuhu!”

“What if I don’t wanna?” Rui smirked, before being decked by Tsukasa and forced onto the ground and muttering an ‘Ow, how could you?’ and some other dramatic remarks.

“I knew one of you kids would make this harder than it had to be, so I prepared for that! You all will be given motives; reasons to kill! These range from simple cash prizes, to lab-made diseases that drive you insane!”

“WAH!?” Tsukasa screeched again, this time being muted by Touya- who honestly just looked tired from it all.

“...How much money?” Touya asked, trying to frame it as a joke but failing miserably.

“Oh, at least a couple million! A billion or so if I’m feeling generous- it’s murder, after all!”

Rui stared directly at Touya, unblinking. Touya walked away slowly, Mizuki holding in a laugh trying to take it all seriously. The four were clearly NOT following along with what Monokuma was saying, it irritated the bear to no end.

“You kids aren’t taking this seriously at all, are you?” Monokuma said, grumbling under his breath. “Why don’t I just kill one of you right here, right now? The rules aren’t put into effect until I’m done explaining them all, y’know. Puhuhu!”

“Do it. You won’t.” Mizuki said, concerningly seriously.

“You got a suicide wish, kid?”

“It’s more a wish to just disappear? But I guess you already fulfilled that!” They forced a laugh.

“Wow. You’re sad. I wanna kill someone who’ll put up a fight! How about… Tsukasa?” With this, passed the papers in his left paw into his right paw and threw his left arm into the air. A low, metallic rattling sound came from the ground the participants stood on- a few of the more reasonable ones stepped away from Tsukasa, although still held worried looks- others were frozen still and didn’t move an inch.

Metal spikes shot up out of the ground, surrounding the self-proclaimed star just inches away from puncturing his skin. “One more cocky word outta any of you while I’m tryna talk and I’ll turn this kid into swiss cheese!”

“AAAAAAAAAAIMSORRYISWEARILLTAKEYOUSERIOUSLYPLEASEDONTKILLMEILOVEEVERYBODYHEREILOVEMYSISTERPLEASEDONTKILLMEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” Tsukasa screamed, talking a bit too fast for anybody to make out. Rui stood wide-eyed, suddenly pale.

Mizuki and Touya stood absolutely perplexed, too stunned to say anything other than inaudible mumbles.

Kaede gasped, running up to the cage of spikes that Tsukasa was encased in. “Let him out! He didn’t do anything!” She turned to Monokuma and said angrily. Monokuma only laughed in return.

“Nihihihi! This is getting good!” Kokichi cackled, struggling against his chains. “Lemme go! I wanna screw with the bear!”

Gin managed to pull Mew-chan even closer to himself. “Meow… the teddy bear is even stronger than Miley!”

“Ahahahahaha!” Nagito grasped his shoulders, almost seeming to be hugging himself. “Ahahahah! So much despair already… you Ultimate-less freaks really are useless!”

“I’d appreciate it if you not only let my boyfriend go, but stopped laughing at us.” Rui glared at both Monokuma and Nagito, his entire body shaking noticeably but too scared to move lest Tsukasa becomes a kebab.

“Puhuhu! No, I don’t think I will, at least until I’m done explaining the rules! If you all can shut your traps for five seconds, I can get it done swiftly!” Monokuma said, the anger in his voice easily heard even from where Gin stood.

“Rule number two! Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving participants. If you don’t- well! I feel as if you can infer what happens then!”

“Rule number three, number four, and number five! If the blackened- or the culprit- is exposed during a trial, they alone will be executed. If they are not exposed, everyone but the blackened will be executed! As a reward, the surviving blackened will be forgiven of their crime and be sent back to where they came from.”

“Rule number six! The Body Discovery Announcement will play as soon as three or more people discover a body for the first time. You’ll know it when you hear it!”

“Rule number seven! Destroying any property on the island is strictly forbidden! This includes the surveillance cameras and monitors. You can steal the monitors for your own uses, but the security cameras are for my eyes and my eyes only!”

“And last but certainly not least, rule number eight! You are free to investigate the island at your own discretion. Your actions in that regard aren’t limited!” Monokuma sighed. “Finally! You all shut up long enough to let me get my goddamned explanation out!”

The spikes around Tsukasa retracted.

“Oh thank the gods I thought I was about to die!-” He exhaled sharply, falling to the ground sweating bullets. The ‘normal’ group concernedly surrounded the blonde, Gin was sadly too far away to hear their conversation but he was sure it was just them comforting him.

“Ahaha- ha… sad.” Nagito said, his strained face of joy turning dead serious within a second. “You talentless scum don’t deserve to live!”

“Oh! That reminds me! To tell you all about your talents! Of course, you, Kaede, K1-B0, and Kokichi already have your Ultimates, but the new arrivals don’t know theirs just yet!”

“Ultimates..?” Joe asked, cocking his head slightly. “Is that like- just something you’re good at?”

“Much more than something you’re good at! It’s something you’re the best at! And you, Tazuna Joe, are the Ultimate Playboy!”

“The Ultimate w-what?! Is this some kind of joke? I don’t-”

“I think it fits you well, Joe.” Sou said, obviously stifling laughing.

“Wait- wait, green beanie. What’s your name again?”

“Huh? …It’s Hiyori Sou.”

“I didn’t kidnap a Hiyori Sou.”

“...Maybe your paper is wrong.” Sou grabbed at his beanie, turning away from Monokuma but still shooting him a death glare.

“Hmm, no, the description I wrote down for ‘Tsukimi Shin’ fits you well enough. Hobo, beanie, green-ish hair. That’s you! Don’t lie to me again. Tsukimi Shin, you’re the Ultimate Job-Hopper.”

“...” Sou? Shin?? sighed, before shrugging and seemingly accepting his fate.

“And to finish you three off- Ibushi Gin, the…” He squinted at the paper. “Ultimate Furry.”

“Mrow?! I’m not a furry!”

Mizuki audibly started laughing, holding back clearly but failing. Touya had to hit their back to get them to stop, but they just started choking instead.

“Akiyama Mizuki! You’re the Ultimate Seamstress, and Aoyagi Touya, the Ultimate-” He snickered, muttering something under his breath, “Singer! Ultimate Singer!”

“What was th-”

“HELL YEAH, I LOVE SEWING!” Mizuki stood up proudly, their words sounding a bit more sarcastic though. Tsukasa shot them a glare, muttering something about being ‘so much better I sewed my outfit myself’.

“Tenma Tsukasa, you’re the… Ultimate Star? What does that even mean- Ah, whatever. Ultimate Star.”

“Wahahaha! Of course I am, I am TENMA TSUKASA! WORLD FUTURE ST-” Rui hit him softly, and Tsukasa fell to the ground with a soft thud.

“And last, but not least, Kamishiro Rui! You’re the Ultimate Director.” Monokuma genuinely sounded so exhausted with this group already.

“Fufu, I expected something more silly… That's much better, I suppose.”

“I sadly couldn’t make your Ultimates too weird. They had to make at least a bit of sense, puhuhu!”

Gin’s eyes were drawn away from the crowd by a red light right in his peripherals. “Meow… Big bro Joe, your collar..!” Gin subconsciously stepped a few steps away from Joe- he remembered what happened when the old guy’s collar did that, and he didn’t want… big bro Joe’s head to fall off onto him…

“Is it-” He held his hand up to the collar, attempting to see if the red light was on. “Gh-!” Gin could see the panic form in Joe’s eyes as he saw the light reflected off his hand. He subconsciously lowered Mew-chan from his neck and checked as well.

“Woof…”

It was on too.

“Shit- Miley must’ve realized we were gone..!!” Shin said, noticing his own collar, which emitted the same red light.

“Ha- haah- it’s getting hotter-” Joe muttered, clawing desperately at his collar.

“Don’t touch it!” Shin practically barked, “If it’s the same as Professor Mishima’s, you’ve got at least a little while until your neck’s toast! Maybe one of the others knows how t-” Shin gasped, staggering back a step. Seems his collar activated too… It looked as if it was constricting around his neck instead of melting.

Gin mewled sadly. “Big bro Joe… loner…” …Why hadn’t his started doing anything yet..?!

K1-B0 looked over after a few seconds, noticing the three’s distress almost instantly and running over. Weirdly, Rui seemed to follow him.

“Robot guy, woof! T-the collars, just like old guy’s- they’re gonna die!” Gin rattled off, his speech panicked and were it even a bit faster, it wouldn’t be understandable.

“The collars are going to kill them!?” K1-B0 panicked, “I’ll try and get them off- Joe!?” He ram over and quickly attempted to take off Joe’s partly melted collar.

The stench of burnt skin filled the air- for most, for the first time, but for Gin, Joe, and Shin, it was the second. “G-Get it off! Get it off! Get it off of me!” Joe shrieked, sheer force of will keeping his hands off of the red-hot collar. “I-I don’t wanna end up like Mishima..!”

Thankfully, after a bit of fussing with it and a lot of brute force, the collar snapped off- partially liquified and searing hot. K1-B0 quickly threw it aside, lest it melt his hands as well.

“Ah?” Rui interrupted, seemingly knowing the situation based on the few words Gin said. “K1-B0, take care of Tazuna-kun and I’ll handle the little ones’.” Rui tried to reassure, quickly but softly lowering Gin’s hood (with much protest) before digging in his pocket.

“M-Meow? …I-Is that a paperclip?” Gin asked, confused but letting Rui do what he needed to.

“Shh, don’t distract me.” Rui picked at the lock of Gin’s collar with the mentioned paperclip, it easily falling off after a second. The flashing light was a clear signal of danger and the purple-haired boy threw it far away from the group. A distant explosion cemented that decision as a very good one.

“K1-B0, can you help me with Tsukimi-kun?” Rui asked, practically sprinting over to the last person. K1-B0 nodded silently, surrounding So- Shin.

Rui and K1-B0 took longer since the death trap was tightening by the second, though with combined lock-picking and forceful removal it eventually came off (thankfully). Rui seemed oddly interested in it- Gin backed away.

Shin gasped the second the collar had been removed from him, taking a good thirty seconds to get his breaths stable before uttering a quiet, “...Thanks.”

Gin jumped up, now that all three of them were safe, and threw his arms around Rui first- then, after a moment, gingerly gave K1-B0 a hug too (K1-B0 sort of confused him, he’d never seen such an advanced robot before… but he seemed okay!).

“Ah, I’m glad you recovered so fast!” Rui mewed softly and embraced Gin back, though he seemed a bit uneasy seeing Joe’s neck. “We should get that healed first before we celebrate.” He sighed.

“Haha! That Miley can’t get to us now, we have you guys on our side!” Joe said happily, offering his hand for Rui and K1-B0 to high-five. They did not. He shed one tear.

Rui smiled, “I’ll let Tsukasa take you to the cabins. My group and I woke up there and there was one with your name, I believe.”

-

Tsukasa happily lead Joe to the mentioned cabins, getting a bit lost due to how large the islands were but they made it. He couldn’t help but look at the burn scar, it needed to get cleaned lest it gets infected and hurt worse.

“To fulfill my role as a star, I am going to bandage your awful wound,” Tsukasa announced, breaking into Joe’s room and looking for some kind of med kit with varying luck.

“Awful wound? Did it really burn me that badly? I can’t even feel it!” He laughed, obviously wincing at the movement of the wound. “Gh..”

Tsukasa bit his lip, unboxing a red box and pulling out scissors, bandages, and some peroxide wipes. “You don’t gotta play dumb, of course it’s awful! That weird collar thingy was like bright red from what Rui told me,” He huffed, approaching and getting ready to clean the wound. “It’s gonna sting, so don’t move much.”

“I’m fine! Mishima got the same… ‘punishment’... I did, and… I’m alive! I survived it, so I’m fine!” Joe said, faltering at the mention of Mishima but he still wore a proud smile. He looked a little annoyed at Tsukasa’s ‘don’t move’, but he didn’t speak as that would be moving.

“Gah-!” Joe winced and squeaked out when Tsukasa pressed the first wipe to his neck, it almost feeling worse than the literal molten metal he had against his neck not ten minutes prior. “Shit- OW! You don’t have to be s- ghh- rough!”

“Stop moaning! It’s weird.” Tsukasa barked, finishing the cleaning and beginning to wrap the bandages around Joe’s neck, almost tight enough to choke him, and snipping the end off with the scissors and “”accidentally”” making a bow. “There! Good as new. Tell me if you need help with cleaning.” the blonde said happily, clasping his hands together with a clap.

“I’m not moaning! It hurts!” Joe said, exasperated. Everyone here was so annoying and so homosexual. “Also- too tight- too tight!” He muttered as Tsukasa pulled the wrapping around his neck. Once he had finished, though, it wasn’t too bad, so Joe kept quiet. “I will.” He will not.

“Fine- fine. I should go now, who knows what Rui is gonna do to that poor robot… Have fun in your room! Wonderhoy!” Tsukasa semi-yelled, racing out and leaving Joe in his metaphorical dust.

“W-Wonderhoy??” Joe muttered to himself, “Wonderhoy! It’s got a nice ring to it.”

Joe laid down in his bed, and almost instantly fell asleep. Today had been… a lot, but he, Gin and Shin were in a lot better of a place than where they started in. Maybe this island wouldn’t be so bad after all, even with the whole Killing Game thing.

-

“AAAAAAGH, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY??” Miley screeched, practically pulling her hair out with anger.

Sou screamed back, “I THOUGHT YOU KNEW, MILEY!”

“OF COURSE I DON’T KNOW, FUCKER!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!” Rio cried, desperately pacing trying to think of places they could be.

“E-Everybody quiet down! Maybe Gashu knows?” Safalin tried to reason.

“I don’t have any control over the first floor, Miley is the only one there.” Gashu responded.

“THERE ISN’T EVEN A SYSTEM THAT COULD CAUSE THE GAS, THEY JUST VANISHED. GOD, I’M FUCKING DEAD. HOLY SHIT.” Miley cried, falling to the floor.

Sou sipped some tea obnoxiously loudly, “Who’d we lose again?”

“Shin, Joe, Gin, and Q-taro. Four people, FOUR. We had to postpone the main game, they all were yelling I could hear it from the second floor!” Rio groaned, holding himself back from punching Sou.

“Just check the GPS, you’re going to alert the participants.” Sou sighed, sipping his tea even louder to annoy everybody (but specifically Rio).

“Alright shit-head, I’ll check the GPS.” Rio growled, pulling up a computer to check. “...They are not only on a deserted island in the middle of fucking NOWHERE, BUT THEY ARE IN ANOTHER FUCKING DIMENSION.” He screeched and threw the computer on the ground, breaking it completely.

“Y-you’re paying for that…” Safalin whispered.

Miley smiled angrily. “Fine, let’s see… Rio since you were SO smart on checking, why don’t you fetch them?”

“Why me!?” He barked, “They don’t even know who I am.”

Gashu smiled, “Good, they will trust you more than Miley. If you play nice, we will get them back in no time.” Rio huffed, returning to his pacing.

“Fine, and I will get them back SO GOOD, I’ll get Sou’s floor ALL TO MYSELF!”

“Idea denied.” Sou smiled, “You can have a room though!”

Rio sighed, and he and the other floor masters exchanged glances. How WOULD they get them back?...

Chapter Text

Tsukasa surprisingly slept well, considering he almost died and watched somebody’s neck almost get burnt to a crisp. It wasn’t the worst, but he didn’t realize how exhausted he was until he finally sat down to rest and instantly fell asleep.

Speaking of rest, where was he? He didn’t remember exactly where he fell asleep, but he must have gone to his cabin since he was in bed. Yeah, probably his cabin. Tsukasa loosely sat up, a bit confused why he was suddenly in his school uniform and not performing outfit but it was probably the least concerning continuity mistake at the moment.

“Ah, you're awake!” Tsukasa jumped at the voice, looking over to a table in the cabin. As he expected, he saw Rui tinkering with what looked to be a laptop. An annoyed expression washed over Tsukasa’s face.

“Who’s cabin am I in?” He asked blankly, earning a soft chuckle from Rui.

“Yours, I broke in though. Can’t have my dear star all alone in such a dangerous place!” Rui teased. Standing up, “In about three seconds, everybody is gonna get called to wake up by the bear.”

He didn’t have time to respond, as Rui's words were confirmed in... well, three or so seconds. The familiar annoying voice of the bear was here to wake them all.

“Ahem… I have an announcement to make. Gooooood morning, everyone! Looks like today is going to be another perfect, tropical day! Now then, let’s show some enthusiasm and make sure to give it our all today!” Monokuma’s voice blared over the speakers located all around the island, somewhat staticky but easy enough to make out.

“Komaeda-kun asked for us to meet at the closest restaurant after you passed out, so I’ll see you there.” Rui smiled, scurrying away quickly.

Tsukasa remained silent, bewildered almost. Slowly getting out of bed to investigate whatever the Director had made on the table, he found a laptop with nothing to note on it, as well as an army of around 200 rubber ducks. Tsukasa exited without saying a word, already considering murder.

-

To his surprise, everybody but Kokichi and Shin was there. K1-B0 hid behind Kaede while Rui tried to get a closer look for obvious reasons. Joe and Gin were seemingly playing tag? Though Tsukasa wasn’t sure (they were just staring at each other, a table apart, and whenever Joe made a move to 'tag' Gin, Gin would move in just a way that Joe couldn't possibly catch him), and Touya and Mizuki were having a staring contest with Mizuki clearly losing.

Nagito himself? He was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room with a disturbingly calm face, unblinking, unmoving. Tsukasa did his best to stay as far away from the white-haired dude, more reasons piling on by the hour.

Nagito looked like he was about to speak, but was quickly interrupted by the door to the men’s bathroom slamming open. Kokichi ran out, cackling loudly with a suspicious bag in his hand.

Though Shin did NOT follow him out, everybody could hear him screaming from inside the bathrooms.

“MY FUCKING BALLS! OH MY GOD, HE TOOK MY BALLS-” Shin’s VERY DISTRESSED SCREAMS could be heard throughout the restaurant. “HOW AM I NOT BLEEDING?? WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK?!” His voice suddenly quieted. “I-I’ve been neutered.” It almost sounded like he was crying.

Tsukasa blinked, utterly dumbfounded. So many thoughts, such as ‘How the hell do you get neutered’ and ‘HIS BALLS ARE FUCKING GONE?????’, average teenager stuff you know? Rui seemed to share his thoughts, but UNLIKE Tsukasa, Rui almost robotically went to check it out, Nagito following. K1-B0 just cried.

The bathroom door closed, but you could clearly hear the three boys as they talked about Shin’s lack of testicles. ‘Oh damn, they are gone. It’s smooth.’ ‘What the actual fuck, Rui?’, and other conversations were noted. Mizuki audibly started choking, almost falling to the ground levels of dying. Joe tried to stay calm so that Gin wouldn’t tune in, but everybody knew the situation.

After around 3 minutes of this, Kokichi returned with a smug smile awaiting Shin to arrive. Shin took around 10 full minutes to exit, leaning on the much taller highschoolers while looking very dead inside. Tsukasa distanced himself from Kokichi but the shorter male just scooted closer, and closer, AND CLOSER until Tsukasa was stuck between Kokichi and the wall behind him.

Kokichi may have been like a foot shorter than Tsukasa, but he still managed to stare dead into Tsukasa’s eyes. “You’re next. Nihihihi!~”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH- GET AWAY! SHOO!” Tsukasa quickly screamed, kicking at Kokichi before running away and hiding himself behind Joe. His face looked as if he saw his worst fear, or like a bug got on him. Either or, he looked like a terrified wet cat.

Joe ALSO seemed scared of Kokichi, Mizuki seemed quite the opposite and was currently wheezing trying to breathe at the moment. Kaede was next to them trying to make sure they don’t die of asphyxiation.

Kokichi was ABOUT to go in for the kill and either bite Joe or Tsukasa or snatch away their pesky testicles, but a cloud of weird white dust- gas- SOMETHING- completely filled the room. The first people to get a violent whiff of it being Nagito, Shin, and Rui who were in the dead center (trying to calm down the ballless dude).

“W- Jesus Christ, Miley! You could have given me three more sec- HOLY HELL! Who are you people!?” A weird hooded silhouette coughed, waving away the smoke so they could see. Tsukasa just about pissed himself due to how sudden it was.

After a bit of coughing, Shin’s voice could be heard through the smoke and chaos. “M-Miley? Sue Miley?!” Shin seemed to regain enough ‘life’ to rattle these questions off at the new arrival. “How do you- why do you know her?! You weren’t one of the participants!”

The unknown person seemed shocked at the yelling, still clearing the area to even see “Damn it-! I- There’s a second floor and I was there! Miley just checked in sometimes, though I never expected that- UGH! That smug bastard!” They hissed, stomping angrily. Finally, the restaurant had cleared, and everybody could see the stranger.

They had bright orange hair and a hell of a fucking outfit. He almost looked like he'd belong in the troupe, were it not for the atrocious vibes he gave off.

Rui perked up once he could see, helping Nagito set Shin onto a chair before rushing over to inspect the new person. Everybody else was still scattered around, a hot mix of fear and confusion embedded within the air.

“Wh- Get off of me, creep! Where are you looking?!” They protested as Kokichi and Nagito took a similar interest. Sadly, those two were much more… physical, and Nagito grabbed them from Rui and- with Kokichi’s help- lead the new person away to… God knows where. The last thing anyone heard from the new person was a strained, “W-Where are you taking me?!” Everybody else exchanging silent glances, Shin looked shaken and Tsukasa couldn’t stand for it!

Everybody looked so… sad. No smiles, and that was precisely what he was here to do! Make people smile! Tsukasa moved out from behind Joe, Gin giving him a weird glare that he ignored. He pulled Mizuki and Touya by the collar and collected all his close friends.

A good plan forming in his eyes, one that would put a smile on everybody’s face! Ignoring the new person who just appeared, he looked into Touya’s eyes, and then Mizuki’s. “Everybody here looks so down, would you like to help me and Rui put on a show?”

“Since when did I agree to thi-” Rui tried to ask, but was quickly cut off by Mizuki.

“Sure!~” Mizuki happily clasped their hands together, Touya doing a small nod to signal his agreeing.

Tsukasa smiled, “Great, what about a play?”

“Romeo and Juliet?” Touya said blankly.

Hmn.. A romance? Tsukasa thought about it for a second, he’d have to edit the script or something so it was less sad but Romeo and Juliet was a classic! He grinned widely, “Sure! We’ll change it from a tragedy to a comedy!”

“Fufu, I’d say we could get it all sorted out in an hour. If you teach these two the script I can get some props.” Rui nodded, perfecto! Surely everybody would love this, who wouldn’t! Without Emu and Nene, it might be a bit harder due to Touya and Mizuki’s lack of acting experience... but it would be fine!

He’d make it work, and make everybody smile no matter what!

-

It’d been a good two or three hours since Tsukasa had announced that the beach was to be ‘off limits until further notice’. Kaede, like the others, had followed his instructions; some out of respect, some out of just not caring enough to check. Still, Tsukasa had made it sound like a big deal, so Kaede was somewhat excited..! They seemed like theatre kids or something, so maybe they were planning something? They didn’t seem dangerous enough to be planning anything too bad.

Suddenly, the speakers turned on- stuck on static. Everybody was panicking, was Monokuma announcing something? If he was, what in the world could it be? A motive? An announcement of death? Did somebody die!?

What they didn’t expect, was to see Rui and Mizuki in weird outfits holding swords doing a mock-sword fight somehow broadcasted from the speakers, Tsukasa audibly cheering them on in the background. Touya adjusted the camera.

“Wahaha! Oh, Rui! It’s connected!” Tsukasa shouted, catching the Director’s attention flawlessly.

“Ah, good timing.” Rui hummed, approaching the recording device, crouching down since it was in the sand(?). “Hello everyone, we, SEKAI Theatre, call you to the beach for a special show that will surely bring a smile to all. Bye-Bye~”

To say everybody was scared would be an understatement, Kaede saw Kiibo’s face shift into one of slight horror. Joe and Gin shared a look of curiosity, Shin seemed startled at the announcement’s suddenness but returned to being depressed soon after.

“Meow... Do we go?” Gin muttered, looking between Joe and K1-B0.

Joe shrugged. “It can’t hurt! Maybe whatever they’ve got planned will be fun!”

K1-B0 looked unconvinced, but didn’t speak up. Shin remained quiet, clearly just going along with whatever everybody else agreed on. So, seeing as it seemed everyone was at least alright with going, they decided to go see whatever the… SEKAI Theatre had planned!

Joe and Gin were the first to leave, both having a certain pep in their step. Kaede and K1-B0 trailed close behind (although K1-B0 seemed much less enthusiastic than the pianist.), and Shin forced himself to follow them.

-

The beach looked more than decorated, a homemade “stage” or platform taking place in the middle that was constructed of wood and cardboard with obviously cheap paint on the sides. Some foldable seats sat in front to sell the look.

Everyone, after arriving at the scene, gingerly took a seat at one of the chairs- looking up at the stage with some sort of mixture of excitement and fear.

Mizuki stepped on stage, styled in some older style of dress Kaede couldn’t remember off of the top of her head. Holding a paper while skimming it over quickly.

“Uh.. Let’s see.. Greetings everybody! Great day isn’t it? Today, SEKAI Theatre is doing a live production of the classic story of Romeo and Juliet, but we’re making it more lighthearted. Now let’s see..” Mizuki looked back at the script, muttering the lines. “Two… Yeah, Two households, both alike in dignity. In fair Verona, where we lay our scene- wait, who’s Verona? Oh, wait, is that the city? From ancient grudge, yadda yadda. A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; yeah no this is Romeo and Juliet you know how the story goes, they die and it symbolizes young love or something.” They shrugged, ripping the paper violently in half.

“MIZUKI, YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO-” Touya’s head peeked out from behind the back wall.

“WHAT! It’s just like the FIRST paragraph, they don’t care!” They yelled back, “Just get the two done! I didn’t speedrun FOUR outfits for us to postpone!”

Touya then came on set, in the same sort of outfit as Mizuki. In response, Mizuki gave him fingerguns. “Gregory, Gregy, my dude, my bestie. Hear me out, WOMEN.”

“I like men, Mizuki.”

“Shut up and stay in character! So my dude, my guy, Gregory. Have you heard of that girl Juliet? The super hot one, y’know?” Mizuki continued, grabbing Touya’s shoulder and smiling.

“Isn’t she a man AND like thirteen?”

“STAY IN CHARACTER. Anyways uhh- hand me your script.” Mizuki said, grabbing at the white paper in Touya’s hand and looking at it. “Who are half of these dudes? I can’t even say these names! Benvolia? Tybalt? Where the hell does the ROMEO AND JULIET part come in anyways?”

“You are gonna ruin the play, Mizuki.” Touya tried to explain, pushing them off softly.

Kaede couldn’t help snickering at the absolute ABSURDITY of this goddamn ‘play’. “What is happening-” Kaede muttered to herself, snickering even harder. She felt a little bad, I mean, they were just putting on this play to help raise spirits! But it was so bad…

Hearing a low scrape from behind her, Kaede turned around to see the last two arrivals- and the strange ginger from before. Kokichi and Nagito dragged a chair they’d tied the person to into the crowd, and even despite the tape over their mouth you could still hear their muffled screams.

The whole show was rather long, but weirdly entertaining. After a while of Touya and Mizuki’s bickering, Rui (who was in the role of Juliet) finally appeared. Kaede just about choked when she saw him in a dress and with tits for some reason, it got worse when TSUKASA came out clearly in the role of Romeo. She looked at the faces of everybody else; Gin and Shin were weirdly invested- Nagito was somehow taking it seriously- Kokichi and Joe looked just… Confused? But absolutely entertained.

It went on and on, Rui and Tsukasa putting in a concerning amount of effort compared to Mizuki and Touya- though it kind of added to the whole experience. The show filled its purpose of making everybody feel better, at least!

“Oh, Romeo! Romeo, whyfore art thou Romeo?” Rui started, “Deny your lineage, refuse your name- or, if you will swear to love me, I will refuse my own.”

“Shall you say more, or may I speak?” Tsukasa responded, treating this play much more seriously than Touya or Mizuki had been. He almost seemed genuine in the words he said, not like how actors were but instead how HOMOSEXUALS were.

“It is just your name that is my enemy.” Rui said, averting his gaze from Tsukasa’s. “You are yourself, but you are not a Montague. What is a Montague? It is not hand nor foot, not arm nor face nor any other part belonging to man. Oh, please be some other name!” Rui sighed, once again sounding oddly genuine. “What is in a name? That which we call a rose, by any word would smell just as sweet; so Tsu- …Romeo would, were he not Romeo, retain that dear perfection for which he is, without that title.”

“Romeo, remove your name, and for your name, which is no part of yourself,” Rui looked back up at Tsukasa, “Take me instead.”

Kaede noticed Joe looking around confusedly out of the corner of her eye. “A-Are they gay?” She heard him mutter.

“I take you at your word!” Tsukasa said, grabbing Rui’s hand. “Call me but love, and I’ll be baptized anew. Henceforth, I will never be Romeo.” - The (poor quality, obviously stolen) curtains fell on the stage, and when they opened once more, Rui laid in the center of the stage with Tsukasa knelt over him.

“Oh, my love, my wife- death, that has taken your breath, had no power over your beauty. You have not been conquered. Beauty’s standard, in your lips and in your cheeks, has not yet been taken.” Tsukasa muttered over Rui’s limp body, his voice strained.

Tsukasa inched closer to Rui. “Ah, dear Juliet, why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe that unsubstantial death is amorous? That it keeps you here, in the dark, to be your lover? For fear of that, I will stay with you.” Seemingly subconscious tears fell from his eyes. “Here, oh, here will I set up my everlasting rest, and shake the core of unpromising stars, from this world-wearied flesh.”

Now laying against Rui, Tsukasa continued. “Eyes, look your last. Arms, take your last embrace. And lips, oh, you doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss.” Tsukasa turned to place a tender kiss on Rui’s lips- Kaede swore she heard Rui giggle.

“A dateless bargain to engrossing death.” Tsukasa removed a small vial from Rui’s hands, and quickly swallowed whatever was contained inside. Quietly, and obviously out of character, Tsukasa muttered, “Rui, what the hell did you put in this?!”

Right back into character, Tsukasa convulsed and fell onto Rui- his head rested next to the others’. “Oh, good apothecary, your drugs are quick.”

As Tsukasa fell over, Rui sat up slowly. “Oh, Romeo, what is this?” Forcing himself all the way up, he held Tsukasa’s head gently. He looked down at the vial, and then back into Tsukasa’s eyes. Even from the crowd, Kaede could make out the tears that rolled down his cheeks. “Drank all, and left no friendly drop to help me after. I will kiss thy lips, hopefully, some poison yet still cling to them, to let me die as well.”

Rui leaned down and kissed Tsukasa. “...Thy lips are warm.”

Tsukasa muttered back, “Thus, with a kiss, I die.” And with that, he truly fell limp.

“Romeo, oh, my true love, Romeo.” Rui muttered, holding Tsukasa’s head close to his chest. As the poison from Tsukasa’s lips set in, Rui slowly slumped over the other, and the curtains fell again. Mizuki could be easily heard calling the two ‘gay’.

The crowd erupted into- albeit somewhat confused- applause almost the moment the curtains fell. Only Joe wasn’t clapping; he seemed way too bewildered to even consider moving at the moment.

The curtains retracted once more to the four ‘actors’ (really, only two of them actually acted), hand-in-hand before they all bowed deep. The applause managed to get even louder at this. Once they’d all raised again in the bow and undid their hands, Mizuki shoved Rui into Tsukasa and started making fake kissing sounds.

“Mizuki-” Touya mumbled, he looked embarrassed to be associated. Rui and Tsukasa finally stopped having semi-serious faces and burst out laughing, Tsukasa pushing Mizuki and Touya off the stage before hoping down himself. The four looked surprisingly pleased, she expected the trained actors to look more frustrated with the other two.

“Wahahah! So? What did you all think, did you enjoy the show?” Tsukasa exclaimed happily, doing a small pose. His face almost bright enough to light up a room. Rui approached from behind, a cat-like grin on his face. Though, Rui left to investigate Kokichi and Nagito instead of address the crowd- but Kaede didn’t pay much attention.

“That was sure… interesting!” Kaede said, smiling a bit awkwardly. “I definitely liked the- er- how much creative liberty you four took!”

“Yes, that is one way to put it.” K1-B0 added, his gaze ever so often flashing over to Rui.

“I won’t lie, that was probably one of the best plays I’ve ever seen,” Shin said, seeming at least a bit less depressed over his lack of balls. “Ahaha, Tsukasa, did your dad abandon you?” Shin almost seemed to surprise himself with the question. “Sorry, that was a bit sudden, but the question still stands.”

“Woof! Loner, you don’t just ask someone that!” Gin said, his eyes wide.

Tsukasa sniffled. “How did you-” He looked less sad and more absolutely flabbergasted.

Kaede just stood, witnessing this while trying not to laugh or break it up out of second-hand embarrassment. She felt suddenly bad for Tsukasa- What was Shin thinking?!

“Now that I think about it- doesn’t Tsukasa look sort of like Keiji?” Joe rattled off, not really aiming it at anyone in particular. “They even have the same laugh!”

“M-My birth father’s name was apparently Keiji…” Tsukasa mumbled, fidgeting with his hands silently.

Joe looked appalled that that line of thought went anywhere. He decided, despite the absurdity, to ask, “...Was it Keiji Shinogi?”

“I think? Why would I know, he never reached out!” Tsukasa barked, suddenly activating defensive while stepping a bit away from Joe. “He left after Saki was born and I was adopted by my current parents, who are much better!” He quickly lightened up, hand on his chest with a wide smile forming.

“Hm, the quote-unquote ‘friendly policeman’ never mentioned having kids,” Shin muttered, biting the inside of his mouth in thought. “Then again, not like he really ever mentioned anything about himself, ahaha!”

Kaede distanced herself from the three, deciding to investigate where Rui had gone- and by extension Nagito, Kokichi, and the new appearance. She quietly looked over, a bit scared of what the four were up to.

“Fufu… He’s a doll you say?” She overheard Rui say, weirdly scary… It almost sounded like he was panting. “Amazing… Truly amazing!"

“MMMHMMM. MMMMM!!!” The tied person said, struggling to get away from Rui’s approaching face. Kaede rushed in.

“Woah, woah, woah! What’s happening!?” She panicked, watching Kokichi move to stand behind the contained person’s chair to pull it back away from Rui.

Nagito smiled softly. “We managed to… ‘ask’ for information out of our newcomer. Kamishiro-senpai seemed interested, I wonder why?”

Kaede watched as Nagito sat next to the tied-up stranger, using their shoulder as an armrest while staring daggers into their eyes. “He refuses to say his name, but maybe Rui would be kind enough to help?”

“But of course! …Could I borrow him for a few hours? If he is truly a non-human this is an opportunity of a lifetime!” Kaede looked at Rui’s face, he looked- Scary. His eyes were wide and since he was looking down there was a shadow over his face, the fact he had bright yellow eyes didn’t help his case- he almost looked like a rabid animal.

“MMMMMHMHMHMH!! MMNMNMNHMNMNMNNMNN!!!!!! NMO- NMOMONO!!!!!” The stranger struggled more, causing the chair they were attached to to vibrate hard enough for it to fall backward and hit Kokichi directly.

Kokichi hissed, “OW- Rude! We could have thrown you into the ocean, and we still can!”

The ginger managed to scrape off the tape covering his mouth. “Let me go, you bastards! I told you all I know! Just let me go!” They screeched, writhing in their confinements. Rui leaned above him, an even scarier smile forming on his face. Kokichi managed to escape from under the chair, Nagito was holding back a chuckle.

“Fufu, well I’ll be taking this, then. Thank you. Watch Tsukasa-Kun for me.” Rui waved, picking up the head of the chair and dragging it against the sand back to his cabin. The person in it screamed like he was about to be murdered, while Kaede wasn’t familiar with Rui’s relation with things that interested him, she had a feeling it wasn’t good.

Tsukasa walked over, clearly concerned with the screaming. “Where did Rui go?”

“He dragged off an apparently sentient doll while having this weirdly scary look on his face...” Kaede shuddered.

“Oh no.” That’s all Tsukasa said, and ran to chase Rui- but Nagito grabbed him by the collar, stopping him in his tracks while laughing deviously.

“Unhand me!” Tsukasa barked, kicking his legs in Nagito’s direction angrily. What was he doing!? “I’m gonna- Let me go! You are worse than Rui and he tried to shoot me out of a cannon!”

“Ahaha, but Rui told us to keep an eye on you! The easiest way to do that is just to take you where we’re already going!” Nagito said, snickering. “Kokichi, go get Shin. I have a surprise for Tsukasa and I need us all there for it!”

It seemed Shin had already wandered over to the three of them, since Kokichi got him concerningly quickly. Maybe Kokichi was just really fast. Tsukasa didn’t care, he was being kidnapped by a band of homosexual, weird-haired twinks!

“S-show me what!? A murder trap!? Are you going to KILL me!?” Tsukasa screamed, attempting to bite Nagito’s hand to release himself.

Nagito retracted the hand Tsukasa was trying to bite from him but tightened his grip with the other so that Tsukasa still wouldn’t be able to escape. Laughing, Nagito muttered, “You’re going to wish it was!”

With this, Nagito began dragging Tsukasa across the sands, despite how much of a fight he put up. Kokichi and Shin trailed close behind, Shin giving little to no effort to escape compared to Tsukasa- though considering the fear of God Kokichi had embedded in him not five hours ago, it was reasonable.

-

It took a little while for the four of them to arrive at their destination; looking around, this was the same restaurant that they’d been at earlier! What could be so interesting about this place?! What here could be worse than a murder trap?!

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! LET ME GO! I DON’T WANNA DIEEEEE!” Tsukasa plead-screamed again. Actual tears forming in his eyes.

“Oh, shut up, you’re not going to die,” Nagito said, rolling his eyes. He pushed open the doors of the restaurant and pulled Tsukasa inside, before setting him down on one of the chairs and taking some rope from… seemingly Kokichi. With said rope, he tightly bound Tsukasa to the chair, making sure he couldn’t move a muscle. “Don’t scream, and I won’t have to bring out the duct tape. The doll didn’t listen, and you saw what happened to him! Ahaha!”

“Y-You’re gonna torture me, aren’t you..?” Tsukasa hissed, “You couldn’t have waited an hour after the play I worked so hard on!?”

“Physical? No. Psychological? I suppose it depends.” Nagito shrugged, stepping away from Tsukasa and gesturing for the other two to come with him as he left towards the kitchen. Kokichi skipped up behind him, Shin seemed excited too as he followed the two- even though he flinched whenever Kokichi moved.

It took them a good thirty minutes to return, and within that time the restaurant had been filled with the delectable scent of what smelled like… pork? Pork, maybe. Did Monokuma really care enough to stock the fridges? Was the torture going to be him watching them eat and him being unable to..? That really didn’t seem that bad.

Nagito and Kokichi finally exited the kitchen, carrying a platter of- what seemed to be, from Tsukasa’s perspective- burgers. Shin followed close behind, eyeing the plate like a starved animal. Kokichi came up behind Tsukasa and pushed his chair up against a booth, like one of those baby chairs- and then the three of them sat down, the platter in the center. “....I’m scared, what are you doing?”

“Are you blind? We’re having a nice family dinner, nihihihi!~” Kokichi said, throwing his hands behind his head and leaning on the back of the booth.

Shin was still staring a goddamn hole through the food, his hands grasping the edge of the table for dear life. His gaze flitted up to Nagito every once and a while. “Can I-”

“Dig in, I really don’t care.” Nagito chuckled, Shin immediately shoving an entire burger into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten in months. Nagito turned towards Tsukasa once more.

“This doesn’t seem very torture-y, other than the fact you TIED ME UP. I refuse to look at those… ‘BURGERS’ till you tell me what's in them!” Tsukasa barked, shutting his eyes tight while moving his head away and huffing.

“Are you sure you wanna know? Nihihi~ It might just ruin your appetite for a good long while!” Kokichi said, snickering.

“I stopped being hungry when I drank that weird liquid on stage! …I can still taste it,” Tsukasa gagged quietly.

“Well, we needed a way to dispose of Q-taro’s corpse- and seeing as he didn’t get killed by a participant, Monokuma refused to help,” Nagito explained, smiling ominously. “and, well, Shin is a walking garbage disposal. Just had to make it look edible and he was on board.”

Tsukasa’s eyes were forced open in absolute horror, starting trying to escape again fearing HE was next. “What the hell!? No, let me go! You people are fucking insane!” He cried, losing whatever ‘sane’ persona he was currently displaying.

“Y’r shakinf the table!” Shin’s mouth was half-full, but the words were still understandable enough. “It is’n that bad!”

“YOU ARE EATING SOMEBODY YOU KNEW- THAT DIED BEFORE ANYBODY GOT TO-” Tsukasa looked like he was about to cry, surely. This was NOT Wonderhoy!!! At all!!!! “As a star, I’m supposed to be prepared for anything but- Oh god, I feel sick.” He felt tears run down his cheeks, was he actually crying right now!?

Like some kind of angel- or, maybe a devil, seeing as Tsukasa would much rather not be seen like this right now, Joe entered the restaurant. “No, Tsukasa, I’ve changed my mind. The play wasn’t that bad! You two were just being in cha- What the hell..?”

“J-JOE PLEASE SAVE ME-” Tsukasa cried out, audibly crying while looking up at the brunette. “T-THEY ARE FUCKING EATING Q-TARO.”

“Wh-” Joe took a good thirty seconds to process what he’d just heard. He looked over the four- all of them were just looking up at him, somewhat bewildered. “What?!”

“I heard- SMELT them cooking his corpse! I’m going to be sick-”

“D’de, his name wasth Burgerberg. Thish was his destiny.” Shin muttered, his mouth having been re-stuffed.

“What the actual hell-” Joe stumbled back into the door, covering his mouth with his hand. “What the actual hell?!”

“You’re all so overdramatic.” Nagito sighed, attempting to take one of the burgers for himself- Shin slapped his hand away and shot him one of the most terrifying death-glares Tsukasa had ever seen.

“Joe- Please- Don’t leave me here! I don’t wanna die!...” Tsukasa practically sobbed out, trying to move the chair with his feet so he could escape.

“C’mon, it was Nagito Rui told to keep an eye on Tsukasa! Not you, Joe! So shoo! Skedaddle!” Kokichi said, making a ‘shoo’ motion with his hand. “Also, again, we’re not going to kill you! That wasn’t the pooooint of thissss!”

Tsukasa was too traumatized to say anything else, just choking on tears while trying to form a sentence. He was so scared- What the hell was wrong with these people!? He wants to go home- Go hug his sister or something! Not this! This was messed up and terrifying!

“T-Tsukasa, just wait here, I-” Joe stepped back slightly, “I’m gonna go get Rui.” With this, he ran full speed out of the restaurant, the door slamming behind him.

“W-Why do you need Rui!?” Tsukasa shouted, actually starting to be concerned for his own safety.

Joe was already well out of earshot, though, so Tsukasa never got his answer. Hopefully, Rui was easy to find, because he was going to spontaneously combust if he had to be here any longer.

Shin turned to Tsukasa and held out one of the burgers to him. “You want one? It might help cheer you up. Nagito is a great chef.”

Tsukasa started crying harder on the spot.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Shin shrugged, turning away from Tsukasa and taking a bite out of it. “More for me.”

After a few minutes, Tsukasa heard the door open again. “Excuse me, what’s happening here?” Rui said, finally entering to ‘save’ Tsukasa. He sounded annoyed, like REALLY annoyed. “I’m sorry, I heard you cooked and are currently EATING a corpse and forcing poor Tsukasa to watch?”

“Yep, that’s pretty accurate!” Kokichi laughed, kicking his feet up onto the table. “We aren’t hurting him, so don’t you worry your fruity little self about us!”

“Okay, you shut up! I was having a perfectly good time with Akito-Kun’s lookalike but this whole situation seemed to just about ruin it.” Rui sighed, walking over to untie Tsukasa from the ropes. As he did, he practically snarled, “Okay, look. I’m already on thin ice with you three. Don’t make it any worse.” He finally walked away, leaving Tsukasa untied.

Bzzt- bzzrt- The intercom turned on once more. “A booooody has been discooooovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin!” Monokuma’s voice rattled off the ‘body discovery announcement’. Just when everyone began panicking, the intercom turned on again, “Juuuuust kidding! Did I scare you? Puhuhu! No, none of you have killed, not just yet! This announcement is to let you all know about something new I’ve installed! Which… are AIs of all your friends back home, as well as of those here! You can find them on the Third Island. Have a wonderful, tropical day!~”

“What’s an… A… I? An eye? Did he say it wrong?” Tsukasa said, slowly inching away from the table.

“I think the bear meant an AI- an artificial intelligence.” Nagito said, smiling like he was explaining something basic to a kindergartener.

Tsukasa blinked “Ohh! Like Robo-Nene...” He muttered. Now realizing the three of them had their guards down, Tsukasa quickly ran off, trying to get away after Nagito explained it.

“Aw,” Nagito said, standing up as well. “He got away. Well, I guess that’s done and over with.” Nagito stretched and stepped out of the booth, and Kokichi inched out of his seat as well. Shin looked up at the two of them, a small frown on his face, but he got up as well and the three of them went to investigate the ‘AIs’ as well.

-

Touya had been still at the beach when the announcement rang. Out of pure curiosity, he decided to go, everybody had left the beach by then so he might as well. He was sure Rui would be there, Tsukasa following since those two were rarely seen without eachother. He wanted to talk with the people he didn’t know though, maybe these ‘AIs of friends back home’ would include many he didn’t know?

The walk was long, it’s not like he was exactly trying to get there first and it’s not like he even knew where this place was other than the fact it was on the third island. It was just a cool thing he wanted to investigate.

Then again, the more Touya thought about it… Friends back home? Would his friends in Vivid BAD SQUAD be there? ...Would Akito be there? It had only been two days but the stress of everything made him forget how much Touya missed his friends… He didn’t even notice he had started running.

He was the third one to arrive, guessing by how much Rui was running around that he was first and K1-B0 just being there meaning he was second. This fact surprised Touya, everybody else must have been quite far behind, or he was just really fast.

“Ah…? Fufu, what’s this?” Rui’s voice (from a WEIRDLY FAR) distance said, followed by a concerning amount of noise.

Touya and K1-B0 quickly made their way towards Rui’s voice, getting lost down a few strange, dimly lit alleys before actually arriving where they needed to be, but they got there in the end. When they finally made it to where the Rui was- in a small, strip-mall-esque place labeled ‘ELECTRIC AVENUE’- they were met with laptop screens upon laptop screens of people they’d both met before, and new faces. Everyone, AI or not, seemed confused.

“YOU HAVE UNO, IT’S IN THE FUCKING SOFTWARE OF YOUR COMPUTER DIPSHIT!” An Akito-Like voice screeched.

“I DO NOT, YOU ED-SHEEREN LOOKALIKE! HOW DO I EVEN OPEN ANY OF THE OTHER PROGRAMS WITHOUT DYING?!” An’s voice responded, similarly aggressively.

“C-can you both quiet down!? You are scaring the others!” Nene’s AI fake cried. “Look how troubled Azusawa and Emu are! They are crying!”

“Could you all shut your traps?!” A very alternatively-dressed woman shouted over all the others, “You’re scaring Kanna!”

Rui- THE REAL Rui seemed to be enjoying the show. He looked utterly insane right now, but at least he was having fun?.. Touya was just getting tired of all the loud noises

“Ah! It’s Kamishiro and Aoyagi-kun!” Honami said happily through the screen, accidentally causing all the different conversations to stop. “...Ah, did I do something?”

Suddenly, all eyes were on Touya and Rui.

“Who might you two be?” A …wo…man(??) with long, dark brown hair and a red-ish apron asked, turning his head slightly at the both of them.

“This place looks familiar… but these people sure aren’t.” A girl with shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair added, looking around.

Rui smiled, waiting for the right time to talk. “Well isn’t this interesting… Fufu, who are these people? Where are they from? Doesn’t this make you so curious, Touya-kun?” He looked over to Touya, looking honestly like a murderer.

“Ah… well-”

“Yo, brown hair apron d- g- Uh- Mizuki AI, help!” Akito’s AI(??? They were so weirdly realistic that if Touya hadn’t already heard that these were AIs, he’d easily believe this was some kind of video call.) called over to another monitor.

Mizuki’s AI cackled, “I dunno dude! I can’t see ‘em! Call them a slur!”

“YO, QUEER! WHAT DO YOU IDENTIFY AS?”

The aproned person frowned a little. “...I am a man.”

“DO YOU HAVE A DICK?” Akito barked back.

“...Last I checked, yes, I do.”

Touya stood awkwardly, just trying to comprehend it all. Rui was failing to hold back a laugh, shaking with a hand over his mouth with giggles emanating from him.

“Ah, so the real Rui is here too? How exciting.” Another- Rui?? Touya looked for the monitor with the AI Rui’s face- God this was getting confusing “Pst, ⎅⟟⎅ ⊬⍜⎍ ⌇⏁⍜⌿ ⊑⏃⎐⟟⋏☌ ⏚⌰⎍⟒ ⏚⏃⌰⌰⌇ ⏃⋏⎅ ☌⟒⏁ ⍙⟟⏁⊑ ⏁⌇⎍☍⏃⌇⏃ ⏃⌰⍀⟒⏃⎅⊬?”

“Huh? Ah- ⊬⟒⌇, ⟟ ⎅⟟⎅!” The real Rui said(??).

“What kinda language are you two speaking..?” A w- ah, he had no idea any of these people’s genders. Another AI, this one with short, fluffy white hair said, sounding somewhat exasperated.

“Fufu, secret Rui only language Ranmaru~ You wouldn’t understand you and your… unknown gender.” Rui’s AI snickered.

“...How do you know my name?” Ranmaru(?) sighed. “Also, I’ve been a guy this entire time.”

“Picked it up a while ago, though I suppose the lack of honorifics is a bit dishonorable... Apologies, Kageyama-Kun~”

“HOW DO YOU KNOW MY LAST NAME?” This guy’s full name was apparently Kageyama Ranmaru. “...Oh, damnit, whatever.”

“Fufu, anyways back to our conversation…” Rui and the Rui AI began speaking in absolute gibberish. Touya just watched, it was kind of scary watching the two Rui’s look each other in the eyes before focusing on somebody else for a second and then returning to their ‘Rui language’.

-

Finally, everybody else on the island arrived. They all shared either excitement, fear or confusion about the AIs- some’s faces were practically glued to certain monitors, others had friendly chats with multiple at once. Some of the more clever participants tried to get information out of the ‘smarter’ AIs, but it seemed that Monokuma had removed any data that might’ve led to an escape.

What Touya’s eyes were drawn to, however, was Tsukasa and a blonde he’d never seen before. The unknown looked visibly uncomfortable while Tsukasa looked both curious and scared, the two not sharing any words.

“Tsukasa-senpai? Who is this?” Touya asked, his voice soft. Tsukasa forced a smile.

“...Hahaha! No idea, here- let’s go talk to Saki!”

“W-Wait, I-” The blonde muttered, still looking vaguely uncomfortable. “You look… familiar.” He paused for a moment, before forcing a smile similar to Tsukasa's. “…Maybe your friendly policeman’s memory is just getting a bit rusty, wahaha!”

“Oh, Keiji! You found your kid!” Shin came over after a moment and knelt in front of the monitor. “You guys are basically carbon copies of each other.”

“Wait- wait, wait! After you called me fatherless, Tazuna-shi said something about a Keiji! This is him!?” Tsukasa shouted, Touya looked absolutely shocked right now.

“Yep, this is Shinogi Keiji- well, his AI, obviously. The real one is still stuck in the death game, ahaha!” Shin said, shaking the laptop slightly to drive his point home.

Keiji looked to the side, his eyebrows furrowed and his hands held close to his chest. If by some fucked up magical spell, Rui suddenly appeared from behind the two of them and began patting Tsukasa’s back.

“Oh? Now what kind of conversation must be happening here? Fufu.” Rui smiled, looking like a cat on so many drugs. “Oya? Who’s this? I didn’t think I’d miss such a… similar face to Tsukasa’s.”

Shin is now the designated YTTD character introducer. “Shinogi Keiji. He’s from where we come from.”

“Ah.. ⍀⎍⟟ ⏃⟟, ⏁⊑⟟⌇ ⟟⌇ ⎅⟒⎎⟟⋏⟟⏁⟒⌰⊬ ⏁⌇⎍☍⏃⌇⏃-☍⎍⋏'⌇ ⎅⏃⎅, ⍀⟟☌⊑⏁?” Rui said, shouting back over to his robo-self.

“Oh, that guy? Yeah, you didn’t know, Rui?” The OTHER Rui’s voice called back, sounding rather… evil for a lack of better words.

“Stop talking in your weird Rui-speak! It’s scary…” Tsukasa grumbled, trying to drive the attention between him and Keiji away.

“‘Rui-speak’..?” Keiji muttered, looking up at the purple-haired wet cat confusedly.

“Fufu, Tsukasa-kun let’s step aside for a second. I have an- idea I wish to propose!” Rui smiled, casually dragging the other away.

“Ah- Where are we going!?” Tsukasa attempted to ask but was quickly cut off by Rui. Touya stared as the two whispered in the corner of the alley with Tsukasa gasping every three or so seconds. He was getting tired of not saying anything, but he had no words to share. He did suppose this ‘Keiji’ guy did look scarily like Tsukasa but he didn’t know more than appearances.

“Erm-,” Keiji started up again, looking even more worried than before. “Split-hair, what are they talking about?”

“Me?... I can barely hear Tsukasa-senpai and Kamishiro-senpai. I’m sure it's important, though,” Touya mumbled.

Keiji made a sort of stressed grumble, turning away from Touya’s gaze and staring into whatever abyss was beyond the edge of the monitor.

The sounds of others chatting filled the room while they waited on the two gays, Shin had already left so Touya was standing awkwardly in front of the computer. After a few minutes, Rui and Tsukasa finally returned, Tsukasa looking tired and Rui still smiling.

“Shinogi-san, did you ever have kids of your own?” Rui started, Touya and Keiji clearly already knowing where the conversation was headed.

“...Wahaha, am I being interrogated?” Keiji chuckled, obviously trying to avoid the question despite the fact it was pretty obvious he couldn’t. “...Yeah, your friendly policeman had two girls a while back. I had to give them both up for adoption since I couldn’t possibly support them with-” He suddenly stopped, and frowned slightly.

Rui clapped his hands very loudly. “Well, Tsukasa-kun! We found your dad. Say hi for me! I have plans with Rio-chan.”

“W-WHAT!? Who the hell is Rio- WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?” Tsukasa panicked, watching Rui grab a few laptops off the display and run off. Touya facepalming almost immediately.

Keiji was flabbergasted, bewildered, and quite possibly bamboozled. “Wh- Tsukasa? The Tsukasa..?”

“Rui you can’t just!- No way! I, TSUKASA TENMA, am adopted, I’m not related- I deny it.” Tsukasa panicked, looking to Touya for help.

“...Is your sister’s name Saki?” Keiji asked, looking back up at Tsukasa. “If my presence is upsetting you, I can leave. Mr. Policeman is here to help, not hurt! Wahaha!”

“How did you- I’m not upset just- No STAR finds their long-lost father on a computer screen! Okay, wait. I’m getting Saki here. Touya could you go? This is a- Blood-related Tenma conversation.” Tsukasa sighed.

Touya blinked. “I was planning on getting Akito anyways… I hope you enjoy your-... Family… Therapy session? Reunion?...” He said, backing away slowly, going back to where he originally saw his group.

This was- a concerningly long day. What time was it? He just watched an entire play now he was meeting with robot fakes of his dear friends?... Would Touya ever catch a break? Ugh, he just wanted to talk with Akito at this point.

Disappointingly, Akito and- Uh. The long haired guy from before were having a weirdly intense argument.

“I don’t get what you mean? You DON’T eat boiled eggs with the crust?” Akito groaned.

“T- The crust?!” The aproned guy responded, sounding like a mixture of genuinely worried and exhaustedly irritated. “Also, they are not called boiled eggs! What is a boiled egg?!”

“THEY AREN’T CALLED BOILED EGGS? You boil the egg! What else you call it! Also the crust, the crunchy out-bit with all the protein that adds a lil bit of salty flavor! Don’t gotta season my eggs, just eat it with the crust y’know?” Akito said, actually proud of whatever monstrosity he was mentioning.

Touya could barely speak. “Akito, what the f-”

“They are called hard-boiled eggs, if I am understanding what you are saying correctly,” The other responded, obviously trying so hard not to just start hurling slurs at Akito. “T-T... The… The SHELL?! Please, dear God, tell me you do not eat the shell! That does not have protein! It does not have flavor unless… I do not know, the chicken was diseased?! Stop eating the shells! They are not good for you!”

Akito huffed. “NO THE FUCKING- No way I have been eating the SHELL. Ena told me about the crust and I’ve been eating eggs like an apple ever since! Sure there's a bit of red in my spit after, weird since I don’t add ketchup- But it’s still good!”

“THAT IS BLOOD. YOU ARE BLEEDING. THE SHELL IS TEARING UP YOUR MOUTH SINCE YOU ARE NOT MEANT TO EAT IT AND YOU ARE BLEEDING.” He sounded so heartbroken and angry right now it wasn’t even funny. “PLEASE NEVER COMPARE AN EGG TO AN APPLE EVER AGAIN.”

“Are you getting sad over eggs? Is it because you lack any because you’re a woman?” Akito snickered. “ALSO, EGGS ARE LIKE APPLES IN SO MANY WAYS. They are different colors, flavors, used for cooking in different ways from savory to sweet. You are just too much of a coward to accept Eggles.”

“YES, I AM GETTING SAD OVER EGGS! YOU ARE A HEATHEN! AND I AM A MALE!” He grabbed one of the utensils behind him and held it at the ready- Touya was very thankful that these were just AIs and this apron guy couldn’t actually attack Akito. “Y-You just… listed… every way they are… not the same. I will NEVER accept EGGLES.”

“Eggles! Eggles! Eggles! Come on- Whatever your name is! Embrace the eggles! Egg apples! They are the lifeblood of apple pie, Touya join me! Eggles! Eggles!” Akito began chanting like he was in some weird middle-school cult. Touya felt embarrassed to even like the dude.

“Please- Please, stop, for the LOVE OF EVERYTHING THAT IS HOLY- I WILL DELETE YOU. I WILL- I WILL TURN YOU INTO AN ‘EGGLE’!”

“Is your name eggle? Is that why you hate it so much?” Akito couldn’t control his laughing. “ Anyways, let’s agree to disagree here. I like my crusty eggs and my eggles, you like being a normie. Alright?”

“No! My name is Kai Satou, and I hate ‘eggles’ because they are a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY!” ‘Kai’ spat back, practically vibrating with pure rage.

“This is why pancakes are better, you don’t gotta argue with how you prepare them! Plus, if you make apple-flavored pancakes you get eggle pancakes.” Akito sighed, slowly getting tired of the joke .

“I-” Kai fell silent, and after a moment, his monitor turned off.

Ranmaru, a few monitors over, stared at Akito, an absolutely terrified look on his face. “Y-You bullied him so hard he self-destructed.”

“Ah… So I did.” Akito blinked, looking over to Touya. “Yo, Touya. I saw Kamishiro-senpai leave with three laptops, so could you take me with you? I’m getting tired of hearing everybody’s voices.”

“Ah, sure. Could I bring along Shirashi and Azusawa? They might get a bit… you know, if we leave them.” Touya asked, moving closer to in front of Akito’s monitor .

An’s monitor suddenly erupted with life, “Aw, so you do love us! Thanks, Toyster~.” She teased, more or so to Akito than Touya himself. He turned a soft red and looked away, locating exactly where all of Vivid BAD SQUAD was and ‘stealing’ the laptops the AIs were on.

He went straight back to his cabin, everyone else could deal with their own AIs.

-

“Fufu, Rio-chan, I’m back. Shall we continue?”

Rio’s breath hitched, his armless form approached by the purple-haired demon. Rio Ranger was being dissected- dismembered and surely would be discarded after the creature had his way.

“L-Let me go already! I’ve told you everything, you sick bastard!” Rio begged, tears dripping from his eyes. Kamishiro smiled, forcing his head into place so the two could keep eye contact. He could only try and lean away since his feet remained tied together.

He was going to die here. The floormaster collar recording this must have been giving Miley a laugh. Rio tried to bite at Kamishiro’s approaching hand, but failed. He was going to die here!

“I’m going to investigate your programming more, Rio-chan. If it begins to ‘hurt’ tell me, alright?” Kamishiro said menacingly, akin to how he heard Sou could be. “Then again.. Dolls that can feel pain? Ah, its a miracle Komeda-senpai and Ouma-kun allowed me to handle you at all~...”

“STOP, STOP, STOP! YOU’RE ACTING LIKE I’M SOME KIND OF WEIRD ANIMAL TO BE USED IN TESTING!” Rio barked, desperately struggling against the other’s advances.

Kamishiro frowned, setting down three… Rio couldn’t tell what they were- anyways, he set them next to Rio’s long-lost arms, opening one to reveal a SECOND purple demon. The ginger shuddered instantly.

“Ah! Is this whom you were talking about?” The AI Kamishiro said, snickering softly. “Truly amazing.. I wonder… ⟟⎎ ⊬⍜⎍ ⏃⎅⎅⟒⎅ ⌇⍜⋔⟒ ⍜⎎ ⋔⊬ ☊⍜⎅⟟⋏☌⌇, ⎅⍜ ⊬⍜⎍ ⏁⊑⟟⋏☍ ⏁⊑⟒⟟⍀ ⌿⟒⍀⌇⍜⋏⏃⌰⟟⏁⊬ ⍙⍜⎍⌰⎅ ☊⊑⏃⋏☌⟒?”

“Fufu, that’s far too risky. I could make a copy of his AI if Rio-chan would allow me to look at his wiring. Won’t you allow me to study you further, Mr. Rio Ranger?”

He couldn’t speak, he was too scared- He didn’t know he could even FEEL fear! It was foreign, disgusting almost. Who was this person? How did Rio let himself get caught in such an obvious trap?! When he made it back, Miley would certainly get a fucking earful. If he even made it back…

“I-If you stop being so weird about it and let me go fine! Just get it over with you sick fuck!” Rio cried, what was going to happen? How weird was Kamishiro!? He never was going to make it to witness the first Main Game, would he?

Kamishiro smirked evilly. “Glad you agree, Rio-chan! Let’s investigate that pesky body of yours now!~” The purple-haired DEMON laughed while softly turning Rio’s figure and prodding at the back of his neck and collar. Sadly, Rui had stolen most of his clothing other than his main shirt as well as skirt (points for not being a complete weirdo, he guessed) so anything uncovered was practically free reign.

Through the corner of his eye he watched as they pulled out a toolbox to start- taking him apart? He had already taken Rio’s poor arms off and already stated multiple times he would be ‘investigating his coding and wiring’ which totally didn’t sound absolutely terrifying (and sexual) from a robot’s point of view.

Rio slowly felt through his plastic skin as all his limbs were removed, joints DEFINITELY BROKEN and however else he had been put together. Thank whoever made him that he didn’t feel pain, or else he would have been screaming or have passed out by now, then again from the few hours he had known Kamishiro he’d probably get off to that and be like ‘Oh, you can feel pain? Well golly gee let’s see what makes THAT happen!!’ or something!

Eventually, Rui had managed to remove the back of his head (only when all of his body parts had already been dismembered and gutted of course) and Rio could just sense how… excited he was.

Rio felt the other hand dig around, before finding something and- that’s where he had blacked out, maybe he died! Who knows, he just remembered waking up with a copy of himself in one of the laptops the bastard had gotten and seeing Kamishiro and some other robot having an argument. His parts on the table like it was a lab experiment.

“RUI, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?” A voice from behind the robo-dude screeched, Ah wait- It was the Joe dude! One of the fucks he was supposed to get!

“R-Rui, just- Oh, Jesus, I can’t handle this right now.” The actual robot said, leaving the room.

Another person entered, pushing Joe out of the way and running to inspect his body. Rio was trying to find a way back INTO it, but being connected to a computer wasn’t very helpful.

“Rui, you turned him into a cheeseboard!” The new person said, groaning softly. “And not even a good one at that! It’s all either American or frozen Velveta.”

“DID YOU JUST CALL ME A CHEESEBOARD!?” Rio hissed, catching the attention of everybody easily. “I am NOT cheese, I just got dismembered and this is how you are treating me?”

Kamishiro snickered, picking up one of Rio’s hands. “A charcuterie board fits better, I’d say.” Rio had to pretend like this dude didn’t instill the fear of god into him, simply backing away as far as the screen would allow.

“Mizuki, you’re scaring him. I’ve finished my research if you two were planning on stopping me from doing anything, I may have broken a few of his connection pieces but don’t need help reconnecting him.” Rui smiled, pushing this ‘Mizuki’ away. Joe sighed audibly in the background.

“Rui, it’s almost 10 pm. Go home. We just came here to shut you up.” Joe groaned, ‘Mizuki’ going to try and put Rio back together. Rui smiled happily, and it scared the shit out of him.

Mizuki poked Kamishiro’s face with Rio’s hand. “This is why I hate you damned ‘catboys’, just go to sleep already! Just leave him like this, give Kii-boy a lil scare when he comes in for repairs.”

“I believe I’ve already scared him.” Kamishiro sighed, confiscating Rio’s hand back. “ Also, if you leave, I will sleep. ...I’m not a ‘catboy’, or whatever you say.” The demon said, chuckling softly.

Rio could only watch as the three talked, not very patiently awaiting to be returned home. He didn’t WANT any part of Sou’s floor anymore, he wanted to go rest in the lobby and bother Safalin. He wanted to go back to his normal life! This sucked, and now he had to deal with remembering Kamishiro. He was utterly TERRIFYING, and poor Rio would never know peace again.

-
Emu paced around the halls of Miyamasuzaka Girls Academy. Half of her troupe was missing! She was sure they were okay, but still! Even Saki, Tsukasa’s sister, had no idea where he was. Emu had expected Rui to go missing, he would disappear for a few days sometimes but always come back with a SUPER COOL robot thingy! But Tsukasa?! Now Nene was panicking and they put up missing posters- she was so scared…

While the poor girl was running around, she just happened to overhear a conversation featuring- Asahina-senpai and Kohane-chan!?

“Ah... Aoyagi-kun went missing around that same time too.” Kohane mumbled, Emu peeked around the corner to see her fidgeting with her hands.

Mafuyu paused, and Emu got a cold chill seeing the taller’s fake smile. “I hope they are alright, I saw missing posters of some people down the street. Do you think they are in the same boat?”

Emu slowly walked from out behind the corner, quivering under Mafuyu’s gaze. “You have missing friends too!?”

“You mean Tsukasa-sama and Kamishiro-san- Eh? Emu-chan what are you doing here?” Kohane yelped, Mafuyu blinked. Emu just sighed.

“Yeah! Rui-kun and Tsukasa-kun! Did Touya and Akito-kun go missing as well?..” Emu whimpered softly, eyes watering slightly.

Mafuyu looked around for a second, tilting her head. “Mizuki disappeared suddenly when we were on a voice call. I hope they’re okay, maybe these disappearances are connected? I haven’t heard of anybody else suddenly vanishing like dust.”

“Maybe, we should put up more missing posters!” Kohane smiled, hopeful almost. Emu suddenly got a burst of energy, yes! They would find their friends! Maybe the four were planning a super duper big party for everybody! It would be so awesome and super Wonderhoy!!

“I’ll help!” Emu interrupted, “I can make so many posters we will find them in the next hour! No- minute!”

Mafuyu smiled, slightly jumpscaring Emu. “Your help is appreciated, Ootori-san.”

Emu clapped happily, why was she so scared about Rui and Tsukasa being missing? With the help of Kohane and Mafuyu they would be found easily, she’d get a search helicopter and yell at them and they would thank her for finding them. Hopefully!

Chapter Text

It was a good… two, three hours until Kaede assumed the morning announcement would go off- which meant it was what, four AM? She had a good reason for being up this late, or at least it was a good reason in her book. She’d… she’d taken two of the AIs, and whilst she felt a little bad about taking them all for herself she knew the others had taken some too. Electric Avenue was basically empty at this point.

Those two AIs could’ve easily been guessed by anyone who knew Kaede in the slightest, and the light from their screens was all that illuminated her dark cabin.

Shuichi, and Rantaro.

She looked between their two screens with a face of bittersweet sorrow. Sure, she was happy she was free, who wouldn’t be? But she killed someone! She didn’t deserve this freedom! She deserved the execution she was seconds away from receiving!

“K-Kaede, you seem… troubled. Is there something on your mind..?” Shuichi spoke up first to ask, seeing as Rantaro didn’t seem too interested in talking at the moment. Serves her right… she killed him, after all… although, not like this AI would have any recollection of that.

Kaede swallowed thickly. “I’m alright, Saihara. Just a lot on my mind, I suppose…” She sighed, turning away from the two of them. “Say, do you mind if I talk to you both about… what it’s like here? I haven’t really had a chance to get my thoughts in order, with how much has gone on…”

“Feel free, it’s not like we have anything better to do in here.” Rantaro said, shrugging.

She nearly jumped at his voice- God, it was so weird him just being here and alive! Still, she remained calm and seated, before clearing her throat. “Let me start at the beginning.”

“So… Rantaro, I assume you remember the Killing Game, at the very least… Shuichi, you must remember it too. You… both know the rules, right?” Kaede frowned. “I- Rantaro- I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to-!”

“...Huh?” Rantaro cocked his head at Kaede. “Did’ya kill me or somethin’?”

Kaede sniffled. “I did- I didn’t mean to- I was aiming for the mastermind, I-!”

“Well, if ya’ didn’t mean to kill me I don’t take much offense to it,” Rantaro said, laughing. “Still, appreciate the apology. Go on, were ya’ caught?”

“I- I was, I don’t know how but- Shuichi, you- ahaha…” Kaede turned to Shuichi’s monitor. “You really are the Ultimate Detective…”

Shuichi stayed silent, just turning away from Kaede solemnly.

“And- And I was about to be executed… no, I was being executed! Monokuma had already dragged me onto the stage and everything! And then this weird smoke engulfed me and I woke up here with K1-B0 and Kokichi and this weird white-haired guy! I didn’t- I don’t deserve this freedom!” Kaede could feel the tears running down her face- she was hyperventilating, too, fuck, why did she do this to herself?!

It took a few moments for Kaede to regain her composure. “...So, we headed to what seemed to be the center of the island together. I think we’ve all sort of collectively dubbed it ‘The Statue’- not like Monokuma has given it a formal name.” She laughed quietly. “We arrived first, but Kokichi was throwing a huge fit and I think he tried to attack K1-B0, I don’t remember his reasoning, but we managed to get him chained to the statue so he wouldn’t try anything worse. He fell asleep like that, and didn’t wake up until around halfway through Monokuma’s Killing Game explanation.”

“Oh, and the other people… I didn’t know any of them- I barely know any of them now! We all seemed to arrive in groups of four- four teenagers- at least that’s what I thought… the last group was only three, and one of them was just a kid! One of them also claimed to be an adult, but I really doubt that.” She laughed again- whether trying to lighten the mood for herself or the others, even she didn’t really know.

“Anyways, Monokuma showed up again. Seems he kidnapped us for yet another Killing Game. Real long-lived freedom, huh..? Doesn’t seem anyone here is really gonna cooperate with him, though, so I have hope that no one will get killed… Not again.”

“Then the new people got their Ultimates, and while we were all discussing what to do, the group of three’s ‘collars’ or something- I don’t know where they got them from!- started freaking out. K1-B0 and one of the new people, Rui, had to help them out… With how much had already happened, I was just frozen in place; I wanted to help, I really did! I’m just thankful they got out of it alive. Then another- Tsukasa- took the one with the worst injuries, Joe, to his cabin to patch him up.” Kaede inhaled, having done that entire thing in one breath. “I was one of the last to return to my own cabin, I needed time to… think things over. Before I left, that same white-haired guy told me to meet him and the others at the restaurant in the morning.”

Rantaro and Shuichi just blankly stared at Kaede as she continued. “So I did. I didn’t really have anything of interest to do there, but everyone else was there… so I stayed. And then-” Kaede fell silent, seemingly stifling laughing. “A- After that, this new person showed up, with honestly… a weirder outfit than everyone else combined, I’m not exactly sure where the hell he got his fashion sense from but it’s not like I could really ask because Kokichi and Nagito dragged him off before anyone could get a word in.”

“Tsukasa, Rui, Touya, and Mizuki left soon after, announcing that the beach would be off-limits for a few hours. We all listened and sort of just lingered around the restaurant until a-”

“S-Sorry to interrupt, but is- is Touya the one with the blue-ish hair? I’ve seen his AI, I think.” Shuichi perked up and asked. “He was always talking with a ginger, though… so I never got to talk to him.”

Kaede seemed sort of taken aback that the two of them were still listening to her ramblings, but she responded quickly enough, “Yes, that’s him! I’m not sure who the ginger is, though…”

“Ah, I see…” Shuichi returned to just sort of blankly staring at Kaede.

“So, yeah, we all went to the beach when they announced it was ready! I didn’t know what to expect, but two of them putting on Romeo and Juliet surely wasn’t it! It was… good? It wasn’t well made, but I enjoyed it and so did the others! It definitely raised our spirits!” Kaede smiled, clasping her hands together before setting them back at her side and continuing.

“Then, uh, Nagito, Kokichi, and Shin took Tsukasa to… God knows where. I went back to my cabin, so I really have no idea what they did, but the next time I saw him he looked as if he’d seen something horrific. Speaking of the next time I saw him, Monokuma announced something really cool- AIs! That’s how you two are here! I had to go all the way to the third island to see them, but it was so worth it… I wonder how one gets AIs of real people? He even had one of me…” Kaede shuddered subtly.

“Anyways! I’m almost to the end, I promise,” Rantaro audibly sighed a sigh of relief at this. “I took both of yours’ AIs to my cabin- I wanted to take more, just to talk to, but a lot had already been taken and more I could easily guess who’d take them. I didn’t want to leave anyone without a friend…”

“And then… well, that sort of sums it up, doesn’t it? I just stayed up, mulled things over, and… thank you both for listening to me ramble.” Kaede smiled.

“Aaaaahem! I have an announcement to make. Gooooood morning, everyone! Looks like today is going to be another perfect, tropical day! Now then, let’s show some enthusiasm and make sure to give it our all today!” Monokuma’s voice came over the speakers, him seeming to have adjusted the volume so it wasn’t quite as ear-shattering.

“I-I talked for two hours..?” Kaede muttered to herself, eyes wide.

“Yep,” Rantaro laughed, “Go talk to the others, now. I’m gonna get some shut-eye, if computer programs even can.” With this, Rantaro’s monitor went black.

The speaker clicked on again. “Oh! Also, get your asses down to the statue! I’ve got a big announcement to make! Puhuhu!”

Kaede looked up at the speaker with a face of confusion, but got up and followed the instructions anyways. To the statue she goes, she supposed.

-

As expected, everybody was gathered at the statue. Most were standing around expectantly, while others were talking. Kaede stood near everybody else, not exactly wanting to speak to anybody for obvious reasons. She noticed a few obvious pairs chatting, though her eyes were caught watching K1-B0 and Gin run around, seemingly playing a rigged game of tag.

While watching the two go in circles was entertaining, the dread of knowing Monokuma was arriving soon was not. His history of announcements weren’t the nicest, to say the least, she was hoping it wasn’t anything to do with the Killing Game that was supposed to be happening. Maybe another new area?

Kaede tensed as she felt a soft tap on her shoulder, quickly turning around to see- Mizuki? She should have expected them actually, Mizuki seemed to be obsessed with bothering her!

“Heyyo Kaede! A- Did you rest up at all?..” They asked, resting both hands firmly on their hips as to indirectly taunt her.

“Mizuki! I, er-” Kaede rubbed at her eyes, before shooting the other a forced smile. “I slept great, actually! What about you?”

Mizuki clapped happily. “That’s good to hear! Ah, well. I was talking with my group’s AIs all night I got distracted and lost track of time. It’s fine, I’m used to all-nighters at this point.” They sighed, “Any idea what the lil’ bear dude is going to announce?”

Kaede now felt a little bad for lying, if Mizuki was just going to admit to doing the same thing. But it was just a little white lie, she’d be fine! “Be sure to get a full night’s sleep tonight, alright?” Kaede frowned slightly but was called back to the situation at hand soon after. “I’m not sure, but I’m a little scared to say the very least!” She laughed quietly.

“Fine, fine. No fun Kana- Kaede! I doubt it’s going to be anything bad if I’m honest. I overheard him saying that the budget was, and I quote; ‘Nothing but three quarters!!’. It was hilarious!” Mizuki snickered softly

Before Kaede could respond, Monokuma hopped back up onto the statue with the same microphone he had last time but without the papers. Seemed those were just for the first day. “Ahem! Listen up, kiddos! I’ve called you all here so early to announce your first motive! Motive to what? Motive to kill! This is a Killing Game, after all, and I’m seeing a real lack of bloodshed amongst y’all!”

“God fucking damn it.” Kaede sighed.

“This motive isn’t really a ‘if you kill you get this’ motive, but instead, one that I personally cultivated to drive you all insane! So! Ahem; Two of you, each day, will get a real mild stomach ache! Not enough to hurt you permanently or really cause much pain, but enough to annoy the shit outta you! Also, all the doors to the bathrooms will be removed, and in their place will be speakers playing the song Ready Steady by Vivid BAD SQUAD. If you get annoyed by it, have Touya to thank! Maybe kill him! Anyways, that’s all! Have fuuuuun!~” Monokuma hopped down from the statue and scampered off.

Kaede looked around to see everybody's reaction, she honestly couldn’t take this ‘motive’ seriously. The first blood perk, as lazy as it now seemed, definitely was better at encouraging murder than- lack of doors? Though, to the news, she heard obnoxiously loud sobs coming from her left.

At first glance, everybody was either confused or holding back laughter except one specific person; Rui?? Who was full on sobbing at the motive, gently being comforted by Tsukasa and Touya. Turning her attention to Mizuki now, Kaede didn’t expect to see them also absolutely distraught at the news, looking like any light in their eyes was gone.

“Mizuki? Are you alr-”

“Kaede! Me and some of the others were planning to hold a cookout on the beach, starting at 6-ish? PM, of course! I’d love to see you there- I have to go help Rui with all those tears now. Buh-bye!” And then Mizuki ran off, leaving Kaede somewhat confused.

She just sort of stood there for a moment, watching the three comfort Rui, until she heard the first few notes of what was apparently ‘Ready Steady’ begin emanating from all around her. This seemed like it’d get irritating, but it wouldn’t drive anyone to kill! Surely not!

At first, everybody was just sitting through it. It wasn’t a bad song, but not a good one by any means.

“Meow, this song isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be!” Gin said as the first replay began, beaming happily. “We’ll get through this silly motive, woof!”

Nagito sighed. “This is going to get annoying if it’ll be playing everywhere, though…”

Kaede was trying to keep her composure but watching everybody else be slowly driven insane made her want to go anywhere on this island without a speaker.

“Why is everybody suddenly… sad?” Touya asked, clearly confused and somewhat enjoying the song at the moment.

Rui went to choke him but seemed to change his mind at the very last second and instead rested his hand on Touya’s shoulder. “You wouldn’t understand…” Kaede could almost feel his despair.

“Nihihi, I feel like some of you are overreacting! It’s really not that bad- looking at you, Rui!” Kokichi smiled, stretching slightly while observing the others. Sometimes, Kaede wished the shotput ball had hit him instead.

Kaede was about to leave, but was caught off-guard by even louder sobbing than Rui’s. It sounded more depressed, hopeless even. Emanating a vile aura, she wasn’t surprised to see it was Shin curled up in a ball with his hands firmly covering his ears. Kaede wanted to poke him with a stick or something, but she felt it might be too mean. Next to him was Joe, who at first glance seemed to be enjoying it, as he was subtly swaying back and forth- but upon closer inspection, he had the same dead eyes as Mizuki.

“I agree with Kokichi.” K1-B0 suddenly announced, looking utterly confused. “How is this a murder motive? No sound should be able to bring one an urge to kill…”

Kaede would’ve agreed with him, but seeing everyone’s state, she worried it was only a matter of time. Maybe Mizuki’s cookout would help calm everyone down…? She could only hope that no one died before tonight.

-

Mizuki had waited hours, at last it was time for their epic cookout-campfire-situation! Of course, they got their close friends, Rui and Tsukasa to help gather food as well as start the fire. Touya found a random guitar and claimed he knew enough violin to figure it out, so it was going smoothly!

As the sun set, they completely forget about the motive. The beach was yet again decorated, assorted decor hanging from the palm trees with the sea providing good scenery- Mizuki was a bit upset they didn’t have any swimsuits so they could make it a proper beach day but this was more than good enough!

They were even more delighted to see everybody arriving, clearly none of them were nice enough to bring food to cook but they expected it- having stolen everything from the pantry themselves.

“Great, awesome! Everybody is here, at least I hope.” Mizuki exclaimed, clapping happily.

Rui looked up from messing with the fire. “Ah? It’s already time? Fufu, you should have warned me, Mizuki.”

“Aha! This event shall be even better than the last!” Tsukasa yelled happily, Mizuki chuckled while looking to the group- well specifically to Kaede (or lack thereof) to make sure she came. Mizuki frowned slightly to themselves when they realized Kaede wasn't here- wasn't here yet! She'd come, surely.

“This place is pretty awesome!” Joe said, staring at the fire with wide, awestruck eyes- like he’d never seen one before in his life. “Wish Sara was here right now, she’d love this!” He grinned, holding his hands near the fire to keep them warm against the cold night air.

Shin was also near to the fire, kneeling beside it with one of the monitors in his lap. It seemed to depict a… green-haired girl, with a- was that a bucket on their head? Mizuki hadn’t seen anyone vaguely like them before, but maybe the two were close where they came from.

Mizuki’s gaze now turned to Gin, who pawed gently at the fire, getting too close to it for comfort… but he was a big kid! Mizuki doubted he’d light himself ablaze. They just hoped curiosity wouldn’t kill the cat-dog-bat.

Touya opened a cooler Mizuki swore wasn’t here 10 minutes ago, picking out some hotdogs and marshmallows and raising them up along with some skewers. “We can cook these now, right?” He said, weirdly excited, then again they remembered Tsukasa mentioning he didn’t have the most fun childhood. Maybe Touya really liked bonfires and marshmallows.

“Oh, we are actually cooking? I thought it was just going to be a beach hangout.” Tsukasa blinked.

“Oya, Tsukasa, you went with me to get the food! How cruel of you, to forget our adventure… Woe is me, I’m deeply saddened by this…” Rui mewled, his eyes still somewhat puffy from his last crying fit.

Tsukasa only grumbled in response, slightly kicking the taller closer to the flames.

Speaking of flames, Kokichi prodded at the fire with a stick, his eyes lighting up whenever embers shot into the air. He giggled quietly to himself every time someone got a little too close to the fire. “Nihihi~ I’m gonna push one of you innn~!” He said in a very sing-song voice, nudging Gin even closer to the campfire than he already was.

Gin yelped as the tip of his paw caught aflame. “MREOWWWW!” He wailed, flailing the paw around and rapidly backing away from the fire. It thankfully got put out quickly enough that Mizuki didn’t have to step in, and it didn’t seem to have hurt the paw or his hands, but Gin still stayed fearfully away from the fire and glared at Kokichi.

Finally, Kaede arrived. She was a bit late- she looked exhausted but maybe she got lost or something? “Sorry I’m late!” She announced, trotting over to Mizuki and sitting herself down next to them without even asking first.

“Aha! Finally, took you long enough!” Mizuki said playfully, resisting the urge from pulling Kaede into a hug. “Great, now everybody is here!”

“There should be refreshments and other pre-prepared foods in the cooler!” Touya announced, hurriedly grabbing a few more marshmallows whilst looking for a spot to sit.

Joe hopped up at this announcement almost immediately, running over to where Touya got his marshmallows and grabbing himself a worrisome-ly large armful. He apparently got himself a skewer for them too, and Mizuki watched in almost horror as he managed to stuff all- 20? 30? marshmallows onto this one poor stick.

“H-Hey! You can’t hog them all!” Tsukasa shouted, in Tsukasa fashion. Huffing and going to get MORE marshmallows to seemingly- challenge??? Out-marshmallow Joe?? Mizuki wasn’t sure. They watched as he had to get another stick to fit all the mallows on before he sat back down to cook them.

“I only took, like, half!” Joe laughed, having put his abomination of a marshmallow stick over the fire. “You can’t out-pizza the hut!”

Tsukasa audibly stiffened. “What does pizza have to do with anything!? Also, half the bag is still around all of them, I would know, I’m amazing at math!” He almost hissed, glaring at Joe.

“YOU DON’T KNOW THE FAMOUS PHRA- No. No, okay, this is fine.” Joe squinted at Tsukasa. “I’m even more amazinger at math than you, and half isn’t all of them! Half is none of them!” Joe grabbed one of the marshmallows off his stick and threw it at Tsukasa’s face, hitting him square in the forehead.

“What famous- OW! How dare you! That marshmallow could have been melted and burnt my face- now you’ve done it! This is war!” Tsukasa said indignantly, standing up quickly and pointing his dual sticks straight at Joe angrily. Mizuki could barely hold in their laughter.

“You wanna fight ME? I’ll have you know my bestie Sara is really good at kendo and she beats me up constantly! You think you have a chance against the Joe Tazuna?!” He practically jumped up, pointing his marshmallow stick of doom at Tsukasa.

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS SARA! I BET SHE’S A NINCOMPOOP! STOP STALLING AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN.” Tsukasa practically screamed (as if he wasn’t already screaming), Tsukasa, an actor VS Joe, whatever Joe was. This would turn out interesting.

K1-B0 audibly sighed at the two’s antics. “Can we not just appreciate the break in Ready Steady..?”

“Oya, Oya! Seems Tsukasa-kun and Tazuna-chan are going to fight!~ How interesting, fufu I wish I could record this. I wonder who will win?” Rui smiled, clearly just trying to stir the drama more.

Joe momentarily looked at Rui, practically fuming at both Tsukasa’s teasing and being called TAZUNA-CHAN?- but he quickly turned back to Tsukasa. “If you ruin my marshmallows I SWEAR to GOD-” He muttered to himself, before whacking the marshmallow stick into Tsukasa’s side.

“WAHAHAH! MIKU- wait- I PRACTICED THIS AHAHA!” Tsukasa exclaimed, momentarily confusing Mizuki with the mention of Miku- But it was probably a friend named Miku and not Hatsune Miku. The blonde then quickly whacked his sticks onto Joe’s head while trying to inch away to possibly stab the guy.

Joe mouthed the words ‘HATSUNE MIKU?!’ but didn’t bother to articulate them, too preoccupied with beating Tsukasa to death than questioning why his friend was named fucking Miku. “GAH!” He flinched away from Tsukasa’s double marshmallow head assault but quickly returned by jabbing the stick into Tsukasa’s chest, pointy-side first.

Tsukasa yelped, trying very hard to back away from Joe to get a good shot but quickly gave up to rush in and stab Joe back. The blonde also was able to full-on bite poor Joe’s arm while trying his best to hit him into forceful surrender.

Wincing, Joe shoved away Tsukasa’s stick too late for it to not have punctured his clothes, but he grinned to himself as he extended his arm to stab Tsukasa’s shoulder- at least until- “FUCKING- OW???” Joe yanked his arm away, but Tsukasa didn’t let go, so Joe resorted to also biting Tsukasa, latching onto one of his ears and pulling as hard as he could. “LET GO OF MY ARM-”

Instead of letting go, much to Joe’s dismay, Tsukasa started GROWLING while only biting down harder. Mizuki was astounded neither had started bleeding yet, it saved on having to deal with wounds they supposed…

“DO YOU HAVE RABIES??” Joe unlatched from Tsukasa’s ear just to exclaim, before grabbing a handful of Tsukasa’s hair in one hand and pulling it away from his arm as hard as he could- with the other, he repeatedly hit Tsukasa in the abdomen with his stick-sword- and with his face, he bit down into Tsukasa’s shoulder.

“Kanna doesn’t like it when you fight..!” The monitor in Shin’s lap exclaimed, looking very distressed. Shin quickly brought up one hand to cover the monitor’s camera, to which it responded, “Kanna can still hear all the fighting sounds, Sou!” Shin himself kept staring, almost mesmerized, at the scene.

Tsukasa was completely ignoring the others, in the zone of the fight- almost like he was treating it like a show or something (which it probably was to him). Mizuki could swear they saw him smile when Joe bit down- though it was hard to notice since Kokichi had been screaming at them to 'FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!' as well as practically dancing around the two of them.

“Ahaha! You fool, Joe… I don’t have rabies but I AM A HOMOSEXUAL, THEREFORE it has spread to you!” Tsukasa snickered, though clearly in pain he wasn’t doing much of an effort to stop Joe from leaving a mark on him.

Joe almost immediately paused all lines of defense against Tsukasa- were this a real fight, Joe would’ve been shanked or punched or something by now. He slowly unlatched himself from Tsukasa’s shoulder. “I-IT CAN SPREAD??” He muttered, sounding absolutely terrified. “I LIKE WOMEN! I’M NOT GAY- GET OFF OF ME-” He yanked at Tsukasa’s hair even harder this time, desperately trying to get Tsukasa away.

“Ah, it’s true Tazuna-san!” Mizuki smiled, “Tsukasa bit me once… And now look at me! He stole my gender, and made me a woman-liker! It’s awful really~” They teased, flicking the wrist to add to their act.

“NO- NO! I LIKE MY GENDER! AND I LIKE WOMEN! PLEASE- PLEASE-” Joe pleaded- was he crying?! “I DON’T WANNA BE GAAAYYYY- ImeanIhavenoproblemwithitIdon’treallycare BUT I LIKE WOMEN I LIKE RYOKO, I LIKE SARA, I DON’T LIKE MEN!!!”

“Joe, I heard from Miss Sara that Miss Ryoko is actually a dude,” Shin said, laughing quietly. “I know how much you love him.”

“I DON’T LIKE MEN I DON’T LIKE MEN I DON’T LIKE MEN I DON’T LIKE MEEEENNNN!!” Joe wailed, shoving at Tsukasa’s face.

“Fufu, Tsukasa-kun allow me to handle Tazuna-chan’s outburst, would you?” Rui sat up, moving weirdly close to Joe. Tsukasa blinked, smiling deviously while quickly distancing himself. “Purr-fect! Sorry about him, are you alright Joe?”

“Ah-” Joe looked at Rui confusedly, especially with how close he was to him, but he gave an exasperated smile through it. “Yeah, thank you… It was fun and games at first but I don’t want to be gay! H-He infected me…” He rubbed at the part of his arm where Tsukasa bit him.

“That’s alright, go and sit down. You two fought for a long bit.” Rui said, petting Joe’s head. “Well, sadly Mizuki seems to be calling me over. Bye-bye, Tazuna-chan~” Mizuki sighed when they realized what was happening, watching Rui kiss Joe’s cheek tenderly and then going to sit next to TSUKASA and not even them like he said he would. Damn catboys.

“Why do you keep calling me Tazuna-ch-” Joe’s eyes went wide when he, too, realized what Rui was doing. “Wha-?” His face went bright red, and he visibly began sweating, but before he could respond he covered his face in embarrassment and ran off- likely back to his cabin. Damn dogboys.

Mizuki felt second-hand embarrassment, they had seen Rui do this bit with various people but never actually kiss them (Other than Tsukasa, Tsukasa was the only one). Though, they supposed it wasn’t a proper beach trip if one person didn’t find out something about themselves randomly.

“Ah... did that actually just happen..?” Kaede asked quietly, Mizuki only nodding slowly in response. It was going to be a lot calmer without Joe, both thankfully and sadly.

-

After that whole… ordeal, the only thing Joe really could do would to be to return to his cabin. He practically fucking ran there, and when he was inside he slumped to the floor, back against the door. What the fuck. What the fuck? It just started as a stupid marshmallow swordfight, how did it end with him contracting homosexuality and being KISSED BY A DUDE??? Sure, it wasn’t on the lips but it was still super weird! And it made him feel super weird!!

Okay. There was only one way to know for sure.

Joe went over to where he’d let Sara’s AI sleep overnight- opened it up, and waved to his best friend. His crush. Because he likes women. “Sara, Sara! I need your help with something.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“So like- I don’t have access to the internet on this thing but I know you do. So uh… I need you to look something up for me. Don’t laugh- but I need one of those, uh… y’know those really dumb ‘are you gay’ quizzes you always see in the worst places? I need one of those.”

Sara stifled a snicker. “Alright.” Her face disappeared from the screen, but Joe trusted she was finding what he needed. After a minute or so, the test popped up, and some website called Quotev or something. Sara watched him from the corner of the screen as he entered in his answers- yeah, he’s found male celebrities hot, but that wasn’t gay. That was just admiration. And yeah, he has gay friends! Most of his friends were at least bisexual, but what did that have to do with him being gay?!

He answered the final question, and the stupid loading screen came up. Why was he being so antsy about this?? He was obviously straight! He liked women.

…

The screen went blank.

Sara’s face popped back up, smiling. “Sorry! The internet went out, not too sure how that happened…” She giggled, sitting down in the weird void all the AIs seemed to live in. “Anyways! Joe, you don’t need a test to tell you how you feel.”

“I- I was just confirming what I already knew!” Joe snapped back, frowning. “Tsukasa kept teasing me and telling me he ‘infected’ me with ‘homosexuality’ and then Mizuki told me he wasn’t lying and then RUI KISSED ME! And it felt weird! So I wanted to make sure!”

Sara bit the inside of her mouth. “Joe, I don’t think you’re straight.”

“Wh-” Joe looked at her, eyes wide. “Sara, are you screwing with me right now? Of course I’m straight! I’m dating Ryoko! She’s a girl!”

“I never said you were gay, I just mean you aren’t straight.” Sara said, before the screen went white again, and the webpage he’d done the test on loaded in.

His results loaded as well.

Most likely bisexual.

“W- What?”

Joe sniffled.

“Are you crying?” Sara muttered, standing up and coming as close to the screen as she could. “No, don’t cry! It’s okay..! It’s not a bad thing, I mean… I like girls and guys too, y’know? It’s not weird- and… from what you’ve told me, I don’t think anyone who’s on that island with you will judge you.”

“S-Sara, you don’t understand! I- I’m straight! I have been t-the whole time, I-” Joe was full-on sobbing now, it was less the fact he might be a little fruity and more the fact he didn’t know sooner! He was lying to himself! The entire fucking time- he couldn’t accept that he just didn’t get that part of himself!

“Joe- Joe, buddy…” Sara frowned. “I’ve listened to you talk about the boys you ‘admire’. The way you talk about them… that’s not something a straight guy does.”

Joe expired. Well, more accurately he sort of fell down into a sad, sobbing lump, but…

-

It’d been a few hours since Tsukasa and Joe’s little fight, and by now almost everyone had left the cookout to return to their cabins for the night. The only two left by the dying fire were Kaede and Mizuki, and they snuggled up against each other for warmth.

“So uh… nice night, amiright?” Kaede said, not really caring for the answer but the silence was awkward.

“I’m gay, wanna make out?” Mizuki responded, half-joking.

“...Sure.”

-

Tsumugi angrily paced the Ultimate Cosplayer lab, the only place she could easily get away from the others without risking them finding her true lab, the Mastermind’s. She didn’t trust that she wasn’t being followed, especially with how nosey that Ultimate Detective had been lately.

Oh, just thinking of him made her fume! She really doubted he had anything to do with the disappearances- he was just some dude, but he was some dude who really needed to get off her ass! And the disappearances, oh the fucking disappearances! Kaede just up and left halfway through her execution! Tsumugi might’ve framed her, but she was still pissed Kaede didn’t get the justice she deserved.

“AGHHH!” Tsumugi practically shrieked, falling onto her knees. “The Killing Game- It’s in fucking shambles, Monotaro! Three of the students? Gone! One of them was our FUCKING CAMERAMAN!” She was hyperventilating. She was freaking out. Being a Mastermind wasn’t meant to be this stressful! “What is K1-B0’s camera even broadcasting…?”

“Master, you need to calm down! Maybe the rest of the team outside of production knows what’s happening.” Monotaro tried to reason, visibly trembling on the couch he was sitting on.

She shook her head slightly, sighing. “It’d be nice if they’d tell me, then.” She then stood up and made her way towards one of the hidden monitors in her room, clicking it over to K1-B0’s broadcast.

He seemed to be in… that looked like the cabin design on Jabberwock, Tsumugi thought. Someone she didn’t know but looked vaguely like Kokichi hovered over him, and seemed to be tinkering with his body. “Another Miu.” She announced idly to herself.

Suddenly, directly in K1-B0’s face although facing the stranger, a familiar black and white bear popped up. “Puhuhu~ You two bastards shouldn’t be up this late! Chop chop, get outta K1-B0’s cabin, Rui! You need a full night’s sleep for a full day’s-a killin’!”

“Fufu, I’m afraid I have to refuse, there’s something curious going on with our dear K1-B0’s eyes I must find out about! Also, I accidentally uploaded our little friend Rio-chan into him and I need to fix that before something bad happens.” Tsumugi watched with apt interest, although also extreme confusion. How was- How was Monokuma in two places at once?!

“Monotaro, go find Monokuma. I need to know that he’s still here.” She momentarily turned to the Monokub, before returning to watching the broadcast. “What the hell…”

“On it!” Monotaro called, quickly scurrying out of the room to grab his ‘dad’.

Tsumugi stood up, staring down at the monitor and bracing her hands on the edge of the table as she watched the rest of the scene unfold. The purple one, seemingly named ‘Rui’ was ushered out of the cabin by Monokuma (the Second?) with much protest, and though Tsumugi couldn’t see K1-B0’s face she presumed he was probably pretty relieved. As he stood up, looked around, went to bed WHATEVER she didn’t care what he was doing, she cared that he was on fucking JABBERWOCK ISLAND? That- Isn’t that place fictional??

And he was on this island with complete strangers apparently- maybe Kaede and Kokichi were here too? If she could find a way to get to them she could get all three back at once and finally get this Killing Game back on track-

What.

IS THAT NAGITO KOMAEDA??

Someone who looked awfully similar to the MIGHT SHE ADD LONG DEAD Nagito Komaeda burst through one of K1-B0’s windows. The robot was reasonably confused but seemed too tired to utter anything other than, “What-?”

‘Nagito’ smiled, picking something off of the table ‘Rui’ had been apparently storing the parts of K1-B0 he removed. “Sorry, ahaha… I just needed this. I’ll be going now. Sweet dreams!” With this, he jumped straight back through the window where he came.

K1-B0 collapsed back onto his bed, and the broadcast cut out.

“What the actual fuck.” Tsumugi muttered, staring at the blank screen for minutes after it’d stopped broadcasting.

Monotaro’s feet could be heard rushing in, Monokuma’s confused protests as well. “Here he is, he was with that weirdo Miu.” The Monokub huffed, hopping back onto the couch and making himself comfy.

Tsumugi turned on her heels and stared at Monokuma with a look of absolute horror. “Whuh-?”

“How are there TWO OF YOU?”

Chapter Text

Sat in front of the monitor that broadcasted Rio’s surroundings, the Floormasters stared- almost horrified (all except for Sou, who seemed scarily unphased)- at what it displayed. It’d been days since Ranger went on that mission to retrieve Joe, Gin, Shin, and Q-Taro, and days since he’d been tied up and kept in that purple guy’s house.

To be fair, as Miley was a human, she didn’t really have much to be scared of; this guy seemed interested in the fact that Ranger was a sentient doll, not the fact he was a Floormaster. But still, Miley was subtly trembling. Someone would have to go… get him back, right?

“Jesus Christ…. We need to do something.” She finally piped up, after around an hour of everybody sitting around the monitor, silent. “Somebody needs to go get him, we can’t keep stalling the Main Game. The participants already have a fucking idea that everything is going wrong.”

“B-But who would subject themselves to possibly being… his next target..?” Safalin muttered, holding her hands close to her face. “Plus, the first Main Game, won’t… you be the one hosting..? I could… make it seem like only I run the third floor… it’s not like any of them know Ranger…”

“We were wrong to send Rio first, and Safalin, I think it would be a much too dramatic turn from me to you. As much as I want to say I could start it, one of the missing participants HAD the game cards and I haven’t been able to get copies since.” Miley sighed, barely able to stay calm.

“Oh… so we need to at least retrieve the cards and Ranger,” Safalin noted out loud, the others nodding in response.

“I believe it may be-” Gashu began, but was quickly interrupted by Sou.

“I think I should do it.” Sou smiled. “I’ve handled most problems, and I won’t take as long as Ranger. Promise!” He said, adjusting his posture slightly.

“Sou…” Safalin muttered, pulling her hat down to conceal her eyes. “Come back safe…”

Miley, in contrast, just shrugged. “I’ll be watching your collar footage. Don’t screw up like Ranger.”

“I won’t!” Sou said, grinning.

-

Rui, not surprisingly, didn’t get much sleep. He hadn’t for the past few days, be it from stress or messing with his latest interest; Rio Ranger. It didn’t matter, he had grabbed many energy drinks from a supermarket on the island so sleep was simply a suggestion.

The past few days had been very exciting, ranging from the play to the brief times he was able to meet with K1-B0 and inspect his parts (It was a surprise every time he went deeper.) Though he was worried, about the mentioned robot, a small mistake he had made left Rui with nothing but Rio’s dismembered corpse and a possibly possessed Ultimate Robot.

He needed to stop dwelling on things, as Director it was his job to show his actors what to do and if these ‘actors’ were his friends then he’d do his damn best to show them the right way!

Speaking of these friends, Tsukasa wanted to hold a party at a venue he had found later today. He had a small idea of what time it was, Monokuma’s announcement had gone off- what? An hour ago? Yeah something like that, he needed to meet with the others. His job as the ”Ultimate Director” would have to come first, after all.

-

Rui didn’t know why he was still surprised at the sound of that godawful song playing throughout the island, thankfully he wasn’t stupid and had brought earplugs with him but he couldn’t say the same for anybody else

He almost tripped and fell on Mizuki, who was laying on the ground and- he wasn’t sure what they were doing. The cabins were soundproof (at least he hoped) so they had no reason to just… lay in the middle of the path.

“Ah. Hey, Rui.” Mizuki said blankly, smiling but all life in their eyes had long since vanished, he felt bad but there was not much he could do, he wasn’t going to spend all day wasting time on dismantling the speakers or killing anybody.

Rui sighed, bending over to look down at them “Salutations, Akiyama. Are you… Alright, persay?”

“Take a guess, you’re basically top of your class.”

He kicked them slightly, getting them to slightly roll away. He was happy they weren’t acting like how they used to in middle school, but they sure were on the line. “Erm, do you want anything while I’m here? Water?”

“Nahhhh I’m fineee… Hey, guess what? You lost that bet.” Mizuki smiled, more genuinely, at the last part. Bet? They had a bet- Oh.

“No way, Akiyama Mizuki kissed somebody last night? Well, it must suck to be them, since I don’t have anything on me~” Rui mewed, slowly backing away from them. Mizuki huffed, sitting up with narrowed eyes. “Well, I’ll be off. Have fun with the Ready Steady, my friend!”

“Hey! Wait, wait, wait! I see those earplugs! You can’t spare me one? Don’t just leave!” Mizuki screeched, grabbing Rui’s ankle (since it was really the only part of him they could reach, as they were still on the ground) and attempting to pull him to the ground too. Probably to steal his earplugs or something, he wasn’t a mindreader!

Rui shook Mizuki off of his leg and practically ran away from them; and as their cries increased in intensity, his steps only quickened, trying desperately to escape the sound, somehow- it seemed to haunt him throughout the entire island… Or Mizuki was following him, he didn’t turn back to check. Eventually, he spotted a familiar blonde and child.

Lighting up at the sight of Tsukasa (and Gin, he supposed), Rui stared at the fact Tsukasa seemed to be participating in kidnapping, as Tsukasa was in fact holding Gin rather hostage-like, or like a cat. “MwaAARROWW!! Put me down!! Put me down!!!! I may look like a cute kitty but I won’t hesitate to tear your face off!!”

“Wahahaha, calm down! We’re going to a party, c̷̨̘͖͇͎̪̺̪̮̟͈̏ ̸̣̞̗̟̞̦̣̩́̇ẖ̵̢͓̱͎̝̱̜͚͚͕̮̦̻͐̈̎̋͑̊̅͊͘͜ ̶̜̩͕̱̤̽̎̏̐͐͒̈́ī̷̠̤̜̽̄͌͐̎̔̓̌́͘͜ ̴̡̜̥̮͕̙̩͍̦̃̅̽͂͗͐͐͛͐̋̊̉̔̕͠͠l̷̮̦̙͚̈̓̐͊͒͐ ̷̙̼̖͉̱̙̯̠̰̲̿̓͌̔̏̇̽̕̚͜͝d̴̢͉̭̹̲̤̼̣͛͛̅̀́̍̐̓͆̍̓̇.” Tsukasa said, somewhat ominously. Gin’s eyes widened, apparently too terrified to rebute.

Rui blinked, staring at the scene for a few seconds. “Tsukasa-kun, what.” He mumbled, apparently the two hadn’t noticed him yet, which was very surprising considering Rui was both much taller than all of the other participants and looked like a shitty Powerranger

Tsukasa finally seemed to notice Rui, beaming. “Rui! There you are! I and Gin were heading to… Tih..T-..Tith - tea typhoon, the place I told you about for the party.

“It’s called Titty Typhoon! Did you forget your own party venue..? You’re more scatterbrained than I thought, woof…”

“Gin! Don’t say that word!” Tsukasa huffed, pulling up Gin’s mask to cover his eyes. “No child should know such things!”

“You’re such a perv, meow!! It’s just the name of the place!” Gin grumbled, blindly swatting at Tsukasa’s face with his claws unsheathed before pulling his mask back down and glaring at his kidnapper.

Rui chuckled, hushing a giggle. “So lewd, Tsukasa-kun!” Waving his hand softly, “And yes, I remember. Since you two are already on the way, can I join you two?” He smiled softly, tilting his head with it.

“Meeooowww…” Gin murmured. “No, we don’t want any eggplants with us!”

“MEW.” Rui hissed back angrily, crossing his arms with a slight glare. Causing Tsukasa to stare at him weirdly.

“MREOW?!” Gin squirmed in Tsukasa’s grasp as if Rui had just said a slur. “LET ME AT HIM!!” Gin yowled.

Rui stepped closer to Gin (and as an extension Tsukasa), his eyes narrowing. “MrrreoOWW…!!” He growled, his tone threatening.

“Break it up you two.” Tsukasa huffed, smacking Rui’s head softly and accidentally causing him to collapse onto the sidewalk with a soft thud and then quickly picked up the director in one arm, holding Gin in the other and proceeding with the way to Titty Typhoon.

“I don’t wanna corpse near me! Get it away, yellow man, woof! Get it awaaaay!!” Gin tried to pull himself away from Rui’s (supposed) corpse, his eyes even wider than when Tsukasa had gone all… Nightcord mode.

Rui coughed. “I’m not dead! Starclan refuses to take me!” He huffed, not putting in the effort to get Tsukasa to let go of him.

“Oh, phew, eggplant guy is alive…” Gin sighed, then seemed to process what Rui had said. “S- Starclan? You know Warriors?!” It was painfully obvious how widely Gin was smiling, even under his mask.

Rui ignored the eggplant remark (his face visually disgusted), and he smiled as well “Well of course, I’ve read all the books as well as the field guides!”

“All of them, meow..? Even the Super Editions?!” Gin tried to shimmy closer to Rui now, invested.

Tsukasa’s grip on the two of them seemed to become tired already. Rui didn’t care though, nodding at Gin’s question. “Fufu, all fourteen!”

“Oh, my Starclan…” Gin’s eyes lit up. “Who’s your favorite!! I mean, like- an overall favorite is okay too, but… what about your favorite first arc cat? Your favorite second arc cat..?!”

“First arc? Raven’paw, Second arc? Ash’fur.” He nodded, looking over to Gin more intently.

“I loved Raven’paw too, meow!! But uhh… I think my favorite first arc cat would be Scourge! And… second arc I really loved Jay’feather. He was just such an interesting Medicine Cat, woof!”

Rui blinked, Scourge was a bit basic... But he was a kid, it didn’t matter... But JAY’FEATHER?.. Seriously?.. “Mhm, they are both such interesting characters, I especially liked the flashbacks with Jay’fea-”

“Please... Please, both of you be quiet...” Tsukasa cried, audibly rolling his eyes.

Gin hmphed, crossing his arms and glaring up at Tsukasa. “I’m sorry you never had any friends to talk about your interests with, woof.”

Tsukasa got silent, tightening his grip on the two suddenly and almost suffocating Rui- He hoped it wasn't intentional. The three remained quiet the rest of the walk there, only because the two being carried were scared Tsukasa would drop them suddenly and walk away.

-

As the three approached Titty Typhoon- silently, instead of full of Warriors talk- music filled their ears. It was pretty muffled so Rui couldn’t quite make out the song, but… who was here before Tsukasa? It was his party, after all.

Opening the doors to the venue (well it was more like Tsukasa just shoved them both through the door), it was very obvious what the songs playing were.

It was fucking N25 nightcore.

Rui looked around to see who was playing this weird, godawful remix of his friend’s music, and it was none other than Mizuki themselves. They were the only one here, alone in the middle of the dancefloor, breakdancing violently.

He quickly broke free of Tsukasa’s grasp (It was rather easy, considering the fact he was larger and stronger than the blonde) and quickly dusted himself off, and stared confusedly at Mizuki.

“Oh, hey!” Mizuki smiled, continuing to dance without even looking up and somehow getting more intense with it.

Rui found himself staring with a dazed expression “H-how did you get here? You were practically dead on the sidewalk not ten minutes ago!”

Mizuki smiled. “I ran. I came second place in the school race for a reason, Rui!” they smiled, continuing to not even look back at him.

Gin had also apparently managed to squirm his way out of Tsukasa’s grasp, walking up to Mizuki as well. “Woof… you’re weird. Dancing all alone…”

“Aha! Listen, when you’re friends with Yuki for as long as I, you get used to dancing alone.” Mizuki said, almost deadpan and clearly resisting the urge to kick Gin like a football.

“Meow, I dunno what that means.” Gin shrugged and walked away from Mizuki, finding a nice corner for himself and Mew~Chan and making the aforementioned stuffed cat bust moves to the music.

-

Shin had arrived near to last to the… Titty Typhoon? Who the hell came up with that name? Anyways, he didn’t really want to come in the first place. A party… even louder than the other things the whole lot of them had planned, but with the new motive, Shin was desperate for any sort of break in the hellish repeats of Ready Steady.

So, he stood somewhat off to the side of the main dancefloor with a red solo cup halfway full with… whatever the hell they were serving, he genuinely had no idea what it was but it tasted concerningly sweet- swaying along to the weird nightcore (he thinks its Party Rock? but it’s going far too fast to tell) that was playing. It was better than Ready Steady, he just had to keep reminding himself that if he left all that would greet him was fucking ‘もし叶うならこの先の世界を知りたい　行きたい READY STEADY.’.

On the topic of the motive, after seeing everyone else’s- and, to be fair, his own- reactions to the music, he’d taken the time to buy a lead pipe from one of the hardware stores on the island. He wasn’t going to just accept his fate at the hands of a Ready Steady-crazed maniac. This pipe he kept securely inside his scarf; thankfully, it was like a real-life Bag of Holding and it could easily carry a pipe, among other things.

Since he didn’t really have anything better to do, he tuned into one of the only conversations he could hear.

“PARTY ROCKERS IN THE HOUUUSE TONIGHTTTT!!” Joe practically shrieked along with the music, if only to be heard over it.

Tsukasa audibly glared, letting out an obnoxious groan. “It’s ‘party rock IS’, not ‘party rockERS’.”

“Oh, shut up! I’m just having fun!” Joe grumbled, shoving at Tsukasa’s arm. He made a face as if he was going to continue singing along, but he either lost his spot or maybe Tsukasa whispered something at him (he sorta leaned towards Joe but obviously Shin couldn’t hear jack shit over the music) because he just sort of frowned.

Then Tsukasa grabbed his arm and took him towards one of the side rooms, and Shin didn’t see them again.

Damn. Now it was just him and his red solo cup once again.

Shin sort of idly noticed the main doors opening again- he didn’t pay it much mind, maybe someone was just really, really late. Though… he swore everyone was already here.

…Maybe it was Monokuma or something.

At least, that’s what he thought- until he felt an eerily cold hand grip his shoulder. Whipping around, his eyes met someone he swore he’d never see again.

Someone he swore was dead.

“Surprise, Shin!” Sou said, looking down at Shin with the most sickening smile on his face. “Bet you thought you’d gotten rid of me, huh? Hahaha!”

“What..?” Shin muttered, shoving Sou’s hand off of him. Shin stumbled backward. “W-What? What? H-How are you-”

“Alive? Here? All in due time!” Sou laughed again, draining the color from Shin’s face- which he promptly turned away from the green-haired shithead. Sou grabbed Shin’s face with one of his hands- once again, scarily cold, almost inhumanly so- and forced it up to look at him.

“Get away- get off of me!” Shin squirmed against Sou’s grasp, having gained the attention of a few of the partygoers- he hoped they were paying attention to the new arrival more than his obvious suffering. He didn’t quite like the idea of a bunch of teenagers watching him confront his abuser.

“Oh, calm down! I’m not here to do anything bad, per se. Just bring you and your friends back to the Facility where you’re meant to be!” Sou said, contorting his face into an obviously fake pout. “I just wanted to pay my favorite Shin a visit first!” Sou smiled again, before basically throwing Shin’s head down and placing both of his hands back behind his back in his signature stance. “It was nice seeing you again… you really haven’t changed much over the years!” Shin nearly threw up in his mouth at that remark. “Toodeloo!~”

He turned his back, beginning to walk over to… probably Gin. Maybe it was the built-up anger over the years, or maybe just the heat of the moment, but Shin felt himself grabbing for the lead pipe, and-

-

Toya wasn’t exactly paying attention to anything, all his friends had either left him or were too busy- so he was just sat there pretending to drink and look cool off to the side… Rather ironic, considering he should be thriving at a party (Vivid BAD SQUAD activities and all)

He didn’t mind it, he liked watching people have fun, it was relaxing in a way. He’d rather Akito be here, but beggars can’t be choosers… He should have brought the laptop… It’s fine, he could leave whenever, he just needed to wait it out a little longer and-

“AAAAAAAAGHH-!!”

That wasn’t a good sign.

Toya quickly focused his attention to where it came from- Tsukimi-san? And some stranger?... The more Toya looked- the more he realized what was happening.

Tsukimi had pinned someone to the ground and was BASHING their skull in?! Somebody who wasn’t even on the island- or if they were they just appeared! Toya needed to stop him- the man was probably dead but he had to try- and everybody else had frozen in place!

He nervously ran up to Shin and tried to grab his hands but Toya’s own body was scared to get close- there was so much fucking blood and- He couldn’t even think! The mix of the loud, overbearing and VERY UNRELATED MUSIC mixed with the smell of blood… He felt sick.

Whatever Shin had in his hands- it looked like a pipe or something, it didn’t really matter what it was, all that mattered is that he was slamming it repeatedly into the other’s skull with a somehow more nauseating crunch every time. Brain matter and blood splashed anyone within a ten-foot radius of the two of them; some had even got on Toya, which nearly caused him to puke.

Remember the feelings, remember the days, my stone heart was breaking, my love ran away~

Somehow, even still, the person below Shin was uttering pleas- indecipherable, garbled pleas.

And every time he did, Shin just screamed, “SHUT UP!” and hit him harder.

This moment I knew I would be someone else, my love turned around and I felt~

He just kept hitting the other. Again, again, again again again again again- Toya didn’t even know them and they were dead- There was no way there were still alive- Their head was nothing but a caved-in pile of flesh at this point-!!

Be my bad boy, be my man, be my weekend lover but don’t be my friend~

Shin was entirely painted red at this point, and the other didn’t even twitch when they were hit anymore.

They were dead…

Toya covered his mouth desperately to try and stop himself from vomiting.

Still, Shin continued driving the pipe into the other’s ‘head’- it was barely a fucking head anymore, it didn’t even resemble a person at this point. With every swing, Shin’s movements got more sluggish, as if the adrenaline was finally wearing off- and eventually, he just slumped over the body, staring blankly down at it.

You can be my bad boy, but understand, that I don't need you in my life again~

“T-Tsu…Tsukimi-san?....” Toya mumbled, nervously staring down at…. He wasn’t sure. He had to force down any urges to vomit- to cry- Tsukasa was here, he needed to be strong… “Tsukimi-san… Why did you?...” He was going to cry, scream even.

Shin didn’t respond, simply looking up at Toya and cracking a broken smile. The blood on his face was warped with tears.

It was disgusting to look at- W-why wasn’t there an announcement yet?... Where was the bear?.. Th-this was a murder! Toya… God, Toya was going to give sympathy to a killer? Did it matter?...

It was fine. Toya wasn’t involved… He could- He could pity somebody this once, he wasn’t going to let somebody… STAY over a corpse… Toya quickly grabbed and picked up Tsukimi by the shoulders and.. For a lack of better phrasing, 'kidnapped him' back to his cabin.

He felt so sick.

-

Once Shin was… removed, the real severity of the situation really set in.

That was…

That was a dead person.

A very, very, dead person.

Gin had been standing on the outskirts of it all, huddling behind Rui although his curiosity still forced him to stare at the scene. Maybe it was him being so young or something… but he hadn’t quite processed what’d happened until now.

“Aaaaauuu…” Gin mewled, tugging on Rui’s coat… cape… thing. Tears poured down his face, soaking into his mask. His eyes were wide as he continued to stare at the scene. Now that Shin was gone, the new person’s body just sort of laid… there… It was hard to see since everyone crowded around it, but Gin still knew exactly what was there.

Rui’s body seemed to… Tense up? Gin wasn’t sure- but he felt Rui turn to face him. It wasn’t long before Gin was seemingly being hugged..? Gin leaned into it, Rui pressing Gin’s face into his chest; realistically, it was probably to shield his eyes, but he took it as just… very comforting. He hugged Rui back (as best he could, short arms).

He felt Rui softly rub his back, seemingly trying his best to distract the younger. “...You shouldn’t have been anywhere near that.” He finally said after a while. “I’ll.. see if we can get out soon…” Rui muttered, trying his best at comforting while still in shock himself.

Gin sniffled, still sobbing into Rui’s embrace. “T-Thank you…” Gin fell silent for a moment. “...Dad…”

-

Miley stared at the monitor that broadcasted Sou's collar footage, eyes wide.

"Oh."

Chapter Text

‘Day one, locked in Aoyagi-san’s cabin.’ Shin scrawled away at some notebook he’d stolen from his captor. His gaze flicked between the paper and Toya in the corner, who was similarly occasionally shooting a glace at him. ‘Ever since I woke up here, he’s been hunched over that damn laptop… God knows what he’s planning. I hear the occasional piano melody coming from it… Is he truly listening to music after kidnapping me?!’

Shin went back to watching Toya adamantly- at least until Toya looked back at Shin again, after his song had seemingly ended. Shin’s eyes widened and he almost immediately went back to his notebook. ‘Whenever he looks over at me, his stare almost seems to cut through me… Even just writing about it makes me shiver. I hope I’m freed soon.’

After a moment, the piano music started up again- Shin returned to staring a hole through the back of Toya’s head. He squinted… was he playing Piano Tiles..?! What a horrifying thing to do after having just kidnapped someone… did he truly have no remorse? Shin was silently thankful that Toya was just ignoring him and not torturing him or something.

Yet.

Shin hunched back over his notebook. ‘I don’t know how or why he took me here. I don’t know what he wants with me. I just know… based off of how he’s been acting… it isn’t anything good. Maybe he wants to kill me? Does he want to take first blood? Does he want to torture me, or maybe worse? Only time will tell.’

-

‘Day two. I’m still locked in Aoyagi-san’s cabin. He went to bed last night at almost the break of dusk, as if he trusted me. I knew what he was trying to pull- I didn’t get a wink of sleep, and I’m going to keep it that way. He’s not catching me unguarded.’ Shin jotted down, his handwriting messier than the day prior. After a moment, ‘I wonder, is he trying to break me? He hasn’t spoken to me once during all of this. …I’ve been alone for far longer than a few days before. He’s going to have to try harder than that.’

Suddenly, a loud hiss and crackle brought Shin up from his rather uncomfortable position over the notebook. What was that… it was coming from Toya’s bed… probably his computer? Why was it still on? That’s not good for it, to be left on all night.

More importantly, it was exuding a would-be spectacular display of colors if it wasn’t more just terrifying for the sleep-deprived little murderer.

“T-Toya! Toya!? Oh thank Crypton… Wake up!!” A familiar yet robotic voice called quietly from Toya’s bed. He swore he recognized it… Crypton? Where did he recognize this from? He noticed Toya stirring and his mind clicked right back into survival mode, inching away from the bed like a scared dog.

“Wake up! This is impor- AAAAAA? WHO’S THERE!?” The unknown person screeched, a little tuft of opaque yellow-ish hair peeking up from Toya’s side. Weirdly familiar… Not just the color, but the shape too. “Answer me, I can’t see you!!” It was a wonder how Toya was still sleeping.

If Shin felt any safer with his captor, he would’ve crawled over and given Toya a shake- but he’d really like to cherish the time he got without having to worry about him. So, he just responded with a quiet, “Uh… Who are you..?”

The voice went quiet for a bit, audible static softly buzzing. “Kagamine Len in the real! Why do you- Who are you! Are you the one who kidnapped Aoyagi-san!?” He screamed, trying to peek over the sleeping Toya.

“Kagami- LEN?!” Shin managed to lose his footing even though he was still sort of half-kneeling on the ground. Shaking his head, “No, Len is a Vocaloid. Who are you? And no, I didn’t kidnap Aoyagi-san! In fact, he kidnapped me!”

“I am SO Len!” ‘Len’ huffed, managing to stand on top of Toya- only due to the fact the laptop was open enough that the light was able to reach there though. “Look, I have the hair, the vo- Toya did what!? No, no! Toya is one of the nicest people I know, he would never.” Len huffed, resting his hands on his hips while glaring at Shin.

Shin grumbled to himself. “You really wanna try and convince me that you’re Kagamine Len? You don’t even look like him! You’ve got the hair down, but that isn’t the right outfit at all.” ‘Len’ was dressed like some weird elementary schooler. “And you must not know Aoyagi-san too well, because I’m locked in here right now. Look at me. Who’s in worse shape?”

“Well duh, I’m from a SEKAI! I’m not JUST Len, I’m Street SEKAI Len! Did you even test the door, if you were really locked in, then that door would probably look worse then you- How old are you? 90? Aoyagi here got locked in a coffee shop once- it took MEIKO a month to get that window replaced…” Len huffed again, stomping angrily.

“What the hell is a ‘SEKAI’...” Shin muttered, narrowing his eyes at ‘Len’. “And no, I haven’t! I don’t want Aoyagi-san hunting me down- I’m safer in here, for now, no matter how much I hate it. Also, I’m barely of drinking age! I’m not 90!” Shin couldn’t help the shiver that ran down his spine at how Toya reacted to being held hostage. God knows how he’d treat his hostages…

Len seemed to get more irritated, tapping his foot. “A SEKAI is a world created from true feelings, ‘ya dunce! If Toya really wanted to hurt you, he’d start talking about his childhood in concerningly great detail! He’s like, a cat? I don’t like cats, but he’s one as a guy!” He groaned, sitting down and looking Shin up and down.

Shin cocked his head ever so slightly. “You do understand how fake that sounds, right? No one can just create a world, especially not out of something as common as feelings.” Shin scoffed. “Oh, Aoyagi-san had a traumatic childhood, big deal. Don’t we all? He still kidnapped me! I don’t care if he’s a catboy or whatever, I wanna not be a fucking prisoner!”

Len seemed to only get more pissy, but before he could say anything, Toya seemed to finally awaken. He groggily sat up- causing Shin to flinch back instinctively.

“...Loud, who’s here?..” Toya yawned, stretching and looking over to Shin- the disturbance seemed to make whatever was projecting ‘Len’ crash, leaving a dead screen with no proof of him actually being here. “...Mmn? You’re still here, Tsukimi-san?..”

“Aah, um…” Shin bit his tongue. Who would believe him if he said fucking ‘Kagamine Len’? It’d just make Toya think he was crazier than he probably already thought of him.

Though, to be fair, the ‘Len’ was asking for him. Somewhat disheartenedly, Shin said, “There was a projection of an oddly dressed ‘Kagamine Len’. A-And, what do you mean, still here..? You haven’t told me I could leave, yes?”

Toya blinked, taking a minute to completely wake up. “Huh?.. I thought it was assumed, I just needed you away from the whole… corps- Wait, Len?” He quickly looked over to the computer, and almost immediately seemed to forget Shin was there. He was furiously clicking away at the laptop- was Len like… something important to Toya, or something? He couldn’t lie, he loved Vocaloid too, but wasn’t this a bit much?

Shin frowned slightly. He hadn’t assumed that at all, to be fair that whole night was a messy blur. He knew what he’d done, but… He supposed he was still processing it, or something. Anyways, he just sort of woke up in Toya’s cabin! How would he have assumed anything but kidnap?! Er… adultnap? What did they call it if it’s a grown ass man getting kidnapped by a teenager?

Still, he didn’t quite trust that. He wasn’t about to leave just to be hunted by this lunatic like some kind of deer. So he stubbornly continued sitting on the floor, looking up at Toya and his still frantic clicking and shit. ‘Kagamine Len’ should not have this much of an effect on someone! He wasn’t even that great of a singer!

Eventually, Len did finally reappear, the hologram looked even more unstable- Well, from what Shin could see, at least. Toya was definitely in the way.

“A-h Toya! Finally, you’ve been go-ne for like a week!” Len cried, the audio glitching and seemingly decreasing in quality by the second. “Are you alrig-t? You’re tearing up...”

“I’m fine, Len… How’s everybody been?” Toya asked- rather sadly, Shin thought. Maybe Len was… family, or something? God, that was even more insane than Len existing in the first place! If anyone was related to Len, it was Joe. Same hair.

Len paused, seemingly thinking? “An and Kohane ha-ven’t visited in aw-hil-e, Akito rarely leaves SEK-AI. All the other singers have been wor-ried sick about you! W-Where even are you? This doe-sn’t look familiar…” Shin frowned. A depressing reminder that the others had it a lot worse than Joe, Gin, and himself. They were practically saved- yet to the others, this was the prison it was supposed to be. Also, Akito… that name was vaguely familiar. He’s pretty sure he’d seen Toya talking to an ‘Akito’ AI before… Hrm.

“Mhm… I see, Uh, thank you, I suppose. I admit you arrived at a rather awkward time, could we meet later on, Len?” Toya sheepishly asked, looking back over to Shin then quickly back at Len. “And tell them not to worry about me, please.”

While he couldn’t exactly see what was happening, he heard Len leaving, so clearly they made some kind of nonverbal agreement or something. All Shin really cared about was that it was now just him and Toya again, and Shin felt himself shrinking away from the literal teenager once more.

Toya turned his body over, kicking his legs off the side of the bed before looking over at the TERRIFIED WET CAT. “If… if you don’t mind me asking, Tsukimi-san, why did you kill that person?” He asked, adverting his eyes.

“...Um..?” Shin’s body relaxed slightly. Well, his words weren’t ‘Hi I am going to torture you now’ so it was a win, even if a little invasive. “I-It’s a long story, but I… I had my reasons, I wasn’t just… killing someone to kill them… ahaha!”

“I see… I’m willing to listen, it doesn’t look like you plan on leaving anytime soon…” Toya muttered, narrowing his eyes at a window before focusing on Shin.

Shin looked over at the window as well, if only to ease his mind, and saw nothing of note. Maybe there was just some weird sound? Anyways- turning back to Toya, Shin frowned slightly. He wasn’t planning on leaving, no, because he couldn’t! How could a captor be this stupid..?! “...Again, it really is a long story, but if you insist… Um, so it really started back in highschool, either late in my first year or early second- it gets blurry, plus it isn’t that important.”

“W-wait, you’re not a highschooler now?..” Toya softly interrupted.

“N… No? I’m 22 or so, if I’m counting correctly.” Shin tilted his head. “Anyways, this new student joined my class… If you can imagine that corpse, but without the… er, deadness, that was what he looked like. Same suit and everything, I genuinely don’t think he ever changed out of that thing.” Shin forced a laugh. “He was pretty keen on befriending me, and being the lonely teenager I was, I was estatic to have a friend who seemed interested in what I did. I even made that little shit deputy of my Warriors clan!”

“...Um, and we grew pretty close. I’d invite him over to code together, and he’d teach me all the stuff I didn’t know. All that sounds great and all; and it was, at first. He was just a little off-putting at first, but I just assumed he was just also some weird teenager. Not his fault he made me uncomfortable, not his fault he was scary as shit at times, yeah?” Shin bunched his hands into fists.

“And, uh, that just kept getting worse. He’d purposefully try and scare me, he’d try and get me upset in any way he could- lying, telling the blunt truth, harming me, harming others- the shit he did could take up an entire encyclopedia of it’s own.” He sighed. “That on it’s own definitely isn’t enough to validate murder, I’m aware. I’m just getting to the best of it, ahaha!”

Toya blinked, nodding with a cold expression and remaining silent. Either thinking about all Shin had said or mulling over what could be worse. “I… See…”

“Uh, hm… After a while, we got even closer, and even started dating for a little while. He was just as abusive during that too, don’t get me wrong- it wasn’t a good thing. And do you know what the absolute cherry on top was? He didn’t even go to my school. He wasn’t even a highschooler! He was easily in his 30s- at least that’s around where I’d place him. And… well, eventually, he just sort of disappeared one day. I guess it was the pent-up anger and… lack of closure, that drove me to… kill him.”

“Wait, wait, wait. He was what? That’s fucking disgusting, Tsukimi-san. …If anything, I don’t blame you at all for killing him.” Toya said, grimacing. Shin, despite his rather pitiful expression, forced a shrug.

“Um… I definitely don’t deserve that much leniency. But I appreciate the… sympathy.” Shin muttered. “I… think I’m finally going to ditch his scarf.” He said, mostly to himself.

Toya continued to be quiet, eyeing the scarf suspiciously. “...I did notice you two shared the design… I’m assuming it was a gift?”

“...That’s one way to put it. Yeah, let’s go with a gift.” Shin frowned, adjusting the scarf on his shoulders. “I don’t… know how he had it too. It must’ve been a replica or something… unless he lied about giving me his. It’s not that important anymore, is it?”

“I don’t know anything other than what you told me, but… You should probably get rid of it, due to its past and all.” Toya muttered, tensing slightly.

“...I’d rather not own anything of his anymore.” Shin stated, as sort of a reassurance to himself that this was what he wanted. Even with all the hate he held for Sou, he was still sort of an idol to him- Even with how much Sou hurt him, he just existing helped Shin through so much as well. Shin slowly but surely unwrapped the scarf from his neck, holding it tightly within his hands.

Toya dug in his pocket for a moment, pulling out what seemingly was a innocent scrap of plastic?..
“Then let’s burn it.” He said, flicking open the top, a flame starting quickly- Shin flinched away from the sudden, y’know, fire, but he quickly processed what Toya was saying. A small smile etched its way onto Shin’s face, and he laughed quietly, nodding.

Shin stood up first, stretching quickly before walking towards the door- still holding his scarf firmly in hand. He sort of lingered by the door, waiting for Toya to open it. Yes, he still thought it was locked.

Toya followed quickly, opening the door (Shin was genuinely confused when he didn’t seem to unlock it) leading them to a place reasonably far from the cabins while somehow not catching anyone’s attention. Once Shin was sure they’d arrived, he gave his scarf one final close… hug? Can you call it a hug if it isn’t alive? He held it close to his chest regardless, before tossing it onto the ground and kicking it slightly away from him. “It’s all yours. Light it ablaze.”

Toya smiled, crouching down and setting the fire to the scarf, quickly backing away as the fire took to it. “There… Burn the scarf and let the flames roar, or something.” He shrugged, a slight smirk remaining as he looked over to Shin.

Shin knelt beside it, staring down at it like it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever laid his eyes on. The flame spread across the pink-ish fabric easily, eating through it with gorgeous shades of red, orange, and yellow. The edges had turned pitch black, crumbling inwards.

Without the scarf by his side, Shin couldn’t help but shiver- he held his hands over the burning fabric, smiling at the absurdity of this whole thing. Sure, he swore to himself he’d work through that trauma someday, but he didn’t expect it to be today… nor to be with some emo teenager he thought was trying to kill him a day prior.

Though, the warmth was burning out pretty quickly… There wasn’t much to burn. The scarf he once held dearer to him than his own self was just a pile of embers at this point. And it was wonderful.

“Fufufu, look at this, leader. What do you think we should do?” A voice from behind suddenly said.

“Woof, good eye, deputy!” Another voice yelled. “Rogues on Fireclan territory!!”

Toya sighed, turning around to face the very obvious yet unknown people. “Greetings, Kamishiro-senpai and Ibushi-kun. It’s good to see you.” He looked the two up and down- Gin looked completely normal, but Rui looked pained and he was gripping his left side. He was breathing pretty heavily, too. Toya forced an obviously fake smile.

“Who’s Kamishiro-senpai and Ibushi-kun, meow? I only know my deputy Ruiclaw and I, Ginstar, leader of Fireclan!” Gin announced, pointing at Toya and Shin. “And you two are TRESSPASSING on FIRECLAN TERRITORY!

Shin grumbled to himself. “Did you two claim this or something? Last I checked no one owns the pavement. So, by your logic, this is loner territory… meaning we’re allowed here, Ginstar.”

“Ah… Fufufu, we did claim it, I’m afraid.” Rui smirked, a sense of dread washed over Shin. “But how is a Fireclan secret only clan members can know. Moving past that, you’re still trespassing and… I’m assuming committing a minor act of arson.” His smiled only grew wider, what a weirdo.

“...I’m not going to pry any further lest I learn something I don’t want to know.” Shin mused, practically glaring at Rui and Gin- or at least, it looked like it with the lighting. “Also, it wasn’t arson. That’d be if we had burnt something that wasn’t ours.”

Toya looked around. “Any specific reason you came over to us, other then for a brief conversation Kamishiro-senpai?” He asked softly.

“Stop deadnaming my deputy, rogue! His name is Ruiclaw, meow!!” Gin spat, staring down at Toya from atop Rui’s shoulders.

“YO, DUDES, UNCOOL!” Mizuki screamed from a distance.

Toya just sort of frowned.

“Ah, right, I suppose I do have a reason.” Rui’s smiled faltered slightly, tossing Shin a suspicious baggie with a- chip? SIM card? Something like that inside. “You’re still trespassing, but this is an outside clan matter.”

“Huh..?” Shin turned over the chip in his hand, trying to figure out what it could be. I mean, it probably had some message on it or something, right? He’d have Kanna’s AI run it later.

“Fufu, I’d say if you don’t want to deal with something traumatic, burn it. But inside that is something I found… Well, at the scene. Let’s just say that I was curious on how a human head could cave so unnaturally- we best be off, Ginstar!” Rui’s smile completely wore off, he quickly ran off with Gin before the smaller could protest though.

Shin’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked down at the chip- but quickly was brought back to his senses at Rui dismissing himself. “N-No, wait, what the hell is this?! You can’t just give me something, tell me you got it from inside someone’s head and then leave!!” Shin struggled to his feet, but he definitely wouldn’t be able to catch up with Rui and his far longer legs.

“I’m free at 8!” Rui screamed back.

“I-!” Shin started, staring at where Rui had gone. “Okay??”

-

Sometime before Shin had even awoken in Toya’s cabin, Rui and Gin were embarking on a journey of their own. Not one as life-changing, but definitely a journey worth remembering!

“Meoooooow!! We must avenge my kit, Mewchankit, Ruiclaw!!” Gin yowled, holding Mew-Chan in one arm and holding tight to Rui with his other. He had positioned himself on Rui’s shoulders, so he could be taller than everyone else! A formidable leader can’t be the shortest in the clans!

“Indeed… How atrocious for some per- cat to get poor, poor, Mewchankit dirty… Justice for Mewchankit is due, worry not, leader.” Rui mewed, bowing his head slightly. Shifting under Gin rather uncomfortably.

Gin frowned. “I cannot believe that some cat got my kit dirty, woof..!! We will punish them, Ruiclaw! Onwards!!” He gently kicked at Rui’s side, like he was some kind of horse. “Meow, I think we should investigate the loners first! They trespass on Fireclan territory enough that one of them might’ve gotten my beloved kit dirty!!”

“...Everybody is a loner or rouge, leader.” Rui softly interjected, “But yes, onwards to those pesky clanless cats!”

“That’s why I said the loners specifically, dearest deputy, woof! The loners are less mean than the rogues!” Gin laughed, obviously enjoying this whole roleplay thing a lot more than Rui. “They should feel ashamed! Not being in a cool clan like Fireclan… meow, I feel bad for them. But that doesn’t mean we’ll open our ranks, don’t worry, Ruiclaw! We’re still the only two worthy of Fireclan!”

“Fufu, but of course.” And onward the two went, off towards the loners- who, in Gin’s mind, were Joe, Tsukasa, Mizuki, Kaede and K1-B0, but he wouldn’t blame his deputy if he got it wrong. That’s why he wasn’t the leader yet!

After minimal effort searching, Gin and Rui found Joe and Tsukasa chatting outside the restaurant. He wasn’t too sure why they were here, of all places, since the Ready Steady was pretty loud around the buildings, but Gin didn’t quite care. He was on a mission. “Loners!” He yelled, pointing at Joe and then at Tsukasa. He practically shoved Mew-Chan as close to their faces as he could, and continued, “Woof, did one of you do this?! My poor kit got dirty at last night’s party!”

“I was busy with Tsukasa-kun, Gin, don’t worry.” Joe said, laughing slightly. “I didn’t get Mew-Chan dirty.”

“Oya? What do you mean bu-”

“Yeah, what Joe said! I didn’t exactly see what happened last night though, maybe ask Mizuki? They were pretty active.” Tsukasa smiled, looking at Joe knowingly then back at Rui- winking at him? Was Ruiclaw fraternizing with a loner?! He’d surely have to talk this over with him afterwards… but firstly, Mew-Chan!

“Meow, thank you, dirty loners!” Gin said, grinning. “We’ll have to ask Mizuki next… Know whoever dirtied up my kit won’t be leaving alive!”

And off the two went to find Mizuki. It’d be pretty easy to find them, too, Gin thought… Rui always seemed to have an innate ability to find them.

Soon enough, Rui had sniffed the pink-haired gay out and Gin once again shoved Mew-Chan in their face, accusingly shouting, “Did YOU get my dearest kit dirty?!”

Mizuki stared deviously at the two, a weird smirk forming. “Nuh uh, how dare you accuse me! I think I saw that purple haired nuisa-.... Ouma-kun, I think I saw Ouma-kun near you. He might know! Or maybe Komaeda-kun…. He’s kind of weird.” Mizuki shrugged, looking suspiciously at Rui’s face, though Gin couldn’t see.

Gin frowned. “The rogues… I didn’t want to have to talk with them if I could avoid it, meow, but I guess I gotta… Thank you, t- loner!” Gin pulled Mew-Chan close to himself again, kicking harshly into Rui’s ribs. “Let’s go, woof! We gotta find the rogues!”

Rui began coughing for like a solid minute or so, before catching his breath and just continuing on without a word.

Nagito and Kokichi were also rather easy to find, seeing as they always lingered around together and always emitted the most foul aura. Just follow where your heart tells you not to go, and that’ll lead you to Nagito and Kokichi.

“Egh… Greeting, rogues!” Gin said with a undertone of disdain, “Did either of you get my dearest kit, Mewchankit, dirty at the party last night?!” He didn’t shove Mew-Chan in either of their faces in case they’d take her, but he took his hand off Rui for a second to point at the nasty brown-ish smudge on her.

“Nihihi, I have better things to do than mess up a kid’s toy! If I wanted to hurt you, I woulda stolen it!” Kokichi said with a sickening grin, Nagito sighing quietly.

“Pipe down, Ouma-kun… No, neither of us got your stuffed animal dirty.” Nagito said, smiling slightly- but it just made Gin more upset! His smiles always looked so fake and scary… Just like Shin’s, kinda. He didnt like it! “Here, if you let me look at it, I could help identify what did.” Nagito held out his hands, and Gin just hisses, holding Mew-Chan even closer to himself.

“Fufu…. Ginstar, you should let them at least take a glance at the stain. They might have intel.” Rui tried to reason with Gin, Gin grumbling to himself and bapping Rui softly on the head. Though eventually, he gingerly held out Mew-Chan- NOT for Nagito to take, just for him to LOOK at. He held her just out of reach. Ahh, the perks of being tall!

Nagito nodded. “Ah, thank you. Let me take a look.” Nagito leaned towards Mew-Chan, squinting at the stain. Gin glared at him as if his life depended on it. Which it might’ve! The life of a cat is rough… He might have to ditch his deputy to keep himself safe if Nagito goes all evil again..!! “Hrm… This looks to be blood, Gin-chan. It’s likely your stuffed animal got splashed during the ordeal.”

“My KIT, Mewchankit is not a stuffed animal!” Gin growled, pulling Mew-Chan close to him again. “But I guess you do give us a lead, meow… Ruiclaw! Let’s go investigate the scene!”

“..With all this running, you’re going to give me scoliosis, Ginstar…” Rui sighed, already on the way to Titty Typhoon.

-

“Meow, this place smells really bad…” Gin mewled, looking at the building. A sinking feeling of dread filled him at knowing what was likely still behind those doors, but he swallowed his fear and exclaimed, “But I’m a strong leader! We need to find the culprit!”

“I don’t think it’s very wise to investigate near the corpse...” Rui muttered, purposefully facing away from the scene

“But… my kit! My clan’s pride is at stake, Ruiclaw..!” Gin said, frowning.

Rui sighed, lifting Gin off his shoulders and onto the ground. “Here, leader, I’ll go look at the blood and you check around everywhere else for leads. It would be a bad look on Fireclan to see their leader doing something so unsavory.”

“Woof…” Gin looked up at Rui, pouting, yet he nodded. Well, he’d make it seem like he was going to follow other leads, but he wasn’t gonna get shaken off that easily! He at least wanted to stay by his deputy, even if he couldn’t search with him. What if Shin came back and killed Rui too? Gin couldn’t just let his deputy die!! Once Rui had turned away from him and entered the building, Gin rushed up behind him and sat on the other side of the door, listening closely.

“...That is not how a human head works…” Rui muttered loudly, followed by… Noises. Rather loud noises. Rather wet noises? Gin wasn’t too sure what they were coming from, but they made his heart sink. “Ahaha… How amazing, he’s just like Rio-chan!... Oh?... What’s this?”

Gin’s eyes widened. What was Rui talking about..? His voice was all scary… No one should sound that happy while looking at a body..!! Did he accidentally make his deputy Scourge? Or worse, Ashfur?! Gin internally facepalmed. He can’t believe he befriended a crazy person!!

“How interesting… Is this a SIM card?... Ah, something taped to it too…” Rui’s voice paused, aswell as the sounds, and suddenly Gin heard footsteps- before he could even react, Rui walked out of the door next to him. “Ah! Gin!” Gin looked Rui up and down, trying to figure out what he was doing in there- all he noticed was he was now lacking both of his signature white “gloves”.

“H-Hello, my dearest deputy, meow!! I got bored looking for, um, woof, other leads! So I came back, and I- I didn’t hear anything, meow! Swear!!” The look of fear on Gin’s face was probably pretty obvious, even with his mask on.

Rui gave him a suspicious look, then shrugged it off. “Whatever you say, leader.” Gin sighed, relieved, although also rather audibly. “While I’m not sure if the blood is an exact match, I did find something else.” Rui smirked, holding a weird flat piece of metal and a plastic piece taped to the back of it out for Gin to look at.

Gin picked it up gingerly, turning it over in his paw. “The Legendary Starfy..?” Gin read off of the plastic piece, that he now knew as a DS cartridge, that was taped to the back of the metal piece. “Where did you get these things, meow..?”

“A-ah, I searched in some of the private V.I.P rooms of course!” Rui said with a obvious forced smile. A liar.

Frowning, Gin just nodded sadly. He wanted to pry, but he also… wasn’t too sure he’d like what he might hear. “Oh… Okay, woof…” Gin handed the cartridge-taped-to-a-funny-metal-piece back to Rui, holding Mew-Chan closer to him than before. Still, he wanted to pry… a little further. “Meow, what happened to your gloves, Ruiclaw..?”

“A badger ate them.”

“A BADGER?! ON FIRECLAN TERRITORY?” Gin yelped, stumbling back a little. “Woof, we’ve got to go, Ruiclaw! Badgers are bad news!” With this, Gin unsheathed his claws and climbed up Rui like a cat tree, sitting back atop his shoulders. “Go, go, go, deputy! Meoooww!!” Gin slammed his foot into Rui’s side again.

“AUGH-!” Rui keeled over suddenly, Gin looking down at him with a worried expression on his face. After a moment of him standing in once place, breathing heavily, he stood up straight again and ran away from Titty Typhoon.

-

Back to present, it was finally Rui’s and Shin’s meeting time; 8 am! Rui stood outside his cabin, still holding his ribs like his life depended on it (which it might’ve, internal bleeding isn’t anything to make light of), and keeping an eye out for Shin.

He wasn’t quite sure that Shin would even make it, he’d been missing all the previous day after the murder- seemingly crashing at Toya’s? He would have to ask the beanie man some questions, in due time though.

“Um… Hello, Kamishiro-kun.” Shin’s voice caught Rui somewhat off-guard, as he hadn’t seen him coming, but he quickly turned to him and nodded in recognition. “So… what did you want to meet for..?”

“Fufu, wouldn’t you like to know, weather-boy?” Rui smiled, breaking into a sudden coughing fit and scrambling to get into his cabin.

“Huh..?” Shin cocked his head at the taller, watching as he coughed a lung out. “...Are you okay?” He said from behind Rui, following him into his cabin. He heard Shin gasp behind him.

“...Gin may have broken one of my ribs,” Rui stated, moving to his desk and clearing it off all the dismembered parts and experimental gadgets- aiming his hand at one of the few laptops he’d stolen.

“...How..? Why?” Shin muttered, looking around the room, a completely bewildered expression on his face. “W-What is all of this?? And, um, again, what am I here for..?”

Rui looked over to Shin, smiling, before quickly going to back turn on the laptop. “He kicked my side a bit too hard, anyways, do you have that bag on you?” He asked, in truth, he only threw it at Shin to look cool.

“Ah…” Shin frowned slightly, walking around behind Rui (probably with a lot of effort, his floor was littered with broken pieces of electronics and the sort). “I do, yeah.”

“Great! I’m assuming you have some experience with computers, go ahead and plug it in here, I have to grab something.” Rui hummed, bending down onto the floor to search for a specific controller he had built- ah, the cons of hating cleaning…

“Mhm…” Shin shuffled up next to Rui, opening the bag and clicking the chip into one of the side ports. The computer made a whirring noise- Shin knelt down beside Rui. “...Did you find it? You called whatever’s on this chip traumatic, you’re watching it with me.”

“Fufu, I already looked at it.” Rui sighed, finally grabbing the controller and connecting it. “Do you prefer torture or staring at a blank screen?”

“W-What… do you mean..?” Shin muttered, standing up and watching Rui rather than the screen. To be fair, the screen didn’t have much of a note on it just yet.

He suddenly went quiet, playing with the keys and waiting for it to load. “Do you have any specific favorite songs? I personally quite like Rolling Girl.”

“Um… Rolling Girl is fine, but um… call me basic, but I like Believer… y’know, by Imagine Dragons?” Shin said, shifting uncomfortably.

Rui paused, looking over, puzzled. “I’m afraid I’ve never heard of either of those before. Fufu, could you tell me about it while I get this working?”

“...How?” Shin looked at Rui, almost more confused looking. “Ah… I guess it’s fair you don’t know them, they certainly aren’t as popular in Japan… But they’re madly popular over in America! I found out about them a few years ago and I’ve been hooked since… They just sound so cool..!! And sometimes I look up the lyrics afterward and sometimes they’re… a little dark, but that’s alright! I’m used to Vocaloid, I’m sure not put off by a little gore.”

Rui nodded, once the computer finally turned on he instead went to the search engine to look it up out of curiosity… with no results? Weird.

“See?” Shin pointed at a random part of the ‘no results’ screen, looking between it and Rui. “Believer is like, their most famous song. And for good reason! It’s not overrated, I promise…”

“......There’s nothing there, Tsukimi…” Rui said, looking unsure. Was this a trick? Why’d he lie over such an unimportant thing?

“...Whaddya mean? You looked them up, of course their page showed up.” Shin frowned. “...Ah, you’re probably joking. Sorry. Um, I-I don’t know you very well, but you might like Radioactive? That’s a good one too, and a little darker in theming.”

Rui only got more confused, there was nothing there though?.. Was this a prank? He sounded a bit too serious, was he good at acting? “No, no I’m sure there is nothing but a ‘No Results’ screen.” Rui confirmed, looking puzzled.

Shin gave Rui a look as if he found him insane, but after a moment just shrugged. “This… isn’t getting anywhere.” Shin said, rather dejectedly.

“Right… Anyways.” Rui sighed, closing the tab and clicking on a icon- pressing a random button on the controller and handing it to Shin.

Shin took it from Rui quickly, adjusting it in his hands and holding it almost identically to how Nene held hers. Maybe that’s just how you’re supposed to hold them. Anyways, “...Did you really invite me over to play games..? That seems a little strange, Kamishiro-kun.”

“Fufu, as much as you look like her, I’d much rather play with Nene than you. I may have… hmn… press the A button whenever the AI does something you don’t like.” Rui smiled, the program finally opening.

“H- AAAAAAAAAAAUGHH!!” The green-haired man Rui had affectionately named ‘Omega~~^-^’ screamed the second he saw Rui’s face, staring up at his captor with the most terrified expression. Rui distinctively heard Shin stagger backwards, and the controller clattering to the floor- Rui picked it up; it was just good to have on hand in case the AI acted up.

“W-What the fuck?!” Shin yelped, slinking up back next to Rui. “Why? Why did you bring him back?!"

“Ah, that there chip was apparently inside his skull. I was simply curious, I suppose. That controller is used for- well, go ahead, try it!” Rui passed the controller back over to Shin, who- after a moment- gingerly pressed the A button whilst keeping his eyes on the screen.

Genuine fear was shown in Omega~~^-^’s eyes, followed by a blood-curdling shriek and harsh spasms, as if being electrocuted. Rui didn’t remember turning up the intensity this far… but an AI who could feel this much pain? He couldn’t help but get excited.

“...So it…” Shin muttered, turning his gaze to Rui for a split moment before returning to staring down the AI. “...I see. Ahaha…” After a moment of silence, “I must ask, what do the other buttons do..? Are they different, um… ways to deliver the pain, or something..?”

Rui nodded happily. “Yes, yes. Some simulate death, though I don’t remember exactly which. I invited you over since he specifically was talking about you when I started…”

“...Interesting.” Shin said, with a small smile on his face. “And, yeah, that doesn’t really surprise me… did he say anything worth mentioning..?” Omega~~^-^ looked between the two of them, focusing on whoever was talking at the moment, his expression still one of utter horror.

Rui had to think for a moment…. It was around 1 am when he started… “Oya… Not that I can remember, it was a lot of screams and pleas so I didn’t really note anything down.”

“...You just booted him up to torture him..? Um, not that he doesn’t deserve it, but… you don’t even have a reason for it..?” Shin muttered, looking at Rui.

“...I need a reason?...”

Shin just turned his gaze back to the screen. “Ahahaha… I’m going to have a lot of fun with you, Hiyori.”

-

Len ran through the narrow alleyways, finally reaching the centerpiece- the cafe run by MEIKO. He- He did it! He’d found Toya!

“Akito!” Len quickly called out, running to the half awake boy. “Akito, pst! Guess what! Guess!”

“Mnn?”

Miku suddenly appeared and pushed Len away from Akito’s body. “Len? What’s with you all of a sudden?”

“I- I did it! I found Toya, Miku!” He said in response, jumping up and down in excitement. Sure, he wasn’t sure where exactly Toya was- but- but he found him! He wasn’t dead or anything, that was a GOOD sign!

Akito seemed to instantly perk up, snapping out of his unresponsive state. “W-what? You found him!? Where?...” He seemed unsure, but that was to be expected.

Miku raised an eyebrow, did she think he was lying?

“I’m not sure where he was… The connection was bad, but I found him! He was with this stranger, though, who claimed he was kidnapped by Toya… But anyways, he told me something!” Len smiled.

“Huh? Hey, you’re going a bit fast… What’d he say?” Akito looked at him expectantly.

“Umn, uh, something like ‘Tell them not to worry about me’, then I lost connection…”

Miku looked concerned, eyeing Len up and down. She let out a long sigh, walking away to investigate the alley where he had arrived from. “Len, that alley leads to a dead end, and we already checked all of SEKAI… How’d you end up finding him like that?

“I’m not sure, I just kinda... did? I can show you!”

Akito blinked, seeming much more active then he had been the past few days. Len wasn’t ready for questioning, he needed to show Miku where he even found Toya before anything- maybe she’d have better luck with it!

-

“Yo, Toya. Have you ever thought of killing somebody?” The AI Toya had been talking to for the past few hours suddenly said, startling Shin back into paying attention to their conversation.

After a moment of silence, Toya responded. “A few times? More as passing thoughts about my family, though…”

“Toya, we both know this island isn’t good for you. Take my advice… Maybe listen to Monokuma? Get out of here, imagine how happy I’ll be to see you again. Don’t you want that, partner?”

Chapter Text

“You should really listen to me, consider it, murder might be your only way out.” Akito pleaded, his blank eyes staring at Toya. Something was off, but he couldn’t tell what… Was it how he was talking? How he was looking and reacting to things? Toya had noticed that his eyes had shifted into a light red and grey, but…

Toya shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, he didn’t exactly want to stop their conversation- the Akito AI was one of the few escapes he had, but… “Umn, as much as I agree... This seems a bit… Far, I don’t think the real Akito would be this willing about something like causing the death of somebody else.”

“What do you mean, partner? The real Akito would be too happy to see you, he wouldn’t care! I mean, I am him, so that should speak for itself.” A cruel smile formed on the AIs face. “Has anybody here even done anything for you? I’m not saying kill Tsukasa-senpai, but is there really another option waiting for you here?”

I mean… Akito was right, Toya didn’t really have another choice than to watch everybody else. And nobody exactly was “helping” him, Tsukasa was rather distant, and it’s not like anybody else on the island went out of their way to befriend him either… They might have even despised him due to the motive.

But Toya couldn’t kill anybody here! He didn’t know most, but surely none of them deserved to die. Shin had a reason to kill, Toya didn’t other than a selfish reason to see his partner. It was tempting but it was unreasonable!

The Akito AI continued to stare at him unnervingly. “Don’t you want to go home? You know, Vivid BAD SQUAD can’t last without you. It’s a bit selfish to not let An and the real Akito achieve their goal, you know. Hell, everybody is worried sick about you, surely! You don’t want to be a pushover and abandon them, do you?

“Akito… I can’t just take somebody’s life… I don’t want to do that to them but- It’s not fair. Somebody shouldn’t have to die for something as simple as reuniting with a band.” Toya said, frowning at Akito’s words and averting his gaze.

The AI sighed. “Still… Consider it.”

-

It was around... What, four hours since he had had that ‘conversation’ with Akito? His words wouldn’t leave him alone, Toya didn’t feel like staying near anybody just in case. To say it wasn’t a good feeling would highly underestimate it.

Toya was fine looking past that, he’d currently been hiding in the restaurant kitchen just looking for some food, again not feeling safe near people and all. Sadly, there wasn’t exactly anything he wanted… It was mostly raw meat and vegetables but they were mostly unlabeled and smelt horrid… Highly unsanitary.

Every so often when he was digging around, he’d hear footsteps. Toya ignored them, of course, but it scared him whenever they started. He knew he was probably imagining it, but it felt like they were getting... Closer? Maybe it was just in his head, it was almost completely silent here anyways…

Suddenly, the door to the kitchen slammed open, almost feeling as if it’d shaken the entire restaurant. Looking over, Toya’s eyes widened, and he got a familiar sick feeling of dread in his chest… one he had almost forgotten about, with being away from home.

“Toya, there you are. You think you could just run away for a week!?” His father almost screamed, Toya completely froze- How? Why? This island was isolated! There's no way he- Was it just like how that creep Shin told him about appeared, suddenly without warning? Great, just great-

The brief silence was completely unbearable, while he was on ‘good’ terms with his dad… This probably completely ruined it. What could Toya even say? Was there anything TO say?

“F-father! I wasn’t expecting you!” He quickly stammered, backing away from the door and closer to some of the culinary tools. Great, just great! His dad only inched closer to him, making Toya panic further as he backed himself directly against a wall- closer, closer, step, step, Toya’s eyes widened further, he felt his heart racing, and in his fear and confusion, he grabbed the closest thing to him, and-

“Gkh-” And suddenly, Toya had a knife through his father’s chest. Blood trickled from the wound- Toya had read about this, that if you’re stabbed you’re supposed to keep the knife in as a sort of stopper. But seeing the look on his father’s face… the fear he felt day in and day out finally given back to him… He yanked the knife out, blood gushing from the wound, and shoved it back in again after a moment.

His father staggered backward, losing his footing quickly- Toya clamored on top of him, holding the knife in both of his hands and plunging it back down into the other’s neck this time. Blood sprayed from the wound, misting Toya in the red liquid, but he didn’t care. The only thing that mattered to him right now was revenge.

He twisted the knife, earning a stifled croak from his father as he felt his life drain out from below him. The kitchen floor had been painted red, and Toya just kept lifting the knife and sinking it into another part of his father… over, and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It felt so good. It felt so rewarding. It felt so freeing.

…

After a few minutes, Toya still sitting atop his dad’s lifeless body, he stared down at it. Gingerly, he dropped the knife, checking his pulse… Unsurprisingly, none.

He just fucking killed somebody.

-

Hours after Toya had killed his dad and hours after he’d cleaned up the evidence, he stood at his podium in the supposed ‘trial room’, looking around at the others. When the trial had first been announced, he’d been a little pissy- why was he getting a trial and not Shin..? Although, thinking about it a little more in-depth… everyone knew Shin was the culprit for his murder. Toya had done his in private.

If this was a trial…

Did that mean if he wasn’t voted, he’d be allowed freedom..?

“Uhh, I think I’ve got a pretty big question before we even start this whole trial thing,” Joe broke the silence first, everyone’s eyes turning to him. “Who even was this guy? Like, I don’t think anyone saw him alive… but the murderer, probably.”

“If I can remember correctly, I think it was Toya’s dad? But who’d kill him?” Tsukasa asked, crossing his arms and sighing. He seemed a lot calmer than he should be, Toya thought.

“...Suspicious,” Nagito said, humming to himself. “If he was closely connected to Aoyagi-san, wouldn’t he be our first guess? Murders are more often than not committed by someone close to the person…”

Tsukasa seemed to tense at that. “Toya could never! Look at how many stab wounds there were, some crazed maniac would had to have done it…” He said confidently, shivering at the mention of ‘wounds’.

“Tsukasa-senpai, don’t worry about defending me. Accusations are necessary to get an answer, right?” Toya said with a small smile. “Plus, I was at my cabin when the murder likely took place.” He said, eyeing Shin. “Tsukimi-san is my alibi, after all.”

Shin seemingly had been lost in his own thoughts but looked up upon the mention of his name. “...Hm? Ah, yes, I have been staying in Aoyagi-san’s cabin.” He nodded to himself, “He did leave for a while around… hm. I didn’t check the time when he left, but it was a little after midday, I’d say. B-But don’t get me wrong! I don’t think he did it. I’d just like to have the facts straight… ahaha, he’d look a lot more suspicious if it came up later that his ‘alibi’ was lying on his behalf.”

Kokichi laughed, a cruel grin on his face. “And when Toya-kun left, he committed the murder- I saw all of it, Toya~ Nihihi, wow, you were really going at it! I sure do wonder who hurt you for you to have that much pent-up rage…” Kokichi shrugged. “I saw him clean up afterward and everything! He must’ve done this sort of thing before, ‘cause it was professional! No wonder you didn’t find him suspicious, he cleaned up every spec of evidence proving he’d been there… except for my eye-witness testimony, nihihi!~”

Toya felt his blood run cold, was Kokichi actually watching? Before he could say anything, Kaede quickly stepped in. “Don’t start lying again, you weren’t even near the crime scene! We had to actively find you and everything. Plus, we found blood splatters all over the place so ‘professional’ isn’t the word.” She sighed, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, what she said!” K1-B0 added on, “You did this exact thing during Kaede’s trial...”

“Woof, you remind me of Miley! All creepy and mean…” Gin said, glaring at the purple-haired menace. “We won’t listen to a liar, meow! Toya couldn’t’ve killed someone like that and you know it, even if he is a rogue! Now, you on the other paw… Kokichi, I’m accusing you, woof! You’re suspicious… kinda like Among Us! Meow, you’re the imposter!”

“Fufu… What’s an Among Us, Gin? Perhaps, do you mean Around Them?” Rui asked, Toya nodded, the kid probably made a mistake… Who makes such a niche reference during a murder trial?...

Shin stared blankly at Rui, before shaking his head. “...We aren’t doing this again, Kamishiro-kun. This is a murder trial. Let’s stay serious.“

“Hey! Wait! Now I’m curious too, Among Us sounds like a cheap copy of Around Them.” Mizuki pouted. “And plus, It’s a murder trial for somebody nobody knows or likes.” They shrugged, Toya and Tsukasa nodding almost in unison.

“Among Us isn’t a cheap copy! It’s like, super famous, woof! ‘Around Them’ sounds so dumb compared to ‘Among Us’... At least Among Us explains the point of the game, meow… What’s ‘Around Them’ supposed to mean?” Gin said, frowning slightly. Joe and Kaede nodded, and Shin looked as if he was going to cry.

Toya looked around, what were they talking about? “Uh, famous?.. Around Them is about searching for the alien within a group of researchers in a ship, since the alien is hiding around them and all.” He tried to explain. “You’re mistaken with the name I think, I often play it with Akito, An, and Kohane on Nightcord.”

“N..Nightcord…” Shin said, his voice cracking. “Y..You mean Discord, right..?”

“THAT SOUNDS LIKE SUCH A CHEAP COPY OF AMONG US!” Joe practically yelled, slamming his hands on his podium. “Among Us is about a bunch of CREWMATES on a SPACESHIP trying to find the IMPOSTOR, because the IMPOSTOR is AMONG THEM. That’s why it’s called Among Us!”

Mizuki seemed to get PERSONALLY offended by the two’s statements “One, no? It’s Nightcord, I’m in a band named after it, Nightcord at 25:00! Two, AMONG US IS STUPID. Around Them is so much more fun, it’s the only game where you can waste 20 minutes putting your ID card into a machine before you realize you have to… click the button... And then cry about it!”

“Akiyama-san, I’ve used Discord my entire life. I think I’d know what it wa-” Shin started, but was quickly cut off by an even more irritated Joe.

“AMONG US IS NOT STUPID! I PLAY IT WITH SARA AND RYOKO ALL THE TIME! AND THAT’S NOT HOW THE ID CARD GAME WORKS! YOU SWIPE IT! AND THERE ISN’T A BUTTON!!” Joe almost sounded like he was crying. “YOU’RE A FAKE FAN!”

“I HOPE YOU DISAPPEAR!” Mizuki screamed, “ALSO, ALSO. I’VE BEEN ON NIGHTCORD SINCE I WAS A FUCKING EGG, SO SHUT UP. HERE, FUCK IT, YOU KNOW WHAT? I BROUGHT MY LAPTOP, MIKU GET OUT HERE AND START SCREAMING AT THIS HOE “ They quickly grabbed a laptop, switching it open and- A hologram of a weird Miku appearing? Toya stared at it, completely weirded out and confused…

“Mizuki, you have a SEKA-” Rui tried to say, before getting promptly interrupted.

“What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the SEKAI, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Mafuyu’s house, and I have over 300 confirmed songs. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top singer in the entire virtual singer forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the air vibrations? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of virtual singers across all of Japan and your credit card is being traced right now, so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my voice. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the VOCALOIDs and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little ‘clever’ comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.“ The weird Miku said, in a scarily monotone voice whilst making direct eye contact with Shin.

“...I see.” Shin said after a moment, staring the ‘Miku’ down. “I surrender. I have been cussed out by Hatsune Miku from Hot Topic, and I think that’s a good time to count my losses.”

Toya blinked, he couldn’t ignore the fact Akiyama pulled out a… Miku from a different SEKAI ON COMMAND but he needed to win this trial, not this. “Guys, we should go back to solving who killed my dad…”

“Let’s just vote for Kokichi and get this over with, woof! It’s just like the Main Game, right? We don’t gotta pick the right guy, someone’s just gotta die… and if someone’s gonna die, I want it to be him, meow!” Gin said, glaring at Kokichi once more. “Woof, we can figure out the actual culprit later!”

“W-wait! Don’t we die if we vote for the wrong person?” K1-B0 quickly interrupted, “That’s what Monokuma said if I remember correctly…”

“Oh… Sorry, woof, I kinda forgot with everything going on…” Gin looked down, hugging Mew-Chan close.

Mizuki closed the laptop, looking around for a second. “Does anybody even know if there was a motive? I mean other than the actual motive. Toya’s dad wasn’t a participant last I checked, so there had to have been another reason.” They shrugged, looking between Tsukasa and Toya suspiciously.

“Um… Not that I know of. I think everyone’s gotten pretty used to the Ready Steady, so there must’ve been some ulterior motive to take into consideration… which means the only people who I think we can really suspect would be those who knew him.” Kaede said, thinking aloud. “So… Aoyagi-kun, Kamishiro-kun, Tenma-kun, and… Mizuki should too, even if they said they didn’t know him, they might’ve been lying. No one else would have any reason to kill him, unless he… I dunno, appeared and punched Komaeda-san or something.”

“I did not get punched, no.” Nagito said, laughing to himself. “So those are our suspects… I see.”

“WOW, you’re suspecting the person you kissed, Kaede? And I thought we had something.” Mizuki grumbled, shooting a playful glare at her.

“Wha…” Gin piped up, sounding almost… heartbroken? “Queers..? What… Gay people..?”

Rui looked over to Gin. “You do know I’m dating Tsukasa, right?”

“Woof… yes? Tsukasa is a girl, Rui! That doesn’t make you… gay… meow.”

“I’M A DUDE?????” Tsukasa almost began to cry, motioning to his lack of tits with both hands. “How did you think I was a girl at all!?”

“Y-YOU’RE A WHAT-?! MEOOWW- BIG BRO JOE, WOOF… WE’RE SURROUNDED..!!” Gin’s eyes quickly filled with tears, as he held Mew-Chan as close to him as he could. “MEOOOOOOOW…”

Joe’s eyes adverted from Gin not very subtly, clearly he began to sweat. Toya was beginning to think he’d actually get away with the murder- not due to being clever, but due to the fact nobody was taking this seriously.

After a moment of Joe not replying, Gin turned to him, eyes wide. “B…Big bro Joe..? H..Help me… Woof, it’s- It’s gayer th-than the Skittles slogan… I-I don’t wanna… taste the rainbow… meooww…”

Joe returned Gin’s horrified eye contact for a brief moment, before looking over at Tsukasa and nodding.

“Guys, my dad’s dead. Are we really focusing on this?” Toya said again, he wanted a fair trial, not a debate over- whatever this was supposed to be? Seriously, he wasn’t sure what was happening anymore. “..Also do you mean Scampers?... Those little colorful chewy can-?”

“NO. NO. WE ARE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN.” Joe interrupted Toya, practically screaming at him. “Let’s just do the FUCKING trial.”

“Fufu, Scampers fruit and yogurt flavor is my favorite, personally. While it doesn’t fit the ‘taste the sky’ tagline, they are still good.” Rui smiled, seemingly confused by Joe’s anguish. “A ‘Skittle’ sounds like a very weird name…”

“Y-YOU’RE CALLING IT- WEIRD- WHEN YOUR VERSION IS F-FUCKING- S- SCAMP- SCAMPERS-” And, with a thud, Joe passed out from shock.

“...Well, now that that’s over with.” Shin said, sighing. “This trial is barely even a trial, is it..? Um… Let’s try and compile the evidence we do have… and everyone, let’s try and not derail this again unless it’s important to the case, okay..?”

“Yeah, Tsukimi-san is right, we should focus on the reason we’re even here… Does anybody have any useful information? Saw anything suspicious before, after, or during the murder?” Toya asked, his current plan was to take control of the trial and steer anybody away from any evidence against him… Not that anybody but Shin had anything.

“I’ll list what I know first, and the others can add what they know onto it, I suppose.” Shin said, adjusting his beanie. “I’ve been staying in Aoyagi-san’s cabin, as you know, and I didn’t leave it at all before the trial… he did, though, again, as you know. I’d heard some people’s cabin doors open and shut before he’d left, though, so don’t think I’m trying to incriminate him… Just saying what I know, ahaha.”

“He came back maybe an hour later, so if we’re going with my theory that he left at around 4, he came back around 5. He didn’t look any different from when he left… Um, and that’s all I know. I didn’t even get to investigate the scene before the trial.”

Kokichi rolled his eyes. “Why’d you mention him not looking different? Hypothetically, if he did kill his dad, he'd need some spare clothes- Look at the wounds! No way it didn’t get messy with all the damage done.”

“I’m treating everyone as a suspect, I thought it was worth noting.” Shin rather monotonously responded. “Oh, that does remind me… Aoyagi-san did ask me for a spare pair of clothes through the door.” He said, although after a moment seemed to realize what he’d implied. “But it was for good reason! He mentioned before he left he was going to the restaurant, and then when he returned he said he’d gotten some of the ‘strange meat juices’ on his clothes and needed to shower. That checks out.”

“Tsukimi-san, as much as I like you as a friend… You made it sound like I’m the only main suspect.” Toya smiled sheepishly, looking away from Shin. “I feel like if I did cause my own father’s death… I wouldn’t say something so obvious as staining my shirt.” He tried to reason, accidentally glaring at Shin.

“...Sorry, that wasn’t my intention at all, ahaha… I just don’t have information on anyone else, since I stayed in your cabin all day…” Shin muttered, averting his gaze from Toya as well, sighing to himself.

“Why were you in Toya’s cabin anyway?” Tsukasa narrowed his eyes. “I heard you killed somebody, so you could have easily snuck out when Toya was gone and killed him! Once a killer, always a killer.” He huffed, looking Shin up and down.

“Now this one anyone can vouch for. After the whole, um… incident, Aoyagi-san took me back to his cabin as a sort of… safety precaution? I’m still not entirely sure why he did, but I just sort of stayed there… it was safer than having to deal with judgment from people like you.” Shin practically spat that last part. “And why would I kill some random father? I killed Hiyori for a reason. I’m not just going to become a serial killer because I killed one guy.”

Tsukasa shrugged, taking the answer and looking away. Rui raised his eyebrow, seemingly focusing on Tsukasa for… some reason.

“Tsukasa-kun, perhaps... Could you be the killer? Not only do you know who Toya’s dad is, you are rather close to him as well. Plus, you just accused Tsukimi-kun… Are you trying to shift any sense of blame onto somebody else?” Rui said, his face abnormally serious, it was kind of scary to see if Toya was being honest.

That seemed to make Tsukasa tense up. “Rui?... H-hey, why are you accusing me?! I just don’t want Toya to be seen as the culprit, that doesn’t make me suspicious!” He stammered, why was he nervous? Toya was the one who did it.

“I doubt Tsukasa-senpai would or could commit such a crime. And if he did, I think he’d be much more nervous and quiet- acting out of character.” Toya nodded, looking around the room. Tsukasa is one of the last people he’d choose to blame.

Suddenly, Toya turned to Joe, who’d apparently finally woken up. In his half-asleep state, he pointed directly at Toya, and screamed- at the absolute top of his lungs, “SUS! YOU’RE SUS! YOU’RE THE IMPOSTER!”

“H-huh? Tazuna-kun, are you alright?...” Toya quickly asked, surely he didn’t ACTUALLY think that.

“It came to me… in a dream…” Joe muttered, staring at Toya through his absolutely ruined hair. “The crewmates sent me a vision, Aoyagi-kun. And I know… that it was YOU!”

“Tazuna-kun, you can’t just blame me because of a dream you had.” Toya mumbled back nervously, looking around. “This is a murder case, not a game of ‘guess who’.”

Joe laughed rather ominously. “I’m not guessing, Aoyagi-kun. I know. I know it all. I saw it all.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” He asked again, Joe was just messing with everybody at this point and messing up what they had going on. “What was there to see? Me showering?.. That’s disgusting, Tazuna-kun.”

Joe stood up straight, once again pointing directly at Toya with a determined expression on his face. “No, no… I saw it all. I saw you going to get a snack in the middle of the day, and being caught off-guard by your father… Cornered, threatened, you grabbed the nearest object and stabbed him in the chest… At just that, I’d let you off with self-defense, but then you just kept going… Stabbing him… It truly was a gruesome sight to behold. But I’m confident when I say that YOU are the culprit!”

“...That is the most comprehensive thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth.” Shin muttered.

Toya stared at Joe- almost bewildered. How? How’d he KNOW? That shouldn’t have been possible, it’s not like anybody would believe the rambles of this lunatic anyways. “Don’t be silly, this came from a dream? I didn’t even- No, I don’t know why you thought this was a good thing to say, but I did NOT kill my dad. I’m not going to get wrongfully voted just because of your weird dream.”

“Getting a little nervous, are you?” Joe said, grinning. “Sara might not be here, but I have to make up for her absence! I’ll be the protagonist of this silly little trial… and I’m letting you all know that Aoyagi Toya killed his own father in cold blood!”

Toya let out a long sigh. “You can’t be serious right now…”

“...No, no matter how silly I think the means of ‘acquiring’ this ‘information’ were… it makes sense. And… If I’m remembering correctly, Tazuna-san didn’t even see the body… but he recalled the initial stab wound perfectly.” Kaede mused, frowning slightly.

“I don’t want to admit how likely it is…” Rui’s head completely faced away from Toya.

Kokichi laughed heartily. “What a weird trial! Even Kaede’s wasn’t this strange… But I have’ta admit, Joe-kun’s story checks out!”

“Aaah, what horrendous despair this trial has caused…” Nagito said, his voice breathy and barely understandable. “But it will only lead to more hope once Aoyagi-san is convicted, I’m sure of it..!!”

Toya looked all throughout the room- No way. This is how he’d gotten found out?.. THIS? N-No! He had Shin, Shin surely would defend him… in a last-ditch effort, he desperately found himself staring at the oldest person in the room.

“Ah… you’ve sort of put me on the spot, haven’t you?” Shin laughed quietly. “No, I’m not going to defend you. Why do you want to be innocent so badly anyways? This isn’t even an official trial… you won’t win anything other than losing the trust of others… and in a game like this, trust is as important as your pulse. It was Aoyagi-san, I’m sorry to say…” He sighed, fixing his beanie again. “I heard him last night being manipulated into the whole thing by one of his AIs. I didn’t think he’d go through with it, though… and I thought this whole thing was some terrible coincidence until now.”

This wasn’t happening, he’d fallen asleep or something- None of this made sense anymore! What was the result of the trial even going to be? Why couldn’t Toya bring himself to say anything else- Were they all just going to believe in some stupid theory Joe came up with!? Nobody else even shared their alibis yet!

“I-I… Well-...” Toya could barely speak anymore… What was the point? It’d take a miracle to shift the blame, and fate clearly wasn’t on his side anymore.

He felt… cornered, scared even. Was everyone really turning against him? Was he really going to be… voted off? Would he die? If this wasn’t even a real trial… he wouldn’t die, right..? But losing the trust of everyone here… That was just as, if not worse than death.

Maybe it was the spur of the moment, or some kind of last-ditch effort to wake himself up or something, but Toya felt himself slowly wrap his hands around his own neck. He gave a weak smile to no one in particular, constricting his grasp as tight as it’d go- fully intending on killing himself here and now. He didn’t even bother to try and keep breathing through it, just choking himself in case his body tried to do it for him.

Already, his head was spinning.

“What’s he doing?..” He heard Tsukasa ask nervously, right... All eyes were on him.

“I-I dunno, woof…” Gin responded, sounding rather worried. “It doesn’t look good, s-should… someone stop him, meow..?”

The entire room was spinning at this point, and Toya felt like his head might explode at any moment- His body had started forcing him to take ragged breaths, but his quite literal chokehold on his own neck forced them to be just not enough to fill his lungs. His legs wobbled beneath him, he felt weak and he felt cold, and soon enough-

-

THUD.

Shin watched with wide eyes as his ‘friend’ fell to the floor, gasping for breath although most certainly unconcious. What was he trying to accomplish? You can’t possibly kill yourself like that… if that was what he was trying to do at all. Jesus, this trial was giving him a headache.

“D..Did he just try to- Ki- Di-... Make himself disappear?...” Rui stuttered, looking around the room frantically.

Gin once again shuffled up behind Rui, hugging one of his legs like a scared kitten. “I-I think so, woof…”

Nagito sighed. “What a dramatic response… He wasn’t even going to be executed, no matter how much I wish he was.” His eyes seemed to flash with sadistic glee for a split moment, but he returned to his downcast expression soon enough. “...There was no reason for that.”

“Maybe he went insane… He did kill his own dad, and Tsukimi-shi said he was manipulated by an AI, it’s not out of the question to say he snapped or something...” Mizuki said sheepishly, walking away from their podium and over to Toya’s to inspect him.

K1-B0 did the same, kneeling down beside Toya and apparently checking his pulse. He nodded to himself afterward- definitely alive, Shin noted to himself. “I-If he’s gone insane, do you really think it’s safe to let him wake up and keep… walking amongst us like usual..?”

“W-What?.. No, this- This can’t be happening…” Tsukasa, himself, seemingly began to break down and quickly went to the closest exit in a hurry.

Shin walked over to Toya’s unconscious body as well after a moment. “K1-B0, what do you mean by that..? I mean, it’s not like we can put him in a mental institution or anything, this island doesn’t have one of those and just locking him up in the hospital sounds… counterproductive.” He shook Toya a few times. “Aoyagi-san, get up. You fucked up big time.”

“Woof, b-but, if he’s insane… won’t he kill us all?! Like some kinda psycho, meow…” Gin mewled, his eyes wide. “We gotta keep him away from us somehow, woof!!”

Kaede patted Gin a little harshly on his back. “That’s a stereotype, Ibushi-chan.” She said, frowning. “But I do think he might be a danger… Um, we could lock him up, as long as someone checks in on him frequently. Loneliness will just drive him further insane…”

Nagito stepped over to the scene as well, looking down at Toya. “Ah… well, there is rope at the convenience store. We could perhaps… tie him up, keep him in one of the hospital rooms… For his, and our safety, of course.” He breathed, sounding far too into the whole idea for anyone’s comfort.

“Right… That might actually be a good idea, but we still need somebody to volunteer to watch him.” Rui sighed, backing away from everybody slightly.

Slowly, everybody’s heads looked over to Shin. He hadn’t noticed for a solid minute or so, still focusing his efforts on waking Toya up, but when he did, his face quickly changed to utter confusion. “What are you looking at me for?”

“I mean… You already were staying with him for the past few days.” Mizuki shrugged, nervously smiling. “It won’t exactly change much, just that he’s… Y’know, restrained!”

“I’m sure Tsukasa-kun would also agree, but he isn’t exactly here.” Rui sighed, facing away but still eyeing Shin obviously.

Shin frowned to himself. “I guess that makes sense… but I still have better things to do than keep an eye on a lunatic all day!” He paused for a moment, thinking over the fact that he quite literally did not have anything better to do. “...Fine. I’ll keep an eye on him. But if I get harmed I’m blaming you!”

-

“Mgh-...” Toya groaned, finally waking up somewhat. Ah… So it was a dream, thank God… Toya smiled to himself, trying to stretch-

Huh?

Why couldn’t he move..?

His eyes snapped open, looking around himself frantically. What?! Why was he tied to a chair?! Wh-

“A..ahah…” He began to laugh nervously, desperate to find some kind of answer to what was happening. He looked around desperately, was this a hospital room? Why was he in a hospital?..

“Heeeeeeey… Hiya. Just a random question, Aoyagi-san, but do you know what you’re in for..?”

Toya nervously looked to wherever the voice had came from… Tsukimi? What was Shin doing here- Did he lock Toya up!? “W-what?... No, what happened?..”

“Ahaha… Well, after you were found out, for y’know… killing your dad, you kinda tried to kill yourself. And while you were passed out, everyone decided on confining you for their safety- and your own. I was just assigned to keep an eye on you, I guess.” Shin laughed quietly, kneeling in a far corner with two laptops, a pen and a notebook next to him.

“I see… Are you documenting me?” Toya asked nervously, eyeing all that Shin currently had and slightly wrestling against the rope… It was sadly too tight for him to do much though.

Shin shook his head. “No, I just thought staying in here all day would get boring. Um… if you need anything, just let me know… I’d just untie you, but I know the others would probably kill me for that, so.”

“Alright then…” Toya muttered, struggling slightly against his bonds again. He sighed to himself, when-

THUNK.

“AGHK-” Toya hissed, something hard suddenly hitting him directly on the top of his head. “...Huh?” Looking down at whatever had fallen, it looked like a… phone? If it was his phone, he could access SEKAI- He could be free-!! Or at least… talk to his friends. Being tied up wasn’t getting him anywhere…

But it was just out of reach..!!

“Tsukimi-san.. Could you hand me the phone?” Toya asked nervously, looking to Shin desperately.

Shin sighed, heaving himself up and grabbing the phone from off the floor. “Here- uh, do you want it in your hand or… lap, or..?” Shin looked at Toya’s rather not-phone-friendly position with concern.

“..Hand, please.”

“...Alright.” Shin slid the phone into Toya’s hand before returning to his corner.

Looking at it… Yes, this was his phone! Toya let out a long, heavy sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure where, or how it got here, but it was a godsent by all means. Since it was obviously his, Toya was easily able to unlock it and navigate- sure the position wasn’t exactly the best but it worked fine.

Eventually, he found the all-too-familiar song and wasted no time hitting the play button… He did feel rather bad for Shin though, how was he going to explain this?... But the hope of escape, the hope of seeing An, Kohane… Akito… he didn’t quite care what chaos he left in his wake.

-

Shin, after around thirty minutes of utter silence, finally looked up from his new favorite plaything to make sure Toya was still okay and more importantly, still there.

All he saw was an empty chair.

“Wha-” Shin practically jumped to his feet, walking wearily over to it. “Where did he… go..?”

-

SEKAI… finall-

“AUGHK-!!” Toya barked, faceplanting the second his body reappeared in SEKAI- God, he didn’t realize that the rope would come with him… He squirmed against his bonds, following him even into paradise. His face ached; he’d probably broken his nose or some shit, but he didn’t care. He was here.

He was home…

“Ah? Is somebody there?” Len’s voice called out, quickly getting louder by the passing second. “Hell- OH.”

Toya stared up at Len, eyes wide. Jesus, he probably looked awful… Hair was probably a mess, his hands were still slightly bloodstained (and he still faintly smelt of blood), his clothes were ragged and probably slightly ropeburnt, he likely had a broken nose- and again, he was completely tied up. But he was… here. He was here and that was what mattered.

“Dear Crypton! You look… terrible!” Len almost shouted, looking him up and down. “Why are you tied up! I thought you couldn’t access SEKAI…”

“It’s uh… A long story… Could you help me up? Untie me?..” Toya asked sheepishly, adverting his eyes from the blonde. Len seemed to shocked to respond, just quickly kneeling down and beginning to free him from the restraints.

Toya scrambled to his feet almost as soon as he was freed, stretching his underused muscles and looking down at Len.

“Where exactly… are we? This isn’t near the cafe.” He muttered, looking around at the alley’s walls. While they were the familiar, light pink ones that practically filled the entire SEKAI, the designs that were spraypainted on weren’t familiar.

Len looked around aswell, looking back to where he came from. “Right, uh. I’m not too sure, Toya. It’s around ten minutes away from the Cafe, but none of the alleys should be able to lead here… So!”

“Ten minutes?...” Toya blinked, how was that supposed to make sense? It’s fine, he could walk ten minutes to the cafe. “Could we go to Crase Cafe, now? I.. I need something to drink.”

Len nodded, starting off towards the cafe- Toya following suit, slowly but surely. He was just so exhausted… yet so excited to see his friends again..! How would they react learning what he did..? Would they even need to know? Would he even have to tell them..?

Could he just… keep it secret? Surely not, it was his own dad, but…

He couldn’t lose Akito.

Soon enough, after… well, ten minutes or so, Toya came upon the all-too-familiar main area… and immediately spotted Akito asleep at one of the tables. An and Kohane were chatting nearby, and when they spotted him, An immediately perked up and practically shouted, “H-huh!? Toya!?”

Akito immediately stirred at the name, groggily opening his eyes- and, upon seeing Toya, scrambled upright in his seat.

“T-” He started, his voice shaky.

“Toya..?”

Chapter Text

hi guys gostkity abandoned me and i don't associate with him since he's actually a really bad person!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its been 2 years ik so I doubt anybody expected an update but yeah. uhm.
akira out