Chapter Text
“Good morning~.”
Upon a brown leather couch sat two teenage girls their hair gently flowing as the fan above them spun noiselessly. One girl appeared to be asleep, the other one leaning closely to her, reaching out to place her hand on the girl’s arm. As they came in contact, the girl’s body twitched, yet she had no further reaction. The other girl, now pouting, began to shake her.
“A-Ah..!” Her eyes flew open, pupils constricting as she looked around frantically from side to side. After about a second, she blinked and her body untensed. Seemingly, she now understood where she was.
“Took you long enough.” The blue-haired girl spoke. She had a smug look on her face. As the black-haired girl turned to look at her, her eyes widened for a slight second, almost as if she were awestruck. They soon returned to normal.
“You…” She pondered, then turned her head back to look at her knees.
“Oh, I almost forgot about your memory. Sorry about that!” The blue-haired girl suddenly bounced up, turning her body to stand in front of the other. She held out her hand. “My name is Hatsune Miku. I am a virtual entity, though here, you can interact with me as if I’m human!” Her gaze turned dark. “I’m not human, though, so don't ever refer to me as such.”
“A-Alright…” The girl hesitantly lifted her hand, shaking Miku’s.
“I’m basically your caretaker here. Your, as in you, as in ES. That’s your name.”
“ES?” ES looked down at herself once more before looking back up at Miku. She nodded.
“Now, I assume you already have a basic understanding of what your job is… at least, subconsciously, but I'll give you a refresher to dig it back up into your conscious brain.” Miku whipped around, striding over to the wall across from them. She tapped it, and a flash pursued, fading into a red screen displayed beside her. “Look at your earring, ES.”
ES tilted her head and pushed forward her earring- it dangled just long enough so that she could see it in her peripheral vision. It was a square logo of some sort. She raised an eyebrow, causing Miku to giggle at her curiosity. Once again, she tapped the screen, prompting ES to look back at it. A silhouette of the logo now appeared.
“ES, you are the guard of this prison-Sekai called ‘MILGRAM’. That’s right, prison! Isn’t that exciting?” Miku clapped her hands together, despite ES being unresponsive. “It’s not a hard task. You just have to keep an eye on the prisoners. Plus, you get three free meals and nap time, so I’d say you’re pretty privileged~” She brushed her bangs away from her face, their blue color stained with a streak of parting along the middle of her head. “There are currently 10 prisoners held here in the Panopticon. They’re probably harmless in their current state, but let no fronts suit you,” Miku leaned forward, staring directly into ES’s eyes, “They’re all still murderers. ”
A bead of sweat rolled down ES’s face.
“Now, now, don’t get intimidated by them. It’s not like you know what they’ve done yet, or how they came to it… Of course, that’s your job to figure out. And then comes the fun part- you get to decide whether they are innocent or guilty! And you know what’s even more fun?” Miku turned back to look at the screen, pointing to a musical note displayed against the silhouette of someone's head. “MILGRAM extracts the mental images of the prisoners as music and videos. No need to resort to some boring, old fashioned method to squeeze their thoughts outta em.”
Miku went back to the couch, sitting beside ES once more. ES kept her eyes focused on the screen, her eyebrows slightly furrowed.
“Haah… Well,” She sighed, “It’s not perfect, unfortunately. It takes a bit for everything to be uncovered and processed. That’s why it’s happening in a 3-trial-system, you know, so nothing gets overloaded. Could that even happen? It’s not like I know how this Sekai works, anyways. Hehe!” As Miku kicked her legs back and forth, acting as if whatever was going on was pure entertainment, ES had already begun pondering about the trial system. “Oh, to explain further,” Miku interrupted her thoughts, “Every trial, you vote them innocent or guilty. Not after all 3. So after every trial's verdicts, the prisoners will receive affirmation or punishment based on what they received. Freedom, or… Restriction, restraint, yadda-ya. Of course, this will affect them mentally, so it may even alter the songs extracted from them in the next trials. It’s a surprise. That’s what makes your job so fun, No? The best advice I can give you is just to trust your instincts. Or just vote based on how much ya like them. Platonically or romantically… I can’t control you. I mean, if I saw a pretty girl, I think I’d vote her innocent right away!”
“Is that so…” ES gazed at Miku, unamused.
“Wahaha! That look is priceless! Here, come here,” Miku reached out her hand, “It’s about time we begin our tour. The prisoners are about to wake up…! I’ll have you know I’m an excellent tour guide.”
“I’m sure you are.”
“Hey, don’t have that tone with me!”
ES grabbed onto her hand, and Miku pulled her up off the couch. Keeping a tight grip on her, she walked to the room's door, placing her hand on the knob. ES looked up at Miku expectantly, and she smiled, turning the knob. The two walked through a small, dimly lit hallway, before reaching another door.
“So, this will lead to…?”
“The main passageway!” Miku pushed against the door, flinging it open dramatically. ES followed her into the larger hallway.
“How fascinating.” ES replied dully, her eyes trailing around the walls. Miku placed her hand on her shoulders, shaking her around gently.
“Be more enthusiastic!”
“Sorry. My head is foggy.” She replied, leading to Miku rolling her eyes and grumbling.
“I guess that’s always the case…”
“It won't interfere with my job, though.”
“Of course it won't.” Miku turned her sight away from ES, looking at the passageway across from them. “This hallway contains all the necessary facilities you and the inmates will need. Bathrooms, Cafeteria… Uh, other stuff, but it's not important to me.” She shrugged, before pointing to a door beside the hallway they just entered from. “That room? It’s mine. Respect my privacy, or there will be consequences.”
“I assume you’re trying to be threatening?”
“Gah, can you just act scared of me, at least?”
“...Oh no…” ES looked to the ground, swinging her body back and forth for a few seconds.
“Such a pain!”
“I wasn’t planning to look into your room anyways, so I don’t really have a reason to be scared.”
“Hmm, I guess I can’t be upset with that. Well, we already know where your room is, so we don’t have to go over that again. Oh, you see those doors up ahead?” They both turned their heads forward. “That first door, that’s the shower room for the prisoners. Separate from the bathrooms, just to keep it a bit cleaner. Second door across from that is the storage room. Storage for what, you ask? Who knows!”
“I didn’t ask, though?” ES tilted her head, and Miku groaned. “So, the prisoners have free access down this passageway?”
“If you let them have it, sure. Though the important rooms, like the storage room, are blocked off. So even if any of the prisoners happen to be shoplifters, you don’t have to worry about them stealing anything! Now, let’s get outta here. We’re missing out on the main attraction!”
“Main attraction?”
“Yup! The Panopticon!”
Miku flung open another door. They both stepped into a large dome-shaped area, gray and endlessly dull. Lined up against the wall were 11 doors, all positioned as if the room were some sort of clock. ES’s eyes traveled along the floor, leading up to each door. All were labeled with numbers 001 through 011.
“So, the prisoners live in these rooms?” ES asked as they walked to the middle of the room, each step they took producing an echoing vibration on the cold concrete floor.
“That’s right! Large and luxurious, no?”
“I think that might be an over exaggeration...”
“Well, I’d say it’s nicer than a lot of other prisons out there. Let’s see.. We’re at the north round of this room, twelve-o-clock position. Since we have some time left, I’ll lead you around each door to give a mini-intro of the prisoners. Don’t expect anything thorough, though, I’ve only seen their faces!”
Miku grabbed back onto ES’s hand, guiding her to the first door.
“One-o-clock… room 001. Asahina Mafuyu. Ah, look at her face… she looks kind, doesn’t she?” Miku turned her head to ES, examining her facial expression to see if she was having any sort of reaction to the first prisoner's face. ES appeared to be deeply contemplating.
“We can’t be so sure of that, though…”
“Ahaha! You’re already so good at this!” Miku held up her hand to high-five her, but with no response, she awkwardly lowered it. “Humans are creatures filled with lies and false personas. It’s good you already appear to know that. Err, no offense, of course.”
“None taken.”
“Good! Now, let’s see… Two-o-clock, room 002. Tenma Saki. I like her hair. Innocent!”
“Really…? Judging someone based on their hair…?”
“What? She has pigtails like me, so we have an unspoken solidarity. She seems kind enough, anyways.”
“That’s completely contradicting what you said before…!”
“Oi, it’s your job to read into the prisoners, not me.” Miku shrugged, dragging ES along to the next door. “Three-o-clock, room 003. Momoi Airi. I like that name. It's fun to say.”
“Her expression…”
“Tough, right? She seems like she’ll be a pain, but who knows. She also has pigtails, so I assume she’s fine enough.”
“Yeah, alright.”
They approached the next door.
“Four-o-clock, room 004. Mochizuki Honami. I was gonna say she’s pretty, but she only has one ponytail… so that’s a no from me.”
“She seems scared…”
“Of course she does! She taps a random file on her phone, and she’s suddenly in jail! I mean, they all had it coming, but I guess I feel a bit pitiful… Nah, nevermind. There are more important things to worry about, like getting to the next door. And that door is… Five-o-clock, room 005, Akiyama Mizuki. They don’t look any more happy to be here.”
“I see… I hope their emotions don’t interfere with the interrogations.”
“Hah! Please! Get used to it. It’s not gonna be an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy road from here on out. Whatever, I’m sick of seeing these sad faces now. Is 006 looking any better? Hanasato Minori… Ohohoho, she seems awfully excited, no?”
“It’s interesting how much people's emotions can differ in such a situation…”
“Right? That’s the fun of it all- figuring them all out!”
“This isn’t some sort of entertainment show, you know.”
“Ehh… To me, it kinda is. Anyways, you see that bow in her hair? That’s one of those stupid idol merchandise accessories. Must be some sort of stan. Gross. Let move on, yeah? Seven-o-clock, Shinonome Akito!... Oh boy.”
“He looks enraged…”
“Yeah. Definitely. I wouldn’t mess with him if I were you.”
“...But I have to mess with him, right?”
“Oh, yeah! I forgot. I mean, he can’t hurt you anyways, so there isn’t anything to worry about.”
“Can’t hurt me?”
“Nope! If he tries to…” Miku lifts her hand and suddenly swings it, causing ES to flinch. Instead of hitting her, though, she stops midair. “He’ll lose all his momentum and energy, and will be efficiently stunned. It’s like that for all prisoners. Isn’t this Sekai so great?”
“Um, I guess. Thanks for that?”
“Don’t thank me! As I said before, I have no clue about how this place works. Enough chit-chat, onto Eight-O-Clock… Otori Emu. Gosh. That smile is sort of creepy. Way too big of a smile, even if she wasn’t in this sorta situation.”
“Yeah… It’s unsettling.”
“It’ll probably be even more unsettling once you find out what murder she’s committed! Ahaha! I don’t want to be near that face anymore, though. We need to speed things up anyways.”
The two walked to the next door, speeding up their pace.
“9-o-clock… Kamishiro rui. He looks emotionless, in a depressing kinda way.”
“Maybe an attempt at hiding something?”
“Perhaps! I like the blue streaks in his hair, though. Reminds me of my own.”
“Enough about the hair already…”
“Yeah, yeah. Okay, last one… Ten-o-clock, room 010, Shiraishi An! Well, doesn’t she look confident! Perhaps another one you should look out for?”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You don’t have to. Only a suggestion. Hell, if you wanted to, you could even start a relationship with these guys. I’m not here to judge.”
“That seems… wrong…?”
“It’s all up to you.” Miku shrugged. As she blabbered on about more meaningless points, ES noticed a rusted-down door labeled with the number 11. She tapped on Miku’s shoulder, then pointed to the door.
“What is that door, Miku? It’s all rusted, no lock, and I assume no prisoner.”
“Hey, don’t get too nosy. Nothing’s in there.”
“But-”
Before ES could finish her sentence, a loud bell blasted throughout the dorm. Miku’s eyes lit up, and she began to bounce excitedly.
“W-What is that?”
“The prisoners wake-up call! Now you can meet them all, face-to-face! Take the chance to squash any curiosities, confusions, ideas… anything about them, you face it head on! That is your duty. You are a prison guard, ES. If you have to make them fear you to listen to you, so be it.”
“I know this already, Miku.” ES replied. “I am the prison guard of MILGRAM. And honestly, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to this, at least slightly.”
“Really? Really?? Hah! I knew you had some enthusiasm in you! Wait, shush, shush, they’re coming out now!”
One by one, there were ten clicks, followed by the sound of chains and locks falling. Each of the doors slowly creaked open, and the Dome filled with echoes of anxious footsteps. ES took a deep breath before starting.
“Greetings, prisoners. My name is ES- I am your prison-guard. This is the MILGRAM Sekai. You are here for me to judge your sins. Though I do not know much about any of you, I do know one thing- you are all killers. From this point all, I will have you all enlighten me about yourselves. Whether willingly or forcibly. Once again, welcome to MILGRAM. Have a nice life in prison.”