Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Darkness. This is where our story begins. Claustrophobic, dark, and a foggy mind. As his mind finally cleared, his memories flooded back to him, all at once; his name is Daiki Kobayashi, he is the Ultimate Cartographer, he is eighteen years old, he lives in a small beachside house with his dads and sibling, he had just moved out after being invited to a mansion getaway. And now he is here.

The realization that his eyes were closed was an embarrassing one to get, but he pushed the embarrassment away and opened his eyes. It was still difficult to see, but he could make out that he was in a broom closet, and as he struggled to stand up in the confined space, he noticed what he assumed to be the door, with a mirror on it for some reason. He stared at his own reflection, his green and blue eyes stared back. He took in his messily thrown together outfit, he had assumed he could change into something better when he arrived, but his luggage was nowhere in sight, so it seemed he would be stuck with the dark blue shirt with the black sleeves, and the old grey trousers, thrown together with the belt with pockets that his sibling gave him as a gift. His thin glasses were hanging off his face, half-covered by his hair, he had dyed it a mint green a few weeks prior, but the light was just making it look ugly. Not wishing to look over his insecurities any longer, he pushed open the door and stepped out.

As he stepped out of the dark closet, he was temporarily blinded by the sudden brightness, but after a few seconds his eyes adjusted to the light, and he saw himself in a small room, around the size of his childhood bedroom, with a short sofa facing a TV with nothing but static on its screen, and as he looked around the small space of the room, he noticed...people?

‘Well, yes, of course there would be people, this was a group trip, right? Those two must just be my roommates!’ he told himself, annoyed at how forgetful he always was. The two other people in the room were obviously related, that was for sure, both girls were just slightly taller than him, with rolled-up jeans and striped t-shirts, with a single star on the pocket, and hair with long bangs at the front, the rest tied into a ponytail, but they also looked like polar opposites, the one on the right was skinny, she had dark blue eyes, the light blue stripes on her shirt complemented them well, the jeans were dark red, and her hair was a light reddish-pink, with a notably shorter ponytail, and eyebags that made it look like she hadn't slept in weeks. The only true difference was her jacket; however, it was a nice silver colour, unzipped to reveal the shirt. On the left was a girl larger in structure, with dark red stripes where the other had blue, and deep blue jeans, this one had a lighter blue hair colour, and the ponytail reaching just below her collarbone. Her eyes were a dark pink, matching with the eyeshadow she was wearing. She was also more tanned compared to the other girl; Daiki noticed as he completed his mental checklist (a process he does any time he meets new people), but it looked more fake then natural. the two seemed to be talking about something, but stopped at once when they noticed him,

“uhmmm, who the hell are you?” the blue-haired one asked, staring him up and down,

“Aya! Manners are a thing you know?” pink-hair exclaimed, appalled by her approach, “I’m sorry for my sister, she’s not the best at remembering to be polite.” she said as she walked over to Daiki and shook his hand.

“Ah, it’s no problem, my sibling forgets all the time!” he nervously chuckled, “well, should we move to the intros? If so, I am Daiki, Daiki Kobayashi, nice to meet you, and your sister!”

“Welp, if it’s intro time, I should go next!” Blue-hair announced, as she butted in-between her sister and Daiki, “I am none other than Ayaka Akoi, the ULTIMATE youtuber, I’m sure you know of me or my channel!” she said with a wink

Her sister sighed, then pushed her aside, “Akira Akoi, ultimate camerawoman.”

‘Huh, so these two are Ultimates too? Well, I should say mine, right?’ Daiki thought to himself for a second, then continued the conversation

“So, you guys are Ultimates as well? I don’t usually say mine in introductions, but I happen to be the ultimate cartographer, not much compared to you two, though.” He still felt nervous around the two, even though they both seemed kind enough, although Ayaka was a bit ego-centrical.

“Cartographer? Isn't that like, map making and shit?” Ayaka questioned

“Yes, Aya, study of maps, now can we move on and stop pressuring the poor guy, he seems stressed enough as it is.” Akira immediately responded, already looking more tired.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, I’m fine, just a little confused, is all.” He assured her, “But moving on, do you two know where we are?”

“Sorry, but nope. we both sort of just woke up in here, I think this is the mansion getaway we were all invited to, so if that’s the case then there’s 13 others, but it wouldn’t explain us passing out...” Akira seemed more like she was talking to herself then the other two.

“Well, whatever it is, this place is huge! So, I’m gonna go explore!” Ayaka exclaimed, already running out of the room.

“AYA, WAIT FOR ME!” Akira cried, looking at her sister running off, then back at Daiki, she sighed, “Sorry, there’s no stopping her now. Still, I should go keep her out of trouble, I’ll talk to you later.” she quickly said before running off, leaving the cartographer alone in the room, with nothing but the static of the TV.

Daiki stood awkwardly for a few minutes, until he heard a loud yell of pain coming from the door Akira had left through, and he immediately ran away to check it out. as he opened to door to the next room, he saw books upon books, shelves and shelves all lined up, a library, it seemed. There were two other doors leaving out of the library, but there were so many chairs and beanbags that it would take some maneuvering to get out, and lying on one of the chairs, rubbing their foot, was another person, and an... interesting... One at that.

They were incredibly tall, even siting down, at least 6’5. wearing a bright blue jester-style collar with bells at the end, their shirt was split in two halves, left half bright red, right bright yellow, the left sleeve was the same yellow, right the same red, and the entire rest of the outfit followed this motif, all shoddily stitched together and a matching jester’s hat on top to complete the look. Their face however, was decorated with mostly pastels, lavender (currently pained looking) eyes with contact lenses to make the pupils star-shaped, puffy and messy greyish-blue hair came out from under the hat and framed their face, and dark blue clown makeup was underneath their eyes with lipstick of the same color, it all made it truly impossible to guess the gender, all Daiki could tell is that they were injured, so he ran over to help,

“Excuse me, are you okay??” he asked as he approached

“Yep, perfectly fine!” they said, their voice slightly strained with pain, “just dropped a book on my foot, that’s all!”

“Are you sure? I could hear you screaming from the other roo-”

“COMPLETELY SURE!” they bent over, still sitting down, and shushed Daiki, “khehe, sorry if I was loud, I’m just a little sensitive to pain, I tend to scream!”

“Well, as long as you're sure you don’t need any help...” he was doubtful, but didn’t press on the topic,” Anyway, I haven't met you before, so I might as well introduce, I'm Daiki Kobayashi, and I am also the ultimate cartographer, I hope we can be friends”

“OOO, A CARTOGRAPHER! Now that’s cool! I am Kiki Hayashi, ultimate Jester, at your service!” Kiki sprung out of their seat, slightly wincing as they put pressure on their foot.

“Hah, you sure seem excited about all this.” Daiki retorted

“what’d not to like??? I get to live in a super cool new place, meet super cool new people, and try super cool new things! It's just all perfect!”

“of course, it was an exciting opportunity, but most of us are confused on how we don’t remember getting here...”

“Oh well, that’s not important! What is important is me patching up my foot though, so I'm gonna go do that!” they half-ran, half-limped over to one of the doors, but Daiki has one more question;

“WAIT! Before you go, I just want to ask, what’s your gender?”

“Milk, two sugars!” the jester said, before continuing out of the room

‘Well, that didn’t help at all...’ the Cartographer was left alone in the room, yet again. He didn’t overly want to continue walking around, or talk to more people, this was enough social interaction for today. He flopped down on the nearest chair and closed his eyes.

It hadn't been two seconds before he could hear crackling, and the smell of smoke filled his nose. Was something burning?! He opened his eyes and whipped his head around, and saw... yep, another person, this time crouching over a small pile of burning books. She was tall, in comparison to Daiki at least, around 5’9. Her hair was long and black, with curly, dark pink bangs and longer strips on the side, it looked like it hadn't been brushed in years. Her clothing was comprised of a dark grey hoodie, with a red fiery pattern at the bottom, the top of what he assumed to be a lighter grey turtleneck was visible, covering her neck completely. She had loose grey jeans, tucked into brown boots. She also had fingerless gloves on too, making most of her skin covered, but he could make out many burn marks on her tanned skin, and a thin scar on her left eye, calling attention to the dark red eyes, currently shining while staring at the fire. But the strangest part about her appearance was...wings?! As it seemed, this woman had two small, black, bat-shaped wings coming from behind her, they reflected the fire onto them, so Daiki could only assume they were metal. They seemed sharp, dangerously so. Daiki was scared to move, he didn't want to call any attention from this girl, she didn’t seem that friendly, but that’s when she spoke, still not looking up from the flames;

“I can see you; you know. So, tell me, why’re you staring at me?”

‘Shit.’ he stayed silent, hoping she was talking to someone else or something, because he really did not want to risk talking to her. She sighed and looked up, right at Daiki

“Yes, you, now answer my question”

“uhh. I-uhm j..just heard the fire and was c..confused...” he was stuttering slightly; her glare was scary enough without her smiling like a maniac.

“what's there to be confused about? I started a fire, so what?” she seemed so...casual? About this arson

“Who even are you?? How long have you been here?” remembering his interaction with Kiki, he felt uncomfortable imagining her witnessing all of it without him knowing it

“Came in here a few minutes before the clown, so this whole time I guess.” she sat down, not caring about being so close to the fire, “and who I am? Anake Sina, ultimate arsonist.”

‘Arsonist. That explains a lot.’ Daiki wasn’t surprised to learn of Anake’s ‘talent’, but he was confused as to why someone would even invite her to this, because she’s already started destroying property.

“So, Anake, I get how you're an arsonist and all, but could you possibly not set fire to the books in here? Someone might want to read them, you know?” he was very careful about his wording, trying to not offend her

“Nah. It's not like I do this burning shit every day or anything, just when emotions are high, or if I haven't done it for a while, it calms the nerves” she said, stomping on the now small flame to extinguish it. She sighed and stared at the embers, “next time you see me with a fire, don’t interrupt me, I don’t like missing out on the burning. Plus, I know how to keep it under control if I don’t wanna do any damage.”

“Okay?” he didn’t really know what to say, just agree. All he did know, is that he didn’t want to continue talking to her, as expected with an arsonist. he stood up, and started navigating himself through the sea of chairs “Anyway, I'm, uhm, gonna go explore...”

“...’kay. but, hey, if you see this silver haired girl, just avoid her, total bitch.” Anake responded, fiddling around with the wings, now detached from her hoodie, they looked even sharper now. Daiki exited from the other door; the one Kiki didn’t go through.

He found himself in a large, dark, entryway, like the start of any mansion you would imagine, but the lights were off, and... the exit door was boarded up?! He quickly sped up to a run to look closer, but an arrow hitting the wall directly next to him froze him in his tracks.

“W... WHO’S THERE?!?” he nervously screamed out into the darkness

“Dude, really? I thought we agreed on not going for the head??” a female voice emerged, but not talking to Daiki, to someone else. Another voice, a deeper male one, sighed

“Look, he could be trying to kill us, I was just scaring any threats off.”

“You thought I was a threat about five minutes ago. Anyway, why and how would he kill us?” Daiki felt offended for that. Sure, he wasn’t the most athletic, and he was only 5’5, but he could be capable of killing someone if he tried! He didn’t even think before objecting

“HEY! I could kill you both if I wanted to, you kn-” his statement was cut short by another arrow flying out from the darkness.

“YUTO, I SWEAR-” the female voice sounded pissed, Daiki could hear footsteps, then the light flickered on, revealing the two voices. The man was of average height and build, with dark skin, short, dark blue hair, swept off to one ear. His eyes were a bright green, in contrast with the darkness of the rest of him. He wore a simple navy-blue sports vest with rolled-up sleeves, ripped denim jeans, brown hunting boots, grey sports gloves, a bow and sheaf of red-tipped arrows were slung over his shoulders. He had a pissed off smile on his face, glaring at the girl.

Dakai was pretty confident in his attraction to men, but looking at her...shit, he was questioning again. She had a short-skirted black dress, with a straight across neckline, detached sleeves finishing the look. Her hair was a perfect light silver, long and wavy, and covering her right eye. A rose gold star-shaped necklace sat at the start of her, ehem, breasts. Okay, mind out the gutter. She was wearing fishnet stockings, and fluffy black boots. A star earring on one ear, and the iconic star tattoo under her eye, no doubt about it, this was Aimi Miura, the ultimate stage actress. Daiki had always wanted to see one of her performances, but he could never afford it, being the broke student he was. but now seeing her in person, he was both surprised and confused that she would join this. After all, she would have had the money to get her own private mansion, so why choose to share with 15 others?

Along with the two people becoming visible, so did the rest of the room. Now here was no doubt the exit door was all boarded up, which was suspicious, but there was also another strange thing; on the floor, surrounding the start of the stairwell, was mattresses and bedsheets? There were sixteen of them altogether organized, in two rows and each had a cardboard box at the end. It was incredibly out of place, for a mansion, it looked like an attempt to set up bedding for all sixteen of the residents was made in five minutes.

‘Surely there were bedrooms in here, probably just upstairs...’ he looked up the stairs and realized... there weren't any? There were banisters, and the general setup for a staircase, but the stairs were just missing, making it impossible to get upstairs.

Daiki stared back at Aimi and the other person, the confusion obviously showing on his face, because Aimi spoke up with

“Yea, we don’t understand the stairs, or the beds, or the door either. I had a similar situation too, walked in and Yuto attempted to shoot at me.” she rolled her eyes at the other person and walked over to Daiki, “I’m Aimi, by the way.”

“Oh yea, I know, big fan of your stuff, always wanted to see it live.” he was slightly fanboying, but quickly snapped out of it and stared at the other person, “So, who's your friend who tried to shoot me?”

“I was never planning on hitting you, just scaring you off.” he sighed, “But it’s Yuto, Yuto Ikari. Pretty sure you can guess my ultimate by what I’ve been doing”

“Archer?”

“Archer.”

“Wow, such an interesting conversation. Is this what all men are like when meeting?” Aimi rolled her eyes, obviously uninterested, “So, Daiki, who have you met so far?”

“Oh, uhm..” he had always been bad with names, but this was not a good time to be forgetting, “there were these twins, a jester, and this one girl who scares me. I suck with names, sorry.”

“Ah, I see, I’ve already met most people. Just know, if you ever meet someone with a fire hoodie, just don’t interact, she seems...hostile...” that was when Daiki realized that the ‘silver haired bitch’ Anake had mentioned and warned him about was Aimi, and now she was waning him about Anake. Seems they didn’t like each other that much, but he decided against bringing that up.

“Yea, but what about that jester guy? Kiki, I think. He creeps me out, always so enthusiastic.” Yuto admitted, “although that just might be my fear of clowns. Still, I would rather not talk to him.”

“True, Kiki is a litt- wait, did you say ‘he’?” Aimi started responding, before realizing, “I thought Kiki was a she??”

“No way, he's a dude, that is way too tall for a girl.”

“But her hair, it looks like the kind of thing I had when I was twelve. Also, she wears makeup, I say girl!”

‘Oh shit, gender argument, don’t want to see how this ends.’ Daiki quickly backed out of the room, not wanting to watch the argument escalate further.

He went back out through the library, where Anake had left a small fire burning by one of the chairs, and went through the door Kiki had left through earlier. There was a short hallway, where he bumped into Kiki running back into the library, he didn’t have the time to warn them about the fire before they had run past, and distressed screaming emerged from the library;

“WHY IS THERE A FIRE?!?”

Daiki was about to go back and help them, but another voice came from the room Kiki had left from;

“THERE’S A WHAT?!?!” from the room, someone ran out. She was around six feet tall, wearing blue medical scrubs and gloves with a doctor's coat on top, she had simple brown shoes. Her hair was light green, messily tied up into a short ponytail, it slightly covered her bright blue eyes. She had a medical mask on, pulled down to show her mouth. And now she was running straight towards Daiki, not seeing him by the looks of things. And, of course, she ran straight into him, knocking him right over and on the floor, and stopping her right in her tracks.

“OH MY GOD! IM SO SORRY!” she quickly bent down to apologise, Daiki just lay there, pretty sure he had twisted his ankle in the process,

“Ha, don’t worry, your fine, not your fault I'm below your vision range” he replied, still in pain but he just had to make a jab at his own height. “But I think something’s happened to my ankle with that, sooo...”

“Ah, well, you bumped into the right person for that! Ren Inoue, ultimate surgeon. Now come on, let me take you to the medbay.” she said as she effortlessly picked Daiki up, and caried him through the hallway. He had to admit, he felt a little intimidated.

As he was carried into what he could immediately guess was the medbay, he spotted yet another new person, sitting on a chair in the corner. She had similar hair to Ren, short and curly, but a few shades darker. She wore a red stripy shirt with a hazel and green spotted jacket, baggy rose-coloured trousers, and white socks with light red stripes. She had gold rimmed glasses around her green eyes, the eyes that were currently staring into space, looking just dead inside. She looked up as Daiki was placed on one of the beds,

“Oh, another injured person I can't help, second one today.” her face was still deadpan, Ren looked annoyed

“Kana, seriously, stop beating yourself up, you're bringing the entire mood down.”

“Ah, sorry, leave it to me to ruin everything. Heh... Well, I should probably introduce myself to the new guy, even though he will never want to talk to me. Its Kana, Suzuki, ultimate therapist.”

‘SHE’S A THERAPIST?!? HOW THE FUCK, SHE SEEMS MORE DEPRESSED THAN FIFTEEN YEAR OD ME, AND I DIDNT EVEN THINK THAT WAS POSSIBLE.’ Daiki was in awe at how someone like Kana could possibly be a mental health expert, but he didn’t say anything about it, just a simple introduction,

“Uhm, hey. I’m Daiki Kobayashi, ultimate cartographer, nice to meet you?” God, even he sounded like he doubted it.

After around fifteen minutes of having his ankle thoroughly assessed by Ren, all while having to deal with Kana’s self-hatred, he managed to get to know the two fairly well. Kana was just what she seemed, a therapist who needed therapy, but she was also kind, and cared about others’ mental health, just not her own. Ren, meanwhile, seemed like a tired mother figure, dealing with everyone's shit while holding onto sanity by a thread. And yet, she was a fun person, kind without being annoying, sarcastic without being rude, just a generally nice person.

Eventually, Ren diagnosed it was ‘just a twisted ankle, nothing to worry about’ and let Daiki leave. He made his way out another door (why did every room have at least two doors?) and found himself in a kitchen, in the middle of a crossfire.

“HOW THE FUCK COULD IT HAVE BEEN ME!? I WAS IN THE CORNER THIS ENTIRE TIME, YOU SAW ME!”

“I DON’T KNOW, YOU COULD HAVE BEEN USING YOUR VOICE ACTOR MAGIC OR SOMETHING!”

“I CAN CHANGE WHAT MY VOICE SOUNDS LIKE, NOT IT’S POSITION IN THE ROOM, DUMBASS!”

“Uhm, excuse me, what’s going on?” Daiki interrupted the intense argument between the two. The one screaming about ‘voice actor magic’ was average height, with wavy brown hair tied into a man-bun, wearing a dark red jacket on top of a white shirt, grey cargo pants tucked into fluffy winter boots. his hazel eyes stared down at Daiki, then at the other person in the room. This other person, despite being so short (seriously, he looked like 4’10), he just radiated ‘mysterious’, wearing a simple black hoodie with simple grey leggings, short auburn brown hair, and a basic black mask, with crosses for eyes. Even with his face fully covered, Daiki could feel the anger radiating off him.

“What’s happening, is he insulted me! And I am rightfully mad at him!” the one with the man-bun yelled, gesturing to the masked figure.

“AND AS I HAVE SAID, WHOEVER INSULTING HIM DID IT FROM BEHIND, I WAS IN THIS CORNER, THE ENTIRE TIME!”

“Okay, I don’t even know who any of you are, but can we just calm down for a second, and sort this out later.” Daiki asked, attempting to stop any chaos.

“Who am I? Oh yea, you haven't met me, huh? Well, it’s Kenta Sato, ultimate lumberjack!” he smiled down at Daiki, forgetting that he was in an argument.

“And me? Hisao. Hisao Fujino. Voice actor. And what about you?” the masked figure replied.

“Ah, I’m Daiki Kobayashi, ultimate cartographer. Now, giving how you both stopped arguing and calmed down the moment I asked a question, it seems to not be that important. So, how about we talk about something normal, instead of yelling at each other about ‘voice actor magic’?”

“Well, it’s not my fault he decided to use it to insult me, and he thought I would believe his lies as well!” Kenta announced

“OH MY FUCKING GOD, THERE IS NO MAGIC, I CAN CHANGE HOW MY VOICE SOUNDS, THATS IT!” Hisao yelled

“WELL THEN, WHO ELSE COULD HAVE SAID SUCH RUDE STUFF, HUH? BECAUSE IT’S SURE AS HELL NOT THE FRIDGE!”

“YEA, AND IT SURE AS FUCK WASN’T ME EITHER! CAN YOU GET THAT THROUGH YOUR HEAD ALREADY?!”

“I’M NOT AS DUMB AS YOU THINK, SIR, MAYBE IF YOU TOOK THE DUMB MASK OFF, YOU’D BE ABLE TO SEE THAT!”

“I SWEAR TO FUCK- MY MASK HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS, THERE ARE EYE HOLES, I CAN SEE PERFECTLY FINE, NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT IT”

Daiki sighed and ren out, not wanting to witness another argument. But as he stepped into (what he assumed was) the dining room, he saw something as he looked behind him,

‘OH, FOR GOD’S SAKE, WHY MUST THERE BE SO MANY PEOPLE HERE?!?’ he cursed himself again, for saying yes to living with fifteen other people. This time it was someone who looked older, from behind at least, with medium length wavy black hair, a white shirt, crimson-red gloves and belt, basic grey trousers, and black boots. He seemed like a businessman, from what could be seen. He quietly coughed to get their attention, and they spun around. any businessman expectations were broken as the front of him was revealed, the first two buttons on his shirt were undone, grey glasses that were half falling off his face, slightly blocking the crimson eyes, one ear was revealed from his hair, with a simple bar earring. He was smiling a slight grin, staring down at Daiki.

“Hey, kid, have you seen the argument the two in there are having?” he attempted to whisper, but it sounded more like a hushed shout “Well, I was the one to insult the idiot lumberjack, ha! He doesn't suspect a thing.”

“Oh. I see. Yea, you should probably go in and apologise for that, I feel like Hisao might kill him at any second.” Daiki nervously laughed

“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. But for now, it’s the latter option.” he said, his voice dripping with confidence. “it’s like the one I hosted back in 2018, ‘Will He, or Won’t He?’, spoiler alert, he never will.”

All Daiki could respond with was confused silence, he hadn't known this guy for more than five minutes, he didn’t even know his name yet, and he still starts making enemies.

“Ah, of course, you don’t recognise the face of fame!” he bent down in a half-bow while reaching out a hand to shake, “Hattori Rokuro, none other than the ultimate gameshow host!” he said the word ‘ultimate’ as if it had any significance here, and like nobody else here was one. Daiki didn’t know what else to do other than shake his hand back, because he, unlike others, cares about first impressions.

“Daiki Kobayashi. ultimate cartogra-”

“Ah! An academic ultimate, finally someone who seems intelligent in this place. Well, a few are intelligent, but never use it well. The reporter who seems to hate everyone is a fine example. So smart, not nice enough for it.”

‘You can talk, you don’t seem overly nice either.’ was the first thought that came into his head, but he pushed it away as to not insult him (although, it was fairly deserved).

“Well, maybe if you were a little nicer to the people you meet, maybe they would be a bit nicer to you? You know, treat other how you want to be treated, and all that jazz” is what he said instead, lacing in the tiniest bit of sarcasm.

“Eh, no thanks, it’s more entertaining to act the tiniest bit rude, that, combined with my endless charisma, makes me the kind of person an audience loves!”

“That implies that there’s an audience here, which I don’t think is likely”

“i suppose, but who knows, this might be one of those elimination reality shows for all we know. I can already see the shittily voice-overed adverts,” he changed the tone of his voice making it sound somewhat like the ads of the weird reality shows Daiki’s dad would watch when he thought nobody was home. “Sixteen ultimates, one mansion, two are eliminated every episode, four will make it out. Who will those four be? Watch to find out!”

“That’s not legal to do without the contestants’ permission. Anyway, if it was one of those elimination things, it would just go into pure chaos real soon.”

“Legal Schmegal, none of that matters in the world of my shows, and that is what makes them superior!”

“... Hattori, how many laws have your shows bro-”

“THAT IS CONFIDENTIAL, UNNEEDED, AND IRRELIVANT INFORMATION”

They both just stood in silence after that, the muffled noises of Kenta and Hisao arguing from the kitchen being the only sound. Daiki shifted from one foot to another, the motion always comforted him, especially in awkward moments like this one. That was, until, a loud scream pierced the air.

Both Daiki and Hattori spun around to face the door to the kitchen, the direction the scream was coming from, as it swung open to reveal a disturbing sight.

Kenta Sato, bleeding profusely from a wound on his leg, growing paler by the second. And behind him, was Hisao Fujino, holding a bloody knife.

Chapter Text

Daiki was at a pure loss or words. Just a few seconds ago, he was talking to Hattori, but now he was staring at what looked to be a murder attempt gone wrong. Kenta looked closer and closer to passing out from blood loss by the second, and his fight or flight went straight to freeze. Hattori, however, knew what to do, as he ran into the kitchen (somehow managing to shove the one who could be dying of a stab wound to the floor in the process, because that’s just so helpful) and snatched the knife out of Hisao’s hand.  

“OKAY, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?” he questioned, sounding more like a demand.  

“THE DUMBASS WAS GETTING ON MY NERVES!” was the response.  

“SO YOU STABBED ME?!?” Kenta managed to yell out.  

“LOOK, I DON’T THINK WHEN I’M STRESSED!”  

“THATS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR STABBING HIM, FOR FUCKS SAKE.”  

“EVERYBODY CALM THE FUCK DOWN, AND SOMEONE GO GET REN.” Daiki finally spoke. he figured bringing the medical professional in was the best option in this situation.   

“You. Don’t move.” Hattori ordered. Despite it obviously being for Hisao, nobody else in the room moved. Eventually, he returned with a first aid kit, and Ren. The moment she laid eyes on the scene, she just sighed and walked over to Kenta’s side to help. Kana ran in after her, but kind of just froze and stared at the knife that Hattori had placed on the counter. Her fingers twitched and her mouth flicked into a smile for a split second. Ren looked up from what she was doing to give her a death glare.  

“Don’t you dare, I don’t need to deal with two stab wounds in my first day.”  

“You won’t have to deal with mine. If all goes well, I’ll be dead.”  

“So, dealing with death is better than dealing with stab wounds?”  

“Ren, you don’t need to deal with my death, just pretend I never existed. I never deserved it anyway.”  

“I highly doubt people are gonna forget an entire person dying on day one.”  

“... fair point.”  

Kana sighed and backed out the room to return to the medbay. Despite wanting to be sure Kenta was okay, Daiki figured he was in safe hands with Ren, so he left.   

After walking through the now empty dining room, he saw what looked like a fancy living room. Tables, chairs, sofas, ugly floral wallpaper, the only thing missing was windows. Standing on a sofa, facing an armchair, was what looked like a young teenager. Or, at least, someone the size of a sixteen-year-old. He had messy, short, light purple hair, and lavender eyes. He wore a grey, baggy sweater with a sun stitched onto the front, but with light aqua shorts, and hiking boots, as if he was dressed for every weather at once. He was standing with his hands on his hips, staring at the person on the armchair. He had a confident expression on his face as he yelled.  

“YOU DARE DISAGREE WITH ME? I CAN RUIN YOU, POTTS, I CAN KNOW WHEN YOU DIE!”  

The person he was yelling to just looked pissed off. She had short, dark blue hair in a wolf cut. She wore a reddish-pink checked shirt with a neckerchief, and a dark green blazer. Simple grey trousers rolled up at the ankle with grey boots, and a hanging earring in the shape of the cross. A large scar was on her left eye. She looked at the person in the sofa, then at Daiki, then sighed. She spoke in a British accent.  

“How illegal is it to strangle an annoying child?”  

Said child dramatically gasped.  

“YOU DARE THREATEN ME?! THE GOD HIMSELF, AKARI KASAI?!”  

“Potts? Akari?? GOD?!” Daiki was confused, to say the least “I’m sorry, I woke up here like thirty minutes ago, I’ve just witnessed someone being stabbed, and I’m *very* fucking confused. Who even are you two?”  

The child spoke first.  

“None other than Akari Kasai! The God with the ULTIMATE power of foresight!” he lowered his voice to a murmur, “but I can only really do weather right now...”  

The woman sitting down sighed again.  

“How many times do I need to tell you that you're not a god?” she turned her attention to Daiki, “Akari over here is a sixteen-year-old with a god complex, and the ability to be a meteorologist. And me, Tea Potts, ultimate reporter. Seemingly the *only* intelligent one in this shithole.”  

“Tea Potts, as in from CNS?” Daiki remembered CNS, the news station that his sibling took an internship at last year, they told him specifically about how much of a bitch Tea was.  

“In the flesh. Now, you seem to be good with children, can you shut this one up?” the ‘question’ sounded more of a demand, her eyes bore into the Cartographer’s soul. He was uncomfortable, to say the fucking least. Luckily, Akari spoke first.   

“Wow, rude much? You can deny my – frankly obvious – power if you wish, but to treat me like a child? That is pure blasphemy!”  

“If you were as powerful as you claim, you can use that power to shut the fuck up and leave me alone.”  

“Ugh, have you no respect?” Akari exclaimed “I may leave whenever I wish, but you seem like you deserve a lesson! A lesson on respect, kindness, and how to not use such foul language.”  

“Fuck that shit. Either you leave or I make you.” was her simple response. Daiki was powerless to stop this argument from escalating, so he just remained silent and stood in the doorway.  

“SO NOW YOU THREATEN ME!? WOW, THAT IS A NEW LOW FOR YOU, POTTS! YOU MORTALS SHALL LEARN TO APPRECIATE ME, OR DIE PROVING ME OTHERWISE!”  

It was at this point Tea stood up, walked over to the sofa, picked up Akari, and put him on the floor. Daiki spotted her raising her hand slightly, and he could tell she was preparing to slap the child.  

“Tea, you’re not gonna hit the kid, are you?” he murmured, making sure only she heard.  

“Yea, in the face, got a problem?” she didn’t bother lowering her voice. Akari looked slightly scared at this point. This is the point the Cartographer finally decided to leave. As he left, he heard a slap, followed by that annoying wail that only a child could make when they attempted to cry. He didn’t look back as he left.  

Eventually, after walking through the hallway for what felt like hours (or maybe he was just tired, hard to tell), he finally found a room he hadn’t entered before. When he opened the door and stepped in, he felt...underwhelmed, to say the least. It looked like a storage room, but it was hard to tell because the lights were out. He could make out some shelves, piles of boxes, random person lying on the floor, some che- wait, what?! Yep, someone was lying face-up on the floor, but the limited lighting made it impossible to make anything other than the silhouette out. He couldn’t even tell if they were breathing. Daiki scrambled to find a light switch, eventually just slapping the wall until he finally pressed the switch. The lights flickered on, annoyingly loud, and illuminated the room.  the person on the floor groaned, sat up, and turned to Daiki. Now that he could see them, he felt slightly intimidated. She had slightly tanned skin, with patches of vitiligo all over, but it was hard to see on her face, due to her wearing a grey mask with a tooth-like design on it. She had a dirty green hooded jacket on, zipped up over some form of grey shirt, with a few pins of various designs (he could make out a weirdly carved pumpkin, what he assumed to be a screaming face, a golden bear with a top hat, and one with bright pink, yellow, and cyan stripes). Grey jeans, light brown boots, and dark grey fingerless gloves. Her hair was short, white, and half-shaven, with the front dyed light pink. Their dark aqua eyes, framed with black eyeliner, stared back at him. He stepped back slightly as they stood up.  

“Who are you and why did you wake me up?”  

“uhhhh. I’m Daiki. And two reasons for waking you up. You were sleeping on the floor and you looked like you weren’t breathing. I’d say that’s a warrant for concern.”  

“Ryoko Ito. And yea, I probably wasn’t breathing.” she responded, deadpan.  

“Wait, WHAT?! What do you mean you weren’t breathing???”  

“Sometimes I just stop breathing for a minute in my sleep. Plus, I never make noise. Plus, I'm almost impossible to wake up. So, you’re not the first one to think I was dead.” she yawned.  

“That’s...slightly concerning...”  

“Welp, can’t stop it, just kinda have to hope I start breathing again when it happens. Anyway, it’s not much of a danger if I never sleep, right?”  

“That’s even more concerning.” he wanted to continue with figuring out what the fuck was up with this woman’s sleep, but he decided it best to not. “But whatever. I’ve noticed that everyone else here is an Ultimate, same with you?”  

“Yep, Horror Analyst. Basically, I like horror shit, and I know what it all means. What about you?”  

“Oh, uhm, Cartographer, that’s what I am?” he was attempting to be polite and shit, but her pure casualty about this entire conversation with someone she just met was throwing his entire act off, and making him sound completely unsure of himself.  

“Somehow you managed to sound like you know it less than I do. Oh well, now that I know everyone here, I can get the predictions ready!”  

“Predictions?”  

“It’s a thing I do whenever I meet a group of people. Basically, figure out who’s more likely to survive longer if some kind of killer came in, like a slasher or some shit.”  

“Okay, let’s not get too hasty, people aren't gonna die or anything.”  

“I know, I know, but IF, we were in a slasher, I know who’s probably dying first.”  

“Hah, okay, riddle me this, who  is  dying first?” he asked, half out of genuine curiosity, half just because he wanted to see how weird the response would be.  

“Yuto.” They stated, fully deadpan. “No offence to him, he seems strong and capable enough, but we all know who dies first in slashers.”   

Daiki didn’t even know what to say. He knew the ‘black people die first in horror movies’ trope, but he wasn’t expecting Ryoko to actually use it in her predictions.  

“Wow, okay, was not expecting that. But whatever, what about you?”  

“If this is anything like Scream, then I’ll make it to one of the – probably many – sequels. The one who knows how horror works tend to survive a while.”  

“Makes sense, what about me?”   

“hm. Well, usually the people with useful skills, like cartography, last to at least one of the penultimate deaths, but looking at you, I would say around midway through. The short folks never last that long.”  

‘ I get it, I’m short, can people stop bringing that shit up now?’ was what he wanted to respond with, but decided against it because he also wated to hear some more of the predictions.  

“This is both impressive and concerning. Anything else?”  

“You wanna hear the long or short version?”  

“Preferably short, but some small reasoning behind the predictions would be nice.”  

“Sure, quick recap,” she inhaled slightly, “The twins would die together in some form of double kill near the middle point, Aimi would probably end up as the killer, because the charismatic bitches always do, Kiki is the love interest of a survivor, so they end up as one of the first corpses found, Kenta dies in some form of sacrifice, Hisao just gets abandoned to die, we all know how Kana dies, Ren would be the last death, Mikiyo would get some form of Golden Chainsaw kill. Leaving Akari, Hattori, the news bitch, me, and Anake would probably be the final girl.”  

“Huh. That's...Something.” it was so oddly specific he was mildly suspicious; he didn’t even know who Mikiyo was, or a Golden Chainsaw, but he noticed something stranger about one of the things they said, “But what did you mean by Kiki being the love interest of a survivor? Or, more specifically, who are they the love interest of?”  

Ryoko blushed slightly, even with the mask it could be seen.  

“Uhhh, I don’t remember saying that, you’re probably imagining it.” the obvious lying was, well, obvious, “Anyway, you probably still need to meet some people, go off and explore or some shit. Whatever, I just wanna sleep.” that last sentence was said so fast it might as well have been just one word.  

Daiki was never one to pry into that kind of stuff, it was always embarrassing for him when his sibling shipped him with the guy he was doing a school project or something with, and he didn’t want to give that embarrassment to someone else, so he just left.   

Back in the hallway, he turned a corner, and at once saw the door at the end, and through it, the entrance where he met Aimi and Yuto, but he then spotted, that’s right, another person, leaning over a small pot of fake flowers.  

‘ Oh, this must be Mikiyo, I think she’s the last one I haven’t met!’  

He walked over to who he assumed to be Mikiyo, and took in her appearance. She had medium length light pink hair, all swept over to her left shoulder, a light purple crop top and a darker purple short jacket, with the sleeves rolled up and sightly dirty, white gloves. Short, light red shorts, with knee-high boots. She turned around when she heard Daiki approach, her light blue eyes taking him in. She smiled softly. Just as Daiki opened his mouth to speak, she beat him to it, but... oh my fuck... yea, that’s a man’s voice, deep and clear.  

“Oh, hello!”   

Daiki was never one to assume people’s gender, especially based off voices, but the obvious male voice with the female appearance was throwing him for a loop. He was attempting to figure out what to say without being rude when Mikiyo spoke again.  

“Ah, you’re confused about the gender, aren’t you?” they pointed to themselves, with a mildly embarrassed expression, “I get it, I hardly make it easy. But I’m a guy, he/him and all that, I just like to look like a girl!”   

“Oh, thanks for telling me. Gotta admit, you pass as a girl really well! Heh, you even got *me* convinced! But, uhh, slightly embarrassing first impressions aside, what's your name?”  

“Oh, right, intros! Almost forgot, heh. But I’m Mikiyo Iwata, the Ultimate Florist! What about you?”  

“I’m Daiki Kobayashi, Ultimate Cartographer. Nice to meet you!” he already felt a lot more comfortable around him, and they had just met. “So, what were you doing before I came in?”  

“Well, I was just looking at the flowers, but they’re fake...” his face saddened slightly, “I’ve never understood why people would use fake flowers as decoration. It’s not like it’s *hard* to take care of living plants, plus the look so much nicer than this dumb plastic!”  

“I guess you’re right, but some people just suck at keeping plants alive. And it’s better showcasing plastic flowers than dead flowers.” The Cartographer was trying to not object with the fact he kept fake plants at home.  

“Still! If someone here was struggling, they could just ask me, I would help them!”  

“You know, there’s nothing holding you back from replacing them with real stuff.”  

Mikiyo visibly calmed down.  

“Oh, you’re right!” he moved the pot off the table it was on, “you know what? tomorrow, once I’m all unpacked and at home, I’m going to go into the nearest town, and get some real flowers to put here!”  

Then, a tune echoed through the halls, it was so loud it felt like it was played right in Daiki’s ear. As he turned around, he immediately knew why, because he saw a loudspeaker behind his head, built into the wall. After the short, three second jingle was finished, it was replaced by a voice.  

“ATTENTION ALL RESIDENTS, PLEASE HEAD TO THE MAIN ENTERANCE, AN ANNOUNCEMENT IS TO BE MADE ONCE EVERYBODY ARRIVES!”  

The voice sounded like that of a teenage girl, who was obviously trying her hardest to not reveal what the announcement was. The two stood in silence for a few seconds, confused on what to do.  

“Well, the door’s right here, so should we go?” Mikiyo finally was the one to break it.  

“Oh, right. Yea, I don’t want to hold everyone up and delay this all-important announcement.” he attempted to say ‘all-important announcement’ with sarcasm, but he had no clue if he pulled it off correctly. Before he had the chance to assess it, Mikiyo had ran off into the entrance, and he just followed. 

Once he came in, he saw that he and Mikiyo were the second two to arrive, because Aimi and Yuto were still there, mostly just standing around in mild suspense, mild annoyance. Aimi smiled as she saw the two enter. Mikiyo had taken a place on one of the mattresses sitting with his legs crossed as he waited. And wait they all did. Eventually, Ayaka came running in, with Akira trailing behind, looking embarrassed for both herself and her sister. Those two were followed by Hattori, Kana, Ren, and Kenta, who had some bandages on his leg and was limping. When Hisao came in through the other door, the four that came before all gave him a glare of distrust, fear, judgement, or all of the above. Anake, Tea, Akari (who looked like he had just been crying slightly), came in one by one, and either standing at a random spot, or sitting on a mattress. Finally, Kiki ran in, carrying Ryoko over their shoulder, while she just looked annoyed it was happening to her.  

“I can walk, you know? You didn’t have to carry me in.”  

“Yeaaaa, but you looked tired, and I didn't wanna make you go when you were tired and walk into something!”  

“True, but I always look tired.”  

“Stop arguing and be glad you didn’t have to walk!” they exclaimed as they dropped Ryoko onto a mattress, then sitting next to her.  

“I ship it.” Daiki could overhear Aimi whispering to Hattori, as he nodded in agreement.   

“Wow, adorable relationship, but nobody gives a shit. Everyone's here now, so can we get this announcement over and done with?” Tea asked, receiving only annoyed looks from most people. “What? It’s fair to assume people don’t give a shit about people being in love. That's what it’s like for me, at least.”  

“Tea, you aren’t the ambassador of all human beings.” Ren stated, “We aren’t a hive mind, and if we were I would hope it’s not your mind we share.”  

“Ooo, Burn!” Akari laughed out.  

“As someone who knows about both giving and receiving burns, I gotta say, that’s amateur at best.” Anake said, not elaborating on the point.  

“Wow, you all are so kind to me.” Tea remarked, the statement laced with sarcasm.  

“Yea guys, we don’t need to attack him, or start any arguments with him. Last time an argument happened, I ended up getting stabbed.” Kents shot a death glare to Hisao, who responded with flipping him off.  

“Wait, you called me HIM??” Tea asked, looking mildly offended, “I am a woman, for fucks sake. I spend all this money to actually look female and what do I get? This shit.”  

“OH MY GOD I AM SO SORRY I DIDN’T REALISE.” he frantically apologised, “I’M STUPID, FORGIVE ME.”  

“Yes, I can tell that last part is true.”  

“HEY! Don’t be rude to him! A man can make a few mistakes in his life!” Mikiyo spoke up.  

“WOA, WOA, WOA, LET’S NOT GET INTO ANY ARGUMENTS NOW, WE DON’T WANT ANY KILLING BEFORE THE GAME BEGINS!” the same voice who spoke from the loudspeaker was heard throughout the room, interrupting the conversation going on. everybody turned to the area it came from, one of the two doors. As they stared, they saw a truly confusing figure... they were the height and size of a young child, looking around ten years old. They were obviously a robot, with dark purple metallic ‘skin’ and a few visible wires. A darker metal plate was on their chest, slightly covered by a dark red bandanna, they also had shorts of the same colour. Light pink ‘hair’ with fox-like ears, with a large tail (all the same metal). They had bright purple eyes, but they had this odd, lifeless, empty look to them. they marched in, a large smile on their face, staring at everyone. Finally, as they reached where the stairs were supposed to start, that stopped, and turned around fully.  

“WELL HELLO RESIDENTS!” She yelled out. Daiki could see Aimi flinch slightly. “Now, I suppose I should introduce myself?”  

A few nods, a few murmurs of either confusion or affirmation.  

“Well, I am Kodo, and I guess you could call me your landlord! It’s a pleasure to meet you all! But formalities aside, let’s get to business.”  

“Business? What do you mean?” Hattori asked, slightly laughing (probably due to the fact that this ‘landlord’ looked like a child)  

“Well, it seems that y’all haven’t been paying rent, which is a *real* issue!”  

“...But we just moved in-” Kenta started, before being interrupted.  

“THAT DOSEN’T MATTER!” Kodo, yelled out, before giggling and returning to her normal tone, “But oh well, I’ve sorted out an alternative way to get rid of this silly rent debt! I’m sure you all wanna know what that is?”  

Again, everybody just nodded in both pure confusion and agreement.  

“Well, it’s simple! Basically, y’all aren’t allowed to leave the mansion anymore!” she took a second to soak up the shocked, confused, and concerned expressions of the crowd, “Don’t worry, you won’t starve to death or anything, all food gets stocked up basically daily, you just can't leave!”  

Almost everyone said something, all at the same time, overlapping each other.  

“HUH?!”  

“THAT CAN’T BE LEGAL!”  

“So this’ll be the place I die.”  

“WHAT?! YOU DARE ATTEMPT TO IMPRISON ME HERE?!”  

“Sure, buddy, tell yourself you managed to trap us here. I could burn a wall down or some shit and get my way out.”  

“Oh fuck, this really *is* turning into a slasher.”  

“BUT THERE’S NO WIFI HERE, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO POST???”  

“...”  

Then, silence. For what felt like an eternity, pure silence. Only broken up by panicked breathing. Eventually, the voice of Hattori broke the never-ending silence.  

“There must be some form of way to escape. What's the catch?”  

“Oho, glad you asked!” Kodo giggled, an even more sly expression spreading on her face, “There is one way to repay your depts! And that iiiisssssssssssss.....” She prolonged that last word, and acted out a mini drumroll.  

“Just get on with it already.” Anake demanded.  

“Wow, tough crowd. But what it is? Basically, you gotta kill one of your housemates!”  

…  

“Okay, who’s okay with being stabbed?” Anake asked, pulling off one of her ‘wings’ from her hoodie.  

“ME, ME, JUST KILL ME.” Kana replied immediately.  

“DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE, EITHER OF YOU.” Ren yelled out.  

“Whoa, that was fast, y’all are eager!” Kodo laughed out. “But don’t be too hasty, there’s more! Because, once three people – other than the killer – find the corpse, an investigation begins! You all get a certain amount of time to find some clues and stuff. Then, after that, we get to do a trial, the best part! It's where you all discuss who you think the killer is! Once you all have come to a decision, you vote on the killer. If the majority vote is for the correct killer, they get executed and y’all get to continue with normal life. *but*, if it's wrong...well... let’s just say the killer will end as the sole survivor when they escape.”  

.. pure silence, yet again.  

“Welp, Toodles!” she said as she walked off.  

“...BUT I DON’T WANNA DIE, I’M TOO PRETTY!” Ayaka screamed out, looking on the verge of tears as Akira attempted to comfort her.  

“Don’t worry guys, I bet it's just some bad prank?” Kiki offered up, but even they knew it was wrong.  

“My offer to be killed still stands.” Kana mentioned.  

“Kana, kindly, shut the fuck up, the last thing we need to think about right now is killing.” Ren stated, exasperated.  

“There’s no use ignoring it. In fact, I’m sure one of us is planning the death of someone else...” Tea pointed out.  

“Y-Yea! Actually, I bet it’s Hisao, the dude tried to kill me before, who's to say he won't do it again?” Kenta stuttered out.  

“I SWEAR TO FUCK, CAN YOU GUYS STOP BEING SUSPICIOUS OF ME?? IT WAS ONE TIME, NOW SHUT UP.” the accused spoke up.  

“Can we stop yelling and calm down please?” Mikiyo begged.  

“As annoying as the shouting is, I guess it’s understandable, we are in a pretty shitty situation.” Aimi leaned in and responded  

Meanwhile, Akari was having a mild mental breakdown on the floor, while Yuto was standing above him awkwardly.  

“HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE, THE GOD IS QUESTIONING HIS OWN MORTALITY, I SHOULDN’T BE THIS SCARED, I’M STILL ALL-POWERFUL, RIGHT?”  

“Uhhhh.. Do you want me to knock you out or something?”  

“DUDE, THAT IS NOT HOW YOU TAKE CARE OF KIDS.” Aimi exclaimed.  

“I DON’T KNOW, THATS WHAT MY PARENTS DID.”  

Watching all the chaos unfold, Daiki felt truly powerless. Everyone was shouting, the lights were too loud and he has just been forced into this killing game. He had no clue what to do. He could feel himself slowly backing against the wall as he covered his ears. He saw Hattori approaching, and he could just about hear him asking something, but he didn’t answer, he couldn’t...

Chapter Text

Name: Daiki kobayashi

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Cartographer

Age: 19

Height: 5'4

Date Of Birth: April 20

Likes: Lizards

Dislikes: Loud noises

Name: Hattori Rokuro

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Gameshow Host

Age: 21

Height: 5'10

Date Of Birth: April 29

Likes: Public speaking

Dislikes: Silence

Name: Mikiyo Iwata

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Florist 

Age: 18

Height: 6'0

Date Of Birth: April 9

Likes: Flowers

Dislikes: Plastic

Name: Anake Sina

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Arsonist

Age: 18

Height: 5'8

Date Of Birth: July 27

Likes: Fire

Dislikes: Laws

Name: Tea Potts

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Reporter

Age: 18

Height: 5'8

Date Of Birth: June 19

Likes: Coffee

Dislikes: Children

Name: Akira Akoi

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Camerawoman

Age: 17

Height: 5'7

Date Of Birth: January 14

Likes: Reading

Dislikes: Stress

Name: Ayaka Akoi

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: YouTuber

Age: 17

Height: 5'7

Date Of Birth: January 15

Likes: Attention

Dislikes: Being ignored

Name: Kenta Sato

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Lumberjack

Age: 19

Height: 5'11

Date Of Birth: December 8

Likes: Nature

Dislikes: Cars

Name: Hisao Fujino

Pronouns: He/They

Ultimate: Voice Actor

Age: 17

Height: 5'0

Date Of Birth: March 2

Likes: Being alone

Dislikes: Being annoyed

Name: Akari Kasai

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Meteorologist

Age: 15

Height: 5'3

Date Of Birth: August 13

Likes: Wind

Dislikes: Being undermined

Name: Yuto Ikari

Pronouns: He/They

Ultimate: Archer

Age: 19

Height: 5'9

Date Of Birth: December 20

Likes: Sports

Dislikes: Cats

Name: Aimi Miura

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Stage Actress

Age: 19

Height: 5'6

Date Of Birth: September 8

Likes: Comedy

Dislikes: The cold

Name: Ryoko Ito

Pronouns: She/They

Ultimate: Horror Analyst

Age: 18

Height: 5'7

Date Of Birth: November 1

Likes: Horror

Dislikes: Bright colours

Name: Kiki Hayashi

Pronouns: He/She/They

Ultimate: Jester 

Age: 19

Height: 6'10

Date Of Birth: April 1

Likes: Bright colours

Dislikes: Boredom 

Name: Ren Inoue

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Surgeon

Age: 18

Height: 6'1

Date Of Birth: March 30

Likes: Collecting things

Dislikes: Annoying patients

Name: Kana Suzuki

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Therapist

Age: 17

Height: 5'5

Date Of Birth: September 10

Likes: Silence

Dislikes: Being alive

Chapter Text

Everything had gone to shit. Daiki couldn’t even think straight, everything was too loud, and too stressful. He and everyone else had only just been informed on the killing game, and mass panic was already setting in. his vision was going blurry as he rubbed his hair between his fingers. It was always an oddly comforting thing to do for him. He hardly even noticed as Hattori grabbed his wrist and led him back into the hallway. He snapped back into reality as the door was shut behind him.  

“Daiki, calm down, just breathe. It’s all okay, don’t worry.” he said, in an oddly soothing voice.  

He sat on the floor, leaning against the wall and took a few deep breaths, and (attempted to) look Hattori in the eyes as his mind cleared.   

“You don’t need to do the eye contact thing; I get you probably don’t like it.” he reassured him as he sat beside him. Of course, he looked away as soon as it was said.  

“Thanks, Hattori. And, uh, sorry for kinda making a scene back there, I was just stressed and all.”  

“You think you made a scene? Ayaka is basically just screaming, Akari is having an existential crisis, and Kana is begging for Anake to stab her.” he laughed slightly, “It’s fair to be stressed, I think Tea and I were the only ones that were truly calm during that.”  

“I’m both glad and confused on how I managed to zone out from all that happening.”  

“Ha, I wish I could zone out in situations in that! then again, that would probably make being a gameshow host a little more, you know, impossible.”  

“Oh my god, the image of that.” Daiki couldn’t help but giggle. He could still hear the muffled chaos from behind the door, but Hattori was making him comfortable. He sighed slightly.  

“Right, shall we go and get the others to shut up and calm down?” Hattori asked as he stood up. Daiki nodded, stood up and went back into the entrance.  

The chaos had died down slightly. And by that, I mean Ayaka and Akari weren’t screaming anymore. There were still arguments going on, and Hisao looked like he wanted to stab everyone in the room. Hattori walked to the centre of the room, with Daiki following, and whistled with his fingers to grab everyone's’ attention. It worked, everyone looked over.  

“Right, can everyone calm down?”  he asked, and continued talking after there was no reply, “Good. Now, I understand this is a stressful situation-”  

“No shit Sherlock, we’re in a killing game.” Anake yelled out.  

“Yes, that is correct, but even more of a reason to keep calm and orderly. We need to figure out a way to avoid any and all possible deaths.”  

Daiki managed to hear Ryoko mumbling something about the leaders being the first true kill, Kiki promptly nudged her to shut them up.  

“First, I feel we should establish some jobs. More specifically, some form of night-watch job, to stop any killings while the rest of us are asleep. I assume these mattresses will be where we sleep, so the job won’t require much moving or anything, just being able to stay up for the night. We'll probably need two of them, so we can make sure one isn’t going to betray us and kill or something, not that I distrust you all, but it’s a possibility.” he scanned the room over, before finally asking, “So, any volunteers?”  

“Well, I guess I could stop any would-be killers, plus I can focus fairly well.” Yuto replied.  

“OH, OH! WHAT ABOUT RYOKO? SHE NEVER SLEEPS ANYWAY!” Kiki asked, before smiling at Ryoko, “Khehe! Don’t worry, you don’t have to or anything, I just thought it was funny!” 
“You know what? Sure. Might as well put my lack of sleep to good use, right?” she answered. 

“Perfect, that’s our two!” Hattori smiled, “Now, another thing I recommend we organise is eating our meals together, so we can socialise and stuff.”  

Everyone else murmured things of agreement, as Hattori looked at the clock on the wall.  

“Okay people, it’s around five pm, I say we meet at the dining hall for dinner in about an hours' time, we can talk further and stuff.” after saying that he walked out of the room. Everyone else slowly filed out of the two doors, eventually leaving Daiki on his own.  

He stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, not sure where to go or what to do, until he heard a loud, annoyed sigh behind him.   

‘O h. Guess it wasn’t everyone that left.’ he thought to himself. As he turned around, he was mildly disappointed to see Tea staring at him. He didn’t know what to do or say.  

“Well hello to you too.” she sighed again, looking annoyed. “Could you not look at me like I’m the most disappointing person for you to encounter? I got enough of those from my parents.”  

“O-oh, sorry. I just Didn’t know what to say, I thought everyone had left, heh.” he nervously laughed.  

“Yea, I tend to come into places unannounced, it’s normal for people to simply not notice me coming in.” Her mild British accent was showing a little more. “Oh well, at least I’m noticeable once the cameras are rolling. It's strange, you can be the worst person ever in reality, but be an interesting character on camera and everyone’s rooting for you.”  

“Yea, it’s weird I guess...” 
“Weird? Interesting? Whatever you call it. I must admit it’s a system I take advantage of. But that’s unrelated, I don’t need to be confessing my life story to someone who could be planning to kill me.” 

“You mean me??” Daiki was slightly taken aback, “Do I look like I could kill you? even if I wanted to, which I don’t.”  

“True, but even someone of your size and strength could use poison or something, and then I’m dead and everything I worked for is gone.” she looked annoyed at the idea of her death, “But whatever. So, what do you take of all this, Mr Protagonist?”  

“Well, I-” He started, before realising what she said, “Wait, Protagonist?? How am I a Protagonist???”  

“Short guy in the middle of mass death with an inexplicably boring home life, the only really normal one in a cast of weirdos, with a gay love interest who will inevitably die by the end.”  

“...That’s impressive and I’m slightly scared on how you know all that. Also, who do you mean by gay love interest???”  

“I watch enough TV to know. And the love interest? Hattori, obviously.” She smirked when he blushed “Not to be one to pry into personal things, but at this point I’ll notice any news I can see.”  

“As is the way of the reporter, I guess” He attempted to stop himself from blushing, failing miserably “But to answer the question from before, I’m kinda just worried. You know, two dads and a sibling a home, I can’t help but feel worried. Like, I don’t wanna just abandon them by dyi-”  

He was interrupted by a vibration in his pocket, and as he instinctively grabbed it to check, when he fully realised that he still had his phone. He was confused, this was a killing game, wasn’t it? Surely, they would ensure no outside communication? Still, that didn’t matter he had his phone and he could get out of here! He opened the messages app, where a few notifications came from, as he opened the most recent message from an unknown number  

‘ Wellll heyyy Resident! I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, but y’all have your phones! I’ve been kind enough to supply some Wi-Fi, but it has a few websites and apps blocked LOL. It just about manages to receive messages and sending them to approved numbers (approved my yours truly, of course) soo yea! Enjoy!  

-Kodo (Rent’s still due!!!!)’  

He should have been expecting this, but he was still disappointed as he changed the contact name to ‘Robo-bitch’  

“FUCK!” Tea exclaimed, looking both annoyed and slightly scared.  

“What’s wrong?”   

“I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ON AT 3 TODAY, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!” she showed him her phone screen for a split second, enough to see a few texts from a contact called ‘Anchor’.  

“I don’t think that should be your main concern-”  

“YES, IT FUCKING SHOULD, MY ONLY REPLAEMENT IS YAMATO AND HE’S FUCKING USELESS!” she looked genuinely annoyed as she walked out.   

Back to being slightly confused on what to do. He read through all the other messages, slightly dying inside when none of his messages to his dads or sibling sent through. He had also discovered that he was put onto a group chat, titled ‘Housemates 'til Death!!’ but he decided against being active on it right away. Eventually he sighed and left the room, going back in the direction of the library.  

The smell of smoke. Great. As expected, Anake was in the room, holding a freshly lit match above a small pile of papers, with Mikiyo standing beside her looking excited. Hey both looked up at him once he came in.   

“Oh hey Daiki! Anake’s teaching me how to start a fire!” he smiled at him as Anake passed him the match.  

“Now, you wanna be fast with this next part, you might be wearing gloves but it still hurts if you let it burn to your fingers. You need to hold the flame against the paper, not drop it, dropping only works with gasoline.” she said, and he followed the instructions exactly, causing a small flame to begin spreading. Daiki just stood in the doorway, at a pure loss for words.   

“Like that?” 
“PERFECT! You know, that’s impressive for someone’s first time. At this rate you’ll have a few buildings down by the end of the month.” 

“Uhhh, I’m glad you two are enjoying yourself, but could we not do it by destroying stuff?” he asked, ever cautions of offending the criminal in the room.  

“Oh don’t be so boring, Daiki!” Mikiyo joked, poking his tongue out, “But you are kind of right. We’re gonna be stuck here for a while, right? We should probably save the books for the folks who want them.” 
“...” Anake looked annoyed at the concept of her fire being taken away. She considered it for a second, before rolling her eyes and sighing, “Fineeee. I guess I can cope with finding an alternative.” 

“Ha, t-thanks.” He still couldn’t help but stumble over his words slightly, “But, also, why were you teaching Mikiyo how to start fires? Like, we all get told about our inevitable demise, and this is the first thing you do?”  

“To lighten the mood and shit.” she was still staring at the fire, like her eyes were attached to it, “Well, to lighten something, at least”  

‘ Okay, cheering people up means causing anarchy now, I guess.’ he kept the snarky comments to himself, as always, before realizing something, ‘ wait. Anarchy. Anake. Anarchy Anake? I knew her name sounded weird, but is it really just a fucking anarchy pun???’  

“Uhm, you good there? You look like you’ve just realized something traumatic or shit.” well speak (or think) of the devil. He was deep in thought, forgetting she was in the room until she said that   

“OhI’mfinedon’torryaboutitoranything!” the words kind of just merged into one because of his pure panic.  

“...” She seemed pretty fucking confused, but just shrugged it off, “Whatever. Oh, by the way, do any of you two know what this thing is?” she pulled out a phone from her pocket  

“You mean the phone?” Mikiyo asked, confused on how she didn’t know.  

“If that’s what it’s called, then yea. I know it’s normal for people to have them, but I still have no fucking clue what they are.”   

“Wow, that’s slightly sad, how can you not know what a phone is?” He sounded genuinely concerned.  

“Being homeless since I was ten probably contributed to it.”  

“OH.” Daiki wasn’t expecting that bombshell to be dropped so casually. “Well that explains why you signed up to join this.”  

“No fucking shit Sherlock, did you think I came here just for free kindling?”  

“Well, I, uhh-”  

“Exactly. Anyway, Mikiyo, do you wanna teach me how this shit works?”  

“Sure!”   

Not wanting to fuck himself over any further, Daiki took the opportunity to slip through the door.  

He went to the kitchen, figured he could just get some food early. Instead of finding himself in an empty kitchen, he saw Akira and Ayaka. Ayaka was holding a mug of some form of hot drink, while Akira was rummaging through the fridge.  

“Oh, David!” Ayaka looked up at him once he entered  

“It’s Daiki, but hey.”  

“Daniel, yea, that’s what I said!” she took a sip from her mug, “Good to see ya!”  

Akira quietly sighed, and looked over from where she was standing.  

“Again, sorry for her. I’ve calmed her down with some hot chocolate, but she’s still a little, you know, forgetful.” framing it in the nicest way possible.  

“Wait, I thought you said this was coffee?”  

“Aya, you and I both know that you having coffee will result in both the mug and a bone being broken.”  

“Is this some kind of twin thing I’m too much of an oldest child to understand???” he was incredibly confused on how they knew what chaos Ayaka having coffee would cause, and the implication it’s happened before was not something he liked to picture.  

“Oh right, Dylan has never experienced the gift that is twinhood!”  

“Daiki.” He could hope if she was corrected enough times, she’d get it correct, “But yea, only sibling I have is sixteen and a different gender, so being a twin is out of the picture. Ha, I feel kinda homesick now.”  

“Well, if you need someone to talk to, we do have an Ultimate therapist here.” Akira started with her advice, before remembering who Kana was, “On second thoughts, don’t rely on the therapist.”  

“I mean, fair, out of all the therapists, a suicidal one probably isn’t the one you wanna have. Still, her advice and stuff seem sound enough, she just hates herself. Kinda worried about her, to be honest.”  

“Exactly what Damien said. With our luck, she’s gonna end up like the last bitch we had to deal with.”   

“Aya, I thought we agreed to not talk about her?” Akira looked more annoyed at the mention of this girl, “Let the dead be, it caused enough controversy when she was alive.”  

“Yea, Yea, I get it, but I was just saying-” Ayaka started before looking over at Daiki, “Uhm, is Dante supposed to know this stuff?”  

“Oh, sorry, do you two want me to go?” 
“No no, it’s fine, we shouldn’t even be talking about this in the first place.” Akira assured him, “Jeez, okay, I’m sorry, don’t have to look at me like I just ate your hamster or some shit.” 

Daiki had to stifle a laugh with that one.  

“AYA! I THOUGHT WE AGREED TO NOT BRING THAT UP-” Akira laughed out.  

“WAIT, THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?!?” he found it both hilarious and concerning. He had to calm down a second before continuing, “Okay, who ate whose hamster?”  

“It’s a really long story that’s annoying to expla-” 
“Okay, picture this,” Ayaka butted in “Family gathering, we’re forced to interact with the weird younger cousin because he likes our videos. Also, we had this hamster, called Snowie. Anyway, me and Kira go out to gab something, can’t remember what it was, and we come back in to see this kid ABOUT TO TAKE A FUCKING BITE OUT OF OUR HAMSTER!!!” 

“Jesus Christ-” 
“I mean, we managed to stop him just in time, but the little fuck dropped he on the floor and killed her.” Akira attempted to reassure him, but ended up looking like she was getting flashbacks. 

“It’s all good though, Kira over here dealt with it, comforted me and all that shit.” Ayaka smiled at her sister “Never saw that kid again though. Welp, good riddance I say!”  

Akira smirked, as if she was looking over a fond memory, before snapping out of it to walk over to Ayaka and take the mug. Daki noticed a scar on her face, just below her left eye.  

“Wait, Akira, did you always have that scar?”   

“Yea, aways had it, just popped out the womb with it.” She sarcastically replied, pointing to the scar, “But, actual answer, got it two years ago. Yeaaa, knife throwing videos were never a good idea.”  

“It was on that day we found out my aim was really shit.” Ayaka slightly laughed.  

“Jesus Christ-”    

“Yep. Fun times.” Akira sighed, before looking at her phone. “Huh, 5:45 already, that went fast. Aya, you wanna stay here or go to dinner early?” 
“Stay here, when am I ever on time to shit?” 
“Alright, I’ll stay here too.” She turned around to face Daiki “You can go if you want, you already look way too confused anyway.” 

He simply waved and walked out.  

The dining room contained pure chaos. Hattori was sitting at one of the tables, trying to read something on his phone, while Kiki stood behind him, trying their god damned hardest to annoy him. Ryoko was leaning on the wall next to the door, and nodded to Daiki as he walked in.  

“Look at those idiots. Kiki thought it would be funny to piss Hattori off, but turns out he’s harder to crack then we thought. And now they’re trying even harder to piss him off, it’s fucking hilarious!”  

“Welp. I’m not one to judge, but this is a little weird-” He was about to continue, before Kiki started speaking again, and pretty loud, too.  

“Oh, come oooonnnn, answer me!”  

“Kiki, I am trying to read, I don’t need you yelling in my ear.”  

“Come on Hatty, loosen up!”  

“Never call me that again.” 
“Would you rather just Hat?” 

“My name is Hattori, not Hat or anything like that. Because I sure don’t remember being worn on anyone’s head.”  

Kiki pulled some weird, disappointed face, before running into the kitchen, giving Ryoko a high five in the progress. That made Daiki think of something.  

“So, you and Kiki seem really close, did you know each other before this?”  

“Oh, nah, we both met here, just like the rest of you, we just get along better, I guess.”  

“Ha, so instant friends?” 
“Do not bring that high-school movie shit into this, I do not need to picture that happening with myself.” she glared at him, her eyes showing enough emotion to make up for the hidden mouth. 

“Well that’s a weapon for future use.” he smirked, “Just put you in teen movie tropes, ha.” 
“You wouldn’t fucking dare.” 
“Oh, I would.” 

“You little shit.” They paused and laughed slightly, “Emphasis on the little.” 

Before any funny comeback could be made, Kiki ran back in, holding a glass of water. They tiptoed over to Hattori, and stood behind him. Daiki realised what they were planning way too late, as the jester poured the water right on Hattori’s head. He shot out of his seat, looking to mad it slightly scared everyone on the room, even Ryoko.  

“Kiki, were you the one that did that?” He asked, looking simultaneously calm and like he was about to strangle them .  

“ I’m not saying I didn’t.” they shrugged.  

“That answers nothing. It’s a yes or no question, and I need an answer.”  

“Okay fine it was me. You’re not gonna do anything to me, right?” 
“This’ll be fun to witness.” Ryoko mumbled to herself. 

“I-” Hattori was about to say something, before looking at the door and spotting Daiki. He sighed, before turning away from Kiki, “Oh, Daiki, you came in at a convenient time. Speaking of, what time is it?”  

“It’s uhh, five to six.” He said, as Kiki ran over to Ryoko.  

“Oh! People should start coming in any minute now!” he moved over to a table that didn't have any water on it (thanks, Kiki) and say down, gesturing for Daiki to join him, “And now we wait.”  

And wait they did. After just a minute, Ren came in, dragging Kana with her. Yuto, Aimi, and Kenta came shortly after. Mikiyo and Anake came shortly after Five had passed (Daiki could tell because he had set an alarm on his phone). Tea, Akari, Akira and Akoi came in, one by one. Leaving Hisao as the only missing member. Hattori sighed, pulled out his phone, typed something in, and after around a minute Hisao walked in. Daiki took a quick glance at his own phone, and saw a few messages from the new groupchat, all from unknown numbers, the most recent being: ‘ Hisao, come to the dining room or we won’t give you food. Socialise, or starve.’ Daiki named the contact who sent that as ‘Hat’.  

“Right, that’s everyone here. Please, take a seat.” Hattori announced.  

Everyone sat down at one main table, Hisao sitting in a chair at the end so he wouldn’t sit next to anyone.  

“Okay, so, with seating sorted, the next issue: Food. So, who here can cook?”  

Anake, Akira, and Tea raised their hands.  

“Who here can cook, without burning the kitchen down?”  

Anake lowered her hand.  

“Well that’s two options left. I’m somehow under the assumption that Tea wouldn’t want to make food for us all, am I right in thinking that?”  

“Indeed you fucking are. I can cook, doesn’t mean I will.”  

“Right. So, that leaves Akira as our designated cook. You okay with that?” he asked her.  

“Sure, I don’t mind. But, maybe having someone to help me out would be useful, because doing it on my own probably isn’t the best idea.”  

Hattori sighed, before turning to Anake. 
"You promise not to cause any destruction if we let you help her?” 

“No promises, but I’ll help wither way, cooking is one of the only non-chaotic things I like!”  

“Great, that’s settled! Akira’s our main cook, Anake’s our secondary. With that out of the way, we need to sort out food for tonight.” he frowned slightly, “Are you two okay with trying to make something fast, or should we figure out something else?”  

“Well, maybe we-” Akira started speaking, before being interrupted by Anake.  

“EVERYONE STAY THE FUCK SEATED, THE SINA HAS A PLAN!” she stood up and ran into the kitchen. Sounds of crashing, stabbing, and fire could be heard through the door. Everyone stayed sat down, too confused or scared.  

“Should we stop her?” Yuto questioned.  

“Probably.” Aimi responded.  

“Are we going to?” 
“I feel like she’d kill anyone who gets in her way.” Kenta stated, before casting a glance at Kana. 

“Wowwww, I feel targeted. So, I’m just the messenger because I wanna die now, that it?” she looked annoyed, “I mean, I’ll take it, if she kills me, I’m glad, but still-”  

“Kana, please be quiet, because I am about to take your offer of being a victim into consideration.” Ren looked annoyed.  

“Please do.”  

“No-”  

“Remind me again why this is our therapist?”  

“Maybe we should go a little softer on the suicidal per-” Yuto’s request was stopped as Anake kicked the kitchen door open, holding a large bowl of what appeared to be salad.  

“No need to thank me.”  

“...Why could we hear fire in there, this is literally just salad-”  

“I’M GETTING TO THAT.” She ran back off into the kitchen, poking her head out the door after a few seconds, “oh, you guys should probably grab some plates or shit, because table-eating only gets you food poisoning, I should know.”  

Hattori’s look of confusion and concern left, as he handed out plates to everyone. After about another 5 minutes in agonising silence, she returned, holding a fucking tray of sandwiches.  

“Well call me Keichi Sodeyama, because I sure know how to make a good sandwich.” she stared at everyone’s faces as she put the tray on the table, and took some food for herself, “You just gonna stare at me?”  

“Right, of course, sorry.” Hattori apologised, grabbed something for himself, and looked at the others, “Well, if you people don’t want to starve until tomorrow, I recommend you eat it. It’s not like it’s poisoned or anything, none of us are that willing to kill.”  

And with that, the sixteen students had their first true meal together. Well, more of fifteen of them, because Kana never ate anything, no matter how much Ren attempted to convince her. They all spoke about random things, in the small friend groups that were already beginning to form. Daiki and Hattori; Aimi and Yuto; Ren and Kana; Kiki and Ryoko; Anake and Mikiyo. Hisao and Tea were both sitting silently, though, being the anti-social bitches they are.

They ate, they finished, and they went back into the main entrance together. All of them claimed a mattress to sleep on, Daiki was unfortunate (and slow) enough to get the last pick, being the one directly in the middle of the room.  

‘ Welp, there goes any late night wake-ups I plan, then.’ He was annoyed, but hid it well.  

Everyone was lying in bed, unsure of what to do from there. Daiki attempted to text his dads, one last time, but the red of the ‘message not delivered’ killed all hopes of seeing them again. In a way to distract himself from that depressing thought, he decided to do some contact naming. He got onto the groupchat, and left the message;  

‘ Hey guys, it’s Daiki, don’t have any of your numbers saved, so can you just say who you are so I can save your contact?’  

‘Tea.’ he saved her as ‘News Bitch’.  

‘oh sure! Im Mikiyo! :D’ Saved as his name, Daiki didn’t have anything better to put.  

‘Kiki here!’ simply ‘Clown’.  

“oh yea, cntacts, im ryoko’ just ‘Sleepless” is telling enough.  

‘ur one true god needs NO introduction!!!’ And ‘Child.’  

Nobody else responded to the text, so he had to kind of guess who everyone else was from there, but by 7, he had everyone saved, some with funnier contact names then others. And now he had nothing.  

The true despair of the situation really hit him at that moment. He was in a killing game, with no real escape. He was probably going to die there, and he hated it. But strangely, he found comfort in that idea. The idea that he had a place to truly belong in his last years, last moths, last weeks, last days. He had made friends here already, and that was what mattered. He fell asleep, with hope of a calm stay here, despite how impossible that was.  

Everyone who had hope was a fool. Because something bad was already being planned. Those eyes, blue as the ocean waves, stared at the one who would cause it.  

Someone was going to die soon.  

Chapter Text

Three AM. Daiki Kobayashi had woken up, like you just sometimes randomly do in the middle of the night. As he sat up in his bed, the midnight hydration began to kick in. The calming waves of the sea outside we're the only real sound, as he quietly sighed to himself, and slowly put his glasses on, got out of bed, walked out of his bedroom, and made his way to the kitchen.  

As he walked in, rubbing his eyes, something felt wrong... there was a strange smell, filling his nostrils. As he took another step forward, he stepped into something wet, and warm. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he finally saw it. Collapsed on the floor, covered in the dark red of their own blood. It was too dark to make out any defining features, just long hair, and a pale face, and lifeless eyes. He stood there, the only sound he made was a quiet gasp, until he covered his own mouth as the glint of a blade, followed by the wet thud of another stab made itself known. He looked at the figure wielding the blade. Those dull blue eyes stared back, as if they were looking into his very soul.  

Daiki woke up with a gasp. Right. Just a dream. Of course, it was a dream. He turned to the side, prepared to go check on his sibling after that dream, just to see a passed out Ryoko, snoring very loudly. He had forgotten about the whole mansion situation, and the masked sleeper served as a loud reminder of his plight. He turned his phone on. 6:32 AM. He knew he was never gonna manage to fall back asleep after that nightmare. So, he simply got up and made his way to the kitchen for an early breakfast.   

Entering the kitchen, he spotted Tea, staring into a mug of coffee (The irony is real). not fully  wanting to do such early morning interaction but also not wanting to look rude, he walked up to her with a slight wave.  

“Tea, good mo-”  

“No.”  
“Wha-” 
“Don’t talk to me. I have just woken up and I need coffee to function.” 

‘ So Tea has a coffee addiction, funny.’ He silently watched as she drank the entire mug in one swig, probably concerning, but he’d seen people drink more amounts of less healthy things in less time, so he didn’t object.  

“Right, what did you want to say?”  

“I...Well I was gonna just say good morning but now I’m slightly scared.” 
“Any particular reason?” She stared down at him, he noticed a large scar near her right eye, usually covered by hair. He didn't have enough time to focus before he realised his lack of answer was probably suspicious. 

“...You know what, Nevermind, not important. I’m probably just way too tired.”  

“You and me both. But I can survive off caffeine and true crime, while you probably die from becoming comatose from not sleeping.”  

“I... What?”  

“Just listen. There are three people here who actually don't sleep: me, Yuto, and Ryoko. I do it because I have insomnia and shit to do. Ryoko does it because... I don't know, probably stays up all night watching dumb shit while also having Narcolepsy. And Yuto obviously has some shit going on in his home life, because of course he does.” 
“...Tea are you sure you aren't stalking us, this is oddly specific.” 

“As is the way of the reporter. I observe, and I share, the only shit I keep to myself is my past which is something we are not getting into.”  
He didn't even know what to say at this point. She stared at him blankly with that resting bitch face. It looked surprisingly punchable. 
But pushing those intrusive thoughts away, he sighed and went over to the cupboards to find some form of food. He heard the footsteps of Tea leaving as he looked.  
‘Cereal is a nope, and toast. There‘s probably meat in the fridge but I’m not bothered to cook..why must I hate every texture out there?’ 

“You looking for something?” A sudden voice from behind him caught him off guard. He turned around to see who it was, and was greeted with the bemused face of Aimi,” Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you or anything, you just looked like you were struggling.”  

He took a few seconds to process who the person talking to him was, because he was tired as fuck and already struggled to remember names. He eventually got to who she was, and mumbled out some form of response.  

“Don’t worry, just attempting to find something to eat. Failing.”  

“Is it because there’s no good food or just no food at all?”  

“Nothing I like.  I’m just way too picky for my own good.”  

“Ha, that must suck. Anything you don’t hate?”  

“Eh, I’m good with most fruits but I can’t see any, so that’s me starving this morning.”  

He heard a slight giggle from her after he said that.  

“Daiki, oh my god, you’re just short.”  

“I’m what??”  

“Daiki there’s a fruit bowl on the fridge, I think you’re just too short to see it.” She was fully laughing at that point.  

“Oh. OH. Also stop calling me short, I’m only 5’3, that’s taller than Hisao.” 
“True, but do you think I’m willing to insult the stabby shortie? Like hell I would!” 

“Fair point. Anyway, can you just pass me an apple or something before I break my neck trying to reach up there?”  

She just smirked, grabbed an apple from the unseen bowl, and threw it to him. Almost dropping it in the process, he caught it, nodded in thanks, and walked out of the room.  

From that point onwards, he did practically nothing. Deciding to just stay in the library and read, the most interaction he had when Anake came in with Mikiyo, but he had warded off any plans for further arson with a death glare. Eventually, he finished the book he had been reading (Pet lizards; A Definitive Guide, by Montgomery Smith) and with nothing better to do, he got up and left to find the living room, planning to just grab a sofa and fuck around on his phone.  
entering the living room, he was forced to throw any hopes of a normal evening out the (nonexistent) window, as he laid his eyes upon Kana Suzuki, holding a cup of bright blue liquid, with a bottle of bleach in the table in front of her. It was clear what her intentions were. He sighed, catching her attention. 

“O-oh...Hey Daiki..wasn't expecting to see you.”  

“Kana, what’s in the cup?”  

“Nothing?”  

“...It’s bleach isn't it?  

“...Maybe...”   

She lifted the cup up to her lips.  

“Kana don't you dare drink that.”  

“But-”  

“No buts. You take even a sip of that and I down the entire rest of the bottle, then you'll probably get executed for it.... wait, you want that.”He was already confusing himself, as she just stood there, about to drink it. He sighed before running over to her, and literally knocking that cup out of her hand.  

“HEY!”  

“DON’T ’HEY’ ME, I SAVED YOUR LIFE!”  

“YEA, I DON’T WANT THAT”  

He sighed, before texting something in the groupchat.  

“Who did you just text?”  

“Technically everyone, but it was specifically for Ren.”  

“WHAT?! Daiki please I don’t want another lecture from her.”  

“And I don't want my friend dying so I’m getting the most responsible one here to help.”  

“I thought Hattori was the most responsible?”  

“Yea but he’s currently being tormented by the jester so I can’t get him to help.”  

“He what?”  

“Just don't look at the groupchat, that stuff is chaos.”  

Just as he said that, Ren came running in, Yuto slowly following.  

“Kana, what the fuck are you doing?” she questioned, her voice sounded slightly threatening.  

“Yea what is she doing? Ren just read something on her phone and dragged me here with her, I don't understand what’s happening.” He asked, walking over to stand beside Daiki, probably ignoring Ren violently shaking Kana’s shoulders as she lectured.  

“Kana you fucking idiot, I let you leave for like ten minutes while I eat and now you’re trying to drink fucking bleach?! I love you and I don’t want you dying but I also don't want to have to always monitor you like you’re a toddler, you’re making this very difficult for me.”  

“Yeesh, I'm sorry I-” she noticed something, “Wait did you say you love me???”  

 A smile blush appeared on Ren’s face.  

“Uh... Platonically?”  

“Oh, alright. Anyway, why do you care so much if I die?”  

“Because you are my friend. Also you dying makes life harder for all of us because we’d probably have to solve your ‘murder’ and-”   

“God, she sounds like my mother right now. This is bringing back some memories.” Yuto started talking at Daiki, while Ren continued.  

“Same with me but for my dad. We all just have that one parent who gives lectures like that, huh?”  

“Guess so. But mine would just do it any chance she got, so less justified than this one.” 
“Oh.” He was unsure of what to say to that, ”That sucks.” 

“Yep.”  

They stood in silence, watching the other two argue over Kana dying, unsure of what to say or do to break it up. Eventually, Ren just picked Kana up in a bridal hold.  

“Ren what are you doing???” Kana was the first to ask the question on everyone's minds.  

“I am taking you to eat something, because you need it.”  

“What?! Ren please I don’t need it-”  

“Too bad! This is for your own good.” She was already carrying her out of the room, despite Kana’s objections.  
“PLEASE-” 

But it was too late, she was already being carried off to the kitchen. The men were left alive in the room, confused as fuck.  

“Huh. Ren is strong.” 
“Yep. Slightly worrying, she just picked her up without any issue. She could probably break your leg with her bare hands if she wanted to.” Yuto commented, nonchalantly, that just out Daiki on edge. 

“Well thanks for that image, totally didn't need that.”  

“Listen, I point out any threat, you’ve gotta get used to this.” 
“...” he wasn't sure what to say, is he just sighed and left. 

From then, the day went by slowly. Nothing eventful, nothing fun, nothing strange, just nothing. His entire day was mostly uneventful, the same for most others. But one person. Just one. They had forged a plan already. They had a plan to escape, even if it meant killing everyone.  

they stood in the bathroom, gazing at their reflection in the mirror. Those tired eyes stared back at them, as they gripped the sink harder. As they shakily sighed, they started mumbling to themself.  

“Why did you have to get into this? You just had to go on that stupid fucking walk and now you’re here.” They sighed, as they looked down at the dagger in front of them, “For fucks sake. Stop getting attached to these people. We all know what happened last time you did tha-”  

they were interrupted by a knocking on the door, followed by a voice.  

“Whoever’s in there, we’re doing food now, so you gotta come and stuff, so hurry up.”  

they sighed again, stared at their reflection, before putting the dagger in their pockets, and leaving to the dining room.  

Maybe they’d have to wait longer to start this.  

Chapter Text

Kiki Hayashi was in a good mood. Well, they always were, how could they not be in this situation? Even after just waking, they were up and out of bed almost immediately. And now they were in the kitchen, attempting to cook some bacon (well, they were pretty sure it was bacon) without lighting the entire kitchen on fire. They were failing, as a small flame made itself known. As the jester turned and noticed it, they let out an involuntary squeak, before attempting to beat the fire to death with a nearby wooden spoon. All that did was feed the fire a wooden spoon, as it grew further. They screamed for a second, now desperately attempting to get this thing out. After a few seconds, they gasped as a blinding light flooded their vision...  

“Kiki, what the fuck are you doing, it’s like five in the morning.” Ryoko was standing in the doorway, her hand still over the light switch she just turned on. They stared at Kiki, then the fire, then back at Kiki, and sighed. Those eyes looked more tired by the second, as she silently walked over to the sink, doused a tea towel in water, and put it over the pan, letting the fire die out.  
“RYO!” They quickly picked her up in a hug after she helped. She just looked confused,” YOU SAVED ME FROM THE HUUUGGEEEE FIRE!” 

“Yep, no problem, can you put me down now-”  

“Hmmmmm...what's the magic wordddd?” They were teasing her, but she didn't look annoyed by it.  

“Can you put me down, please ?" She sighed as they did it, “Now, you gonna explain what you were doing up at five in the fucking morning, your squeaking woke me up. Thought someone was getting killed or some shit.”  

“Khehe, sorry, I’m an early riser! I was just trying to make some food, and, well, you know the rest.”  

“... I'd be mad at you, but I swear that laugh has hypnotic properties, that stupid fucking laugh makes me forgive you-”  

“YAY, I’M FORGIVEN! Khehe, maybe I am hypnotic!” They smiled.  

“Oh my god- Kiki, shut up, you’ll wake the entire house up.” Ryoko quietly spoke, while pulling her mask down to drink some juice straight out the carton.  
“Say, you never take that mask off for anyone, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who's actually seen you take it off. And then then I haven't seen your actual face. Why?” 

“Huh?” she turned around, but not before pulling it back up to cover her mouth again,” Oh, I, uh, don’t really wanna get into why. It just looks cool, that’s the main reason. Still, if you really wanna see my face...”  

She sighed, before taking the mask fully off and looking up at them with her arms crossed. Kiki didn't know what they were expecting, but this was underwhelming. She had more of those spots of lighter skin (they could never remember the word, it’ll come to them eventually) and dry lips, but that was pretty much it. She smirked before pulling it back up.  

“see? No horrific scars or shit, I just don’t trust most folks with my face. You’re just lucky you’re my closest friend.”  

“AWWW, YOU LOOK SO COOL RYOKO!” they picked her up in a supportive bear hug, despite her best efforts to escape. that hug was short lived, however, as a tired voice interrupted them.  

“Wow, cute stuff. But can you two please shut up, because some of us are actually trying to sleep.” Yuto. He glared at them both as Kiki put her down, while she was muttering an apology. His gaze wavered when Kiki gave eye contact. He just yawned and walked back over to the entrance/sleeping area.  

“Welp, guess we should go try and sleep again?” They asked, Ryoko just nodded in response, before promptly being carried away in a bridal hold, too confused and stunned to speak.  

Eventually they made it to the entrance, as Kiki flopped onto their mattress, still hugging onto Ryoko.  

“Uhhh, Kiki? This isn’t my bed-” she attempted to escape, but the jester was out cold, passing out almost immediately, they’re strong, too, it seems, because Ryoko couldn't manage to get out of their hug. She sighed, accepting her fate, and just closed her eyes in an attempt to sleep.  

The void of sleep. It was never an enjoyable thing for Kiki. And as they laid there, flashes of life played before their eyes. The yelling, the cold, the pain. They could almost feel the blood on their face and hands, as they twitched, somehow feeling a dulled pain from just remembering it. the thoughts and memories swirled around their head, flashing for no more than a few minutes before disappearing into the next. After what seemed like hours, a scene appeared, and stayed for once. they were in a forest, in the middle of a circle of people. There were eight of them, but the seating implied there used to be sixteen. As they looked around at the people, one specific one stood out among the rest. Ryoko. They reached over to her, about to ask what was happening, but they were interrupted by a laugh from behind. They whipped their head around to see who it was and was met with the sight of an annoyed Hattori. He sighed, while reaching a hand into his pocket.  

“Akimi.” the jester’s blood ran cold upon hearing their real name spoken. “It’s nothing personal. Let’s face it, you’re the entire reason they got killed in the first place. You’re just the next best pick for the culprit.”  

And that’s when they saw the gun. The didn’t even have time to apologise, to scream, to cry, before they gun was pointed right at their head, and the trigger was pulled...  

Kiki woke up with a gasp. They had had nightmares before, but that one was on another level. It seemed so real , like it was an actual memory or something. But it couldn't be, they had never met Hattori before this, let alone be shot by him! Maybe it was best to just ignore it, Hattori was their friend, right?   

They sat up and assessed the room and saw nobody in it. They must have slept in. But upon closer inspection, they weren’t alone in the room, Ayaka was sitting on her bed, looking confused and slightly scared. They rushed over to her, eager to help.  

“Ayaka! Are you okay? You look scared!”  

“AGH- Oh. Jester whose name I totally remember. Kiko or something.” they weren’t bothered to correct her, easy mistake to make, “But yea, I’m fine. Just a really weird dream.”  

“Lemme guess, ya got killed by someone who would totally never kill you?”  

“How the fuck did you know?! But yea. It was weird, Kira looked insane, in a weird different outfit. And there was like a cult leader bitch? And I’m pretty sure a chemist who gave me Xanax?? I don’t know, all I really remember was Kira straight up shooting me!”  

“Yeesh, oddly specific. But still, I had something similar with my dream! Crazy, right?!”  

“Welp, that’s one way to put it. Anyway, I’m gonna go grab food now.”  She got up, and started walking over to the door.  

“Ah, okay, I’ll join ya!” They hopped up and followed her, skipping out. Once they got into the kitchen, they spotted a few other people there; Akira was waiting beside the toaster, Ren was at the sink, scrubbing at the horribly burned pan (whoops) and Hattori was leaning on a counter, talking with the both of them. So basically, the most responsible people, all in the same room. This was gonna be fun. Kiki crept up behind Hattori, before reaching out and shaking his shoulders from behind.  

“Heyyyy Hatty Boyyyyy~”  

“AGH WHAT THE-” It took him a second to recognise the jester's voice, “Oh. You.”  

“Me!”  They smiled down at him.  

“Ha, seems like you got a little friend there.” Ren smirked.  

“Well, little’s underplaying her.” Akira had to point it out, I mean, Kiki was 6’10 after all.  

“True, he’s a big friend then”   

Ayaka wat watching this unfold and backed out the room, not wanting to witness whatever chaos what about to happen. Hattori just sighed.  
“Wait, did you call Kiki a him?” Ren quickly noticed. 

“Well yea, Kiki’s a guy, right?”  

“I thought she was a girl.”  

“God fucking damn it it’s too early for this shit. I hate this all.” Hattori was mumbling under his breath, as the girls started arguing about Kiki’s gender.  

“Agh, gender-”  

“Wait, Kiki, what is your gender?” Akira finally asked.  

“Oh yea, I’ll have some toast!” They grinned, leaning on Hattori’s shoulder.  

“No, I mean, are you a boy or girl?”  

“Jester!”  

“You know what, I give up, you’re just genderless now.” Akira sighed, as the toaster pinged, throwing out a black mess that (maybe?) used to be toast. “... I’m eating it anyway.”  

And she did, picking up the charcoal/toast and putting it in her mouth, before walking out, presumably to find her sister.  

“Wow. That’s probably not healthy.” Ren blinked, before continuing to scrub at the pan.  

“Khehe, that’s some funky breakfast!” The jester laughed, jumping, while still leaning on Hattori’s shoulder.  

“Ack- Why are your shoulders so sharp?!”  

“Whoopses! Khehe, is this annoying ya?”  

“Yes. Very much.” He sighed.  

“Yea, Kiki, maybe we can leave Hattori alone?” Ren asked, trying to keep polite.  

“Awwwwhhhh, but Hat is my friendo!”  

“I’m really not, please get off me.”  

“Heyyy! You’re so mean to me!” They pulled an exaggerated frown, before smirking, ”Khehe, I’m sorry, it’s just so fun!”  

“Yea, no, let’s let him relax.”  

 “Hmmmmmm....Oki!” they hopped back, pointing some finger guns at Ren, before skipping out.  

“...I’m gonna stab them, I swear to god.” Hattori mumbled as they left, but it was still heard.  

Arriving in the library, they flopped into a beanbag, sighing in relief. That was, until, they heard a muffled voice from under the chair.  

“Ow. You’re just sitting on me.”  
“AGH, SORRY!” they jumped up, and moved the beanbag over, to reveal Hisao, who was slowly sitting back up. 

“Yea, you fucking should be. Can I ever just sit down without being sat on by a clown?!”  

“Heyyyy, I’m a jester! Not a clown! If you’re gonna insult me, get my job right!”  

“Yea yea whatever, you're still some annoying circus act.” He stood up, and began to walk over to the exit, before being interrupted.  

“Lemme be more annoying!” They exclaimed, before picking Hisao up, and holding him up in front of their face.  

“Excuse me, what the actual fuck are you doing?! Put me the fuck down!”  

“Awwwww, you’re so smol!” They grinned.  

“Wha.. What the fuck does ‘smol’ even mean?!” He was trying (failing) to escape from the jester’s hold.  

“It meannnnnsssss you’re a tiny lil guy!”  

“I hate you.”  

“Come onnn, gimme a break! I never see you anyway!” That much was correct, for the last few days Hisao had spent basically all day locking himself in the bathroom, only really coming out when being forced to eat or something. Kiki never understood it.  

“Yea, and I want it to stay that way.”  

“Khehe, you’re a lil meanie!” They sat back down on the beanbag, still holding onto Hisao, despite his objections.  

“Oh my fucking- let me go.”  

“Nahhhh! Wait, ima just...” they put a hand onto his mask, obviously intending to take it off. Their hand was quite literally slapped away.  

“You do that and you lose your hand.”   

“Awhhh, pleaseeee? What've you got to hide?”  

“I’m hiding it for a reason, I hate people seeing my face, you included.” 
“Whyyyyyyy???” 

“Because I hate you all. Now let me go-” he managed to kick his way out of the jester’s grasp.  

“Hmph. Welp, hope ya get a lil better or kinder soon!” 
“Wha- why are you saying it like I’ve got some disease or something???” 

“Well, what’s sadness other than something we can cure? I say, we find a way to make all the grumpy peeps feel better!”  

“…Your mind must be so fucking weird.”  

“I get that a lot!”  They smiled, as he walked over to the door. He turned around one last time, presumably to look at them (hard to tell with masks), before leaving.   

‘Huh, he’s weird.’ They thought to themself, leaning back in the beanbag.  

  After a little while, they grew bored, and decided to begin reading through the groupchat, because that probably had enough content to keep them entertained. They opened the chat app, and scrolled up to the messages from last night.  

‘ Alright people, time to sleep for the night, sleep well folks.’ - Hatty Boy, 22:00  

‘Oki, goodnight! :D’ - Femboy, 22:01  

‘gn.’ - Sadge gal, 22:01  

‘Sleep well, mortals!’ - God Kid, 22:03  

‘I probly wont sleep, but gn anywys.” - RYOOOO <3, 22:05  

‘Yuto, you’re on nightwatch, right?’ - Hatty Boy, 22:06 

‘Yep.’ - Anger Issues, 22:06  

…  

‘Kiki, turn your fucking brightness down, I can see your phone from the other side of the room.’ - Teapot, 22:15 

‘Heyyyy, i can’t help itttt! >:[ i don’t have good vision!!!’ -Me, 22:15 

‘yea, dont mke fun of kiki, thy cant hlep it’ - RYOOOO <3, 22:16  

‘I had a stroke reading that, Ryoko wtf’ - Fire girl, 22:17 

‘R/ihadastroke’ - Clone 1, 22:17 

…  

‘LMAO, she went offline.’ - Clone 1, 22:19  

‘Aya, could we not?’ - Clone 2, 22:19  

‘People, some of us are trying to sleep right now, can you please stop texting?’ - Doctor Broccoli Hair, 22:19 

After that one, there were basically no new messages, as they scrolled down, and sent a new message:  

‘Hey hey peeps, how are y’all doing?’ - Me, 14:26  

‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAA’ - Femboy, 14:26  

‘👍’ - Short One, 14:26  

‘Miki are you okay-’ - Fire Girl, 14:27  

‘:3’ - Femboy, 14:27  

‘To answer your question, Jester, I am feeling more powerful than ever!!! ’ - God Kid, 14:30  

‘Akari, I’m going to slap you again If you don’t shut the fuck up.’ - Teapot, 14:30 

‘:0’ - Femboy, 14:30  

‘You DARE threaten me!? YOU SHALL PAY!!! (Where are you?)’ - God Kid, 14:32  

‘As if I’d tell you, fucking idiot.’ - Teapot, 14:32  

‘Are you two finished arguing?’ - Clone 2, 14:32   

‘If the idiot child shuts up, yes.’ - Teapot, 14:33 

…  

‘Good. Uh, Ren, you wanna do the thing?’ - Clone 2, 14:38  

‘Sure, gimme a sec to type’ - Doctor Broccoli Hair, 14:38 

‘@Fire Girl @Clone 1 @Teapot @RYOOOO <3 @Sadge Gal @Acty Act, can yall come meet me and Akira at the Living Room?’ - Doctor Broccoli Hair, 14:40 

‘oooooooo, the gals are planning something???’ - Me, 14:40 

‘Yes, but please don’t come, this is a girl's only thing.’ - Clone 2, 14:41 

‘Awwwww, I should be included then!’ - Me, 14:41 

‘You’re saying you’re a girl?’ - Clone 2, 14:42  

 'Never said that!!!’ - Me, 14:42 

‘... Yea just don’t come.’ - Clone 2, 14:42 

The jester giggled in their seat; it was always a good day with people confusing their gender! they quickly set a half hour timer, put the phone down, and laid back.  

 
Hiding in the storage room opposite the living room, Kiki was watching as the girls filed out, all talking within eachother. But one was stalling behind, typing something on her phone. Ayaka. Once she got close enough, the jester grabbed her by the arm and pulled her inside the storage room. 

“ACK- WHAT THE FU-”  

“Shhhhh.” They put a finger up to their lips, grinning at her, ”Khehe, hiya!”  

“Kimi??? What the hell was that!”  

 “It’s Kiki, and I wanted to figure out what y'all girls were talking about!”  

“Ha, as if I’d tell you!”  

“Hmmmm, fine, I’ll find it out!” They said, before swiping her phone, right from her hand.  

“HEY, GIVE THAT BACK!” she attempted to grab the phone back, but the height difference between the two made it impossible.  

“Well, lemme check these funky messages, maybe I’ll find out what you’re scheming!” They opened up the messaging app, opening a few of the chats, before stopping at one, looking confused, “Who’s ’Mexikuma’?? And WHY ARE THEY ASKING FOR FEET PICTURES-”  

“Oh fuck.” The colour visibility drained from Ayaka’s face. ”Just, please don't scroll up-”  

The jester immediately ignored that, scrolling up, before dropping the phone in disgust.  

“OH, EW, AYAKA WHAT ARE THOSE PICTURES-”  

“LISTEN, HE PAID AND I SENT THEM, THAT’S ALL IT IS!” she covered her face in embarrassment, picking up her phone.  

“Jeez, is this what it’s like being a YouTuber?”  

“Yep. Sometimes it’s cool, and sometimes it sucks ass. Welcome to the world of fame.”  

“Wowwwww, that sounds suuperrrr bad!! Here, lemme give you some support!”  
“What?” 

The jester proceeded to pat her head, while she just stood there, confused.  

“Uhhh, what-”  

“Headpats! If Shirai taught me anything, it’s that headpats make everything better!”  

“Wha-” the YouTuber was just confused, as the jester kept the headpats going, ”Who’s Shirai??”  

“She was an acrobat person who I worked with! She was cool, I miss her...”  

“Huh? What happened to her?”  

“Oh, she, uh, kinda fell during one of her acts and got pretty badly messed up, had to get rid of the entire leg! So she quit. Sad times.”  

“Oh... Don’t really know what to say to that. Must suck.”  

“Yep, but hey, we always find a way to get thing right again!” They threw their arms up in the air, ”Khehe, I shall not be bested!”  

“Whoa! I could use some advice from you, I need that energy in my life.”  

“Welp, if ya need lessons, I’m your guy! Or girl! Or just jester!” They smirked at her confusion, ”Gender is such a funny thing!”  

“Funny. Yea. Sure.” She was clearly uninvolved, frantically deleting many messages on her phone (probably didn't want Kiki to see her embarrassing texts again, suspicious)  

“Hmmmm, oki, byeeeee!” They waved, and skipped/ran away.  

Dinner was strange. Why? Because none of the girls were present. Apart from Akira in the kitchen, all the girls were just missing, and so was Daiki! Any and all messaging attempts were completely failing, everyone trying was just being left on read.  

“Uhh, so where did the chicks go?” Kenta spoke up first.  

“Not just them, Daiki’s gone too. Strange." Yuto replied.  

“Yes, it is curious.” Hattori mentioned, not overly contributing. 
“Ha! Maybe the small one killed off the females, like the mere mortals they are!” Akari laughed. 

“Fuck off kid, he’s literally taller than you.” Hisao mentioned, annoyed.  

“Yea, also do you really think Daiki would be able to take on Anake? Let alone all the other girls! No way!” Mikiyo exclaimed.  

“Psh, Anake? Ren is way more of a threat.” Yuto stated, ”I don't know about you, but I’ve seen her pick up people without any effort, she’s strong.”  

“No shit, she’s trans.” Hisao casually revealed, leaning back in his chair. Everyone turned their heads to him.  

“Dude, what?!” Kenta questioned.  

“Yea, Ren is a transgender woman. Explains her strength.”  

“Hisao! It’s rude to just call any strong girl trans!” Mikiyo exclaimed.  

“No-” He sighed, ”I mean she literally told me she was a trans woman. Fucking idiots. And anyway, I can’t be transphobic.”  

“Oh? And why’s that?” Hattori asked, curious.  

“Bitch, I’m trans too.”  

“Oh damn, congrats bro, thanks for telling us!” Kenta said.  

Kiki was unsure of what to say, so they just clapped. A little, while smiling. After those bombshells were dropped, Akira walked in, holding a platter of burgers, one for each of the people in the room. She put it on the table, waved, and left (presumably to meet with the other girls?).  

All the men (plus Kiki) ate in relative confusion, all where everyone else had went. Entering the entrance afterwards, it was still a non-answer on where they were. And as they all slept, there was still no answer.  

...   

Some people are idiots, not even questioning over half of the population disappearing without explanation. Oh well, that will make it easier when someone dies, maybe they won't notice them disappearing. Maybe they won't notice a new death.  

Chapter Text

Well, this was confusing. Daiki was just walking down the hallway, making his way to the dining room, before being (he assumed) knocked out. As he came to, he could tell he was in the library, sitting against a wall, but for some reason, there was a pile of blankets and pillows in the corner. As he looked up, he got quite a fright by seeing Anake staring at him, smiling like a maniac.  

“Annndddd he’s up!” She yelled over her shoulder. How had it taken Daiki so long to notice all the other girls were also there, scattered around the room. Ren ran over upon hearing what Anake said.  

“Daiki, hello! Uhh, this is probably a little weird-”  

“We kidnapped you!” Anake smirked, as Ren shot her a death glare. 
“No, we didn't kidnap you-” 

“Well we did, we knocked him out and took him somewhere without his consent, that is literally kidnapping.” Tea spoke up from across the room.  

“Shut up, Tea-”  

“Okay, okay, can someone please explain what is happening?”  

“Two words:” Ayaka poked her head out from behind a bookcase,” Girls’ Night!” 
“What???” He stood up, “But I’m a guy-” 

“You’re the gay friend! Every slumber party has one~” Ayaka said, in a singsong voice. Akira sighed.  

“I...Is it that obvious I’m gay?”  

“Yes.” Was the simple reply from Tea.  

“Right, with that all sorted, we should probably check if everyone’s here. So, uhh, if you hear your name, just respond or something.” Ren announced, opening the notes app on her phone.  

“Uhm, Aya and Kira?”  

“Here and here!” Ayaka answered for the both of them.  

“Great, Tea?”  

“Present.”  

“Anake?” She glanced over at Anake, staring into space with a creepy smile, ”I’ll take that as a yes. Umm, Kana?”  

“Here, though I don't see why anyone wants it.”  

“... Aimi?”  

“Yep!”  

“Great, and that just leaves Ryoko!” she smiled, looking around, as the smile quickly faded, “Where’s Ryoko?”  

“I haven't seen her.” Anake shrugged.  

“I swear, if she just didn't show up-”  

Ren’s statement was interrupted by Ryoko kicking one of the doors open, holding a TV, she was followed by Kodo as she entered.  

“Uhhh, why do you have a TV??” Aimi asked, then lowered her voice,” And what’s the robot doing here?”  

“Wowww, yall are so hostile at me! I'm here to help!” Kodo grabbed the TV from Ryoko's arms, before hooking it up to a wall and messing with the wiring.  

“Help?” Akira raised an eyebrow.  

“Yep! Ryoko here told be about y'all's lil slumber party, and I thought you would want a movie night, so I’m giving you this! I’m such a good landlord.” She smiled to herself, stepping away from the TV, and throwing a remote over to Ryoko, and walking out, ”Enjoy!”  

Ryoko failed at catching it, it just hit her straight in the face.  

“OW, FUCK!” She looked annoyed, before picking it back up, ”Well, ignoring that, movie time.”  

“Wait wait wait,” Ren spoke up, ”What about food?"  

“Good point, I think I missed lunch too, I’m just hungry.” Daiki pointed out.  

“Isn’t Kira on cooking duty anyway? Soooo, what are the guys eating?” Ayaka questioned. Akira’s face paled slightly.  

“Oh god I forgot about that. Uhh, I’ll be back, don't start anything without me.” She stated, before running out.  

And they did just that. As expected with seven people all waiting for food, they just did not talk. After a short while (felt like an eternity, though) Akira came back, passing out burgers to everyone. Daiki couldn't help but notice Ayaka’s looked different. He was attempting to figure out why, before she noticed his staring.  

“It’s vegetarian, that’s why it looks a little weird.” 
“Oh, are you-” 

“Yea, I am, have been for like five years.” She smiled, before continuing her eating.  

“Right, people.” Ryoko clapped her hands,” Movies, what kinda stuff do we want?”  

“Well, I usually prefer things with medical elements, but I don't really mind.” Ren replied.  

“Hmmm, maybe some foreign men in it.” Ayaka requested, ”Don’t judge me, I like foreigners-”  

“Ugh, just no romance.” Tea demanded.  

“Oooo, disturbing shit!” Anake perked up.  

“I, uh, don’t really have preferences.” Daiki stated.  

“Same here, I don’t mind.” Form Akira.  

“Hmmm...” Ryoko thought for a second, before coming up with something, “I have the perfect idea!”  

She turned the TV on, opening and closing many streaming services before finding what she was looking for. Something called The Human Centipede. He had heard the name before, his sibling had spoken about it once or twice, be he had no idea what it was about. From the name alone, he could assume it was a kind of superhero thing? Who knows, he would find out soon enough, as Ryoko sat down with the others and pressed play.  

It was not, in fact, a superhero thing. As the end credits rolled, the entire room was silent. Gazing over at Ryoko, Daiki could tell she was grinning under that mask. The first actual noise from anyone was an astounded chuckle from Anake.  

‘Whoa. That...That was awesome!”  

“Well. That was... Deeply disturbing. I hate how it was mostly medically accurate.” Ren was staring at the (now turned off) screen, probably contemplating her life choices.  

Akira had just gone pale, while Aimi looked on the verge of tears. Kana and Tea looked no different.  

“HA! Ahhh, this is one of my favourite movies for a reason!” Ryoko cackled in her beanbag, ”And hey, if we have time, we can watch the other two.”  

“THERE’S MORE?!” Daiki blurted out, concerned for these filmmakers.  

“Yea, there’s three Human Centipede movies.”  
“What plot even is there???” Ayaka questioned, ”I mean, maybe there’s hope for that one poor woman in the middle. Maybe she gets out?" 

“Ahaaa, no. You see, in the second one, the first is a movie in-universe,and it’s the same in the third one with the previous two being in-universe movies. Which is fun, because it implies this very universe we’re in could be a setup for another!” Ryoko stated, obviously smirking at everyone's reactions, ”Now, how about we-”  

“How about we not???” Ren butted in, “Let’s do literally anything else.” 
“Uhh, how about..uh..” Aimi was trying to think of any activity, “Truth or Dare?” 

“Yea, good idea Aimi.” Ren smiled, getting up and turning the lights on.  

As the lights turned on, They all gathered closer to eachother, making a sort of circle formation.  
“Okay, who’s asking first?” Ren asked, sitting back down. 
“I guess I will?” Daiki answered first, ”Tea, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.”  
“Okay, uhhh..” he searched his mind for any kind of question, ”Who’s your least favourite person in the entire mansion?” 

“I feel like you’re going to snitch on me if I say.” she glared at him, “But whatever, it’s Yuto.”  

“Wait, what?!” Aimi looked confused, ”Why him??”  

“Yea, he’s not as bad as like, Hisao, or something.” Akira pointed out.  

“You try being literally named Yuto during the most traumatic time of your life.” She rolled her eyes.  

“Ohhh, so Yuto’s your deadname, I’m guessing?” Ren asked.   

“Bingo.” She sipped her drink (Daiki assumed it was coffee), “Anyway, guess it’s my turn. Anake, truth or dare?”  

“Dare!” She grinned.  

“Play the knife game, that sounds like something you’d do anyway.”  

“On fuck yes!” Her grin widened, as she as she pulled out one of the wings on her back.  

“Wait, those wings are detachable?” Ayaka asked.  

“Well duh, did ya think I had real wings? HA!” she laughed, ”But really, these things are custom made knives, they go on the hoodie because it’s easy to carry around. Now, watch this.”  

As she said that, she placed her right hand on the floor, fingers spread apart, and started stabbing the spaces between her fingers, all while keeping direct eye contact with Tea. Tea just smirked, and raised an eyebrow.  

“didn't know you were left handed.”  

“I’m not, this is just to prove how good I am at it!”  

“Anake, maybe actually look at your hand, this is stressing me enough as it is-” Akira requested.  

“Psh, I’m fine! I’m like, a professional this.” To prove the point, she sped up.  

Ryoko, who has been sitting next to Daiki, leaned over and whispered to him.  

“Ha, what if I throw something at her?”  

“Yea no, let’s not do that-” He quickly responded, attempting to whisper.  

“What the fuck are you two-” Anake turned to face them, before freezing as she, somehow, stabbed her own hand.  

“ANAKE-” Ren yelped at the sight.  

“Huh. Guess I failed.” She stared at her now bleeding hand, mostly unreacting, ”Yea, this kinda hurts.”  

“Jesus fucking Christ Anake-” Ren sighed, Throwing a bandage in her direction, ”Patch that up before we get blood everywhere.”  

“Yea yea yea.” She rolled her eyes, while bandaging the stabbed hand, ”Right, Akira, truth or dare?”  

“Truth?”  

“What do you think is the worse way to get murdered?”  

 "Wow, morbid much?” She raised an eyebrow, ”But uh, I’d say something happening while you were asleep? Like, someone murdering you while you're just powerless to stop it, It's fucked up in my mind. Bonus points if you were knocked out by the killer, that’s even worse...”  

“And someone's taking notes now, great job.” Tea sipped her drink again, rolling her eyes.  

“Tea, shut up, we don't need paranoia right now." Ren glared at her.  

“Ha, I’m just saying, it’s a good chance one of the people in this room's gonna end up a killer.” She smirked, putting her drink down. Daiki silently sighed, already expecting a fight to break out.  

“God, can you be optimistic for once in your life?!”  

“OKAY, LET’S NOT FIGHT-” Akira butted in, waiting for the two to visibly calm before speaking again, ”Good. Now, It's my turn to ask, right? So, Kana. Truth or dare?”  

“What-” Kana had obviously been zoned out, snapping back to reality as her name was said, ”Uhh, I... Dare?”  

“I dare you to let Ren hug you.” Akira smirked.  

“What, why?!”  

“Because you need a hug and Ren looks like she does them well.”  
Ren shrugged at this statement,  

“I guess I’m good at it.” 
“Fine just get it done with.” Kana sighed, allowing Ren to get up and hug her. Daiki smiled, as he noticed a small blush on both of their cheeks. It went on for a few seconds, before Tea loudly sighed. 

“You can stop, you know.”  
“Right, yea, sorry-” Kana looked embarrassed as they both stopped hugging, ”So I have to ask someone now? Okay, Ryoko?” 

... No answer.  

“Ryoko?” All heads in the room turned to where Ryoko had sat, before a shrill scream pierced through the air.  

“AAAAAAHH, SPIDER-!” Aimi had jumped out of her seat and backed away from Ryoko, who looked to be passed out, still sitting down.  Looking closer, Daiki spotted a large spider, crawling on her arm. The moment he saw it, he slowly got out of his seat and backed away. By the looks of things, everyone else had done roughly the same. Apart from Anake, that is.  

“It’s a spider, what’s the big deal?” She shrugged.  

“THE BIG DEAL IS I’M FUCKING TERRIFIED OF THEM-” Ayaka screamed out.  

“YEP, AGREE WITH THAT." Aimi agreed.  

“GUYS, STOP SCREAMING, IT’S PROBABLY A BAD IDEA TO SCARE IT MORE.” Daiki pointed out, ignoring his own advice.  

“EEK, IT MOVED!”  

It had, in fact, moved, the spider was now on Ryoko’s forehead, as she stayed sleeping.  

“WHAT IF IT CRAWLS INTO HER MOUTH?!?!”  

“SHE’S WEARING A MASK, DUMBASS.”  

“MAYBE IT CAN BITE THROUGH IT, WE DON’T KNOW!”  

“IT’S A SPIDER, NOT A MOTH-”  

“Can we stop screaming? I can just take it off her.” Kana offered.  

“ARE YOU INSANE!?” Ren gasped” YOU ARE NOT TOUCHING THAT THING, EVEN WITH YOUR DEATH WISH-”  

 “Ughhh, you never let me ge-”  

 Kana’s complaining was cut off by a loud metallic thud. Like something metal hitting against flesh. Turning to the source of it, everyone saw Ryoko, now very much awake, and bleeding through the mask. Beside her was what looked like Tea’s coffee cup, with a small smear of blood.  

“TEA WHAT THE FUCK?!” She looked genuinely confused, probably because she had just been woken up, as she put a hand up to the bleeding part of her mask (presumably her nose)  

“What? It killed the spider, didn't it?"  

“The what.”  

“Not important. But don't get pissy at me, I helped.”  

“Tea,” Ren sighed, ”Do me a favour and never help again.”  

“Woww, I feel so loved.” she rolled her eyes.  

“Okay, let’s not start anything,” Akira butted in, ”Ryoko, do you need any help?”  

“Gonna go with yes, I think my nose is broken.”  

Ren sighed again, mumbling something as she walked the door, beckoning Ryoko to go with her. They both left.  

The tension was thick, as everyone awaited their return. Nobody had to say it, but there was a subconscious fear that something bad had happened to the two of them. It felt like an hour had passed (maybe they were just nervous) until the footsteps could be heard again. The door was opened, as Ren and Ryoko stepped back in.  

“Yea, I was right, the teapot broke my fucking nose.” Ryoko announced, still wearing the bloodstained mask from before. Why hadn’t she taken it off?  

“Jeez, sorry, but don’t call me teapot.”  

“I’ll call you what I like, you broke my nose!” she said, sitting back down.  

“Right, all that stuff out of the way-” Ren checked the time, “Huh, only just gone midnight. I’d say there’s time for one more thing to do. Uhhh, what about that fucking... What's the name.. Put a Finger Down?”  

Everyone just shrugged, nodded, or mumbled agreements. Apart from Ayaka, she probably knew this game better than the rest because it was some kind of internet trend.  

They all started by holding their hands in front of them, just the normal setup for the game.  

“I guess I’ll start!” Ayaka piped up, “Put a finger down if youuu... have any siblings.”  

Daiki, Ayaka, Akira and Ren followed through, and put a finger down, while Anake kept swapping between up and not.  

“What if you don’t know if she’s alive or not?” 
“Uhhhh...” Akira looked both puzzled and concerned, “I’d put it down, we’ll be hopeful, right?” 

Anake shrugged and did as suggested, before speaking.  

“Okay, put a finger down if you’ve got scars!” she grinned, “Bonus points if you show.”  

Anake, Tea, and Akira started, all gesturing to the on on their faces, Kana followed, not even bothering to explain the obvious, but the more surprising one was Ryoko. She shrugged.  

“Got loads under my shirt and shit, but if you want proof,” she slightly unzipped her jacket, showing one on her neck for a second.   

“Uhhh, finger down if you’ve broken a bone?” Ren quickly said. Anake, Ayaka, Ryoko, Kana and Ren all did.  

“Ha, idiots, how the fuck do you even do that shit? Well, other than Kana, I can guess that one.” Tea rolled her eyes at the glares she got, “Fine, I’ll contribute. Finger down if you’v hit a child.”  

Tea and Anake both smirked as they did it, Ayaka looked embarresed, and Ryoko just shrugged again.  

“Anyywayyy, guess I’ll go next. Put a finger down if you... Are not a virgin.” Ryoko raised an eyebrow, obviously smirking.  

“Did it and hated it.” Tea complained as she did it, followed by Ayaka and Ryoko. Aimi blushed as she followed through as well.   

“Aimi??? I mean, it makes sense, but I’m surprised-” Daiki sounded confued.  

“Yeaaa... you ever heard of Konoha Sukeran?”  

“The fucking actor? I did an interview with him after that one theatre fire,” Tea glared at Anake for a second, who shrugged, “He’s a bitch, kept hitting on me.”  

“Oh yeaaa, heard he was real annoying behind the scenes.” Ayaka mentioned, with Akira nodding in agreement.   

Daiki had heard the name before. Konoha was the Ultimate Actor, he mainly did stage plays, but also starred in movies a few times. What he wasn’t aware of before was this bad side of him being mentioned now.  

“Psh, annoying’s an understatement.” Aimi rolled her eyes (or at least the visible one) “But yea, not a virgin because of him.”  

“Ha!” Anake cackled to herself, “Out of aalllll the options you had, you chose him? Course your taste in men is shit too.”  

Aimi glared at her, “I didn’t choose to. Didn't want to, either.”  

“Holy shit,” Ryoko looked surprised, “You mean he-”  

“Yes, he did, and I don’t want to get into it.” she snapped.  

“... If it helps, I’ve been through kinda the same deal. But, uh, a lot more.” Ryoko shrugged. The atmosphere in the room was tense , to say the fucking least. Tea mumbled something to herself, Daiki could just make out ‘Whore.’ being said by her. Kana either didn’t hear or was ignoring it, because she spoke.  

“Hey, if any of you two wanna talk to me about it, I’m here. You know, therapist and all that.”  

“Thank you, Kana,” Aimi smiled, looking slightly more comfortable than earlier, before glaring at Anake, “And by the way, my taste in men is not shit. The dude I’m interested in is fucking hot, and not a bitch, thank you very much.”  

Anake rolled her eyes, not bothering to argue.  

“Well, uh, I’d say that thing is pretty much over, huh?” Akira asked.  

“Yep, I’d say we’re done,” Daiki replied.  

“I’d say it’s time we sleep then.” Ren stated, “I-”  

But her sentence was interrupted. Interrupted by the same annoying jingle they had all heard right before being told about this fateful game. After it played, the all too familiar voice of Kodo rang through the room.  

“Helloooo residents! Now, I know it’s suuperrr early right now, but I’ve got an announcement for yall. So like, all of the girls and Daiki, come over to the sleeping place, mkay?” and just like that, it cut to static noise. The room was silent for a few seconds. But after those few moments, Tea stood up, and walked to the door to leave. She turned her head to face everyone else.  

“Listen, if anyone's died it’s not any of us. We've probably got nothing to fear.” as soon as that was said, she stepped out. Everyone else slowly followed, filing out one by one. Daiki lingered behind, hesitant to leave. Eventually, he sighed to himself, and slowly wandered out.  

Walking into the entrance, Daiki knew he was ye last one to arrive. All the girls had left before him, and he could assume all the guys (plus Kiki) were asleep before the announcement, mainly because they were all wearing sleepwear (Apart from Hisao, he still had the same stuff on), and most were looking plain pissed off. He went over to Hattori, who was scrambling around his mattress looking for something, the moment he saw him.  

“Oh, Daiki! I’m pretty sure that's you, right?” He turned to face Daiki, squinting. Daiki noticed he wasn't wearing his glasses.  

“Yep, that's me. You lose your glasses or something?” 
“Yes, sadly. I put them down because I was planning on sleeping,” he sighed, ”Must have knocked them down at some point. Ha, I’m practically blind without them, this’ll be a fun experience.” 

Just as that was said, Kodo stormed in, all heads turned to face her (Hattori a lot more messily).  

“Welll, just look who it is!” she huffed, hands on hips, ”Yall are toooo boring, why have none of ya killed?!”  

“Because we’re not insane, Asshole,“ Ayaka called out, before shooting a glance at Anake, ”Most of us aren't insane, Asshole.”  

“Yea? Well, the few insane people in here sure as hell aren't acting out on it!!!” Kodo stomped a foot, ”Ugghhh, I just wanna see death!”  

“Does it look like we care?” Tea raised an eyebrow.  

“Hey! Learn to respect your landlord, miss! Anyyyywayyy, I’m annoyed but I have an idea!”  

“... Does it involve me dy-” Kana spoke up, before being shushed by Ren.  

“Kana, shut the fuck up, now is not the time.”  

“Hmmm, well she is kinda close!” Kodo giggled, “All depends on who our killer chooses! But basically, I’ve gotta give yall some motivation to kill.”  

“Motivation?” Hattori smirked, still not looking directly at her, “What do you mean?”  

“Watch and learn Hat!” just as she said that, the notification sound played on eveyone’s phones, as they all instinctively checked their messages (Apart from Daiki, he had left his at the library). He looked at Hattori, who was squinting at his screen in an attempt to read a message from Kodo.  

‘ Hattori Rokuro is truly th-’ the message was closed before Daiki could finish reading, Hattori had obviously given up on trying.  

“Thattttt’ssss right folks! I know your deepest darkest secrets, as shown by my funky little text!” Kodo grinned, “I’ll give you....Hmmmm... A week! A week before I send these all to the groupchat for everyone to see! Don’t want that happening? Just kill!”  

Daiki turned to look at everyone in the room. Anake seemed just confused. Ayaka and Akira were grimly looking at eachother. Ren, Kana, Hisao and Yuto seemed mostly unreactive. Aimi’s face had drained of colour. Ryoko wasn’t even looking at her phone and neither was Kiki. Mikiyo’s face showed only rage. Kenta just looked sad. Akari smirked to the text. Tea looked the most appalled.  

“WHY THE FUCK DO I HAVE TWO?!”  

Kodo giggled again.  

“Welllll, we couldn’t really get anything good on Anake, but we had already paid to get 16 found, so we just got two for you!”  

“Wow, fuck you.”  

“Nuh uh, no thanks! Oh yea, also, I’m gonna be printing these out by the morning, so come over to the library to collect ‘em, unless you want it to be stolen, of course!”  

“I can’t see you, but I want to slap you.” Hattori called out.  

“Do that and I tear your arm off.”  

And with that, the robot left. Everyone was left in shocked silence. Nobody knew what to do. Nobody felt safe.  

And nobody should have.  

Standing in the entrance with everyone else, staring at their phone in their trembling hands. This was bad . Tonight had been so fun, but it had all come to an abrupt stop the moment that damned robot spoke. They reread the same message, again and again, the one thing nobody could ever know about them.  

Nobody could know.  

No matter what.  

Chapter Text

“Someone’s going to die.”  

“Excuse me-?” Daiki froze in his steps, confused by the sudden statement.  

“You heard me, someone’s going to die soon. It’s pretty obvious,” Yuto stopped walking too, turning around to face Daiki.  

This was not a conversation Daiki was expecting, nor prepared, to have. He and Yuto had just been silently walking down the hall towards the library, to collect the printed secrets (the two just so happened to wake up at the same time, 7:30 AM, and had decided to go together for safety's sake) and now this???  
“I just... That was a little random to just say.” 

“Oh, my apologies, would you rather I give you a warning next time?” Her raised an eyebrow, Daiki was guessing he was being sarcastic,” Oh, look out Kobayashi, I’m about to say something dark and morbid, cover your ears.”  

“That’s even worse. Just, don't bring this stuff up while we're getting motive stuff, just an idea.”  

“Fine, fine.” He shrugged,” Just saying, statistically, someone's going to kill by tomorrow. But I’ll leave it there.”  

The conversation skidded at that, as the two approached the library. Daiki gulped slightly, before pushing the door open.  
 

The moment the doors were opened, he was pushed aside, as Tea barged out.  

“MOVE, BITCH,” she yelled, running out.  
“And you can tell who was unlucky enough to get two secrets,” Yuto watched her leave, before turning his attention back to Daiki,” Come on, let’s go.” 

Walking into the library, Daiki couldn’t help but feel like this was... Low budget... in lack of a kinder term. Kodo was standing next to a cardboard box, with eight strips of paper. She parked up as she saw the two enter,  

“Welllll hello you two! Up nice and early to collect those secrets, I see, good to see it!”   

As the two approached, she reached into the box, and pulled out two slips of paper, passing them to the two of them.  

“Here ya go! Two fresh secrets for y’all, try not to get ‘em stolen!”   

Yuto immediately opened his to re-read, probably suspicious that the robot had given him a fake, but he smirked to himself once he had confirmed it was what he was thinking. Daiki watched this happening, not yet taking his note from Kodo’s hand. She looked annoyed at this, eventually just shoving it into his face.  

“Take it!!”  

He did as told, hesitantly at that, and slowly opened it to read. He didn’t get to see it last night. And now he was preparing, to see what they had discovered on him.  

‘ Daiki Kobayashi's sibling is a notable serial killer. and he does nothing to stop it .’  

His blood ran cold. How the hell could they have found this?? He had to take a second to process it all.   

He hadn’t known about what his sibling, Rinu, did in their free time, for most of his life. Until that one fateful day, when he had walked in on them doing it. Having to help dispose of a body is a fun activity. And from then on, he just... Knew, about what was happening, just that one bit too scared to stop it. Anyway, Rinu was usually a good kid, if you ignore the killing.   

He quickly stuffed the note into his pocket, people couldn’t see it. Looking back up, he could see Yuto staring at him.  

“You good there”  

“Oh! Uh, perfectly fine. Just, this is my first time seeing it and all...” He was frantic to explain himself. Yuto didn’t look convinced.   

“Yea, sure,” he raised an eyebrow, “But fine. You good to leave now?”  

“Yea, let’s just go.”  

And they did. They both left, running into Kiki on the way, they had an oddly mischievous vibe to them, suspicious. But the two continued back to the entrance, and Daiki immediately went back to sleep after. He was too tired for this shit.  

The muffled buzz of his 10:30 alarm was what woke Daiki. He groaned slightly, rubbing his eyes and reaching for his glasses. After about five minutes of aimlessly patting the area around his mattress, he found them, put them on, and instantly picked up his phone to check the messages accumulated from the night.   

‘ Hi, just wanna make sure, do any of you have any triggers? If you don’t kind me asking, of course.’ - Kana, 8:09  

‘ oh yh, just dont luck me in anywhre and ill be chill.” - Ryoko, 8:10    

‘ *lock, dont mke fun of my speling either-” - Ryoko, 8:10  

‘ Oh, Kana, that’s actually a pretty good idea. I’m not good with any transphobic stuff, but that’s it :)’ - Ren, 8:11  

‘HA, A GOD SUCH AS I CANNOT BE BOTHERED BY SUCH PETTY THINGS!!’ - Akari, 8:12  

‘I need to block this idiot child.’ - Teapot, 8:12  

‘HEY! DO NOT BE SO RUDE TO SUCH A POWERFUL BEING! It makes me sad.’ - Akari, 8:12  

‘Too bad. Also, I don’t like mentions of burning things.’ - Teapot, 8:12  

‘.’ - Anake, 8:12  

‘That applies to you as well.’ - Teapot, 8:12  

‘🖕’ - Anake, 8:12  

‘Classy.’ - Teapot, 8:13  

The dots to indicate Anake typing appeared, before disappearing. Obviously, she had given up. Daiki swapped over to see if he had any other messages, finding only one, from his sibling.  

‘Daik, Daiko, Dicki, Older brother who I love so dearly, respond to my texts, istg, I’m starting to get worried >:{‘ - Furry, 7:03  

He chuckled to himself at that. He had forgotten he’d saved Rinu’s contact as that, it was mostly as a joke, because Rinu had a ‘fursona’ and a fursuit, yet still denied being a furry. Still, he couldn’t insult it, its design was fairly good. Monochromatic possum. Apparently, it was also what they went to ‘do their job’ in, so murdering people in their fursuit. He smiled at the memories, about to text back, before remembering that was impossible. His smile wavered. But the sadness was interrupted by another notification on the groupchat, this time from Kiki.  

‘ LADIES, GENTLEMEN, HUMANS, AUSTRAILIAN CRYPTIDS, AND GENDERLESS LIZARDS, PLEASE GATHER IN THE LIVING ROOM, YOUR LOCAL JESTER HAS A SHOW PREPARED!!! EVERYONE COME, INCLUDING YOU, HISATES, THIS WILL BE SOMETHING YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS!! :D’ - Kiki, 8:18  

‘did you fucking call me hisates-’ - Hisao, 8:18  

‘The Hisates Fujates. Just rolls off the tongue!’ - Kiki 8:18  

‘I hate you.’ - Hisao, 8:19  

He closed the groupchat. Sighing slightly as he slowly got up and out of bed, and made his way over to the Living room, to see what this was all about.  

He entered to see something strange, as expected when it came to Kiki. The layout of the room had changed, with the sofas and chairs all moved to face two tables that had been pushed together, to form a rudimentary stage. A stage that Kiki was standing on, wearing an oversized top hat, and holding their normal hat in their hands. The normal hat being off revealed their ears, which, somehow, were pointed, mildly resembling that of a stereotypical elf (Or a witch, if you’re cultured in good shows). But he wasn’t gonna question that, Kiki was just naturally weird, of course their body would show. There was also a large speaker, blasting circus music out. Daiki sat on the first chair he saw, as the jester turned their attention to him. 
“DAIK! Hello, heya, hi! You are officially gonna be the first to see the Kikster’s amazing show! Just gotta wait for the other peeps to arrive!” 

from there, Daiki zoned out, just thinking about things, imagining meeting back with his sibling, just while he waited...  

It took a few minutes, but eventually everyone else had came. Even Hisao. That was an accomplishment. Hattori had found his place next to Daiki, with a nod as a greeting. 
“Ah, Daiki, hello!” 

“Oh, hey.” He snapped back to reality, slightly smiling. Looking around, he took note of where and how everyone was sitting. Most were just scattered around the room, sitting in the random seats, but there were a few things to note; Ryoko was leaning on the wall, nearest to Kiki. Anake was sitting on the arm of a chair, while Mikiyo sat in the chair, very confused. Yuto was on a sofa, with Akari next to him, and it might have just been dark, but it looked like Yuto was ruffling Akari’s hair, almost like what Daiki used to do with his sibling. Finally, Hisao was just sitting upside-down in his seat. Obviously ignoring whatever looks he was receiving. 
Kiki stepped forward slightly, now holding a microphone (where the hell did they get that from???) and began speaking to the 'audience’. 

“WELLLLL HELLO, FOLKS!” They grinned,” Glad to see ya all here! I-”  

“Just get on with it. What’s this all about?” Tea heckled.  

“SHUT! Khehe, you’ll find out in juuuustt a second!” they smirked to themself, before beginning to walk in circles on the stage, while talking, “So, you folks all know about the funky secrets, right? WELL, I may or may not have committed a silly.”  

“The fuck do you me-”  

“BASICALLY-” they raised their voice to interrupt Anake’s question, and continued monologuing, “I, Kiki Hayashi, gender incarnate, have decided.... you guys are bored. SO, I have decided to make a lil show, to entertain you all! Khehe, I’m sure you’re wondering how the secrets play into this, right? WELL, consider this show to be a little.... Exposing !”  

They shook the hat they were holding, and that was when it dawned upon Daiki (and probably everyone else) what the jester was planning.  

“Sooooo, I have taken all the paper secrets I could get my hands on, and the big plan is to read them out, TONIGHT!” they grinned, coming to a stop. And facing everyone, “Now, let’s start!”  

Everyone was frozen. A few were checking their own pockets to check for their secrets, but nobody was getting out of their seats. Anake was the only one who wasn’t visibly worried. Kiki reached their hand into the hat, pulling out a slip of paper, cleared their throat and read aloud.  

“Kenta Sato...” All heads turned over to Kenta, who was nervously smiling, “Has been out of contact with his sister for years.”  

“Ha, relatable.” Anake mumbled to herself.  

Kenta looked less distressed, more just sad.  

“Well, guess the jester’s serious about all this secret sharing,” he looked up, “That’s the truth, haven’t spoken to my sis since I ran away from home. I don’t even know if she’s alive or not anymore. God, I‘m sorry Ana...”  

“Hey, don’t be sorry, I’m sure you ran away for a good reason,” Ren softly smiled, attempting to comfort him, and then turned her attention to Kiki on the stage, “And you, please stop this. Now.”  

“No can do! That's only the first of the six I got!” they smirked, “Neeextttt up.... Ooooo, this is a doozy! Ehem... Tea Potts has-”  

“Wait, WHAT?!” Tea cut in, sitting straighter in hr chair, “BUT I GOT MINE, I- Oh. Oh, I had two. Shit.”  

“Yep, you only took one, now lemme continue. Ehem... Tea Potts has manipulated the public, spreading false news.”  

“Oh, for fucks sake.”  

“HA! I KNEW YOU WERE HIDING SHIT!” 
“ANAKE SHUT THE FUCK UP I AM PANICKING-” 

“And let the arguments roll in!” Kiki grinned, “But, continuing on! Oh, this is spicy! Mikiyo Iwata is incredibly protective of his romantic partners! Can’t see why that’d be considered a secret, but it aint anymore!”  

“Oh. Ha, it’s kinda dumb, isn't it?” Mikiyo looked as if he was remembering something he didn’t want to. He shuffled in his seat, moving slightly closer to Anake, who he was sitting next to.  

“Kiki, I think we should sto-” Ryoko tried to speak up, but Kiki kept talking.  

“Yep! We should keep going! Oh! Finally, something more interesting! Akari Kasai is no god, but worshipped by a cult as if he was? Whoaaaa, big news there!”  

Akari paled.  

“Wha... No, that’s not true! I-I don’t even know what a cult is! These are all fabricated attempts to embarrass me!”   

“Akari, calm down..” Yuto was looking slightly more worried now.  

“Y-yes! I should calm... for I am a god, not some child!... Right...?” He looked on the verge of tears.  

“Yea, that’s right, don’t worry,”  

“Yea, I’m always right...” he had stood up by now, tears falling down his cheeks, “I’M A GOD, AND YOU IDIOTS CAN’T TELL ME OTHERWISE!”  

And with that, he ran out.  

“I...” Yuto just seemed disappointed, he turned back to face Kiki, and the rest, “What the hell is wrong with you?!”  

“What the hell is wrong with you ?” Tea spoke up, scowling, “The kid’s delusional, and you’re hardly doing him any favours!”  

“So what? Let him be delusional! He's a child, for god’s sake, so let him enjoy his childhood. Because I’ll bet a whole lot of you didn’t get that luxury.”  

“No shit sherlock, we all had shit childhoods, but none of us gained god complexes.”  

“Yea, you just became a bitch”  

And then, Yuto got up, turned his back, and walked out, leaving the rest in silence.  

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Kiki started speaking again.  

“Oooooooo, dramaaaaaa! Khehe, this is great!” they reached into the hat again, “And next on the chopping block.... the Hisates himself!”  

Despite his face not being visible, Hisao was obviously scowling.  

“Soooo, let’s see... Hisao Fujino's hatred for his face stems from family issues! Wow, Hisates, do ya need a hug? We've all got some emotional support to give ya!”  

“I don’t. Still annoyed at his stabbing me .”  

“Again, sorry for that.”  

“You’re forgiven, but I still don’t trust you.”  

“...This is oddly wholesome-” Ren stated, visibly confused.  

“OKAY, ONE LAST ONE!!!” Kiki shouted out again.  

“Oh, fucking hell, why can’t it end?!” Tea was just annoyed, as ever.  

“Suffering is never-ending, as is my life, despite my best efforts.”  

“Kana stop being morbid-”  

“HEY! LISTEN UP! Ehem... Ryoko Ito knows....” They trailed off of their sentence. Ryoko had stopped leaning against the wall, her eyes widened. The jester sheepishly laughed, “Ya know what? Let's just end it there. Yep, you peeps can just go now!”  

And with that, they hopped of the stage, leaving the hat on the floor, grabbed Ryoko’s hand, and skipped out. Everyone else slowly left after. And, once again, Daiki was the only one remaining. This happened a lot. He slowly got up and out of his seat, but something caught his eye.  

A single slip of paper, in the hat Kiki had left behind. He stepped towards it, grabbing it, and reading it.  

‘Kiki Hayashi doesn’t know basic multiplication’  

Well that checks out.  

Little did Kiki know, they had just acted as the last breaking piece in the future killer’s plan.  

They had a plan now.  

And they were going to do it.  

Tomorrow.  

Chapter Text

There was an oddly gloomy feeling today. Well, not that odd, censoring yesterday’s events. Akari was refusing to even look at Kiki, Tea and Yuto had already gotten into multiple arguments, and Ryoko and Kiki had been spending more time together. Daiki was walking down the hallway, searching for Hattori, when something caught his eye in the library.  

Ayaka and Akira. But, something felt off ... Ayaka was giggling to herself, while Akira was setting up a tripod. Daiki peeked his head into the room.  

“Uh, what are you two doing?”  

“Desmond!” Ayaka whipped her head to face him, “Uh, we are doing nothing suspicious at all, yep!”  

Akira sighed.  

“First off, his name is Daiki. And second, Aya, you are doing a horrible job at not being suspicious.”  

“I repeat, what are you two doing? ”  

“Shhh, we’re doing something fun. Now shoo!” Ayaka waved her hand, in that ’get the fuck away from me’ motion she was probably used to doing, before frowning slightly, “Hey, Kira, I think the phones about to die. Can you grab a charger?”  

“I would if I knew where they were.”  

“Uh, I think they’re in the storage place,” Daiki suggested.  

“Thanks, Dexter, but still, go shoo.”  

“It’s Daiki-” he yelled out as he stepped away, walking over to the kitchen.  

Akira left the room shortly after.  

Once he got into the kitchen, Daiki found who he was looking for, AKA Hattori, who was leaning on the counter by the fridge, holding a mug of something. He waved when he saw him.  

“Daiki! Was wondering where you were.”  

“Yep, sorry about that, got held up.”  

“That’s all fine. Actually, that reminds me, have you seen Kiki? Usually, they leave some form of message on the groupchat, but I haven’t heard from them.”  

“Uhhh, nope, but now I’m worrying-”  

Hattori chuckled at this.  

“What, are you thinking they died?” he took a sip of whatever he was drinking (tea???), “Daiki, please, the motive may be out, but nobody’s killing today, none of us are that insane. Well, maybe Anake is, but you get my point.”  

“Yea, true,” he walked over to the fridge, planning to grab some form of food, "I'm just, cautious, you know? I feel like any room I enter’s gonna contain a corpse.”  

“Yep, that ha-” his statement was interrupted by the fridge door being opened, knocking the mug out of his hand, and spilling tea all over the floor.  

“Shit, sorry-” Daiki gasped, slamming the door closed again. Hattori just chucked again.  

"Don’t worry, it’s all good. But, could you possibly accompany me to the broom closet? We should probably clean this up and all.”  

“Oh, sure!”  

The both left, together, towards the broom closet. Once they got to the strange room (the one where Daiki had first met the twins), they stopped.  

“Wait here, I’ll probably fit better-” Daiki joked, always making a jab at his height.  

“Ha, sure, go ahead.”  

As he stepped to the closet, his heartbeat loudened in his ears, and a strange feeling washed over him. Dread? Fear? He couldn’t tell, all he knew is that he did not want to open that door. Overthinking, that was what he was doing. Everything is fine, nothing’s wrong. He sighed to himself, and quickly opened the closet. Nothing was wrong, nobody was-  

No. This couldn’t be real. He gasped, covering his mouth with a hand to stop himself from screaming. He felt sick to the stomach at the mere sight of it.  

Stuffed in the closet, their face paled, blood pooling beneath them from a wound on the head. A small trail of discoloured saliva coming from the corner of their closed mouth. Their eyes were closed too. Almost like they were asleep. But that wasn’t the case. That blue hair, that red t-shirt, those gloves. She was dead. Ayaka Ako-  

Wait. No. As he looked closer, as he looked longer , something felt off. That skin was far too pale, figure too thin, and that scar on her face became all too visible, as it came crashing down upon him.  

Ayaka Akoi wasn’t the corpse he had just found.  

Akira Akoi was.  

Chapter Text

This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. Why was Akira dead? Why was she stuffed in a broom closet? Why was she wearing Ayaka’s clothes? Why was her hair blue now??? So many questions raced through his mind in just a second, as he stood there. Hattori could see him frozen at the spot, but not the corpse. He ran over to him, to see what had happened. Once he saw it, his eyes widened, and his smirk dropped.  

“I stand corrected. Someone has killed.”  

“Hattori how are you so calm-” His voice shook as he spoke, and he backed away slightly.  

“No idea, I just am,” he sighed, “It’s a shame, Akira was one of the few good people here. Though, it’s confusing me why she was dressed like her sister.”  

“Yea, weird, can we please focus on finding out what had happened though-”  

“Right, good idea. Hold on,” he pulled out his phone, and texted someone, “Ren should be coming soon.”  

“What did you tell her?”  

“Just that someone was dead, and we needed help.”  

As he said that, Ren stormed in.  

“WHO DIED?!?” She stopped then she saw it, “Oh. Ayaka. Wait, Akira?! Hattori which one is dead???”  

“It’s Akira,” he took note of her confused expression, “Yea, we’re all just as confused.”  

“Huh. Also, Daiki, are you okay, you’ve gone pale.”  

“ProbAbly.” the voice crack wasn’t helping his case, “I’ll be fine. But, uh, what should we-”  

His question was inturrupted by that DAMN JINGLE , followed by Kodo’s voice filling the room.  

“Well look at that, a body has been discovered! Anddd now you get however long I wanna give yall to investigate! So, make your way to the broom closet if ya wanna help! Okay, byeeee!”  

There was silence after that. Ren spoke first.  

“... Shit.”  

“Ren, do me a favour and lock that door for me,” Hattori gestured to the door of the room, “It’d be best for just us three to focus on figuring out how she died first, before everyone comes in and messes up the scene.”  

“Good idea-” she quickly ran to the door, and fiddling with the lock until it actually clicked shut, “I’m guessing you want me to find out how she died and stuff?” 
“Would be appreciated. Daiki, wait by the door, just to stop people from breaking it down and things.” 

Any excuse to not look at the corpse anymore. He stood by the locked door, yelling something about having to wait to the small crowd outside, and watching Ren investigate the corpse, mumbling to herself.  

“Paled face... Discoloured saliva... looking like she’s sleeping... Telltale signs of being chloroformed. SO, someone must’ve knocked her out and then hit her. At least it was mostly painless?”  

“Thanks. Daiki, you can let them in now,”  

And he did. He opened the door, and was instantly pushed aside by everyone crowding in.  

Ryoko, Kiki, Hisao and Kana didn’t come.  

Akari’s face paled.  

Yuto instinctively went to cover Akari’s eyes.  

Aimi screamed for just a second.  

Anake was unreactive.  

Tea looked like she was expecting it.  

Mikiyo hugged onto Anake, looking about to cry.  

Ayaka pushed ahead.  

This wasn’t gonna be pretty.  

The moment her eyes laid upon the corpse, her eyes widened, and she let out a loud gasp.  

“K-KIRA?!” she rushed over to her, ”C-COME ON, WAKE UP, THIS ISN’T FUNNY..”  

Everyone just stood there. Unsure of what to do. Ayaka was knelt beside the corpse, shaking her shoulder. Tears were forming in her eyes.  
… 

“uhh, not to break the mood, but why’s the dead one cosplaying as the not dead one, I'm confused-” Anake spoke up, defiantly breaking the mood.  

“I...” Ayaka attempted to reply, but she just couldn't get any words out. She sighed, got up, and left the room, visibly on the verge of breaking down.  

“Should someone go get her?” Yuto questioned.  

“No. Let her go, she’s gotta deal with her grief and stuff,” Ren replied, ”but, more importantly, we’ve gotta get investigating. Does anyone have any information that might help us find clues or anything?”  

“Uh, yea, I do,” Daiki spoke up, slightly tripping over his words under the gaze of everyone in the room, ”Like 10 minutes before me and Hattori found her. I, uh, saw the twins in the library, and Akira left to go to the storage room. That’s probably useful.”  

“Got it. Daiki and Hattori, you two come with me to there. The rest of you just look around. Anake, I’m trusting you to be the one to investigate the corpse because I’m guessing you're skilled at that. Now come on, let's go.”  

And then she left.  

The three were searching around the storage room. Looking for anything useful. Something caught Daiki’s eye.  

“Oh! Guys, I think I found something,” he bent down to pick it up. It looked like a torn piece of cloth, discoloured black, warm and wet to the touch. Horrific texture. He pinched a corner between his thumb and index finger, picking it up while still touching it as little as possible. Ren and Hattori ran over.  

“Huh. Hand it over,” Ren reached her hand out and grabbed it from him. Carefully assessing it, pondering something, ”Okay, I’m not gonna smell this to check, but I think it's safe to assume this is chloroform. Or something similar, just something to knock someone out.” 
“Interesting. So, we can guess Akira came into here, and the killer knocked her out using that? and then... I think it's safe to say she wasn't killed in here, there’s no blood, so we’ll say she was brought over to the broom closet and hit over the head to kill. There, rough timeline.” 

“...Hattori, should I be impressed or suspicious?”  

“Both, my dear Daiki, but preferably impressed.”  

“Okay-”  

And they continued looking. The only other thing of actual note they ended up finding was a singular hairbrush missing from the box that contained them. They were about to go back to the room with the broom closet. Before that stupid jingle played again, and Kodo’s voice once again played.   

“ANDDDD THAT’S ALL THE TIME YA GET, FOLKS! MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE STAIRS FOR ME!”  

There weren’t even any stairs to begin with. He would only assume she was talking about the empty stairwell at the entrance.  

As the three arrived at the stairwell, they could all see they were the last there. As always, mind chaos was occurring. Most people were just standing around. Ayaka just looked shattered, her makeup ruined by tears. Hisao was being moody in the corner, as always, while Kenta was eyeing him with suspicion. Akari was staying... Oddly close to Yuto, while Tea was making her usual snide remarks.  

“Didn’t know you had a kid,” she said with sarcasm.  

“Fuck off.”  

“How about I-”  

“How about we not fight?” Ren butted in, “Come on. Akria’s dead, for fucks sake, we don’t need arguments right now.”  

“Yea, good call,” Hattori added, “We should be calm, now more than ever. If we keep our composure, we’ll figure out this case much easier.”  

Most people nodded, or muttered agreements.  

Kodo strutted in shortly after.  

“Allllright, that should be everyone! Apart from our dearly departed Akira, of course,” she shot a smirk over at Ayaka, who just looked even more depressed, “But! Now for the trial part, AKA the best part. Before we start that, though, I’d like to intro a lil system I’ve added.”  

“System?”  

“What I like to call: ‘The Helpful, Outright True Statement!”  

“T.H.O.T.S. Great naming,” Ryoko rolled her eyes.  

“What’s a tho-” Akari started, before having his mouth covered by Yuto.  

“Don’t.”  

“As I was saying: T.H.O.T.S is something super helpful I provide-”  

“Okay, please change the name for this thing-” Ren interrupted.  

“No no, let her speak,” Ryoko interrupted her interrupting.  

“Thank you, Ito. CONTINUING ON, T.H.O.T.S is a service where, basically, I get yall a step closer to finding out who the killer is!”  

“Like, you just tell us who did it?” Anake asked.  

“HA! YOU WISH! No, but I tell you who didn’t !” She giggled, “Basically, this is a once-per-case thing, where I completely clear the name of someone without an alibi, and you can redeem it, just by asking me. This’ll help yall with, ya know, suspects and things!”  

“Wait, so who’s it this time-” Kenta asked.  

“WOW! Early redeeming, okay!” she grinned, “Someone guaranteed to be innocent, issss....AYAKA!”  

He looked over to the YouTuber, her face still wet with tears. Stating the obvious, Kodo.  

“Kenta, you fucking idiot, that’s something we use when we’ve narrowed down the culprits,” Tea smacked him over the head.  

“Ouch, Jeez, okay-”  

“Welp, with that out the way, follow me!” Kodo proceeded to walk over to the side of the stairs, and unlocked a door (Harry Potter and the Home Invader, I guess), exposing... Another set of stairs. Leading down this time, and a lot more dimly lit. She ran down them, beckoning the rest to follow.  

Hattori led the way down, with everyone in a single fine line, and Kiki following up the rear. As Daiki descended, he heard a loud thunk. As he turned around, he spotted Kiki, bending down as they walked, and rubbing their forehead. Right. 6’10 Jester problems.  

After just a minute, the stairs stopped. Kodo stepped to the side, allowing everyone to file into the room. It was a basement, fairly well lit, with a large TV screen on one of the walls, and sixteen podium-style things all in a circle. Each one has a name carved into a front. But one stood out, with an A4 sheet of paper with a mugshot-style picture of Akira, taped onto the front.  

“Uhhh, what’s with the pic of the dead bitch?” Anake asked (Ayaka looked two seconds away from punching her).  

“Oh, you know, keeping her memory alive and such, if you’re desperate enough you can even imagine her still being alive in here!”  

“... Got it.”  

After that, they al found their places at their podiums. To the left of Daiki, Hattori stood, and to the right was the empty one, labelled for Akira, Tea stood across from him. Kodo just straight up sat on the stairs.  

“Anddd Trialll... START!!”  

...  

“So, Hisao, wanna confess?” Kenta started.  

“Oh my fucking- WHY WOULD IT BE ME?!” 
“Just think for a sec,” he started counting on his fingers, “you’re a violent dude, you don’t have an apple pie of whatever the word is-”  

“Alibi,” Ren corrected.  

“You don’t have an alibi, and you’re not a fan of Ayaka, meaning you’d wanna try and kill her, meaning you accidentally killed Akira. BOOM, case solved, we all go home.”  

“I... That is the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. AND I HAVE FVE YOUNGER SIBLINGS!”  

“He does have a point,” Anake remarked.  

“DON’T FUCKING ENCOURAGE HIM-”  

“Vote him off, vote him off, vote him off, vote him off-” Akari began chanting.  

“Shut up before I actually become a murderer. WHICH I’M NOT CURRENTLY-”  

“Don’t threaten the child, you’re not helping your case,” Yuto pointed out.  

“Okay, can everyone calm down?” Hattori yelled out, interrupting the argument, “Now is far too early to be throwing accusations. We don’t even know all the evidence yet, for god’s sake."  

“Good point,” Ren added, “OKAY, EVERYONE, CAN YOU JUST SAY WHAT EVIDENCE YOU FOUND??”  

“No need to scream, Jesus Christ,” Tea stated, rolling her eyes at the glares, “And yes, I do have something.”  

She proceeded to pull a whole ass broom out from seemingly nowhere. Where the fuck was that kept? He didn’t know, nor did he want to. BUT, the broom was covered in blood, mainly at the end of the handle.  

“Found this under the sofa. And I’ll be so bold to assume it’s what was used to kill her. Just whack her over the head, it’d probably kill.”  

“Yep, that fits, lookin’ at that head wound, the main impact point was pretty sharp. So. Broom bonk,” Anake yelled out.  

“Thank you, Anake,” Hattori sighed, before beginning to think aloud, “So, Akira was knocked out via the chloroform cloth, carried or dragged nto the broom closet, and then hit over the head and killed...”   

“Wait, chloroform cloth...When the fuck did that become a thing?” Ayaka asked, mostly mumbling, btu she was already standing next to Ren, who pulled out said cloth.  

“This. We found it in the storage area. Again, I’m not going to try it out myself, but it’s safe to assume this has some sorta chloroform on it, or just something to put someone to sleep.”  

“... Holy fuck,” Aimi had a horrid look of realization on her face.  

“What is it?”  

“Back at the slumber party thing. Remember what Akira said, about the worst way to die?”  

“...Oh fuck.”  

That was dark. Morbid, even. This killer meant for Akira to die in the worst possible way.  

and nobody had any idea who it was. 
 

Chapter Text

Chaos at the trial basement. As always. The chaos is never ending.  

“OKAY, SO THIS KILLER’S AN INSANE PERSON, GOOD TO KNOW.”  

“ANAKE???” 
“BITCH, IT AIN’T ME!” 
“I’M STILL CONVINCED ON HISAO!” 

“SHUT THE FUCK UP BEFORE I STAB YOU AGAIN.”  

“WHAT, LIKE YOU STABBED AKIRA?”  

“SHE DIED OF A HEAD WOUND, DUMBASS.”  

“DON’T CALL ME A DUMBASS, I’M NOT AN ASS!”  

“OKAY, YOU’RE JUST A STUPID BITCH.”  

“GUYS AKIRA IS DEAD, STOP FIGHTING-”  

“ON NO REALLY? I THOUGHT SHE WAS ALIVE AND WELL AND STANDING RIGHT THERE.”  

“Kill me now.”  

“The FitnessGram Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The 20 meter pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start. The running speed starts slo-”  

“SHUT UP KIKI-”  

“NEVER!!”  

“Humanity was a fucking mistake.”  

“Guys, Anake-”  

“WHY ARE WE SCREAMING???” 
“I DON’T KNOW!” 

“I AM ABOUT TO FULL CARRIE ON ALL YOUR ASSES IF YOU DON’T SHUT U-”  

Bonk.  

“ DID YOU THROW YOUR FUCKING CUP AT ME?! WHY DOES YOUR CAFFEINE ADDICTION ALWAYS GET ME HURT-”  

“Maybe is you stopped making stupid references I’d leave you alone.”  

“THEY ARE NOT STUPID, HORROR IS A REVOLUTIONARY GENRE AND DESERVES TO BE REFERENCED!”  

“Someone's maaaddd~” 
“You shut up too before I punt your sorry little god complex ass out of the atmosphere.” 

“LEAVE THE CHILD ALONE GOD DAMN IT-”  

But one voice broke through the rest.  

“CAN WE PLEASE CALM DOWN?!”  

Hattori. Everyone did the smart thing and shut up immediately, all turning to face him.  

“Thank you. Now, I’m sure we all have our suspicions, but now is not the time to act upon them. I have one thing I must ask Ayaka, though.”  

Ayaka, who had just been staring at the floor this entire time, looked up.  

“What?”  

“I can only assume you know the reason why Akira was dressed up like you. What is it?”  

“Oh. It was a stupid prank idea. Make it look like there were two of me, or some shit. She had changed into that stuff, like, right after Daiki left,” she stumbled over her words slightly. As if she didn’t even want to be talking.  

“OH! I can vouch for that; it was my idea!” Kiki yelled out, shooting their hand up (making Ryoko, who was next to them, duck for cover).  

“Ah. So nothing to do with the actual murder...Oh well, at least that part’s been cleared up,” he shrugged.  

“She didn’t even do a good job at that botched disguise, anyone who isn’t half blind could tell who was who,” Tea retorted, crossing her arms.  

“Tea, kindly, shut the fuck up,” Yuto had that passive aggressive ‘I’m only not shooting you because I don’t want to go to jail’ smile on his face.  

“Language,” Akari jabbed him in the arm.  

“Jeez, okay-”  

The awkward silence was louder than any of the yelling from before. Nobody knew where to go from here.  

Until one person perked up.  

“Wait, call me crazy, but I have an idea,” Mikiyo spoke up, “When Kiki revealed all those secrets, he basically removed the motive for everyone she revealed, right? Like, if you had your secret announced already, you wouldn’t have any reason to kill anymore. It's safe to say that those guys are probably innocent.”  

There was silence for a few seconds. Everyone was thinking the theory through in their minds. It made perfect sense. Kiki telling some of the secrets just ended those people being affected by the motive. After all, the entire premise was for nobody to find that thing out, and it had already been revealed for those guys. The only justification to kill with no motive is if you were just desperate to kill, and if the killer really was, they’d have killed a long time ago.  

“Miki, you’re a fuckin’ genius,” Anake smirked.  

“See, I’m helpful!” Kiki grinned.  

“I suppose you are in this case,” Hattori sighed, “So that rules out Kenta, Akari, Hisao, and Kiki themself. I’d say Tea too, but she had two, so only half were revealed. Ayaka’s already off the hook, and Daiki has me as an alibi. So that leaves Anake, Ryoko, Ren, Yuto, Aimi, Tea, and Kana.”  

Daiki honestly couldn’t tell if he was talking to himself or everyone else. That seems to be a common pattern with Hattori.  

Seven suspects.  

“Ha, be not so foolish to accuse my closest ally of such a crime, for I have spent the entirety of today with him!” Akari announced.  

“Someone translate that to English.”  

“Child spent all day with Yuto, alibi.”  

“Stop calling me a child, I AM A GO-”  

“Shut,” Akari was stopped by Kiki throwing a shoe at his head (Not Kiki’s shoe, might I add, just a random shoe)  

“Where’d you even get that shoe from???” Ryoko asked.  

“Found it.”  

“... is anybody missing a shoe, because if so it’s in the child’s face.”  

Said child looked like he was either going to cry, throw the shoe right back, or just kill someone. Or all three.  

And they were once again at a stalemate. There really just wasn’t a lot of evidence to go off. Daiki replayed the case over and over again in his mind, just looking for any more clues, any more hints, anything to not get him killed, anything to save everyone else.  

Daiki Kobayashi encountered Ayaka and Akira Akoi in the library.  

Daiki Kobayashi left the library.  

Akira Akoi changed clothes and hair.  

Akira Akoi left the library.  

Akira Akoi entered the storage room.  

The Culprit followed her.  

The Culprit knocked her out with a black cloth with chloroform on it.  

Black cloth with chloroform on it. It looked like it had been torn off from something.  

Black cloth. Torn off something. Used in a murder.  

Bingo.  

“Ren, can you toss me the cloth, I need to check something.”  

“Uh, sure,” She threw the cloth at his general direction. It ended up landing right onto Hisao’s mask (fix your damn aim, Ren)  

“...At least it didn’t land on someone’s actual face,” he sighed, taking it off and chucking it to Daiki, this time with correct aim, “Here, have your main character moment.”  

He held the cloth in his hands. Staring at it. Looking over the colours. There was one person who wore that colour, who would know how this stuff worked.  

Anake Sina.  

He turned his attention over to her.  

“Anake,” he said, sounding oddly authoritative for once, “Do you have any kind of alibi?”  

“Uh, no? Why’d I need one?” 
“Because I’ve got reason to think you might be our culprit.” 

“HEY! ANAKE WOULDN’T KILL SOMEONE!” Mikiyo yelled, pausing at the looks he was gaining, “Okay, maybe she would, BUT NOT THIS TIME!”  

Hattori smiled, seemingly catching on to what Daiki was thinking.   

“Are you sure? She is an arsonist after all. I wouldn’t put it past her.”  

“Ha, as if I’d do that! Okay, riddle me this, smart guy, what evidence d’ya have against me?” 
“The fact that you’re defiantly strong enough to actually kill her with the broom, for a start. But mainly,” He pulled out the cloth again, “I may not have the best vision, but that looks a lot like your hoodie.” 

“Uh-” she was caught off guard by that, “Whoa whoa, back it the FUCK up there bud. Sure, I wear black, and sure, I would probably be the bitch to kill someone, and SURE, I don’t have an alibi, but... Okay I’m really not helpin’ my case here-”  

“You aren’t,” Ayaka looked around 5 seconds away from approaching Anake’s podium and just executing her herself.  

Mikiyo, however, was getting incredibly worked up over this.  

“OKAY, NO, DON’T YOU DARE GO ACCUSING HER! SHE IS COMPLETELY, 100 PERCENT, INNOCENT!”  

“Wow. This is sad,” Ryoko Said plainly.  

“OH DON’T BE LIKE THAT AS IF YOU WOULDN’T BE THIS WORKED IF... I DON’T KNOW, KIKI WAS ACUSED OF MURDER!”  

“Please, Kiki wouldn’t ever kill someone, would you?” 
“Nope!” 

“See? And anyway, I wouldn’t go that insane if they did.”  

“In the writing business, they’d call that foreshadowing,” Tea mumbled, crossing her arms.  

Nobody paid any note to that statement. The arguing continued, mostly just Mikiyo and Anake against everone else. Daiki couldn’t help but notice that both Aimi and Tea were oddly insistent on Anake being this culprit. Oh well, that wasn’t important, what was important was convincing Mikiyo that Anake was this killer, no matter how much he refused.  

And he sure as hell was refusing.  

“NO! YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, IT CAN’T BE ANAKE!!”  

“OH COME ON, JUST GIVE IN ALREADY AND ADMIT YOUR GIRFRIEND KILLED A BITCH!”  

“Did not,” She scoffed and crossed her arms, not taking this situation nearly as seriously as she should, “I’m a murderer, sure, but I have a strict code I follow.”  

“Oh wow, arson bitch has a moral code, unexpected,” Ryoko seemed actually involved. For once, “Do tell.”  

“Ehem; I won’t burn down orphanages, nor churches or any kinda Christian place, only kill with these-” She gestured to the wings on her back, “To get rid of witnesses, and I don’t kill when they’re knocked out. Rule one of the streets is not to hit a man while he’s down, and that’s a part of it.  

She seemed oddly insistent on that stuff about Christianity. Almost like she was one, but there was no way. But that wasn’t important to linger on right now. He needed definitive proof about Anake, something to win Mikiyo over.  

That final damning proof.  

That proof that Aimi gave.  

“Oh for god’s sake!” She sighed, clutching at her podium, “YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY I KNOW SHE’S THE KILLER?! SHE TRIED TO KILL ME!”  

…  

“What..?” Mikiyo looked dumbfounded. 
She pulled one of her sleeves up, to reveal a large bruise, and a series of cuts, still slightly bleeding. 

“Look at what she did to me, Mikiyo. She went at me with that stupid wing of hers and tried to kill me!” She exclaimed, pulling the sleeve back down, and rubbing her arm, “I was lucky enough to get her off of me. She must’ve saw Akira in the storage room on her way back to wherever she wanted to go, and took the chance.”  

All eyes were on the arsonist as Aimi finished her narration. Mikiyo looked horrified. Horrified and betrayed.   

“Anake... That’s not real...Right?”  

“I...” She trailed off her sentence, before yelling, “BECAUSE I SURE AS FUCK DIDN’T KILL ANY AKOIS, GOT THAT? THE BASTARD IS JUST LYING TO YOU!”  

She was pointing to Aimi during that last part, who just flinched and looked sad.  
“Are you really trying to deny this? Anake... I knew you were evil, but this is even worse...” 
“I... You bitches don't believe her. Right?” 

…  

No. Everyone believed Aimi. Of course they did, who wouldn't?  
Everyone. 

Except one.  

Ren Inoue.  

It wasn't painfully obvious or anything, but there was just a shine of doubt in her eyes.  

“Wait, Aimi,” she stepped away from her podium, walking closer to Aimi’s, ”Hold on, can I just check something?”  

“Uh, sure?” She turned to face the surgeon approaching her, a puzzled look on her face.  

“Show me your arm.”  

Aimi did as told, rolling her sleeve up for the second time. Hisao seemed to instinctively touch his own arm when Ren gave that order, but nobody noticed that. Ren took a gentle hold of Aimi’s wrist, carefully analysing her wound.  

“Anake, throw a wing over here. If you're not the actual culprit, you’ll benefit from doing it.”  

“Uhhh, sure???” she did just that, detaching a wing and throwing it at her, with it lodging itself right in the podium Aimi was standing at. Ren just pulled it out. Looking from Aimi’s arm, to the wing. Arm to wing, arm to wing, arm to wing, mumbling words to herself, while everyone watched on in curious silence...  

After a minute of this, Ren let go of Aimi’s arm, stabbed the knife back into the podium, quietly walked back to her own podium, and sighed. All eyes were on her, as she opened her mouth and spoke.  

“Anake’s right. It's fake.”  

Fake. That word echoed through the basement, as loud and clear as it could possibly be. And yet, nobody spoke. Nobody gasped. Nobody made any notable noises. Just... Dumbfounded silence. But that silence felt so damn loud.  

The first word even spoken was by Ayaka.  

“...What..?”  

“That wound, on Aimi’s arm. It wasn't made with that wing. It just doesn't match. The scratches are too rounded, same with the actual impact bruises. Like the surface it was hit with was more spherical. And that wing is flatter than....Actually no, not a good time for a joke-”  

“Wait, so Anake didn't attack her with the wing???” Kenta asked.  

“No, dumbass, the bitch is lying about being attacked,” Tea spat out.  

The bitch in question has gone pale.  

“W-what? N-no, she attacked me, I swear!”  

“My my, how the turntables, the witch has been proven wrong, and now denying!” Akari smirked.  

“Okay, why is the child becoming Shakespearean-”  

“Not the time,” Hattori waved his hand, as an indication to shut the fuck up, “Aimi. I hope you know just how suspicious you look right now, I-”  

Daiki had a sudden realisation, as he quickly interrupted Hattori’s statement   

“Wait!” His sudden burst of confidence was instantly killed once everyone looked at him, he nervously chuckled, continuing on, ”Uh, Hattori, Ren, don't you remember that missing hairbrush we noticed back in the storage room? Ren, just from your description, wouldn't it make sense if.... You know...”  

“Nope, that makes perfect sense, actually,” Ren sighed again.  

Aimi was just watching the evidence stack against her in mild horror.  

“H-hey! Don't just discuss this shit right in front of me like I don't exist!”  

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Hattori looked over to her, raising an eyebrow, ”Then let's ask, did you fake this injury so you could frame Anake for the kill you committed?”  

“No! I’m not a killer!”  

“Totally are,” Anake butted in, not even with her usual smirk.  

“What about that chloroform thing though, haven't we agreed it's from Anake?” Kenta asked, genuinely confused.  

“Hold on,” Anake leaned back so she could see Aimi’s back, glaring intensely, “On surprise surprise, torn off a part of the neckline, look at that. Even tried to cover it with her hair too.”  

“I- HEY, DON’T STARE AT ME YOU FUCKING CREEP!” the actress whipped her head round to face the arsonist, her hair landing (mostly) on her shoulder. Just enough to reveal what Anake had said, a large area of the neckline on the back of her dress had been torn off.  

And most people could see it now.  
And everyone was convinced, just like that. 

Aimi Miura had killed Akira Akoi.  

“...You bitch,” Ayaka hissed out, glaring at Aimi with pure hatred.  
The actress’ eyes widened as she realised her mistake. Flicking her hair to cover over her back again, and closing her eyes. Almost preparing for whatever verbal smackdown she was about to receive. 

But she didn't. Well, apart from Anake, she was cussing the fuck out of her, but everyone else was just....Quiet. Stares piercing into her soul. Nobody was sobbing or anything. She never made any close friends, nobody was sad enough over it. They were just annoyed. Angry. Pissed off. She had murdered Akira.  

After a few minutes of it, she shakily sighed, and opened her eye. That (singular visible) eye. it showed no resemblance of the happy, kindhearted person most of them knew. She spoke, her voice shaking.  

“If it helps, I didn't mean to kill Akira . I was planning for it to be Ayaka.”  

It did not, in fact, help. Ayaka somehow looked even more broken than she already was after that. All she could manage to say was a choked out word.  

“Why...?”  

“Why I ended up killing Akira instead? Yea, I get it was pretty obvious she wasn't Ayaka. In Tea’s words: anyone who isn’t half blind could tell who was who. Yea, she was right,” She kept talking, as she moved the hair covering her eye, and tucked it behind her ear. Finally revealing the hidden eye. And, in lack of a nicer term, it was fucked up. The sclera was a reddish orange, while the iris was just generally miscoloured.  
“holy fuck, I was right-” 

“NOW IS NOT THE TIME TEA, HOLY FUCK, WHY-”  

“Bleach,” Aimi just pointed at the fucked up eye, it evidently didn't give her any pain anymore, "one hell of a blinding agent. Ha. So yea, couldn't tell who was who. And by the time I did, Akira was already out, soooo..”  

“...Wow. But why did you kill anyone ? You seemed like the last bitch to kill someone, if anything you’d be killed,” Ryoko asked.  

“My little secret, Ryoko,” she had a scowl on her face, ”Tell me; you remember this Konoha guy I mentioned a few days ago, right?”  

Most of the girls nodded.  

“Yea, surprise surprise, he's forced me to do a lot more than just have sex with him,” She leaned on her podium, her faint smile looking like she was a second away from snapping,” Though apparently he’s also done that shit to his cousin. So, he's a freak in multiple ways! But what was I saying? Oh right! The shit he’s forced me to do.” 
she chuckled to herself. 

“D’you know, I never really wanted to do any of those plays with him, either. He made me audition for any and all roles that involved me working with him. Including one specific one he was just so damn insistent on me doing. Some other girl ended up getting the role.” she deeply sighed again, slightly trembling, ”And what does he do? Gives me a knife and tells me to open up the spot.” 
“... So you killed-” 

“Yes, I did. Of fucking course I did, Ik, scared of this man enough as it is, I don't need to risk it now that I knew he was fine with killing.” her smile was growing more unhinged by the second, along with her voice, ”So there. That's my damn secret. I killed someone before, and now I killed again over it.”  

“I-” Ren looked disappointed, ”Damn it... Why... You could've opened up to us. You could've saved yourself and Akira. You didn't have to kill just because of all this...”  

“Oh please, don't guilt trip me before I die,” she spat out, her smile dropping, ”Ahhh, I don't give a shit anymore. not about me, not about any of you, not about what I’ve done.” 
And as the monologue ended, Kodo stoop up from her perch on the stairs. 

“Welp, time to vote!” She pulled out a notebook and pen, and walked over to Tea, who was closest to the stairs, ”Now, just whisper your vote right into my ear, no need for fancy tech in this! Starting wiiithhhh, Tea!”  

Tea did as told, saying something in the robot’s ’ear’. After Tea, Kodo stepped to the right to the next podium. Again, again, and again.  

Tea. Aimi.  

Hisao. Aimi.  

Yuto. Aimi.  

Akari. Aimi.  

Kana. Kana.  

Hattori. Aimi.  

Daiki. Aimi.  

Ren. Aimi.  

Ryoko. Aimi.  

Anake. Aimi.  

Kiki. Aimi.  

Aimi. Aimi.  

Mikiyo. Aimi.  

Kenta. Aimi.  

Ayaka. Aimi.  

And back to Tea.  

The screen of the TV flashed on. The words ’Verdict: Aimi Miura’ flashed on and off the screen.  
. . . 

The screen flashed green.  

“YEEPPP, THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS, YA GOT IT CORRECT, LUCKY YOU! AIMI IN THE BROOM CLOSET WITH THE BROOM, AHA!” Kodo cackled, in her stupid robotic voice, ”And nowwwww for the punishment. Any last words?”  

All eyes were on the actress, as she slowly nodded, already having accepted her fate. She looked up, both eyes wide open, her smile lacking any sanity, as she spoke her final words.  

"Fuck Akira, fuck Konoha, fuck you all, if I'm going to hell, he'd better not be there."  

And with that, it started. The floor beneath fear opened up, almost like a trapdoor, as the screen on the TV changed to a live feed...  

EXIT STAGE LEFT - AIMI MIURA, ULT STAGE ACTRESS: EXECUTION !!  

Aimi was dropped onto a large stage. The backdrop, and both stage exits, are just large walls of spikes, making any semblance of escape impossible. Not that she was bothered to try. A bright red stage light shone into her eyes, heavily obstructing the vision of the only one that worked. She blocked it with her hand, as she slowly stood up.  
she strained her eye to take a look at the audience. Not the strangers or silhouettes she was expecting, but figures she knew in her life. The mother that encouraged her acting career. The father that drank his days away. The childhood friend who ran away. The old acting partner who left before she got famous. The director that pushed her far past her limits. The poor actress she was forced to kill. And, of course, Konoha, the actor that was so seemingly obsessed with her, clapping louder than everyone else.  
she looked down at her hands, and only now noticed the thin, but sharp string tied around both wrists. Looking down, there was more on her ankles, and she could now feel some around her neck. She became painfully aware of it now, as she came to the obvious conclusion. 

A string pulled on her left wrist, tugging it up. Another on her right, and more in different areas, forcing her to pose like she was presenting herself to the audience. More strings pulled, again and again and again, forcing her body into many-a poses, all reminiscing her past roles. It was tiring, and painful, and torturous. The red light shine brighter, practically blinding her (even more than she already was), as the audience applause grew louder and louder.  

 It ended with being forced into a bow, as the strings were cut, and she collapsed into a heap on the floor, her sobs blocked out by the applause. She could hear a loud creak from behind her. She was too tired, too weak to even turn her head and see what it was. The creaking loudened, eventually coming to a halt as the backdrop of spikes fell, directly onto her.  

Aimi Miura was no more.  

Chapter Text

Aimi Miura was no more.  
The screen broadcasting her demise fizzed to static, leaving everyone in pure silence.  

Yuto was covering Akari’s eyes.  

Akari was having his eyes covered, having been spared of witnessing the execution.  

Kenta had gone pale in shock.  

Kana just looked sad. As always.  

Ayaka was quietly crying.  

Ren had her eyes closed, taking slow breaths.  

Kiki had stopped smiling for once.  

Tea was unreactive.  

Hattori was looking down, quietly talking to himself.  

Mikiyo looked on the verge of tears. He’d moved over to Anake’s podium and was hugging her.  

Anake was just being hugged.  

Daiki was quietly fiddling with his hair.  
Ryoko’s reaction was unreadable. 
Hisao was still clutching at his forearm. After just a few seconds, he ran up the staircase, leaving. 

 
Ryoko was the first person to actually speak. 

“...Damn. Bitch is dead. I can almost hear the Dead Meat music playing,” she said, completely deadpan. Like she didn't give a single shit about the people that died.  

“Ryoko, what the fuck?!” Ren was just...Appalled by this.  

“What? There something wrong?”  

“Dude, not cool, Aimi died !” Kenta exclaimed.  

“Yea, and she died in a fucking cool way. Why’re you looking at me like I’m insane?”  

“Whooo” Anake clicked her tongue, ”I sense a severe lack of empathyyyy-”  

“Says the literal murderer,” Tea shot a glare at her.  

“Yea, I know how to identity the people that don't feel bad and shit, Ryoko’s obviously one of them.”  

“I am right here, you know,“ Ryoko crossed her arms, ”Anyway, this is normal.”  

“It... It really isn't normal, Ryoko,” Kana finally spoke, ”Empathy is expected in most people... Especially when it comes to witnessing death .”  

“Ugh, whatever,” either she wasn't noticing all the looks being cast at her, or she was just ignoring them, ”Let’s face it; none of us were that close with Aimi. And only a few of us were actually friends with Akira. None of which are me. Meaning, I’m not obligated to give a shit.”  

...   

The atmosphere was so thick it could be cut with a fucking knife. The silence so loud it could deafen. Ryoko’s unreadable expression was not helping. Ayaka somehow looked even more broken. Eventually, Kiki just ran over to Ryoko’s podium and picked her up, running to the stairs.  

“HEY! What are you-”  

“Shhh! We’re going!” 
And they sure tried to. But, as they started to carry her up the stairs they were pushed back into the basement by Kodo (where the fuck had she come from? Nobody knows) 

“HOOOLLLLDDD YOUR HORSES! y'all ain't leaving until I do one last thing! I already let the short guy go early because I was dumb, so the rest of y'all better stay!”  

“Oh here we go. What’ve we got now?” Tea rolled her eyes, casting another glare at Ryoko as they awkwardly walked back to her podium. 
“Welllll, since Akira dearest is, y’know, deceased,” the robot spoke, ”I might as well reveal that secret of hers!” 

“.... You what.” Ayaka instantly looked up, her eyes widening.  

She didn't even have time to argue before the screen flashed to life again, reading a simple sentence.  

‘ Akira 'Akoi' is not related to Ayaka , she is simply lying, and being used .’  

Oh fuck.  

All attention turned over to Ayaka.  
Honestly, now that he knew it, it was actually...Pretty obvious that those two weren't related. The hair and eye difference could be passed over with contacts and dye, sure. But, the skin colour difference? Akira was incredibly pale, while Ayaka was tanned as fuck, and there's also the general body type to note. They just looked so different. And acted it too.  

How had nobody noticed before?  

Well, they sure as fuck were noting now.  

“I...” Ayaka herself looked like she was searching her mind for the correct words to defend herself. She gave up on that. And just let out a tired sigh, ”Fucking hell...”  

Daiki could just tell what was about to happen. Ayaka was gonna be bombarded with questions, break down crying, and oh god the angst that would happen. He didn't want that. For both his and Ayaka’s sake. So, he raised his voice to ask one simple question.  

“Kodo, can we leave now?”  

He hated all the attention turning to him, but it was better than it being on Ayaka. He knew that much.  
“Ohhh, sure. Drama’s dead anyway, I guess,” if she could, she'd've rolled her eyes. 

But still, they were all welcome to leave.  

Kiki continued to carry Ryoko up and out.  

Yuto left next, with Akari closely following.  

Tea walked over to the corner near Ryoko’s podium, picked up the cup she threw at them, and left.  

Anake, with Mikiyo still hugging onto her was next.  

Kana was next. She left. Daiki couldn’t help but notice she never actually said anything during the trial.  

Daiki himself, Hattori, and Ren. They managed to leave in height order, with Daiki trailing behind.  

Ayaka just stayed in the room. Quietly crying to herself, with Kenta attempting to comfort her.  

And thus, the first stage of the killing game was over.  

Hisao.  

Hisao Fujino was a fucking mess. He was sitting on the bathroom floor, where he’d been since he ran away from the trainwreck of a trial.  

On the bathroom floor. Back against the wall. He'd taken his mask off to breathe better. But he still refused to look at himself in the mirror. He didn’t want to even glimpse at his face. That stupid face. He hated it so much. Especially the damn eyes. If he could, he’d just remove them.  

Just focus on the arm.  

School wasn’t even a good escape from his hellhole of a house. He couldn’t call it a home at this point. No, school was just as bad. He never made a single real friend. Nobody gave a living shit about him. He could die and people would probably congratulate whatever killed him.  

That’s a lie. They'd never congratulate him for doing it. Not like they’d care if he actually went along with it. His parents wouldn’t care either. He was mostly just staying alive for Riko’s sake. She was the best one of the siblings. Reason he survived school in the first place.  

The only good thing that place had ever given him was the collection of pencil sharpeners he stole and kept in his pockets. He always had the detached blade of one in his hoodie. At all times.  

Just focus on the arm.  

He shakily sighed, rolling up his left sleeve and reaching a hand into his pocket to grab the blade.  
Nobody here cares about him either. They all hate him. Everyone hates him. He fucked up when he met Kenta, he knew that, and he just wanted to be fucking forgiven already. But now everyone knows him as the socially inept stabber guy. 
Every. Single. Person. 

Just focus on the arm, Hisao.  

He stared at it. The cuts had mostly healed since last time, Riko almost never gave him the opportunity to do it back at home, and he never felt like doing it here. Until Ren just had to fucking remind him of it. ‘Show me your arm’, god the fucking heart attacks he got from hearing that. Riko finding out, the bitches at school making fun of him, the teachers faking concern, all started with that damn line.  

Just focus on the arm, Hisao, for fucks sake, stop thinking.  

Why did they fake concern. Why did anybody pretend to fucking like him. Or care about him, or give two shits about him.  

One.  

He didn't deserve it. He didn't deserve people to even pretend to like him. Because all he deserved was to be hated. He didn't know much, he was a fucking idiot, but he knew that part.  
Two. 

Yea, he was just a god damn idiot. A stupid waste of air and time and money. Why was he like this? Why did he have to be so fucking useless?!  

Three.  

GOD, HE WAS SO GOD DAMN USELESS, ALL THE TIME. HE CAN NEVER CATCH A FUCKING BREAK, BECAUSE WHENEVER HE DOES, ANOTHER SHITTY THING COMES AROUND.  

Four.  

AND NOBODY FUCKING LIKED HIM. NOBODY CARED. NOBODY FELT ANY EMOTION OTHER THEN JUDGEMENT TO HIM. NOBODY. NOBODY. FUCKING, NOBODY.  

Five.  

Six.  

Seven.  

Eight.  

Nine.  

…  

He stared at the mess he had made with his arm. He probably should’ve gone further, the adrenaline was still high and he didn't feel anything yet.  

The beads of blood started to form where he had mindlessly slashed himself. God, he wasn't bothered to clean this shit up. He rubbed the cuts with his sleeve, smudging the blood and sending a shock of pain through him. There is was. There was the aching pain all around the offending area.  
It took him a few seconds to realise he was crying. God, he was so pathetic. He let go of the blade, letting it fall onto the floor, and just dropped his head into him arms. Curling up into a pathetic little ball, leaning against the wall. It hurt with the pressure on his arm, sure, but it was also oddly comforting. Not comforting enough, of course.  
And then he just let it all out. Just sobbing into his arms, the stinging pain getting worse, but he didn't care enough at this point. He didn't care if he died or not, because nobody else did. 

It felt like ages until he heard noise from outside again. It probably wasn't, but time goes slowly when you're breaking down. But still, that meant people were around. And he wasn't going to let people see him like this. He wouldn't give them that privilege.  

He sighed again, picking the blade back up and putting it in his pocket again. He stood up, put the mask back on, rolled the sleeve up, and unlocked the door. He didn't know where he wanted to go, just not with this many people.  
He just had to play it cool. Nobody could know what he'd done in that bathroom. He just had to pray nobody would touch his arm. 

Ayaka.  

Why was life so cruel to people? No. Life couldn’t be blamed, that thing just existed. Why were people so cruel to people. Yea, that’s right. Some people never deserved anything that had happened to them. Like Akira. God, Akira. Ayaka had put her through so much shit, all for her stupid fame, and now she was just gone.  

Fame. She was so obsessed with it. Even from a young age. The moment she realised professional YouTubers were a thing, she was set on that as her career. Her dads didn’t mind either, they helped her change her hair and makeup to look more marketable, and helped set up the channel too. But that was the issue, both dads had their own work to do, and she didn’t know shit about running a YouTube channel, she’d need help.  

And that’s where Akira came in.  

Ayaka never knew much about her. She was poor, that much was just visibly obvious. Being raised by a single mother, there were rumours about her real dad being that Kimura guy, local entrepreneur or something, big scandal because he was married, apparently. Eh, she was too young to know or care. But, just in time, Akira’s mother died, and she was left as an orphan. The adoption never legally happened, but it might as well have, because she moved in the moment Ayaka gave the offer. He had no idea what she was in for. Looking now, it wasn’t a good idea to force all the recording, editing, and moderating on one kid, but she still did. And, of course, her dads had the threat of kicking Akira out, in case it was needed. Those two grew up together. Grew famous together. The first controversy they god, where that girl killed herself ‘because of Ayaka’. But Akira dealt with it. Sometimes Ayaka forgot that they weren’t actually sisters, because of how much they pretended to be on camera, but whenever the cameras turned off and they were alone, Akira would just spend all day in her room. Drinking coffee to avoid passing out from all the late nights she spent editing videos, and dealing with sponsors.  

It was only coming to her now that it was cruel to put on her. Cruel to make her do all of that from a young age. Cruel to make her actually think she was gonna get some safety after losing her mother. Cruel to force her to change her hair colour and style, and everything, just to match.  

And she was only now realising it, only once Akira died.  

She was still in that basement, crying, regretting every damn life choice she had ever made to lead up to this. But one thought kept coming back to her. One fact she couldn’t stop thinking.  

She was meant to be the one Aimi killed.  

She should’ve died instead of Akira.  

She deserved to die, way more than the one who actually lost her life.  

She was only alive because Akira went through with that stupid prank, due to Ayaka’s own stupidity.  

She should be dead.  

It's her fault Akira’s gone.  

It’s her fault. It's her fault. It's her fault.  

Why did it all go wrong? When did she fall from the fame she gained? When as she officially doomed? Maybe when she asked Kiki for prank ideas, maybe when she and Akira got that ‘mansion getaway’ opportunity, maybe when the fame started getting to her head, maybe when she got Akira to work for her, maybe when she started that damn channel, maybe when she was born.  

Maybe she was doomed from the start.  

“Hey, Ayaka,” a voice snapped her out of her thoughts. It was Kenta’s, he was obviously trying to be comforting, but he still looked pretty nervous, “We’ve gotta go back soon. Kodo’s, uh, probably gonna lock the doors soon.”  

“...” She just looked at him. She was too tired for all of this, she didn’t want to move, it felt like every part of the creaked like an old door when she tried to move.  

“Ayaka, please. C'mon, I get you feel bad, but we need to leave,” his voice sounded slightly more urgent now.  

She sighed.  

“Fine...”  

She slowly stood up, and began to walk over to the stairs. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, just focus on walking, you’ll be okay. Kenta followed her from behind, giving words of support every now and again.  

After a few minutes or so, she finally reached the door, and left the basement, coming back out by the stairwell in the entrance. Last time she was here, she was stupid enough to believe Aimi was a good person. Not anymore. She couldn’t help but think nobody was a good person. She sure wasn’t, at least.  

Why were people so cruel to people.  

Ywfnytw5  

It's strange, how life can go so out of plan. Just few days prior, they were in the bathroom plotting murder, but then the motive rolled around, and Aimi did the job for them. Can't say they weren’t glad, because they didn’t have to kill anyone.  

Directly.  

Indirect killing is a whole other story. Because, they had technically killed Aimi. After all, they’re the one that came up with the whole ‘puppet strings’ idea. Fairly smart, not too brutal just for the sake of it, but just disturbing enough.  

Shame Akari never saw it, the lucky bastard.  

It's a weird thing, knowing how people can die. Technically being responsible for it. They didn’t feel that bad, though, they could trust people weren’t stupid enough for it to happen.  

Especially them .  

The ‘don’t get attached to anyone’ idea they made had failed pretty early on. They'd already made friends. And now they could only pray that those friends didn’t kill.  

They knew how bad the punishment was.  

A part of them regretted it, of course, having to pretend to have no idea what was going to happen once the killer was exposed. They were never a fan of lying. But they didn’t have a choice, nobody else would trust them if they admitted it.  

They opened the notebook that they kept by their bed, and opened the page for Aimi. There was a messy sketch of the woman herself. They had never considered themself an artist, but they drew when they were bored, and they got the likeness pretty well. They took a pen out, and added large Xs on her wrists, ankles, and neck, and finally, scribbled out her eyes.  

She added one extra thing. Her death date, at the bottom of the page.  

And the same thing on Akira’s page. A singular X on her head, sribbled out eyes, and death date at the bottom.  

Two down. Thirteen to go.  

All they had to do was wait for more bodies to drop.  

Chapter Text

Name: Daiki kobayashi

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Cartographer

Age: 19

Height: 5'4

Date Of Birth: April 20

Likes: Lizards

Dislikes: Loud noises

Name: Hattori Rokuro

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Gameshow Host

Age: 21

Height: 5'10

Date Of Birth: April 29

Likes: Public speaking

Dislikes: Silence

Name: Mikiyo Iwata

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Florist 

Age: 18

Height: 6'0

Date Of Birth: April 9

Likes: Flowers

Dislikes: Plastic

Name: Anake Sina

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Arsonist

Age: 18

Height: 5'8

Date Of Birth: July 27

Likes: Fire

Dislikes: Laws

Name: Tea Potts

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Reporter

Age: 18

Height: 5'8

Date Of Birth: June 19

Likes: Coffee

Dislikes: Children

Name: Ayaka Akoi

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: YouTuber

Age: 17

Height: 5'7

Date Of Birth: January 15

Likes: ...

Dislikes: Herself

Name: Kenta Sato

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Lumberjack

Age: 19

Height: 5'11

Date Of Birth: December 8

Likes: Nature

Dislikes: Cars

Name: Hisao Fujino

Pronouns: He/They

Ultimate: Voice Actor

Age: 17

Height: 5'0

Date Of Birth: March 2

Likes: Being alone

Dislikes: Being annoyed

Name: Akari Kasai

Pronouns: He/Him

Ultimate: Meteorologist

Age: 14

Height: 5'3

Date Of Birth: August 13

Likes: Wind

Dislikes: Being undermined

Name: Yuto Ikari

Pronouns: He/They

Ultimate: Archer

Age: 19

Height: 5'9

Date Of Birth: December 20

Likes: Sports

Dislikes: Cats

Name: Ryoko Ito

Pronouns: She/They

Ultimate: Horror Analyst

Age: 18

Height: 5'7

Date Of Birth: November 1

Likes: Horror

Dislikes: Tight spaces

Name: Kiki Hayashi

Pronouns: He/She/They

Ultimate: Jester 

Age: 19

Height: 6'10

Date Of Birth: April 1

Likes: Bright colours

Dislikes: Boredom 

Name: Ren Inoue

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Surgeon

Age: 18

Height: 6'1

Date Of Birth: March 30

Likes: Collecting things

Dislikes: Annoying patients

Name: Kana Suzuki

Pronouns: She/Her

Ultimate: Therapist

Age: 17

Height: 5'5

Date Of Birth: September 10

Likes: Silence

Dislikes: Being alive

Chapter Text

10:48 AM. Daiki Kobayashi did not want to get up. He was still thinking of the events of yesterday, laying in his bed. Most other people had left at this point. He sighed, putting his glasses back on and checking his phone. There were loads of missed messages from Rinu. Of course.  

‘ daiki, kinda getting worried now..’ - Furry, Yesterday, 12:14 PM  

‘are you ignoring me??? Or do you need help???’ - Furry, Yesterday, 12:17 PM  

‘DAIKI’ - Furry, Yesterday, 1:04 PM  

‘Daiki, please.’ - Furry, Yesterday, 1:10 PM  

‘Hold on, I’m coming.’ - Furry, Yesterday, 10:19 PM  

He smiled at that. Rinu had always been overly ambitious in things, vastly overestimating what they could achieve, and this was just like it. Just the idea of Rinu arriving at this mansion in the middle of god-knows-where to save their brother made him laugh. He missed them.   

 His reminiscing was interrupted by that stupid jingle always associated with Kodo, playing through the mansion. If he was strong enough, he’d just break those stupid speakers, that voice was driving him insane.  

“Goooooooood morning everyone! Now, I know y’all are all probably grieving, but there ain’t no time for that! Anyway, as your super helpful landlord, I’m gonna give yall a little... Surprise, ” her voice somehow sounded sinister as she said that, before returning to normal, “so, gather in the Dining Room, we won’t start ‘til everyone’s there!”  

Welp. At least he’d be distracted from how homesick he was.  

Arriving at the Dining Room, as advised, he realised how late he probably was. Everyone (except Hisao) was already there. As was instinct at this point, he walked over to Hattori, who was talking with Ren.  

“I mean, it’s honestly appalling! I-” he was cut off once he spotted him, “Ah, Daiki! Was wondering when you’d arrive, good to see you.”  

“Yea,” he yawned, “God, I’m tired.”  

“How many hours did you sleep last night?"  

“Not enough.”  

“Fair,“ Hattori shrugged, readjusting his glasses, seemingly scanning the room, ‘13 of us here.”  

Stating the obvious, Hattori.  

Looking around the room himself, Daiki wasn’t surprised to see who was with who.  

Yuto and Akari, close as ever. The father/son duo at this point, as much as both denied it. 
Kana was next to Ren, just not talking. 

Ryoko and Kiki together. Though, something seemed different. Maybe it was Ryoko’s showing of her pure lack of empathy at the trial last night. Or just a bad feeling, who knows. Whatever it was, Kiki didn't care, the Jester was just as loud and happy with her as ever.  

Mikiyo and Anake, femboy and tomboy. He could remember Ayaka saying she shipped the two. Back before the deaths. It wasn’t even 24 hours ago, why did it feel so long.  

Kenta was just there. Not with anyone specific, but joining in on conversations here and there.  
Ayaka just looked depressed, looming in the corner. Tea was standing near her. Not talking, just two blue haired people being antisocial.One more justified, albeit. 

That just left Hisao. Of course.  

“So, it’s only Hisao left, right?”  

“Indeed. He seems to have a habit for arriving late.”  

Just as he said that, Hisao walked in. Fiddling with the left sleeve of his hoodie, and with the hood up for once.   

“Speak of the devil,” Hattori retorted.  

“Oh fuck off,” the Voice Actor flipped Hattori off, before standing in the corner, as far away from everyone else as humanly possible. As expected with Hisao. Daiki could only help but wonder what was going on in his mind.  
 
He wasn't expecting Kodo to just appear. Let alone appear behind Hisao. I say that like he was expecting anything specific. But still, she practically spawned in, right behind where Hisao was standing. 

“WELLLLL HEY YALL!” She screamed, making Hisao jump out of his damn skin. Even with his face hidden, everyone could tell he was holding himself back from punching her.  

“FUCKING- WHY?!”  

“Ehe, it’s fun to see yall jump like that!” She giggled.  

“I hate you.”  

“Don’t we all?” Ren added.  

“I hate that thing almost as much as I hate myself. Almost ,” Kana mumbled.  

“Didn’t even know that was possible,” Tea took a sip from her cup, which she seemed to have with her at most times now.  

“HEY! Not appreciating the slander here, guys.”  

“Oh fuck off, I’ll slander furries any time of the day,” Tea rolled her eyes. Her face was looking very slappable again.  

“I’m not a furry, I’m designed as a Fennec Fox, know the difference.”  

“Blah blah blah, still a furry, and they can all suck my nonexistent dick.”  

“Hey, not all furies are bad, my sibling is one-”  

“Well your sibling is a disappointment to humanity.”  

“Just like mine,” Anake butted in, crossing her arms, “I don’t know if she’s alive, but if she is I’ll make it my life’s mission to end that bitch.”  

“OOOO-KAY, GETTIN’ OFF TRACK HERE,” Kodo yelled again, getting another reaction from Hisao.  

“Indeed. What did you bring us here for?” Hattori asked.  

“Well, Hat Man, I’m gonna give yall a little reward for surviving thus far.”  

“OOOOO, I LOVE REWARDS!!” Kiki shouted.  

“Kiki, no-”  

“Kiki YES! The Jester gets it, this’ll be huge for yall, so ya better be excited!” Kody pointed at the jester, grinning.  

“Huge in a good way or bad way?”  

“Huge is always good.”  

“As yes, the best thing in the world: a huge heart attack,” Ren rolled her eyes.  

“I’ve had a heart attack before, can confirm, they suck,” Ryoko slightly waved her hand.  

“Ryoko what-”  

“Long story.”  

“Are yall done arguing, can I get on with this?” Kodo crossed her arms.  

“Yes, please continue.”  

“Okay, so,” She began slowly marching around the room while talking, “Yall have done a great job with that trial, wasn’t expecting yall to find out who bonked gool ol’ Akira so fast!”  

Ayaka looked down from that part.  

“And I wanna congratulate yall for it! With a lil’ gift!”  

“I ask again: What the fuck are you gifting us???” Anake seemed annoyed, fiddling with her wing.  

“Pacience, my dear pyromaniac, it’s a virtue. But I wanna ask, doesn’t this place feel a lil’ small to yall? Because it sure does for me. And that’s whyyyy...” Another mimed drumroll with her fingers, “I’m gonna give ya more places!”  

“You wha-”  

That question was interrupted by Kodo kicking hard onto the wall. There was a clear cracking sound for a second, before a large hole appeared in the wall.  

“Oh, dope, she gave us a glory hole,” Ryoko rolled her eyes.  

“NO! IT’S NOT A GLO-”  

“What’s a glory hole???” Akari looked genuinely confused.  

“DON’T,” Yuto covered Akari’s ears.   

“Do it Ryoko, traumatise the chid.”  

“I swear to god, if I wouldn't get executed for it, I’d be killing you right here and now.”  

“Just say he’s your son at this point.”  

“HE’S NOT MY-”  

“BACK ON TOPIC-” Kodo continued clawing and punching at the hole, eventually making it big enough for an entire person to walk through, “Yall can go explore now!”  
She said, while walking through the hole, and disappearing. He had to lean to the left to see out the hole. And when he did, he was shocked. There was... The outside world? He could see a pathway, and grass, and enough brightness to stop him from seeing past that. 

“Uh... Are we gonna go check that out?” Anake asked.  

“Of course we are!” Mikiyo was grinning, as he grabbed her hand and ran out, pulling her with him.  

“JEEZ, OKAY-”  

Akari followed them, with Yuto. Ren went next, beckoning Kana to follow, which she did. Then Hattori, and Daiki went with him.  

The first thing he notices was that it was, as he had guessed, outside. It looked like a large back yard, with grass, and a pathway, leading forward, and branched off to the left and right. He could see tall, metal walls, blocking off any faint hope of escape. The outside air wasn’t something he was used to anymore. It was a jarring difference from the comfortable, warm temperature the mansion had. Instead, the climate was more fitting with the early March it probably was. Who knew, the calendar app on his phone had stopped working a long time ago, and losing track of time was surprisingly easy. Oh well, it was most likely early April, he only arrived at the mansion, and by extension, the game, on March 15th, and it couldn’t have been that long since it started. Plus, the faint warmth and brightness, all fitted with his guess. Why was he thinking about all this??? 

“Daiki!” Hattori’s voice broke him out of that weather induced trance, “Come on, we’ve got a whole outdoors to explore.”  

“Oh yea- Hold on, I’m slow,” He groaned. He could see most of the other scattering out into different directions, all at varying paces  

“I’m holding, Daiki, I’m holding a lot.”  

“Stop talking so poetic, we’re going to need a translator at this rate.”  

“Right- sorry, force of habit.”  

The Cartographer had caught up to Hattori at this point, as they were walking a down a pathway at a steady pace. After a few minutes, the two slowed to a stop in front of what appeared to be a shed. No decorations, or windows, just a basic, wooden shed, with a large sliding lock at the front.  

Two voices could be heard from within. Sounded like they were yelling, along the noise of some kind of scuffle. Anake and Mikiyo, from the sound of it.  

“Should... Should we-”   

“Yes, we don’t need another murder,” Hattori already had his hand on the door handle, and slowly opened it, revealing the interior of the shed.  

it wasn’t a Tardis or anything, nothing special about size or looks, it was mostly just boxes of gardening supplies. And rat poison. For whatever reason. But that wasn’t what he was focusing on, no, he was paying attention to the people inside it. It was an... odd sight.  

Mikiyo was being pinned against a wall by Anake, one of his arms holding something, and keeping it as high above him as his arm could stretch, while Anake was reaching for it. Looked right out of those weird romance animes.  

“Uhm. Are we interrupting something here?” Hattori coughed to get their attention. Making the two turn and look at him, a blush immediately forming on Mikiyo’s face.  

“N-NOPE,” he cleared his throat slightly, trying to push Anake off with his other arm, to no avail, “This isn’t what it looks like I swear-”  

“Wha... The fuck did you guys think we’re doing??” Anake just looked confused, still reaching for the thing in Mikiyo’s hand, “Because whatever it is, you’re wrong.”  

“Okay, what’s happening then, because I’m very confused,” Daiki asked, his face very much confirming his statement.  

“Simple. Miki over here stole my fucking wing, and I’ve gotta get it back. This is just the easiest way.”  

“Yea, because you said you’d burn down the shed! I’m stopping you from destroying this place!”  

“Not my fault you’re a boring good guy, not GIVE ME MY DAMN WING!” With that, she jumped up, and yanked the wing straight out of Mikiyo’s hand, gaining a small yelp from both Daiki and the Florist.   

“Ah, violence.”  

“ANAKE YOU-” Mikiyo looked both distressed and annoyed, “YOU CUT MY HAND, SERIOUSLY?!”  

“Well in my defence, you stole my stuff.”  

“I’m bleeding, Anake, this is not the time for defences.”  

“Fair point... Actually yea, that’s a lot of blood-”  

“We had a murder literally yesterday, and you’re already stabbing people,” Hattori sighed, facepalming, “Mikiyo, can I see the wound?”  

“OkAy-” Helpful voice crack. He pushed Anake away from him, and stepped over to Hattori, letting him take hold of his wrist.  

“Hm. I’m no doctor, but I think that’s bad. Anake, take your boyfriend to the medical centre.”  

“Fineeee,” She groaned, grabbing the Florist’s arm, and dragging him out. Daiki could head a distant ‘Wait, did he call you my boyfriend??’ from her, before their voiced faded. Hattori was chuckling to himself.   

“Let’s not stick around, she’ll be annoyed once she comes back.”   

“Yea, fair point, let’s go-” He was already making his way out, walking as fast as he humanly could without running, Hattori strolling behind.  

One corner is all it takes for the yard to open up considerably. Past the shed is more akin to a resort than a yard, equipped with a pool, private rooms and what's seemingly a beach-side bar in the near distance. The unspoken consensus is evident. The six that were now present, Hattori, Kana, Kiki, Yuto, Akari and Daiki himself step forward toward the pool. It was tiled for about a foot's width along its edges, surprisingly, somewhat confusingly devoid of any mould or weeds despite the apparent age of the rest of the mansion. Akari, before leaving anyone any more time to process, is in the water. Yuto sighs, crouching by the side of the pool. He asks a simple question, although it more so comes out as the tone of a statement. 
“What?” 

Akari manages to flail and squirm his way to an edge, quickly pulling himself up and shaking himself off like a dog. He shoots up, hands on hips and a frustrated frown on his face. Yuto stands as he exits the pool, not mad and not disappointed, simply looking toward Akari and waiting. 
“This water dare question the power of a God!? Blasphemy! It won't let me glide upon it!” 
Yuto sighs, somewhat embracing the parentlike position he's been more or less thrusted into. He turns to Daiki, whose confusion must be apparent from Yuto’s reaction. He locks eyes with Daiki, his face as monotone as his voice. 
“He’s mad he can't walk on water.” 
With this, Hattori turns around and begins walking the other direction, in his usual brand of strange precision. Every degree he bends his limbs feels intentional. He waves a hand in a dismissive motion as he walks, not bothering to turn his head when he talks. 
“I’ll be off. Exploring this place in a group seems… somewhat counterproductive. I’m sure none of you will die without me” 
This, naturally, catches Kana’s attention. She crouches down near the pool's edge, idly stirring a section of the water with a finger. Her voice is breathy, somewhat raspy, as if she hasn't had to use it for long periods before. 
“I mean, I’ve thought this out pretty thoroughly… I think drowning is suitable enough. I’ve heard the pressure buildup in your lungs for your final seconds is agonizing while you desperately choke on water for any hope of air and you thrash and scream to no avail, you’re no closer to the surface and your death screams are only muffled by the stifling embrace of the water.” 
Kiki bends down with a frozen smile on their face, processing Kana’s small rant. They blink numerous times, slowly nodding their head and blinking irregularly slowly before they decide on the right thing to add to the conversation. 

“Ah yes, mhm, yepperoo, precisely, of course, mhm. On an unrelated note, what the f-” 
A sharp gaze from Yuto stops them right in their tracks. With an equally hostile gesture, thrashing his head to one side, where the rest of the pool lays, he wordlessly initiates the group to look around more. 

 Once again, the lack of apparent age rears itself to Daiki. The mansions' materials themselves look devastated by time, yet there's a strange clinical cleanliness to it all. The pool itself is around 20 x 40 feet in area, on the larger end, as to be expected for the needless theatrics presented by the killing game. Close to the swimming pool, close enough that they automatically join the investigation of the area are four small rooms, almost like something you’d find at a cheap resort or an expensive motel. Once again adding to the strange severing in time, these rooms are spotlessly clean. On each door, engraved into a golden plate, is a unique name for each “Ayaka Akoi”, “Akira Akoi”, “Anake Sina”,”Hattori Rokuro”.  

Before proper time to process, a bloodcurdling scream rings out throughout the entire mansion. Akari Kasai. The screams were those that Daiki speculated could only come from death… that is, until he turns around and notices the true culprit, the sudden appearance of Ryoko. Akari quickly scrambles to his feet, doing his best to regain the respect that he had in the group. He scoffs, crossing his arms and raising his chin in what Daiki took as an imitation of “proud” mannerisms that Akari had seen in anime. 
“Y-You wench! Suddenly appearing like that… I-I was simply entertaining your pitiful performance!” 
“Haha lol imagine getting jumpscared.” 
Ryoko’s laughter is one without any guise of humour, more a statement than a laugh. Daiki couldn't help but worder where she appeared from. He sighed, before approaching her.  
“Uh. Ryoko, hi. Question: where’d you come from? You just kinda... Spawned, just now.” 

“Oh, I was hiding in the corner.”  

“The wha-”  

Before he could finish asking, Ryoko pointed a finger behind her, pointing out the corner where two of the walls met. It was dark, incredibly so. Unlike the other three corners, this one had a third wall, in the form the mansion itself. Like a dark and ominous alley, leading to nothing but wall. And was that a bloodstain he could see there?  

“Yeah. The corner. You can’t see them, but Kiki’s there too.”  

“Oh. How can a corner be that dark, anyway?”  

“Eh, no idea, the furry said it's where the lighting failed, but I don't buy it.”  

“The furry?”  

“Rinu. We’ve just all agreed she’s a furry. I mean, she even has a fox for a fursona. Talk about basic.”  

“I don't get how you guys have furries so much, my sibling’s one-”  

“Yeah, I don't trust your sibling then. If I survive to meet them, I’m gonna poke them. I swear.”  

“Why poke?”  

“Because I don't wanna hurt them so much they chase me. I’ve got asthma, I’m not gonna win that.”  

 "...Why do I feel like you've thought all this out before-”  

“I have.”  

“...Okay then,” he wasn't bothered to question Ryoko’s reasoning. He just kept looking around.  

After not finding anything notable, he kept going down the path, stopping when he saw... a bar? Yeah, a bar, right in the open. With three barstools, and a large array of alcohols on display. Siting where a bartender would sit, was Hisao. Giving his lack of reaction to Daiki arriving, it could be assumed he was zoned out.  

“Uh, Hisao..?”  

“JEEZ-” he flinched, hand instinctively clenching into a fist, before he registered who was talking, ”Fucking WARN me next time. Asshole.”  

“Oh, sorry. I was just, uh , worried. You weren't moving, or reacting to me.”  

“Yeah, I was thinking about stuff, now fuck off.”  

“Why are you even here anyway, it's a bar-”  

“I like the smell of alcohol. Sue me.”  

“... How? Like, seriously, that smell makes me want to tear my own skin off,” he wanted to gag just thinking of it.  

“eh, reminds me of my childhood , I guess,” he sighed, “... I shouldn't tell you this. Fuck off.”  

“yeah, going-”  

He continued going down the path, after that short interaction with Hisao. Makes sense, the two were hardly good conversationalists.  

His final stop was a garden. Fit with flowers, bushes, a few fruit trees, and a bench. It was at the very corner where the metal walls met. The garden itself had large fencing all around it, so large that you couldn’t see anything behind it, and could only see the actual garden from the arched entryway. But, something caught his eye, among all of that. Tea was standing at a part of the fence. As he stepped closer to the Reporter, he became aware of the noise. It was loud, like a mix of scratching and hitting, and by how the fence was shaking, it was giving him the impression someone was attempting to break the fence from outside. Probably some sort of animal.  

“Uh. Hey Tea. Why are you-”  

“Shush,” She knelt down, not even bothering to turn and look at him. She tapped on the fence, at the area the noise was originating from, before flinching back, ”Jesus, this thing is really trying hard to get in.”  

She stood up again, moving to the side. Daiki noticed a crack forming in the fence itself, growing larger by the second. Tea looked ready to hit it the moment it broke through.  

“Should we find help or somethi-”  

“Shut up. I can deal with this.”  

. . .  

The crack only got larger. The entire section of the fence only looked a single hit away from breaking.  

And the final hit was delivered.  

The fence collapsed, a large hole being made, and a figure tumbling through it, landing face-down.  

A new figure.  

But... he knew that person.  

The short stature. That dirty blond hair, messily dyed pink at the tips. The old, black suit, with rolled up sleeves, and a neon pink tie. The pink and white fingerless gloves. The grey ripped jeans, and dirty white sneakers. Their favourite outfit. They wore it way too much.  

They rolled around, facing the sky, their face visible now. The blue eyes, the freckles, it was all there.  

It was all them.  

Daiki couldn’t believe it, it wasn't real, right? He took a step back, as a single word came out of his mouth.  

“...Rinu?!”  

Chapter Text

“ ...Rinu?!”  The words escaped his mouth before he could even fully register it. His sibling was here . Right in front of him. On the floor.  

“DAIKI!” They grinned up at him, not gotten up yet.  

“RINU, WHAT THE FUCK?!” Tea was the loudest to exclaim something. She was standing further away from them, remaining beside the fence, so they had to stand and turn to actually see her. Their face dropped the moment they did, however.  

“Tea. WHY THE HELL’RE YOU HERE?!”  

“Does it look like I know?! I was kidnapped. Like every other fucking person here.”  

“Uh, am I interrupting some kind of reunion here-”  

“The Teapot and I used to work at CNS together, back when I was an intern,” Rinu rolled their eyes, “I hated every second of it. Anyway, that’s not important, YOU WERE KIDNAPPED!”  

They jabbed him in the arm, looking annoyed, but in that playful way.  

“Oh yeah. Uh, remember that mansion getaway thing I was supposed to go on? Yeah, that was a lie, this is a killing game.”  

“A killing what now”  

“Yeaaaahhh... That’s why I didn’t reply to your texts, the wifi in here’s built to only send to other people here,” Daiki started fiddling with his hair again, “But... How did you even get IN here?!”  

“You still had location sharing, dumbass. I tracked your phone oner to here, and used a tree to get over the walls. Good thing this thing doesn’t have a roof.”  

“Oh god. Rinu, you’re an idiot-”  

“We all know that,” Tea rolled her eyes, casting a glare at Rinu, “How do you know them, anyway? You two seem... Annoyingly close.”  

“Siblings,” both of the Kobayashi’s said that part in unison.  

“Oh fuck my life there’s two of them. A furry and a socially inept one. Great.”  

“Hey! I’m not inept, I’m just awkward-” 
“Same thing. Anyway, should I tell your boyfriend about this whole..” She gestured to Rinu, “Situation?” 

“Your what ,” Rinu looked appalled at the mere concept of Daiki dating someone. Maybe that was the aroace in them.  

“He’s not my boyfriend, we’re just close,” Daiki sighed, oblivious to the blush on his face, “but yes, tell Hattori. And maybe everyone else-”  

The Reporter pulled her phone out, and started typing something. Seconds later, the sound of  groupchat notification was heard. It only took a few minutes for everyone to gather around, murmuring in surprise and shock at the sight of the new, unfamiliar face. Ryoko arrived last, yawning.  

“I heard something about a furry- what the fuck.”  

“...” Rinu was staring at her specifically, they whispered to Daiki, ”Is that THE Ryoko Ito, or just a lookalike???”  

“Uh. Real thing. Why are you asking?” He wasn't bothering to whisper.  

“DUDE I AM A MASSIVE FAN OF HER!” They shouted, causing him to flinch back. They ran over to, ”Hi, Ryoko, huge fan of yours, love the kill counts. Name's Rinu Kobayashi, sibling of the autism man over there.”  

They gestured to Daiki.  

“Seriously?!” He sighed.  

“Am I wrong???”  

“You’re not, he does act like that,” Ryoko added.  

“Not helping.”  

“I don't try to.”  

“Okay, introductions out of the way please,” Hattori pushed to the front of the crowd, closest to Rinu, ”Rinu, tell me, how and why exactly did you enter here?”  

“Right, so, scaled the walls and jumped down.”  

“How is your leg not broken?” Ren exclaimed, only getting a shrug in response.  

“Right. Well, did you consider a way to... you know, get back out after?” He had a slightly mocking tone. Rinu looked up and around.  

“oh. Shit.”  

“OH SHIT INDEED!” Kodo had spawned in again. Also directly behind Hisao, warranting another flinch from him, ”WHY THE FUCK IS THERE SOMEONE NEW?!”  

Rinu groaned.  

“ughhhh. How many times do I have to tell you fuckers? I scaled the wall, jumped down, and got in to help my brother. Is there anyone else who isn't here that I have to explain it to?” They sighed, turning fully to Kodo, ”by the way, love the fursuit, never see any robot-looking ones nowadays.”  

“Okay, I know I look great, but this isn't a fursuit. I’m literally a robot.”  

“Oh. Damn. Cool.”  

“Annnyyyyway, I’m Kodo, your landlord, hi. Uhhhh, gonna take a while to get you into the database, that's fine, I can work with this,” hypothetical sweat was dripping from her forehead, ”now, just go do your own stuff, I don't know-”  

 And they walked off. Everyone just.... stared. In pure silence, nothing spoken. Until, that is, Hattori spoke up again.  

“well... I say this is the time we all gather into the dining hall and have another meeting. I’d say we could do it out here, but it’s rather cramped, and Kenta is standing on my foot.”  

“Oh, sorry dude-”  

“Forgiven,” He slipped through the crowd, making his way out of the garden, clapping his hands, ”chop chop, let's go.”  

Everyone was walking over to the mansion. Slowly filing inside. Daiki was waiting for the crowd to die down. His train of thought was disrupted by a hand on his shoulder. He gasped for a second, before being yanked into that ominous dark corner. His eyes took a second to adjust to the lack of light. It took a second, but he saw himself looking into the eyes of Tea.  

“Tea?? What the hell are you-  

“Shhh. Shut up. Shut the fuck up. I need to talk to you,” she looked slightly disturbed, ”It's about Rinu.”  

“... I’m listening.”  

She looked around for a second, her voice a hushed whisper.  

“They're fucking insane ! Like, fully insane. And I don't want them here.”  

“Tea, this is Rinu. They’re just silly, not Insane,” he was fiddling with his hair, trying his best to pretend like he didn't already know of his sibling’s serial killing antics.  

“Daiki, I’m being serious her. Back when it worked for CNS, I saw them. I saw them stab someone, for fucks sake! You need to believe me here.”  

“Calm down. You probably dreamt it or something.”  

“... Ugh. When you get fucking murdered by it, don't go haunting me.”  

 She stormed out. Leaving Daiki with his own thoughts, thanking whatever gods there were that he got away with that.  

 
And there they were. All gathered into the dining room. All seated, with Hattori at the head of the table. 

“Now. To address the elephant in the room: Rinu. I’m assuming you know about this whole... killing game issue?”  

Rinu, who was leaning back on their chair, rolled their eyes.  

“Yep. Well, Daiki told me it was a killing game, and I guessed the rest from there. This is like, a super overused concept. This mastermind bitch is super unoriginal, just saying.”  

“Rude. But fine, I digress. Next, we all need to introduce ourselves to Rinu. So, we’ll go around the table, and give our names, talents, and any other things to add. I’ll begin: I am Hattori Rokuro, the Ultimate Gameshow Host.”  

“Uh. Daiki Kobayashi, Cartographer. Also the furry’s sibling.”  

“Rinu Kobayashi, aspiring to becoming the Ultimate Roleplayer, local furry.”  

“Oooooooo! Kiki Hayashi, and Imma Jester!”  

“Ryoko Ito. Horror Analyst,” she yawned.  

“... Ayaka Akoi. Yeah, the YouTuber. Don't ask about Akira, I don't wanna talk about it.” 
“Yo, Kenta Sato, talent is Lumberjack.“ 

“Ren Inoue, Surgeon, wayyyy to tired for anymore bullshit.”  

“Kana Suzuki. I’m supposed to a Therapist, but I’m not really good at it..”  

“Hisao Fujino, Voice Actor, don't fucking talk to me.”  

“... I’m not introducing myself. It knows who I am,” that was from Tea, who was refusing to look at Rinu at all.  

“Mikiyo Iwata, I’m a Florist! And also a guy, just to warn-” 
“Anake Sina. Ultimate fuckin’ Arsonist.” 
“Yuto Ikari. An Archer.” 
“Ehem... I AM THE GREAT GOD, RULER OF WEATHER AND TIME, WITH THE GODLY ABILITY OF FORESIGHT, AKARI KASAI! KNEEL BEFORE ME!“ he screamed, trying to climb onto the table, with Yuto holding him back. 

“There. That’s everyone. I hope you can remember everyone, I‘m sure you will eventually. Now, does anyone have any other points?”  

Kiki raised their hand  

“OOOOO!! ME! ME! ME!”  

“Yes, Kiki?”  

“What’s for dinner tonight?” They questioned, with the most smug smile ever. Hattori just looked like he was dying inside.  

“I don’t know, Kiki. Doesn't anyone have any other important points?”  

Ryoko stood up from her chair.  
“I’ve had a revelation." 

“... Speak.”  

“This is the exact plot of Scream.”  

Nobody replied. It was awkward silence for a few seconds. Hattori coughed to break it.  

“Excuse me?”  

“Listen listen listen listen,” she repeater the word, waving her hands around, ”any of you fuckers watch Scream? You should, it’s great. Anyway, if you have , you should know this is EXACTLY like it”  

“Nobody cares about your stupid obsession, Ryoko,” Tea rolled her eyes, taking a sip out of her cup.  

“Shut the FUCK up, Gale Weathers, and not the good kind. But continuing on, we have: basic ass protagonist,” She gestured to Daiki. He didn't understand why people kept calling him a protagonist, but he just went with it at this point. She turned her gaze to Hattori next to him, ”his weird boyfriend, his incredibly suspicious family member. Daiki Kobayashi? Call yourself Syd, bud. But also, the deaths.  The second death was a hot woman nobody expected to die because she’s a famous actress. I mean HELLO?! Now, following that pattern, the next victim’s gonna be a boring guy nobody gives a shit about”  

She turned and waved her hand in Hisao’s general direction. He didn't even react at all. “Anddd after that it’s the bimbo with big tits that’re probably fake,” A point to Ayaka,”anddd finally, masterminds: protagonist’s weird and creepy ass boyfriend, and his accomplice, a murder happy psycho. I conclude: Hattori and Anake. That also means I’m a guaranteed survivor, because horror obsessed ’weirdo’ who just gets near killed. Sure, I'd die in the sequel, but that's not gonna come. RIP Randy, you didn't deserve such a bad death.”  

She sat back down. Nobody spoke.  

“Uh, hello? Anyone gonna respond to my theory?”  

Tea stood up.  

“I’m leaving, this is stupid.”  

“Awh, what??” Ryoko rolled her eyes, ”Are you really that sensitive about me calling you Gale?”  

“No, this is just insensitive.”  

“She does have a point, Ryoko,” Ren said, a few others nodding.  

“Ugh, none of you are any fun. It's just some basic shit, right?”  

“People are dying, this isn't something you can just compare to a movie!”  

“... Whatever. I’m not gonna argue.”  

The atmosphere was uncomfortably tense. Daiki just wanted to change the subject. He finally thought of something to say.  

“Uh. Unrelated, but I feel like we need to do something to brighten the mood here. Maybe we could put that pool to use?” 
"That’s... actually a pretty good idea,” Ren nodded, ”sure, let's do it. Pool party, tomorrow, 4 o’clock. I’ll bring drinks.” 

That got people talking within themselves, most smiling. Daiki was... oddly proud of himself. Especially with Hattori’s smile of approval. he was actually helping out for once! This was new. He could finally look forward to something.  

Everyone had left the dining hall. Only Anake and Mikiyo were there, looking into each others eyes. No words were said, as Mikiyo gently took Anake’s hand and stood up.  

“So, I heard you had your own room now? Would you.. Maybe let me stay there tonight?”  

She stood up with him, smirking.  

“Ha, ’course. There's enough room on the bed, that thing is huge ,” she started walking out, “c’mon, I’ll show ya!”  

“Oh, great!” 
one single sentence could be heard before the door was shut behind the two. One from Anake. 

“I’m gonna spike the drinks tomorrow, by the way.”  

Chapter Text

The sound of joy was foreign. Alien to reality. A harbinger to a dream-like contrast from the last eternity of darkness. Whatever strands of hope there once were to reach for were lost along with Akira’s life, only to be then cemented by losing Aimi. To look forward to something now was almost a lost cause. Or so Daiki had thought. The wooden border between him and the pool was opened, where he was then greeted with Anake’s voice. She rests upon Kenta’s shoulders, hoisted into the air and laughing, the light produced from the pool's surroundings glistening off of her thighs. Regrettably, Daiki more than noticed how form-fitting her swimsuit was. Her voice is wrought with a sense of life that Daiki had never seen from her. From most people.
“¡Ven aquí, chico menta!”

With these words, Anake falls off of Kenta with another shot of laughter, resurfacing at the tiled edge of the pool, eyes fixated on Daiki. She pushes herself up to the point that the water-line only reaches her waist. Light reflects from her smooth tanned skin. Her teeth show, pressing down on the bottom of her lips and smiling wide. From this angle, the swimsuit was revealing, something she was more infinitely aware of, playing directly into Daiki’s mind, wrapping a finger around him.
“Hey there, you gonna come in? I’m getting lonely, y’know.”
She pulls herself up further, sitting herself onto the tiles in front of Daiki. Her legs rise with the rest of her body, breaking the surface of the water. Her long legs further drip with water, light dancing around the fat of her thighs. She leans the back of her torso onto Daiki’s legs, looking up at him and continuing to smile. She leans to the point that the chest of her swimsuit is presented clearly, her breasts heaving up and down slowly along with her chest as she draws breath. Her tongue paints a further layer of wet onto her lips before she speaks.

“You know how to keep a girl waiting, Daiki. Now, get the fuck in here, chico menta!”
With another laugh, she grabs onto Daiki’s hand, her skin as soft and smooth as it is to the eye. She turns and lets herself fall back into the water, bringing Daiki with her as she does. The peace brought from under the water's surface is more than welcome, blocking out light and sound, leaving Daiki with one brief moment of respite in this entire killing game. Then, before he can savour it, he has resurfaced. Anake cups the side of his face with a hand, their skin now both slick. She raises it only to let it fall back down onto his face, gently slapping his cheek.
“Good boy. Now come on! Let's party! Kenta, get back over here, big boy!”

With this, Anake makes her way toward the rest of the group in the party, the water in a permanent state of disruption around them, the fire of Anake’s presence disrupting the scene itself. Ryoko appears as customary for her, twinned with a shock that resonates throughout Daiki’s body, suddenly appearing from behind him.
“Don't feel special, she's been doing that to like, everyone here. Nice tits though, right? Girls hot.”
“Aha… that's um, funny y-y’know. Th-the ultimate, um, Arsonist being hot.”

“Daiki. Mint boy. Shut the fuck up.”
Choking down the urge to retract into his own skeleton from the interaction, an awkward laugh is all that's produced in response to Ryoko. After a moment, his mouth parts and his throat constricts to begin to form words. Before he can talk, the ground falls from under him. He’s shot into the air, his body heavy from the full weight of gravity he now experiences from breaking from the water. His muscles tense for a fall, yet one never comes, he’s kept levitating by whatever surface stole him. The water clears from Daiki’s eyes, revealing himself as floating, hoisted onto the shoulders of Kenta. The glisten of Kenta’s muscles reflect the blinding lights of the party, emphasising every muscle and showcasing their definition for all. Water from his hair drops onto his body, falling down the carved path of Kenta’s muscle definition, a winding road, his body akin to a statue, almost perfectly athletic. More so the idealisation of a body than what can be interpreted as one. His only imperfection; a newly developing scar on his upper thigh, courtesy of Hisao Fujino. Daiki would have been embarrassed to stare if his train of thought hadn't been interrupted by a voice he’d come to know fondly from his short time at the party, Anake.

“You’re mine, mint boy!”
Anake had climbed onto the shoulders of Kana, not bothering to notice the trouble the battle she had caused for Kana; her head half submerged into the water. Despite this, her face kept as monotone as it usually was. Classic Kana. It's only upon the realisation that Anake’s thighs rested on her shoulders that she made any noticeable reaction. She speaks, or she attempts as the wildly water periodically smothers any hope of it. Her words come out in bursts.

“Oh. Nice. Cool.”
Anake grabs a tuft of her hair and pulls it in the direction of Daiki and Kenta. Kana either cannot manage to collect enough energy to care or does it willingly, although Daiki’s perception is impaired by the thrashing water and her lack of apparent height. Anake’s hands reach out toward Daiki, grabbing his arms, her body wildly tilting and twisting until both fall off of the shoulders that host them. Daiki barely has time to react before he's a dozen feet underwater, thrashing and disoriented. A peaceful sense to the madness of being embraced by the dark depths. However, the reprieve is appreciated when Daiki finds himself in Kenta’s arms. They resurface, his face pressed against Kenta’s chest. His skin is soft and slick from the water, while the stern shape of his muscles provides a solid foundation. There's a sort of firm gentleness about Kenta’s body. They resurface in unison. Daiki’s head thrashes up to recapture the oxygen that his lungs so desperately crave. When he looks up, he sees Kenta’s face. Painted by a beautiful tan; the type of natural depth that only a worker like Kenta can capture. His eyes are deep brown in the shade and a shining amber in the sun. His smile, his muscular arms wrapped around Daiki… he feels like safety. His voice  filled with a confidence devoid of arrogance, yet twinned with a nurturing side to his boldness.
“Hey, you alright little guy?”
He was. Even if gasping for air, disoriented and wracked by overstimulation, he was. Such was the  power of Kenta’s embrace. Anake appears from Kenta’s shoulder, an arm resting on his other to hoist herself up. She sighs, her eyes sobering up for a moment.
“Oh, you good? Uh, you should probably take a bit of a rest.”

After this moment of a sober clarity, her smile returns to her face, a hand caressing Kenta’s arm, gliding around the shape of his muscles. Her lips part and her tongue sticks out.
“This hunk and I will be waiting for you, chico menta!

Upon breaking from the now soothing embrace of the once cold water, Daiki is battered by the harsh wind. Returning from what was now a fond memory and back into a cold reality, joined by two; Hisao and Ren. The sheer difference between the two was comical, a towering giant and her insect companion. Regardless, they stood in unison. The two were likened somewhat due to how much they stand out against the rest of the crowd. Completely and utterly ill-equipped for a pool party. Ren had dressed in her trademarked white coat, a navy blue one-piece swimsuit underneath; the only allusion to what the group had gathered for. The form fitting material emphasised the lining of her muscle. Just like Kenta, her body looked to be hand-sculpted in order to look as appealing as it could. It also emphasised another feature of her body, a lack of breasts; seemingly a sore subject, judging by her posture. She stood with her back arched, her lungs puffed to emphasise the shape of her chest, to little success. This wasn't lost on Ren, however Daiki could only imagine the discomfort to be amplified if she returned to her normal posture. As to be expected; Hisao mirrored this in inverse fashion. His shoulders were hunched, his chest was caved. He hadn't even bothered to leave a hint of swimwear on his body. His hoodie was loose and baggy as it had always been; but the contrast to Ren made it apparent that he felt a similar discomfort. Their shared expression of a vague pain was something familiar to Daiki. Familiar to his sibling, Rinu. A sense of dysphoria, that your body isn’t your own. This struck a chord with Daiki, sparking him to begin to stumble over the words leaving his mouth, his usual form of communication.
“O-Oh, uh… Yeah, I get it- W-Well I don't get it; but my sibling does. I u-um understand what you're uh… going through, kinda sorta, y’know?”
“I… Think i could discern meaning underneath all that stuttering.” The mature depth of Ren’s voice more than helped to quell the urge to yet again retract into his skeleton. There was something caring in her tone; as if maternal or something similar. Then, Hisao.

“I couldn't; but I’m pretty sure it was meant to be comforting, so thanks. Maybe.”

Finally, in the incessant chaos of the pool, yet taming the waters around her with a pure sense of melancholy; Tea.
“Thanks wont grow or cut your tits off. Oh how I pity the plight of the destitute. Or not; imagine not having money for surgery.”

Her words were granted no time to sting as attended, instead they were suddenly offset by a beach ball slammed against the back of her head; courtesy of Anake Sina. It would be an exaggeration to say that Tea felt visible emotion, but it was probably the closest Daiki had seen from her– slightly furrowing her brow and baring teeth in an attempt to bite her tongue and hold back words that, without doubt, would offend several people here even further. Daiki had to continue to process long after the emotion had faded, akin to a strike of lightning. A brief showing gone in the blink of an eye. Now, Tea had exited the pool and headed off toward the bar. With the departure of her latest target, Anake sets her sights on Yuto, standing feet away from the waters edge with a hand slightly raised in Akari’s direction; as if holding a leash that wasn't there. She sings out, leaning on the water's edge. A siren.

“You look so lonely, alto, oscuro y guapo, come in!”

Not entirely amused or entirely frustrated, Yuto humours her. His personal brand of brooding leans more toward Hattori rather than Tea. More charming than irritating. He sighs, although the slight turn of his lips indicate he’s not exactly disinterested. He calls back.
“And leave you lot unsupervised? No way, the place’ll be burned down in seconds!”
“Oof, targeted much? Y'know, I wanna see what's underneath all that forced maturity, Yuto. Don't you feel it, chico? That sweet smell of sweat in the air, c'mon! Let's have some fun!”
Yuto opens his mouth to argue, but the turn of his lips widens. He smiles, shaking his head, defeated. Another victory for Anake. He lowers himself to assert a few words to Akari before he lets himself fall into the water. She dives deeper into the soft blue, resurfacing mere inches away from Yuto. She wraps her arms around his neck and leans in, meeting her lips with his. The embrace lasts a second before she departs, leaving Yuto a red mess, as intended. She departs with another utterance, one that's twinned with a hesitant response.

“Buen chico.”

“Okay so… what do I… do?”

Anake laughs, a hand rising, sending a light spiral of water to fall from her arm. Raining down in a flurry of quiet splashes, akin to her rhythmic laughing. Saying Anake moves is perhaps a mislabelling, there's something more lively about her. Every action she takes is like a choreographed dance, energetic, emotional, yet graceful.
“Have fun!”

The sheer contrast between the two is perhaps just as evident as it had been with Hisao and Ren. There was an anxious, quiet aura to Yuto. A maturity, perhaps forced as Anake had stated. A sense of abnormal growth. An unnatural need to grow past your physical age.

“Oh, thanks. That really helps. Cleared so many things up.”

Instead of verbal response, Anake responds through an action; simple, effective at getting her point across. The plastic of the beach ball collides with Yuto’s forehead. In an instinctual reaction, Yuto raises his hands, resulting in the interaction ending with the ball in his hands. After a moment of mild annoyance, a smile spreads across Yuto’s face. Anake matches with a similar, yet more devious smile. The balls launched into the air, falling for only a moment or two before being struck with an open palm, sending it on a direct collision course with Anake, sending it back toward the server. This interaction repeats itself, the ball flung from Yuto to Anake, from Anake to Yuto. Gradually, the weight harboured on Yuto’s broad shoulders fails, cascading down his back and left in the water to die. Yuto was having fun. Yet another win for Anake.

Despite a growing admiration joining the already existent fascination of Anake in Daiki’s mind, he tears himself away. From the front end of the pool to its left side. What Daiki saw there disturbed all sense of normalcy still present. Any preconception that this event was an event in a killing game. Kana was smiling, perhaps the first time since Daiki has met her, perhaps the first time in years, decades or centuries. She sits hunched over her hands, a weak yet present smile clearly visible. It's not as if her emotion was tame, moreso her face limited her ability to express it. Daiki joined her in his new modus operandi of conversation; being near someone and hoping that they initiate. After awkward eyes and twin internal anxiety, Kana slowly uncups her hands, revealing a large frog, strangely calm in her embrace. She speaks with what Daiki deciphers to be her own version of joy, a slightly less brutalistic tone.

“His name is David. He's my son and I love him.”

David Suzuki echoes a ribbit of approval, cementing Daiki’s suspicions that Kana had established a telekinetic communication with him. She bows down and plants a gentle kiss on the top of his head, her smile growing wider by her standards, barely visible by others. Strands of green hair brush David’s back as Kana nuzzles her forehead against his. Telekinetic communication can only be called a stretch from the series of vocalisations they share. A rhythmic back and forth of ribbits and joyous sighs, broken by Daiki.
“Y-You really like frogs, huh?”
“He's green… I’m green… were both green”
“O-Oh, like me?”
“Shut up, mint boy.”

Daiki crouches down next to the pair, his head tilting like a dog’s, entranced with David. The concept of a happy Kana had not been one that Daiki had expected. Now he's faced with it, all semblance of a plan falls apart. There was something uniquely beautiful about emotion on Kana’s face. Akin to a fireplace in a blazing blizzard, a soft respite in an otherwise harsh environment. Something about it put Daiki at ease.
“You… look pretty when you smile.”
Despite a futile attempt to start a conversation, Kana stays as silent as usual. She cups David in a hand, her thumb rubbing the leathery skin of his back. Silence prevailed several minutes further. A silence that would be eerie from anyone else, yet calming with her. The ability to endure nothingness with someone is something that is sorely undervalued. To exist in a space without the pressure of filling the dead air. To exist and let another exist. The unbroken silence weighs down on the conversation, not as the world on one's shoulders but as a winter coat. Comforting. Perhaps this was the power of the Ultimate Therapist. A silence so thick that it may only be broken by the unbridled power of Kiki Hayashi. They’ve finally shown themself, fully equipped with old deep sea diving equipment. They fall to the ground immediately upon moving their head a minute degree, the full weight of the purely metal helmet smashing into the ground.
“I'M OKAY!” echoes throughout the helmet in unison with deep metallic echoes. They do their best to stand, engaging in a session of helplessly dragging the helmet along the ground in futile attempts to raise their neck. Eventually, their efforts stray into the blue embrace of the water. They sink near-immediately, twinned with erratic flails. Somehow, their limbs seem to stretch the limits of what's acceptable for humanity, bending and buckling more so as an animation. This elicits two responses, an unamused sigh from Yuto and a confident grin from Akari.
“Stand back, mere mortals! Witness the true power of the GOD OF WEATHER!”
He then proceeds to join Kiki at the bottom of the pool, flailing and screaming with the little air he's granted. Yuto sighs once more before words form.
“Anyone else?”
With this, one other jumps in, Mikiyo Iwata. After spouting some lines about not wanting them alone, he graciously joins them in drowning to death. A sigh never leaves Yuto’s mouth in response, rather the look of one impressed. By the stupidity of those around him. By his lack of foresight to accommodate for the stupidity around him. He begins his work.
“Alright well, thanks to this fucking dumbass I’ll need someone to help… Ayaka, what are you doing?”
“Nope. Can't swim. Just found out I can drown my sorrows in vodka though, so that's a plus.”

“God fucking… Kenta, help me out here.”
Before a response can be given, Yuto disappears under the sheet of azure, into the now raging waters of the pool. A moment of anxiety pulsates throughout Daiki. A normal occurrence for him, although this time with reason. He breaks the surface with Mikiyo and Akari in hand, hauling them onto the solid ground of the bordering tiles before diving back down for the remaining victim of contagious stupidity. It takes the two of them to heave Kiki to the surface, half due to the weight of the suit, half due to the size of the person. Kiki was freakishly tall, further adding to the uncanny aura that he presented at all occasions. She finally manages to pop their helmet off, although another weight is soon added. Ryoko decides the moments after a near death experience was a perfect time to shoot a decision made in drunken stupor. She sits herself on top of Kiki, turning her head and sighing.
“You sure you don't need mouth to mouth?”
“What.”

“Like, y'know. Are you positive?”
“No, I think I'm fine!”
Kiki responds, his usual jovial tone picking up near moments after a potential drowning. If words could fly over one's head, Ryoko’s had entered orbit. Nonetheless, this seemed to only endear them more to Ryoko, who leans in further.”
“Like… really though.”
“Yes ma’am! No water in these ol’ lungs here. These bad boys are nothing but air!”
They proceed to take an open hand to their chest, emphasising the comment as a car salesman would a selling point. Seeming to understand the pure lack of neurons exhibited in Kiki, Ryoko finally commits to a kiss. Their lips meet, hands glide across skin and a motion is started, the gentle rhythm of Ryoko’s embrace, combined with an utter lack of self control that can only be unleashed with alcohol. When the closeness is broken, silence weighs down on the two of them. Silence until Kiki parts their lips for another use.

“Coolio!”

“I bet your lips would be nicer in private, hm?”
“Why would they change depending on whos there-”
“Shut up and follow me, Killer Klown from Outer Space.”
With this, Ryoko and Kiki, more aptly described as Ryoko with Kiki, take their leave back into the building. Fleeting embers of a fading night. Slipping into Akira’s now unused dorm.

With the exit of the first few, a realisation crushes Daiki. The passage of time is relentless. The ever-flowing stream of seconds never stops for anyone, nor matter the occasion, no matter how much they need it. Within hours, they wouldn't be friends enjoying a warm day in lukewarm water. They’d return to members of the killing game, stacked against each other. The golden light of the setting sun dances around the water of the pool, remnants of sunlight reflecting from the mess of water surrounding its borders. Those who inhabited the pool are now out. Attention shifts from the pool toward the dim-glow of the open bar that Hattori had attached himself to. The flow of people transfer between the two locations. The only source of light being a bonfire, started and perfected by the Ultimate Lumberjack. Two groups were formed. Those around the bonfire and those more interested in the bottom of a bottle. The constant drone of voices accompanied by a soothing rhythm. Strings. Yuto’s guitar. His voice is somewhat surprisingly sweet, soft and melodic. The voice of a performer, made by circumstance rather than innate talent. Not gifted with the mark of gifted talent, rather the experience of a multitude of situations. Yuto had entertained before, that much was clear. As he strums and sings, Daiki wanders over to the bar counter. Hattori leans over, elbows near Daiki’s. The light of the bonfire worked to entirely mask his eyes under his glasses. Daiki didn't need a clear vision to see that they trained directly onto him. Perhaps it's the soft glow of the fire, or the tender emotions of a memorable night closing that had framed Hattori in a new light. Underneath the layers of obscurity and mist surrounding the inside of his impenetrable walls was a soul as warm as the fire illuminating it. Daiki’s smile in return was equally warm, matching both Hattori and the inherent sweet taste of a group now bonded. In a change of pace, Daiki initiates conversation.
“Got anything that doesn't taste like piss?”
“Sure.”
Within fleeting moments, a glass is placed in front of Daiki. Maintaining the now enchanting eye contact that the two shared, he took a sip of the glass. It tasted like piss. The eye contact was broken and the drink that was once in Daiki’s mouth now called the floor home. Hattori laughs, the obscurity of the light masking his glasses and a hand masking his face makes it infuriatingly unreadable. Perhaps this was what drove Daiki to Hattori. Despite the time you spend with him, his thoughts are a mystery. The inner workings of his brain were shrouded in an infinite fog. Daiki looks down, the embarrassment sinking in. Hattori lowers his hand and begins on a new foul concoction.
“Don't worry. I have lemonade.”
“Uh… yeah. Thanks.”
The heat of Daiki’s face doesn't go unnoticed by Hattori. Little to nothing goes unnoticed by Hattori, but whatever bizarre force drives his thought process doesn't feel it necessary for it to be brought to attention. He exchanges the drink called alcohol by some, called poison by Daiki, for a simple cup of lemonade. This goes down far smoother than the rough burn provided before. What may normally be considered a smile is across Hattori’s face. With a man such as Hattori, the act of smiling may have a dozen different meanings. However, it seems in this case to be one of genuine affection. The melody provided by the sung Spanish provided by Anake and Yuto acts as the backdrop to the scene.

“You looked like you were having fun, Daiki.”

“Oh… sure. I was. Doesn't it almost feel… meaningless now? I had fun. We had fun. But we’re still here. Trapped in this fucked up place with this fucked up game.”

“It's meaningless if you let it be. Sure, times are hard. We gather without the presence of some of us. But look at us. We’ve overcome the killing game, if only for a night. Tomorrow may be back to hell, but we had quite the ride, didn't we?”

This note is one that leaves a smile across Daiki’s face, unknowingly. An instinctual response to Hattori’s words. As the struggle begins to regain control of his face, he continues. He hadn't had Hattori pegged as emotionally intelligent. Menacingly intelligent in other areas, sure, but emotional wasn't one of them. It was almost embarrassing. A distant view being clearer than his own, neck deep into the action.

“...Yeah. That's a better way to look at it, I guess. Maybe it's only for tonight, but this itself… It proved something. Fuck Kodo.”

His words are echoed by the campfire, the call of “Fuck Kodo” reverberating through laughter and song. They truly were in unison… a group of people rather than 12 present individuals. 14 that had stood before. The notable absence was Rinu. They had opted to sit the event out. They never were one for large social events, but Hell, neither was Daiki. Ayaka sits next to him, shifting Hattori’s attention onto her. She speaks, her words slurred, her back hunched and the bags under their eyes are almost pitch black.

“Another one.”

“No, Ayaka. I believe you’ve had more than your share. You won't find anything in another glass.”

“God fucking damnit, Hattori. Pour me another fucking glass before I break one over your head.”

Hattori pauses, taking a moment to lower his glasses and reveal his eyes for the first time since Daiki had sat down. They were piercing, the brown of his eyes catching the bright fire. They were almost red due to reflection. Despite the sternness of them, there was a comfort to be found.

“No. That's final.”

Ayaka’s eyes meet his, searching for a crack to form in his steel resolve. One never shows. She grips the lip of her glass tighter, her knuckles white, shaking with the rest of her body. She goes to open her mouth, but nothing comes out. Instead, she falls further onto the counter, bowing her head. The hiss of breath rushing past worn vocal chords filled everything. Out of options to surpass Hattori’s defence, she cries. Her back heaves with heavy breath, her face red. Her tears catch the light of the fire along with Hattori’s glasses. She grabs onto the counter, desperate for any comfort she could find. She finds it through a solitary hand on her shoulder, from Hattori. His face is solemn, a faint sorrow lurking under his cold eyes. She grabs his wrist with the hand opposite of her shoulder, grasping onto the support. Daiki’s eyes meet Hatt’s. He motions for him to take a move back while he consoles Ayaka. Daiki moves on to the fire, taking a seat in between Kana, who seems more interested in the potential painful death of being burnt, and Anake, joining Yuto in song. They finish not long after Daiki’s arrival, the song melting into laughs and applause. Anake laughs and applauds perhaps the hardest.

“Since when could you speak Spanish?”

“Ever since being rich meant having exorbitant standards placed on you.”

Despite the somewhat grim words, Yuto has a smile on his face. A genuine smile. This is perhaps the happiest that Daiki has ever caught him. Even with the hostility of his usual self, he seems comforted by entertaining a group of people… along with another influence present. Anake laughs harder.

“Might be the alcohol. I kinda spiked all the drinks.”

This calls for a raised eyebrow and another laugh from Yuto, shaking his head as his body pulses with laughter. After a moment to catch his breath, he responds.

“I… knew I was way too confident for my own good. Uh… hey, I got another song. If you're wondering why I'm more comfortable with singing than talking, I uh… I have a reason.”

“What, the alcohol again? That's why you can sing?”

“That's probably a part of it, but I sing for my little sisters. My parents weren't the best pair, so they looked up to the oldest person they had and they trusted… which was me. This is one of my youngest sisters' favourites. Hopefully we get out here soon… and I can sing it for her again.”

Solemn nods and faint claps are the response elicited, everyone around the fire immersed in the build up of another showcase of his voice. A melody begins. Words start being sung.

“Days seem sometimes as if they’ll never end.

Sun digs its heels to taunt you

But after sunlit days, one thing stays the same.

Rises the moon.”

With the echoing of Yuto’s voice, the campfire crowd begins its deterioration. People retract their presence, to fall back into the building. A bittersweet feeling tangs in Daiki’s soul once more. The night is ending. Their short lived reprieve from Hell is near its end. Words aside from Yuto’s echo throughout Daiki’s mind. Hattori was right. This night, however short, they’d won. They had rejected despair and embraced the hope of the prodigies of Japan. The Ultimate Students. Within lines, verses, choruses, Daiki takes his leave as well. Back into Hell, a smile painted on his face. The inscription on the gateway had read “Abandon all hope ye who enter here” to Dante. A warning for the ordinary. But the people among him were far from the ordinary, they were the exceptions in a sea of conformity. They’d overcome the odds of hopeless depression. They entered the building, their hope burning as bright as ever as the embers of the dying fire followed them. The night was closed. The party was over. Daiki finds himself in the mess of a myriad of pillows, blankets and sleeping bags, accompanied by Rinu next to him.

“I'm glad you had fun, Daiki.”

“I’m glad that we’re strong enough to have fun as a group.”

Anake lands on the ground with a thud. Bringing her drunk rampage to an end, her fire finally put out. Yuto looks upon the mass of sleeping bodies and smiles before joining them. Ryoko and Kiki lay in Akira’s room, asleep in a warm embrace. They return to Hell willingly. Hell couldn't break them just yet.

Chapter Text

A loud scream. That’s how the day started. Of course it was, this was just Ryoko’s luck. she should really stop setting alarms for herself, any semblance of a schedule had disappeared the moment she first woke up at this stupid place. And she was reminded of that additional to-do as her phone made that stupid sound. Over and over again. The hardwood floor it was on only amplifying the sound and vibration. She sighed, and rolled out of the bed to get it, landing on the floor with a thud. She grabbed her phone, practically punching it to get it to shut up, and stood up. She paused when she saw her surroundings.  

This wasn't where she usually slept. And she wasn't due her own dorm for a while. Where the fuck was she? She looked around to attempt an answer. Brick walls. White paint. Random decorations. Way too many stars. A king-sized bed with Kiki sleeping in. Oh.  

Everything from last night flooded back to her. Sex, for the most part. Because of course, she was always like that when she was drunk. And Kiki just happened to be the one she was into. Out of everyone. She chose the fucking jester. She wasn't even sure how it had worked out, given the height difference and how both were so drunk they were barely conscious. Still, the jester fucks good, apparently.  
And now they were passed out in the bed, having all the blankets tucked around them. Not wanting to wake them up, Ryoko quickly gathered her clothes, put her t-shirt and jeans back on, and crept outside. Once she closed the door behind her, it was essentially a race against herself, and the hangover kicking In. It's bound to happen. 

Stumbling into the main building, she had to duck to avoid hitting her head on the exit/gloryhole. Her headache began, and she didn’t want to stand around any longer than necessary, so she ran (an impressive feat for her) to the nearest chair at the dining table, sat herself down, and collapsed again, her head hitting the table in unison with her pained groaning. She stayed in that position for a few seconds, rethinking all her life choices that led up to that moment. Only upon looking up did she see that she was not, in fact, alone. Most of the others were there, seated around the table. The only ones not present was Rinu, Hattori, Hisao, Kenta, Akari and Ayaka (and Kiki, obviously). But among the seven people there, all were looking their own version of dishevelled. Ren, however, looked triumphant as well as tired. She turned to Tea, who let out a deep sigh.  

“Boom. I win. You owe me five dollars,” Ren said with a smirk. Tea responded with a second sign, along with pulling a wallet and a box of cigarettes out of her pocket. She reluctantly passed Ren a note, whilst taking out a cigarette.  

“I don’t even understand why you’d want money. Not like we can buy anything. And does anyone have a lighter?” she was promptly hit in the head with a lighter, courtesy of Anake. She still thanked her, however, lighting up her cigarette.  

“Uh. What,” Ryoko’s confusion was evident in her voice, “Were you making bets on me???”  

“Yup. She said five dollars on you hitting your head on your way in. And lost,” Ren chuckled.  

“Now, the important question,” Anake spoke, setting down her water cup, “ What the fuck is the Jester’s gender? ”  

“What.”  

“C’mon, you fucked it. You saw the Kiki dick. Or Kiki pussy. You saw what they were, so tell us the FUCKING gender.”  

“Uh...No thanks. Rather not tell you about my sex experiences-”  

“You fucked in a dead girls dorm, Ito, the least you could do as an apology is disclose a gender,” Tea rolled her eyes.  

“I fucking what.”  

“Yeah,” Daiki let out a nervous laugh, looking down, “You kinda just... dragged Kiki into Akira’s dorm and...yeah-”  

“... no response. Still not telling you. This just feels like you’re shaming me for having sex.”  

“We are.”  

“Well it’s not like I’m the only one! Anake and Yuto were smooching and shit last night too!”  

“Oh, no, that was just to get my attention I think,” Yuto chuckled, “I’m gay anyway. No attraction there.” 
“Yup. Besides, there’s a different twink I’m into.” She couldn’t help but notice Anake and Mikiyo holding hands. Tea gagged. How poetic. 

“... I’m too tired for this shit. And Tea, can you do your cancer sticks somewhere else? The smell makes me want to kill myself.”  

“Then do.”  

“Tea no-”  

“Tea yes. You’ve dealt with me for weeks now, you should be used to be my now.”  

“Not used to the nicotine addiction,” Ren mumbled, the Brit still picking up on it.  

“Not an addiction, I just like them.”  

“That’s what they all say...”  

Oh fuck. The argument’s starting. Why does this happen so much. Ryoko could see Daiki backing out of the room, and decided to follow him.  

“Soooo... done anything interesting recently?” Daiki asked, immediately followed by him almost physically attempting to recoil into his skin. He was doing the average gay man thing of sitting on a sofa weirdly, whilst Ryoko was perched on an armchair.  

“Ha. Stupid.”  

“Don’t laugh at me, I’m bad at conversation-”  

“Yeah. I can tell. I can really tell,” she was grinning under the mask, “But to answer your question: no. Lost my virginity for the millionth time, and that’s about it.”  

“That’s... not how virginity works. And a million is a bit of an overstatement-” 
“Okay, fine, the thousandth, happy? Point is, I’m a whore and I’m just adding to the count.” 

She had pulled out her phone and was scrolling through the groupchat whilst talking. Peeking over the screen, she could see Daiki looking visibly uncomfortable. It was a mix of funny and sad.  

“Jeez, calm down. Sex exists, mint boy, and I do it a lot. I mean, look at me, I’m irresistible,” She giggled. Not a good comforting job, but it was the best she could do. A loud notification ping spawned in her face, scaring her half to death, she couldn’t help but yelp in response.  

“Fucking... Hell. Why did they make it so loud.” 
“Who even texted you?” 

“Uh... Yuto. He's complaining about his son being hungover. Ha.” 
“Akari?” 

“Yeah. Anake's a bitch for spiking the drinks but it did give funny results, you’ve gotta admit. Like, where else would we see the child almost drown?”  

“And then you immediately dragging Kiki off for s-” 
“Shut up.” 
“Right-” 

“... Y’know, you’re pretty funny, Mint boy. Cool person. And your sibling likes me, so that’s dope.” 
“Yeah, you’re fun too,” He smiled, still avoiding eye contact, “Sometimes a little weird with your death predicting stuff, but-” 

“Ayaka. She's next.” 
“What. Ryoko no, not an invitation-” 
“No no, hear me out here. I know I said Hisao because of the whole Scream parallel thing, but like... come on. She's more suicidal than Kana at this point. Probably because Kana has the frog now, David or whatever. I'm just pointing this out here but like... Kana’s suicidal, but she’s never had the guts to actually kill herself, she’s just been begging for someone else to kill her. Ayaka, however, has been drinking herself to death recently. In conclusion: the next corpse is gonna be Ayaka, via suicide.” 

“I-”  

“But also, when or if we find her, we’d better make sure that it actually could have been a suicide. Because I think someone could have easily caught onto the whole psychology thing, so nobody would suspect it if Ayaka supposedly ‘killed herself’ when in actuality it was a murder. Do you get me here?” 
“No. No I do not. I’m so confused and kinda scared-” 

“Obviously. Welp, I’m gonna go now. I wanna see how Yuto’s dealing with his son. See ya,” she got up whilst talking, matching a wave goodbye with all the other actions, and walked out.  

The child was crying. Sobbing, even. Ryoko had waked right in on this action in the main entrance/sleeping hall after following the oh-so-helpful message from Tea ( ‘Someone put down the child, I can hear him crying in the hall and I’m not even in the building.’ ). He was on the floor, clutching onto his arm like it had been stabbed a few thousand times. A few spots of blood had seeped through the cotton of his jumper, but that seemed to be the extent of the damage. He'd probably scraped his elbow whilst doing God-knows what. The most surprising thing, though, was the lack of Yuto in the room, he was nowhere to be seen. Out of sight, but definitely in mind. Every other synonym for that phrase.  

That was when dread filled her, as she realised what was happening. She'd have to be the one to deal with him. Oh god. She slowly approached him, hands in pockets.  

“Uh. Kid. You okay?”  

He (Literally) hissed in response. Like a raccoon. Feral child.  

“ACK, FOOLISH MORTAL. DON’T APPROACH ME, FOR I KNOW YOUR INTENTIONS. YOU PLAN TO STRIKE ME WHILST I AM WOUNDED IN A FEEBLE ATTEMPT TO KILL ME, WELL IT SHAN’T WORK. I KNOW YOUR GAMES, ITO, AND I PLAY THEM TOO.”  

“Jesus fuck. Calm down. Please. My ears hurt.” 
“GOOD. THAT’S THE GOAL. IDIOT” 
“Okay that’s just immature.” 
“DON’T YOU DARE CALL ME THAT-” 

“You’re like 6. I can call you what I want.”  

“LIES. I have lived for one thousand and fourteen years, you stupid human!” 
“Fourteen, got it. Where's Yuto, he knows what to do with you most of the time-” 

“Right here,” Came a voice from right behind her. What kind of sick twist of fate was this. She was supposed to be the one who spawned and jumpscares people, not Yuto .  

“Jesus f....reaking Christ, Yuto,” She had to stop herself from swearing around Akari. Keep the childhood innocence, and all that. That was a lie to herself, of course, she only kept that act up when Yuto was around to avoid getting her ass kicked, “You scared me. Don't just appear like that.”  

“I’ll stop when you do,” he smirked, stepping over to Akari, whilst holding a bottle on antiseptic spray.  

“Oh no. Should I cover my ears?” 
“Probably,” He was rolling the sleeve up, “Okay, this is gonna hurt a bit. But you’re a strong god, you can do this.” 

She was already covering her ears and looking away.  

And then a scream. Probably loud enough to break the sound barrier. The shrieks of all the tortured souls in hell combined together into one inhuman cry. One word came into mind, knowing the context: Mood.  

Ryoko turned around to face the situation again. Akari was hugging with Yuto for comfort. It was such a fatherly embrace that she had never once experienced. She was almost jealous. Two quiet words escaped from Akari’s mouth, almost a whisper.  

“Thanks dad.”  

A whisper that was sure as hell heard. The pure silence was proof enough. He quickly pulled away from the hug, correcting his mistake.  

“Uh. I MEAN. THANK YOU, YUTO. NOT DAD. I HAVE NO FATHER, FOR I AM A GOD. YEAH,” he announced, before running off red-faced.  

Yuto was smiling widely, looking like he was about to cry from pride. Ryoko awkwardly pat his shoulder for support.  

“You’re a great father...figure... Yeah.”  

“Can you leave? 
“Yeah okay-”  

And that was that.  

Next step: the jester. As much as she dreaded it, she could hear a voice screaming Kiki’s name over in the library, and she couldn’t just ignore that at this point. Preparing for the somewhat awkward conversation, she began making her way to the voice.  

Over in the library. was Kiki and Hisao. Tall and tiny, as some called them. And Kiki was taking major advantage of the height difference (plus a chair they were standing on) to taunt maskless Hisao. Obviously, the unmasking was nonconsensual, shown with him covering his face with his free hand, whilst trying to blindly grab at his mask. He had strategically placed his fingers so that one single eye could just about be seen. Or see, rather. Still, nothing else could be seen.  

“Haha. Tiny!”  

“OH SHUT UP YOU FUCKING BITCH. JUST GIVE IT BACK.”  

“What’s the magic word~?” 
“FUCK YOU!” 
“Nope!” 

It was almost funny, really. Still, it was obvious Hisao was in distress over it. Ryoko didn’t necessarily feel bad, per se, but she wanted to earn back the trust of someone after the incident in the last trial, so the loner seemed like a good place to start.  

“Kiki, give him the mask back.” 
“Oh hi Ryo!” they waved, grinning, “Do I have to?” 
“Yes, I wanna talk to you anyway.” 
“Ughhhhhh, fine,” they made an exaggerated show of lowering the mask into Hisao’s hands. He proceeded to rip it right out of Kiki’s hands, secure it on their face whilst turned around to avoid being seen, and run off, almost tripping over a book. Funny.  

“You wanted to talk to me?”  

“Yeah,” she sat down on the sear Kiki was standing on, causing them to jump down and sit on the arm of the chair, “It’s about... last night.”  

“What about last night?” 
“Kiki we fucked.” 

“Oh yeah. That happened. Cool.”  

“Is that all you’re gonna say about it? Cool?” 
“What else is there to say? It was cool! I’m not really into the whole sex thing, but it was with you, so it was cool!” 

“God you’re stupid- I just want to know if you’re actually into me or not!”  

“Into you... like eating or something? I don’t get it.”  

“No okay we are not doing Kiki vore today- I mean romantically. Idiot.”  

“Ohhhhh. Ye. I like ya like that!” They were beaming.  

“Great. You wanna date?” 
“Of course!” They picked her up in a hug, kissing her on the forehead. She liked that. A lot.  

“Ehe. Great. Can I say I love you now?” 
“Yes!” 
“Than, I love you Kiki.” 
“Love you too, Ryo!” 

How poetic. A new relationship. Bound to fail.  

Chapter Text

The night was silent. The waters calm. Or so everyone thought.  

Daiki was out, for a late night walk. He couldn’t sleep, and he did it a lot back at home. This specific one was Rinu’s suggestion. He was currently seated in the garden, on the ground, gently feeling the grass between his fingers. Is felt nice. He didn’t get to feel grass much over at home, just sand. He hated sand.  

He looked up, letting himself fall back and lay down. The stars were beautiful. A glass roof had been added after Rinu’s break-in, but he could still see the sky. Good, he liked the sky. The clouds were barely visible, lightly outlining the full moon and stars dotting the sky. It was straight out of a romance movie. He was half-expecting to look to the side and see his non-existent lover. Alas, he was not there, just flowers and grass. It smelled amazing, though.  

Truly, a great night.  

He took a casting glance at his phone for the time. 4:44. Ominous. He squinted at the numbers floating in front of the lizard-themed wallpaper. He swore he remembered hearing those three numbers represented something. He couldn’t remember, it was annoying him. He sighed, and got up, pocketing the phone and walking out. He decided to take the scenic route back, the one with the pool along the way.  

The water was murky. The only thing less than perfect that night. A feeling of unease began forming within Daiki’s chest. It was annoying. He was just walking along the poolside, planning on going straight back inside and sleeping.  

Something caught his eye. A shape. It was dark, unreadable, but floating. He approached it, a bad feeling and thought in mind: What if this is a corpse. He still couldn’t see what it was in the lack of light. He crouched down on the poolside, as close as he could get to the shape, and pulled out his phone, turning the flashlight on.  

Oh shit.  

She was face-down in the water, the makeup dispersing around her and floating in small clouds of what was once beauty. Her hair, once blue, now just an ugly darker shade, was floating around her head, sticking to her skull in the places where it came above water. Her limbs were spread out, unmoving. As if she was falling, but paused in place. There she was. A graceful end, a horrific situation. Daiki was sick to the stomach. Unlike last time, nobody was with him. And it was pitch black. What if the killer was still out there. He had to turn around, as he vomited out of shock and disgust. He had found another corpse.  

The corpse of Ayaka Akoi.  

Chapter Text

A corpse. Ayaka’s corpse. What the fuck. He didn’t think anyone would die again, or kill, after what had happened to Aimi. But still, here she was, floating away, holy shit. What was he supposed to do? Hattori had called for help last time, but it was almost 5 in the morning, surely everyone would be asleep? He was alone, and far too inexperienced. He was sick, and scared, and confused. He wanted help. He wanted Rinu. He wanted his dads. He wanted Hattori.  

Hattori. Maybe he’d be up. It's worth the try. He slowly opened his phone, messing up the passcode the first few attempts with his shaky hands. Just go slowly. Homescreen, message app, private messages, Hattori. A single, frantic message was typed out and sent for him, missing its usual grammar.  

‘ Ayakas dead what do I do ’  

Surprisingly, it was read and responded to near instantly.  

‘Where is it?’ 
‘Pool. Please help’ 

Left on read. Wow. The worst time, quite frankly. A few minutes had passed since the text had sent, and he was beginning to panic. He decided to call the next best person, almost guaranteed to be awake. Ryoko.  

Three rings, then the voicemail message started. It was in a voice he didn’t recognise, it was high-pitched, but sounded more like a male voice that was pitched up.  

“ We’re sorry, the person you’re calling is dead .” followed by a weird jingle. Probably from some form of song, but it wasn’t helping with the situation. Ironically, the moment he had processed this, Ryoko herself came into view, followed by Ren and Hattori. Four words were screamed.  

“I FUCKING CALLED IT,” Very helpful, Ryoko.  

The stupid Kodo jingle began. God damn it, now the whole house would know what happened.  

“ATTENTION RESIDENTS. SOMEONE’S DEAD OVER AT THE POOL, GO CHECK IT OUT.” 
her voice was a lot more annoying at 5am, apparently. 

It took longer for everyone to gather up than last time, probably because everyone had to get up first. Just over ten minutes, and they were all there, including Rinu. The general reaction was different than last time. A more stunned and disgusted silence than a shocked one. The only one that looked sad was Kenta.  

“Well,” Tea was the first to speak, lighting up a cigarette that illuminated her cold, emotionless face, “I guess she’s reunited with her ‘sister’. Now poetic, I’m in tears.”  

“Shut up, Tea, nobody likes you,” Ren was crouched down next to Daiki, trying to get closer to the corpse, “Shit... Can someone help me get her out?”  

“I can!” Kenta volunteered, already taking his jacket off and jumping in. He picked the corpse up, avoiding looking directly at it. Ren and Daiki stood up and backed away for him, so he could put it up on the poolside. Now that her face was visible, he was even more disgusted. Her skin was puffy and discoloured. Her eyes were closed, in an expression that would have been peaceful if not for the decomposition. Water related deaths were horrible.   

Yuto walked round, stopping in front of the vomit splatter and looking down.  

“Eugh. Do you think she was drunk and fell in or something? It'd explain the vomit.”  

“No, the vomit’s from me,” Daiki said, embarrassed. Rinu walked over to him, patting him on the arm in support.  

“Well... shall we go investigate?” Hattori asked, everyone else giving nods and murmurs of agreement. The majority gathered around the corpse, with Ren still knelt next to it, checking for signs and all that.  

“Do we have a time for it?” Hisao asked, surprisingly useful giving his track record.  

“Uh... about two to three hours, giving the decomposition. So anywhere between three and two am. I’m trying to figure out the exact cause, but that’s probably gonna take time. So shoo.”  

They were smart, they listened to the doctor. They all left in different directions, looking around and under and above everything they could, all in relative silence. The first word was after about five minutes, from Kana.  

“I found something,” she was at the wall of the house, picking something up. It looked like a pill bottle, “Sleeping pills.”  

“Huh. I think those are mine,” Ryoko approached Kana, taking the bottle out of her hands and assessing it, “Yeah, it is. They stole my fucking pills, no wonder I couldn’t find them-”  

“Hold on,” Ren was the next to gather around and take the bottle, this time opening the lid and looking insane, “Yeah, there’s still four left in here. Ryoko, how many were there when you last had it?”  

“Six. So no overdose?”  

“No overdose, but some were sure as hell taken. Kana, did you find this in the bush?” 
“Yeah.” 

“Okay, good,” She raised her voice, making everyone turn their heads to her, “EVERYONE, LOOK IN THE BUSHES FOR LITERALLY ANYTHING.”  

Nobody would disobey the doctor, so they did as she suggested. After just a few minutes, Hisao spoke up.  

“Found it. Don't know if it’s useful though, just a broken glass.  

“Huh... hold on, get out the bush, I need to check it out,” Ren requested, Hisao doing as such. She quickly began crawling into the bush, a weird sight to see. A flash of light could be seen, before she crawled back out, “There. Took a picture so everyone could see.”  

They gathered around the phone. Everyone apart from Tea, who was notably missing. The image shown on Ren’s phone was mostly just confusing. There was a glass, like one of the many in the kitchen, but this one had a large shard missing, that was on the floor near it. A scratch could be seen in the wall behind it, placed slightly above.   

“Okay, hear me out here,” Mikiyo spoke. He was directly behind Daiki, causing him to flinch slightly from the sudden speaking that was almost in his ear, “I’m thinking this is a suicide. Like, she took the pills, with the water, threw it against the wall for whatever reason, then jumped into the pool and let the pills knock her out. Would that work?” 
“Yep! That's it, Miki you fucking genius,” Anake gave him a kiss on the cheek, much to everyone’s confusion. 

“Since when were you two a thing?” Kenta asked.  

“Oh, we aren’t, this is just a friend thing,” Nobody believed him, of course.  

“... whatever,” Yuto sighed, "But yeah, I think that’s a solid case there. Kana, do you think she would?”  

“Looking how she’d been the past few days, it makes sense.”  

“GREAT!” Kodo was back, yay. Spawning right behind Hisao, as is customary at this point. There was a collective groan from everyone when she appeared, “SO YOU’RE ALL READY FOR THIS THING, PERFECT! TO THE TRIAL ROOM, OFF YOU GO!”  

She started pushing people in the direction of the house, ignoring the hateful glares she was getting. Eventually people just accepted it, and made their way to the basement themselves, all at varying speed. Daiki and Hattori were together, with only Kiki and Ryoko behind them. The two were holding hands, he noticed. Once they approached the basement door, now opened, they changed into a single file line. He once again heard the thud of a head hitting the doorway, and knew it was Kiki. A bit of comedic relief in a time like this. Once they were all in the room, they gathered behind their labelled podiums.   

There was one issue, however. Rinu. They didn’t have one.  

“Uh. Where do I go?”  

Kodo popped up next to them as they asked that.  

“GREAT QUESTION! Well.... You kinda.. Can't come. You ain’t on my system yet, sooooo can’t let ya in. You’ve just gotta wait outside.”  

“What.”  

“You heard me,” the robot smirked. Already pushing Rinu up the stairs, to Daiki’s mild horror. The two disappeared upstairs, a door was shut, and Kodo returned.  

“Right, let’s START!”  

...  

Nobody was talking. It was a painfully awkward silence. A solid three minutes of just... looking at eachother. The first to talk was Kenta.  

“So... should we just vote or something? We all know she killed herself, so...”  

“I mean, yeah, she did,” Anake shrugged, “YO KODO, CAN WE VOTE???”  

“I mean if you want. But you really sure you should?”  

Everyone was nodding and muttering agreement. Everyone apart from Tea, stood perfectly still, looking down, with a certain look on her face. Then she looked up, her mouth slightly open and ready to speak.  

“Hold on. Before we vote, Kodo, I’d like to redeem the... thing.”  

“What thing?” Kodo leaned against Tea’s podium, her voice extra annoying.  

“The fucking... you know what I mean. I’m not saying the name.”  

“Don’t say it, don’t redeem it, sorry.”  

“Ugh, fine.” she sighed, looking down again, “I’d like to redeem the... T.H.O.T.S thing.”  

She was angrily mumbling to herself after being forced to say something like that. Everyone else just gave confused looks, they already knew what happened, why use the thing?  

“Well, the killer is not ....” Another mimed drumroll, “AYAKA! She got her name cleared twice in a row, wow.”  

Silence. Partly amazed, partly terrified, partly thankful. They had very nearly voted for the entire wrong person. Tea had just saved their lives. Someone else had killed Ayaka, on purpose. Three almost impossible things, all that had just happened.  

“You’re welcome,” Their new ‘saviour’ scoffed, with a narcissistic smirk.  

“... Holy shit,” Anake exhaled, gripping onto her podium. Daiki was unsure if it was her genuine reaction or an exaggeration, “You just saved us all. Didn't know you cared that much.”  

“I don’t, but I’d rather not die. So, I did that for myself, not you.”  

Oh. The thankfulness left fast, then. Nobody really knew what to say. No ideas, no leads, not even a motive to go by, they were never given one.  

“So... what now?” Kenta asked, looking scared for once.  

“I don’t know,” Ren sighed, rubbing her temple, “She couldn’t have been killed from an overdose, only two pills were taken, she couldn’t have been forced to take the pills because they used water to take them, and that’s difficult to force into someone’s mouth. Maybe they tricked her into drinking it, but that wouldn’t explain it being thrown against the wall and not just brought into the kitchen. I don’t even know where to start here.”  

“Well... I think I do,” Hattori spoke, with his usual impressive confidence, “Go via alibi. Yuto, you were on lookout duty tonight, weren’t you?”  

“No, it was Ryoko. It was supposed to be me, but I was tired, and she said she couldn’t sleep, so we swapped shifts.”  

“Can confirm,” Ryoko nodded, “couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t find my sleeping pills, turns out that was from Ayaka stealing them. Or whoever killed her. Still, yeah, it was me on lookout.” 
“Okay, great. Do you know who wasn’t asleep between two and three am?” 

“Uhhh...” she thought for a few seconds, before speaking again, leaning against her podium, “Tea, Kiki, Hisao, Akari, and Mikiyo.”  

“Okay, so those are our suspects. Perfect. We can probably rule Tea out, her ‘self-saving’ excuse for getting us saved seems to fit her, she wouldn’t lie about that. So that leaves Kiki, Hisao, Akari, and Mikiyo. Do you know the times any of them came back in?”  

A few glances were being shot towards those in the suspect list. There was a strange look in Ryoko’s eyes, not like her usual tired expression. He couldn’t decipher what it was, though, without her full face showing it was very difficult.   

“Uh. No. I didn’t pay that much attention...”  

“That’s fine,” He gave an approving nod to her, before casting a look to the four candidates, “Do any of you remember specifically where you were during those hours?”  

“I was in the garden. Couldn’t sleep for whatever reason so I was taking care of the flowers,” Mikiyo offered, with a small, kind smile on his face.  

“Oh, I can vouch for that. I was in the garden before I found her, and there were some footprints around the flowers, so that checks out,” Daiki nodded.  

“Perfect! That's just three more to go then.”  

“Can we cross out Akari too?” Yuto asked, gesturing towards the child, “look at him. I don’t think he could kill someone even if he wanted to.”  

“HEY! I AM FULLY CAPABLE OF TAKING A LIFE! It's just against my moral code, stupid human.”  

“Don’t call me that.”  

“Sorry.”  

God, they really were a father-son duo, and it was showing .  Hattori gave them a look that was a cross between proud, disappointed, and confused.  

“... Fair enough. I feel like we can trust that judgement.”  

Kiki and Hisao. The two polar opposites. And that’s all that remained. Everyone's gaze turned to the latter of the two, who was currently leant on his podium, his head rested on top of his hands. The kind of position people would use to sleep in class if the teacher was nice. The mask was still covering his face, but it was crooked this time, allowing a small sliver of skin to show. And that was probably the most anyone would ever see of him. He didn’t seem aware of the looks directed to him, or he was ignoring them, nobody could really tell. Maybe he actually was sleeping.  

“Hisao,” Hattori spoke, raising his voice slightly. He didn’t move to react, but he did speak. In a voice slightly deeper than usual.  

“What?”   

“Anything to say for yourself?” 
“That I’m not the killer. Pretty much all I can say.” 

Tea sighed, getting bored of this already.  

“Do you or do you not have an alibi, you fucker.”  

Okay, little rude there-” Kenta said.  

“Too bad. Now can he answer the question?” 
“Well, not after you called me that I can’t.” 

“Now look what you’ve done,” Anake groaned. Tea didn’t seem to regret it in the slightest.  

“Well then, how about we just vote you off and get you killed?” 
“Fine by me.” 

“Ugh. Kana, you know psychology, what’s he trying here?”  

“I think he’s just being annoying.” 
“Oh.” 

“Yeah.”  

“Well,” Ryoko butted in, still with the same strange look in her eyes, “I can say Kiki does have an alibi, sooooo...”  

“Really?” Hattori asked, turning to her with his hands behind his back, “and why do you know this?”  

“Because they were with me. Obviously.”  

“Why didn’t you mention this earlier? When I asked about the times people came back, I mean.”  

“I only just remembered it now.”  

“Strange. I thought you would remember being with your partner for an hour.”  

“Yeah, well I-” the words sunk in, “Partner? We aren’t dating.”  

“We aren’t?!” Kiki looked shocked.  

“Shut up.”  

Mikiyo mumbled something to himself. Daiki thought he could head something about ‘shipping’.  

“Well... Fine, if you insist,” Hattori crossed his arms, his expression unchanging, “That leaves Hisao as our killer. Do you want to confess?”  

Hisao was still in the exact same position. He shook his head, not even speaking.  

“Dude, just talk already,” Kenta sounded oddly serious for once.  

“What, you wanna finally hear than I’m a killer?” Now his voice was higher than normal. The voice actor tomfuckery was in play, and it was annoying almost everyone  

“No, they want to know if you’re a killer because they don’t want to vote wrong and die,” Kana sighed.  

“They?? You’re included in us, you know that, right?” Ren asked.  

“Yeah. I just want to die,” She was looking into the pocket of her jacket, with less of a frown than usual,  

“... What’s in the pocket?” 
“Nothing.” 
“Kana,” Hattori turned around to her. Their podiums were next to eachother, so he took the opportunity to attempt to peek into her pocket. She just placed a shielding hand over it, “Show me what’s in your pocket.” 

“Why should I?”  

“Because it might be crucial evidence, for all we know.”  

“It’s probably not, Hattori, calm down-” Ren sighed.  

“No, we deserve to know what it is!” Kenta said, looking annoyed, “Hattori’s right.”  

“Argument time,” Tea chuckled, “This’ll take a while.”  

“Yep,” Anake nodded, putting her hands in her pocket as she did.  

“We don’t have time for this,” Yuto groaned, whilst stepping off his podium and walking towards Kana. He quickly reached into her pocket, and gently pulled whatever it was out. Everyone was looking at his hand. And in it was...  

A frog.  

“Oh. Hi David,” Daiki nodded. He might have just been tired, but he could swear that the frog nodded in response.  

And just when he thought enough impossibles had occurred, another happened. Despite everything he knew to be possible or normal, it was defied, as he looked over to the owner of the Frog. Kana. With an expression other than a frown on her face. In fact, she was smiling! Well, more of a slight smirk, but it was still far more than he ever thought her to be able to do. She wore it awkwardly on her face, as if this was the first semi-smile she had made in years. She kept it, as she slowly reached over to David, pulling him out of Yuto’s hand, and gently placing him on her head. He blended in with her hair quite well. She stepped back to her podium, gesturing for Yuto to return to his own. She took note at all the confused, shocked, and horrified expressions. Even Hisao seemed surprised, and his face wasn’t even visible.  

“When did you get a frog?” Mikiyo asked, being one of the two that didn’t look confused and/or scared. Along with Ren.  

“At the pool party. I don’t know how he got in, but he’s my son now. His name is David.”  

“He’s adorable,” Ren laughed, “Can I pet him?” 
“Sure.” 

The following interaction could only be called awkward. Ren was attempting to pet the frog, but for whatever reason didn’t think to take him off of Kana’s head first, so it resulted in her just... petting Kana herself. There was a small but noticeable blush on both of their faces, and the silence produced by both them and everyone else in the room only worsened the atmosphere. After a few seconds, Ren backed away and stepped onto her podium, avoiding eye contact from everyone.  

“How cute,” Hattori said, his face deadpan, “but can we get back to solving the murder?”  

“Yeah-” Ren choked out.  

And back to square one they returned. Kiki or Hisao. Both equally unlikely. Ryoko awkwardly coughed.  

“Can we just vote already? We know it’s Hisao.”  

The accused just nodded.  

“We don’t?” Kenta said, confusion showing in his voice, “Kiki’s still an option, dude.”  

“No they aren’t. I gave them an alibi, didn’t I?” 
“A shit one, yeah,” Tea mumbled. Ryoko still noticed, apparently, as she whipped her head around to glare at her. 

“Shut up.”  

“Didn’t say anything. Though, I must point out, all this defending of the jester is just making him look more suspicious.”  

“Tea, kindly, shut the fuck up before I break your nose.”  

“Look at that, now she’s threatening me. Not helping your case here.”  

“And here you go starting shit again... can someone just shut her up, please?”  

... no response. Ryoko’s eyes were searching the room for a sign of anyone even slightly agreeing with her.  

“...She does have a point,” Yuto sighed, “ This amount of defending is... suspicious.”  

“True. It's honestly excessive at this level,” Hattori agreed.  

“And she’s acting... Different than normal.”  

“Oh so I should just shut up then. Guess I’m an asshole for defending my friend.”  

“Guilt tripping~”Anake said, with an annoying sing-song tone.  

“Isn’t that a manipulation thing?”  

All eyes turned to Kana, whose silence was enough of an answer  

“See? She’s suspicious in twenty different ways,” Tea chuckled. Whilst nobody else was laughing, it was evident that they agreed.  

“God fucking...” Ryoko mumbled, not even finishing her sentence. She was leaning onto her podium, head in her hands, gripping onto her hair. People were giving her looks of varying concern (Tea being the lowest on the scale, obviously.)  

Kiki looked the most worried. A rare thing for them. They had never been seen not smiling, yet now, they seemed genuinely concerned.  

“Ryo, st-”  

“Shut up, Kiki,” Her voice came out as a quiet hiss. There was no anger in it, but fear. Daiki could see the grip on her hair tightening further. He half-thought she was about to tear it out.  

Kiki was shaking. Not so much it was obvious, but Daiki was always good at noticing the small things like that. Their gaze moved from Ryoko, to everyone else. Their worried frown turning into a shaky smile. Ryoko caught the change in expression, immediately standing up fully, looking like she was about to run.  

“Don’t,” there was a new sense of desperation in her voice. It startled most of the others in the room. The ones so used to her monotone expression and voice. She was still quiet, but the silence of everyone else made her more than heard.  

Kiki sighed.  

“Yeah. I did it.”  

Shock. Confusion. Disbelief. Sadness. These emotions and more combined into... the current moment. Not a word could be said in response to Kiki’s confession. Only questions that nobody was brave enough to ask. Why would they kill anyone? Why Ayaka? Why make it so complicated? Why was Hisao acting more guilty than he was? Nothing was answered. Everyone had a slightly different expression than the one next to them. It was only the culprit themself that wore even a faint smile. They let out a small chuckle.  

“Khehe... Surprise? I don’t know how this is supposed to go,” They took their hat off, fiddling with the bells attached. Their head turned to Ryoko, with Anake stepping back to let them get full eye contact, “I’m, uh, sorry, Ryo. I really shouldn’t’ve told ya, huh?”  

“You knew?!” Daiki exclaimed.  

“...”  

“Well, I’m guessing she did. I didn’t exactly tell her, but she figured it out soon enough. Smart of her,” their smile grew, in contrast to the horror and despair in Ryoko’s eyes alone.  

"But... Why?" The words left Kenta's mouth and hung in the air like a stagnant stench. He spoke for everyone. He spoke for Kiki themself , “You never seemed like the one to kill someone.”  

“Yeah, I know. In my defence it wasn’t intentional...”  

“Oh? Care to explain?” Hattori questioned, raising an eyebrow.  

“Of course! I’d never leave you clueless,” They giggled, their voice even more shaky than before. The act of confidence they had on was beginning to break, as they sighed in preparation.  

1:58 AM. Poolside.  

Ayaka was seated at the side of the pool. Her feet in the water with her shoes and socks still on. She didn’t mind the discomfort it brought anymore. She wanted to feel a few things for the last time, and the feeling of wet socks might as well be one of them. It was the least she could do, really. After putting Akira through so much, she deserved some discomfort at the very least. And more, obviously, that’s why she had this whole plan happening.  

She looked to her side. A glass of water, and bottle of sleeping pills. she wasn’t sure who the pills belonged to; she’d just found them on one of the beds in the sleeping hall. She'd forgotten what bed belonged to who. She turned on her phone. 2:01. It was time. She'd put it off long enough. She picked up the bottle, taking two out and putting them in her mouth, before chugging the water and swallowing. There. From memory, she had about thirty minutes left. Thirty minutes before they kicked in, thirty minutes before she let herself fall into the water, thirty minutes left of life. Far too long, now that she knew it was happening.  

The last thirty minutes of her life was spent being absolutely useless, as was expected from her. She'd listened to her favourite song at least four times, read through the past week of messages on the groupchat, attempted to make one last post on any and all social medias she had (failing, obviously), but the thirty minutes still wasn’t up. She hadn’t felt any change in her drowsiness, at least. She'd given up looking on her phone, now she was just staring into the empty glass, the pill bottle in her other hand. She was contemplating taking a few more and using pool water to take them or something. That was when she heard footsteps, coming her direction. Instinctively, she threw both the bottle and the glass behind her, to hide what she was doing to whoever was on their way. She immediately regretted it as soon as she heard the glass shatter against the wall. Stupid.  

The person in question was Kiki. She could tell before they were even in view, the bells had given it away. A quick glance at her phone, 2:23. Any minute now and she’d be passing out. Well that just fucked everything up. Kiki’s not the kind of person to just... leave without starting a conversation that lasted at least ten minutes. If she tried to jump whilst they were there, they’d stop her. And if it doesn’t work at all, she’d have to explain to everyone why she’d stolen the random sleeping pills, and probably be put on suicide watch. Fucking hell.  

As expected, the jester hopped into view, pausing for just over a second upon seeing Ayaka, before standing beside her.  

“HI!” they waved.