Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

XXX: ……

XXX: ………

XXX: …………

XXX: “Fuck!”

XXX: “Fuck Fuck- This hurts like a bitch god damn it-”

XXX: “God- I shouldn’t have let him attack me like that- I’m stronger than that! Damn it!”

XXX: “I- I need to find her.. I need to be able to-”

XXX: “Gh… my head hurts so fucking badly.. Ow ow ow…. Why did I let him slash it like that.. God fuck it all..”

XXX: “Why does my life always have to be like this- everything just goes south even when I want to live normally-”

XXX: “But even so- I-”

XXX: “I need to-”

XXX: “She knows how to help me.. Right? With her… supernatural ability.. Right?”

XXX: “Yeah… yeah that means-”

XXX: “To be able to.. end this thing…”

XXX: “I need to capture Teruko Tawaki.”

…

…

Danganronpa: Inversed Hours.
Begin.

Prologue: Calm in the midst of the storm.

???: “....”

???: “...mmm…?”

???: “Huh?”

???: “Where- am I?”

I blinked a bit, sitting up straight in the bed I woke up in. I had no recollection of sleeping in this room, or wearing this outfit.. or anything.. what the heck..?

I rubbed my eyes, standing up. I took a look around the room, taking in my surroundings and trying to figure out what was going on at all. I needed to remember what the hell happened and how I even got into this place at all.

Wait.. I remember a little bit. Didn't I come for the Hope's Peak Academy Entrance Ceremony?

This.. didn't look like Hope's Peak, though. Ah... maybe I don't know if it is or isn't. I shouldn't really be judging based on looks. I didn’t know if it was or wasn’t anyway. Maybe this was Hope’s Peak Academy.

But why don’t I remember stepping into this room? Why don’t I remember… anything?

Pushing aside those thoughts, I started walking around the small room, taking note of what I saw. A bed, a desk with drawers, a small shelf with blue flowers, a closet, and another door on the far side. Along with a window.

Wait.

I walked over to the window and hit it a bit. Ah.. it was a TV screen. How disappointing. Though maybe I could hack into it. Ah.. if only I was good with technology. Then maybe I could hack this.

Close to the TV was a small door. Not like the bigger door at the other side of the room. I opened the smaller door and looked inside. A standard bathroom, a sink, a shower and bathtub, a toilet, and some other cleaning stuff. Helpful.

I closed that door and looked through the desk drawers, looking for anything I could. Huh- what was this?

“My first Murder Kit!”

.. what? Why- Why would anyone need a murder kit? I inspected it more, looking at it. It had some odd “MonoToaster” branding all over it.. I didn't understand why anyone would need this here, but I tried to pick it up, and it snapped easily. Cheap plastic. Wow how nice. Though it was nice it wasn't an actual murder kit, that'd be concerning.

Well wait.. there was a faux falchion here. I picked it up and inspected it closer. Yep. Fake. Something I would use in a big play if I was acting a prince or soldier. I did a small pose, pointing the sword ahead of me with a smirk across my face. Fun! 

I put the sword back and closed the drawer. All the other drawers were completely empty, a small let down, but what was I supposed to expect. Finding a million dollars in one of them? 

I opened the bigger door and walked into the hallway. Hm, 16 doors, all with names on them. I looked at the door I just exited.

“???”

Ah, so it’s only the first name. That makes sense. So if there are 16 doors, there are most likely 15 other people here. Along with me. That would explain the other 15 nameplates. 

Mm… my head hurts. Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something important about myself. I remember… my mom. My dad… aahh.. I feel like I’m forgetting someone else in my family. Maybe I had a pet but forgot about them? But why would forgetting a pet bother me..? No.. it’s probably something else.

I’ll think about it later. It’s probably unimportant at the moment. Right now I need to figure out why I’m even here.

I walked down the hallway a bit more before I accidentally-

CRASH!

I crashed into someone else, wait- someone else?! I looked at the person I crashed into with an excited-worried expression, looking down at them.

???: “I am SO SO sorry!”

???: “I- It's ok.. ow…”

???: “I'm so sorry! I didn't see you! Are you alright?”

???: “I- I'll survive, don't worry.”

???: “If you're sure you don't need any other help..”

???: “W- Wait..”

???: “Huh?”

???: “... I have a headache. I- woke up with one. Can we go… and find some medicine? Please?”

???: “Oh, sure! Come on, let's go!”

I walked with the other person I had just bumped into. They were wearing a classic professors outfit, a brown suit.. purple tie.. jet black shoes.. they also had a small purple hat with a bug sewn on it. Quite cute, in my opinion.

We walked down the hallway until we walked into a room that seemed to be an infirmary, how convenient. It was pretty well stocked, a few beds, shelves full of books, and some other medical stuff I didn’t know how to use.

The other person walked over to the shelf and opened one of the cabinets, pulling out some painkillers. How they knew those were in there was beyond my understanding. Maybe intuition? Or a lucky guess? It’d be funny to see them fail over and over in finding the medicine.

The person took the medicine and put it back in the cabinet, looking back at me with a smile across their face.

???: “I’m sorry, we got off on the wrong foot. We never introduced ourselves, did we?”

???: “Oh yeah! We never did!”

J: “My name is J! The Ultimate Stage Actor!”

J ???: Ultimate Stage Actor!

J: “What about you? What’s your name?”

???: “Ah, me?”

Min: “My name’s Min Jeung! The Ultimate History Teacher!”

Min Jeung: Ultimate History Teacher!

J: “That’s an interesting talent! Is there a specific field of history you teach?”

Min: “No not really, I teach everything I can, from the beginning of documented history to the most recent things!”

J: “All in one school year?!”

Min: “Mhm!”

J: “Isn’t that a bit…”

J: “Much?”

J: “I mean- not to insult your teaching abilities! But wouldn’t that be a bit overwhelming for one school year?!”

Min: “Oh don’t worry! I make sure it’s not too content heavy all at once. It’d be way too much for those students, anyway. I try to make my classes both educational and entertaining for everyone! And my students seem to enjoy my class.”

J: “Well that’s good! I would hate being stuck in a class that I despised. Especially if the teacher was a bad person as well.”

Min: “Oh absolutely, having a good teacher who’s excited to teach their students is key. If you're rude and hate the class you're teaching, your students will hate it as well.”

Min: “That's why you need to be enthusiastic, but not overbearingly, kind, and also keep in touch with your students, but not in a creepy way. You know?”

J: “Ohh.. that makes sense. I guess.”

Min: “What about you?”

J: “Huh?”

Min: “What's it like being a stage actor? Is it fun?”

J: “Yeah it is! It's super fun being able to play a bunch of roles and different characters!”

Min: “I could only imagine it would be. Acting is quite the career, isn't it? Being able to become different people with the magic of a mask, an outfit change, and a bit of personality shift.”

J: “Yep! You basically described it perfectly! That's how it feels to be an actor!”

Min: “Is there a big difference between stage acting and movie acting? Besides the vibe surrounding it, that is.”

J: “Mmm well stage acting, you don't get as many effects and dramatics as a movie, since everything is live acted right then and there.”

J: “So it's more pressure for perfection since everyone is watching you acting live, there's no retakes or things like that. Only one shot and you can't blow it.”

J: “And if you mess something up.. everyone stares at you with those eyes of disappointment, of disgust, and you know you're a failure.. and..”

J: “...”

Min: “....”

J: “AAA IM SORRY I TALKED A LOT-”

Min: “It's alright! Really! Acting can be extremely stressful, so I'm not getting mad at you! It's very much fair that you need to vent those feelings out!”

J: “Yeah but.. it's an awful first impression…”

Min: “I've seen worse. It's alright, J.”

J: “... thank you, Min.”

I'm glad I met Min. She's nice.. and she doesn't judge me for rambling about my talent and all the stress it brings. She seems like a good person, a person I can trust fully. 

Min: “So… you never told me your last name, no? Do you just not like sharing that?”

J: “Huh?”

I froze up. My… last name? I blinked, I guess I never said it, huh? It's not like I hate it… right? I didn't even.. know my name before seeing it on the door… but.. why?

My head felt fuzzy.. I tried to remember my last name. My name. But all that I could remember was my mother, my father, my talent, my life, everything but my name… and…. And someone else……

…

Min: “J?”

J: “Ah! Sorry.. my memory is really fuzzy right now…”

Should I be telling Min this, though? Would that be a bad thing?

Min: “Oh, that's fine. You don't have to say anything if that's too stressful or painful, just.. don't think of it too much, it'll just make it worse.”

J: “.. alright. I won't.”

Min: “Do you usually have memory problems?”

J: “That's the thing! I usually have really good memory! But I feel like I'm forgetting huge things about me- I didn't even remember my name until I saw it on the door! I remember my talent but--”

Min: “J--”

J: “--I can't even remember something important in my life! I know I'm forgetting it- I know I am- but i can't remember what it was! And- And--”

Min: “J! STOP IT! YOU'RE SPIRALING!”

Min grabbed my shoulders and looked me in the eyes with a worried expression. My breathing was.. quick. I was shaking too. That wasn't good.. not at all. Did Min just..

Min: “Calm down.. Ok? Just.. look at me in the eyes and breathe calmly. It'll be OK.. alright?”

Her tone was sweet. Calm and sweet. I looked her in the eyes, her beautiful magenta eyes and took some deep breaths. In and out.. in and out…

I used to do this to someone else when they used to spiral, right? They were always stressed, always in a negative mood. But I was always able to help them.

So why can't I just remember them?

Min: “So.. J.”

J: “...mhm?”

Min: “... are you.. calm now?”

J: “I- think so. I think I'm better now. Thank you, Min.”

Min: “It's alright! Don't stress about it! Really!”

J: “...”

I gave Min a small thank you smile. She's really good at calming people down, well, she's good at calming me down specifically. I'm really thankful for her.

J: “Oh! I have a question for you!”

Min: “Hm?”

J: “Did you get like uhh.. a sword in your drawer?”

Min: “A SWORD ?!”

J: “SHH-! Yes yes a sword! A falchion to be exact! But it's a fake one, wait it's in my room, I could go and grab it if you'd like?”

Min: “No no I think I believe you enough. I didn't receive a sword though.”

Min: “I did, however, receive this.”

Min reached into one of her inside coat pockets and pulled out a metal ruler. Ow.. who'd make a metal ruler of all things?!

J: “A… metal ruler?”

Min: “Not just any metal ruler! Watch!”

Min slid the top part of the ruler off and underneath it was-

J: “KYAHH! IS THAT A BLADE?!”

Min: “NOW YOUR TURN TO QUIET DOWN! DON'T SAY IT SO LOUDLY!”

Min: “Yes-! It's a blade! A really sharp blade, actually. Not only could I cause some serious harm with the ruler alone, this blade could kill someone.”

J: “A faux sword which could hurt someone.. a ruler that could kill someone.. why did we get these?”

J: “OR a better question..”

J: “Where are we?”

Min: “I think we're at Hope's Peak Academy… but… that's just an educated guess. I'm not 100% certain.”

Min: “Do you remember anything from when you came here?”

J: “Me? You're asking the person who's forgotten their own name if they remember coming here?”

Min: “You might remember something.”

J: Sigh

J: “Sadly I don't.”

J: “Do you?”

Min: “Sadly not. I wish I knew how I got here, or when I did. The only thing I remember is walking to the entrance ceremony.”

J: “Oh!”

J: “I remember that too! I blacked out right after stepping foot on campus!”

J: “But I don't remember anything before that, unfortunately. I wish I did. Then maybe I could be helpful and-”

Min: “You're doing it again…”

J: “Ah- I'm sorry-...”

Min: “Don't apologize. It's fine, really. Don't worry, I'm not mad.”

Min: “Maybe we should explore around more? Looking around and taking in our surroundings is important, especially if we're in a space where we don't know where we are.”

J: “Mhm! Come on! Let's go!”

I walked out the door happily, Min following me. The both of us walked down the hall until we saw two huge doors. I looked at them with a bit of curiosity.

J: “Oh! A door! Maybe we should kick it down! Hehe!”

Min: “.. why can't we just open the door?”

J: “Not sure! I thought it'd be cool, though!”

Min: “I see how it would be fun, but maybe we should just open the door like a normal person?”

J: “... aww alright.”

I opened the door happily and looked around.

??X: “Hey look! Someone new!”

X?X: “Tch… more people? How helpful.”

XX?: “Heeeyy.. don't be mean. Maybe they know stuff!”

Min: “Huh? Oh. Hello everyone!”

X?X: “Ugh… hello, I presume. I guess I have to introduce myself to a peasant like you.”

J: “P- Peasant?!”

X?X: “Yes.”

J: “That's so mean…”

X?X: “It's not mean, it's a fact. You most likely possess the most useless talents, no?”

J: “WHA-” 

Min: “Rude.”

X?X: “Well then tell me. Names and talents.”

Min: “Min Jeung, Ultimate History Teacher.”

J: “I'm J! The Ultimate Stage Actor!”

X?X: “So only one of you possesses an actual talent.”

J: “Eh?”

X?X: “Stage Acting isn't a talent, anyone can act on stage. All they have to do is pretend to be another person. It's not all that difficult.”

X?X: “Being a history teacher is a talent, as you have to be surrounded by… children… all day and teach them about the wonders of history.”

J: “...”

That… hurt. Hearing someone call all my hard work useless.. and just. Not a talent. It… hurt. Deeply. I worked really hard to become an actor but…

J: “So? What talent do you have that'll let you make fun of mine?”

X?X: “Tch, fine.”

Alexander: “I'm Alexander Matthews, The Ultimate Monarch.”

Alexander Matthews: Ultimate Monarch!

Alexander: “As the Ultimate Monarch, I've had to lead an entire nation since the age of 12. My family didn't help me one bit, even abandoning me so I would run a nation all alone.”

Alexander: “I've worked much harder than you can even dream of in your entire puny life.”

XX?: “Alexander! We talked about this! Don't be so mean to people… you may have had a rough life, but that doesn't mean you can be mean to others!”

Alexander: “...”

Alexander: “S- Shut up…”

Min: “Wow.. you can make the redhead be quiet. I didn't know anyone could do that.”

XX?: “Hehe.. it's nothing special.”

J: “So what's your name?”

XX?: “Me?”

Charles: “I'm Charles Cuevas! Ultimate Forensic Biologist!”

Charles Cuevas; Ultimate Forensic Biologist!

J: “A… Forensic Biologist…?”

Charles: “A forensic biologist is a scientist who analyzes biological evidence from crime scenes to help solve crimes!”

Charles: “Basically I look at any biological things at a scene of any huge crimes and try to help the police out!”

J: “Ooohhh… doesn't it get gorey sometimes?”

Charles: “Ehh sometimes. But I don't mind the gore. I mean- I shouldn't be worrying about it. I just need to get the job done, right?”

Min: “Mm.. that's true. I guess sometimes it's better to disregard how you feel for the better.”

Charles: “That's a really violent way to phrase it…--”

Alexander: “But you are right. Sometimes feelings are just another thing to discard for the greater good. You don't even factor in how you'd feel about the situation, just how everyone else does.”

Charles: “Not you too!”

Alexander: “Jeung made a good point, I am just adding onto it. For once someone makes a correct statement.”

Alexander: “If only everyone could do that…”

Charles: “Allleexxx.. you need to stop bashing on everyone! It's really rude, y'know!”

Alexander: “Sh- Shut up! It's not rude! I'm just being honest! And don't call me Alex ! I'm not a little child who needs a childish nickname!”

Hm. Alexander flushed up a lot when he was called Alex by Charles. The latter laughing at the other's flusteredness. I sensed those two might be closer than just people who just met a few minutes ago… but I couldn't put a finger on what relationship could be like...

Now who to talk to next… 

J: “You. What's your name?

??X: “Me?”

J: “Yes, you!”

??X: “Well that's easy!”

??X: “I'm ---!”

…

…

To be continued.

Chapter Text

Levi: “I’m Levi Fontana! I’m the Ultimate Image Consultant!”

Levi Fontana: Ultimate Image Consultant

Levi: “A cool talent, right?! I adore being able to see the beauty in everyone and everything! It’s an incredible way to live life, is it not?”

Alexander: “... life isn’t just “Beauty”, you know, no one cares about looks, it’s about how you act.”

Alexander: “So with that being said, your talent is as worthless as a piece of trash. And that’s me being kind. If I were to voice my true feeling of your talent, I would be here all day.”

Levi: “E- Eh?!”

Alexander: “Did I stutter? Or have you gone deaf?”

Levi: “Mm… that’s s-so… r-rude… I… sniffle ..”

J: “Alexander. Stop that. I’m sick and tired of you insulting me, insulting others here, insulting everyone. I don’t care if their talent is Ultimate Breather, you shouldn’t make people feel awful about talents they spent so much time working towards.”

Alexander: “Oh, did I strike a nerve? The little boy is crying, so what? Fontana needs to suck it up. And so do you. I can say whatever I want about these scum’s talents. Your talent is about as helpful as a broken clock.”

J: “At least I’m right two times a day. Unlike you, where you have as much worth as a broken pencil that’ll never sharpen. So you’re stuck with a useless eraser alone. The only way it’s useful is when you need to use an eraser because your normal pencil’s eraser is gone. You need others to rely on others around you to become useful in any way, shape, or form. Without others, you're puny. Worthless. Dispensable."

Alexander: “Hah! Is that the best insult your puny little mind can come up with? Or are you just trying to intimidate me with your valueless statements? Your words hold no real use besides trying to make yourself look much bigger and more powerful than you are.”

Alexander kept fighting back at me. Though with every word he spoke, more and more doubt and fear sept into his tone. Ah, so I found a weak spot. He doesn’t like being perceived as weak or useless. Makes sense. Now if I wasn’t in the middle of a fight with him, maybe I’d respect that. But…

J: “But I’m just telling the truth, no? You never denied my statements about you needing to rely on others to survive. You’re just driving yourself further into your grave with every little word you say. You know, you really are just worthless, hm?”

Alexander: “Pfft. How golden coming from you. Honestly, don’t you think you’re now “stooping down to my level” with this? Or are you allowed to do as you please but when it comes to others you berate them? And as for the last part of your statement, I am not worthless, though I cannot say the same for you. I lead a nation, I have more worth than you can ever even dream of in your most wild fantasies.”

J: “I--”

I tried to fight back, to say something, anything to defend myself, to defend others, but I couldn’t. My voice died in my throat, I was about to just stoop down to Alexander’s level truly and insult his insecurities right then and there but..

Charles: “STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU!”

Charles looked so… stressed. Like he was about to break into tears from all the yelling. I only met him a few minutes ago but I felt like I overstepped some line in his life. Levi.. Charles.. They were both either crying or on the brinks of having tears flow down their faces. 

I didn’t mean to- hurt Charles. I just wanted to defend Levi.. but is that just an excuse to fight against Alexander and defend myself?

J: “Charles..? Are you OK?”

Charles: “Please just- stop fighting… it’s not going to help you at all… it’ll just… make things worse between you two.”

Charles: “I… hate seeing people fight. It’s- awful. We shouldn’t just tear each other apart. We need to work together here, right? Or- at the very least, uplift each other? Right..?”

Alexander: “....”

J: “Yeah, Charles is right. Fighting is futile, especially if we have no idea where we are. We should just- not fight until we at least know the bare minimum about this place.”

Levi: Sniffle Sniffle.

Min: Ehem. “Alexander, you owe Levi an apology.”

Alexander: “Fine. I presume I do owe Fontana an indemnity. I am… sorry , Fontana.”

Levi: “...”

??X: “Wow.. that was a heated fight.”

J: “Eh-? Who are you?”

Min: “Were you here the whole time-?”

XX?: “Hm, me?”

Teruko: “Teruko Tawaki, Ultimate Luck.”

Teruko Tawaki: Ultimate Luck!

Teruko: “And yes, I was here watching from a distance. Much better to see fights go down from the sidelines rather than intervene and ruin the fun for myself.

J: “Ultimate... Luck?”

Teruko: “Did I stutter?”

J: “Ah! No no I mean.. How is luck a talent? Do you just have incredible luck or?”

Teruko: “Mmm you could say that. My luck works like this.”

Teruko: “If I ever wanted to, let’s say get a million dollars. I can’t just use my luck to get that, my luck works with a form of logic. I cannot say “I wish I had a million dollars” and the next day my luck magically gets me what I want.”

Teruko: “However, I can say “I wish I could buy a lottery ticket and with that I would win a million dollars with that” it’s possible. Though I don’t care too much about money since my family’s pretty well off.. Haha..”

Teruko: “So to summarize it, my luck is a very logic-based gift. I have to actually think out all the little logistics of how it’d work, but in the end I still get what I wished I could. I usually use my luck to… help… others out. Being a good person and all of the stuff a good person carries with that title.”

Charles: “Woaahh.. I bet you have people always following you because of your luck, right? Because being around a beacon of good fortune all the time would be a good thing and I honestly would adore that.”

Teruko: “Mhm. That is what happens. I am something most people see as just a tool of good luck, which I do not mind. It means I have worth to them, and they see me as a tool and friend. It’s mutually beneficial in the end.”

J: “That’s awesome! Augh I would die for a talent like that! It sounds super cool!”

Alexander: “...”

Alexander: “ᴵ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵃᵈᵐᶦᵗ… ˡᵘᶜᵏ ᶦˢ ᵃ… ᵃⁿ ᶦⁿᶜʳᵉᵈᶦᵇˡᵉ ᵗᵃˡᵉⁿᵗ. ᴵ ʷᵒᵘˡᵈ ᵉⁿʲᵒʸ ʰᵃᵛᶦⁿᵍ ˢᵒᵐᵉᵗʰᶦⁿᵍ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵃˢ ᵐʸ ᵗᵃˡᵉⁿᵗ, ᵃˢ ʷᵉˡˡ.”

Charles: “Woah, Alex can feel awe? He can feel a positive emotion?!”

Alexander: “S-Shut up! Don’t think I’m feeling happy or anything! I just- admire people with good luck, because the universe sees them as good people! Pure people! And with that luck they can change so many lives!”

Alexander: “They have worth! They’re- they’re worth something in this god forsaken world! They wake up every morning knowing that they actually can have an impact in this place! While everyone else has to scrape the very bottom of the barrel to even find anything to be worthy of!”

Alexander: “You don’t UNDERSTAND how much of a privilege it is to have worth in your life that you were given to you the day you were born!”

Alexander: “The fact that you don’t admire, you don’t praise the fact that she can be blessed by the universe and live such a privileged life while the rest of us have to beg and plead for life to spare us and give us some worth!”

Alexander kept rambling on and on about.. Worth. How was someone determined to be worthy of life? Of a privileged life? Of a good life? He brought up a good point about that. If someone was truly worthy of life, wouldn’t they have lived a good life? Or would they just be in endless sorrow because the universe decides to become worthy, you must go through hardships?

Teruko: “... hm. I never saw my luck like that. But it makes me happy you see me like a god of sorts.”

Alexander: “I never said that ! I said the universe blessed you!”

Teruko: “Heh. Alright, if you say so then it shall be that way. You are not treating me as if I was a god, but if I was blessed as if I was someone of higher power. Good to know.”

Alexander: “He-”

Levi: “Woaahh cool talent. Does that mean you could wish for someone to die?”

Teruko: “Hmm… I’d have to do a lot of logical thinking to try and get all the little bits of how to murder someone without getting caught, but yes, hypothetically I could. But I’d never do that. I care about everyone.”

J: “Well, hey! That’s two more introductions done! A bunch more to go! C’mon, Min! Let’s do this!”

J: “... Min-?”

Min: “Huh? Yeah, I’m here. Sorry, I zoned out for a bit. I was just thinking about a few things.”

J: “Fair.”

I felt like I was being watched from afar… I turned around and saw a small figure standing behind me. Ok not that short, but a bit shorter than me. They had curly hair and a muted color pallet outfit. Hm.

?.X: “...”

J: “...”

?.X: “..?”

J: “..!”

?.X: “Ah.. sorry. I should’ve said something sooner- huh?”

J: “No no it’s fine! I’m kinda used to people just standing there because they don’t know what to say or do in a situation. It’s really alright!”

J: “Oh, my name’s J, by the way! The Ultimate Stage Actor!”

?.X: “Nice to meet you, J.”

?.X: “And- It’s not that. It’s just- you all were already talking and I didn’t feel like interrupting. But it’s fine now!”

J: “... wait I’ve sworn I know who you are- I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

?.X: “Ah, really? If so, I’m honoured! I guess I’ll introduce myself!”

Ro: “I’m Ro! The Ultimate Graphic T-Shirt Artist!”

Ro -------: Ultimate Graphic T-Shirt Artist!

Ro: “Maybe you’ve seen me in advertisements? Or possibly seen some of my t-shirt designs? I guess I am quite well known in the industry.”

J: “Oh yeah! I own like- a bunch of your shirt designs! They’re all so badass! I love them so fuckin’ much! I have about 50 of them at my house! I think anyway, I might be forgetting a few.”

Ro: “Oh wow! I can’t believe I’ve met someone who’s such an avid lover of my work! I’m flattered, truly!”

J: “No problem! It’s just what a cool person would do! You know, if you ever wanna talk about something, I’ll be free any time!”

Ro: “Cool! I’ll take up that offer and have a nice chat with you once I can! I’m gonna go talk to others now! Bye!”

J: “Bye!”

I happily waved goodbye to Ro as they walked away. I’m happy I met someone I’ve known prior (well I knew of their existence, but I don’t think they knew of mine) to this… whatever I could define it as. The murder kit.. The toy falchion… Min’s weird ruler thing… I was so confused as to what the whole point of this place was. How did we all even get here?

Pushing that aside, I looked over my shoulder to see Min, once again, lost in her own thoughts. Or at least I assumed she was. She had that same blank expression across her face, almost like she was in a trance. I smiled, snapping my fingers to snap Min out of her daydreaming. It did work. 

Min: “Ah! Sorry again-”

J: “It’s fine. I’m not upset- zoning out is pretty fair, honestly. Especially when there isn’t really anything to do. So I’m not gonna get mad at you for zoning out.”

Min: “.. alright.”

X!X: “Hello!”

J: “KYAAAH-”

I didn’t expect someone to just jump up from behind me, I was more expecting someone to calmly walk up to us, like Teruko or Ro, but not someone basically jumpscaring me and scaring the soul out of me. I flung my arms up and screamed a bit before slowly calming down from the initial shock. 

Min was standing behind me, laughing a bit. The bastard! She was supposed to be nice to me! Not be super duper mean to me and laugh at my suffering! I huffed a bit before straightening up and looking at the culprit to my fear. A short, blue haired girl with a classic baseball outfit with a few adjustments.

J: “I- It’s not nice to sneak up on people, y’know. You could’ve made me fall over and hit my head!”

X!X: “Pfft- that’s a funny excuse for your jumpiness. I didn’t even sneak up on you, I was behind you for a bit, I was just waiting for you to finish talking with the teacher girl.”

Min: “... My name is Min. Min Jeung.”

X!X: “Ooo that’s a cool name! Super pretty!”

Min: “Ah, thank you.”

J: “What about you? What’s your name?”

X!X: “Me? Heck yeah!”

Arei: “My name is Arei Nageishi! The Ultimate Baseball Super Star!”

Arei Nageishi: Ultimate Baseball Star!

Arei: “... Ok it’s only Ultimate Baseball Star BUT Baseball SUPERstar sounds super cool! And I personally prefer calling myself super, more exciting!”

Min: “If I recall correctly, wasn’t there an Ultimate Baseball Star in 20..12?”

Arei: “Ah! Leon Kuwata! Yes, that was during the Tragedy, right? He was the Ultimate Baseball Star! Every twenty years there’s a new one! And I’m the newest Ultimate Baseball Star for now!”

Min: “Ah yes, the Tragedy! It’s such an interesting historical event I love teaching! Probably the most in depth subject I teach during my history classes! And the students love it, too, and I understand why. Understanding the reason of all the murder cases, why despair was such a common theme back then, the “killing game” which wasn’t even a killing game, but a made up story, it was all so interesting!”

Arei: “Wow! You sure know a lot about it, huh?”

Min: “Oh, if you really want to hear me talk in depth about the tragedy, I could do it. That’s only if you’d like, though!”

Arei: “Hell yeah! Ramble! Tell me everything you can think of about the tragedy! I want to hear it all!”

Min: “Wow- enthusiastic! Alright… where to start… hmm…”

Min: “Well there was once a girl named Junko Enoshima and-”

I listened to Min as she excitedly explained every little detail of the Tragedy she could recall to Arei, as the latter listened closely to Min. It was.. Nice. Seeing both of them so happy around each other, even in this strange place, at least two people can be happy around each other. 

I looked around the area to see what everyone else was doing. Charles was annoying Alexander, which seemed to be a reoccurring theme between the two. Charles would always make small, playful comments towards the Monarch, and in return, Alexander would become flustered and yell at Charles while the other laughed a hearty laugh.

Levi and Teruko were talking with each other calmly, well, Teruko was, anyway. Levi was excited with every word Teruko spoke. Levi… despite him being a giant and physically built, he seemed like such an emotionally driven person who would be scared to land a punch on anyone. Teruko, despite being quite short, seemed to be calmer and could easily get what she wanted with others because of her poison darted words if she tried hard enough. Though… she seemed kind enough not to do that.

A small smile grazed across my face as I looked around the room a bit more to see if I could talk with anyone else while Min continued to go on her history ramblings to the baseball star.

My eyes landed upon a small boy with muted red hair. His hair tufts were even shaped like little dog ears. He was wearing a lot of blue and purple and seemed very energetic while basically zipping around, trying to talk to everyone he could possibly talk with.

Yeah. I’ll talk to him next.

To be continued...

Chapter Text

Looking at the boy in blue, I smiled a bit and walked over to him. He seemed like someone I could easily talk with, since he was basically talking with everyone else before me. Honestly.. Looking at his stylistic choices, picking a dog of all animals to dress up like made sense.

He seemed energetic, hyper, and talkative, just jumping up to everyone and greeting them. So surely I’d be able to talk with him and have a nice conversation with the fellow.

J: “Hello!”

!?!: “Oh? Hello there! I’ve seen you introduce yourself to others here.”

!?!: “J, right?”

J: “Yeah! That’s my name! What’s yours?”

!?!: “Me?”

Ace: “I’m Ace Markey! The Ultimate Dog Trainer!”

Ace Markey: Ultimate Dog Trainer!

Ace: “I specialize in more domestic dogs, but I can train dogs that can be used in different scenarios, like rescue dogs or police dogs!”

J: “J, Ultimate Stage Actor.”

I extended my hand out for a handshake, and Ace shook it happily. He seemed excited to shake it with his happy little grin.

J: “Dog trainer, hm? Do you like dogs? Though I assume that’s a given.”

Ace: “Oooo! I LOVE dogs! They’re so fun to be around and make for great compainoions!”

J: “You mean… companions?”

Ace: “Yes, that word!”

J: “... pfft. You have awful pronunciation of words, Ace. No offense, though.”

Ace: “None taken!”

Ace let out a small giggle. A person who didn’t take anything to heart and was also really fun to be around? Finally.. a normal person. The exact opposite of someone else here. Though J wouldn’t say names.

J: “Hmm.. did you style your hair to look like a dog's ears? Because if so, it’s adorable!”

Ace: “Thank you, and, yes! I did! It took a lot of trial and error but eventually I was able to get it to look just the wanted! Little dog ears”

J: “That’s really nice!”

J: “Ooh, here's a question. How did you pick up your talent, Ace?”

Ace: “Oh! My family had a huge farm growing up and there were a lot of stray dogs living around. I decided to try and train one of them to be a house dog! I was about… 11?”

Ace: “Then since that went well I went around training the other dogs to help around the farm!”

Ace: “My parents spread the word that I was a good dog trainer and soon people from around the area started coming to me to train their dogs.. It was stressful at first but soon became super fun!”

J: “Oh! That’s cool!”

J: “You lived on a farm.. Sounds exciting. Where, exactly? Like in the south.. Or..”

Ace: “Ireland!”

J: “...”

J: “WHAT-”

Ace: “E-Eh?”

J: “You- you’re not from the USA? Then how did you get here- Hope’s Peak, I mean. Isn’t it an American school?”

Ace: “Oh, I moved here to pursue dog training! That’s why Hope’s Peak scouted me. You just need to live in the USA and have a citizenship to go to Hope’s Peak.. not an American education or things like that.”

J: “I guess that makes sense. I just assumed you had to have an American education.”

Ace: “I could see why you’d think that, honestly. I guess it’d make sense.”

J: “Soo, you’re from Ireland? Do you speak English as a first or second language?”

Ace: “Is é Béarla mo dhara teanga. Is í an Ghaeilge an teanga a labhraíonn mé de ghnáth ach ós rud é i Meiriceá tá Béarla ag gach duine... ní labhraím Gaeilge ró-mhór a thuilleadh.”

Ace: “ It translates roughly to: ‘English is my second language. Irish is the language I usually speak but since in America everyone speaks English... I don't speak Irish too much anymore.’”

J: “Oooo! That’s so cool! So you speak both English and Irish?! That’s so interesting! I wish I could speak two languages fluently.”

Ace: “You can’t?”

J: “I can speak light Spanish, but that’s all, since I took the class in High School.”

Ace: “I’d expect an actor to know a lot more languages, to be honest. Since you do like, travel, I’d assume.”

J: “... no. Actually. I’ve only been to the Philippines- and that was one time. And.. It was for a week. Everyone spoke English there, so I didn’t need to learn anything else. And I never traveled out of the country after that.”

Ace: “Oh!”

Ace: “Now I feel terrible for assuming-”

J: “No no it’s fine, don’t worry about it. I could see your thought process with it. No worries.”

Ace: “Alright, if you say so.”

Ace and I stood in awkward silence for a few seconds, just staring at each other and then quickly looking away if we made eye contact. It was an uncomfortable stillness between the two of us, at least until Ace’s hushed voice spoke up while looking towards Charles and Alexander.

“Are those two friends?” Ace asked, slowly standing on his tiptoes to whisper into my ear, lightly gesturing to Alexander and Charles, the latter of the two seemingly teasing Alexander while the former yelled insults at him.

I giggled a bit, sure those two weren’t enemies , but friends? That was a bit of a stretch. Nonetheless I decided to play along, cupping my hand over the dog trainer's ear and whispering quietly into his ear.

“They’re totally friends.” I smirked, though it seemed my whisper wasn’t as quiet as I wished because once I looked back up, I was met with the fiery gaze of Alexander and the amused expression on Charles’ face.

“WE ARE NOT FRIENDS!” Alexander yelled, his eyes a bright, golden yellow as the other tried to hold him back, making sure Alexander didn’t pounce on us. Charles laughed awkwardly while grabbing the other’s arm.

“Aha… We’re totally friends but Alex- please don’t go punching people-”

“WE ARE NOT FRIENDS FOR THE LAST TIME--!”

J: “Pfft. Now that was funny.”

Ace: “Sure was! I didn’t know we had free friendship-drama here! I should go find popcorn!”

J: “Hah! Grab me some, too! And maybe some for everyone!”

Ace: “A’ight! Totally!”

And with that, Ace walked away. Though not to go grab popcorn, sadly, but to talk to the other’s he hadn’t already spoken with. Which reminded me to go talk with a few more people. Since I should introduce myself to everyone here.

Though it seemed I didn’t have to do much work to try and meet someone new, since a girl with green hair and purple glasses spoke up quite loudly.

?X!: “Ugh, why are we stuck here of all places?! This building sucks! And everyone else here does as well!”

Alexander: “Excuse me?”

?X!: “ExCuSe Me? What are you, some old man?”

Alexander: “Gh- Rude! Did your parents not teach you any manners?”

?X!: “Hey! Did yours teach you manners?!”

Alexander: “Of co-”

Alexander: “...”

Alexander: “That’s not the point! You’re acting rude!”

Charles: “... that’s gold coming from you of all peopl--”

Alexander: “Shut your mouth before I shut it for you. ”

Charles: “Shutting up, shutting up.”

?X!: “Wooow, all it took was an empty threat to keep you quiet? You’re like, a massive pushover. And I met the T-Shirt guy.”

Charles: “E-Eh? I’m not a pushover, I’m just being quiet.”

J: “Woah woah woah, what’s going on-?”

?X!: “The- The redhead is c- calling me mean!”

J: “.  .  .”

J: “Who even are you- what’s your name?”

?X!: “Ugh, I guess I have to introduce myself to you.”

Hu: “Hu Jing, the Ultimate Rock Guitarist…”

Hu Jing: Ultimate Rock Guitarist!

Hu: “Happy?”

J: “Rock music, right? Isn’t that… like.. A dead genre of music?”

Hu: “Hey! It’s not dead! It’s just- pop has gotten way more popular, but that’s stupid, because rock is way better than that dumb pop music!”

Hu: “Pop music is all ‘Aww look at this with all these happy musical instruments in the background!’ but it’s all boring!”

Hu: “Now ROCK has a heart! It’s the perfect way to pour out all those emotions and be super cool while doing it! I even got my rock guitar in my room! Though they added some sharp spikes or whatever to it.”

J: “Oh, I see.”

Hu: “I’m gonna be super honest, though. Ultimate Stage Actor sounds pretty cool, I guess. You get to fake stuff a lot.”

J: “O- Oh. Thank.. You?”

Hu: “Though to be honest, I really hate the monarch guy over there.”

Hu: “He’s a massive hypocrite, and really he seems super weak deep down. I was able to hear a bit of his thing about “worth” and stuff like that, and honestly, he doesn’t seem like he’d be worth anything here.” 

Hu: “Especially if we’re stuck here for a while. I think we should sacrifice him first, no one would miss him, anyway. His talent is useless , his personality is dog shit , and honestly I think he’s just a worthless person as a whole.”

Alexander: “...”

Charles: “Alex- don’t-”

Alexander: “.  .  .”

Charles: “Alex- we’ve been over this- don’t pick another fight-”

Alexander: “.      .       .”

Charles: “Alex plea --”

Hu: “Aww the wittwe king doesn’t wanna stwawt a fwight…. What are you gonna do, bitch, yell?”

Alexander: “You have three seconds to take back anything you’ve said in the past few minutes we’ve met each other, because not only is your personality just as likable as a piece of feces, you’re appearance is as disheveled as a dried up mop and your talent is just as useful as a broken lock on a busted up locker.”

Hu: “Ohh I’m so scared , oh please someone save me! Before someone hurts me!”

Hu: “I meant every little word I said before, and I’m not taking anything back.”

Alexander: “...”

It all happened so quickly. One second Hu was standing there, insulting Alexander. No, insulting wouldn’t describe it well enough. She was purposefully going at his heart, trying to shrivel it up until it died. And Alexander was standing there, face darkened with his fist shaking at his side.

And then the next second, Hu was standing there, a hand over her reddening cheek as she rubbed it, while Alexander stood over her, his eyes a bright, glowing aureate color while Charles stood behind him fearfully.

It’d only been what, twenty minutes at the very least since I came into this specific room, and I’d already seen multiple arguments, tears, and now violence? What is wrong with everyone here?

“I AM NOT WORTHLESS, IF ANYTHING YOU’RE THE WORTHLESS ONE!” Alexander shouted, Hu only looking up at him with annoyance before sticking her tongue out and standing up, walking away from the taller of the two. Alexander shook a bit before taking a few deep breaths and calming down (enough) to sigh and rub his forehead.

Well at least that fight ended quite quickly. I sighed, looking at Min and Arei, who seemed to just be finishing up their conversation. At least they weren’t effected by the events that just occurred in the past few minutes.

J: “Oh wow. That was.. A lot. And I thought I’d seen arguments like that before break out in things like acting rehearsals, I hadn’t seen two people who had just met fight like that…”

?.?: “Ah yes… it’s always such a shame to see people fight instead of work together and try to understand the situation in a calm and harmonious way. It pains me.”

J: “Oh?”

I looked up at the person standing behind me, their hair was a mint green with calm blue eyes. They wore a black robe with gold outlines with quite a lot of cross imagery all over it. I hummed a bit and nodded in agreement.

J: “Yeah, if everyone worked together, life would be a lot easier. But then again, there will always be people who don’t want to work with other people. And that’s fair, but fighting right now?”

?.?: “.. I just don’t like fighting in general. It’s something I heavily dislike… since it ends up drifting people apart.”

J: “Ah, I see. You like everyone being together and happy, right? Someone who prefers peace over war?”

?.?: “Shouldn’t everyone be like that?”

J: “In a perfect world, maybe. But now we have people who will go out of their way to make other’s lives miserable, or at the very least less comfortable.”

?.?: “... ah.”

J: “Oh! I’m J, by the way. Ultimate Stage Actor!”

?.?: “Ah! Oh dear, where are my manners? My deepest apologies, I didn’t introduce myself to you!”

Arturo: “I’m Arturo Giles, the Ultimate Priest!”

Arturo Giles: Ultimate Priest!

Ah, that’d explain all the cross imagery on his outfit. It’s more religious. I don’t feel like touching on any of those topics here, so I nodded a bit and smiled to Arturo. He seemed like a calm and kind person, the type of person a priest would be seen as, right?

J: “Hm. I see.”

Arturo: “So, what’s it like being a stage actor?”

J: “It’s nice! You get to go all around the country and so all sorts of fun acting gigs!”

Arturo: “Any favorite ones?”

J: “My favorite one? Hmm.. maybe the gig where I was able to pretend to be the Ultimate Effects Artist? It was a simple gig, but I had to pretend to hide my name and pretend I was stuck in a killing game. It was quite interesting!”

Arturo: “Oh! That sounds… fascinating…”

J: “It was fascinating! I really liked it! The whole play lasted weeks! I adored it so so much…”

Min: “Ah.. sorry for taking so long, J. Me and Arei were having such a nice conversation…”

J: “Oh, it’s alright, Min!”

Arturo: “Min, hm? A lovely name.”

Min: “Oh thank you!”

Min extended her hand out for a handshake with Arturo with her usual smile spread happily across her face.

Min: “My name is Min Jeung, Ultimate History Teacher. It’s so nice to meet you!”

Arturo: “Ah, what a beautiful name. I’m Arturo Giles, the Ultimate Priest. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Min.”

Min: “The pleasure is all mine! Ah but I have to ask, do you, by chance, know of K***i U****a? Wasn’t he a past Ultimate Priest?”

Arturo: “Indeed he was! In fact, all Ultimate Priests go to Italy for a year in his steps. It’s a tradition.”

Min: “Ah! I see! It’s all so intriguing, isn’t it? How so many of us have talents that were once someone else’s or at least related to said talents!”

Arturo: “I see where you are coming from with your excitement, but personally I find it happy I get to have a talent in general.”

Min: “Well I’m happy I have an Ultimate as well! I worked hard for this, after all! And I got it!”

J: “Mhm.”

Arturo: “Well it was nice having a lovely chat with you two fine individuals, but I feel as though I should introduce myself to the rest of the people here. Goodbye!”

J: “Bye, Arturo!”

Min: “Goodbye!”

And with that, Arturo walked away with a smile. He seems like a really nice guy, unlike people like Hu or Alexander who seem to stir up anger or other negativity on purpose, Arturo spreads positivity. I hope to speak with him again, I enjoyed the conversation we had!

I looked around the room a bit more to see if I could find anyone else to introduce myself to. A short girl with brown and golden hair.. A boy with pink hair with black ends… a girl with a sea of red hair.. a person with jet black hair.. Though they all seemed occupied in their own conversations with others.

I looked towards the corner of the room and saw someone sitting in the farthest point of the room, balled up with their hood on their head, covering their entire face along with their head buried in their knees. I became a little worried and walked over to them, Min following close behind me.

J: “Hey… are you OK?”

..?: “...”

  J: “Hello?”

..?: “.... go away.”

J: “E-Eh? But we need to introduce ourselves to each other, especially in a place like this where we don’t know each other nor know where we even are. Having alliances or just friendships are key here.”

..?: “.. fine.”

David: “David Chiem. Ultimate… Cynic.”

David Chiem: Ultimate Cynic.

David: “Now leave me alone. Please.”

J: “Wait but that talent doesn’t make any sense-”

Min: “I have to agree with J, cynic, or being cynical, implies having a sneering disbelief in sincerity or integrity. Having an Ultimate talent based off that belief. It’s surely something.”

David: “That’s not what my talent is, hope’s peak is just a bitch. My talent isn’t even a talent, it’s just me sharing my worldview to the world and everyone hating on me for it, saying I need to see the light of the world, and then Hope’s Peak putting a painful label across my skin and saying they can “fix me”.”

David: “Now the “talent” I have is a throbbing embroidery on my neck showing how I can’t change and be a better person, how I’m always stuck as this lazy fucking person who hates the world and is an awful younger brother.”

J: “... ah.”

Min: “.. oh. I see.”

David: “.. is that all you’re going to say? If you have nothing actually good to say then go. I don’t feel like talking anymore.”

Min: “A- Alright, I guess. Cmon, J, let’s go.”

David: “..!”

David: “E- Excuse me-”

David quickly lifted his head up, oh god he looked awful - his hair was a mess, his face had the worst eye bags I’d ever seen before, he looked so damn tired of everything. But.. he had this weird look of… realization on his face? I raised an eyebrow at him.

J: “Hm?”

David: “..J- I-”

David: “...”

David: “.... nevermind.”

J: “E-Eh? Alright- I guess.”

I was confused. David acted as if we knew each other or something with how his tone was. But I didn’t know him, I’d never met him before. So… unless he mixed me up for someone with the same name and looks as me, he must be.. Ah whatever. It’s too early for me to try and guess what he’s trying to say.

I sighed, looking around the room to try and see who I should talk to ne--

!?!: “Hey, you! Did you kidnap us?!”

J: “E- Eh? I didn’t-”

Min: “We didn’t kidnap anyone.. And I don’t think we’ve been kidnapped..”

!?!: “Well of course we were kidnapped! How else did we get here with no memories of getting here?!”

J: “... you’re not wrong. Who even are you-?”

!?!: “Ugh, I guess I have to introduce myself to you.”

----: “I’m ----!”

Chapter Text

!?!: “Ugh, I guess I have to introduce myself to you.”

Eden: “I’m Eden Tobisa!”

Eden Tobisa: Ultima--

A small, chibi, angry Eden broke through the screen, covering up her ultimate talent with a small growl.

“Hey! I didn’t share my talent! So you don’t get it, either!” She yelled, her expression could be summed up as >:(. She clearly did not want someone knowing her talent. Not yet, anyway.

Eden: “Now, why did you need to know that?! Because really, there isn’t any fucking reason to know my name, let alone my talent!”

J: “Calm down- I just wanna get to know everyone here- nothing more than that, I swear.”

Eden: “Ugh, whatever. I didn’t even want to talk to you.”

Min: “Then why were you shouti--”

Eden: “You don’t get to talk, Miss “ErM, i AcTuAlLy KnOw StUfF”, just because you’re a history teacher doesn’t mean you have to act all smart.”

Min: “I wasn’t even trying to act that way--”

Eden: “Did you not get the idea?”

Eden: “Alright, I’ll say it flat out for your tone deaf dumbass.”

Eden: “Fuck off.”

J: “Wha- But I didn’t even get your talent-”

Eden: “I said fuck off! You’re not getting my talent!”

Min: “...”

Min: “Fine. We’ll go.”

J: “Wha- Min! You can’t just give up that easily!”

Min: “I can and I will. C’mon, J, let’s go. It’s shown we can’t win this battle, so let’s just lift up the white flag and surrender-”

J: “Noooo! I need to win this battle!”

A small chibi version of Min pulls J’s arm, trying to get J away from a chibi Eden. Chibi J is shown with fiery eyes, trying to claw back at chibi Eden while chibi Min keeps pulling with a defeated expression. Chibi Eden looks pissed off per usual.

J: “Ugh! I wanted to know her talent!”

Min: “I’m sure we’ll learn eventually…”

?..?: “E - Excuse me..?”

Min: “Hm? Hello?”

?..?: “A- Ah… I heard y- you two talking to E- Eden… and…”

J: “Hm?”

J: “Oh, hello! I didn’t see you there!”

?..?: “Ah! H- hello…”

Min: “So you were saying something about Eden earlier? Do you know something about her?”

?.?: “O- Oh yeah..!”

?.?: “I- I overheard her say s- she’s the Ultimate Car Mechanic…”

J: “Hm. That’d explain all the oil on her face. And her general outfit did seem like a mechanics outfit…”

J: “Oh! Before I forget, what’s your name?”

?.?: “... I-I’m..”

Veronika: “.. Veronika Grebenshchikova… the U- Ultimate Romance Novel Fanatic..”

Veronika Grebenshchikova: Ultimate Romance Novel Fanatic…!

Veronika: “Pl- Please don't yell a- at me for my tal- talent… I- I’m not that much of a dweeb..”

J: “Why would I yell? Everyone has their own talents they enjoy, I’m not gonna berate you for enjoying what you do.”

Veronika: “Really..? Usually pe- people think I’m weird…”

J: “Well I don’t, and Min doesn’t. Probably.”

Min: “... I don’t think you’re weird. In fact, I think it’s pretty cool having that talent. It’s interesting. Do you write your own romance novels as well?”

Veronika: “O- On the side.. Yeah.. b- but I usually read them…”

Min: “Ah, I see. Any specific favorite romance novels?”

Veronika: “Oh! I’m so glad you asked! My favorite is T*e F*****e F***e by A********a B********r!”

Veronika: “It’s a beautiful romance comedy about a quiet bookseller and a romance novel cover model who agree to a modern-day marriage-of-convenience! It’s a wonderful read and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who into the genre as well as people who enjoy sapphic love stories!”

Veronika: “I wonder if there’s a library here.. Maybe I could find the book and reread it!”

J: “You seem to really like this book…”

Veronika: “It’s amazing!”

Min: “With the way you phrase it, it seems incredible…”

Veronika: “It really is! Maybe if everyone finishes their introductions I can go look around this place and find a library… this seems like a school so surely they’d have a library here, right?”

J: “Yeah I guess they’d have one here.”

Min: “.. I wonder if they have any of those huge history books here. If so I’d love to read up on them.”

J: “Pfft. Of course you would.”

Veronika: “W- Well if we’re done here… I’m gonna go talk to Arturo again.. He’s nice to me and just a generally kind person to be around… bye.”

Veronika sighed and turned around, walking towards Arturo. She seemed.. Tired? Or maybe she just didn’t have much of a social battery. Which honestly seemed fair since always talking to people was tiring, even for me. So maybe Veronika just didn’t like people in general. Though she did seem energetic about talking about that book..

Eh. Whatever. I shrugged at Min and she shrugged back.

Min: “Well we have two more introductions to make to people here.”

J: “Yeah! Cowboy and Slut boy!”

Min: “Yes the cowboy an-”

Min: “...”

J: “...?”

Min: “Sl- what-?”

J: “Slut boy. What else would I say? I mean- look at his outfit!”

I motioned to the boy with the pink hair’s outfit. It was very exposing in nature so obviously what else would I call him? He was wearing fishnet leggings for crying out loud!

Min: “.. sure his outfit is… exposing.. But don’t call him that -”

?..: “You know I can hear you, correct?”

The pink haired boy was suddenly by my side. I hadn’t seen him walk up to me at all, and I wasn’t prepared for him to just speak out, suddenly revealing he had heard everything I had said about him. Like I did when Arei essentially jumpscared me, I threw my arms up and screamed.

J: “KYAAH-”

Min: “Oh dear. This is not the most ideal way to make a first impression…”

J: “...”

J: “I still stand by my past statement-”

?..: “Ah-”

?..: “It’s fine. I dress this way for a reason, it’s like I want to be perceived that way, y’know? Otherwise I wouldn’t dress like this.”

?..: “There's a reason behind everything after all. I dress like this because I can, I have the power to dress how I like now. Instead of being stuck as some pampered little boy.”

J: “Ah, a little rebel you are, I see.”

?..: “Ah! Don't take it that way… I'm not some unruly rebel…”

Whit: “I'm Whit Young, the Ultimate Prankster!”

Whit Young: Ultimate Prankster!

Whit: “... aha… my talent might not help my case, either. I swear I'm not some teen who always breaks the rules.”

J: “I’m J, the Ultimate Stage Actor. And that’s Min Jeung, Ultimate History Teacher!”

Min: “Hello.”

Whit: “It’s a pleasure meeting you, Miss Jeung and J.”

J: “My my you have manners. I didn’t expect that from you of all people, being honest.”

Whut: “Ah-? I have manners if I want to use them. I’m not some rebellious teenager who doesn’t care about respecting others.”

Whit: “.. though I guess that's what that company thought when they sponsored me..”

Min: “Hm?”

Whit: “Ah. I'm thinking out loud. My apologies.”

Min: “No, it’s completely alright. Though care to explain what you were saying a bit more?”

Whit: “Hm, alright. You see. The way my talent works is I run a prank channel on Y*****e. My main sponsor was a company called XF-Ture Tech.”

Whit: “They saw my work and how I was physically and decided to help me out, expanding my brand to other media sites and secure nice brand deals. I am glad they did help, though it only felt like they did it for their own personal gain and not to help me…”

Whit: “Gah, but I sound sore. I am very glad they helped me, if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be standing in front of you. I’d most likely be stuck in my home, curled up in bed or in a bar, drinking my pathetic sorrows away.”

J: “.. you drink?”

Whit: “Mhm. I do. Quite a lot, actually. I legally can, and I have the funds to do so. I usually drink tequila, though if they don’t have that, I’d drink vodka? But I don’t usually enjoy drinking that. The taste isn’t exactly my style, you know?”

Whit: “I enjoy the fruity flavor of tequila, it’s really quite nice.”

J: “.. how old are you-?”

Whit: “Ah me? I’m Twenty-Two years old. Why?”

J: “... you look like you’re at least thirty- an old man look indeed.”

Whit: “Ah-  feel insulted yet flattered..? Thank you…?”

J: “No problem!”

Min: “Ah, wait. I have a question for you.”

Whit: “Hm? What’s up?”

Min: “So XF-Ture Tech sponsored you too?”

Whit: “Ah, they sponsored you as well?”

Min: “Mhm. Since I’m quite young, they allowed me to take some college courses at a younger age so I can become the Ultimate History Teacher. They not only sponsored me and gave me the funds to do so, they gave me a free dorm, a generous sum of money to pay for food and other necessities, and let me take breaks whenever I needed to.”

Min: “The only catch was if I failed, I could become their.. Lab rat..? Or something along those lines. I can’t quite remember fully. That was about three years ago?”

Whit: “And how old are you now, Miss Jeung?”

Min: “I’m Nineteen right now.”

J: “Oh! Same! How fun!”

Whit: “Hm, I would’ve thought you were both older.”

J: “Pfft. We all look older than we are.”

Min: “Whit, did you ever go to college? Just a question I have.”

Whit: “Ah, yes, I did. I have a doctorate in psychology. XF sponsored me up until I was about twenty-one before they decided to pull me out of that and push me to become an Ultimate and go to Hope’s Peak.”

Whit: “Luckily I was able to finish that degree before getting pulled out.”

J: “...”

Min: “.. y- you’re a doctor -?”

Whit: “Do I not look the part?”

Min: “A- Ah.. sorry.. Doctor Young..?”

Whit: “No no please, just call me Whit. Doctor Young makes me sound so much older than I am, and I don’t like sounding old..”

J: “... wait when did you start college-?”

Whit: “Mmm.. 16? It’s legal, don’t worry. I just needed a lot of paperwork filled out.”

J: “... I’m more confused as to when you started perusing your talent then legality-”

Whit: “Ah. The timeline is pretty simple. I started college at 16, and started my channel at about 14? I started getting sponsored at 17 and dropped out (unwillingly) at 21 and then here I am. I got scouted at 21 as well.”

J: “Wow- that’s an…. eventful life….”

Min: “Hm. It is. I assume your parents would be proud of you, seeing as how you accomplished so much in such a short amount of time.”

Whit: “... well.. aha…”

Whit: “My father is… absent? Presumed dead- but absent in my life. And my mother.. committed… suicide… when I was about 11..? 12? The exact age I was is a bit muddy in my memory, sorry.”

Whit: “Though I do remember being locked in the room with her corpse for hours on end and I couldn’t even leave. The only reason we were found was because the.. I forget who it was exactly, but they came to the house for bills n’ stuff and found me and my mother.”

Whit: “...”

Whit: “Ah- wait sorry I overshared-”

Min: “.  .  .”

J: “Oh god damn -”

What was I supposed to say- to do in response to all that? The man just shared probably the biggest baggage of his life to me and Min and we just met him a few minutes ago. What would I say ‘Oh, I’m so sorry for your losses’-? I don’t know I’m not good with this stuff-

J: “... I’m sorry that happened to you.”

Whit: “Ah, don’t be sorry. It’s fine. I never liked my mother anyway and my father wasn’t important to me. I’m just fine, really.”

J: “Oh! Uh.. good… for you..?”

Min: “... I feel as though this conversation has.. Died.”

Whit: “Ah- shit - sorry.”

Whit: “...”

Whit: “Ah- excuse my language. I didn’t mean to.”

Min: “It’s quite alright. Maybe it’d be beneficial to go our separate ways and then talk later?”

Whit: “I’m alright with that.”

Ace: “WHIT! WHIT! WHIT!”

Whit: “KYAAH-”

Whit fell onto the ground and blinked a few times before looking up at Ace with a face that spoke pure bewilderment. Ace, the culprit for the pranksters tumble onto the ground was laughing before it morphed into concern. He extended his hands out to Whit to help him off the floor and apologized profusely.

Ace: “SORRY WHIT- I DIDN’T MEAN TO STARTLE YOU- I THOUGHT IT WAS FINE- BUT SORRY- I WAS JUST WONDERING IF-”

Whit: “Woah calm down. It’s alright, I’m not angry or upset. Take a few deep breaths and then tell me what you needed to.”

Ace: Deep breaths.

“.. I wanted to ask if you want to investigate the rest of the building with me!” A small chibi Ace asked, his ear tufts like happy dog ears. He had an excited grin across his face as he jumped up and down.

“Ah- uh. .. I’d rather.. search…. alone..? Sorry, Ace.” Whit mumbled, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. Ace’s excited expression died down to a small frown.

“Oh. .. that’s alright.” He mumbled softly, his dog ear tufts flopping to the side as he walked away with a small :< expression. 

Whit: “... ah. That went. Horribly. I didn't mean to make Ace upset, I just- didn't feel like exploring with someone. If that makes sense.”

Min: "That's completely fair. Both reactions are justified, so no one is in the wrong, per say."

J: "Mhm!"

J: “Aaannndd.. look on the bright side!--”

Whit: “.. wouldn’t I go blind if I did-?”

Min: “I doubt you will. The bright side implies it’s not overly bright at all. But you can still look at it. After all, why would people advise you to look at it?”

Whit: “Maybe the bright side is just a trap to trick people into thinking they’ll be alright but really they’re suffering by looking at it…”

Min: “Ah, what an interesting mindset! I never thought about it that way. Maybe the bright side was just a fake thing people made up for children to believe?”

Whit: “With how society is nowadays, I can believe that.”

J: “.... why can’t people just be optimistic anymore…”

Whit: “Optimism is an optical illusion.”

Min: “Optimism is real. But it’s also fake.”

Whit: “Mhm! Anyway maybe I should go and talk to someone else. Or apologize to Ace..”

Whit: “Bye!”

J: “Bye Bye!”

Min: “Farewell, Whit.”

I waved Whit goodbye as he walked towards Ace to most likely apologize. I looked back at Min with a small shrug and smile. Well now we only have one more introduction to make. To the cowboy! I looked around the room to try and find them again and I did! 

J: “HEY! YOU!”

!X!: “Eh? Oh! HEY!”

J: “WHAT’S YOUR NAME?!”

Nico: “NICO HAKOBYAN, THE ULTIMATE BULL RIDER!”

Ni-

Nico: “WHAT’S YOUR NAME?”

J: “J! I’M THE ULTIMATE STAGE ACTOR!”

Nico: “THAT’S COOL!”

J: “WAIT I RECOGNIZE YOU, AREN’T YOU THAT NON-BINARY BULL RIDER ON F*X N**W ALL THE TIME?”

Nico: “YEAH THAT’S ME!”

J: “THAT’S COOL!!! I LOVE WATCHING YOU ON TV. YOU’RE AWESOME!!”

Nico: ‘THANKS! YOU’RE AWESOME AS WELL!”

Min: “.. why are we yelling..?”

J: “Oh- yeah! Nico, come over here, let’s talk a bit more!”

Nico: “Alright!”

Nico walked over to me and Min and I was able to inspect their outfit a bit more. Huh. They had a nose piercing, a dark red cap, jet black gloves and- huh. A lot of people here wear gloves. A small little fact I didn’t think of but.. Wait everyone here had gloves-

Except Charles, I guess.

Nico: “Hi!”

J: “Hi!”

Min: “Hello, Nico.”

Nico: “Hello!”

Nico: “Huh. Hey, you’re J, the stage actor, I’ve seen you on TV a few times.”

J: “Really? Ah, I’m flattered! I didn’t think anyone would recognize me!”

Nico: “You’re pretty recognizable, to be honest.”

Nico: “But yeah! I’ve watched a bunch of your plays on TV before! They’re super cool! My favorite one was when you were in the play of M*****h, personally. I just really like the tragedy!”

J: “No way! That was one of my favorite ones to do!”

Nico: “I could tell! You did amazing! And you seemed so.. Into it. Do you enjoy tragic plays? Or was M*****h just an outlier?”

J: “No no I love tragedies! They’re my favorite type of plays!”

Min: “... hm. I do enjoy myself a goo-”

Nico: “YEAH! They’re amazing! All of the blood shed, all of the heartbreak!”

Min: “A-”

J: “YES ESPECIALLY THE HEARTBREAK! It’s amazing! Why can’t all stories be like those, am I right?”

Min: “If I ma-”

Nico: “You’re so right, 100%! We really should talk more about these things together, I feel like if we were locked in a room together we’d ramble about this stuff fo-”

J: “For hours?”

Nico: “You get me!”

J: “I guess I do! Haha!”

I slung my arm over Nico’s shoulder and continued to talk about all the tragic plays I’d done in the past. It was really fun to find someone with the same taste of plays as me. It was really nice! I wished I could find more people like them, then my life would be so much more fun!

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Min sigh and walk away. Huh. Eh, whatever. It was fine, she could go wherever she wanted to. It’s not like she has to stick with me. Plus, I was pretty distracted with talking Nico to call out to her. It’s not like she’d listen anyway.. Aannd she was out of my sight now. Didn’t ma-

???: “Ah. It seems everyone has introduced themselves to everyone else. The 27th killing game show on the East Coast can now commence.”

A loud voice boomed out. Everyone faced the front of the room with looks of confusion and bewilderment.

Charles: “K- What-?”

Alexander: “Gh-”

Levi: “W- What?! What do you mean killing game?! Who even are you-?”

MonoToaster: “I am MonoToaster. The host of this killing game.”

MonoToaster: Ultimate Killing Game Show Host.

MonoToaster: “Now I know you might all be confused. Scared. Panicked. But that is alright. It would only be normal for you to feel in such a manner as that. But rest assured, I will explain this situation to you.”

J: “W- What-?”

Ace: “But- But I came here for Hope’s Peak! I- I came here to-”

MonoToaster: “But this is Hope’s Peak, Markey.”

Hu: “Ugh, yeah sure , unless the school is pulling a prank on us, I don’t believe you.”

Eden: “Tch. Some stupid prank this is.”

Whit: “Not only stupid. This is illegal as well. Unless we all consented to this and somehow all forgot about doing so. Memory wiping is illegal, kidnapping is illegal, and unless you’re broadcasting this on live TV, you’re losing a lot of money doing all this.”

MonoToaster: “Ah. Funny you mention broadcasting, because this is indeed being broadcasted.”

I stood there in silence. Broadcasted? Killing Game Show? Hope’s Peak? What..

What WAS this?

Chapter Text

I didn’t understand what was going on. A killing game? But- those weren’t real, right? No way some company would actually broadcast this, right? It must be illegal, or maybe Hope’s Peak is playing some stupid, cruel joke on us? T- That has to be it, right?!

I gripped my tie with one of my hands, removing my other hand from around Nico’s shoulder and sliding it through my hair. I- I didn’t want to believe this was a killing game, or even the fact we were trapped here, probably. Th- This must be some dumb prank, right- it has to be!

J: “I- I-”

Hu: “What is this, some dumb game?! Who’s even talking?!”

MonoToaster: “I have already introduced myself. I am MonoToaster, the host of this killing game.”

Hu: “No, I mean, who ARE you?!”

Eden: “And where the fuck are you? I can’t even see you- are you just some voice hanging around??”

MonoToaster: “Ah, apologies. I have not shown myself. Please look towards the front of the room at the podium.”

Just like that everyone looked towards the front of the room towards the podium. A small toaster with a hoverbase floated up from inside the ground and hovered over the podium. A toaster-??? Well that was.. Something! A floating toaster was not in my life bingo but here we are! Everyone else looked at MonoToaster with either confusion, fear, anger, or just plain emotionless expressions.

Ace: “I- I- Why can’t we go home?! I wanna go home to mom and dad an- and my siblings!”

Levi: “Yeah! You can’t just keep us here!”

Teruko: “Ah. Oh dear. I didn’t expect this turn of events. How saddening. I do hope for people’s sakes we get to leave soon.”

Charles: “Let us go! I want to leave, what if I want to leave, huh?! You can’t keep us here!”

MonoToaster: “I can, indeed, keep you all here. I see no reason as to why I should let you all go. Though, there are ways for you all to le-”

Eden: “WELL THEN FUCKIN’ TELL US! HOW DO WE LEAVE?!”

MonoToaster: “.. if you will calm down for two seconds, I can explain how you all may escape this killing game.”

Ro: “... I have a bad feeling about this.. Honestly.”

Arturo: “As do I. My expectations for how this will turn out are quite low.”

MonoToaster: “Hm.”

MonoToaster: “The way you can escape this killing game is simple, kill one of your classmates and get away with it.”

J: “.  .  .”

Arei: “W- What-?”

Arei: “We have to- to kill someone?!”

Alexander: “... ah. Oh.. dear.”

MonoToaster: “Yes. The act of murder.”

MonoToaster: “Though you are not limited to one singular murder, you can commit up to three murders. Once you commit three, if you commit a fourth, you will automatically be executed.”

Nico: “What sicko would kill more than one person, actually-”

MonoToaster: “YOU MAY.. commit a murder with anything available to you, and you may lie about committing murder to survive the class trial.”

MonoToaster: “Speaking upon this fact, after every murder, you will be given 15 minutes to investigate the body, and then will proceed with the trial. If you are correct and deduce the murder correctly, only the killer, known as the blackened, will be executed.” 

Ace: “Exe.. cution..?”

Ace: “We- We’ll die?!”

Ace: “But I don’t- I don’t wanna die! I wanna live! I wanna go back home to my siblings, to my family!”

Levi: “Yeah! M- Me neither! I want to live-!”

MonoToaster: “...”

MonoToaster: “I am losing my patience with these students every second that passes.”

Teruko: “Hm?”

MonoToaster: “Nothing of the matter.”

MonoToaster: “As I was saying, if you are correct with your deduction of the culprit, only they die. But, if you are incorrect with your deduction of the blackened, everyone but the blackened will be executed, and the blackened will be allowed to leave the school building, thus winning the killing game.”

MonoToaster: “Additional rules apply, such as you may not commit murder during the trial, as even though this may be more entertaining, it would be a waste of a death and in the end, useless.”

MonoToaster: “You may, however, murder during the investigation. As that would make the ordeal much more interesting for the viewers. Though be careful and do not murder in front of others. That would be an easy trial.”

MonoToaster: “More rules can be found on your MonoTablets in your pockets. They also have maps of the floors of this school, student profiles, and the rules list for this killing game. I advise not to break them, as you do not get them anymore. But I will not punish you for doing so.”

Once it said that, a small weight became apparent in my pocket. I didn’t notice it before, but I pulled out a small tablet from my pocket. It did indeed have all the stuff MonoToaster said it had. Rules.. A map of this floor.. And my student profile. I tapped the tab to open my student profile and it popped up for me.

J ???: Ultimate Stage Actor

Status: Living

Gender: [REDACTED]

Age: 19

Height: 5’4

Weight: 134 lbs

… wow even my student profile didn’t know my name. How fun. Also- why didn’t it have my gender down??? That was- weird. But then again maybe other people had other parts of their bio’s missing. From what I saw on Nico's, their height was missing. So maybe this was just- a thing now.

Teruko: “What if no one kills?”

MonoToaster: “Then you’ll just be stuck here for the rest of your life. It is as simple as that. Do you understand?”

Teruko: “I see. Though I do wonder if we will get nudges to murder, as some people would not mind living here, as they don’t have anything to go back to. Some people may even enjoy the prospect of having a “stable” place to live.”

J: “Wh- Teruko! Don’t encourage it!”

Teruko: “... but this is interesting. I would like to learn more about this whole.. “Killing Game” that we will be stuck in for the foreseeable future.”

MonoToaster: “Ah, but didn’t curiosity kill the cat, Tawaki? Don’t you know asking questions such as this could get you in trouble, or worse, killed?”

Teruko: “But you forget that satisfaction brought it back, MonoToaster. Now didn’t it?”

MonoToaster: “Ah! How incredible! The tongue with this one is sharp. I will enjoy seeing how you react during the entirety of the killing game.”

MonoToaster: “And as for your wondrous question, yes, I will be giving friendly motivation for you all to commit murder. It would be quite boring of me to not give you motives, now wouldn’t it?”

Teruko: “Ah… if I say anything.. I think the others here will…..”

MonoToaster: “I see. Do not fear. We may speak in private later.”

J: “.  .  .”

J: ‘D- Did Teruko just- calmly talk with the host of this killing game like it was any other conversation???? What the fuck???? I gues she has nothing to fear with her luck but still that was- super weird-'

Alexander: “MonoToaster! I beg and plead for your attention, please?”

Charles: “.. the hell-?”

Alexander: “What? Is that not what you say to ask for someone's attention?”

Charles: “No??? You say “your attention, please” but what’s the begging for- that’s- “I beg your pardon?”-? Why would you- say that-”

Alexander: “Ah-! W- Well I’ve always been under the assumption that you say “I beg and plead for your attention”, because that is what I’ve always had to say!”

Charles: “What kind of childhood made you think that’s what you say???”

Alexander: “Well-”

Alexander: “...”

Alexander: “Unimportant! MonoToaster, will these motives kill us? Because if so, that'd contradict the whole point of it!”

MonoToaster: “Would it? The fear of death pushes people quite well, in my opinion. You do irrational things if you’re on the verge of death, no?”

MonoToaster: “I cannot tell you if they do or do not, however. That would ruin the suspense of getting a motive after every death. For now you must wait patiently until you can get them.”

Ace: “... b- but what if we don’t participate..?”

MonoToaster: “Hm?”

Min: “What if we all don’t participate? You say we’ll be stuck here our whole lives, and the motives push us to kill, but what if we ignore all of that? What if, against all odds, we don’t kill and we just live here?”

MonoToaster: “You will be surprised. Some people’s moral compasses are shattered, they wouldn’t mind killing others.”

MonoToaster: “In fact…”

MonoToaster: “Some of you are already murderers. And you know that.”

Ace: “Wh- What?!”

Levi: “A- Ah- There are killers among us?! Why wou- would anyone here kill?!”

MonoToaster: “Hm. You might want to ask them if you ever have the chance, Fontana. They are easily spotted, after all.”

Eden: “Why the hell do you want us to murder anyway?! There’s no good reason as to why any normal person would want murder to happen, huh?!”

Arei: “I’m with Eden! None of us want to kill each other!’

Veronika: “M- mhm..”

Veronika: “I don’t think… anyone here would kill anyone else…”

Veronika: “N- No matter what motives you give!”

MonoToaster: “Are you certain? You would be surprised what people would do in the face of death, or fear, pressure, all those wonderful things.”

MonoToaster: “Hopefully, you all will comply with all the rules and enjoy your stay here, and maybe even spill some blood, hm?”

Ace: “I- I refuse!”

Ace: “I don’t care if I’ll die! I refuse to kill anyone, and I refuse to let anyone die! I’ll do everything in my power to prevent someone from dying! I promise that!’

Hu: “... huh.”

Hu: “Well I’m not committing a fucking murder! Anyone who does is a coward! A mother fucking COWARD!”

Min: “... not only a coward. Committing murder would make you a horrible person who can never ever be forgiven. Unless you do it in self-defense, then that is a different scenario, as you did it to protect yourself.”

Nico: “But without that specific case, murder is murder! And murder is shitty! So if you kill someone here, you’re a shitty person!”

Levi: “Yeah! I agree!”

MonoToaster: “My my my… strong willed people we have here. What are your opinions on them, Tawaki?”

Teruko: “...”

Teruko: “Asking me this will make me suspicious, MonoToaster.”

Teruko: “But.. watching this is quite interesting. I doubt anyone will kill today, tomorrow, or for a few days, for that matter.”

Teruko: “But eventually, they’ll crack. Snap. Shatter. And someone will kill someone else. That is inevitable.”

MonoToaster: “Hm Interesting.”

MonoToaster: “I will truly enjoy seeing you in this killing game and how you react to everything that happens. You, Tawaki, are an odd one. You show no fear, no worry, no, you seem more interested in everything I have explained.”

Teruko: “I don’t know whether to feel flattered or fearful…”

Watching this was the oddest yet most horrifying thing I’ve seen in my life. On one hand, why was a robot toaster talking to a girl who was basically a goddess? Why were they talking like it was just another average day for them? On the other hand.. This was a killing game, apparently.

A killing game where people would die and-

.. wait this was just like that one acting thing I did a while ago- wasn’t it? A killing game with sixteen students and-

Charles: “You- You.. you….”

Charles: “...”

Charles: Falls to the ground.

…

Charles just- started sobbing. He was sobbing loudly. He was on the ground covering his face and sobbing like there was no tomorrow. I- understood why he was upset, why he was crying. After hearing you were going to die here, after knowing there isn’t a shred of hope for escaping- crying seemed like a fair response.

And Alexander was just… standing over him. His face darkening with his hands behind his back. His eyes a dark, stormy, grey color. It was weird.. So weird.. And also I’d be terrified Alexander was like 6’10 he’s tall as fuck-

Alexander: “Look at me.”

Charles: “ Sniffle Sniffle … *hic* ...” Looks up at Alexander.

Alexander: “Stop crying.”

Charles: “W- Wh- sniffle sniffle What-?"

Alexander: “I said stop crying.”

Alexander: “If you keep crying, you are going to put a target on your back. You’re showing weakness , and in this… killing.. game… showing weakness is going to get you killed . Do you understand?”

Charles: “Hu- Huh-?”

Charles: “Wha- What do y- sniffle - mean-?”

Alexander: “I SAID STOP CRYING. DO YOU REALIZE HOW PATHETIC THAT MAKES A PERSON, TO CRY IN FRONT OF A CROWD-?!”

Charles: “...”

Alexander: “TO SOB IN THE FACE OF OTHERS, JUST SHOWING EVERYONE YOU’RE WEAK, YOU’RE VULNERABLE, UNGUARDED IN YOUR LIFE AND JUST LET EVERYONE ELSE SEE THAT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!”

Arturo: “Alexander please calm dow-”

Alexander: “CALM DOWN MY ASS. SHUT THE FUCK UP, GILES!”

Arturo: “Gh-”

Alexander angrily looked back at Charles, his eyes a fiery gold color while Charles covered his face with his hands.

Alexander: “DO YOU REALIZE HOW PATHETIC YOU ARE IF YOU CRY IN FRONT OF OTHERS?!”

0     -     -     -     -     -     0

Alexander grabbed Charles’ tie violently and pulled at it, rage building up in his eyes as the other struggled to get out of the monarchs grasp, sputtered breaths coming out in a panic, but this really didn’t help much as Alexander just became angrier, pulling the tie tighter around the others neck as his free hand balled up into a fist.

“YOU’RE A MAN! SO MAN UP! YOU DON’T GET TO CRY IN FRONT OF OTHERS, DO YOU REALIZE IN THE END THAT’LL ONLY GET YOU KILLED?!” He yelled, yet in a moment of hypocrisy, tears slowly started pricking at the edges of his eyes. He lifted his other fist up ready to punch Charles an-

“LET HIM GO!”

0     -     -     -     -     -     0

Alexander: “.. huh?”

Ro: “I SAID let him go!”

Alexander: “.. tch.”

Alexander basically threw Charles onto the ground with all his force. Charles made a small “oof” before slowly and shakily standing up. Coughing violently with a hand at his neck while tears flowed down his face more violently than before.

Alexander: “ Huff Huff. Haa… aah.. Haah…”

Ro: “... now back away from hi-”

Alexander: “SHUT THE FUCK UP. SHUT IT- SHUT THE FUCK UP-”

Ro: “Alexander calm down- I know you’re angry and on edge about this situation- we all are, but please just calm down..”

Alexander: Visibly shaking   “...hah.. ah… haaah..”

Ro: “There… you’re not yelling anymore… doesn’t it feel better calming down..?”

Alexander: “...”

Alexander: Huff Huff “... I’m.. only.. trying.. To… HELP HIM--!”

It all happened in a flash.

Ro was standing a few feet away from me, and Alexander a little farther away from her. He was angry, no angry isn’t good enough of a word, fuming maybe. He was shaking, fists balled up at his sides, eyes a furious gold color with his jaw clenched.

And Ro was trying her best to calm him down, she was doing her best .

Then it just. Happened. Alexander took off his crown which must weigh at least three pounds, while in a fit of anger, and just threw it at Ro. Directly in her face, and then ran. He just- ran out of the room while Ro recoiled from the object thrown at her face. Her face bleeding a bit. The crown his the floor, it’s black and dark red colors being stained with a bright crimson red.

Ro: “Gh- Gh.. ow… o- ow…”

Ro: “I- I’m alright! Just- ow- a crown thrown at my face was not on my life bingo- owwww…”

Veronika: “O- Oh god… H- He’s really mad.. A- ah-”

Arturo: “... someone please go after him. He’s angry, yes, but he’s also a danger to himself. I’m worried if he gets mad enough at himself he’ll…”

Min: “Ah.. I see. I’ll go after him and make sure he doesn’t cause anymore harm to himself. And I’ll be careful.”

J: “Good luck, Min!”

Min: “...”

Min: “Thank you, J.”

Min walked out of the room quite quickly while the rest of us tried to grasp what was going on. Ace and Levi were helping Charles get to his feet while he was still pretty shaky while Veronika tended to Ro’s injuries the best she could.

It’d only been an hour since we got here- how had things dissolved so badly?

Levi: “....”

Levi: “You…”

Levi: Angrily looks at MonoToaster “You caused this!”

Levi: “You caused everyone to get stressed-! We were just fine before you came here! And now look at everyone!”

MonoToaster: “Is that my fault? How am I supposed to know that you would interact when the killing game would be announced? Teruko is acting calm, is she not?”

Levi: “That doesn’t excuse the fact that you caused one person to be thrown to the ground and one person to get a crown thrown at them!”

MonoToaster: “Is it truly my fault that all of the stuff you listed happened? Because after all, it is your fault for all acting that way. If you all can stay calm and composed, nothing would happen.”

MonoToaster: “If only you all were like Miss Tawaki. Then you would not be complaining, nor would you be upset, nor would you be hurt. Just calm and intrigued by what is currently happening.”

Levi: “You- Y…”

Levi: “...”

It. Happened.  . . .  Again.

Levi grabbed MonoToaster by the bottom of it’s hoverbase and violently pushed it down onto the floor with angry tears in his eyes. MonoToaster’s screen glitched a bit in and out before having this scary black face. 

“Violence against the headmaster is against the rules, Fontana, Levi. It is time for your punishmen-”

“LEVI LOOK OUT-!” A voice shouted. Scared. Afraid.

“HUH?!”

Levi threw MonoToaster to the ground as spikes shot up from under the ground and just narrowly avoided his head, but it did cut his head pretty significantly.

Levi: “...!”

Levi: “O- Ow! I- It hurts-”

Levi: “It hurts it hurts IT HURTS-!”

Teruko: “Calm down Levi, please- panicking won’t help-”

Ro: “I- It’s a deep cut, bleeding heavily, it’ll definitely get infected if we don’t stich it up quickly.”

Ro: “We need someone who knows how to treat this- and quickly. If we don’t, it could get much much worse.”

J: “Does anyone here have medical knowledge at all?! If so, we’d greatly appreciate your help!”

J: “Anyone?!”

Eden: “... I have a small amount of medical knowledge- enough to be able to treat some of these injuries.”

Eden: “I guess..”

Charles: “Mm- I- I also have kn- knowledge..”

Veronika: “.. Charles. You’re shaken up. Y- You can barely breathe properly… let alone help someone el-”

Charles: “BUT I HAV-”

Charles: Cough Cough “D- Damn it!”

Charles: “.. I just wan- want to help…”

Veronika: “I know you do.. but you need to calm down and please just- not exert yourself. You’re still… stunned… from what Alexander did to you.”

Veronika: “He almost killed you , Charles. Please just- keep that in mind.”

Charles: “... ok.”

Arturo: “Oh lord forgive us, forgive me for my sins, oh lord protect your children oh lo-”

Hu: “Arturo! Stop with that “Oh LoRd” crap! We need to help Levi and Ro, and your stupid beliefs won’t help them, you know? So actually do something helpful!”

Arturo: “Hu, that is quite rude. God gave us life, so we must repent for our sins and hope our brothers and sisters will be saved by Him.”

Hu: “Ok well you can fuckin’ pray AFTER Ro and Levi are helped??? Can you wait like- three fuckin’ seconds??”

Arturo: “.. no. I must pray now. That is what I must d-”

Hu: “For FUCKS sake! Just do it in a few minutes, JESUS CHRIST.”

Arturo: “... You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.”

Hu: “What-?”

Arturo: “I said “you shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” That is one of the 10 commandments. We must follow them.”

Hu: “You do. I don’t. So shut the FU-”

Ro: “Aha… I think we really should focus on Levi and… my injury.”

Levi: Sobbing. “It hurts so much…”

Teruko: “Hold still I’m trying to wrap my jacket around your head but I can’t exactly do it if you keep moving around.”

Levi: Sniffle Sniffle “O- Ok..”

Eden: Sigh “Alright, fine. Come on, everyone. Let’s go. I’ll patch Levi up.”

Veronika: “W- What about Ro..?”

Eden: “It’ll only make her weaker if she gets treated for such a miniscule injury, it’ll help her out later if she just heals naturally. Levi has a gaping wound so I really should treat that. Otherwise it’d get infected.”

Eden: “Do you understand my line of logic?”

Veronika: “... n- no..?”

Eden: Scoffs “Whatever. Just know I’m not helping Ro. That’s final. End of fucking discussion.”

Ro: “I- sigh fine.”

Arturo: “... I may not know a lot, but I know a decent amount about how to deal with medical issues. Would you like me to patch you up?”

Ro: “I'd greatly appreciate that. Thank you, Arturo!”

Arturo: “Ah, it's no problem. Truly. Don't mention it.”

J: “Oh! I remember seeing an infirmary here! It's a couple doors down, we should get down there. C’mon. Let's go!”

I waved my arm and started walking out of the room I was in quickly and watched everyone else follow me to the infirmary. We needed to get there quickly before Levi and Ro's injuries got worse.

.. though I took pride in knowing I was the only one who knew the way to the infirmary.

-   -   -   -   -

Teruko: “... hm.”

MonoToaster: “Miss Tawaki. I'd suggest you follow the others.”

Teruko: “You wanted to speak with me, no?”

MonoToaster: “Listen. The rules state nighttime is between 10pm and 8am. We will meet in this place at 10pm sharp. I will set an alarm on your MonoTablet.”

Teruko: “Ah, but wouldn't this room be locked?

MonoToaster: “I will open it for you. Now go, Tawaki. I will speak with you later.”

Teruko: “Alright. Goodbye, MonoToaster.”

MonoToaster: “Farewell, Tawaki.”

Teruko: Leaves the room.

…

.

[Open File TOWSA.exe?]

[Yes]  [No]

[Yes]  [No]

.

…

MonoToaster: “Young. You've been silent this whole time. Along with Chiem. Is something the matter..?”

MonoToaster: “Young?”

Whit: “Shh… David's asleep. I helped him stand up and then he fell asleep in my arms.”

MonoToaster: “Ah. I see. You've stayed quiet so as to not wake him up? How considerate of you.”

Whit: “Aha.. it's nothing much. It's the gentleman's job, is it not?”

Whit: “Though it makes me wonder, David doesn't seem to get a lot of sleep. Does he get prescribed medication for that?”

MonoToaster: “I cannot answer that. All I know is that everyone has medication they've been prescribed.”

Whit: “No extra?”

MonoToaster: “No extra. Only other medication can be found in the infirmary. Where everyone else is currently.”

Whit: “Ah. I see.”

Whit: “Well, I should go. I need to take David to his room then go to the infirmary with everyone else. Goodbye, MonoToaster.”

Whit: Kneels down to grab Alexander’ crown and then walks to David's room with David and the crown both in hand.

...

...

Calm in the midst of the storm : Complete

Chapter Text

Submitted by TheRiceMan 

1. What artists got Hu into rock music, and which performer would be her biggest influence?

The Beatles!! She heard one of their songs over the radio and that’s where her story started, and she didn’t have many influences, she carved her own path in her career. 

2. 2. What was Hu's social life before Hope's Peak? Any friends or close bandmates to speak of, or was she similarly solitary and abrasive?

She had a few best friends in middle school but they all went to a different school after that. In high school she became abrasive n’ stuff. And then here we are!

3. I remember her description in the Prologue saying she had green hair and purple glasses, I was wondering if we could get a more detailed physical description for her. Hairstyle, preferred clothing, and any other notable features or accessories?

There’s actually a cast page full of designs!! They’d have everything you’re looking for designs wise + some other facts about Hu and secret quotes! And a Mai page full of Mai secret quotes :>

-

Submitted by thedrdtpokemoncollector 

1. Do the characters all have canon sexualities in this universe? :>

Yep! Most of them are bi (with or without preferences) and pan but two have specific sexualities!

2. Can I have some fun facts about best girl Ro?

She LOVES fluffy clothing. Anything cozy she adores.

Hates touch that she doesn’t initiate or if it’s from someone she doesn’t know well.

Asexual queen, we stan!

Her favorite color is sky blue and her least favorite is neon yellow.

HATES anything that has to do with traditional art. She does all her designs digitally.

3. What's Alex's favourite Miku song?

Mind Brand!

-

Submitted by vynines

What was the inspiration or reasoning behind everyone's new talents? :o

Most of the talents were self indulgent (Alex being a Monarch, Hu being a Rock Guitarist, Ace being a ‘Dog Trainer’), but some were more just direct opposites of their normal talents or personalities (Arturo being a Priest, Veronika being a Romance Novel Fanatic) and then Teruko’s talent barely changed.

Submitted by Blu3yStar740195

1. Are the characters in the cast's past the same? Like, does Ace still have Taylor and does Arturo still have Felicity? If so are they alive in this au?

They do exist! And I cannot answer the second question as that’d be spoilers, sorry :<

2. Can u list some fun facts abt Ace?

He’s very close to his family and loves them to DEATH.

Listens to vocaloid (his favorite is Teto).

He cannot swim at all. He despises it. 

Unlike canon, he’s more afraid of others dying rather than himself.

He’s the 3rd oldest child in his family!

3. How did you come up with the casts new talents?

I’ve answered this before!! But most were swaps of their personalities/original talents :3

-

Submitted by XanderMatthewsismymalewife 

For the entire cast: Who would you say (based on everyone you've interacted with so far) is your favorite person currently?

Ace - Whit

Alexander - "No one! I hate everyone here, especially Charles!" (Teruko)

Arei - Min

Arturo - J

Charles - Alexander 

David - “.. dunno. J or Whit, I guess. Whit was nice to me.. n’ stuff.”

Eden - Hu

Hu - Eden

J - Min

Levi - Ace

Min - Arei

Nico - J

Ro - J

Teruko - Alexander 

Veronika - Arturo

Whit - Min

For Xander specifically: Xander! why would you have to plead for someones attention? please spill your backstory king! (literally, King)

To even get acknowledged in his household, he'd have to beg and plead for it. Like drop to his knees and sob for attention. (He needed to ask his parents questions like "can I play with the other kids, what are we eating tonight, why don't you care about me"). And even then his sisters would get the attention and not him. 

For the author of DRIH: I'd like to ask what inspired this? (I'm curious)

Ok so funny story. A while back I was listening to a song called Obey by CrusherP and I so desperately wanted to assign it to Xander but it was like. The exact opposite of him. So a friend of mine was like “Make a swap AU for it!” and then that’s how DRIH was born. Because of Alexander. And a song. Yippee!

Submitted by isleepamongthestars 

1: Are the characters main motivations the same or no?

Nope! They’re swapped, just like them!

2: Who would get along best?

Ok depends on the context. In this specific killing game? Arei and Min. In a non-killing-game universe, it’d probably be J and Ro or Ace and Levi.

3. Any random fun facts??

Alexander was the first character I came up with personality and talent wise and is my personal favorite to write!

On the other hand, Vero is probably my least favorite to write. 

A lot of the scenes (Min getting ignored, Charles + Ro getting hurt, Whit’s introduction [He was just gonna say his name and then leave]) weren’t planned! But I added them in :3

Arturo is of light Turkish decent and Eden is of light Ethiopian decent!

DRIH was ALMOST called Danganronpa: Flipped Hours but I decided drih sounded better than drfh.

Alexander and Ro are claustrophobic!

Maybe self indulgent but Eden, despite being a car mechanic, is terrified of getting run over by a car. 

Whit and David are the only heavy drinkers in the cast. (Hope’s Peak allowed David to purchase Alcohol at a much younger age then most people. He started drinking when he was about 16?) Everyone else either drinks once in a while or doesn’t drink at all.

Charles is the only one with a blind eye in the cast (lost sight in it during an accident) while Arei’s eyepatch is because she lost that eye. (She took it out herself because she got injured). Eden has a partially blind eye. And Teruko has heterochromia!

Submitted by fishy_poof_crackers

1. can we get cast sexuality?

As I’ve said before, most of the cast is bi or pan but:

[Canon sexualities are the same]

Arei is a lesbian

Arturo, Ro, and Levi are pan

Alexander is “Straight, obviously! What else would I be?!” (bi w/ a male lean)

Hu and Min are bi w/ a female lean

Nico and J are bi w/ no lean

And Charles is gay!

ALSO DECIDED TO ADD PRONOUNS BECAUSE YAY: 

She/Her: Hu(tfem), Eden(tfem)

She/He: Whit(bigender), David(bigender)

She/They: Min(demigirl)

She/Any: Ro(genderfluid), Teruko(genderfluid), Veronika (agender)

She/It: Arei(girlflux)

They/Them: Nico(nb)

He/They: Alexander(demiboy), Charles(tmasc), J(tmasc)

He/Any: Levi(genderfluid)

He/Him: Ace(tmasc), Arturo(cis)

-are we allowed to write 18+ for this au? i don’t have anything planned, but i use nsfw writing to cope... 😅

As someone who’s planning to write Love Hotel’s for this fic, I say go for it! But just please no Ro love hotels or anything related to Ro in sexual situations :3

-ik i’m cheating the rules a little bit, but i would like some background info on alex and david. specifically stuff that has little to nothing to do with plot, but something that defines their character a bit. david is purely self-indulgent, but alex is because i really like how you’re writing his character. best written so far imo. also for uh fanfiction usage. information for a character study. (if you do limit me to just alex or david, i choose alex because my reasonings behind wanting to know him better are more beneficial creation wise)

I’ll go for just Alex! He’s definitely a person who’d make themselves as dangerous and serious as possible but is actually very effected by situations. For example he may say he’d want a killing to happen but deep down is terrified of dying. Sorta all bark-no bite but they do bite- (looks at Charles and Ro). Maybe a better term is someone who makes themselves bigger then they actually are. Someone who views vero lowly of themselves but convinces others they view themselves higher than everyone else. 

Submitted by meow_meow_meow_meow__meow_meow_meow_meow

What are the Nationalities for the whole cast?

Note: Characters with a * next to them are from that country and moved to the USA, and characters with a ** have lived in that country at some point in their life but were born in the USA.

Ace - Irish*

Alexander - English* 

Arei - Half Japanese**/Half American

Arturo - Half Italian**/Half Turkish

Charles - Colombian

David - Half Vietnamese/Half Latino

Eden - Half Japanese**/Half Ethiopian

Hu - Chinese*

J - Latino

Levi - Half Italian**/One Fourth Spanish/One Fourth Catalan

Min - Korean

Nico - Armenian 

Ro - Half French/Half African American

Teruko - Legally in question (Half Japanese**/Half African American)

Veronika - Russian**

Whit - Half Chinese/Half American

What's a fun fact for each character ?

Ace has Thalassophobia!

Alexander bites on his fingers and picks at them when he’s stressed or bored. But since he wears gloves he ends up biting the fabric.

Arei’s favorite sport is actually American football. But she couldn’t pursue that so she pursued baseball.

Arturo was homeschooled!

Charles is colorblind! (He has Tritanomaly but isn’t diagnosed :3)

David used to own a cat. But he doesn’t know where it is now.

Eden owns a legal firearm!!! (Also she wears contacts instead of glasses.)

Hu secretly listens to vocaloid when she’s alone (she loves Vane Lily). (Also has hearing aids and glasses :3)

J loves stuffed animals. He has an army of them.

Levi hates serious people, they scare him. ( *Eyes Teruko.* )

Min get bored easily, so she seeks out things that’d excite her.

Nico’s favorite food is strawberries. Leave them out and whoops they’re all gone.

Ro hates neon colors. Too bright.

Teruko can’t fully imagine things? In the sense of she can’t control her imagination fully.

Veronika has the most fancy handwriting of the cast.

Whit is the only one who’s been in both romantic and sexual relationships in the cast!! (Not at the same time tho)

Will canon info outright influence some character such as whit being wasian in Canon or is it all headcannons? 💞💞💞💞

Some of it yes, I’m not trying to erase some things from canon. But also with the fact everything is reversed in a sense, things will be swapped, given to other people, removed, added, ect.

Submitted by Tinaangelica

Any fun facts about David?

Youngest member of the cast!

He doesn’t really have any hobbies, per se, but he does enjoy watching Disney movies when he’s alone. He likes watching the character’s get the happy endings he so badly wants for himself.

Has never dated someone BUT has fallen in love before. … a few times.

Caffeine and Alcohol, his beloveds.

His hair is heavily graying out from stress. But he’s too lazy to try and redye it a color.

Has a scar across his face from scratching it violently (and a bunch of other scars all over his body from various things).

WHOLE CAST QUESTION: Maybe this is just a me thing but I'm notoriously bad at visualizing things that I read and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the vibe so far for what visual details we do know about the casts's outfit like Xander's crown and such.

I said this before but we do have a cast page full of designs! Though note these are subject to be changed :3

I'd like to ask, though, will we be able to see art of everyone at any point? Or is that already available somewhere and I'm just a dumbo? No pressure!! I'm just curious ^.^

Ooo ok so there’s no ‘official art’ BUT I DO draw these silly guys on my Tumblr !! If u search ‘drih’ on my blog you’ll find it! But maybe one day I’ll draw sprites and splash art n’ stuff.

Just useless little stuff I decided to add at the end

-

Character Heights:

Ace: 5’1

Alexander: 6’5

Arei: 5’6

Arturo: 6’3

Charles: 6’0

David: 5’5

Eden: 4’8

Hu: 5’9

J: 5’4

Levi: 6’4

Min: 5’6

Nico: 5’2

Ro: 5’0

Teruko: 5’2

Veronika: 5’8

Whit: 5’4

Favorite and Least Favorite Colors

Fav:

J: Black (Reasoning: “Cool!”)

Levi: Cotton Candy Pink (Reasoning: “It’s fun!”)

Alexander: Gold (Reasoning: Powerful)

Eden: Red (Reasoning: “The color of safety”)

Hu: Green (Reasoning: “I’m green, so it’s awesome!”)

Whit: Grey (Reasoning: Soulless)

Arturo: Gold (Reasoning: Holy)

Ace: Blue (Reasoning: “His favorite color!!!”)

Ro: Loves all colors equally. (Sky Blue)

David: Black (Reasoning: “It’s dead, like me.”)

Arei: Purple (Reasoning: “It’s such a silly color!”)

Teruko: Green (Reasoning: Lucky.)

Nico: Black (Reasoning: Spooky)

Min: Azule (Reasoning: Elegant)

Charles: Gold (Reasoning: Expensive)

Veronika: Red (Reasoning: “It’s normal.”)

Least Fav:

J: Dark Blue (Reasoning: “.. I dunno. I just- dislike it.”)

Levi: Black (Reasoning: Boring)

Alexander: Red (Reasoning: “Reminds me of them.”)

Eden: White (Reasoning: Easy to Spot)

Hu: Red (Reasoning: Alexander Matthews.)

Whit: Yellow (Reasoning: Gross)

Arturo: Red (Reasoning: Demonic)

Ace: Black (Reasoning: Unsettling)

Ro: Orange (Reasoning: “Her favorite color”) / Neon Yellow (Hard to Use)

David: Gold (Reasoning: Reminds him of what he could’ve been.)

Arei: Red (Reasoning: Blood Color)

Teruko: Yellow (Reasoning: Optimistic)

Nico: Tan (Reasoning: Looks like sand)

Min: Mint (Reasoning: “Icky”)

Charles: Red (Reasoning: “I’ve seen too much of it in my life…”)

Veronika: Black (Reasoning: “It’s like.. h- heartbreak..”)

New addition to this is the strength chart!

If Ao3 decides to bully me

Strong: 

Alexander

Levi

Arei

Eden 

Above Average:

Charles

J

Nico

Whit

Hu

Average: 

Ro

Teruko

Arturo

Weak: 

Ace

Min

Veronika

Below Weak:

David

Chapter Text

[...]

[...]

[What defines human worth?]

[What makes one human more worthy of life than another?]

[...]

[Their sobs still ring in my ears like a piercing noise that’ll never quiet down.]

[Was it worth it to see them cry if it made me feel more worthy?]

[...]

[...]

[Chapter One: You are worthy.]

…

…

It’d been about 2 hours since MonoToaster introduced itself to everyone and all of that stuff went down. Alexander attacking Charles and hurting Ro... Levi getting injured… the killing game being announced… it was all so much in such a short amount of time. 

At least Levi and Ro got patched up. Levi’s asleep on one of the beds in the infirmary while Ro decided to go back to her room. And one by one everyone filed out of the room, including me!

So now I’m sitting in my room. Basically asleep since what else was I supposed to do. Until-

???: *Knock Knock.*

.. someone knocking on the door kinda startled me. I wasn’t expecting that. I kinda flung myself out of bed, fell on the floor, and scrambled to stand up and open the door.

J: “Ah- sorry! Do ya need somethin’?”

Arturo: “I’m gathering everyone back into the…” *Pulls out his MonoTablet and checks the map.* “... movie screening room.. so we can pair up and investigate this place.”

J: “Do we have to-?”

Arturo: “...” *Dark glare.*

J: “OK OK I’M GOING I’M GOING-”

I took one quick look at Arturo’s disappointed glare before quickly walking down the hall to the Movie Screening Room.

Jeez- for a guy who says he’s super nice, he can be really scary and intimidating at times. Like when he yelled at Hu earlier. He seemed super pissed then. So probably not best to get on his negative side. Just calmly listen to him and follow his orders! Can’t be that bad- right?

Once I got into the room I looked around at everyone else there. Hu and Eden were talking with eachother. For the two loud mouths of the group, those two being the calmest in the area was quite the surprise to me.

Alexander was basically getting interrogated by Nico and Teruko, who both looked interested in him, while Alexander looked… uncomfortable? Maybe with a hint of confusion and disgust mixed into that contorted face of his.

Ro was watching Alexander from a distance with a darkened glare before Charles grabbed her arm and dragged her into a conversation with Min, Arei, Ace, and Levi. Pfft poor Ro-

And .. that’s 12. Where are Whit and David- where did they go- 

Arturo: “I’m back. I have J.”

Ro: “Oooh! Yay! Hi, J!”

J: “Hey, Ro!”

Alexander: “.. tch. Took you long enough to get back. I’m getting tired of waiting around for you all to stop running around.”

J: “I-”

Arturo: “Alexander, remember.”

Alexander: “.....”

Alexander: “ *Huff.* Fine.”

J: “E- Eh? What happened?”

Arturo: “Alexander must investigate with you as punishment for what he did yesterday.”

J: “...”

J: “WHY ME???”

Arturo: “Because no one else wanted to investigate with Alexander and Alexander kept insisting he’d rather die then investigate with you.”

Arturo: “So it’d be fitting if he was punished by investigating with you. Someone he insisted over and over again it’d be awful to investigate with.”

J: “.. and I didn’t get a say in this??”

Arturo: “.....”

Arturo: “You don’t get a say if you come late. You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. You understand?”

J: “Ok ok geez yeah I get it-”

J: “It’d be nice if I was asked if I wanted to do it but no apparently me being woken up last means I’m stuck with the almost killer..”

Arturo: “It is rude to talk about people like that, J. I’d suggest you stop talking about your peers in such a rude manner. Or else-”

J: “JEEZ OK OK DAMN OK I GET IT-”

Min: *Ehem.*

Min: “Is it time to discuss the exploration plans?”

Min: “I assume if we want this group to stay stable for more than two moments.. we’d just dissolve into more chaos..”

Ace: “Min is right! We need to start working on investigating!”

Ace: “Who had the investigation pairs list we wrote?”

Levi: “I think someone with the yellow pen. I remember seeing that.”

J: “Yellow.. pen..?”

Teruko: “The people here found a large pack of pens in Ro’s room. 16 to be exact, all different colors. We all decided to use only those pens to write notes in case someone tries to fake writing a note to lure someone out.”

Teruko: “We all got colors that seem to correlate to us. Ace got red, Arei got blue, I got green, David got black, Alexander got gold, etcetera.”

J: “Oh! What color did I get?”

Teruko: “I think..”

Ro: “You got assigned a purple, I think? A neon one.”

J: “Ooo.. that’s not so bad!”

Ro walked up to me and handed me a neon purple pen. It looked really fancy, actually. I thanked her before pocketing the pen.

Arturo: “I have the yellow pen. I wrote the list. It goes as follows.”

Arturo: “David and Whit are investigation partners. I assigned them together since they’re not here at the moment. .. I haven’t seen them since MonoToaster introduced itself.”

Arturo: “The next pair I have assigned is Alexander and J. For obvious reasons.”

Alexander: “I still don’t understand why you have to act as if I’m some unruly child who needs to be punished! My feelings were correct!”

Hu: “YOU ALMOST KILLED SOMEONE! YOU’RE LUCKY WE HAVEN’T LOCKED YOU UP! SO JUST SHUT UP! ”

Alexander: “Gh- WHY DON’T YOU-”

Arturo: “THE NEXT. Investigation pair is Teruko and Levi.”

Arturo: “With Levi’s physical strength and Teruko’s intelligence I assumed these two would make a great pair.”

Teruko: “Hm. I’m not upset with my partner choice.”

Levi: “YAY! I like Teruko! She’s nice!”

Teruko: “Pfft. I’m flattered, truly.”

Arturo: “The next pair I’ve assigned together is Min and Arei.”

Arturo: “Those two already seem like great friends, so I assume they’d be able to investigate easily together.”

I smirked a bit and looked at Min and Arei, who were high fiving each other with smiles across their faces. Yeah, sure, I wanted to investigate with Min, but she seems happier with Arei, so I shouldn't be upset.

Arturo: “Now that those pairs are out of the way, here are the pairs I had a bit of trouble with.”

Arturo: "Ace and Hu are a pair. We need someone who’s kind enough to talk to others and someone’s who’s a rebel and need someone to keep them in line.”

Hu: “WH- HEY WHAT THE FUCK??? WHY AM I STUCK WITH THE CRYBABY???”

Arturo: “I just explained that. And Ace is not a crybaby, you are just a person who runs their mouth nonstop and doesn’t know when to end your nonsense.”

Hu: “For someone who preaches kindness, you sure are fuckin’ petty!”

Arturo: “.  .  .”

Arturo: “At this point speaking with you would be a waste of breath.”

Ace: “I- I don’t mind investigating with you, Hu..”

Hu: “Well I do! Why can’t I investigate with Eden?!”

Arturo: “Because Eden is investigation partners with Charles.”

Eden: “NUH UH! WHAT THE FUCK?! WOULDN’T IT BE BETTER IF CHARLES WENT WITH ACE AND ME WITH HU???”

Arturo: “It’s already been decided. It would be best if you go with someone who shows kindness and compassion to others. Maybe you’d learn a thing or two from him.”

Eden: “Ugh. I hate this.”

Arturo: “... now that this issue is out of the way. There are two more pairs to go over.”

Arturo: “Nico and Veronika are an investigation pair. It feels like these two would work well together if they were a pair together.”

Nico: “Hm. Alright, I don’t think Veronika’s that boring! I’ll be entertained for sure!”

Veronika: “I- Is that all you care about..? Entertainment..?” 

Nico: “Obviously! We can figure out how to escape after I have my fair share of fun here!”

Arturo: “... well the only pair that’s left is myself and Ro. Since that was everyone that was left.”

Arturo: “Everyone will investigate in pairs for the next 20 minutes. Teruko has requested that MonoToaster put timers on our MonoTablets so we can meet up back here and discuss our findings. Understood everyone?”

Ro: “Wait will it start now? Or just- when we investigate?”

Arturo: “Once everyone has left this room, the timer will start down.”

Ro: “Ah, makes sense.”

Arturo: “Mhm.”

Nico: “Ok, but geez who died and put you in charge-?”

Nico: “Like- you’re kinda weird- and boring- and repetitive and-”

Arturo: “Shut your mouth, Hakobyan.”

Nico: “Shuttin’ up! Shuttin’ up!”

Arturo: “Good. No more questions? If so, then we can start investigating.”

Min: “Make sure to meet up back here when your MonoTablet’s tell you to!”

Veronika: “W- What about David and Wh- Whit..?”

Arturo: “.. we will look for them while we investigate. It’d be the best course of action, after all.”

Arei: “I agree! We can make it like a side mission! And the pair who finds them gets a prize!”

Eden: “Prize? What kind of “prize” do we get?”

Arei: “Uhh… I’ll bake you some cookies? Oh! Maybe some cake as well! I can do that stuff pretty well!”

Eden: “Game on! C’mon, Charles! We gotta go find Whit and David!”

Before Charles could say anything in response, Eden grabbed his arm and dragged him  out of the motive screening room. Pfft- Rest in Peace, Charles.

Alexander: “... *huff.* Fine. J, let us.. go.. investigate so I can get this over with.”

J: “Oh, alright!”

Alexander walked over to me and grabbed my arm before dragging me out of the room. Wait why am I getting dragged this is his punishment not mine- hey let me go- ah whatever. It didn’t really matter.

J: “Geez- you could’ve just asked me to go with you and not grab my arm-”

Alexander: “No. I want to ensure you don’t just- run off.”

J: “.. but wouldn’t you kinda- want that- since you dislike me so much?”

Alexander: “Of course I dislike you! But Arturo said if he saw you walking alone, he’d assume I forced you to leave me alone and would punish me for trying to abandon my original punishment.”

J: “Which was, by the way?”

Alexander: “...”

Alexander: “... lock me in my bathroom.”

J: “PFFT-”

J: “I’M SORRY- YOUR BATHROOM ?”

J: “I- BAHA-”

Alexander: “SHUT UP! IT’S A VERY SERIOUS PUNISHMENT! BEING LOCKED IN A SMALL AREA WITH NO FOOD, NO WATER, NO WAY TO LEAVE IN SIGHT. IT’S AN EFFECTIVE FO..rm of punishment. It- scares you. Makes you feel.. stuck.”

Alexander: “... and it’s quite serious! Your feble mind probably wouldn’t be able to comprehend the severity of it.”

J: “Eh-?”

J: “I mean- sure being stuck in small spaces sucks but as a punishment? Who even- does that?”

J: “And you’d have access to water in your bathroom. The sink.”

Alexander: “You can’t drink sink water! It’s contaminated, don’t you know that?”

J: “Con- dude- most sink water isn’t advised to be drunk but it’s not gonna get you sick. It has to go through all of these like, cleaning plants ‘n stuff. That’s the law. You shouldn’t drink it but you can and it won’t kill ya.”

Alexander: “... s- seriously-?”

J: “Yeah! How did you not know this?”

Alexander: “Don’t phrase it like that! It makes me sound like a stupid person- and it’s just- I’m not American. See, where I lived, the entire area’s water was contaminated. But we just- never fixed it.”

J: “Oh yeah, you’re like- British- or something-”

Alexander: “I- I’m not British -! I’m from around that area, however- but that’s besides the point. We never fixed the water supply, and quite frankly no one cared about it.”

J: “But why ?”

Alexander: “I’m not quite sure. But all my advisors told me not to fix it when I was in power, and my parents told me not to as a child, so that’s that, I presume. Nothing I could really do about it without angering everyone around me and probably being double disowned.”

J: “Damn those people are sh-”

J: “...”

J: “Double disowned????”

Alexander: “.... ah shit-”

Alexander: “I- I said nothing.”

J: “You’ve been-”

Alexander: “I said nothing.”

J: “... you became a ruler at twelve… yo- your parents didn’t help you-?”

Alexander: “.. they fled. Cowards. Along with my sisters. They got into some trouble with neighboring countries and rulers so they ran away and left me in charge. Essentially, they said they were more important then me and I was expendable. So they left me in charge with a crumbling kingdom that I had to save from basically square one.”

J: “At twelve ? Alexander- you were a child - that’s-”

Alexander: “I don’t need your sympathy. At all. I don’t like feeling pitied. I’m a fully grown adult now.”

J: “How old are you now..?”

Alexander: “Twenty-One..?”

J: “Alexander that’s not fully grown, that’s barely an adult.”

Alexander: “W- That doesn’t matter. Anyway we’re here at my room. Let’s investigate here first.”

Oh yeah, investigating. The whole reason we were even here. Alexander pulled out the key to his room and opened it. Huh so everyone had keys to their rooms. I hadn’t seen mine so far, it’s probably in my pocket or something. Nonetheless, I walked into the room with to Alexander (he let go of my arm finally, thank god) and looked around.

[Alexander’s Dorm.]

Basically the same as my room, only the color scheme was more gold and red as opposed to my blue and black color scheme, as well as the layout being flipped. The TV had the same image as mine did in my room. Hm. So every room was probably the same layout, just more personalized?

Alexander: “So this is my room. My bed, shelves, window, be-”

J: “Window-?”

I walked up to the TV screen and hit it, the image on it glitched out before going pitch black. I looked at Alexander with an amused smirk across my face.

“This is a TV screen, Alex.”

“... oh- A- And don’t call me ‘Alex’! I’m not a child!” He yelled.

“Nope, but you’re dumb like one.” I shot back.

“I’m not dumb! You’re the dumb one!”

J: “How did you not know that was a TV? That’s like- the most obvious TV ever-”

Alexander: “W- Well TV’s are usually box shaped and much bigger in depth but not in width- and also they don’t play still images-”

J: “... have you never heard of a flat screen smart TV?”

Alexander: “A- What-?”

J: “Oh my god, you poor soul. You poor sheltered soul.”

Alexander: “I- I am not a poor soul-! I’m just fine! I don’t need your stupid pity!”

J: “Pfft. I kid, I kid. But seriously, do you know what a flat screen smart TV is?”

J: “Wait better question. Have you used a phone?”

Alexander: “Of course I have! I’m not that out of touch!”

J: “Ok, ok wait that’s good. You have a phone that’s good.”

Alexander: “... huh. Where is my phone? I could’ve sworn I had it when I walked in but- I guess they took that as well. Damn it.”

J: “Yeah it sucks. But I see why they did it if they’re keeping us here for a killing game. They don’t want us calling for help n’ stuff.”

J: “I hate this killing gaammmeee….”

Alexander: “.. we’ve been stuck here for less than a day.”

J: “Yeah but I have the right to complain! A day’s a long time!”

Alexander: “... you’re quite impatient, aren’t you?”

J: “Hey! I can wanna leave..”

Alexander: “You can but you don’t need to complain. At least wait a week for that.”

J: “I’m NOT staying here for a week.”

Alexander: “ *Sigh* you act like a literal child …”

J: “You’re only like- two years older than me! If I’m a child, you’re going down with me!”

Alexander: “Wha- No- I am not.”

J: “Yes you are!”

Alexander: “No-?”

J: “Hmpf.. you’re no fun.”

Alexander: “Well I’m not here to entertain you. I’m not some jester.”

J: “Well whatever. I think we’ve investigated your room enough.”

Alexander: “Ah, before I forget to show you.”

Alexander walked over to his drawers and opened the bottom one, and from it pulled out a-

J: “HOLY SHIT THAT’S-”

J: “IS THAT A REAL LONG SWORD???”

Alexander: “Very real. I could easily kill someone with this. Or end my own life.”

Alexander: “Though the latter would make me a coward. Ending your own life.. it’s quite pathetic isn’t it?”

Alexander: “You were given the chance to live. And you just.. throw it away? It’s not affecting only you, but people close to you.”

J: “I-”

.. that topic. That.. topic .. it.. hurt my head. Why- Why did it always hurt my head? It shouldn’t have- right-?

*They* were always effected by that topic- no I’d argue they lived with it at that point. It’d become so normal for them. Painfully normal. 

I grabbed my bowtie and used my free hand to comb through my hair. Tears pricking at the edges of my eyes an-

Alexander: “.. J.”

J: “...”

Alexander: “Say something J. You can’t just stay silent when I say your name. Say anything in response.”

J: “.. sorry.”

Alexander: “That’s a start. Better than you sobbing like Cuevas did. Now, what is the.. matter .. with you?”

J: “N- Nothing. Sorry, just a headache. I- get them a lot.”

Alexander: “Hm. Alright.”

Alexander: “Now, you wanted to investigate some other rooms?”

J: “Y- Yeah.”

I looked out the door of Alexander’s room and noticed something- or somone small zip past. W- what- eh it didn’t really matter- right? It’s not like that’ll ever matter.

Alexander mumbled something under his breath, rolled his eyes, put the sword back where he got it earlier, grabbed my arm, and left his room. Walking down the long hallway and walking into the first room he saw.

[Computer Lab.]

Huh. Yeah looked like any computer lab you’d see in a school or something. I walked over to one of the laptops and tried to turn it on. Nope. Dead. I went to another one and this one turned on! Yay! Oooh but no wifi. Eh, I could still play no wifi games.

J: “Hm. So we can play games on this one. Not too bad, I guess.”

Alexander: “I’ve… never seen so many laptops in a room before… wow.”

J: “You keep getting sadder and sadder- what do you mean you’ve never seen this many- dude this isn’t that many-”

Alexander: “Shut it-! I just- don’t see much technology. Is all.”

Alexander: “... maybe I’ve seen this many before but just- forgot- possibly?”

J: “Wait- you have bad memory?”

Alexander: “I- In a sense..? I can remember specific events well, but if you ask me to recite what I had done today… well-”

Alexander: “... w- why am I telling you this? It’s useless information.”

J: “I don’t think so. I think it’s pretty cool- well not cool but it’s a fact about you. I have.. iffy memory? I’ve been having issues with it recently-”

Alexander: “Hm? Elaborate.”

J: “I can’t even remember my own name -”

Alexander: “It’s not J?”

J: “W- Well it is but I don’t remember my last name- at all-”

J: “And something else. I can’t remember what I’m forgetting.. but it’s something..”

Alexander: “Yes yes because if you remembered it you wouldn’t be forgetting it. It’s just logic, J.”

J: “Wh- Hey!”

Alexander: “Am I wrong?”

J: “Well no but still-”

J: “...”

J: “I think we investigated this room enough, honestly. Let’s go to another one.”

Alexander: “Alright. Let’s go.”

This time I grabbed Alexander’s arm while he made an angry sound of surprise. I tried to drag him down the hall but- nope I was not strong enough. Damn and I thought I was pretty well in shape- instead Alexander uffed, grabbed my arm, and pulled me down the hall to what seemed like a-

[Laundry Room.]

Yep. Like any laundry room. It was like any I’d seen before, honestly. Full of washing machines and dryers. And a few other cleaning chemicals like laundry detergent. So they really were staying here. Welp there wasn’t too much to look at.

J: “Boring room, to be honest. It’s not like there’s anything to look at.”

Alexander: “Yes. It’s quite plain. There’s not much to look at here. We’re going.”

J: “Wait what- we need to look around more though-”

Alexander just grabbed my arm again and dragged me down the hall out of the laundry room.

[Washroom]

----

J: “Hey!! Lemme go I wanna investigate the laundry room more!!”
Alexander: “No. This room.”

[Insert Hu throwing TP at Ace while Alexander drags J away because Ao3 is bullying me]

J: “Wh- hey! They’re having fun! Lemme go back!!”
Alexander: “We have no time for that.”
J: “:<”

----

J: “But why can’t we play with Hu and Ace? It’s no fair..”

Alexander: “We’re not here to play , we’re here to investigate. We still have a few more rooms to check.”

J: “Fine.. but then we can play?”

Alexander: “No. We are not here to play. Period. Now come on.”

J: “Can you just- let go of me-?”

Alexander: “No. Again. I'm not letting you go. Now we have..”

Alexander pulled out his MonoTablet and looked at the small timer feature MonoToaster added for us. 

Alexander: “About five minutes until we must go. We can investigate one more room and then we should go.”

J: “.. fine. Hmpf.”

Alexander dragged me down to the last room we could check before we had to go back to the Movie Screening Room and meet up with everyone else.

[Infirmary]

Oh yay back into the infirmary again. I'd already been here. But now I could look around a bit better than before since I didn't have to focus on two people bleeding. 

It was a pretty big Room, actually. There were four beds, a fridge with water bottles, bags of blood, medicinal stuff that needed to be kept in cold areas, all that good stuff. 

J: “Hm. This is a pretty good infirmary. It's like they're willing to help us.”

Alexander: “A false sense of security, actually. Make us think we can take care of each other, but in truth we can't.”

J: “Eh?”

Alexander: “How much medical knowledge do you have?”

J: “None? But some people here-”

Alexander: “And when they die?”

J: “...”

J: “OH.”

Alexander: “It's useless once all those people die, which they will. I see no point in having this.”

J: “Well it’s useful for now! Plus there’s a lot of other good stuff like medications and water! So that could be of use, even without medical training!”

Alexander: “Correct. But once those supplies run out?”

J: “W- Well we’ll cross that bridge when we have to! For now we don’t need to! So let’s just enjoy what we have for now and not worry about the future to come, alright?”

Alexander: “.. we have to think about the future. No matter what. We’re going to be here for the rest of our lives, correct? So thinking about the future would be quite necessary.”

J: “No we aren’t! W- We’re gonna escape eventually! We’ll find an exit, all buildings have them, right? I’m sure there’s a fire exit or something like that. There HAS to be!”

Alexander: “Your denial skills are immaculate, honestly. I can’t believe you can stay in this deep of denial.”

J: “Thank yo- wha- hey! I’m being optimistic here! Unlike you.”

Alexander: “And where will optimism get you here? Probably 6 feet under. Dead.”

J: “... from the guy who almost killed someone earlier- that’s rich- being a pessimist won’t do ya any well in the end.”

Alexander: “Excuse me- I’m not a pessimist, I’m a realist. And reality is, we’re not escaping. Best case scenario we don’t die and we just live the rest of our lives here.”

J: “I- I doubt that. Y- You’re a ruler, right? Someone’ll notice you’re gone! Someone has to notice, right?!”

Alexander: “They’ll assume I’m dead and just have someone else take my place. No one would really care, anyway. In the end I’m just a small pawn in a much larger story.”

J: “.. that’s-”

J: “...”

J: “... y- you’re not- just a pawn you’re a human. ”

Alexander: “.. if that is how you see it. So be it.”

J: "...."

This is getting. Awkward. I need to make it less awkward.

J: “Oh- speaking of seeing. It’s so weird seeing you without your crown. Like- I met you 3 hours ago but I’m so used to seeing you with a crown.”

Alexander: “...”

Alexander: “Where is my cro-”

[Ding Dong Bing Bong!]

[A body has unfortunately been discovered in the Movie Screening Room. Please report there to investigate.]

Chapter Text

[A body has unfortunately been discovered in the Movie Screening Room. Please report there to investigate.]

Those words rang through the air and hung over the place like a suffocating fog. My legs felt like jelly at those words. Without looking back at the man standing next to me, I made my way out of the infirmary to the Movie Screening Room.

I ran. I ran so fast my legs hurt but I still ran as fast as I could. A body? Already? But why- why would someone kill already? Why would any do this so early- why why why-

I ran back into the Movie Screening Room, a small crowd of people in the middle. I quickly ran over there, trying to get a look at what everyone was doing and-

J: “I- Is he-”

Ro: “.. I can’t say for certain. The Body Discovery Announcement played just as I was finished with my investigation. I came in here and saw Hu, Eden, Teruko, Charles, and Ace already here.”

Hu: “Well we didn’t kill him! I swear, we came in here and he was already on the ground!”

Ace: “ *Sniffle Sniffle* C- Can confirm.. m- me and Hu came in a- and he was already on the floor- and R- Ro was already here..”

Teruko: “Hm. I came in alone. Levi and I split up. When I entered, Hu, Ace, and Ro were already here.”

Eden: “Yeah! Because when me and purple bitch came in here, Ro, Teru, Crybaby, and Hu were already here!”

Charles: “Aha.. I’m not a purple bitch-? But I can confirm Eden’s story.”

J: “So that means Ro was the first one here?”

Ro: “Mhm. I was the first one in here, but the BDA was already going off even when I entered.”

Alexander: “Hm. But that story wouldn’t add up because-”

J: “-Isn’t it called a ‘discovery’ announcement-?”

Alexander: “-Which means someone discovered it prior, hence the rule of-”

J: “.. huh. How many people does it take to set off a BDA again?”

Alexander: “I assumed two? But maybe it’s more.”

J: “Does anyone have their MonoTablets on them-? I left mine in my room.”

Hu: “I brought mine!”

Hu pulled out her tablet and browzed over the rules before lifting an eyebrow in confusion and maybe annoyance.

Hu: “Doesn’t say. It just says once a body’s been found, the BDA’ll go off. Not much info there.”

J: “Huh. Well I’m guessing two people because one person would be odd.”

Charles: “I- Agree with J. It’d be kinda weird if it was only one person. And more than three would be really off. So two to three people would be needed to set it off, in my opinion.”

J: “Yeah.”

Alexander: “Now that the issue of the body discovery announcement has been settled, we can discuss who set it off. If Ro isn’t lying about coming here alone and was the first to see the body.”

Eden: “.. ehe..”

Eden: “Well- uh-”

Alexander: “Do you have something to say, Tobisa?”

Eden: “Hey-! You make me sound like I’m a killer-! Which I’m not!”

Alexander: “Then what are you trying to say?”

Eden: “Well… uhm.. the BDA is kinda fake-?”

J: “H- Huh???”

Ace: “Fake-?!”

Alexander: “What do you mean fake ?!”

Eden: “Ok ok before you all get pissed let me explain.”

Alexander: “Yes, go on, explain yourself!”

Eden: “Woah woah slow down, motherfucker! Jeez- Ok well-”

[ F l a s h b a c k  .  .  .   F l a s h b a c k ]   

MonoToaster: “An.. alarm? For what reason would an alarm be needed?”

Teruko: “I just assumed it’d be best if we do have that twenty minute timer I asked for, a custom alarm would be needed.”

MonoToaster: “Why not just the classic alarm? Wouldn’t that be much easier?”

Teruko: “Ah, but a custom alarm would be more exciting than a boring alarm, now wouldn’t it?”

MonoToaster: “.. hm. You are correct in that manner. Fine. I’ll let you record your own custom alarm. The tab has been opened on your MonoTablet. There’s a recording function on it.”

MonoToaster: “Goodbye.”

MonoToaster: [*Hovers away from Teruko.*]

Teruko: “Hm. Now what to use as an alarm.”

Eden: “Hey-”

Teruko: “KYAH-!”

Teruko: “Oh-! It’s you. Hello, Eden. Have you been- standing there- the whole time..?”

Eden: “Yeah- I was watching you and MonoBitch talk, y’know, sneaky-style. And I saw that you’re in a bit of a situation!”

Teruko: “You could describe it as that, yes. Do you have any ideas?”

Eden: “Why don’t you just record a fake BDA? Y’know, that’ll get people here quickly!”

Teruko: “Huh. Wait that’s actually pretty smart. What do you want me to say exactly?”

Eden: “Like, “A bodies been found in the movie screening room! Come here quickly!” or something like that. I think that’s how it’d sound when someone eventually kicks their bucket and fuckin’ dies.”

Teruko: “Hm. I think I can make that sound a bit better, but thank you for the idea, Eden!”

Eden: “No problem-? Dunno why you’re thankin’ me, I’m just causin’ problems for everyone.”

Teruko: “Entertainment is more of the word I was looking for. This’ll be fun to see. People panicking over a non-existent death. It’ll be quite enjoyable!”

Eden: “I guess. Well, I’m gonna go investigate my room a bit more alone, goodbye, Teruko.”

Teruko: “Goodbye, Eden!”

[ F l a s h b a c k  .  .  .   F l a s h b a c k ]   

J: “So- the BDA was a fake???”

Teruko: “.. well. I- assume so? But then also, the real BDA could’ve gone off while the fake one was. We can’t tell.”

Alexander: “So your stupid idea of a joke has caused us to not know whether he’s dead or not? Are you happy now?”

Teruko: “Quite! This is still interesting to watch! This is exactly what I expected, maybe even better!”

Alexander: “...”

Arei: *[Runs in with Min]* “ *Huff Huff* Who died?!”

Alexander: “No one died .”

J: “W- We don’t know that. For all we know he could be dead-”

Min: “Who even is it-?”

Eden: “It’s David ‘dead’ on the ground for some fuckin’ reason. We just- walked in and find the guy basically dead-! How’d he even get here- he wasn’t here when we did the whole meeting thing but there he is. Probably dead.”

Hu: “Dead as fuckin’ hell. Knowing that guy he probably is dead. A gust of wind knocked him over and now he’s deader than Alexander’s empathy.”

Alexander: “I-”

Alexander: “Can’t even fight that-?”

Hu: “Exactly! I’m not even wrong!”

Charles: “There isn’t even wind in here-? Why would a gust of wind- even-”

Min: “I’m more worried about David’s life than the wind thing-”

J: “Yeaaahhh uh. Lemme just- check his pulse. I think that’d be the best course of action. I hope someone already tried checking his pulse prior to me coming here.”

Eden: “Oh yeah that.”

J: “Did you not even try to check it-?”

Eden: [*Shrugs*]

J: “Oh my god. Well I’m going to check his pulse, unlike all of you, I actually wanna make sure he’s not a corpse.”

I walked over to where David was and kneeled down next to him, putting a finger at his throat and tried to feel for a pulse. He was pretty warm, but I just couldn't find the pulse- though to be honest I can’t find my own pulse a lot of the time so maybe it’s just me being a dumbass. 

I could’ve sworn I felt something faint- maybe a really light pulse- but- what if I’m just imagining it, what if I just say ‘I feel a light pulse’ but it turns out he’s dead? I don’t wanna instil false hope in everyone-

J: “Uh- I can’t- feel a pulse.”

Ace: “WH- WHAT?! HE’S ACTUALLY DEAD?!”

J: “NO- NO- I CAN’T FIND HIS PULSE. ME- ME PERSONALLY. I SUCK AT FINDING PULSES.”

Eden: “Well you’re useless.”

J: “Can you find a pulse?”

Eden: “I can. Bu-”

Veronika: [*Runs into the room with Nico and Whit, wincing a bit.*]

Veronika: *GASP* “SORRY W- WE’RE LA- *Huff* LATE-”

Nico: “We had to find the slut guy. Make sure he didn’t kill anyone or somethin’ like that.”

Whit: “... I have a name-”

Nico: “ANYWAY. We’re here. We're queer. Who fuckin' died?”

J: “... No one died , but David’s down.”

Teruko: “He could be dead. We’re not quite certain about it, though.”

Hu: “Thanks to you! If you hadn’t done that stupid joke, we’d be able to tell! But since you did play that dumbass joke we can’t tell if one of our classmates has been fuckin’ murdered or not! Are ya satisfied now?!”

Teruko: “Hm. Very.”

Charles: “Has no one like- considered checking his MonoTablet-? At least mine has a status to see if I’m alive or not- though my talent’s redacted, which is weird.”

J: “Oh yeah! Mine has that, too, but my gender’s redacted. For- some odd reason.”

Nico: “LUCKY I wish my gender was redacted. My height is redacted for some odd reason, I’m not sure why-”

Alexander: “ *Sigh* I could care less about if David is breathing or not but can we please get to checking if he is?”

Ro: “Does anyone have David’s MonoTablet?”

J: “Does David have his MonoTablet-?”

Ace: “Y- You’re over there- check-”

J: “Oh yeah!”

I checked David’s pockets for his MonoTablet. Uh- a small bottle of cyanide, razors, pocket lint- ok the first two were kinda worrying but I brushed it off as him being an avid shaver and the cyanide was his weapon.

J: “Not in here.”

Ace: “D- Do you think he lost it..?”

Eden: “If he did that’d just suck ass. Way too hard to find back and we’d kiinnndaaa need it. Like. A lot.”

Arei: “Yeaaahh uh. Yeaaah. This isn’t ideal.”

Whit: “Wait, before you all panic about David’s missing MonoTablet, I have it. Took it out of his pockets so he could sleep earlier without having something poking in his pockets.”

Alexander: “So you were with him before. Correct?”

Whit: “Yeah, I was.”

Alexander: “Can you explain how he got from where you were to here?”

Whit: “No-? I- fell asleep. By accident. But I took his MonoTable- Oh wait right here I need to go grab something from my room really quickly.”

Alexander: “Wh-”

Whit shoved David’s MonoTablet into Ro’s hands and bolted off to his room while Alexander stood there for a few seconds in a small bit of a shock before shaking his head and scoffing.

Alexander: “Tch. Rude of him.”

J: “Ro! Do you see his status on there? Is he alive? Or dead?”

Ro: “It’s- it’s redacted- I don't understand why it's redacted-?”

Ace: “So you- we can’t figure out if he’s alive or not?!”

Teruko: “Ah, what a shame, truly. I would have wished it would show his living status, but alas, it doesn’t.”

Eden: “Ya don’t make it sound like ‘ts a shame.”

Teruko: “Oh, my apologies. Should I sound like I truly care about this situation for you?”

Alexander: “Well-”

Ro: “...”

J: “Ro..? Is something wrong?”

Ro: “I-”

Whit: “I’m back! With somethin’ special!”

Whit walked back into the Movie Screening Room with Alexander’s crown in hand. And- wow Alexander looked really- really happy. His eyes shining an excited gold color.

Alexander: “YOU FOUND IT!”

Whit: “Ehh… not found. You left it here and I just took it back to my room and cleaned the blood off it. It also had some dust so- yeah.”

Alexander: “Well still, thank you! Truly!”

Whit: “It’s no problem, really. Here.”

Whit tossed the crown over to Alexander, the latter catching it and putting it on his head happily. Yeah, now he looks normal.

Whit: “Y’know, for someone who’s always so angry or serious, you sure are happy that you got your crown back.”

Alexander: “A- Ah. Well- I- ᴵ ʲᵘˢᵗ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᵐʸ ᶜʳᵒʷⁿ, ᵒᵏ⁻ˀ”

Whit: “That’s actually pretty fair.”

Hu: “I got an idea, wait right here y’all.”

Eden: “Wh-”

Hu ran out of the room- well she was going to, but she ran into Arturo and knocked both of them to the ground, while Levi stood over both of them worriedly. Huh. Where have I seen this happen before…?

Levi: “Eek-! W- watch out, both of you! You could get hurt!”

Arturo: “Gh-! Have you no manners? Don’t just run into people, Hu. That’s qu-”

Hu: “Shut the fuck up, old man. Geez- Sorry I guess. Didn’t see ya. But I don’t really care that I ran into you so tata!”

Hu: Tries to run out of the room but Arturo grabs her arm angrily.

Arturo: “No. You’re not leaving.”

Arturo: “You are apologizing for running into me and being disrespectful towards me. You understand that?”

Hu: “... *[Insert Chinese mumbling.]* ”

Arturo: “Wh- excuse me???”

Alexander: “What do you mean you don’t speak English? You spoke it only a few moments ago.”

Hu: “Wh- You know Chinese???”

Alexander: “A little, yes. I also know French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and of course, English.”

Hu: “Woah! Jeez- damn you’re like- a nerd for languages. Shit, I hate you so much but genuine respect for knowin’ all that, seriously! I know Chinese and Spanish but that’s basically it- oh I also know ASL and CSL.”

Alexander: “The feeling of hatred is mutual but the respect is as well. Sign language as well as both Chinese and Spanish is quite the achievement.”

Hu: “Pfft thanks! Now I’m off to grab what I needed to! Bye!”

Hu: *[Frees herself from Arturo’s grasp and runs off]*.

Arturo: *Huff* “That woman is quite rude. I despise her attitude, she acts as if she’s the main one who needs all the attention. Like she’s the most important person in the room.”

Eden: “No she doesn’t- you just take everything to heart. She’s just badass and you’re a sensitive little bitch.”

Levi: “G- Guys let’s not fight- … please..?”

Min: “Levi is correct. We shouldn’t fight. Especially in a situation as dire as one like this.”

Arturo: “... fine.”

Arturo: “May I be filled in on the situation at hand? At least, I know someone’s life has been lost but that’s all the information I have at the moment.”

Teruko went on explaining the currect situation to Arturo while Whit kneeled down next to me and hoisted David up. Huh, wow David looked really rough. His hair was messed up and greying, he had such deep, black eye bags, a nasty scar across his eye, and a very prominent neck scar. What even happened to this guy…?

Though on a more positive note, he did have a cool moon earing and a really cool pink butterfly hairlip in his hair. I wonder where he got it from. Either way it was a nice touch to his dull outfit.

Ace: “W- Wait.. everyone’s here.. right?”

Ace: “Minus Hu, she left to grab something but- I’m assuming she’ll be back soon.”

Ro: “Oh yeah. Everyone is here.”

J: “Wait, Ro, I was askin’ ya earlier but- why did you look so worried while lookin’ at David’s MonoTablet?”

Ro: “Ah, well- uh. His weight was worrying me a bit. That’s all.”

Eden: “Eh? The fuck ya mean?”

Whit: “Hm. Now that you say that, he is quite light. I had no trouble picking him up- at all.”

Eden: “Maybe you’re just really strong. Ehh but also I doubt you’re strong. You can probably lift like-”

Whit: “250lbs? A deadlift anway. It’s nothing much, though.”

Eden: “Pfft! Weak! I can deadlift like, 450!”

Whit: “Hm hm that’s quite strong. And for your stature, impresive. Kudos to you. Really!”

Eden: “O- Oh. Uh. Thanks.”

Whit: “Nah, it’s nothin’.”

J: “Woah, you two’re pretty strong. I can lift like- 300lbs if I tried really hard in a dead-lift.”

Eden: “Seriously? Wow, you’re stronger than I thought. Damn.”

J: “Pfft, thank you.”

Arei: “Ah, Ro?”

Ro: “Hm-?”

Arei: “How much does David weigh? If that concerns you so much, I’d assume it’d be really bad-” 

Ro: “98lbs. W- Which is lighter than some children. That’s dangerously underweight, especialy for his age- which is 18, by the way, he’s 5’5 and I just was worried th-”

Arturo: “Stop.”

Ro: “What-?”

Arturo: “Stop what you’re doing. Give me that MonoTablet. Now.”

Ro: “Wh- why?”

Arturo: “I said ‘hand it over’ , so you must hand it over to me. That’s how it works here. If I tell you to do something, you do it without question. Do you understand?”

Ro: “No? I need an explanation as to why you’d need David’s MonoTablet-”

Arturo: “An explanation is not needed for this, hand over the Tablet, Ro. Or else I’m afraid I’l have to take it from you forcibly.”

Eden: “STOP IT, ARTURO! I KNEW YOU WERE BAD FUCKIN’ NEWS!”

Arturo: “Eden, please kindly shut your worthless mouth . You are not invoved in this converstion, you have no place in this conversation, so do not make yourself a part of this conversation.”

Ro: “Arturo, seriously. I need a reason as to why you want the Tablet, then I’ll hand it over-”

Arturo: “I want you to stop listing out this individuals information to everyone else and hand over the Tablet to me so I may hold onto it until David is either pronounced dead or wakes up and can take it back.”

Ro: “There- a reason. Thanks. And uh- sorry- here.”

Ro handed the tablet to Arturo with a shakey an apologetic smile while Arturo’s face was stone cold. He took the tablet and slid it into one of his pockets inside his robe. Wow he can be- scary. Really scary.

Ace: “R- Ro..?”

Ro: “Hm?”

Ace: “Ah.. h- how is your head? Does it still hurt..?”

Ro: “Oh, that? I’ve been through much much worse. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt too badly. Just a small headache. Nothing to worry about.”

Ace: “W- Well that’s good.”

Eden: “Yeah, and who do we have to blame for that headache?” 

Eden: *[Glares at Alexander.]*

Alexander: “Wh- do not glare at me.”

Eden: “Well you need to fuckin’ apologize to Ro for that! And apologize to Charles for almost strangling him!”

Charles: “Aha.. I don’t need an apology-”

Alexander: *Huff* “Fine. I am.. sorry .. Ro.”

Ro: “Hm hm, thank you! It’s fine, though. Don’t worry about it.”

Alexander: “See? It’s fine. She didn’t care. Why should I apologize?”

Eden: *Sigh.* “You idiot.”

Alexander: “I am not an idio-”

Hu: *[Walks into the room with a smirk.]*

Thank goodness Hu came back, she and Arturo’ll cancel each other out and bam leave ‘em alone together and everything’ll be just fine! She walked into the room with her guitar and a smirk across her face. What was she planning on doing-?

Hu: “Well I’m back! And I have an idea!”

Alexander: “And your grand plan is..?”

Hu: “We’ll- David’s passed out, right? We can just play loud music to wake him up!”

Arturo: “No.”

Hu: “It wasn’t a question, I’m gonna do it anyway, and you can’t stop me with this!”

Arturo: “Do not even consider playing that guita-”

Hu: “I’m gonna do it~!”

Hu reached into her ears and pulled out some small devices from each of them and placed them into her pockets before loudly strumming her electric guitar.

… ow my ears.

…

OW MY FUCKING EARS- WHY THE FUCK WAS THAT- GUITAR STRUM- SO- LOUD???

At least I wasn’t the only person effected by it. Everyone else either was covering their ears or visibly flinching from the noise. From easily startled people like Veronika and Ace to people who were more stone-faced like Teruko or Whit.

Even people like Alexander looked distressed- even panicked at the noise. Why was she doing this? Was it really working ?

Well…

David: “... mmpf..”

Ro: “Oh my-”

Eden: “HOLY SHIT! IT’S- WORKING?!”

Alexander: “Gh- … oh. It’s.. actually working. I’m impressed, Jing. For once you have an actually good idea.”

Min: “Oh my god! It’s actually working! I didn’t expect it to!”

Whit: “Do it again. It’s working- do it again.”

Arturo: “Do not do it again.”

Whit: “Arturo, it’s working, let her do it again.”

Arturo: “No! I refuse to let her do it again! We should not keep having her play that- thing of hers!”

Whit: “Do you want David to stay passed out?”

Arturo: “That’s not important!”

Whit and Arturo broke into a small argument over whether or not we should let Hu continue playing her guitar. Meanwhile Hu was plucking at the strings mindlessly, not looking up, even if people were shouting at her to do something.

Eden walked over to Hu, tapped her shoulder, and signed (at least I assumed it was sign language) something to Hu. The latter nodding her head, picking her guitar back up and playing a few more loud strums of her guitar. Jolting David awake and made him cling to Whit, eyes wide with shock, fear, and pain.

David: “Gh-- Stop! Please- Gah! Ow ow ow-”

Ace: “Oh thank goodness, you’re alive!”

Teruko: “Hm. A warm welcoming. He’s not dead.”

Levi: “O- Oh that’s- that’s good-”

J: “OH MY GOD! YES! HE DIDN’T DIE!”

Alexander: “Ah. How nice.”

Ro: “Ok he’s awake, Hu. Stop. ”

Eden: [*Taps Hu’s shoulder and signs something to her.*]

Hu: “Hm- Oh- sorry.”

Hu put her guitar onto the ground, pulled out the small devices from her pockets and put them back in her ears before picking her guitar back up.

Hu: “He’s awake! See? It’s a brilliant idea. Play loud music to wake someone up!”

Arturo: “Sure, it worked but I’m still angered by the fact you didn’t listen to me when I said to not use your guitar.”

Hu: “But it worked out in the end, didn’t it? That’s all that matters!”

Arturo: “...”

Veronika: “Th- The ends justify the means.. right…?”

Ace: “E- Eh?”

Veronika: “I- I mean.. e- even if the means were… uncalled for.. the ends w- were worth it..”

Veronika: “Right..?”

J: “I guess so.”

Min: “David..? Are you alright?”

David: “... n- no. M’ head hurts… a- and m’ tired…”

Whit: “Well I’d rather you not fall asleep, because you could slip back into unconsciousness. And that could be deadly.”

David: “... mmpf.. waah…”

Arei: “What even happened? Did you just pass out or something?”

David: “P- Pass out-?”

Arei: “Yeah, I kinda just. Assumed you fell unconscious because you were tired or somethin’ like that.”

David: “W- No- I was attacked -”

Ace: “A- Attacked?!”

Teruko: “Hm, hm, an attempted murder so soon, I didn’t expect this but I can’t say I’m not pleased by this revalation.”

Alexander: “Do you know who you were attacked by?”

David: *[Headshake]*

David: “No idea..”

David: “A- All I know is that they were taller than me- probably- or else how would they have… y’know...”

Eden: “Not helpful when over half of y’all are taller than you. At least I know I’m innocent n’ shit.”

Arei: “Maybe we should focus on… who could’ve done it outside of height? Alibis for example? Who was alone? For how long?”

Arei: “If we’re going to state those, then I can confirm me and Min were together the entire time! We didn’t get out of each other’s sight!”

Min: “Mhm! Caaaan confirm that~!”

Alexander: “What are you two doing? Investi-”

Arei: “Unimportant! Who’s next?”

J: “Well uh- me and Alexander were together the whole time.”

Alexander: “I can confirm that statement. J and I were together the entire investigation peroid.”

Veronika: “N- Nico was dragging m- me around the whole time.. s- so we were together the whole ti- time…”

Nico: “Yeeep!”

Veronika: “.. don’t dr- drag me around next time, please.”

Nico: “Hmm, no promises~!”

Veronika: “... w- wh-”

Hu: “Me and crybaby were together the whole time! Didn’t leave my sight at all. Unfortunately. Would’ve loved if he did but eh, I guess it’s better that he didn’t.”

Ace: “...”

Ace: “Ye- Yeah. Me and Hu were together the whole time.”

Eden: “Same wi’ me and Charlie. Didn’t leave each other at all.”

Charles: “W- Well we did leave each other for a few minutes- so we could investigate our own rooms alone. But we met up right after- I swear.”

Alexander: “... fine. I’ll believe that.”

J: “That leaves Arturo and Ro, along with Levi and Teruko.”

Teruko: “Ah, but me and Levi were together all investigation period. We only split up after the Body Discovery Announcement.”

Levi: “..!”

Levi: “Y- Yeah. Yeah we were together up until that moment-”

Alexander: “That only leaves a single pair.”

J: “Yeah! That- only leaves two people who could’ve done it. And by process of elimination… that would mean the person who attacked David was-”

[ Who attacked David? ]

[ > Ro ]

[ > Arturo ]

[ > Arturo ]

“ Ah! I see now! This is my answer! ”

J: “...”

J: “Arturo, explain yourself.”

Arturo: “What? If you are assuming I attacked David , you’re horribly mistaken. I would never attempt to take someones life.”

J: “You’re the only person who could’ve done it. You’re taller than David-”

Arturo: “So-?”

J: “...”

J: “Ro? Did you and Arturo ever split up during your investigation?”

Ro: “...”

Arturo: “Ro. Do not lie to them. You know the truth.”

Ro: “I- ..”

Arturo: “Ro. Tell them the truth. ”

Ro: “I- .. I-”

Arturo: “TELL THEM THE TRUTH, RO.”

Min: “... Arturo don’t pressure her.”

Ro: “W- we split up in the first five minutes of investigation and I didn’t see him at all after that I’m sorry-”

Arturo: “YOU LIAR !”

Ro: “I- I DIDN’T LIE -!”

Charles: “ENOUGH!”

Charles yelled loudly, standing inbetween Ro and Arturo with a shaky expression, a mix of fear and anger. The whole room went silent, taking slow, deep breaths.

Charles: “.. arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

Charles: “Arturo, did you attack David?”

Arturo: “I did not !”

Teruko: “Hm hm, but you’re not only without alibi, but you also are tall and strong enough to knock him out. Are you not?”

Arturo: “I-”

Min: “Hmm, and you also took his MonoTablet, did you not? Maybe there’s something on there that you wanna keep a secret!”

Ace: “I- It makes sense now..”

Ace: “You left Ro alone s- so you could try and kill David, t- then when we all investigated his MonoTablet, y- you didn’t want that s- so you-”

Arturo: “Stop it! Stop with all these false accusations! I didn’t lay a finger on David! I would never!”

Whit: “David..?”

David: “... gh- … dunno… m- maybe..? Don’.. remember..”

Whit: “Ah. Well that’s a shame. Not your fault, however. You didn’t deserve this happening to you, by the way.”

David: “... dunno.. ‘bout that… but.. m’kay.”

Min: “David, if you can, would you mind telling us the sequence of events that led to this point?”

David: “.. mm.. w- well..”

D-D-D-Danganronpa…

[Act 0 ]

David: “I woke up in my room- I dunno how I got there- but I did.”

Arei: “Oh! Whit said he took you to your room! He said you fell asleep and he took you to your room!”

Whit: “Mhm.”

David: “O- Oh.. thanks…”

David: “W- Well after I wo- woke up.. I grabbed some things f- from my drawer-”

J: “Ah. Like cyanide and razors?”

David: “A- Ack- … y- yeah. That stuff.”

Alexander: “Why did you have that? There’s no reason to cary that around with you, is there?”

David: “I-”

Arturo: “Alexander, silence, let the man speak.”

Alexander: “ *Huff* At least I’m not the main suspect in an attempted murder case.”

Arturo: “I-”

Charles: “Guys… please ..?”

Alexander: “.. hmpf. I apologize. Chiem, continue.”

David: “W… well it’s a bit.. muddy after that… I walked down to this r- room to investigate a bit on my own an- and..”

David: “... a- and.. I felt somethi- ing kinda.. fabric-y wrap around my neck-”

David: “... couldn’t scream… couldn’t fight back… couldn’t do anythin’ besides just- thrash a bit and-”

David: “... t- then it went black..”

[ End ]

Min: “Hm. Do you know how long it took you to get here?”

David: “M- Maybe… 4 minutes..? I was.. tired. A- And slow.”

Hu: “Then that’d give Arturo the perfect opportunity to strike. A weak, tired, defenseless individual who couldn’t fight back would be the perfect murder target for a stupid fucker like Arturo!” 

Veronika: “Y- Yeah… i- it’s not looking good for you Arturo…”

Arturo: “...”

Arturo: *Huff*

Arturo: *[Walks out of the Movie Screening Room anrgily.]*

Eden: “What the fu-”

Whit: “... huh. He just- left.”

Hu: “Good. Fuckin’ hate that asshole. He should stay far away from all of us. Fuckin’ hate his guts to death.”

Alexander: “I hate to agree with Hu of all people here, but I share the same sentiment towards Giles.”

Hu: “Hell-fuckin’-yeah!”

Alexander: “.. hmpf.”

Ro: “... wait he still has David’s MonoTablet-”

David: “... ugh. I’ll.. get it back from h- him later.”

Whit: “Nah it’s fine, I’ll get it for ya later.”

David: “R- Really..?”

Whit: “Mhm!”

Ace: “I- I’d help, if you’d like..”

Whit: “Actually, sure, why not. We can do that right now. David, can ya stand up on your own?”

David: “L- let’s see-”

Whit let go of David and the latter shakily stood on his own, but it was standing nontheless.

David: “I- I can stand on my own.”

Ace: “That’s good! Whit, should we go?”

Whit: “Mhm. Bye, everyone.”

Whit and Ace walked out of the Movie Screening Room together. Leaving everyone else with each other with.. really nothing to *do.*

Min: “Now what?”

Arei: “Discuss what we found while investigating?”

J: “I feel like we don’t have much to say, though- we didn’t exactly have enough time?”

Alexander: “We as a group or we as a pair?”

J: “We as a pair . Though I assume the whole group had the same issues. It’d make sense, anyway-”

Arei: “Mhm.. I hate the fact we didn’t have enough time to really investigate. But I did take note of what I could.”

Veronika: “W- Well when I was checking my room- I saw a bunch of clothing. Normal, swim suits, winter, pj’s- the person who kept us here k- knows we’ll be here for a while-”

Charles: “Oh yeah, I saw that in my room as well. I also saw a few suits, piercings, and even make-up and fancy gloves?”

Eden: “Psh, do they want us to have a party or some shit like that?”

David: “... parties.. loud. M’ head’d explode…”

Alexander: “Plus, a party here would be useless. Who would spend valuable time investigating or trying to figure out why were here just having the time of their lives partying?”

Eden: “Someone who wants a fuckin’ break from it all, that’s what.”

Min: “Eventually we’ll get to that point where we need a break. For now I think it’s best if we just go on our own separate ways.”

Charles: “.. yeah. That- seems wise.”

Everyone nodded and went their own separate ways, walking out of the Movie Screening Room. I stayed behind, along with Min, Hu, and Eden. Hu and Eden were talking and Min walked over to me.

Min: “Soooo… what was investigating with Alexander like?”

J: “Not… that bad..?”

J: “Once you get past the sarcastic, snooty, bitchy shell, he’s actually a pretty nice guy to know.”

Min: “Really? Pfft. I guess that makes sense. Did you enjoy investigating with him?”

J: “Oh no no no. He kept dragging me around everywhere. I didn’t like that at all.”

J: “... but I guess minus that it wasn’t awful .”

Min: “Well that’s good!”

J: “What about you and Arei? Did you two have fun?”

Min: “Mhm! We had some amazing conversations about the history of baseball and the tragedy! She’s such a nice person to talk with!”

J: “Pfft. Yeah I can tell.”

Min: “Well I’m gonna go investigate a bit on my own now! Bye!”

J: “Bye, Min!”

I waved Min goodbye as she walked out of the Movie Screening Room. It seems like Hu left as well leaving me and Eden alone in the room. She looked at me, scoffed, grabbed my arm and dr- wait dragged me out??? Not this shit again-

To be continued…

Chapter Text

Eden dragged me down to the elevator without another word. I… wasn’t really expecting this but OK oh well-

Eden: “You need to help me!”

J: “Eh? Help with what-?”

Eden: “This stupid elevator! I can’t open it normally, so I need you to help me try and pry open the doors!”

J: “Wh- why me???”

Eden: “Because! You’re somewhat strong and Whit is gone with crybaby to get David’s Monowhatever back. So. I’m taking you.”

J: “And not Hu?”

Eden: “Hu said she wanted to do something with that weird fire escape door that’s locked down the hall.”

J: “... eh?”

Eden: “Oh yeah, there’s a fire escape door down the hall. Near the storage room. It’s locked, though.”

Eden: “There’s also 2 fire alarms on this floor. I guess if you open the fire escape door, the alarms would go off. Which makes sense.”

J: “Well at least there are fire escapes so we don’t burn up and die here.”

Eden: “Yeah, that’s good, I guess.”

Eden: “Anyway, let’s pry these doors open!”

J: “Oh, alright!”

Eden grabbed one of the elevator doors as I grabbed the other and we pulled with all our might. And we were rewarded with the elevator opening just a bit. Eden cheered pretty loudly and I just smirked. Wow this was- hard work- no shocker there.

Eden: “Fuck yeah! It’s opening! Good job, J!”

J: “O-Oh! Thanks!”

Eden: “Psh, you don’t get compliments often?”

J: “E- Eh? Of course I get them often! I do acting, after all! Praise is nothing new for me! I adore the applause, the praise, the love, the sheer adoration I get from everyone! They adore me, and I adore them!”

Eden: “Big ego much?”

J: “Well having an ego isn’t that bad- I mean, it just means you have self-esteem. Which is good. Especially when you have to rely on your abilities a lot. You can’t freeze up because you’re afraid of failing or doubt yourself at the last second.”

Eden: “... I guess.”

J: “Oh, quick question.”

Eden: “Shoot it, I guess.”

J: “How do you know sign language?”

Eden: “Eh. Saw some people watching it on TV every day when I walked by their house. Just picked it up. I only know basic phrases like “stop it” or “continue doing this” or “hello, how are you?”. Stuff like that.”

J: “Still, that’s pretty impressive!”

Eden: “Thanks..? Anyway, my turn for questions.”

Eden: “How’d you even become the Ultimate Stage Actor?”

J: “Well my dad’s a really famous actor- Uh Hank Moreno, that’s my dad.”

Eden: “Wait wait wait you’re the kid of the Hank Moreno? Like- like the famous Hank Moreno???”

J: “Yeah…? What?”

Eden: “He’s like- super rich right? He’s also like- super super well known for his films like-”

J: “I know I know. All those greats films he’s in, I’ve heard it a lot. But I don’t exactly like my father. He’s a bitch who left the family for his career.”

J: “I prefer my mother. Mariabella Rosales. She’s sweet, kind, and just the perfect woman. I adore her. She’s the best!”

Eden: “Huh.”

J: “She’s also a really good actress! She raised me all by herself! Without that excuse of a father I had.”

Eden: “Ah. I see. Alright. I guess.”

J: “Mhm. But once I was about… 14? 13? Somewhere then, a company sponsored me. They saw potential in me, and took it. XF-Ture Tech. They also sponsored Min and Whit- I just didn’t want to say it around them and force myself into their conversation.”

J: “They basically said if all my plays had some tech of theirs incorporated into them, then I’d be able to go to Hope’s Peak. I accepted the deal of course!”

Eden: “Wow, wait, really? You’re like, the 3rd person I know who was sponsored by XF. Damn.”

J: “Third?”

Eden: “Hu is sponsored, Charles is sponsored, you’re sponsored, and also Whit and Min apparently. So I actually know five people. Wow.”

J: “Huh. Are you sponsored by them?”

Eden: “No no, not at all. I’m sponsored by the Spurling Foundation.”

Eden: “They’re more in the financially legal department. I- don’t exactly come from the most forgiving of roots. My family went to Japan for a vacation along with me, but when we came back here, we got separated. And since the plane landed in a city I’d never been to before, well, I had to fend for myself.”

Eden: “I was about 6 at the time.”

J: “Fend for you- no one helped you???”

Eden: “Nah. But that was fine. I was used to fighting people anyway. Me and my sisters fought a good bit.”

J: “How many did you have ?”

Eden: “Two. Both younger. Kirsty and Nori. Twins.”

J: “Oooohh… so what’s the difference between Spurling and XF? Besides the financially legal stuff.”

Eden: “XF is more tech-y and hipster, I guess, while Spurling is more like. Funding and helping people get to their feet n’ stuff. That’s the best I can describe it, really. That’s all it is.”

J: “Oohhhh, that makes sense. What did the foundation offer you, anyway?”

Eden: “A home and some medical stuff. No money, though. Or clothing, annoyingly. But a house was enough for me. Unfortunately it was in the heart of downtown. Violence thrives there.”

Eden: “So much unethical shit goes down, but I don’t care. It’s fine. I’m alive - that’s all that matters -”

J: “... i- is that really how you view life-?”

Eden: “Obviously. I’m fucking terrified of dying, I’ll do anything to keep myself alive. I despise my talent, cars suck ass, but at least I get money. That’s all I care about. The money to pay rent, to get clothing, to get all of those things.”

Eden: “As well as things like contacts and bandages.”

J: “.. is your eye..?”

Eden: “I can see out of it. It’s just extremely blurry.”

J: “What happened?”

Eden: “Dog. Someone’s dog scratched me when I was younger. Like. 9. It’s not painful, though.”

J: “Ah.. and your arm?”

Eden: “... smashed. It hurts a bit. There was some blood, too. I’ll change the bandages later, I guess.”

J: “Are you sure you should be doing this elevator thing, then?”

Eden: “‘M Sure. Speaking of, pull harder. We’re close to fully opening this bitch up!”

J: “Oh, OK!”

The two of us pulled the elevator doors a bit more. The doors opened more, yes, but also it got a bit harder to keep the doors open. If I let go, the doors would slam shut and probably would crush our fingers. This was less than ideal.

J: “Gh- we- need another person-”

Eden: “Yeah, but we can’t really call for help, and it’s not like someone strong’ll just conveniently show u-”

Alexander: “What are you two doing ?”

Eden: “... I stand corrected.”

J: “Alex! We’re trying to open the elevator! Mind helping out?”

Alexander: “First of all, my name is Alexander , or if you’re feeling modest, Matthews. Not ‘Alex.’”

Alexander: “Second of all, I don’t see why I should engage in your tomfoolery.” 

J: “... pleaaassseee…? If you help us, we won’t annoy you for the rest of the day! I promise!”

Alexander: “...”

Alexander: “Fine.”

Alexander scoffed and walked over to the elevator doors, positioning himself in between them before pushing them with little effort as they were opened. He rolled his eyes, annoyed. Eden blinked a few times before peeking her head into the elevator.

“Out of Order. Please come back later. Sorry :<”

Alexander sighed at the sight of the sign and closed the elevator doors slowly before backing away from the elevator.

Eden: “Wh- Who wrote this??”

Alexander: “A child. Who puts that… face … on a sign? Not MonoToaster, that’s for sure.”

J: “.. I find it amusing but still, it sucks the elevator isn’t working. A shame.”

Alexander: “Of course it doesn’t work. Forcing it open doesn't seem too promising, after all.”

J: “Well yeah but- it was worth a shot!”

Eden: “Yeah, at least we’re trying to leave. Some of the people here have plans to just stay here.”

Eden: “It’s stupid to think if we stay here, we won’t die. We have to either escape or die, and I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die .”

Alexander: “Does anyone?”

Eden: “Some people. Worthless people.”

Alexander: “... I see. I agree with that statement. People who want to end their own lives are nothing but worthless.”

Eden: “Mhm.”

J: “C- Can we not discuss that- Maybe we can focus on other things- like- … oh Eden! Can you tell me more about your sisters?”

Eden: “Wh- ok- I guess. Weird subject change but whatever.”

Eden: “So my sisters are Kristy and Nori, I mentioned that before. They’d be about 19 right now. Kristy was a lot more of the energetic twin sister, she just kept getting into stupid trouble.”

Eden: “And Nori was more.. strategic but she’d still somehow cause trouble with that.”

J: “Ah, I see, I see. Did you like them-?”

Eden: “Eh. Sibling relationship. I don’t hate them but I hate them.”

J: “Pfft-”

Alexander: “That very much describes the feeling of having siblings, especially sisters. You hate them, but also deep down want the best for them.”

J: “You have sisters?”

Alexander: “Three older ones. Aurora, Anna, and Belle.”

Eden: “The- The D****y Princesses?” 

Alexander: “.... what-?”

J: “..... have you ever seen a D****y movie-”

Alexander: “I’ve never heard of D****y.”

J: “OH MY GOD YOU POOR SOUL.”

Alexander: “I’m not a poor soul .”

J: “Who’s princess Anna?”

Alexander: “... my older sister?”

J: “What’s F****n?”

Alexander: “A- Temperature?”

J: “A poor soul indeed.”

Alexander: “I’m NOT a POOR SOUL- ”

Eden: “Alexander, you’re a poor fuckin’ soul. Admit it.”

Alexander: “I’M NOT A POOR SOUL -!”

J: “Pfft, we kid, we kid.”

Eden: “I’m not kidding. How do you not know what D****y is? Aren’t you like- 30-”

Alexander: “Wh- no??? I’m 21. Not 30. I swear.”

Eden: “How are we the same age .”

Alexander: “You look like you’re a 5 year old. How tall are you?”

Eden: “4’8, I’m NOT A CHILD .”

Alexander: “But you’re as small as one. I could kick you into a wall.”

Eden: “I could kick your stomach and make you doubt down and kill you easily-”

Alexander: “Hah! I won’t go down without a fight, though.”

Eden: “You better put up a good one, I don’t like the easy route!”

Alexander: “Alright then!”

J: Blinks

What were those two even talking about- fighting each other-? I hope they’re just joking around.

MonoToaster: “Students-”

Eden: “KYAAAH-”

Alexander: “GAH-!”

J: “... why were you two shocked it was behind us for a bit-”

Alexander: “Why didn’t you TELL US?!”

J: “Because it was funny to see you scared.”

Alexander: “... hmpf… I don’t understand why you’d find amusement in me being startled for a fair reason.”

J: “.. pfft- awww you’re pouting..”

Alexander: “I- I’m not pouting! I’m not pouting !”

J: “Yes you aaarrree~!”

Eden: “You’re so pouting. You gotta admit you are.”

Alexander: “I’m not! Hmpf!”

MonoToaster: “As much as the audience enjoys your childish banter, I have come for a specific reason. Rule number 7 has been broken.”

J: “... which is?”

Alexander: “Do you not have your MonoTablet on you?”

J: “Do you?”

Alexander: “Answer me first-”

J: “I don't have it on me. I keep it in my room. I don't exactly wanna lose it.”

Alexander: “Mine is also in my room.”

Eden: “Same here. I don't carry it around myself.”

MonoToaster: “I cannot believe I must state the rules for you all. You three should be reading and memorizing these rules. I will state it once for you three.”

MonoToaster: “Rule 7: Property damage is prohibited.”

Alexander: “But the elevator has not been damaged at all! I’ve made sure not to break it, mostly because I want to see if it’ll work later.”

MonoToaster: “Forcefully opening an elevator seems as though it warrants a punishment, now, doesn’t it?”

J: “It- really doesn’t. It really doesn’t at all. Like- it’s not broken in any way, shape, or form- it’d probably still work.”

Eden: “It would still work. If it was working in the first place. I’m not sure if it ever was.”

Alexander: “I doubt it worked. Ever. And even if it did, there’s no reason to have it here unless it works.”

MonoToaster: “... you three amaze me with your stupidity.”

J: “Well now that we’ve discussed how we didn’t break the elevator, is that all you needed from us-”

MonoToaster: “ Digital sigh I will let you three off for this with a light punishment, but if you break the rules once again, you three will receive the punishment of death.”

Eden: “Mhm. Suurrreee. Tata, MonoBitch!”

MonoToaster: “Goodbye, Student 04. I hope you’re happy to know you’ve lost access to your room.” 

Eden: “Mh- wait what-”

MonoToaster: *[Hovers away]*

J: “PFFT-”

Alexander: “.... pff- someone lost room privileges.”

Eden: “HEY! MONOBITCH- WHY DON’T LEXIE AND JJ GET ROOM PRIVILEGES TAKEN???”

MonoToaster: “Oh, they do have those privileges taken.”

Eden: “... wait I was kidding-”

J: “HEEEYY. I LIKE MY ROOM.”

Alexander: “L- Lexie?”

J: “I’m stealing that nickname now, by the way. Lexie. Leexxiiiee. Lex! It’s a fun name!”

Alexander: “It’s not a fun name. Address me as Alexander or Matthews. No nicknames whatsoever.”

J: “No! Nicknames are fun, Matt! You can’t steal my nickname rights!”

Alexander: “Where do you even get these stupid names from? The depths of your idiocy?”

J: “Hey! It’s a good nickname! It’s either Matt or Alex!”

Eden: “Oooorrr Lexie.”

Alexander: “Tobisa- stay out of this. This is a battle between me and J.”

Eden: “Hmmm… no!”

Eden: “Also, side note, why do you call J- well- J but everyone else gets called their last names-”

Alexander: “Well, J does not have a last name. If J did , I’d address her- him- ... them by their last name.”

J: “PFFT- DO YOU NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT I GO BY???”

Alexander: “DON’T LAUGH. I’M TRYING TO BE RESPECTFUL.”

Eden: “It is somewhat entertaining to see you fail-”

Alexander: “Do you know what J goes by?”

J: “He. Or they. But usually he.”

Eden: “I do now!”

J: “.. pff-”

Alexander: “ Sigh Thank you. Anyway. If J had a last name that he introduced himself with, I’d address him with that. But both J and Ro only go by first names. So that’s what I call them. Everyone else has last names.”

J: “Even if you’re friends with them?”

Alexander: “Friends? Anyone here? Bah!”

J: “A sad sad life…”

Alexander: “Sa- no I’m being smart . Friends will betray you in a killing game.”

J: “And making enemies out of everyone will bite you in the back.”

Eden: “You need a mix of enemies and allies in a killing game.”

Alexander: “Says you .”

Eden: “Golden coming from the guy who ALMOST STRANGLED SOMEONE TO DEATH BECAUSE THEY WERE CRYING.”

Alexander: “HE COULD’VE GOTTEN HIMSELF KILLED!”

Eden: “ YOU ALMOST KILLED HIM!”

Alexander: “I WAS TRYING TO HELP HIM!”

Eden: “BY KILLING HIM IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?!”

Alexander: “I HAD NO INTENTIONS TO KILL HIM!”

Eden: “WELL THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU STRANGLE HIM?!”

Alexander: “I WASN’T- I- I WAS TRYING TO HELP HIM- ISN’T THAT HOW YOU HELP SOMEONE?!”

J: “!”

J: “Who told you that?”

Alexander: “What-?”

J: “Who- who told you that was ok-?”

Alexander: “... shut-”

J: “Who lied to you, Alexander?”

Alexander: “I said shu-”

J: “Who hurt you and said it was to help you, Matthews?”

Alexander: “...... stop it- stop-”

J: “Alexander, please -”

Alexander: “....”

Alexander: “You said you’d leave me alone, I’m leaving. I’m going to go to Charles’ room since mine got locked because of you two. ”

J: “Wait, why his-”

Alexander: “Because he doesn’t seem to care about the things I do to him. Goodbye, J. Tobisa.”

And without another word, Alexander walked away from the elevator. Leaving me and Eden alone. Eden was just standing there, calmly. With a small smirk, actually. Did she- enjoy that-?

Eden: “Well that happened!”

J: “... yeah. It did.”

Eden: “Sooo… what now?”

J: “I’m- not sure. I didn’t have any plans so-”

Hu: “Boo!”

Eden: “KYAH-”

J: “AAH-”

Hu: “Pfft. Wooow. Eden! Getting started, eh?”

Eden: “... do ya need somethin’?”

Hu: “I’ve organized an event! Everyone but Farturo is there! And from what I saw, Lexie isn’t joinin’ us.”

J: “... yeah he’s upset right now. We also promised we wouldn’t annoy him for the rest of the day.”

Hu: “Hm I see I see! He’s a little pussy!”

J: “Sure, yeah, anyway, what’s the event you have planned?”

Hu: “You’ll see! It’s in the cafeteria, follow me!”

And with that, Hu walked off down the hall in the opposite direction Alexander did prior. Eden shrugged and followed Hu and I did as well. She led us to the cafeteria where everyone but Arturo was. They seemed to just be talking with each other calmly. In the middle of the room was a long line of tables with 7 chairs on either side and a white board in the front with a bunch of little doodles of people on it. Almost like a- bracket?

Hu: “I have returned! With JJ and ‘Den!”

Nico: “Hell yeah! Now we can do the arm wrestling competition!”

J: “Arm… wrestling?”

Teruko: “Ah, do you not know what arm wrestling is?”

J: “No no I do but- a contest?”

Arei: “Mhm! Hu thought it’d be fun to have us all go head to head in a strength competition! Since we don’t have weights here-”

Min: “-Arm wrestling seemed the most appropriate!”

J: “Ah!”

Veronika: “W- We assumed Alexander wouldn’t be joining us a- and we’ve banned Arturo from any group ev- events.”

J: “I know he’s kinda a bitch n’ all but, banned? Really?”

Levi: “... w- we assumed he attacked David and… we thought it’d be best to keep him away from everyone else. For the safety of the group. We don’t want him going after any of us again…”

Whit: “It’s for the best. We don’t want any deaths at all.”

Ace: “We really don’t… we’re trying to find a way out of this place… not have anyone die..”

Ro: “Mhm.”

J: “Oh! Whit, Ace, did you ever get that MonoTablet back from Arturo?”

Ace: “... weeelll…” 

[ F l a s h b a c k  .  .  .   F l a s h b a c k ]   

Ace: Walking after Arturo quickly “Wait up-! We just want David’s MonoTablet back!”

Whit: “He’s not going to hand it over to us easily-”

Ace: “But we have to try , don’t we?!”

Whit: “We can attempt to, yes, but it’ll just be useless anyway-”

Ace: “Cmooonn… it’s for David!”

Whit: Sigh “For David, I guess.”

Arturo: Stops in his tracks and turns around with a glare.

Arturo: “Following people is rude, you know.”

Whit: “We just want David’s MonoTablet back- we’ll leave you alone afterwards. I promise. We’re only here for that.”

Ace: “Mhm mhm. We’ll leave you alone, I swear.”

Arturo: “... tch.”

Arturo: “No. I’m still holding onto it.”

Ace: “.... pleeeaaaassseee…”

Arturo: “My answer is still ‘no’. You’d have to beg on your knees to get this ba-”

Ace: Drops to his knees and looks at Arturo with the biggest puppy dog eyes. “Pleeaaassseee?”

Arturo: “Wh- no get off the floor! I’m not giving this back-! Don’t actually beg!”

Whit: “Ace no-”

Ace: “I’m trying everything I can!”

Whit: “Ace you look like you’re begging for something else. Get off the floor-”

Ace: “Finneee…”

Ace: Stands up “But I want that MonoTablet handed back to David, Arturo!”

Arturo: “... here’s the dramatic answer you want so badly. N-O.”

Whit: “Why not? Why are you so insistent on keeping it? There’s nothing to gain from having someone else’s MonoTablet. It only casts more suspicion on you.”

Arturo: “.....”

Arturo: Angry sigh.

Arturo: Pulls out the MonoTablet from his robe pocket and throws it at Whit. Pretty hard actually- “Take it. If that’s all you pathetic wastes of space needed from me, I will be going. Goodbye.”

Whit: Oof-

Ace: “WH- NOT AGAIN! PEOPLE, DON’T THROW STUFF AT OTHERS-”

Whit: “... ow. … not as bad as the time I got a bottle thrown at me.”

Ace: “... what- ”

Whit: “Uh. Like 2 years ago. Some event or something I was drunk, pissed someone off, and they threw a bottle at my head. I’m fine, though.”

Ace: “I’m worried in general why were you drinking-”

Whit: “.... because I like drinking? And it was a party …?”

Ace: “..... if I said there’s alcohol in the kitchen fridge.”

Whit: “REALLY?!”

Ace: “........”

Ace: “There is but do NOT DRINK IT.”

Whit: “... why not?”

Ace: “Alcohol in a killing game ? You could get drunk and get yourself killed-!”

Whit: “True. But that’s the fun part!”

Ace: “I’ve never seen you so energetic for all the wrong reasons-”

Whit: “Awh… but alcohol is really good. But besides that, I have the MonoTablet, we can go back to the group.”

Ace: “Ok-!”

[ F l a s h b a c k  .  .  .   F l a s h b a c k ]   

Ace: “So eventually we did! But not without some trouble-”

Min: “You got a MonoTablet thrown at you?! Where?!”

Whit: “... my chest- but I’m fine. It doesn’t matter. I had a single job, and I got it done.”

He shrugged, walking over to David and sliding the tablet to him, the latter taking it and putting it in his pockets.

Whit: “I didn’t break any ribs or something like that, don’t worry. I can breathe mostly fine. Plus, I’ve had worse thrown at me.”

Veronika: “... p- please don’t share.”

Nico: “Well now I’m intrigued! What have you got thrown at ya?”

David: “.... I- hate to admit I’d like to know.”

Whit: “Well lets see. Beer bottles, chairs, buckets, eggs, tomatoes (unsurprisingly), books, tables, a shelf once (that was fun), uh-”

Arei: “Woah woah woah! Slow down! What have you gone through?!”

Levi: “Th- That’s terrible! Why would people throw that stuff at you?!”

Nico: “Sounds more badass than terrible!”

Teruko: “Sounds interesting…”

Ro: “Sounds bad , what did people do to you???”

Whit: “Calm down everyone- it’s just prank stuff. …and parties but that’s unimportant.”

Ro: “I think it is important- you could have injuries from those things that you didn’t even notice existed! You could be hurt and then accidentally reinjure that thing!”

Whit: “... coming from you, I find that somewhat ironic. But I’m fine, Ro. I got checked out- I get checked out often. Mostly to make sure I’m in somewhat shape and in good enough condition to do things for videos n’ stuff.”

Whit: “If anything, I should be the one worried about you, Levi, David, and Charles for all the stuff that has happened today. A heavy object thrown at your head, A spike narrowly going through your head but cutting your forehead, and two people getting strangled with articles of clothing (most likely, anyway.)”

Charles: “A- Ah I promise I’m fine! Really! My head hurts a bit and breathing is a bit hard but without that I’m truly OK! He didn’t strangle me that badly I swear-”

Hu: “Your eyes looked like they were rolling into the back of your fuckin’ head! You call that ‘ok’?!”

Charles: “I- I’ve been through worse!”

David: “What’s with all this ‘I’ve been through worse’ shit.”

Charles: “Eh?”

David, who for most of this time had his head down and was sitting at the table, lifted his head up with an annoyed yet tired expression on his face.

David: “Saying that’s only gonna make people more worried, more- concerned for your well being n’ shit like that. It doesn’t help you at all. It just makes it worse for yourself.”

David: “People suck. Humanity sucks. People do awful shit to each other. But sayin’ you’ve been through worse’ll only bite you in the back.”

David: “So if you really want to insist you’re fine, then do it. I’m not saying you’re not fine, but at least put some effort into trying to tell others you’re OK.”

Charles: “I-”

Eden: “That’s the most I’ve ever heard the emo bitch talk. Damn.”

David: “My throat hurts- I’m not going to talk more than I need to. It’s not like anyone actually wants to hear me talk, anyway.”

Ace: “... do you want some water, David?”

David: “......”

David: “Don’t care. You can grab it if you want, I guess.”

Ace: “Alright!”

And with that, Ace ran out of the room to grab some water for David. Everyone else just dissolved into their own conversations. I stayed in the corner, just watching. …. if you took away the whole ‘killing game’ thing, we all just seemed like normal college students relaxing together.

If only.

Hu: “Well now I think is a good time to have everyone pair up with their competitors! The pairs are…”

Hu: “Ro and J!”

J: “... hm. Ok ok I think I can do this! I can beat Ro, no problem!”

Ro: “Pfft, sure you can. I’ll put up a fight, y’know!” 

J: “Mhhhm sure! If you win uhhh… I dunno I’ll make you anything you want!”

Ro: “Can you even cook -?”

J: “I can , thank you very much!” 

Hu: “Next pairing seems fitting, Ace and David!”

David: “... I- never wanted to do this shit.”

Hu: “Too bad, so sad, cry me a fuckin’ river.”

David: “Ask Ace to do that, not me.”

Hu: “Whatever! The next pairing is Teruko and Min!”

Min: “Hm! This seems fun! Teruko, don’t use your luck to beat me, OK? I want a fair fight!” 

Teruko: “Mmm, no promises~!” 

Min: “Hmpf!”

Hu: “The next pairing is Eden and Veronika!”

Veronika: “W- Wait! Eden’s s- so much stronger than I am! How is th- this fair?!”

Eden: “Boo hoo get stronger, bitch. Or else you’re gonna get your head bashed in or somethin’ by someone.” 

Veronika: “Wh- what?!”

Hu: “Pfft, anyways the next pairing is Me and Nico. Obviously, I’m going to beat their ass in this.”

Nico: “Mhhm! Sure you wiiillll!”

Hu: “Next pairings are Whit and Levi and Arei and Charles, I don’t give a fuck about them at all so LET’S START THE CONTEST! Everyone sit across from each other and START!” 

Veronika: “Sh- Shouldn’t we wait for A- Ace?” 

Hu: “Ugh, fine, everyone just sit down in your spots and wait for Ace.”

Levi: “We had assigned spots-”

Hu: “JUST SIT WITH YOUR GODDAMN PARTNER.” 

Levi: “OK OK GEEZ-”

And so everyone sat down at the table- tables? It’s like 3 tables put together vertically so I guess tables but it could be considered a single table so- eh whatever. We all sat down. Aaannd everyone started talking over each other again. I was able to catch a few conversations, someone talking about finding an escape, someone talking about their life outside of this place, someone talking about how they were hungry- simple things.

… we really were just some simple college students who wanted to have fun, huh?

Well after like, 3 minutes, Ace returned with a cup of water for David, picking up on what we were doing and sitting in the one open seat, pushing the glass of water to the blue-haired man.

David: “...”

David: “... how do I know you didn’t poison this?” 

Ace: “I- I swear I didn’t-! I don’t want to hurt you- I just- …. trust me, please.” 

Ace: “J- just watch.”

Ace: Takes a sip of the water.

David: “... now I’m not drinking from the same glass as you.” 

Ace: “..... seriously.”

David: “Kidding, and by the way, I could care less if you poisoned my water. Pass me that glass.” 

Ace: “Wh- … so why did you- ah whatever, you’re drinking water.” 

Ace handed the glass of water to David and the latter took a couple sips of water. Hu gave the two a glare before clapping her hands. 

Hu: “NOW that everyone is here! We can start the arm wrestling contest! Ready, set, GO!” 

[ J vs Ro ]

Me and Ro interlocked hands with our elbows on the table. I gave her a smirk while she just had this determined look on her face. This- really cute fa- no. Nope. I’m not going to think of that. Whatever, she was a pretty simple opponent, I gently slammed her hand onto the table.

Winning, I did an even smugger smirk while she pouted a bit with a small, defeated smile.

Ro: "Good job.."

J: "Thank you~!"

[ Ace vs David ]

Ace: Lets go of David’s hand and lets his hand fall onto the table with a small giggle.

Ace: “At least I got to hold hands with a pretty guy!”

David: “...” Blushes lightly but scoffs and rolls his eyes. “You and your.. weird.. things.” 

Ace: “Weird things? Like what?”

David: “You and your… kindness crap. Being nice to people for some stupid reason-”

Ace: “... stupid?”

Ace: “.. being kind to people is- is how you make it through life. Sure, you’ll make enemies, but being kind to people has more positives than negatives.”

Ace: “Plus! You live a better life!”

David: “.....”

David: “.. ᴵ ʷᶦˢʰ ᴵ ᶜᵒᵘˡᵈ ˡᶦᵛᵉ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ. ᴵⁿ ᵇˡᶦˢˢᶠᵘˡ ᵈᵉⁿᶦᵃˡ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʷᵒʳˡᵈ. ... ˢᵗᵃʸ ᵇˡᶦˢˢᶠᵘˡ, ᴬᶜᵉ.” 

Ace: “Eh?”

David: “You’re really stupid.”

Ace: “Aw. Hmpf. AND to think I let you win…”

David: “I- didn’t want to win. I wanted to get out. I don’t want to be here- I want to go back to my room-”

Ace: “Well after this you can go back to your room, but social stuff is good for you!”

David: “Says you.”

Ace: “Eh?”

David: “Are you really that dumb- I mean you’re a social butterfly. You’re an emotional butterfly at that.” 

Ace: “... butterflies don’t have emotions-”

David: “... you get the FUCKING POINT.” 

Ace: “WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING- ”

David: “I DON’T KNOW.”

Ace: “... Pff-” 

[ Teruko vs Min ] 

Teruko: “Do you really think you’ll win, Min? Against me?” 

Min: “... don’t you dare use your luck against me. I want a FAIR FIGHT.” 

Teruko: “I don’t play by the rules, dear, I win. That’s all I care about. Winning! And entertainment. … and the few people I care for- ok I care for a few things.” 

Min: “Hmpf.”

Teruko: Easily pushes Min’s hand down onto the table while she isn’t paying attention.

Min: “Wh- hey! Not fair!” 

Teruko: “Yes fair~! I win! Hahaha!”

Min: Becomes a living example of >:(    

Teruko: Becomes a living example of :>

[ Eden vs Veronika ] 

Veronika: “P- Please don’t break my hand-”

Eden: “Give me two reasons why I shouldn’t.”

Veronika: “One I l- like my hand, and t- two I DON’T W- WANT A BROKEN HAND???”

Eden: “Hmmmm….”

Eden slammed Veronika’s hand into the table. Not too hard, but enough for it to hurt a bit.

Veronika: “O- Ow! Hey!”

Eden: “Not good enough reasons! Give me better ones next time! But don’t worry, I didn’t break your hand. It’ll be fine in like, 10 minutes.”

Veronika: “... r- rude.”

Eden: “Who cares about if it's rude or not? I win.”

Veronika: “....”

Veronika: “... that won't get you far in life.”

Eden: “It's gotten me to 21 years in life, I think it's working.” 

[ Hu vs Nico ]

Nico: “I'll give you a fun, fair fight! If that's what you really want!”

Hu: “Fuck yeah! But I'll beat your ass anyway, fair OR not!” 

Nico: “Mhm, sure! Alright!”

It was a pretty good and fair fight, but in the end, Hu barely beat Nico. Both of them shaking each other's hands with a grin.

Hu: “Good try!”

Nico: “Agh, it seems you've beat me. Good job, I guess. You did beat my ass in this.”

Hu: “Of course I did! I'm gonna beat everyone's asses in this!”

[ Whit vs Levi ]

Levi: “I- Is this even fair for you…?”

Whit: “You can win, if you want. I don't mind. I just want to sit back and watch.”

Levi: “You sure…? I- I won't win if you want to!”

Whit: “I'm sure, don't worry.”

Levi: “O- Ok!”

Levi: Gently pushes Whit's hand onto the table.

Whit: “Good job on winning, Levi.”

Levi: “Thanks-!”

[ Arei vs Charles ]

Charles: “You have the advantage here, y'know? As an athlete, you're super strong!”

Arei: “Haha! I'll try and go easy on ya. Don't worry. Also, why don't you wear gloves? Everyone else does here.”

Charles: “A- Ah. I just like being able to feel things, that's all. Even if that means getting my hands bloody or stuff like that. I- I hate it but..”

Arei: “You're a… Forensic Biologist, right? Do you like it?”

Charles: “I… guess? It gets me by in life. That's all I really need- it's not awful but it makes me sad seeing people… y'know.”

Arei: “Mhm.”

Arei and Charles chatted for a small bit before Charles pushed Arei’s hand onto the table with a smile.

Arei: “Pfft, good job.”

Charles: “Thank you!”

Hu: “And with that, we're down to 7! Levi gets a bye round, since he's a lot more physically fit than any of us and we need 3 1v1's!”

Levi: “O- Oh! Fun..! Thanks, Hu!”

Hu: “Sure, whatever. The next rounds are J versus David, Eden versus Teruko, and Me versus Charlie-Bear!”

Charles: “E- eh? Charlie-Bear..?”

J: “... pfft. You have to admit, it's a cute nickname.”

Min: “I find it adorable! It suits you, Charles! It’s fun, sweet, and silly!”

Charles: “Aha… I- I guess…? But I’d prefer if it was just Charlie.. the bear part is a bit much for me, sorry.”

Hu: “Finnneee. I’ll consider your fragile emotional state and not use the amazing nicknames I so kindly gave to you.”

Ro: “I mean… it’s a pretty good nickname either way. Do you give nicknames to everyone?”

Hu: “Anyone I can, yeah. Nicknames are badass! And also, it’s fun to tease people with them~!”

Teruko: “That’s true. People get deliciously flustered at them! I find it somewhat entertaining to see.”

Nico: “Hell yeah! That’s the best part about nicknames!”

Veronika: “Is that why you guys adore calling Alexander a bunch of nicknames-?”

J: “Lex?”

Hu: “Mattie?”

Eden: “Lexie?”

Min: “Matt?”

Charles: “Alex?”

Veronika: “Yeah… all those nicknames. Is that why you call him all that stuff? Because his reactions are entertaining for you guys?”

Charles: “Well… it’s also just fun to give friends nicknames!”

Veronika: “... he almost killed you, he’s hurt you, he’s very vocally made it a fact he hates you. And you still see him as a friend…?” 

Charles: “...”

Charles: “Mhm. Even if people hurt you- you can make amends. I want to be friends with him. He needs friends.”

Veronika: “E- even if he hurt you?”

Charles: “Even if he hurt me.”

David: “.... people who hurt you… can’t care. They will never care about you. They will never love you.” 

Eden: “Wow, Ultimate Party Pooper over here. That’s your whole fuckin’ talent, isn’t it? Distrustin’ in people and makin’ everyone hate your ass.” 

David: “Wow, took you long enough.”

Eden: “Makes sense. No one fuckin’ likes ya.”

David: “Get in line. There’s more people who hate my guts than people who’d want to have a genuine conversation with me.” 

Hu: “Pfft, and at this rate, you’re at the front of that line.” 

David: “Ding ding motherfucker. Do you want a prize for that?” 

Hu: “Your soul.”

David: “What soul?” 

Hu: “Soulless bitch.”

J: “Can we please not-”

Ace: “Y- yeah maybe it’d be better to not continue this conversation at all-!”

Ro: “Let’s just- get back to our game! That’ll be fun!” 

Hu: “Oh yeah! Ok everyone move around so they can play against their opponent!”

Everyone shuffled around so now it was down to 6 people playing against each other, and Levi. Just, watching. He got a bye round, lucky bitch-

[ J vs David ]

David: “I… don’t fuckin’ care. You can win.”

J: “Eh? Ok then! Free win for me!”

I slammed Davids hand onto the table with a smirk. Now that was even easier than Ro! He didn’t put up a fight at all! That’s fun. 

J: “I win! Hah!”

David: “... yay good for you, J. Hope you’re happy.” 

J: “I am !” 

David: “... good you should be happy.” 

J: “... ok..? Anyway- yay! I get to go on to the next round!”

[ Teruko vs Eden ]

Teruko: (Hm. Eden is quite strong. I need to figure out how to win. Oh!) 

Teruko: Stomps on Eden’s foot.

Eden: Doesn’t even flinch and SLAMS Teruko’s hand onto the table.

Teruko: “.... oh. I lost. How… odd.” 

Eden: “HAH! Get beat, bitch!”

Teruko: “.... good job, Tobisa.” 

Eden: “Thanks, Teru!”

[ Hu vs Charles ]

Charles: “...”

Hu: “Pfft- this is the competition? ... this’ll be ea-”

Charles: Slams Hu’s hand onto the table. 

Hu: “WHAT-”

Hu: “HOW ARE YOU STRONG???”

Charles: “... eh? I just- am.”

Hu: “CHEATER!!”

Charles: “I DIDN’T CHEAT-?”

Hu: “YOU TOTALLY DID!”

Charles: “I DON’T CHEAT??? (except on that one exam... but shh...) CHEATING IS BAD.” 

Hu: “What are you, my mom ? I don’t need to deal with her again.” 

Charles: “Oh- uh- sorry.”

Hu: “Ugh, whatever. You won.”

J: “And then there were four!”

Ace: “And then there were four, who’ll win, I dunno, but it’ll be fun to watch nonetheless!”

Nico: “You bet your ass it’ll be fun to watch! There’s gonna be such a good competition with this.”

Min: “That… doesn’t make any grammatical sense-” 

Nico: “Do I look like I care?”

Min: “Good point!”

Arei: “This’ll be really interesting to watch!”

Whit: “Too bad we don’t have money. It’d be fun to bet some stuff on who’d win. Personally, my bets are on Levi, I mean- look at him.”

Eden: “Pfft, nah, I’m totally winning!” 

J: “Nuh uh! I am!” 

Charles: “Aha- I don’t mind if I win or lose but it’ll be fun anyway!”

Levi: “I’m with Charles! It’ll be fun!”

Hu: “Well, whatever! The final four! J versus Eden and Levi versus Charles! Who will get the sweet victory? Who will be the sore stupid loser? Lets watch and find out!”

And with that, it was down to me, Eden, Charles, and Levi. The four of us paired up and sat across from each other. This is it. The second to last round.

[ J vs Eden ]

Eden: “Psh, this’ll be easy.”

J: “Hah! You wish!”

Eden: “I’m totally gonna beat your ass into next week, JJ.” 

J: “Mhhhm. Alright!”

Eden and I started our arm wrestling game, and to be honest, it was a bit difficult. But, in the end, she slammed my hand onto the table with a huge smirk across her face. … she slammed my hand really hard onto the table. Ow-

J: “... aw. Ok you win. Good job.”

Eden: “Hah! Loser! I win! You lose! I’m so beating either Levi or Charles.”

J: “Sure you will.”

Eden: “Psh. I absolutely will.”

J: “Alright!”

[ Levi vs Charles ]

Levi: “Alright, ready?”

Charles: “Ready!”

Levi: “Are you sure you want me to give you a fair fight-? I can like- go easy on you if you want.”

Charles: “I want a fair fight, it’d only be right after all!”

Levi: “Ok-!”

It seemed to be really even. Like- very even, but in the end…

Charles: “Hah! I won!”

Levi: “Yay! Good job, that was fun!”

The two shook hands with smiles across their faces.

Ace: “Wow, good job, Charles!”

Whit: “... hm. Impressive.”

Eden: “So I’m goin’ against that softie?! Psh! I want a real competition!” 

Hu: “I fuckin’ hate to say this, Ed, but he’s strong . I don’t know why a Forensic Biologist is strong, but he is .”

Charles: “... I- hunt in my free time..?” 

Veronika: “Y- You WHAT-?” 

Charles: “Woah woah woah! Calm down! I swear it’s legal hunting- and I only hunt specific animals, like deer!” 

Hu: “You? A rifle? Deer? Killing? You sobbed at the idea of us being in a killing game- and you hunt?!” 

Charles: “Killing people and killing animals are two different things-” 

David: “People are animals.” 

Charles: “....”

Charles: “Ok, that’s it. You’ve lost speaking rights. No more talking. Hmpf.” 

David: “Gladly. My throat hurts like hell right now.” 

Nico: “Hmmm…”

Nico: “What does hell even hurt like-” 

Nico: “On a scale of getting poisoned to getting thrown off a bull at full speed?” 

Ace: “... you- what-” 

David: “Poisoning. But like- a few times worse.”

Ace: “WHAT.”

Ro: “Woah woah woah, you two have been poisoned before???” 

Eden: “You haven’t ?” 

Ro: “N- … OK THAT’S DIFFERENT . FOOD POISONING DOESN’T COUNT.” 

J: “Jesus CHRIST you guys have awful lives.” 

David: “And who’s to blame for that , J?”

J: “Your parents?” 

David: “Oh yeah because I can blame my dead mother or my absent father for me getting poisoned, perfect excuse!” 

Whit: “Dead mom?” 

David: “Dead as fuck mom.” 

Whit: “Damn. Same.”

David: “Wow.”

Arei: “I- why are you guys talking about this so calmly???”

Nico: “When you live an eventful life, this shit becomes normal.”

Teruko: “Hm. How interesting.”

Veronika: “C- Can we go back to arm wrestling? I want to see who wins. Charles or Eden.”

Whit: “Bets are on Charles. All in.” 

J: “W- this isn’t like- a gambling game-???”

Arei: “We don’t even have money-”

At even the lightest mutter of the word ‘money’, MonoToaster appeared behind Arei.

MonoToaster: “Hello.”

Arei: “HYA- WHAT THE HELL-”

MonoToaster: “Wait. Be right back.”

MonoToaster: *[Leaves]*

J: “...”

J: “I think I’m going insane.” 

Eden: “Did MonoBitch just-”

Hu: “I am not even sure what the fuck I just saw but I saw it.”

Charles: “... aha. That thing is… surely something!”

Veronika: “It’s scary- that’s for sure…”

Whit: “Eh. Just don’t piss it off.” 

Teruko: “I find it interesting.”

J: “I guess-”

MonoToaster: “I’m back, with a few guests-”

The group turned around to look at MonoToaster with- two leashes attached to it’s antenna? Uh- OK weird an- … PFFT??? WAS THAT- LEXIE AND ARTURO ON LEA- OH MY GOD MONOTOASTER PUT THEM ON LEASHES. AND BOY DID THEY LOOK PISSED. 

Ace: “Wh- ARE THOSE MY LEASHES???” 

Hu: “WHAT THE FUCK ACE. YOU HAVE LEASHES ???”

Ace: “YEAH. THOSE ARE MY CUSTOM WEAPONS. BECAUSE I’M A DOG TRAINER , FOR GOD’S SAKE-”

Nico: “Wow Ace I didn’t know you were like that. Damn. I expected it from like, Whit, not you.”

Ace: “I-”

Alexander: “LET. ME. GO MONOTOASTER. LET ME GO! UNHAND ME YOU MOTHERFUCKING BASTARD! ”

Arturo: “.... please be quiet. You’re going to make it worse. That’s why your arms got tied together. You kept trying to kick MonoToaster-”

Alexander: “BECAUSE I GOT DRAGGED OUT OF MY ROOM???”

Teruko: “... pfft.”

Arei: “Wait if you tried to kick it- why did your arms get tied-?”

Arturo: “Because MonoToaster didn’t want to just drag Alexander around on the ground.” 

Eden: “And aren’t you like- banned from your room, Alexander??”

Alexander: “....”

J: “... Charles’ room isn’t your room- idiot.”

Charles: “Wait wait wait slow down. What .”

J: “Me, Eden, and Alexander lost room privileges. Alexander decided to stay in your room to stay away from everyone else. And. Yeah now he’s tied up.”

Hu: “Oooo~ all tied up!” 

Alexander: “Jing I swear to god I am going to kill you in cold blood and happily get executed.” 

Hu: “You’re too much of a worthless coward to try that!” 

Alexander: “.......”

Hu: “Ooooo~ a soft spot! Worthless little fuckin’ coward!”

Arturo: “Hu. I have a word for you.” 

Hu: “What is it?”

Arturo: “Shut your mouth .” 

Hu: “That’s three words!”

Arturo: “...” Eye twitch. 

MonoToaster: “Anyways. I will release Giles and Matthews. I need to explain a new feature on your MonoTablets.”

And so MonoToaster let Arturo and Lexie go. Arturo sighed and walked away from it while Lexie angrily stomped away from MonoToaster to the back of the group. Most of us were still sitting down (minus like, Arei, Min, Ro, Ace-).

MonoToaster: “Does anyone have their MonoTablet on them?”

Hu: “I do, I guess.”

MonoToaster: “How many locked features are there?”

Hu: “Like- 5- or 6 I guess.”

MonoToaster: “I have unlocked a new feature on it specifically for this occasion, as I see it’d be somewhat entertaining for the audience.”

MonoToaster: “I am happy to introduce the MonoShop.”

Arei: “Ooooh. What is the MonoShop?”

MonoToaster: “Essentially, it’s a digital coin shop. You can earn and exchange coins in this and with the coins, buy things.”

MonoToaster: “For example, for 5 MonoTokens, you can ask me to remove someone from your vicinity.” 

Teruko: “What do you mean by ‘remove someone from your vicinity’ exactly?”

MonoToaster: “You will know when you purchase it.”

MonoToaster: “For 15 MonoTokens, you can purchase one thing relating to your talent . For example, Student 05 can purchase a microphone or Student 01 could purchase an acting mask.” 

Ace: “... eh?”

MonoToaster: “Ah. Have I not added student numbers to your profiles? Apologies on my end.”

MonoToaster: “All 16 of you are numbered 01 - 16. J, for example, is 01. And Jing, Hu is 05.”

Hu: “Oh. Makes sense, I guess. Student numbers n’ shit like that.”

MonoToaster: “Now to continue, for 25 MonoTokens, you can purchase multiple things relating to your talent, but only one specific item. For example, Student 11, Nageishi, Arei, can purchase as many baseballs as she’d please with 25 MonoTokens.”

Arei: “Pfft, I can buy like 300 baseballs.”

MonoToaster: “A cap off at 50.”

Ace: “You said as many-”

MonoToaster: “A new cap off at 50.”

Alexander: “Oh, so you can change the rules at your will now? Why not play fair , MonoToaster?”

MonoToaster: “You’re on thin ice, Matthews.”

Alexander: “Tch.”

MonoToaster: “Anyways. For 100 MonoTokens, you may purchase extra time for investigations and/or trials.”

Veronika: “T- That’s a lot of money. How are we supposed to get that much…?”

MonoToaster: “Either through exchanging with other students, or earning them through doing tasks for me.”

Levi: “How do we.. exchange it with other people?”

MonoToaster: “Go to MonoShop, click exchange, tap the student you want to give MonoTokens to.”

MonoToaster: “You can exchange up to 50 MonoTokens with another person per day.”

Min: “That’s a lot of MonoTokens. How many can we earn in a day from tasks you make us do?”

MonoToaster: “About 75 if you do the most difficult tasks I ask of you.”

Charles: “Woah! Ok ok that sounds cool!”

Whit: “So we can actually bet money now here. Fun!”

MonoToaster: “Mhm. As a start, I’ve given you all 15 MonoTokens to spend.”

MonoToaster: “Note, once a student dies, all their MonoTokens die with them.”

MonoToaster: “That is all I had to say. Goodbye.”

MonoToaster: “Oh, and Markey. I will return your leashes to your room.”

Ace: “Uh, thanks-?”

And with that, MonoToaster hovered away. Well that was pretty useful stuff, would be really fun to use the MonoShop IF I HADN’T LEFT MY FAWKING TABLET IN MY ROOM.

Oh wait now people can actually bet on who’d win n’ stuff- that’s fun.

Hu: “OK NOW WITH THAT UNEXPECTED INTERRUPTION OUT OF THE WAY, WE CAN FINALLY FINISH THE COMPETITION! EDEN, THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE OBVIOUS WINNER.” 

Hu: “Versus Charles I guess whatever.”

Charles: “Wh- hey!”

Ace: “Versus the one, the only, the legendary Charles-!”

Charles: “Yay!”

Hu: “Booo.”

Arturo: “What is even going on here?”

Arei: “You’re still banned from group events.”

Nico: “Go into the corner, Farturo! Into the corner you go!” 

Arturo: “Wh- Farturo? Excuse me, why would you even call me that?”

Alexander: “Welcome to my world, Giles. They won’t stop calling you nicknames. Ever. Get used to it.”

J: “Cmon, Lexie, you have to admit they’re nice…”

Alexander: “I don’t have to do anything except die.”

J: “Wh- no dying!”

Alexander: “It’s bound to happen at some point , you know- I didn’t say I wanted it to be soon, I just said it was going to happen.”

Min: “... can we at least do the arm wrestling competition now?”

Arei: “Yeah! I wanna see that!”

Ro: “Well then we can do that, Charles, Eden, sit across from each other and let’s see who wins!”

Teruko: “Hm hm hm, we can place our bets now~!”

Whit: “Again, my bets are on Charles.”

Teruko: “Hm… mine are on Charles as well!”

Nico: “Now it’s guaranteed Charles will win- thanks to Teruko’s luck I guess.”

Eden: “But she lost to me! So her luck failed there!” 

Teruko: “Hm, who’s to say it failed? What if my luck was the reason we figured out that we had a MonoShop? Or that we could see Alexander tied up? I feel as though that was amusing!” 

Alexander: “Can we please not bring that up again-” 

J: “I’m gonna keep bringing it up until the day I die!” 

Alexander: “Won’t be long then.” 

J: “WHAT.”

Hu: “Mattie murder hit list count: 2. Victims, me and JJ. If we end up dead, you guys know who to blame.”

Alexander: “Apparently not me, because I’m not ‘Mattie.’”

Hu: “Oh excuse me. Your majesty’s hit list is at two. Me and poor J. If either of us end up dead, please blame our wondrous Lord, Matthews.” 

Alexander: “Much better.” 

Arturo: “... he is not Lord , he is just another person the Lord has created.”

Hu: “Oh my god please not another religious rant I BEG of you.” 

Arturo: “Then beg on your knees.”

Hu: “Oooo kinky~”

Ace: “.... I- regret everything.”

Whit: “Pfft- welcome to a normal day for me.”

Charles: “OK! ARM WRESTLING! NO KINK STUFF ANYMORE.” 

Eden: “Fine! I’m ready to beat your fuckin’ ass!”

So, this was it. Eden and Charles sat across from each other, hands interlocked with intense glares. Everyone else (except Art and Lexie) standing around them. The air: tense. The mood: awesome as fuck. And now. For the moment we’ve all been waiting for. 

[ Eden Tobisa: The Ultimate Car Mechanic versus Charles Cuevas: The Ultimate Forensic Biologist ]  

Charles: “You’re going down, Tobisa.”

Eden: “In your dreams, Cuevas.”

Charles: “Guess this is my dream then!”

Eden: “... being stuck in a killing game-?”

Charles: “Wh- no! Anyway-”

Charles: Attempts to slam Eden’s hand down 

Eden: “Hm? Awww… you’re trying! Hah!”

Eden: Slams Charles’ hand onto the table. 

Charles: “...”

Eden: “HAH! I WIN! I AM THE CHAMPION! HAHAHAHA!” 

Charles: “Nooooo….”

Eden: “I AM THE STRONGEST OUT OF ALL OF YOU! I. AM. POWER! ”

Nico: “Oh god we gave her an EGO.”

Alexander: “.... let me try.”

Charles: “Hm, alright.”

Charles stood out of his seat and let Alexander sit down.

Alexander: “So I just- slam your hand into the table?”

Eden: “Psh, yeah sure.”

Alexander: Grabs Eden’s hand and slams it really hard into the table. Breaking it. 

Eden: “.....”

Eden: “GYAAAH- OW MY HAND -”

Alexander: “... aw. That was quick. Not even a competition.”

J: “DUDE YOU BROKE THE TABLE!” 

Alexander: “...”

J: “YOU BROKE THE TABLE - ALEXANDER YOU’RE DEAD.”

Alexander: “SHIT-”

Eden: “Rest in peace our lord and saviour Alexander, doomed to the death of a robot toaster. We will not care nor remember you. This is karma for BREAKING MY HAND.”

Levi: “... why is everyone so worried?”

Veronika: “I- It’s against the r- rules f- for anyone to break anything-”

Eden: “And he already broke that rule like- 20 minutes ago. He’s so dead.”

Alexander: “I- I am not dead!”

MonoToaster: “What happe-”

Alexander: “KYAAAAH!” 

Ace: “A- ack! Oh- hey…. MonoToaster….”

MonoToaster: “Hello, Markey. I heard a loud crashing noise and I wanted to see if anyone broke anything. It’d be a shame if anyone did.”

MonoToaster: “And now I see the table is broken. So now I ask, who broke it?” 

MonoToaster: “I am very much mad, and I’d like to know.”

Veronika: “... I did it I-”

MonoToaster: “No. No you didn’t. Matthews?”

Alexander: “Don’t look at me. Look at Tobisa.”

Eden: “WHAT?! YOU LITERALLY BROKE IT! NOT ME!”

Teruko: “You two are both wrong. I broke it. Apologies. I wanted to see how strong I could be with my luck, and I got a bit excited and-”

MonoToaster: “You broke it, Tawaki?”

Alexander: “What-?”

Teruko: “Yes, I did. My deepest apologies.”

MonoToaster: “... fine. I will excuse it as it was an accident and it was just a test of your talent. But if this occurs once more. Punishment will await you.” 

Teruko: “Understood. Again, deepest apologies.”

Alexander: “Bu-”

Eden: “Wh- hey! How does she get off with punishments but we don’t?! I’m sensing you’re playing favorites! This isn’t fair!” 

MonoToaster: “.....”

MonoToaster: “A new rule is in place. For the next three days, anyone who kills Tobisa can and will be able to escape the school with no punishment in place.” 

Eden: “...!”

Eden: “Wh- WHAT?!”

MonoToaster: “It is also now officially nighttime. Everyone, head to your rooms.” 

MonoToaster: *[Hovers away]*

Eden: “... fuckin’ shit. God FUCK it-”

Hu: “Holy shit- I- it just-”

Teruko: “.... hm.”

J: “W- well that's a problem for you, Eden-! Uh- … please just stay careful.”

Alexander: “......”

Alexander: “..... be careful, Tobisa.”

Eden: “.... thanks, I guess-”

Charles: “Well that's- a problem-! Uh- crap what do we do -”

Arei: “Not panic, first of all. Think about this logically. Eden is a murder target right now, so we need to make sure she stays safe.” 

Ro: “... how do we make sure that actually happens?”

Arturo: “We pray. That is all we can do here.” 

Hu: “Arturo, we need to actually do something, not spew some holy words and rely on pure luck for it! That won't get us anywhere-”

Teruko: “... luck, hm?”

Eden: “.... holy shit. Teruko. Oh my goodness.” 

Teruko: “... hmmm… do I help you… or not~?” 

Eden: “Teruko please -”

Teruko: “Oh hush hush. I'll help you. You're fun to see around. Don't worry.” 

Eden: “Oh thank god-” 

Arturo: “Thank the Lord indeed.” 

Hu: “Oh fuck you.”

Whit: “Arturo? Fuck him? You gotta be desperate if you do.” 

Hu: “Oh yeah you gotta be SUPER desperate.” 

Arturo: “I'm right here, Young and Jing.” 

Nico: “Oooh he's using last names. You two are screwed .”

Hu: “Nope!”

Hu grabbed Eden's arm and ran out of the cafeteria without another word. Arturo, the ever so calm ma- oh he's chasing her nevermind! I didn't expect that! 

Whit: “... oh. … does that mean I'm safe or-”

Veronika: “I- I think so.”

Levi: “... Arturo is scary. And weird-”

Nico: “But you have to admit he's interesting!”

Teruko: “So steadfast in his beliefs… unwavering trust in them- ah! It's incredible!” 

Ace: “...I.. guess….? In a sense…? But- everyone has a strong moral compass so- that's one thing everyone has a steadfast belief in.” 

Nico: “US? Moral COMPASS? Wake up, Ace.”

Min: “.... Ultimate Moral Compass…”

J: “What-?”

Min: “Class 78. Kiyotaka Ishimaru, the Super High School Level Moral Compass.”

Min: “One of the original Ultimates!”

Arei: “Oh, wasn't he in the same class as Leon?” 

Min: “You remembered! Yes, he was!”  

Alexander: “... and why is he important now?”

Min: “W- well it's interesting to talk about the original class…” 

Alexander: “Whatever. Charles, I'm sleeping in your room. You sleep on the floor. Goodnight, everyone.”  

Charles: “Wa-”

Alexander: Walks away.

Charles: “.... aw. I was gonna ask if we could just- share the bed. It's a big bed-” 

J: “Sleep in the same bed ? Charles, please listen to yourself.”

Charles: “... what's wrong with it?” 

J: “....”

J: Facepalm.

Nico: “Charles, do you know what it means to be gay?” 

Charles: “Wh- …obviously???” 

Nico: “How so?”

Charles: “... I just- know. It's an obvious topic-” 

Charles: “Anyway… I'm gonna hit the sacks. Goodnight, everyone!”

Arei: “Night, Charlie!”

Levi: “Good night!”

Teruko: “Sleep well.”

J: “G’night!”

Charles: “Byeee!”

With a wave, Charles walked out of the cafeteria. Well it'll be interesting to hear about what he has to say in the morning, what it's like sleeping with Lexie. … OK that didn't sound right mentally but whatever, it's not like anyone can hear me right now. 

J: “... Miiin.”

Min: “Hm?”

J: “Can I stay in your room tonight?” 

Min: “Oh yeah, because of your room getting locked, right?”

J: “Mhm.”

Min: “Yeah sure, you can crash in my room. I don’t mind!” 

J: “Thanks!”

Min: “No problem!”

With a smile, I walked out of the cafeteria to Min’s room, opening the door and walking in.

It wasn't much different from my room, just more… school-y. I guess. Also purple and azul accents. Her bed was well made n’ stuff. I kicked my shoes off and grabbed a pillow from her bed, as well as a blanket, and made a small makeshift place to sleep on the floor.

I wasn't too tired though…. probably…….

… I fell asleep quite quickly that night. 

[ Day 1: End ]

Chapter Text

…

…

…

The cries of a young boy rang in my ears. Annoyed, I walked over to him. He looked about 10. He kept on crying . Crying and crying and CRYING. It was annoying, honestly. I just wished he was gone - My mother wasn’t around to help, and she didn’t even care about him (good, no one should care, he’s useless) so I was stuck with him. Annoying.

Wasn’t much I could do. I grabbed his arm and threw him into the bathroom, blocking the door off. Once he stops crying, I’ll let him out. Whatever. I didn’t care about him. He needs to stop being annoying. 

I wish he was dead sometimes. I wish he wasn’t alive. I wish he would just die- 

I woke up. 

Waking up on the floor is an odd experience. Waking up to a really weird, muddled dream is even worse. Maybe it’s just a dream from a play I’ve done in the past? I’ve done a lot of plays where I’m an older sibling, so it’d make sense. 

I rubbed my eyes and sat up on the floor. Ugh… I’m still in my normal clothing. I should wash this- it’d be gross to wear this normally. But I need a change of clothing- Hopefully my room opened- but knowing MonoToaster, it probably isn’t. 

Min was sitting on her bed, reading a book. Uhh trying to get a look at the cover it was a book on class 77A. Of course, another tragedy book. What else would I expect from her? 

Sighing, I stood up and sat on the bed next to Min. In turn, she looked up, smiled, and put her book down. 

Min: “Good morning, J! How’d you sleep?”

J: “Relatively well. Especially since we’re in a- y’know.”

Min: “Mhm. Makes sense.”

Min: “Oh, but why didn’t you sleep on the bed with me? I was going to offer you that but when I walked in, you were already asleep.”

J: “Well, I thought it’d be better to sleep on the floor. Just personally. Also, I feel like sleeping in the same bed as your friend is a bit-”

Min: “Odd? I don’t see why. We’re not doing anything in bed, just- sleeping.”

J: “Still- whatever.”

J: “What were ya readin’?”

Min: “Oh! The history of class 77A!”

Min: “It’s really really interesting! I adore reading about them, the tragedy, the remnants of DESPAIR! Augh! It’s amazing!”

J: “... you’re weird for that- but whatever. You enjoy it, I guess.”  

Min: “Despair isn’t ‘weird’, it’s fun! Really!”

Min: “Look look look!” 

She picked up the book again and flipped over to a page with a man with wavy black hair and red eyes and shoved it in my face happily. 

Min: “Izuru Kamukura! The Ultimate Hope!”

J: “... hope-? How the fuck does anyone have hope as a talent?”

Min: “... J. Teruko’s talent is being lucky -” 

J: “-but that luck is actually useful and isn’t something as obscure as ‘hope.’” 

Min: “... David’s talent is LITERALLY BEING DEPRESSED.”

J: “I- … can’t fight that. It’s a stupid talent-”

Min: “It’s not.. stupid ..? Just- odd.”  

Min: “Anyway, Izuru. He’s the Ultimate Hope because he has every talent . The Steering Committee conducted this project! It was called The Hope Cultivation Project , created to make artificial hope for the world, after all it was Hope’s Peak Academy!”

J: “Every…. talent? So he’s like- the Ultimate Stripper??”

Min: “Er- well every talent at Hope’s Peak Academy at the time. I don’t think there were any Ultimate Strippers at the time…” 

J: “Who knows? Maybe there was!”

Min: “... Ok I need to reread all the talents at HPA I need to see if there was-”

Min: “Anyways, Izuru was the Ultimate Hope! As well as Makoto Naegi!”

J: “Oh! Wasn’t he a headmaster..?”

Min: “Mhm! I’m surprised you knew that!”

J: “Well I heard of it somewhere. But whatever.”

Min: “Hm?”

J: “Nothing. I’m gonna go now.”

Min: “Oh, alright! The morning announcement went off about… 20-ish minutes ago? So I’m assuming people are in the kitchen making breakfast!”

J: “Oooh, thanks! See you later Min, thanks again and bye!” 

Min: “Bye, J!”

And with a smile, I happily walked out of Min’s room to the kitchen. Well, I was going to go to the kitchen, but I wanted to see if my room was open. So I turned around and walked down the hall to my room. 

I passed by Charles’ room pretty quickly but-

Charles: “Y- You sure you’re fine-? With what you’re telling me-”

Alexander: “I said I’m fine , Cuevas- Really-”

Charles: “Getting 2 days of sleep a week with only 3-4 hours of sleep during those days is not fine! It’s worrying! I’m worried , Alex!” 

Alexander: “Oh for crying out loud, I’m OK! I am OK!” 

Charles: “You’re not-! You need sleep !” 

Alexander: “Just because I let my lack of sleep slip up doesn’t mean you need to keep pushing me to sleep! I’m an adult, Charles! I don’t need anyone worrying over me!” 

Alexander: “I’m FINE! WHY DON’T YOU BELIEVE ME, CHARLES?! WHY DON’T YOU BELIEVE ME?! ” 

Charles: “... I- … I- I’m sorry I’m just- worried-”

Alexander: “I DON’T WANT YOUR STUPID PITY, YOU HEAR ME?! I DON’T WANT TO BE PITIED, I DON’T WANT TO BE WEAK! ” 

Charles: “ADMITTING YOU’RE NOT OK DOESN’T MAKE YOU WEAK! PITY DOESN’T MAKE YOU WEAK! REALLY!”

Alexander: “THEN WHY DOES EVERYONE TELL ME THAT?!” 

Silence. A deafening silence followed that. I- … should probably go. I shouldn’t be listening to this. It was wrong. But- I want to know more. Despite my moral compass, I stayed.

Charles: “.... they lied. They- lied to you.”

Alexander: “....”

Charles: “.. they lied to you, Alex. Pity doesn’t make you weak . It’s the fact you keep denying it that’ll make you a target.”

Alexander: “.... Sigh. ”

Charles: “But I’m not angry at you. You’re my friend after all. I could never be angry at you.”

Charles: “C’mon, we can talk about this later. Let’s go get some breakfast.”

Alexander: “... fine.”

Charles “Oh! You also called me Charles, not Cuevas! You called me by my first name~!”

Alexander: “I- it was an accident! I was upset!”

Charles: “Hehehe.”

The pair opened the door and walked out of Charles’ room. I quickly sprinted down the hall to my room and watched the two of them bicker a bit. It was fun to watch them be somewhat happy.

…. I opened the door to my room. At least it was open. I walked in, grabbed my MonoTablet, and then walked up the hall to the kitchen. 

…

Once I arrived into the kitchen, I saw Ace and David standing in one of the corners, Ace clearly making something to eat while David was grumbling about how he didn’t want to get out of bed and eat breakfast. Though once I did walk into the kitchen, Ace turned around and looked at me with a smile.

Ace: “Good mornin’, J!”

J: “Good morning, Ace! Hey, David!”

David: “... whatever. Hi, I guess.”

Ace: “Don’t talk too much, David, your throat still hurts, doesn’t it?”

David: “Don’t tell me what to do. You’re not my brother.” 

Ace: “No, obviously not, but I’m just- trying to help you, alright?”

David: “... and why do you want to help, exactly-?”

Ace: “Well, friends help each other! And since we’re fri-”

David: “We’re not friends, you just decided to help me out.”

Ace: “W- Well you’re my friend! And I want to make sure you’re OK!”

David: “Wooo.. where were you 5 years ago?” 

Ace: “Eh?”

David: “Nothing.”

J: “.. what are you making, Ace?” 

Ace: “Oh! Just some PB&J sandwiches!” 

David: “... I’m not hungry. I don’t want any.” 

J: “PB and-”

Ace: “Yep! There’s a lot of Jams here! Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry-”

Ace: “Also, David, you are eating something.”

David: “Or what, you’ll kill me? Put me out of my fuckin’ misery?”

Ace: “NO! OF COURSE NOT! I DON’T WANT TO KILL ANYONE -! REALLY!”

Ace: “It’s just- Sigh - … please eat something. It’ll do you well.”

David: “... will it?”

Ace: “It- really will. Trust me.”

David: “..... ugh. Fine.”

Ace: “Sweet! I’ve finished one sandwich, if you want it. I could pour some milk as well if you need some of that!”

David: “Just the sandwich is fine.. ‘m guessin’.”

Ace: “Alright!”

Ace handed David a sandwich, the latter taking it in his hands and having a small bite of it. His eyes lighting up a bit afterwards. He took another, smaller bite this time, savouring the flavour of the sandwich.

J: “So? Is it good?”

David: “... mmm… h’ w is it s’ good..?” 

Ace: “Hehehe, because it’s made with love, of course!”

David: “... I need more love in m’ life then… th’ is s’ good….”

Ace: “Pfft, well then I’ll give it to ya!” 

J: “Eww… gay people…”

Ace: “I-”

David: “Wow, I didn’t know you hated yourself.” 

J: “Damn, that’s good. Ace, can you whip me up a sandwich?” 

Ace: “Sure! Any specific jam you’d like?”

J: “Raspberry!”

Ace: “On it!”

Ace started making a sandwich for me, which I was very glad for. David, on the other hand, was savouring every bite of it. Damn, if it’s that good then we better keep Ace alive so he can keep making these good meals. 

Ace: “Done!” Hands J the sandwich. 

J: Grabs the sandwich and takes a small bite of it.

J: “...”

J: “MMMMMM… this is s’ GOOD!”

David: “I know right- how does a fuckin’ sandwich taste this good?”

Ace: “Hehe, as I’ve said before, it’s made from the heart!”

J: “Mhhmm… I can teell.. this is really gooooood…!” 

Ace: “It can’t be that good, right? It’s just a little sand-”

Charles: “GOOD MORNIN’ EVERYONE!” 

Alexander: “Cuevas, do not, please. It is too early in the morning for this.”

Charles: “Aww… no more first name privileges?”

J: “Pfft, hey Alex. Charlie. Good mornin’.”

Alexander: “Don’t call me Alex , but good morning, I assume.”

Ace: “Good mornin’! Do you want a sandwich?”

Alexander: “No, I’m not particularly hungry at the moment. I don’t want to eat anything.”

Charles: “Well- at least eat a little bit of something.”

Alexander: “No.”

Charles: “Why?”

Alexander: “Because I’m not hungry.”

Charles: “Well why are you not hungry-?”

Alexander: “Because I’m not particularly in the mood to eat anything. Especially anything from here , it could be poisoned.”

David: “Mm.. gotta say this shit isn’t poisoned.”

Alexander: “How do I believe that ?”

Charles: “Well we just- have to.”

Charles: “Here, I’ll make you anything you want. I’m a relatively good cook. Anything you want?”

Alexander: “Well- usually I just eat toast or something- I don’t particularly have time to eat anything.” 

Charles: “...”

Charles: “Excuse me- what -”

J: “You’re telling me, Alexander Matthews, the Ultimate Monarch, doesn’t have enough time to eat breakfast?” 

Alexander: “I have no time for such useless things. If I’m hungry then I’ll eat an apple or something like that. If I have the luxury of making a meal, I’ll have steak or something like that.” 

Charles: “Ok so not only do you have an awful sleep schedule, you have awful eating habits. We have so much we need to work on for y-” 

Alexander: “ We ?” 

Alexander: “I have awful habits, there, I’m not so weak that I can’t admit that , but I do not need to work on them. I’m alive, that’s all that matters now. I’m alive now .” 

Alexander: “So there. Isn’t that what you wanted from me, Charlie? An explanation?” 

Charles: “W- Well-”

Charles: “...”

Charles: “I- I still want you to be OK- even if- … can’t you just listen to me? Please?”

Alexander: “And if I don’t?”

Charles: “W- Well if you’re sleep deprived and hungry, then p- people can use that against you! And kill you!”

Alexander: “...”

Charles: “A- And you don’t want to die- right?” 

Alexander: “.  .  .”

Charles: “S- So try and take care of yourself! A little! Please?”

David: “.. hm. Or you could ignore everything Charles is telling you and continue doing what you’ve been doing. It’s working for you anyways.” 

Charles: “David please just- stay out of this- please-”

David: “And why should I even con-” 

Charles: “I said shut up- !”

David: “And if I don’t?”

Charles: “W- Well- I- ...”

Charles’ voice shook a bit, his eye losing its usual bright glow and fading into a dark, murky colour. 

Charles: “... please- excuse me.”

J: “Huh-? Charles?” 

Before he said anything else, he quickly walked out of the kitchen, one hand in his hair and the other covering his mouth. He looked… really stressed- what even happened-? 

Ace: “Charles, wait-! Wait up!”

David: “Don’t. He needs some time to breathe.”  

Alexander: “...”

Alexander: “And who’s to blame for that ?”

David: “I take accountability for what I did. I pissed him off n’ shit. It always happens. I piss people off a lot. Why’da think I got poisoned?” 

J: “I dunno— I don’t know shit about your parents.”

Ace: “W- Why did they even-?” 

David: “I pissed them off , OK? They were tired of me. Sick and fuckin’ tired of my shit. I don’t blame them.” 

Ace: “You should-! Poisoning i- it’s awful! And they’re family ! Family- they should help each other! Not hurt!” 

J: “.. yeah. That’s- what should happen.” 

Alexander: “In a perfect world, yes.”

Alexander: “But this is far from a perfect world, family hates each other. Family will do anything they can to ruin your life.” 

Alexander: “Family should care for you, but instead they shower you with ‘love’ to lull you into a fake sense of security and then stab you in the back, and then leave you out to die in the fields.” 

Alexander: “That. Is family.” 

Ace: “... f- family doesn’t hurt you.” 

Ace: “F- Family is the one thing you can rely on. Family is the thing you live for- the one reason you keep on going- family is like- the anchor to your ship in a storm-”  

Ace: “Family is your everything in life-” 

J: “I- … well I don’t care for my father , but I like my mom. I- care about her. A lot. She’s not my everything but she’s a lot for me. She’s done so much for me.” 

J: “So- family isn’t my everything, but it’s a lot for me!”

David: “...” 

David: “.... ugh I’m leaving. I regret ever coming here.”

J: “Eh? Is it something we said-?”

David: “It’s everything you said. Every fucking THING you said. Your entire existence is like a burden to me and I still want you to be HAPPY!” 

J: “Wh- huh-?”

David: “I hate you, J. You- you’re the reason I’m like this- yet I still want you to be happy in life. Maybe that’s why I hate you. Maybe it’s because you were always beloved by everyone, maybe it’s because you had that drive in life. Maybe that’s why I’m so angry at you. Because I’m jealous.” 

J: “...?”

Ace: “E- Eh?”

Alexander: “Chiem, elaborate. With how you’re phrasing everything, you make it seem like you and J knew each other before the killing game.”

J: “Well that’s impossible- I never knew David before this thin-”

David: “That’s it. I’m out. Bye.”

And before I could even say anything back to him, David stomped out of the kitchen, throwing the sandwich into the trash as he left. … damn the poor sandwich. 

Ace: “A- Ah! David! W- Why is everyone so-”

Alexander: “... I’m leaving as well. I see no reason to stay here. Goodbye.”

Alexander walked out of the kitchen with a sigh. Ace, with a sad sigh, walked out of the kitchen as well. Welp. There goes everyone. I continued to eat my sandwich alone. Jesus Christ everyone in this place needs a lot of hugs.

Once I finished my sandwich, I realized I had a lot of free time for myself. Maybe I could talk to someone to kill some time.

[ Free Time! ]

Talking to Ace, Lexie, David, or Charles right now seemed like I was pushing some boundaries. We just talked and they seemed like they wanted to be left alone. But without those four, I don’t see why I can’t talk to anyone else!

I started walking out of the kitchen into the cafeteria to see if anyone else was in there, and there were a few people! Whit, Ro, Levi, Nico, and Veronika! All eating breakfast together, though all sitting at different spots. Hm, I could talk to each of them!

I walked over to Whit and sat down on the table he was eating a small piece of toast at. He looked up at me with a bored expression before morphing into a smirk.

Whit: “G’ mornin’, J.”

J: “Mornin’! How’re ya?”

Whit: “Eh. M’ not dead. ‘nt sleep though. W’bout you? D’ ya sleep well? ‘N Min’s room, right?”

J: “I slept pretty well! But damn, your words are really slurred- you must be reaallyy tired, huh?”

Whit: “.. mmpf, n’really. J’st a mornin’ thing. It’ll get b’ter la’er.” 

J: “Pfft, do you normally wake up this early?”

Whit: “‘ly..? I’d be l’cky to w’ke up at t’s time.. Yawn .

J: “Jeez- you need coffee.”

Whit: “N’ m’ fine. C’ffee w’d make m’ ‘eepy.”

J: “Coffee? Sleepy? It’ll wake you up, not make you tired .” 

Whit: “N’ if you’re me.”

J: “You’re weird then- normal people drink coffee to wake up. You’re an odd one. But not in the rude way. Just- being honest.”

Whit: “Wooooooow, how nice. … god m’ too tired to be sarcastic.” 

J: “Pff- get some rest.” 

Whit: “Noo, m’ not tired enough to sleep …”

J: “Then just stop complaining - if you’re not going to rest, or drink coffee, or do anything to wake yourself up, then stop complaining-!”

Whit: “Wh- hey-”

J: “Ack- sorry. I tell myself that in the mornings when I can’t think of any excuses to stay awake.”

Whit: “Nah, it’s fine.”

J: “So, what time do you normally wake up?”

Whit: “Mmm… 4am?”

J: “And when do you sleep-?”

Whit: “.... 12am..-?” 

J: “YOU GET ONLY FOUR HOURS OF SLEEP?” 

Whit: “Shh- qu’t down-”

J: “Ack- sorry.”

Whit: “But yeah, m’ used to not gettin’ a lot of sleep. Also why I drink. Helps me stay somewhat awake b’fore I pass out.” 

J: “That… doesn't sound healthy…”

Whit: “... ‘s anyone here healthy-?”

J: “I-”

J: “...”

J: “Good point-”

Whit: “Yeah.”

J: “Oh wait, you said you got a shelf thrown at you, was that at a bar or-”

Whit: “Yeah- ‘t a party. Uh… 5 y’s ago? Uh.. w’s drunk n’ pissed someone off- th’ were strong n’ stuff ‘nd- .. th’ missed. But bash’d a bottle on m’ head in anger. ‘ts fine though, d’t ‘ve scars.”

J: “I- are you alright?” 

Whit: “.. m’be?”

Whit: “Th’ m’ really scared of- .. n’mind.” 

J: “Eh?”

Whit: “I said nevermind-”

J: “Oh- uh, alright then.

Whit: “S’ what time do you wake up?”

J: “Ehhh… 11? 10?”

Whit: “Pm-?”

J: “AM-”

Whit seemed to spring awake at the mention of me waking up at such a ‘late’ time for him, his eyes widening in pure shock of it.

Whit: “HOW?! WHAT KIND OF ACTING JOB DO YOU GET WHERE YOU CAN WAKE UP SO LATE?”

J: “Well I usually go to bed around like- 3am-”

Whit: “Aahh, that kinda explains it. I guess. Still, 7 hours at the age of 19 as an Ultimate is extremely impressive.”

J: “Really, thank you!”

Whit: “Mhm. Good for you.”

Whit: “‘Nyway, I need to grab something from my room real quick. Bye.”

J: “Bye!”

And with that, Whit left.

[ I feel like me and Whit grew a bit closer today. ] 

Ro: “J! Good morning!”

J: “Hm?”

I turned my head to face the cheery t-shirt artist, who was sitting at a table a few paces away from where I was right now. She wasn’t eating, though, just drawing in a notebook with some of her pens.

I walked over to her and sat down next to her with a smile.

J: “Hey, Ro! Good mornin’!”

Ro: “Hehe, how are you? Did you sleep well?”

J: “Mhm! Slept really well, actually, and you?”

Ro: “Ehh, I stayed up pretty late to do some designs n’ stuff for my t-shirts, but I did sleep for a few hours, I think. It’s kinda hard to tell what time it is in here.”

J: “Well I wasn’t too worried about that, but it’s good you slept! Sleep is important.”

Ro: “Mhm, I know. I don’t usually sleep a loooot because I’m almost always working on my designs or stuff like that!”

Ro: “But when I’m not working, and I have free time, I’d sleep! For a few hours, maybe 8-10? But ONLY when I don’t need to do anything! I prefer not to take super long sleeping breaks, because that means I can’t work, but also I need the sleep.”

J: “Oh- well I mean, it works for you, I guess. I mean- as long as you’re not like- passing out n’ stuff throughout the day.”

Ro: “Ah- don’t worry. I don’t pass out during the day.”

J: “Yeah, that’s good.” 

J: “Oh, by the way. How’s your head doin’?”

Ro: “Ah! W- Well it’s mostly fine now- A- Arturo did some stitches on it with stuff in the infirmary. There was a book on it, too. I- It doesn’t hurt that much anymore. I was able to get some make-up on it to cover up the scar. I should be fine in a few weeks, actually.”

Ro: “Though… I do need pain meds every once in a while, according to Arturo.”

J: “And you’re really going to trust him of all people?”

Ro: “H- He’s the best I’ve got! Eden seems unapproachable and Charles is dealing with his own problems!” 

J: “Well, yes, but ‘s Arturo really your best bet?” 

Ro: “... y- yeah. Not much I can do but accept that fact.”

J: “Well then that- .. kinda sucks. Wish someone here had some medical-related talent.”

Ro: “Mhm. It seems more of our talents are related to the ‘arts’ or ‘sports.’”

Ro: “Ultimate Image Consultant… Ultimate Baseball Star… Ultimate Bull Rider… stuff like that, y’know?”

J: “Yeah, yeah, I get it.”

J: “Wait- What even is an Image Consultant? Do they like- judge your outfit?” 

Ro: “I’m.. not sure-?”

Levi: “You know I’m like- within earshot, right?” 

J: “Oh uh- hey, Levi.” 

Levi: “Heeyy! Anyway basically I help brands develop images! Like- promotional stuff in a sense? Though I do make outfits as a side hustle!”

Veronika: “Side hustle? Do you sell drugs as well or something-?”

Levi: “NO?????”

J: “Who knows, maybe Levi is a drug lord! And the “Image Consultant” thing is a cover-up!”

Levi: “A- W- What? ”

Veronika: “Who knows?”

Ro: “Pfft- guys Levi isn’t a crack lord. I’d hope, anyway.”

Levi: “I’ve never done drugs before-”

Ro: “Not even medications?”

Levi: “Not really, no. Never needed those medications, anyway.”

Ro: “Aahh, I see.”

Nico: “Y’all talkin’ ‘bout drugs?” 

Veronika: “ACK-!” [Falls out of her chair. ]

J: “PFFFT. YOU GOOD??”

Veronika: “Oooww… ‘m good.”

Nico: “Hah. Imagine falling out of your chair.”

Veronika: “Nico I swear-”

Nico: “You can say swears?”

Veronika: “.. hmpf.”

Ro: “Veronika, you good?”

Veronika: “Mhm. ‘M fine.”

Levi: “I- .. pff. Well this is a way to start a morning.”

J: “True!”

Ro: “Pff. Anyway, Nico, what were you sayin’?”

Nico: “Drugs!”

Levi: “You do them…?”

Nico: “Nope! But it’s funny to say that and have people assume I do!”

J: “Pfffft-”

Ro: “Aahh… I see.”

Nico: “Well- I’ve done drugs- but not the drug drugs. Medical stuff. Athlete shit n’ all.”

Veronika: “Ah, that.. makes sense.”

Nico: “Yeah yeah, you see or whatever, it’s just medicine or whatever. Not like I’m getting high off it or whatever.”

Levi: “Hopefully not-!”

Nico: “Maybe I aaamm though!”

Levi: “Wh- don’t do drugs—!”

Nico: “You’re not my daaadd! I can do them if I want!”

Levi: “Please don’t?”

Nico: “Psh, fine fine, whatever.”

J: “Pfffft-”

Arei: *Yawn* “Good morning guys…”

J: “Mornin’ ‘Rei!”

Ro: “Hello, Arei. How’d you sleep?”

Arei: “Well! I mean- as well as you can in a room away from home.”

Levi: “Yeah.. being away from home is.. weird.”

Levi: “I miss being in my bed, in my home…”

Veronika: “That… makes sense.”

Veronika: “I don’t particularly miss home. My fathers are most likely confused as to where I am,  however.”

Ro: “My siblings.. probably are confused right about now.”