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Chapter Text

Welcome to Dangansanity!

In this Danganronpa AU our protagonist is Paintbrush Palette, the Ultimate Artist

Now a list of the rest of the cast:

OJ - Ultimate Manager
Nickel - Ultimate Athlete
Balloon - Ultimate Poet
Yin - Ultimate Therapist
Yang - Ultimate Nothing (no talent)
Testtube - Ultimate Scientist
Fan - Ultimate Influencer
LifeRing - Ultimate Lifeguard
Tea Kettle - Ultimate Caretaker
Clover - Ultimate Luck
Cabby - Ultimate Journalist
Candle - Ultimate Clairvoyant
Silver Spoon - Ultimate Affluent Prodigy
Goo - Ultimate Dancer
Bow - Ultimate Dancer

Now let's get on with the show~

Chapter Text

Words rang in head. Peoples faces blurred together. My memories hazed. I open my eyes. The clear, blue sky towered over me. I felt sand beneath me...

Me.
Me?
Who was me? Or who was I? Who am I?

Who am I?

I shut my eyes to think. The sun was hurting them anyway. Then I remembered.

My name is Paintbrush Palette. The Ultimate Artist. But why was I here?
In the sand? The sand! MY HAIR!

I quickly sat up, combing my hair with my fingers to get the sand out. Whew. Crisis averted.

But still, where was I? And why do I not remember anything? I knew my name, my talent, and that I care about my hair.

I stood up to better take in my surroundings.

"Whoa."

The view was beautiful. The sun shone on the ocean perfectly. The tropical trees swayed in the breeze. I was in awe. I wanted to paint this so bad, but I quickly realized I didn't have anything on my person. Shit.

I thought for a bit. A few memories eventually came back to me, though. I was on a boat... and now I was here. Ugh, it was hopeless.

Suddenly, I heard voices coming from a spot beyond the trees.

"It's hopeless, were stuck here!" One said in an annoying voice.

I walked over to get a better look. Through the trees I saw three objects talking. Arguing?

"We're stuck here and its hopeless!" The taller one whined.

"No, no. We're not stuck, we're just..." they stopped to ponder what to say next, "on vacation."

"Yeah, vacation! Wait no, no vacations! Mwahahaha!" The shortest one laughed maniacally, like anything they just said was very deserving of an 'evil' laugh.

I moved in the bushes to get a better look. One of them noticed the sound and looked over.

"Um... is somebody there?" They asked rather apprehensively. I stepped out of the bushes.

"Uh... hi." I said awkwardly, trying not to cringe.

"Were you spying on us?" The tallest one asked with an annoying accent.

"No. I just woke up on the beach over there."

"Oh. Well we just woke up here." They were medium height compared to the other two. Their voice was calm, almost like a dream. "I'm Candle, nice to meet you."

"I'm Paintbrush. The Ultimate Artist. It's nice to meet you too."

Her calm eyes widened at the mention of my Ultimate.

"Ultimate...?" She thought, "It seems we're both Ultimates, Ultimate Clairvoyant." She bowed gracefully.

"Huh, what a coincidence." Two Ultimates in one place wasn't rare but certainly uncommon.

"A coincidence indeed!" The taller one announced, "I'm an Ultimate too. Ultimate Affluent Prodigy, Silver Spoon!" Something about him made me angry. Which isn't that hard to do but, I didnt like him right off the bat. Though, he seemed... familiar, and I dont know why.

"Four Ultimates in one place!" The younger one yelled.

"Four?" I questioned.

"Oops, I didn't introduce myself." They chuckled calmly, "I'm Yin, the Ultimate Therapist."

"Oh!" Candle looked surprised yet still unfazed?

"And I'm Yang, the Ultimate Nothing! Ahhhahhhahaaa!" He yelled, laughing hysterically.

"Um..." I stared at Candle and Silver Spoon, then at Yin and Yang, "ok..."

"You can just call us Yinyang." Yin spoke.

"Like Candle said, we all woke up here with no memory how or why." Silver stated.

"Hmm..." I thought about that. No one else had any memories of how they got here? Well, that makes me feel a little less alone, I guess, "Are there any other people here?"

"Didn't check!" He said with misplaced confidence  walking away.

Candle stared at him, "We should go check."

And with that Candle and  I went off to find more people. In a large clearing we saw two people talking to each other. Utterly invested in each other's stories. Must be nice. We interrupted their conversation.

"Hello you two." Candle spoke first.

"Can we help you?" The taller one asked rather passive aggressively. Rude.

"OMG! More people!" The shorter one said excitedly, "Name's Fan and I'm the Ultimate Influencer hehe." He seemed a little awkward for an influencer.

"Candle, Ultimate Clairvoyant." She said putting her hand to her chest and bowing her head.

"I'm Paintbrush, the Ultimate Artist." As I introduced myself Fan's eyes began to sparkle. He gasped when I spoke my talent.

"Ohmygosh ohmygosh! The Ultimate Artist!? I-I know all about you! From your paintings to your pottery, even your music!"

"He he, yeah... I don't sing that much anymore." I said awkwardly. Stalker much. I mean, as an Ultimate I'm bound to have 'fans' but meetings them in person was unnerving.

"I don't just know about you, I know about tons of Ultimates! Ultimate Manager, Ultimate Cook, Ultimate Matchmaker..." he began listing a bunch of other Ultimates. Maybe his real talent is Ultimate Nerd.

"What about you?" Candle questioned the other one. They were tinkering away with something in their hands. They give a quick look at us before speaking.

"I'm Testtube... the Ultimate Scientist."

"Really?" I said slightly interested. Having a scientist with us could be good for figuring out what's going on here.

"Whoa cool!" Fan said after. "Tell me more." He was intrigued to say the least.

She blushed before talking more about he talent, "Oh well, golly, I do chemistry, engineering, and more!" She said with new found confidence. Nevermind, seems like we have two Ultimate Nerds.

Me and Candle left them to their... whatever, to look for more people. The island we were on was not small but certainly not very big either. So, eventually we found a group of four people.

"We should check the area for others and a way off." One of them said confidently.

"Yes, that sounds like a good plan." Said another.

We walk up to them. They greet us.

"So there are more people on this island?" The first one asked us.

"Yes," said Candle, "I woke up with two other people and we found two more, so... ten people including you."

"What about you? Did you wake up with anybody too?" The shortest one asked me.

"No, I woke up alone."

"How about we introduce ourselves. I'm Candle, the Ultimate Clairvoyant and this is Paintbrush, Ultimate Artist."

"Easy enough! My name is Cabby and they call me the Ultimate Journalist." She held out her hand and Candle shook it, "I have files on all sorts of things. If you want, you can see any of them, just ask." She said with a smile. I guess I was wrong. We have three Ultimate Nerds.

The smallest one introduced themself next, "I'm Goo! I know I don't look it, but I'm actually the Ultimate Dancer." Well let's just say that's not the strangest thing I heard today.

I spoke next, "and what about the rest of you?"

"Hi dear, I'm Tea Kettle. I'm the Ultimate Caretaker!" She grabbed my hand and started shaking it excitedly, "I'm sure we're gonna get along great!"

When she stopped, the final person introduced themself.

"The name's LifeRing. Bit on the nose, but I'm the Ultimate Lifeguard. Nice to meet you."

"If you're looking for more people, shouldn't we meet somewhere when your done?" Cabby asked. It was a good question.

Candle pondered, "Yes hmm... over there." She pointed to a hut in the clearing.

It was small, barely the size of a bedroom. It was made out of some kind of wood, bamboo maybe?

"Great!" LifeRing cheered, "Goo and I will gather the rest of everyone."

Me and Candle continued on our way. "Why do you think we're here?" She suddenly asked me, throwing me off guard a bit.

"Oh um! I-I don't know... maybe... some sort of reality show?" I have no clue why that was my first thought.

"Hmm... maybe." she responded softly. But before we could think of another reason we found a group of three. Two seemed to be arguing over something, and the other stood over them trying to get them to stop.

"Guys please, we don't need to fight!" They said in a shrill voice.

Candle ran over to split the two of them up, "Enough! There is no need for fighting. Now introduce yourselves so we can be on our way." She commanded with more authority  than I've seen her have. I was impressed.

"Why should I?" One spoke harshly, "It's not like any of us know why the fuck we're here!" There was a hint of sarcasm in their voice or maybe that's just how they sound.

"Yeah, this is pointless!" The other squeaked loudly.

"I-I'll introduce myself!" The taller one cleared their throat, "I'm Clover. They call me the Ultimate Luck but I don't really think I'm that lucky."

"Ugh!" The sarcastic one rolled their eyes.

"Thank you Clover." Candle said before raising her eyebrow at the others. I think that made them nervous.

"Fine. I'm the Ultimate Poet, Balloon."
After saying his talent, the other began to laugh.

"Pfft- Ultimate Poet hahahaha!" They wiped a tear from their eye, "Haha okay ha!"

"If you think its sooo funny, what's your talent then?"

"Okay, I will. Nickel, the Ultimate Athlete!" Gotta say, that is way more impressive. "I mostly play sports where you have to kick the ball, because y'know, I dont have arms!" He said aggressively.

"Ha! Almost as bad as being a fucking Poet, right!" Balloon yelled at Nickel. They began to fight verbally again.

Eventually, Candle, Clover, and I were able to break them up and bring them to the hut.

"One, two, three... thirteen!" Testtube yelled to the rest of the group, "There are thirteen people on this island!"

"Only thirteen?" I questioned. Seemed off for some reason, like we were missing somebody, or a few bodies. Before I could finish my thoughts, though, two more objects arrived. Hm, still feels off.

"Uh, did I miss a memo or something?" The new person asked, confused by the group of people around them.

"Ooo~ New people!" Goo said excitedly.

"Hello, dears, why dont you introduce yourselves." Candle asked politely.

The shorter object looked around confused and a bit nervous. Goo saw this and tried to cheer them up.

"I'm Goo! What's your name?" They giggled a response.

"My name is Bow!" she cheered.

"What's you talent, sweetheart?" Tea Kettle inquired with a motherly tone in her voice.

"Oh um... the Ultimate... Dancer!" She said as if she made it up on the spot. Goo gasped.

"Oh my gosh! That's my talent too! What a coincidence!" That is quite the coincidence. It was weird enough that  we had thirteen Ultimates in the same place (besides school obviously), but having two with the same talent in the same place? Almost unheard of.

"OMG! Twinsies!" She said, jumping up and down.

As they enjoyed each others similarities, the other person began to introduce themself.

"Okay, well, I'm OJ, the Ultimate Manager." He said calmly and confidently. Some where in the crowd I could hear Fan gasp.

"Well, everyone has been introduced, yes?" Oj immediately took charge. Conformation could be heard.

We wondered what we would do now.
But before anyone could speak up, we heard a voice from beyond the crowd.

"I see we have everyone here? Great!" I looked around almost frantically, trying to see who was talking.

"Hehehe.... Let me introduce myself." The voice spoke, almost maliciously. Before anyone could object, it appeared.

In front of the crowd, a phone. With half its screen black with a red, sharp eye and a malicious grin. It spoke in a professional voice but the tone underneath was frightening.

"Welcome welcome, everybody! I am your gracious host, MonoPhone4." Host? What was it talking about? Looking at it gave me an uneasy feeling.

"And, I know you're thinking. 'Host? What do you mean? Are we in some sorta game?' And to that I say.... yes!" He mocked us in a demeaning voice. We looked at each other confused.

"Um," Fan spoke up, "What do you mean 'a game'?"

MonoPhone chuckled at his question, "why, a Killing Game, of course!"

"A WHAT!?" I heard someone yell. I couldn't tell who. I was horrified.

A killing game? What does that even mean?

"This has to be a joke, right?!" I say angrily. The uneasiness in my stomach has now turned to a sick feeling.

He chuckles, "Okay, okay. I'll explain the rules now, so listen up fuckers!" They explained, "In this game, if you want to escape this island, you will need to kill another person, and get away with it!"

We stood, shocked and horrified at the words that were coming out of his mouth. Kill? Like murder? I didnt know what to think. Anger inside me began to build.

"What the fuck does that even mean?"  Balloon asked. He was upset, we all were. Was this some sort of sick joke, because it wasn't funny.

"It means what it means, dumbass. Bludgeoning, drowning, shooting, strangling. Really anything goes!" They were way to upbeat about this. My head felt hot.

"T-this can't be happening!" Fan began to freak, Testtube attempted to calm him down.

"So we have been kidnapped." Candle said in much too calm of manner.

"What the fuck!?" Bow yelled.

"Everyone calm down!" OJ demanded, trying to calm down everyone, "This is just a messed up joke... right?" He turned around to MonoPhone, who only laughed at him.

"Rule numero dos-" It began to speak but I was sick of this. I wanted it to tell us it was all a joke and bring us home. But mostly I just wanted it to shut up.

"Stop, just stop!" I exclaimed angrily,
"I don't know who you think you are but this isn't funny!"

"Ha... I beg to differ. I find it quite amusing." As it spoke, sparks started to fly off my head. I could almost hear Fan in awe.

"You're a sick fuck!"

"Yeah?" They scoffed, "and what are you supposed to be?" He taunted me.

I took a quick look at the floor and found a stick. It look sturdy enough. I picked it up and held it like a baseball bat.

"Shut the fuck up!" I ran towards him with the stick in hand. Fire trailing behind me. I was going to beat him senseless. I remembered something of my past, my temper.

I was inches away from it's face. It bore a smug grin, taunting me. Did he really think I wasn't going to do it?

...

A loud thud rang out, frightening away whatever birds were in those trees.

I sat on the grass. Thick liquid dripping down the center of my forehead.
Blood.
My blood.

Seconds before I could hit the bitch, something sharp, a spear? Hit me on forehead. I dropped my 'weapon' and fell to the floor in shock. The blood trickled down my face, into my mouth. Tasted like disappointment.

I heard a few high pitched screams, including Fan's. Some gasped and others stared. MonoPhone4 snickered and began to laugh insanely.

Eventually OJ, Testtube, and LifeRing came to my aid.

"Are you alright!?" OJ yelled. He sounded like he was trying to stay calm.

"Does it hurt?" Testtube asked warily. I wiped blood from my mouth.

"I-I'm fine. I'm fine." I stood up slowly. LifeRing tended to my cut, gently wiping the blood with a rag.

"I dont have my first-aid kit on me, but I stopped the bleeding. Are you sure you'll be alright?"

"Yeah, it's just a scratch." I didn't know how true that was.

"Ugh... can I continue noooowww-a?" They wined, as if they were a child. No one dared to speak.

"Great! I was in the middle of explaining the second rule before I was so rudely~ interrupted. But Paintbrush demonstrated that rule perfectly!" I didn't question how it knew my name, "any attempt to injure your host will result in immediate elimination, the 'their loss' clause, if you will. But since they didn't know that rule yet, Paintbrush will get a warning. Only this once though!"

"Rule three: sleep where you rooms are, please. You will have assigned rooms in the hotel and keys to each. As long as you sleep in a room, you'll be fine."

OJ spoke up, "Hotel? There's a hotel?"

"Yes! Over there." The phone pointed, we looked and sure enough, a hotel.

"Wait wait wait! Paintbrush, didnt you and Candle look all over the island, was there a hotel there before?" Testtube asked. She sounded distressed, I couldn't blame her.

"No, there wasn't." I mumbled out. This was getting creepier and creepier.

The Hotel stood in the most open area of the island. It was orange, it looked out of place, like it didn't belong here. But I dont think any of us do. On its side held a sign with the words 'HOTEL'. Though, it looked like the rest of the sign was torn off. I wonder what it said?

"Final rule, rule four: there will be an announcement when it's time to sleep and wake. Listen to them, or not. Ok, that's it, bye!" And with that it dissapeared.

"Ah! It's gone!" Bow cried out.

"I think you mean, 'good, it's gone'." Nickel commented, "Anyway, if we're not doing anything else, I say we go check out that hotel."

"That sounds like a good idea, I think we should go, maybe take our minds off of... all this." Teakettle suggests.

"Yeah, I'm kinda tired." Goo agreed.

We all made our ways to the hotel, except Fan and Testtube. I noticed they were staying behind and out of curiosity, I went to check on them. If something was wrong, well... let's just make sure no one gets killed.

I walked over to see Fan completely freaking out and Testtube trying to calm him down.

"We're all gonna die!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!! I-I-I can't die! I have so much life left to live! I'm only 23!!"

"Fan, please! Your not gonna die! C-calm down!"

"What's going on?" I asked apprehensively. She had a hand on her cheek.

"I don't know, well. Fan's clearly having some sort of panic attack. I just don't know how to calm him down."

I think for a second then I walk over to him. And slap him hard on his cheek, "Get ahold of yourself!" Testtube yelps at the sound.

Fan holds his now red cheek with his hand, "w-why would you do that!?"

Well he stopped ranting. I only now notice he had tears running down his face. I feel a bit guilty for slapping him now.

"Sorry, I thought that would calm you down." I say blankly.

"Why would you think that?" He wiped his tears.

"Well, it worked didn't it?" Kind of. It kind of worked.

He thought about it, Testtube ran up behind him, asking if he's alright.

"Yeah I'm fine... don't do that again, please." He turned to me.

I responded hesitantly, "Yeah, it... usually works in movies." He snickered at my response, I smiled back.

"Anyway, I'm going to hotel, you should too." I call to them before making my way.

The hotel was very.... orange. There were places on the living room walls that looked like they used to house picture frames. But besides that, the hotel looked relatively normal.

I checked out my room. It was cute. Kinda small but, what did I expect.
I looked through the drawers and found sketchbooks and pencils. The dresser held more art supplies: paints,  an easel, and boxes of crayons and colored pencils. It was an artist's dream. But I couldn't stay long.

OJ made the decision that he would make us dinner. When he was done he sent Clover and Goo to get everyone.

We mostly ate dinner in silence. Trying to forget what happened early today. Some spoke to others, forming pairs like Testtube and Fan, Bow and Goo, and Balloon and Nickel.  Though Balloon and Nickel mostly argued. When I was done, I excused myself and left to my room.

I laid on my bed

A killing game. That murderess ass robot phone told us we were in a killing game. Forced to kill each other. I may not know these people but I certainly dont wish them dead.

An announcement soon came on, saying it was time to go to bed.

I sighed. I supposed I should go to bed. As I laid, attempting to fall asleep, I hoped this was all a dream. Like in the movies. I'd wake up the next morning and think, "Well, that was a crazy dream."

I hoped it was dream.

I slipped out of conciousness, hoping tomorrow would be a better day

Dangansanity Prologue End.

Dangansanity Chapter 1: Lives at Risk
Daily Life.

Chapter Text

An announcement woke me up. It was the phone telling us it was time to wake up.

I pulled my face and groaned. I was dreading today. I got up from my bed and looked out the window, near my bed.

The weather was grey and gloomy. As if the island itself was just as upset about today as I was.

I went downstairs to find two people arguing about... fruit? Ugh....

"I just think I deserve it more." Nickel said smugly.

"Yeah, you deserve jack shit!" Said Balloon, holding a bowl of fruit. Of course it was these two. All they've done is argue since I've meet them.

Nickel grabbed the bowl with his teeth. His words mumbled, "Give it!" Balloon gasped and quickly pulled the bowl away, throwing the other of balance.

"Boys! Boys!" Teakettle shouted, getting the boys attention. "There's more than enough fruit for everyone. But if you can't share," she snatched the bowl away from them, "then none of you can have any."

Balloon crossed his arms as the both of them pouted in annoyance. God, they fought like children.

I walked by and took an orange from the bowl.

"What was that about?" Yinyang questioned.

"Just childish behavior," TK answered, "nothing to worry about." She patted his head affectionately. He didn't really like it.

As I peeled and ate my orange, OJ began to speak.

"Okay, everyone here? Great!" He clapped his hands together, getting everyone's attention. He sure did take initiative.

"We need to find a way off this island."

"Didn't that phone guy say we weren't allowed to leave?" Bow asked.

"Who gives a shit what that psycho-bot says?" I said, maybe a little too aggressively.

"She's right though, I mean, we've seen what happens if you defy him." Fan looked at the scar on my forehead. I avoided his gaze.

"He never said we couldn't explore the island. That's all we're doing, 'exploring'" OJ said in air-quotes.

"Phuhuhuh~ It doesn't matter anyway. This is all just a game." Silver Spoon laughed.

"Just a game?" Testtube questioned.

"Yes. I'm not an idiot. You don't really believe we're actually supposed to kill each other?" He actually believed it was all a game. No one said anything against it though. We were all silently hoping he was right.

------------------

We decided to split off into three groups.

The first group was LifeRing, Teakettle, Nickel, and Balloon. They were sent to explore the hotel.

The second group was Fan, Testtube, Cabby, Goo, Bow, and Clover. They went to explore the forest areas of the island.

And Yinyang, OJ, Candle, and Silver Spoon were with me. We were sent to explore everywhere else.

Turns out there was alot less to explore than we initially thought. Behind the hotel was a cliff overlooking the ocean. We looked over the beach but found mostly nothing but seashells Yinyang and Candle began to collect. What we did find was a glimpse of another island off in the distance.

"We might be able to swim to it?" OJ thought.

Candle countered, "That's too far. If you attempted to swim it, you'd surely drown before you made it." She spoke calmly.

"Then... maybe we could build a boat?"

"Do we have the materials for that?" Silver asked.

"We could chop down trees?" OJ mumbled.

"Maybe another group found some." I chimed in.

"Maybe..."OJ hesitated. "Okay, let's go back." We met the others at the hotel.

Fan's group found the cabana we found yesterday. But besides that, not much.

TK's group found an infirmary, which would prove to be helpful, but no material for a ship.

And we found nothing but an island we couldn't get to.

I sighed, "This was a waste."

"Well not a complete waste!" That voice rang through the halls. Snaking around every curve, making its way to us. "If you don't mind, can I see you all outside... near the calm-down cabana. And yes, I know it's only been a day but I wanna get this show rolling and get to the juicey stuff!" It clicked off. Was there a speaker in this room? Well, of course there was.

"What was that about?" Goo spoke nervousness in his voice.

"I guess we'll find out..." OJ said somberly, walking out the door. We followed behind.

----------------

We meet the phone at the hut like they told us. Without a word it handed us tablets? I hesitantly took mine.

He spoke, "These are your Monopads!" They'll be more useful during investigations, but today they'll host your... Motive Videos!" It cheered as if this was really something to cheer for.

"Our, like, what?" Said Bow.

"Your motives to kill. Motive Videos!" As soon as it finish speaking, the Monopads lit up, displaying a white screen.

"Watch..." It spoke slow and sinister.

As my video began to play, words appeared on the screen

"Paintbrush Palette, the Ultimate Artist's Motive Video"

As the words faded away, a picture showed up. It showed two objects having a picnic. One was leaning over, holding their middle and laughing. The sun hit their head, almost making the picnic glow. The other was reaching over the blanket to pick something up. They were laughing too.

I realized that object was me. But I don't remember this. And who was that other object, they looked familiar but I couldn't remember them.

More words appeared.

"A picture of Paintbrush, their bestfriend, [REDACTED], and their pet crab, Baxter."

The thing I was reaching for must have been Baxter then. It was hard to tell. His face and the other person's were blacked out.

Wait, I remembered him! Baxter, I remember! My pet crab, Baxter. I got him a year or so ago. He was given to me by someone but I can't remember who.

"What a lovely sight, isn't it?"

The screen suddenly glitched, changing the picture. It was dark. The people were gone but the picnic blanket was now covered in blood stains. Legs stood on the blanket but the rest of their body was cut out of frame.

"Oh no! What could've happened? Were they kidnapped, or worse killed! I guess there's only one way to find out... kill someone and get away with it, then you'll be free and I'll tell you what happened!"

As the cursed video ended, the even more cursed phone laughed maniacally.

I don't know if anything really happened to Baxter, or that other person, but I was not going to fall for his mind games.

"This is bullshit!" I yelled, before hearing the sounds of distress from everyone else.

"No fair." Bow said to her monopad, before dropping it on the floor.

Tea Kettle covered her mouth, trying not to cry, though she was. LifeRing tried to comfort her.

Yinyang sat in away from everyone and rocked his body back and forth, poor guy.

Some were calmer that others. Candle and Silver talked to eachother like nothing happened.

For once Balloon and Nickel weren't arguing. Balloon looked like he was in a daze. He sat on the grass, staring at nothing as a few tears escaped his eyes. Nickel sat next to him. Not saying anything, just being there.

Bow went to comfort Goo, who didn't seem to be taking this well. None of us were, really.

Clover cried and flailied while Cabby tried to calm her down, tears in her eyes aswell.

It's crazy how quickly we go to help other objects out in a tragedy. We don't even know eachother, but we're comforting them like we've known them for years.

"Fan, Testtube!" I call over to them, "Are you alright?" Their expressions were confused, scared, and upset.

"Yeah, our videos were just..." he looked at Testtube who looked back at him. Were their videos similar? "confusing."

I raised an eyebrow. Were they hiding something from me? No, don't think like that. If they don't want to tell me, it's fine.

"What was in y-your video?" Testtube asked.

"My pet and a person I don't recognize."

"Oh."

"What about you?" I inquire.

She got nervous, "I-I don't- didn't recognize them either." She was a terrible liar.

I was going to ask more but was interrupted by a yell. It was OJ. After his video, I caught a glimpse of him. He was repeatedly watching his video over and over again.

"No no no! I-I DONT BELIEVE IT!" He covered his face with his hands.

He looked up from his weeping and locked eyes with MonoPhone. He lunged at it. I noticed and quickly ran towards him. I held him back as he thrashed.

"OJ! STOP!! If you hurt him you'll die!!" He struggled, but eventually calmed down.

"There you go."

Suddenly, he hugged me. Sobbing into my chest. I patted his back awkwardly. He looked up, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Thanks." He sniffed, embarrassed.

"No problem." I said back.

------------------------

Eventually, the phone left. And we were left to deal with what had happened. Trying our bests to compose ourselves.

I had taken OJ's Monopad to make sure he didn't watch it anymore. Clearly it was having a negative effect on his mental health. But I shouldn't just take things without permission, so, I'll leave it at his door later.

Silver Spoon and Candle had already went inside. Testtube and Fan were talking with Bow and Goo.

I guess I'll talk to everyone else.

I saw Yinyang sitting alone. He looked lonely, so I went to sit with him. It was odd seeing this chaotic kid suddenly so quiet.

"Hey."

"... Hey." He said hesitantly. I cringed. I've never been great at talking to teenagers.

"How're you holding up?" I tried. Silence.

"Was it the video?" It obviously was.

He sighed. "Yeah... I think something happend to my family..."

...

"I'm scared." He voice quivered. The fear in his voice sent shivers down my spine. What kind of twisted being puts a kid in a killing game!? He couldn't have been no more than 14 or 15.

"It's gonna be okay. We're gonna get out of here." I smiled reassuringly. He smiled back.

I got up. "I'm gonna make sure everyone's doing okay. You'll be alright?"

"Yeah." Yang responded with a toothy grin, revealing his sharp teeth.

I walked over to Teakettle and LifeRing. TK seemed to have calm down. They sat in the grass, talking.

They looked up at me as I walked over. Their eyes were red with tear stains on their cheeks.

"How're you guys doing?"

"Better. That tape really scared us, well, me." Teakettle corrected herself.

"If you don't mind, what was your video about, Paintbrush?" LifeRing attempted some small-talk.

"Uh..." I could barely remember the people in the video. It was weird. I debated whether I wanted to share this with the older objects.

But before I could decide, "LifeRing, we don't want to make them uncomfortable. You don't have to answer that, dear." She got up and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. She gave me a warm smile. "Come on LifeRing, let's go back to the Hotel." She began walking back and he followed.

"I'm sorry..." he said as he left.

"It's fine, really."

I started walking towards Nickel and Balloon. But they were making their way to the Hotel, too. Talking for once, not arguing. I decided not to disturb them.

I walked to Cabby, who was consoling Clover. As I got closer, Cabby waved at me. I waved back.

"Hi, Clover..." I tried to sound as polite as I could.

"Hello..." she responded sadly. She had her knees to her chest. Curled in a ball. Cabby's hand on her back.

"That video was AWFUL! How could someone do such a thing?!" She yelled, upset. More tears running down her face.

She wiped said tears, "I-I'm sorry, I'm just not used to this."

"None of us are." Cabby responded.

"I know. I didn't mean like that, I just... I-I don't know." She stumbled over her sentence. I think what she means is, as the Ultimate Luck, she's not used to 'unlucky' situations.

"Well, if you're doing better," I begin, "we should make our way back to the hotel." Clover nodded in agreement and got up.

I gesture towards Testtube and Fan to come with us.

Once back in the Hotel, we were all quite shaken up. Then OJ suggested something.

"How about we throw a party?"

"What!? W-why?" Balloon sputtered out.

"To boost morale. It can also serve a 'we won't kill eachother' party."

"That's stupid." Said Nickel.

"I like it, sounds fun." Bow compliments OJ's idea.

"Me too. We could all need something to get our minds off of those terrible videos." Clover cowered when she spoke of the videos.

OJ smirked at Nickel. "Well then, it's decided."

----------------------

After helping OJ gather supplies, the party was on! And it was quite nice.

I watched as Fan convinced Testtube to dance with him.

Bow and Goo laughed as the moved around like children. I wouldn't exactly call it 'dancing', especially coming from the Ultimate Dancers, but at least they were having fun.

Nickel and Balloon skipped out on the party altogether. I don't know if that was a good idea though. We all agreed not to hurt eachother but I worried for them nonetheless. But they were in their rooms with the doors locked.

Cabby and I talked, had a few drinks, but mostly observed. She took notes on what everyone was doing.

Clover was at the bar with us. With a cup in her hand, she swayed to the music.

LifeRing and Teakettle sat at the tables. Talking and laughing.

Candle danced and watched as Yinyang ran around. He seemed to be enjoying the music. Every once in a while, he would stop running and dance with Candle.

Silver Spoon scoffed at the party and stood off to the side. Until Candle dragged him in for a slow dance.

I laughed at his uncomfortable expression. He looks like he's never danced before.

OJ watched the party from behind the bar. Looking around proudly. He wasn't too bad of a mixologist either.

"I'd say tonight was a success." I told him.

He jumped, startled at someone talked to him. He must've zoned out. "Yep! It sure is." He smiled.

Fan ran up to where I sat.

"Paintbrush! Paintbrush! Come dance with us!"

"W-what!?" I was caught off guard by the ask, not sure what to say.

"Come on," he was out of breath, "it will be fun."

I looked behind him to see a dizzy Testtube. She swayed before gaining her balance again. She held up a thumbs up to show she was okay. She eventually made her way to the bar.

I looked to Cabby nervously. She smiled and nodded. I sighed.

"Okay... fine." I got up from my chair as Fan squealed with excitement

The music was up-beat. I moved in rhythm. Fan grabbed my hand. I was startled a bit, not expecting physical touch. He gave me bright smile, it reminded me of someone. We danced together and it was nice.

When the music slowed, we stopped to calm down. I some more drinks, probably too much because at this point I was feeling a little tipsy.

-----------------

As it got late, people began to go to bed.

"Leaving so soon?" I antagonised Silver as he began to make his way to bed.

"A royal needs his beauty sleep."

"Sure, princess." He scoffed at my remark.

Candle grabbed Yinyang off the dance floor. He looked at her confused and upset. "We should be getting to bed to too."

"What! No!! I wanna dance some more!" The teenager complained.

"You need sleep."

"I agree with Candle, Yang. I'm a little tired." Said Yin

"WELL IM NOT!"

Candle was eventually able to drag him to bed.

"We should be off too." Said Cabby as she picked up a sleeping Goo. She was followed by Clover and Teakettle.

"Goodnight, Cabby." Testtube called.

"Ugh. I'm sleepy too." Bow yawned, as she nearly ran into a wall. She must've been really tired.

"Let me help you." Fan said as he helped the girl to her room.

"Night, Fan, Bow" I said and he waved back.

Then it was just me, Testtube, OJ, and LifeRing.

OJ was cleaning up in the kitchen, behind the bar. And LifeRing was helping.

"Don't worry OJ, I got this. You should go to bed now."

OJ shifted around awkwardly. I could see bags under his eyes. "You sure?"

"Yeah, now go." He pushed him out to the hall.

"Okay, okay."

LifeRing then turned to us. "You two should get some rest."

At this point I was really feeling those drinks. I attempted to stand up. Swaying on my way. It hit me like a train, "Ugh..."

"W-whoa! You okay there?" Testtube went to steady me.

"I only had, like, a few drinks, God." My head hurt. My slurred thoughts raced. Why was I so drunk? I only had like three and a half drinks. I've had more than that on my 21st birthday and barley got wasted.

"Come on, let's get you to bed." She held me steady as she walked with me.

Maybe it was the state I was in, but I noticed how pretty her eyes were. I tried not to stare, immediately looking at the floor, blushing.

She led me to my room and waved goodbye as I opened my door.

I immediately collapsed on my bed and passed out.

--------------------

I woke up in the middle of the night in a delirious sweat. Or at least what I assumed to be the middle of the night. I was barely awake and totally out of it. I felt like I was dying.

I heard people talking outside my door. I tried to listen.

"Hey, can you help me with something?"

"Yeah, sure."

I couldn't tell whose voices those were and didn't have time to think about it before falling asleep again.

------------------

I woke up to the morning announcement. I opened my eyes to the cruel morning sun beaming in my room. I had a head splitting headache and felt so ill.

I sat up with my head in my hands. I felt awful, worse than just a hangover. My stomach churned, my head pounded. I felt weak and dizzy. Before I could attempt to stand up, however.

A blood curtily scream was heard out in the hall.

On instinct, I ran to the door, slamming it opened.

The scene I was greeted with was nothing more than sick.

Bow was the one who screamed. She held her door open, leaning on it for support. Her knees were shaking, she was crying and still screaming. OJ was there aswell. Standing on the side looking at the scene.

Infront of Bow laid.... a body

...

LifeRing's body.

He must've been leaning on Bow's door, when she opened it he fell on his back. He was covered in stab wounds and blood.

Dangansanity Chapter 1: Lives At Risk, Daily Life, End.

Chapter Text

I felt sick. Really sick. I put my hand over my mouth and ran back to my bathroom.

I threw up in the toilet. Head still killing me. My mind raced. This wasn't real, right? It was just a nightmare. But I could still smell it. The rotten smell of death and that cursed image ingrained in my brain.

As I continued to throw up the rest of last night's dinner, an announcement went off. One we haven't heard before.

'Ding dong bing bong'

"A body has been discovered!" It spoke giddly. Excited to share this new found information, "We will now begin the investigation. After a certain amount of time we will begin the class trial." (Blah blah blah)

I wiped my mouth and attempted to regain my composure. I mentally prepared myself to walk back out of my room.

Everyone was here, staring at the body. I desperately tried to avoid it.

"I can't believe it. It's not true! It's not real!" I heard Silver Spoon say. Candle spoke calmly to him, trying to calming him down.

"AHH! He was- he was-!!" Bow sobbed.

OJ gently walked over to her. Taking her hand and helping her over the body she was stuck behind.

I watched as she cowered into OJ's arms the moment she was away. "It's going to be okay. Do you want some water?" He spoke calmly with her. She meekly nodded. Then they made their way to the kitchen.

I caught myself staring at the body again. My vision blurred. At least his eyes were closed. I could hear crying and yelling around me.

A noise from my Monopad snapped me back to reality. I opened it up to see a picture of LifeRing.

"LifeRing Buoy, Ultimate Lifeguard.
Cause of death: Stabbing
Other injuries: Multiple stab wounds all over the body
Time of death: Around midnight
Additional info: Found infront of Bow's door"

I sighed.

"Well, we should start investigating!" Testtube suddenly said.

"Someone just DIED!?" Teakettle yelled with tears in her eyes.

"You heard the announcement, r-right?" Testtube genuinely asked.

"Do we not get any time to mourn?" Teakettle sain with aggression and sadnessin her voice. She was the closest to LifeRing, even though none of us really knew eachother that well. This was clearly hard on her.

Nickel spoke up, "Just because it was an announcement, doesn't mean we need to blindly, fucking follow it!"

"You saw what happened to Paintbrush when you try to defy it. Besides, don't you want to find out who did it, f-for clarity's sake?"

"Not really..." Teakettle said.

"Testtube's right, we need to begin the investigation. We just need to do what MonoPhone asked us, and we will surely make it out alive." said Candle.

"LifeRing didn't make it out alive." Nickel remarked.

"He... asked us to kill eachother." Balloon quietly said, concerned.

Even though we protested, Testtube began to check the body.

"W-what are you doing!?" I yelled. Uncomfortable at the thought of disturbing the corpse.

"I'm observing the body." She said nonchalantly, as if it was a completely normal thing to do.

"Hm... seems he has... about 8 stab wounds in the front and 2 in the back! So.... 10 all together."

We looked at her, slightly disgusted.

She looked back, "W-what?" She said.

-----------------------

Everybody eventually split up to look for different pieces of evidence. I stayed with Fan and Testtube. Testtube seemed like the best equipt at this whole investigation thing. I wonder what in her personal life caused her to learn all this.

She searched the body more. Though, I can't imagine how she could.

"It seems he... uh... I think he might have tried to write his killer's name b-before he passed."

Fan and I leaned in to see closer. It was written in his own blood but it was too smudged and illegible.

"Psh, so much for that!" Fan pouted.

Testtube put a hand on his shoulder, "We still have other evidence, it's alright." She gave him a comforting smile and he returned it.

"Okay, lovebirds, what's next?" I interrupted. They quickly stepped away from eachother, blushing.

I looked around as I waited for an answer, and found something interesting.

"Footsteps."

"Huh?" Testtube turned around to see what I was looking at. Bloody footsteps that led to the living room. We decided to follow them. They led us to the cliff outside, behind the hotel.

"So..." Testtube started. Below the cliff we could see Candle, Silver, and Yinyang searching for evidence in the sand.

Fan shouted down to them, "DID YOU FIND ANYTHING?!"

"Agh!" I plugged my ears. God, he was loud and I still had the remnants of this morning's headache.

"MURDER WEAPON!!" Yang yelled back holding up a knife. Silver Spoon swiftly snatched it from him. I rolled my eyes as he began to scold the teen.

We made our way back inside, to the bar where the party was held last night.

Fan looked defeated. He sat on one of the stools, slouching. On the other side of the bar was Nickel and Balloon.

"There you guys are! Did you anything?" Testtube asked.

"A knife was missing from the kitchen but besides that, nada." Balloon fluttered his hand as if he were trying to squat a fly.

Fan miserably began twirling a glass with his finger on the rim. Testtube watched in thought.

She gasped, snatching the glass from him.

"Hey! I didn't do anything!" He complained.

"This is Paintbrush's glass!"

"Um... what does that have to do with anything?" I said a bit flustered.

"It doesn't really," she inspected my glass. "but I believe it was poisoned."

I chocked slightly. Was that why I was so out of it last night? Fan stared at her, "How do you know that?"

"You can tell," she showed us the glass closer, pointing to some sort of powder residue at the bottom, "See. Poison."

"W-what..." I was confused, shocked, and frankly scared for my life. I tried to remain calm but the fear took over. "Am I gonna die!?"

She swiped her finger in the glass and smelt the white powder. I made a face of concern and disgust.

She locked eyes with me.

"Yeah, um....." she thought for a moment, "Do you feel sick o-or did you?"

"This morning I did, but I think I've been feeling better? I woke up with the worst headache. But after I saw... LifeRing, I threw up and felt a little better."

"You threw up?" She asked enthusiastically. I couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing.

"Yeah....?"

She sighed in relief. "Okay, you'll probably be fine. The poison has to be in your system for a full 24 hours." I worried on her use of 'probably'.

"So their not gonna die?" Fan asked, relived.

"Nope, you're good." Testtube confirmed, I exhaled.

"Oh, good! We wouldn't want anything to happen to you." Nickel said sarcastically.

"Excuse me?" I said back, harshly.

"What the fuck is your problem?!" Balloon yelled at him.

Nickel scoffed, "They're obviously the killer. They were the last to go to bed, right?"

Fan jumped up and slammed his hands on the bar. "SAVE IT FOR THE TRAIL!"

Nickel glared at him before walking off.

Balloon turned to us, "I'm so sorry about him. I don't know what his deal is." He apologized.

"Anyway, who do you think would want to poison Paintbrush. Do you think whoever that is murdered LifeRing too?"

"Well, that's what we're trying to find out." Testtube responded.

"Nickel seems awfully defensive." I chimed in.

"No no." Balloon defended, "He wouldn't do that."

I hummed, "I think you should watch him just in case."

"Sure, if you think that will help. See you at the trial, I guess." He said before running after Nickel.

Fan suddenly perked up. "Can we see how Bow is doing?" He asked.

"Yeah, we should get going."

----------------------

When we arrived, we were greeted with a shaken up Bow and tired OJ.

"How's she doing?" Fan whispered to OJ, though I'm sure Bow could hear. He's not very quiet.

"She's a little startled. I mean, the body was right infront of her door. That's a lot for a person."

Testtube kneeled down infront of Bow. "You doin' alright?" She asked sweetly.

"Fine. I just," she squeezed her eyes shut, "can't get that image out of my head." I saw tears well up on her eyes.

We all looked at eachother in agreement. I'm guessing no one here has ever seen a dead body before. I certainly haven't. We all had tired looks in our eyes. This investigation was really taking a lot out of us.

"OJ, how about you. You doing alright? You look kinda tired. Though I guess we all are." I asked.

He chuckled half-heartedly, "Yeah, no. I'm fine. I did just see a dead body though, so.... that might have something to do with it."

Awkward silence.

...

"Let's go check the body again." Testtube suggested.

--------------------

As we left OJ and Bow to their own devices, we quickly checked the infirmary. Sure enough, there was a bottle of poison missing.

Back in the hall, Testtube immediately got to work on, whatever she was doing. I noticed there were more people here now. Cabby and Clover. And down the hall more was Teakettle and Goo. I decided to talk to Cabby and Clover first.

"Hey Cabby, Clover. What are you guys doing?"

Cabby spoke, messing with something in her drawer. "Hm... just gathering evidence. And Clover here was a little on-edge, so I invited her along."

"Yeah, this morning was bad, and last night was so freaky that I just-"

"Wait, last night?" I interrupted her.

"Yeah... I was still a little shaken up, so I guess I couldn't sleep very well." She began. "Then I heard voices! At first, I thought it was a ghost or something, but then I realized it was LifeRing. I thought he was going to kill someone... I just hoped it wasn't me." She stared at the ground, somberly.

"I just wish I could have done something to help." She said. Cabby put a comforting hand on her back.

I pondered for a bit... and then something hit me.

"Shit. Fan, we forgot alibis!"

"Oh! You're right, but I don't think we have enough time for that now." We blew it.

"Don't worry." Cabby said calmly.

"I've got everyone's alibi's in here!" She opened her drawer, it was filled with multi-colored files. One for everyone here, even MonoPhone.

"Whoa! That's pretty impressive!" Fan praised, in awe.

"Thanks. As the Ultimate Journalist I have to make sure I have everyone's information." She smiled. What a nerd, but helpful.

"Can we use these in the trail?" I asked, pointing to one of the files.

"Well I hope so."

'Ding Dong Bing Bong'

"Everyone report to the Calm Down Cabana, please. Times up!"

I gritted my teeth. Testtube sighed, disappointed she couldn't finish what she was doing.

Everyone began to make their way outside. I decided I wanted to check in on TK and Goo first.

"Hey, how are you guys."

Teakettle stood up. "Oh, we were just talking. I knew I wasn't going to be much help for the investigation, so I just held back. Goo was just talking to me."

Goo smiled. "I was just helpin' her. Sorry we won't be much help for the investigation."

"No, it's okay." I said. "I just wanted to make sure you two were alright.

---------------------

We began to make our way to the Cabana like it asked. We were greeted with the Phone.

"Alright folks, follow me to the volcano!" It spoke.

"Volcano!" Testtube said excitedly.

At the base of the volcano was an awkward looking entrance. It opened and we steeped through.

As the phone disappeared, the ground began to move. It was an elevator. I couldn't tell if it was going up or down.

Now 14 of us. It felt off without LifeRing but we continued.

Hopefully the trial will go smoothly. I looked around at everyone. Anyone of us could be the murderer. Any of us.

I gulped. Time to begin, I guess.

Chapter Text

When the elevator arrived, we stepped off. The room was cold. 16 podiums stood in a circle, in the middle of the room. Behind them, a thrown. The phone sat in that one.

"Um, what is this?" Asked Balloon, apprehensively.

"This is where you'll be standing, of course." He said as if it were painful obvious. "Look, each of your names are on them."

We all stood at our designated podiums. As I stood at mine, feeling the wood it was made out of, I noticed something beside me.

I jumped, letting out an involuntary scream.

"What! what!?" Goo asked, looking around wildly.

It was a portrait of LifeRing, with the words 'Couldn't save his own life' on it. I quickly composed myself and in a calm manner, asked...

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?!"

As my anger at the disrespect of an object life began to boil. My hair flew up in a firey rage.

MonoPhone chuckled. "Don't burn the place down, Paintbrush. It's my respects to the dead."

"Respects!? This is a sick joke! I-"

I was cut off my a hand on my shoulder. Candle. She shook her head in a calm manner.

"There will be a time and place for this. But it's not right now, I'm sorry." I could see a sorrowful look in her eyes.

I sighed. My bristles returning to normal, I calmed myself down.

A joke at the expense of a dead person? I didn't think this thing could get any worse. This whole game is nothing but a twisted mistake.

"Okay, everyone ready? I will now begin to explain the rules of the class trial. Ehem-"

"W-wait, before we start. I have a question." Bow stated. For some reason I felt like I should've said that instead.

MonoPhone groaned, "Whaaaat..." he whined.

Bow backed down a bit but kept her composer. "Why are there 16 podiums?"

"What do you mean?" Candle asked.

"Well," she paused to find the right words, "there are 15 of us. Not 16."

"Oh right!" The phone started to speak again. "Simple mistake, I thought there was 16." I got the uneasy feeling but brushed it off.

"Anyway, the rules of the class trial!" He said excitedly.

-insert rules here-
(Listen, you know what the rules are right? You've seen danganronpa. I don't remember the rules word for word and don't feel like looking it up, ok😭)

"Okay!" Fan began. "Where should we start?"

"Let's start with the cause of death." Testtube responded.

Silver Spoon spoke next, "We'll that's obvious! He was stabbed."

"Yeah, it says that on the Monopad." Balloon chimed in.

"But do you know how many stab wounds?" Testtube said inquisitive.

"Is that important?" Teakettle asked.

"Maybe. Ten! He had ten stab wounds."

Who ever did that must've been really angry." Said Clover with an almost child-like innocence to her.

"Oh, then I know who did it." Everyone turned their attention to Nickel. He knows who? How did he figure it out so quickly?

"Paintbrush."

"What!?" I said alarmed.

"Why would you think that, dear?" Teakettle talked to him as if he were her son.

"YEAH! PAINTBRUSH HAS BEEN NOTHING BUT NICE TO US!" Yang yelled.

"i don't think they did it." Yin said agreeing with his brother.

"Well," Nickel started his case against me. "They were up late last night, right? So they stayed up to kill him. As simple as that."

"Hm. That seems like a reasonable explanation." Silver said, agreeing with Nickel.

I was absolutely shocked, but before I could argue Testtube came to my aid instead.

"That's not accurate!"

"And why not?" He said aggravated. Clearly pissed off no one else was agreeing with him.

"Well, for starters, I and OJ were also up at that period of time."

He glared at her, "I-"

"SECOND!" She loudly cut him off, purposely not letting him get another word in. I watched as Nickel squirmed around angrily. "OJ left before us and I helped Paintbrush to their room. In fact, I believe LifeRing was the last person to go to bed. Meaning a-anyone could've woken up around midnight and killed him... even you."

She was right and Nickel knew this. It pissed him off. He scoffed, having nothing more to say for now.

"Now I have to ask.... why Paintbrush, hm? I would say that's awfully suspicious but I, personally, don't believe it was you. Anyway, now that that's over with," Testtube stretched. "Who found the murder weapon again?"

Yinyang raised his hand.

"We found it together." Candle responded.

"What was it, again?"

It was Silver's turn to speak up. "A knife.... obviously."

"Where was it found." I asked, following Testtube's lead.

"ON THE BEACH BURIED IN THE SAND!" Yang yelled out.

Testtube clapped her hand together loudly. "That means someone...." she pointed at everyone, spinning around a bit, "tried to hide evidence."

"Again, that's obvious." I hear Nickel mutter. I shot him a glare, he rolled his eyes.

"We should go over alibis now." I said, turning to Cabby.

"Got it!" Cabby said cheerfully, glad she could help. She pulled out the files with our pictures on them.

"During the party: Bow, Goo, Candle, Fan, Testtube, and Yinyang began the night by dancing. Me, Paintbrush, OJ, and Clover were at the bar. Well, close to it in OJ and Clover's case. Silver Spoon, Teakettle, and LifeRing sat at the tables. While Nickel and Balloon were already in bed." She rummaged through her files. We all waited patiently.

"After awhile, Testtube sat out and stayed at the bar with me. Paintbrush and Silver Spoon replacing her to dance."

"Once the night was over, the first to go to bed was Silver! Followed by Candle, Yinyang, Goo, Clover, Teakettle, and myself. The next were Bow and Fan. And the final people to leave were Testtube, Paintbrush, OJ, and LifeRing."

"So it could have been any three of them?" Balloon questioned.

"Precisely."

OJ began to make his case, "LifeRing pushed me to go to sleep, saying that he could clean up by himself. I didn't want to, but he insisted."

"So, it could have only been Paintbrush or Testtube." Bow spoke out.

"No, it wasn't us." Testtube said nonchalantly as if she wasn't being accused of murder right now.

Bow looked at her a bit concerned. "Okay... well, what about, like, Paintbrush?"

"I was way too drunk to do anything last night. If you don't believe Testtube, OJ can vouch for me." I extended an arm in his general direction.

"They were pretty wasted when I left."

"Let me set the scene," a raspy voice spoke up, again. "Paintbrush is wasted and Testtube's a murderer. She convinces them to kill, they kill. They're too black out drunk to remember it and BOOM! Their both murderers." Nickel smirked.

"What the actual fuck!?" Why does he have it out for me? Is he the killer, God.

"Wait! Can there even be two murderers?" Goo looked to MonoPhone for an answer.

"Why yes, of course there can be two murderers. But only the one who does the crime does the time!" He grinned, "Buuuutt~ Since I'm feeling nice... there's only one killer for this particular case."

I place my hands on my hips and smirk back at Nickel.

"They could still be the murderer!"

"What about the poison?" Balloon interrupted.

"POISON!" Yang perked up. "did someone poison lifering?" Yin finished, confused.

"No no, Paintbrush was poisoned." Testtube confirmed.

Clover shrieked in alarm, "W-WHAT!? Since when was there poison!?"

"I found poison in the glass they were drinking from last night. Thankfully, they're okay now, but someone was trying to poison them." I glanced at Nickel.

"Hmm..." Bow thought for a second. "Yeah, I don't think Paintbrush did it anymore. I mean who would poison themself?"

"A psychopath." Nickel spoke blankly.

"But Paintbrush isn't a psychopath!"

"How would you know?"

"They.... seem, like, nice."

"May I remind you they tried to attack MePhone?" Silver said on Nickel's behalf.

"So did OJ!" She yelled back.

"Why are you defending them?"

"I-" She began.

"Is it because of a guilty conscience?" Nickel raised an eyebrow at her.

"..."

"The body was found in front of her door." Silver Spoon said to all of us. Finally getting his way, Nickel was proud. Bow went silent.

"It couldn't have been her!" Yelled Fan.

Nicked glared at him, "Why not?"

"Because I was with her all last night. She was scared, so I offered to stay with her. I stayed the whole night and she didn't wake up once! It couldn't have been her."

Nickel was speechless, his plans once again foiled. "But-"

"Let's," Tea Kettle interrupted him, "drop it for now, okay dear? This could go on forever." She sighed.

"Let's think of other suspects." I suggested.

Clover spoke up after me, "Late last night, I heard someone talking to LifeRing. Asking him for help."

"Yeah, I heard it too." I said, agreeing with her.

"Do you know who it was?" Candle asked us. But we shook our heads.

"Then it's not much help." Candle said in a disappointed manner.

"We did find footsteps though. And a name written in blood, near the body." Said Fan.

"Footsteps?" OJ asked.

"Yeah, they led to the cliff. Probably when the killed threw the knife away."

"Um, what about the name? That seems pretty important." Goo asked. "What did you find?"

"Oh. Nothing, it was too smudged to see anything." He looked down disappointedly. "It looked short, whatever it was."

"On another note. Why LifeRing specifically? Why do we think the killer choose him?" Teakettle said.

"He's the Ultimate Lifeguard." Fan answered. "His job is saving people. After Paintbrush was poisoned, he probably could've saved them or something."

"Grasping at straws here but who found the body?" Testtube asked the group.

"Bow, me, and Paintbrush found him first." OJ confirmed.

"And the body discovery announcement went off after you came out..." I said to Testtube

"MONOPHONE!" She yelled suddenly.

"Ack!" He jumped. "Yeah?"

"What were the BDA rules again?"

"The Body Discovery Announcement will only go off once at least three innocent contestants find the body." It answered, more than happy to share this information again.

"Innocent, meaning one of the first three to find him, was not." She tapped her finger to her glass.

"We already ruled out Paintbrush, multiple times, and we ruled some else out too,.... meaning...?" She looked at me, wanting me to finish her sentence.

"It could only be...."

....

"OJ!" We said in unison.

"W-WHAT!?!" OJ yelped.

"Paintbrush was ill last night, they could hardly walk to their room. And besides me, you were the only capable person up last night."

OJ looked stunned that we would even consider thinking it was him. "But what about Bow? The body was in front of her door!"

"We already ruled that out." I countered.

"Fan was with her." Said Testtube, "I can confirm. I saw him leave her room."

"No, it couldn't have been him!" Bow said suddenly. "He helped me when it happened, why would a murderer do that?" She asked

"No no no no no no! It-it wasn't me! That ridiculous!"

Balloon spoke up, nervously. "Why are you getting so defensive then?"

"We need to lay out the whole case from front to back!" I said.

"Yes, Paintbrush." Testtube gestured to me, "Will you do the honors?"

"Gladly." I cleared my throat and began.

"This all started with the motive videos. Whatever was on the culprit's video must've been very distressing."

"After watching said video, they began to lose their sanity, immediately lunging at MonoPhone, but I was able to hold them back from hurting themself."

"Though, that didn't stop them from planning out a murder. But first, a party."

"As we set up things for their party, they were busy stealing poison from the infirmary. Their original plan was to kill me."

"While I went to dance with Fan,....."

"The culprit was putting poison in my drink."

"Not knowing how long it would take for the poison to have an effect, they assumed it didn't work and moved on to their next target."

"LifeRing. The Ultimate Lifeguard. Choosing him to cover their tracks."

"As the night went on, LifeRing told the culprit to go to bed, so they did.
But as they left, they took at knife from the kitchen with them.

"But around midnight, when LifeRing was heading to bed, the culprit asked for his help. LifeRing, being the helpful person he was, offered his assistance."

"Taking advantage of LifeRing's kindness, the culprit killed him in cold blood."

"Stabbing him 10 times infront of Bow's room. Once they were done, they went outside and threw the murder weapon over the cliff, landing it on the beach."

"Isn't that right..."

"OJ?"

"Oh, come on most of that was speculation." Silver Spoon complained.

"Doesn't mean it can't be true." I argue back.

Though, OJ stood silently. Anger, distress, and fear written on his face.

"I-is is that true, dear?" Teakettle asked shakily.

OJ shot up, glaring daggers into my eyes. His cold look sending shivers down my spine. Then he let out a sigh.

"Y-yes..." He demeanor shifted as his voice cracked, seemingly given up.

"Wha-" Bow started. "Why.... w-why did you...?" A look of betrayal went over her face as she faced OJ.

"Bow..." Testtube tried to talk to her, but she didn't listen.

"WHY!? You killed him! Stabbed him TEN TIMES and-and comforted me after, like-like nothing even happened!?!" She yelled, tears in her eyes.

"WHY!? ANSWER ME!! Why why why... why... wh-" Her yells becoming sobs as she broke down. I could see tears in OJ's eyes aswell as he shamefully turned away.

"Are you ready to cast you votes?" The phone asked in his usual sickly entertained voice.

"Yes." We all put in our votes. All of us voting for OJ.

"DING DING DING!! You got it right! Our dear, dear, beloved OJ was the killer!"

Once it finished speaking, I asked, "Why did you do it?"

"I-I had to.... for them."

"For who?" Silver inquired.

OJ just looked down. Beginning to shake as if he were crying. "I couldn't let it hurt him. I had to- I had to get out!"

"Okay enough talk. Time to begin the execution!"

My eyes shot up, "The what!?" A look of pure horror was plastered on my wooden face, on everyone's face.

"What do you mean, 'execution'?" Nickel shouted.

"Oh?" MonoPhone said curiously, "Did you really think he was gonna get off scott-free? He needs to be punished, duh."

We were all in shock. There's been a lot of that lately. All eyes gravitating towards OJ.

"It's time..."

"ELIMINATION TIME!!~" (doo doo)

Before any of us could react, a robotic claw of sorts came out. Wrapping around OJ's glass (neck area??), pulling him away into ceiling.

----------------------------------

OJ's POV:

Before I could think, something behind me grabbed my neck and pulled me into the darkness.

Darkness. I was in utter darkness.

Until it fell of. A blindfold. I attempted to move my hands but they were chained behind me on some, pole? I think.

I was on my knees, in a dark room. Nothing familiar. Maybe a basement.

I looked up. Infront of me was a screen with flashing lightbulbs around the frame. Words flashed on the screen. It read: 'OJ, the Ultimate Manager's Execution: A Manager's Life'

I stared at it. Confusion and concern hitting me like a truck.

Then I heard rattling. Something infront of me emerged from the darkness.

Some sort of robot. It was rusted and brown. It moved slow and wobbly, but not very scary.

Suddenly, the screen on its face lit up with the words, 'Can I speak to your manager?'. Taking a closer looked at where it's face should be was makeup, heavy and.... bad. Like a toddler did it.

I squinted at it, confused. What's that supposed to mean?

Before I knew it, the robot dashed to me, faster than I assumed it could move, slamming it's metal head into my forehead.

I closed my eyes on impact. Upon opening them, I realized that it broke my glass. A large crack formed on my forehead, blood trickling down on my face as well as orange juice that seeped out.

More of those ugly robots appeared from the darkness. Circling around me.

They began to beat me up.

With each hit, my glass cracked more and more. I thrashed and tried to escape, but it was not use. I was stuck.

But, eventually they stopped!

I tried to catch my breath. The smell of blood, rusted metal, and oranges flooded the air, coating my mouth.

But just as I thought it was finally over, something moved above me. I froze. Looking up, it was another robot. This one was bigger and falling down slowly on the pole I was tied to.

I pulled and pulled, trying to get away. My weak state making it even harder. If that thing fell, it would surely shatter me! Thankfully it was falling slow.

...

Until it wasn't.

CRASH!

...

The sound of glass shattering filled the now lifeless room.

The cameras focused on the glass shards that now littered the floor... covered in blood.

----------------------------------

We stared in disbelief at the scene before us. After watching OJ be... killed.

We knew.

We were never getting out of here alive.

We stood in silence. Some eventually left. Some staying to mourn. But eventually, everyone left.

Back at hotel, some cried, others comforted or found comfort in others.

For me, I went to my room. Walking past where LifeRing once laid. There was now no trace he was ever even here.

Once in my room. I grabbed my pillow and screamed. I screamed until my throat hurt. I didn't care if someone heard me. I didn't care that my bristles were alight. I didn't care that my room was getting so hot, my tears evaporated at they left my eyes.
I didn't care.
I didn't care!
I DIDN'T CARE!

I just wanted everything to go away.

....

"Painty.....Breath in.... breath out."

A familiar voice came into my mind. One I didn't quite recognize. But I did as it said.

Turning my face away from my pillow, I stared at the door.

At the bottom of it laid OJ's motive video. I had taken it from him so he wouldn't watch it again.

Now that he as dead... there was really no point in it now.

....

Even though it was definitely an invasion of privacy, something urged my to watch it. So I did.

It was almost the same as mine.

"OJ Smith, the Ultimate Manager's Motive Video." It read.

As the words faded away, a picture appeared. It was of an object, about the same age as OJ, and two younger conjoined objects. They looked like kids.

One of the younger objects was taking the photo as the other was dragging the other person into frame. They were all smiling. A happy joyful family.

"A picture of OJ's fiancé, Paper, taken by their sons, the Cherries."

"They look so happy, don't they?"

But just like my video, this happiness was short lived. The scene changed. Alone stood one of the Cherries, his face covered in heavy shadow. I'm not quite sure what his expression was. He stood in a pool of blood. The other half of his stem was unknown.

"Oh no! What could've happened to the rest of them? Were they kidnapped, or worse, killed! And if so, by who?"

"I quess there's only one way to find out.... kill someone and get away with it. Then your free and I'll tell you what happened."

It seems OJ took those words to heart...

I placed the tablet back on the ground, turned off the lights, and laid in my bed. Hoping I could quickly doze off.

As I did, the sounds of glass shattering replayed in my mind. Shaking me to my core.

Dangansanity Chapter 1: Lives At Risk, Deadly Life, End.

Chapter Text

"Stop, come back! M-my friends! They don't deserve this [REDACTED], please!"

Darkness.

I found peace in that sometimes. When the light is overwhelming. When I need to be alone, I find comfort in the dark.

Unknown and familiar memories flood my mind and overwhelm me.

Until I opened my eyes.

...

A bright light was shining over me. I woke up in a small room. Maybe a closet?

Why was I here though? Maybe I got wasted....?

My head was scrambled. It took me a while to even remember who I was.

I am Lightbulb Watts, an Ultimate. But my talent wasn't coming to me at the moment.

Okay but seriously, why was I in a closet?

I looked around and quickly found the door outta here. I pushed on it, crossing my fingers it wasn't locked.

It opened. Creaking slowly and loud. I worried it would alert whoever was on the other side.

Either way, my dumbass spoke, "Hello?" I asked as if I was in a horror movie.

No one answered. So I left the "safety" of the closet. I noticed I was in a hotel. Not just any hotel,-

But before I could finish my thought, the door to the room opened. And like a deer in headlights, I froze.

A person stepped out. When they saw me, they froze too.

But I recognized this person.

"Painty...?" It was Paintbrush! My best friend ever! It felt like I haven't seen them in a long time.

"OMGA! I-I didn't know you were here! Speaking of which," I looked around at the room. "Where is here?"

That look of shock never left their face, though. They shut the door to their room while carefully stepping in.

"D-do I know you..?" As they uttered those words my heart sank. What do they mean they don't know me? We're best friends, I thought...

I gave them a nervous grin, "W-what do you mean?" Thinking this must be a joke.

"I mean, what are you doing in my room, and how do you know me?" They spoke in a hostile tone.

"I'm Lightbulb, your bestfriend, duh!"

I watched as the gears in their head began to turn, desperately trying to figure out who i was.

And like fog being blown away, "Wait- your that girl in my video!" I gave them a confused look. Video?

"I guess... you are my friend then."

"So you remember me?!" I jumped, excited.

"No.... but you must be my friend, right? Do-do you remember Baxter?"

"Psh, of course! I gave him to you. Our little crab baby."

"Yeah, that's right...." They mumbled to themself. "But, what were you doing in my closet?"

"I don' know." I step closer to them. "I just woke up there."

"Well... it is nice to see someone I, kind of, recognize." I cocked my head like a curious puppy.

"Who else is here?" I ask.

They hummed, thinking of a response. "How about I show you?" They offer.

They took me down the hall.

"I'm.... sorry I don't really remember you. This weird place is really doing a number on me, I guess, " Painty said.

"'s fine." I gave them a thumbs up to show I took no offense. Though I did make me feel a little down my own best friend didn't recognize me, but I guess it can't be helped.

"By the way," I say changing the subject, "Why are we here?"

They didn't answer.

-----------------------------------

We soon made it downstairs, to the dining room where everyone else was having breakfast. I immediately recognized a few faces.

But before I could wave to them, "Who's this nutjob?" A familiar, sarcastic voice spoke up.

"This is my friend, Lightbulb." Said Paintbrush. I waved.

"Hello, dear," a kind but unfamiliar voice talked to me softly. "Where did you come from?"

"From Painty's closet!" I cheerfully exclaimed. "Which is weird cuz I'm very much out of the closet, haha!" I began talking to myself more than the people around me. No one was really listening.

"That's what's weird about you waking up in a closet??" Balloon, my fellow team leader, said.

In fact I could point out at least 6 people I recognized (not counting Painty). Nickel, Balloon, and Bow were in season one with me. Yinyang, Testtube, and Fan were on the second. But the rest of them? No clue.

"Why did she come in late, I wonder?" A purple candle asked skeptically. Though, her voice remained sweet like honey.

"Are you some sort of spy?" A silver spoon with a British accent asked next.

"I agree, she seems a little shifty," Fan squinted his eyes at me.

I played shocked, "How could you say that, Fan!"

"She knows my name! She's a witch!" He jumped, hiding behind a table, while pointing an accusing finger at me.

"This isn't the 1600's, Fan. She's not a witch." Painty bravely defended my honor.

I laughed, "Ha ha, Fan. Testtube, can you believe this guy?" But instead of at least humoring me, she stares as she slowly stepped away. As if she was... afraid of me?

"Testtube....?"

Paintbrush placed a hand on my shoulder before speaking to the crowd, "She's my friend from.... before. She obviously doesn't know why she's here, or why she was late. But none of us know how we got here, so how is this any different?"

"What about her knowing our names?" Fan mumbled skeptically under the table.

Paintbrush rolled their eyes. "Is it really that hard to guess your names, Fan?" They ask the red hand fan. "Besides, she probably just heard from upstairs and wanted to be funny. Right, Lightbulb?" They turn to me, waiting for a response.

No! That's no true! We were bestfriends before, remember? Is what I wanted to say, but instead I settled on, "Yeah."

"So, why are we here?" I ask.

"Excellent question, Lightbulb."

A voice said. Not from anyone infront of me, but behind. It was definitely familiar but.... wrong.

I watched the faces of my peers turn into one's of mutual fear, angry, and sadness. Curious as to why, I turn around to face the voice.

It was [REDACTED]! But he looked different. Was this a glitch or something? But that didn't explain why everyone was so afraid of him?

"You are here to participate in a Killing Game!"

....That wasn't.....

"Not this again." Paintbrush grumbled.

"Y-yo, what!?" Was all I could manage to get out.

"Yep! A Killing Game!" It was cheerful. "I would show you yesterday's execution, but I would just love to see the despair on your face when you see your first death!" It grinned maliciously. It was like a demon.

My legs began to shake underneath me, but tried not to give in. It would be embarrassing to fall infront on all these new people.

Suddenly, a warm hand was once again placed on my shoulder for comfort. "Leave her alone!" Painty yelled at the phone.

"Oh, no! Don't you remember what I told you? I can't hurt her even if I wanted to, Painty," Then, just like that, it disappeared.

What even was that? I was a little disoriented by the encounter and was trying to process what just happened.

Painty then turned me around to face them, "We have a lot to talk about."

----------------------------------------

"OJ...?" I repeated what they had just told me. OJ? A murderer? No, no! I don't believe that at all!

"Ha, that's funny, Painty. Are you guys playin' a prank on me?"

They looked at me with a very serious expression. "Lightbulb, I'm not joking."

"But.... why?"

"He wanted to see him family. He must've felt like that was the only way."

"So.... he's dead? Like, dead-dead? Can't be recovered-dead?"

"Yes, Lightbulb," They sighed. They looked so hopeless. It hurt to see them like that.

Lost in my thoughts, I tried to think of something to bring some hope back in them, "Maybe... I can help y'all escape!"

"You don't think we've already tried that?"

"But you haven't tried it with me?" I said, trying to motivate them, even just a little. They gave me the slightest smile.

"Let's go get some food, yeah?" They took my hand and politely led me back downstairs.

All this death talk was making my stomach turn. I don't think I could stomach anything right now.

After breakfast, we walked around the island a bit. They caught me up to speed on some more things in the meantime. The infirmary, the other island, the cabana- wait, cabana?

"Have you been inside the cabana? And what was in there?" I asked with curiosity.

"No, actually. I don't think we have," They admitted.

"Then let's go there!" I grabbed their hand and dragged them in a direction. Until I realized I didn't know where I was going.

We eventually made it to the hut. It didn't have any concrete wall that needed a keycard to enter or nothing, just a flimsy little wooden door.

Paintbrush was apprehensive but I was excited. What could be in there? It's a mystery! Inside wasn't quite what I was expecting, though.

It was full of weapons. It wad more like a tool shed, but it didn't just have tools, though it was organized nicely. Guns with guns, knives with knives. Hammers hung on a shelf. Gardening clippers, too. There was a lot in there.

"Uh, I think we should get out of here now." Painty said, pulling me aside as I stared at the shed with both curiosity and disbelief.

For one moment, I thought about taking one of the knives for myself. Who would miss it? Y'know, for protection.

"Lightbulb, what are you doing?" They call, trying to leave. I backed away from the weapons.

"Nothing, silly! Let's go tell the others."

-------------------------------

Once we got back to the hotel, we walked in on an intense conversation.

"We could always try," Testtube said.

"Yep, we definitely won't drown or anything," Nickel remarked sarcastically. "I mean, have you even been listening?!"

The cabinet girl then added, "I personally agree with Testtube. It wouldn't hurt to, at least try. I'm sure somebody can swim that way?"

"And I'm sure I didn't ask for your opinion, Cabby."

Cabby ignored his comment as Silver Spoon began to speak, "It hurts to say but, I'm afraid the Ultimate Lifeguard passed away, remember?"

"Ok, what about Nickel?" Balloon asked. "You're the Ultimate Athlete, right?"

"Oh yeah, totally. Not like swimming requires arms or anything. No, I can obviously swim!"

"You don't have to be so rude about it," Balloon muttered.

"What about Lightbulb?" Goo asked the others.

"She never did say her talent," Fan noted. I swallowed a bit nervous at the accusation.

Paintbrush then broke up the questions with their own, "What you guys talking about?"

"We are discussing a course of action to escape the island. Currently we are talking about swimming there, but we are at a loss to how." Candle answered.

"Do you have any ideas?" She turned to me.

"Uh- can't Balloon float?" I say. Everyone then turns their attention on him. Counter attack!

He gets nervous at all the sudden eyes. "N-not very far! It's more like just falling slowly."

"I'm sure someone could throw you far enough," Nickel smirked.

"Please don't."

"Oh! Oh!" Bow jumped, raising her hand to get attention. "What about Goo? Maybe he can float on the water cuz of what he's made of."

Goo giggled at the idea, "I'd be open to giving it a try!"

"No, no, we wouldn't want Goo to hurt himself trying.." The mother-like Tea Kettle responded, "but I could give it a try! I used to be quite the athlete when I was younger, y'know."

"Doesn't porcelain sink?" Questioned Bow.

"Well, we have to do something!" Silver yelled.

They all continued to go back and forth. None of them really getting anywhere. And it was starting to get real loud.

Then, suddenly, a much louder alarm went off. I covered my ears. The blaring siren quickly shut everyone up. But just as quickly as it started, it stopped.

"Whoa! That was load, huh?" Came the voice everyone dreaded to hear.

"Ow! What the hell was that for!?" I yell. "Not cool!"

"Just a little test." The evil phone gave a toothy grin. I could sense some sort of irony in his words. That there was something he knew that we didn't.

"It is time, my dear friends, for your next motive!" Motive? Huh, what was it talking about? Paintbrush reached for my hand to hold.

"Well, actually it's a little early. Usually we'd wait another day or two, but I'm boooorred~! So, let's mix things up, just a little."

"We are not going to kill eachother!" Paintbrush stood their ground proudly. Head held high to look more intimidating.

The host narrowed his gaze at the brush, "Are you sure about that?" He kept his plastered smile.

"No. More. Killing!" Bow yelled.

Fan joined in, "We're not gonna do it, MonoPhone." The robot, however, laughed. He laughed as if the words we said meant nothing.

"Oh ok! You all think you little 'togetherness' is gonna last? We'll see about that. Can't deny it's cute. Don't worry, though. I got the perfect motive for you!" He cleared his throat, "If you don't kill someone in the next 24 hours, I will kill all of you."

"WHAT!?!" Fan screamed. Kill all of us?! It can't do that....right?

"You heard me correctly. A wonderful execution for all 14 of you. That alarm that went off will play 10 minutes before kill time! You have 24 hours. Happy killing!" It then disappeared again. I still wasn't used that that. He never did that before?

The room was dead silent. Until a broken yell from Yinyang.

"WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!?!"

"Welp, we're screwed," Nickel casually said, easily giving up.

"No one's actually going to fall for that, right?" Balloon nervously asked the group.

"Guys! Guys!" Paintbrush yelled out, "No one is killing anyone! He's just trying to scare us again."

Cabby spoke up, "We should make a pact. Make sure everyone agrees to the 'no killing' rule."

"I agree!" Tea Kettle nearly shouted. "I'm so sick of all this death. We do this for LifeRing and OJ!"

She put her hand out. Clover placed hers on top. Testtube and Fan looked at eachother and nodded before putting their hands in as well. Everyone slowly put their hands in the pile. except for Candle, Silver Spoon, Nickel, and Balloon.

Candle seemed almost reluctant. She then sighed and grabbed Silver's hand, and placed them both in the pile. Silver scoffed but didn't pull away, "This is dumb..."

"Nickel, Balloon, put your limbs in, dears." Tea Kettle influenced.

Balloon began to to put his hand down, but was cut of by Nickel putting his leg up to stop him. "No, this is stupid. Just saying 'oh, we promise we won't kill eachother''s not gonna do shit!" With that, he storms off.

"Nickel!" Balloon called after him, but he continued to walk away.

"What's got him so upset?" I say before thinking, as I often do.

"We need to get off this island as soon as possible before we all go insane," Paintbrush states. "I don't care if it takes all day. He have 24 hours. Let's use it to our advantage." I marveled at their amazing leadership skills. I guess since OJ was gone, Painty was the next up.

------------------------------------

Like they said, we looked for ways off all day. Trying different escape routes until it got dark.

But before we turned in for the night, Paintbrush pulled me aside, "You remember that shed-cabana we found earlier today? The one with the weapons inside?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?" I tried to raise one eyebrow, but I don't think I did it quite like how Painty does.

They looked around to make sure no one was listening before continuing, "We should lock it up. I don't want anyone finding those weapons and getting ideas."

"Okay, but I thought we just made a pact not to kill? Do you not trust them, Painty?"

They rubbed their neck, nervously. "Not... exactly. It's just, we said the same thing last time. Now look what happened to OJ and LifeRing."

Painty then grab my hand, gently pulling me along.

"Heya, where are you two going?" Fan asked with Testtube by his side.

I immediately open my mouth to tell, but realize maybe that's not the best move. It looked like Painty wanted to keep it a secret. So, I looked for them for approval first.

I trusted Fan, why wouldn't Painty. I then blurted out, "We're gonna go lock up the murder shed. Wanna come with?"

Paintbrush shot me an angry look, "We are going to lock the cabana, so no one can grab the weapons there."

"Oh, that sounds fun. Sure, we'll go." Testtube said now dragging Fan along before he could make up him mind himself.

When we got there, we quickly put a lock on the darn thing, with all the weapons safety inside. We agreed not to tell the rest about the shed.

"What if we need a weapon for protection?" Testtube asked, curiously.

"Why would we need a chainsaw or a hammer, for protection?" Paintbrush exclaimed. Testtube meerly shrugged. They sighed, disappointed.

"Alright... I'm going to hide the key and let only you three know where it is. You can use it for protection. ONLY PROTECTION! Got it?" We all nodded.

They buried it under a random tree in the forest-y area. Then, we headed back to the hotel.

Everyone just had dinner that TK made. So we ate quick and went to bed right after.

There was no room for me, so I just stole some random room no one was using. It was a big hotel.

As I settled into one of the beds, I looked around a bit. I noticed a pride flag on the dresser. The nonbinary flag specifically.

I wonder whose room this used to be?

As I drifted off to sleep, I thought about the day. Though I think I hid it well, being kidnapped and forced to kill, was really, really scaring me.

I was just glad I at least had people I knew here, so I wasn't alone. Even though not one of them remembered me.

Did they all get amnesia? Why didn't I?

Did she have something to do with this?

But, before I could think more, I was asleep.

-----------------------------------------

Good Morning Announcement

I woke up with a stretch. Hopefully, today doesn't turn out too bad.

Either way, I gotta go downstairs now.

As I pasted by TT's door, I overheard a conversation with Fan and Bow. Nothing I could fully understand, but I'm glad they're making new friends.

For breakfast I decided an apple would suffice. I bit into it happily as I listened to Painty's speech.

They talked about more escape plans. They planned a search party and asked if I wanted to join. But I was kinda tired from last night, so I opted out. Paintbrush seemed a little disappointed but didn't say anything against it.

As I finished my food, I was approached by Tea Kettle. She told me she was going to have a little picnic and asked if I wanted to come with, since I was the only person left in the cafeteria.

"Absolutely!"

"That's great! You and the boys can help me bring the stuff outside." She smiled.

"Boys?" I peaked behind her to see a shy Balloon and a grumpy Nickel.

"Why are we even doing this?" Nickel whined.

"No real reason. Just thought a little bonding time was in order. If we're going to be stuck here, might as well get to know eachother," Tea Kettle answered. "You three were the only ones that wanted to. Those kids and their escape plans."

We gathered Tea Kettles things outside. She told me she found the picnic stuff in her room. Must be for her Ultimate. Ultimate Caretaker, basically Ultimate Mom.

She made the food herself. Me and Balloon were very thankful. Nickel, not so much.

But overall we had a good time. Talking and eating. Even Nickel occasionally joined in! He mostly talked to TK and Balloon, but I listened.

We spent most of the morning there. Until the sun was high in the sky.

"So, how are you feeling, dear?" She asks, looking at me.

"Hm? Me?" I point to myself while shoving a sandwich in my mouth. I wasn't this hungry at breakfast.

"I'm good! Never better, thanks to these sammy's. So good!"

Tea Kettle smiles. "What about you, Balloon?" She turns to him.

"I'm... better. This picnic has been really nice, thank you, Tea Kettle."

"Yeah, you were crying like a baby earlier!" Nickel laughs.

"I was not!" Balloon yelps back. "A-and even if I was, can you blame me? These past few days have been a living nightmare!"

"Psh-"

Balloon narrowed his eyes at the coin, "Oh come on! Are you really telling me you're not scared at all?"

"Who would want to kill me?"

"I can think of a few people..." I mutter to myself. He has been quite the asshole.

"Enough, you two!" Tea Kettle eventually cuts in. "Why can you boys not get along, huh? This is supposed to be a nice day!"

"Sorry, Tea Kettle," Balloon apologies, looking down.

Nickel simply looks away.

"I want an apology from you too, young man!"

He shoots back up with a remark, "I'm not your kid, lady! Stop fussing over me."

But TK continued to glare at him. "I want an apology, Nickel."

He grumbles something, but it doesn't  take too long before, "I'm... sorry."

"Thank you! Now, was that so hard?"

Damn, TK really knew how to get under Nickel skin. I've never seen him crumble like that before. It was actually pretty funny. I think Balloon thought so too, because he was definitely stifling a laugh.

While Nickel started barking at Balloon for laughing at him, I leaned back, basking in the sun.

I just wish this moment could last forever.

But it couldn't.

A loud alarm began blaring in our ears. It wasn't as ear bleeding as before, but still loud enough to scare the shit outta us.

We stood up, hands over ears. We quickly realized what this meant.

10 minutes.

We didn't know what to do, still shocked. We were all frozen in place.

9 minutes.

Balloon started to freak out. Tea Kettle tried to calm him down.

8 minutes.

My insides began to churn in my body. The picnic food attempting to come back up. Balloon's cries filled my ears.

Where was Paintbrush?

7 minutes.

I ran to the hotel. My brain so scattered, I didn't know what I was doing. Why would they be in the hotel?

Tea Kettle called out to me.

6 minutes.

I searched the hotel up and down.

5 minutes.

Nobody was there. I called their name, hoping they would find me somehow.

4 minutes.

I broke into sobs. They were going to die. For some reason, I just knew it.

The alarm was making me go crazy.

I hated this.

3 minutes.

I curled in a ball. The loneliness I felt tearing me up inside.

Not again.

2 minutes.

......

1 minute-

A scream..... then an announcement.

"A body has been discovered. Please head outside. The investigation will now begin. In an hour, we will begin the class trial."

What? I wiped my tears and, as instructed, I walked outside. I was met with a crowd of people.

Somewhere behind them, the blanket we just had our picnic on.

I slowly crept over, afraid of what I was about to see.

The crowd stared at.....

Tea Kettle.

Her body was shattered into millions of pieces. Her tea spilled underneath her, turning red with blood.

Her beautiful porcelain, now stained.

Dangansanity Chapter 2: It's Not A Phase, Daily Life, End.

Chapter Text

I keeled over, ready to vomit. I was hyperventilating, I couldn't breathe!

Tea Kettle was..... dead. No recovery. No revive. Just dead. Like Paintbrush told me.

Dead..... and it was all my fault. If I had been there, if I didn't freak out like that.... maybe I could've done something!? Maybe I could've....

"Lightbulb."

The warm, familiar hand of Painty rested on my back again. I looked up to meet their sorrowful eyes.

"You're okay...." I said with a faint smile.

"I told you your 'death pact' wouldn't work, Paintbrush," Nickel mumbled. Though, I could pick up genuine sadness in his voice. And disappointment with his anger, like he was more mad at himself for believing them for even a second. Or maybe I was making that up.

"Poor Tea Kettle....." Balloon's voice shook as he held back tears, "She didn't deserve this."

"No one does," Candle comments remorsefully.

"Who did this?" Balloon yelped.

Silver Spoon answers, "That's what we need to figure out, my dear."

"Ok, so, how does this work? What do we do now?" I mutter to Painty. Having not been here when everyone else did, I didn't quite know what what was next.

"We investigate how she died, look for clues. Then we try to piece it all together during the class trial. We vote out the killer, and if we get it wrong.... let's just say, you don't want to get it wrong."

I grit my teeth at the implications.

"Damn. Well, we better get to investigatin' then," I say, masking my true feelings of fear and sadness with a more joyful attitude. It does no good to dwell.

"First we should check the MonoPads. It has more information about what happened."

Since I didn't have one, Painty showed me theirs. With a picture of Tea Kettle's silhouettes with color coded wounds, it read,

"Tea Kettle, Ultimate Caretaker.
Cause of death: Bludgeoning.
Other injuries: Body broken in multiple pieces.
Time of death: Afternoon
Additional info: Found outside."

"Real helpful," Paintbrush remarks sarcastically. "What else should we look at?"

"Oh!" Testtube perks up, "The body!" She immediately began to inspect the broken porcelain. A little gross, but whatever.

"She was very obviously smashed.... but by what?"

"Maybe by this conveniently placed hammer?" Silver Spoon comments, picking up the hammer as you would a tissue you didn't want to touch.

"Yep, it certainly seems like it. Golly, they must've done it in a hurry! They left the weapon behind in clear view!"

She was right, the hammer was only a little ways away from the body. Covered in blood and porcelain shards clearly on it.

Silver scoffed, "What a savage way to kill someone." He then tossed the hammer, gently.

"Hey, wait," I say, "I recognize this hammer! It came from the cabana! Or should I say the Killer Cabana."

"Really?" Painty said getting a closer look, "Shit, you're right! Lightbulb, we need to check the key."

"Gottcha!"

"Oh, let me come along!" Fan said, excited to be useful. Stepping away from Bow and Goo, who he was talking to.

"Oh, okay," I say observing Fan, and noticing something slightly off about his appearance. I made a mental note to ask him about it later.

When we arrived at the spot, surely enough, the box was wide open. No key in sight.

"Fuck...." Paintbrush muttered to themself.

"We should check the Killer Cabana too. Y'know, just in case," I suggest.

The door was also wide open with a hammer missing from the rack inside.

"We gotta check for forced entry, right?" Fan asked, looking at the door.

"Yeah, we should check all our bases."

The door held no scratches or nothin'. The windows were perfectly intact aswell.

"It doesn't look like someone broke in," Painty said.

"That means someone must've found the key," I say with a frown. We must not have hidden it so well if someone found it so easy.

------------------------------------------

As we walk back, we see Testtube and Cabby interviewing the rest.

"And who found the body?" The Tube asks first, while Cabby jots down the notes. They would make a good team.

Yinyang speaks up, "We found her first but we were with the group we were in, so we could not have killed her," Yin says, desperation soaked in his soft voice.

"No one said you did, Yin," Cabby reassures.

"We also found footprints at the entrance of the hotel, if that's anything?"

"We'll look into that. Thanks for telling me."

Testtube then turned to see us. Her face instantly lighting up when she saw Fan. She lightly jogs over to chat with him and Bow.

I then turn to Painty, "What's next, then?"

"Hm?"

"We found the body and the weapon, what's next?"

"Well, we don't know how this person was able to sneak out from their group, right? So, we need alibis."

I give them a nod, then start goin' towards the first group I see.

"Fan and Testy-tube!" I say trying to get their attention, "Glad you're making new friends," I glance at Bow and Goo, who were the new friends they were talking to.

"What is it?" Bow asks politely.

"Where were y'all at the time of the murder?"

"We were with that big group of people, trying to find our way off the island," answers Goo.

Bow agrees with a simple, "Yep. We were with them the whole time."

I turn to the other two, "What 'bout you, huh?"

"We were too. For the most part, at least," says Testtube, "We went for a walk on the beach, after a while. When the alarm went off, we were separated, but eventually made our way back to the crime scene along with everyone else."

"Hey, um, Fan?" Bow looks up to the taller man.

He moves his head to see the shorter lady and her friend, "Yeah?"

"I wanted to ask you something. I'm not trying to call you out or anything, I was just curious....."

"Why are you all wet?" Goo asked for her.

Fan seemed a little shocked and confused. But I was actually wondering the same thing. His red paper was lookin' a slightly darker shade of red than usual.

"Oh, Fan spilt a drink on himself," Testtube assured.

"A drink?" Bow questions.

"Yeah, clumsy me," he laughs, "I brought one from the hotel, and I had to go clean up in the ocean. That's why I'm a little damp."

"When?" I ask.

"Right before the alarm went off," Fan chimed, "That's how we got separated from eachother."

"Gotcha!" I wink then run off to find Painty.

------------‐--------------------------

"Do you know why Tea Kettle was having a picnic by herself?" They ask me as we walked to our next target. I was starting to get the hang of all this detective stuff, I thought.

"Oh, no. She was having a picnic with me, Nickel, and Balloon."

"Why was she left alone then?"

"I sorta.... got spooked when the alarm went off and ran away," I admitted, shamefully.

Painty looked at me, "Then let's go talk to Nickel and Balloon then." They smile. I smile back, though I still felt bad for leaving her all alone.

We soon found the two boys we were lookin' for, "Balloon! And Nickel, my fellow team Epic?" They give me weird looks.

"We wanted to ask you about something," said Painty, more professionally. They always took things so seriously. "Where were you when Tea Kettle was killed? Lightbulb says you were with her when she ran off. Is that true?"

Nickel scoffed, "We didn't fucking kill her, if that's what you're implying."

Paintbrush shoots him an annoyed glare, "No. We just wanted to ask some questions," they say with their jaw clenched, trying not to yell.

"Chill out, Nickel," Balloon whispers, elbowing his friend.

"Soo...? Why'd ya leave her?" I say.

"I'm sorry," Balloon admits. "It's my fault. I was freaking out, and needed to get away. Nickel chased after me."

"Is there anyone who can confirm your story?" I think I liked playing detective.

"Clover can," says Nickel. "She ran into us at the time."

Paintbrush then asks them to confirm one more thing, "Can you confirm that Lightbulb was with you guys at this picnic?" Wait- hold on.

"Uh, yeah."

"Alright, that's it from us." They turn and walk away, while I follow.

As we walk to find Clover, I think about the last thing they had asked them. I mean, I already told them where I was. I guess they just need further confirmation? I guess I can't hold that against them. I tried not to think about the idea of them not trusting me.

"Hey," Painty said to me. "Did you notice something red on Nickel's feet?"

"What? Really? Are you sayin' what I think you're sayin'?"

"That it could be blood? I don't know, but we should keep a lookout for anything else from him."

"Definitely," I confirm.

-----------------------------------------

"Yes. I ran into them after the alarm went off," Clover confirms. "I got separated from the group, so I tired to go back to the hotel to maybe regroup there? I was hoping, maybe I would find someone. And I did! So I stayed with them until the Body Discovery Announcement went off."

"How'd ya get separated."

"It was very chaotic. I kinda just slipped away, y'know?"

Painty then asks her, "Were you with them the whole time?"

"Oh, um... no actually. Nickel went back to check on Tea Kettle. But he didn't say anything when he got back, so I assumed she was alright. I guess I was wrong..."

Paintbrush thanks her for telling them. Our final stop was Cabby, to check in with her files. Apparently, she takes notes on everything! Extremely convenient for us, huh?

Most of their stories lined up, so it will probably be difficult to snoop out who's lyin'.

Ding Dong Bing Bong

"It's time for the Class Trail! Please make your way outside to the volcano."

Oh, has it been an hour already? Time sure flies right by, huh?

Me and Painty were already outside, so they led me to the volcano that was apparently a secret elevator. Wicked.

The elevator rumbled as it went down. This was my first Class Trial, so I had little to no idea what I was getting myself into.

Did one of us really kill Tea Kettle? Who? And why? She was such a sweet lady.

Either way, we were gonna figure it out, or die trying!

Chapter Text

Ding

The elevator finally arrived at the bottom, so we all stepped off. Infront of us was a room with checkered floors and 16 podiums in a circle. It looked very well kept for being under a volcano.

Each podium had one of our names on it. I took my place, further from Painty than I wanted, but what can ya do.

Three podiums were empty though. Instead of a person, there was a picture of what I assume is the object that was supposed to stand there.

There was one of a man I didn't recognize, one of OJ, and one of Tea Kettle. Each with a joke written on it that wasn't that funny.

Y'know, usually I'd find that a little funny, but in this situation, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth instead.

Once ready, MonoPhone explained the rules, I half listened. Something about, we'll all die if we vote the wrong killer, and they'll get eliminated when we vote right.

Then we were ready to begin.

"So.... what's first on the agenda?" I ask. They were all experienced veterans and this was my first time doing this, so I didn't really know where we would start.

Yang gladly answered my question with a shout, "I FOUND THE BODY!"

"Oh no!" Goo exclaims with fear, "Is this gonna be the same thing with OJ?"

"No," Cabby reassured. "There were too many people that found her at once. It would be impossible to tell who was innocent and who was not just from that."

Paintbrush starts to lead them in a more direct direction, "Then, let's talk about how she was found."

"Broken beyond repair?" The silver spoon mumbles.

"Jeez!" Bow says. "How could someone even do that!? Porcelain's not that breakable?"

"Oh yeah!" I say like a lightbulb going off in my brain. "The murder weapon?"

"It was a hammer, dear," Silver Spoon answers again, but not without a remark. "Ugly looking thing, too." He doesn't bother to mumble this time.

"A hammer!?!" Shrieks Clover. "Where did they get a hammer from?"

Candle, with the grace of someone not in a murder trail, answers the girl's question, "I believe there is a tool shed on the island that carries a whole of different weapons for our use. The Cabana we have all passed by when we first arrived."

Oh? "And how did you know it had weapons in it?" I confront.

She looked back at me, locking her gaze in my eyes. An intimidating purple glow came from her blue-ish eyes.

"I have my ways," she says with a smile, but that wasn't an answer.

I was about to say so, but Paintbrush was quicker, "That's not an answer, Candle." They then began to question her further, "How did you know about the shed? Only Lightbulb, Fan, Testtube, and I knew, so, how?"

I look back to Candle, expecting to see her at least upset at their accusing words. But instead, she remained as calmly as ever.

"No need to erupt, Paintbrush. I simply found it while on a walk. It wasn't exactly hidden." Paintbrush still didn't seem satisfied. "Before OJ trial," She clarifies.

"She was with me, Brush, dear," Silver says in Candle defense, "during the whole alarm thing-y. She's innocent."

That seemed to settle that, but I could tell Painty didn't exactly believe him either.

Testtube is the next to speak, "No, no. The hammer couldn't have been from the cabana. We locked it up and hid the key, remember?"

"Someone must have found it then?" Said Yin.

"Only we knew where it was hidden, though."

Fan then clears his throat to say something, "Unfortunately, the hammer definitely came from the cabana. The door was open and one of the hammers was missing from his place on the wall."

"I-" Balloon interjects with hesitation, "I hate to say it, but it seems kinda obvious who did it then."

"Who?" Bow asks for him to explain.

"Paintbrush, Lightbulb, Fan, or Testtube? It would make sense, since the hammer that killed Tea Kettle clearly came from the cabana."

When he finishes, all eyes turn on us.

"I was leading the main group to look for an escape, " Painty explains. "You all saw me the whole time."

"That is true," Cabby confirms while checking her files. Did she need a file to prove that? Eh, that is probably something I would do. I am pretty forgetful, hehe.

Yang yelled, "FAN, TESTTUBE, AND LIGHTBULB WERE NOT WITH US." He was really loud. I guess that's just how sounds.

"So, Testtube, Fan, and Lightbulb are the only ones without concrete alibis. Correct?"

Testtube was quick to defend herself, "Fan and I were together the whole time."

Goo gasped suddenly, "A double murder!?"

"It was not a double murder, because we didn't kill her!" Fan yelled back.

Goo shrunk in on himself a bit. He was only trying to help. But Bow comforted him with a gentle pat.

"It wasn't them, Goo," She reassured him while also defending Testtube and Fan. She looks back to the group, "It was Lightbulb. She was with her the whole time, right?"

"The picnic," Cabby added.

"Exactly!"

"Could be...." Nickel said, pondering the idea. Kinda rude, right?

But thankfully Balloon was there to defend my honor, "It couldn't have! We saw her run away from the picnic, so she wasn't even there in the end."

No one looked convinced. Hm, maybe I should try... "Okay, what about you two?" I pointed an accusing finger at the two boys. "You both prolly killed in cold blood, didn't ya!"

"Wh-what? No! And hey, I just stood up for you!" Balloon squeaked.

"That could be why Nickel was so defensive when we were asking him about the murder earlier," Painty joins in, agreeing with me of course.

"Oh, come on! He's always like that!"

"I definitely didn't kill her!" Nickel tried to defend himself, but I was just too locked in to let him get away with this.

"Sarcasm! I don't believe you!" I yell across the room.

"For once, that wasn't sarcasm. That's just how I talk, asshole!"

"Were you not the last people with her? If Lightbulb ran away, that would only leave you two," said Testtube and her keen eye. Or ears in this case.

Nickel didn't give up that easily, however, "No one was with her, remember? Balloon pussied out too. I went after him."

"Who can confirm that?" Paintbrush furrows their brow at the claim.

"Well, no one, but... uh..." Balloon softly says. We had them backed in a corner.

"Um-" someone else tries to say something too, but it went unheard as the argument continued.

"Then there's no one to believe you! Killer!" Maybe I was taking this too far, but it was true they were the last ones with TK before she died. It felt a little unbelievable to think they did do it, but everything felt a little unbelievable right now.

I was mad, kinda. Not at them (unless they did it), but at this whole situation. Tea Kettle was my friend. She was so nice to us. Who would have the heart to kill her like that? None of this made sense to me.

"Uh, guys..."

"You could be the killer too, you know!" Nickel yells towards me.

"And you know that's not true-"

"GUYS!" Clover finally yells, and the room goes silent for her.

She looks around the room for a moment before continuing, "I was with Nickel and Balloon after they ran. I'm their alibi."

Ah. I catch Nickel's eye as he gives me a knowing smirk. I attempt to wave it off.

"And no more fighting like that!" Clover scolds. "Nickel and Balloon are your friends and alibis, Lightbulb. Let's all just be friends, okay?"

Sigh. Nickel was right, I was being an asshole, wasn't I? I felt bad now. Poor Clover. She just wanted us all to get along. And there I was, thinking my friends were murderers or something! But to be fair, they thought I was too.

"Kind of hard to when we know someone in this room killed Tea Kettle," Nickel responded to the tall, not-so-lucky girl's speech.

Unfortunately, he was right again. Someone here, in this room, standing among us, was a cold blooded killer. Whether it was Balloon and Nickel or not.

The room was uneasy with quietness again.

"Well," Testtube got everyone's attention with a clap of her hands, "let's discuss the motive, shall we?"

"The time limit? I thought it was pretty self explanatory," said Fan.

"True, but it doesn't hurt to look further into it."

Cabby began to explain what she wrote down in her useful files, "When the time limit began, Tea Kettle, Lightbulb, Balloon, and Nickel were together. While we don't have outside witnesses, I believe it's safe to assume at least one of them is innocent. Lightbulb left first, then Balloon, then Nickel." She flipped the page, "....By the looks of it, Tea Kettle didn't move places, since we found her still laying on the picnic blanket."

"So, whoever killed her, came to her...." Painty mutters, but loud enough for us to hear. "Was she chosen on purpose, or was she just the closest victim?"

"Paintbrush," Fan starts, "she was killed when the timer hit one. She was obviously chosen because she was the closest to the killer. I mean, who would plan to kill Tea Kettle, of all people?"

Me and Painty give a look to eachother, both thinking the same thing. Nickel was the only person who even slightly disliked her.

We look at him to try and guess what he's thinking. But I guess we didn't hide our glances well enough, because he bursts out in anger.

"I DIDN'T KILL HER!" He inhales, calming himself, before continuing, "Out of everyone here. She was the one I.... disliked the least. I didn't want her dead, I swear!"

I got the odd feeling that he was actually trying to be sincere, in his own odd way. But I couldn't really talk.

"We know, Nickel," said Balloon, trying to be reassuring. "None of us wanted her dead. Like Fan said, she had to just be.... the closest victim." He frowns.

"Can we get back to the cabana for a second? I feel like we may have forgotten something," asked Clover.

"Sure," Testtube answered with a little shrug, "Someone must've broken in, correct?"

Wait.

No, that wasn't right.

I speak out next, making an audible incorrect buzzer sound with my mouth. "Not correct! Me 'n Painty totally checked that and there were no signs someone broke anythin'."

"You're right!" They agree with me. "There was no signs of forced entry. None of the window were broken, and the door was perfectly intact."

Testtube looked back at them in, what almost looked like shock of having been corrected. "R-right. How did I miss that?"

"So," Goo's squeaky voice broke through again, "someone did use the key? So it had to have been Lightbulb, Paintbrush, Fan, or Testtube, right?"

Silver Spoon scoffed. "We all already know it wasn't Paintbrush," he sneered.

"It was not Lightbulb, if we are assuming Balloon and Nickel are correct," Candle confirmed with certain confidence in her words.

"Though, she was alone as the alarm was going off...."

"Yes. But I do not believe it was her. Do you?"

Candle was remarkably interesting. She spoke with a level off coolness I could only hope to achieve. Even her belief in me was more unshakable than Painty's! She was such a weird character. I liked that.

The sound of paper moving filled the echoey room. "Lightbulb, where did you say you went after you left the picnic?" Cabby asked me. Patience was clear in her voice.

"The hotel."

"Can anyone confirm they saw her there?" She asks the others. She sounded like some judge, only with less judging. She was kinder, I think. I wondered if she ever pulled those files out at parties.

Yinyang gently raises his hand. "We found muddy footprints leading inside. They were not there before we had all left," said Yin.

Clover nods, "That sounds like good evidence to me!"

"Speaking of good evidence," Cabby begins to speak up, "Checking my files, I wrote here that there was a short period of time where Nickel wasn't with you, Clover. Care to explain?"

"Oh," she looked a bit shocked, but agreed. "Nickel went to check on Tea Kettle while we were waiting. I didn't think he saw anything important so I forgot about it, sorry."

"No need to apologize, you told us now," Cabby reassures the girl.

"Nickel, is that true?" Bow asks, on edge at the idea.

"Yes," he admits. "I didn't kill her, but I saw who killed Tea Kettle."

"Didn't you say this last time?" Paintbrush remarked with a disgruntled tone.

"I saw them! When I went to check on Tea Kettle, she was already dead, but in the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of someone yellow running away."

"If that's true, why didn't you say anything to Clover or Balloon?"

"I didn't need to... you gotta believe me! I didn't want her dead, and I swear I saw something!" He began to yell. I thought back to what Painty said about him earlier.

"Why was there blood on your feet then?" I ask.

Nickel looks at me like he'd been caught in a lie, "I don't know! I must've stepped in it!" His uncertainty didn't make his statements seem any more believable.

"IT WAS NICKEL THAT DID IT!" Shouted Yang.

"But how would he know where the key was to get to the hammer?" Goo questions his logic.

"Maybe Lightbulb told him?" Says Yin.

"No way! I wouldn't tell him that!" I yell to the boys.

But still, no one believed what Nickel said except for...

"He's telling the truth!" Yells out Balloon.

"And how do you know this?" Asks Candle.

"I just do. I trust Nickel. I don't think he murdered his friend! You just gotta believe him."

Testtube interjects with her logic, "There's just no evidence-"

"Fuck your evidence!"

"Balloon..." Bow tries to calm him down a little. He was very worked up.

"It was Lightbulb, probably. She's yellow and she had a key." Balloon says, now pointing at me.

"Whoa, hold on!" I squeak out. "Didn't we just agree it couldn't have been me? I have an alibi, remember?!"

Nickel joins in, now that the blame isn't on him, "Easily could've been faked."

"No no, you got the wrong gal! Right Clover? I know you got my back." I smile at her, but she doesn't return it.

"There is evidence against you..." she whimpers.

I turn to Paintbrush, "What about you, Painty? Testy? Fan?? Anyone believe me...?" They all stayed silent. Even Painty, who looked at me with a small smile, but I could tell behind it they didn't fully believe me either.

Seems no one was on my side here. But it wasn't me! I know that, I just need to show them. But how?? No one believes me and I know whatever I say with just fall on deaf ears.

The only thing I can think of is to blame somebody else. Whether it's right or wrong, it needs to have something backing it.

I need to blame somebody else or they'll all vote me. But who? Who still had holes in their alibi?

Couldn't have been Painty or anyone else with them, because they would've seen that person sneak off. That leaves me, Balloon, Nickel, Clover, Testtube, and Fan.

Clover and Balloon have an alibi. There's no real evidence that Nickel did do it, he didn't know where the key was and I certainly didn't tell him.

"It wasn't me, it was Testtube!" I blurt out.

"I- what?" I see her stumble at my words.

I then needed to explain my reasoning. I didn't want to blame Testtube, but it was the only thing I could think to do. "She knew where the key was, and her liquid looks almost yellow in the right lighting."

"That's just ridiculous!" Fan exclaimed with appallment, he wasn't a fan. "And wrong, Testtube was with me the whole time! Besides, she wouldn't do that."

"Care to explain what really happened, then. Fan? Testtube?" Cabby requested.

Testtube abliged with a light nod, "Fan and I, admittedly, did separate from the group right before the timer went off."

"We needed some space, away from all the chaos. You should all know how that feels by now," Fan makes sure to include.

"We spent the whole time together. There's no way one of us killed her without the other knowing."

"Testtube, that's also wrong," Paintbrush corrects her for the second time. "You told Lightbulb and I that Fan went off on his own for a short period of time. Not saying either of you did it, I'm just saying you should know this."

"You're right," Bow agrees with a bounce. She turns to Fan, "Fan, didn't you say you needed to wash off? In the ocean, yeah?"

Goo adds, "That's why you were damp earlier."

Fan looks surprised for a second. "No, your right! I completely forgot about that, haha!" He slaps a hand over his forehead to emphasize his forgetfulness in a silly way.

"But he, of course, came right back. Also, he wasn't gone all that long. Certainly not long enough to kill a person." Testtube nervously tries to explain this all away. I look around the room, curious to see if it was working.

It wasn't.

"But you could've?" Said Silver.

"There is no way we killed her!?" Testtube shouts. She looks around for a sign someone believes her.

"Oh~ now who's defensive?" Nickel taunts.

"I'm not defensive! We. Didn't. Kill her," she glares daggers into the man, but he seems unfazed by her hostil look.

"Only you two knew where the key was, and you both don't have solid alibis if they only rely on eachother," added Balloon.

"Didn't we say someone broke in?" Said Fan.

"Listen," Testtube starts to speak again, her voice extremely seriously, "Fan left to wash off, that's the end of it. He came right back. There's no discussion to be had here!"

I see Paintbrush thinking, before carefully asking, ".....Why did he need to wash off again, Testtube?" They were testing her.

"D-didn't I say? Mud splashed on him."

"That's wrong. You said he spilt a drink on himself," I say.

The room stood silent once again. Testtube had lied, plain and simple. The whole room could see that now.

"A-ah. I-I must have been wrong before, then."

I could see Fan wince, "Testtube...." he gently called her name.

"No. You... he didn't kill anybody."

"So...." Bow hesitated, "if you didn't spill something..... you were washing off blood, weren't you?"

"So, the killer was...."

Painty then turn to gives me a look of confidence. I return it, then clear my throat, "I think I know what happened." I begin to explain the events that took place in order.

"First things first, the motive. A time limit with a loud alarm that would go off in the next 24 hours, for ten minutes. When that time limit was up, if no one was dead, we would all be."

"In the day that followed, me and Paintbrush found a tool shed full of weapons. We feared someone would find this and use it to kill. So, the culprit, Testtube, Paintbrush, and me decided to lock it up."

"Paintbrush hid the key, so only us four knew where it was. Unfortunately, this still wasn't enough to stop a murder."

"The next day, while Paintbrush and the rest of everybody left to find a way off the island, Tea Kettle invited me, Nickel, and Balloon to a picnic. It was short lived, as the alarm began to go off.

I panicked and ran to the hotel to hide. It seems I wasn't the only one, as Balloon and Nickel also left, leaving Tea Kettle alone."

"Meanwhile, the culprit separated themself from the main group, with Testtube by their side."

"It's clear that Testtube knew what what the culprit was going to do. So, when the alarm eventually went off, the killer was able to easily make their move."

"They headed back to the Killer Cabana, grabbed the key, and stole a hammer from its shelf. They then went out to find the closest person to them."

"Since the victim died seconds before the timer was up, the killer must have been in quite the rush. They probably didn't plan to kill anyone at first."

"Tea Kettle just was the closest person around, and so the killer took her life. Leaving behind the murder weapon."

"They almost got caught by Nickel, who was going back to check on Tea Kettle. Thankfully for them, he only saw a blur of yellow."

"The killer then quickly ran off to wash off the blood in the ocean, before returning to the group to pretend to find the body for the first time."

"So, Tea Kettle's killer must be...."

"Fan, isn't it?"

Fan stood there, dumbfounded, but remorseful. I, on the other hand, was proud of myself for putting it all together. By Fan's face, I can tell I got it right.

I was the only one proud right now.

"Fan...." Painty looked mournful, "why? Why would you do this?"

Fan looked down and let out a breathless, nervous chuckle, "For you all. If I didn't, we'd all be dead! I-I couldn't just sit there and let you all die!? I'm.... just sorry I had to kill Tea Kettle to do it..."

"It's not true!" Testtube's broken yell echoed throughout the court room. "You... you didn't kill her! You didn't kill anyone! Fan wouldn't do that! Don't you believe me?! Tell them, Paintbrush. It wasn't him," she whipped her head around, frantically trying to get the others to listen.

Paintbrush didn't say anything back, but Bow did, "It's..... it's going to be okay, Testtube."

She snapped her head to the small girl, "You don't actually believe this, do you!? H-he's clearly lying!"

"No," Fan interrupted her desperate pleas, "Testtube, it's over. Let it go."

"No.... it's not. It can't be?"

"I think its time!" Said the glitchy, imposter of a phone. "Are y'all ready to cast your votes?"

Fan and Bow gently nodded.

"No, we're not ready! It's not over yet! Wait!" Called Testtube.

"Testtube. He admitted it. Fan did it," I say, trying to calm her down, even just a little.

"I did it! I did it! It wasn't him, you got it wrong! You're not listening!!"

Everyone put in their votes, except for Testtube, who continued to beg everyone to stop. But, we all voted for Fan either way.

"DING DING DING!! You got it all right! The killer was Fan, the Ultimate Influencer."

"I'm sorry, Testtube," Fan told her.

"You.... why did I let you do it...? I knew what you would do, and I still let it happen!" Testtube's words were barely coherent over her sobs.

This was new. I don't think I've ever seen Testtube so completely.... broken like this. She was usually pretty logical. Sure, I've seen her be stubborn, and jerk, and angry. But never was she a mess like she was now.

I could see Fan felt the same way.

He stepped off his podium to be closer to hers. He delicately pressed his hands onto the glass of her cheeks and lifted her head to look at him. The cold of her glass sending a shiver through his arm.

"Thank you for letting me save you. Look out for Bow, okay?" He then leaned in and whispered something too quiet for me to hear. Bow looked confused at the mention of her name specifically.

MonoPhone's grin widened at me before saying, "Are you ready?"

"Because it's time..."

"ELIMINATION TIME!!~" (doo doo)

-----------------------------------------------

Fan's POV:

All I could see was complete darkness. Well, that's what I thought until I realized my eyes were closed.

I opened my eyes to bright lights all around me. I was a little disoriented. One second I was with Testtube, the next I... must've been swooped away into my execution room.

That was a upsetting.

I looked around again. I wasn't tied up, but I was on a platform with dull colored tiles beneath me. The platform was slightly elevated.

I looked out to see a few giant, floating screens hovered around the platform.

On the screen directly infront of me had words on it that read, "Fan, the Ultimate Influencer's Execution: The Rise And Fall Of A Star."

"Wha..?"

I took a step backwards, only to have the tile I stepped on light up red. It made a sound and something came flying past my head.

It nearly missed me, taking a nick out of my yellow-painted wood.

As I was making sure that it didn't hit me anywhere else, I felt the platform rise.

"Ready..."

An eerily familiar voice came from the screens speakers.

I turn my head to see on of the screens had a video of someone I knew on it.

Bow! The Bow! Although, she did look a little different than what I remember.

"Go!"

As soon as she uttered that word, music began to play. The tiles on the ground sequentially lit up brighter versions of their colors.

Ah! This was a game! I knew this.

A green tile lit up infront of me. I stepped on it. Then a blue one. Color after color, I pressed each color with the rhythm, preforming to the best of my abilities. Each time I did, the platform would rise, until I was well up into the sky. Good thing I wasn't afraid of heights.

But after a while I began to slow as the music and beat got faster.

I started messing up, and each time I did, I would have to dodge a weapon or two flying near my head. Thankfully, I was able to dodge them all, though the changing colors was hurting my head.

That was until the video of Bow changed to a video of Testtube.

I froze. She began to speak and I began to stumble backwards.

She was talking about the moon.

For a second, I forgot where I was. I stepped back, accidentally pressing my foot on a tile I should've have.

It went by fast, too fast for me to avoid it.

A spear shot up below me, piercing my eye from the front. Pain immediately erupted through my face.

The spear then retracted, sending blood splattering all over the floor. The bright changing colors blurred as I stumbled around.

More pain shot through me as I was impaled again, in the chest. This time I screamed.

As it retracted, I didn't realize I wandered so close to the edge. My foot slipped and went falling.

The last thing I saw before I fell into complete darkness, was Testtube's image on the beaming screen.

Soon, I was in darkness again. I was losing consciousness. I hoped I would die before I hit the ground though.

I didn't want to die.

...

The camera goes dark as Fan's eyes close.

The only thing left is the sound of wood breaking.

-------------------------------------------

What.

What just happened?? Did Fan just... die? Was this real? Was this what Paintbrush was trying to tell me? Is this what happen to OJ?

Testtube's cries filled the room.

This was.... I didn't like this game.

I clutched Paintbrush's hand as I whispered to myself.

"I'll... miss ya, flying buddy."

I couldn't believe it, but this was real. I could tell by the feeling of Paintbrush's hand. It was real.

I really did just watch my friend be killed infront of me. I suddenly felt bad that I accepted the situation so easily before.

The thought of Testtube or Paintbrush dying in such a brutal way made me sick.

The only thing I wanted in the world right now was to go home with all my friends. Old and new. I wanted to get out of here.

I wanted to get us all home.

--------------------------------------------

When the time limit began, Fan steeled his nerves. He knew what he had to do. If he didn't they would all be dead too. Testtube, Bow, he couldn't let that happen.

"Where are you going?" Testtube called to him as he tried to sneak away.

He was a terrible liar.

"Oh no you don't, Fan!" She yells.

"Testtube, I have to! No one else is going to and I cannot let my friends die on this stupid island!"

"How stupid are you?! There is no way in hell I am ever letting you do this! Who are you going to kill, huh? Lightbulb? Nickel? Do you even know??"

"I'll...." he hesitates, "figure it out when I get there."

"I won't let you do this, Fan! I won't let you kill yourself like this!" She continued to yell but couldn't hold back the tears in her voice.

Fan turns around to hold her hand in his, his other placed on her cheek.

"If I don't do this, Bow will die. You will die. So please, let me save you." He smiled at her. He also has tears in his eyes.

Testtube wanted to point out all the other very logical and reasonable reasons why he shouldn't do this, but she knew his mind was already made up.

With great hesitation, "....F-fine." She whispers. "Don't be stupid and get yourself caught."

"I'm sorry, he says to her before he begins to run in the direction of the cabana.

Dangansanity Chapter 2: It's Not A Phase, Deadly Life, End.