Chapter Text
Pain was the first thing felt by Ruka, a massive migraine in her head, which felt like it was pulsing throughout her entire body. Opening her eyes slowly but surely, Ruka stared at a familiar ceiling with wood beams on the sides holding up the tile and fluorescent lights. She remembers what happened, making tapes about the games, talking to Monomoko, ah. Ruka frantically sits up, which only worsens her headache, looking around, spotting a medium-sized black tote bag resting on the floor. Reaching down and feeling it, Ruka sighs in relief as she feels the few things she brought with her, “Ruka.” A monotone feminine voice spoke behind her, scaring Ruka a bit
“Jeez! Monomoko.” Ruka turns around to see the robot bunny, looking a bit different. Instead of the black rabbit turning red in a way she's familiar, Monomoko is entirely red with a more jackalope appearance. Two black horns sit upwards with long loppy ears on the side of her face, along with moving around on all four legs, and white pupils staring right at Ruka. “You... uh, look different.”
“Yes. This appearance wasn’t meant to be here just yet, however. The ending of the first timeline carried over. Along with the transportation of you.”
“Transportation.. Monomoko, what exactly happened before I woke up?”
“...” Monomoko tilts her head to the left, “You don't remember? Oh well. You sent a video to Hirose Shingo, Tei Atushi, Denden Misao, and Isoda Mion before being promptly executed in the attic for transportation of the death game.”
“..! I died?”
Monomoko starts to walk around the room on all four legs. “Unfortunately, yes, it was the only way to get you back here in time. There are a few things to note, however, you woke up first this time around. I’ve yet to start playing the announcement” That's when Ruka realized the silence inside the laboratory compared to the first time she woke up to blaring announcements playing, “But also. These people are not the same as the first time. You shall understand when you first see someone.” Monomoko sits in front of Ruka, on top of the tote bag. “You still have everything in the bag as agreed in our original talk before you died. Four things you brought, with… some… tricks.” Ruka forgot she brought a pack of 50 notebooks and somehow argued it counted as one thing because she hadn’t opened the pack.
“Haha… whoops!” Ruka slowly stands, her head still throbbing, and Monomoko switches her position by jumping on top of the poor, cheap mattress Ruka was lying on before, and Ruka leans down and grabs her tote bag, and slings it over her shoulder.
“Ruka.” Monomoko spoke with a bit more emotion as Ruka turned around halfway to look at her, “Thank you.” Monomoko then teleported away, leaving Ruka alone in the room she now recognizes as her first room, although she never had an interview as her own; she's heard all about the room.
“My desk…” Ruka moved to the table she had sat at months ago for the first time, to the desk, where multiple bee-themed stickers and books were. Only for when she sat down on the plastic chair in front of it for her knee to hit something sticking out abnormally, standing up from her chair, Ruka paused and just stared for a bit. Then, crouching underneath the desk, Ruka spotted a little door on the side of her desk, attempting to yank it open but failing. “Huh.. this wasn’t here last time, I can’t get it open? Maybe Akiba can.” When moving back, to was a slight stinging on her finger, only for there to be a thin dot of blood on her pointer finger. “How did that even happen..? Oh well, maybe Hirose can help me later.”
-> INVESTIGATION NOTE DISCOVERED
[Door? Under Desk]
All of a sudden, a blaring, unlikeable noise was heard. “Please exit your room by exiting your bedroom, walking down the hallway, and taking your first right. Then, turn right and continue down the hallway. If you have questions, please hold them until all students have gathered. This announcement will no longer repeat. If any students fail to arrive in the waiting room, please take the initiative and assist in guiding them there.” Ruka stands up and walks to the door of her room. Before opening the door, she stays and listens for a second, only to hear light footsteps and faint voices. Pushing off the door, Ruka paces around her room for a bit, not wanting to leave too early. Only to get nervous, and only after a few more minutes of debate slowly opens her front door. Opening her door to the familiar girl dormitory hallways and the empty silence of the past echoing,
The emptiness of the hallways is all of a sudden interrupted by a feminine voice speaking out behind Ruka, “Hey.” Ruka spins around, only to be met with green eyes on the edge of hazel brown, tan skin, blonde hair in a half-up ponytail with two white hair clips on the left of her bangs, wearing a red short-sleeved green-collared shirt, black thigh-length shorts matching a brown belt that had a tucked in a small side apron that was designed to look like pizza, shin-length pale yellow socks, and red sneakers. The other girl's right hand was brought up as a casual wave there. She wore black fingerless gloves and a gold watch on her left hand, along with two hair ties. For Ruka, there wasn’t a need for an introduction; she knew who this girl was. Nishiguchi Mutusko, a prime victim for the killing game killed by a group of her friends after being lied to. Someone, Ruka, failed to save. “You in there?” Nishiguchi pointed a finger at Ruka's head
“I’m here! I’m here, I just… wasn’t expecting someone else!” That was a lie and a half. She knew other people were here, but wasn’t expecting to run into someone who wasn’t Ninomiya, and someone who looked quite different from what she originally knew. “I’m Ruka, Yokoi Ruka, buttt," Ruka drawls out, " you can just call me Ruka! What's your name?” Ruka realized she had to ask everyone's names before she messed up and called them by something they hadn’t told her yet.
“Right? Okay, Ruka, I’m Nishiguchi Mutsuko. I don’t care what you call me,” Mutsuko waved Ruka off with her hand as she stepped forward to be next to Ruka now, “do you know anything about–
“Please exit your room by exiting your bedroom, walking down the hallway, and taking your first right. Then, turn right and continue down the hallway. If you have questions, please hold them until all students have gathered. This announcement will no longer repeat. If any students fail to arrive in the waiting room, please take the initiative and assist in guiding them there.”
“--that?” Mutsuko points up to the ceiling in reference to the disembodied Monomoko voice
“...Oh! No! I woke up recently, in this room. Ruka tilts to the side to point at the door she just exited. “I spent a few minutes looking around before leaving…” Mutsuko nods as she looks around, “Then, we should probably go to the ca— careful directions that the announcement is giving us!” Mutsuko gave Ruka a weird look but nodded nonetheless and took a few steps forward, before turning around at Ruka with an eyebrow raised, waiting for her. Ruka blinks a few times before scrambling to catch up to Mutsuko.