Chapter Text
Crank
Crank
…Click…Click…Click
“Ugh…”
“Oh! Uh, hello there?”
Cecilia Immergreen woke up like a rock. She leaned against a brick wall, and her arms and legs felt as if they hadn’t moved in a long time. Her body ached as she stood up straight. She looked down and saw a pair of pink eyes staring right back at her. The girl's arms retreated from the top of her head, and she climbed down the stool she stood on the moment she realized the person in front of her had woken up.
Cecilia took a moment to get off the wall and regain her bearings before speaking to the shorter girl, “My head is killing me…” Her eyes wandered around a bit more, and she could see she was somewhere she couldn't recognize. "Who are you? Where am I?”
The girl jumped backwards onto a table and puffed her chest. “My name is Gigi Murin! Ultimate Chaser! Nice to meet you…”
“Cecilia… Cecilia Immergreen, Ultimate Servant.”
“Cecilia!” The girl wore a bright orange hoodie and black cycling shorts, with a striped black-and-orange knee-high sock on one leg. After finishing, she slid off the table. “Now to answer that other question.” Gigi put a finger to her chin and pondered.
“You don’t know, do you?” Cecilia said while patting down her slightly crumpled dress, unimpressed.
Gigi stopped the act and raised her hands in a mock surrender. “Alright, you got me. I got no idea.” She put her arms down and started pacing around the room. “I just woke up in a room similar to one I’ve seen somewhere, can’t really recall where, though. This one is very different from mine. I ran into a red lady with a cool blue flame on her chest to search the rest of the rooms here. She's somewhere down the hall, actually, talking to someone else. ”
Cecilia only then began to look around. Last, she remembered she was… well, she couldn’t remember. She was currently in a medium-sized room with a high roof that she could describe as a clockwork-infused workshop of sorts, or a type of study. She had a small antique bed, a long wooden desk next to a full bookshelf, a small area that had a pile of unorganized musical instruments and a music stand, and, most odd of all, a staircase that led to… nowhere? She was honestly amazed at how someone could fit a whole stairwell in the room.
Gigi, seeing Cecilia observe her surroundings, coughed into her hand to get Cecilia’s attention. “Hey, take your time!” She then changed her tone to sound more ‘refined.’ “We need all the info we can gather. Quote Elizabeth, not me." Cecilia nodded, wondering who this ‘Elizabeth’ was.
The two left Cecilia’s room. Outside was a long hallway with quite a few doors, all of which were generously spaced out. “Your room is in the far back, like mine! See, I woke up in that one right across from yours.” Gigi pointed towards a much rounder orange-and-black door and 3 spikes on top. “Matches with this.” She raised her tail into Cecilia’s face; it was a long grey tail with three similar sharp points at its tip and an eye marking. Cecilia’s own door was an antique wooden door with a single turning gear hung at its center.
The two began to walk down the hall. Eventually, they overheard some talking from within a nearby room.
“Please just follow me, Miss Panthera. I’m sure all will be explained soon.”
The two eventually saw the source of the sound exiting a room with a large pink door that looked cutesy, except for the pair of gold and blue eyes painted on it. The first one that Cecilia saw was likely the one Gigi had been talking about; the woman was dressed in a white and black outfit and had long red hair with a huge ahoge and that aforementioned blue fire on her chest. She seemed like a knight of sorts. Next to her was a shorter, cat-like lady. Her hair was pink, with a white streak running through it. She wore a different white-and-black outfit with a pink off-the-shoulder coat, a round black hat, and a pair of goggles.
Only once the door was closed did the red-haired woman turn and notice the pair watching her. “Oh, hello there, Miss Murin. I see you found someone else who woke late?”
“Come on, I said Gigi is just fine! And yeah, found this one sleeping; I thought she was just a really realistic-looking doll.”
“I’m an Automaton, not a doll,” Cecilia mumbled, correcting Gigi’s misconception.
“OHHHH! Makes sense!”
The red-haired lady then coughed into her hand to clear her throat. “My name is Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame. Ultimate Knight. Lovely to see you, to see you, lovely.”
After that, she turned to the pink-cat lady. “This is Raora Panthera. She is quite the artist, there were many beautiful pieces in her room made by her.”
Raora looked at the two and gave a short wave. “Hello there, oh, and please, just call me Raora. Ultimate Artist.”
“Nice to meet you Raora. I’m Gigi Murin! Ultimate Chaser!”
“Cecilia Immergreen, Ultimate Servant.”
Elizabeth turned towards Cecilia. “Well, since we are all somewhat caught up and on the same page,” She then turned to face the other half of the hall. “It is safe to assume none of us know of the situation we are in?”
“Nope.”
“No.”
Raora’s ears flattened after hearing Gigi and Cecilia’s responses. “Then we’re all in the dark?”
“From how things look right now, it seems that is the case. I suggest we split up and explore, it would allow us to cover more ground. I’ve only been able to search my own room, so with 4 of us we can split into pairs.”
“How will we be split up?” Cecilia asked
Elizabeth pointed down the hall. “On the way here I crossed a crossroads, taking a peek into each room before meeting Miss Murin. I didn’t search hard, though; the crossroads had what seemed to be halls leading to more rooms, a cafeteria, and a smaller hall that led to a few smaller locations.”
“Other than that, almost all rooms were unlocked from what I checked; that's how I was able to enter the room Cecilia was in.” Gigi pointed out.
“Then Miss Panthera and I will search thoroughly through all the rooms here. Miss Murin and Miss Immergreen, you two can explore the cafeteria and any other room you find.”
“Roger that! Let’s get moving, Cecilia!” Gigi saluted as she began nudging Cecilia down the hall
“Whoa- hey! I’m going, I’m going.”
“Be careful out there,” Raora said with a light wave as Gigi and Cecilia made their way out and eventually reached the cafeteria.
The room itself was nothing special; it looked like any old cafeteria, although two times larger than any cafeteria she’d seen before. The only thing to note was that it had two entrances to hallways and an entrance to a room labeled as the kitchen. There was also one section of the cafeteria that was almost barren: no tables, plants, nothing at all.
Gigi ran around searching under tables and plants as Cecilia was examining the room. “Big place.”
Cecilia turned to Gigi, who was putting down a potted plant she had lifted. “Is that all you have to say?”
Gigi spread her arms around in exaggeration. “What? Not much to really comment on in here!”
“I guess you have a point; I doubt we’ll find anything of interest here. So, shall we go?” Cecilia pointed towards the other doorway
Gigi stopped right in front of a door labeled the kitchen. “Um, can we make a quick pit stop in th—”
Grrrr-rumble
A loud rumbling emanated from Gigi’s stomach, which she quickly clutched. “Excuse me?”
Cecilia just sighed, “Yes, let’s go.”
The two made their way to the kitchen, and when they opened the door, the sound of frying hit them instantly, as well as a coral-haired woman talking to someone out of view.
“Just because I am a phoenix that cooks chicken does not make me a cannibal.” The coral-haired woman held a fryer basket.
“Coulda fooled me,” a more deadpan voice out of view responded.
The coral-haired woman turned and saw the two enter and waved, “Oh, why hello! Hungry? I just finished making some delicious fried chicken!” The woman said in a cheerful voice as she picked up a piece of fried chicken from the basket she held.
Gigi nodded quickly. “Oh my god, YOU. ARE. A. LIFESAVER! I was STARVING!” She was nodding so fast her head looked like it could detach from her body.
Cecilia followed Gigi as she ran towards the woman. The coral lady bore a large smile as she spread her arms. “Kikkeriki! I am Kiara Takanashi, Ultimate Restaurateur. A phoenix and owner of a famous restaurant chain, Kiara Fried Phoenix.” She was in an orange uniform with a small red beret and a small chef’s hat on her head.
Cecilia walked up behind Gigi. “Cecilia, Ultimate Servant, and this here is Gigi, the Ultimate Chaser.”
“That’s me!” Gigi threw her hand in the air, accidentally causing the piece of half-eaten chicken she was eating to fly upwards and land on Cecilia’s head. “Whoops, sorry.”
Cecilia just wiped the piece of chicken off her head and threw it out. “It’s fine. Is there a napkin?”
Only then did the owner of the other voice get up from under the counter, holding a box of energy drinks. “Hey, who were you talking to?” The other person, a pink-haired lady, finally noticed the two newcomers. “Um, hello.”
Kiara put the chicken in her hand back into the basket and handed it to Gigi before putting the same hand on her hip. “Oh, c’mon, you can do better than that!”
The pink-haired lady just slouched a bit towards her before straightening herself once more. “What’s up? Name's Mori Calliope, Ultimate Rapper, but if you want, just call me Calli.” Cecilia noted that she spoke in a somewhat uninterested tone.
Calliope wore a tattered black cloak, a black dress with gold accents, and a dark tiara/crown with a transparent veil. “No need to repeat your introductions, by the way; I overheard it. I’ll be able to tell from your voices who's who.”
Kiara’s shoulders slumped. “I think that’s the best it’s gonna get.”
Gigi snatched a piece of chicken from the bucket before asking a question, with her mouth full, “So, wha’ dya you two know of al this? Personally…mmph, this chicken hits the spot…mmph… got nada.”
Kiara washed her hands as she answered, “I am unsure as to what to think to be honest. I don’t fully remember what I was doing before I was here. All I can recall was being in my restaurant ready to open up for another day, but then I blacked out and ended up here.
“I was on my way to do my job before blanking and waking up, then I wandered here where I met this one,” Calliope added as she pointed at Kiara as she downed a full can. “What about you two, you remember anything?”
“I just remember prepping to sleep in my room and then woke up here!” Gigi said as she wiped the chicken grease off her mouth.
Cecilia just shook her head. “I can’t recall anything, if I am being honest.”
“A shame.”
Kiara clapped her hands together. “Look on the bright side, at least whoever put us here left behind lots of ingredients. You two exploring? I didn’t see you two wandering the place when I was.”
“Yes, we are, but since we’ve seen pretty much all this place has to offer, I think Gigi and I should get going.”
“Yeah! Let’s go!”
“Wait! You want to have some drinks or snacks as you explore? This place is pretty big and may take a while; we’ve got drinks and extra baskets of chicken.”
“Well, another handful couldn’t hurt, right?” Gigi fluttered her eyebrows at Cecilia.
“Right…”
“Hell Yeah!” Gigi jumped and snatched a couple of pieces right out of Kiara’s arms
“Well, since you’re offering, would you happen to have tea?”
Kiara smiled. “Oh yes, we do.”
“Perfect, I’ll have that.”
After the two exited the kitchen, Cecilia and Gigi made their way down another hallway that led them towards a new set of rooms. Gigi was skipping while Cecilia was carefully holding onto a small teacup.
“Kiara’s cooking was soooooo good! I want to eat more, but I just can’t.”
Cecilia took a sip from her teacup before responding, “You ate the whole basket in front of me the second we left the kitchen, we didn’t even leave the cafeteria before it was hollow.”
Gigi just gave her a relaxed expression. “It was just too good! Can you really blame me?”
As the two traversed, Cecilia felt an odd urge to return to the room she had awoken in, as if she had missed something. She would dismiss it when Gigi spun around for a while before stopping at one of the doors labelled The Pool.
“Ok, what kind of building has a cafeteria, a kitchen, AND a pool? Not to mention all of the wild rooms I walked past, the ones with the strange doors?”
“I am not quite certain, maybe some colleges or universities? For the rooms, I’d assume that each of us woke up in one.”
“Doubt a place like this could be either of those.”
Before they could enter, someone ran out and bumped into Cecilia, causing them to fall to the ground while Cecilia still stood, though knocked back a bit, and her teacup shattered on the ground to prevent an accident.
“OUCH!” The person who ran into her started rubbing her bottom as she got up before stomping her feet on the ground. “WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING!”
Cecilia dusted herself off and kicked the broken glass to the side of the door. “You bumped into me, and also, I’d like to ask why you were running?”
“Yeah?! Well- Well! Uh…” The girl jumped up and tried to think of a comeback, but was drawing blanks. The girl had short silver hair with blue strands. The girl had a shark tail and an oversized shark hoodie.
“She pushed me into the pool.” Another girl, the light-blonde-haired girl, came out of the pool, her clothes drenched.
The shark girl turned back and was about to dash away. “Don’t let her get away!”
Gigi caught her by the tail before she could get very far, which caused her to deflate. “Aw shucks.”
The light-blonde girl stuck a finger right in front of the shark’s face. “You, missy, are gonna explain yourself.”
“What? I just thought it would be funny!” The girl pouted with crossed arms.
“Yeah yeah, sure.” The blonde just snatched a magnifying glass from the other girl’s hoodie. “I’ll be taking this, you can let her go now.”
Gigi complied and let go of the shark girl. “Stupid detective…”
The blonde shook Gigi's hand as she introduced herself. “Amelia Watson, Ultimate Detective. Thanks for the help.”
Her clothes were drenched. She wore a light brown detective hat. Several syringes filled with…something… were strapped to one of her legs. To top it off, she wore a light brown detective coat with a stethoscope. She seemed dishevelled, likely due to looking like she had just come out of a thunderstorm and being covered in water.
“Always happy to help! Name’s Gigi, Ultimate Chaser. By the way, and my friend here,” Gigi side-hugged Cecilia, “Is Cecilia! Well, to be exact, Cecilia Immergreen, the Ultimate Servant.”
“I could’ve introduced myself just fine, Gigi.”
Gigi snapped her head to Cecilia and pointed a finger at her. “Hey, you did the same to me when we met Kiara!”
The shark girl scratched the back of her head with a somewhat embarrassed expression as she waltzed up to Cecilia. “Uh, my name’s Gura Gwar, Ultimate Ocean Hunter. Sorry for bumping into you and whatnot.”
“It’s fine, other than my tea I am unharmed.” Maybe not totally fine; I only had got a few sips before it broke, but I’ll let it slide.
“That’s good, so if you don’t mind…” Gura tried walking away right after, but Amelia grabbed her by the shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Uh, away?” The Ocean Hunter pointed in a random direction with both her hands, with sweat building up on her face.
Amelia gave her a finger wave. “Nuh uh, Missy, you’re coming with me.” Gura just stuck her tongue out.
Cecilia eyed the broken teacup off the side of the door. “I should probably dispose of that while we’re at it. Do you know of any cleaning supplies around here?”
“We found a place with both of those, follow me,” Amelia said, then began moving while physically dragging Gura into the pool room.
The pool room itself was larger than the cafeteria, with 2 pools: one large pool and one small, shallow pool. There was also a set of blue and light grey colored benches along the walls, set to match the blue-and-white color scheme.
“Now, the pool is actually connected to a small storage room that also has a pair of washers and dryers. That storage room had boxes of cleaning supplies, towels, pool toys, and clothes, and if I am correct…here we are.”
The door was right behind the pool bleachers. Gura, now walking instead of being dragged, opened the door for them to enter. “Trying to get pity, I see?” Amelia said to her as she entered
“Get off my back, Watson! Just trying to do something polite or whatever.” She crossed her arms with a huff and held the door with her back.
The storage room was around the same size as the kitchen and more open than the kitchen. There were small boxes and small hangers full of pool toys and equipment. There was a single long shelf near the end of the room that held the washers and dryers, the washers above it and dryers below it. To the side, there was another shelf stacked with baskets full of clothing, all labeled too. “What are in those?”
Amelia moved to the basket with her name and pulled it out. “3 sets of clothing inside each basket, a copy of the clothes we are currently wearing, a set of pajamas, and a full-body swimsuit.” She pulled them out of her basket and showed them. “As you can see here, they are made to fit my exact body proportions. It’s odd how much information whoever brought us all here has on us.”
Amelia had Gura pull out her own basket and show that her clothes seemed to be the same size as hers, confirming Amelia’s statement. After that, she handed Cecilia her basket, and Gura gave Gigi hers.
Cecilia looked at the 3 sets in her basket. Sure enough, there was the same dress she was wearing, a small green cape attached to a faint green-tinted nightgown, and a mint swimsuit. After examining her clothes, she folded all of them and placed them back into the basket. “Huh, so this is all we have?”
“Yes,” Amelia answered before making her way to the dryer. “Anyways, I need to get this set dry, so once you leave, I’ll be able to change. You can take your basket to your room if you want.”
Cecilia gave the suggestion a thought before answering, “I think that’s a good idea.” She turned to Gigi before asking for her opinion. “What do you think?”
“Nah! We should leave them here for now. If we ever need to, I’ll pick it up after we finish exploring the other rooms.”
“Alright then.” She then faced Amelia. “You seem experienced with this kind of thing.”
Amelia waved her hand in the air. “Psh, I’ve explored plenty of weird places like this. At some point, it gets easy to spot hidden passages and hidden stashes. This place does have its fair share of secrets, though most of them haven’t been that interesting.”
“I agree with the detective here,” Gura pointed at Amelia, “On the fact that what we found wasn’t all that interesting. I didn’t even spot what those eyes saw, but all we found were small stashes of junk, like pool covers.”
“I still think it would be wise to keep an eye out. I did find an odd coin that had a large 'M' on it hidden behind one of the paintings in the hall right out here a while before this one pushed me into the pool.” She then shrugged. “Don’t really know what it is, but it looked neat. I actually handed it over to someone else I bumped into earlier; they said they had a possible use for it.”
Gigi threw her basket back to Amelia to be put back. “You think it may have possibly been a ticket to help us escape, like an escape room of sorts?”
“I don’t personally think so; call it a detective's intuition.” She took the basket and slotted it back before taking Cecilia’s. “Anyways,” Amelia picked up a dustpan and brush from an equipment box, but instead of handing it to Cecilia, she handed it to Gura. “I’ll have her deal with that mess outside while I dry my stuff here. It would make a great punishment I just thought of now. Don’t go worrying about cleaning it yourself.”
“What?!”
“You heard me, now get cleaning.”
Gura’s arms dropped to her sides as she grumbled and wandered out.
“Seems like you two get along well,” Cecilia said sarcastically.
“Well, she doesn’t mean too much harm, though she can be much at times. We met in the recreation room, a little further down this hall on the opposite side of the pool. If you're exploring, then I’d recommend going there next.”
“Thanks for the recommendation! We’ll have to go there next, c’mon Cecilia!” Gigi said as she dashed towards the exit
“Yes, yes, coming.” She turned and waved back to Amelia, who began taking off her coat to dry, as she followed Gigi out of the pool storage room, then outside the pool room, where they saw Gura crouched, sweeping the shattered teacup.
They walked past her down the hall and ended up in front of the rec room.
“Entertainment! C’mon, let’s go!” Gigi cheered as she grabbed Cecilia and dragged her through the door. The rec room was calm, its walls adorned with wooden patterns, and it had a small jukebox that was currently off. She also spotted 3 figures in the room: two dog-eared girls and a silver, purple-tinted-haired girl, all in front of a pinball machine. The two dog girls were cheering the silver, purple-tinted-haired girl on.
“Go! Go! Go!” One of the dog girls cheered as they bounced up and down. She had long blonde hair with streaks of light blue. She also had dog ears, a collar, and white ankle boots.
“You’ve got this, Bijou!” The other dog girl, who seemed somewhat related to the bluer one, though pinker and flatter, seemed to be unable to stop shifting around the machine. She also had blonde hair, though shorter and with streaks of pink. She wore a black and pink jacket, headphones, and similar collar and ankle boots to the first, though with small color differences.
“Heh, this is nothing!” The silvery-purple-haired girl, who seemed to be acting nonchalant and not affected by the two hype men next to her, said in response to their cheers. She wore a white sleeveless dress with layered skirts as well as metallic pink wings with purple gemstones embedded and protruding on various parts of her body, such as the large chest jewel. She also had a gemstone tiara and was quite short.
Gigi immediately ran up to the trio, still dragging Cecilia with her, to watch the trio.
“Whoa!” Gigi was likely experiencing a dopamine overload from all the point bonuses, lights, and sounds the machine produced every time the ball touched anything.
Cecilia was also a little interested and watched. It will only be for a bit, right?
…
…
…
It, in fact, was not only for ‘a bit,’ as Cecilia found herself cheering as she watched the ball for 30 minutes. That's not including how long they were playing before Cecilia and Gigi arrived. At this point, all 4 spectators were cheering.
“Out of balls! Game Over!”
“AGH! What the beep!” The silver girl whined as she sank to the side of the machine after the ball went straight through the flippers. “There was no way for her to stop it! This game is rigged.”
“Aww, you’ll do better next time, Bijou,” the blue dog girl said as she patted the silver girl’s back.
After a moment, the twins both turned to Cecilia and Gigi before the pink one spoke. “But look, more people came to watch you play.”
“Oh, more company.” The girl twirled away from the pinball machine and towards the newcomers before speaking, “Bon Bijou, I’m Koseki Bijou! Ultimate Mediator, nice to meet you.”
“Hallo, hallo, BAU BAU!” The two twins said in perfect unison
“I’m Fuwawa Abyssguard, and this is my little sister, Mococo!” the blue one said
“Yeah!” the pink one, Mococo, agreed. “We’re the Ultimate Guards!”
“Bau bau!” They said in unison once more.
Cecilia and Gigi gave their introductions before continuing.
“Have you three been messing around here?” Cecilia asked.
“Well, Fuwawa and I have, but Bijou came in later,” Mococo answered.
“Yup, I was exploring with another group for a bit, then split off. There was a small guest room and an empty room that just had a bunch of metal and wood. Then I ended up here.” Bijou added
Mococo continued, “We were playing all the games here, we played cards, pocket billiards, and then when Bijou came here, we watched her play pinball! She got a really high score. I doubt anyone will beat it for a while.”
Bijou sighed in disappointment before straightening her back and assuming a determined expression. “But it’s not high enough! I want to get a score so high the machine can’t even process it.”
“Hey, can I get a go?” Gigi asked as she cracked her knuckles.
“Sure, go right ahead.” Bijou moved out of the way so Gigi could get to the machine. “Just hit it a little to get it to start without tokens.”
Cecilia spoke out to Gigi right before she started, “Just be quick, Gigi, we still have other places to check.”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, I’ll be real fast,” Gigi responded as she kicked the machine, and the ball rolled onto the start. She pulled the shooter rod and began to play as Bijou, and the twins immediately began hyping it up.
Cecilia had a feeling that it would not be quick, but it never hurt to join in on the fun, so she began to cheer, too.
After almost 2 hours, Gigi was nearing Bijou’s high score. “See, this is a real pro at work.”
At this point, Bijou was looking a little nervous, but right before Gigi was about to surpass Bijou, the ball got launched directly past the flippers faster than Gigi was expecting, leaving Gigi tied with Bijou’s score.
Bijou let out a breath she seemed to be unaware she was holding “Phew, a tie is better than losing. Nice try, but I guess we are equal.”
"God damn it!” Gigi slammed the machine a few times before calming down. “Yeah, well, we should try again in another game!”
“Gigi.”
“Oh,” Gigi started sweating a bit as she heard Cecilia’s voice behind her.
“You’ve had enough fun for now, let’s go.”
“C’mon, you were hyping me up!”
“That was during the first hour. We’ve still got a lot more to see.”
Fuwawa went to Cecilia’s side and gave her puppy eyes. “Aw, c’mon, Cecilia, why not play a quick game with us!”
“Yeah, all you did was cheer!” Mococo said as she went to the other and did the same
Cecilia looked at the two twins giving her puppy eyes before her resolution crumbled, and she gave in. “Fine, but make it a quick game.”
“Yay, let’s all play darts!”
As the twins and Cecilia went to grab some of the darts, Cecilia could hear Gigi muttering something along the lines of, “Thank you so much, Fuwawa and Mococo,” but she chose to just set up the game and ignore it.
Fuwawa and Mococo picked out the darts and then ran a fair distance away from the dartboard.
Fuwawa and Mococo handed the other three a dart each. Fuwawa then picked teams. “I play with Mococo, then Gigi and Bijou, finally Cecilia and…Cecilia. We’ll play 101. We’ll each only get one dart, so make it count!”
Cecilia stood to the side alone as the others gathered up. “These teams don't seem very fair.”
Mococo and Fuwawa giggled. “Well, you just need to deal with the cards dealt. Good luck.”
Fuwawa and Mococo went first, both threw their darts at the same time, both landing on a double 10.
“Only 40 points… bau bau,” Fuwawa and Mococo both slumped out of the way as Gigi and Bijou took their spots.
Gigi rapidly rolled her arms. “We’ve got this, Bijou.”
“Heck yeah!” Bijou handed Gigi her darts.
Gigi and Bijou threw their darts next. Gigi got a triple 20 while Bijou got a single eye.
The two high-fived. “And that’s how it’s done.”
Now it was Cecilia’s turn. “Good luck, Cecilia. I don’t have the highest of hopes for you,” Gigi joked.
“Guess I’ll just have to prove you wrong then.” Cecilia aimed at the dartboard; she honed in on the bullseye. It seemed easier for her to hit than the triple 20, so she threw the dart and…undershot it and got a 3…She cursed herself.
“Wowwwww, really nice shot there.” Gigi clapped her hands as the comment made the other 3 chuckle.
Cecilia grumbled a bit as she moved aside to let Fuwawa and Mococo take their next turn. The two threw their darts in perfect synch again, and this time they both got a single bull, their darts barely spread apart, but just short of the bullseye.
Gigi whistled, “How are you two in perfect synch?”
Fuwawa shrugged as she grabbed the darts. “It just happens”
“Yeah,” Mococo nodded.
Bijou and Gigi huddled quickly before throwing their darts. Gigi got a 15 while Bijou got a 1, getting their score to 0, winning.
“Hell yes, masters at work!” The two cheered as they fist-bumped
“Well, guess that’s it,” Cecilia said, disappointed. She only got to play once, and she only got a 3.
The twins’ ears both went down. “Bau bau”
Gigi then had an idea. “Hey, Cecilia, if you can get a bullseye, I will…Uh…Give you my half of the win!”
“You’re on.” Cecilia got into place, aimed for her target, and threw her dart.
…
…
…
She missed the board completely.
“Ugh, I HATE darts.” She muttered loudly.
Gigi clutched her stomach as she started laughing uncontrollably. This laughter spread to the twins, then Bijou. “Oh, now that is just sad. I didn’t think you could be this bad!”
Cecilia turned to Gigi, saw her make a smug face through the laughter, and immediately turned back to her dart wedged in the wall. “Well, why don’t I shoot that dumb look off your face?” She picked her dart off the board and aimed at Gigi’s head.
Gigi threw her hands up. “Ah! Cecilia! It was just a joke!” She proceeded to jump behind Bijou
“Hey! Don’t use me as a shield!” Bijou shouted as she moved out of the way.
The moment she was exposed, Cecilia threw the dart, but it missed completely and went between Mococo and Fuwawa.
“Hoeh?!”
“Run Mococo!”
The twins ran to Bijou, who clearly didn’t like being a shield, as Cecilia ran around the room chasing after Gigi. The duo knocked over things as Cecilia kept on getting close, yet so far as Gigi kept escaping her grasp.
“Get back here, you little— Agh!” She got hold of Gigi’s sweater, only for her to lose her grasp on it after Gigi threw a pool stick into her face.
Gigi waved to Bijou and the twins as she shouted to them, “Well, that was fun— Whoa! But I’ve gotta go, goodbye!” She then bolted out of the room.
“Oh no, you don’t.” Cecilia quickly grabbed her tea and gave a quick wave as she chased after the gremlin through the long hallway. It took a while, but eventually Cecilia caught up to Gigi.
“Hey, Cecilia! It was just a joke, no need to be mad! Please?” Cecilia pinched the gremlin's cheek as hard as she could, causing the gremlin to squirm. “Ow! Ow! Ow! Hey! I’m sorry!”
Cecilia narrowed her eyes. “What else?”
“Ow! Ow! I’m sorry, and you are not absolute garbage at darts! Maybe just…below average?”
Cecilia blinked at her for a bit before letting go. “I’ll accept that for now.”
Gigi rubbed her cheek slightly before pointing at Cecilia. “You take things WAY too seriously”
“I do not.” Cecilia huffed.
“Sssssssssssuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee,” Gigi gave her a ‘You serious?’ look, at which Cecilia would pout in return.
Just as the two were about to move on, a much taller woman walked up towards them. She was a tanned, blonde-haired woman, though it leaned towards cosmic latte.
“Are you two okay? I heard a lot of pleading down here.” The woman's hair was styled into twin tails with three large pink, white, and blue-purple sphere accessories on each side. She had golden eyes and a pink, swirly antenna-like ahoge. She wore a pale mock halter top, over it was a black strapless bodysuit. She had a short white sheer skirt layered beneath a puffy dark blue skirt. There were also two gold drop earrings in one ear. She was mostly barefoot, except for a gold anklet.
“That would be caused by this one here,” Cecilia said as Gigi puffed her cheeks out.
“She pinched me right here!” She pointed at her reddened cheek. “It hurt!”
The tanned woman giggled. “Thank goodness, I thought someone was being murdered. I was ready to run in and go, BAM! WHACK! POW! On the aggressor, but it seems you two are just fine. I hit hard, you know.” She flexed her muscles a bit to prove her point
Gigi whistled, “Nice.”
“Yup! I can’t really take this limiter off.” She pointed to the pink antenna on her head. “So I can’t unleash my full potential. It’s stuck! Sometimes, it can pop off by accident, but it feels glued to my head.”
This caught Cecilia’s interest: “Why do you need a limiter?”
“Ah! This thing is what keeps me normal size; without it, a whole planet could get destroyed.”
Cecilia turned to Gigi and whispered, “You think she’s done it before?”
Gigi whispered back, “Oh, one hundred percent.”
Sana saw that and clapped her hands while giving a wide smile, “Well, I’m Tsukumo Sana, Ultimate Astronomer. I mean, I am the Speaker of Space, so it only fits!”
Gigi and Cecilia then gave their introductions before continuing,
“Have you seen others around?” Cecilia inquired
“Yup, actually I have. I was with three others for a while. We went to a guest room that had so many snacks and a coffee machine. There was also a television there, but it was super limited and didn’t actually connect to anything. It didn’t have internet and was run by a small box full of shows and movies. I left along with someone else, and we split when we got to the workshop.”
“Could it be that person was a girl named Bijou?” Cecilia asked
“Yup, you met her?”
“Ye—”
Gigi jumped in front of Cecilia and cut her off. “We played pinball and darts! It was fun, she seemed cool.”
“Well, after that, I went into the room and moved some stuff around. It seemed empty at first glance, but most of the machinery was hidden behind metal sheets and piles of wood. It took a while with my current strength, but I managed to move most of the debris out of the way. The machinery is not powered, though.”
Cecilia leaned towards Gigi. “Should we check it out?”
“I dunno, Sana, was there anything to really note there?”
Sana closed her eyes and began tapping her head. “Other than the raw materials and powered-down machines, nope. Not many loose tools in there, so I doubt one would use something in there to harm someone. I was figuring out how to get things working, but didn’t figure it out.”
“Getting the layout wouldn’t hurt, so I think it would be fine.”
“Sure, the workshop is that way, “She pointed down the hall. “It’s the last room, at the end. The first room is the guest room. Why don't we pop in there for a bit before we look at the workshop?”
“That sounds fine, lead the way"
Sana, followed by Gigi and Cecilia, reached the guest room. The moment they entered, they were able to hear the TV playing some sort of action movie. The room itself was calm. Normal wooden floorboards and lightly painted walls, a coffee machine sitting on top of a counter that seemed to have been freshly used. Snack trays constantly came in and out from a small conveyor belt, probably the only sore thumb for a guest room.
There were also two people in there, a magenta-haired woman and a rat woman. The magenta-haired woman was dozing off on a bean bag while the rat woman was upside down on one of the long couches.
The rat woman flicked her body over the couch, nearly tipping the whole thing over, as she waved at Sana, “WASSUP! Good to see ya again, mate.” She projected her voice loudly. The magenta-haired woman shifted up from the bean bag with a yawn before getting up.
Sana shot a similar wave back. “Wussup, Bae, IRyS.”
The rat woman moved to the coffee machine and placed a mug under it. “What brings you back here? Wanna watch this movie with me? It’s got so much going on, the plot’s all over the place. I don’t reckon as to what’s going on!”
“Nah, not right now. I’m actually going back to the workshop. I’m actually here to introduce you to some of the other people I met.”
The rat woman and the magenta-haired woman finally gave their attention to the other two present in the room.
Cecilia shook the other two’s hands while Gigi waved her arm frantically as she gave her introduction.
The magenta-haired woman introduced herself afterward, “HiRyS, I’m IRyS, Ultimate Optimist.”
On top of her magenta hair, IRyS had long pointed ears and two small black horns. She had heterochromia eyes, one cyan and one purple, and several crystalline stars floated above her head like a halo. She wore a black-and-white outfit with blue and purple accents, with two small crystal-like wings on her back.
The rat woman put a hand over her face, and right before she introduced herself, “I am chaos. The end of ends. A steel rose trapped in a cage of ice. Your best friend from the start to the end, Baelz Hakos, Ultimate Gambler. WITNESS ME!” She posed for each sentence, each pose being wackier than the last.
Baelz had bright red hair, tied into two pigtails with white bands. She also had large mouse ears on the top of her head and a thin tail with a blue ribbon. What she wore was something Cecilia was unsure how to fully describe. She had an off-the-shoulder white crop top with the word RAT on it. She also wore a short, flared skirt with alternating black, white, and red panels. Her legwear seemed mismatched, ending in black platform footwear. There was also a spiked collar with a piece of cheese that had a key dangling off it.
Cecilia had one thing on her mind after she witnessed her. This woman is a chuunibyou…and has an odd choice of clothing.
IRyS pushed the rat woman enough to cause her to trip and fall. “Don’t mind her, she’s just like that.”
“That was uncalled for!” Baelz scrambled to her feet.
Gigi then wandered up to Baelz and the two began chatting. From what Cecilia was hearing, it had to do with how she introduced herself and…
“Can I take a little advice on how to have as much aura as you?”
Cecilia mentally face-palmed.
DING!
The coffee machine finished. Baelz strutted over to the machine and picked up the mug. “Want me to make you some?” She offered it to Cecilia and Gigi.
“No way.” Cecilia spat out
“Sure!” Gigi’s hand shot upwards
The two spoke at the same time.
“Righto.” Baelz inserted more coffee beans into the machine and turned it on again. She also decided to ask, “Though I'm curious, what did coffee do to you?”
“Don’t even get me started, its aroma, the bitterness, and taste are just, blegh. Tea is a much better option.”
“Not even canned coffee?”
“No.”
“Tiramisu?”
“Nuh uh.”
“Espresso brownies?”
“Not a chance.”
“Coffee cake?”
Cecilia just raised an eyebrow.
“Really? Not anything else?”
“I told you already, coffee is inferior to tea in every aspect.”
“I beg to di— OW!” Gigi started, only to get whacked in the head by Cecilia.
“Hmmm… We’ve gotta find a way to sort that,” Cecilia heard Baelz mutter.
“Anyways,” IRyS began, “What have you been up to?”
Gigi rubbed her head. “We explored for a while, but we got distracted in the rec room.”
“There’s a rec room?” Baelz asked
“Yeah, you guys didn’t see it?”
“Nah, we’ve just been here watching the entire time.”
Gigi turned towards the TV. “Can I join?”
Baelz lifted a hand. “I, Baelz, Incarnate of CHAOS! Allow you to join us!”
“Yippee!”
Cecilia raised a finger in front of the gremlin's face before she could scurry towards the TV. “Forgetting something?”
“C’mon, I’m tired from all the running. Please?” Gigi gave Cecilia her best puppy eyes, but unlike with the twins, she did not budge. Seeing this, Gigi changed her strategy. She got closer to Cecilia and… “Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please!”
Cecilia lurched backwards and covered her ears. “Fine! Just stop begging in my ear!”
Gigi pumped her fist upwards and hopped onto the couch. Balez followed her, also hopping over instead of walking around. Cecilia’s ears were ringing like crazy. Once she finally recovered, she heard Sana and IRyS laughing at her expense.
“Alright, that was funny,” IRyS said as she wiped a tear from her eye.
Sana held both hands in front of her mouth to hide her smile. “Well, I think we should go check out the workshop.” Cecilia just groaned and gave a thumbs up. With that, they left the guest room. On the way out, hearing IRyS, Balez, and Gigi shouting at the TV.
When Cecilia looked into the workshop, she immediately clocked the fact that it was a mess. For one, the door wasn’t even properly attached to its frame; its hinges were completely snapped! Not only that, but Bijou’s description of the room seemed to line up somewhat when she peered inside. The ground and walls were littered with many different woods; most notably, to Cecilia, was the stack of pink ivory logs lying in a corner next to copper sheets. Sana moved in first, pushing them out of the way to reveal another section of the workshop. The room was littered with everything a woodworker or metalworker needed, including a table saw, a metal bandsaw, and wood and metal lathes. The only downside was that the lights in the room were definitely running on their last legs.
“Oh, yeah, the lights are not the best in there; the bulbs were kinda finicky.” Sana brought the other two towards a small door behind a single wooden plank, gently moved it aside, and opened it to reveal an electrical breaker with a ton of switches, wires, and… sparks, lots of sparks. She also noticed that it burned the nearby walls slightly to the sides, exposing a much thicker and more solid wall behind the wooden layer.
“That was my bad, sorry.” Sana apologized as she backed off. Cecilia, on the other hand, got closer.
Cecilia inspected the source of the sparks more intently. “What happened?” She asked Sana while poking around the area where the sparks were firing off most intensely.
Sana gave an apologetic smile. “I was just testing some things. I tried flipping random switches to see what they did, and eventually that happened.”
Cecilia started to note her observations. It seemed that only the large wires, about the width of her fingers, were causing the issue. Unfortunately, the bad news was that those wires were at the top of the beaker.
She was about to move some of the non-sparking wires to make space to look at it more, but the draw to return to her room had returned, if only for a moment. She slid away from the beaker and wiped her hands. “Let’s just leave it alone. I could work on it later; it’s nothing too major, but it will need addressing. It’s hard to see in here, and I don’t think there is much else to see.”
“You got it, I’ll just stay back and make sure that doesn’t start a fire.”
Cecilia stood up and shut off the beaker. “If anything, I say you should keep this thing off; that should stop most of the sparks.”
“I’ll get to it, I’m still gonna stay and move things. Maybe there are more secrets under stuff, even if it will be hard to see.”
“Good luck with your search, I guess.”
“You too.” The tanned woman waved as Cecilia exited the workshop
Cecilia then exited the workshop. “I think that’s all.” She muttered as she walked back to the guest room, and as she got back, Gigi was leaving. She had a face of annoyance, which was supported by what she was saying. “...That ending SUCKED! Seriously, why did the writers deci- Oh, hey, Cecilia.”
“Seems like you had a good time,” Cecilia said sarcastically.
Gigi threw her arms out and exclaimed, “The show was so good! But they lost me when the main character started saying one-liners every other sentence and after the plot was completely dropped!”
Cecilia was a little confused about how Gigi seemingly finished watching a full show when she was gone for less than half an hour. “Did I really take that long in the workshop?”
“Nah, we just skimmed through it really quickly and dropped it after the third episode.”
“Well, you can tell me all about it later then. We’ve finished exploring all this side of the facility has to offer at the moment; I’ll just tell you what I found in the workshop later.”
“Really?!”
“Yes, we should make our way back to Elizabeth,” Cecilia said as she resumed walking down the hall.
“Yes, ma’am,” Gigi responded as she hopped after her.
Gigi and Cecilia were making their way back to the cafeteria. They entered to see Raora and Elizabeth chatting with two others. They seemed to be in a deep conversation.
“Whoa,” Gigi elbowed Cecilia’s rib and whistled while pointing at the black-haired woman with the horns. “Pretty lady.” She raised an eyebrow once she finished.
Really? Was all that was written on Cecilia’s face.
Gigi started waving her hands around as she tried to defend herself. “What? I mean… Those… Um… Can you really blame me for saying that?!” She raised her voice with each word, as well as Cecilia’s internal disgust.
At some point during her defense, the conversation the other 4 were in seemed to end as they all turned to the duo. Shoot! How can I get her to shut up? Cecilia pondered for a second before just placing her hands over Gigi’s mouth.
“Nothing to see over here! We were just about to see what you were up to, is all.” Cecilia chuckled nervously as Gigi continued to struggle. She muttered loud enough just for Gigi to hear, “Shut up, or you’ll make yourself look more like an idiot than you already are.”
After a while, Gigi stopped struggling. “Phine, jupmhh, leb ne speak”
Cecilia let go, leaving Gigi coughing for a while. “I’ll be, COUGH, more careful. Guh.”
Elizabeth held an amused smile as she walked up to the two. “I see you two are getting along just fine?”
Cecilia put her hands on her hips. “You could say that.” She’s annoying, but she’s not the worst company.
Gigi gave a flimsy thumbs up. “We totally, COUGH, get along.”
The black-haired woman moved in and got right in front of the two. “Heya darlings, I couldn’t help but sense someone had said something about me…” She lifted a finger and pointed between the two. “Perhaps that may have been one of you two?”
Don’t think about it. She spoke in a sultry tone that was layered under velvet. The effects hit hard; Cecilia was able to resist most of it, but it didn’t hide the fact that her wind-up key slowly spun faster than normal. Though when she turned slightly to Gigi, all she saw was a completely red and internally panicking chaser. She looked as if her brain was gonna explode at any minute.
Gigi shook her head rapidly at the woman. “Nope! No speaking about how you are one of the prettiest women I’ve seen in my life! No way!”
Cecilia mentally facepalmed, for the second time.
Gigi looked past the woman to Cecilia. She mouthed, “Did I mess up?”
Cecilia nodded. You dug this hole yourself.
The woman only chuckled before continuing, “How kind. May I ask, just who may you be?”
Gigi started fumbling her hands around herself while stuttering before giving a quick salute, “U-uh, G-Gigi Murin, M-ma’am! Ultimate Chaser!”
The woman chuckled even harder before leaning in on Gigi and introducing herself, “I am Nerissa Ravencroft, Ultimate Songstress. It is nice to meet you, Gigi.” Her voice echoed around the room, it also made the room feel more… romantic?
The woman in front of Gigi had straight black hair with a blue inner side. She had two horns protruding from her head, one broken. She wore a striped, shoulderless white shirt and a sleeveless coat tied together with three crossed belts below her chest.
Gigi stood frozen. “Uh— well— you—”
“You done messing around?” The woman with two-tone hair asked from behind, a little annoyed.
Nerissa just began laughing, this time less structured and more raw, before backing off Gigi. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Wait, what?” Gigi looked stupefied
“Sorry, an old habit of mine. I used to use my ‘charms’ like that all the time back in the day, don’t take it personally, darling.” Nerissa patted her shoulder as she leaned back up. She threw an arm over the other woman’s shoulder and pointed at her with her free hand. “This is Shiori Novella, a woman with a large mind, and large—”
“—Nerissa—” The woman tried to cut in.
“Eyes!”
The woman just stared at Nerissa. “...You are just as insufferable as you are seductive.”
“You two are friends?” Cecilia asked
The woman sighed and placed a hand over her head, “…She stalked me this entire time.”
Nerissa wiggled her eyelashes. “Me? I would never, darling.”
The other woman looked at her, disgusted. “Eugh, stop calling me that.”
“Never!” Nerissa then stuck her tongue out.
“Well, you heard her. Yes, I am Shiori Novella. I am the Ultimate Archiver.” Her voice sounded both tired and annoyed. Her eyes were a bright, glowing light yellow. She wore a dark purple and black jacket and dress. She had a sort of gothic look to her. She turned towards Cecilia. “And who may you be?”
“Cecilia Immergreen, Ultimate Servant. If I may ask, what were you doing?”
“We were just talking about what we could remember prior to waking up here. It is something I’m quite interested in figuring out. What would you two happen to remember?” Shiori continued.
Gigi put a finger to her chin, then, after a brief moment, shook her head. “I got nothing, all I remember was going to bed and, POOF! I woke up here.”
Shiori pulled a notepad and wrote down Gigi’s answer. “Interesting, a similar case to Elizabeth and Raora. What about you, Cecilia?”
“Well—” Cecilia prepared to speak, but she stopped. What was I doing before getting here? I was walking, then…Ugh, can’t remember what happened next. “I can’t really recall anything.”
“A shame. I’m going to ask around some more. Do you happen to know where I can find the pair of dogs and the little silver girl? The one with a crystal in her chest?”
Gigi immediately answered, “Oh! Yeah! Well, now that I think about it, they are probably in the rec room. Just go down where we came from and go straight down the hall, it should be the first room to the left.”
“Much appreciated.”
Cecilia stopped her before she turned to get Nerissa, who was seemingly talking to a red-faced Elizabeth while Raora simply waddling away from the two. “Why do you need them specifically? Just asking.”
“Well, I can’t go out spoiling the fun now, can I?” Shiori replied. “Let’s just say I saw something in the bathroom and did a little experiment. I wasn’t actually expecting it to work, but it did. Let's just say that it was quite enlightening.” She closed her notepad. “If we are done here, I’ll be taking my leave.” She turned her head over her shoulder and snapped her fingers. “Let’s go, Nerissa.”
Nerissa, who was much closer to Elizabeth, pouted before whining, “Aww, I was just starting to have fun Shiowi.”
Shiori clicked her tongue. “Does it look like I care?”
“Fine.” Nerissa turned back to Elizabeth and gave one final exaggerated wave as she left with Shiori, ”Ta-ta, darling.”
With a large wave, Nerissa hurried after Shiori. Elizabeth coughed into her hand with her head turned away from Cecilia and Gigi. “Ahem, I suppose you have finished exploring?”
“We have, we would’ve finished a while ago, but we got distracted,” Cecilia answered.
“Pinball can be quite time-consuming.”
“Pinball? Sounds like you had a fun time, can’t say the same for me and Raora.”
“What happened?”
Raora wandered back to the group and answered, “Elizabeth and I were roaming the rooms, they were all unique in a way, and we did bump into some people.”
“I feel bad for Miss Ceres that she has to deal with Miss Ouro and Miss Nanashi,” Elizabeth added.
“Yeesh, what happened?”
Raora would continue, “Just a bit of squabbling; there were 4 others we bumped into. One of them stayed in one of the rooms and didn’t open the door, but talked to us through the door. After her, we encountered three others, two of whom were arguing— well, actually, only one of them was.” After finishing, she looked around. “It is quite odd that wherever we are trapped has no windows or exits.”
Wait a second, no windows? No exits? How did I miss that? Cecilia internally criticized herself for not paying close attention. “Ugh, you’re right; now that you brought it up, we never encountered one either. What else did you two find?”
Elizabeth would answer her, “There was a lot of variety in certain rooms, as well as two tiny empty equipment closets and a pair of bathrooms. There was not much else of note.”
Cecilia felt stressed, there was a lot unknown to her at the moment, and it was clear that everyone was in the same boat as her. She felt a pounding in her head, something was telling her to go to her room, but she didn’t know why.
“Hey, why don’t we get our minds off it for a bit? You all seem stressed, why don’t we just relax?” Cecilia was ripped from her thoughts as Raora spoke.
“I like that idea!” Said Gigi.
“If you both are up for it, then I say we have something to eat. I haven’t had anything since I woke up.”
“OH! I know someone in the kitchen who makes great food!”
“Someone else who can cook? I was going to make pasta for us, though.”
“I think we can still make it; Kiara is very kind and will surely help out!”
Despite wanting a break, she couldn’t; the voice in her head urging her to return to her room grew louder. She should go. “If possible, I want to see what’s left to explore, if you three don’t mind.”
“You can do that, Miss Immergreen. The halls to the left and right lead to the variety rooms, straight ahead leads to the equipment closet and bathrooms, and please, no need to rush; we’ll be talking for a while.”
“Thank you.” Cecilia bowed to them before Cecilia spliting off.
Once she left, she noticed someone a fair distance ahead, heading towards a small set of what seemed to be closets. When she got there, she was met with a girl standing in front of one of the doors.
“Humu-humu.” The girl was muttering as she poked the doorknob.
Cecilia walked closer to her. “Hello there.”
“Oh?” The girl turned to face Cecilia.
“What are you doing?”
“...Nothing, just wandering I guess.” The girl seemed nervous, so Cecilia didn’t push much.
“Ok, well, I am Cecilia Immergreen, Ultimate Servant. You?”
“I am Ninomae Ina'nis, the Ultimate Priestess.”
Ina'nis had long purple hair falling below her knees, with small purple flaps on top of her head, and side locks that looked like tentacles, topped with a golden tiara. She wore a sleeveless purple-and-yellow dress and black-and-purple sandals. There was also a hard-to-miss halo over her head.
“Ah, Ina’nis, may I ask what you are the priestess of?” The girl's expression seemed to become a bit more nervous at the question, so Cecilia backed off a bit. “Please do not mind my previous question. Are you exploring?”
Ina seemed to appreciate the gesture. “Not really, I’ve already explored the full floor. I believe I was the third person awake, probably a few hours back, but I stayed in my room for a while after my initial exploration.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “Also, if you want, refer to me as Ina.”
“Alright, have you seen anything interesting at all?”
“If you have explored this place already, then I won’t have much to add.”
“What about all the rooms in the halls to the sides of us?”
“From what I've seen, they are likely a set of dorm rooms, there is also a pair of bathrooms down this hall. You won’t find much other than personal items in the dorms; I checked a few after people started waking up, and each was quite different. The bathroom is also just your average bathroom, though the male section was locked tight.” The priestess yawned. “Is that all?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Goodbye then, Cecilia.”
Cecilia bowed before walking away. From Elizabeth, Raora, and Ina’s investigations, all ‘dorms’ may not need personal investigation. She decided to put off investigating the dorms until her head started pounding again.
Seriously, what is going on?! She clutched her head as the urge to return to her room increased. She was about to make her way back to the cafeteria when she heard people, and the urge dissipated.
“Screw this, I’m going to make my own way out.” One of the voices said
“It could be dangerous to go alone. How about some company?” A more curious voice said
“Hell no, I’m going alone, don’t you dare follow me.” The first voice responded
“Please don’t start a fight you two.” A barely audible and gentle voice spoke sternly
The owners of the voices then came into view as Cecilia saw them exit one of the dorms, one of rough oak with a lantern hanging overhead.
A dark-blue-haired woman came out first, her expression clearly annoyed. “Are you kidding?! All you’ve done is follow me and do nothing!”
A green-haired woman came out next. “We are all trying to figure out our situation here.”
Finally, a brunette hopped out of the room. “And I’m just following you to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.” The girl cocked her head towards Cecilia, and the smile on her face widened. “Oh hi!” She chirped.
Cecilia stared at the three. “Am I intruding on something?”
The green-haired woman turned and tried to reassure her. “No, please don’t mind u—”
“—Hey, you, can you take these two off my hands?” The dark-blue-haired girl interjected.
Cecilia felt confused at the request. “May I ask why?”
“Sure, if you want to know, these two have been following me for hours, and I want them gone.”
“That’s because you nearly hurt yourself.” The Green-haired one said
“Yeah Kronii, you were very cwumsy. Bumping into a chair and having a whittle accident,” The brunette said in a childlike manner.
The dark-blue-haired one looked slightly embarrassed after the brunette revealed that, “I merely bumped into it to move it out of my way, that is all.”
“Whatever you want to believe, anyway.” The brunette faced Cecilia. “Hi, I’m Nanashi Mumei, Ultimate Cartographer.”
Mumei had long, light brown hair tied into a high ponytail and two brown feathers standing up in a ‘V’ shape. She wore a white blouse with puffed sleeves, with a brown corset-like piece over it and a short red skirt paired with a brown outer skirt that extended from her corset. There was a brown and beige feathered cape attached to her back and a belt wrapped around her waist with a lantern, pouch, and an empty dagger sheath.
The dark-blue-haired woman seemed to be unwilling to give her introduction, so the green-haired woman lightly nudged her. “Come on Kronii, be polite.”
The dark-blue-haired woman seemed slightly conflicted before relenting. “Since you haven’t annoyed me, I might as well introduce myself. I am Ouro Kronii, The Ultimate Clockmaker.”
Kronii had a chain on her head that attached to a veil, as well as a dark grey crop top with a matching skirt, oversized detached sleeves, and a white and blue collar, completed with black thigh-highs, blue and white heels, and a golden-accented blue cape.
Cecilia stared at her; of all the things she thought the woman in front of her was, a clockmaker was not on that list.
The green-haired woman noticed the confused expression on Cecilia’s face and elaborated, “Kronii is very good at making and managing clocks. I was surprised when I first learned of it. She really doesn’t look like one does she?”
Kronii seemed confused as to why the green-haired woman had explained her Ultimate, as a moment later Mumei poked her shoulder. “See? Told you, you just don’t look like a clockmaker one bit! It can be a bit confusing at first!”
“Please, it’s a simple concept; anyone can understand it.”
Mumei then jumped in front of the taller woman. “I don’t think so!”
“Not this again. Are you really that stupid?” Kronii cut her off.
Mumei put a hand on her chest and gasped. “Stupid?!”
The green-haired woman then walked towards Cecilia and moved her to the side as the other two began squabbling. “Sorry about them.”
“Oh, no, if anything I feel sorry for you,” Cecilia responded.
The woman chuckled into her hand lightly. “They are quite the handful, and I’ve only been with them for a few hours. Trust me, before I came here, they were much louder.”
“I had a feeling that was the case.”
“Ceres Fauna, Ultimate Naturalist. I hope to get along.” She extended an arm for a handshake, which Cecilia accepted.
Fauna had a soothing aura about her; her green hair had little tree-branch-like antlers poking out. She was wearing a short dress and a golden belt. She had a golden bangle on one leg and a long white sock on the other while being fully barefoot.
“I too hope to get along.” So you are the woman Elizabeth felt sorry for; I totally understand it now.
While they were introducing themselves, Kronii looked very confused as to what to do towards Mumei.
“I’m sorry ok?” She said, unsure of herself
Mumei turned away, but not before showing a small pout as she crossed her arms. “Say it nicer.”
Kronii, now facing Mumei’s back, thought in her head for a while, contemplating something. After a few more moments, Kronii exhaled, “I’m really sorry; I was being rude.”
Mumei’s sad expression immediately changed into a cheerful one as she turned back to face Kronii. “I forgive you!”
Kronii, seeing that she was tricked, groaned. “You know what, I’m going back to finding a way out.” Kronii stomped off quickly to the opposite dorm hallway.
The moment she left, Mumei ran after her. “Gonna go follow her, can’t let her have fun on her own now!”
Fauna put a hand to her forehead. “Uuuuu. I’ll make sure they don’t do anything to each other. I wish you the best.” She would slowly and more gracefully follow suit, leaving Cecilia in the hall.
Cecelia began to wander, going about and seeing all the different doors. She noticed that each had a different design. One she walked past was black and had a cosmic feel to it, with its dark pattern and small white specs to represent stars, while another she walked past was blue with gold accents and a small monitor displaying 23:30.
It’s probably telling the time; judging from this, it's around midnight. How long have I been here? Eventually she made it to the end of the hall, back to the room she woke up in.
She had already seen some of what it had to offer, but she had a feeling she should go back, though she didn’t know why. She began to search around, starting with the bookshelf. Some simple story books, a textbook on fixing wind-up keys, seems useful, an encyclopedia on tea, may read that later, and…oh.
On the bottom of the bookshelf was a bunch of books; all of them, by the looks of their covers and names, were horrible. Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight… What the hell?
She then moved on after not finding anything. She went towards a violin case and opened it; what was inside was not a violin, but instead was a coin with an 'M' engraved onto it.
Could this be similar to what Amelia had mentioned? She examined the coin for a few moments, seems like its made of pure gold! It’s also pretty thick. Now then, what do I do with this? Cecilia pondered for a moment before she picked up the case once more and placed the coin back inside.
After that, she felt as if whatever drew her to search her room had dissipated, causing her to sigh in relief. With her mind cleared, other thoughts surfaced. I am craving some more tea. I'm pretty sure Gigi is waiting for me. I think I’ll-
“ATTENTION!”
What the?! Cecilia was brought out of her train of thought when, suddenly, a loud, authoritative voice came over some unseen speakers, along with some militaristic music. “ALL present inside the facility are to assemble inside the Cafeteria, NOW!” The voice continued.
What? Cecilia was confused, but she had made her way towards the cafeteria door just as Ina came into view, mostly staring at the cafeteria door.
The priestess was fiddling with her hair nervously. “Did you hear the announcement?”
“Yes, I did,” Cecilia responded. ‘I have to admit I am skeptical, but from what I’ve heard from a few others, this may be the only way to figure out what to do.”
“Yes, that may be the case.” She was about to open the door, but Cecilia placed her hand on the doorknob first.
“After you.” She said as she opened the door. Ina just nodded and entered the cafeteria, though Cecilia noticed that the priestess was quite nervous as she entered.
Before Cecilia entered herself, she saw more company coming her way, so she decided to stand and keep the door open. Kronii just walked in without sparing Cecilia a glance while Mumei and Fauna thanked her. Once they got through, Cecilia entered and then realized she was the last one.
“Hey! Mysterious voice! We gathered up! Why are we here?!” Gura shouted, getting a bunch of eyes on her.
A moment passed and nothing…Until
“All present in the cafeteria, head to the elevator room immediately!” The voice sounded very much like your stereotypical strict drill sergeant, it did not help that the music seemed to set that idea in stone.
Amelia would ask the question everyone was thinking, “Elevator room?”
“What elevator ro—!” Gura was cut off as the cafeteria shook under her. Confusion set in as the barren part of the cafeteria started shifting rapidly.
“Whoa!” Gigi yelped as she nearly fell, but Cecilia caught her.
“What is going on?!” Bijou shouted.
“Moco-chan, hold on to me!” Fuwawa rushed to her sister, who proceeded to cling to her tightly.
“I don't know what's going on, but I don’t like it,” Sana said as she held onto a table for support, seemingly the only one still fully standing.
“Thank you for pointing that out Miss Obvious,” Kronii said sarcastically in response to Sana.
Cecilia couldn’t focus on them other than that, as she was more interested in the wall crumbling and revealing a large door. She stared as the wall crumbled to reveal a large set of marble-accented doors. Totally not suspicious at all.
After a moment's delay, the shaking stopped, and everyone stood in place. Nobody dared to move for what felt like hours; the voice prior was intimidating, and the shaking seemed to put them more on edge. Cecilia looked down and saw that Gigi seemed to be in a defensive stance facing the door, not trusting it one bit. Raora seemed unnerved, with her tail nervously swaying. Elizabeth on the other hand, was seemingly in thought.
“It feels like I’ve heard that voice before,” she mumbled. Only Raora, Gigi, and Cecilia heard what she said before Mumei made her way towards the door.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Kronii asked loudly as Mumei got closer to the door.
The brunette did not stop approaching the door; instead, responding without turning around, “I’m curious, plus, it’s not like we will get answers just standing around.” Her response seemed to steel some of the others in the room. It started with Shiori, then Nerissa, and eventually, most of the people had followed the brunette’s lead.
Cecilia was hesitant, but she felt a tug at her arm. Gigi was there, and she put a hand over her mouth before whisper-shouting, “Scared? If so, then just hold on to me, I’ll protect you!”
“I’m not scared.” Cecilia lightly slapped her hand off her arm and began moving.
She reached the small crowd that formed at the door and turned to see that three people were still in their original positions: Ina, Amelia, and Gura. The Detective was talking to the Priestess, who was clearly worried about the situation and wasn’t budging, while the Ocean Hunter seemed to be egging the two to hurry up. Cecilia couldn’t make out what they were saying, but eventually Ina seemed to be convinced and followed the other two to the door.
“Sorry for holding you all up.” She apologized.
“No, no no, please don’t worry about it; I’m sure we all are feeling the tension,” Kiara said to her, but in the back, Cecilia did pick up on a certain Clockmaker’s complaints.
“Took you maggots long enough.” Once the voice on the speakers finished, the doors began to open. Once fully opened, everyone filtered in.
Inside the room was a large elevator behind a fence and a large white scale on a podium in the middle of the room. The room itself was bland with grey walls, golden rails, and a wooden floor; it was completely different from the hallways and cafeteria, which had white walls and marble tiles. After noting that in her head, the golden scale began to move.
“STAND AT ATTENTION!” The voice came from the scale, then it stopped, and the scale grew in size, and the number of plates on it doubled from 2 to 4, followed by 4 four-sided stars appearing above it, then it turned around slightly to reveal a singular large eye with a red four-sided star as its centre.
The scale floated up and faced the group directly. “LISTEN UP, MAGGOTS! I am SMOKEY! But to you, I’m SERGEANT SMOKEY!” It lowered itself and slowly approached each person individually, as if examining them. It finished at Elizabeth before floating backwards to its original position.
“OI! We’ve waited long enough! Answer our questions right here and right now, talking scale, where are we? And why are we here!?” Bealz exclaimed.
“Shut Your Mouth, Mongrel. I was getting to that. Now, to answer the first question, I welcome you all to Facility Omega, located between worlds and dimensions. This facility was made to reduce any being to the level of a simple mortal. It does not matter who you were out there, but here, you are all on equal terms.”
“Sure! Like we’d believe that!” Baelz continued with crossed arms.
“I actually think it has a point. I feel weirder than usual.” Fauna said, as others around the room seemed to agree silently.
“The question of why? Well, you are all here to simulate an experiment, think of it as a game. This game is one where every one of your lives will be put through trials if you wish to survive. This is a game where your CONVICTION will be tested. Welcome to the KILLING GAME.”
“What…” Cecilia muttered silently.
Shock
Shock was all that was written on Cecilia’s face- a killing game? What does that mean? She wanted to know, but was also afraid of what the floating scale would say next.
“What the hell?! What the hell are you talking about?!” Gura stomped forward, her hands clenched into fists.
“If you give me some time to explain, then all will be answered.”
“HELL NO! Answer us now! What do you mean?!”
“If you want to leave this facility alive, you must follow this simple rule. I hope you're listening, dimwits. To leave this facility, you MUST kill someone without getting caught. A simple requirement.”
Gura’s face exploded with rage. “I have a better idea, how about my fist straight into that singular eye of yours?” The girl ran forward at full speed towards the living scale.
“I wouldn’t try that if I were you.”
“Look out!” Amelia shouted, causing the Ocean Hunter to stop in her tracks just as a pitfall full of spikes appeared between her and Smokey.
“Holy shit…” The girl looked quite shaken. One more step, and she would’ve fallen to her death.
“Now, I give you these.” An item appeared on each of Smokey’s plates: a tablet, a box, a key, and a coin. “The tablet and key may be found on any table back inside the cafeteria. The tablet will be your guide with all the facility rules and will allow you to receive any information when needed. The box will vary in size and shape when you receive it, as each of you owns something, and it was decided to allow you to have one item from home. Each key will be personalized to your room, allowing you to lock it before you sleep. Be careful, as you will only be given one copy. Finally, you will each receive 1 M-coin; M-coins can be exchanged for anything. Just find a scale and write your requested item onto the left scale and then the payment on the right. The scale will move around every hour, and you will receive your personalized box during the morning announcement inside your room.”
Kronii stomped forward. “Oh, cut the bullcrap, let us out already! Some people have got important business to attend to.”
“That cannot be arranged. This will be your new life from now on. Go on and collect your tablets and read up; there is quite a lot for you to understand, and I don’t have the time at the moment. Since it is midnight, you should all get some rest. Now then, GET OUT!” Smokey’s voice boomed loud enough that everything shook, or did it? Cecilia was feeling dizzy from trying to wrap her head around so much. She would only recover when Gigi dragged her outside.
Once out, she saw that she was not the only one who was lost in thought; many around her seemed anxious, stressed, or out of it. Those who weren’t immediately examined the tables that were previously empty, but now had the same items that were promised to them by Smokey, each labelled with their name underneath.
There was a long silence until someone finally spoke. “That was definitely interesting. I’ve never been in something like this before.” It was Mumei, who was sitting on a cafeteria table pondering.
Calliope turned to the brunette, quite annoyed at her lack of urgency. “Interesting? That thing just told us to kill each other!”
“Y-yeah! Like what the beep! All for some ‘Experiment?’” Bijou said nervously
Kronii scoffed, “Seriously? Are we seriously all afraid of that little scale?”
Fuwawa flailed her hands up at Kronii’s remark. “B-but it nearly killed someone!”
“Yeah, the little scale caused that spike trap!” Mococo added, also flailing her hands.
“It's possible that those were set up beforehand, which could mean there are more traps.” Raora pointed out
Gigi fiddled with her hood nervously. “It shouldn’t be too much to worry about…right?”
“Please, let’s not all panic; let’s all calm down. Deep breaths.” Fauna said in such a soothing tone that most in the room started to follow her breathing and calm down, including Cecilia.
After calming down, Cecilia spoke, “What do we do?” and there was no response. What could they do?
“Why don’t we pick up those things on the tables? It’s not like it’ll truly harm us, right?” Kiara suggested.
“I’ll test it.” Sana walked up to a table with things labeled with her name on it and carefully picked it all up. “Yup, no explosives here.”
After that Amelia piped up, “What say we try to bust our way out of here. I’ve been through tougher than this. Let’s think of a plan first thing tomorrow. If anyone has any objections, please say it now.”
“I have one.” Kronii said with suspicion, “How can we trust you?”
Amelia turned to face the clockmaker. “Well, to be honest, there is no true way to show you I am trustworthy, at least not now. Despite that, I request that we all meet. It’s not like I can make a move with multiple witnesses.”
Kronii just yielded, “Fine.”
“That settles it then; first thing tomorrow we meet up here to discuss a plan.”
With that declaration, everyone started picking up their tablet and key before leaving the cafeteria, usually alone. Eventually, there were only 5 people left inside the cafeteria: Cecilia, Gigi, Elizabeth, Raora, and Kiara, who was a distance away from the group.
Elizabeth would be the first to speak, “Well, that announcement was concerning. I hope you are all okay?”
Cecilia and Raora would nod lightly while Gigi gave her the thumbs up. Right after Kiara walked up, “Here, I saw that you guys didn’t take the items that the talking scale talked about. These were the things assigned to you.”
“Thank you,” Cecilia would say as she took her stuff from the restauranter’s arms.
“This whole situation is making me feel weird, but I like to believe that we will all be fine.” She would hand Gigi her stuff. “I think you should all get some sleep; rest is important after all, and tomorrow may be a busy day.” Elizabeth would take her and Raora’s stuff and hand it to her.
“It’s not like we have many other options,” Cecilia said with a grim expression.
Gigi turned to her and started patting her back. “Don’t be such a downer Cecilia! We’ll find a way out of here, I’m sure!”
Cecilia turned her head to face Gigi. The gremlin was keeping up a confident and playful demeanor, but Cecilia saw the fear that matched her own underneath. “I think I’ll just go to my room.”
Cecilia’s mind was a mess of confusion and fear. She wanted some time alone to process. She got to her room and shut the door before walking to one of the chairs and just sitting in silence. She sat there while countless thoughts filled her head,
A killing game? Why me? Why can’t I remember what happened? Was that scale even telling the truth?
Were just some of those thoughts that filled her head. She decided to pick up a book to decrease the stress weighing on her mind, and it somewhat worked. She kept herself reading for a long time until…
Knock
Knock
Cecilia looked up and stared at her door.
“Cecilia, you in there?” The voice sounded concerned, and also like a certain gremlin she had following her the entire day. “Hey, um, I got tea for you. I know there is a lot going on, but…” Gigi’s voice faltered a bit. “But what I said before… I meant it! I’ll, uh, protect you and stuff…”
Cecilia could almost feel the gremlin’s shyness and felt herself feel hesitant; for one, she was thinking it could be a trap, but on the other hand, she had spent a lot of time with the girl and wanted to trust her, so she did. She got up and made her way to the door, and then opened the door to see the smaller girl standing outside with a full kettle of tea as well as a teacup.
Cecilia took the kettle and teacup. “Sorry for just walking out, you know, this situation is a lot to think about.”
“Yeah, I know, but don’t worry!” She put a large smile on her face, one that wasn’t forced despite their situation. “I promise to be by your side. I’ve spent most of the time here with you, so I’d like to believe we can look out for each other!” She held out a hand for a fist bump. “Buddies?”
Cecilia also smiled and accepted the fist bump. “Sure, buddies.”
“Hehe, anyways, go get some rest; I’ll watch this door for you!”
Cecilia could see that Gigi just wanted company; it was written all over the gremlin’s face. “You go to bed in your room. I’ll watch out for you instead.”
Gigi looked slightly confused. “Uh, well, okay, but I’ll make sure to make up for this.” She shot a finger gun at the automaton as they both went into Gigi’s room, with Gigi giving Cecilia a small beanbag for her to sit in. “Thanks, I was quite nervous to sleep.” She said shyly
“So you just wanted me to watch you sleep the entire time?”
“HEY! No no no! I was actually concerned and…” She looked to see Cecilia just smirking at her. “You know what I mean—!”
“Go to sleep, I’ll be guarding you the entire time. I’ll also lock your door for you.” Cecilia cut her off.
Gigi nodded, though not without sticking her tongue out at Cecilia. With one final wave, she slid into her bed. Cecilia got up and locked the sleeping chaser’s door. She held the teacup Gigi gave her in her hands as she sipped all the tea in a single gulp. Nothing like tea to calm the mind. After finishing the kettle, Gigi began snoring loudly, which the automaton didn’t fully mind.
Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion hit her. I guess this is that weakening effect. She thought, realizing that the exhaustion she was feeling was likely caused by what Smokey had referenced earlier. Usually she only required around a few hours of sleep a week, but right now she felt as if she hadn’t slept in months. With a yawn, she tried to stay awake for a while longer, but the key on her head was slowing down to a slow pace, and her eyes grew heavier.
A quick nap should be fine…Yeah…Just a short nap…
Cecilia closed her eyes and let her weight be fully pressed onto the beanbag as the events of the day caught up to her, and the automaton went to sleep.
END OF PROLOGUE
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