Heavenly Resort was a rather fitting name despite the situation they all found themselves into. As soon as the group exited the station and started walking down a cobblestone path towards a cluster of buildings in the distance, Azalea was able to take a better look at everything. It did look like a vision of what some would think paradise is: floating islands, green grass, flowers doting the place, there were even ponds and rivers pouring water onto the void. The weather was pleasant, not too hot despite there being not even a single cloud above their heads, and the air was pristine. It would be a truly relaxing place despite the impossibility of its existence, but Monobear's mutual killing game hung over their heads like a guillotine.
"It's hard to believe such a beautiful place will be where some of us will die" Alistair commented, running a bit ahead to take a better look at the white buildings in the distance.
"Do you really think people will die?" Dalia asked him.
"I'm sure it is. We're trapped, and we got offered a way out. There'll always be a few who'll take the chance"
"I wouldn't mind living here for a while!" Azalea lied, attempting to bluff in order to dissuade anyone who could be planning murder already "It's nice, we'd be taken care of – there's no downside besides not being able to get out of here"
"Taken care of...you make it sound like we would be no more than simple pets" Vittoria said, gritting her teeth.
"I don't want to be here. I have a life back at home!" Chrysanthe protested loudly, something she didn't tend to do. Such unusual behavior prompted Azalea to turn her head around, her walk slowing down "Lea, please don't say that. We need to return home"
"Does that mean you're already considering...murder?" Thioro had approached surreptitiously listening carefully what the sisters were saying, and was now peering over Chrysanthe's shoulder with a sly grin. Chrysanthe denied it immediately, her eyes widening in panic.
"We're Hostages, they control everything we have, including food. If they get tired of us they can starve us to death or kill us quicker" Aleksey pointed nonchalantly, looking at the sky as if he had just commented what nice weather this was. Everyone else didn't take well what he said.
"Surely if they get tired of us they'll let us go, right? Right?" one of the two last people Azalea didn't know said, hiding his face behind starry fabric "...why is no one agreeing with me...?"
HELLO! MY NAME IS
Khotso Thobi
Super High School Level Astronomer
Once the group arrived to the cluster of buildings, they got to a large round plaza positioned in an outcrop, a space that'd lead to every place available. Grass and small flowers grew in the fissures of the cobblestone, and there was a large statue right in the center of the plaza. It was a rather unpleasant reminder of the situation they were in:
The statue had three Monobears, two supporting a third one in the air. The one on top pointed in direction of the train station, claws extended and with his large half-grin visible to everyone. Azalea narrowed her eyes. Just what they all needed, Monobear claiming his rule over everything like this. "This statue...we would be able to see it from any place we are at" Vittoria noted, looking at the buildings all around them.
"What did you expect? I bet there's going to be Monobears inside the buildings, he's the type that'd remind us he has the upper hand all the time" Lucien said.
At this point the group decided to disperse and reunite in one hours to discuss everything they had seen. They'd cover much more ground if they separated. Azalea looked towards Chrysanthe, who had walked towards Alistair and Dalia. "Chrys, are you coming?"
"I'm going with them" Chrysanthe said "I like them. That's okay, right?"
Although letting her sister go with two total strangers was something Azalea wasn't comfortable with, it wasn't like she could police what Chrysanthe wanted to do. Once Chrysanthe, her two new friends and everyone else left, Azalea sighed and crouched beside the statue with the three Monobears, examining every inch of the base. There should be a plaque somewhere, right? Indeed, in the back of the statue, there was a small plaque with an inscription.
The Five Guardians of Jabberwock Island
"...what?" That made no sense at all. After looking again at the three Monobears, Azalea stepped away to go towards what seemed to be cottages in a nearby area.
The path divided into four, leading towards four smaller areas, where four cabins in each one awaited. Azalea walked towards one of them, finding the name of one of the Hostages inscribed in a plaque on the door. 'Lucien Balboa' said the plaque. So we all have cabins... It was rather big for a one room cottage. Azalea peered through the window, finding the cabin was rather nicely decorated.
It seemed the voice in the train had said the truth in a way. There were many things that simply couldn't have belonged to the cabin from the beginning. The one Azalea was peeking into had a rather large aquarium, filled with exotic fishes and sea bottom-dwelling animals. There was even a particularly large anemone, placed in a corner of the aquarium. The decoration on the walls also had things like a rudder and a diagram of abyssal marine creatures. "This is definitely Lucien's cottage" Azalea said, stepping away of the window, and looked for her cabin.
The cottage with the plaque with Azalea's name was locked, but there was a note pinned to the door.
Please remember to pick up your key at the Petting Zoo!
"The Petting Zoo? What the heck?" why were the cottage keys in the Petting Zoo? Still, at least now she knew where to go. Shouldn't be too hard to find an outdoors place filled with animals. Besides, there was another suspicious matter regarding the cabin stuff. Had the kidnappers taken careful note of the belongings of the Hostages and recreated them in the virtual world? That was a rather odd thing to do, the kidnappers sure were trying their best to provide the Hostages of way too many things, way more than Azalea thought criminals would do. What did the kidnappers want? She just didn't understand anything!
Right behind the area with the cottages, there was a large building. It seemed to be some sort of communal dining room, built with logs and stone. The more Azalea explored Heavenly Resort, the more it resembled a rustic summer camp for children. For a paradise over the clouds this place sure is down-to-earth! She thought then facepalmed That's not something I'll say aloud anytime soon.
Azalea walked inside, finding a rather large room with many long tables. There were a few vending machines in a corner of the Dining Hall, filled with snacks and drinks from all around the world. The last person Azalea had to meet was in front of it, trying to move the vending machine to step behind it. "Hey! You're going to get hurt! Stop that!" Azalea warned, approaching.
The girl stopped, turning her head around. After a moment of silence where she looked alternatively between the vending machine and Azalea, she cleared her throat and stepped back, making her knuckles crack. "...I was looking for secret passages"
"Behind a vending machine?"
"They could be anywhere"
HELLO! MY NAME IS
Kouma Nana
Super High School Level Marathoner
"Why would there be a secret passageway here? It's just a dining hall"
Kouma shrugged. "I just thought there could be something. Have you seen those movies where behind columns and vending machines there are staircases descending into the ground? That's what I was looking for. That may be where whoever is controlling Monobear is hiding"
"This is a virtual world. Whoever is controlling him must be outside!"
"Virtual world? I don't believe those things"
Azalea stopped, wondering if she had heard correctly. Was she really doubting something so clear and obvious? "Come again?"
"I don't believe for a moment we're inside a computer or whatever"
"B-But—how can you think that?" Azalea shouted and shook her head, a bit embarrassed "I'm sorry for raising my voice, but we're on a floating island in middle of the sky! We arrived here by flying train! There's a bear telling us to kill each other! There's no way we're not in a virtual world!"
"...I just—"
"If it isn't a virtual world then what is this?!"
Drops of sweat appeared on Kouma's forehead. The marathoner swept her forehead, looking at the vending machine again. "I don't know! All I believe is that it's not a virtual world, and that's the end of this discussion. Things like—like—virtual worlds, killing games, all this—it doesn't make any sense! How am I supposed to accept everything that happened?"
So that was what was wrong...Azalea smiled calmly and ordered her thoughts, thinking exactly what to tell her. "It's hard to believe, isn't it?"
"It's more than hard to believe! I haven't been this confused ever in my life!"
"I don't think anyone can believe this is happening, but you know what? There's no sense in wondering. What matters is that we're hostages, and we all need to work together. Everything else is secondary"
Kouma was silent, inexpressive, and Azalea wondered if anything she had said had been convincing. When she had been about to try to add something else, Kouma sighed, leaning her forehead on the side of the vending machine "Yeah, you're right. It's just that—it's so sudden—I don't know. It's as if the world doesn't make sense anymore. You have any idea how hard it's to believe any of this? I'd believe quicker I died and fell in coma or something"
"What I'm doing right now is try to ignore the fact we're on a floating island and focus on exploring. Try that, see if that helps"
"Yeah...yeah, I will—I should try that. Thank you, Stravopoulos" Kouma grinned "If you hadn't come I think I'd have teared my hair out. Seriously, thank you"
"If you need anything just come talk with me. I'll lend you a hand anytime"
"Thank you. I will—I'll need to take that offer—someday, yeah. You're my new pal, okay? The person I can rely on without question. Congratulations!" Kouma put her fist prepared for a fistbump, which Azalea returned with a bit of enthusiasm. Satisfied with the new friendship they had just created, Kouma left the Dining Hall, jogging away. She'll be fine.
Once Azalea made sure there was nothing behind the vending machine, she glanced around the Dining Hall in case there was something else she should take a look at, but it all seemed normal. There were only two doors more, positioned at the end of room. There were signs over them. The left one said 'Kitchen', while the other...
"Petting Zoo?"
There was a petting zoo right behind that door? She thought it'd be in some other place outdoors! After a moment of doubt Azalea decided she wanted a bit of normalcy before taking a look at the so-called petting zoo, so she peered into the kitchen first.
Matthew McCoy and Patricio Beltrán were already in there, examining the place. Matthew was rooting through cabinets and with the strange machine over his eye extended at full capacity. Several pots, pans and other kitchen implements were strewn around him while he practically disappeared inside the biggest cabinet, until Azalea entered and grabbed him by the ankle. "Surprise, Matthew!" Matthew tried to stand up, startled, but all he achieved was hit the back of his head against the edge of the cabinet door.
"Aaaaagh! Why would you do that?!" he demanded to know, holding the back of his head with both hands and trying not to cry out of pain. Apologetic, Azalea helped him stand up.
"I bet she did that on purpose. She looks like the jokester type" Patricio said, smirking and opening the ovens to take a look inside.
"Oh, shut up, Patrick" Azalea said, trying to take a look at Matthew's head.
"I already told you it's Patricio. Why can't you get my name right?" he scowled.
"I'm fine, I'm fine" Matthew stepped away from Azalea and started putting back the pots and pans "I don't think anyone will cook for us. We're on our own"
"Do we need to cook? Can't the kidnappers conjure up food?" Azalea looked at the ceiling as if a voice was going to give an answer to that question.
"Kidnappers wouldn't be so considerate. Besides we have a chef here, don't we?" they both turned their heads around towards Patricio, who raised his hands defensively.
"Do you want to only eat bread and cakes every meal, every day? Forget that, there must be someone else who can cook" the baker said "But this is a very good kitchen...it has a lot of implements and objects we could use. Here, take a look at this" Patricio opened one of the drawers, showing the content. There were several objects Azalea didn't recognize, stashed carefully "Sugar pumps, special knives, a professional culinary blowtorch..."
"They may have placed these here for you" Azalea took the sugar pump. It seemed to be of excellent quality.
"The fridge is filled with ingredients" Matthew reported "Other than that I don't think there are any clues in the Kitchen. We should move on" his lens retracted back into the machine, and after waving goodbye to Azalea, Patricio and he walked away. Believing those two had checked everything in the Kitchen, Azalea left as well, deciding she couldn't leave the Petting Zoo for later anymore.
Right when she had been about to open the door, it opened and Chrysanthe stepped out, her eyes wide open but she seemed a bit excited. "Lea, you're not going to believe what's in here"
"Farm animals and a lot of road apples?" Azalea tried to peek over Chrysanthe's shoulder.
"...wrong guess" Chrysanthe smirked and took out a few keys from her pocket "Here, I asked for your key too. Looks like to enter the cottages we only need the right key, so don't lose yours if you don't want anyone getting in. I'll see you later, Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Roble are waiting for me" Chrysanthe went away, her eyes twinkling with amusement. ...it must be something weird if it amused her that much. Azalea entered the Petting Zoo with anticipation, and immediately saw what was so unusual about the Petting Zoo.
In the first place, it wasn't a Petting Zoo at all. It resembled a normal and common administrative office. There was a large information desk at the end of the room, shelves lining the walls, and a map of Heavenly Resort behind the desk. There were also stairs leading to a second floor, but there was a gate in front of it, barring entrance. What mattered the most was right behind the information desk, though. Azalea blinked a few times before daring to step forward and approach them.
I suppose this is why it's called the Petting Zoo "Who are these?" she asked to Joanna.
"They say they are the administrators of Heavenly Resort. In other words, they're two of our kidnappers" she answered, scowling. That got the attention of the strange stuffed animals behind the desk, who looked at Azalea.
"Hello! Welcome to Heavenly Resort! How may we be of help?" one of them said, her voice sounded female. Azalea narrowed her eyes and took a closer look at her.
"Are these...deer?" she murmured.
Lucien smiled widely and pointed at the female animal, figuratively glowing with pride "Actually, this one is a chevrotain. It's said whales evolved from animals that looked like this type of deer"
"Really? Huh" Azalea stared at the chevrotain for a bit longer "I don't see the resemblance"
"I told you you should have gone for a less obscure animal" the deer whispered, not even bothering to try to be serviceable towards the guests. Seeing how her partner wasn't going to cooperate, the chevrotain talked a bit louder.
"My name is Spots, and my partner here is Stripes. We're the administrators of this resort!"
"Does that mean you two are Monobear's helpers?" Azalea asked. More like lackeys, I bet. The question wasn't well taken by Stripes, who protested immediately.
"We're not anyone's helpers or lackeys! Don't you dare say something like that again!" he was largely ignored by Spots, who continued talking pleasantly while Azalea wondered alarmed if they could read their minds.
"Monobear is not our boss. He overtook Heavenly Resort, but since he has other things to deal with other than the workings of this resort, we still have our jobs. If you want to see him, you'll have to visit the building on the other side of the resort"
"You can't miss it. It literally looks like the upper half of his head" Stripes scoffed "Egotistical prick"
"Okay, that's enough! I'm not going to be fooled by that!" Lucien leaned way too close to Stripes, who didn't back off "How many kidnappers are there?"
Spots and Stripes got off their chairs and conferred with each other for a moment before Spots sat back, subdued. "Define 'kidnappers'"
"The people who brought us here, of course! What kind of question is that?!"
"Calm down, mister, you'll make them upset" Joanna said primly before turning her attention towards the animals "We suspect there's a group of people. Two or three wouldn't be able to kidnap so many people all around the world"
"We don't know. Heavenly Resort has been hijacked by Monobear, but since he has other things to deal with-" Spots started to answer, but Lucien slammed the desk with his hand, startling the animals.
"Bullshit! This is a virtual world! Don't act like you're some kind of NPC!"
"Monobear overtook Heavenly—" Lucien stepped away, having run out of patience. Maybe these really are NPCs. Joanna and Azalea decided to take their chance, approaching to the desk at the same time.
"Do you know what the kidnappers want?" Azalea inquired.
"How are we supposed to know? We're just the administrators of this resort" Stripes grumbled, crossing his arms "You'll have to wait and see what happens once people start dying"
"You seem awfully sure people are going to kill each other just because that bears wants it" Joanna narrowed her eyes.
"You'll kill each other. I can promise you before the week ends someone will be dead" Something in Stripes' visage made clear he meant every word. A shiver ran down Azalea's back, but Joanna simply nodded, as if that had been nothing to be alarmed of.
"Can't you do anything to stop it?" she asked. The administrators conferred between each other again before Spots shook her head.
"We're just administrators. We're powerless against Monobear"
"He's a tier above us in the food chain, in case you haven't noticed" Stripes added.
"You're on your own, but don't worry! While you're alive we'll try your best to keep you well-fed and happy. All will be okay"
Joanna stared in silence at them for a moment before turning her head towards Azalea, indicating Azalea to come with her to the other side of the room. Once they were far away of the information desk, Joanna lowered her voice and spoke. "They're just NPCs. We can't rely on them"
"Are you sure? Kidnappers could be controlling them..." Azalea whispered.
"I don't see why they would pretend to be NPCs. We're at the kidnappers' mercy, it wouldn't make sense to disguise themselves like this" Joanna raised a finger "Consider this: if you had stolen an identity and you were cornered by the police, would you hang onto the identity you stole or would you say your real name?"
Azalea's face contorted into an expression of deep confusion. What the hell was that? "...I'm sorry, I'm not sure that made any sense at all"
"The point is that I don't think they are kidnappers" as if that settled the matter, Joanna left the Petting Zoo, leaving Azalea to her confusion. Azalea, stumped, clicked her tongue and took a map of Heavenly Resort from a nearby rack. It didn't seem like talking to the administrators would lead anywhere, and neither of those animals tried to get her attention. They just stared forward, as if waiting for someone to talk with them. "What do they think this is, a RPG?" she mumbled, opening the map.
It was a smaller resort than she thought it would be. There was one single island, hosting a cluster of buildings. Only the station and one building more were separated from the rest. All the possible paths converged into the plaza with the Monobears statue. Just like the administrators had said, Monobear's office was on the other side of the resort, garishly marked with a tacked-on sticker with the shape of Monobear's head. Deciding there was enough time to get there and check around before the hour passed, Azalea crossed Heavenly Resort.
All the buildings were radically different to the cottages and the communal dining hall. Unlike those, the rest of the buildings in the resort were white and built in what seemed to be some type of marble, shiny and beautiful. All of the doors had planks and tape over them, blocking the way in. Some of the other Hostages were milling around, trying to find a way to enter those buildings, but there just was no way to do that.
Just like Stripes had said, Monobear's office was a building shaped like half of Monobear's head. Azalea looked around her, making sure no one was nearby, and stuck her tongue out at the building. "Go suck a lemon, Monobear! We're not killing anyone for your entertainment!"
Of course, no one answered.
Since there was no answer from anything, Azalea approached the metallic door and tried to push it open. It didn't budge, it felt like she was pushing against a wall. Determining doing that would be useless, Azalea searched for alternatives. The scarce windows in the building were too high from the ground, and there was nothing nearby she could use to stand on. A quick walk around the building showed there were no other doors. It was an impenetrable fortress, that much she was sure of now.
Just when she had been about to leave, she noticed a small window on the door, like a mail slot. Frowning, Azalea knocked on it, finding out it was rather thin, like a screen. There was a speaker embedded into it, and a tiny button right underneath. Azalea pressed the button and stuck her face right onto the mesh of the screen. "Hello?"
Monobear's voice sounded through the speaker. "You have contacted Monobear's Office! Leave your complaint here! We'll get back at you someday! Oh, who am I kidding, that'll never happen"
"...are you there? Please, cute little bear?"
""You have contacted Monobear's Office! Lea—"
Azalea let go of the button. If Monobear didn't want to talk with her then she wasn't going to stand there until he decided she had waited enough. The time for the reunion was close, she needed to return to the Monobears statue. Once she returned to the plaza, she found out she had been the last person to come, everyone else was already waiting.
"There she is. She is okay, I like I said she would be" Vittoria gave a small smile, barely seen behind her hair. Matthew, sitting right to her side, sighed.
"It wasn't too much of a stretch to think someone had killed her!"
Azalea immediately went to Chrysanthe, who looked rather relieved to see her. "...I didn't think I was away for that long...I'm sorry"
"Some were already proposing to form a search party to look for you" Chrysanthe said, then raised her voice "Who will be the leader of the group?"
"I'd like to nominate myself as the leader" Patricio stood up, raising his chin in the air "I'm serious, I'm well-respected, and my charisma is off the charts. Any objections?" Either everyone agreed Patricio was good enough to be the leader, or no one else wanted to take the mantle. The result was the same, the baker put on the figurative helm. Patricio climbed onto the base of the statue, looking above everyone "Let's start the first meeting. Our task was to explore the resort. Now we'll share our findings. How about you start, Chrysanthe?"
Chrysanthe's usual placid smile disappeared before she took a deep breath. She didn't like being put on the spotlight like this, and even if this was for the benefit of everyone, one doesn't get rid of that reticence immediately. "We...uh, I mean Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Roble and I..." she motioned with her hand towards Alistair and Dalia, the former saluting with energy and the later simply nodding "...we tried to open several of the buildings, but we just couldn't get in"
"We asked those deer in the Petting Zoo, and all they said was that those places weren't ready yet" Alistair added.
"It could mean this resort was created very recently, but we can't know for sure" Dalia contributed as well. Since nothing would be obtained by asking for more details, Patricio passed the baton to Runihura, who was in charge of checking the cottages.
"It's true our stuff is in there! I'm sure I wouldn't take this out of home" the videographer showed a rather large camera, hanging from a belt "And like hell I'm going to leave it in the cottage. I won't be taking my eyes off this baby"
"Also, we're going to eat in that large building near the cottages. There are vending machines and we don't need money for them"
Thioro talked out of turn, raising his voice as if he was going to announce something important. "There are a lot of provisions, enough for us all to stay alive for a month or two! We have more than enough time to investigate and get out of here without casualties"
"Would not our captors decide to get rid of the food if we anger them?" Vittoria reminded them, the sixteen hostages turning their heads in direction of Monobear's Office. Vittoria was right, now that they thought about it. It could happen in any moment.
"That's true! They could make it all disappear in a flash—like, you know—whoosh - immediately" Kouma swept through the air with her hand "Monobear could even use that as a bargaining chip to get us to kill someone – it's food, someone would crack and—yeah, a death"
"Quiet! What if he hears you?" Matthew hissed.
"It doesn't matter if he hears it! Who says he wasn't planning it already?"
"Stop, you two. Kouma, please don't give ideas to that bear" Patricio intervened "Since I'm the leader I'll tell you all the most important finding I have: Monobear isn't the only stuffed animal in this place" a few of the Hostages expressed confusion, so Patricio explained everything he knew about Spots and Stripes "We can't trust them, of course! We don't know if they're mere NPCs or if they are on Monobear's side"
Matthew fiddled with his lens. "They stopped me when I tried to go to the second floor of the Communal Building. I think they're hiding something big up there. We should try to sneak in someday"
"But if we're being watched right now from the real world, they could disguise anything that's in there when we sneak in" Alistair pointed "We should bide our time and strike when they least expect it"
"And when will that be?" Vittoria asked.
"I don't know, but once we decide to go we should be in a group of three or four people at once, to protect each other. Listen, everyone!" Alistair tapped his chest twice with his fist, once again into his role of children's hero "We must not be reckless! Never go anywhere remotely dangerous alone! We're in this together, so we need to work together. We all understand that, right?" a low chorus of 'yeah' was the reply "Good. Thanks, guys"
"Is that all? Does no one have anything left to contribute?" Vittoria asked.
"As a matter of fact, I do!" Joanna daintily raised a hand "There's one area more no one has talked about. Did no one return to the train station area?" There was silence. No one had even thought that was something that needed to be done.
"...did you return to the station? Can we go somewhere else?!" Chrysanthe's spirits lifted at the possibility the Heavenly Resort wasn't the only place they could go to, virtual world or not. Joanna smiled lightly.
"No, we're not that lucky. What I found is to the side of the station, in an alternate road. Look in that direction" Joanna pointed in direction of the station, and what she was talking was obvious to everyone. There was a small area of the floating island right to the side of the station, an area no one else had noticed when they had exited the train station at arrival. On it there were what seemed to be bleachers, and a couple square buildings.
Alistair shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand and peered into the distance "What's that?"
"It's a stadium...in a way. There's a running track, there's an archery range...everything we would need or want for sports. I'm not one for sports myself, but I think some of us here would enjoy that place"
"Ssssoooo..." Khotso scratched the back of his head "...no one found anything useful?"
"We're in a virtual world. If we found something, the kidnappers could erase it in a second" Thioro pointed "And anything we find about them will exist because they make it exist. We'll have to take everything with a grain of salt"
"I wish we at least knew why we were kidnapped" Runihura, who had been fiddling with his rather large video camera, stood up and walked to an outcrop, extending a tripod he took from his back "But until we find out we can't do anything. There's nothing to be done. So do you know what I think we should do now?"
"What?" Khotso asked.
"We should bond. We're all in the same age range, we're in the same situation, and if we like each other enough to be friends we won't kill each other, and if you don't want to play buddy with anyone then remember this" Runihura placed the camera on the tripod "It'll ruin Monobear's plan"
"Yeah! Spite can be a powerful incentive!" Dalia smirked.
"Exactly! So for those of us who feel like being buddies how about we start with a photo?"
"I don't like having my photo taken..." Khotso mumbled.
"I'm not convinced, but...fine. Let's do that" Lucien crossed his arms "Take the photo already" Before Runihura could do that Kamiya hummed loudly, getting everyone's attention.
"It's weird...we all are here but Monobear hasn't appeared anywhere. I thought he'd want to ruin our meeting"
"Yeah, it's strange. Maybe the statue lets him listen to everything we're saying?" Elaine stood on the base and tried to peer into one of the statue Monobears' eyes "It seems like stone to me"
"The kidnappers must be able to listen to us at all times. Virtual world, all that. It doesn't matter, let's count our blessings and be happy that bear isn't here" Runihura stepped away of the camera "Everyone stand over here!"
"Hey! Give it back!" Thioro demanded, grabbing Aleksey's arm.
"What's wrong with you? I didn't take anything from you!"
"You're the thief among us, you know!"
Ignoring them, the rest of the group huddled together, looking at the lens of the video camera Azalea supposed Runihura had configured to take a photo. While Chrysanthe got close to Azalea, looking rather cheerful for someone who got stuck with her sister and fourteen strangers in a virtual world to kill each other, Azalea sighed and managed to smile slightly.
"Don't despair, Lea! We'll be okay"
"...yeah. Thanks, Chrys"
The situation had looked very bad at first, but there's no reason to think the worst case scenario would happen. Maybe it'll all be okay! As long as we stick together we'll be fine.
"Here we go!" Runihura shouted, giving a thumbs-up. "Look at the lens!"
-ooooo-
The group watched the feed, listening to every word. Akane, sitting in the chair in front of the computer terminal that allowed her to control Spots, closed her eyes, feeling a strange sensation of annoyance and longing.
"If we had behaved like that while we were in the shelter maybe more of us would have survived" Akane said.
Mitsuhiko, in front of the terminal where he controlled Stripes, snorted. "Can you believe that among these all there are three bastards with their hands soaked in blood?"
"At least this means they won't kill each other right away. That's good, right?" Yamaguchi, who was in charge of controlling Monobear, looked back at the boss of the operation, Toyotomi. Toyotomi nodded without taking his eyes off the Hostages.
"We'll have enough time to do our work and find out which ones are the Main Board members"
They were all in Jabberwock Island. All the former occupants of the Future Foundation installation on the island had left, leaving behind an almost empty building. It had taken a while for Toyotomi and his subordinates to fill the building with the necessary utilities. When Akane asked how he convinced the higher-ups to let them use the building he said he didn't want to talk about it. "Let's just say I owe a lot of favors now" he had answered, changing the topic immediately.
Fixing up the machines left in the island was what took the most time. It was a rather difficult ordeal, and it would have been for naught if the software itself didn't work. The Enoshima AI had caused a lot of damage, obliterating most of the Jabberwock Island setting. It would have been impossible to create a replacement if it hadn't been for the AI residing in the machine – Alter Ego, she had said she was called - who, after a lot of convincing and arguments, agreed to help them.
Creating the islands again was impossible, there weren't enough resources, so what was done instead was create a new place, using what was left of the Jabberwock Island setting as base. Creating a floating island without ocean or anything surrounding it helped redirect resources to the few things that were new. It all came at the cost of making a small setting: only one island, and only a few buildings, which were currently unfinished, there hadn't been enough time to finish them before the fifteen suspects arrived. Alter Ego was working to create the interior of those buildings, keeping the Hostages out.
At least they were successful in creating not only three Observer role NPCs Akane and Mitsuhiko could control and a Monobear NPC Yamaguchi would use to conduct the details of the game, they also tried to create failsafes for any possible murders. They weren't sure if it'd work, and they all hoped they wouldn't have to find in the worst scenario available.
"How are the vital stats, Hikasa-kun? Any anomalies?" Toyotomi asked, going to the other side of the room where the pods were awaiting.
"The sixteen are stable. They shouldn't be in much danger" Hikasa frowned "Toyotomi-kun, I'm starting to regret suggesting this all. What if something goes wrong? You know what happens if the avatars are deleted"
"I have read the report too, I know. Ogata-san and I know what we're doing" Toyotomi looked at one of the pods. Inside there was Yukio. They had created an identity for him, a rather mediocre job, but it was good enough for their purposes. "We started this and accepted the risks"
"If any of them get murdered because of the motives..."
"We'll deal with that. There should be nothing impeding us from preventing any murder...I hope"
"But there are three Enoshima AIs in there right now. There are innocent people in danger here!"
"Those rogue AIs are prototypes. They shouldn't have enough power to damage the program like the finished product did"
""Shouldn't"?"
Toyotomi grimaced. "They are unpredictable. We're taking precautions, but we can't guarantee their safety" Hikasa's face showed he wasn't happy with that answer, so Toyotomi cleared this throat and added: "It's for the better, Hikasa-kun. You know we need to stop those three"
Hikasa shook his head, mumbling to himself. "Just...just get done with your task as soon as you can. I won't forgive myself if anyone turns braindead because of something I suggested"
Something in Hikasa's tone made Toyotomi hesitate. Maybe reusing a plan that everyone knew went badly wasn't really a smart idea. At the time it had seemed like the drastic solution they were looking for, but now...
...well, it wasn't like they could back off, could they? The best they all could do is continue. Toyotomi put his hand on Hikasa's shoulder. "Stay strong, Hikasa-kun. We have some tough weeks ahead of us"
"...two weeks, actually. We have two weeks to finish before the higher-ups come and take everything away" Akane said, approaching. When Toyotomi and Hikasa turned their heads around and demanded an explanation, the chemist nodded grimly. "The organization isn't in very good shape"
"So if we don't get results in two weeks we'll lose our chance. We can't fail...this is it.
Sink or swim, everyone"
SIXTEEN HOSTAGES LEFT
PROLOGUE – NOTHING THEY CAN DO
END
As usual with my stories nowadays, the Archive of Our Own version includes illustrations! Feel free to take a look there if you wish.