Hey, again. It seems my prediction at the end of the last chapter was write, this did take a little while to write. In case you hadn't noticed, the first three chapters of this story were posted in weekly cycles. This one, however, broke that schedule. Well, when I say "schedule" though, it's kind of a loose term, since I'm not really planning the post dates in advance, it just happened to be a weekly basis.
Either way, I hope you can enjoy this chapter. It's mostly just Albert interacting with the cast while trying to find a means of escape.
Chapter 3
For breakfast, I was eating a self-made peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. If there was one thing I could handle in a kitchen, it was sandwiches. It isn't as simple as slamming something between two pieces of bread. A sandwich, like all aspects of life, requires balance. A perfect balance of flavours from every ingredient involved. Just as life has death, light has darkness, white has black, and hope has despair, so to does peanut-butter have jelly. Truly, I should have been the Ultimate Sandwich Artist.
With this bit of philosophy in my head, I took a sip of my milk, and turned to my choice of dining partner. Hifumi was downing his sandwich. He opted to eat without a drink, since this school had no Diet Coke.
One may wonder why I chose to hang out with Hifumi of all people, especially considering my opinion of him. The fact of the matter was, I thought he might actually be useful. I'm basically in a self-insert fic, and he is the Ultimate Fanfic Creator. Maybe he could give me some sort of advice on what to do and how to get out of here.
"I'll tell you, Mr. Wright, it's great to have another person at this school who appreciates 2D almost as much as I do." He said gratefully. "Ah, but, you said you had some inquiries, right?"
"Right. I wanted to know some things about self-inserts." I told him.
"Ah, yes, the self-insert." He mulled over his thoughts. "I've written a few of those myself. Even among the fanfic community, however, it has a somewhat bad reputation. There's nothing inherently wrong with them, but many associate them with the writers who make their characters too... perfect." Wow, it's nice to hear Hifumi sounding like an actual writer. Never really saw that side of him in game. "If you ever write a self-insert, be sure to put some focus on how your character plays off of other characters in the series. I mean, what's the point of making a fan-fiction if you disgrace the original characters?"
My head started pounding. This was getting a little too meta. "Yeah, I'll, uh, keep that in mind."
It was around that moment that Makoto and Sayaka came into the dining hall. "Oh, hello, Al, Hifumi."
"Mr. Naegi, Miss Maizono!" Hifumi greeted.
"Hey." Was all I said. The two of them went into the kitchen. I was waiting for Hifumi to make some comment about the two of them being together, but luckily he was more preoccupied with his food. Eventually, the two of them came out with their meals, and sat down to eat with us. I tried to avoid looking at Sayaka. Shit, I looked at her. I don't want her "really good intuition" to catch me thinking about her murder. Don't think about murder. Don't think about murder. Don't think about-
"Hey, Al, are you okay?" Makoto asked. "You don't look too good."
"Murder." I blurted.
"What!?"
"What? Anyway, I think I'm gonna go." I popped the last bit of my sandwich in my mouth. "You two enjoy your chili oil, or whatever." They weren't eating chili oil, but that was the first thing that came to me head. Might have to get better at disguising myself. I quickly left the dining hall.
My conversation with Hifumi didn't reveal much more than I already knew. The main statistic I needed was how often self-insert characters manage to get home. I guess what the stories say isn't that important, though. What I really need is a method of escape that works for me, and maybe by extension the other students, although we have different end destinations. I'll happily try to save the others if I can get everyone out of here. As long as we stay in Hope's Peak, there's a chance that me saving someone could mean another's death. Who could I talk to to help me there?
Well, Kyoko's a good choice, but I'm not really looking for clues to the masterminds identity, since I already know it. I could probably ask Hiro for a fortune-telling, but I honestly think that he would be less helpful than Hifumi. Sakura or Mondo might be nice, but they can't really break us out, they already tried. Sakura herself would be great, especially since the mastermind is afraid of her, but convincing her to challenge them this early would certainly change too much.
I realize that no one in the game made it out of the school until the very end. No shit, right? That means if I was going to get everyone out of here, I would have to use my own talents. Well, I should say "my own" talents, with quotations. Alright, my mind which can somehow answer physics questions, don't fail me now.
The schematics for a teleportation device fill my mind. Now that's what I'm talking about. It's still in very early beta, but if I can get it to work, it should be able to get everyone out of here. Still, I don't exactly have the parts for a complicated machine on me, and such a device would require a massive amount of power to function, let alone transport sixteen people. But it's a start.
By the way, is this Toshihide filling my head with physics ideas? Yes. Oh, cool you have psychic powers. Got any machine schematics that can get me back home?... Pleading the fifth, huh? Well, is there any way out of this place that doesn't involve highly-complex machinery? No, of course not.
Enough of odd telepathic communications, though, and back to my dilemma. If my current plan is a machine, then I know just who to talk to. Kazuichi Soda, the Ultimate Mechanic! Oh, wait, he's not here. Alright, I'll go with the closest I have available, Chihiro Fujisaki. She may not be able to help with the hardware, but I'll still need help with the software of the device. Besides, she must know something about machines, since she repairs a laptop later. Or, will repair a laptop. Fuck time travel tense.
I rang the doorbell to Chihiro's room a few times, but she wasn't there. Since there wasn't many other places around the school, I decided it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to look for her. Now, where would the techie be spending their time, especially with so little places available to us? I found Chihiro in the AV room. She was inspecting each monitor, as well as the DVD players hooked up to them, at each desk.
"Hey, Chihiro." I called lightly. It didn't really matter how lightly, however, as Chihiro jumped at my voice.
She turned towards me. "O-oh, Al. Hello..." She appeared nervous. It took me a moment before I felt the need to smack my face. Of course she's nervous, I'm six feet tall, more than a foot taller than her, I weigh almost twice her, and we're alone. Probably a good reason for her to be on guard.
Maybe some small talk wouldn't hurt. "Anything interesting in the DVD players?" Smooth.
She shook her head. "No, they're all empty. I think I saw some DVDs in the school store, though."
"I'm assuming that's weird." I guessed. "I've never really been to a school with a store in it, though, so I can't be sure." We stood in uncomfortable silence for a second. "Right, so, I wanted to talk to you."
"Oh, yeah?" She shuffled in place.
"Yeah. See, it may be a little early for this, but I've been thinking about a more... drastic means of escape." I explained slowly. "I'm assuming everyone wants to get out of here as quickly as possible."
"That would be great." Chihiro agreed. "But, why did you want to talk to me, specifically?"
"I'm getting there. Remember what I told you, when we were all introducing ourselves yesterday?"
She put a finger to her chin. "Um, you said you were researching... portals, right?"
"Which, I might add, you seemed oddly unfazed by that. I'm assuming that's because, as the Ultimate Programmer, you've probably been doing some equally-sci-fi things."
"Well, like I said, I signed an NDA with my company, so I can't really talk about it. Sorry..."
"It's okay. Back to the matter at hand, I was thinking I could use what I know to get everyone out of here. And if I'm gonna be making a machine, I'm gonna need a programmer to get it working."
"Ah, then I could help everyone!" Chihiro cheered. Then her expression fell. "But, we'll need to make the machine first, right?"
"That's where things get complicated." I told her. "I've never actually built anything before, much less a portal, or other instant-transportation device. And we're pretty short on parts since we're locked in a school, rather than, say, an auto-shop. Or a physics lab. There's bound to be labs and stuff with things we can use, but since those gates are blocking access, that's not an option."
"But... it's better than not having any plan, I guess." She decided. "So, we should keep an eye out for spare parts, right? I'll do my best!" Okay, good, I was able to get somebody on board with my plan. Maybe the whole "teleport" thing isn't as crazy as I thought. Or maybe Chihiro is crazier than I thought.
"Actually, I've got an idea of where we could start looking." I said. The start of our conversation got my gears turning.
We opened the door to the school store, and I just gotta say, it's way more cluttered than it appeared in the game. Junko was looking around, shoveling through shelves of randomly assorted items. She turned at the sound of us opening the door, and greeted us with a smile. "Hey, you guys. What's up?"
"Hey." I waved. "You wouldn't have happened to see any electronics in here, have you?"
"Why are you looking for electronics?" She asked. "Are you, like, trying to set up some sort of game night thing?"
Chihiro shook her head. "No, Al wants to try to make something that can get us all out of here."
For a fraction of a second, I could see Junko pale. Can't blame her, I guess. First, I show up out of nowhere, and she has no idea who I am, and now I'm trying to fuck with her plans. She quickly switched her expression to a quizzical look.
"I'm the Ultimate Physicist." I said, as if that explains everything. "Quantum physics isn't too far off from what I do. Just that all the rules go out the window."
"So... you're gonna make some sort of portal or whatever?"
"Something like that. It's better than just searching the school repeatedly." I said.
She nodded her head hesitantly. "Cool. Well, this place is mostly antiques and junk. Maybe there's something in there you can use." She gestured to the MonoMono Machine.
I patted my pockets. "I don't think I have any money on me. I doubt it takes Canadian coins, anyway."
"I don't think it takes Japanese money, either." She said. "I found these weird coins lying around with Monokuma's face on them." She held up a Monocoin. Oh, for the love of-
"Oh! I found one of those when I was looking around the AV room." Chihiro held up another. Gameplay and story segregation, what's that?
"Well, if you think a capsule machine can help get us some materials, let's give it a shot." I said.
Chihiro put the coin in the machine, spun the crank, and the machine started making noises. The capsules in the top moved slightly, and a large capsule the size of a grapefruit fell into the slot. Chihiro pulled it open, and a tight black ball of fabric was inside. Picking it up, the ball unfurled into a Jimmy Decay T-shirt. Present number 33 in game. Chihiro looked pretty happy about it. Junko was puzzled. I probably looked pretty indifferent.
"It's a Jimmy Decay shirt." Chihiro explained when she saw Junko's expression. "There were only about a hundred ever made."
I took a look at the shirt. It was a little too big for Chihiro, but the way she was holding it, it was clear she was keeping it. "Why would Monokuma be stuffing a punk rockers limited edition merchandise into a toy capsule?"
"Well, whatever, it's my turn!" Junko cheered, putting her coin in the machine. With a crank, the machine made some noise and deposited her prize. It was clear just by looking at it that whatever was inside pushed against the inside of the capsule. Pulling it open revealed a handheld gaming system. The Funplane. Present 67.
"Oh, hey, I think I can use that." I told them.
Junko hesitated, but shrugged. "Whatever. We don't even have any games for it. It's probably out of power, too."
I brought back the memory of the schematics. It was kind of weird, the physics-based equations in my mind weren't exactly my thoughts. It wasn't as smooth as just remembering them. Like it's too much for my mind to handle, so Toshihide is holding on to it until I need it, if that makes any sense.
Anyway, I figured the Funplane probably had some parts in it that I could use, though I doubted they'd be powerful enough to work on their own. I might need to cannibalize multiple of them for this to work. Even then, there's still multiple parts that I won't be able to get from them. Call me crazy, but maybe teleportation was a far-fetched idea.
The three of us decided to root around for more coins. When we reconvened at the store again, we put our coins through the machine. We got present 11, a Ration, which we decided to use in place of dinner, since both Junko and Chihiro seemed interested in trying it. It tasted okay, but I didn't eat that much. We got present number 2, a Cola Cola, which I decided I'd save for Hifumi. We got present 51, the Raygun Zurion, which I convinced them to let me take for parts. We got a present 63, a Moon Rock, present 85, the "If" Fax, and present 5, Sea Salt. We decided to stop after getting present 55, the Silent Receiver. I did decide to strip it down for more parts, though.
After that, I bid the girls a good night and retired to my room. I broke open my tool kit so I could get to work taking apart my new machines, but eventually, Monokuma's nighttime announcement played, and I decided to head to bed. Luckily, I didn't have Toshihide bothering me in my sleep.
The next day, I didn't really plan to spend time with anyone. In game, that would be a waste of time that could be spent gaining new skills. But after a brief breakfast, I decided to shut myself in my room so I could get as much work done on the teleporter as possible. After all, it's not something that could get done in a week. This was the kind of project that took professional engineers forever to complete.
The first hour went by smoothly. By the second, I was feeling tired. By the time noon came, I was getting frustrated. After lunch, I came back with a fresh, new attitude, but was quickly overwhelmed again. At three o'clock, I decided to get some air. About as much air as I could while locked indoors. I started strolling through the halls, trying to clear my head.
I was so preoccupied with my thoughts I didn't notice Leon rounding the corner until I nearly bumped into him.
"Hey, man, are you drunk?" He barked.
I shook my head. "I wish. You find any booze in this place, let me know."
He crossed his arms. "What's your problem? I mean, besides being locked up in this place."
"That's basically it." I explained. "Actually, I decided to put my talents as a physicist to the test by building a teleporter."
"A teleporter? Is that even possible?"
"That's the question, isn't it? The other question is whether or not I can do it. The answer is: I don't know, maybe."
"Heh, well, props to you for getting somewhere." He congratulated. "Can't say the same for anyone else here."
"I just wanna be clear, the somewhere I'm getting isn't very far ahead everyone else." I clarified. "If you wanna help, let me know if you find anything electronic."
"Well, what about the e-handbooks?"
I pulled mine out of my coat pocket. "I don't really see any way to get it open, and I'm pretty sure Monokuma said it doesn't break easy."
"What does that stupid bear know?" Leon took the e-handbook from my hands, turned, reeled back his hand, and threw it down the hallway at half the speed of sound. I barely had time to process what he was doing before the e-handbook hit the other end of the hall and clattered to the floor, with nary a scratch.
"A lot, apparently." I observed, as I went down the hall to retrieve it. "Still, I have a Funplane, a laser gun, and a shitty rotary phone, so I should have enough to work with for a bit."
"You got anybody else pitching in?" He asked. Was that a baseball pun? No, I'm overthinking things.
"Yeah, I managed to convince Chihiro to help." I said. "Wasn't that hard to get her on board, honestly."
"Right." He said, scratching the back of his head. "Who's that again?"
"Chihiro. Y'know, short, soft-spoken girl. Doll-like appearance. Sort of a boyish voice?" I provided. He continued to stare at me. "The programmer."
"Oh, right, her. Yeah, she's not really my type." He lamented.
"I never asked."
"Say, how do you think she feels about punk music?" He inquired.
"I thought you said she wasn't your type?"
"She's not, but it wouldn't hurt to have girls like her coming after me, y'know? It'll catch the attention of the girls I actually do like, get it?"
Wow, if he wasn't so charming, I'd say he's a prick. "Well, when we found a Jimmy Decay shirt in the school store, she held on to it, so I'd say she likes punk-"
"Hold up, dude. Are you saying you found a Jimmy Decay shirt? Here?" He was awestruck.
"Um, yeah."
"And you didn't think to tell me?" He pushed past me. "Screw this, I'm gonna go see if I can get that shirt. Maybe she'll trade it for my autograph." With that, he was gone.
I sighed, and decided to return to my room. I worked on the teleporter until the nighttime announcement, interrupted only by my hunger for dinner. Three days. That's how long I've been here. It feels like an eternity. And I know what's coming. How I'm gonna deal with it is the problem. I tried to keep contact with characters I know are going to die to a minimum, but it's hard when that is literally two-thirds of the cast. I wonder where I'm at with the whole free-time events. Dammit, stop thinking about things like it's a video game. Heh, it's funny, but I never thought I'd get this homesick this quickly.
I didn't get visited by Toshihide that night, either.
If you are wondering where Albert is with free-time events, I'd say he has one with Hifumi, one with Chihiro, and maybe one with Junko. With both Hifumi and Chihiro, though, it seems he's building himself a nerd brigade.
And In the next chapter, we're going to get some motives handed out. I wonder how that's going to play out for Albert.
