"I'm not coming."

"What do you mean you're not coming?" asked a confused Kuro Usagi.

"I have some questions I want to ask Shiroyasha." I moved my head to her direction to see her give me a set nod.

"W-well yeah it's pretty normal for you to have many questions after everything, but that can wait. You can ask her your questions at another time."

Looks like I have to be blunt "Listen Kuro Usagi, I'm not joining your Community." I didn't wait for that to sink in "The thought never crossed my mind. Rest assured the decision doesn't have to do with your Community's situation nor is it your fault that I don't want to join, I wasn't planning from the beginning. While all of you seem like nice people and I appreciate your offer to take me in, I prefer not to be bounded to a place."

"But…" It seems that she instinctively said that as she had no idea what to say next.

"Kuro Usagi. Leave him be, he made his mind." The Demon Lord stopped her "I shall take responsibility as the one who summoned him."

"B-but we were the ones who asked you to do that!"

"It doesn't change the fact that I made a mistake in summoning him." Shiroyasha made a motion with her hand which caused the shōji (1) to slide open. An unsaid request for the No Names to leave.

And they did, but not before giving me one last look. Yö and Asuka gave me a sad look, most likely dejected to separate from someone they just got to know and a bit close to. Izayoi give me a blank look, showing neutral features. Though it feels like he's analyzing me. The last one was Kuro Usagi, who's giving me a look that made me feel as if I've kicked a puppy… or a bunny in this case.

In the end they all left, which left me with Shiroyasha who's giving me a set look. This is going to be a long night.

I first reposition myself to sit facing her, the sounds of ruffling pillows are the only things that can be heard. It's kind of awkward but it looks like I have to start. "First of all…" I bowed with my head "I would like to thank you."

She just kept staring at me with her expressionless face…

…

"Huh what?" she blinked a couple of times, not comprehending what I just said.

"Thank you for summoning me, even if it's by accident." It looks like this needs some elaboration "Well you see, as much as I like my world, it misses somethings. Excitement, mystery and sense of adventure, I only understood those feelings after I came here." She seemed surprised by this "What were you expecting to hear?"

"Well I expected something like 'Send me back to my world.' or something… I don't know more normal?"

"Judging by your expression back then, I assume you can't send me back?"

"Unfortunately not, summoning you here was one thing but bringing you back… That would something along the lines of winning a big Gift Game or asking someone with higher power to send you back. I'll have you know the former option is considerably easier compared to the latter."

"Well I wouldn't have it any other way, I don't see myself wanting to leave this place anytime soon or ever."

At that statement the petite woman gave me another look, possibly evaluating me "You… I've been thinking about this for a while but you're not normal are you?"

I gave her an amused smile "I doubt anyone in this world would be considered normal."

She returned the smile "Haha well that's true but even then, for someone supposedly normal you seem pretty calm about this whole thing." she continued analyzing me "There's something more to you isn't there?"

"Possible, I more or less can take care of myself here so you don't have to worry about me" I assured her.

"I don't quite buy it, but you seem quite confident." she adjusted her posture, going into an informal one rather than the one she used earlier. "So. If you're not here to ask me to return you to your world, why didn't you go with them? Their Community is in bad shape but it's going to get better and they're nice people."

It was clear she was talking about the No Names "Of them being nice people I have no doubts and like I said it didn't have to do with their circumstances. In fact it had to do with mine. I have lived a confined life as far as I can remember." my whole life was Hope's Peak Academy. I have never gone past the gates "I was compassed to one place, that's why I want to have a sense of freedom. I want to be able to go somewhere on an adventure without having lingering thoughts or attachments."

"That's reasonable I guess, however you should know that starting out by yourself isn't easy here, I suggest you make allies fast."

Oh that's a nice advice "Then how about you become my first one?" I smiled amiably.

She was either surprised or amused by that comment if her raised eyebrow is anything to go by "You led me there didn't you? Was that your plan all along?"

All she got was a confused look "Whatever do you mean?"

"Tch, I've underestimated you…" she rubbed her head "Well I guess it's fine, I did say I'll take responsibility, keep that between us though. Floor Masters are supposed to be unbiased."

"Even though you're helping the No Names?" I inquired.

All I got was a confused look "Whatever do you mean?" too bad the corners of her mouth twitched for a second. "I'm treating them like normal customers, Kuro Usagi is different though. I just give her an extra pay for wearing those clothes during her job as a referee. It's completely for my benefit."

If she says so… Still she mentioned something interesting "Ah!" I slammed a fist in the palm of my left hand "So that's why she wears them even though she's embarrassed." that's one mystery solved.

"Yes, you are correct. Fufufu that outfit was designed by yours truly, a tool to make her show those supple breasts" she made groping motions as she said that "and those plump thighs she was hiding!" she was drooling at this point "It's not fair to hide those! You know what she wore before I came into her life? A shirt and pants. PANTS I SAY! THEY DIDN'T EVEN TRACE HER FIGURE, SOME PARTS WERE EVEN LOOSE. I DIDN'T GIVE HER THE EXTRA PAY BECAUSE I FELT PITY FOR HER, I GAVE IT TO HER BECAUSE I FELT PITY ON THE ASSETS SHE WAS HIDING!"

… Well that escalated quickly…

But she has a point… What? I can appreciate good things.

"Quite, it'd be a shame to hide those valuables, I'd even go as far and call that blasphemous. The outfit is a masterpiece, however I believe what makes the whole thing perfect are her reactions."

I leaned back out of instinct, my body moving unconsciously. That's because the moment I finished my words Shiroyasha closed the gap between us as she leaned on me face to face a bit too closely. If I didn't do what I did she would've headbutted me and I don't want to find out how powerful the strongest Floor Master is.

"I KNOW RIGHT?! HER REACTIONS ARE THE CHERRY ON TOP OF THE CAKE! FIRST OF ALL SHE WAS SO EMBARRASSED SHE GOT TOMATO RED WHENEVER ANYONE LOOKED HER WAY. NOW HOWEVER SHE TRIES TO HIDE HER EMBARRASSMENT BY ACTING LIKE IT'S ALL NORMAL, SHE GETS ALL FLUSTERED HOWEVER WHENEVER YOU MENTION HER ATTIRE NONETHELESS. IT. IS. SO. CUUUUUUUUTE!" The last word was said in such a high tone that it would've broken glass windows if there were any in this place.

She stood up, a shadow covering her face, courtesy of the light of the now visible moon. She turned around, walking to the porch.

"Kamuku- no Izuru, please come here." she motioned me to come, I think this is the most serious I saw of Shiroyasha so far. I did as she said and stood beside her viewing the backyard.

She was looking at the moon, I followed her gaze silently noticing how clear the stars are to see. Something like this would be impossible to see in Earth due to the pollution there, this is truly a sight for sore eyes.

I was stopped from my praising as I felt a small hand land on my shoulders. It was Shiroyasha, she was wearing a dreamy look gazing at the moon with tears dripping from her eyes as she clenched her fist. It would've looked perfect if it wasn't for the fact that she barely reached my shoulders as I'm twice her size.

"To summon a kindred spirit from another world, this is perha- no this is definitely fate!" The way she said it was so resolute that I felt she would stand against the world if it disagreed with what she spoke.

For a few minutes, we stayed there. Gazing at the night sky, I just spent the time looking at the constellations, naming them and recalling their history. Ah, here is Scorpius, an animal that after a long, fierce fight defeated the hunter Orion, the son of Poseidon, and then raised forever into the night sky for catching the eye of Zeus.

Just because I didn't believe they were real didn't stop me from reading up on them. Whether it was due to my open-minded personality or the Ultimate Astrologist inside me I don't know. The rule of thumb is to believe it when you see it, as believing in everything would make you fool and not believing in anything would make you deranged.

Ah Shiroyasha went back to her place. It seems we are done doing… well whatever we were doing.

She sat on her zabuton (2) and I did the same. We are now once again facing each other.

"If I recall correctly you said that you wanted to ask me questions." Shiroyasha started "I assume you still have them right?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"Well this might take a bit… How about we talk it out on some tea?" I nodded again "Izumi!" she called.

I could here a couple of footsteps coming closer to us. The shōji was slid open to reveal the assistant who wanted to kick us out before. "Yes Shiroyasha-sama?" she asked politely.

"Bring some tea for us here."

I could swear she frowned for a millisecond there "Shiroyasha-sama I don't think I need to remind you that the closing time was imposed for 2 hours ago."

"Yes yes I know, you can retire for the day after bringing us tea. I have business with this young man and it would give the Thousand Eyes a bad image to not show hospitality."

Izumi relented with a nod and returned soon afterwards with a tray holding two cups of tea, green tea judging by the fragrance. She immediately left after delivering them to us.

Shiroyasha took a sip "Fuah! Nothing beats tea, something's missing though. Ah!" she snapped her fingers and something materialized in the place where the faint light shone to show a plate of… rice crackers "That's more like it, want some?" I took one with small thank you.

"Anyway enough delay, your questions?"

I'm very glad that she didn't forget my original request amidst all the chaos and the perversity. While it was fun indulging with her, I still need some things answered.

"Tell me, what's the secret of Kuro Usagi's skirt?"

"Fufu, so you noticed, as expected of my kindred spirit. You see, I used some high level magic on it to only allow people to barely see underneath the skirt. Brilliant isn't it?!"

"Very, leaving it all up to imagination huh?" I closed my eyes nodding.

"I knew you'd understand! Some people think it's boring being able to not see what's under there, seriously what's up with those?! Do they not understand the power of imagination? What do you think there's under her skirt? It could be pure white panties, striped, or perhaps even sexy black? Or maybe even… NOTHING!"

I gave her a tissue for her bleeding nose. After she cleaned her nose we both stood together in perfect harmony and walked to the porch anew. Oh look there's Aquarius. Legends say that it represented Ganyemede, a handsome young man, so handsome infact that Zeus invited him to to be the cup-bearer (3) of the gods. He was then granted eternal youth and a place in the sky for his service.

This Zeus is just putting everyone on the sky, maybe if I meet him here I can ask him to put me as well? Nah highly unlikely.

"What's a Community you ask? Well they're just pretty much groups of people working together… Didn't Kuro Usagi tell you anything about that?"

"She did indeed, however the way she did it might've been just her trying to advertise the Little Garden. I wanted to confirm one thing however. Do you actually need to be in a Community? She said that it's a must."

"Ah that's where she is wrong, it is not mandatory but it's common sense. Why fight against the world on your own when you can do it with others? That goes double for you humans, that's how you've always lived right?"

That's true, a stack of wooden sticks is harder to break than individual ones. Humans shaped Earth by working together, no one man could've done that on his own.

Still something was on my mind "What happens to Community-less people when they want to trade or make deals with Communities. I've seen how the No Names are treated…"

She thought about it "Well it's very uncommon but they're usually not trusted or easily trusted as a well-known Community. It's harder to make deal with someone who has no roots, someone who can just betray without repercussions." she looked at me intently "Are you still sure you aren't joining a Community?"

"Yes." I'm silently thankful for her worrying about me. I'm quite lucky to meet so many nice people in the time I've spent here.

She sighed "Fine then, give me your Piece of Laplace." she opened her hand motioning me to hand it over.

I gave her the black card I put earlier in my pocket. She raised an eyebrow "You do realize you can just materialize it by just thinking about it appearing and the other way around right?" No… she closed her eyes, opened them and handed the card back to me. Now it has 'Authorized by Thousand Eyes' on the corner with the Thousand Eyes seal as a background.

"This should make life easier, I trust you with this so don't do something stupid with it otherwise it'll hurt Thousand Eyes' standing." she debated whether to say something or not, in the end she gave in "Also, what's the story behind the name?"

Ah, she must mean that "Have no fear about the first issue, I promise I won't make you regret it."

I thought about the card disappearing and it dissolved in a flash of particles. I gazed at it as it disappeared into air inwardly thinking how cool this is "About the other one... maybe I'll tell you someday."

"Hmm, well then I guess I'll look forward to it."

Well next one "You're a Demon Lord right? Can you explain what they are?"

She rubbed the back of her head and laughed nervously "Ahaha… Well about that I might've been swooped by the mood back then. I'm not actually a Demon Lord, well not anymore. About what they are… Well they are existences who posses a Host Master authority and abuse it…" she rubbed her head again, most likely trying to think a way to explain it to me "Look at it this way, you normally play a Gift Game with both parties' agreement, the Host Master authority pretty much negates that. Allowing you to construct a Gift Game and impose it on someone without them being able to disagree no matter how unfair it is… You can guess how terrifying that is."

"You said you were a former Demon Lord, does that mean you also abused it?"

"You're pretty sharp, I wouldn't call it abuse though I did make us of it. Keep in mind that not all Demon Lords are 'bad' so to say. Some of them might use the Host Master authority for good or to make harmless pranks. Unfortunately those are in the small minority. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, thank you." there is one last thing I'm curious about "One last thing, how does communicating work here?"

She grew confused at my question "What do you mean how communicating works? You speak, though that's not what you're asking is it?"

Well I guess I'm at fault for not explaining it well "Let me elaborate, I thought it's weird how everyone here is speaking fluent Japanese despite not looking like it. Through experimenting I noticed that what you speak here doesn't matter, I think it's for convenience sake…" I looked at her, waiting for her evaluation on my theory.

"A smart deduction." she answered with a nod "I can't remember if anyone ever asked me this before… Well anyway it is as you say, the Little Garden is a place where cultures come together. Greek, Norse, Celtic, Hindu, Japanese and more. It'd be difficult if we couldn't understand each other, that's why the language system was created. Through the use of translation magic everyone is able to fathom each other, same goes for reading." she appeared to be thinking about something else "However, that is only if the speaker or writer himself wishes so." this made question marks float above my head and it seems she noticed my confusion "*Sigh* it's a pain to explain but see it like this, if I say something right now with the purpose of you understanding it like I'm doing at the moment, you will be able to comprehend it even though we're not speaking the same language. You're smart enough to conclude what happens if it's the other way."

I see… This explains why no one reacted to me speaking a different language all of a sudden. But wait, this leaves me with more questions "How come we couldn't understand what the griffon was talking about earlier?"

"Oh, yeah." she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly "Well about that, there are some races that only speak their language, whether it's out of pride or their incapability to do so. The former is the case for the griffon. The griffon is a proud race and that Gry is one of the proudest out there. Hence he only talks and acknowledge people who are able to understand their speech like that little girl." she must mean Yö "The only way to communicate with guys like him is to earn their acceptance or have a Gift that enables you to convey with them. That's pretty much it, anything else?"

"No thank you." I look outside to see that it's late… well later than when we started. "I guess I'll be going, I don't want to impose any longer."

"You don't have to be so polite, it was fun for me." she snapped her fingers summoning a sack, with metals inside judging by the clang. "Here, take this." she motioned for me to take it.

I did as she asked and found out it's a sack of coins, golden ones that have the symbol of Thousand Eyes on them. I don't know the currency here but I guess they're worth a lot "Thank you Shiroyasha I'll be sure to pay you back."

She dismissively waved at my statement "No need, consider it a gift."

"I didn't do anything for it though." I can't with with good conscious accept so much for doing nothing. I blame it on the modest Japanese mindset.

This got her thinking "Hmm… How about this? A challenge, if you complete it you can pay me back if you want. If you lose however, you get to keep it."

I raised an eyebrow "I could just lose then… Not the most flawless plan is it?"

She smiled slyly "But you won't do that will you?"

*Sigh* "Fine, what is it."

I've been walking for an hour from the Thousand Eyes store following Shiroyasha's directions. She said that someone she knows lives there and he's going to give me the challenge. It's practically midnight by now, only the road lamps illuminating my way.

I could go there way faster but I took this as a chance to explore the area. The area is filled with shops, from bakeries to clothing stores to jewelries.

I'm not here for any of them though, I continued walking to a rural area for farming. I just have to follow the path going uphill…

And this should be the pl…ace.

I found myself staring at a huge mansion, I'm not surprised by the place itself. Rather by the vibe it's giving. It looks like a carbon copy of a stereotypical haunted mansion.

Broken windows, check.

Withering plants, check.

Suspiciously open gates, check.

Crows, check.

All of those were even more amplified by the current time and the clear moon. Pretty much a perfect recipe for a haunted mansion, the ambience is only missing a- wait was that lightning I just saw? I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine that, no sound came out though…

I have a bad feeling about this… Nevertheless I'm going to go in, this is my first time in one so it should be interesting. You know I've always wondered why main characters are so stupid to walk into haunted mansions even though it's obvious that it isn't a good idea. Maybe they were also sent a challenge by a small girl who is actually a god?

Nah I think them being just plain stupid is more logical.

I go through the gates, walking through the big front garden which must've looked impressive at one point. I reach the mansion door and open it. Surprisingly, contradicting to the outside, the inside looks elegant and well-kept.

I took a few steps in the main hall when the floor opened in a trapdoor fashion, I immediately spread my legs out to adhere myself to the hole's walls in order to stop myself from falling. I grabbed my scarf and I threw it, wrapping it around a sconce nearby. The moment I did that the trap door spread further, making me lose my footing.

I was ready for anything, log traps, spikes, maybe even something like a lava pool under me. But apparently I wasn't.

Before I could even pull myself up the sconce my scarf was wrapped around dissolved into particles just like what happened to my card at Thousand Eyes. Leaving me to fall into the abyss down under…

It was at this moment that I realized… I fucking hate magic.

I kept falling for a long time, so long that it got boring. During this entire fall I never sensed a danger for my life and I couldn't do anything about it. As talented as I am, even I can't defy the natural law of gravity. After some time I finally saw what looked like the bottom, I tried to land no matter how fruitless it seems.

Only instead of the impact I was expecting, I landed on a soft surface. One that sent me right back up like a trampoline and the second time it did that the floor turned solid and hard allowing me to step normally.

The room's design was very eccentric to say the least, the one who designed it either did this on purpose or is insane. The floor was in checkers style, black and white squares. The walls were bright pink and the furniture was in every colour you could think of, red couch, blue desk, yellow chair etc… If I was any less headstrong I think I might've puked at the sight.

Thankfully something else caught my attention, I found a black piece of paper laid on a white square I picked it up only to notice how similar it looks to the scroll we got during our first Gift Game with Kuro Usagi. On the scroll was only one sentence.

DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE

(1) Shōji are the sliding paper doors that are used in traditional Japanese homes/buildings.

(2) Zabuton are the cushions used (generally) for sitting on the floor.

(3) Cup-bearer is pretty much someone who serves wine.

Sorry for the long wait, no excuse for this one. It just seems that I have too much to do that I don't know what to do in the end.

Anyway I'll have you guys know that I actually read and appreciate every review. The reason why I don't reply to them is well… there's nothing much to reply to. I rather leave stuff unanswered if you're going to find out later in the story since it's going to explain itself anyway.

In response to a certain reviewer (You know I can't pm when you post as a guest x,x). Saying that everyone is underestimating Izuru is a bit much seeing as 'everyone' is only 3/4 people. But that everyone assumes that Izuru is going to die, how do I explain it… Summoning the three is fine as the whole point is summoning humanity's greatest Gifts. Those Gifts are all strong and have extremely high potential, enough that they form a danger to others rather than the opposite. Now imagine you summoned a normal guy in a world where conflict is normal, so normal in fact that they based a whole system for solving conflict. That doesn't stop people from committing crimes and don't forget that while Demon Lords while are not common, they also appear from time to time. They saw what could happen if things go wrong with Galdo. Look at this from their viewpoint, what if Izuru was alone and someone like Galdo decided to attack him? He being a normal human would stand no chance and just… die.

Shiroyasha just summoned someone uninvolved in this whole thing into a dangerous world. Let me put it like this even if it's somewhat morbid: People die everyday, you open the news and bam, 5 dead 19 heavily injured and 53 lightly wounded. While yes you may find this sad or unfortunate and it varies from person to person, at the end of the day they're strangers that you don't know so you won't feel any strong emotions (depends on you honestly). Now let's say that you pushed someone to death or dragged him into something that caused his death. That guy would've been perfectly fine if it wasn't for you, how'd you feel then?

Well at least that's how I see it.

Moving on: Danganronpa 3… It's a hard one really, I don't know how to feel about it. In a fan's perspective it's pretty cool! We can finally get the finale of the series (not including the next Danganronpa game) and we see how the Ultimate Despairs were before they went all baddy and shit.

From a writer's perspective it might be nice to have a foundation for the story, but I kind of had a whole original story mapped in my head for the Danganronpa part, mainly Izuru's backstory. I don't know how much the anime would affect it, so I'll put that on hold till the anime finishes.

Honestly the future arc to me is like: Everything is going to shit.

The despair arc is like: Dawwwww they're so cuuuuute! But then everything goes to shit.

By the way I should really start getting creative with those chapter titles… I wanted every title to start of with 'Goodbye' so it's kind of like the cover of the 2nd game 'Goodbye Despair'. But now I see the fault in that. Oh well let's cross that bridge when we get to it.

EDIT: Well sorry guys, not a chapter, just an update. I added a segment I completely forgot about, so at least you have something to read. It's the part after Izuru asks Shiroyasha about Communities if you haven't noticed. It's part of the 'I'm-going-to-expand-on-this-universe-since-canon-didn't' campaign.

I'll have you know I'm not dead... yet. The next chapter will be late, but I'll make it a big one to compensate, possibly bigger than chapter 3.

In reply to the same reviewer. Glad you liked it, I might've focused a lot on the 'he's going to die without powers thing' but it is more than that, he won't live a say 'fulfilling' life. Sure he's not gonna die the moment he sets a foot out as there are many other 'normal' people but he still will be below those who have power and it's because they have powers that they think so. Eh, it's just how I see it.

Also thanks Zakath for sharing your opinion, it helped me make my choice.