"I feel really out of place here," Ai hissed.

"You said 'try something new,'" Daisuke shot back, jokingly, unfolding the menu.

"I can't even... like even if I read the ingredients I have no idea what this is! What the hell is paneer?"

"Soft cheese cubes," Daisuke replied. "I mean you can just tell me what you like and I'll order for the table," he added.

"No bell peppers."

"Spicy?"

"I want to watch the world burn, Daisuke-kun."

"Ooooookay, then."

Daisuke and Ai found themselves in the cramped little Indian restaurant by the Starbucks, tempted over by the smell. To Ai's surprise, the curries they had weren't anything like what she was expecting.

Daisuke did the hard work of placing their order. "Do you want anything to cut the heat?" he'd asked one more time.

"I want to cry harder than I did in the last hour," she joked. "I want to envelop myself in the fires of Hell and... well I really really like it spicy."

"That's a no... okay then, a lassi for me and you're going to get to sit and watch me drink it. Enjoy Satan's asscrack."

Ai squinted. "That's not how you treat a lady," she added with a smirk. "...buttmunch."

"Whoa, whoa, where is this coming from? What did I do to deserve the flaming tongue of such a gorgeous-" Daisuke froze, as he realized the words tumbling out of his mouth.

"No, go on, finish that sentence," Ai joked. "I'll wait."

"You're pretty," Daisuke stuttered.

"Are you going to be offended if I say you're cute?" she asked quietly.

Daisuke twiddled his fingers and looked down at his water. "It's... it kind of makes me feel like I'm still a little kid, but, if it's coming from you... it's a compliment... and I won't say I don't use it to my advantage when I need it. I just want my damn puberty to hit already! I still get mistaken for a fifth grader! And I think I'm older than you!" And then Daisuke broke out laughing. "One hell of a day, isn't it."

"Ugh, I was sick of those stupid chemistry puzzles," Ai said. "Do you remember the one with the blue and red mixtures?"

Daisuke blinked. "I didn't have any puzzles about chemistry. I had these weird puzzles like 'if you can ask two questions to three people, one of them lies, one of them tells the truth, and one could do either, what questions would you ask to whom'- lots of different versions. And lock-picking puzzles. And some with pushing blocks around a maze to pull out one."

"I had block pushing puzzles, too, but nothing about lock-picking. Some cyphers, and some short murder mysteries."

"I had cyphers."

"Maybe they switch up from a set?" Ai asked. "Seems like we had some overlap."

"Oooor... we may have figured out what our talents will be, and that was some kind of baseline test..." Daisuke replied. "I mean yours would be pretty obvious, given your interview."

"They're seriously going to turn me into the detective?" she hissed, as plates laden with paneer and roasted goat were placed on their table. "There's no way they're going to do that and make me the mastermind. That's not a fair game, thats a slaughter. I'd be messing with the crime scene like whoah."

"Arukawa said two girls offered to do it. It might not be you. I might be wrong, too, but..."

"What about the questionnaire?" Ai asked, watching as Daisuke laid down a bed of rice and topped it with the dishes they'd ordered so she could copy him.

"Personality. I mean, I'm going to go on a limb and say mine might be phantom thief or something similar- lock picking and lying and cyphers? But from there, my character could be honorable, or mean, or whatever. Shouldn't have much to do with the talent. I mean, you've got a scale of Joker from Persona to Joker from Batman as archetypes there."

"If the detective is the mastermind you're going to have your work cut out for you," Ai muttered. "And I'm an idiot."

"Just means I need to work harder, right? And who knows. You could be right, and those could have just been pulled from a set. Did you have a cypher with the zodiac symbols?"

"Two dials, one with the Chinese zodiac, one with Western?"

"So those were the same," Daisuke mused, ripping a piece of naan to dip in the sauce. "See? My theory already has holes in it. When I was watching the show to take some notes I thought these people just were given talents, not whole new personalities too. And my friend Momo-chan was Yurie-chan on the show. She looks completely different, too. It's almost like they're trying to make us so different that the survivors can just go back to their lives after... if they wanted to, I guess. Maybe we should just wait it out?"

"I've only met you twice and I can tell you you're not going to sit on your heels. Can... next time you go to see her, can I visit?"

"She invited me to lunch tomorrow, and it's a Sunday. Want me to ask her if you can join?"

"Awwww, but I'll be third-wheeling."

"I draw the line at college girls, that's a lot of no," Daisuke replied with a grin, pointing his spoon at Ai.

"Well aren't those words of confidence," Ai replied, sticking her first spoonful in her mouth and contemplating. "Could use a little more heat."

"Thanks to you running your mouth I got a hell of a talking-to last night," Momo said, tussling Daisuke's hair with her elbow.

"I told them you declined to answer my questions pretty often!" Daisuke replied, taking as long a stride as he could to keep up with Momo and Ai. Momo wasn't telling them where she was taking them today, but he was just happy to be outside with people that didn't hate him. Two. At once!

"Yeah, and I told them exactly what I told you... they actually said it was okay, since you're both contestants. And they told me I'm allowed to speak more if you have questions, with a few exceptions, so you might as well ask. I thought they were going to take me to court, Daisuke-kun, and I would have wrung that from youuuu," she added, jokingly.

"Okay... well, uh, when are we going to get called in for taping?"

"It's an off-season, so when this season ends you'll be called in. Otherwise they would already be taping the next one. I'm sure editing all that content down to a season of episodes takes longer than the taping itself. Especially with how many cameras they hide."

"How long are we there?"

"It could be 2-3 weeks of prep, and unless someone in game kills a bunch of people at once... about 2-3 weeks of game. Then the survivors have a few weeks to recuperate, do interviews, mental health stuff, remember themselves, so... could be two or three months total."

"Um," Ai cut in. "Do they.. like hide cameras in the bathrooms and stuff?"

"There's two kinds of cameras. The kind that are being used for the eventual broadcast, and the kind they use for observing. I mean, they'll use both for observation, but only the first kind will actually be used for the TV recordings. Most bedrooms, showers, etc have a camera so they can do their research, and make sure they know who murder culprits are. You'll have someone of the same sex manning those, but yeah, you're watched constantly. Hey, don't look at me, you signed up for it. And how are they supposed to conduct psych research if your bedrooms aren't monitored?"

Daisuke and Ai both looked away.

"Neither of you ever needed to take a sleep study before? Pansies," Momo pulled each one of them in for a side hug. She seemed... very un-Japanese. Open. A bit loud. Her character had rubbed off on her, Daisuke assumed.

"Aaaany-way. We were wondering about the tests we took yesterday," Daisuke asked, as Momo rested her arms down and pointed to a building across the street.

"What about them?"

"Standard physical, then lots of measurements- guessing for costumes-"

"Yep, yep."

"Psychological evaluation, and what seemed like an IQ test of sorts. Except only some of our sections overlap."

"Oh that's the talent baseline. They didn't tell you what they're working on for you?"

"No, I'm guessing because we just signed contracts yesterday."

"Yeah, that was two separate things for me. They may have you come back and take more specialized sections once they're sure what they'll give you. Usually they figure out the set of sixteen as, well, a set. Complimentary personalities and skills. What kind of questions? Maybe we can guess together? But ehh, they could have just been practice and you'll get a more specialized test later. Mine had oceanography stuff, chemistry puzzles, and a mock submarine cockpit."

"Mine was just a paper test, murder mysteries, chemistry puzzles, block pushing..." Ai said.

"Yeah, that sounds kinda general to me... one of most peoples tests was something a bit more practical. Unless..."

"Unless?"

"Your skill is something best on paper. Ultimate writer, ultimate detective, that kind of thing? Daisuke-kun, did you have any practical sections?"

"I had some lock-picking puzzles- some were diagrams or symbol matching but a few of them had me trying to open actual puzzle boxes and locks."

"Calling it now, you're a thief," Momo said. "I'll put a 1,000 note on that too. "Then my guess for Ai-chan is detective. They haven't had one since season 47, wouldn't surprise me at all."

Ai and Daisuke looked at each other nervously. "If you're the detective and mastermind and I'm a thief, that's a heck of a game of cat and mouse," Daisuke mused aloud. "Ai-chan if you promise not to frame me for murder I'll do my best to keep you alive for the game."

"You know, I can't believe they picked two people who knew each other that well," Momo mused as they stepped inside. "We're here for the cooking classes?" she turned and asked the receptionist in a 180* turn of tone, before turning back to the two of them.

"I remember they made it a pretty big point of not sharing too much personal info with each other before they started with the memory alterations. They have to be choosing the two of you together on purpose."

Daisuke folded his arms up over his head. "Then I guess we gots give them a show."