First and foremost I would like to apologize if this was an underwhelming update, my family has recently been going through a tough time and I had to focus on my family and my job leaving me with almost no time to work on this story, I sincerely apologize and hope you understand.

Thank you for keeping up with my story!

Sachi and I stand outside of the cafeteria, still a little rattled by what happened inside with Takagi and his 'minion'.

"That has to be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever done in my life" Sachi says, exasperated. I understand though. From what I've seen, she's a very serious person and having to play along with a mischievous kid is not in her repertoire. Buuut I did it to save us the trouble of getting on Takagi's bad side so at least we're safe from that.

"Yeah, Takagi is an Ultimate Thespian very, very dedicated to his craft. If you don't play along he can get really annoying so better for us that he views us as someone he can ally with." I explain. "Because, well, if what we think is happening is really happening then we need all the allies we can get."

After a few more minutes of talking, Sachi is finally satisfied. Seeing as we're in the dormitory part of the school, we decide to check out the Baths.

Entering the bath was just like entering every other room, I'm not surprised by what I see. The baths are very old looking and the locker doors were all broken, some of them hanging by a nail. This is the room where Celestia Ludenberg hid Alter-Ego. Among the ruins, Sachi and I find a guy looking through the lockers.

The boy has a light skin tone. His shoulder-length hair is a strawberry pink and tied into a long ponytail with a few messy bangs covering his forehead. He wears an open, black fur leather jacket over a white dress shirt. His pants are black ripped straight jeans and his shoes are black combat boots.

Honestly the guy looks like some kind of hustler but I, the Ultimate Paparazzi, know better. The strawberry pink hair is a dead giveaway to the guy's true identity.

"What are you two looking at?" Strawberry Hair says in a cold tone.

"Clearly we're looking at someone rummaging through empty lockers." Sachi says, her distaste for Strawberry's tone clear. "What do you think we're doing?"

Strawberry doesn't even spare us a glance. "All I see are two people dawdling and not doing anything." he says snidely. "Ugh, this is a waste of time."

"What's a waste of time-?" I try but Strawberry quickly shoots me down.

"This conversation. I don't have the time or energy to spare speaking to either of you." Strawberry says and continues to rummage through the lockers.

Sachi rolls her eyes and turns to me. "You talk to him, Tatsumi. I'm going to search the baths." she says and leaves with a huff.

Well. What's the worst that could happen?

I give Strawberry a small wave. "Hey there, I'm Tatsumi Endo, the Ultimate Paparazzi. It's nice to meet you."

...

I'm answered by silence.

After a few more seconds of being ignored, I can't take it anymore. We never had a proper, full conversation and this guy is already seriously getting on my nerves.

"Look," I say. "I know who you are and I know you're not the best person to be around." I speak in an equally cold tone. Sometimes you need to stoop to their level to talk to them. "But don't you think we need to work together for now?"

"Oh, do you now?" Strawberry stops what he's doing and stands up straight, towering over me. "Who am I, then?"

"You're Katashi Hitsugaya. You're the Ultimate Doctor on paper but I know there's a secret you're hiding, I just haven't figured it out yet."

Katashi Hitsugaya

Ultimate Doctor?

As I said, Katashi is known as the Ultimate Doctor, but just like with every Ultimate there is, rumors and secrets surround them. Katashi, as far as people know, isn't connected with any hospitals or friends with any other doctors. I don't even know if Sachi knows him.

But, getting back on track, Katashi is a very secretive guy. Even though I don't fully understand what it is, as a reporter I know how to get to the bottom of these things. I will find out what he's hiding.

"Alright, you have my attention, Tatsumi Endo." Katashi sneers. "And you have one minute to keep it before I kill you." he says, grabs me by my shirt collar, and pulls me up to my tip-toes.

"I'm not here to cause trouble." I say quickly. "We're all in the same boat, Sachi and I are just like you."

Now listen, I've dealt with people who are dangerous and it's not always the same. I just need to make sure I don't set him off on me - well, I guess I kind of failed already by threatening him with his secret but I can't back down now.

Katashi doesn't look impressed. "I don't care about us being in the same boat, I don't care that you're Ultimates too. All I care about is getting myself out of this hellhole." he snaps.

I guess being diplomatic won't work. I need to try something else.

"Look, you and I have both read history books. We both understand what the situation is, that's probably why you're desperately looking for an escape, right?" I say. "But we can't be delusional. This is going to be a Killing Game. With my reputation, I can turn you into a pariah." I smirk, trying to come off as threatening as possible.

Katashi didn't like the diplomatic approach so threats were my next bet. It's the only thing that's gotten a reaction out of him so far.

There's a moment of silence as we glare at each other, waiting to see who gives in first. Suddenly, Katashi drops me. Then, he just leaves.

I don't know if what I did was good or bad...I suppose I'll find out in time.

All I know for sure is that Katashi Hitsugaya is a dangerous person and I really don't want to be near him right now. Thinking about it a bit more, I think I just made myself a target to one of the shadiest Ultimates enrolled in Hope's Peak. To think he's been in Hope's Peak for 3 years and still no one knows what his secret is...

"Is he gone? Thank God. I know we're classmates and all but seriously, I can't stand him. He's like, sooooooo snobbish." I hear a new voice say. It has a bit of a Korean accent that you can pick up if you listen closely enough.

I turn around and out of the baths comes Sachi and another girl.

This new girl has long, straight, raven black hair tied into a loose and fluffy braided ponytail. She has deep purple eyes and warm, clear beige skin. I can see a few small freckles under both of her eyes and she has a skinny and toned body. She wears a plain peach pink backless halter neck top with a lower back side ribbon tied around her waist. Over that is a fluffy, crème white faux fur jacket she wears loosely, the jacket dropping off the side of her shoulders. She wears light stonewashed skinny jeans with rhinestone star hearts adorning her pockets and casual, stylish white sneakers with a white ribbon tied as the makeshift shoelaces on front.

From the distinct Korean accent, her appearance, and the way she spoke before, I definitely know who this girl is.

"Tatsumi, this is Min-Ju Tae - actually, what am I saying?" Sachi sighs and shakes her head. "You probably know who she is already." she says. She was right, of course. Obviously I would know.

"Oh really?" Min-Ju says, raising an eyebrow. "I've never met an Ultimate who was a stalker before, kinda creepy to be honest, but like, that's cute I guess."

...What-?

She continues before I can process what she just said. "Well, you should already know this but if you want to hear me say it, get that camera of yours and record me saying it: I'm Min-Ju Tae, I'm the famous Ultimate Cheerleader, a dazzling star at the top of the pyramid!" Min-Ju beams. "You can call me Mindy or Min if you can't pronounce my full name, avoids the hassle."

Min-Ju Tae

Ultimate Cheerleader

I mean, is there someone who doesn't know her? She's basically the It Girl of this generation. Min-Ju - sorry - Min has been on the covers of magazines, appeared in public televisions, and more. She's every teen boy's ultimate fantasy.

Well, that's how she's viewed by the public, at least. People tend to focus on physical appearances more than anything. Min is basically a mean girl, popular cheerleader stereotype. Some people think she's a girl who knows what she wants and is a strong independent woman and all that while some think she's a spoiled brat. I guess it depends on how much you want to tolerate.

"Hahaha, you seem to be very entranced by my beauty, you've been staring at me like a fish." Min laughs haughtily.

I scratch the back of my head in embarrassment, turning away. "Sorry about that." I apologize.

"Oh no, I found it rather cute. You must be awestruck by the fact that I, Min-Ju Tae, am standing right in front of you." Min says confidently and flips her hair. Her movements have a sense of sensuality in them, like she knows how to use subtle movements to flirt.

"Oh, no no no," I say quickly. "It's not like that, I'm just-" Before I can finish, Min interrupts me.

"Ha!" she laughs. "Don't be shy, it's okay. Just don't sneak into my room, got it?" Min says with a wink.

She's obviously trying to use the fact that I know who she is against me. If I wasn't as experienced as I am, I might have been fooled by what she was trying to do, but I know better. She's trying to get me to be some kind of a servant to her, or maybe a guard. I think Min knows we're all going to be in a Killing Game and she's doing her best to either build a relationship with someone knowledgeable or someone to use as a shield.

Either way, I'm not falling for it.

"Anyways, now that that person is gone I'm free to leave the Baths. I was looking through here when that guy came in all dangerous looking and I wasn't about to risk talking to him so I hid inside the Baths - of which are surprisingly new by the way. Every part of this school is broken down or old but the Baths in there are usable."

Huh? The baths are new?! HOW!? Even if it's a way to make living here better, how did they bring in all the materials to fix it without alerting any of the roaming guards? And even if they fixed it, why just the Baths why not the other parts of this school? This situation just got impossibly stranger.

When I finally snapped out of my thoughts, Min was gone and Sachi was looking around.

"Hey, you're finally out of that trance again, huh." Sachi says, glancing at me. "You know, the more time I spend with you the less weird I find it." she says, almost sounding...kind? I guess she's warming up to me!

...At least that's what I hope it is.

"Did Min say anything else?" I ask Sachi.

"Nothing too important, I checked it out as well and like she said, it is brand new. Almost like it was just installed...it was very, very weird."

I nod and store that information away for later. "Well I guess there's nothing left to see here. We can go check out the Dorms. If the baths are fixed that means the Dorm Rooms should be as well."

We exit the Baths.

Once we get out of the corridor we can still hear the distinct sound of Kikuo's flute being played. I guess Takagi and Kikuo are staying in the cafeteria for now.

Sachi and I walk over to the dorm rooms and just as we expected, the Dorm rooms are refurbished. Each Door has small pixelated art of the students. I can recognize some of the faces: Shion, Sumire, Ryuji…

Speaking of those three, I hope Shion lets that guy stay with them because without his glasses, Ryuji is going to be a liability to himself and the people we haven't encountered yet.

I walk the hall, looking for a door that has my face on it. I find it and jiggle the door handle...it's open. We move to the door next to mine because coincidentally, it's Sachi's room. She jiggles the knob and lo and behold, it's unlocked as well.

We go back to my room and enter.

It looks just like how it appeared in the Killing Game Makoto Naegi took part in. The red walls, the blue carpet, and the single white bed...of course since it was my room there were a bunch of cork boards on the walls with pictures of Ultimate Students, some I recognize to be pictures I've taken, and just as I suspected, on top of the desk were a bunch of camera lenses which I could use to repair my broken one.

"This is weird," Sachi says as she looks around the room.

I'm honestly a bit offended. I'm the Ultimate Paparazzi - taking pictures is my job. And hey, it's not my fault they somehow got access to my pictures.

"How did they get all the materials necessary to fix all these without arousing suspicion?"

OH. That's what she meant.

We look around the room some more and find that there's nothing else too interesting inside. There's a bathroom and I notice that, just like the Killing School Life, it doesn't have a lock. In case you didn't know, in the original killing game the boys' bathrooms didn't have locks.

As Sachi and I continue investigating the room that's growing less and less interesting, we notice 2 guys peek into my room.

They're quite the odd pair, to be honest. They're both quite tall, but one was very muscular - and when I say very muscular, I'm talking about Sakura Ogami levels of muscular. He looks like a tank and also he isn't wearing a shirt...yikes.

The more muscular one is, as I said, a big and strong man with HUGE bulging muscles. He has a peachy skin tone and his hair is chestnut brown styled like your general military-esque buzz-cut. As I said before he has no shirt but he does wear shorts: specifically, white shorts with horizontal red stripes on them. As footwear he wears white socks and open-toed sandals for his feet...choices.

(If the Ultimate Model were here she would die from cringing so hard.)

The other one has average straight white hair and dark skin. A closer look at his face reveals his heterochromia, his left eye being blue and the other being red . He's wearing a plain white shirt under a black and white jacket. He's also wearing dark blue jeans and black and white sneakers.

"Hey there, we noticed this door was open and we wanted to see if there was anyone who was trying to go into other people's rooms." the skinnier one says. I feel weird calling him 'the skinner one' but when you compare this guy to the absolute unit that's beside him...he's a twig.

"I would see that as a problem, yes," Sachi agrees, a thoughtful look on her face. "All the doors were unlocked."

"It's actually quite confusing, but here's the short version of it." the skinnier one says. "Every door is locked unless the owner of the room is the one opening it. If I try to open a room that isn't my room, it won't open." he explains awkwardly. "I know it can get confusing but I hope you're both smart enough to understand what I said."

That is indeed rather confusing, especially since in the Killing School Life it was pretty straight forward with the keys unlocking each room.

I shake my head and smile politely at the odd pair. "It's nice to meet you, by the way. I'm Tatsumi Endo, Ultimate Paparazzi, and this is Sachiko Yoshifumi, she's the Ultimate Pharmaceutical Scientist." I introduce Sachi and myself to the duo.

Even though (as you should already know), I know exactly who these two are.

The skinnier one laughs. "Well at least it isn't 'Ultimate Stalker' 'cause this room sure is...something. I'm Kite Nijisaki, Ultimate Activist, but you know that already." he says and points to one of my cork boards. "I see a picture of myself on that cork board over there." Kite says matter-of-factly, almost like an insult, but this guy just doesn't have a filter. Not exactly what you expect of an Ultimate Activist but hey, I don't scout talents.

Kite Nijisaki

Ultimate Activist

Kite Nijisaki, the kid who changed the world. He held rallies and he created change in the government with his messages. He's a very charismatic figure. He's also very blunt, which I guess is what you need to inspire change, especially in the cases where diplomacy isn't enough...

Where was this guy when I was talking to Katashi!? I could have used him...then again I have a feeling they would just insult each other until one of them dies from thirst.

Suddenly, the tank next to Kite speaks up.

"Gahaha! I am the great Heracles! Defender of the innocent and strongest man alive!" 'Heracles' declares, flexing his muscles and honestly, I'm jealous of his muscles but the man needs to have some social awareness to put on a shirt.

I look at Sachi and she's rolling her eyes.

"Jotaro Inenaga, Ultimate Strongman. Huge cliche, but you already knew that." Sachi says.

Jotaro Inenaga

Ultimate Strongman

Where do I begin with this...unit? He's very strong...he's also kinda dumb...I don't know what to tell you that you don't already know. Jotaro is very simple. And I don't mean that as an insult.

He's rather friendly and very inspirational with his anti-bullying messages. He's a very likeable guy...with big muscles. What else is there to say?

"Have you met everyone?" Kite asks me as Jotaro continues monologuing.

"I think there are still some who I haven't met yet." I say to Kite. He's a person who I'm not totally sure if I can trust. Like I said before, Kite's very charismatic and he can lead people...that could go one of several ways.

Kite is also part of this "Milk Tea Crowd" that's become very popular with Ultimate fans.

The Milk Tea Crowd is a group of Ultimates that love to visit the popular shop, Milk Tea Island Cafe. In this group are Shion Kotobuki, Sumire Kotobuki, Takagi Kuroda, Kikuo Furuhata, and Kite Nijisaki...all of them are here...what could this possibly mean?

...Anyways.

Once again, everyone's year levels are completely different.

First Year Students include me and Ryoji.

Second Year Students are Shion, Sumire, Takagi, Kikuo, and Kite.

Third Year Students are Sachi and Jotaro.

Fourth Year Students are Katashi and Min.

This isn't making any sense. Sure, all the second years are the famous Milk Tea Crowd, but me and Ryoji aren't remotely similar. Prior to this, we didn't even know each other personally. And from the looks of it, Sachi and Jotaro don't even like each other. Also, from what we saw a while ago, Min was not a huge fan of Katashi.

So, it's not friendship. It's not about being classmates. What brought us all here together?

When I pull myself out of my thoughts, once again I find that I'm alone with Sachi. I didn't realize that Kite and Jotaro left. Sachi is looking at all the cork boards with information about all the Ultimates.

"So this is why a lot of people want you on their side, huh." Sachi muses with her back facing me. "You have a lot of dirt and information on everyone, you're technically the most dangerous player in this Killing Game, Tatsumi." she says.

Huh. I guess that's true.

"That's why I need all the allies I can get. If and when this Killing Game does go down, I need to be as safe as possible."

Sorry if the ending feels a bit rushed.

But thank you to Prince PokePersona, Epifanio Therion, AnimeBoy15, and NSPunny for submitting their characters to my SYOC! Feel free to dm me if you feel like you OC isn't living up to what you expected of them.

Apologies for the delay once again, and this time I won't set a specific date in fear that I once again won't react to the deadline but there will be the Final Update in June where the cast will be completed.

ALSO If you didn't notice I decided to increase the number of students from 14 to 16, as an apology for not achieving the deadline.

Thank you once again to my child, Sempi for turning my massive piles of words into a cohesive story. GO check her out she writes amazing stories.

Thank you for following my story

-James