And here we are with another update after, what, three months? Sorry about that...though probably most of you are well aware of why that ended up being the case. I'm hoping that at least until the next hyperfixation I'll be back to semi-regular updates for both this and OGR. With that being said, technically speaking even if Luciform is finished I'm still interested in the source of it and very invested in the world I elaborated on in there so it might not be the last time I do things for that. I've also regained interest in another similar thing from a few years back and that combined with stuff I'm doing/trying to do that's not fic or interest related...well. We'll see. One way or another, both stories will be seen through to the end even if it takes so much longer than my other SYOCs ever did!

Anyway, hope you enjoy this!

Kaneda grinned as he heard the familiar footsteps that told him that either a guard or an orderly was coming. Sure enough, a prison orderly appeared with various trays of food. Pausing outside the door, a man knelt to open the hatch, then retrieved a tray.

"Good afternoon!" he sang out, remaining where he was. "What do you have for me today?"

To his disappointment, the man grunted and simply slid the tray through the hatch before leaving. Ah, well, Kaneda thought glumly as he took the tray, surely I'll be out soon. Or at least, out in the general population. This state of affairs was not the norm, especially for someone like him who'd be considered a juvenile offender. From what he heard, being kept alone like this was because of the nature of his offences and the fact he was the child of two detectives. Not that he'd said anything about what he may or not have done. Of course he hadn't, whatever they threw at him he knew that he'd stay tight-lipped. Oh, he'd talk to them for as long as they wanted, just not about what they wanted.

And as a result, unless they were interrogating him, or searching his room, they left him alone. He didn't see other prisoners, except in fleeing occasions when he was escorted to and from interrogation. He certainly had not seen Kumori, and he wasn't sure if he was in a similar situation. Then again, given that he had apparently turned himself in voluntarily. Kaneda suspected not. And of course, though he'd heard that Keiko had been caught during the fires, she would be somewhere different completely. It was kind of lonely, but he tried not to mind.

Not least because he knew things were still happening.

One advantage of being left alone seemed to be that they really left him alone, and apparently sometimes out of sight equalled out of mind. He had heard more than a few snippets of conversation between prison guards about things that were happening in the outside world, and more often than not one of them would often have the radio going. He'd heard a lot that way and-

Oho, is that..?

The familiar crackling made Kaneda perk up. Not wanting to arouse suspicion, he did not turn his head towards the door of his cell but instead kept eating, slowly and carefully.

"…yet another episode of the mysterious web series known as 'The Mutual Life of School Killing' which is apparently streaming the situations of the hostages taken from Hope's Peak Academy, has been released…"

Kaneda smirked at that, wondering why they felt the need to summarise it every time. Was the outside world really forgetting that quickly? Surely not.

"…police are tirelessly working day and night to find the hostages, while also trying to contain the riots that have broken out all over the country…they are also attempting to find a number of other Hope's Peak students who went missing during the arson but are not confirmed to have perished there…"

Footsteps walking past obscured the names, much to Kaneda's irritation and he flicked a sideways glance to see someone walking past his cell. He sighed quietly and picked up his soup bowl to finish the last drops:

"…the end of the latest episode promised that a killing would soon occur and that viewers should be on the lookout…"

Kaneda paused, for a moment not quite comprehending. Then, as the news item changed to something else-a report of some riots or something less significant, a smile slowly spread over his face.

So, that means either it has already happened, or they've set things so clearly into motion that it will happen any day now.

"Oi, what are you grinning at over there?"

Kaneda startled and looked over at the orderly-a different one from the one who had given his food to him- to take his tray.

"Oh, nothing," Kaneda said cheerily. "Just the splendid quality of the food-please do thank your cooks!"

"Bring the tray over. Slide it, you know the drill."

"Ah, can't I hand it over? I don't bite, I promise."

"Don't push your luck."

"Why not? I've got plenty of it!"

Even as he said this though, he obediently took the tray, put it down and slid it across through the hatch as he was instructed, grinning as the orderly quickly snatched it away, closed the hatch and then walked off as fast as he could. His expression was bug-eyed as though Kaneda was a wild animal he was trying to flee from. Kaneda's grin faded along with the footsteps but then he noticed something. Hold on…

He got up from his chair and crept over, kneeling down and examining the hatch. Sure enough, it hadn't closed quite right. Clearly, the orderly had been so focused on minimising time in Kaneda's presence he hadn't been paying full attention to what he was doing. With this realisation, Kaneda curled his fingers around the part that wasn't wedged in right and then stopped. If it made a noise, they'd realise something was up and thwart him before he'd even started. In fact, they'd pay more attention to him. But, if on the other hand they continued to try and avoid him as much as possible and just let him here to languish…well, it would be lonely, sure. However, it would also be something he could use.

And maybe, just maybe, he would.

…

Getting supplies in the dark was possibly the stupidest thing that they had all decided on, which was quite the achievement considering, but Azuki had not been able to get himself out of it.

"What is this? I thought you were on our side?"

"Uh, yes I am? I'm here, aren't I?"

Shino, of course, just grinned, tilting their head back so as to better look down on him

"Hisakawa-san, come on!" Mizuki exclaimed. "Look, I'll go tomorrow night-yes, I will, I can defend myself thank you very much. Sakurai-san can take over some of the camera monitoring and work on the website in exchange. You yourself have been making sure she can do the basics. "

"Well yes, but…"

"We need to pull our own weight, each of us. You understand that, don't you?"

Oh yes, he understood well enough. It was not as if it'd be of any particular benefit to him to turn traitor, so to speak, and give them all up. He wasn't an innocent at this point any more. So he'd sucked it up and snuck out and he hadn't gotten ambushed there, or on the way back which was something at least. He'd kept his hood up the entire time, and so he'd managed to get away with not being recognised as himself (he knew that looking as unkempt as he did, it'd be quite something if they recognised him as Fumiyo). That didn't mean, however, that he liked it.

About to cross over to the boundary of the Artificial Beach, Azuki paused, thinking that he'd heard something. Retreating into the shadow cast by one of the smaller warehouses, he cursed the rustling of the plastic bags-I need to start taking a backpack instead, dammit-and tried to look around the corner as quietly as he could.

Across from him, there were a small group of people stumbling across the beach, apparently looking for something. It was too far for him to hear what they were saying, but some of their voices drifted across to him-murmured, frantic whispers. He watched as one of them went to the door of one of the warehouses, tugged at the door and then cursed. More frantic whispering, and looking in bags before two of them broke away and went around the side. This warehouse had windows, which one of these two pointed to, before then climbing onto the shoulders of the other and smashing the window with their bag. The sound made the others rush around, all their attention focused upon the person now kicking bits of broken glass away so they could climb inside, and Azuki took the opportunity to start moving again, ducking behind other buildings and the few trees around, trying to be as quiet as possible. Luckily, it seemed as if the group were pre-occupied with trying to get into the other warehouse, and Azuki didn't see any others around.

What are they doing…they didn't seem like they were looting-though what the hell you'd loot from an abandoned warehouse I don't know…

It took him a while, particularly as he was still being cautious, but eventually he managed to sneak his way to their warehouse. To his surprise, one of the doors was open slightly, a figure standing there as if looking out for him. Azuki swore under his breath and jogged across, prepared to give whoever it was a proper bollocking. He was expecting the person to be Shino or even Hatsumi, but the fact that it was Mihoko threw him off a little. However, he soon recovered and scowled at her:

"I thought you were supposed to be in hiding."

"I am."

Azuki paused, something making him hold back from any of his possible usual retorts as he studied her. He couldn't put his finger on why but it was a damn lot more than 'thinking ahead' that had provoked her deciding to change her appearance now, that much he was sure of. Not that that was a problem as such. If she was planning to get the hell out as soon as she could then he could hardly blame her-for all he knew it'd be a death wish to do so he badly wanted to do the same.

Which of course left the question as to why she'd do her appearance change now, rather than later without anyone knowing of it, but he supposed there had been stupider decisions made. Including his own.

"What are you doing here, then?"

"Keeping look out for you, thinking of things."

"Such as…."

"How long things are going to take."

"Such as…?"

This is like pulling teeth, I swear. No, actually, that's an insult to the teeth. Teeth are easier to pull than this.

"Things."

"…"

Azuki sighed and looked over at the warehouse that was currently housing their hostages, looming in the dark. He assumed she was talking about the Killing Game. The class were suitably stirred up even though they hadn't yet delivered that first motive-though that was probably going to happen soon if Shino had anything to do with it. He was sure that someone would give into the pressure and then things would inevitably explode. There was already a disturbing amount of interest in the episodes already, and an actual death would be even more of a hook. The very thought made him sick, but he also reminded himself that it'd increase the efforts of law enforcement as well, even if he didn't much like that, either.

Speaking of which…

"There're people sneaking around on the Artificial Beach-people looking for shelter, I think," he said. "We need to get inside before they realise something's up and try to attack us for the space."

Mihoko simply nodded at that and retreated inside. Azuki followed her and quickly shut the door as quietly as he could, praying that nobody had noticed them in the small time they'd been standing around like complete idiots. They had been pretty far off, but chances could not be taken. Once he was fairly sure it was secure, he followed Mihoko, his hands and feet already aching. Man, I swear, if I don't get a moment to put my feet up before doing the next damn episode-

"Oh, there you guys are!"

Azuki almost barreled into Mihoko's back but very quickly saw that she in turn had barely avoided bumping into Hatsumi who had appeared out of nowhere, almost vibrating.

"Quickly! You gotta come!"

…

They all crowded around the screen as Shino brought up one of the particular camera feeds. There was one up already, showing the kitchen, where Mai Isobe was opening cupboards and looking for snacks. Or, Azuki (reasonably) assumed that she was looking for snacks considering the packets she'd already discarded on the counters.

"She really doesn't care, does she?" Azuki muttered. "Even after what happened."

"Not just that, look, look!"

Azuki frowned and studied what Shino was pointing at. Something was sticking out of Mai Isobe's pyjama hoodie pocket, a black handle of-

"Wait a damn minute, that's a knife. One of the kitchen knives? Did she just-"

"Yeah, girl's just taken that." Shino said. "Hey, Hats, is he still around?"

"He sure is."

Hatsumi leant over to the next monitor and bought up another camera feed. Once again, Azuki was not immediately sure what it was he was meant to be looking at but this time he realised that it was Teruya Kasai he was seeing peering around the door of one of the classrooms and then edging his way out warily, keeping to the walls with his shoulders hunched.

"He has one too," Hatsumi said from behind him. "He left the kitchen moments before Mai Isobe did, had to hide behind the door as she opened it and he's been sneaking slowly back to his room ever since, hiding behind doors and all sorts on the way at every little noise."

Azuki snuck a glance at her, staring rapt at the screen but not looking that excited. He thought about pointing out that it was damn obvious that Teruya had been jittery thanks to the wave of suspicion that they'd been pushing against him. Hell, even the 'fans' were inclined to think of him as a traitor. But he knew that they all knew it was obvious and at such a stupid time in the morning he just did not have the energy.

"Right, so now we have two people who've snuck knives out of the kitchen. Are you going to draw attention to it?"

"No." Mizuki said immediately. "We've stirred things enough for now, as you can see."

"Stowing away weapons illicitly for one's own protection always has a way of going awry, so we'll probably see results sooner or later. Soon enough that we're thinking we can save the first 'motive' to be our second one." Mokomichi stated, almost dispassionately.

"Aaaaand it's all thanks to me." Shino crowed.

"The others have been good at following the rules though, more or less. Will anything really happen tonight?" Azuki asked.

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see." Mokomichi said.

And that was what they all did and despite his disgust, he found himself the most gripped despite the fact that for the longest time, nothing happened. Teruya had apparently completely lost the plot, a journey that should have taken him a few minutes tops taking even longer from the way he startled and shrunk away and tried to hide at every little imagined or actual noise. As for Mai, she was muttering something to herself about how unfair everyone was and this, apparently, was making her drag her feet. But eventually, she left and started to head to where her dorm room was while Teruya, almost making it to the corridor from the opposite end, suddenly leant against the wall and slid down it in despair, pulling the knife from where he'd concealed it under his t-shirt and staring at it, hands shaking despite the pristine state of it.

"Let's focus on the dorm corridor proper now," Mizuki ordered. "Any moment now, Isobe-san is going to come and she will notice him. "

"It'll be impossible not to." Hatsumi pointed out.

"And…and neither of them's going to be happy about that."

With Riku's words, they fell silent again. Shino made sure their monitor showed the dorm corridor, while Hatsumi's tracked Mai. Moments passed as Teruya continued to sit there, and Mai continued on her way, looking around furtively but doing a much better job of trying to get back quickly when.

"Woah, hold on! Did you see, is that?"

"Wait, wait, wait is that….?"

Azuki was out of his seat along with the rest of them, leaning as close to the screen as possible, as if what they had just seen wasn't clear enough. But it was, and the unexpected development was more than enough to have them all looking at each other in shock.

"Well, things are about to get a lot more interesting."

…

Minah finished tying her hair up and turned to Mawa who was still rushing around, apparently looking for something in the mess she'd managed to create. Considering her uncombed hair, Minah assumed it was the hairbrush.

"Want to borrow mine?" she offered, trying for bright.

Mawa whipped around, sitting heavily against a discarded pile of clothing and stared before shaking her head and jumping up.

"Nah, fuck it, forget my hair, let's go grab Teruya and get ourselves down to make breakfast before they start nagging us for it. Why can't someone else do it, dammit? I'm really not into waking up in this situation. "

There was a beat of silence before Mawa groaned and ran her hands through her hair, making it even messier.

"I meant waking up early, dammit. I don't mean…I would never….though that'd be a way of fixing things, right? Never said the someone else would-"

"Mawa."

No, no. Nobody can be thinking that already, they just can't…

"They won't keep this up. I'm sure they're just…just going hard to scare us and then they'll get bored. And someone will find us eventually, I'm sure."

"Yeah…anyway, I need to get Teruya before anyone else decides to bug him so let's go."

With that, Mawa pushed past Minah and flung open the door, rushing to get Teruya as she had been making a point of doing ever since that big confrontation over the Night Time rules. Minah rushed after her and caught up quickly as her friend hammered on the door to the room that Teruya was sharing with Hiro.

"Oi, oi, what's with the hammering?" Hiro asked as he opened the door.

"TERUYA, GET YOUR BUTT OUT HERE!" Mawa yelled.

"Holy-"

"Okay, okay, I'm here, geez."

When Teruya came to the door, he looked terrible-his skin almost grey and his eyes heavily ringed, although he was at least dressed.

"Are you alright?" Minah asked immediately.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Teruya snapped.

"You look like death warmed up," Mawa said bluntly. "But come on, we can fix that."

"I said I'm fine. Fucking hell."

The twins stared each other down for a while before eventually Mawa shook her head in exasperation:

"Fine, don't tell me. Minah, make sure he follows us."

"Um…."

As Mawa stormed off, Minah looked helplessly at Teruya.

"I'm sure getting something to eat will help. We're all on edge."

"No shit."

But all the fire had leaked out of his voice, and Teruya seemed even more drained than before if such a thing was even possible. Sticking his hands in his pockets, he turned as if he was about to leave the room while Hiro prepared to close the door.

And then Mawa screamed.

Almost immediately, something in Teruya sparked back to life and he took off running, with Minah catching up to him. She was vaguely aware of Hiro swearing and then following and possibly some others too.

They found Mawa at the end of the corridor, staring at something around the corner, trembling like a leaf as she wrapped her arms around herself, screaming and screaming. No words that Minah could discern, just a noise of pure terror.

"Mawa, what is it?"

Teruya rushed to his sister and focused immediately on trying to calm her down, and Minah meant to do the same, but she found her eyes looking to see what Mawa had seen. And when she did, her heart stopped. Sprawled out on the floor, a black and white hoodie and boxer shorts stained in blood, short orange hair, sightless green eyes. Yet more blood pooling out around him, a trail of it almost reaching Mawa's toes.

Soutarou Lee, the SHSL Stunt Double, was dead.

…

The girl didn't know that intercepting the mail that day would change everything.

Then again, she hadn't expected that the mail would even arrive that day. All of a sudden, the world had turned upside down, looking exactly like a disaster movie. The apocalypse had arrived. Or maybe not an apocalypse, but enough to drive everything crazy. She hadn't stepped out of the house since everything had started, not even to get supplies. It probably helped that they were usually well-stocked at any given time anyway, but soon they'd have to venture out. Or rather, she would. Each other member of her family had a reason to not want to be out in the world, some more valid than others. Though she supposed it was more accurate to say what remained of her family, rather than just her family.

That, too, had arrived all of a sudden, that loss. And she hadn't expected that it would feel anything like a loss, not when the last conversation had been irritating and distant, when her last thoughts had been of annoyance. But here she was, suddenly an eldest child when she'd resigned herself to the frustrations of the middle. And she hadn't understood why, gleaning things only from the internet and from all the things her parents chose not to tell her or her sister, instead hiding and whispering behind doors. Even those scraps hadn't been enough and very quickly she had resigned herself to accepting that she would never understand.

And then the mail had arrived.

Most of it was generic letters, bills and advertisements that felt like they were from a completely different world, an ordinary world where she would be hearing birdsongs and breeze and traffic rather than sirens and screaming. But one envelope was thick enough to be considered a slim parcel instead and made of thicker paper with a very familiar seal and logo stamped on it. When she had first noticed that, the first thing she'd done was look up to see if her mother or sister would come to see what the sound was, but neither of them emerged. So she had left the other letters on the small stool by the door, tucked the thick one up her hoodie and high-tailed it back to her room, where she was supposed to be studying .

(studying for what, exactly, she did not know)

And now she was still there, in her room, sitting on the bed and using an envelope opener-from a generically girly stationery set that the same lost person had given her for her birthday-to prise open the flap before sticking her hand in. Surprised to feel a slightly crimpled sheet of paper, she withdrew her hand to see that she was indeed holding onto a crumpled pile of paper. Repeating the process then gave her a notebook with more sheets inside, another notebook and then finally two folded letters. Looking them over, she matched the handwriting of some of the crumpled sheets to the ones that were bursting out of one of the notebooks, but she didn't recognise that handwriting. Not sure she was ready to outright read them, she shoved those loose sheets back inside said notebook, then picked up the other to see if she recognised that.

And when she did, it took her breath away.

"But…what is all of this…?"

She set the notebook aside slowly, too slowly. Then, carefully she picked up one of the folded letters, the one that was on thicker paper. The logo at the top gave her a moment to relax and then she looked at the words and once again, her breath was stolen from her.

….final words, ordered to not look…

…given the contents, I thought it would be best for you to see first…

…decide how best to proceed given the reputation of the family…

"Oh…."

The girl sighed, and whispered the name of her lost person into the air before asking aloud:

"Just what did you do?"

She knew that she could not give this to her parents, at least not yet. They surely would bury it as fast as possible, wouldn't even let her look at it. Maybe that would be best in the end, but how would any of them know it if she didn't read the words? Whatever happened, she knew it'd be easier if she at least knew, if she had something to explain what had happened, and what role her lost person had to play in the way things were now.

She got up and crept to the door, listening carefully to see if her mother or her sister were coming down the corridor, but she didn't hear a thing. So, she went back to her bed, scooped up the sheets and took them to her desk, where she could easily hide them within a textbook or folder if need be.

Then, she selected one of the notebooks, and started to read.