Chapter 2: We meet again

Michael Hyde glared suspiciously at the crashed cars in front of him… From his investigation and chase, he could determine that those were the cars the kids used to move around… But something was not right… He counted three cars and three dead Despairs in them… Just that was weird on its own.

After a year of hunting among those freaks, Michael understood that they had more fun by having one person drive and the rest of the group out the windows to throw projectiles, rising the risks of their deaths but also the terror of their victims…

So it didn't make sense for three Despairs to use three cars…

This crash scene was fabricated… Maybe by the kids? Possible.

Now all he needed was to find where they were, thankfully, the cars and the scene had all the clues he needed. First of all, there was dirt on the wheels, freshly drenched with blood. Which means it was rather recent, and since there weren't any traces of an actual bloody fight in the surrounding area, it was evident that the blood and dirt wasn't from here.

Then, the wheel traces were the ones he was tracking down and were coming from outside the city, from a field he knew wasn't far.

The Ultimate Hunter took out his map and analyzed what was on the road the cars took… nothing much, just destroyed fields…

The hunt was getting more and more interesting, and Michael loved it.

-Naegi Makoto-

Day 1

Naegi Makoto took a deep breath, he never thought he'd be an employee for Lobotomy again… He looked around the large main room, the clerk employees were working around to keep the place steady, not a single abnormality worker in sight. He really was all alone for the first day.

But not that it was problematic, there was only one abnormality in the facility on Day 1 after all. And it was the most docile of all: One Sin and a Hundred of Good Deeds, the giant skull.

Naegi smiled awkwardly, he wondered how his Abnormality acquaintances would react at seeing him again… Especially Red or Beast after he promised them that he wouldn't come back…

He took another breath and waved at the camera, signaling that he was ready for work. But after a whole minute, nothing happened.

"Oh right! Some things have changed in that regard." a voice came out of his pocket.

The Luckster grabbed the tablet that was handed to him like for all Abnormality workers, on the screen was a display of Malkuth.

"Hello, Naegi Makoto! You remembered waving to a camera to signal the Manager that you are ready to work. Well now it's no longer like that. The Manager decides himself when you need to work."

"O-Oh. Yeah that's different alright. But why didn't I get my first task yet?" he asked the AI.

"Oh that's probably because every first day of a new cycle, the Manager has to get comfortable with his surroundings." Malkuth explained.

"Why? Shouldn't he already know how everything works after many cycles?"

"Hm… I don't know. Oh here's your first task!"

'Consensus work with One Sin and a Hundred of Good deeds'

Naegi noted that there wasn't a task number anymore. The head of the Control Department asked him if he remembered the room of the Abnormality and he nodded, from what he understood, Onesin was always situated in the same place, no matter how many times the Facility restarted a cycle.

As he walked towards the chamber, he looked at the map on his tablet, all other departments were closed. And as he started thinking about what he heard from his discussion with Malkuth, his brain went all 'detective mode' as he started to list a few questions that piqued his curiosity as they didn't sound very right with him.

He'll talk about this with his friends at the end of the day. Right now he has a job to do.

He entered the room and was greeted with a familiar image and sensation of dread.

The giant skull melded with a big and heavy looking cross bounded by a thorn crown was definitely an intimidating sight. Naegi already met the creature a year and so ago and he thought he'd never forget the slight terror when seeing this.

The skull was floating at the other end of the room, despite not having facial features or eyeballs, Onesin looked like it was bored, looking forwards but not focused on anything.

That is until Naegi let out a small cough to get its attention.

The skull turned towards him and after a few seconds of silence, and a weak 'hi' from Naegi, it rushed towards him, teeth clattering at high speed, seemingly distressed.

Naegi could only scratch his chin in embarrassment.

"Hehe. I know you must be confused as to why I am back… But let me explain…"

He explained some part of what has been happening, the same way he was used to when he did his internship.

The Abnormality, despite having no expression, seemed uncomfortable with the idea of Naegi and his friends getting to work 'officially' for Lobotomy, but there was nothing they could do about it…

Sooner than expected, the doors opened up behind the Luckster, signaling him that the job was done and it was time to leave.

But before he left, Onesin shook its head and a little halo of light appeared over the young man's head. When the light dissipated, there was a red crown of thorn on top of Naegi's head.

"A-A gift? Already?" he said, surprised, "Thank you, Onesin! I'll see you later!" he beamed and waved at the Abnormality who nodded in return.

He walked out of the chamber, feeling refreshed. And not even ten steps out, he already got a new task, the same one.

Well, it was to be expected: only one Abnormality and one employee.

The first day wasn't long and was a success for the Luckster.

"Angela did you see that?!" Malkuth exclaimed, staring at the screen with her one eye.

"See what exactly?" the humanoid AI asked, eyes slightly opened, that was new… Hopefully not bad.

"One Sin and a Hundred of Good Deeds gave Naegi Makoto a gift! On the first day and work! I don't think it ever happened before!"

"It could very well be linked to him being the Ultimate Lucky Student. Nothing very impressive." Angela sighed and was ready to head back to the Administrator's office.

"I… I don't think it's that. I've read the files about his internship. I think… I think Administrator J was right."

"Naegi!"

"Guys!" the Luckster smiled as he saw his friends waiting for him in the resting area, "How did it go?"

The first to answer him was Sayaka who pretty much jumped on him for a hug before examining his body for any wounds with Mukuro assisting her. Then the swimmer of the group approached.

"I can't believe you went through this for an entire week, Naegi!" Asahina exclaimed, looking a bit worried, surprisingly.

"I still find it hard to believe, despite all the evidence, that Lobotomy would choose you over someone like me for an internship here, especially with all the danger…" Togami scoffed to the side.

Naegi asked if it was difficult and Mondo reassured that the training itself wasn't very hard but the idea that they would be dealing with worse creatures was pretty terrifying.

"So does that mean you are able to work now?" the Luckster asked his friends.

"Not all of them. Some of you need more training." a female voice joined the conversation.

Naegi turned towards the source and saw 'someone' he didn't recognize before. She was a robot that was very similar to Malkuth but it was made of two bronze-colored boxes on top of eachother, with a single digital glowing orange eye in the center of the lower part of the body. Her name was displayed at the top of the upper part: 'Hod', and an antenna-like protrusion stuck up from the very top, resembling an ahoge, like Naegi's. The body possessed mechanical arms and legs. Her legs were connected to a cylindrical piece below the body.

"Sorry, I didn't present myself. I am Hod, a Sephirah, and head of the Training Team. Nice to meet you." Hod bowed and extended her hand towards Naegi who gripped it for a handshake.

"Same here, Hod-san." he smiled.

"I have to say, it's the first time I've been awake before my scheduled Department opening. And I'm glad that my lessons can be useful for once since all workers here already have experience before the start of the cycles."

"Miss Hod, did you come to tell us who has to continue training?" Yamada asked politely.

"Right, so the list goes-"

"Kirigiri-san, Naegi whispered to the detective, pulling her away from the group, "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Day 8

"Oh Naegi. Was expecting you in the main room." Connor said, dusting off his shoulders from spiders after his work with the Spider Bud.

"Mc-ilton-san. Yeah, the Administrator stationed me in this corridor." Naegi said to his mentor he was wearing a black suit and tie with red shirt accompanied with a dark coat with golden borders, the EGO Armor was known as 'Hornet'.

"That's the Forsaken… Let me guess, it's about to happen again?"

"Apparently, it's the third time in one day." Naegi sighed.

The veteran employee let out a small chuckle.

"I have to say though, I didn't expect to be transferred from one Department to the other as soon as it opened."

"Ah don't worry about that. It happens to every 'first employee'." Connor explained.

He then added that as the cycle goes day by day, stronger and more dangerous Abnormalities are added to the facility so it's better for higher level employees to get transferred and work on them. And usually the higher levels are the ones who've been alive the longest without extending.

Before any of them could add another word to continue this conversation, the Chamber door in the hallway opened up abruptly and Leon Kuwata jumped out, looking pissed as blood was dripping from his head. He was wearing a white lab jacket, with its bottom covered in blood stains. Underneath it, the shirt he was wearing was gray with a pair of buttons, holding a red tie, and had white pants with gray shoes.

"Shit! Fuck! Damnit!" the baseball star cursed as he cleaned up the blood from his face.

"Leon, are you okay?!" Naegi exclaimed, worried at seeing his blood dripping.

"Did you mess up?" Connor asked, unimpressed.

"I think, but it's not my fault! I swear that thing just hates me!" Leon complained.

"I told you not to dodge his headbutts when feeding him." the older man sighed, "It'll just make him mad."

Leon was about to complain some more but loud bangs were heard from the room he just came out of. He quickly got on his feet.

"I believe you two can take care of this? He's a TETH level and you should know how to deal with breaching by now. Plus I just got a new task." Connor asked.

"Yeah yeah, we got this…" Leon sighed as pulled out his EGO weapon from under his coat, a large hammer.

The head of the hammer looked like a white fluffy ball but had multiple mouths with red teeth and green matter inside, like saliva protruding from it, this EGO weapon was known as: 'Lantern'. The redhead young man always felt distrubed by looking at it.

He then saw Naegi pull out a dual pistol weapon of white and black color respectively, with a butterfly design on each one, 'Solemn Lamment'.

It's a bit unfair how they don't get to choose their own weapon, he would have prefered something that he could use like a baseball bat.

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Naegi said.

"Alright then, don't die. I'll see you later." Connor waved and walked out of the corridor.

As if on cue, as soon as he was out of eye sight, the door of the Abnormality opened and out of it came out the Forsaken Murderer, crawling on his knees and his head wrapped in metal, heavy looking bandages. He turned towards the two Ultimates and rushed at them, head banging on the floor, ready to kill them.

Leon and Naegi both jumped to either side of the Abnormality, the Luckster already firing his guns at the monster while the Baseball player prepared a swing. He raised the hammer up and then back down with full force on the back of the Abnormality.

The Forsaken Murderer let out a painful groan from the hit and counter attacked with a swing of his body, striking Leon to the side, sending him flying at the other end of the corridor.

"Leon! Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, thank god for those armors." Leon sighed as he stood back up, he frowned in focus for the fight that wasn't over.

The giant in the straight jacket let out a roar in anger as he crawled towards Leon for another hit but the latter dodged and hit him again with 'Lantern' in an upper swing then hit the Abnormality again with a thrust, throwing the monster backward.

"Finish him off Naegi!"

"On it!"

Naegi aimed the pistols at the monster trying to stand back up but after a few dozen rounds of quick bullet, the Forsaken Murderer died and disappeared in a cloud of smoke, now returning to its chamber, soon ready to get more work.

The two Ultimates let out a collective sigh.

"Heh, we're starting to get the hang of things, don't we?" Leon said with a big grin, "Good job there, Naegs!" he threw a thumbs up towards his friend but lowered it when he noticed how he wasn't as cheerful as him, "Hey, you okay?"

He wasn't, how could he?

Naegi looked down on the two pistols, he really was getting used to the feeling of having a weapon in his hands and using them… It was almost like Laser Tag laser pistols but those were real… Maybe that's why he's so… calm in using guns. But even so…

Even when escaping the Despair on the Outside, despite being armed, he never used it… But here he was, using more dangerous weapons to kill monsters, he thought that it was because they were EGO weapons that he was so relaxed in using them, he noticed that with his friends too, even though they had no experience in using those kind of weapons, the moment they wield them, it's like they knew all along how to use them…

But those guns did WHITE and BLACK damage, he knew one day he'll have to use them against his own co-workers if they ever panic…

He was worried that once all this ends, he would change…

Naegi walked into the chamber, feeling rather excited, he was finally getting the chance to meet again another Abnormality he bonded with during his internship.

"Good to see you again, Miss."

The Abnormality turned around and looked very surprised with its thousands eyes widening at the same time, looking at the young employee over and over again to be sure she wasn't dreaming.

"Naegi Makoto… You're back." Beauty and Beast said with its many voices, "Despite my warnings."

"Y-yeah… Things happened that made me come back…"

The strange quadrupedal creature let out a sigh, "You can tell me everything while washing me." she said as she laid down on her dark belly, "Tell me everything."

Naegi smiled, he remembered that Beauty and Beast was an Abnormality that wanted to die so it can give the curse to the next employee so she would often ask for death. But he somehow bonded with the depressed creature when cleaning her and talking despite not being a social Abnormality. And yet, here she was asking for him to talk as soon as they met again and not once asking to die yet.

"Oh. Before I forget." The creature said, "Welcome back, Naegi."

She couldn't smile because of her deformed monster face, but Naegi could tell by the voice that she would be smiling if she could.

"Thank you. So," he grabbed the scrub brush, "Where should I start?"

Day 17

Naegi and Mukuro were rushing down as fast as they could toward the lower hallway of the Training Department, where Chihiro was suppressing the Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom all alone.

"Chihiro!" Naegi shouted as he barged in the hallway, the scenery in front of him halting his advance.

A trail of dead clerks were behind the Abnormality, each of them looked like they were sucked dry, their eyes socket empty, cheeks hollow and head twisted to the side.

The Abnormality was a giant Scarecrow wearing a red shirt with white stripes with an exposed torso, an orange bowtie with white circles on its neck, and blue overalls with the belts not attached. It also had hands that were a metal rake and a scythe. It had blood stains on the tools and some parts of its clothes. Its head had empty black eyes and a stitched smile, with the upper half missing.

But most importantly, it was attacking the young Programmer who, despite wearing the 'Pleasure' EGO armor: a suit of light yellow shirt and sleeves, black tie, green suit and pants covered in thorns, with a red flower on the front, resembling the head of the Abnormality from whom the EGO was extracted from: Porccubus; and armed with the Ice spear EGO weapon from the Snow Queen 'Frost Splinter', was clearly injured and near mental exhaustion, he was about to panic. And yet they weren't fighting back, just barely dodging the monster's attacks.

"CHIHIRO!" Naegi screamed and aimed the pistols at the Abnormality.

But then Mukuro dashed full speed before him and jumped to deliver a powerful kick to the monster's side, sending it crashing to the floor.

She was wearing the 'Green Stem' armor, a green suit and back tie with a red jacket with most of the armor covered in vines.

Mukuro Ikusaba was a wonder to everyone in the Facility as she was dual wielding weapons: on one hand she had her personal Combat Knife from her time at Fenrir which despite not being an EGO weapon, was still capable to severely injure Abnormalities, and on the other she was wielding the EGO katana: 'Life for a Daredevil'.

"Naegi-kun, take care of Fujisaki!" she ordered as she got on an offensive stance while glaring at the Scarecrow slowly standing back up.

The Luckster nodded and ran towards his friend, helping them up.

"Are you okay…?" he asked.

But Chihiro only apologized.

Naegi didn't know what to say… It's been a bit more than two weeks already and he could tell that the petite programmer was one of the Ultimates with the most trouble to settle their mind in doing this pretty much forced job.

Fujisaki Chihiro was one of the sweetest and most innocent person he knew, he remembers that they wouldn't even hurt a mosquito… And yet here they were, thrown into another place where they have to fight to survive, but this time they really had no choice, or else they'll stay a X-key forever…

Naegi looked over his shoulder, Mukuro was destroying the scarecrow with that katana, after all, it dealt PALE damage, which made this weapon one of the most dangerous around.

"I'm sorry…" he heard Chihiro whisper next to him once again.

Naegi didn't know what to say right now, so instead he just patted their back, hoping it would make the Programmer feel better.

Day 18

The next Day, Naegi was pretty excited, he finally was transferred to the Safety Department, and now he was going to meet again another Abnormality he can call a friend.

He already knew how happy she would be to see him.

He walked through the opened door and greeted with a smile.

"Hello Laetitia!"

"... Makoto? MAKOTO!" the little lolita doll exclaimed and rushed to him, jumping in his arms, almost breaking them and a couple of ribs at the same time if it wasn't for the armor.

"Oof!"

"I missed you so much!" she exclaimed again, a small smile on her face as she jumped up and down.

Just as he remembered, every movement of hers would bring headaches to the Luckster. Black damage was really a pain.

But he smiled nonetheless.

"Are you staying here for good? Will you come back to see me and play more often now?" Laetitia asked, voice slightly trembling, "No one here was as fun as you were…"

"It's not really my choice… But I'm working for Lobotomy now. So I'm sure we'll see each other more often!" Naegi smiled brightly, "And I have my friends with me!"

"Your friends from school?"

"That's right! I'm sure you'll meet them and like them! They are all very funny! At least… most of them are. But one of them I'm sure will love your clothes!"

"Really?!"

"Yep! Alright, it's time to work now." Naegi said while petting the small Abnormality's head before walking to the cabinet, "Which fairytale would you like me to read?"

"I wanna read a manga!" she exclaimed, raising her arms excitedly.

"...What?"

Day 24

"What are you DOING HERE?!" The Red Riding Hooded Mercenary yelled as soon as she recognized the young Luckster walking in her containment chamber.

She grabbed him by the collar and raised him up for him to be a bit above eye level with her easily.

"Aah! Wait! Miss Red! Please! I can explain!"

"I told you not to come back! Even with the Extend Machine, this place is way too dangerous for you!" she roared in his face.

"I-I know but so-something happened! Let me explain!"

Red slowly lowered the Luckster to the ground, but she didn't let go of him.

"Alright… You can explain while we clean."

As the two of them started cleaning Red's room, Naegi told her about everything going outside, from the Tragedy to the Despair, to the Killing Game and Mukuro saving everyone.

Upon hearing Mukuro's feats, the Red Mercenary understood that the girl he was talking about must be the Fenrir scum… Her blood started to boil for a bit and it seemed that the Luckster noticed her anger as he stopped talking.

"Continue… I am calm…" she said.

He nodded and finished his story, about being attracted towards the Facility he spent his internship.

"This is weird… Shouldn't you not know about the emplacement of the old Facility?"

"I… I know… I didn't know… And yet something was telling me to go there. Somehow, I even kind of forgot how dangerous Lobotomy would be for our group! It doesn't make sense…"

"Hmmm… I hope I'm wrong… But…" Red stopped there, she didn't know many creatures who could bend reality on some level… That escape button was way too convenient, even with his luck this shouldn't be so easy. Then there was the survival, leading to the Facility…

He was guiding his friends but who could be guiding him? Honestly, only one creature could have the balls to do something like this… Whi-

"But what?" Naegi interrupted her thoughts with a question.

"Nothing… Nevermind… I'll tell you another time." she sighed.

The Luckster was about to press for more information but the doors opened behind him.

"Time for you to go." was all she said, the young man walked towards the exit but she suddenly called him, "Wait, here."

Red threw something at him and he managed to grab it when it reached him, it was another one of her masks.

"I know that when dying here, you lose all your gifts from us. So here's a new one. Try not to die too much, Naegi." she said with a smirk hidden underneath her own mask.

Looks like despite her first outburst earlier, she was actually glad to see him alive and well.

The Day ended in the middle of an accident with Queen Bee releasing spores and infecting many employees, Naegi was one of the lucky ones to not get contaminated during the fight.

He always wondered what happened when the day ended in the middle of a breach or a fight. Seems like the answer was that secret doors that open up near the fights so the Employees who aren't panicked can escape through.

He also wondered what happened to the breaching Abnormalities… Connor told him that there might be a gas leak to kill all of them and send them back to their chamber, but Pauline is certain that the Rabbit Team is doing the cleaning.

Naegi didn't know and never really thought about asking the Abnormality themselves… Since most of the ones that are still out at the end of a Day are the most dangerous ones, level WAW or ALEPH.

He shook his head, there were more important things to do, some of his friends got infected, which meant they died when a Worker Bee bursted from their chest… He hoped that they already got Extended.

He entered the cafeteria and was surprised not to see many people there.

Pauline waved at him when she saw him before going back to her discussion with another employee, a tall man wearing a strange black glass robot looking mask with pointy tips for hair and only one eye visible, wearing an EGO suit that looked like the Red Mercenary's clothes despite the fact that it wasn't necessary to be wearing EGO suit outside working hours. Naegi didn't remember his name but if Pauline is talking to him, he must be nice.

But that wasn't what surprised him the most, it was a group of classmates he never expected to see sitting at the same table and discussing together: Mondo, Togami and Hifumi.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Naegi greeted his friends.

"Yo, dude." Mondo responded

"Hm." The blonde Heir nodded.

"Good evening, Mister Naegi." Hifumi smiled.

"What's going on? It's rare to see you three together like this."

"Well, it was unavoidable after today's disaster." Togami sighed in an annoyed tone despite Mondo's glare at his direction and Yamada looking away.

"You mean the Bee accident? Doesn't look like you guys got infected."

"We're fine, but since it seems we'll be stuck together for more days in the same department, it's time to think of a strategy so the three of us survive. We were dealing with those two insufferable robots Abnormality. The tiny white one and the Lock one…. What were their names again?" Togami started to explain.

"All-Around-Helper and Schadenfreude." Hifumi reminded him.

"If it was only one of those fuckers, I'm sure we could have dealt with them easy." Mondo grumbled.

"Oh I know that, what annoys me was that the Manager was an idiot for looking at the lock during the Breach. And while we were all focused with those two Abnormalities the Worker Bees crawled up behind us and took us by surprise. The clerks of our department were too busy dealing with the robots too so they didn't see the Bees coming either…"

"Dang, that sounds terrifying."

"That's why we're thinking of a way for at least one of us in the middle of the fight to check behind us for any trouble." Mondo added.

"Yeah that sounds smart enough."

"Thank you, all Co-op fights should have some strategy to be sure to not get surrounded, all time… Which is why I'm deeply ashamed for having failed so miserably to keep my teammates safe." Yamada said, hanging his head low.

"Meh! Don't worry about it, dude. At least be glad that your 'big body' attracted the Bees towards you who was the least injured. When they hit you and you screamed it alerted us. I'm sure if it was someone frail asour rich boy here, he would have died and another one of those Bees would have been raised from his guts." Mondo grinned and punched the Otaku's on the shoulder a bit harder than he should have.

"What did you just say? Also, since when are you using metaphors?"

"Taka makes me read books before sleep." Mondo blushed.

"Oh yeah, where are the others?" Naegi asked, remembering why he entered the cafeteria in the first place.

"Gloomy Glasses is over there, stalking blondie as always." Mondo pointed at a corner of the cafeteria.

"I think Fujisaki is at the Training Department again with Miss Ikusaba, Oogami and Asahina." Yamada said, "Oh and Miss Ludenberg is in her room, waiting for me for our daily Model drawing sessions." he added, ignoring Mondo's whistling to him in a crude manner.

"I'm sure Kirigiri is at the library, looking for any information about Lobotomy, as usual." Togami said with a huff.

"Taka was one of the infected today, I dunno if they Extended him yet." Mondo said in a somber tone, "... I'll go check his room after."

"Now that I think about it, Kuwata and the other moron (Hiro) were also casualties, those Bees really invaded the whole facility."

"Yes… Sayaka too. I'll go see if the dead have extended yet. See you guys for dinner?" Naegi asked before leaving.

"As usual." Togami smirked, Mondo raised a thumb up while Yamada nodded.

"Alright, see you later!" The Luckster smiled and left the cafeteria to the Extend Machine Containment Chamber.

Just as he was about to enter the chamber, he saw Sayaka walk out.

"Maizono-san!" he called out with a small sprint towards her.

"Oh, Naegi-kun!" she smiled at him.

He reached her and started asking questions about how she was doing but she cut him.

"Can we go to your room…?" she asked.

"Are you okay…?"

"I got my head ripped apart from my body for a giant Bee to sprout off of my body… And yet, I don't feel particularly upset about it… I just want to rest." she said.

"Of course, sure."

As they walked to his room, she grabbed his hand and rested her head on his shoulder. It wasn't looking very romantic from anyone who would see them, it looked like two close friends comforting each other from a harsh moment.

Day 30

'This is bad, so very bad!' Naegi thought as he was clutching his head from the very heavy migraine he was feeling rampaging in his head.

He looked on his left, Kirigiri was on the ground, holding her head with her two gloved hands, she was trying to keep her expression as neutral as possible like she always do but the twitching of her eyes and mouth were proof that she was having a lot of trouble keeping her sanity.

On his right, Sayaka was in the same state but she wasn't hiding it, she kept panting heavily, trying to her best to at least not scream out loud.

He looked around him, pink petals and leaves decorating the Yellow Hallway in a beautiful mess. There were also half a dozen human statues of petals and leaves: the clerks and other employees, he was sure at least one was a classmate but he couldn't differentiate much between each statue.

And in front of him, the culprit of this dire situation: Alriune.

The giant six legged, human faced, porcelain pink horse doll was staring at Naegi, her huge smile with pink flowers coming out of it like some sort of curtain plastered on her face. She stared at Naegi as she silently charged her blast of petal wind, ready to finish off the trio of Ultimates with heavy White Damage.

Naegi thought about what was happening… He was in the Disciplinary Department, Alriune escaped after he did a good work, which meant that she was one of the most annoying Abnormalities to take care of. She escaped by teleporting in random Hallways in the Facility… And eventually appeared in the Central Command Department, where Sayaka and Kirigiri were walking back from work. He was tasked with some other workers to suppress the Abnormality.

By the time he arrived the damage was already done. He arrived at the moment she unleashed her attack, taking the hit in the face.

And here they were, about to panic and Alriune about to unleash a second attack…

He put his hands on his two friends' shoulders to reassure them before the end, he didn't hear them shout his name as he rushed forwards and fired his two guns at the Abnormality, only for her to attack back.

And then, everything was pink and beautiful. He couldn't move but all he could see and feel was fluffy pink flowers, he closed his eyes, everything was beautiful and calm.

He was covered in a sheet of pink petals and green leaves, a small petal crown was adoring his head.

He was calm, he was relaxed.

He was standing, he was still.

He was silent, he was dead.

But it didn't matter to him much when he'd get Extended at the end of the day. It wasn't the first time Naegi Makoto died in the Facility.

It was the fourth cycle since he and his friends arrived in Lobotomy, and he only died three times in total if you don't count the first incident with Big Bird.

He was just glad that this time it was a rather calm death compared to the more brutal ends that he'll experience until they finally reach the end of Day 50, whenever that will happen.

Day 30, Cycle 4 S.A (Since Arrival) - End for Naegi Makoto

To be continued…

Baka's notes: I'm BACK! Moving went well, now it's time to look for a job, and while I do that I'll be writting and drawing and playing!

So as you can see, things will be tense for the Ultimates. Each chapter will focus on a different kid (Naegi will be focused at least two or three times) through multiple days and cycles, and each will end with a Death. Hope you like this idea!
Next up, next chapter of Spider Hope then Library of Ruina's first chapter!