Author's Note: Sorry I haven't updated in a while. A lot has happened, from the final three weeks of this semester, getting writer's block with the second half of this chapter, getting distracted by finally getting a PS5, and Lostbelt 5 part 1 getting released in FGO. I've been pretty busy. But now that the semester is over now, I can get back into writing again, or at least try to (nervous laughter...). I hope you all enjoy this chapter. The next one will come out later since I've just finished it as well.


"This sucks…" I mumbled as I laid on my bed while staring blankly at the ceiling. I went back to my room after what happened in the dining hall, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. Of course I couldn't. I essentially broke my relationship to one of the people I trusted most in this entire game. Kaito. What I said probably hurt him...but he hurt me too! We're friends, and he even calls me one of his sidekicks! How come he can't trust me with this? Why can't any of them trust me with this?

I sighed again as I got up from my bed. I can't keep moping around. I need to keep at it. There's always something to do, after all. What Rantaro said… I have to check the boiler room myself. Now that I think about it, the greenery in that room was also lessened a lot compared to when we first got here. I haven't even checked to see if that 'twins b' message actually exists. Well, not that I really have to, what with Foresight and all, but I should still go and see if the message has changed, like with the 'horse a' message. So I got up and walked out of the dormitories, not running into anyone as I made my way to the boiler room once again. Once inside, I immediately started looking around for the message. While the greenery had been cleaned up a bit compared to day one, the boiler room still had a lot of plants covering the walls and floors. Guess this place isn't exactly a main priority for the cubs compared to the rest of the school.

I searched around for a bit before finally finding the message behind some plants on the wall. 'Twins b'. Nothing's changed with it. So this message doesn't have another hidden meaning behind it like 'horse a' then? Or is this implying something else? This message is still really hidden compared to 'horse a', which Gonta found easily. No one aside from Rantaro and I know about this, at least as far as I know. Since this is so hidden, I guess it makes sense that there isn't any need for there to be any more meaning to it. But what does that mean for 'horse a', it's partner message? Hmm… I'll have to keep an eye on both messages, it seems.

"I figured you would check this place out after I brought it up this morning. It's strange, isn't it? How it hasn't changed like the other message?" I turned around to see Rantaro entering the boiler room, his expression still calm and collected somehow.

"Of course I would come. We're the only ones who know this even exists, so when you implied that there might have been a change here, I had to see for myself." I told him as I looked back at the message. "Still, the fact that it hasn't changed makes me wonder about a lot of things."

"Agreed. It's certainly suspicious. What are these messages even for?" Rantaro questioned as he moved next to me to look at the writing on the wall as well. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that as I turned to him. He was still acting like he always does, which was throwing me off after what had just happened.

"Why are you acting so...friendly and calm around me?" I eventually asked him.

"Hm? Aren't we friends? Even if I don't fully agree with some of your actions or what you want to do, that doesn't mean I don't trust you anymore or that we're not friends now." His words made my eyes widen with surprise. He then turned to me and gave me an apologetic look. "When I came here this morning, I was surprised by the tunnel being blocked. I thought you were trying to make us accept that we would have to live here forever, but I should've known that you wouldn't do something like this without a good reason. You're one of the smart people here, and you've always had good intentions. I shouldn't have doubted you."

"I… Thank you. For telling me that, I mean." I responded, before sighing. "At least I know one person outside the council trusts me still."

"Oh I don't know about that. They might not agree with what you're doing, but they still trust you. To an extent at least." Rantaro told me. I frowned at that, not fully believing his words.

"Yeah right…" I mumbled.

"You don't have to believe me if you don't want to, but at least trust me when I say they're just worried about you." Rantaro tried to tell me before running his hand through his lime green hair. "So, while you're here, I want to talk for a bit. We haven't just chatted in what feels like forever. We're always talking about the killing game, so why don't we talk about other things right now." I thought about it before giving him a small smile and a nod.

"That does sound nice." I told him.

"Then why don't we leave this place and find somewhere nicer for us to have a chat?" Rantaro suggested. So, we left the boiler room and searched for an area where we could have a nice conversation. We eventually settled on hanging out in the library so no one would bother us. "So have you remembered anything that might be related to your talent?" He asked me.

"No, unfortunately. I've remembered things, but what my talent is still eludes me." I sighed. "Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I have remembered things that relate to my talent. Who knows? Maybe I'm actually the Ultimate Unlucky Student."

"That's not a very pleasant talent." Rantaro gave a chuckle before giving a curious look. "What makes you think that's your talent?"

"Well, I've remembered a lot of good things, but a lot of things I've remembered seem to be more bad than good. On top of that, I was kidnapped and put into a killing game, along with being forced to forget everything about myself. All that seems pretty unlucky to me."

"I suppose, though I'm not sure you're unlucky enough for it to be an Ultimate. A lot of good has happened to you, right?"

"Yeah, but still…" I mumbled before shaking my head. "It'd be nice if all this misfortune could just be summed down to bad luck. It would make things much more simple. Though that would also leave a bad taste in my mouth." I sighed at that again.

"You sigh a lot, y'know." Rantaro jokingly said. "Are you sure you're okay? This morning, and even the past few days, you've looked tired. Have you been getting enough sleep?"

"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about it." I told him dismissively. "I'm just a bit stressed these days. There's a lot to do and not enough time."

"And what is it you're working on? Is it council stuff?"

"You could say that. I'm just making sure I have my bases covered. I need to make sure I do everything I can to end this game, or at least my best to prevent a death."

"You keep saying that. How come you're so desperate to protect us? You mentioned that you don't have any reason to escape because this academy is your world, and that you don't have anyone else other than us. But haven't you remembered things from before the killing game? Like friends or family?" I looked down when he asked that, not wanting to look him in the eyes. I don't want any pity.

"...That doesn't matter." I told him. "Whether I remember people important to me or not, that doesn't change the fact that right now, this is the only world that I know, and you're the only people in my life that I can truly say are important to me right now. Everything else is an uncertainty, so I want to protect what I know is real in my life." I looked back at him after that. "What about you? You still want to escape so you can find your sisters, right? I...can't imagine what that must feel like." Rantaro frowned at that as he gave a slow nod.

"...Yeah. I do want to escape as soon as possible to make sure my sisters are safe." He then sighed. "However, I know my sisters wouldn't want me to sacrifice my friends for them. So I have to be patient. I can't do anything reckless just because I want to see them again. Besides, if I go and do something reckless, you and Shuichi are sure to see through anything I do to try to cover it up."

"You have a lot of confidence in us." I noted.

"You both have found and cornered two blackeneds already. I think it's fair to say you guys are our trump cards in the trials."

"I'd rather not be a trump card for trials of all things." I gave a dry chuckle. "I'd rather be like Kaede, Kaito, or Angie. I'd rather be useful outside the class trial and help bring people together and motivate them."

"But aren't you already doing that? You're the president of the student council after all."

"Yeah, but the whole idea was Angie's, and she was the one who suggested I be the president in the first place. I'm no leader, and I'm no hero. I'm not the same natural-born leader Kaede is, and I'm not someone who can help someone overcome their struggles like Kaito. I can't even help give people hope like Angie can." I chuckled a little as I rubbed the back of my neck. "If I'm honest, I'm only flying by the seat of my pants. I don't know how I've made it this far or why a lot of you guys trust me so much. I haven't done anything worthy of it."

"You say that, but you've saved a lot of lives, mine included. I'd say that's worthy of trust. You shouldn't blame yourself when something out of your control happens. We're only human. We can only do so much."

"Yeah...don't I know it. Even with my newfound confidence, I still constantly question my actions. I'm starting to think that nothing I do is the right way to go about this. That no matter what I do I'll fail in some way." I groaned. "But I can't be indecisive. Even if I'm unsure, I have to force myself to be confident and take action. I can't keep doubting what action I should take, because I'd get nothing done otherwise. I guess that's why I'm doing everything I'm doing right now." I then looked at Rantaro with a curious look. "What would you do if it were you? You're always so calm, I find it hard to imagine you really stressing out over this."

"On the contrary, I don't think I'd be able to hold such a position. I don't think I would be so confident with myself or the people around me to do it." Rantaro stated. "That's actually why I think Angie wanted you to be the president of the council. If Angie was the president, I think people would be much more upset, since even now they think she's manipulating everyone on the council. Well, everyone except you. You've made it clear you aren't being manipulated by anyone, and that you're making your decisions based on your own logic and reasoning. You try to be as fair as possible when making decisions, for the council and for us. That's why you're still holding yourself and the other council members accountable with the rules too even though you could have chosen not to, right? You're more willing to consider other people's opinions than some others. Even if you don't ask us directly, you take us into consideration when you do something. That's why you attempted the underground passage before blocking it. You wanted to make sure there was no reason anyone should be down there at risk of being injured if there was no reason to. You're a better leader than you give yourself credit for."

"R-Really?" I asked him, surprised he said that.

"Yeah. At least that's what I think." Rantaro nodded.

"...Thanks. I appreciate it." I told him with a soft smile. "It's funny. We wanted to talk about something other than the killing game and just ended up talking about what's going on in the killing game right now."

"Haha, you're right. Funny how that works, huh?" Rantaro laughed. "But it makes sense. The killing game is so closely tied to everything, I guess we can't not talk about it sometimes."

"Yeah. It's funny, though. We still don't know what this killing game even is. That's still completely hidden to us." I noted.

"True. It's all so mysterious. I can't help but speculate about it." Rantaro nodded. "What's your theory about this so far?"

"Don't know. There's both too much and too little information on multiple different things to really come up with anything concrete." I sighed. "Then there's the fact we have to take everything with a grain of salt, and now there's multiple possibilities for what this could be. Experiments, some sort of sick punishment, who knows?"

"Now those are theories I haven't even thought of." Rantaro exclaimed with curiosity and surprise. "What made you think about those possibilities?"

"Well, this might be a school, but that could just be a cover for it's true intentions. The school does have 'Ultimate Research Labs' and has been under renovation since we've gotten here. It wouldn't be far fetched to assume this used to actually be a research center of some kind focused on Ultimates. Whether it was where the Ultimates helped learn more about their talents and worked harder on them or if researchers studied Ultimates as they worked on their talents, I don't know. There's even the possibility that this killing game is a part of the experiment, testing how Ultimates react to 'certain stimuli'." Rantaro and I shuddered at the awful thought.

"And the punishment theory?"

"This place is called 'The Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles'. That implies the students, us, are juveniles. A lot of people here fit that mold already, actually, so perhaps all of us did something bad and this is our punishment. Perhaps that's the reason the Ultimate Hunt was trying to capture you guys."

"But what about you? If that's the case, why would the Ultimate Hunt catch you? You said there's a possibility that they weren't after you, right?"

"Yeah, that's why it's just a theory. I still can't work out all the kinks for any of them." I sighed. "There's so much conflicting information, all of which bring up many different possibilities, but at the same time there's too little information to support any of those theories fully. Thus is our dilemma." I let my head droop at the dismay of it all, almost feeling an actual dark cloud forming above my head.

"It is tough, isn't it." Rantaro tried to make a joke, giving a dry chuckle as he did. Though he sounded a bit unsure, it did work at cheering me up just a bit, getting me to join in with my own chuckling.

"Yeah. Can't be too mad at it. That's just how it is. It would be too suspicious if the true nature of this game was just revealed at the start." That's when I remembered what I wanted to do before the ritual. "Oh right! I need to start examining that flashback light!" I exclaimed as I took the broken device out of my jacket pocket. "If we can figure out how this stuff works, we might be able to make our own, or discover if they're doing something we're not aware of."

"It is an interesting prospect…" Rantaro nodded as he looked at the device as well. "But how are you going to do that? All of this stuff looks complicated, and the only person who might have known about this stuff is…" He trailed off, not needing to finish. Miu. If Miu was still here, things would be so much easier, though knowing what she was like, it's very likely she might have just made things much harder.

"Yeah. Everyone who's gone could have helped us out a lot right now." I nodded sadly. It wasn't just Miu. If Tsumugi had survived and revealed her nature as the 'mastermind' and wanted to help us, we could have found out about a lot of things. Kiyo as an anthropologist might have given him unique outlooks and insight on certain clues we might have found. And Kirmui was helpful in every way, really. She was always helping people with even little things, and was incredibly smart and capable. Each one of them would have helped us a lot, but that would have been the case for anyone if they were deceased. I sighed before I spoke again. "But we can't keep wishing they were here. We need to work without them. So I'll go to both Miu's and Keebo's lab to see if there are any tools I can use to analyze this thing. Maybe Keebo can help me too."

"Want me to come along? Maybe I can help." Rantaro offered, but I shook my head.

"You don't have to. You've already done a lot for me already today." A thought then crossed my mind as I began to hold onto one of my arms. "But...if you still want to help, I do have a small favor to ask you."

"Sure. I don't mind. I'll try my best. What is it?" He asked with a kind expression.

"Well...if you don't mind, I'd like you to keep an eye on the people who aren't in the council." I told him. "I'm doing my best with keeping the student council together, but it's hard to focus on all of them while also trying to keep an eye on the others, so if you could make sure they don't do anything reckless or dangerous, I'd greatly appreciate it."

"Sure. I can do that. Leave it to me." Rantaro said in his usual carefree tone. That's when it finally hit me why being around Rantaro feels comforting.

"...You really are a big brother, aren't you." I mumbled.

"Hmm? What do you mean by that?" He asked.

"You have that 'older brother' feeling when I'm around you. You're kind and caring, as well as very mature and understanding. It really feels like you're my older brother, even though I'm the older one." I said before pouting a bit. "It also doesn't help that you're taller than me…"

"Hahaha, well there isn't anything I can do about that. That's just how I am. Sorry if it makes you uncomfortable." Rantaro gave a nervous, slightly embarrassed laugh.

"On the contrary, I think it's part of your charm. It feels nice just being around you because of that." I told him in a soft laugh. "And really, thank you for everything. I'm glad to know you still trust me despite everything, so I hope you don't mind if I rely on you a bit more later, partner." Rantaro nodded as he returned a smile.

"Of course. Even if we have different ways of going about it sometimes, we're still friends and partners working together to end the killing game. I'll be counting on you too, Rin." We both gave each other a nod and then left. I started heading over to what we now call 'Electronics Corner', since the Ultimate Inventor's Lab and Ultimate Robot's Lab are fused together. As I was walking towards the large, sci-fi building, I saw Keebo outside the entrance to his lab. What a perfect little coincidence.

"Hey! Keebo!" I yelled out as I waved to him. Keebo turned to me and returned a smile as he waved back.

"Rin. Perfect timing. I was just looking for you."

"Really? I was looking for you." I stated. "What do you need?"

"I was hoping to ask you if you could give me some maintenance right now. I think it's important to make sure I'm at 100% if I am going to be one of the night guards."

"That's a good point. It would be best to make sure you don't experience any problems during that time." I nodded. "This is good timing. I actually wanted to ask you if you could help me investigate the broken flashback light. We can do it after your maintenance, since that's more important."

"Thank you, Rin. And I'd be glad to help." Keebo told me with a smile.

"Cool. Then head up to your lab. I'll grab some things from Miu's lab and be up there shortly." He nodded as he took the elevator up to his lab. As he did that, I entered Miu's lab and grabbed a few things, including her bright pink tool book that was filled to the brim with tools (some of which I had never seen before that seemed to be just as strange as Miu was) and some blueprints that might be useful references to help me when I'm looking at Keebo and the flashback light. After grabbing those items, I headed up to Keebo's lab, being amazed once again at the amount of incredible technology that had been put into the lab. Keebo was lying on the maintenance platform that was in the lab, waiting for me as I came over. "So have you noticed any problems with your body lately?" I asked him as I set stuff down on the work table next to the platform he was on. Hopefully, treating this like I'm a doctor working on a patient will help me ease my nerves about this, though it's not really helping right now.

"Nothing too serious. I just noticed how lately my movements have been stiff."

"Stiff, huh?" I pondered. If that's the case, then that must mean that his joints are what I need to take a look at, but it also might be from something else. Hmm...where do I even begin?

"Umm, if I may Rin?" Keebo began as he reached down to his leg and opened up the compartment he had put his blueprints in. He grabbed the folded sheets and handed them to me. "I believe these might help you with the maintenance.

"But...are you sure?" I asked him, feeling uneasy just holding the blueprints.

"I trust you. I don't believe you would do anything to harm me intentionally." Keebo told me with confidence. "Go ahead and use those blueprints to help you with my maintenance." I gulped at that before I nodded and opened up the sheet he had given me. I quickly scanned over the sheet, most understanding everything it detailed, though even with how it was written so that anyone could understand it, there were still a few things that flew over my head. It just made me wish that Miu or even Yuna were here doing this instead of me. I sighed as I began my work. From what Keebo said and after comparing it to what the blueprints stated, I was able to pinpoint the exact problem, which was the joints. Thankfully, that sort of thing wasn't too hard to fix. The joints just needed some cleaning and tightening, which was easy to do with Miu's tools. It didn't take long before I had finished and let Keebo off the workbench he was on.

"How do you feel?" I asked him. He moved his arms and legs a bit before he nodded with a smile.

"It definitely feels better. Thank you, Rin."

"It was nothing. Really. I was only able to do this because I had your blueprints and the problem was simple." I said as I tried to hide my embarrassment I felt from his compliment. "I'm just glad that this wasn't something too hard, else I might not have been able to help."

"Still, it's reassuring knowing you're willing to try to help me with this. You said you had 'picked some things up' from your best friend, who is also an Ultimate Inventor, correct?"

"Yeah. Her name was Yuna Tamura. We grew up together. She was always tinkering with something…even if it wasn't hers." I groaned as a memory resurfaced. "I remember one day when we were at the playground. There was this swing set there, and Yuna, being Yuna, just had to make it better. I don't even know how she carried all her tools with her when she didn't have a toolbox, but she had them with her and she got to work. She almost had the police called on her and I had to try to calm people down, despite only being 6. When she was done, she had turned the swing set into something you might see in a carnival or amusement park. The town then tasked her with refurbishing the entire playground, and in return they would pay her. Her! a 5 year old girl, getting paid for remaking the town's playground! Can you believe that?"

"That certainly sounds absurd." Keebo replied. "But the way you speak, it seems like a found memory for you."

"I only just remembered it, and I remember it being a pain for me to cover for her while she worked, but yeah. It was fun being with her." I nodded. "She was truly an Ultimate. She never cared about what anyone did and just continued marching to the beat of her own drum. It's actually a little funny. We were both Ultimates, but there were plenty of times where I never understood some of her weirdness. But that applies to other Ultimates I've met too, including you guys."

"Yes, I can certainly understand that feeling. There are many people here I sometimes find difficult to understand, like Kokichi."

"Kokichi definitely is up there for one of the most confusing people I've met." I agreed with Keebo. "Y'know, back during our first few days here, I really felt out of place among you guys. You all were just so…I don't know, different? You all walked with your heads held high or with some pride or confidence in your skills in one way or another. Even Shuichi with his timidness had that with how he almost immediately made a plan to try to capture the mastermind. I felt so outmatched in every category. But even though now I know I'm an Ultimate of some kind and have that same potential that you all have, sometimes it still feels like I'm a little out of place here. It's hard to believe I'm just like you guys when I'm so indecisive." I ran my hand through my hair before sighing. "Maybe it's just because I'm older though. I don't know." Keebo seemed to think about what to say before a friendly smile appeared on him.

"I know what it feels like to feel out of place too. I am a robot, despite my wanting to be as human as possible, and that affects how people see or treat me. Still, even with how out of place it feels to be with you all at times like at meals where I cannot eat with you all, you all are still my friends, and you all see me as a friend too. I am truly glad to have met all of you, despite this situation." I returned his smile as I nodded.

"Yeah. Same here. I'm glad I got to meet you all." I then stretched my arms before turning to the broken device that was still laying on the work table next to me. "So, want to check out this flashback light with me?"

"Of course. This could prove to be extremely important down the line. We might find something about the flashback lights that changes our entire perspective on them."

"Agreed. Let's not waste any time and get cracking on it." I walked over to the flashback light and, with Keebo's help, started to disassemble it. The device's frame and a few of it's parts had been utterly broken due to what Angie did to it, but surprisingly, most of the device were intact, at least in both Keebo's opinion and my own. There were lots of chips inside the device, along with multiple wires and computer parts of all things, but we couldn't figure what any of them were for. But here's where it gets strange. Really strange. Both Keebo and I, after looking at all the parts that made up the flashback light, both determined it should have still worked. There were no major parts inside that were damaged to the point of causing the entire thing to not work. However, after we put everything back inside and replaced some of the completely broken parts, it still didn't work. Nothing we did could turn it on. We had everything right, all the parts we took out were back where we got them, and all the parts we replaced were suitable replacement parts we found in both Keebo's and Miu's lab. It should have worked, but it didn't.

"What is going on!?" I shouted angrily as I threw my screwdriver to the ground in frustration.

"It is strange. Why does the flashback light not work? Everything should be in place for it to operate as normal." Keebo questioned.

"I don't know, but it's pissing me off." I grumbled. "Not only does it not work still, but none of the parts inside the stupid thing can actually tell us how it works! It's made up of normal parts that can be found in both your lab and Miu's lab! We're still exactly where we were before we started examining the thing!" That seemed to give Keebo an idea, as his expression seemed to pale when he heard that, as if it caused something to click into place.

"Then…what if this flashback light was never meant to work?"

"What?"

"Is it not possible that perhaps this flashback light was a dummy device that was never meant to work?" He asked me.

"A…dummy device…" I repeated as I played with the idea. If this was a fake flashback light, that would explain why we haven't gotten it to work, despite determining that it should. But why would it be a fake? The cubs gave this to us expecting us to use it, but then Angie broke it, preventing us from using it at the time. The only reason this would have been a fake flashback light would be if whoever made this knew Angie was going to destroy it right after they gave it to us. And that's imposs…ible. My heart suddenly sank when I realized something. No…it's…entirely possible, isn't it? The cameras are everywhere, and they're all hidden from us. So maybe whoever is in control of everything here saw hints that Angie was going to destroy the flashback light? That still sounds unlikely. The device wouldn't be fake if it was just a hunch that Angie would destroy it right after. They would have to be 100% certain that's what Angie was going to do? What does that tell us? Does that mean that this device is actually broken and we can't fix it, or that whoever is in charge of the killing game is someone who can accurately predict and move around all of our actions. Both thoughts made me feel sick, so I quickly pushed them out of my mind.

"I don't know. Either way, it doesn't change the fact that there's nothing to find in this piece of junk." I said as I put the broken device in my jacket pocket. "Might as well still keep it just in case, though, right?"

"I suppose there's no harm in that." Keebo sighed. "How disappointing. I truly thought we would discover something that might have helped us."

"You and me both." I mumbled.

Ding dong ding dong!

Both Keebo and I turned our heads instinctively to the monitor that was in the room as it buzzed to life, revealing a still-unmoving Monokuma just staring in the Monokub's room, not saying anything or doing anything until the screen turned off. "That's…still off putting." I said before I shook my head. "Well, that's actually my cue. I need to meet up with Angie in her lab for the ritual."

"Yes. Time certainly flew by when we were examining the flashback light." Keebo noted. "I wish you and Angie luck with the ritual."

"Thanks. I have a feeling we're gonna need all the luck we can get for it." I replied as I headed towards the lab's exit. "Good luck with guard duty. Gonta's going to be with you tonight."

"Yes. I've already spoken to him about it, so we should be fine."

"Cool. Let me know if anything happens." I told him. "I'll be off now. Goodnight." I waved Keebo goodbye as I left. I took a deep breath as I went down the lab's elevator. It's time. The moment of truth. The resurrection ritual. I couldn't help but feel my heart start to pound faster and faster as I made my way to Angie's lab. I only had one hope, one prayer, at this moment. "Please, let nothing bad happen with this ritual." I said my silent prayer as I continued on my way.