Hikari was much easier for Jonas to talk around than the others might've expected, but he wasn't surprised. His friend knew just how badly Shuichi and Maki were reacting to their roles at the Company. Likewise, she resented being shoved back into the programmer role she'd fought so hard to shed.
Hikari and Jonas had an understanding, and she knew that if he asked her to do something as extreme as quitting halfway through this process, it was for a damn good reason. Shuichi and Maki would not have agreed to step down if Hikari was staying, and so it was only practical for her to step down as well.
It wasn't something he encouraged people to think, but Jonas was a very practical man. He preferred people think of him as the frivolous acrobat and comedian, living for the spotlight and the applause, as well as the benefits of fame. This was, of course, how the Company had designed him, but he'd made his peace with that years ago and made it his own.
Fabricated or not, he truly did enjoy performing, and felt quietly rebellious every time he used that as an act to hide behind. Knowing that everyone in the entire world expected that he could only ever be what they thought he already was, well, that was awfully convenient for Jonas. The Company hadn't even known to be wary of him until he'd put his full weight behind the three incredible survivors of season V3, hadn't even known he cared about politics until his entire social media presence was put to use in support of the Initiative's legal battle against the Company.
Yet somehow, even knowing the damage his betrayal had already done so far, people in the Company's office treated him almost like a friend. They were all, understandably, wary of Carlos, who had been fighting them on some level for fifteen years, and of Himiko, one of the trio that had put a stop to Dangan Ronpa for several years. Jonas, on the other hand, found himself being stopped in the hallways for warm conversations or being waved to by employees he hardly knew. Many were even willing to chat him up casually in the elevator. They thought of him as a success story and, somehow, an ally.
It was obvious that Carlos considered this proof that Jonas was as untrustworthy as he always assumed him to be. He took every snub and every smile personally, and Jonas wasn't sure whether Carlos was more upset that people here liked Jonas, or that they didn't like him. Either way, the man was even colder to him than normal through their very rushed week of training. He pretended not to notice, but couldn't deny that it stung.
They'd always had a… fraught relationship. Whether they were yelling or kissing, they never seemed to be able to just get along for more than a few days at a time. Jonas knew this, knew that they both needed to move on from whatever was between them, and he was certain Carlos knew it too. But they never did. Both of them just kept right at it, even in the heart of the Company's headquarters, when it really would've done them both some good to put aside their differences and stand against their long time enemy.
Himiko seemed to be doing an excellent job of ignoring their squabbles, however, approaching the training and the prospect of their upcoming work with an intensity Jonas had not thought possible for the small woman. She was so good at fading lethargically into the background, he'd assumed it was simply what she did. As it turned out, when she had strong enough motivation, the so-called Ultimate Mage could be a force to be reckoned with. He couldn't help but be seriously impressed.
By the time their rushed week of training was done, Carlos and Jonas had both been shamed at least a bit into stepping up. Neither of them wanted to leave the young woman doing all the metaphorical heavy lifting on her own. Carlos seemed to have settled into a competitive rhythm of trying to be better and more professional than Jonas, and since it meant that he was no longer constantly being glared at, Jonas was more than happy to accept that.
Once they were deemed ready to participate, they were summoned into the office of Kobayashi Yuna, de facto head of the writing department. Jonas could tell by the way the rest of the Company employees reacted to Kobayashi that she was not particularly well regarded, and their trainers had gone more out of the way than strictly necessary to point out that the writers had been almost entirely written out of the upcoming season. He was surprised, therefore, to find that they were starting with the writers after all.
Kobayashi's office did nothing to belie the impression of a department in disgrace. In contrast to the large, well furnished offices they'd seen from the heads of other departments, Kobayashi's was small, with mismatched furniture that had clearly been scavenged from other offices. She did not have a coffee maker or a conference table, and when they arrived, she was forced to send someone to fetch an extra chair so that all four of them could sit in her office.
Despite this impression of ramshackle disarray, there was something vaguely menacing about the Writing Department and the small woman who now ran the place. Jonas couldn't really pinpoint what caused the feeling of cold discomfort in his stomach, especially not in the face of the smiling woman who apologized profusely for not having chairs for everyone.
"Thank you all for coming." She told them warmly. "I would have set aside a conference room, but we won't be staying here long. I asked you to join me to watch our finalists being interviewed for the last time. We must choose candidates who will mesh well with our cast of characters. Your insight will be useful, and we thought you would like to see for yourself how eager the finalists are, and how enthusiastically they give their consent. To ease your minds."
Jonas, glancing at his fellow Initiative members, saw Himiko's composed expression falter. He'd expected that. He and Carlos had grown used to seeing eager young people, barely old enough to apply, willing to fling themselves into mortal danger for the excitement. Every year Carlos and his staff at the Initiative watched the application videos once they were released, preparing to help whatever was made of them and whoever survived. Even though Jonas had never been a part of those meetings, he and Hikari had watched them every year as a silent tribute.
Himiko, on the other hand, had never seen new applicants before. "Of course." Jonas said smoothly, shifting in his seat, a subtle motion meant to draw the focus away from Himiko until she could compose herself again. As a fellow showman, he was confident she would appreciate the power of misdirection, even in such a mundane situation. "We would be glad to assist. Do you have the final lineup of cast members on hand?"
Kobayashi nodded and pulled out a file in question. "We do. These are their dossiers, if you'd like to look through them. We have a few minutes before the interviews are scheduled to start."
Jonas took the file and handed random dossiers over to Himiko and Carlos. "That seems like an excellent plan."
"Excuse me while I step out for just a moment, to make sure everything's ready to go. I'll return when it's time to get started." The writer replied with another smile.
"Of course, go ahead!" Carlos replied, taking a file and looking at it with interest. "Thank you."
Kobayashi stepped out of the room quietly, and both men turned to Himiko. "Are you alright?" Jonas asked with a frown.
"I'm fine. I just… didn't expect we'd be jumping straight into this." Himiko replied defensively.
"It's alright if you need a few minutes. We can get started without you." Carlos told her, his tone soothing, in the way that always made Jonas smile.
"No!" Himiko insisted. "I signed up to do this, and I'm going to do it right. I'll be fine. Let's just read through these stupid things before she comes back."
"Alright, but...take a minute to compose yourself, though." Jonas told her gently. "Think of it like you're about to go onstage. It's just an act."
Carlos stared at him with a strange look on his face, but Himiko took a deep breath and relaxed. "You're right. It's just an act. Thanks, Jonas."
Jonas nodded and smiled. "Alright. What file have you got?"
Himiko looked down at it. "An… Occultist? Hey, how come he gets to have real magic?!"
Jonas laughed. "Probably because they couldn't figure out a way to do it in real life, but since this season is all happening in a computer, they can do whatever they want with it."
Carlos, his gaze still oddly focused on Jonas, seemed to catch on to the other man's strategy for calming Himiko down. "This is the Company, after all, they don't like having to deal with the really complicated stuff."
"Hm. I guess trying to harness my magic for the show would've been difficult. I might've blown a hole in their dome if they weren't careful." Himiko replied, much calmer and now mollified.
"Exactly." Jonas agreed. "But you've set an excellent example, it seems. I've got an Ultimate Medium here too. Except that...aw, man! They're not even going to let him talk to the 'dead' kids, it says."
Carlos frowns. "They're...really taking this season in a weird direction, huh? I've got an Undertaker."
Just then, the door swung open once again, and Kobayashi's smiling face reappeared. "We're aiming to give this season more of a classic "Victorian Murder Mystery" feeling. Hinting at ghosts, maybe some other paranormal happenings, but no indication of whether any of these things are truly real." She looked at the three of them. "Are you all ready to get started? They're waiting for us in the auditorium."
"We're ready." Himiko replied firmly, scowling momentarily at the men in a way Jonas found quite endearing.
"Very well, please, follow me."
Kobayashi stepped out of the doorway so they could exit the room with her, leading the three of them downstairs and into a large room with a few dozen seats, set up in an amphitheater style, with rows of chairs on risers surrounding the floor in the middle of the room. In the front couple rows, on the far wall, sat fifteen people that had to be the finalists. They all looked so young, and all of them were clearly somewhere along the nervous-excited spectrum.
One of the finalists, a thin woman with a tight bun and high cheekbones, was already seated in the chair at the center of the room, with someone who must have been the main interviewer sitting across from her. A cross looking blonde man sat in the front row in the center of the room, and Kobayashi led the three of them to sit next to him.
"Kobayashi. You're late." He told her, scowling at all four of them.
"We have not started yet, Nezumi." She told him gently. "We are just in time."
Jonas immediately disliked the man, and was unsurprised to find that he was Touma Nezumi, head of the Cinematography Department. Hikari and Nakamura had both had a number of unflattering things to say about the man. "If we're late, perhaps we should just get started?" He suggested with his most charming smile.
Nezumi glared, but Kobayashi flashed him a grateful look. "Devi, if you would please, get started for us?" She called out to the interviewer, who nodded.
"Candidate A. Will you please state for the record what show you are auditioning to be a part of?" Devi, a woman in a green headscarf and a sensible gray suit, asked the woman with the bun.
"I'm auditioning to be on season 54 of Dangan Ronpa." She replied, glancing around the room nervously, but with a clear hint of excitement on her face.
"Good. And you are aware that as a cast member of Dangan Ronpa you will be imprinted with an entirely new history and personality for the duration of the show?" Devi asked, making a note on her clipboard.
"I am, yeah. But... we don't have to actually die this season, right? It's not like the old show used to be?"
Devi smiled. "That is correct. No one during this season of Dangan Ronpa, season 54, will actually die. Although, please remember, per previous application interviews, you will be expected to negotiate with your new, alternate self over who will retain control over your body at the conclusion of the show. You and your alternate self will enter into a written contract to ensure fair treatment of both parties before, during, and after season 54's conclusion."
Candidate A nodded politely, but a few of the other candidates waiting for their turn shifted uneasily in their seats. "That's fine. I'm sure we can figure something out."
"Good, good. Moving on, what is it about you that you think would make a good cast member for the upcoming season of Dangan Ronpa?"
"Well- okay, so, it's easier for you to build off of what someone can already do, right? At least physically? I'm very fit, I'm coordinated, I have good muscle memory, and I'm very flexible. I'd be great for some sort of athlete. I've also got really steady hands, if you want a chemist or a surgeon or something."
"I see. All potentially useful traits..." Devi agreed, though her tone was rather unenthused. "If you were able to choose what role you'd like to play, what would it be?"
Candidate A frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe a gymnast or a dancer? Someone strong and tough, but who might get overlooked. I'm pretty tiny anyway, so something like that would be a good fit for me."
Kobayashi leaned over, murmuring to Jonas and the others. "We've already got this one pegged as the Ultimate Ballet Dancer. Don't you think she looks perfect for it?"
Jonas looked over 'Candidate A' and had to agree. She had that thin, angular dancer look, especially with her hair in that tight bun. "You're not wrong." He replied in an equally quiet voice.
"And it is what she asked for, too." Himiko remarked, but her volume was less restrained, and ended up just slightly too loud. Candidate A blinked and was distracted from her answer, lifting her gaze to stare at the group of observers.
Kobayashi laughed. "Candidate A, I think we have enough, thank you. Our apologies for interrupting. Please head to the waiting room, you'll be informed of our choice as soon as we're done here."
The woman jumped up, beaming. "Really? Thank you!"
Devi nodded. "It's just down the hall to the right, you can't miss it. Thank you."
The next few interviews went by mostly the same, some left to talk a while, some sent off quickly. During the fifth interview, Jonas finally realized something important.
"Why are there so few candidates?" He leaned in to ask Kobayashi quietly. "Is this only part of the group?"
She smiled back at him pleasantly. "We are casting much more internationally for this season. It's meant to be a part of the theme for the season, I'm told, which is apparently 'unity.' There are three casting locations. One here in Japan, another in Europe, and the third in America."
"So how many slots are you actually filling here today?" Himiko asked, managing to whisper properly this time.
"We don't have an exact number." Kobayashi replied. "Our location here will be casting first, and depending on how many of our finalists we decide will be worth keeping, our sister locations will cast the remaining slots from their pools. We have the priority casting to ourselves, since Dangan Ronpa is still Japanese, after all."
Carlos looked impressed, despite his animosity for the Company, but there was a hint of irritation with himself for being so impressed in the first place behind those big brown eyes. Jonas chuckled softly to himself, shaking his head, as the other man spoke "That's a lot of coordination." Carlos said. "Why not fly them all here, though, since they'll have to be here for the show anyway?"
"They won't have to be, actually." Nezumi replied. "Our cast will be hooked into our system through a heavily secured network, staying at whichever Dangan Ronpa Corporation location is nearest to them."
"So, that's what Hikari was working on?" Jonas asked, impressed despite himself.
"It was, yes." Kobayashi replied. "Hikari thought the participants would be more comfortable if they were not being forced to travel so far away from home."
"She does good work." Jonas grinned. With this very tangible example of what Hikari had managed to achieve for them and for the new kids, Jonas finally started to believe they could actually make a difference with their work on the season.
A/N: Welcome back, folks! We're getting so close to the start of the killing game. I hope you're all as excited as I am to get started. We're looking at two more chapters before then, so that's two more weekly updates. In the meantime, here's the final lineup, for your viewing pleasure:
Zasha Kamanev- Ultimate Figure Skater
Kumi Ichikawa- Ultimate Caretaker
Jeong Sun Cho- Ultimate Biological Engineer
Ryuushin Hiikari- Ultimate Artist
Akari Hara- Ultimate Goddess
Seikatsu Shi- Ultimate Occultist
Dylan Anderson- Ultimate Medium
Shaddastra Middleditch- Ultimate Filmmaker
Yuri Sato- Ultimate Ballet Dancer
Mamoru Terajima- Ultimate Bodyguard
Jacky Diez- Ultimate Soccer Player
Dracon Bahamut- Ultimate Guitarist
Asami Haruki- Ultimate Fashion Designer
Alice Calaway- Ultimate Undertaker
Osamu Fujimo- Ultimate Snake charmer
Anna Watanabe- Ultimate Game Designer