Disclaimer: This chapter contains or has implications of references that some readers may find uncomfortable or distressing. Please read this disclaimer to ensure you feel comfortable before reading. Thank you. This chapter contains the following:

References to violence, blood, and gore

Accounts of swearing and offensive language

Nightmares and the distressing scenes that can come from them

Welcome back to the August update of Danganronpa Lights, Camera Murder! Apologies for the delay however after the submissions ended at the end of July, real-life threw a lot of adulting and commitments my way which I had to prioritise. Still, throughout the month I tried to make some gradual progress and I hope this long chapter with the final six reveals for the cast will provide an excitement which justifies the wait. For the six characters who are going to be introduced, I want to say for everyone else that applied for a place in this story - these decisions took a solid week to finally decide as there were more than six that I had to try and pick from due to all of the talented writers in the community. I implore that you keep that passion for creating awesome characters for SYOCs that come in throughout the back half of 2020. As always, a thank you to Sona for being my editing masochist - I couldn't do this without you buddy so a special shout out to him.

Another small additional point, from this point onwards I would love to hear thoughts on potential victims or killers now all the cast has been revealed alongside preferences from you the readers as to who you would like to see in FTEs. I will be running the appropriate polls in time on my profile to be able to collect this data from all of you however feel free to DM or post reviews if you want to leave any thoughts or opinions. After all, the main thing is that you the audience are enjoying the story and as a writer I want this to be an adventure that we can go through together (Apologies for how cheesy and cliche that sounds).

This was my world now.

The same phrase infected my mind, probing my thoughts to mash into a kaleidoscopic mess. My only companions were the silence and the chill of flesh on my cheek and even then the tension still sat there watching me, waiting for me to slip up so it could consume me in all of my vulnerability.

Being here in this place with these people, they were all so different and all acted and spoke in stark contrast to each other, and despite all of this, it was clear in my mind that this was not just my world anymore. The simmering sensation of dread would be one that everyone could feel, no matter if they openly cowered in a corner or belligerently lied to themselves about their state of mind.

I would have liked to accredit the fact that I didn't cry to my strength, but with the seconds that drained at my energy like a lightbulb threatening to flicker, I knew that it was my duty to remain stable for everyone else. While they may not have been trained to deal with stressful situations, stress was a core part of what I dealt with back at the academy so even if the tiles were sprayed with blood and skulls were smashing against the wall. I had to be the one to remain stable, if I didn't then who knew what the future would hold?

Soon enough, the joint of glistening meat had grown tepid from the transfer of heat. Not wanting to feel the effect of clamminess, a small yawn accompanying me, I shifted my weight back to stand upright towards the gently swaying chunk. Huh… I must have been there for a while. The meat had developed a small patch of blanched tissue. It would have been a distraction to watch it fade back to its normal hue but distractions were not something I could afford right now.

Meeting all those people did too much to distract me from what I needed to do, finding Ikoma-sensei and trying to find out what was going on was the priority right now, being a caretaker or emotional support could come later.

The kitchen was equally as silent as I began walking back to the main lounge area, somehow I had expected to see another stranger with all the different folk I had come across. Nothing made sense around here, nothing I could think of could help begin to describe what was going on in this place. It was not a school based on how it felt like the quarters for some elegant film stars, not to mention the fact that even though there was nobody here who seemed to recognise the place it was constructed and maintained to such a standard that made it feel as though there should be a whole team of staff here constantly cleaning and polishing the tiles and vacuuming the furnishings to keep it as spic and span as it was.

Within those idle contemplations, my finger drifted along the panes of wood in the corridor out of mere curiosity to test whether it was truly perfect. Not even a speck of dust. On the plus side, it was better being in somewhere like this than a dump or… a sewer. With a kitchen, places to try and sleep, and even a running bath we could manage to continue our investigation of this building without worry of starvation or smelling like one of Ikoma-sensei's gym socks.

Koisuke and Chouko had managed to navigate their way back into the lounge area, not without the former having less energy than a corpse with how he stared at the girl in silence and had passed the point of nerves as his body couldn't bring itself to properly shake out of concern. You would have thought the poor thing had had a knife put to his throat with the way his eyes were always watching Chouko, who looked to be much more invested in whatever game they were playing in than the fact that Koisuke was probably going to curl up into his trademark fetal position any moment now.

Though with her energy, she'd probably push him off the chair like a beach ball or throw him onto her shoulder to get his attention. Oh geez… imagine someone like that as an actual mother of toddlers, the walls would be covered in spaghetti hoops before it even got to midday.

I probably shouldn't have eavesdropped over the two as I slipped by and began making my way towards the door that I had yet to go through, but I needed to hear these things. Everyone knows that eavesdropping isn't too bad a thing to do if you can use it for good, after all, who knows what kind of secrets or rumours people could be trying to spread behind your back.

"So this game is pretty easy, you'll get it in a pinch and I think you might like it more than hangman, you don't need paper either which makes it much easier too so you can play it with your friends Koi-Koi," Chouko sounded as chipper as she did back in the kitchen, not that she was looking at Koisuke as she spoke drawing along the edges of the flower-decorated tiles with the sole of her shoe, "As this is a game about deduction, I think it would be the perfect game to be hosted by Detective Misty Reed!"

"... Huh?" Koisuke managed to get out the expression of confusion after a few moments of staring blankly at the girl, someone had him beat in an obsession in tracing the patterns on the floor. Although with the way he returned his attention to anything that wasn't a human, I guess he didn't care all that much.

"Detective Misty Reed is here and on the case young mister!" Chouko puffed her chest ever so slightly, speaking with a dignified accent that reminded me of those old Sherlock Holmes cassette tapes you used to be able to buy at an antique store, "The quandary is quite simple, I will be thinking of something and then you have to ask me a question that can be answered with either yes or no to try and gain a clue on what I am thinking of. The catch however is you only have a maximum of twenty questions so you don't want to waste it with stupid questions like whether it is dead. Of course, if it was a skeleton you would want to ask that question but for the sake of this game I will not go down such a macabre route. Do you follow so far, mister?"

"..." Koisuke stared at her, I didn't blame him. Processing this oddball was more tiring than filing a tax return.

"Did I say something confusing? I can repeat it for you if you want?" Chouko tilted her head slightly, not giving the stuffed plush creator much time to get the courage to respond before returning to her tirade of an explanation, "The quandary is quite simple, I will be thinking of something and then you have to ask me a question that can be answered with either yes or no to try and gain a clue on what I am thinking of. The catch, however-"

Okay, that was enough. As much as it would have been fun trying to see if Koisuke could manage to make it through one round of this game he had been drafted into playing. Chouko… just… not now, I didn't have the energy or the patience even if what she was doing was clearly with good intent.

Even upon reaching the door, I intended on opening, her voice reverberated throughout the room with an intensity that made me wonder… did everyone now know about the fact that she also thought it would be cute to have a kigurumi onesie party just for the sake of getting Koisuke to dress up like a little mouse. Koisuke was far too into Carrot to be anything more than a rabbit with one of those fluffy cotton ball tails.

The door opened with no resistance, if anything it felt as though it opened smoothly like a hot knife carving through butter. Slipping through and gently closing it behind me to not disturb Koisuke and Chouko whilst they played Chouko's game in the lounge. With all that I had seen so far, it was a bit of a surprise just to see another room that felt as though it mimicked the style of the main lounge area just to a much smaller scale and with a bit more of a homely feel to it rather than the ostentatious aura I had felt from earlier.

The walls were still made from a complementary pattern of white and gold, however, unlike the tiles of the main lounge, this room returned itself to its neutral roots with wooden floorboards that lay in horizontal slats on the floor. Despite this, however, the varnish that had been used to lacquer the boards brought out a dichotomy of ancient youth. Seeing the swirls of wood-aged with time, shiny and new. Furthermore, three more wooden doors stood on each of the cardinal walls, pale wood placards nailed into them. Beanbags had been thrown around without much of a care, they slouched and sprawled across the wooden floor, some even having spat out a few polystyrene beads through splits in the stitching. Pressed in one corner, some kind of large table had been covered over with a large green tarpaulin which hung almost to the floor where colourful boxes had been stacked to resemble a Jenga tower. That tarpaulin was begging me to come over and rip it off, too bad tarpaulin as the noise of three family faces cut you off buddy.

"Maki, is it that hard to try and express your opinions in a politer fashion? Gosh darn it, I do not want to have to deal with behaviour like this when we are all meant to be getting along right now," the soft and eloquent way of speaking would have had me thinking, but the way she puffed her cheeks in irritation and made them almost look like a pair of cherry tomatoes made it all too convincing for Maki to not take Emily seriously as the two were joined by Daichi in the tail end of… something I was probably happy about missing.

"It's not my fault that he is a gormless, dense moron, is it? You're all just running around like headless chickens trying to find this or look for that like you're all gonna just drop dead any second. Not that that wouldn't be a fuckin' relief with some of you lot," Maki sneered back, the words dripped with an icy apathy towards Emily.

Did he not care about this situation? How could he not care about the fact that we were in an unknown place like this? That was not normal.

"That is not normal!" Emily retorted (for my own sake I hope the girl isn't a psychic) indignantly, not budging on her stance as all she got in response was a drawn-out eye roll from the horror connoisseur.

"You can call me whatever the fuck you want, it doesn't mean I'm going to listen to a word you say," Daichi's tone was brash, yet unlike Maki's whose was laced with a lack of care, he spoke with a quiet determination, "Maybe you didn't realise this, but there is more to this than just you if you want to kick back and relax here then go ahead and be my guest but go and do it in silence so the rest of us don't have to deal with the insistent crap that you keep pumping out of your mouth."

"What? Scared that you might end up rotting in this place? Scared you might be forgotten by everyone who ever loved you?" Maki mocked him, the way he pouted had me kicking to go in and stop this conversation right where it was - it took every fibre of my being to not try and stop this.

The muscles were flexing, biceps moving up and down and the tension in my thighs and calves as they ached to rush into the fray, "Let me tell you a secret, you had better listen up because I won't tell you this shit twice. Watching the fear set into your eyes, watching as the whole situation comes in on you and consumes you. It makes no difference to me, watching people break down into fragments of themselves is like watching paint dry. Do what you want but don't come to me when the fear eats you alive, I don't save the consumed, I only consume myself."

"W-What does that even-" Emily struggled to stammer the words out in response, unable to finish her sentence as Daichi interrupted her with his rebuttal to Maki.

"It means that this guy here is a lunatic and you should stay away from him. Horror connoisseur my ass, he is just another one of those freaks who just loves to make people miserable," Daichi bristled, eyes pointing daggers at Maki who again just paid him with a dragged out rolling of the eyes. Chouko could call him Mister Roll-Eyes at the rate he spun them around like a record player.

"Let me put this in a way you will get," Maki shook his head, "I know what I am, I know my place in this life and I know that whatever I do and whatever I say will be defined by what the world has dealt me. This isn't about getting out or staying in here, this is about the fact that unlike you, I know that trying to deal with the other people here is a waste of time. If you think I care about any of you, about your feelings or what you are planning to do. Then you're straight up thick."

"You can call it whatever you want, it doesn't change the fact that you're trying to put a dampener on people around you just because you don't value their emotions. I feel sorry for whatever bitch pumped you out if she knew you were this much of a nutjob I'm sure she would have had cut you off before you had a chance to be born," Daichi's words were laced with an intensity that even put me in a state of shock, "This isn't about you."

"Guys… please stop," Emily frowned, she went to put a hand on Daichi's shoulder which he surprisingly let her do, with a gentle touch she rubbed his shoulder back and forth in a soothing motion. Whether he found comfort in it, who knows but the stare of discontent was printed on his face nonetheless, awaiting a response from Maki who had taken to biting the corner of his lip but otherwise remained a placid statue in the exchange.

"Maybe she does, if she did I would not hold any bad feelings towards her either way so that train of thought holds little to no value right now," Maki shrugged off Daichi's words, watching Emily rubbing the barista's shoulder, "I never said it was about me, I said you were stupid to think you will get a happy ending. The sooner you accept that the chances of survival are slim, the sooner you can live the last dregs of your life in self-pity or spouting swear words like a drunken sailor. I was right about you, just a barking pit bull."

Daichi seemed ready to unleash another wave of word vomit when I felt a gentle tug at my jumper sleeve. Tug. Tug. Blinking a couple of times, my eyes followed the dainty hand of the individual who was tugging.

In front of me stood a pretty, yet somehow subtly mature looking girl. She was slimly built, yet in a way that was healthy and made her seem as though she took great interest in maintaining her health. Specifically, though she had slight curves and enough of a womanly presence to distinguish her from an early adolescent, her very elegant looking hands with long dexterous looking fingers somehow stood out more in comparison. Her pale porcelain coloured skin only found traces of colour on her blushing cheeks. Her facial features were delicate, almost to the point of being demure with wide, slightly drowsy light purple eyes.

Her hair just brushed past her shoulders, dark brown that ended in loose ribbons of curls. She had no fringe though her hair does frame her face to help define her natural beauty - beauty that I imagine most girls would be pretty jealous of. Though she painted her nails in a hue of pink that reminded me of the surface of a pink pearl, she seemed to embrace an all-natural appearance otherwise. On her ears, little clip-on earrings were attached in the shape of sweet little daisies, blooming with snow-white petals.

Her outfit seemed to pair well with the first impression she gave off with the natural yet elegant approach she enjoyed carrying. Consisting of a dark blue silk blouse with a floral pattern printed across it (notably the flowers reminded me of the tiles, I think the only one missing were the chrysanthemums), round white buttons, puffed short-sleeves and a peter-pan collar that helped to create the perfect balance between elegant, cute yet ultimately professional. It was worn tucked into a midi-length light blue skirt that floated as though a summer's breeze had drifted its way into the room and white strappy sandals. A girl who wears sandals instead of feeling the need to torture their feet with heels is a girl that I could automatically respect a little more. This is worn with a wide-brimmed brown straw sunhat with a wide light blue ribbon that was tied in a neat bow at the back.

Staring at her, she looked like Elle Woods had taken a tumble in a florist on the way to work.

"Miss, as much as I can see you wish to help in that altercation there, I think you might be best to leave it be and let them resolve the issue between them," the girl's voice was honeysuckle itself, who knew what she could do with that voice if these boys weren't too busy fighting with each other.

"Trust me, I know what those two are like, especially Maki, I don't think leaving them alone like this is the smartest of ideas even if they have Emily there," I spoke with a fair amount of conviction, or at least I thought I had until I flinched a little as Daichi clenched his fist once more in irritation towards the blasé Maki.

"Protecting people who you do not know is honourable indeed," the girl nodded her head, seeing her give a gentle smile was a relief, "However, as the saying goes: Too many cooks spoil the broth. If you try and intervene, then there is nothing to say that other people will pile into the scene and what may first have been an attempt to break down a situation could unintentionally escalate it. If I were to suggest another approach to this, when you can you could always speak to the boy with the purple hair at a later point in time to try and talk about what happened and see if you can help him from there. Of course, that is merely a suggestion however I must admit… I do share your passion for helping people in need."

The way the girl closed her eyes and smiled cutely made her look as though she could have been a little figurine packaged up in floral packaging to be sold at a convention. It was nice to see someone shining in their own natural body and owning who they were without the need for trying to change or force themselves into being something they didn't want to be.

Her grin was not surprising to see, she pointed out in my silence how she noticed I was managing to smile a little now. You would have thought I would have been happy about that but perhaps it was more a sensation of relief, knowing that you could just smile without it being forced or without it being used as a mask to hide something. Just being able to smile on your terms, it was good to be told that I was smiling for that reason alone. She looked as though she wished to continue to speak, her mouth opening slightly as if to let the words break out only to cage them back in through clenched lips. I gestured for her to continue, a quick nod of the head so she knew I was listening - the same sunshine smile shone serenely on her face.

"I apologise for being so forthright in my actions first of all," the girl gave a small bow to apologise, making sure that her eyes met mine the entire time as she delivered her apology with the dignity of a princess, "Truly, in the future, I wish that we can interact with each other on more ideal terms. I say that and I realise how ironic that may sound when we take into account the fact that we are in an unknown location but… from the sounds of it some individuals are keen on finding the exit. So for you, my apology extends further than just this action but I wish to maintain myself as a figure who you can come to if you need any help or assistance. While now is not the time for explaining much of the circumstances surrounding why I say such things I promise you that protecting and serving can be the same in more situations than you may imagine and with my experiences, through adolescence I would like to believe that I have become proficient in performing both with finesse and ease."

"Hold it a moment…" I had to stop her at this point, not letting myself continue any further until her back was straight and she didn't look like she was apologising for stealing the last biscuit in the biscuit jar, "I get that you might have thought that you were being intrusive but you're probably overthinking this a little. Don't worry over it, you don't owe me anything for having a difference of opinion-"

"But miss it truly isn't an issue for-" the girl tried to interject, she had a small frown, I couldn't quite tell if she was upset or maybe even a little offended with what I was saying to her right now.

"If you want to repay me for whatever reason, you could tell me who you are and why you are here. It would help get us both on the same page and right now I think we can both agree on the fact that that is for the best," for the sake of not wanting to see her frown any further I hoped, no prayed would be a better word to describe it, that she just took the request on the chin and moved on with the conversation.

"Hmm… ah yes! Where are my manners? Would you like to go first miss, as you are the one making the request I think you should choose how you wish for this introduction to be conducted between the two of us," the girl nodded in earnest?

"I…" It was foolish of me to expect her to just outright say it without the bells and whistles, never mind I suppose, "Telling you my name and talent isn't an issue if you would rather me introduce myself first. You don't seem nervous to introduce yourself so…"

"That is correct, I merely just want to show courtesy and respect in the best way I can. As you said yourself, don't overthink it too much," the girl's tone was cheerful as she patted down at some small wrinkles near the hem of her flowing skirt.

"Well, if that's the case then I'll get straight to it. My name is Nezire Katsura, I go to a school called Hope's Peak Academy as you are probably already clued up on if you met anyone else here and my talent is the Ultimate Social Worker. It's nothing flashy but I reckon you were onto something when you said that we shared some similar mindsets between the two of us - after all, if I mess up then I could be ruining a child's childhood and set them on a rocky road to who knows what. Touch wood, that never comes to be the case," I winced as I finished speaking, now I had to make myself like a real moron as I engaged into an awkward squat that made me look like some constipated grandmother as I tapped one of the varnished wooden floorboards.

What was worse was getting back up again though, darn it the health specialists were right when they said I needed to do more exercise regularly.

"Nezire Katsura, I will make sure to keep that stored in my memory," the girl gave a tender smile, brushing a few loose strands of hair behind her hair, "Well, regardless of what some of our classmates may think, I hope that we can work well together in learning more about this situation… as it is quite disconcerting. If I had not found anyone I know for certain that I would have been fully panicking by this point."

To be honest, I think all of us felt that way. We were all human, after all, all just made up of threads of cognition that had the potential to sink us into lows of isolation and terror. Seeing the aqueous humor shimmering in the girl's eyes, I knew that she was no different. Neither was Takumi with his fierce bravado or Maki with his blatant apathy.

We were all human after all, whether people showed their fear to hide it behind masks, it wasn't my place to probe and prod for everyone felt pain and everyone had the right to feel the way they felt. Still, the brief moments of silence that followed consecutively to the girl's words were enough for me to think about these things. We could be walking among people here who were a ticking time bomb ready to explode with compressed emotion and nobody would be none the wiser before they were caught in the blasting zone; I had already seen the effects of initial delirium, rummaging through a hunk of meat and resting my weary head upon it like a blessed pillow, and I knew I was not immune to the rising sense of fear that this place would corrupt us with.

No wonder I was so desperate to find Ikoma-sensei, no wonder…

"Ah, apologies, I went on a tangent there. I will keep this concise then. My name is Clemency-Hanae Adachi, my talent is that of the Ultimate Mamasan. I hope we can become good friends Nezire," the girl gave a small bow to accompany her introduction, a tone even more formal than the rest of our conversation as though introductions were a thing she had practiced like it were mathematics or science.

REGISTERING NEW STUDENT…

CLEMENCY-HANAE ADACHI

ULTIMATE MAMASAN

"Mamasan…? You?" I stared at Clemency-Hanae, shocked would not begin to describe the sensation of knowing this teenage girl was in charge of some kind of bar or nightclub.

For one, she looked like a more free-spirited girl, so I had assumed she might have had some talent or skill set related to nature. More importantly, however, she was a minor so what this girl was doing… even if she was not meaning to cause harm whoever allowed her to put herself in that position. I just hoped this was some kind of joke and she would giggle over teasing me.

"Don't worry yourself, I know it may be surprising but I can assure you that I have been safe. Even if some of the young men who visit have tried to give me their phone number," she turned her face to the side a little but it did nothing to hide the blush on her cheeks, "I'm professional and I take my work seriously, there are plenty of older people who are less mature than some teenagers too."

"Oh, I know all too well," I chuckled to myself at the thought.

"You do..? Well, I would ask you more about that however I imagine you have your priority list right now. Admittedly, I would like to see if I can find some more people to introduce myself. The more people I can get acquainted with, the better an understanding of the situation I might have. I woke up in the infirmary earlier, I am not sure if you went in there already however there are two other people in there the last time I checked," Clemency-Hanae blushed a little putting a hand behind her head, a sheepish smile present, "They were quite the eccentric duo, I didn't quite know what to make of them but they seemed nice enough. At the very least they did not try and run up to me and stab me straight through the eye repeatedly with a scalpel for the sake of psychotic pleasure."

This girl made murder sound so casual, for that, I didn't know whether to be impressed or concerned but with the smile, she carried throughout I gathered she was trying to make a joke.

Too bad for her, I was not going to laugh at something like that right now, morbid jokes were not on the top of my list of things I enjoyed, "That aside… an infirmary huh… I don't want to say this because I want people to get hurt but if there is any leftover medication or some equipment it would be good to know just in case. I'll go take a look."

"Uh-huh, it is not like Aurora where true love's kiss can cure us of any illness," Clemency-Hanae commented, a sparkle in her eye, "Although that would be convenient if you could remove illness or even death with something as mundane as a kiss. There again…"

Clemency-Hanae drifted off into her contemplation over something to do with Aurora, how an aurora related to a kiss and illness. My brain was just not into talking fictional characters at this point, I mean imagine having to talk or write about a bunch of fictional characters when you were tired and drowsy. That would not be fun.

"... and that would be essential for both physical and spiritual equilibrium," Clemency-Hanae finished her ramble, now returning her focus to me, "Gah! I went on another tangent again, I'm sorry Nezire. The mention of medication reminded me of a fairytale story I read recently, some of the original Grimm Brothers fairy tales are a lot more visceral compared to modern contemporary adaptations of the novels. Honestly, seeing the contrast between them makes it all the more beautiful to read into. Now, without further ado, I will bid you adieu and good luck with your search of the infirmary. If you need me then please do not hesitate to come and find me."

With that, Clemency-Hanae gave a small bow of her head, head tilted and smiling still. A quick goodbye and with that the door to the main lounge was delicately opened and the mamasan was water slipping through the thigh gap effortlessly.

The entire conversation had distracted me from the fact that the room was now empty, not silent, just empty apart from myself and the tarp which had shifted forward, one edge nearly touching the floor now and revealing the thick polished edge of one side of the table. The wood was not flat however, wandering over and inspecting it closely I peeked under the tarp to try and see more of the table.

A soft texture met my hand as the fingers brushed across a dark green fabric set into the surface of the table. Click. Click. The fingernails clicked against something hard. Curling my fingers, they wrapped around the object that with time spent under the tarp felt chilly to touch. Rubbing my fingers across the smooth surface, feeling the shape it was a perfect sphere and the curiosity of whatever this was - a cold ball on a table.

The infirmary could wait, a cursory check on the rest of the room later and I gently pushed the ball back and forth underneath the tarp. The weight shifted perfectly, momentum-changing at the most delicate of touches as I manipulated its movement for my pleasure. If you wanted to know, I rolled it back and forth a total of sixty-eight times before I stopped and pulled it out to see the ball underneath the light of the ceiling lamp. A black billiard ball, embossed onto the surface with the number eight painted on in red for some reason. The eight had been painted all in one stroke, both curved in the center whilst borderline pointed at the peaks.

I dropped the ball back onto the table and flicked it so it rolled back underneath the tarp, the slow rumble fading to quiet against the mumbles of activity coming from one of the other doors that I had spotted the first time I entered the room.

It would have been convenient to try and see where Maki and Daichi had gotten off to, their squabbling had caused obvious friction that-. Maybe Maki was more the issue, he'd already upset one person and found it in him to piss off two. If there was a medal for becoming public enemy number one that guy was surely taking the fastrack route to claim pole position on the podium.

Still, the words of Clemency-Hanae were true enough, it was for the best that I blocked myself off from feeding that guy the attention he was probably looking for. I just hope that she was going to try and tell Takumi and Daichi that before verbal abuse turned into a fisticuff brawl. Surely neither of the three were exactly Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson but having to deal with bloody noses and broken bones? Not my cup of tea, I had too much to worry about to deal with boy issues.

Distracted by my thoughts, my head almost banged into the placard bolted onto the door I was wandering over to. I met the shiny reflection of my exhausted face. Goodness gracious, I looked like a zombie that had just climbed up from beneath a gravestone, the bags of grey dull skin hung below my eyes like wilting flowers.

The sign itself was snow-white, from how shiny and in my face it was it must have been made from polyvinyl chloride, shiny black letters were sealed onto spell out the word 'INFIRMARY' in block capital letters. Well, it wasn't hard to miss at the very least so that was a bonus. Before I could let myself feel resigned, with a small shove I pushed the door open just in case the door got jammed shut or such. Crash! Shoving the door was a bad idea, note to self Nezire to never shove a door without testing it gently first. With less grace than a drunk elephant, I stumbled forward and fell flat onto my face as it smacked down against some white tiles. Crackles of heat began to spark through my cheeks as the pain sunk in from the impact. That was going to leave a nasty bruise for sure.

The infirmary was much to be expected from its namesake, the walls and floors were both constructed out of white tiles, small cracks had formed in the corners as chips of ceramic fragmented - in the corners, little pockets of loose ceramic had collected themselves in mourning allowing the specs of dust to claim them once more. Disinfectant punched my nose with force, rupturing my nostrils and drowning me in its chemical scent. Cough. Sniff sniff.

It was hard to focus on the rest of the room right now with the overload of sensations but I tried my best whilst pulling myself up to sit down. Doctors would have swarmed around the bed, bees serving their queen, racing to bring the victims back from the dead before they turned into husks themselves. Or so I could only imagine, were the beds not rusting with time and the covers dishevelled and thrown over without much of a care for attention. Not a single person must have had flowers, cards, or home-bought food as the bedside tables remained empty, only stained and scratched from wear and tear. Imagining the people sleeping to pass the time or staring at nothing at all in this prison however left me as frozen over as the stagnant air around me.

There were rusting stands for intravenous drips and cabinets filled with bottles, drips, and various forms of medical-grade equipment. By the door where I sat, the remains of a dispenser for rubber gloves now just empty in its isolation. Hand sanitizer and soap had taken their curtain calls as well unless they had found relief in hiding behind the medication resting within the cabinets. These items, or more so the lack of them, only reinforced my concerns for our safety, they are so ubiquitous here that the limited items couldn't help but send a twinge of doubt shooting through my nerves and straight into the amygdala. If it weren't for the two other teenagers who were occupying the room at the moment then I doubt I would have thought this place any less than creepy.

"Yo! There's some chick there! Whoa, how did we not see you there? Why are ya on the floor though? Seems a bit weird to me but you do you I guess," the voice came from the right of where I was sat, a boy with a loud and boisterous voice that could wake up the dead. He was bouncing up and down on the bed in a fit of boredom as he pointed at me without any care for manners.

Either he was raised in a barn or… he probably just didn't care about manners. Which honestly? I never understood why is it so hard for people to be well mannered and try to get along with other people without doing stuff to cause trouble or offense. Sure, I could appreciate the fact that not everyone is perfect but it doesn't mean that people can't put the effort into tr-, "Hey! You're lookin' like you've seen a ghost bud!"

Blinking a couple of times as he interrupted my internal monologue, I figured now would be as good a time as ever to get a proper head to foot perspective of the boy's appearance as with a final bounce he launched himself back onto his feet with a little grunt.

The boy was far from what I would have expected a teen would look like, well apart from the standard paler complexion of the sun-starved modern teenager. With big blue puppy dog eyes and fat rosy baby cheeks, dimples and all, you would think he was no older than twelve if it weren't for the fact that he was the average height for a full-grown man and his pitch while not deep, it was deep enough to be distinguishable as that one of a teenager over one of a preteen.

As well as this, his highly wild and uncombed ginger hair (which looked as though it was dyed due to the darker roots) ran rampant around his face, the fringe almost completely covering his eyes with the untamed curls. Various freckles littered themselves across the bridge of his nose. Honestly, all the elements I had mentioned by themselves would have made me suspicious of his heritage, with the ginger hair he reminded me of the stories I had read in the past about the Scottish people. One small feature that stood out was a pretty large scar that spread across the boy's forearm, it appeared to have healed over but the pink line still stood out nonetheless.

As for clothing, he wore fairly contrasting bright colors that seemed to reflect the more outgoing first impression that he was giving. The outfit began with a baby blue v-neck t-shirt with the words "Skaters Gonna Skate" written across it in bold red writing that reminded me of the fonts that comic artists used in those cliche American comic books, the ones with those superheroes and their crazy superpowers. Moving down lower he wore a pair of white cargo shorts, the pockets oddly pulled out to reveal the lining of the pocket and a bright orange sports jacket that he had wrapped around his waist more as a fashion choice rather than for practical purposes. Moreover, on his feet the boy wore a pair of white ankle socks and white and blue trainers, bright electric blue laces loosely tied ready to get undone at any moment.

The perfect definition of if Avril Lavigne was a boy and went for pop instead of rock.

"Babe, if you wanna make an entrance you can at least do it without falling flat on your face, how am I meant to see your eyes and see if you're that type a' girl," the other person spoke, in comparison to the boy, the girl who spoke while casual seemed to talk in a manner which made her sound almost too chilled out to be normal whilst stood in a creepy infirmary.

Her words dragged on in a laidback drawl as she made her effort to look attractive? I guess she was trying to as she smiled at me and added, "Wink wink." whilst physically winking in a cringeworthy, exaggerated way.

While average in height, her lithe, lightly tanned frame and childlike body could easily pass for that of a teenager before going through puberty. Though when it came to her physical appearance, there's something about her that shocked me the most. All of her fingers and toes have permanent scars from being stitched back on as though they had been amputated, almost every inch of her visual body was overrun by sutures of some sort and she made no effort to hide those disfigurements that made her look like Frankenstein's creature.

Nape-length, brittle, mandys pink hair hung from her head, the right side of her fringe curving down to just above her right eye socket, while the left side was held back by a gorgeous red rose tucked behind her left ear. The rose looked freshly-cut from her garden, and its stem was covered in thorns that stabbed into scabbed over the skin and matted her hair with crusted blood.

The girl had, what were pretty easy to tell, long hair extensions that wildly fell past her ankles and onto the floor, the ends were brown from dirt and mud that had stained it after being dragged along the ground. Her left eye was a vivid, almost mesmerizing violet hue that if I weren't so put off with her words and approach could have been considered alluring by some. Filling in her right eye socket however was something that struck me curious. An opaque glass orb with a violet-coloured heart for a pupil was set firmly into the cavity of the socket.

Furthermore, her attire consisted of a lavender gray hoodie that was fully unzipped and hanging loosely off one shoulder. What was it with these two and their desire not to wear jackets in a normal manner? Her tube top was the same intense shade of red as the rose in her hair and is meant to flaunt her scar-riddled body as it exposed her shoulder blades and midriff. Ripped jean shorts nipped at her rear, and black sneakers completed her provocative outfit. Black leather straps around her thighs act as holsters for an odd and honestly quite disconcerting set of tools such as scalpels, surgical scissors, and even a pair of pliers. In terms of accessories, while her ear piercings were obvious at first glance it took her to roll her tongue around her lips whilst she watched me notice the same barbell shaped piercing stuck through her tongue.

"Is that some kinda flirt? Whoa… are you one of those uh… bisexual types of peeps? That's so cool!" The boy squeezed his eyes into small fists and placed them on his chest and his eyes beamed with enthusiasm.

"Bisexual? Nah… I'm what you call pansexual, with love you can't be too picky after all, not that anyone would want to turn all of this down," the girl gestured to herself with a smirk.

"Pansexual? You have sex with pans?" the boy blankly stared at her, blinking a couple of times. I could see the cogs trying to work in whatever was inside that head of his and I swear if he tried any harder steam would come popping out of his ears too, "Do you use the actual pan or the handle then? That's weird now that-"

"That's ridiculous, I know people have relationships with cars, but pans? What would you get out of a pan?" the girl grabbed her large mangle of hair and pulled it up and over her shoulder so she could mess around with it absentmindedly, she puffed her cheeks a little, "If you want to find out what pansexual means you'll just have found out yourself bud."

That was how it was ridiculous? No. No, this whole interaction that was going on in front of me right now? That was what was ridiculous.

"Eh… libraries are so lame. Tried to do an alpha flip in there and the lady there got all pissy with me cause I knocked some of her pamphlets over. Like get over it, who cares about your book club, books are for old people who can't go outside anymore," the boy scowled a little, it was probably for the best that he said that as looking at the girl the naughty smirk returned to just her regular quirky smile. Now tracing a line down one of the many sutures surrounding her left wrist whilst sucking on her lips.

"Hello? I'm still here if you hadn't noticed," why did I ever expect either of these two to realise I was still here watching them talk their heads off?

"Gah!" the boy jumped, hopping onto one foot with his face frozen like a caricature who had seen a ghost. It was laughable, I had to pinch myself a little to stop myself from laughing at the expense of this whacky teen who decided the best way to respond was to stomp his foot and pout like he was half the age he most likely was, "Heeeeeey! Don't do that! You could' a like like… given me a heart attack or whatever!"

"..." He was joking, right?

"..." the girl just smirked a cat's soul in a human body.

"R-Right! Don't go all quiet on me like that, it's making me anxious and when I get anxious well uh… Uh… I dunno really, I was gonna say something but then it went bam right out of my head like it weren't there in the first place," he folded his arms and puffed out his chest, "Wait! You should tell us your name as an apology for barging in on us like that! Then we're all gucci!"

"All… Never mind," I sighed, it would be best to get this over but first of all I pulled myself to my feet, brushing my jumper off to rid it of the specs of dust that had collected between the weaves of the fabric, "If that's all you want then my name is Nezire Katsura, I work as the Ultimate Social Worker so you might be surprised to here I've seen a few hospital rooms in my time. More for sick children though, it never gets easier."

The boy blinked a couple of times, putting a hand to his forehead as he pretended to lean forward as if he was about to investigate a crime scene. His mouth made a perfect 'O' shape, so wide you could probably throw a grape at it and it would slot through the gap without even touching the edge of his lips.

In his enthusiasm he then made a small hop on the ground before giving me the cheesiest grin and a thumbs up whilst puffing his chest out for the second time in this trailing excuse of an introduction - would he just get on with it already rather than messing around like this? His cheeriness was endearing sure, but right now I didn't have the time or energy to play games with this boy who seemed far more interested in making himself look like the victim of a hero complex than in the actual situation that was happening in this actual moment.

"You can speak you-" prompting the boy only got me a humph of an interruption as he pouted when I spoke.

"Hey! I was about to do a cool intro and you messed it up! That ain't cool chick, not cool," the boy shook his head and made a cross gesture with his arms, "Bzzzzzzzt! Incorrect answer!"

"S-Sorry?" It was better to just go along with this for now.

"Now then, get ready! Hey, what's up my chick from another chick, the names Hikaru, Hikaru Izumi, or Ace if you happen to be one of my fans of course, so you can call me Ace I bet! Hahahaha!" the boy put his hands on his hips and gave a cheery laugh, "Betcha you already know my talent but just in case I'll give you a quick reminder cause my mum always told me to be nice to my classmates so listen up! I'm the Ultimate Skateboarder, the best there is and the best there will ever be so dontcha forget it mate!"

REGISTERING NEW STUDENT…

HIKARU IZUMI

ULTIMATE SKATEBOARDER

Skateboarder, how would I ever have guessed something like that when his shirt practically screams 'I am a skateboard junkie'. Oh goodness, I hope he wasn't one of those skateboarders who hung out around the back of the conbini near the campus.

Every day whenever I went to buy a bento box or some kind of snack for lunch I had to deal with an uppercut of marijuana to the face and that sucked. I had hoped to escape the realm of gross smells. His introduction done, Hikaru gave a salute with a goofy smile, lip twitching in parallel with the rhythm of his incessantly tapping right foot. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. It would not stop tapping.

"Nice to meet you, Hikaru," I mechanically replied.

"One last thing! I forgot to do the secret friendship greeting so you've gotta follow what I do alright? Awesome!" Hikaru then did the unthinkable. He was genuinely that kind of guy, the kind of guy who spat out a load of spit, phlegm swimming around in the frothy bubbly liquid like a yolk in an egg. He thrust the gunked up hand towards me with that same carefree grin, "Your turn Nez!"

"No."

"Awesome that's-" Hikaru froze and recoiled back onto one leg like he had seen that same ghost once more, "Wait what! No! What do you mean no! Mate, you ain't gonna break the bud code are you? That's scatpilage!"

"You mean sacrilege. The answer is still no as well, you can ask me as much as you want I will still say no," I was not going to shake it, the phlegm slopped around, puss yellow gunk dribbled off his palm in a coagulated goop.

"Whatever, not my problem that you're boring," Hikaru took the spat on hand and to my relief didn't wipe it on a bed opting to use his shorts instead to leave a sticky looking mark on the outside of the thigh, "I'm gonna bounce… y'know this was cool and all but I've gotta go do something fun as this is a bit dead now. You get my jam? I'll send my brain waves over to you if you don't on the way out. If you have too much fun while I'm gone I'm gonna give you a hella massive fine so watch out!"

Hikaru jogged out of the room, giving the two of us a vigorous wave as he rushed out and towards the door that led to the main lounge from the little I could see from my perspective. Koisuke was going to get another massive shock if they were still playing that game. That kid was not going to have a good time if there were any more overly eccentric individuals still hiding in this place. We'd just have to see.

"And then there were two hmm…" the girl who had been in the room with us disrupted my thoughts, hearing the sound of footsteps I turned to face her. The closer she got to me the more apparent she had some serious issues going on based on her appearance. The sutures stood out more, from where I was standing I could only assume the teeth were not all natural with how perfectly white and synthetic looking they were.

So many questions were floating around my head with how little it made sense in my mind, someone with so many injuries must have been unbelievable clumsy or incredibly prone to illness and yet she spoke and acted with the smoothness of melted butter. For the most part.

"I guess so, I didn't expect Hikaru to be as outgoing as he was," I sweatdropped, putting a hand on my chin unconsciously rubbing at the skin," It reminded me of an elementary school student with all the energy that he had. I'm just hoping he doesn't cause too much trouble with his antics."

"Enough about Hikaru, he seems like a sweet boy, but now it is just you and I here we should get ourselves acquainted with each other," the girl bit her lip, swishing her bountiful waves of hair backward to cascade down her back in waves, "You seem interesting, not the most exciting type of girl but I sense you have more bite than bark. Feisty, I like that in another person, feisty people tend to be more blunt and honest too with their opinions and after all these years I have yet to find someone who can truly take charge in more ways than one."

My throat croaked a duo of crackled unintelligible words unable to form anything cogent. Simultaneously, my hands took the initiative to pick away at some of the fraying loose ends of thread on the sleeves of my jumper whilst I made every possible effort to not make eye contact with her out of not wanting to witness that tongue rolling action again.

"Awwww… shy? Cat got your tongue? Don't worry my dear I'm sure you will get it back soon enough," the girl cooed tilting her head so the beams of light from the lightbulb perfectly reflected from the glass orb that she used as her left eye, "Well, you seem like a fun soul to me, so I think you deserve a couple of rewards for being here right now. The first reward you get is some mouth-watering information. My name is Momoji Kuchimi, Ultimate Taxidermist, but you can just call me the person who is going to do what she can to cater to the needs of all of you. I'm not one of those maids but I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I am sure you will learn to love over time."

REGISTERING NEW STUDENT…

MOMOJI KUCHIMI

ULTIMATE TAXIDERMIST

"Small tricks? What do you mean by that?" I questioned Momoji, with the types of characters who I'd spoken to so far it was best to clarify before she tried to lob a ball of phlegm straight at my face.

The question however seemed to peak some kind of curiosity within her spirit. As though strings were attached to the corners of her lips, Momoji smiled a marionette to the concoction brewing deep within that brain of hers.

"Small tricks may not be the best way of putting it. Think of them as secrets or pockets of knowledge that most people will never get to experience themselves. It's a shame, knowledge is so powerful and so many would lust over the thought of getting their little fingers all caught up in the goodness," Momoji's words were laced in a serene calm, floating off her tongue as clouds breaking through the azure sky, "Knowledge is so powerful, does it not surprise you how people will go to the deepest lengths for words and tales? It doesn't to me, people would go to the ends of the earth for a chance to get a touch of Eden."

"Eden?" Her words morphed into a tumbleweed that rolled around through my skull, "Do you mean you have an idea about what is going on here Momoji…?"

"Knowledge costs as well," Momoji interjected, pulling at some strands of hair and ripping pieces out to flick onto one of the hospital beds, "I'll bite though since you asked so nicely hun. Before that though, I want to tell you something else… Eden may be beautiful but in every man and woman, the snake whispers sweet nothings in your ears. There is so much power in beauty as there is with knowledge and the temptations to submit yourself to the snake are so tempting... You could… barely... breathe."

Momoji purposely drew out long breaths between each word, letting the puff of hazy vapour drift in sheets through the dank air of the infirmary.

"To answer your question… Yes, I do," Momoji sucked on the barbell piercing through her tongue, savouring the metallic taste, "To answer what you will ask next, no I won't. My theories are my own but for now, I'd rather hope that they are not the same… even little girls like I need a break from that kind of fun. Your eyes speak to me, you want to leave don't you Nezire. Your mind is cooking up all sorts of thoughts as I speak and it would be so rude of me to stop you. Still… you should be careful out there, you're too cute to let yourself get hurt any more than you have."

I put a hand to my cheek, applying pressure to the flesh I couldn't help myself from wincing as tendrils of pain spat sparks that spread throughout the bruising of the cheeks. Momoji made not a single sound, her eyes like a vulture waiting for a moment of weakness to swoop down to take advantage of a situation, she stared at my own eyes. The pupil of her right eye slowly expanded whilst the faint sound of grating teeth broke the blanket of silence that had settled itself down within the infirmary.

"You don't have to worry about me," I released the pressure off my cheek, regretting it instantly as the friction burn rubbed coals across the surface and branded it redder than a branding poker, "I promise that I'll be okay and I will figure out what is going on here. You're right though, I should umm… leave to continue investigating the area. So…"

"Aww... " Momoji for a brief moment pouted, the hunger subsiding from her eyes to judge my words and sentence me with her own, "You can go Nezire, but remember these words…"

Momoji put a finger to the corner of her lips, creases rising to arch into a deterring smile, "Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it."

What? What was that supposed to me? Stretching my brain did nothing and it was probably logical why, how could someone even say something like that to a stranger? I had already gathered she was different but from those words, it just screamed 'I should leave now.'

Momoji already took the initiative to indulge herself in examining various sterilized pieces of medical equipment. Stepping slowly backward out of the infirmary, I intently watched her pick up a pair of medical scissors and tilt her head as she gazed into what I only imagined was her reflection.

Upon leaving the room, I slammed the door shut in front of me with a hefty thud. That was not fun, that was not fun at all. It was not her as a character that put me on edge, it was knowing what to do and at that moment I don't know if I had ever felt that same paralysing clutch on my chest. If ghosts were real then they had possessed me and crushed my lungs whilst I softly stared into the pits of her purple irises.

Silence. Not even a pin dropped, no sound reverberated off the walls in the smaller recreation area but for once I couldn't help but treasure the silence. Silence is a double-edged sword, a tricksy mistress that at one moment can give you bliss then the next plunge you into agony and at the moment my mind was too rattled to know if I was being sentenced to one or the other.

No care was taken as I threw my flesh sack of a body onto the nearest beanbag with an inflated sigh. I wondered how long we had been here, how long had we even been here in fact? There may have been clocks around here somewhere but my mobile phone had vanished so putting a date to the time was impossible. Everything was a bit of blur, a whirlwind which was taking me further and further into this madness.

Madness was the only way to describe the situation, the kind of chaos which makes no sense, and washes over everything in its tsunami of annihilation. The flood gates screeched open and salty streams burst the levees to run down the peachy banks of my cheeks. No sound, however… just silence. The sound of silence was the last thing I heard as my eyes fluttered shut once more to enter a land of reflection.

In darkness we stand

Entwined fates for the cursed few

Our oblivion

I was standing in a field, an expanse that spread its verdant wings for miles in every angle. Fresh and vibrant blades of grass swishing and swooshing against the tide of the breeze that soothingly kissed my cheeks. Opening my mouth, the sweet taste of morning dew tickled on the tip of the tongue, tap-dancing along to the rhythm of my gentle breathing. The intoxicating scent of nectar swam through the collections of multicoloured foliage, an adder of the senses slithering to bite at my nostrils. Wisps of streamer like clouds were illustrated on a canvas of an ocean blue sky. Watching them drift by I could make out different shapes as they leisurely sailed through their very own sea: An apple, stem and all with a large leaf proudly presenting itself for all to see, a car trundling along, puffing out smaller clouds to mimic the exhausts. Squinting again, another cloud came into my vision, twisted and shifting… A bear? A dog? No… was it a person? The cloud morphed and bent its form as it spiralled through the sky, the only thing remaining, a scar shape that dissipated into the ether.

"What? No! No what was happening! This can't be happening! This can't be happening now!"

A scream, of a girl. It shot through the air, a bullet piercing my ears. Tapping on one of them with my finger, I stared down at the tip to see a bead of crimson red resting placid. The reflection of a terrified girl wobbling within the bead. Trickle. Trickle. I forced my palms to my ears, the sensation of the blood pushing against it grew and grew with each second as my eyes gazed out across the green. In the far distance, the dancing grass was getting executed - forced to convert itself into a deceased clump of brown matter. In waves all around me, the brown drew nearer and nearer. Crackle. Bang. Thunder smacked my ears and once more the trickling slipped around the gaps in my fingers, confluences of blood joining to rush down my pale cheeks. Some of it, I could feel it getting caught in my hair as it rested. Trickle. Trickle. The brown grass coated the ground beneath my feet in its beautiful trauma, the flowers wilted to crumble into fragments of dull dust. Crackle. Bang! A torrent forced my hands away from my ears as blood pumped from the channel, the buzzing of the cochlea forcing a scream that wailed for centuries. I fell to the floor, gripping onto the blades of grass as the world began to crumble around me. Puddles of blood forced their way through to the grass and the earth began to suck it up in a feverish hunger. In the sky, laughing, the twisted form of a figure… A figure of something, something evil.

"What? No! No what was happening! This can't be happening! This can't be happening now!"

"No, not like-!" beads of sweat coated my brow in a perfect row as I jolted upright on the beanbag. I had to catch my breath, heaving in the air around me as I craved for oxygen to push me through the breathlessness.

The beanbag had slipped out from underneath me, I must have rolled off but the stitching had remained in place at least. With the back of my hand, I roughly wiped away at my forehead to rub the slick sweat off then dry it on the hem of my jumper. Blinking a few times to adjust to the light, it was a bit of a relief to see that it was the same room at the very least, the same room that appeared to be as silent as before I nodded off into the nightmare realm.

"You're awake," a voice brought my senses back to reality, not one I recognised exactly but still presented itself as confident and assured.

"Huh-?" I hoped I didn't gross him out too much whilst rubbing a globule of eye discharge from the corner of both of my eyes and flicked it away absentmindedly.

"I said you're awake. I passed through here earlier and you were asleep, but I figured it would be best not to disturb you," the boy explained in the same tone, "However, after leaving the room directly in front, which by the way if you had not had the time to go in there is a laundry and rubbish disposal complex, I noticed that you were sweating a lot and I figured that something was going on in your head. You looked rough and whilst I understand shaking a stranger awake may not be the best of things to do but I think this worked out best for the both of us."

"R-Right, no it's fine really. It wasn't as bad as you're making it out to be, it was just a bad dream," I sheepishly smiled putting my hands up and shaking them side to side as a gesture of denial.

"If you say so," the boy responded, somehow turning the smooth sibilance into clipped sharp enunciations of the tongue.

I hadn't taken the time to even turn my head fully to get an accurate impression of the boy's appearance - a good job there, me. The tanned skin of a burnt sand dune found itself kissed by the beams of light coming from the lampshade. For someone who appeared to be on the taller side overall, he had a rather lanky figure. Part of me wondered if the tanned skin hid a multitude of medical sins.

Furthermore, his dark mahogany locks reminded me more of a middle-aged man as they were salt and peppered in the front. His hair was messy as if having been pushed back by the wind and left to rest in place, with only some strands falling over his forehead and tresses reaching to just the end of his neck in a mullet like fashion. Half-lidded green eyes, that against his calm tone created the perfect juxtaposition as pools of vitriol observed me. Thick eyebrows that always seemed to be furrowed, deep eye bags that made him look more tired than he was, all of it struck me as odd. In addition, the appearance of the mole under the right side of his lips and the rough calluses that laced his hands like ribbons of liquorice aged the boy that much that I didn't know whether I was genuinely facing someone of my age. Was this a teacher perhaps?

The most prominent about his outfit was perhaps the vintage round sunglasses that he wore, I imagine if he was outside he would have taken no liberty to put them on properly but for the present moment, they rested on his forehead, slightly lopsided to the left. On his actual person, clothing-wise the boy donned an olive colour parka that contained an inlay of thick fuzzy-looking fur that while synthetic had been made to look as real as possible.

Underneath the parka was a simplistic white button-up shirt that had the first few buttons open to expose a little of his sun-kissed chest, and dark mahogany overalls which I could just make out from underneath the parka. He had a black faux leather belt around his waist, that was loose with the steel buckle shoved to the left side than the center. His left side of the overalls was tucked into black and olive hiking boots, whilst the right had it covering said footwear instead almost to the point where I was worried he might end up accidentally standing on the overalls and getting the hem covered in dirt and grime.

"I gather you have met a decent chunk of people whilst you have been stuck in this place then," the boy stated, folding his arms across his chest. His face and tone spoke with a blunt authority and despite all of it, I felt more at ease than I knew I should. I knew I should have been unnerved by the stark contrast in how we spoke. I knew that the way he looked and the body language should have made me feel nervous but despite all of those factors the only emotion that guided me to my response was a delicate ripple of relief.

"Including you… I have met twelve people now," I answered, it hadn't felt like many but thinking back everything had been a bit of a blur. If there were so many people here then how had nobody figured something out yet? Was it impossible?

"Twelve. Including you, I have met fourteen and with the areas, I have been able to access right now I don't imagine it being any more than fifteen people here. There was a long corridor which contained sixteen rooms. However, none of the rooms have doors that would budge when I tried to open them. Brute force didn't even leave a dent or an indication that it could be broken into" he frowned as he recounted his experience so far, "It's nice to see you can hold a conversation without being either insane, about to burst into tears or just being outright weird."

"Thank you…? I-"

"You're welcome," the boy curtly broke my trail of thought with his decision to continue leading the conversation, "Let me tell you my name, it's a lot easier communicating knowing the basic information. The name is Akihiko Yamamoto. Not sure whether you have heard of me at all but I attend Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Variety Show PD. It's a bit of a mouthful I know."

REGISTERING NEW STUDENT…

AKIHIKO YAMAMOTO

ULTIMATE VARIETY SHOW PD

"Akihiko… look I'm sorry my head is in a bit of a mess right now," I put a hand to my head, all the emotions and the nightmares. It felt as though my brain had been compressed into a lemon squeezer and someone was trying to drain all the blood out from it to leave a shrivelled ball of tissue.

"From your bad nap?" Akihiko raised an eyebrow.

"From my bad nap," it wasn't the full truth but… never mind.

"Right. One thing before I head off, I was thinking of this momentarily during my little investigation and you seem the type who can appreciate these sorts of things. Whether or not you know the film, Sherlock Holmes as a character is infamous, the book series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remains as a classic and modern media often struggles to emulate the sheer talent found in the sources - variety shows are much easier to find that balance of creativity and control in. Besides, that isn't the point. With the modern release of the film, Sherlock Holmes the screenplay for this film was originally featured in the 2008 Blacklist; a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year. It's a mystery why it wasn't used sooner…"

"That's interesting Akihiko, you seem to know your stuff about the media. Although I guess that much would be obvious," I nodded, I couldn't deny the fact that he wasn't just all talk," Still, I don't know how that relates to what you mentioned before?"

"It's much simpler to understand when explained that's why. The psychological reaction that the screenwriters try to invoke in its audience is that of suspense, thrill, and excitement. Media in general tries to do its best to be able to capture those moments of pure emotion to make the content feel real. The emotional response that I get now as we are here in whatever this place is is marginally similar to those detective films. Honestly, the prospect of the unknown does have my interest piqued. We are in a hard-boiled or soft boiled egg problem here."

"Eggs? Sorry, I think I understand what you mean but…" I winced a little, a detective film? I get that there were unknown factors at play clearly but his passion for variety shows and the bleeding effect it had on other forms of media. Maybe that was just his way of coping through the tough times?

"It doesn't matter that much," Akihiko shrugged a little, adjusting the sunglasses on his forehead to straighten them out.

"Right… well I shouldn't keep you…" my legs wobbled like gelatin momentarily as I heaved myself to my feet in one laboured motion.

"You weren't," he corrected, now pointing a thumb to the door which was directly opposite the one that led to the main lounge area, "Just a quick warning. Go in there at your peril, I'm not accountable for anything bad that happens to you if you go into that room and come out worse for wear, so don't even think of trying to pin it on me."

I blinked in confusion, what was that supposed to mean? Akihiko didn't give them time to explain that precursor giving a small wave that was styled to that of a salute. Like Clemency-Hanae earlier, the variety show PD seemed to be heading back in the direction of what I had established to be the hub of this complex.

He ran his slender fingers through the locks of hair, twirling the ends around the cuticles of his nails before releasing them in loose waves. It was probably for the best not to pester him further, he felt like the type who was not fond of distractions or tangents when he had his mind focused on something.

You know, I even thought for a minuscule amount of time that I could maybe learn from him how not to get distracted whilst at the moment, but then I remembered the blunt and curt nature that he acted with. I'd probably get easier to understand advice out of a cucumber and that would be saying something.

His words rang through my head though… 'Just a quick warning. Go in there at your peril, I'm not accountable for anything bad that happens to you if you go into that room and come out worse for wear, so don't even think of trying to pin it on me.'

What was that supposed to even mean? If there was something dangerous in there then I figured he would have looked injured or distressed but the way he carried himself suggested nothing of the sort. Was there something about the room that irritated him? No… that couldn't be it as irritation did not directly correlate with peril.

Staring after where Akihiko has left… I definitely should have pressed him for more information however at this point who knew where he was going or what he was intending to do. The last thing I needed was to give the man a reason to be annoyed with me by wandering around his flank like a lost puppy trying to find its owner. It would probably just be easier to bite the bullet and go in myself.

Thinking back to the times at Hope's Peak Academy, it was strange to think about how convenient the development of madness was right now. The insanity that was the environment of Hope's Peak, I think for a lot of us here it was not truly ourselves that had been keeping us going. Perhaps that was what Akihiko truly meant by peril.

Whether or not it was true, I had no time for this! Standing around here idle in a philosophical mind melt did nothing. Firming my resolve, it would be better to get all of this out of the way and find out that what Akihiko said was a joke or a misunderstanding.

Flick… Bzzzzzt… I grimaced a little, the lampshade fluttering with light, plunging the room into a rave of dark and light. The buzzing swarmed my ears, a colony of hornets attacking my senses with every footstep I took. Their stingers latching to the skin and burning them with the incessant droning that went on and on and on and on. They tingled against the frosted air that nipped on the stings, channeling a dull heat that throbbed to the beat of the footsteps clicking along the wooden floorboards. The chill of the air, the rustling of beanbags as I barely avoided tripping over them.

My breath was shallow and yet from my own eyes I swear I saw streamers of condensation flutter through the air. Another flicker and squinting my eyes picked up a sudden spark of red light from one corner. It was there by the pool table but in a moment it vanished. Another flicker, my ears tensed to the sounds of a distant giggle 'Wanwanwanwanwan…'. Turning my back to face the direction of the sound, I didn't notice it in my trepidation as with a yelp I tumbled to the floor tripping on a beanbag that threw my balance completely off-center causing me to land in a painful thud.

My backside was going to bruise after that there was no question about that. Geez… first my cheek and now this, I'd be in a full-body cast before I knew it at this rate. If only such thoughts could have distracted me from what bore itself in my face.

Staring up, in the distance a lightning bolt of pure crimson flashed once before vanishing into space, leaving only the entrails of heated air as it gently shimmered into nothingness.

There was nothing left to say… Akihiko was right, even now I could not deny this anymore. Whatever was going on here it was not right, I wasn't insane. I was not insane, there was no way I could be insane with all the dreams and the strange sights and that just happening right then not even an insane person could have imagined all of that up so that was conclusive evidence which proved that I was not insane.

As though nothing had even happened, a gentle soothing light illuminated the room in a warming glow, the droning now replaced with a steady quiet that only found itself interrupted by my tapered breaths. If I could just get through this one last room then maybe, just maybe, I could begin to find out more information about where this place was and perhaps locate more students or hopefully Ikoma-sensei. Just one more room and all of this would be over for now and I could take the time to recollect my thoughts. Time to move again. One step at a time.

As anticipated, the door had the same style of placard as the infirmary however this one read in cramped capital letters 'LAUNDRY ROOM AND INCINERATOR ROOM'. Why this place had either… it was strange. All of these small strange occurrences had to mean something right? Gritting my teeth in hesitation, I placed my palm gingerly on the center of the door. Why was I so nervous? It wasn't like there was going to be a dead body on the other side of the door and yet when I tried to force myself to push the door open it was as though my arm was paralysed in position. Heaven forbid anyone saw me like this, I would not want those people to see me like this or know I could be like this. I had to be strong, I had to push through. All this time it was my responsibility to push forwards and this was no exception. For them and me I had to be strong and so I opened the door, swallowing my breath and exhaling some air through my nostrils that felt sore.

Yawning itself open with a creak, the door revealed the inside of the room which had described itself as containing laundry facilities and an incinerator however the latter was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was a door made of steel on the right-hand side, a large padlock, and chain strangling the handle, threatening to crush it to pieces under the pressure of the iron. Benches and tables were littered throughout the room, probably for waiting, changing, or even folding items of clothing in the case of the tables that were coated in a sickly blue linoleum. Ironing boards and clothing steamers were lined up alongside the left wall, walls that maintained the same white tiled theme that had tied the two rooms you needed to go through with this one. Washing machines and tumble driers stood in alternation with each other, none were active at the moment but counting that there were only five of each in the room they were most certainly installed for the use of an individual.

If I hadn't seen the misery of the infirmary already then this room would have managed to stamp its seal of disapproval across my face in red ink tenfold. Similarly, like when I had entered the infirmary there were two more faces whom I did not recognise in here with me. One boy and one girl.

Most noticeably, the recurring theme of looking as though you had just risen from a grave ran strong with his aesthetic. With pale skin and a very thin and frail body, it was beyond my comprehension as to how he could properly function in his daily life without something like sleep deprivation from anemia. His eyes drooped and sank in a bit in a disconcerting fashion and with how they were surrounded by dark eye bags it only drove the point further. Perhaps the main other feature that stood out, while it was hard to notice perfectly, was his heterochromia. The stark contrast was a sight to see as his left eye and right eye clashed in shades of deep pink and dark brown respectively.

His other facial features weren't particularly interesting, however, consisting of a standard button nose, lips that curl into a lazy catlike grin, unremarkable eyelashes. On the other hand, his hair was very long, falling to his mid-back and kept in a low ponytail. His fringe was also overgrown to the point that his left eye was completely covered and he had to keep the other side tucked behind his ear to be able to see. Only with the slight movements he made were I able to distinguish the heterochromia in the first place. He only made himself look further eccentric through his choice of dyed hair colour—or should I say colours. The bulk of his hair was a minty green, however, some of the strands of his bangs are blonde, borderline golden.

The boy donned a black turtleneck sweater that heavily contrasted with his very pale skin and a white lab coat over it. If Momoji was Frankenstein's creature then this guy would best be described as the Frankenstein counterpart. For bottoms, he wore a pair of white trousers that must have dragged along the ground considering the residue of dirt on the bottom of the legs and even then it was still held up by a brown leather belt that struggled as it desperately tried to compress the oversized body to his form. Much like the rest of his outfit, his shoes are unimpressive—a simple pair of black loafers that luckily were not oversized as well.

This weird getup was enough as it was, I don't know if I could have comprehended clown shoes on top of that. The only pop of colour on show was a pretty little red ribbon that had been tied in an ornate knot across the front of his Adam's apple for all to see.

In contrast with this, the girl seemed to strike the sense of bizarreness more from her apparel than she did from her natural appearance. Sunkissed like Akihiko I had met before, the girl was blessed with naturally sunkissed skin. Alongside this she was notably small even for a teenager, I reckon I had seen ten-year-old girls who were taller than her in fact. Unless she was a ten-year-old girl then that comment would have been highly awkward. Mental note not to say that to her when she inevitably chooses to speak to me. Her amber eyes were quite big and almost doe-like in how the iris appeared to almost drown out the surrounding sclera.

Furthermore, from the angle, I was at, while hard to tell she seemed to have braces of some kind as her teeth did not appear perfectly white at the very least. Her long hair was a vivid coppery brown, and was done up in a pair of enormous, and quite frankly ridiculous, pigtails that reached to around her waist; she also had a fringe that ended just above her eyes to allow her to properly see her surroundings.

I couldn't honestly believe that outfit I was seeing in front of me though. Whatever it was, the abomination of fashion had me questioning the life choices of some of these people. Her zealously frilly, fancy dress, a frilled wide-brimmed hat resembling the shape of a stratovolcano, and matching long silken gloves and low heeled shoes.

All of the pieces of clothing she had would have been astonishing by themselves however what took the biscuit were bright and vibrant colors and patterns on them. They resembled the aftermath of explosions in a visual onslaught to the senses... Placed along the brim of her hat like candles on a cake are what appeared to be unlit sticks of dynamite at first glance but from the shiny resin that coated it, I was safe in knowing this girl at least didn't carry dynamite on her head. Not that the bomb-shaped bobbles in her hair did her any favours in looking like a sane human being. She also had numerous soot marks on her skin and clothes, perhaps this girl was a chimney sweeper in her past life or just loved rolling around in soot. At this point, I was too tired to genuinely care about the logistics of soot.

What the actual heck had I walked in on here?

A loud voice shot my eardrums, the monotone banging of vowels and consonants bringing me back to the living world, "Oh! Another person here to hear the truth about their inferiority. You shouldn't stand like that, of course I know that because if you lean too much it would cause the thoracic vertebrae to morph to the point that it would cause muscle tension. Still, if someone like you doesn't know something as basic as that then you deserve to feel in pain for being such a moron," the boy spoke rapidly, the pace increasing exponentially to the point where I could barely make out the last part of the rant. After finishing he stared at me with intensity, tilting his head like a robot in one sharp jerk.

A nightmare. A nightmare was what I had walked in on here.

"Gahahahahaha! You are in awe of my massive intellect! Perhaps even some random girl like you has the brain capacity to comprehend my excellence. My work is evidence of the fact that I have ascended from a greater power than you can comprehend, make sure to take notes on this as I recount all of the information that you need to retain," the boy rambled on, even the other girl rolled her eyes at his actions but remained mute as he pulled himself on top of one of the washing machines and sat cross-legged on the top of the appliance, "The reason why I am here is a secret, however being from a society of people who inherited knowledge of the universe you would say that I am the closest you will ever reach to meeting true omnipotence. I am the cerebellum of the new world, the keystone that will bring this civilisation to new heights. My name is one that you cannot know so for now call me by the name your teachers gave me. Shunsuke Yokoi!"

REGISTERING NEW STUDENT…

SHUNSUKE YOKOI

ULTIMATE MAD SCIENTIST

Shunsuke… I didn't know what to do at the moment. My fists clenched a little from reflex but the sheer boredom in which he preached his nonsense at me struck a nerve. How could he act like this and think that it was acceptable? Either he was that absorbed in his head or he just wanted to bait a reaction. With some of the people I had met so far, well Maki, I could only imagine his face looking like a bruised potato before the day had finished and quite frankly I would have felt nothing at seeing him get his comeuppance.

I tried to be a calm and composed person as much as I could, being reasonable and forgiving is nothing to be frowned upon but if he thought he could act like this…

"Don't cry, it's true that oxytocin provides the means to release endorphins however that shouldn't be at the expense of making yourself look disgusting with snivelling and snot. Gahahahahaha! Imagine that, a teenage girl having the mental capacity to control their emotions without going into a little meltdown like this."

"What is that meant to mean?" the girl sneered down at the boy, raising her chin with the haughtiness of a swan, "You can say whatever you want about girls, but it doesn't change the fact that you're just a boring, dull boy who is practically screaming for attention. I would pity you but you're not worth my pity."

Shunsuke blinked a couple of times, a snicker slipped out until he burst out into a peal of maniacal laughter whilst clutching onto his stomach. Spraying spit in front of him as he rocked back and forth on the spot. Banging his foot against the top of the washing machine the noise of the laughter was deafening and it was clear he didn't care to stop when I tried to shout over the noise for him to be quieter, "GAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What is that supposed to me? You think you can apply such neanderthalic principles to your argument and get anywhere with it. You have impressed me, I never realised just how bad off even Ultimate students are. What are you supposed to be? A dress-up volcano?"

"Hey, I-" I tried to speak up only to be cut off again, this time by the girl.

"I am not a dress-up volcano, although my style is better than looking like I just came out of a morgue. Monochrome is so dull and boring, why would you even let yourself leave your bedroom in that sorry state, could you not afford to look any better than some rejected medical student?" she scoffed, taking a lighter from her pocket and flicking it on to wave it in front of his face, "You won't forget me trust me. If you think this is a trick, well I'll let you find out the fun way when I blast your butt out of the atmosphere!"

"Guys please-" I frowned, putting a hand up. This was not working whatsoever, Shunsuke decided to retaliate immediately.

"Impossible. You wouldn't have the means to do that, even a simpleton would know that for that kind of propulsion the momentum would need to be concentrated in a singular direction, not expanding outwards in random directions, "Shunsuke put a hand over his mouth dragging out an exaggerated yawn.

"Oh really? Want me to demonstrate it for you? I'm sure your little lab coat will love the treatment," the girl snapped in response, with a swift movement she pulled out two metal-coated sticks from a fold in her dress and with blinding speed lit both of the sticks with her lighter. Crackle! Bang! They burst into an explosion of light and banging sounds, sparks of silver and gold light leaping off, and squealing with pops of staccato.

She began to twirl them around in her hand with unnerving dexterity, her eyes trained on the target in front of her as some of the flickering sparks licked her arm to no reaction from their wielder, "I can put some colour on your face with my crackle sticks. Just be glad I didn't have my boom sticks on me or else I'd get to have some fun with the likes of you."

"Hey! Stop this right now!" I shouted, stomping my foot on the floor to try and get their attention, to my relief the girl stopped a few meters short of Shunsuke. I swear, I knew I was a social worker but I did not expect having to do babysitter duty at the same time, "Both of you!"

"Excuse me, what makes you-" Shunsuke began to speak, narrowing his eyes towards me. Not today bucko! This social worker had had her exhausted buttons pushed one too many times and I was going to tell him what I thought!

"Shut up! Just shut up! You've done nothing but act like a condescending bully since the moment I entered the room. I don't know what your problem is, but you need to pull your act together. Grow up, you're not any more special than anyone else here and if you think for a moment that you are this superior being then tell me why you are so bad at being able to have a normal conversation without turning it into an insult or a bragging monologue? If you are so smart, why don't you explain to me why it is so hard for you to cooperate in a conversation without the need to interrupt with further insults," I panted after finishing my rant.

It was not anger, just frustration letting itself out at the moment. It was better than him getting smacked in the face by the glowing stick of doom that the girl had reluctantly stomped out grumbling under her breath about her fun being ruined again.

"Shut...up?" Shunsuke spat the words out, his arms tensing then shaking as he pointed daggers of pure malice towards me, "Shut up? Shut up! I. Will. Not. Be. Told. To. Shut. Up. By. The. Likes. Of. You!"

Shunsuke flailed his arms in an act of what I could only describe as an anger induced meltdown. Smashing his fists into the top of the washing machine so much that even I had to wonder whether his fists would bruise first or whether that machine would somehow get some dents in it with the rate at which he wailed at the appliance in an uncontrolled fit of chaotic emotion.

Even the sparkish girl winced at the display now moving back to stand by my side. I don't think I would ever share the same sentiments as a walking talking volcano but her insistence on leaving the room as she nodded her head to the door behind us was way too tempting not to take it. Luckily for the two of us, Shunsuke had his eyes closed as he continued to smash and flail his arms in utter discord, repeating the same words over and over again as he tried to comprehend it. My goodness, for someone who talked the talked he certainly acted like a big baby when confronted with reality.

As quickly and stealthily as we could, the girl and I slipped back out into the recreation room. This recreation room suddenly felt like a godsend as my head was practically throbbing from all the shouting and screaming. If this was what being a mother felt like I knew right then and there that I would just stick to adopting a child after the baby and toddler phase. Putting a hand on my head, the throbbing persisted as I collapsed into one of the beanbags allowing it to swallow me within the folds of the fabric.

"What a nutjob, well whatever it's not like I care about people like him. Although I've gotta say," the girl pointed directly at my face, "I was on a roll and you ruined my fun so you've gotta pay me back or else I'll have to stick you in the same club got it?"

"I'm… sorry?" Was she that keen on smacking Shunsuke with a sparkling stick?

"Okay, well… you're not off the hook yet so don't act all smug yet," the girl puffed her cheeks, twirling some hair on one of her pigtails, "I never get why anyone'd want to be so dull and boring, life is more interesting and fun when you put yourself out there."

"Can I have your name?" That would help at least, knowing her name meant I didn't have to identify her as the walking, talking volcano anymore.

"I'm bored but if it means I can leave this place and get some good times going then I suppose I can tell you," the girl shrugged, pulling out now another item. Wait… the shape was a cylinder, with a red hue and a long fuse…

"That's d-dynamite!" I yelped recoiling in my beanbag.

"You know I always thought a large bazooka would be better for destroying things but it sucks hard that there are age limits on purchasing them. Like what kind of government would want to restrict our freedom like that?'' The girl huffed indignantly, "So I have to stick with my bangers here even though a bazooka would deffo be more effective. Whatever, it's not like a plain Jane like you would want to know anything more than when the next issue of Cats Weekly comes out. My name is Aurora Caldera, the Ultimate Demolitionist. You would do well to remember my name."

REGISTERING NEW STUDENT…

AURORA CALDERA

ULTIMATE DEMOLITIONIST

"I don't think I'll forget it, you're a very unique individual, after all, Aurora," I doubt I would have found her even the slightest bit tolerable if it hadn't been for the fact that Shunsuke existed.

"Good, now I don't have any further time to speak with you. I have things to see and stuff to do, and that has absolutely nothing to do with you. It's too cold in here anyway," Aurora complained, rubbing her arm with her gloved hand. I couldn't say I was surprised that she left me on my own, taking the time to shuffle herself out of the room almost as quickly as we had when trying to escape from being victims of a temper tantrum.

Covering her mouth whilst she yawned, she slipped through the door, and for her own sake I prayed the next time I went into that room I wouldn't see the remains of a warzone from an explosion roulette.

Akihiko was right, it would have been for the best if I hadn't bothered going in that room in the first place.

The only sensation I could focus on was the darkness that came from closing my eyes. Closed eyes were the relief that came as my head throbbed with a dull aggressive pain, pounding on my skull and creating a haze that clouded my mind. Thinking hurts. Everything hurt at the moment so I just tried my best to empty myself of my thoughts. Ikoma-sensei, the other students, the strange circumstances surrounding this new location.

All of it, I just tried my best to let them drown among the swirling winds of mind haze that had whipped itself up into a gale by this point. It helped to try and control my breathing, putting my palm in the cavity of my chest, the sensation of feeling the ribcage smoothly expand and retract - it was a comfort that words alone could not provide right now. I was just grateful to be able to take the moment as it was, I knew it would not last long. If this place had proved anything far it was the fact that peace and tranquility never lasted long here.

Silence. Some people say that it is agonising and others say it is the sweetest bliss of them all. Extremes the two of them and yet both true all in one go. My silence was an escape from the reality that my head sang to me in waves of pain and yet not even that could prepare me for the mountains that I would have to climb over further on. Nothing could prepare me for the reality of the situation as it was that insane, that deprived of sanity that it turned us into base shells of people. His voice was deep, his voice was gruff and his voice was a precursor to the doom that would await in these macabre halls:

"Wanwanwanwanwan… this is an emergency announcement. Please can all students meet in the main lounge area. I repeat, please can all students meet in the main lounge area. Failure to do so will result in being reprimanded. Thank you~!"

Cactuar's A/Ns:

Time for some author's notes courtesy of Cactuar! It's going to be relatively short this time as I don't have too much to say personally more than a reiteration of thanks. For the people who continue to support me and this story even with the delays and real life commitments that I have. (It also doesn't help that my laptop broke, delaying the writing process even further as I am not used to writing on my other PC and the keyboard is notably bigger). Now that the character introductions have come to their conclusion, you all know what is coming next and if all goes to plan then the next update will contain the reveal and other small titbits of fun to bring the Prologue to its end and get Chapter 1 on its way.

A thank you now for the creators of the first four characters to officially be part of Danganronpa: Lights, Camera, Action:

Clemency-Hanae Adachi (by TheRoseShadow21)

Hikaru Izumi (by oddlyillregular)

Momoji Kuchimi (by Trust Me the Spider)

Akihiko Yamamoto (by Sushiforsale)

Shunsuke Yokoi (by iBlurt)

Aurora Caldera (by Barbacar)

This was genuinely the hardest part so far, trying to decide the final six involved a lot of contemplation but I think these six here are great additions to the cast and they all provide unique aspects to their character which the rest of the cast don't have. For me, I wanted to have each character stand out on their own so I hope with this diverse and incredibly creative cast I can bring those wishes to fruition.

Quickly, just a recap on a few different stories or pieces of work that I recommend people look at if they haven't and enjoy Danganronpa: Lights, Camera, Murder!:

Danganronpa: The Hopeful Lies We Tell, Danganronpa: Salty Waves and Bloody Coral, Danganronpa: Laughable Rejects by Prince PokePersona: This collection of stories provide some of the best most gripping stories in the 2020 SYOC scene and if you have not had the chance to check any of these yet then I highly recommend you go and check out his work as soon as you can! You won't regret it.

From Whom The Rabbits Mourn by SanityRequiem: How could I not mention this talented writer who has collected all us Dangan SYOC stories together under one united umbrella? Not to mention she is a talented writer too!

Danganronpa: Fresh Meat by mandipokemon: Not only have they finished a whole story but they're onto their second one! Go show some support as they really know how to plan an awesome killing game!

Danganronpa: Etch It Into My Heart by RioA: If my collaborative partner Sona represents ambition in the community then RioA represents mastery in the community. She is the titan of the SYOC for a reason as she is already onto her fourth SYOC and is writing engrossing stories that get better and better each time.

Dead Zeppelin by Orlando Butler: Orlando may not have written as much as some others but as the saying goes, 'quality over quantity' and the quality of his writing and character interactions is great!

That's it from me, now to Sona with his own Author Notes! (Please forgive me for all the editing, Sona buddy!)

Sona's A/Ns: These chapters are thick and not the good kind, OwO. Editing was a bit hectic, but I'm glad I was able to get through it in the end, man you really need to abbreviate and cut down some chapters, heh. Just as the man himself said, I hope you all liked this chapter as much as I liked reading through it and tirelessly skimming through parts to edit it. These new characters have been such a treat to read through, even if some of them did get a little too rambunctious for my liking. That's part of the Danganronpa charm.

I appreciate the eclectic group of characters we have here and the range of personalities they offer and to those whose OC didn't make the final cut, I wish you the best of luck finding them a new home and hope they make a comeback in another potential SYOC, hopefully one that actually stays for the long run. Wink wink.

To those that made it in, I wish your OC luck and I'm excited to see what Cac over here has to offer us, hopefully when the game starts off properly, we can see who will snap first and who will survive this endless murder fest. The plans he has in store are exciting and I hope to be here to see him make it to the end.

That's all I have to say really, feel free to check out some of our friends' stories and even mine if you choose UwU. I wish you all a good day, night, holiday or whatever it is you are celebrating and happy quarantining and to those going back to school, I wish you all the best of luck.