The group of Ultimates dispersed after receiving IMONO's idea of good conversation topics. The sixteen of them had barely known each other for a day, and already, they were expected to open up to each other to an absurd extent. The mood was tense, no doubt because people recognized that they all had dirt on each other, even if most of them weren't sure who knew what. Actually, that last part probably had something to do with it.

Naoko thought about how he could try to remedy the situation. Maybe he'd talk to Mine about the information he was given. That'd be a very personal question to ask, but maybe, just maybe, it'd help de-escalate the situation they found themselves in. Well, he had time to make up his mind about that. So, instead of worrying about that, Naoko decided that he'd try to keep things casual between his fellows. Maybe some of them would be open to some light conversation.

Naoko had just recently left the gym, and was thinking of where to go. People had already dispersed in short order, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to search far and wide just to find someone to talk to. Taking a left turn, he entered the area in front of the dorms, where he saw Sasa sitting on the floor, her back to the wall. She looked deep in thought, but quickly snapped to attention as Naoko approached.

"Naoko?" she asked. "W-what's wrong? It's not about my, uh, secret, is it?"

"No, that's not it," Naoko assured her. "No need to worry about that."

"Oh...okay." Sasa began to relax a bit. "So, everything's okay? Well, no, th-that's not true."

Naoko frowned. It sounded like a lot was on her mind. He decided to sit down with her and talk. Unfortunately, Sasa wasn't one for conversation, so Naoko ended up doing most of the talking. At the very least, she was a good listener. Naoko felt like the two of them grew a little closer after a while. Hoping to help her ease up to him, he even gave her a gift, in the form of a high-tech multicolor pen.

"Oh...This is...nice. Thanks, Naoko."

Naoko thought about Sasa for a bit. It was no secret that she kept to herself. It must've been due to her social anxiety. It was hard to read what she was like other than that she was anxious, which Naoko thought was really unfortunate. Maybe, he thought, asking her about herself would help her open up.

"So," Naoko began, "what's it like to write for TV and such?"

"Y-you're interested in that?" Sasa asked, surprised.

Naoko nodded. "Yeah, I think it's cool to know what that's like."

"Well," Sasa began, "to be honest, my experience with scriptwriting has been pretty...I dunno. I w-wouldn't say it's exciting, if that's what you're thinking. Sorry."

"That's fine," Naoko replied. "What about the process?"

"The process? I guess it's mostly j-just me being told what to write about, and me writing it."

"Really?" Naoko asked, unconvinced. "It can't be that simple, can it? You write for lots of different things. You're saying that's what it's like all the time?"

"N-no," Sasa admitted, looking away. "That's an oversimplification, I know. It's not always th-that simple. Depending on what I have to write, I have to do a l-lot more. I've written for comedy shows, for instance."

"Uh-huh. What's that like? You have to come up with the jokes, right?"

"Yeah," Sasa said. "I've come up with some jokes that have m-made people laugh. It's not really that easy, though."

"I can understand that," Naoko replied. "Comedy can be very hard to write."

"Yeah," she agreed. "For me, though, it's the easy part of comedy. W-writing it, I mean."

"Really? What's the hard part?"

"The d-delivery," Sasa replied. "I don't tell jokes. I just write them. I-it's easier."

"Oh. So you're saying you can't tell jokes?"

"Yeah. Like, here's a joke I heard once." Sasa quietly cleared her throat. "Why, uh...why'd the m-man walk into a b-b-bar?"

Naoko raised an eyebrow. One of those kinds of jokes? "Why?"

"Because...u-uhh...h-h-he was...blind. And he, uh, hurt his head, 'cause it was m-metal."

Naoko didn't feel like laughing. He considered doing it to be polite, but he didn't know if he'd be able to do so convincingly. That, and Sasa definitely wouldn't believe him.

Sasa hung her head in shame. "See? Th-that's why I write the jokes."

"Don't feel too bad about that," Naoko assured her. "Not everyone's good at telling jokes. That's nothing to be ashamed of."

Sasa didn't seem any happier from having heard that. Naoko decided to switch tactics.

"If you'd like, we can talk later. I can help you work on your delivery."

"Really?" Sasa asked. "That'd be...o-okay, I guess."

Naoko smiled and politely left. Even though she still had a long way to go, it seemed like if was persistent enough, he could help her work through some of the things that were weighing her down. Still, considering her disposition, any sort of breakthrough he managed to get out of her wouldn't come for some time.

It might've been seen as kinda weird, but Naoko had thus far been enjoying the prize machine. It wasn't that hard to find the coins scattered around the facility, as they were mostly just lying around and it looked like few other people were that interested in the machine. Already, he had gotten quite a few interesting things from the prize machine. It felt kinda weird appreciating something from IMONO, but it was a nice distraction from all the drama he had recently been involved in.

After another quick trip to the prize machine, Naoko passed by the computer room and decided to take a look inside. Inside, he saw Mariko, who was sitting down in front of one of the room's many computers.

"Hey Naoko," Mariko said contentedly. "I found some simple games on these computers. One of them's even a rudimentary music making game!"

Well, that sounded like a nice way to pass the time. Naoko sat down next to Mariko and joined her as she composed a surprisingly catchy tune with such a simple program. It was mostly passive, but it was interesting, and Naoko felt like he and Mariko grew a little closer thanks to it. After a while, he decided to surprise her with a bag of konpeitō.

"Thanks, Naoko! You really know how to give me gifts, don't you?"

"Hey, Mariko?" Naoko asked.

"Yeah? What is it, Naoko?" Mariko responded.

"I'm curious. Why exactly did you get into digital composing?"

"Why?" Mariko repeated. "I'll admit, I haven't had many people ask me that."

Naoko found himself surprised by this. "People don't ask you about why you got into what made you an Ultimate?"

"People do," Mariko clarified, "just not very often. People are more interested in what I can make, generally. To be honest, though, I can't blame the people that don't ask why. It's not that crazy, really."

"Can you tell me anyway?"

"I guess, yeah," Mariko said, shrugging. "I got into digital composing because I love music. It's as simple as that. I liked music, and I wanted to make music."

"That makes perfect sense," Naoko replied. "Why did you decide to compose digitally, though?"

"Well," Mariko began, "I kinda wanted to listen to the music, and not just make it. If I wanted to do that, I'd have to either learn to sing, or pick up an instrument, and I've never been good with either. Instead, I just fell back on something I already knew."

"You mean computers?" Naoko asked.

"Exactly. I've never been very outdoorsy. Whenever I could, I'd stay home and play around on my computer, or play on some of our old video game consoles."

"Old?" Naoko asked. "How old? Like, twenty years old?"

"Yeah, they were pretty old. I think they were dad's at one point. I mean, mom's not really knowledgeable with games, and I don't think it was bought just for me and my brother or anything like that."

"Sounds like fun," Naoko commented. "I actually played some old games in my youth, too. Any favorites?"

"Yeah," Mariko answered, looking nostalgic. "There was one painting game that was so awesome. It had a bunch of stuff in it, including a music making game. I used to play with that music maker for hours."

An old painting game with a music maker in it? That sounded familiar.

"So I'm guessing that's where your idea of composing digital music came from."

Mariko nodded. "Uh-huh. I basically work with the kind of software that I dreamt of when I was little. It's really cool, actually."

"It certainly sounds cool," Naoko agreed. "You should tell me about what composing is like sometime."

"Sure," Mariko replied. "If you want to learn about it, I'd be happy to share."

Naoko and Mariko parted ways. It sounded like Mariko had quite the love of technology. Hopefully that made her experience of being under the thumb of IMONO a bit more bearable. In all seriousness, it was definitely a conversation Naoko was interested in continuing at some point.

Naoko laid back in bed, not sure how to spend his remaining time. Their daily dinner meetup was fast approaching, and Naoko wasn't looking forward to it. The mood wasn't nearly as mellow as Naoko preferred it. Their last dinner together was not at all a fond memory, and with the recent issue of all of them having sensitive information related to them being put in the hands of their fellows, the mood certainly wouldn't be happy. Still, it wasn't like they couldn't show up. They all needed to eat, after all.

Time passed quickly, or so it felt. Naoko, with a sigh, left his room and went towards the cafeteria.