Hello everyone! Glad to know other people are still into this fic as much as I am. I've got other things I'm contemplating about doing in the future so look out for those.

Out of all people to greet him at the door, Ryoma didn't expect to see the ultimate cosplayer standing there. She wasn't unsocial but seemed to just like being to herself for the most part and mainly talk about cosplay or anime. Not like he could really mock other people's social skills.

Chiaki didn't tell him where on his partner's body they'd wear the scarf but a quick once over from where he was standing told him it wasn't her.

"Oh Ryoma, you must of been a lot more tired then you looked this morning. I almost thought you entered the deep sleep trope like Yuki from vampire princess with how long I've been pressing the door bell." She laughed awkwardly at her own reference. Since he didn't really read much manga he didn't get it but gave her a tired smile regardless.

"Yeah, I didn't really get much sleep last night. I was in the middle of a pretty good dream for once too. What's happened?"

"Ah, I'm sorry about that but apparently "Atua" is summoning everyone to the gym for something important he wants to ask. Angie didn't want to tell anyone the details but she promised some type of reward for to anyone who answered correctly. That and some type of bonus if everyone was there to hear his question. Some are planning to just ignore her but others really want to know the bonus."Tsumugi explained.

"And I guess your one of them?"

"I guess I'm just plain transparent huh? With nothing much to really do around here I thought it might at least be something interesting. Maybe it's something that would be plain fun to read like the entire manga series of detective conan?" The blue haired girl said a bit eagerly.

"That sounds like something that would be more fun to just you Tsumugi but your right it would be at least something to do. I'm not gonna be able to get back to sleep now and I kind of made a promise separate from you guys with Kaede." He said.

"Huh? You made a separate promise at some point?"

"Yeah, I promised I'd try and interact more if I wanted to stop living in the past. At least seeing what this fuss is about with everyone might count as a baby step." He didn't see any point in hiding this. It was something he felt he should keep reminding himself anyway.

For a few seconds the cosplayer didn't say anything but smiles and adjust her glasses. In the middle of doing this he couldn't really see her face. He might of been imagining it but some odd expression seemed to pass over her but it was to quick to tell before she lowered her hand.

She muttered something into her palm but he couldn't hear what before lowering her hand addressing him.

"Well, we better hurry to the gym or be plain left behind in seeing the bonus." Tsumugi said now cheerily.

"Why does she talk like that? Bringing up what you are repeatedly must get plain old at some point...…...dammit now I'm doing it. Also what was that look she just did?" He thought to himself while brushing off the odd expression from earlier as possibly just in his head. Chiaki said to be cautious though so he would try to be.

Ryoma sighed to himself before following Tsumugi to the gym where to his surprise, almost everyone was there save for Kokichi, Kiibo, Kirumi, and Angie herself . He honestly thought more then a few people wouldn't show up. Since it looked they'd be waiting for at least Angie to arrive, Ryoma took the time to look at the girls in the room who might be wearing a blue scarf. Some he was secretly relieved weren't.

"Hmm, looks like Tenko and Miu are a no and I can't say I'm too disappointed. They don't seem like bad people. Still having to deal with either constant dirty shower jokes or threats to be flipped for attempting something "a filthy degenerate male" would do isn't what I want to deal with from the get go. I wonder if someone lazy like Himiko is more athletic then she knows and her memories will reveal her to be an ultimate gymnast or triathlon runner? Till then it looks like she's not my partner either."

His internal musing of the current females in the room was interrupted with the arrival of with the remaining classmates. Kirumi was pushing a cart with painting supplies and canvases.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting, I was assisting Angie with her surprise." Kirumi explained. She then started setting up the canvases.

Angie was standing on the gym stage and waving her hands to the small audience to get their attention.

"Thank you to all who came for Atua's dive message! I had a vision last night from Atua that says one way to help ease everyone's stress in these troubled times is through art classes. Atua wants you all to draw your favorite meals on top of a creative background. Comfort food like in my case delicious island pizza with pineapples. Mmmm! At the end of class you will receive a prize." Angie explained.

The artistic islander's announcement with mixed mocking from Miu and Kokichi both of whom stayed anyway. Himiko of course commented that painting sounded like a pain just sat on the side to watch. Other then them everyone else just shrugged but complied.

He only got the outline of a circle and some crudely done mushrooms on the canvas before trying to get a better look of Kirumi. He couldn't quite see the front of her. Thanks to the way she was standing with her own board it was hard to see. There height difference wasn't exactly helping things either. Before he could move his board closer to get a better view of Kirumi, the ultimate artist suddenly appeared beside him.

She wrapped an arm around his shoulder as if half hugging him before glancing at the board then back at him. Angie gave thumbs up and made a motion with her hand that caught his attention as she tugged at her skirt as if to readjust it. Only now that he was closer did he notice the little bow on her light blue polyester skirt had a large darker blue cloth similar to his own done in an overlapping bow.

So it was her then? He hadn't honestly expected it but a lot of unexpected things had been happening in under the last 24 hours. Angie shouldn't be that surprising in that sense.

"Ryoma! Atua can see your dedication is strong from just the little you've done and he wants your opinion on some of his own inspirations. Will you give him some of your creative input?" Angie asked with a wink.

It had only been a few minutes since they started painting so seeing the judge of this whole thing walking off raised some eyebrows. Kaito was the first to voice his dislike of this.

"Oi, Angie what gives? I thought you were going to look at all our stuff at the end of this class thing and give a prize. You can't just walk off with someone yet. You didn't even look at anyone else!"

Kokichi had been side eyeing the pair since Angie had walked over and decided to also chime in with Kaito.

"For once the space idiot said something I can agree with. Your the one who forced us into this only to just leave hardly 3 mins in? Waaaah! Atua is playing favorites!" Kokichi fake cried.

All while he was speaking, the supreme leader had been walking over behind them to get a better look at the drawing Ryoma made. When he saw it his tears instantly disappeared. A look of unimpressed boredom was on his face as he looked at the piece. Swiftly he snatched it to look closer.

"What's so special about a circle with a few bug looking blobs on it? Did you eat bugs or something as a kid?" The only response he received was getting the paper snatched back by Ryoma with an annoyed huff. His drawing skills weren't the best but it was clear as day what it was.

"Actually I think that's suppose to be a mushroom pi-" Shuichi began to speak only to be cut off by Gonta.

"Ryoma eat bugs?! No, bugs are friends not fo-!" Gonta began to protest only to be interrupted as well.

"That's not the issue here Tarzan. Like the supreme anorexic raccoon face and purple space idiot asked, what gives?" Miu demanded.

"Stop calling me an idiot!"

Angie raised her hand in a motion to as if to calm them down so she could speak.

"Don't worry everyone, Atua doesn't play favorites plus the contest isn't over just yet. He simply wants Ryoma's opinion on some projects and then we will return. It's because of our link to pizza that he's asking for Ryoma specifically which isn't favoritism in the slightest bit. Bye-onara everyone!"

Before anyone could protest how that actually was favoritism, she grabbed Ryoma's hand and fled out the gym with him.

Ryoma was thankful that despite not playing tennis for a long time, his muscle memory knew when to kick in to keep up. With how surprisingly fast she could move he was positive his much shorter arm would of been pulled out it's socket if he were any slower. In almost no time at all they were back near the dorm rooms and inside Angie's own room. Unsurprisingly she had already completely painted up the walls yellow with little rose around the cabinet. What caught his eye most was what looked like a wide and pretty large sketch pad in the back wall. It was the size of medium sized flat screen TV. It had an all black cover that said "Angie's diary" in pink italics.

Almost like deja vu from when he walked in the room with Rantaro in disguise, he felt the aura around Angie change. Her wide smile was now a blank line. The constant brightness she seemed to radiate with her eyes was also gone. He could see faded red sunken lines he hadn't seen before under them now.

Had she been crying?

"Angie are you okay?" He couldn't put his hand on her shoulder so opted to rub her arm in comfort. It was obviously a dumb question in the moment of things. Learning that his girlfriend could possibly be alive was simultaneously relieving as it was horrifying. Many questions of her location physical state, his parents, and possibly other people he had been made to forget made him anxious. What kinds of precious things had she remembered in her life and was she feeling? He hadn't honestly spoken to her beyond in passing in the halls or briefly refusing her Atua when she brought him up. This was kind of awkward in that regard.

She sent him a tired smile and showed him her hands.

Like her eyes they also had some faded swelling of red from splinters that she seemed to try to disguise with a bit of red paint on her palms. It honestly looked painful but she assured him that she had ice pads she planned on using.

"If we were being recorded at the real hope's peak I think I broke my personal record on that." Angie said while looking at the pad.

She just nodded over for him to walk over to the large pad . When Angie spoke again it made him jump a bit with how much older, slightly upset, and authoritative it sounded. It was as if another person was speaking to him entirely. The artist got straight to the point.

"Monobreve already messed with the cameras a few seconds ago so nothing should look odd about us in the room together. I need you to sum up as quick as you can, the best you can what your about to see in under 15 minutes. Hurry." Angie said.

Shaking off the shock from Angie's mature sounding voice he did as he as he was told and flipped the cover. It was multiple scenes lined against one another like a comic only very detailed like a graphic novel. She had even labeled the scenes by numbers.

First scene was a beautiful long haired blonde women with silky white skin and a lovely although tattered long green dress. She had a crown on her head and a gold scepter that queen's usually held but it was on the ground at her feet. She was crying red tears down the back of a man with short black hair with a long whip of white in it. He was in a tux, a crown, a long faded purple colored scarf, and eyes with two different colors. To sooth the distressed women his bandaged wrapped hand was rubbing her back in comfort. His scarred face looked solemn as he held his crying queen. Behind them was a black and white castle that had blood coming out the windows along with the windows of the city they were standing in. The sea that surrounded the faded looking city was dirty grey blue.

The kingdom itself seemed pretty lifeless with only a few people and faded colors on the few there. None of them were smiling. Just like the queen they too cried red tears.

Second scene showed a 2 figures he could only assume to be Angie's parents. They were holding a wrapped up sleeping Angie who looked maybe 7 yrs old with how little she was. They stood on a of a medium sized boat with smiling figures of people leaning on side people had had scratches, wrapped arms, and some seemed to be happy crying with one another as they sailed the grey sea. Unlike the rest of the sea in front of it,the boat's trail was a healthy looking shade of sapphire blue.

Third scene showed them all arriving at shore where the queen and king greeted them. The Queen had kneeled down to the little Angie who gave her a single yellow paintbrush with a flower on the tip. The Queen was smiling as she accepted the gift and the prince did to as the father handed him a vase with a heart on it.

Fourth and final scene was the same vase filled with soil now and the flower sitting in the center of the kingdom's city. It glowed with white and golden light that seemed to beam throughout now colorful kingdom. The queen and king's clothing were no longer faded looking, the castle was vibrant shades of copper. The ocean around the kingdom as well as the sky were vibrant blues again. Everything looked alive, brighter and more healthy with more people in the streets. Many of whom were smiling now. Angie's family stood under a welcome sign wearing some sort of sashes that the queen had placed on them as they bowed before her and the king.

Flipping past that was just a blank page that said To be continued...


Once she saw Angie disappear into her dorm room with Ryoma it was time for Kaede to try and not look to suspicious as she guarded the room. She didn't know if they'd be able to figure out what Angie's memories meant before the cameras went back to normal. Regardless if they did or not she didn't want to risk any suspicious ease droppers.

There was almost a funny irony in the fact that she pretending to clean around the stairs and railings to hide her true intentions. Was it sadder then funny or funnier then sad at this point? Now was not the time for self deprecation but it was a hard to ignore the comparison of things in the moment. Humming a bit of a few relaxing melodies by Peder B. Helland calmed her down some. It was only 6 mins later that the sound of approaching footsteps alerted her someone was coming.

"Maybe their just passing through to go to the cafeteria or their own rooms?" Kaede thought hopefully.

The doors leading to dorms opened to reveal who was likely number 1 on the list of people she wanted to more or less procrastinate with speaking to.

"S-Shuichi, because of course it is..." She sighed internally.

The detective simply stared at room door for a moment before his golden-ish grey eyes landed on her near the stairs leading up to it. If she was lucky he'd just keep walking since she put up one of those wet floor signs near the door. If curiosity got the better of him and he actually went to inspect then she'd have to stop him by talking. That wasn't likely to happ-.

"Um, sorry to interrupt your cleaning but did Angie and Ryoma come through here? Are they in Angie's room?" He asked.

Despite not telling anyone where they went he had narrowed it down to Angie's room pretty quick. A part of Kaede felt equal parts annoyed, anxious, and oddly impressed all at once. She decided that being annoyed was the most appropriate thing to stick with in the moment since now she had to buy time. The few perks of having a metal face that couldn't express much other then slight twitches meant she could be as anxious or annoyed as she pleased internally.

"What makes you think they're in Angie's room? I haven't seen them and I've been here for a while."She lied
"Oh then I'm sorry to bother you I just though tha-"

"Hey Shuichi, you can't just walk out on a contest like that bro. Its unmanly to quit something before you finish like that!" Kaito's voice suddenly chimed in.

"I think he was just trying give his eyes a break from your hideous drawing skills Kaito but tell yourself whatever you want. Nihihihi." Kokichi's voice wasn't to far behind.

With both boys fully in view now it looked like they were covered various shades of different paint colors. From Shuichi's confused expression at their appearance that must not of been the case when he left them. When asked they admitted to getting in a bit of a mini paint fight before coming to look for Shuichi. Kaito thought he had given up on the contest and Kokichi claimed Angie might be using him as a holy sacrifice. To see which was which, both decided to track the sleuth down.

"I wasn't really quitting I just got curious what was taking Ryoma and Angie so long since they've been gone for a while." Shuichi explained.

While this exchange was happening Kaede took notice of Kaito's casual friendly manner of speaking to Shuichi with the whole bro nickname. Last she left him he had trouble looking people in the eyes. She felt a little happy that not only was he doing that with two people now but he made a friend in someone as well. What felt less good was when she looked in Kokichi's direction. Kokichi's body was turned away from both boys so neither could see his expression except Kaede. It was brief but she caught the mix of suspicion in his eyes and the forming of a soundless snarl on his lips in her direction.

He didn't seem to like that she was there clearly ease dropping. Maybe he just didn't like the concept of the monokubs existence as a whole? It probably could go either way but she didn't blame him for being put off a bit by her presents. The look only seemed to be there for a flicker of a few seconds but she caught it regardless before he his face went back to normal. The shorter purple haired boy then grinned before pointing at her and shouting louder then he needed to.

"Hey why are you doing mom's job! Your not even doing it right if your suppose to clean the dorms. That bucket is way to small for my hotel suite sized room anyway."

Kokichi then walked closer and pointed at the wet floor sign she prompted up in front of Angie's room.

"How come Angie's room is the only one you've cleaned near? You look like you could speed clean with those wings of yours to get more then this done." Kokichi stated.

Before she could think up a reply, she as well as the rest of them heard the door knob jitter as it opened.

Both the sought after painter and tennis pro of the hour appeared with pretty neutral looks on their faces in the doorway. Angie smiled at everyone with a wave before turning her eyes to Ryoma.

"Nyahaha, Atua was right to ask for your opinions Ryoma. He gives you his blessings." She said this before skipping out of her room the with Ryoma walking slightly less as swiftly behind her.

"C'mon now everyone let's all go back to contest unless you want to make Atua feel unloved."

"Sorry about the wait she had a lot of mini pieces with backstories she wanted to explain to me so it took a bit." Ryoma addressed the small crowed.

Kaito and Shuichi just shrugged in acceptance but Kaede couldn't really tell if Kokichi was convinced by the smile he had. It didn't really meet his eyes but rather then address the lie he decided to comment on something else.

"Well as nice as all that is I'm just glad we aren't having another class trail like I thought we would. It being this soon would be boring."

Kaito didn't seem to appreciate the implications.

"What the hell are you trying to say?"Kaito said.

"What else do you think? She mentioned before how her god loves blood donations and has a whole membership thing outside here. Who's to say she doesn't want to get pack to her home cult or whatever asap? Plus next to himiko he's the smallest person angie could probably take on if alone." He stated.

"C'mon man Angie right next to Himiko is probably the least dangerous person here. There's no way she'd murder and no one is even thinking about murder anyway after what just happened." The astronaut argued back.

"And you know this how? You don't know anything about anyone here anymore then you know Monokuma's origin story." Kokichi paused while looking between Kaito and the rest in the hall with a dead pan face. He then smirked with a finger to his lip before speaking.

"Unless I guess your the mastermind then maybe you would..."

"Cut that mastermind crap out and there's no way I'm the mastermind even if one existed. Angie may talk nutty sometimes but I believe she'd never hurt someone. Err, no offense meant Angie. " Kaito said.

"None taken Kaito, I appreciate your trust. Neither me or Atua take what Kokichi thinks as completely wrong either though." Angie said.

"You don't?" Both purple haired boys and detective asked simultaneously.

Ryoma decided to clarify what she meant instead of staying silent.

"While I was listening to her talk she about her pieces she told me a bit about herself. How her island loves watching those tv dramas where foreigners playing games on a disserted islands. Her Atua thinks that it might be a good idea just like those to form an alliance with different people for safety. More people stick in a group means someone will have a higher risk at getting caught if their alliance member notices them being shady."

Ryoma paused to see if they were believing. Kokichi claimed in the class trial he could pick up the lies of others easy but since he wasn't interrupting he just continued. He wasn't totally lying either so that hopefully help his case.

"Neither of us want to believe another killing could happen again. The reality is though we still got a ways to go before we get rescued. Either from Monokuma getting bored of us not killing and telling us to leave or our loved ones finding us in time. I said in the beginning this place beats prison but just like a prison it might bring out paranoia and craziness in people. I never liked thinking about my future and I'm still not entirely sure if I can make one for myself. Regardless if an alliance will help me live a bit longer then I'll take it."

Various looks of surprise were on the small audience. Ryoma wasn't normally that talkative or open in his thoughts. It was probably the first positive sounding things that came out of him so far. Shuichi was the first to respond on that note.

"Wow Ryoma, I thought you had given up on the future from our last talk. Not saying it's bad at all but where did this determination come from?" Shuichi asked.

"Oh, me and Kaede had a few talks before the trial went down and I made an extra promise with her. I promised her I'd try to stop living in the past and start taking baby steps to try for my future. Thought this might be a good one." he explained.

"I don't like the idea of not trusting each other but if it's got your fire burning again and you feel safer that way I'm in to! That's awesome Ryoma, you just about sound like the legend I remember hearing about in middle school with that attitude. Just let me know if you guys need anything." kaito said with a thumbs up.

In contrast to Kaito's enthusiasm, Shuichi had subconsciously pulled his hair into his eyes. It was the same motion he did when he had his hat on when nervous. He muttered about being unsure he'd be useful to a group so he'd have to think about it before walking off. When he was out of sight Kokichi decided to speak his mind too.

"Hmm, I can see where your coming from but I oppose. A group to me just means a close nit circle who can betray each other easier. Good luck with it though, you can tell me how it's panning out next trial if your none of you are the victims." Ignoring Kaito's glaring, he followed out the same way Shuichi went with his hands behind his head.

"Don't worry guys I had a plan to lift Shuichi's spirits tonight and you guys just encouraged me to do it all the more!" Kaito said to the remaining people.

"Oooh you did? That sounds wonderful and I don't even know what it is yet! What is it huh?" Angie asked happily.

"Me and him are going to do a bit of training alone in the courtyard but you guys are allowed to come join if you want."

"Sure" Both said.

They then walked back with the astronaut trainee to the gym together to judge the rest of art pieces.

Unknown to them the next motive was being brewed that would the first test in this game of wills and physical endurance. Ryoma showing even a slightly stronger will then before didn't sit well with the puppet master in this game.

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Hello again from another eternal drought that is my updates. I'm glad to see people still keeping taps on this story better then I am. Sorry if Kaede so far seems a bit on the OOC emo side in contrast to her usual confident self. Let me know what you think in the comments.