A/N: The support this is getting is great, as a writer it makes me so happy to see all of your reviews! I really do smile every time I see a new review posted, just seeing that some of you like this enough to comment and give insight about the chapters is just so wonderful. I'd like say now though that, even though I haven't been replying individually to reviews, it isn't because I'm ignoring you all. I'm honestly just shy and terrible at starting conversations/sending the first PM, haha. It's why I try to address everyone altogether in these Author Notes, I just really want you all to know how grateful I am for your support.
I'm also really glad that the first batch of characters were well-received. The submitters created some really interesting and multi-layered characters, and I want to do them justice, and so far I apparently am according to you all. I hope that these next seven characters are just as liked and that I wrote them just as well.
One last thing before I continue with the story. I'm sorry this chapter came out so late, especially since I'd given a prediction of this coming out sometime between Thursday and Saturday. And, well, it's way past that time frame. A combination of IRL stuff coming up, internet connection issues, and just plain and simple writer's block ended up delaying this chapter. Not only that, but I type everything on my phone since I don't have a computer or laptop, so that slows things down as well. So again, I'm really sorry that this chapter came out so late. Hopefully, what I've written will be good enough to make up for it.
When the three of us entered the Student Zone, we found ourselves in a rather open-spaced area. To our right was more open space, with a door on each of the northern, western, and eastern walls, as well as a hallway that went east. To our left was a hallway that went south until it turned right at the end of it, and was filled with doors along the walls. We decided to check out the door-filled halls first, and so we headed to the left.
As we approached the halls, we quickly noticed that each of the many doors had a plaque to the side of them. On closer inspection, we could see that each plaque had a pixelized sprite (which we soon realized were meant to resemble each of the students) along with a student's name engraved below each one.
"Are these the dorms?" Jean-Peal asked.
"It looks like it..." Charlotte answered, "There's something...'off,' about them though."
"I'd say," I agreed. We continued down the hall and took the right turn, finding not only more doors, but two people standing in the hall as well, a boy and a girl. I didn't recognize them too well, as they hadn't talked much when we had been in the Gymnasium. Just like the others though, I'd figured it would be best to meet them, and so I walked up to them, hearing part of a conversation between them as I walked up to them.
"...uneasy about these pictures," I heard the boy tell the girl, "This environment isn't good for you at all."
"You're worrying too much," she said with a sigh, "This really isn't a big deal. Everything's gonna be fine, I'm sure it will. Just please, cool it a bit."
"I wish I had your confidence," the boy replied, "But if you say you're fine, then I believe you. If you later start to feel anxious, however-"
"Raeger, I'm serious!" The girl told him, her voice raising slightly, "I don't need you to be my mom right now. Just, try to be a normal teenager for once." She saw him tense up, so she reached out a hand to gently touch his forearm. It was hardly noticeable, but he flinched when she touched him, though he still seemed to ease up right after.
"Listen..." She began to tell him, "I know you're just watching out for me, but-"
It was at about this time, that the two of them finally noticed me.
"Uh, sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop," I apologized quickly, "I've just been trying to meet everyone while my group and I explore around the school."
"Really?" The girl replied, "...Oh, you're the Amnesiac guy, right?"
I nodded.
"Ok, that makes sense," the girl continued, loosely folding her arms as she spoke, "Those two your lackeys then?" She motioned to Charlotte and Jean-Peal, who had followed after me once I'd gotten the two people's attention.
"Wh-What?" Jean-Peal said in surprise, "No, we're not-"
"Gotcha!" The girl said with a grin, "You two are just good people, right? It's real nice of you two to be watching out for the poor guy. If this was a mystery novel, he'd be the most at-risk character in a locked-room case like this. Or, locked-school case, in this situation."
"A-At risk?" I stuttered, "At risk for what?"
"Dude, I'm still just joking!" The girl giggled, "I'm sure you're not at-risk for anything. I mean, no one's gonna die here, right?"
"That's what you were implying?" Charlotte gasped.
"Sheesh, tough crowd," the girl sighed defeatedly, "A little dark humor never hurt anyone, you know."
"Tori, you're scaring your peers again," the boy, who the girl had called Raeger, told her.
"Aw, seriously?" Tori playfully whined.
"We're not scared," I told the two of them, "Just a little thrown off. No one else has really been in a humorous mood."
"I tried joking around earlier," Charlotte noted, "It wasn't really well-received either."
"Oh, well I guess this is kind of a serious situation," Tori replied, "It's a little hard to just turn off the comedy though, you know? Well, I guess you wouldn't know, Mr. Amnesiac."
"Is that my new name now?" I asked, "You're not the first to call a variation of that."
"Well, it doesn't exactly roll off my tounge with ease," Tori said, "But it's pretty fitting, yeah? Speaking of which I should probably tell you my name too."
"I am Viktoria Dragomir, Ultimate Comedian, at your service."
Viktoria had pale grey eyes and pretty pale skin with a smallish face. She looked small and quick, standing at about 5'7; so she was somewhat tall but also pretty lanky and scrawny. I had joked about that being a trend earlier but it was certainly proving to be true. Can a body type even be a trend? Anyway, moving on. Her hair was dark blonde, and reached down to her chest, though currently it was being worn up in a messy bun. She was wearing dark blue jeans, along with a loose pale purple blouse and an oversized purple jacket that was worn over it. She also wore mint green converse on her feet, and had a set of silver earrings with one resembling a queen chess piece, and the other a knight chess piece.
"Well, I could definitely see how you were accepted as a Comedian," I said with a nod.
"Oh, good, you thought I was funny," Viktoria said with a sigh of relief. She then noticed that Charlotte was staring at her...or, well, examining might be a better word. "Is something wrong?" She asked her.
"No, it's just..." Charlotte began to say, "I really like your outfit."
I looked back and forth between the two of them. I could see why she liked Viktoria's clothes.
"Well, you two are dressed pretty similarly," I commented.
"Really?" Viktoria asked, "I don't see it."
She looked down at herself and then at Charlotte. They both were wearing dark blue jeans and a purple blouse, they even both had their hair up in a bun, which I'm sure was just a coincidence. It was a funny coincidence though, at least to me.
"Purple is just a pretty color," Viktoria continued, shrugging her shoulders, "And I don't usually put my hair in a bun, I was just too lazy to fix it up nice this morning."
Viktoria looked at Raeger expectantly after that.
"What?" He asked quietly.
"Dude, that was your perfect chance to say 'Don't you mean every morning?' You always nag me about being so lazy all the time. That would've been the perfect snarky comment."
"You know I'm not that good at on-the-spot humor..." He mumbled, looking away to try to avoid everyone's gaze.
"Oh, you two know each other then?" Jean-Peal asked, and though he'd seemed to direct the question more towards Raeger, it was Viktoria who responded.
"That's right," she began to tell them, "We're partners, actually. We've known each other for awhile now."
"Aw, how sweet," Charlotte said with a smile, "You two are a really cute couple."
Raeger immediately started to choke on air and began coughing once she said that. Viktoria's response wasn't nearly as extreme, though her eyes becoming as wide as dinner plates showed that she was just as shocked by that statement.
"N-No! Oh God no!" Viktoria stammered, "I-I meant working partners!"
"I-I'm so sorry!" Charlotte gasped.
"Why do you keep thinking that 'partners' means 'boyfriend and girlfriend'?" Jean-Peal asked Charlotte with a sigh.
"I don't know!" Charlotte snapped at him, "I mean, it's not like it's obvious they aren't dating! They kind of act like a couple!" She calmed down a bit, and turned to Viktoria and added, "Um, sorry, I didn't mean to assume..."
"Well, you kind of did," Viktoria replied bluntly, "It's not really a big deal though, you just, caught me off guard." Her and Raeger had recovered by now, though I could tell that his cheeks were still somewhat flushed red.
"I don't think you'll mind me changing the subject, right?" I asked. Everyone predictably shook their head no, so I continued, "So, we're in the dorms area, right?"
"Yeah, I think so," Viktoria replied, "Raeger and I already checked all the doors, and they're all locked right now, so there's not much to explore here. All of the doors each have a pixelized sprite that resemble each of us, so I'm guessing that's meant to show off who's room is whose."
"That's...not entirely true," Raeger spoke up quietly, "Three of the doors don't have sprites."
"Oh yeah, that's right," Viktoria nodded.
"Why three?" Jean-Peal asked. "Is there anything special about them?"
"Well, not exactly," Viktoria hummed, "As it turns out, even though there's only fifteen of us here, there are eighteen doors for some reason. The extra three doors are the only ones without sprites."
"That's strange..." Charlotte said.
"Definitely," Viktoria agreed.
"Do you think, maybe...there are other students here?" Charlotte asked, a surprisingly hopeful tone to her voice.
"If the extra doors had sprites on them, it'd make me think so." I hypothesized, "Since they don't though, it's possible they're just extras in case we were going to have a bigger class."
"Hmm..." Charlotte had a thoughtful look on her face, but didn't say anything more.
"If that's everything, maybe we should move on." Jean-Peal suggested, to which Charlotte and I nodded.
"We'll see you three later then," Viktoria told us, giving us a quick wave of goodbye. Just as we were about to leave though, I turned to look at Raeger.
"I'm sorry, I forgot to ask who you are," I told him. He looked surprised, and looked over at Viktoria, to which she responded by just prodding him with a playful elbow jab.
"Very well..." Raeger muttered, as he then addressed me.
"My name is Raeger Cruz, and I work with Tori as the Ultimate Manager."
Raeger looked to have a good six inches of height on Viktoria, standing at 6'1, and from what I could tell he had a somewhat athletic build. He had neat and short light brown hair to match with a set of hazel eyes. His skin was a peachy color, and overall he had a nice complexion with classically handsome features. He wore a suit that made him look rather formal and high class, and was kept prim and proper.
"Raeger Cruz...I'll remember that." I told him. We exchanged goodbyes, and the three of us left them to continue down the hallway. The hall turned the right once again at the end of it, and after going through it all the way, we found ourselves back in the open-area. Across from us, we could see the entrance way to the School Zone, where we had originally come from. The dorm halls apparently circled back around to here, which I guess was pretty convenient, as it meant that one could enter the dorm halls from either the eastern or western sides.
Seeing as we were currently in the western part of the area, we next decided to check the west door. Like every other door in this building, it had a plaque next to it, with this one reading "TRASH ROOM". We opened the door and entered, only to find one person in the room...along with Monokuma, surprisingly.
"Why the hell's there a gate?" The boy asked the bear, gesturing to the gate that, from what we could tell, was blocking access to what looked like an garbage incinerator.
"Because it's safety protocol!" Monokuma explained, "Wouldn't it be dangerous if all of the students could have access to the incinerator at all times? I'd basically be asking for one of you bastards to start a fire!"
"How's anyone supposed ta be able to use it if it's always locked up then? Dumbass!" The boy said angrily.
"How unbearlievably rude!" Monokuma gasped, "Well, I was going to tell you, but ugly, rude, and ugly children like you don't deserve to know such important information like that!" With that, Monokuma then giggled before leaping backwards and sinking into the floor as if it was quicksand.
"You said ugly twice, asshole!" The boy yelled, shaking his fist at where Monokuma had disappeared, "Piece of shit bear..." He turned around to leave, only to see us standing there. Now that we could see his face, we could tell that he was the boy with the scars from back at the Gymnasium.
"The hell do you want?" The boy asked gruffly as he glared at us.
"We uh, we're just trying to explore around the school," I answered nervously. I could tell that Charlotte and Jean-Peal were just as nervous to be in a small room with this guy as I was.
"Well, there's nothing here," the boy told us, "That damn bear locked up the only interestin' thing in this room."
"Y-Yeah, we heard..." Jean-Peal mumbled.
"The hell's your problem?" The boy asked, apparently having caught on to our nervousness.
"N-Nothing! It's nothing!" Charlotte quickly answered. It was obvious it wasn't nothing though.
"Listen, I know I look fucked up, but that's no excuse for y'all to be acting like jackasses," the boy sighed, "If you've got a problem, just say it. And stop fucking staring, it's weird."
"Sorry," I apologized, "It's just...I've never seen anyone with scars like that. You're kind of a scary person."
"...Well, at least you're honest," the boy sighed again, as he leaned against a nearby wall and crossed his arms over his chest, "How would ya know if ya never seen anyone with scars though? Aren't you the forgetful guy? What's that called again? Euthanasia?"
"Uh, it's amnesia," Jean-Peal corrected him, "But yeah, we've been just as confused about that as you are. He apparently remembers general stuff like that, but nothing about his actual life."
"Huh. You're weirder than me then, kid," the boy replied. I was going to interject about not wanting to be called a kid, but then I realized that I didn't even know how old I was.
"I guess I am," I eventually conceded.
"Well, since there's nothing to see here, shouldn't we look somewhere else?" Charlotte asked.
"I guess..." I replied, "Oh, wait, I forgot to ask." I turned to look at the boy. "Can you tell me who you are? I'm trying to learn everyone's names."
"Huh?" The boy said, looking somewhat surprised, "Er, sure, I guess."
"Name's Charles McCrimmon, but I swear to God, if any of you call me Charles I'll kick your ass. Just Charlie is good, got it? I got accepted here as the Ultimate Billiards Pro."
Charlie stood at around 6'1, and had a lean build with broad shoulders. He had a squarish jaw and a pug nose, and his hair was black, short and slicked back. He had round brown eyes, but his left eye looked somewhat glossy, and had a scar over it.
His most prominent scar however, was the one on his mouth. It looked like someone had took a knife and had gashed him along the sides of his face, making it look like he had a permanent smile despite not actually smiling. I believe that kind of scar was called a Glasgow Smile, with The Joker from the DC Universe being one of the most famous examples of it.
Despite that, Charlie definitely was not dressed like a comic book villian. He wore a red silk shirt under a black leather vest for the top, black pants with white pinstripes for the bottom, and a pair of black wingtip shoes.
"Billiards...?" Jean-Peal asked, a quizzical look on his face.
"That's another name for pool," Charlotte explained.
"So he's a swimmer...?" Jean-Peal asked further, still clearly confused, "I never would've guessed."
"Not that kind of pool, dumbass!" Charlie snapped at him, "Don't you know what a pool table is?"
"Oh! That kind of pool!" Jean-Peal exclaimed in realization. "But, I still didn't expect that either. You look like some kind of streetfighter, or maybe a knife fighter."
"...Weren't you gonna leave?" Charlie said slowly, suddenly stiffening up and looking much more sullen.
"Uh, yeah, we were," I replied, realizing that he wanted us to leave now, "We'll see you later then." He didn't respond, as the three of us left the Trash Room. We stepped back into the open area, and decided to check the northern door next. However, before we could go there, we could hear yelling and arguing sounds from somewhere nearby. We looked to find the source of the noises, and soon noticed that the eastern door, which was near the entrance way to the School Zone, was left ajar. We hurried over to the door, taking note that the plaque next to it read "LAUNDRY ROOM", and went inside.
We found ourselves in a pretty typical laundry room. Washing and drying machines lined the back wall, with the only things in the room being a large folding table with a few chairs around it, as well as a laundry line for air-drying clothes hanging from the ceiling.
There were also two people in here as well, both of them girls, and apparently the ones who were fighting. I recognized both of them pretty easily, as they'd both left prominent impressions on me. One was the rude girl who had been insulting people non-stop, and the other was the punk-haired girl with the lighter.
"I swear to God, if you don't shut the hell up I'm gonna kick youer butt!" The punk girl yelled at the rude girl.
"Gee, why don't you try saying something that's not predictable garbage for once," the rude girl replied in a bored tone.
"Wow, ya really know how ta piss someone off," the punk girl growled, angrily flipping her lighter on and off again like she'd been doing back at the Gymnasium, "What the hell makes ya feel like youer so high and mighty, eh? Actin' like youer such hot stuff and the like."
"Well, Irish," the rude girl began to say, a smirk beginning to grow on her face, "If you really want to know, I'll just tell you: I'm the most important and talented person in this school."
"What!?" The punk girl gasped, "Bull! What's youer talent then, hot stuff?"
"Hmm...I don't think I'll tell you, actually," the rude girl responded simply.
"What!?" The punk girl exclaimed again, "Why the hell not?"
"Does that piss you off?" The rude girl asked. The punk girl nodded, so the rude girl continued, "Then that's why. It's hilarious watching you blow up over something so stupid."
"I knew ya were just screwin' with me!" The punk girl exclaimed angrily, "I bet youer not important at all!"
"Oh no, I'm definitely important," the rude girl replied with a wider smirk, "More important than all of the students in the country combined."
"My name is Jane Smith. Remember it, you filthy fucking peasant. I'm one and only Ultimate Avian Vet, which is obviously the most objectively important talent in the entire world."
Standing at 5'1 tall, Jane was short and looked a little chunky and frumpy. She had a chubby face, with green eyes and long brown hair that went past her shoulders, and also had bangs that covered her forehead. She wore a blue sweatshirt with black sweatpants and white sneakers. Overall, I got the impression that she cared very little about how she looked.
"...Really? That's it?" The punk girl asked, obviously disappointed, "That's a helluva let down after all that hyping you did. And did you seriously just call me a frickin' peasant?"
"If you can't see how being an Avian Vet is objectively better than every other talent in the galaxy, then that's your fault for being ignorant trash," Jane replied coolly, "And yes, I did just seriously call you a fucking peasant. You fucking peasant."
"Man, I can't take ya seriously now," the punk girl said with a sigh, "That's literally the most childish thing I've ever heard."
"Says the girl with the attention-whore haircut and weird fire fetish," Jane said bluntly.
"H-Hey!" The punk girl exclaimed, "There's nothin' wrong with wantin' attention! And it's not a fetish! Just because I woulda preferred bein' accepted to this school as a Pyromaniac, doesn't mean I have a fire fetish! It's more like...like a fire interest!"
"Gross," Jane said, disgust apparent in her voice, "How did a freak like you even get accepted to this school?"
"Stop with the rude names already!" The punk girl told her, "I got accepted because I'm the best at what I do!"
"Stop callin' me rude names, my name is Keahi McGovern! Not Irish, not peasant, and not freak! I got accepted as the Ultimate Pyrotechnics Expert! Which is way more impressive than youer dumb bird talent!"
Keahi looked to be about average height, but it was hard to tell due to her slumping a bit and having bad posture. She had a somewhat slender generic feminine figure, had warm, caramel-brown skin, and had freckles on her somewhat long face. Her hair was dyed a mix of hot pink and red-orange, was very unruly, about medium-length, and seemed to explode out in every direction . Her eyes were almond-shaped and bright green, and she had rather long eyelashes. Her outfit was just as loud as her hair, as she wore a cropped leather jacket with short sleeves and 2 red triangles on the left side, with a hot pink tank top underneath. She wore medium blue jean shorts along with a belt that had an orange triangle on the buckle, to go along with the hot pink and red knee-high stockings over charcoal black combat boots that she wore.
"A Pyrotechnics Expert?" Jane asked, "Sounds lame, like your face."
"That doesn't even make sense!" Keahi yelled for the upteenth time.
"Really?" Jane asked, her voice still monotonous as a poisonous smile crept onto her face, "Why don't you ask our audience. They'll obviously agree that your fire fetish is lame, while praising me for being the absolute most talented and important person in the universe."
Keahi spun around, her eyes widening once she finally realized that Charlotte, Jean-Peal, and I were standing in the room.
"H-How long were ya all standing there for now?" She asked, legitimately surprised to see us there.
"Uh..." Charlotte said, unsure of what to say.
"Long enough," I eventually answered, "We, um, well we honestly had no idea how to let ourselves be known during the middle of all...that."
"Oh..." Keahi muttered in response, looking somewhat embarrassed, "I can't believe I made a fool outta myself in front of ya all. This chick just knows how to push my buttons, yanno?"
"I try my best," Jane commented.
"Ugh!" Keahi grumbled, "I'm just, I'm gonna go before she sets me off again." She quickly shuffled out of the room, leaving just Jane in the room with us. It felt very awkward in the room after that, to say the least.
"So..." Jane eventually began to say, "Do you guys want to hear me call you fat nasty trash for the next fifteen minutes while proclaiming myself to be better than everyone in the multi-verse?"
"Er, no thanks," Charlotte replied.
"I think we should go too...yeah..." Jean-Peal mumbled, and honestly I couldn't have agreed more with him. With that, the three of us quickly abandoned Jane and the Laundry Room and returned to the open area.
There was only one door left now, the one along the northern wall. As we approached it, we read that the plaque next to it read "CAFETERIA". The door itself was actually a double door, and looked much nicer compared to all the other doors we had seen. We pushed them open and entered, and found ourselves in a rather spacious and comfortable cafeteria. Inside were several small lunch tables with a few seats at each table. However, there was also a larger circular lunch table in the middle of the room, with 16 seats settled around it. In the back was another door, that presumably lead to a kitchen of some sort. There were also two people in here, a boy and a girl. The boy I recognized as the feminine-looking one, and the girl was the one with the purple suit who had helped Jesse speak up back in the Gymnasium.
"Oh! Fellow students, welcome!" The boy's voice rang out once we entered, "It is great to see your wonderful faces once again!" It was strange to receive such a warm greeting for once; in all of the other areas we explored, we either accidentally eavesdropped on conversations, or awkwardly introduced ourselves to the other exploring group.
"Oh, hi," I said, unsure exactly how to respond, "You seem rather, uh, happy."
"But of course!" The boy replied with a warm smile, "Trapped we may be, but at least we have such an amazing dining area and kitchen. Jenny and I have explored it all very well, and it is all top-class and state-of-the-art. It is simply beautiful."
"Well you definitely know how to spin a positive out of a negative," Jean-Peal remarked.
"It's hard not to stay positive when something as wonderful as this cafeteria and kitchen exists," the boy replied, before then walking up to me and offering his hand. As I shook it, he then added, "I know you must be very confused about everything that's happening, probably more than everyone else here. So let me help by introducing myself."
"My name is Soleil Tindol, and I am the Ultimate Chocolatier! It is a pleasure to meet you."
Soleil stood at an average height, and had a slender frame with slightly feminine features. He had a round face, with almond-shaped steel-grey eyes, a button nose, and small lips that seemed to be perpetually curved into a smile. He was fair skinned and seemed to be slightly slouched when he stood. His hair was a jet black color and stuck out in a bed head style, though I could still tell that he had both ears pierced, with one having an ear cuff piercing and the other a simple ear steel piercing. For his outfit, he wore a red plaid long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, with a black ribbon tied around the collar of the shirt. Along side that he wore black skinny jeans with white canvas sneakers. He has two plain steel rings: one on the middle finger of his right hand and one on the index finger of his left hand. He wore one last piece a jewelry around his neck; a necklace with a silver pendant on it.
One thing was for certain: Soleil was definitely not shy to accessorizing. He seemed to have the most detailed outfit out of everyone else I had met in the school.
"It's nice to meet you too, Soleil," I replied, "Now I get why you're so in love with this part of the school."
"Ah, you mean because of my talent, right?" Soleil replied, "I may be a Chocolatier, but I love working in a kitchen regardless. Oh, I know, perhaps after our meeting later is done, I can cook up a batch for you all to try. I'll treat you guys to a classic: The Original Soleil Delight!"
"That sounds delicious," Charlotte smiled gratefully, "Thank you, Soleil."
"Yeah, you'll definitely get some brownie points from your classmates for that," Jean-Peal added, "I can't wait to try it."
"Aha, that's wonderful to hear," Soleil said with a bow, "Admittedly, I am hoping that it'll earn me some good favor from everyone, but I hope it'll help ease the tension as well." He sighed, putting his hands on his hips as he looked down dejectedly. "Everyone seems so worried about our situation, but it's probably not even a big deal."
"That's pretty optimistic of you," I told him, "You have to admit that this is all pretty strange though, right?"
"I suppose..." Soleil replied, looking downtrodden for a moment.
"I'm sure there's got to be an explanation though," Charlotte insisted, attempting to cheer Soleil up, "Maybe you're right, this could all end up working out."
Soleil perked up a bit after Charlotte said that
"Everything will be fine, I'm sure," Soleil said, a warm smile on his face as he lightly folded his arms in front of him, "And we can all dine on some of my most delectable treats once everything gets sorted out." He then turned to look at the girl at the purple suit, who had remained quiet and in the background throughout all of this. "Jenny! You haven't said a word this whole time. Please, come over and say hello."
Jenny gave Soleil a look, before saying, "If you wish, Mister Tindol." She walked over to us, and as robotically as possible, she then said, "Hello."
"Uh...hello." Jean-Peal greeted back nervously.
"Come on now, introduce yourself," Soleil told her, before turning to look back at us and saying, "You'll have to forgive Jenny. She can be a bit distant, but in the short time I've gotten to know her, I've learned that she's a really nice girl."
"You have learned absolutely nothing at all about me, Mister Tindol." Jenny told him coldly, "And I don't like feeling pressured to say more than I have to."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Jenny," Soleil apologized, "I didn't know I was making you feel uncomfortable."
"You weren't." Jenny replied.
"You don't have to talk to us if you don't want to," I told her, "Can you at least tell me who you are? You're the only student left that I haven't met yet."
Jenny had a thoughtful look on her face for a moment, and after several moments more of silence, she eventually said, "I suppose."
"My name is Jenny Deerly. I am the Ultimate Assistant."
Jenny looked to be pretty tall for her age, maybe 5'10 or 5'11, and was very thin. Her face was quite feminine, though she seemed to use very little make-up, which made her freckles very noticeable. It went well with her ginger hair that was tied up in a ponytail. She wore a light purple business suit with dark purple heels, as well as orange trimmed glasses. Overall, she looked like she tried to keep up a professional appearance at all times.
"Ultimate Assistant?" I repeated, "What are you an Assistant for?"
"Wherever I am needed." Jenny replied simply.
"So you could work as an Assistant anywhere then?" Charlotte asked.
"Yes." Jenny told her.
"...You don't talk much, do you?" I asked. It was obvious that it was a rhetorical question.
"Like I said, I would rather not speak more than necessary," Jenny answered, "Long and drawn-out conversations are not an efficient use of time."
"Speaking of which," Jean-Peal cut in, "Maybe we should go finish exploring? It's almost been an hour now, and there's still one last hallway to explore."
"Right," I agreed, before then telling Soleil and Jenny, "I'll see you guys later then."
"I will be looking forward to meeting you again," Soleil said as he bowed once more. We waved goodbye, and then left the Cafeteria.
Once we were back in the open area, we looked towards the final hallway and approached it. It was in the north-eastern corner of the area, and the hallway itself lead to the east. We traveled down it, and about halfway down, we found a stair case that was blocked off by a retractable gate. The stairs seemed to lead up to the second floor, but the stairs seemed to go down as well to what looked like a basement floor.
"This is weird..." Charlotte said, "Did Monokuma block these stairs off?"
"Probably," Jean-Peal guessed, "There's gotta be something above us and below us that he doesn't want us to know about."
"But why?" I asked. None of us had an answer. There was nothing else we could do, so we continued down the hallway. At the end of it, we found another set of double doors similar to the ones at the Cafeteria, though these were covered in a red velvet. I tried to open them, but they were locked.
"I wonder where these lead to..." Jean-Peal thought out loud.
"Wait, hasn't every other door had plaque labeling the room?" Charlotte asked, "These are the only ones that don't."
"You're right," I nodded, "Monokuma probably wants to keep whatever's in there hidden too, like with the staircases."
"What's that bear up to..." Jean-Peal muttered.
"I have no idea," I said, shaking my head, "But, that's everywhere now, right?"
"Yep," Charlotte told us, "I guess we should head back now." We all nodded, and began to make our way back to the Gymnasium.
We met all of our classmates, and we explored as much of the school as we possibly could. All we could do now was report our findings to the others, and finally learn from Monokuma what we had to do to Graduate. I was nervous though, as I had a feeling in the pit of my stomache that the path to Graduation was going to cause more bad than good.
A/N: Whew! Character introductions are finally over. There's only one chapter left until the Prologue is finally over. In the next chapter, the Prologue gets wrapped up, and the official list of Students and their creators will shown. It will probably be shorter than the past couple chapters, but to be safe, I predict it will be up by around Sunday, possibly earlier if I get done fast enough.