The door to the museum was more grand up close. It felt out of place against the reddish brown brick of the building. Made of large glass windows and framed with white marble. There were doric style columns on either side, creating a fancy frame which underlined the large brassy letters Natsuka had seen earlier. They were shiny and well polished, a bizarre contrast to the banner hanging just above it, which felt like it should have belonged to an entirely different place.
Upon further inspection there were marks of repair in between the door and the columns, which seemed to stretch behind the columns, although Natsuka couldn't tell how far since the marble obstructed her vision. She could tell there were repairs because the bricks were newer, and slightly darker in color as they hadn't been as bleached by the sun. Gaps and cracks were filled in by an abundance of cement paste. Natsuka wondered what had happened there to warrant such a repair, although the obvious answer was that tourists had chipped away at the brick like some cheap souvenir.
Either way, the entrance felt fake. Like it was trying too hard to be fancy but couldn't cut it. Just like the benches and the Hope's Peak style exterior. Honestly it felt like a building that belonged in a theme park rather than just out in the world.
Natsuka stepped through the open door, still feeling slightly nauseous. There were plenty of people around her, and she subconsciously made attempts to avoid them although they obviously couldn't see here. As she did so, parts of people's bodies, their arms, their legs, would occasionally pass through Natsuka just as the smoke had earlier and it wasn't helping Natsuka attempt to quell the sickening feeling in her throat.
Immediately to the right inside there was a kiosk selling tickets and advertising special features and exhibits. Natsuka almost felt guilty that she could slip inside without needing to pay. It felt wrong, like she was stealing or swindling, as if there should've been a ghost-admission fee too. All the attendants taking and selling tickets were dressed in the Hope's Peak uniform just as the young man from earlier had been.
In fact, Natsuka was innately aware of how many people with some kind of appearance she recognized. There were girls with their hair like hers, others with hairpins like Komari's or badges like Tori's. She even saw someone wearing a t-shirt advertising 5VV.
Many were coming from what Natsuka assumed was a gift shop, which stood across from the admittance kiosk, to the left of the entrance. Through the large windows Natsuka could see stacks of books and racks of t-shirts, but there was clearly more so she followed there first. Which was probably not the best idea.
It was larger than she thought it had been from the outside, and there were far more products. T-shirts with the museum on it, some with Hope's Peak on it in the style of those "established in 19XX" shirts, some that said "CLASS OF THE 80TH" on them. As suspected, there was a large space dedicated to selling replica outfits and accessories of the 80th class, which seemed to be a particularly popular section.
There were piles upon piles of books which Natsuka didn't particularly care to look at, although the one propped on display had the yearbook photo of her class on it, and was titled "SCHOOL LIFE OF THE 80TH." There were dvds, and cds, and random items like "my very first crime kits" or gavels, or keychains and magnets.
There were plushies of Monokuma.
They were selling plushies of Monokuma. There were ones with different expressions, and holding different items. There was one pressing down on a recognizable red button.
It was too overwhelming. As if Natsuka had stepped into a completely different world. Which was really saying something because, to her, she had literally woken up 10 years in the future as nothing more than a ghost.
It was even more overwhelming how excited everyone around her seemed to be about it. They laughed while leafing through the outfits and paging through the books. Like people hadn't died. Like the things they were looking at were about fictional characters and not real people. Hell, Natsuka had signed a couple of autographs in her time at Hope's Peak but she couldn't recall anyone ever being this fanatic about her or her classmates, save perhaps for the ones in the entertainment industry.
She almost stumbled over her feet leaving.
The sense of discomfort didn't leave back when she was in the main entrance.
She scanned the area, trying to distract herself. Banners hung on different halls, indicating what exhibits were where.
The first one that caught her eye was because it was a photo of one of her Ikebana arrangements, one of the more well known ones that featured bamboo and cherry blossom branches. The banner read "The Art of the 80th Class."
The one hanging over the middle hall mirrored the banner she had seen outside "Special Exhibit: 10 Years After the Mutual Killing Game." Natsuka thought that would probably be the best place to start, but she wasn't particularly sure. Really she wasn't sure if she could go down the exhibit.
Another one that stood out was printed with the words "Auditorium: this way for character Q&aAs and reenactments"
There was a stand near the admittance kiosk with pamphlets on it that seemed to offer descriptions of the exhibits and a map of the museum. She wondered if it'd be possible for her to pick it up, since she had clearly been able to sit on the bench earlier, and interact with objects to some extent.
Natsuka grabbed one, and was surprised when it fell solidly into her hands. She glanced around to see if anyone was suddenly freaking out at a floating pamphlet, but again, no one seemed to pay her any mind. The pamphlet had simply become ghostly like her and her clothes. Invisible to the living world.
The first page was the map which Natsuka quickly flipped past, and the next was about the special exhibit. It had the following blurb: a look back on the killing game 10 years later. Where the seven survivors are, what the families of the 80th class have done to move on, and everything in between.
Seven survivors. That particularly stuck out to Natsuka.
There had been nine of them left when she died so she supposed it made sense. Her and her presumed killer must have been the last ones to go. It should've felt comforting to know the rest of them survived but something about it prodded her. She had been the last case then. The last one.
Natsuka had been so close to living, to making it out. To being someone who understood what '10 years later' was. And yet, she hadn't made it. Even worse, maybe the others only lived because she was dead. Maybe she had to have died. That thought didn't really feel good either.
Below the blurb was a list of the seven survivors which Natsuka poured over line by line, name by name:
1. Chae-Won Kil (formerly Se-hun Kil), Ultimate Idol
2. Akihisa Nagai, Ultimate Paleopathologist
3. Hikari Naruhodo, Ultimate Prosecutor
4. Katsuyuki Orisato, Ultimate Origamist
5. Juri Otsuka, Ultimate Stunt Double
6. Tori Shimizu, Ultimate Ballerino
7. Komari Urashima, Ultimate Financial Advisor
She felt an immediate sense of relief when she read the list. Aki had lived, so had Komari, that poor girl, and Katsuyuki too. She thought of how afraid Komari and Katsuyuki had been, how awful the two of them had particularly taken things. She was glad to see that they had made it. Really she was glad to see all seven of them had made it, even if she had never really seen eye to eye with Hikari, or how Juri had been after…everything. Tori and Se-hun (or Chae-Won? Natsuka wondered) too, especially after they had lost the people they were close to. They had all deserved to live.
Then again, Natsuka had deserved to live too hadn't she? And all of their dead classmates. Hadn't they all deserved to live? They had all deserved a happy school life and not what befell them instead.
Part of her wondered if the others were out there as ghosts too. If this was some second chance at life. And if not, why her?
Natsuka began to make her way to the middle hall before being distracted by something people were lining up for in one of the areas in the entrance room. There was someone lying on the floor in a weirdly twisted position, limbs splayed out around them, and another boy leaning over them taking a photo.
The boy got up after a second and peered over the boy's shoulder at the phone before laughing. She could hear him say 'nice dude!' before they left and the person behind them in line took their place. Natsuka looked down at the floor, and there, she saw the distinct outline of a body. Like the ones you always see at crime scenes in television shows.
Natsuka knew that pose. Her mind began to race. That had been where…no that wasn't possible. She could still see the image clear as day burned into her mind. Natsuka felt another chill climb up her body. She began to look at the hall around her, really look, below all the decorations and hanging banners and the people.
If she stripped that all away, it wasn't any entrance hall, it was the entrance hall. This wasn't any building, it was the building. The very one Natsuka had spent the past several months in watching her classmates die one by one.
She flipped her pamphlet back open to the first page map, and sure enough, the layout was the same.
Natsuka had just entered the very place where she had died moments earlier.
This was the location of the Killing Game.
The museum was the same building dressed up in a different way, for tourists to marvel at. The scratches and renovations on the door were suddenly very clearly where they had removed the vault door and replaced it with something more kind.
I have to get out of here, Natsuka thought to herself.
She no longer cared about answers or finding out who she was, she no longer cared about anything but leaving. Despite the no longer patched windows and the open door she felt trapped, she felt herself go through the motion of dying over and over again, of seeing bodies and executions.
Natsuka almost felt like her cells were splitting apart. She felt physically repulsed even just being in there. The people around her wearing costumes and accessories were suddenly too much of a reminder of her classmates. She felt surrounded by ghosts and the laughter bouncing off the walls sheared her ears. So she did the only thing she could think of:
Natsuka turned around and ran.
She ran out the door, past the bench she had sat on, past the patch of grass where she had woken up. She ran and ran until she reached the parking lot, and jumped onto the next tour bus that was starting to leave. Not even knowing where it was going, and no longer feeling guilty about not paying for a ride.
Natsuka took an empty seat at the very back of the bus and looked forward, not caring to look back through the window as the building drifted farther and farther away.
A/N:
Q: How do you get your character out of a place that would basically give them all the exposition to the mystery?
A: Give them trauma.
Jokes aside, new chapter! Survivor reveal yay! The roster will be updated on the first chapter so you can see the creators of all the wonderful characters, as well as dead character slots tied to them (and also at the end of this chapter as promised).
I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who submitted to me. This was an incredibly hard decision, and has taken the better part of a week to decide. I hope that those of you whose characters were not chosen don't take it too hard on yourself, especially since admission is pretty subjective based on what I think works for this specific story, which often differs story to story. I also hope to see some of these characters come back in dead submissions in the coming weeks. There were a lot of them I loved, they just didn't necessarily work for a survivor dynamic.
As I mentioned in the previous chapter, dead submissions will go on longer than survivor ones to allow people a chance to rewrite their characters. I was initially gonna make this a week deadline, but because of when I'm publishing this and because I'm going to be quite busy for a while I'm making the deadline longer until Monday, September 4th at 11:59 p.m. your time aka Labor day! Hopefully the longer weekend ((for us US folks) gives you a lil extra time. That being said, I don't intend to give extensions this time since it's a decent amount of time.
You are more than welcome to submit re-worked survivors, or completely new characters, whatever you feel like. I'll let you know that I intend to accept at least 5 males and 5 females (or any gender you please) / 10 Slots total. Although this number may always rise, since I wasn't indenting to even have 7 survivors in the first place haha.
At this point I am especially in need of male submissions, since the dead submissions have leaned predominantly female. I'm also looking for individuals rather than killer-victim duos, but I am looking for both killers and victims since I've had a good balance of both. You are still welcome to submit more than one character, and characters tied to each other, I just don't want that tie to specifically be a killer-victim one.
Also if you want your character to be tied to another character, even one you don't own, let me know and I will work with the oc creators to do so.
As for personalities, you can largely go crazy but I'm not looking for timid characters, or particularly stoic characters. I would loveee some colorful, wacky personalities, and everything in between.
I'll also try to post status updates on my profile, which I've been doing for the past couple days now to let people know progress, such as when submissions close, when I choose people, when I'm working on the next chapter etc…
As always, I'm more than happy to answer questions. I had a wonderful time talking to a lot of y'all and discussing things. You guys are super creative and there were a lot of ideas floated past me that I hadn't even considered.
Until next time!
Current Roster:
Survivors:
1. Chae-Won Kil, Ultimate Idol – submitted by Lupus Overkill
2. Akihisa Nagai, Ultimate Paleopathologist – submitted by TheRoseShadow21
3. Hikari Naruhodo, Ultimate Prosecutor – submitted by NSPunny
4. Katsuyuki Orisato, Ultimate Origamist – submitted by Prince PokePersona
5. Juri Otsuka, Ultimate Stunt Double – submitted by TheRoseShadow21
6. Tori Shimizu, Ultimate Ballerino – submitted by Abitat Eco
7. Komari Urashima, Ultimate Financial Advisor – submitted by I'm The Nep
Deceased:
Males:
1. Yasu Ishikawa, Ultimate Robotics Engineer (dead) – submitted by Abitat Eco
2. Hiro Suzuki, Ultimate Guitarist (dead) – submitted by NSPunny
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
Females
1. Natsuka Hakanai, Ultimate Kadoka (dead) – submitted by me
2. Maki Hollis Ward, Ultimate Character Actor (dead) – submitted by TheRoseShadow21
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
Agender
Miyabi Shimabukuro (Dead) – submitted by Lupus Overkill
