Chapter 1: Burning Lights, Burning Spirit (Part 1)

Warning!

This is a Danganronpa Fic, so expect dark and serious themes! And also expect some choice words that might upset people - thanks to a certain Gas Station Manager! But also expect fun and whimsical themes as well! I hope you enjoy!

"Hey Dad! Can you read this for me?"

"Sure honey!"

He looked over the beginning of the paper and he began reading out loud.

"They blocked his car doors and doused him and his cousin with petrol."

"Hm? What's this?"

"It's who I'm studying for school! Did you know about what happened with Lam Bun? He-"

I was cut off.

"That's interesting honey! I'll read more later!"

"Oh, okay! Thank you dad!"

[???]

I woke up with a jolt of pain. An almost familiar pain, I felt the right side of my neck being stabbed with multiple needles.

What... was that? Was that a dream?

I tried to jerk my head, but I found it was chained down. Along with the rest of my body. I was chained to a bed again. I tried to get my bearings, and saw that I was in that familiar sterile green room. Familiar? Wait… My memories feel strange. I tried to sort them out in my head, but my train of thought was interrupted by the familiar serious face of Mr. Nakata.

"Asher, are the cameras on?" He asked his loyal subordinate.

"Yes sir!" His ever loyal servant responded.

"Good. Bring in Dr. Yokomizi. It's time for the true tests to begin." Nakata scribbled down some more notes.

"Right away sir!" Asher quickly nodded.

Asher left the room for a moment, and I was left with the serious resting face of Mr. Nakata. My memories were still reeling inside my head. I remember being in this room… some time ago. I don't remember how long ago though. I remember the faces of Mr. Nakata and Asher though. But the more I think about them, the more my brain feels muddled.

"Mr. Nakata?" I asked without thinking.

He looked toward me with a neutral expression but with a hint of curiosity. "Yes?" He asked, still utterly deadpan.

"Is your name Zenkichi?" The question flowed out of my mouth without being permitted by my brain.

For the first time, Mr. Nakata's facial expression changed. His face turned into a rather creepy smile at my question. But he went back to his deadpan expression rather quickly.

"Indeed it is. I'm flattered you remembered me ——————." He replied, then immediately started jotting down some notes.

Wait. What did he say? It sounded like he said a name, but I didn't catch what he said. I opened my mouth to talk once again, but I couldn't, as an unfamiliar yet still slightly familiar older lady walked in.

She didn't seem particularly tall or anything, and she had a gentle smile on her face. Her yellow eyes and long blonde hair seemingly lulled me into a sense of calm, before she even said anything. Then just like everyone else, she wore a lab coat.

"Okay, is everything in order?" The woman asked with a gentle smile.

"Yes it is Dr. Yokomizi. We've already seen evidence of it working as well. So these tests should proof quite fruitful." Nakata seemed optimistic about... something.

"Very good! Okay, you all can clear out. I can handle her now." Yokomizi calmly commanded them.

"Understood Dr. Yokomizi." Zenkichi and the rest of his lab coat people started leaving the room. Most were out, but the woman who was apparently Dr. Yokomizi stopped Asher before he left.

"Asher, would you mind staying in here? I'd like to have assistance just in case. Your insight could be useful as well."

Asher looked surprised, but he responded, "Yes ma'am. I'll stay out of your way though."

"That'll be fine Asher. Just having you here makes me feel better." Dr. Yokomizi told the young man with a sincere smile.

I saw a flash of a blush on Asher's face before he retreated to a corner of the room and started working on adjusting one of the cameras in here. Wait, cameras? A camera? Why are there cameras in here?! A camera-

I was brought out of the deep pit of my thoughts by the doctor.

"Hello ——————, I am Dr. Hannah Yokomizi. It's a pleasure to meet you!" Her bright smile nearly blinded me, but I could tell she was at least a decently nice person.

But wait, I didn't hear her say my name again. It was like my brain blocked it out. But why?

"Hi Dr. Yokomizi. Say, did you say my name-"

"Dr. Yokomizi! The video is ready!" Asher suddenly blurted out.

"Very good Asher. Start it up please!" Dr. Yokomizi gently replied.

A video? Every time I want to ask these people a question I'm just greeted with another.

"Hey, what do you mean by a video? What's going on?" I asked both of them, but neither responded.

Again? A memory of these lab coat people not answering me resurfaced in my mind.

"Hey, Doctor? Mr. Asher? Can one of you please answer me? What's the deal here?!"

Asher looked over to me with a slightly concerned look, then immediately turned to Dr. Yokomizi.

"Doctor, is her temper rising? Should I put her under?" He asked frantically.

"Back under?! What do you m-" I tried to ask these lab coat freaks about what they were doing to me, but the Doctor cut me off.

"Don't worry Asher. Just start the video." Dr. Yokomizi's smile had disappeared, and was replaced with a blank look, similar to Mr. Nakata.

The still ever loyal Asher just relied with a "Yes ma'am!"

Asher was finishing up whatever he was doing, but I still needed answers.

"Can one of you please explain what's going on?! What are you doing to me?! What video?! I still don't know why I'm here! What is happening to me?!"

I began ranting towards them, but Dr. Yokomizi acted fast. Almost in the blink of an eye, she grabbed a muzzle out of thin air and attached it to me.

"Mmmm? Mmmm! Mmmmmm!!" I attempted to yell at them and question them more, but they clearly didn't want that happening. I began thrashing more and more, to the point where I didn't even notice Asher and Dr. Yokomizi leaving the room.

The room started getting slowly darker and darker. It was like the darkness encroaching around me was sapping my strength. My eyes quickly grew weary at the dusk surrounding me.

And just like that…

…

…

…

I lost consciousness…

[???]

"Dr. Yokomizi? Is the video playing?" Asher asked, concerned.

"Indeed it is. Don't worry Asher, it'll work out fine." But Dr. Yokomizi wasn't worried in the slightest.

"Okay. I trust you Dr. Yokomizi."

"Thank you Asher. Now, can you watch over her? I must attend to other things now."

"Of course Dr. Yokomizi! Leave it to me!" Asher stood proud, and ready to watch over the room and the patient.

"Thank you once again Asher. I'll see you soon okay?" Dr. Yokomizi smiled to Asher before walking away from the room, leaving it in Asher's inexperienced yet still capable hands.

Dr. Hannah Yokomizi was a very experienced psychiatrist and therapist. She had been working in the field for upwards of 20 years. She loves interacting with people and helping them, though this one patient is a special case.

Nonetheless, she's a very devoted individual. And that devotion runs in the family, as Dr. Yokomizi's daughter, Yvette, is, or more accurately was, quite the go-getter.

Dr. Yokomizi thought about her daughter as she walked off to go on her break.

"My sweet Yvette..." She whispered aloud. Do all doctors talk to themselves?

Yvette Yokomizi was a bit of a local celebrity around these parts. For only being 10 years old, she had a remarkable amount of community service hours, and she'd volunteer anywhere she could. Ever since she was born she just wanted to help whenever she could, just like her mother. It was something that was innately in Yvette, and it helped that Yokomizi would teach her daughter those skills as well.

But...

...

...

...

Those skills can only get you so far...

Dr. Yokomizi continued walking towards the break room as she overheard some colleagues talking.

"So. "The Goddess of Fame" huh?"

"Oh yeah. Isn't it crazy? How did Agata even get her here anyway!"

"Hell if I know man. Does she even need to be here? What's wrong with her?"

"You don't know? It was all over the news. She apparently killed a lot of people or something. Including uh-" He looked around to see if people were listening in, though he somehow missed Dr. Yokomizi.

"Listen. Apparently Nakata's wife... or was it his daughter? I forgot, but Nakata lost someone, and Asher lost his dad too. Yokomizi's daughter died too. I think Agata lost someone as well. Shit was insane."

"Seriously?! Jesus... Can't imagine how they cope with that. But wait, I understand how horrible that is, but it's a crime. If she committed a crime, why is she here?"

"Well the thing about that is-"

The two finally stopped their gossip as they finally noticed Dr. Yokomizi standing near them.

"Why hello you two. Care to share what you were talking about?" Dr. Yokomizi asked the pair with a gentle yet threatening tone.

"We uh- It was nothing! Just ignore us Dr. Yokomizi!"

The two quickly shuffled off and away from the glare of the doctor.

Dr. Yokomizi just sighed and shook her head. "I can't believe people seriously gossip here. This isn't a high school..."

Dr. Yokomizi's thoughts went to schooling after saying that aloud. She didn't know why she was thinking so intently about schooling but-

No.

She knows exactly why she's thinking about it.

"My Yvette will never experience high school. She'll never have fun again. She'll never run around again. She'll never play again. She'll never help people again. She'll..."

"She'll never smile again..."

[Closet]

Dr. Yokomizi had moved to a closet and closed the door. She needed to say these things out loud, or it'll just bottle up inside of her.

"I just... I want to see my baby girl smile one more time..."

Tears started to flow like a busted faucet. She tried to stifle her tears so anyone passing by wouldn't hear her, but it had little effect.

"I... I-I-I-I-"

Dr. Yokomizi couldn't get her words out. She stood there trying her best to calm down until...

"Damn it!"

Her rage decided to come out.

"I hate her! I hate her so much! That stupid girl had no right to take my daughter away from me! I just- I just want to hug her one more time! Yvette honey! I love you so much! Mommy loves you so much! Please... I just want to hold you in my arms one more time! Please! Please! Please!"

Hannah Yokomizi wasn't an inherently aggressive woman. But it was just something about that girl. That "Goddess of Fame" that just makes her so mad. She hated the idea of that damn girl not getting her comeuppance. Well, she may not have to worry about that last part now. Dr. Yokomizi was in a very favorable position. The "Goddess of Fame" was right at her fingertips. She... loved it.

But she knew... Yvette would hate her for it. Her daughter would despise her for what she was doing. She can almost hear her in her head...

"Mommy! You should go and move on...!"

"It's okay Mommy! Don't worry about me!"

And various things of that nature. Her daughter was so... selfless. So... amazing. So... helpful. So... kind. Dr. Yokomizi couldn't do anything but praise her daughter. She may have been Yvette's mother, but from what she heard around their neighborhood, she knew it wasn't her bias speaking. She knew her daughter was exceptional.

So... why?

Why?

Why?!

"Why?! Why is she gone?! Why did she leave me?!" Dr. Yokomizi slammed her hands against a shelf in the closet.

"Yvette! Please! Come back to your mommy! Please!" She slammed her hands against the shelf even harder.

"Please!" Slam.

"PLEASE!" Slam.

"PLEASE!" Another slam.

Dr. Yokomizi was silently grateful that nobody usually comes around this part of the facility. She knew she was making a lot of noise. But she couldn't bring herself to care about that right now.

The grief and anguish in her heart was boiling to her surface. She frantically looked around the closet. She could see her. She was seeing faint visions of her daughter. She was hearing her voice. It felt like more than just a mere trick of the brain to her.

Yvette was standing against a wall. Staring at her grieving and despairing mother.

"Mommy! Are you okay?" Yvette's voice echoed.

"What's wrong Mommy?" It echoed it more. She started seeing more her daughter permeating her vision and her hearing. She felt like she was going crazy. Maybe she was going crazy she didn't know. All she heard was "Mommy?" "Mommy?" "Mommy?" going throughout her mind.

Dr. Yokomizi grabbed onto her head. She felt like was going to implode. Her head was in so much pain. Like little sharp and sickly needles were poking into every single orifice in her brain.

"Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!" She yelled out. The pain was unbearable. She started to hyperventilate. Tears were streaming down her face like a waterfall. But all she continued to hear was "Mommy?" "Mommy?" "Mommy?" in her mine. All she heard was the voice of her sweet Yvette.

"Mommy? Are you okay?"

"Are you alright Mommy?"

"Is everything okay Mommy?"

Over and over and over and over and over and over... until...

A sudden knock snapped her out of her grief.

"Hello? Is that you in there Dr. Yokomizi? Someone said they heard shouting from here. Are you okay?"

She could immediately tell it was Asher. She flipped a mental switch inside of her, going from emotional to professional. In a matter of seconds, Dr. Yokomizi appeared from the closet, face looking fine.

"Ah, I'm sorry Asher. I was getting some supplies and stubbed my toe. It hurt more than I thought! But anyway, was there something you needed?"

Asher seemed to buy the excuse.

"Ah that's all that was? That's a relief. Oh yeah! The reason why I came here was that a forgot the door code to uh- her room? What was it again?"

"Ah, it's 0705. Please try not to forget it again Asher!"

"I'm sorry ma'am, it just slipped my mind! But thank you, I won't bother you any more. Have a good break!" Asher walked off.

Dr. Yokomizi didn't mind Asher at all, but he could be a tad... What's the word? Intrusive? Maybe. Or he just has difficulty reading the room sometimes.

But Dr. Yokomizi quickly collected herself and went off to her original destination. The break room. She threw some tear-stained tissues away and went on with her day.

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[???]

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"Miss Pheme? Are you awake?"

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...

"Please wake up Miss Pheme. We can't have you sleeping all day."

The figure gently shook Pheme's shoulders to wake her up. After a bit of shoulder-shaking, Pheme's eyes started to slowly open up.

"Hmm? A-ah, forgive me. I had a... rather strange dream."

The figure blinked. A dream? "A dream, Miss Pheme? Care to tell me about it?"

Pheme stayed silent for a moment, before promptly answering.

"Ah, now is not the time. Perhaps another time?"

Now the other figure in the room stayed silent for a couple of seconds.

"So be it. As you wish Miss Pheme." The figure sat down. "So, we have a busy day today. We got rather delayed yesterday due to Mr. Brooks, Ms. Beaufort, and Ms.-"

The Figure stopped talking when he noticed Pheme urging them to stop. "You don't need to remind me, I remember! Yesterday was perhaps a bit gloomy wasn't it? It still was awfully exciting though!" Pheme had a relaxed look on her face, but it quickly shifted to a more concerned look. "And... I'm not sure what it is. But something about Kei Aikawa just... struck me. Perhaps because he was the one choosing for the PEC? I... don't know..." Pheme was deep in thought, but The Figure didn't particularly care.

In fact, The Figure didn't have much of any emotion on their face. They seemed to ignore Pheme's last comment as well. "It was quite exciting, you're right. But that's all the more reason to get going with our now late preparations. Everything is prepared in the Grand Theater, all you need to do is go down there and wait." The figure got up. "You can do it Miss Pheme. I believe in you." They reassured her with a hand on her shoulder.

Pheme gave a firm nod. "Right you are! It's time to really get this show on the road!" With a giggle, Pheme left, eager to get ready for their ensuing Killing Game...

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[Grand Theater]

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*LAST NIGHT*

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...

The fourteen remaining stars in the theater stood shocked in silence at what had just transpired. It was like... nobody had the brainpower to actually process what had just happened. They weren't sure how long they had been standing there.

They just had to witness the Pilot Episode Climax, a twisted game where they had to choose two people to die and two people to survive. Though Joji broke the water tank involved with the game in the middle of it, causing a disruption. But... that still wasn't enough.

Hiroyuki Yuto, a man involved in the game, had died anyway.

And upon further realization, and after noticing that one of the "players" had gone missing, they assumed the worst for Yukari Nakata as well.

As they stood there in shock, people slowly started trickling out. They weren't sure what time it was or how long they've even been awake for at this point, but all of their bodies were telling them to sleep. And there was no point dwelling on what they had just witnessed.

One by one... each of the stars left the Grand Theater. After a couple of minutes, the only people left in there were Kei and Darren.

Kei was about to walk out himself, but he was stopped by Darren. "Hey." was what the bartender muttered to get Kei's attention.

Kei turned to Darren with a tired look. "Yeah?"

Darren gave a light punch to Kei's arm. He stopped for a moment, like he was trying to think about what to say. "I uh... never mind." Darren looked away from the lawyer. Kei just continued walking out after that, leaving Darren behind. He figured he could handle himself.

[Grand Lobby]

As Kei was walking out, he realized he didn't actually know where their prepared rooms were. But it luckily only took a couple of seconds for him to find them.

To both the left and the right of the reception desk, there were two doors.

The one on the left read "Infirmary" above the door. He figured Joji, Lake, Genjiro, Adam, and Aurora were in there.

...

Kei thought to himself. Adam and Aurora huh? Who even were they? Why were they here? Same reason as the rest of them? The same situation as Alpha? Their questions in this place just keep on piling further and further up.

He considered going in to check up on them, but he figured it wasn't worth the trouble. Like with Darren, he figured they could handle themselves.

So instead, he went towards the door that was on the right of the reception desk. The door read "V.I.P. Quarters" directly above the door. Was he a VIP? Maybe to Pheme's standards he was.

Kei thought about Pheme for a moment. She called herself the "Goddess of Fame." Quite the uppity moniker. And... despite how hard Kei denied it earlier... he couldn't lie to himself here.

There had been plenty of cases over the last... well, long time, that had been in regard to "Killing Games." People would just kidnap random people, say they were conducting a killing game, but in reality it was merely a hoax or some means to get attention.

Then some people would be a little more thorough with it, even hurting some of the people they'd kidnap, but even those were stopped.

Notably, Killing Games containing Ultimate students were extremely rare. All the fake and shoddy ones just had normal people. Kei himself hadn't worked on a case involving a Killing Game, but some the older lawyers he knows have. Idiots trying to get attention, then boom! Life in jail. Kei shook his head.

But... he had a feeling thing time. He could sense that Ji-hoon had that same feeling. This... was real. It's a hard pill to swallow... but this had to be real. Pheme seemed rather eccentric, but it's the personalities like that that you have to watch out for.

Kei sighed. They hadn't received rules or anything like that yet, but he assumed those were coming soon. Judging by what Pheme had something, probably tomorrow. Oh yeah... he should probably get some sleep shouldn't he? Kei finally took those long and tired steps towards the VIP Quarters door, and opened it...

[VIP Quarters]

After opening the door, all he had to do was walk up a short flight of stairs to reach his destination.

At the top of those stairs, he saw twenty one doors. Ten doors on his right, ten doors on his left, and a slightly different door all the way at the end of this wide hallway. Kei started walking down the hallway, and he saw that they already had rooms prepared and chosen for them. Considering Pheme is a lunatic, she is still awfully accommodating.

As Kei looked closer on these doors, he saw that the rooms seemed to be mostly sorted by gender. He said mostly, due to the uneven gender ratio in their group. That's another thing that interests him, but he'd think about that later.

But Kei wanted to see just where exactly everyone's rooms were. Starting on his left side after entering the VIP Quarters, the rooms went:

Damien, Genjiro, Joji, Adam, Kei, Darren, Ji-hoon, then Rival. Those were the first eight doors on the left, so those were the boys's rooms. Then the next two rooms after those seemed to be for Lake, then Alpha.

Kei walked back to the front of the VIP Quarters, and started mentally noting down the girls's rooms. Starting from the right side, the girls's rooms went as follows:

Bessie, Kuroko, Catherine, Aurora, Ayaka, Yoshino, Aelia, Rosalind, then Raiha.

Curiously, the tenth room on the girls's side seemed to be unoccupied. Kei wondered why that was, but he knew that he had been spending too much time just observing these doors, and not enough time actually getting sleep. His body was telling him it was time to go to bed, but he wasn't going to without checking out one last thing.

Like the narration said, there was a twenty-first door at the end of the hallway, not on either side. It was already made of a different material, as the room doors were wooden and this one was metal. It had a door handle, and to no one's surprise, it didn't open. And he didn't see any stone around that he could use to break it. Well, that can be obstacle for another time. Trying to avoid passing out in this hallway, Kei finally made his way to his specified room...

[Kei's Room]

When Kei walked into his prepared room, it was...

...

exactly what he had expected. Given the strangely fancy and well-kept nature of this place, it seemed the rooms followed suit.

It was like a nice hotel room. There was a bathroom equipped with a shower, toilet, sink, towels, and all other basic hygiene amenities. It had a white tiled floor with a white wall.

For the room itself, it had a queen-sized bed with a soft and maroon blanket, pillow, and bedspread. There was a dark wooden nightstand next to the bed, a wooden desk with a lamp in the corner, and to top it off, a large monitor that hung on the wall to the left of the bed. There was also a closet directly below the monitor. It wasn't like the room had everything you'd ever want, but it'd do. Especially if all of them were going to be staying here for an extended period of time. The blue and green carpeted floor was rather nice though.

Kei went over to his closet and opened it. Yep. Like he thought, there were multiple of the same outfit that he's wearing right now. Further in the back of the closet were some clothes that looked like they'd be used for a formal event, some for swimming, and some for sleeping. Huh. Is there even a pool in this place? Eh, doesn't matter.

The main thing here is just how much they prepared for all of them. Kei walked over to his nightstand and opened one of the drawers. Yep. Once again, like he thought. A bottle of sleeping pills. Scary how much Pheme knew about him and presumably the others. Eh, another thing he could worry about in the morning. For now, it's high time he gets some rest. He quickly changed his clothes, took a pill, got comfy, and tried to drift off to sleep...

...

[Infirmary]

But the five people left infirmary hadn't gone to sleep yet. Aurora and Adam were laying down on two of the three beds in there, and Joji was sitting down on the third one. Lake was sitting in a chair near Joji, and Genjiro was pacing around the room.

The infirmary itself wasn't too big, but it also wasn't too small either. It had three beds, each with their own privacy curtains above them. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all kind of an eerie white color, but there was a variety of medical posters and notes lining the walls as well. There was a big medical station on the left side of the room which had a variety of pills, medicines, and bandages stocked in there. And there was a fridge with blood packs to the right of the medical station.

All in all, a very able infirmary.

"Joji, are you feeling any better?" Lake gave the carpenter a concerned look.

Joji shook his right hand a little. "Yeah... I think I'm fine." Joji shook his head. "But... damn it!" He slammed his uninjured hand down onto the bed. "I... was useless. I could't save Yuto... and look at Adam and Aurora!" He gestured towards them.

They had some little scrapes here and there from the broken glass, but those were really their only injuries. They only blacked out likely due to the stress. "Man, you shouldn't blame yourself for that shit." And Genjiro was apparently aware of that fact.

"Genjiro?" Joji looked up at him, still a little shaky.

Genjiro placed a hand on Joji's back. "Man, this shit ain't your fault! It's that bastard, uh... what was her name? The crazy chick in the white dress?" Genjiro looked around like he was trying to think.

"It was Pheme I believe. She called herself the "Goddess of Fame.". Lake shook a little. "What a crazy title to give yourself..."

"Oh yeah that's right! Phlegm! Or Pheme? Whatever." Genjiro looked back over at Joji. "Man, this shit is Pheme's fault, not yours. And the fact that you had the balls to even go up there and break that tank is fucking insane! Shit, I wish I did that!" Genjiro patted Joji's back with a smile.

"Yeah Joji, Genjiro is right!" Lake her their arms up in front of them excitedly with a smile. "She's the reason that Yuto died, not you! She's the one that set up this horrible game in the first place. The..." Lake's words got caught in their throat a little. "The... Killing Game." Lake shuddered.

Genjiro looked away, and Joji just looked down. "I... get it. Thanks guys." Joji spoke. "It's so... damn frustrating... but I'll try to not dwell on it." Joji looked back up. "Thanks Lake. Genjiro. Sorry for... being like that." Joji sighed.

"You're fine man." Genjiro looked back at Joji. "Listen Joji. You too Lake." He pointed at the ballet dancer. "This "Killing Game" shit... no matter what Pheme throws at us, we gotta stand against it. I've got too much... I mean we've got too much shit to live for. So c'mon Joji, stand up!" Genjiro reached out his hand to Joji.

Joji stared at it for a minute, gave a firm nod, and took it. "You're right Genjiro. God I was so stupid... but you're right. Real or not, we are going to resist this." Joji looked behind him and smiled. "You too Lake! Right?"

Lake looked up in awe, before they gave their own firm nod. "Yeah!" Lake took Joji's hand. He flinched a little from the pain, considering it was the hand he used to punch the glass tank, but he was fine. He wasn't going to let that pain stop him.

"We're gonna stay strong! No matter what this game throws at us! We-" Lake stopped for a second. "We aren't even sure of any rules here yet- but that doesn't matter! We're gonna stick together no matter what!" Lake gave a positive and rousing speech to the two men and the other two unconscious people.

Genjiro smiled a wide smile. "Hell yeah! You get it Lake!" Genjiro slapped his hands on Joji and Lake's backs. Lake stumbled forward a bit, but it didn't bother Joji at all. "Now, let's go get a good nights sleep!" Genjiro started walking out of the I infirmary.

"Woah hey! What about those two?!" Joji gestured towards Adam and Aurora.

Genjiro waved him off. "Nah man, they're fine! They got bandages and shit for their cuts, and they just gotta rest it off! They'll be fine in the morning!" Without waiting for a response, Genjiro walked out.

Lake went over to Adam and Aurora. They looked at them for a moment before looking back at Joji. "Don't worry Joji. Genjiro is right, I think they just need time to rest. We'll have time to talk to them eventually. It'll be okay." Lake placed a comforting hand on Joji's arm.

Joji closed his eyes and sighed. "I... alright. You're right Lake. I just need to... calm down. Yeah, let's go."

Lake smiled and nodded, and the two left the infirmary to get after Genjiro. Adam and Aurora? They'd be okay. They'd be... fine.

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[Catherine's Room]

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Cathy was in a deep sleep... having a nice cat nap. Until... an annoying sound woke her up without her consent. She turned to the monitor in her room with a scowl. And on there... she saw Pheme. Cathy glared at the screen as Pheme began to talk.

"Hello my glamorous stars! It is now 8am, and that means it's morning time! It's time to wake up and get moving! Get ready for a day full of stardom!" The monitor cut off.

Cathy covered her ears and turned over away from the monitor in her bed. So that "Goddess" wakes them up too? What hogwash! And after a death game announcement too... she wasn't going to listen to it. She wasn't gonna waste time here. But for now... she just closed her eyes... intending to drift off back to sleep...

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But for the second time in a row... she got woken up again. But this time by a knock on her door.

"Catherine? Are you in there! I implore you to wake up! There's no point in sleeping in!"

Cathy could immediately tell that it was Damien. She groaned and went further under the covers, hoping he'd go away.

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But he knocked again. "Catherine! I'm afraid I'm not in the mood for jokes, we need to have you wake up!" He knocked multiple times.

"Go away human! I haven't time for your thinly veiled acts of manipulation! I'll stay in here happily thank you, no thank you!" Cathy said from under the covers.

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And... Damien knocked for a third time.

"Catherine!" He yelled. "Please don't be foolish, be smart! Just come out!" Damien was trying his best, but to no avail.

This time, Cathy just stayed silent.

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Yep, still silent. Not a word. Giustina Giulo wouldn't like Cathy very much.

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Sensing he was fighting a losing battle, Damien abandoned that war front, and moved on...

[VIP Quarters]

"Well, it appears that Catherine is a lost cause. How unfortunate." Damien shook his head and he looked over to Ji-hoon.

Damien and Ji-hoon were working on waking everyone up. They figured, considering what had happened last night, some could use the extra alarm, even with Pheme's morning announcement. But the main reason was that they figured it'd be important to make sure everyone was awake for the continuation of Pheme's Killing Game announcement. No matter what everyone thought about it, they knew it'd be important to get this information.

"Well, you've tried at least. I figured she wouldn't respond to it anyway." Ji-hoon remarked, then crossed his arms. "So Darren, Alpha, and Cathy refused to come out? Disappointing but I'm not surprised. Heh." He looked at Damien. "You had to be paired with two of them huh? Can't imagine that was fun." Ji-hoon scoffed.

Damien let out a light chuckle. "I'm afraid you could say that again. My dear Ayaka was quite impressive, but those two, not so much." Damien sighed. "But..." Damien stopped talking.

Ji-hoon raised an eyebrow. "Hm? What's up?"

"Ah, don't worry yourself. It's nothing." It, in reality, wasn't nothing. Damien had sensed it ever since he met him. But there was something about Darren that just... made him think. He didn't know how to describe it. "Well, shall we go Ji-hoon? Mostly everybody should be in the Grand Theater." Damien started walking towards stairway.

"Right Damien. Let's go." And Ji-hoon followed after him. Or at least, he was about to, until he thought he heard a sound from behind him. He looked, but whatever it was ran past him in a flash. It was only when he looked forward that he saw what that flash was.

"Nyahaha! Out of the way pipsqueak!" Cathy ran and shoved Damien out of the way, even causing him to fall to the floor, and then ran down the stairway.

Ji-hoon could only look on in shock, and Damien as well. He just stayed sitting on the floor for a second. He stayed sitting there for long enough that he didn't even notice another sound.

It was Alpha, finally leaving her room. She walked past the two boys, but stopped and looked down at Damien on the ground. "Fuck are you doing? Weird place to jerk off but don't let me stop you." Alpha shrugged then walked down the stairs.

The boys still didn't quite know what to say. But Ji-hoon walked over to Damien and stretched out his hand towards him, and Damien took it. The boys shared a sigh and walked down the stairs themselves.

[Grand Theater]

When Damien and Ji-hoon walked into the theater, they saw two things that surprised them.

First, Darren was somehow already there. Just sitting in a seat that was as far away from the rest of the group as possible.

And second, Adam and Aurora were already in there, interacting with the rest of the group.

Huh. This was the first time all nineteen of them were properly together. Nineteen stars. Nineteen Ultimates all gathered together for some sick purpose...

No matter how Ji-hoon felt about it, he had to admit that this situation did bring some unique opportunities. Having all of the Ultimates here is rather interesting... and Ji-hoon had his eye on six of these stars specifically. People he'd... really like to talk to. And if one of them is who he thinks they are... well then. This'll be a more fascinating experience than he would've thought.

In fact, he saw two stars he was rather interested in talking with Adam and Aurora, so he left Damien behind and made his way over to them...

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...

...

Which left Damien awkwardly standing behind Darren's seat. "Darren." Damien said flatly as he moved around so that he could see his face. Darren didn't respond to him. "I heard from Kei that you were in that same seat when he went to bed. Surely not right?" Damien raised in inquisitive eyebrow at the bartender.

Darren rolled his eyes. It took him a second to respond. "No. I did go back to my room." And he finished his thought there.

Damien sighed and shook his head. He felt like he was talking to a wall. "Oh? Am I to assume that you simply got here early then? Before the announcement that Pheme gave even?" Damien didn't believe any of this.

All Darren said in response was "Yep."

Damien still was suspicious. "Do you even know where your room is?" Damien raised an eyebrow

"Yeah. Between Kei and Ji-hoon's room." Darren said plainly.

Not wanting to waste anymore time with this guy, Damien let out an internal groan and started to walk away.

But Darren had something else to say first. "Don't waste your time with me." Darren shooed the beautician off. "The others need your leadership more than I do."

Damien looked back after Darren said those words. Damien stared at him for a moment, then continued walking away. "What a waste..." He muttered as he walked down some steps. He was hoping Ji-hoon was having an easier time with Adam and Aurora.

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...

Ji-hoon, in fact, wasn't having an easier time. Because it looked like Raiha and Bessie had beaten him to the punch.

"O. M. G. Hi Aurora!!! I am in love with your work sis!! So what's the tea? You got clapped in that Pilot Episode Climax thing, so how are you? Are you vibing or no?" At the first opportunity she had, Raiha went and started talking to a still slightly dazed Aurora, all the while ignoring Adam

"Heya heya Aurora! How are you~?" Bessie fidgeted a little. "Like what Raiha said, that Pilot Episode Climax you were involved in didn't seem fun! Quite the unsatisfying game~!" Bessie's unblinking face got right in Aurora's face.

Aurora signaled for the two girls to back off a bit. "I... appreciate your concern, but I believe... we are fine." She looked back towards Adam. "Correct? How are you feeling Adam? Is everything okay?"

Adam gave a frantic nod and patted his body down. "Yes, according to my calculations, everything feels okay! A-are you okay Aurora?" The academic asked.

Aurora lightly giggled. "I believe I just answered Bessie and Raiha about that, but yes, I am indeed fine Adam. Thank you for asking." Aurora smiled.

"Ummm yeah? We are talking to the Aurora Beaufort RN. We aren't talking to you Adam. Step off yeah?" Raiha shooed him away.

Adam awkwardly laughed. "Oh y-yeah... I guess you were huh? Heh." Adam rubbed the back of his head. "Ok that's fine, I-I'll go somewhere else now... I g-guess?"

But before he could go, Bessie placed both of her hands on Adam's shoulders. Bessie stared into his eyes for a moment. "You... should stay. You... should be here." Bessie paused. "Why...? Because it's better to be in a group~! Let's stay together Adam~!"

Adam slightly blushed at what Bessie had said, but he was still a bit confused. Until...

"I agree with Bessie. You should stay right here Adam." Ji-hoon said as he walked in forcibly into their conversation.

"I-I, uh, okay. You're... Ji-hoon? Is that right?" Adam asked.

Ji-hoon nodded. "Yeah, that's me. And I've been eager to talk to both you and Aurora." Ji-hoon eyed both of them.

Raiha was a little miffed, but, "Oh wow, I get to witness an interrogation from the Celebrity Detective? Bet. That's like, kinda slay."

Ji-hoon eyed Raiha as she backed away a little. He wanted to talk to her too, but he supposed he'd have time to later. It's not like Raiha would die soon right?

Compared to Raiha, Bessie was a little more naturally interested in this turn of events. "Oh wowzers! I'll be happy to sit back and watch this~!" Bessie backed away as well and Ji-hook eyed her. Ji-hoon wanted to talk to her as well, but again, he'd have time to later. It's not like Bessie would die soon right?

But anyway, with those two out of the way, Ji-hoon turned his attention towards Adam and Aurora. First, Ji-hoon turned and looked at the latter mentioned. "So you're Aurora Beaufort? I've heard much about you. It's a pleasure." Ji-hoon smiled and held out his hand.

Aurora returned the smile and shook Ji-hoon's hand. "Indeed. It's pleasure to meet you Ji-hoon. I'm flattered that you've heard of me." Aurora gave a small curtsy.

Ji-hoon raised an eyebrow. "How could I have not heard of you? The famous Ultimate Starlet, known for a wide variety of things? From acting, to writing, modeling, and singing? And without a shred of controversy? Of course you've been on my radar." Ji-hoon walked a little closer to her.

Aurora smiled. "I appreciate those words Ji-hoon. Now, you have something to ask me?"

"Ah, yes." Ji-hoon had almost forgotten. "First, I need to know, why are both of you here? Alpha, if you've met her yet, had her own unique circumstances in coming into this game, but what about you two?" Ji-hoon still had the pen and notepad from the Mystery Studio, so he took those out and pointed the pen at the a-named pair.

Adam and Aurora looked away from Ji-hoon at the question. They seemed a bit nervous. "What's up you two? What's the problem?" Ji-hook gave the duo an impatient stare.

Adam decided to speak up for the two of them. "Well, um, Ji-hoon? We h-heard that you have some m-memory problems right? Well, uh, technically speaking, it's the same for us as well." Adam darted his eyes around nervously.

That certainly caught the attention of Ji-hoon, as well as Raiha and Bessie, who were both still standing off to the side.

"Oh~? How strange! Tell your story to the whole class you two~!" Bessie butted in on the conversation, getting right up in everyone's personal space. "Let's hear it! Let's hear it!" The pop star insisted.

Adam and Aurora backed away a bit, and Ji-hoon shoved her back. "Would it kill you to just stay put Bessie? Just go somewhere else or talk to Raiha, or do whatever you want. Just stay out of my way." Ji-hoon said with a serious tone as he shot her a sharp glare.

Bessie didn't seem bothered by his behavior or words at all. In fact, she just laughed in response. "You're a fun one, aren't you Ji-hoon~? My little helper!" Bessie closed her eyes and bowed. "Alrighty! I'll take Raiha with me and we'll go somewhere else~! Bye bye!" Bessie started to walk away, and she literally dragged Raiha away with her.

"Noooo! Bessie B.! This is sooo not it! SMH!" Raiha's voice slowly got quieter and quieter as her and Bessie got further and further away. The last thing the remaining trio heard was "Ji-hoon, if you catch feels for Aurora and try to rizz her up, I will murk you...!" And her voice finally faded away, even though in reality she was just in a different part of the Grand Theater.

With a nervous laugh from both Aurora and Adam, and a deep sigh and eye roll with Ji-hoon, now they could get back on track. "So, now that we're rid of the distractions, we can resume. Now Adam, what were you saying?" Ji-hoon wasted no time getting back into the swing of it.

Adam blinked as he realized he was being spoken to. "Ah, s-sorry. So what I was saying was that b-both Aurora and I-" Adam stopped himself, like he had to process what he was saying before he actually said it. Aurora flashed the academic a gentle smile of encouragement. Upon seeing it, Adam gave a quick nod, then continued. "B-both Aurora and I have a gap in our memories."

Ji-hoon slowly nodded in understanding, but he still needed to know more. "Elaborate." He simply commanded.

"Oh!" Adam and Aurora said simultaneously. They hadn't expected him to be so direct. "Well..." Aurora decided to take it from here. "Both of us have our memories from before we were kidnapped, which is, from what I believe, similar to most everyone here. But the problem lies with what comes after that..." Aurora paused. Not for dramatic effect, but it had a dramatic effect anyway.

Despite whatever dramatic effect it might've had, Ji-hoon urged the Starlet to continue with a few firm taps of his pen against his notepad. Suffice to say, Aurora got the message. "After that, both of us have that aforementioned gap." She motioned to Adam then back to herself. "Then after that gap, our next memory is waking up... suspended above that horrible water tank..." Aurora shivered while remembering that event. Ji-hoon couldn't blame her. That had to have been a traumatizing experience.

But what she said was interesting. A gap in their memories huh? Adam was slowly nodding along with her, so Ji-hoon assumed Aurora wasn't just making things up.

From what they described, it sounded like it was similar to his own memory problems. He couldn't draw any definitive answers from that, but he took a mental note of it.

Now, besides for that, Ji-hoon still had more questions he wanted to ask them. Firstly...

"Alright, let's put that memory stuff on the back burner for now. Next, tell me how you two are here in the first place. Did you recover from your injuries sustained in the PEC? How did you know to be brought here?" Ji-hoon gave the duo a slightly more suspicious state than before. He was especially curious about how they were going to answer this one.

They didn't answer immediately as they shared a glance towards each other.

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...

Ji-hoon was about to say something, but they luckily finally answered. Aurora answered for them. "Well, answering your question gets a bit complicated..." Aurora trailed off with a nervous laugh.

Despite Aurora's laugh, Ji-hoon certainly wasn't amused. "Just answer it." He said flatly with a baffled expression.

Aurora sighed. "Well then, yes, a little earlier this morning, prior to Pheme's morning announcement, both Adam and I did wake up. Neither of us had vivid memories of what happened after the PEC... but we did recall getting little cuts and scratches from the event..." Aurora looked down solemnly. "We also remember... Yuto..." She trailed off, but Ji-hoon didn't need her to finish that thought specifically. He knew exactly what she meant.

God, there were so many things to think about and sort through in regards to this game. Ji-hoon wanted to go through it all right now, but he knew there'd be time later. Especially for a topic like Yuto, it'd be better to have their whole group listening in.

Ji-hoon's eyes widen for a second. He didn't realize he was zoning out. He saw Adam and Aurora's melancholy faces, and got their attention with a clap. "Okay, let's not just mope around! Aurora, continue talking about the infirmary." He pointed at her with his pen.

Aurora's eyes widened as she gave a quick nod. "Oh! Right!" She cleared her throat. "So, as I was saying, Adam and I woke up a little before Pheme's morning announcement. We were healed enough to walk around and such, and a... person went and got us. They told us where to go, and they made sure we were okay." Aurora stopped there at that insane cliffhanger.

Ji-hoon didn't like cliffhanger. "Okay...? Who was the person?" He looked back and forth between the duo with a confused look. But neither of them answered him. Ji-hoon started tapping his foot on the ground. "Alright, what's the deal here? It's not hard to say a name you guys." His confused look turned into an annoyed glare.

After an annoying long amount of time according to Ji-hoon, even though in reality it was closer to about twenty seconds, Aurora spoke up again. "I'm sorry Ji-hoon, but, we can't tell you." Aurora looked away and Adam slowly nodded.

Ji-hoon blinked. What... did she just say? "What... do you mean? How can't you tell me?" Ji-hoon couldn't comprehend any of this.

But Adam and Aurora continued to stay silent.

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...

Ji-hoon groaned. Especially in a situation like this, keeping secrets was absolutely ridiculous. He felt the most annoyed he's felt since getting in this place. "Listen." He stared Aurora in the eyes. "Why can't you tell me who brought you here? Is a single name that hard to say?"

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Apparently it was that hard to say.

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...

"Seriously?!" Ji-hoon exclaimed. Adam and Aurora slowly nodded.

"W-well, um, uh-" Adam stuttered as he spoke up. Aurora shot him a look to stop talking. And that was apparently successful in shutting him up.

"Guys c'mon, keeping secrets here is ridiculous-" Ji-hoon was about to continue prodding the a-named duo for their secret, but he got cut off. By what you ask?

By the sound of high heels.

The clacking of high heels echoed throughout the theater as Pheme walked onto the stage. "Ah hello my darlings!" Pheme bowed. "How are you all today?" She asked, seemingly expecting them to actually answer. Unsurprisingly, no one answered to their psychopath kidnapper.

Ji-hoon silently cursed at Pheme's entrance. "We'll finish this later." He pointed at the a-named pair then descended further down into Grand Theater, both eager and nervous to see what Pheme has for them now...

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Some people chose to stay sitting in the seats, while others chose to crowd around the center stage. "Oh my! I'm flattered that so many of you want my attention, but I'm afraid you must only look! You can't touch!" Pheme struck a saucy pose.

One of the people up there, Yoshino, rolled her eyes. "Eh, you don't even look that good. I ain't a damn fashion expert but that metal mask is gaudy as hell. You can't really pull off the Hannibal Lecter look." She stared at the mask covering Pheme's face.

Pheme responded like how she usually responds: with a laugh. "Oh really? Do you not like it Ms. Akiyama?" Pheme looked over the crowd. "Do any of you share in Ms. Akiyama's sentiments in regard to my mask?" She eyed everyone closely.

"I do." Alpha said somehow without any swear words. "Like the Horror Bitch said, that Cannibal Lecter mask looks fucking lame on you. Unless there's a BDSM part to this death game that you haven't mentioned yet, the mask is stupid." Whoops, there are the swear words!

"Hey, what do you mean "Horror Bitch?" That's uncalled for!" Yoshino glared at Alpha. But Alpha just flipped her off.

"H-hey... we shouldn't fight guys..." Aelia tried chiming in.

"Hey! We shouldn't fight guys!" But Genjiro was louder, so everyone listened to him as he held Yoshino back.

"Oh look! Your little beefcake boyfriend stepped in to protect you, how adorable!" Genjiro stepping up apparently wasn't enough to deter Alpha. "Just sit down big guy, no one is turned on by your whole tough guy act!" She shot a venomous glare Genjiro's way.

Genjiro returned her glare with a confident one of his own. "Oh yeah? Come down here and say that shit to my face! You know you can't stand against these babies!" Genjiro flexed his muscles.

"Ha! Like I want your big grubby man hands groping me all over. I'm not that fucking easy you know." Alpha retorted.

"Yeah okay, like I'd even want someone as fucking annoying as you!" Genjiro took a step towards Alpha, who was still sitting in a seat. But his step was stopped when a dagger flew dangerously close to him. It landed on the seat directly to the left of him, embedding itself deep into the leather of the seat. Genjiro quickly turned to look at it. The white and gold handle drew his attention immediately. But after a moment of looking at it, he went and glanced at who threw it. Well, it was obvious who threw it.

"Ahem! Mr. Mashimoto! Ms. Alpha!" Pheme stepped off of the stage and in between the two bickerers. Alpha stayed seated, and Genjiro just glared at her. Pheme grabbed her dagger from the leather of the seat and pointed it back and forth between the two. "I would normally tolerate fighting, but not while I'm in the middle of an important announcement! That's very rude you know!" She talked like she was giving a lecture to two children. Which, in some people's opinions, was probably accurate.

The two of them just scoffed and turned away from each other. "And... for the record." Pheme had another thought to share. Alpha was still looking away, so she noticed a little too late when Pheme had suddenly appeared in front of her, holding the dagger to Alpha's throat. Alpha's words of insults and snark got caught in her throat as she looked up at Pheme. "Ms. Alpha. You mentioned my mask yes? You called it "stupid" yes?" Pheme bent down so she could stare at Alpha a bit closer. Her voice went down to a barely audible and chilling whisper. "Just so you know... this mask is very special. It's very special and important to me. I'd tell you why, but you aren't worthy of the reason..." Pheme dug her dagger a teensy bit deeper into Alpha's throat, but still not enough to actually cut it. "So next time... keep your words to yourself..." Pheme retracted the dagger and went back to a normal posture. "Got it?" She finished with an overly cheery voice.

Alpha wiped a single bead of sweat from her forehead. "Whatever." She said dismissively. But that was apparently good enough for Pheme as she walked away from the gas station manager and back up onto the stage. She had definitely gotten everyone's attention with that little act. Well, maybe not Darren's attention, but he's a special case.

Anyway, once Pheme got back up onto the stage, she pocketed her dagger and cleared her voice. "So then! I apologize for that little interruption. So let's get this show on the road and continue talking about the topic that was addressed yesterday!" Pheme paused. "Does anyone remember?" She looked at the group expectingly.

Everyone did indeed remember, but it something that was... difficult to say. Difficult to acknowledge. Everyone was waiting to see what Pheme was going to say.

"So no one remembers? I see." Pheme sounded a little dejected. But she perked up rather quick. "That's alright! Perhaps my special announcement will put some pep in your step!" Pheme stepped behind the curtain on the stage. After a moment, she wheeled out a cart with what looked like nineteen phones on it. "Are you all ready to really start our glorious Killing Game?" Her voice sunk an octave as she got a malicious look in her eyes.

Pheme had technically already announced the fact that they were in a Killing Game, so it wasn't like this was a surprise or anything. But hearing it again... still hurt. Looks of despair, annoyance, and anger brushed across everyone's faces.

Besides for the face... of one person. Perhaps it was selective hearing, but they had blocked out everything Pheme had said after she had rolled out the cart full of the phones.

"O. M. G. Yes!!! Finally, a phone!!! TBH, I felt like I was going to lose my mind without one!" Raiha, with a bright smile on her face, went right up to the stage, clearly excited by the presence of phones. "So, can you like, give one to me? Right now? Yeah?" Raiha held out her hand impatiently.

Pheme tried to stifle a laugh so she could keep her composure. "Don't worry Ms. Miyahara, you'll get one. But order is important! So just wait for a moment alright?"

Raiha let out an exaggerated sigh. "Ugh. Whatev. You wylin' Pheme." Raiha went and sat down in a front row seat. Everyone gave Raiha some confused stares, but she didn't notice them.

"Anyway! As I was saying!" Pheme continued. "It is now time to properly start our Killing Game!" Pheme paused for applause, but she didn't get any. She really shouldn't be surprised by that. "Tough crowd? Well that's okay. I'm at least happy that most of your resistance seems to have faded." Pheme covered her mask-covered mouth with her hand and lightly laughed.

"Hey, can you just get on with it? Just get to the point please!" Joji chimed in as he pleaded with Pheme.

"Oh my! Of course I can Mr. Kaneshiro!" Pheme bowed as a form of a feigned apology. "We would've been able to get this done yesterday... if you hadn't broken the rules." She lifted her head up and gave Joji a flat and cold stare.

"Just get on with it! Please!" Joji was struggling to hold in his anger. Especially because he doesn't like being reminded of what happened yesterday.

"Fine then!" Pheme yelled out. "Let us, like Mr. Kaneshiro said, "get to the point"!" Pheme picked up one of the phones from off of the cart. "Mr. Aikawa. Mr. Seizon. I believe you two said this yesterday correct?

Kei also didn't believe it, and proceeded to point at Pheme. "You give us fake and ridiculous trials, then you tell us that this is a "killing game"? Killing games haven't been around for ages!" Kei crossed his arms.

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"A killing game...? Eh, I doubt. Like he said... those haven't happened for a... long time..." Rival added while yawning.

"You said that Killing Games haven't occurred for a long time. Correct?" She looked at the two of them expectingly.

Both of them raised an eyebrow, looked at each other, then subsequently replied to her with a simple "Yeah. I did say that." at the same time.

"Very good!" Pheme clapped her hands. "So you must know, that for any good Killing Game, you need a device to help you navigate the facility you're trapped in!" Pheme raised her eyebrows. "So?" Pheme wanted some audience participation here, but she wasn't going to get it. She tried though.

Pheme shook her head. "All of you could stand to wake up a bit! Are the rooms prepared for you all not comfortable?" She asked, sounding surprisingly concerned.

"No, they're plenty comfy." Kei leaned back in his seat. "A bit too comfy if anything." He glanced away from Pheme.

"O-oh!" Ayaka decided to talk for this first time this chapter, seemingly with a thought in mind. "I get w-what you mean Kei. My r-room had… my favorite teddy bear, and my f-favorite blankets too. It was c-creepy." Ayaka looked down to the floor while sitting in her seat.

"Oh yeah…! Same f-for me Ayaka!" And now Aelia wanted to chime in again. "I m-mean… my favorites and stuff are p-pretty generic… but they all were there. I-it was weird right?" Aelia looked over at Ayaka, trying to start a conversation. But Ayaka just gave the puppeteer a wary look then went back to looking at the floor. Aelia then joined her in her floor-gazing, but with a dejected look on her face.

"Hm. This is most troubling." Damien shifted his eyes to the side, deep in thought. "It's very disconcerting that you have the ability to glean our specific tastes, including those of my dears Ayaka and Aelia." Damien gave them both of comforting look, then turned back to look at Pheme. "But I'm assuming you will leave us in the dark on how you acquired your information?"

Pheme nodded. "Yep! I'm not telling you how!" Pheme turned her body a bit and smirked under her mask-covered mouth. She then pointed at Ji-hoon with the phone she was holding. "But if Mr. Jo here can figure things out about you wonderful stars, I don't see why you're surprised that I can!" Pheme placed her free hand on her chest in a dramatic manner.

Ji-hoon rolled his eyes. "Well I doubt your methods are even legal." Ji-hoon stared at Pheme right in the eyes. "Given that, and what else is likely to happen here, you'll have a lot of karma coming your way, Ms. "Goddess of Fame"." Ji-hoon air-quoted that last part with his fingers.

Pheme stuck her pointer finger on the air like she got an idea, completely ignoring Ji-hoon's threat. "Ah yes, that reminds me that we should get back on track!" Pheme held up the phone again. "So like I was saying, this Goddess-Brand Star-Phone(tm) or just the "Star-Phone" for short, will be your guide through out Goddess's Movie and Media Studio!" She set the phone down and made a hand motion over all nineteen of them. "Like you can see, there are nineteen of them! So one for each of you! They've been pre-assigned, so search for the one with your initials on the back and grab it!

Raiha was the only person who rushed up onto the stage to grab hers. The rest moved at an awkward pace to grab theirs. It was an awful feeling, just doing what this psychopath wanted them to do. But after yesterday, everybody resigned themselves to go with it for now. It was clear what would happen if they explicitly resisted.

Rival was the last one to grab his Star-Phone. He grabbed Darren's as well, considering the bartender hadn't moved out of his seat at all. Rival handed over Darren's Star-Phone to him while everyone slowly started messing around with their new contraption.

Raiha, having been the first to grab hers, was eager to test it out. She hadn't heard of the "Star-Phone" before, but she didn't care. She just wanted a phone in her hands.

"Now, I believe it'd be easier if you all simply explored the Star-Phone on your own! So use this time to use it and get used to it!" Pheme opted to not guide them through it, and just let them discover the features of the Star-Phone on their own.

Raiha didn't need to be told that twice. As soon as she pressed the power button on the right side, Raiha saw that it used Face-ID to properly log into the phone. The Star-Phone quickly and somehow recognized her face, so Raiha was then met with the Home Screen. The background wallpaper had art of Pheme sitting on a throne. But Raiha's eyes shifted to the main aspects of the phone, the apps.

It appeared to have four apps. The apps were called: Profile, Map, Rules, and Evidence. Raiha clicked on the Profile app first.

What showed up was Raiha's basic information, like her name, talent, height, blood type, etc.

Raiha looked it all over and found that it was completely accurate. She was more than a bit freaked out at that. But she brushed that aside for now, and clicked on the Map app. What appeared was a simple map of "Goddess's Movie and Media Studio 1F." The group had explored a chunk of this floor already, but according to the map, it looked like there were six doors on this floor that needed to be investigated still. Well, they could always do that later.

Next, she clicked on the Rules app. And just like it sounds, a long list of rules appeared.

Rules:

1. The Stars are welcome to attempt to escape whenever they like. But they must be filmed while doing so. Attempting to escape while not being filmed is prohibited and will result in punishment from Pheme.

2. Violence and acts of aggression against Pheme are strictly prohibited. Ones who attempt violence or acts of aggression against Pheme will receive punishment.

3. "Nighttime" is from 11:00 pm to 8:00 am. During that timeframe, you are required to stay within your rooms. Attempting to leave your rooms during "Nighttime" will result in punishment from Pheme.

4. Attempting to break or destroy a Goddess-Brand Star Phone is prohibited. Anyone attempting to break or destroy a Goddess-Brand Star Phone will receive punishment from Pheme.

5. Breaking or Destroying any cameras or studio property present in the studio is strictly forbidden and will result in immediate punishment from Pheme.

6. When a murder takes place, all surviving Stars are required to take part in the Studio Trial. The Studio Trial is your only streamlined way of escape.

7. If the guilty party is exposed via majority vote during the Studio Trial, them and them alone will be punished.

8. If the guilty party is not exposed and the Stars vote incorrectly during the Studio Trial, all of the Stars barring the guilty party will be punished.

9. If the guilty party survives the trial, they will be provided a key to escape and a cash prize of 100,000. (Cash Prize subject to change.)

10. If you choose to kill another, you can only kill a maximum of two people. Any more than two will result in punishment from Pheme.

11. Pheme nor any of the staff will never directly commit a murder.

12. Once 3 or more Stars, not counting the guilty party, discover a body, the Body Discovery Announcement will play.

13. In the case of special events, such as the Pilot Episode Climax, you must follow Pheme's instructions. Failure to follow her instructions will result in punishment from Pheme.

14. Rules may be adjusted or added at any time at the discretion of Pheme or the production staff.

15. With minimal restrictions, you are welcome to explore Goddess's Movie and Media Studio at your discretion.

16. Smile for the camera!

Raiha felt a chill down her spine as she read those rules. And judging by everyone else's faces, she wasn't alone in that feeling. A "Studio Trial?" So ridic. She wanted to question that more, but she knew it'd be better to leave that in the hands of people like Ji-Hoon or Kei.

To end it off, she clicked on the Evidence app. And... it was blank. It looked like a sort of notepad app to where you can write things down, but that looked to be all there was to it.

Raiha sighed. She was kind of disappointed. She wanted stuff like Chatsnap, Graminsta, Bookface, and apps like those. But she supposed she should've known better.

Raiha looked up from her Star-Phone and glanced around at everyone else's faces. Like she expected, everyone had faces of confusion and anger. She could understand why. After all, this phone was so mid! Literally no interesting apps. "Pheme? This phone isn't it chief. BFR Pheme. What even is this? Raiha held up her phone as she decided to voice her complaints to their kidnapper.

Pheme looked confused. "What is there to be confused about Ms. Miyahara? I've explained what the function of the Star-Phone already is!" Pheme shook her head with a relaxed look in her eyes. "I acknowledge that you are the Ultimate Trendsetter, but you'll have to look elsewhere if you want a more... conventional device."

Raiha promptly pouted and sat down in her seat. She was annoyed enough over how shoddy the Star-Phone was, that she didn't even think about the strange things the rules mentioned.

But not to worry, as the others definitely focused on those strange things. "A Studio Trial...? I can assume what that is..." Rival leaned back in his seat as he eyed his Star-Phone.

"Ah yes, the most exciting part about this glorious experience! The Studio Trial!" Pheme pranced around on the stage excitedly. She came to a stop after a few seconds. "For those of you familiar with Killing Games, which I'd assume is most of you, you should be able to infer what it is!"

Pheme took a deep breath. "But I shall explain it anyway, for those who might not know." And she exhaled. "What the rules state are a little bare-bones anyway." She said with a hand motion.

Everyone stared up at her as she began explaining. "The Studio Trial is a special event! It is a debate between all of you that shall take place after one of you is murdered!" Pheme laughed. "You'll get a set amount of time to discuss who you think it is. At the end, you'll vote on who you think the "blackened" killer is! If you're correct, all of the innocent people live another day, and only the killer is punished!"

Rival looked down at the rules on his Star-Phone. "And... if we get it wrong...?" He slightly squinted his eyes.

None of them could see it, but Pheme smiled at Rival saying that. "If you're wrong, everyone besides for the killer will be punished!" She shot her hands up into the air. "Exciting isn't it?!" She looked around at the stars. Hard to say what she was expecting after explaining that, because most people had looks of horror on their faces.

But that horror needed to increase a little. "And what is the "punishment"? You haven't explained that." A rare Darren line of dialogue appeared! He glanced up at Pheme with a bored look on his face.

Pheme giggled. "It seems you are the one just filled with good questions, aren't you Mr. Taylor?" Pheme paused, allowed Darren to retort, but he didn't. Pheme sighed. "You're awfully quiet considering what questions float around in that brain of yours! Ah, whatever!" Pheme started to slowly pace around the stage. "Mr. Taylor asked what the punishment is? Well I'll tell you!" She stopped moving. "The punishment mentioned on the rules, as well as the punishment that'll occur at the end of a Studio Trial... they both mean the same thing...

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they mean execution! Death!" Pheme announced, sounding creepily excited.

It took everyone a moment to process what Pheme was saying. Execution? Death? Seriously?

"Well damn." Kei chuckled. "Guess this is real after all..."

"Y-y-you can't be serious...! Right? This is... I can't... I-I can't trust..." Ayaka looked around in a panic.

"Damn it! This can't be real. No way! I ain't gonna do this!" Yoshino held her head in distress.

"Of all of the ways to *cough* die... I'd rather not have it be here." Rosalind held onto her parasol as she stayed seated.

"This is illogical! R-ridiculous! This can't be t-true!" Adam started to sweat.

"You're right Adam-nya! These Studio Trials... death... execution... we won't stand for it-nya!" Kuroko charged up to the front of the Theater, holding out her arms. "We're friends-nya! Even if it's our only way to escape this place... we won't killing each other-nya!" Kuroko gave all of the determination she could.

Pheme was about to say something in response, but two people did her job for her.

"Friends? Hah! The fucking fetish cosplayer said we all are friends!" Alpha let out a loud scoff from the back of the theater.

"Huh? How are we not friends-nya? We went through trials to get here-nya! And we should stand together as one-nya!" Kuroko turned around to look at Alpha.

"Kuroko is... exactly right! Lake hopped up from out of their seat and joined the hypnotist. "We can't play this game... we can't let Pheme win! So in order to do that, we all need to stay close and together!" Lake made their belief in everyone apparent. Kuroko turned towards them and gave them a smile and a nod before turning back to look at Alpha.

"See-nya? We're already stronger together-nya!" Kuroko tried to stand up to Alpha.

Alpha looked at the pair like they were the stupidest thing she had ever seen. "Why the fuck are you treating me like a fucking evil villain of some video game or story?! I'm just being real you god damn idiots!" Alpha stood up. "Trusting people... trusting anyone here... is about the dumbest thing you could do here. You want to escape together? Good for you! Just don't come crying back to me when your "precious friends" shank you in your fucking chest you bondage bitch!" Alpha started walking out of the theater. "Yeah, I'm done. I'll be going now. Hard to take you seriously with your tits spilling out of your skin-tight clothes sweetie." Alpha stopped as she reached the exit of the theater. She glanced back at Pheme. "I'm leaving, no matter what you say. I'm not staying around here anymore. It fucking reeks of naivety in here." And Alpha walked out.

Pheme had a rather neutral look on her face. "Well then! That was sure something!" Even Pheme don't know how to properly react. "Well, we weren't technically done here, but I suppose it's alright she left early." Pheme shrugged.

Lake looked distraught, but they tried to keep it together. "Even if... even if Alpha doesn't want to cooperate, that doesn't mean we should-" Lake got cut off.

"Hah!" A voice echoed out as Cathy started walking towards the exit as well. She was already leaning against the wall towards the exit anyway. "Despite being who she is... I do appreciate the humans that are self-aware!" Cathy laughed obnoxiously. "She's correct in her thoughts! Humans are greedy and gutless cowards who only think of themselves! So knowing how all of you are... I'm afraid I won't make myself an easy target!" Cathy smirked. "You can sure try though!"

Kuroko had a frustrated look on her face. "That's not true-nya! You don't even know everyone here-nya!" She motioned over the entire group-

Cathy wagged her finger at Kuroko. "I won't listen to a faker like you, nor any of you! I'm out of here! Nyahaha!" Cathy dashed through door.

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"Well... does anyone else want to leave...?" Rival said, half-joking. No one seemed to hear him.

Kuroko and Lake both looked down disappointedly. Everybody was silent after the two girls had left, leaving heavy words in their wake.

But, for the more positive and friendly ones still there, they didn't want them to get them down. "Hey, Lake. Kuroko." Joji got up out of his seat and went down towards the pair. "You guys shouldn't feel down. If those girls want to be all antagonistic, don't worry about it! We just have to keep moving forward! Right?" Joji looked around with a smile on his face.

"Joji..." Lake muttered. "Thank you." They smiled and nodded.

"Yeah! Jojo has it right!" And now Yoshino hopped up from out of her seat. "Roko, you and Monty did good, don't worry. If those two bastards don't want to stick with us, then we don't need them!" Yoshino gave Kuroko and Lake both a hearty pat on their backs.

Lake was about to thank Yoshino, but they had a question to ask first. "Did you just call me Monty?" They asked Yoshino.

Yoshino laughed. "Well yeah! I wanted to give you a nickname, but "Lake" is kinda hard for that! So I went with your last name, and got "Monty" from that. Pretty damn good right?"

Lake giggled. "I like it. Thanks Yoshino!"

Speaking of thanks, "Thank you Yoshi-nya!" Kuroko tried to hug Yoshino's arm, but the horror novelist pulled it back before she could. "Oh, sorry-nya!" Kuroko's eyes widened a little and she stepped back.

Yoshino shook her head and sighed. "You're fine, don't worry about it." She turned away from the three at the front and looked out over the rest of the group. "But what we should be worried about is getting out of this place!" Yoshino put her fist into her palm. "I say we get out of here, and try and find a way out!" Yoshino started to rally the remaining seventeen together, somehow forgetting that Pheme was still standing on the stage behind them.

Well, Pheme didn't particularly care. She enjoyed watching them band together! She pulled out a director's chair she had stashed away in the back of the stage and sat in it, eager to watch the group.

"Indeed my dear Yoshino! It's enough of the apathy, it's time to act!" Damien stated, with a slight jab at Darren.

Yoshino didn't really like hearing Damien speak to her, but eh. She figured it's good to prioritize everyone being together here. "Damn right Damien!" Yoshino pumped her first into the air.

"Hey now! Don't think I'll let you have all the fun Yoshi!" Genjiro ran down to the front of the theater. "Fuck yeah! We're gonna stand together and shit!" Genjiro shot both of his arms into the air, perhaps with too much enthusiasm. But it did evidently work, as everyone did slowly start to band together as a group.

"T-that sounds like a good idea...! Teamwork... I like it!" First it was Aelia,

"Yeah, let's d-do it! Logically, this is the o-objectively correct move!" Then it was Adam,

"This feeling of camaraderie is rather nice. Very well, let us make a tightly-knit group." Next was Aurora,

"Yeahhh... this is kinda slay. Seventeen ultimates working together kinda goes hard. I like it!" Raiha was next. Everybody said their piece as their resolve fortified. Some of the more quiet people didn't say much, but as long as they didn't say things like what Alpha and Cathy had said, that was the main thing.

Ji-hoon smiled as he watched the group strengthen their resolve. Going into this, frankly, he expected the worst. He knew enough details about most of these people to where he had mixed feelings on most of them. But this... was alright. He knew how Killing Games operated. He knew this could get quashed. But starting out like this, and so quickly as well, was very good. Alpha and Cathy were future problems to tackle. And like the narration had said, people like Rival, Rosalind, and Darren hadn't said much. But as long as they weren't against the group, that was all that mattered.

Ah wait, Ji-hoon was getting too wrapped up in his thoughts. Like Damien had said, now is the time to act. "Alright! We need to move!" Ji-hoon yelled out, getting everyone's attention.

"Move? Whatever could you *cough* mean?" Rosalind questioned.

"It's simple." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "For those who looked at the map on the Star-Phone, you saw that there were six doors that still need to be investigated on this floor. So I say we split into groups and investigate them all. It'd also be good to re-investigate the first four studios again, to see if anything changed. After that, we report back here to discuss. Or if we find a better place to discuss, we'll do so there. Alright?" Ji-hoon was simple and concise with his plan of action, and everyone seemed to agree. "Given our numbers... perhaps groups of three will work. There'll be a pair of two but that's fine. Alright, let's go." Ji-hoon motioned for everyone to split into groups.

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After a moment, five groups of three were formed, with two left over.

Ji-hoon, Lake, and Adam.

Aurora, Raiha, and Bessie.

Damien, Ayaka, and Aelia.

Genjiro, Joji, and Kei.

and lastly, Yoshino, Rosalind, and Kuroko.

And that left Rival and Darren as a pair.

"I heard there was alcohol in the Comedy Studio, so I'll be going there." Darren actually got up and left the theater, only with a simple wave back to the rest of the group.

Whoops, I guess Rival is alone now.

"That Darren... such a bother." Damien shook his head.

Ji-hoon stared at Rival. Rival didn't seem to care, but he also didn't want Rival to be operating alone. "Ah!" Ji-hoon got an idea. "Rival. Darren might be an apathetic mess, but we can trust him to not make trouble. So could I ask you to find Alpha and Cathy?" Ji-hoon gave him the job of antagonist-wrangling.

Rival rolled his eyes. "Seriously...? Does it have to be me?" Rival clearly wasn't very pleased about his assigned role.

"Yes." And that was all Ji-hoon said in response.

Rival rolled his eyes for a second time. "I'm not getting out of this... am I?"

"No." And Ji-hoon gave another one word response.

For a third time in a row, Rival rolled his eyes. "Fine... I'll go." He turned and started walking out. "Don't know how I'm supposed to catch a damn cat burglar..." He whispered that last part as he left the theater.

"Alright, Rival has left, so let's not be too far behind him." Ji-hoon went back to commanding the rest of the group. "Adam, Lake, and I will re-investigate the Horror and Comedy studios. And..." He looked over the former groups. "Let's have Genjiro, Joji, and Kei re-investigate the Action and Mystery studios."

Genjiro and Joji gave firm nods. "Fuck yeah! Leave it to the boys!" Genjiro flexed before grabbed the arms of the other two in his group. "Let's go!" Genjiro started running out of the theater, Joji and Kei in tow. Joji was smiling, but Kei looked a little... apprehensive. He knew defying a fierce force like Genjiro was foolish but... well, he'll just deal with whatever he sees in there.

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"They're gone, so let's all be gone too. Choose a room to investigate, see if there are any escape routes or possibilities, then we'll meet up to discuss. C'mon!" Ji-hoon started mobilizing out of the theater, and the rest of the group joined him.

Yeah, they can do this. They'll investigate, and they'll find a way out! Easy!

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Right?

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Pheme calmly watched as the stars all left the theater with vigor. "Well then! I'm a little offended they forgot my presence, but that was rather entertaining to witness! Oh, how glad I am that they possess a resolve like that in their hearts!" Pheme stood up. "Now... let's see how they do." Pheme held a finger up in front of her mask, and giggled.

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[Grand Lobby]

It was a big crowd of people that went into the lobby, but it dispersed quickly as people were actually coordinated enough to move in their groups.

Directly after exiting the doors, the groups were faced with the two hallways on each side of the reception desk that still needed to be explored. After a brief discussion, the groups split off and went to explore these rooms.

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The group of Aurora, Raiha and Bessie went down the right hallway, and decided on strangely appealing door to explore together. The door was purple, and it had a wide variety of random objects on it, as well as a high tech phone in the center of the door. They all looked at it rather quizzically. "What... is this room~? I can't get a vibe from it..." Bessie ran her hand down the door.

"Well open it and find out!" And cue the Pheme jump scare.

She popped up from behind the girls, scaring Raiha and Aurora. "Goodness! You gave me a scare!" Aurora put her hand over her heart

"Like seriously? Calm yourself G." Raiha told off Pheme.

Bessie didn't seem to care about being scared. In fact, she smiled. "That sounds good to me~!" Without a care in the world, Bessie opened it up and went inside.

"I never wouldn't expected the Bessie B. Blossom to be so... reckless? Is that the correct word?" Aurora looked at Raiha.

Raiha chuckled. "Yeah, that's definitely a word for her, heh. She's kinda legit though. She's a real one." Raiha stretched her arms. "C'mon Aurora, let's not leave Bessie B. waiting!" Raiha joined Bessie inside of the room.

Aurora just smiled and shook her head, then went to join the girls as well.

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[Ultimate Trendsetter's Studio]

"O...

M...

G!" Raiha squealed with happiness.

Clearly, Raiha was excited about this room.

As the girls walked in, the room immediately gave off phone store energy. The whole room was a sort of platinum-white color, with screens lining the walls. It had a platinum-white tiled floor, and a light blue smooth ceiling.

Lining the left and right walls were various silver podiums holding a truly random assortment of items. But because all three girls were relatively experienced in modern-trends, they were able to recognize some of the items.

There weren't podiums in the back of the room, rather there were silver clothing racks. Filled to the brim with trendy and flashy clothes. But there were some fairly ugly and gross clothes in there too.

There were also podiums in the middle of the room as well. In the middle podiums, there were a variety of exclusively phones. Different models, brands, everything. Some extremely fancy, but some old and cheap.

Raiha had the biggest smile on her face. "This is soooooooooo it! This room ate and left no crumbs!" Raiha ran around the room, looking at and investigating every little thing.

Aurora and Bessie stood back while Raiha had fun investigating this room. Aurora had a baffled look on her face. "While I'm glad that Raiha is happy... I'm still a bit confused on what this room is." Aurora tilted her head.

Bessie's face had her usual emotionless look. "I mean... it is kind of cool! I get why Raiha is excited~!" Bessie glanced around the room.

"I'll give you that, it is indeed fairly cool. But... what even is this?" Aurora was still confused.

"Well you luckily have me to answer your questions!" Cue the second Pheme jump scare.

Bessie turned around like normal, but Aurora jumped back once again in fright. "Oh my!" Aurora put her hand on her heart. "Could you please... not scare me like that?" She said with a strained breath.

Pheme giggled. "Oh, please forgive me Ms. Beaufort! I didn't mean to scare you!" Pheme gave a curtsy of forgiveness, but Aurora wasn't sure just how much she trusted it.

Aurora took a few deep breaths before responding. "It's... alright." Aurora tried her best to put on a smile. "But since you're here... would you care to explain what this room is? Or what it's for?" Aurora gestured over the room while Raiha still ran around it.

"Ah, you mean an Ultimate Studio?" Pheme raised her eyebrow.

"An Ultimate Studio?" Aurora blinked. "What is that?"

"I'll happily explain it to you!" Pheme booped Aurora's nose with her finger. Aurora jumped back again, but out of a different type of fear this time. Pheme started explaining regardless. "Throughout the entirety of this studio, there are nineteen special Ultimate Studios! Each are tailor-made for a specific one of you! For example, this studio is the Ultimate Trendsetter's Studio, in case that wasn't clear. This room was made exclusively for Ms. Miyahara!" Pheme gestured over the entire room. "Think of it as a place to relax and unwind, while being in the presence of things you enjoy! Well, for Ms. Miyahara that is!" Pheme laughed. "Some Ultimate Studios are locked up on higher floors. So...

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you better hope you live long to reach yours." Pheme's eyes got a scarily cold look in them. But they quickly turned back into their usual whimsical look. "Anyway, Ms. Beaufort and Ms. Blossom, I'm afraid I must depart! There is another Ultimate Studio on this floor, and I must give this explanation to the group exploring that one! See, I, like any sane person would do, have more than just one Ultimate room in my first chapter! I mean, imagine only having one?"

Aurora and Bessie gave Pheme confused looks at what she had said. Pheme coughed. "S-So I take my leave here! Ta-ta!" Pheme waved goodbye as she sauntered out of the room.

It took a moment for Bessie and Aurora to comprehend what Pheme had told them.

"So, an Ultimate Studio huh~? Sounds exciting! I can't wait to find mine!" Bessie started walking over to some of the podiums in the middle. "I especially want mine to be as neat as this one is~!" Bessie casually picked up one of the phones on the podium and looked it over. She wasn't the biggest phone person. But even she could admire this hardware. It was a pretty fancy one, and the one she was holding was apparently a ZPhone 25. It was colored purple. Huh, she hadn't heard of that model.

"While I like your enthusiasm Bessie, I believe we shouldn't look forward to finding our own Ultimate Studios. We don't want to stick around here for that long remember?" Aurora gave Bessie a look as she also walked up to a podium in the middle of the room. Compared to Bessie's the one Aurora walked up to was a lot... older. In fact... wait.

Aurora picked up what was lying on the podium. "Wait, is this even a phone at all?" Aurora eyed what she was holding closely. It appeared to be a phone at first glance, but it reality, it was just thin brick with a good paint job. It was painted purple, with white paint on it to represent the screen. "That's rather baffling. What could this mean?" Aurora was confused.

"Oh wow! I have no idea!" Bessie was confused too as she went over to Aurora's podium. "Let's ask Raiha about it yeah~? It's her own room after all!" Bessie started walking towards Raiha. Well, I say walking forward, but in reality, she just went a stood behind Raiha creepily until the trendsetter was going to notice her there. Raiha was seemingly deeply enamored with something she was looking at.

"That's a wonderful idea Bessie." Aurora grabbed the weird brick and went after Bessie. It didn't take long for her to catch up, but she immediately got confused by what she was doing. So much so that she didn't even alert Raiha.

When Raiha was finally done looking at whatever object had caught her interest, she turned around, and was immediately met with Bessie's unblinking face.

In what was like a scene out of a comedy movie, it took a few seconds for Raiha to actually react. "Ah!" But she did finally react, jumping back into the podium behind her, and causing what was on it to fall off. "GD Bessie B.! I felt my heart skip a beat!" Raiha took a few deep breaths to calm down. "Why are we even getting scared in here anyway? That's high key so weird." Raiha regained her composure. "So, you need something Besties?" Raiha asked.

"Yes we do need something. Bessie and I were curious about this object in here. Do you know anything about it?" Aurora smiled and pulled out the brick she had found.

"Oh! That's what you're wondering about? Well lemme be honest, IDK about that." She pointed at the brick. "Yeah, my Ultimate Studio has a lot of sick stuff... but also some weird stuff? Like I know most of these from past trends I've promoted and stuff you know? But there's like... random stuff in here too. Look!" Raiha pointed to a few specific podiums.

Aurora and Bessie quickly realized that Raiha had a point. There were some fairly recognizable trends in here. One of the phones on display was open to and was playing videos from the app TokTik, an incredibly popular app. Other phones were open to videos showcasing things like gender reveal parties, fake news, people doing charitable things for attention, and more things like that. All modern and trendy things.

Then there were earbuds, printers, computers, all sorts of modern tech on the podiums lining the walls as well. Things Raiha had promoted in the past they assumed. But mixed in with everything... were some really strange and random things.

Bags of dirt, piles of strings, more bricks, a door handle, and more. "I get what you mean then Raiha. But that's awfully strange. What's the point in having such random non-trendy objects in your Ultimate Studio?" Aurora questioned as she examined the brick she was holding.

"Like I know? Pheme just messing with me IG. I'm not gonna think too hard about it." Raiha turned around and picked up what had fallen to the floor due to her earlier scare. "There are still some pretty slay things in here at least."

"Oh yeah! What were you looking at Raiha? Let us see~!" Bessie rushed to look over Raiha's shoulder to see what had caught her attention earlier.

"Oh... you want to know what it is Bessie B.? That's so like you. Well look at it!" Raiha turned back around to show what he caught her attention to Bessie and Aurora.

The two girls weren't sure what they were expecting to see, but they sure weren't expecting to see a crowbar. "Um... I'm afraid don't get it." Aurora tilted her head.

"Oh wow, cool! That's so neat!" But Bessie apparently didn't have any problems with it.

"Oh, do you not know about it Aurora? Lemme tell you the tea then." Raiha set the crowbar back down on the podium. "The crowbar trend was something that started like... a month ago? It was kinda weird but kinda chill?" Raiha shifted her eyes to the side as she started explaining the story about this trend. "So you'd get a crowbar, and basically break into someone's house! Well it could be an apartment too, it just had to be like, wherever someone lived IG. Anyway, once you do, you'd leave behind a bunch of money, gifts, and other gucci things. You'd set up a hidden camera, then you'd dip and wait to see the persons reaction to it." Raiha smiled. "It was v cool. Kinda like a feel good trend you know?"

"Oh wow, how interesting~! I want to see a video of that! Are there any in here?" Bessie clearly liked the idea of the trend.

"Nah, sorry Bessie B.! I haven't seen a vid of anyone doing it in here. Not even the time I did it too. So ridic." Raiha crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "I think we could watch videos in here if we wanted to... but whatevs."

"Ah darn!" Bessie lightly stomped her foot on the ground.

Raiha and Bessie may have been having a causal conversation about this, but Aurora was more than a little baffled over this trend. "Forgive me Raiha, but is that not a crime? That is breaking and entering, even if you give the person gifts in the end." Aurora questioned the trend.

Raiha gave Aurora a confused look, like the starlet had just asked a stupid question. "What? Nahhhh Aurora you're just tripping. AFAIK, no one was ever prosecuted or whatever for it, so no harm done right? It's fallen out of style anyway, so it's kinda last season now. It's not like anyone actually does it anymore." Raiha shrugged.

"That doesn't really-" Aurora was going to continue debating Raiha on this, but she knew that there'd be no real point in doing so. "Well... alright. I suppose it doesn't matter at present." Aurora looked around the room once more. "Say, I don't mean to rush you at all Raiha, but do you figure we've seen everything there is to see in here?"

Raiha frowned and looked around one more time. "I mean... yeah..." Raiha sighed like a teenager who wasn't getting their way. "We didn't find a way to escape in here or anything, but the room was still pretty chic!" Raiha smiled again. "Yeah, this wasn't bad!"

"And while we aren't planning on staying trapped in this entire studio for long, just know that you could come back here anytime you want." Aurora reminded Raiha.

"You're so right for that Aurora. That's facts." Raiha nodded. "Okay, we can head out now. We good girls?" Raiha looked at the girls, and they both nodded. "Alright, bet. Let's go!" They all started walking out of the room, but Bessie stopped the other two girls before they got too far.

"Hey, girls? I want to say something real quick~!" Her face didn't show it, but Bessie seemed a little serious. Raiha and Aurora turned around, and stayed quiet for Bessie so she could continue. "I just want to say... that this was so fun~! I love hanging out with you guys~!" Bessie out her left hand on Aurora's shoulder, and put her right on Raiha's shoulder. "Both of you... are my besties~!"

Aurora and Raiha both let out a few surprised chuckles, but they both smiled. "Awww, you're so sweet Bessie. I agree, we... are friends, aren't we?" Aurora smiled.

"Totally! We'll always be besties!" Raiha shared in her sentiments. Bessie still wasn't smiling, but both Aurora and Raiha could tell that she was smiling on the inside. At least, they thought she was.

"Awesome guys~!" Bessie seemed excited, but her general... vibe changed rather quickly. Bessie twitched her head. "We... all of us... are the same." Bessie lost any sort of hint of happiness she might've had when she was announcing her friendship with the girls. "Yes... us girls... we all... are the same."

Aurora and Raiha got confused looks on their faces after what Bessie had said. They weren't sure on how to reply to that. They staying silent for a moment. But Raiha was getting sick of that silence. "Oh Bessie B., you're so iconic! You're so quirky!" Raiha brushed that previous comment off in attempt to continue the conversation. "You're awesome Bessie B.! But yeah, we should head out now." She moved away from Bessie's hand. "Let's go yeah?" Raiha started walking towards the door.

As if Raiha's words broke them out of a trance, Aurora's eyes widened. "Ah yes. I don't mean to be rude Bessie, but we should go. We don't want to leave the others waiting right?" Aurora started moving to leave too.

Bessie stated unblinkingly at the girls for a moment before responding. "Yeah... yeah, you're right~! Shall we head off then?" Bessie brushed in front of the girls and left the room at a remarkable speed.

The remaining two blinked as they witnessed Bessie leave. "Man, Bessie B. is soooo crazy huh?" Raiha said to no one as she left as well.

Aurora shook her head and smiled as she became the last one in the room. She hadn't expected to have become friends with the Riactionista and the Bessie B. Blossom. But she didn't mind it. It was a nice feeling.

As Aurora went to join her new friends on leaving, she thought to herself. Pheme had mentioned another Ultimate Studio on this floor right? She wondered how they were getting along...

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...

[Ultimate Hypnotist's Studio]

As the group of Kuroko, Yoshino, and Rosalind walked into the room, they stared in awe at what they had found.

Immediately, the black and white color scheme stood out to them. The room itself was a rectangle shape, with the entrance being in the middle on the long side. The walls were a smooth white, the ceiling was a dark black, and the floor had a diagonally striped black and white design.

There were a variety of paintings and posters on the walls, and at the far left side of the room, there were two black leather seats. One was clearly more for a patient, and one for a therapist. So... hypnotherapy?

Then on the far right of the room, there were a variety of drawers and cabinets. There was a black spiral binder lying on top of the drawers, and there was a portrait of someone on the walls above the drawers but below the cabinets. Lastly, there was a simple table with four chairs in the center of the room.

"Wow-nya..." Kuroko, like the narration said earlier, was in awe.

"Well damn Roko!" Yoshino slapped Kuroko on the back. "Looks like this room was made for you huh?"

"Indeed *cough*. This room has quite the *cough* aura to it." Rosalind started slowly walking around it.

It wasn't the biggest room in the world, but Kuroko didn't mind. It was just... a nice hypnotherapy room. "This isn't the exact design of a room that I have in my clinic, but this is still cool-nya!" Kuroko sauntered over to the table in the middle of the room. "So... what exactly is this-nya?" But Kuroko still wasn't sure what this room even was.

"Ah, I shall explain it to you!" Pheme entered the room rather calmly. And nobody got scared this time!

Rosalind eyed the Goddess of Fame as she entered. "Hm? What do you *cough* want of us?"

Pheme put up hands on her chest, seeming shocked. "I'm offended that you're so suspicious of me! I merely wanted to explain this room for you!" Rosalind still didn't believe her motives in the slightest, but she backed off and allowed her to speak.

Kuroko crossed her arms at Pheme's presence. "Alright-nya? So what's this room about-nya?" Kuroko wasn't playing around, she just wanted an answer.

Pheme merely giggled at the girls' serious reactions to her presence. "Ms. Reinhardt, Ms, Akiyama, and Ms. Kurobara! All of you could stand to loosen up a little. You're in a fun and whimsical room, and you should act like it!" Pheme half-lectured the girls.

"Get on with whatever you want to say and get out of here! We don't want to waste time with you!" Yoshino clearly wasn't happy with Pheme's presence here.

Pheme crossed her arms and pouted. She didn't like being treated like this, but she supposed she just had to deal with it. The stars will warm up to her eventually! "If you all want me to explain so badly, then I will! What I came in here to say was that this is an Ultimate Studio! Borrowing from what I said to the other group, throughout the entirety of this studio, there are nineteen special Ultimate Studios! Each are tailor-made for a specific one of you! This one is for Ms. Kurobara! It's a hypnotherapy room outfitted with all of the supplies a hypnotist could need! In the drawers anyway!" Pheme finished her explanation.

Yoshino and Rosalind still weren't exactly happy about Pheme being here, but her explanation had caught Kuroko's interest. "Oh-nya? That's exciting-nya! To be given the opportunity to have the perfect space to send a beautiful girl into trance-nya... I won't waste it-nya!" Kuroko started exploring her studio more.

"Hey Roko, wait up!" Yoshino started speed walking after Kuroko as she went away, eager to ignore Pheme.

So that left Rosalind and Pheme awkwardly standing with each other. Well they only stood with each other for a moment, because Rosalind sat down in one of the chairs in the center of the room. Pheme stayed standing as she looked down at Rosalind with a smirk. "Do you have something to say to me Ms. Reinhardt?" Pheme raised an eyebrow.

Rosalind gave Pheme a sharp glare for only a moment before her face relaxed. "I can't imagine why you'd think that, especially from someone as *cough* unpleasant as myself. Heh." Rosalind let out a dry laugh.

Pheme sighed and shook her head. "I truly wish you wouldn't speak about yourself like that Ms. Reinhardt. It adds more intrigue to your character, but still..." Pheme had a weirdly concerned look on her face.

"Heh. I don't need pity from one such as *cough* you." Rosalind looked away. "But wait... if you're going to be sticking around here for a moment... answer me a question will you?" Rosalind stayed looking away.

Pheme seemed to light up after Rosalind said that. "Oh? A question? Of course! Ask away!" Pheme got visibly excited.

It took a few moments for Rosalind to start speaking. "This place you have us all *cough* trapped in. This is Asher J.'s Movie and Media Studio correct?" Rosalind turned to look at Pheme directly in the face as she asked that question.

Pheme's excited face turned into something a bit more... annoyed. "...That's an interesting question Ms. Reinhardt. Why do you ask?" Pheme narrowed her eyes.

Rosalind narrowed her eyes as well. She wasn't sure how she expected Pheme to react to her question, but she hadn't expectedly quite blatant annoyance. "Well I ask my question because I've been here before. I just found it *cough* peculiar that you chose this place of all places to host your ridiculous game..." Rosalind started thinking. To her, this place was just another movie studio. Nothing much to it. So why were they here? And to play a death game? She didn't even...

Ugh. She was getting too far into her head, and Pheme was just staring at her. She needed to stop. There was no point thinking about it anyway. "I mean, I could think of a lot better places to kill someone like me." Rosalind continued.

Pheme seemed simultaneously confused and frustrated by Rosalind. "You... are quite fascinating Ms. Reinhardt. I of course read about you, but actually interacting with you is a different story!"

Wait. Pheme's read about her? "Oh? I hadn't expected you to have read about me... it must've been pretty depressing. Is that where you *cough* learned my personal details?"

Pheme blinked when she realized what she had said. "That's a good question!" Was how Pheme responded. Rosalind frowned. She might've only known Pheme for a short amount of time, but she felt like she should've known better than to have actually expected her to answer her question.

Rosalind sighed and sunk a bit further down into the chair. She kept holding onto her parasol for support. "Pheme, if you don't have any intentions of answering my questions, I'd like to ask you go somewhere else." Rosalind glanced away from her.

"Oh? Do you not enjoy my company Ms. Reinhardt?" Pheme legitimately asked.

And to answer that, Rosalind gave a simple answer of "No I don't." Rosalind was not facing completely away from her. She should've known it'd be a waste of time.

Sensing the futility of continuing this conversation, Pheme turned around. "I understand Ms. Reinhardt. I'll leave you be for now! Give my regards to Ms. Akiyama and Ms. Kurobara will you? They seem a bit too occupied with the Ultimate Studio to see me off!" Pheme left without another word. Rosalind hated listening to Pheme's faux positivity. But now that she had left, Rosalind closed her eyes. Not necessarily to drift off, but just to... not be here right now. She didn't hate Ji-hoon's leadership or splitting off into groups or anything, but she, well, had complicated feelings on it...

Rosalind closed her eyes as she stayed sat.

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"Yo Rosa, you alright?" Well, that was short-lived. Yoshino came wandering over to Rosalind.

Rosalind slowly opened her eyes. "Hm? Do you need something of me?" Rosalind didn't want anyone bothering her right now, but Yoshino unfortunately seemed like one of the more aggressive members of the group.

"Well yeah I need something of you! Roko and I are looking around, and we want you with us. No point in just sitting on your ass all the time right?" Yoshino half-smiled as she forcibly extended a hand to help Rosalind up.

"I certainly can see a point in, how you say, "sitting on your ass all the time". If I were to do that, that'd mean you two girls wouldn't have to be *cough* subjected to me." Rosalind sat up in her chair.

Yoshino had a part shocked and part annoyed look on her face. "Nah, I ain't letting you talk like that! C'mon, up you get, let's do this together-"

Yoshino attempted to reach for Rosalind's hand, but Rosalind swatted her away. "I don't need your help or assistance. Just... I'm fine. Don't worry so much about me." Rosalind looked away.

Yoshino didn't really have anger issues like Joji did, but Rosalind's attitude was starting to piss her off a little. But she held herself back, as there was no point in getting rude or aggressive. "Listen Rosa-" Yoshino was going to kindly give her a piece of her mind, but she got cut off by Kuroko.

"Heya! Rosalind-nya! I want you to look at this-nya!" Kuroko called Rosalind over to where she was.

Upon hearing her, Yoshino smirked. "Sorry Rosa, it looks like Roko needs you! So c'mon, let's just go. It's not a far walk to the other side of the room now is it?" Yoshino stepped back a little, giving Rosalind room to stand up on her own.

Rosalind didn't move at first. Unluckily for her, she wasn't the Darren type of apathetic, so she begrudgingly and slowly stood up. "Let's see what Kuroko needs of me then yes?" Rosalind wanted to get this over with, so she, along with Yoshino started going over to Kuroko.

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"Hey Rosalind-nya! There's something I really want to show you-nya!" Kuroko wasted no time when she saw Rosalind approaching her.

"Oh yes? What is it?" Rosalind seemed rather bored and annoyed, but her feelings changed quick when she what Kuroko was referring too.

"So a part of this wall was a little loose, so I pulled part of it off-nya! And look at what was behind it-nya!" A portion of the walk underneath that strange portrait was now open, revealing a camera.

Rosalind's eyes widened a little at the sight. "Hm. Well perhaps me coming over here wasn't a waste of time after all..." Rosalind started trying to examine this camera that was stuck in the wall, but it was easier said than done.

Yoshino looked impressed. "Good find Roko!" She patted Kuroko on the back. Yoshino could notice Kuroko blushing. She also swore she heard Kuroko... purr? No, surely not. She figured she made that up.

Anyway, Kuroko smiled at the praised. "Thank you Yoshi-nya!" Kuroko turned and bowed her head at the horror novelist. She then attempted to peek over Rosalind's shoulder as she examined the mysterious camera. "Rosalind-nya? Have you found out anything?" Kuroko was extremely curious.

Rosalind was about to tell her to not rush her, but she had actually already found something out. "Well... I can't see the model or brand of this... but I can say one thing for sure." Rosalind nodded. "This camera embedded in the wall, it's used for *cough* filming. Without a doubt." Rosalind turned around to the two girls.

Both Kuroko and Yoshino's faces got filled with intrigue. "Oh wow... wait-nya! We're already trapped in a death game, why are they filming us too-nya?" Kuroko got concerned and covered the camera back up for now.

"Yeah, forget being scared of death, that's a different type of creepy!" Yoshino subtly stepped out of view of the camera.

Rosalind sighed. "I wouldn't worry about that. The camera is off anyways." Rosalind started to hobble away, not caring for any potential responses from the other two girls.

"Rosalind, where are you going-nya?" Kuroko tried to reach out for her, but Yoshino stopped her.

"Nah, it ain't worth it Roko. Rosa... I don't know what it is about her, but let's leave her alone." Truthfully, Yoshino still really didn't like Rosalind's attitude. But it clearly came from a dark place. And Yoshino had no right to pry into that. Not right now at least. But anyway, they still had a little more to explore. "Alright Roko. Let's explore a bit more yeah?"

Kuroko was confused. She felt like she missed important context or a conversation between Yoshino and Rosalind. She wanted to know, but she could always ask later. When they've escaped of course! "Okay Yoshi-nya! Sounds good-nya!" Kuroko turned back around to the myriad of drawers and cabinets. They've explored most of these by now, and they were filled with a variety of hypnotism supplies, to no one's surprise. And in Kuroko's professional opinion, they were fairly high quality ones too!

And... after a little more opening drawers and cabinets, the girls had finished. Weirdly enough, there wasn't anything too shocking or weird hidden in here, mainly just hypnotherapy supplies. Admittedly, Yoshino kinda wanted to see something spicy or exciting in here, but when she saw Kuroko was clearly happy about all of this, that was enough for her.

Yoshino was about to get ready to leave the place, but she spotted one last thing. The narration had mentioned it earlier, but that characters hadn't seen it yet. "Hey Roko? What's the deal with that black spiral binder?" Yoshino pointed to the aforementioned object that was tucked way in the corner.

"Hmm-nya... That's a good question-nya!" Kuroko eyed the binder as she approached it and slowly opened it. Upon realizing what it was, Kuroko's eyes immediately widened. At lightning speed, she closed the binder and shoved in one of the drawers filled with supplies. The drawer had a lock too, so she locked it. "Ohhh... it was nothing-nya! Nothing at all-nya!" Kuroko let out a nervous laugh.

Yoshino just stared for a few seconds. She hadn't expected Kuroko to react to that like that. Yoshino debated asking her about it. But maybe Rosalind or Darren was rubbing off on her, because she figured it'd be better to save it for later. "Uh... alright. Sure Roko." Yoshino said awkwardly as she started to walk to the exit. She didn't expect both Rosalind and Kuroko to have secrets like this. She wondered if the men here kept as many secrets as they did...

Eh, yeah, they probably did.

Anyway, enough of Yoshino's inner machinations. "Alright Rosa, Roko, you two ready to go? We should report back to Ji-hoon and them." She stopped and looked behind her when she reached the door. Rosalind gave a slow nod as she started standing up, and Kuroko was giving the lock on the drawer one last check before running over to them.

"Alright, let's go-nya! I don't like leaving this room so quick, but it's okay-nya! C'mon-nya!" Kuroko left the room first.

Rosalind slowly followed her out, saying nothing.

Once the two of them had left, Yoshino sighed. Were all Ultimates so strange?

Eh, yeah, they probably were.

Not wanting to fall behind, Yoshino hurried after the two girls. On the flip side of that, she kind of wondered how Genjiro and his team of boys were doing...

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[Action Studio]

Kei didn't get why Genjiro was so enthused to go and re-explore the studios, but he figured it was better that he wanted to compared to him not wanting to. Barely managing to keep up with the taller and stronger men, the boys made it to the Action Studio. Kei tried to remember what Ayaka and Damien had said about the studio.

"I-it was a b-big city. The studio was, I mean. It looked like a carbon copy of Tokyo, t-though now I know that it was just a fake." Ayaka added.

"Quite right dear Ayaka! And our group ended up being chased out of the studio by what looked like Godzilla. But we were not afraid, and we left the studio quite quickly." Damien ran his hand through his hair then shook his head with a smile.

First, Ayaka was definitely right. Kei could tell he was sharing in the thoughts of the other two as they started walking around. This definitely was a carbon copy of Tokyo. "Ain't that something huh? Pheme really did her homework didn't she?" Kei looked the whole scene over.

"Yeah, this is so impressive, it borders on creepy." Joji added. "I haven't been to Tokyo much, but yeah, this is definitely it." Joji crossed his arms.

But while Kei and Joji were examining everything, Genjiro was slowly getting confused. "Ok. So I know I rushed in here all hyped to get some shit done yeah? But what can we even find in this place? There fucking nothing to see here. No Godzilla, no nothing!" Genjiro stomped his foot down on the ground.

Kei and Joji thought to themselves. Genjiro was kind of right. There was nothing to see here. It was just a long highway. Nothing else at all. "And I know I could, but fuck no am I running down this whole damn thing! Waste of fucking time!" Genjiro added with another stomp.

Kei squinted his eyes. "Yeah... alright. You have a point Genjiro, for once. What do you think Joji!" He turned to the carpenter.

Joji scratched his head. "I guess so? Probably nothing to do here?" Joji guessed.

"That's all I needed to hear! Let's get the fuck out of here!" And Genjiro barreled out of the studio. Kei and Joji widened their eyes in surprise at the speed.

"Damn, you can't underestimate that guy can you? Ha!" Joji laughed. "I won't let him beat me though!" Joji ran after him.

Kei let out a quiet sigh. He didn't understand how these two could be so casual here. Well, it beats acting like how Alpha and Cathy did, he supposed. "Heh, guess I can't let those big boys beat me huh?" Despite what he said, Kei just walked out of the studio at a casual pace. In fact, he was walking as slow as he reasonably could. Because what was next was...

[Mystery Studio - Entryway]

When Kei reached the Mystery Studio, he found the door wide open. Likely due to Genjiro and Joji. Kei took a deep breath, and walked in. He tried to think back on what Ji-hoon had said about it.

"The studio was this rundown, dirty, and rotting apartment. I'm still not sure what the apartment setting had to do with "mystery." But I know why it was called the "Mystery Studio." It was because..." Ji-hoon trailed off. The other three members of his group knew exactly what he was preparing to say.

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"It was because... there was a dead body in there. And we had to solve the mystery of who killed them."

Kei shivered. So that was what they were in for huh? He mentally braced himself as he took a few more steps into the place. The smell of the whole place definitely hit him, Ji-hook certainly wasn't exaggerating when he said it was rotting.

But Kei tried to ignore the smell and examine the place more. He looked to be in an entryway of an apartment. There were boxes of who knows what lying around. Behind him, there was a QWERTY keyboard and a screen with five dashes above it. "Huh, guess Aelia used this for her answer... oh." Wait, what did Aelia say to answer this again?

"Like Rival said, Aelia was the one who figured it out. The answer was "Nobody". A trick answer for a trick question I suppose."

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Huh. Kei made a mental note of that. He had to admit, he was curious on how she could fit a six-letter word into five spaces. He'd ask Aelia about that later at their meet up.

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Besides for those, there wasn't much of interest in the entryway. Kei moved on into the kitchen next. And... also nothing. Kinda just like what Ji-hoon said, just destroyed furniture, rot, and a gross smell. And Kei wasn't about to dig through all of this. Maybe Genjiro would later. Kei chuckled at the thought of someone like Genjiro demolishing a place like this. But he certainly wouldn't actually do that. Right?

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[Mystery Studio - Living Room]

After Kei braced himself and moved into the living room, he found his previous thought betrayed a lot faster than he had thought. What he had walked in on, was Genjiro absolutely tearing the room apart and Joji looking through the wreckage.

Kei stood there with his mouth slightly agape at the sight. What... were they doing? "Hey... what are you guys doing?" Kei decided to ask the duo.

The duo looked surprised at Kei's presence, like they forgot that he was technically supposed to be here. "Yo Kei!" Genjiro stopped what he was doing. So you know how Ji-hoon said there was a dead body here or some shit? Well there isn't one now!" Genjiro announced.

Joji nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he's right. Ji-hoon mentioned it being in the living room, but there's nothing here now!"

Kei tried to hold it in, but he let out a deep sigh of relief. "Oh yeah?" Kei smirked. "Thank god..." He muttered.

Kei's muttering wasn't enough to hide his comment from the ears of Genjiro. "Huh? You said thank god? Sounds like you're glad we didn't find anything here?" Genjiro raised an eyebrow at Kei.

Kei blinked in surprise. He didn't think he said that loud enough for someone to hear. "Eh, wouldn't say that. I mean, who actually wants to see a dead body." Kei leaned back against a wall, hoping his excuse would work.

Joji crossed his arms. "Well I guess so. Can't even imagine what it's like..." Joji thought to himself.

It worked on Joji, and... "Ehh, I don't think so. You two are wimps if you can't handle looking at a simple fucking body! Ha ha!" and it seemingly worked on Genjiro too as he started poking fun at the other two guys.

Kei shook his head, eager to move on from the topic. "Anyway you two, why were you moving stuff around in here?" Genjiro hadn't really been destroying the room or anything, just really displacing the furniture.

Genjiro's eyes widened, like he only just then remembered what he was doing. "Oh shit, you're right!" Genjiro looked at his damage for moment, then back to Kei. "Well we thought, what if that body or whatever was hidden in here somewhere right? So Joji and me started moving shit around in here. Just in case yeah?" Genjiro shrugged.

Kei noticed Joji staring off into space for a moment. "Hey Genjiro..." Joji started talking. "This idea sounded good at first. But, how big even is the body we were supposed to be looking for? Would it even be hidden under the couch or something?"

Genjiro took a stance like he was going to refute him, but he stopped. "Huh." He went silent.

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"You know what? There's clearly nothing here! Let's get the fuck out of here!" Genjiro tried to urge the other two out, in attempt to brush his strange idea under the rug. Kei and Joji shared a shrug as they followed after him. The boys walked towards the exit in silence.

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But wait! Kei had one more thing to say. "So I get that there wasn't much here besides for the body disappearing... but shouldn't you move things back around in the living room? Ji-hoon seems like the type to be annoyed by that." He told the other two.

But Genjiro laughed and brushed it off. "Ha ha! Like I'd listen to what that chump says! I went here because I wanted to! Not because he ordered me or some shit! So if he's gonna be a neat freak, let him be!" Genjiro stomped his foot. "Now c'mon, let's finally get out of here! Back to the theater yeah?" Genjiro barged out of the Mystery Studio.

Kei and Joji shared another shrug. But Joji also chuckled a little this time. "You know, I feel like Genjiro should piss me off a bit, but it's kind of hard for me to hate him. He has spirit to say the least." Joji stared at the wide open door.

Now Kei chuckled. "You have a point there. Oh man oh man." Kei shook his head. "Alright, like he said, let's head out. We gotta report to Ji-hoon I guess." Kei sauntered out after Genjiro.

Joji stayed back for a moment. Man... he was glad that there were some good people here. Alpha and Cathy were their own case... but he was just grateful for some of these people. Even if they're a little shielded like Kei or Genjiro. He thinks they're good people anyway.

But ah, what was he doing? He needed to go! Joji ran out after his group, hoping that Ji-hoon wasn't already waiting for them...

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[Horror Studio]

Ji-hoon was in fact not waiting for them just yet! He, Lake, and Adam, were re-exploring the Horror and Comedy studios. First up was the Horror Studio. And... things were already vastly different from what Genjiro had said.

"And you should've seen the way Yoshi was screaming about in the dark! Shit was fucking hilarious!-"

He mentioned that the whole studio was shrouded in darkness, but now, it was completely bright. Adam had to shield his eyes. "O-oh man... that's a b-bright sun. It's obviously fake though!" All of them needed a second to get used to the light in here.

Like Adam had said, there was a fake sun up in the fake sky of the studio, provided light for the entire place. It was clear that the whole place was a fake... but I'm in a strange way, it was kind of pretty. Just a sunny forest. "This is kind of pretty. Well, despite the name of the place." And Lake shared the narration's feelings on the matter.

Ji-hoon slightly frowned. "Yeah well we aren't here to gawk. It's hard to say just how big this place is..." Ji-hoon tried to gauge how big this studio actually was. "But let's get going. Let's split this up into sections, we'll all explore them thoroughly, then we'll meet back here."

Both Lake and Adam gave eager nods. And without further delay, they all split up to explore the forest. Ji-hoon look the far left section, Lake the middle, and Adam the far right. And... well, to cut to the point, they didn't find anything at all.

All of them patted down trees, looked through leaves, investigated suspicious pils of dirt, they did everything. But nothing. They didn't find anything suspicious at all.

After what only took roughly fifteen minutes, they met back up at the entrance. "Anything?" Ji-hoon asked them. They both just slowly shook their heads. "Damn... so this room is a bust then." Ji-hoon gave the forest one last look.

"That's strange though." Lake joined him in looking at the forest. "I guess it could be hidden in the walls or something... but where did Kei and them hear that fake chainsaw?" Lake tried thinking about it, but to no avail.

"Good point." Ji-hoon slowly nodded. "I wouldn't be surprised if you were right about it being hidden in the wall. It could also be a recording, or something that was in here, but Pheme took it out. Considering how dark this place allegedly was, it's likely Kei's group could've missed something. Hard to make guesses about it though, so let's not waste time on it." Ji-hoon crossed his arms.

"Right..." Lake muttered, sounding a little defeated. "It would've been nice to solve some mysteries here, but I guess not." Lake looked up at Ji-hoon.

Ji-hoon didn't return their gaze. "Don't speak too soon. We still have the Comedy Studio. You were in that initial group as well Lake, so we have an advantage." He turned and looked at the door. "So let's get going there then." Ji-hoon started walking out the studio, not waiting for the other two.

It took Lake a second to realize that Ji-hoon was leaving. "Oh! Wait up Ji-hoon!" Lake went after him.

And that left Adam standing by himself. He knew they'd left, but he... thought about something. "Mm... it must b-be my imagination! There's n-no way he'd..." Adam spoke out loud. He looked around. He probably shouldn't keep the others waiting. So he started slowly walking out of the Horror Studio.

[Comedy Studio]

Luckily for Adam, he caught up with Ji-hoon and Lake right as they entered the Comedy Studio. Ji-hoon wasted no time getting down to business. "Lake. What do you think? Anything different?" He asked the ballet dancer.

Lake thought for a moment. They didn't think anything was off from when they were last in here... but they thought they couldn't sense something off. But... what? Lake started thoroughly looking around, until they found the source of the their strange feeling. They found it rather quickly as well.

"Hey." Darren was sitting casually on a bar stool at the small bar near the entrance of the studio. He was drinking from a small bottle of alcohol.

Ji-hoon rolled his eyes. "So this is where you were? Wasting time?" Ji-hoon eyed Darren, but he clearly didn't care.

"Yeah." He took another sip. Noticing that Lake and Adam were distracted, he waved Ji-hoon over to him.

Ji-hoon begrudgingly walked over to him. "What do you want? I'd rather you not waste my time too." He tapped his foot on the ground impatiently.

Darren let out a small and dry chuckle. "Want a drink?" He motioned over the selection of drinks the bar had.

"No. Are you done-" Ji-hoon was about to just brush Darren off, but now that he was thinking about it, Darren said something rather interesting. "Hold on. They have real alcohol here?" Ji-hoon raised an eyebrow.

Darren slowly nodded. "Yep. All the stuff in here is real. Trust me, I'd know." Darren took another sip. "This is Tequila. It's not bad." He took another sip. "So. You want a sip?"

"No. Not right now at least. We're in a life or death situation. Remember?" Ji-hoon couldn't believe he was humoring this guy at all.

"Oh yeah. I guess we are." And another sip went down the hatch.

Ji-hoon groaned. "This'd be a lot easier if you'd listen to me. The more we're united, the bigger chance we stand against Pheme." Ji-hoon leaned against the seat next to Darren."

Darren stared forward, not looking at anything particular. "Maybe. I never said I'm not listening to you you know." Darren sighed.

"What do you mean?" Ji-hoon asked with a frown.

Darren set down his bottle. "Don't worry about it." He got up from his seat. "Word of advice? I'd look at the other bar in here. It's pretty interesting." And Darren walked out of the studio without another word.

Ji-hoon just stared silently at him leaving. He really couldn't get a read on Darren. The Ultimate Bartender? Hm. His memories were still all out of wack, but Ji-hoon knew that he had memories of researching everyone here when they went missing. Well... besides for one person. But that person wasn't Darren. Ji-hoon barely even found anything on Darren. Just who was this guy?

Ji-hoon shook his head. He couldn't believe he let Darren distract him from his objective here. He had to get back to the task at hand here. He looked back at Lake and Adam. It looked like they were just slowly inspecting the tables and such in here. Ji-hoon went over to them. "Hey! Lake, I need to ask you something. Darren mentioned there being another bar in here? Where is it?" Ji-hoon asked, his expression unchanging.

"Oh!" Lake jumped back a little. "Sorry Ji-hoon, you scared me." Lake took a deep breath. "But the other bar you said? My group woke up in it. I should be behind the stage, as far as I can recall." Lake nodded.

Without another word, Ji-hoon walked up to the stage of this fake comedy club. "Woah! Ji-hoon!" Lake wasn't expecting him to just... go. They understood wanting to be efficient and all... but Ji-hoon's attitude was bordering on being rude. Lake sighed.

"L-Lake? Are you, um, alright?" Adam asked.

"Oh! Adam!" Lake jumped back in fright again. Seriously, why are so many people getting scared this chapter? "I'm sorry Adam, I forgot you here." Lake took another quick and deep breath.

"O-Oh, um, that's alright! Heh." Adam laughed nervously. "But a-are you fine?" Adam pushed up his glasses a little.

"Thank you for asking Adam, but yes, I'm fine. Just got a little thrown off by Ji-hoon." Lake smiled.

"Y-yeah, I guess you aren't wrong." Adam scratched the back of his head. "He feels like a good guy d-deep down, but he is, um, a little abrasive."

Lake felt bad agreeing with Adam here, but they knew he had a point. "Maybe on the surface he seems like that. But like you said, I think he's a good guy too! I mean, if he's going at it with such vigor like this, I can't help but think he must be a good person!" Lake smiled brightly.

Adam tried to return their smile. "Yeah, uh, d-definitely! Heh."

Their conversation fell to an awkward silence after that. Neither of them were sure what to say.

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"Hey Lake! What's the deal?" Well, it was silent until Ji-hoon broke that silence in half. He came back out from behind the curtain that should've hidden away the initial bar that Lake and friends woke up in. "Lake?" He looked right at the ballet dancer. "There's no bar back here. So what's up?"

It took a few seconds for Lake to realize what Ji-hoon had even said. "Wait... huh?" Lake, very confused at what Ji-hoon had said, sped-walked up and onto the stage, and looked behind the curtain themselves. And like Ji-hoon said, there was no bar behind the curtain. Not even a door for it either. "Huh? Huh? Huh?" Lake was baffled at the sight. They... didn't imagine it right? They remembered going through the door, going after Joji, and all of that. They knew a door was here. Where... did it go?

Ji-hoon was staring at the back of Lake's head as they patted down the wall behind the curtain of the stage. He didn't necessarily think Lake was lying. Out of anyone here, Lake would be the last person he'd expect to lie. And he believed that Joji, Bessie, and Raiha would likely be able to corroborate their testimony too. Ji-hoon put his hand on Lake's shoulder. "Don't... worry about it. Probably another one of Pheme's tricks. If we can't find it, we can't find it. It's fine." Ji-hoon was frustrated over all of this of course, but seeing Lake's distraught face kind of softened him a bit. This whole bar situation could be dealt with later.

Lake slowly turned around. "Okay. If you say so Ji-hoon. I'm sorry..." They apologized to him.

Ji-hoon shook his head. "That's not your fault. So c'mon, let's go." Ji-hoon walked off of the stage and over to the awaiting Adam. Lake quickly joined him.

"S-so-"

"You don't need to ask Adam." Ji-hoon cut him off. "There wasn't anything of note up there." Ji-hoon told him. But... if that was the case... what was up with what Darren had said?

He got up from his seat. "Word of advice? I'd look at the other bar in here. It's pretty interesting." And Darren walked out of the studio without another word.

Ji-hoon internally groaned. Darren didn't seem like an evil guy, but dealing with him was more troublesome than he would've thought.

Well, putting that out of his mind for now, Ji-hoon refused to let this be a total waste of time. "Say, Lake? I want to ask you something. May as well make our efforts worth something. You should listen in as well Adam." Ji-hoon called out, including the others of his group on this ensuing conversation.

"O-oh, uh, alright! Sounds good!" Adam took a seat.

"Yeah, what is it Ji-hoon?" Lake was a little surprised at the question, but they were determined to be useful.

"Alright." Ji-hoon started talking. "Lake. You were with Raiha and Bessie when you woke up in here yes?" Ji-hoon started pacing around a little.

Lake quickly nodded. "Yep! It was me, Joji, Raiha, and Bessie, like you already know! So why do you ask?" Lake tilted their head.

Ji-hoon kept pacing around. "I overheard from Joji that your group was sharing around your memories of directly before you were kidnapped. So I'd like to hear Raiha's and Bessie's. I'd normally ask them themselves, but they might change their story for all I know. So you're the best source here Lake." Ji-hoon abandoned his old notepad and pen and opted to take notes in the evidence app of his Star-Phone. Ji-hoon gave the ballet dancer an expectant stare.

"Uh sure! Of course I can tell you!" Lake smiled. "Let me think... first, Raiha said that she was on the Yapping Yachiho. Then...

-Anyway, I just got done with an interview with Yachiho herself! So, I was walking out of the studio on my own right? I have constant people surrounding me, so breaking away from them felt so good. That feeling absolutely slapped. Oh- well actually it probably didn't slap that much. I ended up here right?" Raiha rubbed the back of her head and let out a small giggle.

"But anyway, I wanted to flex my fit while I walked out of the studio. But I didn't even get out of the studio! I heard a voice speak out to me from a door right next to the green room. I couldn't make out what it said though. I was like "can you hop off please?" Well, I didn't say that, because the door opened on its own. Inside of it... I saw bright and gleaming blue eyes staring at me. It was like, so sus? But... I walked in the door anyway. And lo and behold, I was cooked." Raiha huffed.

And that's Raiha's story." Lake slowly nodded.

Alarm bells immediately started ringing in Ji-hoon's mind. He had the slightest of smirks on his face. Why? Because Raiha's was different from Aelia's, Rival's, and Rosalind's. Fascinating. He'd keep in his remarks for now. "Thank you Lake. And Bessie's?" Ji-hoon urges them along.

Lake started thinking. "Bessie's? Hm...

"I think... it was after a show. I was living it up on stage, singing and entertaining the crowd. I was giving them the song that they needed! We all were grooving and having a good time." Bessie said all of this with a simultaneous cheery and blank tone, so it came out very oddly.

"But... it was in the middle of it. I heard... a loud noise in my ear. Like something was screeching yeah? It was all in my ears, then my brain, then my head, then my ears again, then my head again! It was the weirdest sound I've ever heard! I thought I was losing it! Like a sort of malfunction or something? But..." Bessie paused. Like she was thinking hard about what to say next, or perhaps she was fetching her memories.

"The sound got so loud! But, no one in the audience heard it? They were grooving and jamming to the beat, but my voice wasn't soothing them anymore. The sound had stopped me from singing! I looked behind me, at the curtain that was behind me. I squinted my eyes as hard as I could to see what was behind it, and what it was shielding my eyes from!" Bessie paused again.

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"Yes! I peeked through the gap, and saw a pair of bright and gleaming blue eyes staring at me! Someone was back there!" Bessie paused once more.

"They started saying things to me... things... I can't remember! But I walked back behind the curtain and..." Bessie's fourth pause.

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"Well... I can't! My memories stop there! Next thing I know, I wake up in this strange and sensational place!"

"And that's Bessie's. Did that help you at all?" Lake firmly nodded.

Oh man. Oh man oh man. Ji-hoon internally laughed to himself. Bessie's was different too. Even compared to Raiha's, Bessie's was a bit different too. Ji-hoon's mind immediately started racing with what that could potentially mean. For something like someone's memories prior to being kidnapped, he couldn't imagine he was overthinking it either. Ji-hoon typed down all of the notes he possibly could. He'd have to think about this later. He got that down, and that was his main goal. It was also why he wanted Lake to be in his group, so that he could ask them about Raiha and Bessie.

But now, he had someone else he needed to talk to. Satisfied he had gotten all of the information he needed for now, Ji-hoon turned to Lake. "Thank you Lake. You have no idea how useful this'll end up being."

Upon hearing the praise, Lake eagerly nodded and smiled. "That's great! I'm so happy I could help!" They jumped up in excitement.

Ji-hoon smiled as well, though only for a moment. "Now, I don't want it to sound like I'm kicking you out, but how about you go on ahead to the Grand Theater? Adam and I will catch up to you, don't worry." Ji-hoon's voice turned rather serious. Both Adam and Lake gave him strange stares.

Lake was going to question it... but they trusted Ji-hoon. He wouldn't tell them to do something without a reason. "Um, okay! I can do that!" Lake was still thrown off by how blunt Ji-hoon was about it, but they weren't going to let that stop them. "I'll see you later then...!" Lake said a little awkwardly as they shuffled out of the Comedy Studio.

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That left Ji-hoon, Adam, and an awkward silence left in the Comedy Studio. And Adam certainly wasn't going to break it. He was feeling all sorts of things right now. So he decided to wait for Ji-hoon to speak first.

"Adam. Tell me something." Luckily, it didn't take long for that to happen. "Earlier... you said that someone went and got you and Aurora from the infirmary. They gave you a status update on things as well. Who was it?" Ji-hoon got straight to the point, staring at Adam's lowered head.

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After a moment, Adam raised his head and answered. "I... stand by what I said earlier. Erm, well, I w-won't say who it was. They told me to keep who they were a secret a-anyway so..." Adam started trailing off when he saw Ji-hoon's face.

Ji-hoon's face instantly turned confused and a little angry at what Adam had said. "They swore you to secrecy on their identity? Why? There's no reason to do that!" Ji-hoon didn't necessarily mean for this to turn into an interrogation, but it was slowly heading in that direction.

Adam stayed silent.

Now, Ji-hoon didn't really have anger issues or anything, but... this whole thing just pissed him off. "Adam. Listen to me." His voice grew flat and serious. "I am devoted to getting us all out of here safe. Given what I do, the last thing I want is to succumb to Pheme's insane plans. I refuse to do that, and I refuse to let any of you succumb to it too. None of you will be dying on my watch. And I certainly won't be dying either. I am going to get us out safe. But to do that, you need to stop with these bullshit secrets. I don't care if that person swore you to keep their identity a secret. Tell me who it was." Ji-hoon made direct eye-contact with Adam.

Adam thought about what Ji-hoon had said for a moment. Adam made eye contact with Ji-hoon for a moment, then looked away. "I'm s-sorry Ji-hoon, b-but I won't tell you. It's n-not that important a-anyway so-"

Adam was going to continue speaking, but Ji-hoon held up his hand, signaling for him to stop. "I don't need to hear more excuses." Ji-hoon started to walk away and towards the exit. He could sense there'd be no more point in debating with Adam over this.

"Ji-hoon? W-where are you-"

Adam got cut off again. "We're leaving. We've seen everything of note haven't we?" And that was the last thing he said as he left the Comedy Studio, leaving Adam by himself.

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Adam just sat there for a couple of minutes. "Why is t-this happening to m-me... why me..." He held his head in his hands.

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After another couple of minutes, he wordlessly got up, and left after Ji-hoon and Lake. Adam sure hoped that others were having an easier time than him right now...

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[Grand Lobby]

Damien, Ayaka, and Aelia had ended up staying behind a little, so when it came time for them to choose a room to investigate, they had little options. Right next to where Yoshino, Kuroko, and Rosalind had gone, they luckily found a room to explore, but...

"Interesting. This door sticks out like a sore thumb doesn't it?" Damien mused as he stood in front of a boarded-up door. The door itself was wooden and aged, with three think wooden planks blocking it off. There was no handle on the door.

"Wow... t-that's really s-strange..." Aelia tried her best to investigate the door itself. She tried to open it even with the boards on it, but no luck. "Dang... n-no dice." Aelia turned around to look at Damien and Ayaka. "Y-you guys see anything?"

They both shook their heads. "Unfortunately not my dear Aelia. It looks like we won't be getting in this door anytime soon." Damien walked up to Aelia. "I implore you to not be saddened over this outcome. We will surely figure this out together!" Damien supported the downtrodden Aelia by putting his hand on her shoulder.

Aelia's face lit up instantly. "Y-yeah... you're right. We won't let this g-get us d-down!" Aelia smiled.

"Absolutely my dear Aelia. Now let us-" Damien turned around and saw that Ayaka had a peculiar look on her face. "Dear Ayaka? Is something the matter?" He walked over to her.

"O-oh! W-well, it's just t-that I u-um..." Ayaka started stuttering over her words a lot. Damien could notice she was getting embarrassed.

Damien put a gentle hand on her shoulder, just like with Aelia. "It's alright Ayaka my dear. Take your time." He gave her a slow and easy nod.

"O-okay. T-thank you Damien." Ayaka returned the nod. "I w-was wondering if we could somehow call P-Pheme and ask her about the d-door? M-maybe? I don't know..." Ayaka started second-guessing her idea near the end.

Aelia thought about it. "It'd be a-awfully convenient... if that could actually happen. I mean... what? Is P-Pheme just going to appear out of t-thin air...? Surely not-"

"Surely yes!" And lo and behold, Pheme actually did appear out of thin air! Almost like she phased through the walls, Pheme suddenly appeared behind Ayaka.

"AH!" Ayaka felt like she jumped out of her skin at the sound. In her fright, she turned around and almost slapped Pheme in her face. That probably would've hurt Ayaka more considering Pheme's mask.

Anyway, Pheme didn't even flinch. "Silly Ms. Naganohara." Pheme shook her head and wagged her finger. "That's no way to greet a goddess! I'm disappointed in you!" Pheme said like she was lecturing a child.

Ayaka didn't say much, because Damien stepped in front of her to face down Pheme. "What do you want?" He said with disdain. You can't really blame him for talking that way.

"Me? I heard Ms. Naganohara wanted an explanation for this door no?" The look in Pheme's eyes indicated she was smiling.

Ayaka's eyes widened. "M-me?" Ayaka narrowed her eyes at Pheme. "I, well, I g-guess I did ask for that." Ayaka slowly nodded.

"Very good!" Pheme brushed past Damien and got right up in Ayaka's face. "I shall explain it then!" Pheme stepped back and went right up to the door. "I realize I'm making a show out of it, but this is merely an unfinished room. Nothing much to it!"

Aelia slowly blinked. "What d-do you mean... unfinished?" She tilted her head.

Pheme turned to look at Aelia. "Well Ms. Celani, it's as I said. The room is still under construction. We've blocked it off for now, but it'll be available to you later! So don't fret!" Pheme nodded.

"O-oh! Okay! W-when... do you think we can explore i-it?" Aelia asked her second question.

"When? Hm..." Pheme took a moment to think. "I have no idea! Whenever we finish it I suppose!"

All three gave Pheme flat looks. "Well it's a waste of our time then." Damien stepped in. "Come now my dears, let us be off!" Damien motioned for his dears to follow him.

Ayaka and Aelia shared a glance, and then they did indeed follow after him.

Pheme frowned at the sight. "Hey! Wait for me!" She chased after them.

Ayaka glared behind her. "W-why do you w-want to f-follow us?"

"I merely want to help you out of course! For the next two doors you'll come across in this path, you'll need my insight for them!" Pheme eagerly nodded.

All three members of the group sighed and continued going on. Taking that as permission to follow them, Pheme skipped after them.

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It was only a little past the door that Kuroko's group went in where they found another door. This one was all white, it looked to be metal, with a basic metal handle. Damien promptly went up to it and tried to open it. "Disappointing. It's locked." He announced, then turned to their unwanted fourth group member. Damien crossed his arms. "So? Any insight?" He glared at Pheme.

"Of course!" Pheme walked up to the door. "Simply put, this'll unlock later on in the Killing Game! It leads to a special section of the studio! I hope you're excited for it!"

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None of them seem excited. "A-another waste of time then..." Aelia muttered.

"Unfortunately yes." Damien shook his head. "But from what I can see, there is one more rather interesting door to investigate. Shall we?" Damien started walking over to the last door they needed to investigate. Ayaka and Aelia went after him, eager to stay at his side.

"Boy, Mr. Lux sure is something isn't he?" Pheme said to no one as she followed after the group to their next destination.

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"Well well well. I think I have an idea of the purpose for this door." Was what Damien said when he saw the next door. Judging by where he was, this door appeared to directly in the middle of the hallways that connected to the Grand Lobby. It was a very ornate door. Well, two doors actually. The group faced down golden double doors with a large golden chain over entirety of it. There was a small padlock on the chain. Besides for that, that was pretty much it.

"Q-quite the f-fancy design." Ayaka muttered as she looked at the door.

"Isn't it?!" Pheme exclaimed right in Ayaka's ear, tempting Ayaka to try and slap her again. Luckily, Ayaka had enough control to not do that. "T-that's not funny." She said firmly as she turned around to face Pheme.

But judging by how Pheme started laughing, she did evidently find it funny. "Oh my, you're such a hoot Ms. Naganohara! I love you!"

Ayaka blushed at Pheme's words, but it quickly went away. She wasn't about to be manipulated- especially not by someone like Pheme.

"Enough with your useless and empty words." Damien butted in. "Care to tell us information about this door?" Damien was channeling his Ji-hoon energy by getting right to the point.

Pheme slowly stopped laughing as she proceeded to compose herself. "Very well then. The information I have for this door is simple! This door is...

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the exit! Exciting isn't it?"

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The... exit? Really?! "W-wait... really? A-actually?" Aelia started to mess around with the door in attempt to open it.

"Ah, you can certainly try to do that Ms. Celani, but I'd advise against it! You're not getting out those doors without a key! And where can you get one you ask?" Pheme paused, trying to get some audience participation.

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"I-it's from murdering s-someone, isn't it?" And apparently Ayaka wanted to participate. Aelia's face winced at those words, but Damien managed to stay collected.

"Absolutely right Ms. Naganohara! I'm glad you understand the rules already! That makes me very happy!" Pheme jumped up and down.

Ayaka didn't say anything in response. She even stayed silent when Damien went and grabbed her hand. "Come now my dear Ayaka. My dear Aelia. Let's go. I'll keep you safe from Pheme as we think this over. This is very valuable information to have here." After grabbing Aelia's hand, and giving Pheme one last glare, the group of three left to return to the Grand Theater.

Pheme smirked from under her mask as she watched them walk away. This was going perfectly...

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As Pheme herself started to walk away, she thought about something. She wondered how the loner who was tasked with wrangling Alpha and Cathy was doing...

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[Grand Lobby]

Rival came up to the last door he had yet to try. He swore he looked in every nook and cranny for Alpha and Cathy. They weren't in their rooms, on the infirmary, and most likely not in any of the rooms that the others were investigating. The only door he had yet to look into was the door directly to the left of where Raiha's group had gone. With a deep breath, he steeled himself, and stepped inside of the last door...

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[Cafeteria]

Huh. Rival hadn't realized that this place was missing a room like this. Past that door, was a fancy cafeteria.

The room stretched back fairly far, with a long silver dining table in the middle with five silver chairs on each side, and two smaller silver dining tables on each wall, both tables having five silver chairs as well.

To his left, there was a marble countertop that seemed to function as a condiment station, if he had to guess. There were napkins, forks, spoons, knives, and a lot more. Anything you'd realistically need if you were about to chow down on something.

To his right, there was a sink and garbage disposal. Seemed pretty nice. It was a three-compartment sink, with the garbage disposal separate from it.

Then in the way back of the room, there was what looked like a food serving line, and behind that there was a really nice kitchen. Rival wasn't the biggest or fanciest cook or anything, but even he could appreciate the fanciness of it. Well, from what he could see of it.

Lastly, and probably the most important part, he found Alpha and Cathy! Alpha was sitting by herself at the table on the left, and Cathy was sitting by herself at the table on the right. Alpha seemed to be eating a sandwich, and Cathy was eating something that looked like chicken.

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You know, Rival was debating just leaving right now. This Killing Game had killed his appetite, and he had found Alpha and Cathy. So he accomplished his goal. But against his better judgment, "Oh hey. I found you too." He spoke up, alerting the girls to his presence.

"Ohhh look! The fucking suicidal school-shooter found us! I knew you were obsessed with me you wackjob..." I doubt I need to clarify who said that. Alpha turned away, and had her back turned to Rival.

"Hmph. Whatever you want from me you human, you can't have it! I'm quite comfortable here! So make your way out like a scaredy-cat! Nyahaha!" Cathy shooed Rival away.

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Well. That'll teach Rival to not speak up in the future. Well actually, he hadn't learned his lesson just yet. "You girls want to-"

"No!" They said in unison.

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Well then. It appears they aren't in the mood to talk. And Rival for some reason wasn't getting the message yet. "Do you want to-"

"No!" They again said in unison.

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Welp. He tried. Ji-hoon can't reasonably be mad at him for this. Rival turned around, and walked right out the door, finally getting their message. He started making his way back to the Grand Theater to await the return of everyone...

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Rival had one last thought. This cafeteria would make a pretty good meeting spot for the future...

[Grand Theater]

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Slowly but surely, all seventeen of them seemed to trickle back into the Grand Theater. Starting with Darren and ending with Raiha's group, they all got back together, eager to discuss their findings.

After only ten minutes, they were all back. "Heyo! We're all still alive! Not bad!" Genjiro bellowed out at the sight of everyone.

Yoshino shook her head. "That's not a funny joke to make Genjiro. Don't you know what's happening here?"

"Ha ha! God you can be funny sometimes Yoshi!" Genjiro pointed and laughed at the horror novelist.

"C'mon Genjiro, lay off the girl! I get why she's upset over that!" Joji put his hand on Genjiro's shoulder, having a half joking and half serious tone.

"I'm afraid I must agree with Joji. A joke like that is in rather bad taste Genjiro." Aurora chimed in.

Genjiro was thrown back by the sudden aggression against him. Well maybe "aggression" is a strong word, but still. "C'mon, what the hell! That's what I get for trying to lighten the mood?" Genjiro seemed offended.

"Hey! You should stop that!"

"Nah, it was funny!"

"You should calm down!"

The group soon turned into a chaotic mess of voices. It was impossible to tell who was saying what. It turned into an utter cacophony.

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After a while, Ji-hoon couldn't stand it anymore. "GUYS!" He raised his voice. The group hadn't heard Ji-hoon raise his voice yet, so most of them, in fear, turned towards him, now completely silent. "Let's not forget why we're here. To share our findings?" Ji-hoon looked around at the group.

A chorus of murmurs and whispered erupted from the group. After a second, it turned to a wave of nods.

"Good!" Ji-hoon smirked. "Rival. I want to hear from you first. What's the deal with Alpha and Cathy?"

It seemed that Rival got the talking stick first. With a stretch and a yawn, he started to explain. "So... I did find them. They're alive and everything. And... they were in the cafeteria."

That particular word caught the attention of a lot of people. "No wayy? They're actually gonna feed us? Kinda pog." Raiha commented.

"I-I don't know if I'd trust f-food made by Pheme. I-I'm not even h-hungry anyway." Ayaka looked down at the floor.

Rival slowly nodded. "Yeah... I can get that. My appetite is gone too..."

"Be that as it may..." Damien started speaking. "Eating is important nonetheless. Perhaps we could gather in the cafeteria tomorrow morning then? I'd assume that Pheme would serve breakfast?" Damien tried to gauge everyone's thoughts on the matter.

"Yeah... we could do that." Ji-hoon thought. "Rival! Would it be suitably for a proper meeting place you think?" He asked the backing vocalist.

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It took a second for him to respond, like he was off in his own little world. His eyes widened when he got snapped back to reality, by Ji-hoon literally snapping to get his attention. "Oh... yeah. It'd be pretty good. ...Alpha and Cathy are still in there... as far as I know." Rival spoke slowly.

Ji-hoon darted his eyes to the side and thought for a moment. "Alright. That's good to know. Thanks Rival. And like Damien said, let's meet up there in the morning. I understand not having an appetite in here... but let's not starve to death." Ji-hoon said half-sarcastically.

"Y-yeah... that wouldn't b-be fun..." Aelia muttered.

"Meh, I'm not really hungry though! Do I have to eat?" Bessie asked no one in particular, sounding surprisingly serious about the question. No one answered her though.

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"Okay!" Ji-hoon wanted to move on to the next topic. "Raiha, Bessie, and Aurora! What did you find!" He deigned to have them go next. Or at least, he intended on having them go next.

Because... something appeared on the monitor that was above the entrance to the theater. It was a rather big monitor that somehow none of them had noticed yet.

The picture that came across the screen... was Pheme. And she had something to say to them.

"Attention my glamorous stars! It is now 11pm, and that means it's night time! It's time to go to bed, and get a good night of beauty sleep! Sleep well my stars!" The monitor cut off, and a chorus of groans was heard from the group.

"Wait what? Is it that late already? What the fuck?" Genjiro was thrown back.

"Goodness. Time flew by today..." Aurora held onto her parasol.

"What!! Nooo! I need to explain my tea about my Ultimate Studio!" Raiha was disappointed.

But the one who was the most disappointed was easily Ji-hoon. He had wanted to keep this going, but considering the second rule...

3. "Nighttime" is from 11:00 pm to 8:00 am. During that timeframe, you are required to stay within your rooms. Attempting to leave your rooms during "Nighttime" will result in punishment from Pheme.

"Alright. It sucks but we need to listen to Pheme here. We have no choice." Ji-hoon said begrudgingly. "But! We'll meet back up in the cafeteria here in the morning, and we'll continue this there." Ji-hoon started walking towards the exit. Slowly but surely, people started following him out, sullenly.

"Come on. No reason to waste time here and incur Pheme's wrath yeah?" Kei helped the rest of the people get out of here, including Darren!

[VIP Quarters]

Everyone walked slowly out of the theater and up the stairs to their rooms. Something about the announcement just... hit them. They knew that Pheme wasn't playing around. So they knew that her rules weren't for show either. Everybody hated listening to her... but what can you really do?

But... despite that... everyone... including Darren and Rosalind, had a spark in their hearts. A flame in their hearts. They weren't just going to lay down and accept this. No matter what Pheme might throw at them, everyone, even if they express it or not...

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refused to let Pheme win.

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[Pheme's Room]

"Well then! It seems my announcement gave them a figurative speed bump didn't it?" Pheme giggled.

"Indeed it did. Unfortunate timing on their part I'm afraid." The figure spoke from behind Pheme. "So... Pheme." They changed the topic of conversation. "How did you enjoy the first proper day of this? How did you enjoy interacting with your stars?" The Figure sat down.

"Oh my! Words can't express that jubilant feeling!" Pheme shot her hands up in the air. "Wait, actually, I do have some words to say. Did you know that Ms. Reinhardt knew what this studio truly was? How did she know that?" Pheme asked.

The figure slowly nodded. "Indeed... I overheard that. That's an unexpected development. But I wouldn't worry about it. That surely won't cause any problems in the future." The Figure reassured Pheme.

Like they burrowed into her brain, the words The Figure spoke eased any concerns Pheme might've had. "If you say so!" Pheme said cheerily. "But wow... this was such a fun day... and to think, there are so many more days of fun and stardom to look forward to! I love it!" Pheme daydreamed about the possible antics that could happen in this glorious Killing Game. "Ah..." It was weirdly therapeutic for her.

The Figure sighed. "Well then, I suggest to get to bed then Miss Pheme. It's another busy day ahead of us tomorrow. And we'll need to make the finishing touches on that as well." The Figure reminded her.

"Oh yes! You're right! That is going to be so much fun! I can't even imagine how the stars will react to...

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the motive...

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Alright! We here! Let's go! Chapter 1 Part 1!

It feels great to finally get this properly started, and with an insanely long chapter too! But I hope you enjoyed it! Any theories? Questions? Comments? Concerns? Simping for Pheme? Tell me all of it!

I'd also like to quickly shout out a story called Danganronpa: Twisted Tragedy by SilverMark16. It's really good, and you should check it out! :D

But that's it! I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time!

Glamorous Stars Remaining: 19

Adam Brooks - Ultimate Academic [PROJECT DRAMA]

Aelia Celani - Ultimate Puppeteer [theycallmewotch]

Alpha - Ultimate Gas Station Manager [Epifanio Therion]

Aurora Beaufort - Ultimate Starlet [WolfieRed23]

Ayaka Naganohara - Ultimate Violinist [Sempi]

Bessie B. Blossom - Ultimate Pop Star [CandleFire45]

Catherine Munchkin - Ultimate Cat Burglar [Nekoja]

Damien Lux - Ultimate Beautician [oddlyillregular]

Darren Taylor - Ultimate Bartender [Otterplay]

Genjiro Mashimoto - Ultimate Wrestler [Grandma Sue]

Ji-hoon Jo - Ultimate Celebrity Detective [TheRoseShadow21]

Joji Kaneshiro - Ultimate Carpenter [SureJahn]

Kei Aikawa - Ultimate Lawyer [theotakureader101]

Kuroko Kurobara - Ultimate Hypnotist [MrUtenaHolic]

Lake Beaumont - Ultimate Ballet Dancer [KadachiNova]

Raiha Miyahara - Ultimate Trendsetter [Prince PokePersona]

Rival Seizon - Ultimate Backing Vocalist [SinWriter7]

Rosalind Reinhardt - Ultimate Cinematographer [Orlando Butler]

Yoshino Akiyama - Ultimate Horror Novelist [DeathlyJazzHands55]