Chapter 3: House of 1000 Low Spirits (Daily Life #2)
Warning: This fic contains intense violence, lots of OFFENSIVE cursing (thanks Monoyena, you fucking asshole!), character death, gore and blood, sexual innuendos, and possible spoilers for the Danganronpa series. But hey, everyone lurking in this fandom has at least played the first Danganronpa so no need to worry much there! Right?
With that said, please enjoy!
"We need to talk."
…
Gabriella and Hector Zachary sat in the doctor's office; their hands clasped over the others. They sat with anticipation as they waited for the oncologist to finish reviewing the file. The file belonging to five-year old Alisa Zachary.
When she was born, both Gabriella and Hector were as happy as can be. That was the general norm for the parents of newborns. As she grew older, both Gabriella and Hector were excited for what was to come. But it was by her 3rd year that they knew that something was wrong. And it was in her 5th year that they finally found the answer through a particular oncologist.
That was where they were, today.
Waiting.
Listening to nothing but the oncologist's hums and the soft, ticking clocks situated in his office. Ticking away like someone was living their last life. Like the news the oncologist was about to deliver was going to be devastating.
Throwing the file back onto the table, the oncologist let out a deep sigh and slowly took off his glasses. His face looked almost defeated, as if he were trying to find the best way to break the news. A look that made Gabriella and Hector hold their breath as the oncologist adjusted himself in his seat accordingly.
"Well, I'll tell you this much," the oncologist sighed. "It's not cancer."
Gabriella and Hector looked a little restless than actually relieved.
"...I'm sorry if that's not the news you wanted to hear," the oncologist noticed how tense they had gotten. "But I'm just an oncologist. And based on her blood reports… I think you should probably go to a hematologist—"
"We did," Hector spoke, grasping his wife's hands tightly. "We went to see 10 of them. The last one referred us to you. That's why we're here."
The oncologist looked at him, incredulous.
"Well, I can't imagine why they would–" the oncologist was about to say before Hector cut in.
"The hematologists thought that maybe it was a new form of cancer or something," Hector responded. "If it's not then–"
"Please, doctor," Gabriella looked desperate. "There has to be an answer to this. Our little girl has been suffering from this disease all her life. She loses blood so quickly. She's growing paler. We wake up to find her crying and bleeding… Isn't there anything you can tell us about this?"
The oncologist considered her response.
Truthfully, he didn't understand it. He may be an oncologist, but he was a doctor all the same. Just reading her file and already, it wasn't like anything he had seen before. But he wanted to help. As a specialist who knew all too well the hardships cancer patients had to go through, this was no different.
He opened up Alisa's file again and sighed.
"...Well, as I said, it's not cancer," the oncologist said. "Symptoms may share similarities, but it's not cancer."
"Well, then, what is it?" Hector pressed.
The oncologist paused before responding.
"I don't know," he said.
"What?" Gabriella blinked.
"You can't say it's not cancer and then proceed to follow with 'I don't know'," Hector narrowed his eyes. "Come on, doc. Tell us. What is it–"
"I don't know because the only record of what your daughter is going through was from another patient in Japan," the oncologist frowned.
The parents blinked.
"And did they–" Gabriella blinked.
"...There is no known cure at this time," the oncologist simply said. "I'm sorry but… it's very possible that your daughter will–"
Gabriella looked practically devastated by the news. They always did. The oncologist braced himself. As soon as Gabriella buried her face inside her hands, muttering 'no', over and over again, Hector stood up, agitated.
"No no, you said you didn't know what it was," Hector shook his head. "You can't be sure that what our daughter is suffering through is the same thing as that poor bloke in Japan! You can't–"
"Let's put that to the test then," the oncologist hoped this wouldn't be the case. "Can I ask you two a question Mr. and Mrs. Zachary?"
Hector and Gabriella stepped back.
"...Has your daughter shown any Talent potential?"
…
Five years had passed since their conversation with the oncologist.
They thought that everything was done for and buried in the past. But the funny thing about the past is that it will always come back to bite you in the ass. And when it does, it would be on the day they would least expect. It was those four words that got Hector and Gabriella to wonder what ten-year old Alisa Zachary was talking about. And it was what happened after that made their skin run cold.
"We need to talk."
Slipping the same file they had given to the oncologist for review five years ago back toward them, was the moment they knew the charade was over. Alisa stood in front of them, a ten-year old girl who was academically smart and very efficient, looked just as heartbroken as they did five years prior.
"W-Where did you get that, sweetie?" Gabriella forced a smile.
"...Grandpa gave it to me," Alisa simply said.
Hector and Gabriella exchanged concerned glances.
"...When were you going to tell me?" Alisa stared at nothing in particular.
"T-Tell you what?" Hector tried to hide it.
"H-Honey, what's going–" Gabriella was getting desperate.
"That I'm going to die before I'm 20?" Alisa watched her parents closely. The moment they knew they were caught was the moment she realized the truth. "...So, Grandpa was right. You two really did lie to me–"
"Wait, Alisa, please," Hector frowned. "It's not what you think–"
"Daddy, why didn't you tell me?" Alisa shuddered.
Hector hesitated to speak for a moment.
Gabriella took the reins.
"We… were just trying to protect you," Gabriella said.
"By lying to me my entire life?" Alisa looked heartbroken. "Every time I ended up going home coughing up blood, you just said it was because I ate something bad or got a cold. Every time I woke up covered in blood, you kept saying I had an early accident. That… every kid my age gets them! Why would you lie over something so serious like this–"
"Alisa, honey, we didn't want you to worry," Gabriella tried to approach her. "We just wanted to try to give you a normal life. That's–"
"I don't have a normal life, mommy!" Alisa exclaimed. "I don't have one!"
Alisa may have been ten-years old, but the look of betrayal in her eyes couldn't compare to any other age she would've discovered this in. Gabriella shrunk back, her eyes meeting her husband's as they both contemplated the gravity of their actions.
"I'm going to die in ten years and none of you were going to tell me…" Alisa tried to hold back tears.
"Look, Alisa, we wanted to tell you so many times but–" Hector tried to explain.
"Why didn't you?" Alisa grimaced. "You had so much time to tell me, daddy. So, why didn't you?"
Hector opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.
He didn't know why. Perhaps he wanted to spare the look of heartbreak in his daughter's eyes when she found out she wasn't going to live very long. Perhaps he just wanted his daughter to try to live as much as she could without regret. Without the fear of dying… At the time he and Gabriella made that decision to keep it a secret from her, they thought they were doing the right thing.
But now, being confronted by his own ten-year old daughter like this…
"Alisa, honey, I'm… we're…" Hector tried to say before noticing Alisa walk off toward the front door.
"Alisa, where are you going?" Gabriella blinked.
"Grandpa's…" Alisa stormed out.
"Wait, Alisa, you can't," Hector argued. "A ten-year old girl walking over to Grandpa's house. That's a 20-minute walk!"
"18 minutes, 23 seconds," Alisa corrected. "And unlike you, mommy and daddy. At least Grandpa tells me the truth."
That was the last thing she had said to them before she quickly left the house.
Gabriella rushed out the door, practically urging Alisa to come back inside but all attempts were futile. Alisa had made her decision. The things they did to try to protect her backfired. Alisa Zachary now knew about the stakes of her illness. She was going to die at a very young age. An estimate of 20 years…
10 years left.
10 years left for Alisa to live out a life knowing what awaited her in the future.
10 years left for Alisa to live her New Life…
[The Grandview Mansion]
(Nursery)
Alisa woke up to the sounds of a woman wailing over her lost child.
For the entire night, she hadn't heard anything like it. But now the wails had appeared, Alisa could easily surmise that this was thanks to the fact that the park was now open again. Although there was no formal announcement for it, the sound of a mother crying was enough to act as her alarm clock.
She glanced down at her outfit and hands.
No blood.
She looked down on the floor. Not a stain to be seen. And looking around now, she could see that her fellow temporary roommates, Kikuko and Beauté, were slowly starting to wake up from the same wails too.
Alisa held her breath.
There weren't exactly any mirrors in the Nursery. Even though there wasn't a spot of blood on her shirt or hands, there was a chance that some may have just remained on her face. She felt her heart beat fast. She was nervous. If they ever found out about her condition…
"Nothing like a good scream in the morning to wake up to," Beauté smiled, outstretching her arms.
Compared to Kikuko and Alisa, she was the only one who seemed to have an elegant night's sleep. Kikuko felt like she slept on a rock and Alisa… Alisa was still worried that her illness had come to reveal itself over the course of the night without her knowledge. Judging by Beauté and Kikuko's glances…
"So, what forced us to stay with Beauté of all people, again?" Kikuko directed a raised eyebrow toward Alisa.
Neither of them seemed to look at Alisa with any fear.
Good.
That must've meant that there was no blood over her face. Silently, Alisa sighed in relief and fixed her glasses, standing up from the corner that she had found herself sleeping at. She watched as Beauté glanced at Kikuko with a relatively offended expression on her face. She pouted, folding her arms and feigning tears.
"Awww, are you saying you didn't enjoy having a sleepover with yours truly?" the mysterious Ultimate questioned.
"I had to sleep with one eye open," Kikuko folded her arms.
"...But none of your eyes were open," Beauté pointed out.
Kikuko said nothing.
"But my eyes were!" Eiji declared, standing right beside Kikuko and looking ready to fight Beauté if need be. "And how the heck does she know your eyes weren't open if she wasn't watching! She's so creepy! Eugh!"
Alisa watched the two girls make their exchange before pushing up her glasses. Despite her own opinions on Beauté, she was at least glad that everything was just the way it should be. Just three girls hanging out in one room. Hanging out in one room without the threat and worry of…
"Alisa," Kikuko called out.
"O-Oh, yes?" Alisa fixed her glasses.
"You've been quiet," Kikuko tilted her head, curiously. "Did you sleep fine as well?"
Alisa… shook her head.
"Far from it," Alisa sighed. "It isn't like Stanczyk nor Monoyena prepared actual bedding for us to get comfortable in."
"I suppose you are correct," Kikuko had to agree with that.
Aside from the fact that they had to sleep in the same room as Beauté of all people, the way they slept had to be the most uncomfortable they had since they had gotten here. Not once did they ever think they would miss the comforting beds of their own rooms back at the Hotel Mirai.
"Speaking of which, I am starving," Beauté giggled. "How about we talk more about our sleeping conditions after breakfast?"
The mysterious Ultimate stepped opened the door to exit the Nursery, gesturing for them to follow.
Kikuko and Alisa didn't want to lie but the thought of eating was sounding really good. The last time they ate was shortly before they were trapped in this Haunted Mansion. And even with the offer of a grand feast, no one really took it. But now that they were actually stuck here…
"I suppose you are also correct," Kikuko had to begrudgingly agree with Beauté. "Let us see if everyone else has decided to meet up in the Dining Hall."
"Undoubtedly, they would have," Beauté smirked.
Without much debate, Beauté had already gone off toward the Dining Hall, leaving Alisa alone with Kikuko. She could feel the shrine priestess's presence as she trudged behind, glancing around the room, warily.
"Are you coming, Alisa?" Kikuko questioned.
Alisa paused for a moment, then nodded.
"Indeed…" she simply said.
Together, the two girls left the Nursery on the 2nd Floor in order to head straight down toward the Dining Hall. But as they walked, Alisa thought only about her current condition. Being locked in a room with three people…
Sooner or later, someone was bound to find out.
And Alisa was terrified of what would happen when that time came…
(Armory)
Aidan woke up to a loud thump in a relatively empty room.
He was surrounded by the same weapons and armor piece he had investigated yesterday with Roderick, but his two roommates were oddly missing. He supposed it was due to the fact that both Kazuki and Roderick were what he would call the morning birds of the group. In fact, he did get his answer in the form of a note in front of him:
'Good morning, Mr. Brighton.
We noticed that you were still sound asleep. As such, we have left this note to not disturb you. Mr. Cutler and I will be in the Dining Hall. Please join us when you're ready.
- Kazuki Nobukatsu
It was also a kind of shaky-looking handwriting, something Aidan didn't really expect from someone of Kazuki's caliber. He always thought Kazuki would have the nicest handwriting out of everyone but in the end, he supposed it didn't matter.
Aidan slowly got up from the ground that he had slept on.
Despite it being cold and hard, Aidan didn't mind it one bit. He took what he was given and made do with it. Besides, it didn't make sense to him that he got to enjoy the comfortable feeling of a bed while Daisuke was… dead.
Right.
Aidan grimaced.
He was surprised he could sleep given the number of times he thought about what happened two days ago. But he supposed now wasn't the time to think about stuff like that. Now, the mission was to simply escape this haunted house. That was the task everyone could agree with…
…yes?
(Corridor)
When Aidan entered the Corridor, he could see that it was just eerie as it had been since they had first discovered this place.
The walls were creaky.
Whatever critters like rats and spiders scattered along the corners.
The hallway seemed tilted.
Or… maybe that was all a part of Aidan's active imagination.
He prepared to head straight toward where the Grand Lobby was until something caught his eye. Something on the other end of the hallway, where the Art Gallery was. If he remembered correctly, Kazuki and Alisa mentioned that the Art Gallery was a gallery of art pieces. So…
Aidan widened his eyes.
…What the heck…?
(Dining Hall)
The first thing Alisa saw when she arrived at the Dining Hall was the fact that her fellow peers were in a bustling commotion.
Everyone except Aidan was in the Dining Hall at the moment.
And standing by the door, watching this commotion of people go back and forth out of the Kitchen, was their new leader, Kazuki. As he kept his arms crossed and eyebrow furrowed over what was going on, Alisa stepped forward, fixing her glasses and glancing at him with intrigue and confusion.
"Kazuki, is everything–" Alisa blinked.
"Ah… Miss Zachary…" Kazuki gave Alisa a polite smile. "Did you sleep well last night…?"
"Um, yes, yes I did," Alisa gave him a nod.
"I thought she said she didn't sleep well," Eiji blinked, confused. He glanced toward his sister, who simply waved him off.
"That's good to hear…" Kazuki gave Alisa a smile.
Alisa glanced toward the others that were noticeably scouring the Kitchen for something. She knew this because she could quite literally see them pacing around through the open counters:
Fábio and Roderick checking the fridge.
Yumi and Manon checking the drawers.
Everyone else, just standing about, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Pardon me," Kikuko stepped forward, noting everyone's presence. "But what exactly is going on here?"
"We're searching for food, Unmei."
The referral of the last name and the cool, yet suave voice only meant that a certain toymaker was heading their way. Kikuko raised an eyebrow toward the curious Issac Santiago, pocketing one hand as he walked straight toward the three that had just arrived. He kept his focus on the shrine priestess with that smile on his face.
"...Correct…" Kazuki sighed.
"Searching for food?" Alisa blinked. "Shouldn't there be some in the Kitchen?"
"Well, here's the thing about that, Zachary…" Issac sighed, running his hand through his hair. "As far as food goes, there's no food. Kitchen is empty. What's left over from that feast from yesterday… Yeah, that's gone too."
"Impossible," Alisa blinked. "Surely there should be some food around here, right?"
"...Well… That's what we are trying to find out…" Kazuki placed a hand over his neck, instinctively. "But from what it looks like…"
He glanced toward the others who had started to assemble in the Dining Hall after scouring the Kitchen for any leftover food.
"...That… doesn't seem to be the case…" Kazuki sighed.
It had been like this since they had gotten here.
The moment there was not a sight of food to be seen here, Kazuki immediately knew something was wrong. It was the whole reason why he had a team to go scour the Kitchen for food in the first place. But if there was no food in general, then… Could this mean that… No. Kazuki shook the thought from his head.
"C'est faux!" Manon exclaimed. "We do have food! Monsieur Cutler has those bowls of peas, non?"
Roderick widened his eyes. He was a little taken aback by being put in the spotlight like this.
"Nay…" Roderick widened his eyes. "I left em back in me room!"
"Q-Quoi?!" Manon looked very disappointed by this piece of information. "B-But you always have zem with you!"
"Ah just don't see da point in all of dis," Yumi sighed. "Ah mean, it was dat no good rat and clown dat put us here. Da least they could do is give us food."
"Ah heh heh…"
Once again, Beauté let out that soft sinister giggle that was still loud enough to catch everyone's attention. She couldn't help but admire how primitive everyone's line of thinking was. It was obvious that she was the only one who would understand the motivations of those two psychos. And thankfully, she was glad to share such information.
"Oh, you ignorant, inelegant people," Beauté sighed. "Complaining about food. Scouring for food. Isn't it obvious what is truly going on here?"
She could see that most of the people here were blankly looking at her. There were sighs that erupted from some of their lips, as if they knew full well that whatever was going to come out of her mouth wasn't going to be good.
"Go on, just think about it," Beauté smirked. "We are locked in a haunted house. The only way out of it is to kill two people. What's more… none of us are being fed. Do you understand now?"
"You're saying they're not feeding us on purpose?" Fábio deciphered what the mysterious Ultimate was getting at.
"Ohhh, what an elegant response!" Beauté giddily exclaimed. "That's exactly what I am saying!"
The moment she said that was the moment the outrage erupted. It was a reaction that she easily expected. Honestly. She didn't know whether it was for the fact that she somehow survived hanging out with these people for roughly three Chapters now, but goodness. They were so predictable…
"Nay!" Roderick exclaimed, clenching his fist.
"Well hold on dere, Nellie!" Yumi glared. "Ya can't just go and say stuff like dat!"
"Well, technically I said it but… yeah," Fábio pointed out but glared at Beauté anyway.
It was still technically Beauté's response. He just simply deciphered it. Either case, it didn't seem like she was bothered by the negative responses she was getting over what she was cooking here. With a shrug, Beauté couldn't help but let a soft chuckle escape her lips.
"And why not?" she smiled. "Do you see any food on the table? Or is it still too early for you to accept the reality of this situation?"
"More like you shouldn't say something to start a panic," Kikuko narrowed her eyes. "We don't know for sure that is what Monoyena and Stanczyk exactly had planned for us."
"Nope, that's exactly what we had planned for ya fucks!"
The doors leading out to the Grand Lobby and Ballroom shut right as Monoyena and Stanczyk entered, both of whom had come out of the Ballroom in the midst of this conversation. Neither the hyena nor the jester looked troubled by the fact that they got to sleep on the cold hard floor of the Ballroom of all things. In fact, in Monoyena's case, he looked just as refreshed as anyone would after a good night's sleep.
"That bitch may be out of line…" Monoyena gestured toward Beauté. "But she's fucking right! The whole point of this place was to get ya wankers to starve to the point where ya drive yerselves fucking crazy."
Monoyena started to growl.
He took out his Barbie Blade and twirled it around excessively, gnashing his teeth as he spoke through his thick Aussie accent.
"It was gonna be a fucking delight," Monoyena growled. "Just me and Stanshit sitting behind camera monitors, watching ya wanks fuck around and while eating those Korean shrimp chips… Jesus Christ! Looking at yer stupid faces instead of doing that is pissing me off so much!"
"Wait a minute…" Kazuki suddenly realized. "Is… that why you two prepared that feast for us last night? Because of this twisted plan of yours?"
"Right on the money, ya walking boner!" Monoyena cackled. "Bwa… Bwahahahaha!"
"Th-That's why we tried so hard to get you to eat the feast from yesterday!" Stanczyk exclaimed, looking at the playmates with tears slowly forming from the corners of his eye sockets. "Ohhh! And yet you all refused! B-Because you didn't even trust me! Y-Your best friend to the end!"
Stanczyk's masked lips quivered.
"W-WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Stanczyk wailed. "W-WE WERE ONLY TRYING TO HELP!"
After a moment, Stanczyk stopped, allowing his face to contort into that frightening twisted persona of his. His red eye glowed and his head tilted. His grin widened and his voice distorted. A complete contrast to his despair.
"AhHhHhHh… wHaT a sHaMe tOo…" Stanczyk sighed. "tHe fOoD wOuLd'Ve gOTten gOoD rEvieWs oN YeLp…."
"Hold on…" Yukihiko folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. "Are you telling us that the food from yesterday really wasn't poisoned?"
"Of course it wasn't!" Monoyena growled. "What? Ya think we would go and make a big ass buffet only to poison it all in the end?"
Monoyena started to gnaw on his Barbie Blade.
"We told ya to eat it, didn't we?!" Monoyena growled. "And yet, instead of accepting our very kind offer, yer pussy asses decided that you weren't gonna eat it! That food could've helped ya wonders for what we had in store here, but now it's too late! So now, yer gonna starve and I'm gonna watch ya wanks begging me fer something fucking delicious! Bwa… Bwahahahahahaha!"
"H-Hey, Monoyena," Stanczyk turned toward Monoyena, confused. "D-Doesn't that mean we're going to starve too?"
"Oi, mate, I'm a machine!" Monoyena reminded. "I don't starve! Bwa… Bwahahahahaha!"
"B-But what about me?!" Stanczyk gasped.
"Sucks to suck, Stanshit!" Monoyena laughed. "Bwahahahahaha!"
"S-So mean!" Stanczyk was close to tears from this revelation.
"Nay, that be meanin that the sea witch is correct," Roderick muttered. "Since the crew won't be fed during their time here, the only way we be getting food…"
"Is if two people die!" Monoyena nodded. "That's right!"
"Well, at least it's just food," Issac shrugged, trying to see the bright side of things. "From what I hear, the human body can last 2-3 months without food, so we don't have anything to worry about currently."
"The amount of faith you have in everyone not cannibalizing each other by Day 6 is admirable," Mara dryly stated.
"Holy Christ!" Monoyena looked a little giddy. "Ya hear that Stanshit? Cannibalism in a fucking Killing Game would be so godddamn tight! It'd probably be the first time something as sick as that has ever happened!"
"B-But I don't want to eat my friends!" Stanczyk looked horrified.
Pause.
"No one said you had to be the one to eat em, mate," Monoyena deadpanned.
Beauté was right.
This had all been planned out. Them being stuck in the house with nothing to feed them. This was all a ploy to get them to kill each other. And this time, not just one, but two people. Two people have to die in order for them to be let go and have food. How long could they handle living in conditions like these… no one really knew.
Right now, Monoyena and Stanczyk were treating this as some sick joke. But to the playmates, this wasn't a joke. It was their lives at stake. No longer was it a game of seeing who would sacrifice their lives for some children. Now it was a game of kill or be killed. Here in the haunted house of gold, it was a game of trying to find a way to outlast that tormenting sensation of starvation…
"Anyway, that's all I have to say!" Monoyena shrugged. "Me and Stanshit? We're gonna be off now doing whatever the fuck we can. The feller and I got nothing better to do now that we're stuck in this shit with you lot!"
"But if any of you best friends want to join us for some fun little activities, we'll be in the Ballroom!" Stanczyk declared, suddenly not as sad that he was at risk of starving with the rest of the playmates. "Good luck best friends! And try not to think of food! That'll help out a lot!"
He definitely said that on purpose.
"And I hope you wanks eat each other's kneecaps or somethin…" Monoyena grumbled.
…
With those being their parting words, the hyena and Stanczyk headed back toward the room right at the end of the Dining Hall as they said they would, leaving the remaining 11 playmates alone. With the confirmation that they weren't going to be fed throughout the entirety of their stay in this haunted house…
…that certainly changed the playing field just a little.
"Well, now wasn't that just the confirmation you needed?" Beauté smiled toward her peers.
"No food…?" Manon widened her eyes. "Mais… how are we… Zis is…"
"Don't worry sis," Eiji looked toward Kikuko, a little confident that she could survive this. "I haven't eaten for roughly 10 years now! I can teach all the basics you need to survive without needing food and water!"
"It's just food, Eiji," Kikuko muttered quietly.
"Did you say something Unmei?" Issac raised an eyebrow, hearing Kikuko mutter something under her breath.
"She was talking to me!" Fábio pointed out, though a few feet away from where Kikuko was actually standing.
Issac blinked.
"...With you being that far away?" he raised an eyebrow.
Fábio mentally slapped himself in the face for doing something so stupid. For someone who can pop off in Trials, he was surprisingly bad at trying to not raise any suspicions toward what Kikuko could really do. And from the sounds of it, Issac was probably the next person to get closer to the truth…
"Kazuki," Alisa turned to the philanthropist, bringing the conversation back on topic. "Any ideas?"
Kazuki kept his arms folded as he thought about what could be done about their current situation. They were naturally in a food crisis. As Issac said, the human body can survive a long 2-3 months without food. But the mind. The sanity levels. That was something he needed to consider.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He didn't want to consider it. He knew if he said it, Alisa wouldn't be happy with him. Not one bit. But what other choice would they have? By the time anyone would get the food, everyone would go crazy. That… That was the risk he was putting these people in. His people. That's right. He was the leader. And as a leader, that made everyone's safety here his responsibility.
"...I…" Kazuki had a little trouble vocalizing it. "...I regret to say… Miss Zachary… That perhaps we might… We might need to…"
The door to the Grand Lobby swung open.
"Finally! I've been trying to get this door open for a while now!"
The out-of-breath voice of Aidan Brighton running into the room interrupted what Kazuki was about to say and alerted everyone else to his presence. He looked a little frantic and confused, as if he had a discovery he needed to share. Being the final 12th person to arrive also made him the ire of getting some strange looks from his fellow peers.
Aidan glanced around, confused.
"Um, sorry, did I miss something important?" Aidan asked.
"Yeah," Issac shrugged. "Monoyena came and told us that he was going to starve us in this haunted house till two people died. Y'know, the norm."
"H-He what–?!" Aidan widened his eyes. "W-Wait. No. You're joking right? You gotta be joking–"
"Not a joke, matey," Roderick shook his head. "That be exactly what that hyena fish said…"
"N-No way!" Aidan was back to freaking the fuck out. "Th-That's… Th-That's crazy! I–"
"Before you start freaking out… Mister Brighton… Please tell us what you were going to say initially…" Kazuki opened one eye and directed it straight toward the track star. "It sounded as if you made a very important discovery…"
"O-Oh, right!" Aidan blinked. "Um, so, okay."
He looked a little questionable.
As if he were struggling to find the perfect way to explain it. Whatever he saw must've confused the heck out of him and was sure to confuse the heck out of the others as well. Wrapping a hand around his knuckles with perked eyebrow, he looked directly toward Alisa and Kazuki for what he was about to share.
"You know that room at the end of the Corridor?" Aidan asked. "You guys said it was an Art Gallery, right?"
"Indeed…" Alisa raised an eyebrow, unsure where this was going. "Kazuki and I checked it out last night. It was filled with paintings and had that big hole in the middle–"
"Yeah, well, that's not what it is now," Aidan shook his head.
Alisa and Kazuki glanced at one another.
Similarly, everyone looked at Aidan with that same air of confusion drifting over their minds. They tried to grasp what exactly it was the track star was saying. But the matter is… Aidan said it as clearly as possible. The Art Gallery wasn't the Art Gallery anymore. And the only person to give him a verbal response let out a single…
"...What…?" Kazuki narrowed his eyes.
(Corridor)
When the group followed Aidan back into the Corridor, for Alisa and Kazuki, they could see that what Aidan had claimed was in fact true.
The door at the end of the Corridor was opened but what it showed inside was far from what it looked like when Alisa and Kazuki were there.
The room straight ahead no longer showed the Art Gallery but an entirely different room that they didn't recognize. In fact, the biggest tell was the golden statue inside. And for some reason, just seeing this room made them feel nervous. Alisa, even more so. She did have her own uneasy feeling with the Art Gallery after all so whatever replaced it was pretty much no different.
"See?" Aidan glanced toward Kazuki. "Not an Art Gallery anymore."
Kazuki didn't say anything.
He stepped forward, eyebrows furrowed as contemplated whether entering this room was a death sentence or not. He tried to make heads and tails over what was going on but the first thing that came into his mind was…
"Nay!" Roderick exclaimed. "It be the work of those spirits, arrrrgh!"
…definitely not that.
As everyone else hesitated to walk into what was pretty much a peculiar sight, Beauté stepped forward, a confident smile on her face. The closer she reached the room the more her smile widened. Turning back toward her peers, she tilted her head.
"What?" Beauté giggled. "Too scared to go in? It's just another room!"
The group looked amongst each other.
Alisa glanced toward Kazuki, who after a moment's worth of contemplation, finally nodded his head.
"...I believe Miss Morose is right…" Kazuki simply said. "As strange as these circumstances are… a new room means a possible new alternative method of escaping this haunted house."
"That's the spirit, new leader," Beauté smirked.
Kazuki didn't say anything in response to the mysterious Ultimate.
Instead, he stepped forward and walked into the room straight ahead. Beauté followed. Shortly after that, Alisa and all the others followed as well. Going straight into the room that used to be the Art Gallery. The room that was now called…
(Hall of Infamy)
It was just as Aidan had said.
The room they walked in was no longer the Art Gallery. Instead, situated in the middle of the room was a golden statue of Omen, getting ready to swing his signature kanobo toward whoever dared approach his statue. Unfortunately, this would be the people who were trying to read his plaque. Luckily, Omen was a statue, so the plaque was easy to read anyway:
'OMEN'S HALL OF INFAMY'
"Omen's… Hall of Infamy?" Kazuki raised an eyebrow as he read the plaque. "What… is this place?"
"Yea, didn't you say dis place had paintings?" Yumi questioned.
Alisa took the opportunity to glance around the room they were in.
Much like the Art Gallery and Ballroom, the Hall of Infamy was also a circular shaped room. However, replacing the paintings of Alexander, Empress, Omen, Monoyena, Stanczyk, and that King Kuma thing, were what seemed to be six exhibits of what seemed to be wax figures. Wax figures of different notable beings that hardly any of them seemed to recognize.
The only person that seemed to recognize them…
"Ah heh heh…"
Yeah.
Of course it would be her.
Beauté strutted up toward the frontlines, passing by Alisa with wonder. There was no doubt in her mind that she was definitely enjoying what this new room had to offer. Six exhibits of wax figures that made her evening all the more sweeter.
"Well, I suppose now that we are here," Alisa fixed her glasses. "There is no harm investigating this place. It is a new room after all."
"I must concur…" Kazuki nodded. "The real mystery here is how exactly this room managed to replace the Art Gallery without our knowing…"
"It be the spirits of this place!" Roderick suggested. "They be messin with us! Running around like grim-grinning ghosts! Comin out to socialize!"
"Unlikely," Kikuko retorted.
"Yeah, the only spirits here are me and those Red Spirits!" Eiji huffed.
"Yeah, Kikuko's right," Fábio stuck up for the shrine priestess. "We're still in a haunted house located inside an amusement park. Whatever happened here is no different than Manon's rollercoaster and Paradise. There has to be a trick to these kinds of things."
"And pray tell, what exactly is the trick?" Yukihiko raised an eyebrow.
"W-What?" Fábio blinked, surprised that he was being put on the spot so quickly.
"If you believe there is a trick to this, then please, by all means," Yukihiko twirled his braids in a matter-of-factly manner. "Tell us."
"H-How should I know?" Fábio frowned. "I was just stating the facts. For all we know, this room could probably change at a certain point of time or whenever we're not looking. I don't know. It's our second day of being here."
"Unless you sincerely believe that spirits are the cause of an entire being changed," Kikuko pressed toward Yukihiko.
"Oh please, honey," Yukihiko glanced at his nails. "Your boyfriend seemed so sure of himself; I was hoping he had already solved the case. Would definitely prevent any further headaches in the next Trial…"
"Hey, you shut your mouth," Aidan glared at Yukihiko. "Don't… Don't say stuff like that."
"And why not?" Yukihiko smirked. "Are you still as ignorant as ever? Did Daisuke's sacrifice not mean anything to you? Look around. We have no food. We're stuck in the Killing Game Arena. And now rooms are literally changing. A Trial is soon to be in order whether you like it or not…"
Aidan held his temper.
"Yeah well, it still doesn't make it right," Aidan frowned. "Going around saying stuff like that…"
Yukihiko wasn't the least bit impressed by that response.
"Oh, grow up, will you?" he rolled his eyes.
"Mister Yuno… please…" Kazuki sighed. "Fighting is most certainly not going to explain how a new room appeared in place of an old one all of a sudden… So… Please. Let us cease all disagreements till after we solve this conundrum…"
Yukihiko rolled his eyes and strayed far away from the group in general. Aidan on the other hand, kept his hands in his pockets. He avoided eye contact, but he knew the others shared more sympathies toward him compared to that child caretaker.
"Now… where were we?" Kazuki seemed relieved that the two had stopped their bickering.
"I believe it should be time for us to examine every nook and cranny in this area," Alisa pointed out.
"Ha… couldn't have said it better myself…" Kazuki smiled. "Very well… let us be off…"
With Kazuki's leadership, everyone had decided to separate themselves to check each of the six exhibits at the same time. Not Alisa though. She wanted to check every nook and cranny of it. The way she had remained invested in what these… wax sculptures entailed. She glanced around, noting how the wax sculptures quite literally encircled the Omen statue.
Like he was the King and them… his servants.
…
Nonetheless, Alisa walked up toward the first wax sculpture on the left:
A sculpture of what seemed to be a man wearing a Devil's mask standing in what seemed to be a prison of some sort.
He wore a business-like black suit with black gloves and black pants as well as dress shoes. He wore a red tie and carried what seemed to be a cane with a sharp pointy end that curved toward the top.
While his normal attire looked like that of a normal sophisticated businessman, what was over his head was something far more sinister: the Devil himself. A V-shaped mask of a four-horned devil with two red eyes. His right eye was a jagged red eye, much like Monoyena's eye and Stanczyk's emblem, but the only difference was that it was a little cracked. He had wicked sharp teeth and his horns on the right were chipped off.
Whoever sculpted this, definitely got the design down to a tea.
And standing next to it in both admiration and slight hesitation was Kazuki. As a philanthropist, Alisa supposed it was the business-like attire that called to him. But the hesitation. That had to come from the Devil's mask himself.
Alisa glanced down toward the plaque on the ground:
'WHITE COLLAR'
"White Collar?" Alisa blinked. "Is that the name of this… creature?"
"I suppose it could be quite the fitting name…" Kazuki folded his arms, a little solemn. "...White collars are those that work in your typical office buildings and earn a well-appropriate salary. But for it to be the name of the Devil. It's quite… familiar…"
"Ah heh heh…" the familiar chuckle of Beauté zoned in as she approached the two more sophisticated classmates. "You really don't know who this is, do you?"
Kazuki and Alisa looked at her, confused.
"Oh, how inelegant," Beauté shook her head. "It seems like you two certainly didn't read Danganronpa: Corrupted Hope. What a shame that such a nice callback will fly right over your head."
Kazuki and Alisa were even more confused than before.
"No matter," Beauté smirked, clapping her hands together. "I suppose I can give you a brief rundown."
Like a tour guide, Beauté gestured toward the wax sculpture of White Collar, practically gleaming as she boasted her knowledge of who this strange devil was.
"White Collar…" Beauté smirked. "The Devil of St. Esther's. Master of Corruption. The host and Mastermind of the St. Esther Killing Game that occurred 5 years ago."
"Huh?" Alisa looked surprised. "This devil was responsible for another Killing Game?!"
"Not just another Killing Game," Beauté shook her head, enjoying Alisa's ignorance. "The Killing Game. The Killing Game that changed the game. The Killing Game that tarnished the Hope's Peak's brand reputation by a tenfold. The Killing Game that served as the thrilling climax to the Modern Age of Ultimates."
"And… Why exactly did he host this… St. Esther's Killing Game?" Kazuki narrowed his eyes.
Beauté shrugged.
"Who can say?" she licked her blood-red lips, mysteriously.
"You can," Alisa fixed her glasses. "You seem to know more about this than you're letting on."
"Perhaps," Beauté giggled. "But I only know about as much as the forums tell me. Most of the official records…"
Beauté glanced down, slightly disappointed.
"...Well, they've long been buried by Hope's Peak Osaka," the mysterious Ultimate simply said. "Bad reputation and all that. But even then, it's still not getting them new students to attend their academy. The White Collar is now a superstition there. They say that if any new student attends Hope's Peak Osaka, the white-collared Devil may return to collect his due."
"Students don't honestly believe that, do they?" Alisa seemed skeptical.
"Does it really matter if they do?" Beauté smirked. "No matter how much they try to bury the truth, the Devil has all already made his mark. Hope's Peak Osaka may have been the first Academy ever built, but its days are numbered…"
Beauté leaned forward, her gaze looking mad with excitement.
"And it's all thanks to the elegant White Collar," she grinned.
Kazuki rubbed his neck instinctively, his eyebrow furrowing.
"...But if that is the case… Why on Earth is his wax sculpture here?" Kazuki couldn't bring himself to meet the soulless gaze of the Devil's wax mask.
"Isn't it obvious?" Beauté giggled. "It's to pay homage to quite a momentous event in Hope's Peak's history! And to the readers…"
Beauté looked at everyone reading.
"A nice callback to a much simpler story…" Beauté smiled. "And to get those who haven't read Corrupted Hope to read Corrupted Hope. It's peak."
Stop advertising my story, Beauté…
"Whoopsies!" Beauté giggled. "Said too much!"
As Beauté rambled on about whatever the fuck, Alisa and Kazuki slowly looked up toward the White Collar sculpture. Even though it was clearly wax, they still could feel the chills run down their spine as they gazed at what was quite literally the Devil. A Devil with a sinister grin and a jagged red eye that looked as if it would burn red at any second…
For Kazuki, the White Collar sculpture meant something else to him.
With that same business attire and the knowledge of what this devil represented, Kazuki gulped. For some reason, the very idea of a White Collar villain hit him too close to him. He rubbed his neck instinctively, not noticing Alisa's curious gaze.
"Well then," Beauté giggled. "Alisa! Shall we check the next one?"
"H-Huh?" Alisa blinked. "W-Well, no, I would rather…"
"Oh, don't be shy!" Beauté smirked. "That was so much fun! I know you had fun…"
Beauté leaned forward, her gaze intensifying.
"Did you?" she smiled.
"U-Um," Alisa wanted to check up on Kazuki but Beauté wasn't exactly giving her a choice here. She could easily refuse but the way she was looking at her…
It sent more shivers down her spine than the White Collar sculpture.
"O-Okay," Alisa simply nodded.
"Goodie!" Beauté giggled, grabbing Alisa's arm and dragging her to the sculpture situated to White Collar's right.
The next sculpture in the sequence…
…
The second sculpture in the room that Alisa was so forcefully dragged toward by Beauté was what seemed to be a man wearing a mask, a white coat, a black turtleneck, and posing in a way as to keep his arms in an X-shape.
The mask itself was very reminiscent of a luchador's mask, a dark yellow rim painted around the grinning lips and the eyes as well as that classic jagged red insignia situated at the mask's forehead.
As this wax sculpture stood in what seemed to be an alleyway with the word, 'BLOODLUST' painted behind him, one look in his hands and anyone could see that he was holding pairs of what seemed to be custom-made razor-sharp scissors.
Compared to the White Collar sculpture, this one looked like absolute madness, and Kikuko, Fábio and Issac were none the wiser over what this sculpture was all about.
One glance at the plaque below and Alisa could see the name of this person:
'GENOCIDE JACK'
Chills.
"Genocide Jack…" Issac hummed. "The serial killer from Japan?"
"False," Kikuko shook her head. "It's actually Genocider Sho. At least, that is what we call him in the East."
"Well, not what we call him in the West, sweetheart," Issac chuckled.
Sweetheart?
Fábio raised an eyebrow at that. He could see that even Kikuko was confused by what Issac had referred him to. While he was relieved that Kikuko seemed just as surprised as he was, he could feel his blood boil a little at how close Issac was hanging out with her. Seriously, what was up with him?
"Whoa Isolde!" Issac blinked. "I didn't mean it like that! It was just some light banter! That's all!"
"Well, regardless of what your caterpillar thinks of your adultery…" Beauté stepped forward with Alisa. "It's most definitely both. Genocide Jack and Genocider Sho. However, since not everyone's played the PSP Portable version of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, I think it'll be easier if we just call him Genocide Jack."
What?
"Hey, you think there's a Genocide Jill somewhere in the world?" Eiji joked.
Kikuko flashed him a stare that told him now wasn't the time to be joking over what was supposed to be the most elusive serial killer in Japan. In fact…
"I suppose I can adapt to that," she nodded. "But it is strange to see him show up here of all places."
"You know him?" Alisa blinked.
"Not personally, of course not," Kikuko narrowed her flashing blue eyes. "But when I was very young, the stories of the genocidal maniac that roamed big Japanese cities were still a fear shared by many. Especially when our shrine was quite literally located near the outskirts of one of his most notorious hunting grounds."
"Jeez, how scary is this guy…?" Fábio twirled his finger over his ringleted hair.
"Last I heard…" Issac sighed. "Genocide had already killed victim 36."
"37, actually," Beauté corrected.
Issac couldn't help but feel amused by how well Beauté seemed to know about this topic.
"And what are you…?" Issac chuckled. "President of his fan club?"
"Far from it," Beauté hummed with a smile. "Just… have a knack for knowing things like these, ah heh heh…"
Alisa on the other hand, expected Beauté to have a keen interest in topics like these but kept very quiet. The very idea that an infamous serial killer was the next sculpture to be put on display was… troubling. Especially when she considered that they were still in an amusement park meant for children.
"...What else do you know about him?" Alisa asked.
Because screw it, she was still interested.
"Oh?" Beauté smirked. "I never took you the type to be interested in Genocide Jack of all people?"
"Well, since we're here, I suppose it would be best to hear the whole story, wouldn't it?" Alisa fixed her glasses. "You did drag me here for a reason. I… best not have my time be wasted like this."
"Ah heh heh, I knew you liked my little brief history lesson," Beauté giggled. "Very well, I suppose I can give a brief summary of this fascinating killer."
Beauté paced around as if she was a college professor preparing to give a lecture.
"Genocide Jack…" Beauté spoke. "Japan's Jack the Ripper. The Murderous Fiend. A legend in the world of serial killers along with the Zodiac Killer, Ted Bundy, and Jeffrey Dahmer."
"That's… not reassuring at all," Fábio seemed nervous.
"No one knows who he is, and no one has come close to figuring out his true identity," Beauté smirked, walking up toward Issac and Fábio slyly. "But what we do know is that his victims are often very handsome men. Like you two…"
"Appreciate the offer, but I'm taken," Issac laughed.
"W-Whoa, let's not… Let's not say stuff like that now," Fábio tensed up.
Beauté crept around Fábio like one of those seductive femme fatales from those old noir detective films. She placed her fingers on Fábio's shoulder. An action that made Kikuko notably flare up the more she watched.
"Don't know why he goes specifically for handsome men…" Beauté hummed. "Perhaps he may be a very closeted spirit. Or perhaps he's easily envious... of how beautiful man can be… Maybe that's why he chooses to make an artform out of his kills."
"Artform?" Alisa blinked.
"Oh yes," Beauté giggled, prancing around the figure skater like a succubus. "Each victim of Genocide Jack's is always found crucified with those razor-bladed scissors of his. And with each victim is Genocide Jack's calling card. One single word…"
Beauté leaned close toward Fábio's ear.
"Bloodlust," she whispered.
Fábio shuddered.
"Hold on," Kikuko frowned, stepping right next to Fábio, ready to yank him away from this skank. "Razor-bladed scissors? That… was never in any news article I've read. Are you just making up information?"
All eyes within the group turned toward Beauté, who simply stepped away from the figure skater and hummed innocently.
"Definitely not, this is all true," Beauté smirked. "I just get my information from… more reliable sources."
Kikuko looked at her suspiciously.
"Still…" Fábio suddenly didn't feel very comfortable being next to a sculpture of someone with a high body count like that. "37 men. Crucified and… God. That's… sick."
"Aww, you have nothing to worry about, Fábio Barbosa," Beauté caught onto his nervousness with a gleeful grin. "The last time Genocide Jack's ever killed someone was in 2010. Since then, there hasn't been a peep out of him. Whether he simply retired or what, the world may never know. But who knows…"
Beauté leaned forward looking specifically toward Fábio.
"Maybe one day, he'll return…" a shroud covered Beauté's face, making her seem much more sinister than before. "...ready to claim his next handsome victim."
"And that's enough of that," Alisa jumped in, placing a hand over Beauté's shoulder. "Perhaps we should go check out the other exhibits?"
Beauté leaned back and smiled.
"I would love that!" she giggled.
As the two slowly began to traverse away from the Genocide Jack exhibit, Alisa gave Fábio and Kikuko apologetic stares. The shrine priestess seemed to have acknowledged it and resumed focusing on easing Fábio's fears. Alisa didn't blame him. If anyone looked as handsome Fábio did, they'd probably be fearful of a serial killer that targeted their demographic.
Leaving the group of Issac, Fábio, and Kikuko behind, Alisa guided Beauté toward the next sculpture…
…
The third sculpture in the sequence of six was a rather strange one.
It was a sculpture of a man shrouded in a black combat suit. His arms and legs were wrapped in bandages with lofty pads. Around his neck was a long blood-red tattered scarf that seemed to flutter against the wind… even though there was no wind. Attached behind him were two pairs of blades and attached to his combat suit were also knives of every sort.
But most peculiar about his exhibit were the assortment of masks left on the ground: a skull mask with a red X over it, a Guy Fawkes mask, a Jack-O-Lantern mask, a clown mask, a hockey mask, you name it. And over his face?
A mask of what seemed to be a cartoon girl with blonde hair, a tongue sticking out, big wide eyes, and a crown. It was clearly a mask that didn't fit the aesthetic this character was going for. But for Beauté, it made a heap of a lot of sense. Especially since she recognized this one as well.
Alisa noticed that surrounding this figure's plaque was Yumi, Manon, and Mara… the usual three. Squeezing next to them, she read the name on the plaque:
'SPARKLING JUSTICE'
What… a strange name for what looked like to be yet another psychotic serial killer.
"Ah, bambina," Yumi tipped her hat toward Alisa. She gave Beauté a frown. "Beauté."
"Ah heh heh, I'll ignore that," Beauté hummed as she stepped closer toward the girls, admiring the Sparkling Justice sculpture. "But… I can see you found Sparkling Justice."
"Yeah," Mara folded her arms. "Looks like a cartoon character."
"Zat name does sound familiar…" Manon noted.
"Well, of course it should," Beauté smirked.
She took out a hand fan to cover the lower half of her mouth. Her eyes sparkled with glee as she struck a pose. A pose most similar to the sculpture of Sparkling Justice. With swirls in her eyes, she slowly began to recite a series of Spanish phrases:
"¡Justicia completada! ¡El centro de la justicia que es atravesado por la justicia misma! ¡La estrella guia justiciera que brilla en el cielo nocturno! Ese sería yo... ¡La Justicia Centelleante!"
"Q-Quoi?" Manon blinked. "W-What was zat?"
"Why… Sparkling Justice's catchphrase!" Beauté removed her hand fan, smiling giddily.
She did the same pose once again, but this time, she spoke in her native tongue of English:
"Justice Complete! The center of justice is pierced by justice! The lead star of justice that shines in the night sky! That would be me… Sparkling Justice!"
After how well Beauté seemed to know about the White Collar sculpture and the Genocide Jack sculpture, it wasn't surprising to Alisa that she would know all about this Sparkling Justice character. But compared to the last two, Sparkling Justice sounded more… honorable. To be put in a hall of infamous villains, it seemed odd to hear that someone like Sparkling Justice would be placed here.
Because for all she knew, Sparkling Justice sounded more like a superhero than anything…
"Woowee!" Yumi tipped her hat with a smile. "Now dat be soundin like a true Western hero! Ahm impressed!"
"You shouldn't be," Mara frowned, folding her arms. "In a place called the Hall of Infamy, I doubt this guy is an actual hero."
"And you may be right…" Beauté hummed.
"W-What?" Yumi turned to the mysterious Ultimate, surprised.
Alisa shared the same look with Beauté. She could see the mysterious Ultimate start to blush, looking absolutely excited to talk about Sparkling Justice in all his glory. From the looks of it however, it seemed as if she was especially excited to talk about this supposed icon of justice. Alisa let her eyes wander toward Sparkling Justice as Beauté began to talk.
"Sparkling Justice…" Beauté smirked. "The Hero of Justice. The Shining Light of Spain. Agent of Honor and Virtue! That is Sparkling Justice! A serial killer vigilante who strikes fear into the hearts of criminals around the world!"
Mara could feel Beauté sneaking glances at her every once in a while.
"So, he's someone who goes and kills criminals for a living," Mara noted. "Big deal. I feel like there's plenty of people like him in the world. What makes him so special?"
"Oh my," Beauté feigned a gasp. "So, you're saying you don't fear the Sparkling Justice, one bit? Someone like you?"
"Why should I?" Mara folded her arms. "Anyone who wears a mask like that has to be an honest-to-goodness kook."
"Oh, I assure you," Beauté smirked. "His masks are far from kooky. They are what make Sparkling Justice, Sparkling Justice. After every kill, Sparkling Justice always leaves but a single mask at his crime scenes. It's his signature MO. Each mask placed directly next to his victims. Each mask representing what they are guilty of."
Beauté turned toward the Sparkling Justice sculpture, having noticed how invested the other girls, except Mara, were regarding this anti-hero type character.
"You see, the stories say that he was once a prominent mask designer," Beauté recited. "That one day, the cruelty of the world grew too much for him. Until finally he became the hero he thought the world needed. Became the killer that the people of Spain could respect. He's even become a prominent figure of worship within Hope's Peak Barcelona…"
Beauté turned away from Sparkling Justice, practically lusting over the thought of meeting this murderous icon.
"Oooh, can you imagine that?" Beauté swooned. "A killer who has slaughtered so many criminals and committed such a heinous act… only to be praised and worshiped for doing what others are so afraid of doing?"
"Mask designer and yet he's surrounded with masks that are clearly trademarked…" Mara noted the masks on the ground.
"Oui, I zink ze mask he is wearing right now may come from some anime, non?" Manon had to agree.
"Mask designer, mask collector…" Beauté huffed. "Same story, different versions. All are true!"
Beauté glanced back toward Sparkling Justice, glazing this so-called hero with lustful eyes.
"But… the mask he has on right now…" Beauté licked her blood-red lips. "It's not just your typical mask. It's a very special and iconic mask to the people of Spain…"
Beauté giggled as she hesitated on touching the wax sculpture.
"...It's the same mask he wore when the people of Spain got to see him for the very first time," Beauté revealed.
"What?" Yumi blinked. "What in tarnation do ya mean?"
"The dates are unclear but long ago, for the first time ever, Sparkling Justice accepted an invite to be interviewed for a Spanish magazine…" Beauté explained. "And for the first time, the people of Spain got to see Sparkling Justice. For the first time, they got to hear of Sparkling Justice's deeds through his own mouth. Why he kills. Why he fights. Why he became the legendary Sparkling Justice…"
"A-And…?" Manon blinked. "What happened next…?"
"History of course," Beauté giggled. "That interview cemented Sparkling Justice as an important figure in the history of Spain. A serial killer hailed as a hero to the people. Ohhh. An elegant story to behold."
Beauté glanced toward Mara.
"But as much as a hero Sparkling Justice may be, he is still a cold-blooded killer," Beauté smirked. "And the monster inside of him will always be an unpredictable force… just waiting to be released at the right time. Doesn't that sound familiar, Marabel Garcia?"
Mara didn't say anything.
"Hey now, ya can't just say somethin like dat…" Yumi frowned. "Ahm mean, Sparkling Justice is still a hero, ain't he? He only kills criminals so…"
"Ah heh heh…" Beauté giggled. "Tell that to the same reporter who interviewed him. Found murdered in his own home with same the blades he uses and nothing but a hand-crafted mask resting right next to him…"
Yumi opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, she turned to Mara. And based on how quiet she had gotten, it was clear that the karate master had become deeply moved by the story. Or at the very least, related very well toward the mysterious fiend known as Sparkling Justice…
"Very well then," Beauté giggled before turning toward Alisa. "Shall we be off to see the next one?"
"U-Um, yes, of course," Alisa blinked, giving Mara, Yumi, and Manon apologetic looks for Beauté's behavior.
She knew she shouldn't be apologizing for Beauté, but at the moment, she was kind of her keeper. And watching Beauté skip along to the fourth sculpture on display, Alisa fixed her glasses, gave the other three girls an acknowledging nod, and followed behind the mysterious Ultimate…
…the story of Sparkling Justice still fresh on her mind and secretly charmed by his tale.
…
The fourth sculpture situated right after Sparkling Justice was yet another strange-looking individual.
This person was situated in what seemed to be one of those white padded rooms commonly found in asylums. A White Room if you will. But what was peculiar about the person was what he was wearing:
A mirror mask, in which the sculptor most definitely used a real mirror to create the mask. Wrapped over them was a straitjacket, which unfortunately looked a little torn, signifying that this individual was due to escape the bondage he was in. They also seemed to wear black pants and metallic boots, but what was most captivating about this sculpture was how reflective his mask was.
At least, that seemed to be the case for Roderick and Aidan, who could see the mask's curved surface reflect their images back toward them.
As Alisa and Beauté walked closer toward the two boys, the clockmaker made sure to read the plaque to see what exactly awaited them this time:
'MIRROR KILLER'
Compared to Genocide Jack and Sparkling Justice, this one felt more on the nose. But despite how bleak and simple the design was, Alisa could still feel the same shivers run down her spine as all the previous ones had given her.
"Mirror Killer, aye?" Roderick muttered as he read the plaque. "What be this wretch's deal? Killing people with mirrors?"
"Like Bloody Maria?" Aidan gulped.
Alisa looked at Aidan, having no idea what on Earth he was talking about.
"Ah heh heh…" Beauté's laugh started to die down.
The more she witnessed these people's ignorance to such subject matters, the more she grew disappointed. At the same time, she did feel a burst of energy whenever it came time for her to educate these people on who each person was. The Mirror Killer was no different. Walking toward Roderick and Aidan, Beauté couldn't help but admire the work the sculptor did for this fiendish character.
"The Mirror Killer is far more sinister than you ignorant, inelegant souls realize," Beauté mused, rubbing her finger against the Mirror Killer's metallic mask.
"Of course, you probably know a lot about him as well," Alisa made the obvious conclusion.
"Aww, you've been paying attention," Beauté giggled. "How elegant…"
"Nay, if this fiend ain't be around killing people with mirrors, then… who in Poseidon's name is this slug?" Roderick lowered his beanie and narrowed his eyes.
"Is he like Mirror Master from The Flash?" Aidan asked. "You know. The guy that uses mirrors to commit crimes–"
"Ugh, how did you survive past the two Chapters, I may never know," Beauté shook her head in disgust.
"H-Hey, what the heck does that mean?!" Aidan was offended.
The mysterious Ultimate ignored the track star to begin her fourth brief explanation of this fascinating sculpture. Removing her hands from the Mirror Killer's mask, she glanced specifically toward Roderick and Alisa, smiling as she kept her hands out in front. Alisa could see what was coming.
Another moment of Beauté glazing over a fascinating serial killer on display.
"The Mirror Killer," Beauté began to say. "King of Psychopaths. A Monster in Disguise. A Modern-Day Hannibal Lecter. Compared to the other killers on display, this one is a more… interesting case."
"More interesting than the serial killer with scissors, the serial killer obsessed with justice, and the Devil who hosted a Killing Game?" Alisa glanced at Beauté, incredulous.
"The Devil that what now?" Aidan blinked.
"Well, for starters…" Beauté hummed. "This killer was at least caught. Currently, he's supposedly rotting away in an unknown prison cell."
"Supposedly?" Aidan blinked.
"That's right," Beauté smirked. "You see, while Genocide Jack and Sparkling Justice have been all over the media during their reigns of terror, the Mirror Killer is a complete blank slate. One moment he was there, and suddenly, he existed. Like… a strange Mandela Effect if you will. The moment news caught wind of his capture and immediately, everyone thought that maybe they had missed a media report on the Mirror Killer's Killings."
"Nay," Roderick shook his head. "But that be not why they called him the Mirror Killer, aye?"
"Of course it isn't," Beauté giggled. "You see, the public doesn't exactly know why he's called the Mirror Killer. As I said, he's a blank slate in the world of serial killers. But those on the inside… they have their reasons and they especially have their reasons for keeping the Mirror Killer… very, very confidential."
She could tell that her audience was getting a little confused by what she was talking about. So, clapping her hands together, her smile grew wider as she gazed at her peers. She stood right in front of the Mirror Killer's sculpture, as if she were giving a presentation in front of an entire class… which let's be real, she kind of was.
"Have you ever heard of the Sarashi Kubi Killer?" Beauté tilted her head, curiously.
"No?" Aidan blinked.
"Nay," Roderick shook his head.
"How many killers do you know?" Alisa blinked.
"Quite a lot!" Beauté giggled. "But… of course none of you would've ever heard of the Sarashi Kubi Killer! Compared to the legends here, she's a pathetic loser who was lucky enough to even get three kills."
Beauté huffed in disappointment over having to mention such a lame murderer.
"But regardless, she got her name by executing her victims through the ancient technique of Sarashi Kubi…" Beauté explained. "Easily, she got caught and was imprisoned. However, strangely… her murders didn't stop there."
Beauté leaned forward, as if she was getting to the most intense part of the story.
"Shortly after her arrest, another body was found," Beauté explained. "Then after that, another body. And after that, a body. A body. More and more bodies piling up, one after the other. All committed using the same ancient technique as the Sarashi Kubi Killer. At first, people thought she had managed to find a way to escape her cell. But a thorough investigation revealed that to not be the case. After that, the public began to think the Sarashi Kubi Killer was a master of the Dark Arts. That she could quite literally be in two places at once. Because the killings were an exact match to Sarashi Kubi Killer's modus operandi."
Beauté giggled, trailing a finger over her lips.
"But… I suspect you may know the answer to this riddle, don't you?" the mysterious Ultimate was beginning to test them.
"Um, maybe the Siracha Killer was a witch?" Aidan blinked.
Yes, he did say Siracha Killer.
"Far from it," Alisa remembered the context of this conversation. "You're trying to tell us that the murders committed after the Sarshi Kubi Killer was caught were the Mirror Killer's doing?"
"N-Nay, so ye be sayin…" Roderick blinked. "...The Mirror Killer was… a copycat killer?"
"Not a copycat killer, oh no no no," Beauté shook her head with a grin. "The Mirror Killer is more sophisticated than to be some sort of deranged fanboy. You see, to qualify as a copycat killer, that would mean choosing the same targets as who the Sarashi Kubi Killer would've targeted, which were mainly lowly talent managers and continuing where they left off to finish their legacy or… whatever. But the Mirror Killer…? He's different. The victims he targeted were the victims he wanted dead."
Beauté glanced back toward the Mirror Killer's mask, noticing her own image reflected off of his mirror mask.
"...And he killed them by using the exact same method as the Sarashi Kubi Killer," Beauté giggled. "The ancient technique of Sarashi Kubi. Used it and replicated it to murder his prey… in near perfection. And he didn't just replicate the Sarashi Kubi Killer's MO. He did it with a lot of other killers too. The Monk Idol. The Parasite. Killer Killer. Replicated each of his murder as if it were committed by the killer he was replicating. Turning every crime scene… into a perfect replication of a serial killer's MO. It was like… looking into a mirror."
"S-So… that's why he's called the Mirror Killer," Alisa concluded.
"N-Nay," Roderick lowered his beanie in fright. "Ye be saying… there's a laddie out there that can perfectly copy the way other foul killers kill people?"
"Frightening, isn't it?" Beauté's eyes flashed red. "Now you see why the Mirror Killer has been kept as a very confidential figure of interest. Compared to all the other serial killers in the world, the Mirror Killer is frighteningly skilled in what he does. His capabilities as a serial killer are second-to-none. To the point that if he ever escapes his prison… Well…"
She trailed off, as if hinting toward the outcome of that being extremely bad.
"Okay, but if it's supposed to be a well-kept secret, then how come you know about it?" Aidan seemed a little skeptical.
Though, Alisa didn't really expect Beauté to supply a helpful response to the matter. She did the same thing when it came to talking about that White Collar fellow. In fact, she had a lot to say about all the previous killers too. And yet, she would never reveal what her sources were. Practically painted her in a shadier light than she already was…
"A lady never kisses and tells," Beauté smirked. "But I suppose she can say that she has her sources…"
As if that wasn't very ominous at all.
Alisa gave one last look toward the Mirror Killer. She noted just how insane it was for a person like that to actually exist. But at the same time, the person who was reciting such information was Beauté. While she seemed like she knew what she was talking about, could most of the details she say be trusted…?
Alisa wasn't sure. But she did notice Beauté moving toward the next exhibit at hand. A single shared glance between the two gave the clockmaker the cue to follow behind her.
"Jeez," Aidan muttered. "She always tries to freak us out with stuff like this…"
"Aye, agreed," Roderick simply said.
If they were freaked out now, try having to spend the last three sessions listening to her talk about the other killers on display. Alisa held her breath as she followed behind the mysterious Ultimate to approach the next exhibit…
…
The fifth exhibit was a nice change of pace from the previous four.
The reason for that?
There was no wax statue here.
All that was present was the backdrop, which looked to be a large forestry area. The pedestal on which the wax statue would stand was completely barren. One could easily assume that the reason this wax statue wasn't here was because it was quite literally part of the exhibit. But the way it looked… no.
It didn't feel right.
Not to Alisa nor Beauté nor some of the others that had arrived to examine this empty exhibit.
"Quoi?" Manon arrived with Yumi and Mara. "Zis one is empty?"
"Is it part of da exhibit?" Yumi questioned. "Because if not, it feels kinda empty… dontcha think…"
Alisa was the first to step forward and actually read the plaque supplied for them:
'ERLKÖNIG'
"Erlkönig?" Alisa blinked. "As in…"
"Ah, ze Erl King," Manon pitched in with a knowledgeable smile. "From ze poem by Monsieur Goethe as well as ze piece by Monsieur Schubert!"
Alisa looked at Manon in surprise.
In fact, all eyes were on the actress now. If anything, they expected Beauté to be the one to actually know about this, not… Manon of all people. This time however, instead of Beauté presenting this exhibit, it was Manon. Similarly, she looked just as excited as Beauté was when getting ready to present what she knew about the missing wax sculpture.
"You know this thing by name?" Mara glanced at her, incredulous.
"Oui!" Manon smiled. "Ze story of ze Erlkönig is a very famous story in Germany as well as an opera piece written by Franz Schubert!"
To Yumi, it made sense that Manon would know about that as soon as she said the opera piece. Thanks to those Hope Fragments she received from her Free-Time Events with Manon, she knew Manon to be more interested in music than actual acting. So, in a way, she really was treading on a field that she knew best.
"I suppose I can give myself a breather for now," Beauté stood at the side with a smile on her face.
"Well, how exactly does the story go, Manon?" Alisa asked.
"Ah, well…" Manon folded her arms, tilting her head as she tried her best to recall the story. "...Ze story starts…"
Manon slowly smiled before remembering the full details.
"...Ah oui," she nodded. "Ze story starts very late at night in ze middle of ze woods. A father and his young son ride a horse to try to make it to town. Oui, you see, in some versions of ze story, ze son is sick and ze father is trying to rush him to get médicament."
Manon clicked her boots on the ground as if she were imitating the clopping of a horse.
"Mais, as zey ride further and further into ze woods, ze child begins seeing and hearing a strange spirit," Manon furrowed her eyebrows. "Ze Erlkönig. Ze King of Elves. Ze Spirit in ze Woods. A manipulative demon trying to persuade ze child to come with him so he may live in a place of enjoyment, with riches and other children."
Manon folded her arms.
"But when ze child tells his father about ze spirit..." Manon looked down. "Ze father only convinces him zat ze child is only seeing and hearing things. He does not believe him. Instead, he focuses on trying to take him to town. To keep him warm and safe."
Manon shook her head.
"Ze child tries hard to reject ze Erlkönig's promises," Manon explained. "Mais, in ze end, ze Erlkönig decides he has enough. And he takes ze child by force. Ze child screams in ze night and ze father rides faster through the woods…"
Manon placed a hand over her face.
"And once ze father arrives in town…" Manon's face looked grim. "He holds his child in his arms, shocked to find zat his son is dead. Ze Erlkönig has taken ze boy. And ze story ends…"
Manon removed the hand from her face.
"And zat, is ze story of ze Erlkönig…" Manon looked down. "It is… a very sad yet short story."
"Wowee…" Yumi scratched her head. "...Dat's some mighty impressive knowledge ya got dere in yer noggin' bambina…"
"A-Ah, oui," Manon blushed, before giving Yumi a small bow.
"And just based on that story, it sounds like the Erlkönig is a metaphor for Death himself," Alisa surmised. "How intriguing, indeed."
She glanced toward the Erlkönig's empty exhibit, curiously.
"But, based on the four other wax sculptures I've seen…" Alisa frowned. "...Why exactly is a fairytale character like that supposed to be presented here in the Hall of Infamy? In a place with real serial killers?"
"Maybe da people making dis place was in da middle of removing it?" Yumi suggested. "Maybe dat's why da wax sculpture is gone…"
"Ah heh heh…" Beauté spoke up, having given Manon her much needed spotlight. "Not even close. The real reason why the exhibit exists is because the exhibit wasn't meant for the original story of the Erlkönig…"
Beauté hummed silently, examining her current audience.
"I suspect no one here has ever heard of… the Erlkönig Kidnappings?" the mysterious Ultimate let a smile creep over her face.
She was met with empty stares.
Reactions she definitely expected.
"Ahh…. typical…" Beauté sighed to herself. "Very well then. I suppose it's my turn to give such an elegant exposition for potential worldbuilding purposes."
She clasped her hands together and let another smile creep over her face. Despite how disappointed she looked on how no one seemed to know these things, it didn't mean that she wasn't enjoying herself.
"The Erlkönig Kidnappings…" Beauté began to explain. "I believe it was… ten years ago… that a series of kidnappings shook the country of Germany to its core. A total of nine children disappeared without a trace. Nine German children. Gone. With no one having figured out what had happened. That is… until one day, a search party uncovered one of the childrens' clothing located somewhere deep within one of Germany's vast forests."
Beauté started to smirk.
"It was as if those nine children were lured into the woods and taken away, never to be seen again," Beauté explained. "Sound familiar?"
"It's… similar to the story of the Erlkönig," Alisa glanced away.
"Yea, just without da horseback riding and all dat…" Yumi tipped her hat down.
"Exactly," Beauté smiled. "The Erlkönig was the name the public gave him. Completely based off of the story that our lovely Manon Vivienne Levesque so kindly summarized. And over time, everyone started calling this mysterious kidnapper the Erlkönig. This includes the police. The media. And a search party was issued every night, searching for any of the children and any signs of the Erlkönig. But in the end, their search turned up nothing…"
Beauté feigned tears.
"No one ever found out who Erlkönig was or why he kidnapped those children…" Beauté frowned. "But, everyone knew the Erlkönig wasn't going to be done with just 9 children. At some point, the Erlkönig managed to spread his influence all over the world. All around the world, tales of 9 children disappearing out of the blue, never to be found again. The purpose of their capture… unknown."
"You don't dink dat dis Erlkönig feller… killed those kids… do ya?" Yumi gulped.
"Ah heh heh, maybe he did, maybe he didn't," Beauté shrugged with a smile. "The fact of the matter is that the identity of the Erlkönig has forever remained a mystery. Just like most of the other wax statues here. And whether the Erlkönig will strike again…"
Beauté's smile started to twist.
"Well, that just remains to be seen," the mysterious Ultimate couldn't help herself but lean forward.
There was a brief pause as she slowly turned to look behind her original audience. Standing behind Yumi, Manon, Mara, and Alisa, were now Fábio, Kikuko, and Issac.
"Ah, you three again," Beauté smiled. "How long were you standing there?"
"Long enough," Issac shrugged.
"We did hear the latter half of your story, yes," Kikuko nodded.
Fábio didn't say anything but it looked as if he was acknowledging Beauté's tale with a deepened thought. Regardless of what he thought about it, she was at least glad that she had garnered a larger audience than before. She gave a mock curtsy, much similar to how Manon bowed after the end of her presentation.
"Well, I most certainly hope you enjoyed it, ah heh heh," Beauté smirked.
"But what brings you to this wax sculpture here in the first place?" Alisa asked, fixing her glasses.
"Well, we already went through all the other ones," Issac shrugged, smiling. "Went to this one next. Got our brief rundown. So after that… is the last one we have yet to check."
Right.
The last wax sculpture.
The one situated on the right.
The sixth wax sculpture yet to be investigated.
Alisa watched as everyone slowly migrated their way toward this last sculpture. And it wasn't just her, Beauté, the three that had just arrived, and the three that joined them for the Erlkönig presentation, but Aidan, Roderick, and Kazuki had migrated over toward the last sculpture as well…
And as Alisa turned her head to face that last sculpture, she could see that one more person was already standing there, glancing at the art piece with a straight and annoyed face…
…
Unlike the others who had been walking around the Hall of Infamy and treated it like one big wax museum– which, let's be real, was exactly what the Hall of Infamy was –Yukihiko remained standing at one particular exhibit.
The sixth and final wax figure.
It depicted a man wearing what seemed to be a dark gray button-up shirt with a striped yellow and green tie around his neck, standing in what looked to be an operating room. He sported dark black pants held together by a belt. On his feet were brown dress shoes. On his hand were white gloves. The coat around him was what seemed to be a white lab coat… only the white part of the coat had been weathered down. It was stained with what looked like a bloody substance.
Now, while this may be the look of every typical doctor or scientist in the world, what really took the cake was the fact that the man's head had been completely cut off. The statue was headless, as if the sculpture itself was incomplete. Or… as if the statue itself had messed with before anyone had found this place.
Regardless, Yukihiko was practically glued to this sculpture.
That annoyance and straight face never changed. When Alisa and the others approached closer, she could've sworn that Yukihiko's face distorted just a tiny bit. Distorted to show what looked like… hatred?
Her eyes trailed down toward the plaque beneath the wax figure's feet:
'MAD DOCTOR'
Alisa blinked.
Mad… Doctor…?
"Erm, lassie?" Roderick approached Yukihiko. "Are ye alright?"
Yukihiko snapped toward Roderick, rubbing his eyes lightly and allowing his never-ending nosebleed to trail down toward his mouth. He didn't give Roderick the slightest hint that he was happy to see him. Instead, he tapped on his upper lips, noting the amount of blood that had begun to pour out.
He sighed.
"Please excuse me," Yukihiko simply said. "I have to get this nosebleed checked out."
He pinched his nose and swiftly left the Hall of Infamy to head straight for the one of the two Bathrooms on the second floor. Never did he acknowledge the strange glances he had gotten. Not that anyone cared.
After how he acted in the last Chapter, that neverending nosebleed was well-deserved.
"Wow, I really punched him hard, didn't I?" Aidan muttered.
Aidan glanced back toward the headless wax sculpture and jumped in fright.
"A-And who's this guy with the missing head?!" Aidan blinked.
"Ahhhh… the Mad Doctor!" Beauté beamed, clapping her hands excitedly. "Now this is an interestingly elegant fellow!"
All attention turned toward Beauté as she walked up toward the headless wax sculpture. She noted the attire the man wore, making sure that whatever story she was about to tell was the right person she was talking about. And this time, her audience was much greater than before. She clasped her hands trying to pinpoint certain people in the audience.
"I'm sure some Canadians here would recognize this person, yes?" Beauté smiled.
Unfortunately, not everyone here was Canadian and it seemed like the other person that was Canadian either didn't know this person or didn't want to say anything.
"No?" Beauté blinked, curling her fingers over her cheeks. "What a shame. The Mad Doctor was a big deal 10 years ago. I'm sure plenty of us would've heard about it at some point. A literal monster responsible for the most horrific tragedy in all of Canada's history."
"Well, some of us do hail from the other side of the country," Kikuko pointed out.
"Yeah, and even then, maybe if we had the head or if they were called something else other than Mad Doctor…" Fábio muttered. "Maybe then, more of us would probably recognize him, right?"
"Ah heh heh… maybe so," Beauté shrugged, before trailing her fingers over her blood red lips. "But I suppose for those that do not know of this Mad Doctor. I suppose you can call him… a stain in humanity's history. Right up there with people like Hitler and Stalin. Is even set to be executed some time this year!"
Just hearing all of that was enough to get people to be a little wary of who this Mad Doctor person is. Almost instantly, somehow, this guy sounded a little worse than a Killing Game mastermind, three serial killers, and a child kidnapper.
"What exactly did he do that would warrant such…" Alisa dared to ask.
Beauté smiled.
"A single flap of a butterfly's wings in one part of the world can cause a hurricane on the other side of the globe," Beauté quoted. "That was his favorite quote."
"Edward Norton Lorenz," Issac understood. "Yeah, I know that one. Classic butterfly effect… chaos theory stuff."
"Exactly," Beauté looked at the toymaker, impressed. "My my. I'm surprised someone here actually recognized it."
"Hey, what can I say," Issac chuckled. "I'm like a Jack-of-all-Trades."
"Yeah, but what exactly does some quote have to do with this Mad Doctor guy?" Fábio asked.
Beauté turned toward the figure skater, a smile over her face as she prepared to explain. She kept her hands behind her back as she admired the incomplete sculpture of the Mad Doctor. She tilted her head, examining it closely.
"Because it was the basic principle to what he did 10 years ago," Beauté smiled.
"What did he do…?" Yumi asked, slightly fearful of what she was about to hear.
"What all mad doctors do," Beauté answered without missing a beat. "An experiment. But alas, compared to all the other wax figures here, I do not know about what the details of the experiment entailed. Such details were… hidden. And for a good reason too."
Beauté folded her arms.
"I don't know how much of this is true, but apparently, the main person who viewed the experimentation process via reports and videos…" Beauté feigned tears. "Became so overwhelmed with grief that they took their own life. But not before telling their associates that viewings of such documentations and videos are to be deleted. Naturally, their associates listened and instead hid it somewhere in some secret archive or whatever…"
"And how exactly do you know that?" Mara asked.
"Because I do have some knowledge about this Mad Doctor's experimentations," Beauté smirked. "Something that couldn't have happened had the documentations been deleted as the associates were tasked to do. Please bear with me, because some details may be a little incomplete but here's what some people know…"
Beauté closed her eyes and began to recite some of the information she remembered reading about.
"...The Mad Doctor had one simple goal in mind," Beauté explained. "To find a cure for a mental illness. Don't know which one, but it was definitely for a mental illness. To do this, he put his patients through months of unethical experimentation. Inhumane, torturous, experimentation. All to finally cure that illness."
"How… torturous was ze experiments…?" Manon looked squeamish.
"If it was bad enough to make a man kill himself, I can only tell you it was that bad," Beauté sighed. "As I said, not much about the details of the Mad Doctor's experiments were ever brought to light. But some that were leaked… were information that were kept brief and simple. That's it."
Beauté started to hum.
"But I suppose, I can also reveal how many people actually suffered through his experiments if you would like…" Beauté slowly smiled.
"How many…?" Kazuki questioned.
"81," Beauté simply revealed.
"E-Eighty-one?!" Fábio widened his eyes. "Th-That's… That's…"
"81 patients were put through his experiments," Beauté glanced away. "Most of them perished. And those that lived to tell the tale… Well, there was only one person who could've done that."
"Was?" Kikuko raised an eyebrow. "Who are you talking about?"
Beauté didn't say anything.
"Aight, what ah wanna know is how?!" Yumi frowned. "How could someone do somethin like dat to another human being. And not just ta one but 81 of em?! I-It's… It's crazy!"
"Perhaps if you ever survive this Killing Game, maybe you can pay a visit to the Mad Doctor," Beauté smiled. "Assuming he hasn't been executed yet."
"So, the guy's been incarcerated and scheduled to die for his crimes?" Mara asked.
She kept her arms folded and looked away.
"...Good…" was all she had to say on the matter.
"Okay, but are we seriously going to ignore the fact that the guy is standing before us with a missing head?" Aidan was more on edge about that rather than the story of the horrific things this Mad Doctor has done. "Like, what's up with that?!"
"Maybe it wasn't finished yet?" Manon questioned.
"Or maybe there's more to the mystery that none of us are seeing," Alisa surmised as she fixed her glasses.
The 11 playmates in the room gave the Mad Doctor wax sculpture one last hard look before they eventually stepped away from it. The fact that he was headless made him all the more intimidating. A figure like this… still shrouded in mystery… to be one of the worst human beings in existence. To be worse than the three serial killers, the child kidnapper, and the Killing Game mastermind.
To hear that he was still alive, rotting in a cell and due to be executed…
Such a thought couldn't be real.
Especially the questions that arose in everyone's mind regarding the Mad Doctor's sculpture.
Why was his head missing?
What exactly were his experiments?
And… why exactly was he featured here of all places?
In a Killing Game setting that sat on the property of an abandoned theme park meant for children. Children that would never understand the gravity of these frightful figures located in Piero's Playground…
…
"Now, that was fun!" Beauté giggled as everyone started to reconvene back where Omen's statue was situated. "I hope everyone had a wonderful learning experience here at the Hall of Infamy!"
Based on the muttered responses she got, it didn't seem like anyone really enjoyed walking around a place called the Hall of Infamy and learning nothing about some of the most horrific people in history. Especially since this investigation was solely to hopefully find a way out of this dump they were in.
But no.
This place served as nothing more than a wax museum for people to wander around and enjoy the beautiful yet creepy sculptures.
Kazuki was the most disappointed by these findings.
When he had learned that Aidan had found something new, he had hoped that it was something that would easily put an end to the crude thought he had thought about earlier in the Dining Hall. That perhaps the solution to their problems wouldn't come to this anymore. But after finding virtually nothing that could help them in their situation…
…God.
Was this really how things were going to go?
"Kazuki?" Alisa blinked. "Do you perhaps have an idea on what we should do next?"
The look on the philanthropist's face told her otherwise. He kept his arms folded, as if he were trying to contemplate their next move. He wasn't an optimist like Aidan and he wasn't going to start doing really brash things like Yukihiko. If there was any other way, he would take it. But right now…
"...Apologies but… I believe we should all continue looking around once more…" Kazuki said. "I will… try to come up with a solution by tonight in the Dining Hall. Does that sound fair with everyone?"
No one really disagreed but even they started to notice how much of a loss Kazuki was at currently. Especially when the philanthropist was the first person to turn around and leave the Hall of Infamy. He stuck his hands in his pockets, wandering off toward the Grand Lobby. And yet, the only person who seemed worried…
…was Alisa.
Of course.
Hurrying behind, she tried to follow him, leaving everyone else inside the Hall of Infamy. Left to do whatever they needed to until they were set to meet in the Dining Hall…
"...Monsieur Nobukatsu never told us when to meet," Manon blinked.
Thank you Manon.
(Photo-Op)
The Photo-Op, located on the left door on the 1st floor of the Grand Lobby, was exactly as what Mara had described it to be yesterday.
It was just a location where someone can take pictures with Alexander, Omen, and Empress. Or at least, what seemed to be sculptures of them posing for whoever the cameraman would be at the time. A simple location that just so happened to be where Kazuki was standing at the moment.
He didn't know why he was here.
He supposed it was the best possible location for any sort of privacy, really. The four rooms upstairs were far from private as they were pretty much their makeshift bedrooms. The Dining Hall was where they would meet. And Kazuki wouldn't dare find himself in that Ballroom where Monoyena and Stanczyk were.
He stood quietly, glancing toward the sculptures of those three ghostly miscreants that trapped them here. Well, technically it was Stanczyk and Monoyena but still. Kazuki didn't know what other choice he had. Perhaps…
"There you are…"
Kazuki turned his head to see Alisa quietly walking into the room. She had pocketed her pocket watch and fixed her glasses. She was concerned for his well being. He supposed it was her right to be. They had been getting along quite well these past few days.
"Ah… Miss Zachary…" Kazuki gave her a polite smile. "I take it when I said we should all look around some more… You decided to find me instead…?"
"Well, you did leave us rather awkwardly," Alisa pointed out before walking toward him. "What's going on? Is everything alright?"
Kazuki folded his arms and closed his eyes.
"...Just harboring the difficulties of being a leader… is all…" Kazuki revealed.
Alisa noticed that the photo-op had a sofa that they could literally sit on. Most likely was for the photo-op but right now, it seemed like a good thing to use for a time like this. She glanced up toward Kazuki, giving him a small and calming smile.
"Would you like to sit down and talk about it?" she offered.
"Hmph…" Kazuki smiled to himself. "I suppose I do…"
The two sat on the sofa, together.
There was a brief moment of silence when they did, however. Kazuki had been trying to figure out why he was feeling this way. Or rather, figure out how exactly he could talk to Alisa about this. Naturally, she waited for him to respond. She had some level of patience. Even if that pocket watch was clearly ticking some of her precious minutes away.
"...I apologize…" Kazuki simply said.
"For what?" Alisa blinked.
"For taking so much of your time…" Kazuki said. "You see… ever since Monoyena confirmed that we were all to starve until two people died… I've… been at a loss on what exactly I needed to do…"
So, that's what set it off. Alisa expected as much.
"Do you regret being the leader?" Alisa blinked.
"Of course not…" Kazuki shook his head. "...This was… quite frankly… long overdue."
He smiled.
"...It's been quite a while since I showed myself to a community I loved…" Kazuki closed his eyes, as if in a dreamlike state. "...Became that 'Man of the People' that everyone remembered me as… Perhaps this level of loss is what I would describe as… being rusty."
"Far from it," Alisa shook his head. "I think of it as you trying to do your best to be a good leader. Honestly, after how much Aidan wasted our time and how much Yukihiko made a mess of things… You're a nice change of pace."
"Is that so?" Kazuki chuckled. "I'm flattered…"
Both of them avoided gazing upon one another, each with a thought in their mind that they feared could ruin the peace and calm in the Photo-Op room. And the more they thought about it, the more their frowns deepened. For Alisa, it was the thought about telling him about her illness. The thought of what he might think if she were to reveal that all this time, she was dying. Would he hate her? Hate her for keeping something so serious like that a secret? Hate her for not… trusting him entirely in the first place?
Was Kazuki even like that?
Alisa wasn't sure, and yet she as hell wasn't sure if she should risk it. She… liked how things were between her and Kazuki at the moment. Peaceful. No sense of drama and yet…
Alisa looked down.
"...Could I ask you a question, Kazuki?" Alisa began.
"Of course… Miss Zachary…" Kazuki turned to her, rubbing his neck instinctively.
"Do you have a secret that you fear would destroy everything about yourself?" Alisa questioned. "Especially relationships with the people you like?"
"That… was oddly specific…" Kazuki chuckled in amusement.
"I apologize," Alisa fixed her glasses, mentally beating herself for coming up with such a–
"But yes…" Kazuki somberly looked away. "I do…"
Alisa looked at Kazuki in surprise.
"There is a secret that I have kept for a very long time…" Kazuki revealed. "Only one person really knows it and it's not a secret I can give to just about anyone… really…"
"...Do you mind if I take a guess as to who that person may be?" Alisa asked.
"You are welcome to try…" Kazuki smiled.
"Is it…" Alisa started to think.
If it were an actual Free-Time Event in an actual Fanganronpa game, she would have abundant options to choose from. But remembering some of her previous Free-Time Events and not using a guide on StrategyWiki, Alisa had a slight inkling that the person Kazuki may be referring to is…
"...your half-brother?" she questioned.
Kazuki glanced at Alisa for a brief moment. Then, the look of someone who was very impressed was all Alisa could see. She definitely got the answer correct.
"You really are an intelligent young woman…" Kazuki chuckled. "That is correct. My half-brother is the only one who knows my secret. In fact, I suppose you can even say we concocted this secret together."
"Concocted this secret together?" Alisa blinked. "What do you mean?"
Kazuki didn't say anything.
"O-Oh, that's part of the secret, isn't it?" Alisa looked down.
"Please do not be offended…" Kazuki folded his arms and shook his head. "It's just… I fear a secret like this may be enough to scare you away. And for someone I deem to be quite important and close to me…"
Kazuki fixed his tie.
"...That is simply something I cannot afford…" he said.
Alisa blinked.
She processed what he had just said: 'someone I deem to be quite important and close to me'. Alisa wasn't sure if it was the illness but something on her face was growing warm. She trailed her hands around it, feeling her skin only to find that the source of the warmth was coming directly from her cheeks.
She bit her lips.
This… This wasn't something she could…
"Oh… Miss Zachary…" Kazuki blinked. "Is everything alright? You look a little…"
"Do not worry about me," Alisa turned away. "Apologies. I just…"
She didn't know how to say it.
She could feel her heart skip a few beats.
She was growing a little fearful. If her illness was acting now of all times… that would be the worst-case scenario possible. She can't do it. Not in front of Kazuki. Not now of all times. She expected herself to start coughing and start excreting blood from her nose and mouth. She expected herself to start crying.
But the tears and the blood and the coughs never came.
Instead, all she could feel was a warm source of comfort as she felt herself in Kazuki's presence. Something that made her feel all the more guilt over having to keep this illness from him. This damn… illness. It… It just wasn't fair…
"Miss Zachary…" Kazuki had noted her silence for a while with a somber tone. "...I apologize if you are hurt. But I can at least promise you that when I finally build the courage to reveal it… I will reveal it. So… please… Do not be offended if I…"
"K-Kazuki, there's no need to apologize for that," Alisa tried to ease her breathing. "I just… I was just thinking about why I asked the question in the first place."
Alisa kept her gaze lowered.
It didn't take Kazuki long to realize that the whole reason Alisa was even asking this— based on the specificity of the question and how she was reacting —was because…
"So… you too…?" Kazuki mused. "...have a secret that you cannot tell anyone in fear of… ostracization?"
Alisa simply nodded.
"It's… very complicated," Alisa glanced away.
"...Do you have anyone that knows about it?" Kazuki asked.
"Just three," Alisa answered. "My parents and my grandpa…"
"Your parents…" Kazuki furrowed his eyebrows.
It was his turn to use what he learned for their little conversation. He remembered the information well. When it came to Alisa's parents, it was a sore spot for her. And the reason for that was…
"...the ones you cut off from your life… correct?" Kazuki said.
"Indeed," Alisa responded. "I told you it was due to betrayal. But, I suppose the full answer to that relates to my secret…"
Kazuki looked at her with slight anticipation.
"...When I was 10, my parents kept something from me a secret for 5 years," Alisa simply revealed. "Five years. Basically, ten years. Essentially, my entire childhood. And after it was revealed, my entire world was destroyed. Suddenly, I felt as if my life in those previous 10 years had been a lie. A cruel lie. A waste of my time. It was for that reason that I chose to cut off my parents…"
"...Did you find out that perhaps you were…" Kazuki wasn't sure if he wanted to say it. "...a child born out of–"
"Oh, definitely not," Alisa shook her head. "Far from it."
"Oh…" Kazuki looked embarrassed. "Please forgive me."
"Don't worry about it," Alisa gave him a smile. "I'm… sure you won't figure out what that secret is until I explicitly say it."
Alisa slowly dropped her smile.
"But… I suppose the reason I wanted to ask you that question was to understand what you would do in a situation like this," Alisa looked down. "From what you said, it only sounds like you need to build courage. But… what if I can't build that courage? What if…"
"Miss Zachary…" Kazuki calmly spoke her name. "...What is it you are truly scared of when it comes to your secret…?"
Alisa bit her lip.
That was a good question.
Kazuki may not know what her secret was, but he seemed to understand what exactly to ask to get her to think about her next steps. Her secret illness has been a literal plague on her life. It was her parents that chose to keep that secret from her for 10 years. And it was after those 10 years that she felt empty. And yet…
"...I'm scared that if I reveal the truth," Alisa looked down. "The people I care about will react the same way I did, 10 years ago…"
"...I see…" Kazuki understood.
"Kazuki," Alisa shook her head. "I believe I have become my parents in this matter. And now, I believe that perhaps my parents had a good reason for what they did. I believe that, maybe they were right to keep that a secret from me. Maybe even forever…"
"Baldurdash…" Kazuki shook his head.
Alisa looked at him in surprise.
"I apologize… Miss Zachary…" Kazuki folded his arms. "While I may not know what your secret is… I believe that whatever the secret is… should never be kept forever… Your parents should've told you the secret much earlier. That is the truth of the matter. And the fact that you are willing to tell me the secret when you gain the courage to do so…"
Kazuki smiled at her.
"...That shows you have not become your parents…" Kazuki said. "...Your secret is yours to bear now… And I know you will make the right decision…"
"...As will you?" Alisa looked at him.
Kazuki smiled to himself.
"As will I…" he said.
Kazuki thought about their current circumstances for a brief moment. He thought about what he said. That their secrets were theirs to bear. Much like the responsibilities of a leader. And that they will make the right decision. That…
Kazuki slowly stood up, his face looking a little resigned.
"...I believe we should reconvene at the Dining Hall…" Kazuki told Alisa. "But… Please promise me one thing… Miss Zachary…"
Alisa blinked.
"Of course," she tilted her head, confused.
"...Whatever is said during our meeting…" Kazuki began. "...Do not be angry. I… I believe that what we may have to do is… our only decision on the matter."
Alisa didn't know what he was talking about.
She may have an inkling that whatever it is was very well something she wouldn't agree with but at the same time, she had faith in Kazuki. Having hung out with him for a long time now, she understood him on a level that no one else really did. Probably because she was hogging all the FTE's with him. With a small smile, she gave him a small nod.
"Okay," Alisa smiled. "I promise."
Kazuki returned the smile and patted on the shoulder. Then, he turned to leave the Photo-Op room, with a clear objective on his mind. Just seeing him leave like that made her heart skip another beat. She eased her breathing and took a deep breath.
It was clear that their conversation had inspired him to enact something. Whatever that is, she wasn't sure. But she was sure as hell about to find out. She stepped out of the Photo-Op room with piqued curiosity…
…a head held high that Alisa and Kazuki had grown closer together.
(Dining Hall)
It took a bit for everyone to gather in the Dining Hall, but once they did, the first thing everyone would see was Kazuki standing at the end of the dining table with a serious expression on his face.
Alisa stood right beside him.
She noted that the reason everyone was slowly scrambling inside the Dining Hall was due to the fact that Kazuki never set a time for them to actually meet. But in the end, it hardly mattered. Everyone showed up regardless.
Yukihiko stood in the far back but was the first person to speak up.
"So, Kazuki, as our new leader…" Yukihiko scoffed. "...What exactly is our first order of business? Go around looking for an escape route only to inevitably come up with nothing?"
"Hey, give him a chance alright?" Aidan frowned. "It's not like you were any better."
No response from the child caretaker.
Kazuki took a moment to respond.
As he folded his arms, he took a moment to contemplate on how exactly he should begin this meeting. Eventually, he kept himself standing as he rubbed his neck instinctively. He kept one eye closed and opened his mouth to speak.
"...The first order of business is naturally… trying to find a way out of this haunted house…" Kazuki revealed.
"So, that's it then," Yukihiko rolled his eyes. "Just doing the same thing as Aidan and running around like headless chickens. We certainly downgraded in leadership here…"
"Not exactly…" Kazuki shook his head.
The philanthropist placed his hands around his back as he stood tall and somewhat proud. For the first time since he was here, the imagery of the 'Man of the People' that was talked about constantly had shown himself for a sliver of a second. For once, the bright proud gleam of a respectful leader had returned.
As if a new surge of confidence had seeped through…
It was… a somewhat admirable sight.
"You see…" Kazuki rubbed his neck. "The only way out of this haunted house… as we know it… is by killing two of us. However… as shown today… there was a secret room that suddenly appeared and no one knew about it until today…"
Kazuki folded his arms.
"Just how many rooms are hiding in this haunted house…?" Kazuki questioned. "That's what I'd like to know."
"I see," Kikuko understood. "You wish for us to locate these rooms in hopes that we may find an alternative exit."
"And yet, how is that any different from running around on wild goose chases?" Yukihiko folded his arms.
"Because if we do not find anything…" Kazuki placed his hands on the dining table with a narrowed gaze. "...I will gladly offer up my own life. I will be one of the two people whose blood needs to be shed for your escape."
The room grew in tension.
Alisa's face paled.
She had an inkling that she wasn't going to like what she was about to hear, but this was definitely something she just couldn't agree with. She turned toward Kazuki, looking utterly betrayed that Kazuki would come to such a decision. After everything they had been through. After everything she told him. After everything she said that she wasn't okay with…
"Oh my, how elegant!" Beauté giggled.
"K-Kazuki?!" Fábio widened his eyes. "What are you saying?!"
"K-Kazuki, I thought…" Alisa looked at him in surprise. "I thought we went over this. Why would you come to a decision like–"
"Miss Zachary…" Kazuki gave her a soft smile. "I thought you promised you wouldn't get angry at me for this decision…"
"I–" Alisa bit her lip.
Kazuki turned back toward the others, all equally surprised that he was going to try to do something rash again. Had he not learned anything from Chapter 1?!
"Hmph, finally, someone with some sense around here," Yukihiko scoffed.
"W-What?!" Aidan widened his eyes. "Kazuki! Y-You can't just go and say that! That literally goes against everything we–"
"Nonsense…" Kazuki shook his head. "I believe this is the correct way we should play this…"
Kazuki folded his arms.
"This is no longer a battle between wanting to save the children or our own skin…" Kazuki pointed out. "This is now a battle to save us. If two people do not die… all of us die. That is not something I can afford. Not to my people."
"But even so…" Alisa tried to argue.
"I already made my decision… Miss Zachary…" Kazuki sighed. "When the time comes… I will be one of the victims whose blood will be shed…"
Kazuki folded his arms.
"I will give us approximately a week…" Kazuki simply said. "I believe that to be the perfect deadline before our hunger starts driving us insane…"
Kazuki kept his eyes closed.
"In the meantime…" he continued. "...Until that deadline hits… we will need another volunteer to offer their life as the second blood requirement and as well as a chance to search this house of every secret it may have. Until we find an actual alternative escape route… this is how it will be…"
"But even so…" Aidan was obviously one of the main people against this.
"Kazuki," Kikuko narrowed her eyes. "The last time you did something similar, it did not go very well. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Truth be told…" Kazuki folded his arms. "Not really… I wish the solution could be dealt with any other way. But for the sake of everyone else… my sacrifice has to be made. This is where I will die. That's why I gave us a very generous deadline…"
"A week is generous, huh?" Issac folded his arms, unsure what to think about all this.
"...A week…" Kazuki glanced away. "That's all we have to get this done. That is our plan for what is to come. Is everyone fine with this…?"
He snuck a few peeks toward the group, all of which tried to come up with an alternative solution. But this wasn't Chapter 1 anymore. They've seen what had happened and what some of the more innocent people were capable of. They've seen how bad this game could force someone to commit murder. And now, they were in a spot where a murder was inevitable.
"No…"
Kazuki turned to the side, noticing Alisa, looking at him with a clear dejected look in her eyes. She couldn't agree with this. Absolutely not. This went against everything she believed in. She tried to fix her glasses, but she couldn't. Not with this much intensity in her heart like this.
"Kazuki… I can't agree with this," Alisa glanced away. "I can't agree with anyone who would dare throw their life away so easily like that."
Kazuki didn't say anything.
He simply watched as Alisa folded her arms and walked off, exiting the Grand Lobby. He felt a tinge of regret over watching her leave. But he closed his eyes. He knew this was what had to be done in this situation. Because it was as he said, this was no longer the same thing as saving children.
It was now saving themselves…
As he glanced toward the other playmates who looked just as shocked and uncertain as Alisa did when he made his announcement, Kazuki simply closed his eyes. He looked resigned and took a deep breath, saying his final words of the night:
"This meeting… is over…"
(Nursery)
…
"Attention all guests at Piero's Playground. It is currently 9:30 PM. All rides, restaurants, and gift shops will be closing. Please make your way toward the exit as staying in the park after hours is prohibited. Thank you for visiting and we hope you continue to have a fun time all around, even after visiting Piero's Playground."
…
"Alisa... are you awake...?"
Alisa was very much so awake, but she didn't dare show it. She could feel Kazuki's presence by the door. It was clear that he wanted to talk to her but at the moment, Alisa wasn't so sure if she was ready to have such a conversation with him. Not after he went against the belief she so desperately believed in. She didn't move. She didn't say anything. She pretended that she was asleep.
If Kazuki was as polite as he usually was, he would leave her be for now.
She waited for a few minutes.
She didn't hear him move.
Meaning... he was still there.
It took a bit but finally...
"...I'm sorry..." was all Kazuki could say.
Then, the sound of his footsteps moving away, and the door closing gave her the confirmation she needed that Kazuki was longer by the door. Alisa hugged herself for comfort as she thought about Kazuki's plan. In a way, she could see where he was coming from. But at the same time, she couldn't accept it. She couldn't accept that Kazuki would just willingly throw his life away. Not again.
Not him...
...
Alisa paused for a moment as she tried to close her eyes and drift away from this nightmare. Slowly, she began to wonder why was it that really upset her. Was it really the fact that Kazuki went against her beliefs...? Or was it something else altogether? That perhaps just hearing him announce his death to approach within a week... Alisa squeezed her eyes shut.
There it was.
That was the pivotal moment to her pain.
Why she felt that way, Alisa wasn't sure.
All she was sure now was that she just wanted to try her to best to sleep. Move on toward the next day and pray that what she had heard today was some sick twisted nightmare. That maybe... just maybe... Kazuki would come to his senses and not do something as crazy as that again. That Kazuki...
...wouldn't leave her.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Cough.
Cough.
BLERGH!
…
Oh no. Not again.
...
(Bathroom)
The moment Alisa let out her first cough was the moment she had snapped awake in the middle of the night.
She had rushed out of the Nursery and straight toward one of the bathrooms. She had kept her hand over her mouth, refusing to let the blood seep out until she reached the Grand Lobby. Two bathrooms on the second floor. She had tried one bathroom door.
Locked.
Then, she tried the other.
Success.
And that's where she is now.
Vomiting blood in one of the rundown toilets, tears streaming down her eyes as she sobbed uncontrollably. The swirls in her eyes intensified and her heart beated faster than it usually did. The thought of dying becoming more prevalent as her skin paled. She shuddered and shivered and coughed.
She was alone.
She was always alone when dealing with this illness. She made it that way. She could feel her head growing lighter. The amount of blood she was losing… It was enough to make her feel faint. She couldn't afford that though. The moment she passes out is the moment the truth would come out.
The truth that she didn't want anyone to know about…
She tried to keep herself awake.
She tried to stand up, but her legs felt like jello.
She felt dazed.
She wobbled around.
The more she moved, the worse her balance was.
It was as if she were suffering the effects of intoxication. She couldn't think straight. Her vision was getting muddled with all those tears. The coughing wouldn't stop. And she tried everything she could to get it to stop.
She heard the squeaky turns of the doorknob.
Alisa widened her dead-looking eyes.
In her desperate attempt to hide in the bathroom, she had completely forgotten to lock the door. Everything had happened so fast. Alisa quickly turned toward the door. She reached her hand out, desperate to stop whoever was going to enter. But the wobbly legs and her weak complexion weren't enough.
She fell to the ground, practically crawling on the floor at this point. Through her muddled vision, she could see nothing but the door opening and a person approaching her. She could see them jump back in shock before stepping toward her. And when she looked at their face…
…despite how blurry it was, she still recognized them.
She let out a groan.
That short stature.
Those beige clothes.
Those purple locks.
Of all the people to stumble on her condition, why did it have to be him? Why exactly did fate have to turn out this way? She felt herself closing her eyes. She could still feel the warm bloodstains over her body as the presence of Yukihiko Yuno situated himself right beside her. And as she felt her consciousness fading away, all she could hear was Yukihiko's voice:
"Well, well, well. Now, how long have you been keeping this a secret from us, honey?"
DANGANRONPA: TWISTED TRAGEDY
Guys... I've spent like the entire day working on this chapter...
But anyway, Daily Life 2 of Chapter 3: House of 1000 Low Spirits is a go! And holy hell was writing this a big chore and a half. Not really a chore since my favorite scene is that 9K scene of them exploring the Hall of Infamy, which was the main selling point of this haunted house location for me :D Lots of juicy world-building information and some other stuff too!
By the way, Mirror Killer belongs to SinWriter7! Just wanted to let you guys know about that :D And in case anyone else writing DR SYOC's that Sin plans to send to found him interesting in Sin's list of characters... that was for you guys to know that he's taken by me! Get your own Sin characters!
Plans for what's to come: Trials. Specifically, Trial Part 1. I'm hoping to write that before continuing on with Daily Life 3 but if I feel like Daily Life 3 is a little behind on publication, I'll probably write for that instead. It's mostly so some people can catch up to Twisted Tragedy and for other reasons too!
Today's shoutout goes out to ExtraMeme's Danganronpa: Obscurity's Disgrace. Man took my bombarding of shoutout requests for a game mechanic I used first as shouting out all of my stories except for that game mechanic shoutout! Last Stands were my idea my man! My idea! But yeah, enjoy your shoutout, go kill a beautician while you're at it, and hope you enjoyed this chapter specifically.
Your baby girl was the main star of this chapter!
That's all I really have to say this time around! As I said, the Hall of Fame was one of my more anticipated locations to write for and now, I finally get to write it and showcase all the cool serial killers and criminals in my universe! :D So, as always, please let me know what you thought about this chapter! Did you like it? Did you hate it? Were there some structural problems or did it seem like it rushed anywhere? Please let me know!
I always love hearing what you have to say, and it keeps me well-motivated for what's to come :D
See you guys in Daily Life 3!
Ughhh, if I can finish Chapter 3 before December, that would be fantastic ;-;
Playmates Remaining: 12
Aidan Brighton - The Ultimate Track Star [Omakin]
Alisa Zachary - The Ultimate Clockmaker [ExtraMeme]
Beautè Morose - The Ultimate ? [Grandma Sue]
Fábio Barbosa - The Ultimate Figure Skater [Rayy12]
Issac Santiago - The Ultimate Toymaker [oddlyillregular]
Kazuki Nobukatsu - The Ultimate Philanthropist [emberblitz321]
Kikuko Unmei - The Ultimate Shrine Priestess [WolfieRed23]
Manon Vivienne Levesque - The Ultimate Actress [Sempi]
Marabel "Mara" Garcia - The Ultimate Karate Master [Epifanio Therion]
Roderick Cutler - The Ultimate Deep Sea Fisherman [Orlando Butler]
Yukihiko Yuno - The Ultimate Child Caregiver [Weekaro]
Yumi Gundo - Ultimate Gunslinger [MrUtenaHolic]
