Danganronpa: Obscurity’s Disgrace (SYOC) Chapter 18: Toxic Words, Venomous Actions (Part 1), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 2: Toxic Words, Venomous Actions (Part 1)

Warning!

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

"Hey mom? What is dad watching?"

"Well sweetie, that's a history documentary! Your dad has always been interested in those things."

"Oh, okay! And... who is that?" They pointed at the TV screen.

"That... is Socrates. He's a famous philosopher. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason. Thank you mom!"

"Of course sweetie!"

[Cell]

My eyes shot wide open. Was that... another dream? But how did I...

I shook my head and I looked around. For once, I wasn't in the sterile green room. And… I was able to actually sit up. I wasn't chained to my bed this time. I looked around the room I was in. It was… my room? No. More like my cell.

All around me was pale grey brick. I was on a bed in the back corner, with a toilet and sink being in the other back corner to the left from me. Then there was a desk and chair in the corner facing the front of my cell. It was pretty spacious, yet still fairly barren. I was taken out of the observations of my mind when I saw Dr. Yokomizi and an older unfamiliar man approaching my cell.

The unfamiliar man had a confident yet creepy look plastered across his face, and had a tall and slim build. His head was topped with slightly messy dark blue hair and he had blue eyes covered by black circular-framed glasses. And just like everyone else, he wore a lab coat.

"So this is our wonderful patient?" The unfamiliar man asked Yokomizi as they entered my cell.

"Indeed she is. You haven't properly worked with her yet have you? All you've done is make the drugs so far I suppose." Yokomizi remarked.

I continued to stare blankly at them. I still had zero idea why I was here... and it's so weird how I'm not questioning all of this more... but I didn't have tome to think about that, as the unfamiliar man approached me.

"It's very nice to meet you Miss ——————. You may call me Dr. Akimitsu Agata. I rarely visit this side, but I just oh so badly wanted to see you again." Again, my brain censored something he said. What a strange occurrence. I... didn't know what to think. But I realized that Agata held out his hand towards me, so I shook it.

Akimitsu Agata was a biochemist and neurologist. He has a reputation for being a kind, gentle, and somewhat flamboyant soul, but also a bit reclusive, with his own weird side as well. But one thing that's always said about him is how smart he is and how effective the things he creates are. He is an expert in his field.

...

Hm. Another Doctor? Yokomizi was a seemingly kind lady, Asher seemed kind too, and Nakata seemed rather serious. But... I'm not sure what it was. It was like... this man had a certain aura around him. A very strange, yet oddly kind aura. I wasn't sure what to make of it at the moment, so I just put it out of my mind.

I widened my eyes as I realized I was staring straight at Agata while I was thinking. "Ah, forgive me Dr. Agata. I didn't mean to stare. Why... did you want to meet me?" I slightly titled my head.

Agata flashed a quick smile, before returning to a relatively neutral look. "Do I truly need a reason to see such a beautiful patient? I've heard such wonderful things about you! You've been a star so far, and I just simply wanted to see you again!" Agata exclaimed. I saw Yokomizi out of the corner of my eye giving Agata a stern look, and he quickly changed his demeanor.

"Well... I suppose that isn't the full truth. I do in actuality have an honest reason for meeting you my dear. I needed to ask about what happened to you yesterday." His voice took a serious tone.

Yesterday? I tried to think back to yesterday... but nothing came up. My memories have been pretty fuzzy recently I suppose. Why... was that? I don't even know why that is. Well, perhaps that'd be a good thing to ask Agata. But first, I wanted to address the topic at hand.

"Yesterday? What are you talking about?" I raised an eyebrow.

Dr. Agata stared at me for a moment, before promptly looking away. But as he did, I could've sworn I spotted a smile creep onto his face.

"So you don't remember? That's alright my dear. Perhaps this will jog your memory?" Still looking away, Dr. Agata started to fumble with his pockets, then he pulled out... something. He turned back towards me and lit it up, which in doing so produced a small flame.

I stared into the small flame. It was almost... mesmerizing.

The colors of yellow, orange, and red that made it up. The slight residual heat I felt. Everything about the flame almost felt… good. I was feeling a very strange sensation, and I didn't know how to properly describe it. After roughly 15 seconds or so, Agata put out the flame.

It took a few seconds for me to speak again. "Dr. Agata, did you have a purpose in showing me this thing?"

…

He didn't respond for a while. He just stared at me. For about 30 seconds, we just sat in complete silence. After those 30 seconds, an utterly terrifying smile crept onto his face. He turned to Yokomizi and motioned to her to write something down, then turned back towards me.

"To answer your question my dear, I did indeed have a purpose in showing you this flame. But... you don't have to worry about that. Not right now at least."

He may have technically answered my question, but I was still very confused. But during my confusion, Agata stood up and went to talk with Yokomizi about something. They talked for a few minutes, until Agata finally turned back towards me.

"Miss ——————, would you like to go on a trip?" Agata crossed his arms and smiled.

"A trip? What do you mean?" I blinked.

Agata walked closer to my bed. "You don't need to worry about it. Just come with myself and Dr. Yokomizi. I can't imagine you like being confided in here all day do you my dear?" He held out his hand.

I thought about it for a moment. I... suppose he's right. But I'm still not even sure why I'm here in the first place. So why aren't I questioning it more? And it looks like I'm in a cell… so why would they want to take an apparent prisoner on a trip? I feel like I should be freaking out or something... but I'm not. I'm not really sure how I feel. It feels like the only things I have in this place are questions… but despite that…

"A trip sounds nice. Thank you Dr. Agata and Dr. Yokomizi." I took Agata's hand as he pulled me to my feet.

A creepy smile that's I've almost grown to expect slid across Agata's face. Compared to Yokomizi's gentle smile, it was quite the contrast. But I didn't have time to focus on their smiles as Yokomizi started approaching me.

"I'm happy to hear you're open to this. Now forgive me for this, but we still need safety precautions. Please work with me okay?"

Yokomizi started attaching shackles to my wrists and ankles, I'm assuming to prevent me from escaping when I leave my cell. I'm not sure why I would escape, but I'm also not sure why I'm here in the first place. So many damn questions... But as I was questioning borderline everything about this place, Yokomizi started leading out of my cell and into the hallway, promptly joined by Agata.

[Facility Hallway]

It feels like the only rooms I know in this place are the sterile green room and my cell. So this feels like my first time seeing the rest of this place I'm locked up in. My first observation was that my cell seemed very separated from anything else. We walked through a long and dull hallway before reaching anything else. The first thing we got to was a large metal security door. I didn't have much time to admire the door as Agata pulled out a keycard and scanned it. The door quickly opened after that, and we kept on walking.

The next thing we reached was an intersection. I also didn't get much time to observe it as we took a sharp left and kept walking. I could immediately see a large light at the end of this hallway, so it was fairly short. But there were various posters about medical related things on the walls of the hallway. There was one door we passed by, and I managed to see Nakata in the room.

I only glanced inside the small window to the room for just a second, but I swore I saw a gun in his hand. Wait, why did he have a gun? A gun? Why... Why did he have that?

...

I started to sweat. I started to hyperventilate. Why... was I feeling like this? I felt so confused... so... I don't know. Why don't I know how I feel?! Damn it! What was going on with me? I wanted answers so bad, but I knew I wasn't going to get them.

Seemingly noticing my inner turmoil, Yokomizi placed a hand on my shoulder. "———? Are you okay?" She gently whispered. I'm not sure what it was, but something about Yokomizi's voice was just so... comforting.

"I... yes. I'm okay Dr. Yokomizi. Thank you for checking." I slightly smiled. Yokomizi nodded, then started leading me along with little remaining distance to our destination. But she quickly stopped. Agata held out his arm in front of us as he starred at Nakata.

"Can we... hold on a moment? I'd like to speak to Nakata." Agata's voice lost any joy or glee, as it turned rather serious.

Sensing Agata's tone, Yokomizi gave a quick nod, and led me away from the door. "Come now ———, let us go over here for a moment..." She quickly led me away from the room that Nakata was in. As we walked away, I wondered. I wondered what was going on...

...

[Spare Room]

Agata looked over his shoulder, and after making sure that Yokomizi and the patient were far enough away, he stepped into the Spare Room, intending to speak to Nakata.

The Spare Room was exactly what it sounded like, just an extra room in the facility that they can use for various things. At the moment, Nakata was probably the only interesting thing in the room. It was decently large, with a slowly chipping dark blue painted walls. The only window was on the metal door that you use to enter.

Then at the moment, the room was in the middle of being transformed into a certain testing ground. There were plenty of boxes, some open and some not, full of random and unassorted supplies. Currently, Nakata was sorting through supplies, namely the aforementioned gun.

Agata lightly knocked on the door to get Nakata's attention. "Hello? Zenkichi? Do you have a moment?"

Upon hearing Agata's voice, Zenkichi set the gun down and turned towards him. "Akimitsu. Did you need something of me?"

Akimitsu walked forward towards Zenkichi. "Oh it's nothing important or vital, don't you worry. I was just... wondering how the preparations for the next test were going!" Akimitsu was a fairly animated man, so he accentuated and moved his arms a lot as he spoke.

"That's it? Well the progress is fairly apparent." Zenkichi on the other hand, was a fairly deadpan man. It'd take a lot for him to actually express any major emotions. But he spread his right arm in a quarter circle, showing off the lack of progress.

"But... I can say for sure that the gun will work well." Zenkichi picked it up again and looked at it. "Where did you get his from again? It's easier said than done getting a gun of all things into a place like this. He raised an eyebrow at Akimitsu.

Akimitsu shook his head. "You needn't worry about that! Just focus on getting this set up for now!" He winked.

Zenkichi sighed. "If you say so..." He once again put the gun down and started rummaging through a box. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to help out a little." Zenkichi snidely remarked.

Akimitsu held in a scoff as he responded. "Ah, I would help you out if I could! Hannah and I are currently taking the patient on her next test! I am sure you can handle things here?"

Zenkichi tried to hold in a sigh, but was only half-successful. "Yeah I guess I can handle it. I'll see if Asher is available." Zenkichi quickly looked at his watch, then back to Akimitsu. "Hey, could you at least hand me that box before you head out?" He pointed at a medium-sized box at Akimitsu's feet.

He didn't want to keep Hannah and the patient waiting, but he reasoned it'd be fairly quick. "Well... of course I can do that!" Akimitsu bent down to pick up the box, but suddenly stopped when he saw what was in it. Akimitsu grabbed the thing that caught his attention and held it in his hands.

It was a camera. Not one for taking pictures, but one more fit for recording and taking videos. It was dark green, and fairly advanced. Akimitsu wasn't an expert on video cameras or anything, but even he could tell that this was a nice camera. Zenkichi was confused as to why Akimitsu kept on staring at it, but he quickly realized why his gaze was locked on it, and got into action, heading over to him.

"Oh shi- uh, I mean my bad. That wasn't supposed to be in here, let me take it and I'll get it back to the right place." Zenkichi went to grab it out of Akimitsu's hands, but he kept a tight grip on it.

"Stop Zenkichi. It's... fine. It's..." Akimitsu set the camera back down in the box. For all intents and purposes, Akimitsu tried to stay as chipper as he could whenever he can. He didn't like being sad or crying in public. But that camera appearing in here of all places was going to make that a lot harder for him.

Akimitsu shut his eyes tight. "Zenkichi. Do me a favor. Can you... put that box away yourself...?" His eyes were still closed, and he wasn't facing Zenkichi's direction.

"Right away." Zenkichi was quick in taking the box and putting it in a discreet corner of the room. "Alright, I put it away." He headed back to Akimitsu.

Akimitsu opened his eyes. "Thank you Zenkichi." He nodded his head sincerely.

"It's... fine. But..." Zenkichi was troubled. "Why is... Why was it... Hideyoshi's..." Akimitsu held up his hand, signaling for him to stop talking.

"Zenkichi. I assure you it's fine. Let's not worry about him. Please..." He whispered.

Hideyoshi Agata is, or more accurately was, Akimitsu's only son. He was 22-years old, and an aspiring film director. Despite how close Akimitsu and his son were, Hideyoshi decided to follow his own path, and not in his father's footsteps. And Akimitsu was fine with that. But he wanted his son to be more outgoing with the world. If he inherited anything from his father, it'd definitely be his reclusive side. And Akitmitsu hated it. He wanted his son to be exposed and known more in the world. But...

That can't happen now...

...

"Akimitsu. I know I'm not Hannah. But are you okay? I know you haven't been going to the recommended therapy sessions with her." Zenkichi crossed his arms as Akimitsu's face took a shocked expression.

Akimitsu sighed. "You... know that I haven't been going?"

Zenkichi shook his head. "Yeah. She talked to me about it. But that's not the point. Come on man, you need to do something about your grief. I know how much Hideyoshi meant to you." He put his hand on Akimitsu's trembling shoulder.

Akimitsu gently moved Zenkichi's hand off of his shoulder. "You're right. I know you're right. But... going to her, going to Hannah and talking about it... it'd be... accepting it. You can chide me if you wish. But I refuse to accept it." He wasn't meeting Zenkichi's gaze as he spoke.

Zenkichi shifted his eyes to the side. "Akimitsu. I know how you feel. We... all four of us lost someone that day. And I know it's hard, but you need to accept it. Cope with it if you must." He wasn't used to giving emotional or therapy-Esc talks, but he was trying his best. He attempted to mimic what Hannah would say to him.

But despite Zenkichi's best efforts, nothing was having an effect on Akimitsu. "Zenkichi. I appreciate what you are trying to say, but you are wasting your breath. Especially because I know you resort to less than savory methods to cope." He remarked.

Zenkichi shook his head in shock. ""Less than savory" methods? I'm not sure what you mean?" He attempted to play dumb at Akimitsu's accusation.

Once again, it didn't have an effect on him. "Don't be stupid Zenkichi. I know you've been drinking on the job. And I know what you and Hannah were "up to" the other day." Akitmitsu met Zenkichi's gaze and squinted his eyes.

Zenkichi hadn't expected this conversation to turn around on him so fast. "I..." He stopped. Then sighed. "How did you know?" He was dejected.

"Again, I implore you to not be stupid. The walls are rather thin you'll find." Akitmitsu stared at him. Zenkichi was now the one on the recovering end of the lecture.

"But... don't worry. I won't say a word." Akitmitsu held his finger up to his lips. "Everyone needs a way to cope correct? I believe Hannah said something to that effect before. So however you cope, I won't bother it. So I ask that you don't question my coping methods Zenkichi." Akimitsu was rarely stern, so Zenkichi knew it'd be wise to just... listen.

"I... understand. Thank you Akimitsu." Zenkichi gave a light smile. "But... I just want to say one more thing."

Akimitsu raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

...

"Are you sure?" Zenkichi didn't mean for it to sound so grave, but it just came out that way.

And despite the vague questioning, Akimitsu knew exactly what he was referring to.

...

"Yes. She will- no.They will pay. And I'll be sure of it." Akimitsu was deadly serious. But Zenkichi was thrown off by how he worded that.

""They?" Don't you mean "She?"" Zenkichi questioned.

"Ah, that was... a slip of the tongue. Pay it no mind." Akimitsu attempted to brush it off. Zenkichi was still weirded out by that wording, but he decided to not think about it for now.

"I- of course. And I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time. I'm sure you are busy with your test." Zenkichi apologized.

Akimitsu glanced at the clock in the room, and realized he had been talking for way too long. "Ah, indeed! This was a nice talk Zenkichi, but I need to leave, post-haste!" Akimitsu nodded his head as he sped-walked out of the door.

Zenkichi was still caught on what Akimitsu said. "They." Considering his attitude about everything so far, and especially considering what he did, that is a very strange "slip of the tongue." Despite how much he wanted to think on it, he knew setting up for the third test was more important. So he got out of his thoughts, and got back to work...

...

[Facility Hallway]

After an unknown amount of time, my waiting with Yokomizi came to an end as Agata finally left the room. "Akimitsu? Did everything go okay?" Yokomizi asked him.

Dr. Agata gave a curt and quick nod, then signaled for us to follow him once again.

...

As we finally reached our destination, I realized that it was a... parking garage? And a rather big one at that. It was hard to see exactly how many floors it had, but it had to have been at least five. What floor we were currently on, I wasn't sure. Plenty of refreshing sunlight rushed into the parking garage, giving me a nice and cozy feeling.

I basked in the gentle sunlight and breeze as Agata wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Here we are my dear!" He exclaimed.

I looked away from the sunlight and towards Agata as continued talking. "Now… are you ready for a trip?" He asked, awaiting an answer from me.

"Well... yes? Yeah, I'm ready for a trip!" It was kind of an awkward question, so I didn't know how to properly answer it. But after Agata got a wide smile across his face, I presumed he didn't care too much about my answer.

"Very good! Now, we must head towards that van over there." He pointed to a van relatively close to where we were standing. Yokomizi trailed behind Agata as she lead me to the van.

"Now ——————, for this trip, you'll be in the back seat with me alright?" Yokomizi asked, but it didn't seem like my answer would've mattered. Yokomizi opened the van door, set me in the back seat, then took her own seat right next to me. After that, Agata got into driver's seat, and stuck the keys into the ignition.

"Ah, what a wonderful sound..." Dr. Agata mused.

"Now, just know that we don't have a particular destination in mind Miss ——————. It'll just be a fun drive around the town!" Agata seemed almost abnormally excited about this. But then again... I kind of was excited too. I wasn't sure why.

But he went to back up out of the parking space, and he started talking with Dr. Yokomizi as he left. I felt myself zoning out, so I didn't catch any of their conversation. Yeah. Agata was right. This'll be...

very...

Fun...

[Pheme's Room]

"Pheme?"

...

"Miss Pheme?"

...

"Miss Pheme? Please."

...

Pheme's eyes slowly fluttered open. "Oh? Did I fall asleep...? Forgive me..." She sat up in her seat.

"Were you dreaming again Miss Pheme? Care to tell me about it?"

"Mm... maybe later." Pheme rubbed her eyes. "It was quite the dream though..."

"Indeed. Now let us-"

"Oh! I just remembered!" Pheme suddenly stood up from her chair. "I get to call you by a proper name now!" In previous chapters, Pheme had to skirt around ever calling The Figure by their name. But now, she didn't! "So... Asclepius. What's on the agenda today? Tell me!" She got excited.

Asclepius sighed and shook his head. "You really are rather excited aren't you? But that's part of your charm I suppose." He walked up to their security system. "It's still early. The stars aren't awake yet." He turned to Pheme. "The second floor has been unlocked yes?"

"Mm hm! I unlocked it a few minutes ago!" Pheme happily nodded.

"Good then." Asclepius sat down. "Now all we do... is wait."

"Yes! Let us wait..." Pheme closed her eyes. "Let us wait for Chapter Two to truly begin..."

...

[Yoshino's Room]

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

"Tch." Yoshino woke up with a scoff. She never liked waking up to Pheme's announcement. But her circadian rhythms were working against here. Admittedly, even with the figurative alarm clock forced upon them, most people probably wouldn't want to wake up. Especially after what had happened yesterday...

Everyone was forced to witness Bessie and Aelia... dead. Aelia caused Bessie to burn to death... then Aelia got mutilated as punishment. It was horrible. The sight of Bessie's and Aelia's bodies still stayed fresh in everyone's minds, including Yoshino's.

But she wasn't the type to let that stop her. If anything, it gave her more motivation to escape from this place. And not in the way Pheme wants them to. She forced her body to get out of bed and to get ready for the morning. No... she wasn't going to let Pheme get the better of her.

[VIP Quarters]

Yoshino left her room, and found the VIP Quarters pretty quiet. Again, she couldn't blame people for wanting to just bury their heads in their pillows and to block out the world. But that's still no way to live.

"Yoshi! You're up early eh?" Genjiro was seemingly the second person to leave his room.

"Oh. You. You seemed like the type to just brush shit off and keep going. But can you can your little bully attitude for the day?" Yoshino wasn't exactly the biggest fan of him, and she wasn't afraid to show it.

"Damn! I haven't even done shit yet! Ho ho!" Genjiro went over to her with a hearty laugh.

"Yeah yeah." Yoshino brushed him off. "But if you're out here, make yourself useful and start waking people up yeah?"

Genjiro frowned. "What, am I your bitch? Who made you the leader?"

"Really man?" Yoshino shook her head. "Nobody made me a leader. I just don't want people fucking being depressed in their rooms." She lowered the volume of her voice for a second. "You saw how Val was after the trial. Roro too. I want to make sure they're up and about and shit." Yoshino whispered.

"Eh... fucking fair enough." Genjiro huffed. "Alright, let's get these bitches up!"

"Good. I'm glad to see people already up." Ji-hoon jumpscare!

"Ah god!" Yoshino jumped up in surprise. "Jiji... good to see you!" She went up to him and patted him on the back, trying to gloss over the fact that she just got scared.

"Ha! Ji-hoon is that scary?" Genjiro mocked the poor horror novelist.

"Genjiro..." Ji-hoon glared at him.

Yoshino stepped in front of the celebrity detective. "Jiji, don't worry, I can be the one to glare at him. Just focus on getting people up." Yoshino, like she said, took over glaring at Genjiro for being an ass.

"That works I suppose." Ji-hoon sighed, before going around to various doors to get people up. He was glad that people, namely Yoshino, were already taking some initiative. He wasn't sure how people were really going to react after everything... so he wanted to make sure everyone was alright. They still never had an official moment where they declared Ji-hoon as the leader or anything, but he still admittedly saw himself as one.

Genjiro moved out of the way of Yoshino's glare. "Alright! Let's go Ji-hoon!" The wrestler chose to ignore the glaring as he joined the celebrity detective in waking people up. Genjiro walked up to the nearest door and knocked.

"GET THE FUCK UP!" He yelled out.

Yoshino went up and punched his shoulder. "Genjiro you dumbass!"

"What? Nothing can be done without everyone or some shit right? So I'm making sure everyone is up!" Genjiro didn't really understand the word "tact."

"Christ Genjiro you're such a-" Yoshino stopped herself as the door Genjiro knocked on drifted open its own.

"Nyaaaaa..." A relaxed "nya" came from the room.

Yoshino narrowed her eyes. "Is this Roko's room?"

"Fuck if I know!" Genjiro shrugged, then barged into the now open room. "Yo! Kuroko! Get the fuck up!"

"Oh! Genjiro-nya! I'll be out soon-nya!" Yoshino heard Kuroko from outside her door.

"Fuck uh... okay." Yoshino heard Genjiro use an inside voice for once as he walked out of her room.

"Genjiro? What's up?" Yoshino wasn't sure about what she had just heard.

Genjiro shrugged. "Kuroko was doing yoga or some shit. Bitch certainly got over last night quick! Ha!" The wrestler bolted away, eager to get to rudely making sure everyone was awake.

Yoshino blinked. "Bye then?" Genjiro really knew how to be rude. But whatever.

"Hey Yoshi-nya! I'm ready for the day-nya!" A fully dressed Kuroko wandered out of the room.

"Roko! Good to see ya!" Yoshino smiled. "I'd talk more with you... but right now we're making sure everyone is up and at em'. We wanna make sure everyone is alright yeah? So you wanna help?"

Kuroko excitedly jumped up and down. "Yeah I do-nya! Let's go-nya!"

Yoshino was of course happy to see her friend raring to go, but still... "Yo Roko?" She stopped her.

Kuroko turned around. "Hm? What is it-nya?" She tilted her head.

"You know... the more people that are doing good, the better. Or I guess that's obvious." Yoshino awkwardly scratched her head. "Fuck... sorry. I just want to ask if you're okay. Genjiro said you were already doing yoga and shit, and now you're... good. Are you good?"

Kuroko slowly blinked. She admittedly hadn't expected Yoshino to get serious like this... but that's the type of person she was, she supposed. "Yoshi... don't worry-nya!" She grabbed her friend's shoulder. "Bessie and Aelia... they still weigh on me-nya. They probably weigh on everyone-nya. But..." Kuroko closed her eyes. "But I can't let the deaths of two girls be in vain-nya. So..." She pinched her cheeks. "I'm ready to be in the game-nya! I refuse to let anyone else die-nya!"

Yoshino felt relieved. "We feel the same way then Roko. Hell yeah! We're ain't gonna sulk and let Pheme win! No way!" She patted Kuroko on the back, prompting a giggle from the hypnotist. "Alright, for real now. Let's go!"

Yoshino and Kuroko joined up with Genjiro and Ji-hoon's efforts to make sure everyone was awake and alright. Most people thankfully seemed fine. And anyone who was late to getting up was just attending to something first, like how Kuroko was.

"Ah, forgive me for being late to rise my dears Yoshino and Kuroko!" Damien waltzed out of his room after the girls had knocked. "This is the start of a new chapter... for all of us. So I simply had to look perfect. Just like you two are looking right now. Perfect!" He complimented them.

Yoshino rolled her eyes, but Kuroko couldn't help but let out a small giggle. "Thank you Damien-nya! But I'm only into cute girls-nya!"

Damien smiled and shook his head. "I am aware my dear Kuroko, don't you worry. If we are to persevere in this place... we must make sure we all feel good and have faith in ourselves. That is all I meant." He winked before proceeding to bow. "But now, I must be off. I must see if I can wake my dear Ayaka, along with others." He walked off.

"I don't like that guy." Yoshino narrowed her eyes. "Something about him rubs me the wrong way."

"Hm..." Kuroko shrugged. "Maybe... but I choose to reserve judgement on Damien-nya. You never truly know-nya!"

"Eh. Guess so." Yoshino shared in Kuroko's shrugging as they kept going around to people's doors.

...

After enough time, most everyone had been woken up. Some were clearly doing better than others... but that sense of camaraderie still lingered between everyone. Well, except Cathy and Alpha. But that's to be expected.

"We really gonna play all nice and shit still?" Alpha crossed her arms. "You all fucking stupid?"

"Honestly! You humans are so heartless to act like the backup dancer non-human and the puppeteer human never existed! Nyahaha!" Cathy pranced around smugly.

"Alpha... Cathy..." Joji glared at the girls, not eager for their antics.

"What do you want big man?" Alpha spat at him. "I'm being fucking real here. You like the little ballet dancer over here? Walking with sunshine and rainbows blinders over their eyes like a fucking pussy?!"

Lake still wasn't doing great... but at the same time... they still wanted to play peacemaker all the same. "Alpha... I know it's hard... but we have to try and work together. And I believe we can!" Their smile brimmed with hope.

"Anyway, I'm not in the mood to have a friendship orgy with you all. I'm out." Alpha left the VIP Quarters, ignoring Lake's plea in the process.

"But..." Lake muttered.

Joji set his hand on Lake's shoulder. "Don't let her get to you Lake. Getting her to work together with us is easier said than done. Its..." He balled his fists. "Not worth the fucking trouble..."

"J-Joji is correct." Adam slowly nodded. "It's l-logical for us all to work t-together here. A-And theoretically s-speaking, I believe it's p-possible. B-But it's difficult to m-make it a r-reality." He sighed.

"That's for sure..." Joji groaned, then looked over to the other antagonist in the cast. "You going with her?"

"Ha!" Cathy scoffed. "Why would I ever want to go with that human? I'll just do whatever I like! Nyahaha!"

"Oh yeah?" Kei smirked. "Like stealing evidence and Star-Phones?"

"Oh shit! I forgot that bitch did that!" Genjiro glared at the cat burgular.

Aurora, and then Damien, looked over and saw Cathy digging and scavenging around the broken down door. Cathy and Rosalind had chosen to investigate the door together. To Aurora and Damien, it looked like Cathy grabbed something from under it and snatched it away. Eh, probably just some kleptomania tendencies.

"Ha! That was quite the stunt you pulled you little pussy!" Genjiro seemed both mad and amused. "You liked hanging onto that shit until the end? You could've fucking killed all of us. Well, besides for me of course!" Genjiro flexed his muscles and struck a pose. "No way I'm dying in this hole. I'm escaping and beating the ever living fuck out of Pheme!"

"Nyahaha! You're so predictable wrestler human! You start angry at me, then you just talk about yourself! How arrogant can one human be I wonder? Especially one who is all bark and no bite! What, the cat snatched your bite?" Cathy smirked, trying to egg Genjiro on.

"Ha! You're that eager for a pounding you little shit? You know..." Genjiro stopped for a second, having a surprisingly serious look on his face.

"Genjiro? W-what a-are you doing?" Adam didn't understand why the wrestler stopped.

"Shut the fuck up you little fuck." Genjiro spoke fast as he continued to think about something.

"..." And shut the fuck up Adam did.

"You know what pussy?" Genjiro pointed at the pussy (Cathy). "Fuck you. I ain't letting you get a rise out if me. Not worth it to chase around your bitch ass."

...

Everyone was silent. Did Genjiro... just imply he didn't want to beat the shit out of someone? And Cathy of all people? That's character development right there!

"Hmph. Fine." Cathy crossed her arms, trying to hide her disappointment. "Whatever! I don't need to be around you humans! Nyahaha!" And Cathy rushed off to who knows where.

"I'm surprised you didn't try to beat her up Genjiro." Ji-hoon, for once, didn't sound annoyed with him.

"Honestly... you seemed like the type to just beat people up for no damn reason." Yoshino deadpanned.

"Ha! It's a waste of time chasing that bitch around!" Genjiro crossed his arms. "I want a real fight."

"I... get that. I think." Joji frowned.

"Anyway!" Genjiro stomped his foot. "That's enough fucking around! Let's get going people! We got a new floor to explore, and that means more ways to get the fuck out of here! C'mon! Ha ha!" Genjiro charged down the stairs.

"Huh? New floor? Whomst've?" Raiha was here, though a little less spirited than she usually is. "WTH does he mean?"

"Have you not seen or heard of how past killing games have operated, my dear Raiha?" Damien asked. "After every trial, a new floor in the location is opened up. It tends to be the same each and every time."

"Ohhhhh yeah. You're so right for that Damien." Raiha tried to smile. "Yeah... we're gonna bust this place open, and clap back at Pheme non-bestie. Yeah!" The trendsetter got some spirit back, it seems.

"Y-Yes! L-Let's do it!" Adam joined in.

"We're not gonna let Pheme win-nya!" Kuroko joined in too.

Kei chuckled at the sight. "Everyone being eager to fight again is quite the sight. Not a bad one, mind you."

Kei had a point. For the most part, everybody was just forcing that determination. That drive to take Pheme down. But the saying does indeed go "fake it until you make it."

So many were still torn up at the memories of Bessie and Aelia... but they had to keep going. No matter what. So, as a group, they all went to leave the VIP Quarters, and to head onward to a new and hopeful day...

...

"Excuse *cough* me? I don't think this is everyone?" Rosalind looked around. "Are we not missing some people?"

There was a tasteless joke to be made there, but no one did as the group joined Rosalind in looking around.

Ayaka darted her eyes around. "I t-think Rival and Aurora aren't here."

"Hm... I do believe you're right my dear Ayaka." Damien complimented her. "No one has fetched my dear Aurora or Rival just yet?"

"OMG! You're high-key right!" Raiha widened her eyes. "I'll get her!" She ran off towards Aurora's room, which was only like a few feet away.

"I'll see if I can get Val up." Yoshino already started going up to Rival's door. She... well, she didn't know what to think. At the trial last night... it was clear that he definitely felt some sort of attachment to Bessie. Yoshino didn't get the full story, but it sounded like Bessie reminded him of someone? Something like that.

But anyway, there'd be time to worry about that later. "Yo Val? You awake?" Yoshino knocked.

...

Nothing. Hmph. "Val?? You alright?" Yoshino knocked louder.

...

Still nothing. Damn. Alright, drastic times call for drastic measures. "TIME TO WAKE UP VAL!" Yoshino yelled as she knocked as loud as she could.

...

Seriously?! Still nothing?! Wow that guy-

Rival's door slightly opened.

Yoshino perked up. "Val? You alright?"

Rival's eyes had trouble adjusting to the light as he peeked out of his door. Yoshino could see the bags under his eyes, and how disheveled he looked. "You alright man? We gotta get going." She was kind yet commanding with him.

Rival squinted his eyes. "...Alright." He closed his door.

...

He didn't come back out. "Yo Val don't make me yell again-" Yoshino was more than ready to yell at him again, but there was no need. Rival walked out of his room on his own, at least wearing clean clothes. He walked past Yoshino and the rest of the group.

"O-Oh! R-Rival! Are you w-willing to-" Adam wanted to see if the backing vocalist was open to joining up with the group, but Rival had other plans as he ignored him and walked downstairs. "I s-see. Again, it's l-logical that n-not everyone could g-get over what happened so quickly."

"*cough* Indeed..." Rosalind watched Rival walk away.

"As much as I'd like to stop him..." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "He's not going to cause trouble. I feel sure on that."

"That's rather interesting. I'm not saying I disagree, but why do you say that?" Damien raised an eyebrow.

"Rival Seizon isn't the type to cause trouble." Ji-hoon spoke like he knew for sure. "We need to worry about Alpha and Cathy. Not him."

"You're right Ji-hoon." Lake tried to think. "I wish there was a way to get them to cooperate with us. I believe there is... but I'm not sure what..."

Damien lightly chuckled. "That's an admirable attitude my dear Lake, but I'd advise you to put that on hold. What did Genjiro say? Them being a waste of time? In a rare instance, I believe I agree with him. My dears Alpha and Cathy... while I don't wish to abandon them, I wish to leave them be for now. If they don't wish to cooperate, forcing them to will only cause problems." He gave his take.

"But it'd be better if we could get them to work with us!" Lake didn't want to back down. "Especially after yesterday..." They shuddered. "I don't want that to happen again!"

"It's alright Lake." Joji his hand on their shoulder.

"Joji?" Lake turned around.

Joji was grateful Lake had a fairly calming aura. "I think we should just get going. We could talk about those fuckers-" He stopped himself and took a deep breath. "We could talk about Alpha and Cathy all day. But for now... let's get going and see if a new floor really is open, like Genjiro said."

"Good idea Joji." Ji-hoon nodded. "I think it's about time we go. Is..." He looked over the group. "I saw Rival, but is Aurora here?"

"Oh! Yes, I'm here!" Aurora was standing in the back of the group next to Raiha, so she moved to make herself known. "Sorry if I worried any of you." She awkwardly laughed.

"Yeah, DW. Aurora bestie is gucci and ready to pop off!" Raiha stayed close to her bestie.

Everyone here obviously knew that Aurora was an actress. A talented one. So it's fully possible that she's just putting on an act to mask her feelings. But the thing is... everyone else was doing that too. So they all just welcomed Aurora's presence intstead of questioning it.

"It's good to see you're doing alright Aurora-nya! You look fantabulous-nya!" Kuroko winked at her.

"O-Oh, thank you Kuroko." Aurora curtsied while surpressing a blush.

"Y-Yeah, I'm glad to see you're alright A-Aurora!" Adam was glad to see she was doing good too."

"Thank you Adam." Aurora smiled. "But let's not waste time. We were about to leave no?" She quickly brushed past the academic and to the front of the group.

"Right." Ji-hoon nodded. "Like she said, let's not waste time. Let's go!" Ji-hoon started to really take on a leadership role now.

[Grand Lobby]

"Oh. There you guys are." Darren started at the group as he sat on one of the sofas in the Grand Lobby.

"Yeah! Took you fuckers long enough!" And Genjiro was sitting on another one.

"W-wait. Darren?" Ayaka looked over their group. "Y-you weren't with us?"

"Nope. Been down here for a bit." Darren shrugged.

"How e-early were y-you awake then to beat u-us down here?" Adam questioned.

All Darren did in response was shrug. But he got up after a few seconds. "Aren't we exploring the new floor now?" He pointed to the now un-shuttered staircase.

"Hm. I *cough* see." Rosalind supported herself with her parasol.

Then also on the other side of the lobby was what looked like an ornate staircase, but it was shuttered off. A mirror image of the shuttered off staircase was to the left of them on their side as well.

"Those shutters are indeed *cough* gone. Pheme does want us to explore a higher *cough* floor now." Rosalind pointed out the obvious.

"Indeed I do!" In a classic Pheme jumpscare, the goddess of fame phased into existence directly behind Rosalind. "Some of you already knew what was happening today! But in case you aren't aware, Ms. Reinhardt is correct! Today, you shall be exploring the second floor of Goddess's Movie and Media Studio!"

Rosalind seemed weirdly unperturbed by Pheme's presence right behind her. "I'm rather *cough* curious to see the new floor." She hobbled her way up to the staircase. "Shall we go?" She ignored Pheme's presence.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Pheme looked around in shock. She didn't expect their faint sense of camaraderie to still persist like this.

Damien couldn't help but chuckled as most everyone actually did ignore Pheme. "Forgive us Pheme, but we have business to attend to."

"Fuck yeah we do!" Genjiro jumped up off the sofa and flexed. "We're either gonna find a way out of this bitch, or we're gonna find a way to beat your head in, bitch!" He was raring to go. "C'mon!" He started to jog up the stairs.

"Damn right! Let's fucking go Genjiro!" Joji jogged up behind him, full of energy.

Lake smiled a genuine smile. They really liked seeing the group full of energy still... yeah. They weren't going let Bessie and Aelia die in vain. "Wait for me Joji!" Lake went to join the muscly men.

"Let's go Aurora bestie! We gotta flex on 'em!" Raiha started to run up as well.

"O-Of course!" Aurora was a little thrown off by how quickly this burst of energy was spreading, but they didn't want to waste it. She, and the rest of the group, moved up the stairs and onto the second floor...

...

Leaving Pheme by herself. "Hmph. Bunch of lousy actors." She crossed her arms. "The deaths of Ms. Yamamoto and Aelia still persist in their souls... that much is certain. Those deaths will never go away. Never. Death... never goes away." She kept staring at the staircase. "I wonder if... hm. I think I made a mistake. Well no matter. If I'm right, my mistake will be taken care of soon..."

...

[Grand Lobby - 2F]

When the group of fourteen, barring Rival, Alpha, and Cathy, made it to the second floor using the left-most staircase... they saw... another Grand Lobby. It was a similar design to the previous floor. There were four pillars in the middle, with seating surrounding each pillar. There were tables with vases of flowers around the lobby too. There wasn't a chandelier on the ceiling like the first floor, instead there were various lighting fictures on the ceiling. Movie posters, Idol posters, band posters, and more lined the walls. It was essentially just a copy of the first floor, but with things moved around.

There were a set of fancy wooden double doors on the wall to the left, similar to the doors to the Grand Theater. There were two hallways to their right, as well as another door in-between the hallways.

"Aw. It's similar to the previous floor. I'm disappointed." Kei fake-pouted.

"That's not something to care about Kei-nya!" Kuroko narrowed her eyes.

"This floor definitely hasn't been *cough* changed." Rosalind slowly blinked. "I remember this."

"That's right, I forgot you've been here before Rosa." Yoshino looked over the new floor. "Well... it's good that Pheme hasn't changed this... I guess?"

Damien chuckled. "Verily my dear Yoshino. Now, shall we get to exploring? Let's split up into groups, like how we did for the previous floor. Does that sound agreeable Ji-hoon?"

"Yeah. Let's do it." Ji-hoon looked over the group. "Let's see..."

"Oh hey!" Joji brought out his Star-Phone. "The map app updated! And according to it... there are six rooms to explore. So let's split up to account for that!"

"O-Okay." Ayaka moved a bit closer to Damien, prompting others to form their own groups.

...

After a minute or two, six groups were formed. The groups were:

Raiha, Aurora, and Rosalind.

Genjiro, with an unwilling Adam and Yoshino.

Damien and Ayaka.

Ji-hoon and Kuroko.

Kei and Darren.

Joji and Lake.

"Genjiro? Why the fuck do I gotta go with you?" Yoshino wasn't very happy about grouping with this guy.

"Admittedly, I'd r-rather g-go with s-someone else but-" It sounded like Adam also wasn't happy, but he got cut off.

"Both of you shut the fuck up and let's go!" Genjiro started to walk off. "Let's get going people! C'mon!" He walked off by himself.

Adam and Yoshino shared a look. "Let's just go Ade. Let's get it over with." Yoshino followed behind.

"R-Right." With a timid nod, Adam joined up with his group.

"Alright besties! Should we GTFO?" Raiha started to walk off with her besties Aurora and Rosalind.

"I'm not sure why you would *cough* want me, but I suppose so." Rosalind coughed, like she usually does.

"Yes." Aurora nodded. "Let us-"

"Hold on." Ji-hoon stopped them. "Raiha. Come with Kuroko and I." He ordered her.

Raiha slowly turned around. "Huh? WTF?"

"Ji-hoon? Is there a problem?" Aurora tilted her head.

"No." Ji-hoon shook his head. "Just... I want her to come with Kuroko and I. Simple as that. I don't want to make it a big deal." He realized how ominous it was when he said it, so he wanted to reassure everyone.

Kuroko didn't know why he was insisting, but she didn't mind either. "I'd be okay with that-nya!" She shrugged. "Going with an adorable girl like Raiha is a-okay with me-nya!" She winked at the trendsetter.

Raiha stared at Ji-hoon, and met his chilling gaze. Kuroko was disappointed she seemingly just ignored her. But she didn't say anything for a moment. "...Fine. Whatevs." Raiha sounded disappointed, but she walked up to Ji-hoon and Kuroko. "Sorry besties, I going with him IG." She shrugged.

Aurora and Rosalind shared a look. "So be it *cough* then. Let's go." The cinematographer walked off, with the starlet close behind her. Aurora looked at Raiha one more time before she joined up with Rosalind.

"Right. Let's go too. Remember to meet up at the cafeteria after we all are done!" Ji-hoon's group walked off too, with a smiling Kuroko and an uneasy Raiha close behind him.

...

"Huh. Wonder why Ji-hoon wanted Raiha with him." Kei thought aloud.

"It's hard to say." Damien shook his head. "But for now... we all should get going as well. The faster we explore, the better yes?"

"Fuck yeah! Let's do it!" Joji was full of energy. "Let's go Lake!" He urged his partner along as he headed off.

"Y-Yes! Joji, can you please wait for me?" Lake couldn't exactly match Joji's energy, but they sure tried as they went to join back with the carpenter.

"May as well continue taking off separately like this." Kei stuck his hands in his pockets. "Alright Darren, should we-"

Darren was already gone.

"Well damn. Alright, let's go find him." Kei said to no one in particular as he left too.

And that left Damien and Ayaka.

"Shall we go, my dear Ayaka?" Damien offered his hand.

"Um..." Ayaka stood frozen for a moment. It was like it just now hit her how closely sticking to Damien she was. What was it about his presence? What was this aura he gave off? She couldn't lie to herself. She did think he was rude to Aelia at the end of the last trial. But at the same time, Aelia did murder someone. And it wasn't like Ayaka was actually close to Aelia.

But anyway... she felt an urge to take his hand. When she got kidnapped and put in this killing game... she expected to just distrust everyone and stay in her room the whole time. And the first thing still pretty much applied. But... did she distrust Damien? Did she? Why... was she thinking that she doesn't? Why? Why is she believing Damien's word?

Damien didn't realize that there was another person besides the two of them here, but he of course trusted Ayaka. "Hm. Well, I trust you Ayaka. Shall we find out where this mysterious Darren went together?" He held out his hand.

Gah, she was getting too caught up in her own thoughts. "L-Let's go Damien!" She reached her hand up like she was about to take his hand, but she pulled it back at the last moment. "H-How about that door between the hallways?" She pointed to the door.

A smile slowly started to appear on Damien's face. "Of course my dear Ayaka. Any place is lovely if it is with you." Acting unbothered by her not taking his hand, Damien and Ayaka walked side by side and up to the door and entered... both ready to explore a brand new room...

[Ultimate Beautician's Studio]

"Well then. This is a pleasant sight." Damien's face brimmed with curiosity as he entered the room with his dear Ayaka.

"Y-Yeah..." Ayaka slightly widened her eyes. "This is... your Ultimate Studio. Isn't it D-Damien?" She realized quickly.

"I do indeed think it is." Damien walked further into the room, very interested in what he might find.

The room was relatively rectangular, with Damien and Ayaka entering on the long side. The room had a fairly comforting aura, with the walls and ceiling being nearly the same color as Damien's trenchcoat. It was a tiled floor, with the tiles being various shades of brown. Lining nearly the entire opposite wall from where they entered were black stands holding various beauty products. But there was also a door on the opposite side too, directly across from where they entered.

To their left there was what looked like a sort of dressing room. There were dressing room chairs and mirrors, with lights lining the mirrors too. There were clothing racks with various costumes as well.

To their right there was what looked like a beauty salon. It had a bigger and fancier mirror and it had one chair. Various beauty products were already in the beauty salon section too.

"Well well... this is indeed my own Ultimate Studio." Damien walked up to one of the stands holding some of the perfumes.

"This atmosphere is very..." Ayaka looked around. "I d-don't know how to describe it. It's strange."

"Strange...? How about... comfortable? Shall I say... beautiful?" Damien mused as he examined some of the beauty products.

"I-I don't think I'd s-say it's beautiful..." Ayaka didn't know how to respond to that.

Damien chuckled. "Relax my dear Ayaka. I was merely waxing poetic." He set the perfume he was holding down. "But I see your point." He narrowed his eyes at the "dressing room side," so to speak. "That side intrigues me."

Ayaka seemed a tad confused. "Intrigues you? W-Why?"

"You said it yourself didn't you my dear Ayaka?" Damien gave her a kind look. "You called it strange. And the dressing room side, while arguably fitting my talent, it isn't exactly what I do."

"I g-guess so... but... what is it about then?" Ayaka was getting more and more confused.

"I'm not sure..." Damien crossed his arms.

"Well I'm sure!" In a classic Pheme jumpscare, the goddess of fame popped out of whatever metaphorical dimension she resides in to answer the query of her stars. "Would you like me to tell you what that side is about?"

Nobody got actually jumpscared anymore by the goddess of fame, as Damien confidently turned around, and Ayaka apprehensively turned around. "Yes, I'd like to hear why what is seemingly my Ultimate Studio would have something like that." Damien seemed unbothered by Pheme's presence.

"Well to give you an honest answer Mr. Lux, it was admittedly laziness on my part." Pheme shrugged.

"L-Laziness? What do you mean?" Ayaka tilted her head.

Pheme giggled. "You've heard Ms. Reinhardt spout nonsense about being here before and such correct? Well prior to me giving this place a much needed makeover, this room here was dressing room. And when I decided to take ownership of this studio, I decided to have this room be your Ultimate Studio, Mr. Lux. That side is merely a remnant of this roon's past. And like you said earlier, it arguably fits with your talent, so I chose not to worry about it." She finished her loredump.

"Interesting." Damien nodded along. "This only makes me more curious about this studio prior to you purchasing it. And how much was it, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, well it was pretty-" Pheme stopped herself. "Hey! Nice try Mr. Lux, but that information is more suited for Chapter 6!" She realized what Damien was doing.

"So be it." Damien shrugged. "Now, is there anything else you'd like to tell my dear Ayaka and I about my Ultimate Studio?"

"Nope!" Pheme immediately answered. "Besides, I need to head over to the room next door!" She pointed to the other door on the wall. "Happy exploring!" She waved, then promptly left.

As soon as Pheme left, Ayaka let out a deep sigh. "I r-really don't like being around her." (Sorry Sempi!)

"Ah, that is alright my dear Ayaka." Damien attempted to steal- uh I mean he set his hand on her shoulder. "None of us enjoy being around her... but we must endure. And as long as I am here, I'll keep you safe from her my dear. You can trust me. Do not fret." He comforted her.

Ayaka felt a faint blush come onto her face. "I... t-thank you."

"Any time my dear Ayaka." Damien ran his hand through his hair. "Now then, how about we get to properly exploring my room?" He held out his hand again. "Shall we?"

Why was this guy constantly offering his hand to Ayaka? And why did she want to take it? Ayaka felt like she shouldn't trust this guy... but he trusted her. Didn't he? Gah, her brain felt scrambled. Like she had two different voices in her head telling her what to do. Her own voice... and another voice.

But you know what? Again, she didn't want to get too caught up in her own thoughts. "S-Sure Damien." Ayaka nodded, then reached up her hand for a moment. "Damien... I..." She put her hand down. "I-I'm sorry. I'm not comfortable with that."

"It's alright my dear Ayaka. Perhaps I was overstepping boundaries." Damien smiled at her and put his hand down. "I'd never want to make you uncomfortable my dear." He sighed. "But shall we go anyway? Now let's get to exploring yes?"

Ayaka let out a deep breath. "Y-Yeah. Let's get going." She was happy to see that Damien respected her like that. She knew that... or she felt like Damien was just trying to be kind. But she just wasn't ready for that yet.

"Let's start with the dressing room side." Damien sauntered over to the left side of the room, with Ayaka close behind.

"R-Right." As the duo reached the dressing room side, they started to look around. Ayaka sat down in one of the chairs. "This is a swivel chair. I'm a-able to turn it around."

"Indeed." Damien fiddled with one of the lights surrounding one of the mirrors. "The lights give off heat. And they seem pretty firm. I don't believe these'll be removed or broken without a strong force." He turned around. "And this clothing rack... hm. Just miscellaneous costumes. I don't believe this'll be important."

"Yeah..." Ayaka looked over the counter in front of the chair. "There are p-plenty of makeup items scattered. They don't look to be anything special though."

"Good eye my dear Ayaka." Damien picked up one of the fallen over makeup items. Specifically some nail polish. "Those black stands over there have more specific brands and such. But these over here are mere generic brands. In my professional opinion? Not worth much." He shook his head.

"I'm not the b-biggest makeup person... so I trust your judgment Damien." Ayaka nodded, then got up. "I guess they're g-generic because of what Pheme said. This room being repurposed for you. Just a r-remant. I guess?" She tried to do some deductive reasoning.

"Ah, that's a sharp deduction my dear Ayaka." Damien set down the bottle of nail polish he was holding. "I'd assume that to be the case. But that only makes me more curious about the things that are intended for me. I want to see Pheme's collection of makeup she deigned to place in here. I don't mean to compliment her, but she seems like the type to take good care in her appearance." He walked over to the black stands.

"I g-get what you mean by that." Ayaka quickly went and joined him.

These black stands had multiple levels, and those levels were separated into different beauty products. There were two long stands, with the aforementioned door that Pheme went through seperating them. The top level had perfumes. The second level had nail polish. The third had lotions and small mirrors. The fourth had lipsticks. The fifth and final level had concealers, eyeliners, mascara, and other miscellaneous items.

"Hm. Again, I do not wish to praise Pheme. But I'm impressed." Damien examined some of the products more thoroughly. "She even has Lux brand products. That's..." The beautician's face showed the slightest hint of concern.

"Damien? Are you okay?" Ayaka asked, wanting to address that concern.

"Oh no, don't mind me." Damien brushed her off and examined the Lux brand nail polish more. "It's not all my products. But it mainly is. I'm curious how Pheme obtained all of this." He actually did express his point of concern.

Oh. Ayaka hadn't really thought about that. "W-Well... maybe she just bought all of this? I'm not sure how expensive your products are... but Pheme s-seems like she'd be able to purchase anything she'd want to." She gave her thoughts.

"I could see that." Damien set the nail polish down. "But my main concern is when she bought all of this. Because buying this much product is easier said than done. There are some online exclusives and some in-store exclusive products. So because of that... how far in advance did Pheme plan this? It'd take time to purchase all of this."

"O-Oh. That's... a good point." Ayaka widened her eyes. "H-How far in advance was this planned..." She felt her hands start to shake. "I-I..."

Damien grasped Ayaka's shaking hands. "My dear Ayaka..."

Ayaka slowly looked up at him. "Damien?" She let out a strained breath.

"It's alright my dear. It's alright." Damien grasped her hand a bit firmer. "No matter what the truth may be... don't worry. I'll protect you. Pheme won't lay a finger on you." He let her hand go.

Ayaka stared in awe for a moment. "Y-Yeah. Okay." She was silently grateful that her mask blocked most of her blushing cheeks. "S-So is there anything e-else interesting here?" The violinist wanted to just move on. She didn't know how to articulate her feelings right now.

Damien chuckled, easily realizing that Ayaka wanted to brush past that. "Well I am rather curious what non-Lux products they have here." He started to go through the products one by one.

"T-That's a good idea..." Ayaka chuckled nervously, then joined him in his search.

...

"O-Oh. Here's one!" Ayaka found a non-Lux product fairly quickly.

"Ah, you have such a good eye my dear Ayaka." Damien took the product from her. "This is... Ariadoney nail polish? It's pink. Hm." He examined it. "Ariadoney is a fairly popular brand. Though it's fairly infamous."

"It's infamous? W-Why?" Ayaka blinked.

"I'm not aware of all of the details." Damien narrowed his eyes as he looked over what was in the nail polish. "Ariadoney nail polish was used to poison a father and a daughter before. Though only the father actually died. The daughter almost did. That's what I know." He recalled.

"T-That's scary..." Ayaka widened her eyes again. "Is nail polish poisonous?"

Damien shook his head. "Not usually. But the nail polish that poisoned that father and daughter was laced with atroquinine, which usually isn't in nail polish. And..." He sighed. "This nail polish is also laced with antroquinine. So this is poisonous if consumed."

"Oh no..." Ayaka bit her lip. "Pheme is already giving us more ways to k-kill each other?"

"I'm afraid so." Damien hid the laced nail polish on the stand, making sure it isn't visible to others. "I'll hide it away so no one can take it. Don't worry." He gave Ayaka a comforting smile. "No one will be using this. Don't worry."

Ayaka let out a relieved breath. "Okay. G-Good. ...Is there anything else dangerous on here?"

"Let me see." Damien went to finish examining the stands. "It appears that nothing else on here is harmful. Thankfully."

"Good. P-Pheme is... ugh." Ayaka really didn't like Pheme. (Sorry Sempi!)

"I wholeheartedly agree." Damien closed his eyes. "Pheme is rather ugh. But let's not think about her." He turned to the last section of the Ultimate Studio they hadn't explored. "Shall we?" He didn't offer his hand this time.

"Y-Yeah. Let's go." Damien's encouragement managed to raise Ayaka's spirits as well.

As soon as the duo reached the last section, Ayaka, despite having limited makeup knowledge, could definitely see how impressive this was. It was like something taken out of a proper beauty salon. There was a relatively large chair facing a larger mirror than the dressing room side. Below the larger mirror was a counter with plenty of perfumes lined up on top of it. Then below the counter were various drawers.

"Now this is something..." Damien paused. "That's more my style." He smirked.

"I g-guess so huh?" Ayaka didn't really know how to react to this. Her eyes narrowed at the drawers. "Are there anything in those?" She pointed to them.

"Allow me to check." Damien started to steadily look through the drawers below the counter. "Just more supplies it seems like. Nothing of note-" Suddenly, as Damien reached the last drawer, his eyes slightly widened, and he closed it rapidly. "Yes. N-Nothing of note. Not at all." He stuttered a little, clearly trying to hide something.

"Oh! A-Alright." Ayaka hadn't seem Damien react like that before. She wanted to know what it was that seemed to shock him. But if he wasn't going to press her boundaries, she wasn't going to press his. She trusted him after all- wait. She trusts him? Ayaka... just told herself that she trusts Damien. What...?

Ayaka absentmindedly sat down on the chair. "U-Um..." Her inner thoughts threw her off a little. "Those are perfumes o-on the counter right? A-Are those anything special?" She once again went to change the topic.

Damien chuckled. "That's a wonderful question my dear Ayaka. Let me see." He began to look through the collection of perfumes. "These are... oh. Wow. I'm not sure what to say."

"W-What is it Damien?" Ayaka didn't expect Damien of all people to be at a loss for words.

Damien coughed. "These are perfumes from "Je suis L'Belle!", a private brand. How in the world did Pheme acquire these?" The beautician seemed rather mystified.

"I'm s-sorry? "Je suis L'Belle!"? Is that something important?" Ayaka, like already stated, was far from an expert on this.

Damien narrowed his eyes. "I wouldn't say important per se. But "Je suis L'Belle!" is a line owned by Florent L'Belle, a fellow beautician. He's known for being very secretive with his products. So I'm very intrigued by how Pheme could obtain these." He picked up one of the perfumes. "Vanilla scented is it?" He sprayed a little of it and smelt it. "Hm. It's alright." He set it down.

"I see..." It was admittedly a little interesting to Ayaka to learn about beautician lore. "What other ones are there?" The violinist spoke aloud as she began to look through the other scents. "Orange, Pineapple, Citrus, Orange Citrus, Grapefruit, and Lavender. It's c-certainly... fruity."

Damien picked up another one of the perfumes. "Hm. "Fruity" is rather correct. And... ah. I see. Made with belladonna berries, are they?" He seemed concerned.

"Damien? What are belladonna berries?" Ayaka has felt thoroughly clueless throughout this entire room.

"They're poisonous. That's what they are." Damien started to put all of the perfumes into one of the drawers. "Enough of a dose is able to kill an adult within a few hours. Pheme really isn't subtle with this is she?"

"Oh... that's..." Ayaka quietly muttered.

Once Damien had gotten all of the perfumes into the drawer, he fiddled with it. "And... there. I'm not sure if I broke it, but someone would have to put in some effort to pull it open." He turned back around to his dear Ayaka with a smile. "Not to worry my dear Ayaka. Nobody can access those now."

Ayaka was looking down at her feet. "That's good." She quietly answered.

"Hm?" Damien bent down a little to be closer to eye-level with her. "What's wrong my dear Ayaka? Rest assured, I'll make sure that no one can use those poisonous perfumes. Pheme's game of giving us such easy weapons to use is ridiculous, but I'll protect you and-"

"It's that. That's what's w-wrong." Ayaka still didnt meet his eyes.

"Oh? Care to elaborate?" Damien raised an eyebrow.

Ayaka stayed silent.

"My dear Ayaka..." Damien took her trembling hand. "It's alright. You can confide in me. I trust you."

"I'm sorry." Ayaka bit her lip. "I-I don't know what it is... it's just that... c-coming into this... Killing Game..." She shook as she said those last two words. "I expected to be alone. To not trust anyone. And... well..." She still didn't trust anyone. Trust was difficult for her for the most part. "But d-despite what I thought... here you are. You try to be nice to me... and I didn't trust it at first. But you're just so p-persistent and... I don't know." Ayaka somehow managed to downcast her eyes even more.

Damien stared at her for a moment. "My dear Ayaka... truthfully? That breaks my heart." He slowly shook his head.

"It... what?" Ayaka looked up.

"I won't ask you to tell me every little detail about yourself." Damien immediately continued. "And I understand that everyone else here has there own thoughts to attend to. But it's just..." He grasped her hand a bit firmer. "I could tell that you've gone through some likely traumatic things, my dear Ayaka. And being in a heinous game like this will no doubt only serve to make that trauma worse for you. So... I wish to protect you. Think what you will of it..." He started to stand up, slowly dragging Ayaka out of the chair in the process. "But I can't stand by while someone remarkable like you is suffering. All I desire... is to make sure you don't feel alone. It's unfortunate that the others can't spare more care... but that's how it goes. The darkness of being alone... and that feeling of distrusting people around you... it's not pleasant my dear. You know it's not. Looking at shadows isn't pleasant. I'd merely like you to step into the light with me... and embrace that feeling of trust. It's as simple as that."

...

Damien couldn't see it, but Ayaka's mouth was currently agape. She... was at a loss for words. She felt her brain pulling her in one direction. But her brain was also pulling her in another direction. She felt so split... but... even she couldn't deny how good those words felt. "Damien... thank you." It felt like she was just taking him at face value... but... she... felt good about it. Ayaka... she trusts him. She thinks she trusts him anyway.

"Of course my dear Ayaka." He let go of her hand. "Now... I believe that was everything in my Ultimate Studio explored." He looked around one more time. "What say you and I get back down to the cafeteria? It's high time we meet back up with everyone and explain our findings." He offered his hand to the violinist. "Shall we?"

Ayaka still hesitated... but it didn't take long for her to make a decision. "Okay. That s-sounds good." With a nod, she took his hand, and the duo left the studio...

[Ultimate Carpenter's Studio]

"Oh wow!" Lake couldn't help but exclaim as they entered the new room with Joji.

"Hey... what do you know?" Joji crossed his arms and smirked. "This isn't too bad. This is... my Ultimate Studio?" The carpenter looked around.

The room was relatively rectangular shaped, and it looked like a proper workshop. All sorts of construction equipment lined the walls. The floors, walls, and ceiling appeared to be made out of the usual materials, but it was all given a wooden design, to really sell the workshop vibe. On the wall directly to the left of where Joji and Lake entered, a wide variety of tools lined the wall. Directly across from them, there were two large router tables, each with their own table saw. There was also a door in between the two router tables. Then on the wall to their right, it had a variety of measuring equipment. Various legends were on that same wall, showing exactly how far an inch was, a foot was, a meter was, etc. There was also a small room in the far right corner.

"Your Ultimate Studio is pretty cool Joji!" Lake gracefully ran in further.

"Hey, you should be careful!" Joji yelled out. "There are..." He took a deep breath. "There are a lot of dangerous things in here." He frowned as he look around again. "Let's just move through slowly yeah? Let's stay safe!" He'd give the safety speech to anybody, but he felt especially wary here, because of Lake. He wanted them to stay safe.

"Oh, right!" Lake went back to Joji's side. "So should we start with the wall of tools?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Joji gave a proud nod, then moved with Lake up to the wall of tools. And "wall of tools" was a pretty fitting name for it. Tools quite literally lined the entire wall. There were chisels, drills, axes, saws, spanners, nail guns, and more.

"Wow." Lake was still in awe of it all. "You know how to use all of this Joji?"

Joji started to feel a bit proud. "I do!" He gave a satisfied nod, then picked up one of the drills from the wall. "This is pretty high quality stuff. Pheme definitely didn't skimp on quality here." That fact was interesting and concerning to him. "As neat as all of this is..." He set the drill back. "I gotta protect this stuff."

Lake's face darkened a tad. "Oh. Protect it? Because..."

Joji slowly nodded. "Yeah. I'm gonna make sure that murder doesn't happen again. And to do that, I'll have to make sure no one gets their hands on these." He gave Lake a comforting look. "So... don't worry. I'll protect you... and everyone."

Lake smiled, a relieved look washing over their face. "Right... I believe you in Joji!" They cheered for him.

Joji had a lot of feelings in his chest, hearing that praise. But he just bashfully scratched his head in response. "Thanks Lake." He gave the wall another look. "But on a less despair-inducing note..." He narrowed his eyes. "I gotta think if I can use the tools for something. I'm not sure what... but I might be able to make something. Or..." He looked around the room. "Let's see what else this room has first."

"Yeah! Sounds good!" Lake was just excited to be here. Carpentry was the last subject they would've been interested in, but they were curious about it, even since meeting Joji. But the duo walked up to one of the router tables next.

"This is... used to cut wood. Right?" Lake gave a guess.

"That's right!" Joji patted the table. "You'd put a piece of wood on the table..." His eyes drifted below the table, and saw a convenient plank of wood sitting there. He also saw something else sitting down there. But he just kicked in a bit further under the table and ignored it. That... wasn't something he wanted to think about right now.

"Lemme show you." Swallowing his trepidation, Joji picked up the plank of wood, and set it on the router table. "It's pretty simple. You set it down, you take the table saw..." He wasn't sure if Lake even wanted to learn, but he went full teacher mode anyway. "You take the table saw... and you cut it! Simple as that!" Like he said, he cut the board with the table saw.

"Wow..." Lake realized they had been saying the word "wow" a lot today.

"So? What do you think? About all of this?" Joji turned to face the ballet dancer.

Lake tapped their pointer finger against their chin. "This is a pretty foreign area for me... but I guess I'm not opposed to learning about it. And like you said, building something in here could be fun! So I guess I like it!"

Joji felt like he was able to genuinely smile. "That's good. I'm happy to hear you like it!"

"I'm happy to hear you like it too Mx. Beaumont!" Out of nowhere, Pheme entered the room from the door between the router tables, seemingly aware of what they were talking about.

Joji let out a slow exhale. "What do you want Pheme?" He crossed his arms.

"Yeah... there's no point in terrorizing us! We're not going to fall for your tricks!" Lake put up a strong front.

"Well then!" Pheme put her hands on her hips. "That's not a very nice attitude to take with a goddess! You act like I did something to offend you!" She feigned ignorance.

Joji groaned. "Do you want something?" He was staying as calm as he could.

Pheme giggled. "Fine fine. I guess you could say I do want something. I want to tell you something! Just a little fun fact about your Ultimate Studio Mr. Kaneshiro!"

Joji narrowed his eyes. "What type of fun fact?"

"Well it's slightly relatated to the room next door!" Pheme cocked her head to the door.

"Room next door? What's next door?" Lake tilted their head.

"Mr. Lux's Ultimate Studio is next door!" Pheme revealed. "Now I know what you're thinking! You're probably thinking "why is Damien Lux's Ultimate Studio next door to mine", right Mr. Kaneshiro?"

"...Well yes. That's what I'm thinking." Joji couldn't imagine why his and Damien's Ultimate Studio of all places would be connected.

"Well it links back to what this studio originally was, prior to me buying it!" Pheme started saying similar things to what she said in the last scene. "You've heard Ms. Reinhardt say she has seen this studio before or some such nonsense, correct? Prior to me giving this room a makeover, this was a Prop Studio! And when I purchased it, I decided to make this into your room Mr. Kaneshiro!"

"Oh. Alright." Joji didn't know how to react to that.

"That's... cool...?" Lake also didn't know how to react to that.

Pheme frowned. "You two don't seem very interested in my fun fact! Hmph!" She pouted. "That was no fun..." She slowly walked out.

...

Joji and Lake shared a look. "Let's... keep going Joji. Right?" Lake blinked.

"Right... yeah." Joji didn't understand Pheme's mind, and he hoped he never would.

After that moment, the duo moved over to the small room in the corner of the Ultimate Studio. It was... small. The outward walls appeared to be made of wood. "Where is the... ah. Here!" Joji found the door, and opened it.

"Oh! It's full of planks of wood?" Lake looked inside. "It has room for just the planks of wood it looks like... I can barely even fit inside." They attempted to go fully inside the room, and they could barely fit.

"You shoud get out of there Lake." Joji urged them out. "Definitely meant to just be a storage room for some wood. Good to know this is here though!"

Lake giggled. "Aw... this is a fun place to hide... oh well!" They moved out of the wood room. "But do you think you could actually make something, now that you know this is here?"

"You know... maybe." Different ideas started to flow through Joji's head. This might be a fun thing to think about for the future... yeah. Well, anything to not think about what Pheme wants them to do here. "I'll think more about it later." He slowly nodded. "I want to see this measurement wall next." He cocked his head to the next wall.

"Okay! Sounds good!" Lake was happy to go along with anything. They walked up to the last wall.

It was exactly like what the narration had sad, it was a measurement wall. All sorts a measuring tape was being displayed on the wall, and there were legends too, showing how long certain lengths were. "Hmm..." Lake narrowed their eyes. "I can't tell how the wall is by itself just from these legends."

Joji chuckled. "Well, we could always just measure it like normal with one of these." He grabbed one of the measuring tapes off the wall. "It looks like there are four tape measures. One that goes up to 50 ft, one that goes up to 100 ft, one that goes up to 200 ft, and one that goes up to 300 ft. Good to know these're here!" He set the tape measure back up on the wall.

"Right!" Lake nodded. "Then..." They looked around. "I guess that's it? It looks like we've already investigated everything in here."

"Huh. Guess so." Joji took one last look around. "I'm concerned about somebody using these tools-" Joji cut himself off after seeing Lake's sad face. "But nobody is gonna use them anyway! I'll make sure of it!"

Lake started to smile. "That's right!" They danced around a little. "Should we go now? We don't want to keep everyone waiting if we can help it!"

"Sure! We can get going!" Joji returned the smile as they walked over to the exit to leave the-

"Hold on." Oh. Guess Joji didn't want to leave yet.

Lake stopped themselves from leaving. "Joji? What's up?"

"I... I've been meaning to say this..." Joji scratched the back of his head. "And I may as well say it now. I... I'm sorry."

Lake blinked. "Sorry? Sorry for what? You didn't do anything wrong!" They countered his claim.

"No... I did. Remember the trial?" Joji reminded them.

"So..." Joji started his explanation. "I lied a little. Genjiro?" He looked at his wrestling bro. "This morning... when I woke up... I checked the apps."

...

Joji started to tap his foot, maybe in attempt to keep him calm. "I have no excuses. I was getting antsy I guess." He looked down in shame. "But when I did check the apps.. I got an option on both the audio and camera apps for the "Boarded-Up Room." In the camera app, I saw flames. In the audio app, I heard a scream. A scream that wasn't Bessie. I'm confident in that. But it was muffled anyway. And that's why I went to the Boarded-Up Room immediately after waking up. That's all." Joji went quiet.

"I wanted to apologize for lying. I never got the chance to do that." Joji hung him head shamefully.

Lake shook their head. "Joji, it's okay! Don't worry!"

"Really...?" Joji looked up.

"Yeah... do you remember what I said back then?" Now it was Lake's turn to trigger a flashback.

Everybody was still a little apprehensive after this turn of events. "Yeah... yeah! Even if Joji initially lied, I'll choose to believe him and Kei!" Lake confidently nodded.

"I meant what I said Joji!" Lake took his hand. "I believe in you! You're a good person!"

Joji wasn't the type to cry necessarily, but he did slightly feel the urge to. "Thanks... Lake." He slowly started to smile again. "Thank you!"

Lake giggled. "Of course Joji! Now should we go?"

"...Yeah. Let's go!" With a burst of energy, Joji left his Ultimate Studio, with Lake close behind.

[Ultimate Pop Star's Studio]

Aurora and Rosalind had gone through the fancy double doors, and silently stared in awe at what they found. It was... wow.

It was easily the biggest room in the entire studio so far, being at least twice as big as the Grand Theater. The room was in a wide circular shape, with a giant stage near the back. Along with that, there countless rows of seats facing the stage. There were microphone stands with microphones atop the stage, and there were multiple spotlights above the stage too. One of the spotlights appeared to have some dried blood on it too. Aurora didn't know what to make of that. But it was all stuff that she recognized as the equipment Pheme brought down for Bessie's show. The show that... didn't happen...

Looking up at the ceiling, there appeared to be a second floor to the Ultimate Studio, with shuttered-off stairs leading up to it on the left and right sides of the studio. All in all... it really was a proper performance hall for a Pop Star.

"This has quite the *cough* atmosphere." Rosalind went a bit further in. "This must be Bessie's Ultimate Studio... to hazard a guess."

"Right..." Aurora spoke longingly. It was times like these where she was grateful she was a talented actress. She didn't want to weigh anyone down with her grief over Bessie anyway. But speaking of that... "Rival?" The starlet spotted Rival standing in the middle of the walkway down to the large stage. He didn't turn around at the sound of Aurora's voice.

"Hm. Perhaps we should leave him *cough* be." Rosalind sat down in one of the seats. "I cannot imagine what he might be going through." She snuck a glance at Aurora. She realized the starlet is probably going through similar feelings right now. "Ah, I suppose you're experiencing similar *cough* feelings though? I shouldn't have spoken, forget what I said. Perhaps you should talk to him."

"I... yeah. Thank you Rosalind." Aurora turned to the cinematographer and mustered up a smile.

"You don't need to *cough* thank me." Rosalind looked away coldy.

But that didn't bother Aurora. She just walked up next to the quiet backing vocalist, and joined him in silently staring at the stage.

...

Aurora wasn't necessarily the best with this. And perhaps a talk like this would be better suited for when Raiha was with them. But that didn't mean that she couldn't say something. "Rival?" She finally spoke up. "How are you?"

"...Fine." Rival suddenly turned around and went to leave.

"Rival! Wait!" Aurora called out, but to no avail as the backing vocalist left the room. The starlet slumped her shoulders a little and walked back over to Rosalind.

"It appears that didn't *cough* go well for you." Rosalind sighed.

"Yeah..." Aurora shook her head and sat down next to Rosalind. "I'm not trying to downplay my own emotions... but... I imagine Rival's feelings are rather different from mine right now."

"How so?" Rosalind decided to engage in the conversation.

Aurora looked over to her. "Well, Pheme changed the information on Bessie's Star-Phone remember? All to just... mess with him." She shuddered.

Rival slowly nodded. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but it was...

Name: Hanako Kaneko

Gender: Female

Ultimate Talent: Lead Singer

Birth Date: May 28th

Height: 5'5

Weight: 111 lbs

Blood Type: O

...that." Rival closed his eyes.

...

"That was... that was..." It seemed like Pheme was struggling to hold back a laugh. "That... was fake!" The goddess of fame started to laugh like crazy.

...

"Oh forgive me Mr. Seizon, I know this is..." Pheme really found this funny. "I know this is unbecoming of me..." She took a deep breath to compose herself. "Okay... alright. You want to know why you saw the information of your Hanako? It's simple! I did that just to mess with you!" She cupped Rival's chin with her hand. "Hilarious right?"

"Rival had his own Hanako from the sound of things... and Pheme abused that fact to mess with him." Aurora bit her lip. "She wants us to kill each other, but she also is willing to mess with our minds too. It's... horrible." She shuddered again.

"...Agreed." Rosalind slowly nodded.

"So I know his own grief is different from mine. Because, well, I don't have my own Hanako. And I wasn't... messed with. I suppose." Aurora started to stare blankly at the stage.

"If I may be blunt..." Rosalind cleared her voice. "According to what we *cough* heard, it appeared as if you were messed with. In a sense."

Aurora got reminded of a thought she didn't want to remember.

"Very good Hanako. Then you know who you must kill then?"

"I do Boss. I must kill Aurora Beaufort, like you said Boss. I'll do it Boss." Bessie's voice bore no human emotions or feelings.

"That's a good girl Hanako. Very good. Your mission is to kill Aurora Beaufort."

"Why did Bessie want to kill me...?" Aurora's voice was hollow as she pulled out two things.

"Hm? What are *cough* those?" Rosalind narrowed her eyes.

"Bessie's Star-Phone and the remote Pheme gave her." Aurora revealed. "They're pretty much broken. I'm not even sure why I have these." She set them down in the chair next to her.

"Strange that *cough* Pheme didn't fetch those." Rosalind pointed out.

Aurora shrugged. "Like I said, they're broken. Probably useless."

"Maybe so." Rosalind let out a deep sigh. "Going back to *cough* what you said... I think the question *cough* is more "why was Bessie told to kill you"?"

"I guess so... ugh." Aurora shook her head. "I wish we got more answers about Bessie. We got nearly everything... besides for why she was the traitor."

Rosalind coughed. "I don't believe that's a question that can be solved by just thinking *cough* about it." She slowly got up out of her chair, using her parasol as support. "I'm not one to give out advice. Any advice I do give out would be *cough* no doubt worthless. But I recommend you not dwell on it." She started to hobble away and out of the room, without waiting for a response from Aurora.

Aurora didn't watch Rosalind as she left. She knew she was right. That dwelling on it was pointless. But it was easier said than done for her to just not think about it. Did Bessie have something against her? Did that muffled voice have something against her? Did Pheme have something against her? Maybe that "something" was why she was here... but no. Rosalind was right. Aurora got up, and gave the big Ultimate Studio one last look. There wasn't particularly notable about the place. It was a big and glamorous stage fit for a Pop Star. But- hold on.

Aurora narrowed her eyes. "What's that?" She walked up to a small room that was to the left side of the stage. It was completely enclosed, meaning no one could see in it. She opened the door... and... "Oh! This is probably for a stage technician." She spoke to herself. A wide variety of buttons lined panels all across the small room, some buttons looking identical to the ones on Bessie's Remote. Hm. Out of everyone here, Adam was probably the biggest technology expert right? She'll try to remember to ask him about this later.

But Aurora closed the door, and went to leave Bessie's Ultimate Studio for real.

[Ultimate Horror Novelist's Studio]

"Alright! What the fuck is behind this door-" Genjiro stopped speaking as he burst into the room. "Oh. What the hell is this?"

Yoshino and Adam walked in behind him. "Oh no shit? This has gotta be my Ultimate Studio." She realized immediately.

"That s-seems l-logical, yes." Adam started to observe the Ultimate Studio.

The lights were purposely darkened in the room, to give it a creepy vibe. But it wasn't pitch black, so Yoshino was fine with it. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all made out of the usual materials, but it was painted to make it seem like chipped and rotting wood, just to add to the horror feel. The room itself wasn't actually too big. There was a large wooden desk up against the opposite wall. On top of the desk was a large stack of paper and a computer. In addition to that, there was a cup full of pens to the left of the stack of paper, and there were a variety of little horror figurines to the right of the computer too. Lining the faux-wooden walls were various posters. For horror movies, horror novels, and horror villians in general.

"Oh yeah! I can get behind this!" Yoshino seemed very pleased with the room.

"This definitely seems like shit you'd like Yoshi." Genjiro crossed his arms.

"Y-Yeah, that m-makes sense." Adam adjusted his glasses as he looked around the room. "Is t-this similar to y-your normal... w-workplace Yoshino?"

Yoshino chuckled. "Workplace is a funny word to use. But I get whatcha mean. To answer your question Ade, yeah. I guess so."

"I s-see! That's pretty-"

"Holy shit you two! Look!" Genjiro cut Adam off as suddenly pointed to the desk! "Someone's there!"

"H-H-Huh?!" Adam rapidly looked in the direction Genjiro was pointing.

Yoshino instantly groaned. "Genjiro, don't try to fucking scare us. I saw her when we entered. It's just Alpha sitting there. She's not very scary." She put her hands on her hips.

Alpha was currently relaxing in the very nice chair that accompanied Yoshino's desk. She appeared to be doing something on the computer. "Oi! You wanna say that again?!" She spoke without looking up from the computer, apparently taking offense to the fact that she's not scary.

"Bah. Thought that'd get your pussy asses." Genjiro let out a dissapointed laugh. "But why the fuck are you here Alpha? You like snooping through people's shit?!" He got antagonistic with her, like he usually does.

"Hey! This is my Ultimate Studio Genjiro!" Yoshino stepped in front the wrestler. "But yeah what the fuck are you doing here?"

Alpha groaned and looked up. "When I left you fuckers, I wasn't about to waste time. I went up here, and just entered a random room. I saw a computer in here, and I've been investigating it. It seemed important and shit."

"O-Okay... h-have you found anything i-important?" Adam asked.

"Nope." Alpha immediately answered. "This computer can't connect to the internet. It has Gaggle Docs, so you can type shit I guess. I'm assuming your bullshit novels." She gave Yoshino a quick glare. "But..." She continued speaking before Yoshino could retort. "It does have one other thing."

Yoshino frowned. "What's the other thing?" She didn't like having her novels called "bullshit", but getting information was more important.

"Heh." Alpha dryly chuckled. "You're apparently able to play Dead By Daylight on here. Only against bots though. No real fuckers."

"No shit?" That actually piqued Yoshino's interest a little. She moved to see what Alpha was doing. "You actually playing it right now?"

"Are you blind? Obviously I am!" Alpha pointed to the currently paused screen. "I was playing Oni. He's a real satisfing fucker to play."

"Oh nice." Yoshino nodded. "I... don't really play it often. When I do, I main Freddy. I'd main Jason Voorhees if he was in the game, but whatever." She shrugged.

"Yeah, you give off vibes like that." Alpha adjusted her sunglasses. "And according to the play history on here, it looks like Pheme mains Nurse. Makes fucking sense."

"Really? So Pheme just fucks around in my Studio? What the fuck?" Yoshino seemed offended.

"Yo, why are we referencing a random ass game?" Genjiro was getting sick of the pandering. "Is there useful shit in here or no?" He moved to see the computer screen.

"Y-Yes, I'd like to k-know if there is a-anything of value in here as well." Adam joined the group In looking at the computer.

"Ah christ the fucking boys are here. Fun ruined." Alpha spat as she closed out of the game. "But to answer your wet-dream having freaks' question, no. There's the Gaggle Docs..." She opened it up, and it showed a blank document. "But it's just fucking blank. You can save it and shit, but there also isn't anything saved already, so it's basically fucking useless. Unless the horror bitch wants to write a novel about what happens here."

"Don't fucking call me that!" Yoshino scoffed. "But I see your point." Her eyes drifted to the stack of paper on the desk. "Oh. Is this what Pheme was talking about? The infinite paper?"

"O-Oh yeah, I r-remember now. Logically speaking, it l-looks like it." Adam logically pointed out the obvious.

"Huh..." Yoshino looked through a few pieces of paper. "Nothing written on them." She looked at the cup of pens and inspected some of them. "I don't think pens are anything special either." She sighed, then looked to the walls and desk. "I love the horror memorabilia. Pheme really... knows me. Ugh." She shuddered.

"What, you scared of Pheme and the dark? God that shits funny." Genjiro chuckled to himself, still finding the fact that Yoshino is scared of the dark hilarious.

"Shut it Genjiro!" Yoshino brushed him off and moved away from the desk. She didn't like thinking about that guy, so she drifted her attention to the horror posters on the walls. "Damn, she even has my favorites. Jason Voorhees, Pennywise, Sadako Yamamura, and a shit ton more." The room creeped Yoshino out to an extent, but she couldn't deny that she did like it. She could see herself chilling in here. And frankly? Writing a novel about all of this shit wasn't even Alpha's worst idea. Maybe she will once she gets out of here. Because fuck no is she dying here.

Yoshino continued to look over these posters... until her eyes reached a certain one. And when she saw this certain poster, she felt a pit form in her stomach. She quickly looked behind her. It looked like Adam, Genjiro, and Alpha were distracted. When she saw her chance, she tore the poster off of the wall, crumpled it up, and tossed in the garbage can. God... why did Pheme have a poster of that?! What the hell?!

"H-Hey Yoshino?" Adam walked up to her.

"Huh?" Yoshino got startled and looked behind her. "What's u-up Ade?" She tried to hide the sudden anxiety she had gotten from the poster.

"W-What exactly are those buttons below some of those p-posters?" He motioned to the posters.

"Buttons? Wha- oh." Yoshino was grateful that Adam seemingly didn't notice what was wrong. But he said buttons didn't he? She didn't see them initially, but there were buttons below some of the posters. "I'm not sure what these're for." She tried to inspect them. They had left the door open, but even with the light coming in, it was pretty hard to see something in here.

"Lets fucking press it and see what happens!" Without a care or any restraint, Genjiro pressed the button that was below a poster of Pennywise.

"Genjiro your such a fucking idiot!" Yoshino punched his arm. "You don't know what that gonna do!"

"Ha ha!" Genjiro heartily laughed in response. "Nothing happened though. Why do you give a shit?"

"That doesn't- oh." Yoshino quickly looked around the room. Huh. It didn't look like anything did happen. With narrowed eyes, the horror novelist went and pressed the button that was below a poster of Candyman.

...

"It a-appears the b-buttons don't work. Or m-maybe they're not meant to?" Adam theorized.

"Shits weird though." Genjiro looked over the rest of the posters. "Only some of the posters have buttons. What the fuck is the deal?"

"I don't see why you fucking care." Alpha had gotten up out of the chair. "Probably just more of Pheme's bullshit." She started to walk out. "That's pretty much everything that's in here. So I'm going to get out of here, to avoid being around your asses any longer."

"B-But Alpha, w-we should-" Adam still wanted to try and promote camaraderie between everyone in the group. Lake would be proud.

"Can you just shut the fuck up?!" Alpha turned around. "Nobody here gives a shit about what you want to say! You're just a random kid! Stop trying to get into Lake's pants with this "friendship" bullshit and stick to jerking off in your own pants you fucking loser!" Alpha spat at him, then promptly left.

"God that was uncalled for! What is Alpha's deal?!" Yoshino charged up to the doorway, but Alpha was already gone.

"Ha! She's not wrong, but even I wouldn't be that fucking forward with that!" Genjiro joined in Alpha's sentiment apparently.

"Hey, don't listen to her Ade. She's just a bitch." Yoshino rolled her eyes and went to comfort Adam.

Adam lighty chuckled. "No... it's f-fine. D-Don't worry about me. She's... it's f-fine." The academic put on a very manufactured smile.

"That weak smile doesn't hide your true feelings you little shit! Don't lie! She struck a nerve didn't she? Ha ha!" Genjiro playfully punched Adam's arm, causing the academic to stumble a bit.

"Genjiro! For gods sake, shut up!" Yoshino was getting so annoyed with this guy. But like she said, he just wouldn't shut up. "Listen Ade... let's just go to the cafeteria." She wanted to get out of here. The two bullies had really soured her mood.

"R-Right, that's t-the logical move." Keeping with the manufactured smile, Adam moved to leave, with Yoshino right behind him.

Genjiro watched them leave. "God, what the fuck is their problem? They can't handle a little teasing?" He chuckled to himself. "But I wonder if... nah. I won't do that. Not yet anyway." With that ominous remark, Genjiro left the Ultimate Studio as well.

[Romance Studio]

"Oh wow... this seems... interesting~nya!" Kuroko's eyes lit up as she entered this new room.

"Ji-hoon kinda-bestie, is this what I think this is? This is... sus." Raiha eyed the room susily.

"I think so." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "We had a Horror Studio, a Comedy Studio, an Action Studio, and a Mystery Studio. So..."

"This has to he a Romance Studio-nya! Right-nya?" Kuroko was confident she was right, as the decor gave off a very "romance" vibe.

It was a decently sized room. The color pink permeated the entire room, covering the walls, floor, and ceiling. Though there were a few red hearts over the walls, floor, and ceiling too. Directly facing where you entire the room, there was a monitor up on the wall, along with four sofas next to the monitor, two on each side. Behind those sofas, there were four locked doors.

"This is so extra." Raiha shook her head as she walked further into the room. "Like WTH even is this?"

"It's like what Ms. Kurobara said! This is the Romance Studio!" Pheme walked into the Romance Studio with perfect timing.

"Hmph." Ji-hoon quietly groaned. "So it is like what I said." He gave the room a look. "What is this?" The celebrity detective admittedly had a bad feeling about this room.

Pheme blinked. "Did... you not hear what I said? It's the Romance Studio!" She excitedly shot her hands up in the air.

"I think what he meant..." Kuroko cut in. "Was what is the purpose of this room-nya?" She tilted her head.

"Don't spit cap to us yeah Pheme?" Raiha put her hands on her hips. "This room has wild implications YK?"

Pheme couldn't help but giggle. "I understand what you mean, don't worry! You wonder why the Romance Studio is seperated from its four siblings downstairs? I'll answer for you! It's because... this one is different!" She struck a pose.

...

"We kind of got that-nya?" Kuroko looked a little bewildered.

"How different is it?" Ji-hoon wanted answers.

"I'll explain!" Pheme started to pace around. "The Romance Studio is an optional puzzle for you stars to solve!"

"Optional? FR? That smells like cap." Raiha already thought this was sus.

"Ms. Miyahara, why would I lie to you?" Pheme crossed her arms. "I'd never lie to any of my beloved stars!"

"Uh huh." Raiha didn't believe that. "Whatevs tho, just continue." She urged her along.

Pheme couldn't lie to herself, this antagonism against her from her stars was pretty entertaining. It makes her savor moments like these! "Like what I was saying, this Romance Studio was originally going to be downstairs with it's studio siblings, but I decided against it!" She wagged her finger. "So this is now an optional "puzzle room" let's call it! If you stars can solve it, you'll obtain some valuable information!"

Kuroko narrowed her eyes. "What kind of information-nya?"

"That... I will not say!" Pheme withheld that information for now. "But if you want to solve what is truly happening here... I'd recommend you solve it!"

That wording definitely caught the trio's attention. "Solve what is truly happening here"? They knew Pheme could just be spouting nonsense, but if she wasn't... "So? How do we do the puzzle Pheme non-bestie? This is giving super important rooms vibes." Raiha looked around the room.

"That's a great question Ms. Miyahara!" Pheme praised the trendsetter. "If you wish to initiate the puzzle, it's rather simple! There is only one condition!" She stopped talking.

Kuroko kept her eyes narrowed. "And what's that condition-nya?" Kuroko liked to keep a happy attitude as much as she could, but even she was getting a little annoyed by Pheme stalling.

Pheme giggled. "That condition... is that eight people need to be in here! After the rooms senses that eight people have entered the room, the puzzle will automatically start!"

"Eight people huh..." Ji-hoon started to think. They probably should hold off on doing this for today. They needed to explore this room a little more anyway. But starting tomorrow... he'd need to see if he could get eight people willing enough to do this. He'd be alright with doing this, so it's more like he needs seven people to join. Well, he could think about that later.

"Is there anything else we should know?" He wanted to make sure they got all the information they needed.

"Hm... nope! That's all you need to know!" Pheme nodded. "Once eight people set foot in here, the room will automatically give you instructions!"

"Gotcha." Raiha nodded impatiently. "You can GTFO now Pheme non-bestie."

Pheme frowned. "You want me out that quickly? But why?"

"I agree with Raiha. I already know you're not going to tell us anything else worthwhile. So if you're not, I'd like it if you left." It was clear Ji-hoon didn't like Pheme. I mean, how could anyone like Pheme?

"Aw... okay. I'll go." Pheme slouched her shoudlers and sadly left the room.

...

"Was she trying to make us feel sympathy for her-nya? I don't get it-nya." Pheme thoroughly baffled Kuroko.

"I wouldn't think too hard about it Kuroko." Ji-hoon went deeper into the Romance Studio. "For now, let's just see if we can discern anything for ourselves in here."

Kuroko nodded determinedly. "Right-nya! C'mon Raiha-nya!"

"Right behind you Kuroko bestie!" Raiha joined the two in going further into the studio. They had pretty quickly gotten pumped to do some more investigating... but there still wasn't much to look at.

"Hm. The sofas seem pretty normal-nya. I don't think they're hiding anything-nya." Kuroko shook her head.

"What about those sus AF doors behind each one?" Raiha pointed out.

Kuroko went up to each one and tried to open them. "Nope-nya! No luck-nya!" She disappointedly yelled out.

"Lame. But it figures IG." Raiha pouted and sat down on one of the sofas. "Huh. The sofas are kinda gucci. Pretty firm but soft. Not bad."

"...So there's basically nothing to be found?" Ji-hoon groaned. "So be it then." He shook his head.

"Well the stuff Pheme told us is still pretty important-nya! Don't forget that-nya!" Kuroko reminded the celebrity detective.

Ji-hoon frowned. "I know that. It's just... ugh." He sighed.

"Ji-hoon kinda-bestie? You good? I get the feel something is living rent-free in your mind RN." Raiha raised an eyebrow.

Hm... should Ji-hoon tell them? The group hasn't discussed a "certain thing" yet... and that "certain thing" was definitely living rent-free in his mind... "You know what..." He faced the girls. "Something is living, uh, "rent-free" in my mind. You girls remember what Aelia said before... her execution?"

"Oh. Aelia-nya? What about-" Kuroko stopped herself. She knew what Ji-hoon was talking about.

"I didn't..." Aelia took another deep breath. "I didn't come up with this plan on my own." Alright, here goes nothing. If she was going to go down... "Someone t-told me to k-kill Bessie for them!" Aelia wasn't an inherently petty girl... but there was no way she wasn't going to let this person get off scot-free. Especially because...

...

Aelia got a little fire back. "I told someone... a-about what I heard... that f-first night. And they slowly gave me a p-plan... and they told me to k-kill Bessie!" Aelia bit her lip hard. A steady trail of blood started to leak. "I k-know I should've explained earlier... but..."

"The fact that..." Kuroko muttered.

"Some told Aelia non-bestie to kill Bessie?" Raiha put her hand on her hip. "That's your Roman Empire now or what?"

"You word that very nonchalantly Raiha." Ji-hoon glared at her. "But yes. That's what is on my mind."

"Ji-hoon kinda-bestie..." Raiha went up to him. "To me... it sounded like cap. I didn't know Aelia well... but TBH? Sounded like an excuse to me." The trendsetter shrugged.

"Maybe..." Ji-hoon tapped his foot on the ground. "How about you Kuroko?" He turned to the hypnotist. "Any opinion on what Aelia said?"

Kuroko's eyes widened. "Me? Um..." She started to think. She didn't like the idea of someone out there telling people to kill certain people. It was a very disconcerting idea. She wanted to believe in her friends! But... she also wasn't foolish enough to completely ditch the idea. At the same time though, if someone was telling people to kill certain people, that sounds like something a traitor would do. But Bessie was apparently the traitor. So... "I'm not sure-nya." The hypnotist shook her head. "It's a... heavy topic-nya. I don't like the idea... of any of the cute girls... or any of the guys being like that-nya. But I can't completely dismiss it-nya."

"I see." Ji-hoon nodded. "Well, I just want to gather everyone's opinions on it. Because... if someone did do that..." A peculiar aura started to come from the celebrity detective. "Mark my words. I will bring them to justice. I can't let something like that slide."

...

"Wow Ji-hoon. That was kinda sick. You gained some aura with that line." Raiha nodded approvingly.

"That wasn't what I was going for." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "But it's fine. Anyway-" He cut himself off. "I just remembered something." He turned to Kuroko. "Kuroko. I have a question for you."

Kuroko titled her head. "For me-nya? Sure-nya!"

Ji-hoon took out his Star-Phone. "I've been collecting people's pre-kidnapping memories. They're interesting to me, as some people's memories are different than others'." He gave Raiha a quick glare. "And also..."

Ji-hoon held up his hand, signaling for Aelia to stop. "You're wondering about my memories huh? I could tell you. I don't know what it is, but I think I lost some of my memories." He dropped that bombshell.

"I don't have all of my memories. It's almost like... I have a gap in my memories. And I want to see if anyone else has that gap." Ji-hoon gave Kuroko an expectant look. "So? Tell me."

Raiha let out a small gasp. She wasn't aware that he had lost his memories. Makes him being suspicious of her own memories a bit more understandable.

"My own memories..." Kuroko started to concentrate. "You know... I do have them-nya. I'm not sure how useful they'll be, but I'll tell you-nya!"

"Good. C'mon." Ji-hoon urged her along.

"Well..." Kuroko started her story. "I was finishing up a Hypnotherapy session with one of my usual clients-nya. The girl was going through some academic stress... so I helped her get her mind straight-nya! She seemed kinda old to be going through academic stress, but I don't judge any of my clients-nya! Anyway, it was late at night, so I walked her to her car-nya! But it was then that I saw multiple men in black approaching me-nya! And that's... it-nya." She finished recounting.

"Alright... there." Ji-hoon finished noting down Kuroko's story. Hers was similar to most of the others... but it was still different from Raiha and Bessie's. He still didn't know exactly why the stories of those two were different... but he was going to keep thinking on it. "Thank you Kuroko. That's valuable information." He smiled.

"No problem-nya!" Kuroko returned the smile. "Anything else-nya?"

"Hm... no." Ji-hoon shook his head. "In fact, I think it's about time we get going." He started to head to the door. "Let's go. Let's not keep everyone waiting."

"Right-nya! I'm coming-nya!" Kuroko took a few steps to join up with him, but stopped when she realized Raiha hadn't moved yet. "Raiha? What's wrong-nya?"

It took a few seconds for Raiha to respond. "Wha-?" She shook her head like she was getting out of a trance. "Sorry Kuroko bestie, yeah I'm coming!" She speed-walked up to Kuroko so she wouldn't be left behind. Kuroko smiled at her, and the group of three left the Romance Studio.

But as they left... one thing still lingered on Raiha's mine... why did Ji-hoon want her with him? She... didn't know why, and she forgot to ask why. ...Ah well, it wasn't like Ji-hoon was dying soon. She'll just ask him when she gets the chance.

[Grand Lobby - 2F]

"Darren really likes to wander off huh..." Kei muttered to himself as he wandered around the new floor. "This has a similar vibe to the first floor... but it's different enough." He looked over the decor as he slowly walked down a hallway.

"I wonder what- oh." It didn't take Kei long to actually find Darren. The bartender was currently standing outside of a boarded-up room. "Oh wow. Another one?"

"Yep." Darren responded, not turning to face Kei.

"Huh." Kei walked up to it. Compared to the one on the previous floor, this one was a lot more secured. It gave off the impression that Pheme did not want anyone in there. Boards covered the entirety of the doorway, not even granting the duo a slit to look through. "Damn. Something important has gotta be in there."

"Agreed. Don't think we're getting in there any time soon though." Darren pulled a flask from the void and took a sip.

"That's correct Mr. Taylor!" Almost like she existed in the same void that holds Darren's drinks, Pheme appeared behind the duo.

Neither of them got scared. "Not surprised." Darren turned around.

Kei chuckled. "So this is the same case with the one downstairs then? The room where...?" He didn't finish his sentence.

"The room where Hanako Yamamoto got brutally murdered by Aelia Celani? Yep!" Pheme seemed way too casual about that. "But actually... the room here and the room downstairs... they're different!"

"Oh?" Darren's face didn't show it, but he was curious what Pheme meant by that.

"The one downstairs was designed to where one of you stars could eventually get in there! And one of you did! Ms. Miyahara did! Well she tried to I guess." Pheme giggled. "Anyway, none of you are getting in here. I wanted to make this a trick door too, but As- um, I meant the staff didn't want you stars in here."

Kei and Darren definitely caught that small slipup, but they stayed silent.

Pheme started to pace around, like in the last scene. "I mean, I personally don't think it's anything special. It's just another-" She stopped herself. "Oh silly me! I was about to spoil something! I can't believe you boys didn't stop me!"

Kei chuckled again. "Our bad." He shrugged. "You want to spoil it though? Another what?"

"You're so silly Mr. Aikawa! That's why you're my favorite!" Pheme winked. "But don't worry about it! Just know that none of you are getting in there! No matter what!" She shot her hands into the air. "That's all your getting from me! Ta ta Mr. Taylor and Mr. Aikawa!" Pheme skipped away.

"Well then." Darren took another sip from his void flask. "That's probably important." He started to walk off.

"Hey now!" For as amusing as Kei found Darren's attitude, he didn't want him to leave yet.

"Hm? What's up?" Darren slowly turned around.

Kei walked up to him. "Awfully rude to just leave a man behind isn't it?" He lightly punched the bartender's shoulder.

Darren shrugged. "Well we're done aren't we? The others are getting the other rooms. And our room was a bust. So we're done." He started to walk away again. "No use in dwelling on things. I'd just get down to the cafeteria to wait." He called.

"You know..." Kei didn't actually have anything to say in response. He was right. It was just Darren's attitude about amused him and threw him off. It... was something to take note of. After all, he casually hid a major clue in the last trial.

"But what the hell Cathy? And you too Darren? Why didn't you share this? This is... clearly important." Rival wasn't an inherently angry person, but he was still trying his best to stay calm.

Darren shrugged. "No one asked."

He likely didn't mean any harm. But that apathy could be a thorn in their side later on... well, Kei could worry about that later. For now, he started to head to the cafeteria to wait for the meeting. He hasn't ate anything yet today anyway, so it was high time he did.

[Cafeteria]

Kei and Darren were the first ones to get back. As soon as they did, Kei prepared some ramen for himself, and Darren prepared a few ribs to eat. It was admittedly a little strange for Kei, seeing Darren eat something and not drinking something. But eh. He didn't care that much. All he did was just wait for everyone else to arrive...

...

"Oh? You two making out in here? Some alone time? Sorry, save it for later." And everyone else did arrive, with Alpha first in line.

"Alpha, t-that's not v-very-" You know, you have to wonder why Adam would even try to talk down Alpha of all people.

"Shut the fuck up and sit down you little twerp! I wanna get the over with!" Alpha shoved the academic up to a chair.

"Geez... y-yeah... okay!" Adam brushed it off with a nervous smile and sat down.

Genjiro and Yoshino were close behind those two, and from there, everyone started to trickle in over a few minutes.

...

"Alright. Let's get this started." Ji-hoon initiated their meeting.

"Oh? You're going to start the little meeting without the backing vocalist human? Awfully heartless of you." Cathy stuck her tongue out.

"Oh hey... Val isn't here. Is he alright?" Yoshino didn't see him.

"He is... going through a lot." Aurora explained. "I saw him earlier in where Rosalind and I investigated. He's fine... but he wants to be alone right now."

"Huh..." Ji-hoon didn't like the sound of that. He or someone else would have to try to talk with Rival tomorrow. It was getting relatively late, and they didn't want to get cut off before explaining their findings, like they did in chapter one. "That's fine. We can start without him." He turned to Aurora. "Aurora. Since you brought it up, how about you and Rosalind start?"

"Oh! Yes. We can do that." Aurora nodded and cleared her throat. "Well... Rosalind and I found Bessie's Ultimate Studio."

Raiha visibly flinched hearing that. "Oh... that's..." She couldn't finish her sentence.

"If it proves too much for you to *cough* speak of, I can do it instead. I can't imagine you'd want me to, but I may as well say." Rosalind volunteered.

Aurora shook her head. "No... that's okay Rosalind. I appreciate it though." The starlet stood up. "Bessie's Studio was very big. At least twice the size of of the Grand Theater."

"Damn. That's big." Darren chimed in for whatever reason, and took a sip of his nondescript alcoholic beverage.

"Yeah..." Aurora continued. "It had a very large stage, rows and seats, and the same things that Pheme had brought down here for... Bessie and Rival's show."

"Oh. Makes sense." Kei affirmed her claim. "I took a peek in the Grand Theater, and saw that that stuff was gone. Fair enough Pheme returned the stuff to its rightful place."

"Right. Besides for that..." Aurora paused for a moment. "There was a small room for a stage technician. It had buttons to control the spotlights, and I'm assuming other things as well. Maybe you could take a look Adam?" She gave the academic a look. "Perhaps you'd be able to figure something out?"

"Ah!" Adam hadn't expected to hear his name. "It's p-possible... though I c-cannot say anything for certain without s-seeing it first."

"Well I wouldn't be surprised if the nerd can!" Genjiro slammed the table. "But that's all you got Aurora?"

"Um... yes. That's all I and Rosalind found." Aurora nodded.

"Alright then!" Genjiro stood up. "Now it's time for what the Genjiro Mashimoto found! You fuckers ready?!" He pointed to everyone.

...

No one responded.

Genjiro crossed his arms. "Fine, I don't give a shit if you're ready or not! Imma explain anyway!" He slammed the table. "Yoshi, Adam, myself, and the green bitch over there explored Yoshino's Ultimate Studio!"

"Ooh! That sounds exciting-nya!" Kuroko figuratively lit up.

"Heh. Yeah, I'll admit, it wasn't bad." Yoshino leaned back in her chair. "Basically a horror-themed work area for me if I want to write shit."

"Hm... that's rather interesting my dear Yoshino. Perhaps you could write about our experiences here?" Damien suggested.

Yoshino let out a quiet groan. "Yeah... maybe." It wasn't it'd be the first time she'd base some of her stories off of real life... but eh. She wasn't sure if she wanted to write about this. Maybe.

"O-Oh yeah, that r-reminds me!" Adam chimed in. "Yoshino's Ultimate S-Studio h-had a computer too. But all y-you could do was use Gaggle Docs and p-play a game called Dead By Daylight."

"Really? Pheme has games here for us?" Lake was surprised to hear that.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up ballet bitch." Alpha quashed any eagerness Lake might've had. "It's just bots and shit. No actual multiplayer. Surely it's not important. Just shit to do if you're bored out of your mind."

"Oh. I see..." Lake wasn't the biggest gamer, but that was still a slight dissapointment to them. "Was there anything else?"

"Anything else..." Yoshino had to think. "Uh... yeah actually! There were a bunch of horror-themed posters on the wall, and some had buttons under them. Didn't do shit when we pressed them. Not sure what they mean." She shrugged. "And Pheme's infinite paper or whatever was in there too. That's pretty much it."

"Buttons... alright." Ji-hoon wasn't sure what to make of that either, but he'd keep it in mind. "Okay. Who next?"

"Perhaps my dear Ayaka and I could go next?" Damien volunteered. "Does that sound agreeable my dear Ayaka?"

Ayaka blinked. "Um... sure. D-Damien and I found, well, Damien's Ultimate Studio."

"Oh yeah! Pheme mentioned you had an Ultimate Studio to Lake and I!" Joji recalled. "It's apparently connected to mine for whatever reason!"

"Ah, I see! That explains the door in my studio then. I had forgotten to check that." Damien realized. "Thank you for that Joji." See Gold? Damien can talk to guys!

"Now, let us get to explaining what he found." Damien continued. "My studio had a sort of dressing room side, with a variety of chairs, mirrors, and a costume rack. Remnants of what this studio was in the past, Pheme explained."

"Mm hm." Ayaka affirmed Damien's explanation. "T-There also was large racks with a lot of makeup items. But..."

"Some were poisonous, weren't they?" Cathy finished Ayaka's thought. "What was it? Ariadoney nail polish?"

"Y-Yeah that- wait. H-How do you know that Cathy?" Ayaka widened her eyes.

"Nya ha ha! You don't know? You're such a fool violinist human! You didn't notice I was in there as well?" Cathy gave a smug look.

"I'm sorry my dear Catherine? You were?" Damien didn't realize she was in there.

"Yep!" Cathy nodded. "I was there initially, and when I heard you two humans enter, I hid myself to watch you." She giggled. "And wow, you sure moved on from the puppeteer human quick, didn't you beautician human? You got to flirting with the violinist human pretty quick!"

"H-H-Huh?!" Ayaka instantly blushed and hid her face, akin to a certain Ayaka emote on the Obscurity's Disgrace discord server.

"My dear Catherine..." Damien looked at her disprovingly. "Please take care to not spread lies. I was merely comforting my dear Ayaka. Nothing more."

"Oh yeah? It sure looked like more than to me! Nyahaha!" Cathy laughed. "You were even holding hands!"

"C-Cathy!" Ayaka was getting more embarrassed.

Damien slowly shook his head. "Forgive me my dear Ayaka. I should've been more aware." He knew Ayaka was rather paranoid, so he wished he would've caught on to Cathy's presence.

"I'd just continue your explanation Damien." Kei advised him. "Cats like her like to cause trouble. The more attention give them, the worse they get." He smirked at Cathy.

"Nyaha! I'm not sure what you lawyer human!" Cathy crossed her arms.

"Thank you Kei. I believe I'll do just that." Damien cleared his voice. Ayaka was still a fair bit embarrassed, so he decided to finish explaning their finding. "Yes, like my dear Catherine said, there were some poisonous beauty products there. Namely the Ariadoney nail polish, and some "Je suis L'Belle!" perfumes were toxic. I have taken care to hide them away, but Ji-hoon or whoever else is more than welcome to suggest a better solution."

"Hm... if you hid them, it's probably fine for now." Ji-hoon reasoned. "But I'd still like to see them for myself."

"That can be arranged." Damien nodded. "But to continue explaining, there was also a beauty studio side in my studio as well. So if anyone here would like a touch-up, I'd be happy to oblige."

"Oo... that might be fun-nya!" Kuroko seemed to like the idea.

"Verily, my dear Kuroko. Just let me know." Damien sighed. "That is all from me and my dear Ayaka."

"Oh yeah? Then I'd like to go next!" Joji cut in. "You brought up your own studio having dangerous items... so I better bring this up now."

"Right..." Lake didn't like imagining the idea of somebody using those dangerous items. But they better bring it up. "Joji and I explored Joji's Ultimate Studio. And like Joji said, there were... a lot of dangerous tools in there." Lake shook a little.

Joji put a comforting hand on Lake's shouldler. "They're right. A lot of carpentry tools. One of my walls just had a shit ton of them lined up. I hate to bring it up... but..."

"No. It's good you bring it up." Ji-hoon reassured him. "Those tools being dangerous is a different talk. Let's save it for tomorrow. For now, explain what you two found." He ordered them.

"Gotcha. Alright." Joji nodded in agreement. "Well like I said, there was a wall of tools in there. After that, there were two router tables, each with its own table saw."

"That's right!" Lake joined him in explaining. "Those table saws cut through the wood easily... and there was a room in there that stored wooden planks too! So, if he wants to, Joji might be able to actually build something!" They threw the idea out there.

"You don't say? You gonna build something bro?" Genjiro seemed intrigued.

"But WTH would Joji bestie build?" Raiha was intrigued but also confused.

"Well I'm not sure if I will or not. It's just an idea to consider is all." Joji sighed. "Besides for that, there was also a "measurement wall" in there, I guess I'll call it."

Yoshino raised an eyebrow. "The hell does that mean?"

"It had a lot of measurements tapes with different lengths. The wall also had legends showing how long certain measurements are." Joji answered Yoshino's question. "And that's it!"

Ji-hoon nodded along. "Alright... more things to consider. Now..." He glanced at Raiha and Kuroko. "I'll explain what my group found."

"Oh yeah-nya! Ji-hoon, Raiha and I found the Romance Studio-nya!" Kuroko nodded excitedly.

"Oh dear... does that mean *cough* more "fake" puzzles for us to solve?" Rosalind laid her parasol on her lap.

"Something like that." Ji-hoon took out his Star-Phone to look over what notes he took.

"Yeah! Pheme said we gotta solve an optional puzzle or something? TBH, IDK what to think, but it could be kinda slay? She didn't explain what the puzzle was tho. Just that there had to be "eight people" in the room." Raiha stole Ji-hoon's thunder.

"Well... yes. That's essentially it." Ji-hoon just went with it. "I get not all of you are going to want to do it, but I'd like to get seven people to do it with me. We won't know what the "prize" is until we complete it, but the more information we have, the better."

"Yep yep-nya! It was an ultra cutes room too-nya!" Kuroko seemed to like it.

"Eh... reeks of BS to me." Alpha shrugged.

"Hm... I might be interested in seemed what this Romance Studio is all about..." Damien thought. "Would you like to do it as well, my dear Ayaka?" He turned to look at her.

"Um..." Ayaka had calmed down from Cathy's earlier teasing attack. "M-Maybe...?" She seemed on the fence.

"Romance huh? Nyahaha!" Cathy smirked. "I'm sure the violinist human would love to be in there with the beautician-"

"My dear Catherine?" Damien cut her off. "Would you kindly... stop talking?"

Cathy surpressed a giggle. Seeing these humans perturbed was so entertaining to her. But she obliged, and shut her mouth for now.

...

"Alright... how about we move on?" Kei moved the talk along. "Last but not least yeah? It's what Darren and I found. And let me tell you... it sure was something."

"Yep." That was all Darren had to say.

"Well don't leave us in suspense-nya! What is it-nya?" Kuroko was eager to learn what they found.

"Well..." Kei adjusted his suit. "We found another boarded-up room."

"Wha-"

"Hold on. Before you say anything." Kei cut off whoever that was. "Pheme explained that it's pretty different. According to her, there's no way to get inside. It's not like the one down here. There's no trick. She just doesn't want us in there for whatever reason."

...

"Now you can react." Kei gave permission.

"What? Really?" Oh, apparently it was Aurora who he cut off. Just the idea of a "boarded-up room" struck a nerve with her... and judging by Raiha's face, it did with her too. "So... dare we even try to open it?"

"...Personally? I wouldn't." Kei gave his opinion. "We could ask her again, but it sounded like she was serious about it. I wouldn't want to test her." He shifted his eyes to the side. "And that does mean you Genjiro. I wouldn't push your luck man."

"Ha ha! Your words will do nothing to stop the Genjiro Mashimoto! I'll do whatever the fuck I want!" Genjiro stood proud.

"Please don't do something stupid Genjiro, like you usually do." Yoshino implored him.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. I'll do whatever the hell I want!" Genjiro jumped up and slammed the table. "Now! Is that it? We've explained everything yeah?"

Ji-hoon looked around at everyone. "I believe so. We learned a lot... and we have stuff to think about for tomorrow. Because if I'm right..."

"Attention my glamorous stars! It is now 11pm, and that means it's night time! It's time to go to bed, and get a good night of beauty sleep! Sleep well my stars!"

"Yeah." Ji-hoon could sense the nighttime announcement coming. "We don't technically have to go to sleep... but I recommend we do. Let's get a good night of rest, and we'll think about everything one day at a time. Meeting... dismissed!"

Lake stood up. "You're going be a good leader Ji-hoon! This all came really naturally to you!"

"Oh. Uh-" The celebrity detective hadn't expected to hear that. "Thanks." He awkwardly said.

"Stop sucking him off and fucking leave already." Alpha left, without a goodbye, but not without one last insult.

"Ignore her Lake." Joji really got on Alpha's nerves. "Let's get some rest!"

"Yeah... you're right Joji!" Lake nodded. "Let's go!"

Joji, Lake, and everyone else slowly started to filter out of the cafeteria, and to go get some good sleep. But... not everyone had left yet.

Damien and Ayaka were still there.

"My dear Ayaka? How are you feeling?" Damien wanted to check on his dear.

"I'm f-fine." Ayaka bluntly answered. The fact that Cathy was watching them that whole time was still messing with her head. But... she tried not to linger on it. "I'm g-going to go to sleep now." She got up and headed to the door.

"Ah! My dear Ayaka!" Damien got up as well. "Can you hold on for a moment?"

"W-What is it?" Ayaka turned around.

"It's nothing major." Damien ran his hand through his hair. "I just wanted to tell you something..."

[Ultimate Pop Star's Studio]

You'd think that everyone had gone to bed already... but no. That wasn't the case. In the darkness of the studio, a certain someone wandered into Bessie's Ultimate Studio.

"Hm..." They hummed. "Oh!" They spotted something on one of the seats. "...?" They picked up and what they had found. It was... Bessie's Star-Phone and the remote Pheme gave her. Aurora had accidentally left them behind.

The person messed around a little with the Star-Phone... and...

...

it turned on. And what was on it? Well... it was something... very... very... interesting...

They pocketed the Star-Phone and the remote, and quietly left the studio.

[Ultimate Beautician's Studio]

The person in Bessie's Ultimate Studio wasn't the only person moving around... as there was another person moving around in the darkness of the studio. They found themselves in Damien's Ultimate Studio.

"Where is it...?" They muttered to themselves. "Where... oh. Here it is." They pulled open a stuck drawer, and unveiled multiple bottles of perfume. "These are... yes. These were exactly where they said they would be." They picked up one of the bottles. "Poisonous perfumes... yes..."

...

"These will be very useful..."

...

Heyo! It's Chapter 2! We are here! Exciting!

It's still surreal to me that I've made it this far, but I'll shut up about that.

Chapter 2 definitely had some Ultimate Studios I was eager to introduce. Damien's was a lot of fun. Including two Ace Attorney references wasn't originally the plan, but I'm glad I did. I guess I made Florent L'Belle canon in my universe now.

Yoshino's was fun too, because I wanted to have some Dead By Daylight references. I hope Gold, Grandma, Oddly, Amogus, and whoever else that plays it, liked the little references! And who knows? Perhaps there'll be more...? Nah, probably not. Unless...? But I did a lot of research on the DBD wiki, looking up the lore and basics of the killers, just to see which killer would fit Pheme, Alpha, and Yoshino well.

I knew I wanted the chapter title to have the words "toxic" and "venomous" in it, but it actually took me a little bit to find a satisfying way to do it.

Then I have the murder planning out for this chapter... and I already have a lot more confidence in this one compared to chapter 1. I don't want to jinx things, but I think people will like it :)

But I do know someone is going to hate it in a funny way so I'm excited to see their reaction to it.

Now before I go, I'd like to give a shoutout to Otterplay and his fic Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration! He's in the thick of Chapter 3, and the fic is very good so far! You should read it!

Alright. That's it. I still have to do some planning for Chapter 2, but I hope you look forward to Daily Life 2 and beyond!

Glamorous Stars Remaining: 17

Adam Brooks - Ultimate Academic [PROJECT DRAMA]

Alpha - Ultimate Gas Station Manager [Epifanio Therion]

Aurora Beaufort - Ultimate Starlet [WolfieRed23]

Ayaka Naganohara - Ultimate Violinist [Sempi]

Catherine Munchkin - Ultimate Cat Burglar [Nekoja]

Damien Lux - Ultimate Beautician [oddlyillregular]

Darren Taylor - Ultimate Bartender [Otterplay]

Genjiro Mashimoto - Ultimate Wrestler [Grandma Sue]

Ji-hoon Jo - Ultimate Celebrity Detective [TheRoseShadow21]

Joji Kaneshiro - Ultimate Carpenter [SureJahn]

Kei Aikawa - Ultimate Lawyer [theotakureader101]

Kuroko Kurobara - Ultimate Hypnotist [MrUtenaHolic]

Lake Beaumont - Ultimate Ballet Dancer [KadachiNova]

Raiha Miyahara - Ultimate Trendsetter [Prince PokePersona]

Rival Seizon - Ultimate Backing Vocalist [SinWriter7]

Rosalind Reinhardt - Ultimate Cinematographer [Orlando Butler]

Yoshino Akiyama - Ultimate Horror Novelist [DeathlyJazzHands55]