Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration

by Otterplay

A Danganronpa SYOC set in space. Ultimates are trapped on a space station, forced to participate in a killing game to try and escape. But not everything is what it seems to be. Who can you trust?

4. Continuity Error (Part 2)

Chapter 1: Continuity Error (Daily Life Part 2)

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Warning: This is a Danganronpa fic. There's going to be a lot of violence, gore, and blood. And maybe a few other things. You've been warned (somewhat)

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Today hadn't been a particularly busy day at the dinner, but the people who had decided to stop by had been less than reputable.

On the counter where the owner was sitting down, was a newspaper, with an interesting article on the front page. Seems like another mafia hit that had this part of New York City living in fear again.

The owner of the table glanced up, noticing their daughter walking towards him. He pushed the two plates next to him forward. "For table six."

The girl who grabbed the plate was Gigi, although she was still in her teen years at this point. She nodded her head as she grabbed the plates, bringing them over to the respective table.

On the way there, she glanced at all the various tables. It was just one of those days, wasn't it?

The restaurant wasn't in the best neighbourhood, which meant problematic people often frequented the establishment. More specifically, the mafia themselves.

Not that she was surprised. Today was the day they were going to be collecting the protection money, something she was less than eager to know about.

Had it been her choice, she would have turned down the fee a while ago. No way she would ever bow down to people like that.

Placing the two plates of food down at the table, she looked down at the two men. "Enjoy your meal."

Which is about the only words they'd get out of here for a while. She didn't like these people, and refused to humour them in any way.

As her eyes scanned the room, it eventually landed at the table with the boss themselves. They were sitting across from another member of the mafia, and the two were playing cards while they ate.

She was just going to let them be, but something caught her eye. Something she couldn't just let slide.

It was rather discreet, given that the other person hadn't noticed it, but Gigi was better than that.

The boss would check his cards, clearly unhappy with the hand he was dealt. Quickly, he managed to exchange his hand for a different one he had hidden.

She wasn't sure what overtook her that day, but she approached the table. "I saw that." She declared, looking down at the boss. "You can't just cheat."

The man slowly turned his head towards her, narrowing his eyes. "Excuse me?"

"Leave him alone." The other member called out. "Can't you see the boss is busy?"

She couldn't care less. "I said I saw that. You changed your hand. Clear as day." Despite who she was talking to, she didn't change her tone at all. She wasn't going to tolerate cheating of any kind, no matter who the accused was.

Who did she think she was? Barging in and ruining the game he was very clearly going to win? Did she not understand what he would do to this place? He eyed the owner who was watching silently from the back. They almost looked just ready to jump in and apologise.

But there was no reason for that. The boss let out a chuckle. "Sharp eyes you got there, kid." He complimented. "In my many years of playing, I've never been caught like that. And so effortlessly, might I add."

She wasn't really getting the point. "Try not to cheat here again." Because then she just wouldn't be able to resist the urge to call them out.

Sharp eyes, and no fear? "Say kid, let's strike a deal, shall we?"

A deal? With someone like him. She knew it wasn't a good idea. "What kind of deal?" She just wanted to see what it was. It wouldn't change her answer.

"Someone with eyes like yours might be useful to me." He tilted his head to the side. If she was able to catch him cheating, she'd probably be able to catch anyone cheating. He was good at what he did, but he wasn't always the most attentive. "You come and work for me, and do what you just did to others." Basically, he was going to make it so nobody could cheat against him. That would at least give him better odds than before. Of course, he couldn't just make a one sided offer. He had to give something in return. "And to repay you…" His eyes shifted back towards her father. "I'll exempt your parents from any of my protection fees." A good deal. Her parents wouldn't have to worry about paying that, and she'd get herself a better paying job. Honestly, there was no downsides on her part-

"No." She didn't even take the time to think about it. But would she? The answer to a question like that was obvious. There would be no way she'd accept this.

The boss saw this as a possibility, and yet he was surprised she declined in so easily. He couldn't help but let out a chuckle, attempting to contain his anger. "And why's that?" Still, once again he had been stunned by her bravery. To turn him down so easily.

Did he even have to ask? The answer was obvious; She'd never work for someone like him. She wouldn't just become a pawn to him. Not only that, but she had other people to worry about, like her siblings. If they knew she'd stoop as low as to work for the mafia… It would give them the wrong ideas. "Because of who you are." She answered bluntly. "I wouldn't work for you. Ever." She no longer wished to continue this conversation, so she turned to continue her work.

Still, the boss couldn't help but laugh at her naive decision. "That offer is always open in case you ever change your mind!" And he knew a day like that would eventually come. Everyone changes their morals when things begin to get dire…

---

Cafeteria

First chance that they had to go down and eat, the group of Gigi, Edison, Seira, Benoit, Atlas, Gemini, Sakura, and Winter found themselves in the cafeteria, with Gigi being the first one up like always.

She turned her head towards Atlas. "Surprised to see you up this early. Last time you were one of the last ones."

He didn't need to be patronised first thing in the morning. "I woke up because the damn alarm was too annoying." He couldn't exactly go back to bed after that.

Winter had just returned from getting herself some food.

And tea.

Can't forget the tea.

"Saying that will make him less likely to wake up this early." She knew a thing or two about how people would act, after all.

The referee simply shook her head, choosing to drop the issue entirely.

"It's nice to have more people up, though." Gemini pointed out. Last time everyone arrived in groups of about five.

"It's a nice way to see if everyone is still alive." Sakura joined in the conversation. "But it fails if not everyone gets up at the same time."

Which was what Gigi's problem was at the moment. "I'm sure eventually everyone else will end up in the same routine as us." The quicker everyone else followed her lead, the better.

However, with them not being here, nobody could defend them, so Benoit took the initiative. "We shouldn't force them to do-" He stopped himself when he noticed the glare he had received from Gigi. "Sorry…" He looked away.

Seira let out a small sigh. With twenty people here, the entire group was vastly different from each other. Finding any sort of consistent routine seemed near impossible. "I'm fine with having just us be up in the morning."

Winter nodded her head. "Yes, the quiet is nice, before some of the… louder individuals showed up." Though she couldn't say much, given Atlas was right there.

"So." Gemini tried to steer the conversation in a better direction. "What's the plan for today?"

"Like mentioned before, I'll try and see if I can find Nova to talk to her." Gigi wasn't going to let her get away.

Edison hummed in thought. "I didn't really have much planned today." There wasn't much to actually do here. Honestly, it was quite boring. "Wish I had homework."

"Nerd." Sakura tilted her head to the side before giving out what she would do. "I never got the chance to explore the security room myself, so I'm hoping to assign myself to it in a bit."

Most of these were pretty good things to do. "As for myself!" The escapist flashed a smile as he pointed to himself. "I'm going to find a way out."

The security guard narrowed her eyes. "We haven't found one in the two days we've been here. Why do you think that would change?"

He tapped his forehead. "New day. New mind. I'm bound to find something I hadn't considered the other two days." He wasn't going to let a bit of discouragement hamper his chances.

Well, since the others were talking about what they'd be doing, Atlas might as well throw his thoughts in there. "There's an entire floor I haven't been able to check out." He eyed the door leading to Tau Sector. "Besides that, nothing else." Like Edison had thought earlier, there just wasn't anything worth doing here. At least not yet.

Soon, the elevator opened up, letting more people show up. This time, the group contained Michael, Melody, Tatiana, Hae-Won, Benjamin, Laki, Ian, and Alan.

"Oh. There's everyone else." Winter only really had an interest in Michael at the moment, so she'd probably gravitate around him if she had to.

Gigi was impressed, however. This was much quicker than last time. "Still late." She added verbally.

"Nuh-huh!" Dolly called out. "You're just early."

"No, no…" Alan shook his head, deep in thought. "I think we definitely might be late."

Of note, there were still four people missing. Them being May, Lorelei, Gennosuke, and Dae-Hyun.

"I'm starting to think those four will make it a habit." Seira pointed out.

Hae-Won let out a sigh. "I don't feel like we need to force them to do anything."

Well, confirming that most people were at least fine after two days was enough for Gigi. She stood up, finished with her food. "Then we can probably try and figure out what to do next."

Alan tilted his head to the side. "We could, although I think my best work is while I'm alone." So he was out of whatever discussion was going to happen.

Winter tilted her head to the side. "But we haven't really found a way out yet, haven't we? I think it's better if we just take a day to relax." Maybe come to terms with what's going on. They've all been busy for too long.

Michael glanced away. "I… Agree." He didn't want to, but he knew worrying about a way out was only going to provide disappointment.

"Well, everyone else can." Gemini had a smile on his face. "But I'm never going to give up on finding an escape." Especially when he had that one puzzle he wanted to check out.

So, they were all going to split up again? That seemed to mostly be the group consensus.

For the time being, however, everyone seemed to move back to silence as they ate their meals.

---

Cafeteria (Later)

Atlas had moved away from the tables of the cafeteria, to instead stand in front of the door leading to the Tau Sector. However, he didn't attempt to open the door, and instead, stood there.

Momentarily, someone would stop to stand beside him. "Are you just going to stand there, or do you need help?" It was Gigi.

Turning his head over towards her, he narrowed his eyes. "What does it look like?" He tried to scan his watch, but clearly he was having no luck!

Her facial expression didn't change, but she moved over to scan her own watch. "You could just ask for help. No need to play this game."

As the door opened up, he mumbled something rudely under his breath, moving to the other side. After a few seconds, she would be able to hear a very rough "Thank you."

Stepping away from the cafeteria, he was forced to stop when he heard footsteps behind him. "I didn't say you had to follow me." He looked over at the referee.

"No, but you'd just run into the same problem again, right?" She crossed her arms. "Instead of you having to wait for someone else, I'll just accompany you."

Atlas let out a small sigh. "I wasn't really planning on going anywhere. I was just going to walk around. I never got a chance to check out this floor."

Nor did she, so she thought it was the perfect opportunity to look around. "That doesn't change my stance. I will be following you."

Whatever. It beats travelling alone. "You aren't just trying to lure me to kill me are you?"

"I have no such intentions. It would be stupid to even attempt that, given people watched us leave together."

Yeah, that's what he thought. He stopped in front of the Ultimate Talent Manager Station, given it was the first one they would walk past.

Without waiting for any instructions, Gigi opened the door. Stepping inside, she looked around. "Seems this was Dae-Hyun's room." She tilted her head to the side. "Inactive at the moment."

"Yeah, that bastard ran away with the only way to control this room." The soccer player moved over to the computer. It was off, but only because it was unplugged. It wouldn't take much effort to plug it back in! Well, except that wasn't something he could do at the moment.

Noticing what he wanted to do, Gigi approached the plug on the floor. "I'm not sure if we'll be able to do anything."

Once she had connected the computer again, Atlas sat down in the chair. "No, it doesn't look like it." Of note, he didn't have to boot up the computer. It was already loaded up on the home screen. "What the hell is that bastard hiding from us?"

"I'm sure whatever he is hiding is personal to him." Gigi wasn't going to antagonist him, since he hadn't done anything wrong at the moment. And if these revealed the past of people, she couldn't blame him in the slightest. She knew hers wouldn't be any good. "It's best not to pry."

"Like hell!" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "We have to worry about motives, right?"

It didn't take her long to understand what his line of thinking was. "Yes. We do have to worry about motives. However, just telling everyone about our personal lives would do us no good."

He wanted to know about other people just so he could know who was most likely to break down and kill. "Fine." But if even Gigi was going to shut it down, it meant he had next to no hope to convince some of the others.

For a bit, there was silence in the room. "Say…" Atlas was the one to break it. "As the Ultimate Referee, what sports do you referee?"

"I feel like I've stated this before, but I can referee anything." And she was quite skilled at it.

Narrowing his eyes at her, he examined her completely. "I feel like I recognise you."

"Probably. It wouldn't be out of the realm that I've refereed one of your games."

But with his track record, he knew he probably at least yelled at a ref or two in his days. "You better not have flagged me falsely."

"Oh, please." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "If I flagged you, it was due to your own error. I don't make mistakes."

Guess not. From what he could tell, she was very picky with the rules. "Alright, fine."

"But honestly, as an Ultimate, you shouldn't even be making mistakes." She pointed at him. "So the fact that I would have had to call a foul on you is embarrassing."

"What the hell…" He narrowed his eyes. "Don't act like you know what it's like to play on the field. Accidents happen all the time." Like someone trying to trip you. Not his fault if he had to act in accordance. "Besides, most soccer players out there just put on an act to give the other team a penalty." Not something he'd do himself, but he would dispute anything he could.

"Please, how bad of a job do you think I do? I'd never report something like that as a foul." She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes. "If they want to pretend to be hurt just to incite a penalty, they are sorely mistaken. I only give out cards to real penalties." She didn't want to watch grown men throw fits just to give their team an advantage.

The angry look slowly faded off his face. "Huh…"

That was an odd look he had given her. "What?"

"Most referee's wouldn't hesitate to call fouls wherever." Although, even if Gigi said otherwise, there was still a chance she could just be lying to save face.

And that thought didn't go unnoticed by Gigi herself. "You think I'm lying, aren't you?"

Clear as day, it seemed. "Can't blame me for being sceptical." He knew for a fact that he had been called out for false fouls.

However, that didn't matter here. Slowly standing up, he shook his head. "I think I'm done with this room." They couldn't really do anything else, after all.

"Likewise." She would need to find Dae-Hyun to try and get him to give the mouse back.

Besides that, the two seemed to have grown closer.

---

And she was going to do as she had promised to do. As soon as she had an opportunity to make her way here, Sakura opened up the door and made her way towards the monitor. However, she hadn't expected someone else to be here. "Huh?"

Turning to look at her, was Michael. "Oh… I didn't think anyone else would stop by here."

She crossed her arms. "I knew you were registered, but I didn't think you'd take the time to look at it yourself."

"Oh… Well I was given the job, so I see no reason to quit it quite yet…" He turned his attention back over towards the monitor.

That made sense… She walked over to the scanner, placing her watch against it. After a few seconds, she was registered for the job. "So it's going to be us two keeping a watch on everyone?"

That seemed to be the case. "I'm not sure how much help I'll be. I've never done anything like this." He trailed off. "Watching people feels wrong, but in this kind of environment…"

"Exactly." Sakura sorted through the monitors, taking notice of every room she had access to. "Someone is bound to kill, so the best we can do is just make sure we can catch them."

That didn't sit right with him. "I wouldn't say they are bound to kill." He shook his head. "We have to put a bit more faith into everyone else." He said that, but he wasn't even sure how he felt about his own words.

"Hmph, I wouldn't do that." Sakura shook her head. "Have you seen half the people here? They'd take any chance to get out of here. No matter the cost."

While he had seen it time and time again, he still didn't want to be convinced. "Then we just have to try and prevent it, right?" He moved over closer to the monitor to view all the cameras. He didn't have the time to check all of them, but every room was shown off, including several views of the hallway. The only exceptions were the rooms they slept in, and the showers.

"At least this can't be used in a negative way." Sakura was relieved that some rooms were off limits for the cameras.

After a bit more silence, Michael spoke up. "Did you use a system like this with your talent?"

"Sort of. I had access to the security system, but it was much better than this junk." She motioned to the buttons. "For one, you didn't have to flicker through all the cameras. Anything of value could be viewed at all times. No need to switch around." She grimaced, looking down. "With a system like this, you have the chance to miss things."

Maybe that was the intent. "Is there a way to tell which camera is being viewed?"

She hadn't thought of that. "Go step out into the hallway." She ordered him.

Listening to her instructions, he stepped out. "What do you need me to do?"

"Find a camera." She switched around the camera footage until she found the one corresponding to the Tau Sector. "And see if it lights up or anything."

Now with orders, he moved out to find the nearest one. A task which took no time, given he had found one almost right away. He waved at the camera.

He stayed there for half a minute before Sakura walked out of the room. "Did you notice anything?"

He shook his head. "The camera didn't change at all. No lights came on."

"Hmm…" That was good information to know. "It doesn't seem like you can tell when a camera is being looked at. I thought if there was a way to know, a criminal might be able to sneak past them. Doesn't seem to be the case."

"So there's no way to know? Doesn't that work better?" The mysterious man suggested. "If they can't tell which one is on. It should prevent them from testing their luck."

Pft, luck. "You seem to forget that some people here might be able to rely on their luck reliably." More specifically someone like Laki, if her talent were to be believed.

If one could see Michael's face, they could maybe see the frown on his face. But because it was blocked off by his hood, good luck with that. "Why do you think like that?"

"Like what?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"You seem… Almost certain a murder will take place." The hooded man crossed his arms.

She crossed her arms. "Of course I am." Wasn't it obvious? "Someone is going to kill to get out of here. There's no way they don't."

Michael thought of such an outlook as pessimistic. And yet… He couldn't exactly fault her for something like that. He expected someone to kill too. "It's just…" He didn't exactly know how to phrase what he wanted to. "Why are you so sure?"

"Because I've dealt with tons of people in the past." She glanced off to the side, trying to avoid his gaze. "And no matter how many people I end up dealing with, there's always more people on par, or even worse, than those people."

Ah, as a security guard, she must have caught a decent amount of people. "I see…" Although he couldn't really fully grasp a life like that. "What's the worst person you've ever had to deal with?"

She was about to say something, but an image flashed in her mind. "The worst person I've had to deal with while working?"

That was an odd thing to specify, given that Michael had meant exactly that. What else could he have meant? "Yes?"

Sakura let out a small sigh of relief. "At one of my first jobs at a mall." She crossed her arms. "Someone decided it was the best idea to rob in broad daylight." She turned her head to the side. "He almost ended up getting someone innocent caught in the crossfire, but I was able to apprehend them. People like that make me sick." She narrowed her eyes. "One thing to do something outside of the reach of normal civilians. But trying to use them as collateral…" She let out a sigh. "The beating he received that day was only a fraction of the punishment he ended up facing."

Beating…? "Did you… harm them?"

"Of course. Only way to fully subdue them. Besides, they had it coming." Seems she didn't care about how she was sounding. "And anyone who tries anything stupid here will get the same treatment."

"I see…" Luckily he wasn't planning on doing anything like that. And even if he was… He wouldn't be now! "I think we can end this conversation now…"

Realising she probably made him uncomfortable, she could only look away. "Agreed."

It seemed the two of them grew closer together… Probably.

---

Motive Room

Having grown ever curious about this room, Gigi had entered it again, only to find out that she wasn't the only one here.

In fact, the person she wanted to speak to was already here. "Hello, Nova." She greeted from the doorway.

"Oh?" She hadn't expected someone to stop by here anytime soon as she was setting up. "What are you doing here? There's nothing of interest yet." The lights were still pretty dim at the moment.

"I was wondering when all of this would be starting up." Motives seemed to be a pretty big part of the game, especially since there was an entire room about it. "I didn't think I'd run into you here, however."

"Well…" Nova gestured at the monitor behind her. "I'm still setting things up. So if you could come back later." But when Gigi made no attempt to leave, she realised it was futile. "You aren't leaving until you get some answers, aren't you?"

"Exactly." She didn't want to waste her time, after all. "I just wanted some information I could share with the others before this all starts."

Nova let out a sigh. There wasn't much she could tell without revealing the entire motive. So instead, she turned her attention towards the table. "You like games, don't you?"

"Of course." She was a referee after all. There'd be no point going down this career path if she hated games. Although it was more like she just liked rules. "Is that what the motive will be? Just a bunch of games?"

"... Something like that. It's a little more complicated than that." Was all she could say without divulging too much information.

And yet, Gigi was very quick on picking up things. "It sounds like a team based motive where we will be playing games." To what extent, she didn't know. But based solely on the amount of different modes the table had-

Nova had moved closer, blocking the controls for the table off. "That's enough of you."

Of course she wouldn't let her. So she should probably change the subject to something else she was curious about. "This killing game…" She trailed off, closing one of her eyes. "I know you lose it by getting the blackened wrong, or win it by killing without getting caught. However, how long will it continue if the blackened continuously gets caught?"

Nova had a question mark on her visor. "What do you mean?"

As if she needed to specify. "Eventually there will reach a point where there won't be enough people left to continue the game. Do you intend to end it there? What about the people who are left."

Nova's expression changed to one of joy. "Oh, if that's the case. Yes. The game would end. However, the participants remaining should not count themselves lucky, as there is no escape from this station by that point. They have missed their chance when they failed to make a move earlier."

Then the only way to get off this station really was to kill someone. "Then what? What's the point of keeping us here?"

The face on the visor was replaced with an expression of joy. "It's always nice to have some extra company. That's all."

Why would Nova even need the company? "If the game ends, do the rules still apply?"

"Well… Huh…" The referee was asking a lot of questions at the moment. "I won't tell you anything more. Please leave."

So she wasn't going to tell her anything else beyond that. At least she was given some extra information she wouldn't have otherwise known. "Thank you for your time."

It wasn't the answer she had been looking for, but it was nice to know that Nova could share some information with others. It wasn't just going to be talking to a brick wall.

---

Cleaning Room

Now why would anyone come here this early? There hadn't even been time for a mess yet. And here Benoit was, looking around the room nervously. The substances still being out in the open like this didn't sit well with him. "I should… get rid of these." Or at least relocate them somewhere else.

He tried to scan his bracelet on the scanner, but because Edison was still assigned, he couldn't assign himself. "Ah…"

"What are you doing here?" A voice called out, causing him to jump a bit. When he turned to look at who it was, he would see it was Hae-Won.

"Oh… Well… I was just trying to think of how to move these…" He gestured over towards the loose bottles of cleaning chemicals. "They aren't safe… So I figured it would be best to move them." Better safe than sorry.

The tattoo artist scanned the room, counting all of the bottles in total. "There's about fifteen different bottles here. Where would you even put them?"

"Um…" Benoit turned his focus over to the glass case. "I was thinking of beyond there…"

Judging by the fact he hadn't already done that, she could assume that he couldn't do it. "Need Edison, huh?" Well she had no idea where he was. "Couldn't we just move this to one of our rooms if you're that worried?"

That was true. That would be the easiest solution. "Do you want to help me…?"

She hadn't been serious about that, so she only shook her head. "I'm only messing with you. We shouldn't move them. We might need them one day as I doubt Monokawa or Nova will do any of our cleaning."

"O-oh…" Well there goes that idea. "So what are we supposed to do with them, then?"

She shrugged, not really thinking a solution is needed. "Just leave them. There's no point in trying to block them off." She moved over to one of them, removing the cap. "Besides, they are sealed. We'd know if someone used anything from that."

That gave him some peace of mind, but still…

However, that got Hae-Won thinking. "You seemed a bit paranoid at all times." She wasn't going to let something like that go unnoticed. "Especially for a big dude like yourself." He was almost half a foot taller than her.

"Huh… well…" He glanced the other way. "You can't be too careful." Right. "I think we should… take some precautions with everything around."

That was a fair point. "But there's tons of dangerous things around. The knives in the kitchen are one of them." The tattoo artist pointed out. "Why worry about the chemicals?"

She did raise a valid point. Why did he want to worry about any of this? "Um… Well…" He had to think of a reason. "It would be harder to detect…" He pointed out. Sure, a knife wound would be easy to find, but a potential poisoning? That's different.

That was a valid point. "I guess poisoning would be harder to figure out, but…" She trailed off, raising her watch. "We have the station report. Anything of note would be in here. Or at least I hope the little shit puts it in." Referring to Monokawa. "There is the chance he leaves something like that out."

Seems she understood his point! Good! "Y-yeah! Exactly…" He had raised his voice, but decided to lower it when he realised he might have been a bit too loud.

Soon, a thought crossed his mind. "Why did you come in here?"

"Ah, that. It's not to get any cleaning supplies, don't worry." Just to get any accusations out of the way.

Benoit quickly shook his head, not wanting there to be a misunderstanding. "No, I wasn't insinuating that…!"

This got a small laugh out of her. "I was just covering my ground. I just saw you enter this room, and I was wondering if you had a reason." And it seemed like a pretty noble reason to her.

"Oh…" He had completely misunderstood the situation again. "I guess… You're worried like I am."

Hae-Won moved over to lean against the wall, spending some time looking down at the ground. "... Shit… Yeah." She let out a sigh. "I think everyone is worried. Most people are just better at hiding it." In fact, the only one who seemed to have the most vocal reactions here was Benoit. She even found herself acting casual despite the entire thing. "But I don't think most people act normal because they aren't bothered. It's just easier to pretend that things aren't truly happening."

"Is… Is that what I should do?" Benoit glanced over at her. Although, he couldn't imagine himself acting like everything was normal. He wasn't going to lie to himself.

Hae-Won shrugged. "Who am I to tell you what you should and shouldn't do?" A small smile appeared on her face. "I'm only stating what others are probably doing." Herself included. "But you're a big guy. You can choose how to feel on your own."

"Right…" And he was going to choose to worry about everything he needed to worry about. "Thank you for the talk, but I think it won't change how I act…"

And that was fine. She had no problems with that. "See, that's the spirit. Don't let anyone else tell you how to think. If everyone thinks the same, it becomes a problem."

Some wise words he hadn't expected to hear from her out of all places. Maybe he had judged her wrongly based on how she looked. "You seem… You're really caring." He noted.

This got a small chuckle out of her. "That's what my brother said too." Or at least that's what he said last he heard of him. "Alright. Try not to get yourself into trouble." She knew the likelihood was minimal, but just like him, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Slowly, Benoit nodded his head. "Yeah… You too." He smiled at her.

The two grew closer together!

---

Cafeteria

It was close to one, and most of the people had gathered up in the cafeteria. Guess it was hard to ignore free food. Seems nobody wanted to cook for themselves quite yet.

"Why are you acting like that?" Sakura narrowed her eyes down at Gennosuke, who was lying down on one of the benches, without a care in the world.

Slowly shifting his eyes to the girl towering over him, he flashed her a smile. "No point in wasting so much energy, is there? There was no way out, so we might as well take it easy. Help will be here soon."

Such a dumb way to think. "Whatever." He wasn't worth the effort.

Meanwhile, Melody scanned the area, looking around for the one person she had been wanting to talk to. "He's still not here, is he?"

At the table with her was Winter, who had been busy enjoying her food. "No, I guess not." She didn't even need to be told who she was talking about. Taking a sip from her tea, she shook her head. "There's no point in trying to pressure him out, however. You should let him show himself when he feels ready."

Still, to go so long without eating. It didn't feel right. Standing up, she grabbed her tray. "I'll be right back." She had an optimistic smile on her face.

However, before she had any chance of getting far, the large monitor turned on, revealing Nova's face. "Hello all." She had two eyebrows above her eyes to express her joy. "It has been almost two entire days since the killing game has started, and I see there's been a lack of violence. Something that must be amended."

Gemini put down his fork. "What is she planning now?"

"More than likely the motive." Gigi shook her head. "They had told us about that." She took a glance at her watch.

Almost as if she didn't care about what they had to say, Nova continued on. "This motive is going to be different than the other ones planned. We have a special room made specifically for this one, after all. If you could all gather on the second floor, in the Motive Room, I could further explain everything." The screen turned off.

Despite the announcement, nobody really moved. "Do we… really have to go?" Benoit knew this could only end horribly.

Seira stood up from the bench. "I don't think we have much of a choice."

Alan hummed in thought. "I wonder where that room was…" He had only made out a few details, but it wasn't on screen for too long.

Gennosuke, on the other hand, noticed something else. "I don't care about what room she was in. No, the thing I care about was the thing behind her." He closed his eyes to get a better image of what he saw. "Looked like… some kind of steel cable."

Gemini clued in to what he was saying. "Like the one from there?" He pointed out towards the suspended room.

He nodded his head. "Yes, exactly. Which means that whatever room she was in must be related to that room, right?"

"Makes me think." Edison hummed out, swirling his flask. "That was just one steel cable. Are there seven other rooms like that?"

Lorelei shrugged, not really seeing the point in all of this. "But what does that have to do with anything? I wouldn't want to mess with those steel cables. Especially with it keeping the room up."

"Enough." Gigi called out, standing by the elevator. "We were summoned, so we should be going."

"Right, right…" Gemini let out a sigh before approaching the elevator.

All nineteen Ultimates entered the elevator.

Not wanting to be left in silence, Seira spoke up. "What do you think this motive will be…"

"I spoke to Nova earlier." Gigi answered. "But she didn't provide me much. All I was able to figure out is that it's a team based motive, and games will be involved."

"Games?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "Sounds easy to me."

"Hypothetically speaking…" Edison mumbled out. "But given that this is a death game, wouldn't those games also be of that nature?"

"I… I hope not…" Benoit shook his head. He wasn't sure he could handle any more death in this death game. And a body hadn't even dropped yet.

Soon, the elevator reached the top, and they would be able to see someone having just left their room.

"Hmm?" Dae-Hyun glanced over in the direction of the elevator. "Guess you got the news too…" He mumbled out. Before anyone could respond, he began to make his way over towards the room. "I was told attendance was mandatory."

While it was never stated to them directly, it seemed that he got a different message entirely.

The walk towards the motive room wasn't long enough to have any meaningful chatter, based on its proximity to the elevator.

---

Motive Room

All twenty participants stepped into the Motive Room, which barely seemed big enough to contain them all, but they made do. Of note, the lights seemed to be fully functional, instead of being dimmed out like last time.

In the back of the room, in front of the monitor, was Nova. "Welcome everyone! Glad you could make it."

"You didn't really give us a choice." Atlas narrowed his eyes.

"Oh? Guess I didn't." She didn't really seem to care. "Welcome everyone!" She repeated. "Glad I forced you all to make it."

"We'll finally get to see what this room is for." Edison looked around, nothing much had changed.

Now that everyone was fully in the room, Nova could begin talking. "As some of you have theorised, this room will be used for some motives going forward. Not all of them, mind you, but this is where all public information for motives will be kept."

"Public info?" Gennosuke raised an eyebrow, before glancing down at his watch. Lifting it up to show her, he continued. "And this is for all private info, isn't it?"

The overseer nodded her head. "Yes. Exactly. Anything displayed on that cannot be shared with the others-"

"Because of the punishment." Gigi didn't need a rehash of the rules. Everyone had read it already.

She didn't like being cut off, but she was going to let it slide. "Luckily, however, this first motive doesn't require any private information, so you don't have to worry about it. All information for this motive will be public."

"And what is that motive?" Gigi just wanted to get to the point already, given she already knew what it could be. And by getting to the point, there were bound to be rules.

Wow, a rather impatient bunch of people here. "Very well." She raised her arm to begin tapping away at the device. "For this motive, you will all be split up in teams. Two teams of ten, to be precise." She pointed to both doors. "Here are your teams."

After tapping one last time on her screen, everyone would get a notification on their watch. They didn't even need to open it to see what team they were on.

"Huh…" Michael mumbled out before his attention was caught by the monitor behind Nova. "The teams are there too…"

Which made things easier. Looking at the back, they were all able to tell what the two teams were. The first one was named Truth, and contained: Alan, Atlas, Benoit, Dae-Hyun, Edison, Hae-Won, Gigi, May, Sakura, and Seira.

As for the second team, it was called Ideals, and it contained the remaining ten people: Benjamin, Gemini, Gennosuke, Ian, Lakshmi, Lorelei, Melody, Michael, Tatiana, and Winter.

"Each team has a room that they are assigned to. You can enter that room to talk about any strategy with your team. For that purpose, we've made the room soundproof, as well as having it only being lockable from the inside. Once locked, it can only be unlocked from the inside, preventing any unwanted guests."

Ian tilted his head to the side. "If it's a team motive, what exactly will be doing? Games?"

"Exactly. How this works is that you'll be paired up against an opponent from the opposite team. You'll be tasked with playing a simple game."

Behind her, the display changed to show the match ups.

Gigi VS Benjamin

Sakura VS Ian

Edison VS Gennosuke

Seira VS Melody

Atlas VS Michael

Alan VS Lakshmi

Benoit VS Gemini

May VS Lorelei

Dae-Hyun VS Winter

Hae-Won VS Tatiana

"Hmm…" Hae-Won glanced over at Tatiana. "So there's no way to change these?"

Nova shook her head. "No. The matchups are set in stone, as well as the times the games will take place. The only thing that can be decided is what game will be played."

"Is there where the strategizing comes into play?" Alan asked, cooking up an idea. "Since we get to choose the game."

Certain names light up on the screen. It started with Gigi, then Ian. After that, it alternated teams all the way down.

"The names who light up will be the people who can choose what games will be played." Nova continued to explain. The last matchup had no names lit up, since they were left with whatever game was left.

"And what games are available?" Lorelei hummed out. "Hopefully they are some good things." She made sure to eye May, who seemed out of it at the moment. This was going to be a breeze.

Upon hearing that, Nova made sure to switch over to the next screen, which now displayed the games available. They were, as listed: Arm Wrestling, Billiards, Chess, Mahjong, Martial Arts, Memory Game, Poker, Russian Roulette, Video Games, and one that was simply referred to as Zappy Zap! However, the games would quickly disappear.

"Huh…" Alan rubbed the back of his head. "I wasn't the only one who noticed that, right?"

Seira slowly nodded her head. "What was that last one?"

Nova had other plans in mind! No time to explain what every little game was. They could figure it out themselves. "And, the final thing you need to worry about are the times. Those have been decided as well."

The screen changed again, showing off the times.

Gigi VS Benjamin (Day 1, 2:20pm)

Sakura VS Ian (Day 1, 8:30 pm)

Edison VS Gennosuke (Day 2, 9:30 am)

Seira VS Melody (Day 2, 3:55 pm)

Atlas VS Michael (Day 2, 6:30 pm)

May VS Lorelei (Day 3, 11:30 am)

Benoit VS Gemini (Day 3, 5:30 pm)

Alan VS Lakshmi (Day 3, 9:30 pm)

Dae-Hyun VS Winter (Day 4, 9:10 am)

Hae-Won VS Tatiana (Day 4, 9:40 am)

Tiebreaker (Day 4, 10:00 am)

There were a few things to note here. "A tiebreaker?" Gigi looked over at Nova. "What would that consist of?" There being a tiebreaker wasn't shocking. There were ten games after all.

She shrugged. "The only thing you need to know is that the game and players are chosen at random." Less than ideal.

Gemini lifted his hand up instead of blurting out questions.

As if acting like a teacher, Nova called out to him. "Yes?"

He lowered his hand. "What happens if someone fails to show up at the required time?"

"Then the other team wins a point."

Which led to the next question, which Winter had. "And what if both parties fail to show up?"

The rather neutral expression that was on Nova's visor twisted into a sinister grin. "Well, if they both refuse to play the game, then they are refusing to play the entire game. They will be dealt with."

Alan felt like this could only mean death, so he wasn't going to press that issue any further than it needed to. "What's this all for? You said there was a motive attached to it."

"Right." She had completely forgotten about that. "The winners get… Nothing!" She had two eyebrows appear to express joy. "It's the losers you should be worried about."

"Huh…" Benoit had a gut feeling where this was going. "You don't mean…"

"Oh, I do. Twenty is a large number of people. I wouldn't be opposed to cutting that down in half, if needed to." Which made it pretty obvious what the penalty for losing was. "The losing team will be executed."

"Why does everything have to end with execution?" Seira mumbled out, taking a step back.

Tatiana glanced off to the side, looking nervous. "Seriously? Half of us?"

"Let me guess…" Gennosuke titled his head to the side, a smile on his face. "The only way to stop this is by committing a murder, isn't it?"

"Yes. If you wish to stop half of you from dying, all it takes is for someone to die." Nova continued her explanation. "The games will stop immediately after the body discovery announcement goes off. However, if a body fails to turn up, as soon as the nighttime announcement plays out, then the losing team will all be killed off." She tapped away at her screen. "Here, I will provide you with all the rules for this game."

Like before, everyone's watches dinged, alerting them of a notification, loading up the rules resulted in this list:

Rule #1: The group has been divided into two teams of ten. Your fate relies on how well the rest of your team does.

Rule #2: Participants must show up to participate in a game at the time they had been assigned. Failure to show up counts as an automatic loss.

Rule #3: Failure for both parties to show up will result in both parties being punished.

Rule #4: The game must be chosen before the assigned time.

Rule #5: The winner at the end is the team that has accumulated the most points.

Rule #6: If the score ends in a tie, a tiebreaker round will be held after. The participants and the game will be chosen at random.

Rule #7: Failure on both parties to show up at the tiebreaker will result in the termination of both teams.

Rule #8: The games will not end until the body discovery announcement plays out.

Rule #9: At the end of the game, the team with the fewest amount of points will be executed.

Rule #10: Once the final game has been carried out, the execution of the losing team will play out when the nighttime announcement plays.

"You'd just kill us all?" Michael mumbled out upon reading one of the rules. "Wouldn't that ruin your little game?"

Nova tilted her head to the side. "No, not really. Killing all of you wouldn't do anything."

"H-hey." Benoit got everyone's attention. "What time is it?"

Gigi quickly took a look at her watch. "It's 2:00 right now." Which meant… "We only have twenty minutes before the first game. And that meant she was up first. "Everyone, in our room." She walked over to the Truth door.

---

Truth Room

Once everyone was inside, Gigi pressed the button to slam the door shut. "Since I get to choose what game to play, I'll more than likely choose something to my strengths." Something like billiards would be more suited for her.

"Hold on…" May spoke up, looking over at her. "I don't think you have much of a choice on what to pick."

She narrowed her eyes. "What? What do you mean?"

The sleepy girl let out a yawn. "Ian is next after you, right? And he gets to choose, which means he'll most likely end up picking poker."

Oh, she wasn't liking where this was going. "Ian's probably going to win whatever game he ends up picking." The referee tried to counter.

Hae-Won shook her head, leaning against the wall. "That's not necessarily true. But letting him have free range over poker sounds like a sure-fire way to lose a point."

And yet, she still wasn't going for it. "I say we let him have the point. I should go for something I'm strong at to guarantee I get a point as well."

Atlas raised an eyebrow. "Sounds to me like you just don't want to play poker."

"Or maybe she's afraid of Dolly!" Edison suggested. "I saw her playing cards against Ian, and she was a menace."

Gigi resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I dislike poker, so I'd rather not have to play it."

Still, it didn't seem the others wanted to give up. "Hold on. I'm facing off against Ian." Sakura pointed out. "If we take out poker, we have to figure out which one he's most likely to go for."

Atlas shook his head, realising just how ridiculous this whole thing was. "Didn't think there'd be this much strategy for a killing game." He half expected everyone to just start killing or something.

Trying to remember the list, Edison spoke up. "I think it's more than likely he'd choose billiards."

That's the only answer she needed. "I can beat him at billiards."

Hae-Won raised an eyebrow at that, doubting it. "Are you sure? He seems like the type to play billiards too."

She crossed her arms. "It's better than having to face off against him with poker. I stand a better chance."

Still, it all landed on Gigi to make the final decision on the matters. And from the looks of it, it seemed they really wanted her to take poker. "Fine." She relented. She wouldn't like it, but it was better than just letting Ian have a free point. Her opponent would be Benjamin, and based on everything she's seen so far, she wouldn't be able to read his face at all.

"Five minutes left." Sakura was looking down at her watch. She glanced over at the referee. "You should get ready for the game."

Slowly nodding her head, Gigi turned her attention towards the door. "Wish me luck."

---

Ideals Room

"Listen up!" Dolly called out, getting the attention of everyone. "I'm up first, so you can put all your faith in me today."

Gennosuke raised an eyebrow, a smile on his face. "Are you sure? We don't even know what game they're going to play."

"I think it's easy to tell." Ian hummed out, already having an idea in his head.

"You do?" Gemini hadn't even begun to narrow it down. "How can you tell?"

It seems the others weren't able to figure it out. He shrugged. "No point in telling you, though. I want to see how this game plays out." Although, with what he knew, he already felt like this first round was a loss.

"Hey, Ian." Tatiana called out to him. "Aren't you going after this? You should probably decide now since we're all here."

He could. But he won't. He shook his head. "I'm fine with waiting. Besides, isn't it obvious what I will choose?" Although, there was a chance that Gigi took poker, which left him with a different set of choices. "Poker."

A smile formed on Gemini's face. "We should probably state what our preferences are, just so we can figure out what's best for everyone." He pointed to himself. "I think I'm fine with mostly anything." He paused for a brief moment before letting out a sigh. "Besides maybe martial arts. I don't know any."

Winter shook her head. "I don't think any of us know any. Unless…" She turned to look at Michael. "Do you know anything like that?"

"I… Wouldn't. No." He looked at the ground. "I don't think I'm much suitable for any of the games."

Gennosuke seemed amused by something. "We don't need to be good at it. We just have to go against an opponent who can't do anything against us." He turned to look over at Laki. "Like you. You could beat Alan in martial arts, couldn't you?"

She had been thinking about something else entirely. "No, I'm good. I want to see what that last one was."

For a brief moment, the smile fell off his face. It returned moments later. "Staking your luck on it, aren't you? I can admire that."

Well, it wasn't the discussion he wanted, but Gemini was happy that some people were at least planning ahead. "Alright, we've only got a few minutes left, so you should get ready." He turned to look at Dolly.

She raised her hands in the air. "I won't let you down! You better win when it's your turn too."

---

Motive Room

Nova had been waiting patiently for the two participants to make it back here. "Are the two of you ready?"

"Yeah!" Dolly cheered out, turning to look at the rest of the team who was here to cheer her on. "Watch my performance!"

Gigi, on the other hand, didn't share the same enthusiasm. "Yes. I'm ready." Straight to the point.

"And have you chosen what the game will be?"

No point changing her mind now. "Yes. I have." She reached over, grabbing the deck of cards. "We'll be playing poker."

Seeing that, Ian frowned slightly. Although, he knew that was going to be what she chose. Especially if he was going next.

"Huh?" Dolly hadn't been expecting to play that. "Can we play Go Fish instead?"

Not answering her question, Gigi sat down in the chair. She tried to examine Benjamin's face, but for now, he showed no changes in emotion. That would be a problem. Then again, her facial expression didn't change either, so she felt like it would just be down to a game of luck, instead of trying to read expressions.

However, she quickly came to realise that it wasn't going to be the case completely. While Benjamin didn't change his expression, Dolly had a habit of reacting in certain ways. Although, even that was a stretch, given that the doll was used to bluff sometimes.

Still, his playing style was sloppy. Definitely worse than what she had seen from other people over her years of working.

"Have you ever played before?" There were no rules stating she couldn't talk at a poker game. She just couldn't try and change the outcome of the game.

Dolly shook her head as she called the bet. "Nope! I played other card games, though."

Which would at least explain why Dolly didn't humour Ian that one time, and it ended up being the other way around. "I see."

With the bet being called, the fourth card was revealed on the table. It didn't do much for her.

Although she couldn't quite tell how it helped Benjamin. For once, he was choosing not to have Dolly do anything. The only thing they did was put one chip worth a hundred.

She grimaced at the thought and let out a sigh. Given that the fourth card didn't benefit her at all, it was probably best for her to fold. "Fold." She put her cards away. She eyed the cards Benjamin had in his hands, but he didn't reveal them to her. She figured as much, but it would allow her to know just what type of game he was playing.

The rest of the game pretty much went the same way, neither gaining much ground on the other.

"They've been at it for half an hour…" Dae-Hyun commented. If he hadn't felt intrigued to see how this played out, he would have left half an hour ago.

"Hmm…" Alan began to write things down. "This might be nash equilibrium."

The talent manager shook his head. "Now you're just making up words."

Ian shook his head. "No, it's not exactly a wrong term." Since he knew about it, it had be poker related. "The two might be playing with the best strategy they can use. There's no incentive to change."

The conspiracy theorist shook his head. "And if there's no incentive to change strategies, there's a chance this game goes on forever."

"Right!" The gambler smiled. "So it's the correct term…" He trailed off. "If they're actually doing that." He knew he couldn't comment on either player given he didn't want to give Gigi an advantage. And, if he helped out Benjamin, Sakura might cave his head in. Although from looking at both players, he knew that there was a lot of room for improvement based on their strategies. Benjamin made it somewhat obvious that he had a good hand, while Gigi was playing too cautious. If Benjamin hid his good hands, and Gigi was a little more reckless, things could change for the better for either of them.

Alas, some things were not fated to happen.

"Call." Gigi had mostly been ignoring the conversation the others were having around her. She didn't need to listen to them, nor was she going to use what they say to try and glean some hints. She wasn't going to cheat, after all. For now, she had pretty much figured out how Benjamin played. All it took was for her to do something a bit reckless now.

"Raise!" Dolly pushed some chips into the center.

This time was different. It was subtle, but Benjamin didn't have Dolly go completely silent like normal for a bit.

"Call." This might be a chance to gain some ground.

Of course, she couldn't show her hand too much. She had seen many players lose because they got too cocky.

This persisted until the last card was revealed, and both of them stayed in.

In the end, Gigi had revealed herself to have a straight, while Benjamin only had a three of a kind.

Good. This pot was worth a lot, so she was going to gain a lot of ground now.

A few more rounds passed with none of them really gaining much ground. Gigi had gotten herself about two hundred more in chips, but it didn't mean much when Benjamin still had a lot left.

It was time to be ballsy. She took a glance at her hand, nothing great. A two of hearts, and a seven of diamond. Nothing she could work with. But she was getting tired of playing this game, and she was hoping she could bluff her way into some free chips. "Raise." She raised it right away, without even knowing what the center cards were.

It was a strategy so unlike her, that even Benjamin was getting sceptical. "Call!" Dolly shouted out.
It should be fine for now, as long as she actually gets something good, at least he put some chips in the pot.

When the center three cards were revealed… It wasn't ideal. Only one card was useful, giving her a pair of twos. Yipee! One step higher than a high card. Still, she put more chips in the pot, hoping Benjamin would fold.

He didn't, which meant he might actually have something good.

And yet, she felt some sting knowing that she had already put a bit too much in the pot. She should just give up now. But… There was slight hope. With the cards on the table, there was a chance for another straight.

With the fourth card flipped, it only increased her chances, though, that's all it remained as. A chance.

And yet, she still couldn't tell what Benjamin had. Granted, he could have a better chance at a straight right now, given that one of her cards was used on a pair. But staring into his eyes yielded no answers.

With another round of betting, the final card had been revealed. And all it left her with was two pairs. The chances he had a straight were immense. But when it came time for his turn.

"Check." He didn't bet more.

Why? Was it to keep her in so she'd bet? A lot of thoughts crossed Gigi's mind. A lot was already in the pot, so she knew she'd have to do something. Scare him off, maybe? She dropped two hundred in the pot, waiting to see what he'd do-

"All in!" Dolly called out, just shoving the entire stack of chips into the center of the table. Had Edison been on the table, he would have been crushed to death.
"Huh…" Gigi wasn't sure how to process a move like this. Was he making an attempt to get her to fold, or did he actually have a good hand.

Although, if he had nothing, this was probably going to be her best chance to win. "Screw it." She pushed the corresponding chips towards the center.

"What the fuck…" Ian narrowed his eyes. He had no idea what either player had. All he knew was that they were both equally stupid.

Actually, only one was stupid, the other was just tired (take a guess).

"Oh!" Nova hadn't been expecting this. "Well, this could be the end, please reveal your cards." Or it could go on for another half hour.

When the cards were revealed-

"Really?" Gigi narrowed her eyes, looking at what Benjamin had.

Dolly quickly turned to look at him. "I told you she'd see right through us." She began to hit him over the head weakly.

While Gigi herself didn't have much to note, only having two pairs, it was better than the one pair the duo had. At least she chose the best time to gamble the entire game away.

Ian quickly moved closer to Benjamin, placing a hand on his shoulder. "That was pathetic." His craft, just completely ruined by someone who couldn't bluff.

"Hey!" Dolly got in the way of the two of them. "Don't insult master like that!"

Gigi got up from her chair, her facial expression not really changing. "There, I won poker like you guys wanted me to." Although she felt like she would have been better for almost any other game.

Alan shrugged. "It made it so Ian wouldn't be able to play it."

And now they just outright said it. Although, he wasn't going to let that bring him down. Instead, Ian offered a cheery smile. "Good move there." He couldn't exactly fault them for being worried about his skill. Nobody else had their talent represented as a game, so it was only fair. "Good game." He offered his hand over to Gigi, even though he wasn't the one to-

"Hey!" Dolly pushed his hand away. "Good game!" She completely forgot about proper game etiquette.

Gigi wasn't sure how she felt about shaking the hand of a doll, and yet here she was. "Yes. Good game." No reason to decline the camaraderie, however. She shook Dolly's hand.

"Oh! A firm handshake!" Said the doll, which could not feel anything.

With that first round completed, most people were content with just leaving the room. Although one (or maybe two) people stayed behind.

---

Truth Room

Slowly opening her eyes, May looked around the room, noticing that she had fallen asleep in the truth room, and nobody had bothered to wake her up. Slowly getting up, she stretched a bit, looking around. "Did we win…?" She hadn't witnessed the game, but she was sure a winner would have been decided by now.

Stepping out into the main part of the room, she heard the sound of someone talking. Except they weren't talking to anyone else. They were talking to themselves.

"Such a ludicrous punishment…" Alan had been pacing back and forth for a while now. Other words he said were mumbled under his breath. When he finally spotted May from the corner of his eyes, he turned to face her. "Oh? You were still here?"

She rubbed her eyes. "Yes… Nobody bothered to wake me up." She took a glance at the monitor which still displayed the rounds, including their times. Next to Gigi VS Benjamin, it was shown that the winner was Gigi. One point for them. That made her at least less worried. "We won."

Alan nodded his head, moving over towards the table. No reason to pace back and forth. "Yes, we did. Shocking how it turned out, given that neither wanted to show any emotion." He was at least glad Gigi was able to pull it off despite not seemingly liking poker.

But none of that mattered when a thought popped into May's head. "Why are you still here?" She sat down on the chair opposite of him. "Shouldn't you have gone… to do something else?" Despite having just woken up from a nap, it was hard for the girl to continue to be up.

He slowly nodded his head. "Normally I would, but my mind has been thinking about something as of late. Especially with how this game works." He loaded up the rules application, narrowing his vision on rule #13. "It isn't the first time one of the rules has been that half of the remaining people are cut down. I'm wondering if there's a pattern."

That's true. Both of those rules end with the same results, more or less. A large massacre of people. "But what's the problem?" She had a pretty good idea, but she wanted to hear his thoughts on the matter.

Closing his watch, he leaned forward on the table, getting into a more serious pose. "From the looks of it, Nova seems content with killing half of us at a moment's notice. Sure, maybe it's to give us a bigger incentive to kill…" But for it to be brought up twice? It had to be more than just a coincidence.

However, May seemed to have a different line of thinking. "It's only been stated twice, so maybe it's just a coincidence." She pointed out. "Notice that she gave us… ample time after a losing team is decided to kill someone." She tilted her head to the side, leaning it against her own arm.

Alan slowly nodded his head. "It sounds like she's banking on that clause never activating." He would hope so, given that it would be a weird killing game if it took every chance to kill off half the remaining participants. "That could be applied to the motive, but what about the right to forfeit your vote?"

"Hmm…?" She had been staring straight ahead, lost in her own thoughts. "Well… That one is hard to activate as well. The rules state everyone has to vote to do so…" She couldn't imagine an entire room full of people being alright with randomly dying. "We have… a lot of smart people." She glanced away. "I personally wouldn't forfeit my vote."

Nor would he. "Alright…" From the looks of it, they all just seemed like scare tactics. "And yet…" He wasn't done arguing this point. "If things don't work out the way she wants, is she just ready to let half of us die?"

"She could maybe forgo it for the motive, since it wasn't officially added to the main rules…" Just a subset. However, there was something she couldn't deny. "Rule #13 can't be ignored… As stated, her and Monokawa must follow the rules." Which meant that if everyone forfeited their vote, there would be nothing to stop it.

The more the two of them talked about it, the more Alan grew a bit nervous. "That bugs me too. Why would you specify that in the rules?" He hummed out.

"I dunno…" May lazily shrugged, turning to look at the monitor. "There's a lot of things we don't really know…"

And here she was, not caring about any of it. "You aren't going to spend any time thinking about it?" He didn't know how she was able to do it, given how frazzled his mind was from all of this thinking.

Putting deep thought into anything wasn't exactly her style. "If I think of something… I'll voice my concern. But right now we haven't been given much information…" She glanced towards the side. "I don't want to follow a false lead…"

So quick to give up. And yet he wasn't going to be like that. He adjusted his glasses, putting on a more serious expression. "Well, I can't rest until I've figured out everything I need to." Even with the limited space they were allowed, he already had several key points of interest he wanted to go over. "Still, you seem like a capable enough person." Alright, maybe capable wasn't the right word. Looking her over, she didn't exactly scream the definition. "Let's choose another word…" With a talent like hers, she was clearly an intelligent woman.

However, in true fashion, he let his mind wander off a bit. The more the conversation dragged on, the more he found it hard to put any trust in her. To be so gifted, but to act like this in the midst of a killing game? Something was clearly wrong. "Why do you sleep so much?"

"Hmm?" That was a turn she hadn't expected. Weren't they just talking about whatever conspiracy theory he had cooked up. "Why does it matter to you?" A yawn.

That was true… He had no right to pry into personal information. "Never mind…" But from the looks of it, he wouldn't be able to learn much from her. "I think I should leave." He wanted to be alone with his thoughts, after all.

"Fine by me…" She didn't care either way. It just meant she could retreat to her room.

It seems the two grew a bit closer.

---

Cafeteria

With only an hour left before the next game, Tatiana had moved over towards the cafeteria to get herself some food. She wasn't sure if she had arrived too late or not.

However, upon arrival, she noticed that the food was still there.

Despite that, the rest of the cafeteria was pretty much empty, save for one person… Or well… Two people depending on who you want to give rights to.

Grabbing some food, she moved over to sit at the table with the only occupants. Sitting there already, was Benjamin and Dolly.

"That was a great performance you put up!" She tried to be supportive, despite the loss.

Dolly crossed her arms. "That girl cheated, she had to. There's no way she could have seen through master's poker face!" She took a look at Benjamin's unchanging face.

It was a good poker face, but Dolly probably wasn't helping any. "It's amazing how she was able to see through you!" But Gigi was hard to even gauge either. She was a little too serious when it came to playing the game.

Dolly wasn't sad for too long, gesturing towards Tatiana. "We did a poor opener, but you better do a good closing act!"

That was right, she was going to be going last. "Haha! I'm afraid it won't even come down to that. As I have the utmost faith in the rest of us. It will be a sweep across the board!" Except for the first round. Apart from that! Ideals were going to sweep.

"Oh? Confident in our team, huh?" Well, she definitely did have a good set of people. "Ian can win any game, so he's going to be a winner for sure." And Gemini seemed pretty capable.

"Exactly!" She declared, standing up on the bench. "We've been dealt the best hand yet!" You know, after all the horrible things that have happened in the two days they've been here for. After her burst of energy, let herself fall back into her seat. Then, realisation began to hit her. "Although, to win… The other team would need to…"

Right. They're survival depended on the others dying. "Hey!" Dolly called out. "Let's not worry about that right now. We still have two days at minimum before a winner is even declared!" If the doll was able to do the math right.

That was true! What was she worrying about? "That's two entire days to find a way out of here!" They hadn't found anything yet, but with Gemini working tirelessly to find a way out, it was bound to happen eventually. "And once we're out here, we don't have to worry about any of this! I can finally return home!"

Which meant Dolly could return home. "I hope they've missed me!"

This got Tatiana thinking, however. "How long have we been missing for?" She couldn't imagine them being missing for a day before they woke up.. "How does that happen anyways?"

"What do you mean?" Dolly tilted her body.

Tatiana had to think how to formulate her question. "Well, we were sent off to space. But how did that happen in such a short time?"

Dolly shrugged, not caring too much. "I never put much thought into it!" Thinking for a second, she came up with her answer. "AH! They just teleported us! Simple as that."

That… didn't seem to be the answer Tatiana had thought of. "Never mind!" Maybe she could find someone a bit more serious to hold that conversation with. "I'm just hoping my troupe is doing fine without me!"

"Troupe you say?" That got the doll's interest. "Perform for me!"

Who was she to say no to such a request? Standing up on the table, she twirled a knife around. "You got it! Give me a target, and I'll show you my skill."

"Oh! Oh!" Quickly, her eyes scanned the room before finally landing on the perfect target! "Edison! Edison!"

The boy had been sitting on the other end of the cafeteria, and was completely caught off guard. That's right! He was the second person if you gave him rights. "What the Fermium-"

Tatiana quickly raised her hands. "No! No! I'm not going to throw it at a person." Well, at least she wasn't going to aim for a person. "I can hit his food tray."

Quickly, the chemist hid his tray under the table. "Good luck doing that!"

Dolly let out a sigh. The nerd had ruined the fun. "Alright, then…" She scanned the room again, finally landing on the serving area. "Oh! That cup!" There was a lone cup placed right next to the coffee machine.

The knife thrower had to squint slightly just to see it. "It's a bit far, but I'll see what I can do." Still, she was hoping for a bigger target.

Stepping up onto the table, she twirled her knife around, focusing solely on the cup on the counter on the other end of the room. Taking a deep breath, she pulled her arm back, before letting the knife fly out.

She held her breath as she watched it soar, before it finally hit the cup. "Ah!" She struck a cocky pose. "Of course I nailed it!"

"Wow!" Dolly called out, raising her hands in the air. "That must be a great act! What do you normally throw knives at?"

"Oh! Haha!" She let out a very loud laugh before she calmed down. "People." The smile faded from her face.

"So you could have thrown it at Edison!"

Poor boy.

Tatiana quickly shook her head. "The setup would be all wrong. Normally the people I throw knives at are strapped to a wheel." It was a circus act, so there had to be some danger to it. "I mainly use timing to know when to throw the knife!"

That sounded dangerous. "Why the danger?" Hell, Dolly never had to do anything dangerous when she went to perform.

Tatiana shrugged. "There's no excitement if there's no danger. The thrill of knife throwing comes from the chance that something goes wrong! If I'm just throwing knives at a target, how am I to capture an audience that way?"

Dolly couldn't find any fault with that logic. "Good point! But who normally has to be on the receiving end of the knife?"

Well, hopefully nobody had to receive a knife. "Why! The very person who trained me to be what I am today!" She seemed rather proud. "She was the one who offered me the chance to even become a knife thrower."

Wow, Tatiana's ascent to stardom was much more interesting than even hers! "I wish I could have seen a show like that." She reached her hands out. "Come on, let me take a stab at it!"

Even with the knife pun, she wasn't about to give up her knife. "Nope!" She put her other one away, making sure to collect the one she threw earlier. "This takes years of training." And also she didn't want to risk the chance of losing one of her knives in a killing game. "Maybe another time."

"Aww…" The doll looked down at the table. But there was still a chance, so not all hope was lost. "Next time!"

Tatiana shook her head in amusement. "Yes! Next time!" Maybe the doll would forget.

The two seemed to have grown closer together.

---

Motive Room

With only half an hour before the next game would begin, most of the people had gathered back here.

Despite this, however, there were still several people missing.

"Huh…" Ian was a bit disappointed. His game was next, so he was hoping people would be able to see what he was capable of.

Of note, May, Gennosuke, Lorelei, and Dae-Hyun were missing at the moment.

"Worry not!" Tatiana declared. "We don't need them to achieve victory."

Winter approached the door to the ideal's side. "Shouldn't we gather here?"

"Let's go!" Laki ran in, shortly followed by the rest of the group.

Meanwhile, the truth team remained in the main part of the room.

"There's really no reason to do any thinking, is there?" Atlas pointed out. They had pretty much narrowed it down to what Ian would choose.

Sakura crossed her arms, shaking her head. "No. Not really."

Hae-Won shrugged. "If we win here, we've set ourselves up pretty nicely."

"Still…" Gigi had a bad feeling about this. "With what I've seen from him, we shouldn't rule out the possibility he might perform something underhanded." Not that it would go unnoticed by her.

"Like cheating?" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "I'd like to see him try."

The referee shook her head. "If he cheats, I'll catch it." No, she was worried about something else entirely.

---

Ideals Room

"You'll choose billiards, right?" Tatiana opened up the discussion.

Wow, they already wanted to know what he picked. "What's the fun of ruining the surprise?" The choice was pretty obvious, so he was going to have some fun with it at the very least.

Winter had an amused look on his face. "Sounds like you have something else in mind?"

He tilted his head to the side. "Well, I wanted poker originally, but they took that from me." Although he wasn't too surprised given how much of an imposing foe he saw himself as. He leaned his head to the side. "What about you, Laki? What are you feeling?"

She took a moment to think about it. "Oh! Definitely the Zappy Zap!"

"Really?" Gemini was a bit shocked to hear that. "Not Russian roulette?"

"Honestly…" Winter shook her head. "Probably for the best if she doesn't do that one."

Tatiana could only imagine the horror that awaited that one. "You don't think it's a real gun, do you?"

The escapist found it hard to believe. "I don't think they'd force us into an event that caused us to kill ourselves." Especially since they wanted them to kill each other.

Ian stood moved away from the wall, stretching a bit. "Alright. I've made up my mind completely. It's time for me to win this." The cheery man turned towards the door, ready to get things started.

---

Motive Room

With both parties ready to participate in the second game, Ian couldn't help but have a cocky smile on his face. "You don't seem very scary."

Sakura narrowed her eyes on him. "I don't care what you think of me." She moved over towards the table. "Just choose your game already." So she could beat him and shut him up.

Seems she didn't want to trash talk before the game. That was fine by him. Approaching the table, he had a devilish look in his eyes. "The game I choose is…" Now, despite everyone thinking he'd choose billiards, he had another idea in mind. "Chess." He revealed, pressing the button for it.

In an instant, the table changed completely, converting into the board with all the pieces placed.

"W-what?" Sakura had been ready for anything else but chess. "You aren't going to choose-"

The gambler sat down, leaning his head against his hand. "What? Billiards? Is that really what everyone was expecting me to choose?" A smile crept up on his face. "I'm not that predictable."

Sakura had been ready to beat him at any other game. Chess was not something she expected. Sure, she had played before in the past… Yet if Ian was confident in picking that instead of what everyone else assumed he would, she felt like she might be in danger.

"I'll even let you go first." He rotated the board so that she would get the lighter pieces.

The amount of confidence this man had was unnerving. Yet, she didn't let it show on her face. "So what? You think just because you chose this, you'll win?"

He quickly shook his head, a grin appearing on his face. "Oh, of course not. I have no idea how good you are at this. For all I know, you could crush me." Though he wouldn't count on it.

"Do we have a time limit for this?" Sakura turned towards Nova.

Yikes. Already thinking of a time limit. "I would like this to be completed before nighttime rolls around. So please, don't take more than an hour and a half."

Gemini raised an eyebrow. "Does this room also fall under the rules?"

"Well!" From her reaction, it seemed so.

Alan hummed out in thought. "And what happens if they stall the game?"

The visor on Nova's helmet went out, leaving it in darkness. "You forfeit your life." However, her regular expression returned quickly. "Bad things happen, so I wouldn't bet on trying to cheat the system."

"The rules are dangerous." Gigi reminded everyone. "Try not to find loopholes. Especially on the rules that could result in your death."

Wanting to give them the most time possibly, Nova stepped forward. "You may start now."

Which left all the pressure on Sakura. She had the first move. "Huh…" An hour and a half wouldn't be enough if she ended up taking too long. No time to think of it. Pawn to e4. Was that a good move? Like hell if she knew.

"Ah." Ian raised an eyebrow. "An interesting opening you've got there."

Was it? Or was he just fucking with her? A few thoughts ran through her mind. And yet, on the outside, she remained calm and serious. "Don't take your time." She warned him.

He hovered his hand over one of his pawns. "I think I can take as much time as I want." Especially if he had an idea in mind. The only problem was that he needed to make sure he didn't see through what he was doing. Eventually, he landed on moving his pawn to e5, directly blocking her pawn from advancing towards him. "Oops, stopped you!"

Now she wasn't sure if he knew what he was doing, or was just going with the flow. "Are you just trying to get on my nerves?"

He shrugged, a smile on his face. "I might." Even without knowing how to play, he was enjoying himself.

"There isn't supposed to be bantering between the two participants during chess." Gigi called out, narrowing her eyes at the two.

Ian shook his head. "That's only for official chess matches." He gestured towards the room around him. "This doesn't seem official." Not to mention they didn't have a timer to the side.

Gigi knew this to be true. She just wanted the game to be finished quickly, so it was her very polite way to tell them to stop talking.

Not wanting to spend even longer choosing her next move, Sakura picked up her knight, and moved it over f3. She wasn't sure how great of a move this was, but developing pieces couldn't be bad!

Seeing that move, he frowned slightly before reaching for his bishop. Lifting it up, he moved it over to c5. "So how long has it been since you've played chess?"

"Years…" She answered shortly. "I played it back in the day with my sister."

"What made you stop?"

She wasn't liking this questioning one bit, so she moved her next piece. Her bishop all the way to c4, to be right up against Ian's. "Can you afford to keep talking?"

He didn't really see the issue. "Hey, just because at the end of all of this, the losing team dies, doesn't mean we can't have a bit of fun." But if she was going to be like that, he was going to bring out the big guns. Without hesitation, he raised his queen piece.

"Bringing it out now?" Sakura narrowed her eyes. He was planning something, wasn't he?

He played around with the piece a bit. "I thought it'd be fun if she was on the field." Finally, he placed it down on f6. He wanted to move it to h4, but the damn knight ruined that plan of his.

Now Sakura had to be cautious, given she couldn't exactly read what Ian was planning. Not only that, but she didn't have a good avenue to even attack the queen at the moment.

Choosing to air on the side of caution, she grabbed her pawn, and moved it to d3. Play it safe, she reminded herself.

Now, Ian had a big brain play here, but he was choosing to also do exactly what Sakura was doing. Playing it cautious. So, as soon as she made her move, he began to analyse how that affected what he was planning on doing.

When he ultimately realised it didn't change anything, he made his next move. Moving his own pawn to g5.

Back to Sakura! For once, she had a clear idea on what to do. She eyed the pawn that Ian had just moved, and realised that she could probably take it with her knight. Sure, the pawn was being defended by his queen, but if Ian took her knight with his queen, she could take the queen with her bishop.

And if he didn't take the knight, he would be able to place Ian in a very interesting position where she could have the knight infiltrate the back ranks.

Her next move would be to take the pawn on e4, where it would be safe because of her light squared bishop. And then all she would need to do is take the rook.

So, without much other thought, she moved her knight to g5, capturing Ian's recently moved pawn.

However, the gambler didn't seem too beat up about it. In fact, he was running the scenario in his head on his own. However, a small smile formed on his face. "Oh, I see what the plan was. Really good idea. I shouldn't have underestimated you in figuring something out."

The tone of voice he used… Didn't sit right with Sakura. "What are you getting at?"

He let out a small laugh. "It's just… I'll show you why it won't work." Grabbing his queen, he moved it. But not to take the knight. No. Instead, he moved it all the way to the other end of the board to take the pawn on f2. After that, he stood up. "Checkmate."

"..." What? Sakura blinked a few times, looking at the board. "How is this…?" But she couldn't refute it. She couldn't move the king anywhere, because the queen would still be attacking it. And if she took the queen with the king, then the dark squared bishop would still be attacking her. Not only that, but nothing could kill his queen.

"Woah." Gemini raised an eyebrow. They had both made a total of five moves, and it was already over.

"Hmm…" Gigi placed a hand on her hip, pointing at Ian with her white glove. "While not technically a scholar's mate. It's close enough." Especially since this type of mate is normally done by the lighter pieces, and not the darker ones.

Sakura stood up, clearly beaten up a bit by this loss.

Although, Ian was going to be a good sport. "Fun game out there." He extended his hand out.

Unfortunately, she wouldn't accept that from him. Hitting his hand away, she stepped away from the table. "We'll just have to beat you tomorrow."

"Right!" Edison adjusted his goggles. His game was tomorrow, so he would be sure to win. "You can count on me!"

Nova had expected a much longer game. But for it to end so soon. "And here I was ready to let this go on for another hour." Maybe she should have scheduled it later to really add on the pressure. Alas, it was too late for that.

She didn't need the constant reminders of how quickly she was beaten.

Looking at Sakura, Benoit felt himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. He wanted to say something to her, but he knew he'd just get yelled at. Still, he couldn't just let nothing be said. "You… You still did good there. Better… Better than I would." Ian probably would have toyed with him completely.

Sakura turned her gaze over to him. She recognised the attempt, but it still didn't make her feel any better. "I think I'll be heading off now." She moved towards the door.

Michael eyed her for a few seconds before following her.

Now that Sakura was finally gone, Ian could change his tune to gloating. "You might have won the first game, but I'll let you know that it'll be your only victory going forward." Especially with how this performance went.

"Tsk." Hae-Won narrowed her eyes. "Going to praise yourself now that she isn't here?" It was clear he didn't want to get his ass kicked. "We didn't gloat when we won, so you shouldn't either, bitch." Especially when lives were on the line here.

Gemini rubbed the back of his head. "I agree. This isn't just a friendly game. The losers die, so let's not treat this lightly."

Ian let out a sigh. Not because he felt sorry, but because the others just wouldn't be able to understand how he felt. "Our lives are on the line, no? I should be allowed to be happy for winning." But maybe he was hanging around the wrong crowd. "I'm leaving now." He announced as he left the room.

This left the remaining people in silence for a bit, until Gemini spoke up again. "It's getting close to night time. Maybe we should just call it a night?" Looking at his watch, there was only about twenty minutes till night time anyways. "We have a lot to digest." Maybe too much.

"Right…" Alan slowly nodded his head. "I agree."

Eventually, the rest of the group came to a consensus.

---

Vacant Rooms

As time was growing closer to nighttime, most people returned to their rooms for the night.
Although, there were a select few that still hadn't gone to bed yet.

"You're still up?" Gemini raised an eyebrow, noticing Sakura heading over towards the elevator. Michael was with her. He had just been on his way back from the motive room, having made sure everyone else had left.

Turning to face the escapist, she narrowed her eyes. "I'm off to do a nighttime look at the security room."

Michael slowly lifted his hand. "And I'm going to… so nothing bad should happen."

He wasn't sure how much he trusted people roaming around at night like that, but the two seemed capable. "Alright, just don't let anything bad happen." Besides, it was reassuring to have someone watching the cameras. This should prevent anyone from doing anything suspicious. "Stay safe!" He waved at the two before entering his own room.

The two remaining people looked at each other before entering the elevator. "Are you sure about this?" Sakura finally asked.

He shrugged. "You don't seem very trusting of the people here…" Neither did he. "So wouldn't it be best to have someone with you on guard duty in case you fall asleep?"

She scoffed at the idea. "Me? Fall asleep on the job?" The idea was foreign to her. "I've never fallen asleep on the job before.

As the two got off the elevator, an announcement played from Monokawa.

"It is now nighttime. In a few moments, certain facilities will be offline. I'd watch out if I were you! As for the ending score for today's motive, it's currently tied at 1-1. Tomorrow will bring a few more rounds, so let's hope your team can bring in victory! Or… Well. You know what happens if you all fail."

---

This chapter ended up taking much longer than I was expecting it to, but that was mostly due to burnout from the first three chapters finally catching up. That, and I wanted to work on another fic briefly to finish up an episode I started before the end of the year. At least I was able to finish this by the end of the month!

Now, I know not every character got a lot of focus in this chapter, but it's hard to balance it equally with twenty people. Maybe I should kill a few of them off now. But this chapter is far from over, so expect there to be a shift in focus over the course of the entire chapter!

With this, however, we're finally getting the motive of this entire chapter started. When I started planning for this fic, I always knew I wanted a motive to directly pin the theme against each other, and I figured this was one of the best ways I could include it. Well… Without getting in the way of the other motives I have planned.

I'd like to give a shoutout to SilverMark16, he posted another chapter of his fic, Twisted Tragedy, which is now on part 3 of chapter 1, which is further than I am :( But it was a great chapter, so I'd love to share the love!

As for my plans going forward, I'm hoping to get the entirety of chapter 1 finished before the end of May. Most of Trial Part 2 is written, so I'm making good progress with that. I'm hoping to start work on Trial Part 1 now, since I have to finalise those plans.

Till next time!

---

Participants Remaining: 20

---

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Benoit Chevalier - The Ultimate Physiotherapist [Epifanio Therion]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

Giustina "Gigi" Giulio - The Ultimate Referee [Nekoja]

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Alan Buteaux - The Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist [zendroxp]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Computer Security Specialist [CandleFire45]

Michael ? - The Ultimate ? [Omakin]

Melody Eleanor Hopkins - The Ultimate Tap Dancer [Prince PokePersona]

Kim Dae-Hyun - The Ultimate Talent Manager [oddlyillregular]

Lakshmi "Laki" Krishna - The Ultimate Lucky Student [Sempi]

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Ian Santiago - The Ultimate Gambler [Animeboy15]

Tatiana Novak - The Ultimate Knife Thrower [ExtraMeme]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]

Kim Hae-Won - The Ultimate Tattoo Artist [Weekaro]

Sakura Gambino - The Ultimate Security Guard [PROJECT DRAMA]