Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration Chapter 21: Misalignment in the Stars (Part 1), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 3: Misalignment in the Stars (Daily Life Part 1)

Warning: This is a Danganronpa fic. Things can be pretty bad, especially regarding gore and the foul language used. Although, if you've made it this far, I don't think that kind of stuff bothers you anyways, sooooo…

The god turned as pale as the boy himself. He took up the limp body in his attempt to revive him, frantically staying the flow of blood from the sad wound and applying herbs to sustain the life that was ebbing away. His arts were to no avail; the wound was incurable. Just as when someone in a garden breaks off violets or brittle poppies or lilies that cling to their tawny stems, and suddenly these flowers droop and fade and cannot support the tops of their heavy heads which look down to the ground, so dropped the head of the dying boy and his neck, once strength was gone, gave way to the burden of its weight and sank on his shoulder.

It was dark…

Dark and cold…

And the only thing fresh on their mind was the visions they had just seen.

Quickly opening their eyes, they were met with bright light from the outside. At first, they went to cover their eyes with their arms. However, they were unable to do so. "What…?" The girl mumbled out, still trying to get used to her surroundings.

Where… Where was she? What was…

The last thing she remembered…

Suddenly, the glass above her opened up, allowing fresher oxygen to reach her lungs.

The first thing she saw after that was a man approaching the pod she seemed to find herself in.

A man she recognised, with a stupid white outfit surrounded by nothing but a chain from a pocket watch.

"Paige?" Danny called out, looking down at her. "How was it?"

Moving her arm around, Paige realised that whatever was restraining her had freed her up.

She could move again.

So, reasonably, the first Paige did was take a swing at Danny.

Sadly, the hit never connected, as Danny was able to grab her arm before she could do any harm. "Really…?" He raised an eyebrow, almost unimpressed.

Letting go, his expression softened up slightly. "How are you feeling?"

Giving him a blank expression, Paige shook her head.

"Traumatised, for one." She got herself out of the pod, looking around the area she was in.

Yup, memories were coming back.

Here.

Looking around, she noticed nine more pods just like the one she had woken up in. "Ugh…" Clutching her head, Paige took a few steps, looking inside all of them, before eventually stopping in front of one that contained a man. "..."

"Oh! You're awake!" A voice from above alerted Paige, and looked up.

Above her, leaning above the railing was Caroline. "Yeah… Yeah…" Her focus moved back over to the man before letting out a small sigh. "Lance sure knows how to pick them…"

Hearing that name, a warm smile appeared on Caroline's face. "Hey, never judge his genius." She moved away from the railing, heading towards the stairs. "How are the rest holding up?"

"Vitals were fine when I checked." Danny looked away, hands in his pockets. "Results are promising. We might be able to use this method."

Tilting her head to the side, Paige shook her head. A look of uncertainty on her face. "Maybe… But I think a method like this still needs some testing."

"Well, we were already planning on running some extra tests." Caroline shook her head. "And we already have some potential candidates, don't we?"

A visible frown appeared on Danny's face. "Yeah, sure. Potential candidates." They had gathered a large enough group.

Sitting down somewhere to let her mind rest, Paige looked at the group of two. "But, couldn't we just use the same group of people?"

"They're faces are known. Besides…" Danny looked over at the same man that Paige had been staring at. "I don't want most of the people anywhere near this next one."

"I wouldn't either." A new voice called out from where Caroline was standing previously.

All three of them turned to look at the man. He had messy orange hair that reached almost his eyes. He had orange eyes that matched. Around his neck were black and green headphones. For clothes, he had on a light blue hoodie, and lastly shorts. Despite his age, it didn't seem like he knew how to dress nicely like the other three. He was rather unprofessional.

Seeing him, a smile appeared on Caroline's face. "Hello, darling."

"You know…" Danny shook his head, looking up at him. "You're almost impossible to contact, Lance."

Sitting down on the top platform, Lance let his legs hang over the side. "Yeah, I like to keep it that way." He frowned slightly, looking down at the three of them. "I was busy doing other things. Running background checks on the candidates." Saying this, he pulled out a laptop.

"And?" Danny frowned slightly. "You could just give us updates as they become apparent."

"Yeah.. yeah…" Lance seemed a bit annoyed at being rushed. After messing around on his computer a bit, he finally loaded up the documents he wanted. "Out of the twenty candidates we managed to acquire, I think all of them should be good to go. My two recruits should for sure be fine."

Hearing that last part, Paige frowned slightly. "Do they really have to join this?"

Lance didn't bother to look in her direction. "They wanted to sign up. Besides, they've already-" A slight pause, before a small sigh. "Wait… There's one I'm questioning." He turned his screen to face everyone else. "Are we sure we really want him on this? Won't things end poorly if anything goes wrong?"

Tilting his hat down, Danny frowned. "It's their fault that any of this is happening… They have an obligation to help out."

Sensing he was hitting a sore spot, Lance let out a small sigh. Closing his laptop, he stood back up. "Alright, then everything should be in order by next week."

Seeing him getting up to leave, Caroline frowned slightly. "Are you already leaving?"

For a moment, Lance hesitated, before turning back to look down at her. "I have some other business things to take care of, but I should be back tomorrow. After all, this project here is one of the most important ones. So trust me, I won't miss it for anything." He offered her a rare smile as he turned to walk away.

That left the three of them down there again.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Danny fixed his hat. "Alright, if we're good to run this next test soon, then we should get ready for it." The most important thing was gathering the participants.

Paige had been out of it for a while, but her attention finally landed on something. The other pods were all empty except for the one she had investigated earlier. "Wait… what happened to-"

"Oh, that." Caroline reached over for her clipboard. "You were the last person to wake up. The others all woke up already." After a few seconds, she realised just why Paige was asking. "Don't worry, she was fine. Just in a bit of a daze."

Hearing that put Paige's heart at ease. "Thank you…"

This project…

Would it even be successful? So much was riding on it to work out…

"I'm…" Paige let out a sigh, shaking her head. "I'm going to head off now. I don't believe we have anything else to do, right?

Danny had pulled out his phone, ready to call a number. "No, not really. I'm just going to take care of a problem really quickly."

Nodding her head along, Paige waved goodbye to the two, before making her way out of the room.

Once she was out of range, and alone, she felt her crouch down, almost as if everything that occurred to her came crashing down in her thoughts. "God…" She mumbled out, clutching her knees. "That… That was horrible…"

Cafeteria

Somberness…

Silence…

After yesterday's events, there didn't seem to be much joy.

Especially after a loss like that…

In fact, several people hadn't even gathered for breakfast.

And breakfast was mostly made in silence.

Melody was glancing down at her food, frowning slightly. She wanted to smile…

But when the mood was like this?

However, it was someone completely different who broke the silence. "So, are we going to do something about Laki and Michael?" Hae-Won kept her eyes closed as she thought.

So early in the morning, and already asking about this. Something that seemed to tick Gigi off a bit. "You really want to do something about this now?"

"Why wouldn't we?" Hae-Won narrowed her eyes at Gigi's passiveness in this entire situation. "You saw what both of them did." Sure, Laki did a lot more than Michael did, but his hands weren't clean either.

Given the story, it sounded like Michael forced Benoit to stay in the trap.

"H-hey…" Melody frowned slightly. "We shouldn't bunch the fella in with that dame." To her, Michael hadn't really done anything wrong. In fact, he helped her prove to everyone else what Ian and Laki were truly planning.

Seems they weren't getting in. "Michael made it perfectly clear why he couldn't be trusted." Hae-Won seemed dead set on this opinion. "If left unchecked, surely they'll-"

"Enough." Gemini shook his head, looking the other way. "I don't think Laki is going to try anything for a while. Nor will Michael. They're credibility is already at rock bottom…"

Gigi found herself to be a tough cross in the road.

On one hand, she could understand the sentiment that trusting them would be difficult. On the other hand, Michael hadn't actively done anything wrong except lie to her.

Comparing him to Laki felt completely wrong.

"I'm fine with doing something about Laki." Gigi began to speak, crossing her arms. "However, I don't think we should force that same exact judgement on Michael."

A dark look appeared in Hae-Won's eyes for a second, before the doors opened up to let more people into the cafeteria, forcing her to change her facial expression. "My opinion remains the same, and it's unlikely you can convince me otherwise. Letting someone like him run around is only calling for disaster."

Even with the new people, nobody really seemed in a good mood.

They were alive, but they had lost two people yesterday.

Sure, one of them was Ian, and he brought it upon himself with that trial… To go out like that…

Tatiana plopped herself down onto the table, seemingly lacking a bit of energy.

"Hey! Hey!" Dolly came to disturb her. "Why the long face?"

"Haha…!" Tatiana had nothing to say. Yesterday had just been horrible in general. "The great Luna…!" Long pause. "Could not sleep that well."

"What? Over that execution?" Gennosuke seemed to find it humorous. "I slept like a rock."

Tatiana crossed her arms, sending a frown towards Gennosuke. "Well, you aren't like everyone else."

Shrugging, he let out a small chuckle. "I'm the one who cast the deciding vote, I don't really get to feel bad about it. Besides, it was either him or us."

That was true… Tatiana couldn't deny it. And yet… She crossed her arms, looking the other way.

"Heh…" Gennosuke was humoured by this before turning to look at his food.

Over on another part of the table, May spent some time just staring at her food…

"You aren't going to eat?" Edison had been sitting next to her the entire time.

"I…" May wanted to eat, but she still felt immense guilt from the events of yesterday, which cut her appetite down to nothing. "I think I'm going to nap instead…" She pushed her tray away, lying her head down from where it used to be.

"This doesn't really seem-" Edison was going to say, but he could immediately tell that she actually fell asleep. "Wow… That just really happens whenever." He wished it was that easy for him.

This mood was pretty much everywhere, and there wasn't much that could be done about it.

Unless… you know… some annoying otter decided to make an appearance at this very moment.

But hahaha… That would never happen… Right? RIGHT?

Soon, Monokawa made his presence known to everyone in the cafeteria. "Hey! Everyone!" He was floating above everyone like he normally did. "Hope yesterday didn't traumatise you too much." He covered his mouth with his paw.

"Die, asshole." Hae-Won didn't even bother to look at him. "If you have nothing important to say, I suggest you leave now."

Tough crowd! It's almost like two people died yesterday… Nah! That can't be it. "Would it kill you to be respectful?"

"Yes." Once again, Hae-Won kept her eyes focused on the table.

Knowing he was here for a reason, Lorelei decided to get the ball rolling. "What do you want?" The faster he told them that, the quicker Monokawa would fuck off.

"Wow! You guys really don't want me here…" Not that Monokawa was bothered in the slightest. "I was just sent to deliver a message from Nova."

He lowered himself until he was floating just above the tables. "Because a trial has happened, a new area of the space station has opened up for everyone!"

"Does it look like any of us are in the mood for that?" Hae-Won shook her head.

However, Gemini seemed to have a different idea. "Hey, we should probably give it a look anyway. We have no idea of knowing what we'd find. Who knows, it could help us."

Not being able to find a single flaw in that logic, Hae-Won eventually relented. "Alright, that's fine by me."

"Wouldn't that just be playing into what they want?" Dae-Hyun crossed his arms. "We're just going to find more ways to kill each other, and no way out."

"Wow, always so pessimistic." Lorelei rolled her eyes.

Frowning slightly, Dae-Hyun shook his head. "I'm just being realistic. Why would they leave us anything to help us escape?"

"Well, I think we should still explore." Tatiana bounced out of her seat, striking a small pose. "We might find gold out there."

"This is where we insert a Gold joke." Dolly mumbled out nonsense.

Ignoring her, Dae-Hyun let out a small sigh. From the looks of it, he would quickly be out voted in that regard. "Fine. I concede." He also didn't want to be left out of the loop. He slowly got up from his seat.

Seems everyone was ready to go!

Everyone but one person…

Melody grabbed a fresh tray of food. "You fellas go on ahead, I've got to do something…" It didn't take a genius to figure out what she was doing.

"Haha! Going to feed Michael, I see!" Tatiana quickly pointed out.

Taking a defensive step back, Melody wasn't sure what the others were going to think. "I just don't want him to starve out there…" Although, she didn't even consider Laki in this situation. "Besides…" She had a small smile on her face as she shook her head. "I don't think I'm in the mood to explore." The events from yesterday were still fresh on her mind.

Maybe she would change her mind later.

"Heh…" Hae-Won shook her head as she turned to face the elevator. "Let's go…"

"Actually." Gennosuke stopped her from going up. Placing his hands in his pockets, he tilted his head to the side, flashing a smile her way. "I was thinking of staying behind as well."

"Why would I care?" Hae-Won stepped into the elevator a few seconds later.

As the rest of the group stepped in, Gennosuke slid himself to the back, where Hae-Won had been standing. "Well, I thought you might appreciate it if someone can make sure a certain someone doesn't do anything irrational again."

That was what he was going to tell her, at the very least.

Finally, a small smile formed on Hae-Won's face. "Look, I'm not the boss of anyone. You do what you want to do."

She very much did not want to be thrust into a position of authority where people felt the need to ask her things. Honestly, it's the last thing she wanted.

Slowly nodding his head along, Gennosuke turned towards the door. "As you wish…"
With that, the elevator continued to rise towards the Omicron Sector.

Pi Sector

Not to be confused with Psi sector.

The group of twelve people arrived in the newly opened up hallway, which was located directly South of the Omicron Sector.

"Hmm…" Gigi hummed out, turning to look at the display name. "There's two different ways we can go."

"Right." Gemini placed his hands in his pockets. Taking a step further, he glanced down to the left. "I can also see an opening for… another hallway?"

"That's more than likely closed." Hae-Won shrugged. "So we should only have to worry about this area."
"Haha!" Tatiana took a step forward, glancing out at the other door. "You know what they say about assumptions, you know." Without any care in the world, she trotted over to the other hallway divider, before scanning her watch.

To her surprise, it actually opened up.

"O-oh!" Tatiana wasn't sure what to say in this situation, so she turned to face everyone else. "See what I mean? Never make assumptions!"

"You were surprised too, asshole." Atlas narrowed his eyes, before turning to everyone else. "Alright, get it over with. How are we dividing ourselves this time?"

Adjusting his goggles, Edison began to count everyone out. "Well! We are twelve people, so the most optimal way to do this, if we have two hallways, is to divide into groups of either three or four."

"I think groups of three would be best…" May hummed out. You know, two areas to explore, four groups in total! It made sense.

However, Dae-Hyun couldn't help but feel like they were jumping the gun too soon. "Shouldn't we wait for Melody?" Would feel a bit rude to leave her out.

Hae-Won shrugged. "She made her choice when she left to go take care of Michael."

Not being able to say anything to counter that, Dae-Hyun remained silent.

"Wait." Atlas called out. "How exactly are we dividing these teams this time? I don't want to do anything dumb like zodiac signs or cards."

"H-hey." Seira narrowed her eyes, a bit offended. "The first time we made groups was perfect."

Coming up with an idea, Tatiana took a step forward. "Why don't we just divide ourselves in the way we want to? We can choose our teams." While saying that, she stood right next to Benjamin. "For example."

Dolly raised her arms in the air. "I'm fine with this!"

"I don't mind that idea in the slightest." Gemini was finally free from random chance. He turned to look over at Seira, nudging his head along.

Getting the hint, she quickly walked over to him.

Although they were supposed to make groups of three, what ended up happening were pairs, leaving some people on the side.

"Hmm…" May hummed out, looking around. So far, four groups of two had been formed. Gemini and Seira, Tatiana and Benjamin, Atlas and Gigi, and lastly, Edison and Hae-Won. Which meant that herself, Winter, Dae-Hyun, and Lorelei hadn't been formed into a pair yet.

"Oh! Oh!" Edison began waving his hand widely at her. "We've gotten along, so you should join our team."

Seeing no problem with that, May slowly nodded her head. "Sure…"

The next person to find a group was Winter, who walked up to Seira and Gemini. "I will be pairing myself up with two this time." Almost giving them no choice in the matter.

Not like they'd decline her anyways.

"Dae-Hyun!" Tatiana called out. "You should come with us!" Besides Dolly, he was one of the only other people she had really gotten along with, so it felt fair.

Slowly, Dae-Hyun approached the trio, but he didn't say much, choosing to remain silent.

Which left… Lorelei. "What? Nobody wants me?"

"Tsk… Wonder why…" Atlas mumbled out under his breath.

Gigi sent a glance his way. "You do know she needs to be paired up with us, right?"

"Wait, what the fu-"

Now Lorelei was standing with the two of them. "Lucky you! It's almost like you've won the lottery."

Atlas never had the urge to strangle someone before, on account of… yeah… But the feeling was very overwhelming right now.

Letting out a sigh, Gigi began to walk forward. From the sounds of it, today was going to be one hell of an annoying day…

Mu Sector

Walking into this new sector, was a group of nine people.

Adjusting his goggles, Edison counted the number of people. "Shouldn't one person have stayed in the Pi Sector?" Speaking of which… He read out the new sign. "Mu."

"What are you? A fucking cow?" Lorelei narrowed her eyes.

"Gah! This is rigged against me!" Edison took a step back.

While ideally, they would have split up more evenly, there wasn't anything wrong with the group splitting off like this. "Melody and Gennosuke might come back, and they can explore the Pi sector with the other group." Gigi mentioned.

"Heh…" Hae-Won shook her head. "No, Gennosuke should stay right where he is."

Not liking the sound of that, Gigi turned to look at her. "Where is he? Did you make him do something?"

With the smile slowly wiping away from her face, Hae-Won narrowed her eyes. "I sent him to watch over Laki." But now it was starting to seem like she was obsessed, so she shook her head. "Anyways, this isn't about her."

Gigi wanted to say something, but Atlas began to peel away from the group. "Enough fucking around here, let's go." He was growing annoyed from their increased stupidity.

Not seeing the merit in continuing this conversation, Gigi began to follow Atlas, with Lorelei walking behind them.

Seeing this, Edison frowned slightly. "You two don't have to start fighting now…"

Hae-Won ignored him, moving over towards the first room that was in the way. "Forget about that…"

Psi Sector

Despite what everyone else said, Melody still found herself going over to this area.

She had already checked the vacant rooms that everyone else was using, and failed to see Michael, which meant he could only be in one place at the moment.

Luckily enough, she managed to nail the fifty fifty chance she had. Looking over at the display, she spotted Michael's name on it.

Taking a deep breath, Melody moved over towards the door, still clutching the tray in her other hand. "Michael!" She called out as she knocked on the door. "Can you come out?"

Silence.

Melody figured there was a chance for this. He wasn't going to be responsive. Especially if he just wanted to be left alone.

However, she wasn't just someone who was going to give up. "Mac." Melody repeated, growing a bit impatient.

"I know you were a patsy in the last case…" Melody glanced off to the side, not knowing what to say. "And you were forced to sing a bit, but you didn't do anything wrong. You're not a wrong number."

Still, nothing.

Michael either wasn't there, or he wasn't going to respond.

"Fine…" Melody wasn't going to play a losing game. Slowly, she placed the tray on the floor. "If you're ever hungry, I left some food for ya."

And then she took some steps away.

Only about ten steps away, to give the illusion that she had left.

Bopping her head from side to side, she had to find something else to do instead of tapping her feet on the ground.

Finally, as she expected.

The door finally opened up, and Michael reached over for the food.

Knowing she wasn't going to get another opportunity like this, Melody quickly got closer, grabbing his arm. "Michael." She called out one last time, hoping to get his attention.

Of course, Michael tried to break free, but somehow Melody was stronger than him.

Weak bitch.

"Please…" Michael glanced away. Of note, he had placed his hood back on, hiding his face.

With her other hand, Melody flipped the hood off. "Please." She returned the word to him. "Can you just spill with me?"

Trying to avert looking in her eyes, Michael stared at the floor. "No… I really… I really shouldn't. I'm a problem, and anything anyone has to say about me is right…"

While the others were quick to cast Michael to the side, Melody wasn't such a person. "Can I just enter your room?"

Given that there didn't seem to be any way out of this, Michael relented, gripping onto the tray, and stepping back into his room.

Stepping into his room, it seemed like her room. With the only difference being the unmade bed! It was improper!

But that's not why she came here. "Why are you staying here?"

"Don't act like you don't know…" Michael sat down on his bed, moving the tray to the side. Letting out a heavy sigh, he felt like he should just go back to sleep and hope for everything to be over.

"You saw the way they looked at me…" If she didn't, he at least remembered it very clearly. The way they all turned on him in an instant.

Well, Melody was having none of it. "You make it sound like you're behind the eight-ball, but people stood up for you." There was an entire minigame dedicated to it!

"They…" Michael wanted to be self-deprecating, but it was hard to do so with Melody right next to him. "They were only doing that because they didn't think I was the killer…"

Seems like it was going to be hard to break through to him. "Your talent doesn't define you."
Burying his head into his hands, Michael shook his head. "No… I'm… I really messed up. At every opportunity to make things better… I ruined it… I'm the reason Benoit is even dead…" He turned away from her.

"Don't be a bunny, none of that was your fault." How could Michael even blame himself?

Still, he had no doubt in his mind. "Yesterday… I had only thought of myself. I got Benoit to stay in the room that would kill him…" He had no idea if his persuasion was what did or not… "I lied to Gigi, and made her believe me. I even tried to silence May… I could have told the truth at any time…"

Melody was a bit… confused. "What do you mean, Mac?" That didn't exactly seem like anything horrible. "Benoit stayed to save you…" She wasn't sure what he meant by the one with May. It didn't seem like she was going to stop from revealing the truth.

"You… You want to know something…" Maybe Michael just needed to vent about this entire thing. It's been eating him up for a while.

And for once… He was finally going to talk about it…

"My whole life… People have been doing things for me… Whether I ask for it or not." Hell, Melody had just brought him food. Even she was caught up in it all.

"Is it wrong for people to be kind?" Melody tilted her head to the side, not quite understanding the point that was being made.

"You… Don't get it… They…" The entire thing was eating Michael from the inside out… "I… I can command people… Or… I don't quite know. It's all a mess." He stood up, his facial expression shifting. "Whether I want to or not, people are more inclined to listen to me without a second thought."

"What? What exactly did he mean by that? "Against their will?"

The point Michael was trying to make was seemingly going over Melody's head, which only made a little more frustrated. "My entire life, people have been pandering to me, whether I want to or not… I just… I just want it to stop." He buried his head in his hands again.

"It's annoying… I just… I just…"

"Michael…" Melody called out softly. He seemed to be in a lot of mental pain, and she wasn't exactly sure what to do.

For a moment, Michael began to calm down, shaking his head. "I… I don't want this talent… It's horrible… And…" Was he horrible too for doing things he shouldn't be? "I'm not a good person."

Given that Melody knew nothing about his life, it was hard to figure out what his experiences were, and yet she still offered a hand. "You aren't awful, Mac." She offered a sincere smile. "You may think you are, but people who are bad don't tend to take accountability."

To her, Michael wanted to do good, but circumstances prevented him from doing so.

"You feel bad about what's happened, don't ya?" Melody tilted her head to the side.

"I…" Well Michael had never really considered it that way.

He never wanted these to happen… They always just fell out of his luck. Except for like, yesterday, somewhat, but- "Maybe…"

Offering him a hand, Melody smiled. "Listen, you probably still have a lot you need to vent, but standing around right here won't do ya any good."

Slowly, Michael took her hand, and began to be dragged off. "Huh?"

"New rooms opened up, and I was wondering if exploring would suit your fancy." Melody placed her free hand on her hip. "All this thinking isn't going to do ya any good."

"But keeping this all inside will-" Michael began to say, before being cut off.

Melody pouted slightly. "Letting it all out at one might not be good for ya, you hear? Take some time to calm down, and then you can spill."
Right… His mind had been so fogged up since yesterday. "Right… Right… I-"

Oop! He was dragged off!

Michael and Melody seemed to have grown closer.

…

With Michael practically being forced to head towards exploring, he remained silent. If he could avoid seeing the others, that would be great.

However… as they began to make their way towards the new area, a voice called out.

"And what do you think you two are doing?"

Melody froze up slightly, mostly because there shouldn't have been anyone who lagged behind. Quickly looking over towards the vacant rooms, she saw Gennosuke. "O-Oh! I'm…" She wasn't great at coming up with excuses.

Michael didn't want her to get in trouble because of him, so he spoke up. "I… I really wanted to see the new rooms." He glanced to the side.

However, those words alone wouldn't be able to fool Gennosuke, who saw Melody holding onto Michael's arm. Clearly, she was dragging him along. "Uh-huh…" He slowly nodded his head along. "And here I thought Melody was dragging you around. My bad." He raised up his hands, as if to defend himself.

Lying wasn't going to work, clearly, so Melody attempted to change the subject. "What are ya doing on your lonesome?"

Quickly, the smile disappeared from Gennosuke's face. "I was placed in charge of making sure Laki doesn't leave her room, but she doesn't seem to be coming out." Which in his eyes was disappointing.

Soon, his smile returned. "Honestly, I don't even think she's going to come out anytime soon." Gennosuke took a step forward. "Should we instead split off and explore some areas for ourselves?"

"Are you sure you want to be around…" Michael looked at the ground.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, seemingly out of annoyance, Gennosuke responded. "What? You think I'm afraid of someone like you? You seem like you'd snap like a twig."

"Huh…" Michael didn't exactly disagree with that.

Shaking his head, Gennosuke began to walk next to the duo. "Waiting around was boring anyways… What I wanted to happen didn't."

"What did you want to have happen?" Melody tilted her head. He had been standing in front of Laki's room. Was he… waiting for her?

Quickly seeing where this conversation was going, Gennosuke shook his head. "It's not what you think. I just had a few choice words for Laki, that's all." He quickly glanced away.

Michael glanced over at him, before shaking his head. "I think we're here…" They had arrived just outside of Pi Sector, so they were going to be able to begin exploration soon.

Ultimate Knife Thrower Station

Bursting into the door was- Well bursting isn't exactly the right term, given the doors rise up-

Tatiana was the first person to step into the room. "Behold! Our first new-" She froze up as soon as she saw just what she was looking at. "Huh?"

"Woah!" Dolly raised her hands in the air. "This must be your station!"
And it looked almost just like a circus would! In fact, there was a rather familiar looking stage located in the back of the room.

"This really is…" Tatiana took a step back, before a large smile appeared. "It's like I never even left! A part of the stage lives on here!" She nodded her head, clearly happy about her findings.

Behind the two of them, Dae-Hyun looked around the room, noticing the small details of this room. "So… This is where you would work normally?" Not the best working conditions. Then again, it was a circus, so.

Quickly, Tatiana jumped up onto her stage, turning to face the other two. "Isn't it marvelous?" She extended her arms out. "This is where all my shows are performed!" Taking out a knife, she turned towards one side of the stage. "Ah-HA!"

The thing she was looking at was a wheel of death. From the looks of it, someone would need to be strapped to it.

Turning towards the audience, Tatiana boasted a confident atmosphere. "Any volunteers?"

Slowly, Dolly raised her-

"Nobody, too bad!" Tatiana turned back towards the wheel, approaching it.

"What!?" Dolly felt discriminated against. "Master! Master! She ignored me!"

Dae-Hyun crossed his arms, shaking his head. "It's probably for the best if we don't attempt to do anything dangerous." Moving away from the trio, he decided to investigate something that wasn't part of the stage.

The first area he noticed was a dressing area. "Hmm…" Dae-Hyun took a step closer, looking through the various costumes. Typical stuff you would find in a circus. Clown outfits, animal tamers, Tatiana even had a copy of her own clothes. "Is this similar to how the circus was back home?"

"Exactly!" Tatiana remained on stage, not even bothering to look towards him. "It's… It's nostalgic for sure."

Slowly nodding his head, Dae-Hyun moved away from the dresser.

Not far from there, was a rack with several different custom made knives. "Hmm…" He pulled one out, just to examine the design. "Are these replicas of knives you've had before?"

Moving over towards the edge of the stage, Tatiana peered over to get a better look. "Why yes! I only carry around plain knives, but those knives are what I actually use for the shows." She dropped off the stage to get a better look at it.

Picking up one of the knives, Tatiana took a closer look at it. It was the one with a tiger etched into the blade. Ha! She recognised that tiger. "It adds a bit of flare, as well as allows the audience to easily keep track of which knife is which while they are embedded into the wheel." She slipped the knife back in.

Placing the knife he had picked up, Dae-Hyun turned to look at her. "Is there any knife that is your favourite?"

Pointing to the one she had just picked up, Tatiana beamed. "That one right there. See, my father was an animal tamer, so I quite liked it. When it was made for me, it became an instant favourite."

However, she reached over for a different one. "Not to mention this one." Part of the handle had a moon crescent. "Luna." Tatiana called out her own stage name. "That was my first knife, so it holds a special place in my heart. It's always the last one I throw to finish my performance."

Dae-Hyun nodded his head along. "You really know how to make a show, huh." He crossed his arms. Someone like this definitely needed more recognition.

"It's part of the talent." Tatiana was nodding her head along, clearly happy to be receiving compliments. Quickly, she twirled her knife around, before pointing the tip at Dae-Hyun. "However, my stance from before has not changed. I prefer the stage of a circus over the stage of the world."

Seems he wasn't going to be able to convince her otherwise. Dae-Hyun shrugged lazily. "Fine by me. I just felt like you should spread your brand further." But not everyone was about that life.

Given that there was nothing else to talk about, Dae-Hyun took a step back to allow her to return to the stage.

Instead, his focus was now on the large part of the room. "Hmm… a lot of seats…" A third of the room was taken up by a seating area. They were wooden benches that elevated the further back they got. "If Tatiana wanted to put on a show, she'd at least have the space for an audience." Not that she would be able to convince fifteen other people to come sit down for a show.

But, the seats themselves didn't seem too comfortable. To try it out, Dae-Hyun sat down on one. After a few seconds, he shook his head. "Cheaply made. About what I expected from a circus…"

Back on stage, Benjamin had joined up with Tatiana to investigate further. "Oh! Look master!" Dolly called out, pointing over towards a rope.

Listening to her, Benjamin took a few steps forward to investigate the rope. Glancing up, it seemed connected to the curtain that blocked off the stage from the rest of the room.

"Ah-HA!" Tatiana bounced her way over to them. "Pull on that, and the curtains will close quickly. Although, there's no reason to-"

Dolly pulled on the rope, causing the curtains to slowly close, blocking them from Dae-Hyun.

"Or!" Tatiana placed her hands on her hips. "You can pull it anyways!" Not that she minded in the slightest.

"You two better not do anything stupid." Dae-Hyun called out.

"Me? Do anything stupid?" Tatiana let out a laugh before it faded away into silence. "... Quite possible."

Having no need for the curtain to be closed, Tatiana moved over to the other side of the stage, where another rope was. Pulling on this one, the curtains opened back up. "It's quite an easy setup." Tatiana nodded her head. "We didn't have curtains at the circus I was working at, but I've still seen this system before."

"Huh? But then if you don't have it at your circus, why is it here?" Dolly asking the real questions.

"Well, technically speaking, we don't have this system at our circus. However, whenever we do performances at specific locations, the stage we set up uses this system." Tatiana felt the need to correct herself.

Dolly tilted her body to the side. "Wait, you don't just perform at the circus?"

"My father is a generous man!" Tatiana said with a bright smile on her face. "He believes in going out there to perform for those who might not be able to afford our show. I've joined him a few times."

"Wow! Your father sounds like a nice man!" A rare event in Danganronpa.

Quickly turning away, Tatiana was looking elsewhere. "He sure is…"

Well! Back to the previous conversation.

"How does this system work exactly?" Well, Dolly knew how it worked, but she wanted more so why it was used.

Nodding her head along, Tatiana was more than happy to give an explanation. "When we use this stage to perform, we enter through stage right." She pointed to the rope that they were next to. "Having it here allows us to open the curtains as we make our entrance."

Shifting her gaze towards the rope from earlier, Tatiana pointed at it. "As for that rope, we exit through stage left. We pull it on the way out to close off the curtains. That way we can block off anything we don't want the audience to see."

Dolly kept nodding her head along with the entirety of Tatiana's explanation. "Wow!" Despite being in a circus as well, Dolly was impressed.

Moving on.

While Tatiana had stopped by the wheel, she hadn't exactly explained how it worked. "Dolly, come here." She called out.

Benjamin walked over to her, glancing at the wheel. "What do you want us for?" Dolly raised her arms in the air.
"Well, it's nice to explain how these things work." Tatiana pointed out towards the straps. "My act involves throwing knives at a spinning wheel while someone is strapped to it."

"Why is your act so dangerous!?" Dolly lifted her hands up. "Master! Master! Your act might be boring."

Benjamin didn't seem to change his facial expression.
"Nonsense!" Tatiana lifted her hand in the air to strike some kind of pose. "It's safe!"

Oh! Dolly was getting it! "Master! It's so safe a blind person could do it!"

"H-hey!" Twirling her knife around, Tatiana frowned. "Just because my eyesight isn't what it used to be, doesn't mean I'm fully blind!" Long pause. "Legally-"

"So how else does it work!" Dolly was getting sick of this gag. Content had to be fresh to get the laughs.

Nodding her head along, Tatiana moved over to the pedal that was hidden off stage. "Normally, we have a different system, but once again, this is for when we travel a bit." Pressing her foot on the pedal, the wheel began to spin around.

"Woah!" Dolly raised her arms in the air. "That's faster than I thought it was going to be.

Twirling a knife around, Tatiana nodded her head along. "That's right, you have to be careful, and plan everything. Or else you risk hitting the person." She chucked her knife at the wheel, landing it around halfway towards the center. "But that's pretty much it. Only half the act."

Wait- but that was the entire act! "How is that half the act?"

Tatiana quickly shook her head. "Aren't you in the circus business? You should know what I mean."

Instead of letting Dolly be lost, Dae-Hyun took a step forward, standing by the stairs of the stage. "Tatiana is a rather dramatic person. I assume she means that she puts on a show verbally as she performs. To get the audience interested."

See! Dolly never really had to do anything like that. She was just naturally funny. "But isn't knife throwing already exciting?"

"Yes, yes." Tatiana was glad she agreed as such. "However, a routine you've seen multiple times begins to get dull after a while. So, each new show must come with its own unique flare. A flare I solely am able to provide." She struck another pose.

Dae-Hyun slowly nodded his head along. "You do have the eye for stardom." Which is exactly why she appeared on his radar in the first place.

This room had it all! (If you were into the circus or whatever)

But even so, Dolly was growing anxious. "Wait, I'm part of the circus too, do you think that my station is also in this section?"

Tatiana's eyes lit up at the thought. "If it is! We have to find it now!" She jumped off the stage without any hesitation. "It must be around here somewhere, so let's be off!"

As the duo practically ran out the room, Dae-Hyun's eyes were fixated on something else.

Getting on stage, he went towards the back. There wasn't much here, except a door. "Hmm…" The other two must have missed this.

It was like the garden door, being wooden. There was a handle… But more importantly, there was a lock. Kneeling down to inspect it, Dae-Hyun wasn't too worried. "Ah… A trick lock." He had seen magicians use something similar. No key required.

"Dae-Hyun!" Tatiana called out, having come back to the room. "We don't want to leave you behind."

"Right… Right." Dae-Hyun appeared back on stage. Unlike Tatiana, however, he took the stairs down. "I'm coming." He'd have to bring that back up. Not that he thought anything important was back there. From the looks of it, it seemed to be some kind of back area, so maybe it was just to keep equipment.

The actual answer was to push this exploration to part 2- :boom:

Docking Zone

The trio finally finished walking down the hallway, arriving at a set of doors that were different from the others.

"What the hell is this?" Atlas barked out.

For one, the door seemed to be split horizontally in the middle, as opposed to opening from the bottom.

"Might just be something grand." Lorelei couldn't give less of a fuck. "Just open it up already."

Gigi was a bit hesitant at first, but she was the first to open the door.

When the door opened up like they had expected, they entered another hallway.

"Man… How long does this fucking have to be?" Atlas was getting annoyed as he stepped through.

As soon as the trio stepped in, the door closed behind them, sealing them completely in with the sound of steam.

"What the hell?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow. They tried to open the door again, but her watch didn't seem to be working. "Whatever it is, we're stuck in here for a bit."

"Forget it." Atlas continued to walk down the hallway. Noticeable, it split into two separate hallways. "Fuck man…"

Stepping up beside Atlas, Gigi noticed that the fork in the road also had a sign. "Hmm…" To the right, it led to the main repair ship, and to the left, it led to a shuttle. "Repair ship…?"

Hearing that, Lorelei chose which direction she was going in. "Let's check it out."

Not wanting the group to be split up, Gigi let out a small sigh as she followed her.

Eventually, the hallway took a left, and another set of doors, similar to the one they had just entered could be seen. Without any hesitation, Lorelei scanned her watch, which opened up the door.

"Woah…" Lorelei mumbled out as they stepped inside.

"Are we on another ship now?" Atlas looked around.

Turning to look at him, Lorelei rolled her eyes. "Did you not read the fucking sign? It said repair ship. This is more than likely the ship they use to do any repairs to the station."

"Listen here bitc-" Atlas had begun to say before being cut off.

Gigi was the one to step in the middle of the two of them. "Please, let's keep fighting to a minimum."

It was best to get a better feel of the room they were in. Of note, there didn't seem to be much in this room. In fact, it was just the room that connected the ship to the station. The only thing of note was a button with the word detach on it.

Without thinking, Lorelei quickly reached over to press it. Classic Lorelei.

Quickly, Gigi managed to stop their hand. "I'd rather not be wandering around aimlessly in space, so let's not do that."

"Whatever, grandma…" Lorelei pulled her arm away. "You're no fun…"

The only other thing of note here was the doorway. "The doors aren't closed for once?" Atlas was fucking delighted. He could just walk right through without worrying.

"Hey, what's this over here?" Lorelei skipped her way over to a compartment. Opening it up, she pulled out two keycards.

Gigi walked over to check them out. "Maybe they're to activate something in the ship…" Gigi had no choice but to conclude, given they had just gotten here.

Dropping one on the ground, Lorelei turned to walk further into the ship. "Then take one, I'm going to go explore further on my own."

Letting out a sigh, Gigi leaned down to grab the keycard. Turning towards Atlas, she nudged her head along. "We should go further into this place."

Watching Lorelei, she went straight down the hallway, but there was an option to go left right after leaving the room they were in. "This way…" Although, her eyes soon moved over to glance at a vent that was in the room on the floor. "Hmm…"

Ultimate Tattoo Artist Station

Opening the door, the next room revealed itself, and the first thing Edison was greeted with when he stepped in was what was on the back wall of the station.

"Woah…" Edison was stopped in his tracks, as he looked on with amazement.

"Heh…" Hae-Won could only let out a small chuckle at what she saw. "Nice art, isn't it?"

The two of them were currently staring at the large crow drawing that covered the entirety of the back wall.

It seemed to be mid flight, flying towards the moon.

Taking a few more steps forward, Hae-Won glanced over at the other two walls. "They're not the only ones."

Hearing that, Edison took a look to his left, where a large raven drawing adorned that wall, taking a look to the right, there was a large drawing of an eagle-

AMERICA! FUCK YEAH-

Anyways.

"What are the birds for…?" May mumbled out, taking a few steps forward.

Despite her mood earlier, Hae-Won felt more than happy to talk about them. "Like Monokawa and Nova mentioned, our station will be about our past." Taking the moment to look at each of the three birds, a warm smile invaded her face. "Birds of prey."

Adjusting his goggles, Edison was about to nerd out. "Factually incorrect. Scientifically speaking, only the eagle is a bird of prey here. Ravens are honorary at best, and crows-"

Lightly hitting him on top of the head to get him to stop, Hae-Won shook her head. "Let's not worry about scientific accuracy."

"Is there… another reason why you referred to them as birds of prey?" May felt like it had to be something on a personal level.

Slowly, Hae-Won nodded her head. "Yup… Birds of prey… That's what we called my friend group back in the day. Each bird represented a member."

Taking an educated guess, Edison pointed over towards the crow. "This one is the largest, so was that yours?"

Ruffling his hair a bit, Hae-Won nodded her head. "Yup. That one was me. It was a nice name."

"It's a bit weird, however." Edison had turned to look at the wall for the door, which lacked any drawings. "It feels almost uncanny to have a blank wall here." The entire wall was white.

… "Hardly." Hae-Won shook her head, approaching the wall. She placed a hand on it to try and get a feel of the material. "It only means we have to put our own drawings here? Heh… I give it a week, and I should have some images here."

But that's not what this room was about.

"Should we see what this room has…?" May mumbled out, stepping towards the main part of the room.

In the center, was a single chair that was leaning back.

"Oh!" Edison plopped himself into the chair, leaning back. "Yes! I see! This is what you get your tattoo in!"

Approaching him, Hae-Won looked down at him. "Are you sitting there because you want a tattoo? I'd be happy to oblige."

"H-huh!" Edison got out of the chair in record speed. "I'm not sure if my parents would approve!" It sounded like he was making up excuses.

"That's disappointing…" Hae-Won shook her head as she sat down in the chair next to the one Edison was in. Sliding it over the ground, she reached a drawer. "If I had to guess… This is where all my equipment would be…"

And she would be right. Here, she found tattoo needles, several different coloured inks, some gel, and a whole lot of other things. "Neat, I have everything I need." Hae-Won seemed pretty happy about her find.

"What about this…" May had found a desk away from the tattoo part of the station.

Glancing over, Hae-Won could already tell what this was. "To become a tattoo artist, you have to already be really good at art." Sitting down on the chair, she opened up the drawers, which contained paper and the likes.

"This reminds me of my old drawing station back when I was a teenager." Hae-Won felt a bit nostalgic looking at all of this.

"But why have it here…?" May hummed out.

Right, she had to give an explanation. "Most of the designs I've done for others have been my own art pieces. Normally, people come in with a request for something, and I draw it up here before I transfer the art to their skin."

As an example, she began drawing a bird.

"That way, I can show off the design to them before I begin working on their skin." Hae-Won was pretty fast when it came to drawing. After only a few minutes, she had drawn a mockingbird.

Edison had been watching her the entire time. "Wow, such good talent."

"You sure you don't want a tattoo?" Hae-Won turned to look at him. "I think I could get one that would look really well on you."

Thinking about it more, Hae-Won was very skilled! So maybe he should get one. "Yes, yes!" Swirling his flask around, an idea popped in his head. "You should get me a tattoo of cobalt." That was a good element.

Quickly getting up from her desk, Hae-Won shook her head. "The mood is ruined."

"Gah! You didn't even want to listen to me." His chances at a science tattoo were out the window.

Grabbing one of her pencils, Hae-Won moved over towards the blank wall, and began to trace the pencil on it. As she expected, the line appeared very blatantly on the wall. "Right, we can draw on this. Heh, my parents would hate this room." However, after saying this, a frown quickly formed on her face, and her good mood had faded away.

Given that they had pretty much explored everything they needed in this room, Edison turned to look over at Hae-Won. "Is that everything?"

"Hmm?" Hae-Won had to snap out of the small spell she was in. "Oh, yeah, more than likely. The rest of it can probably be shown off if I give a tattoo to someone." Besides that, she was content with leaving the room right now. "Let's go."

Edison quickly followed behind her, before stopping to look at May, who was just standing around. "May? Are you coming with us?"

"Hmm…?" She hummed out, opening her eyes. "Oh… Right." Might as well follow.

Escape Pods

Well.

Yeah.

It's as it says.

However, both Gemini and Seira were staring at two very different things.

"Windows." Seira mumbled out, seeing that space was once again visible. She wouldn't need to wait until they arrived at the trial ground again.

Placing her hand against the window, Seira tried to see if she could spot any constellations-

The answer was of course she did.

However, Gemini had a different approach for the entire thing. He was staring just below the windows, where there were seven slots for what looked like escape pods. "There's…" He placed a hand on his hip. "There's no way…" This was going to be how they got out of here.

"Don't get your hopes up." Winter shook her head, approaching the two. "I doubt that they would leave something like that available to us." Gemini, on the other hand, was going to ignore that completely. Instead, opting to try and use the card scanner. "Please, come on…"

Seeing his struggles, Seira snapped out of her trance to reach a hand out for him. "Hey, don't you remember what we need for this?"

"That's it?" Gemini placed his hands on his hips. He was starting to lose out hope on an escape now.

"What?" Monokawa floated down towards him. "Did you think I was just going to let there be an escape route?

A small laugh came from Ian. "But there is an escape. It's only worth one million coins."

Everyone froze up upon hearing that. "W-what?" Benoit mumbled out. "An escape?"

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Tatiana took a step towards him.

Ian shrugged. "Lorelei could have mentioned it too, but she didn't."

"As if anyone is ever going to get to a million coins. " Lorelei rolled her eyes. "You can try, but we only start with a hundred, so there's no point."

Ian shrugged. "Either way, Monokawa brought up something interesting while we were talking. There are escape pods."

"What?" Hae-Won's eyes went a little wide. "Where?"

"Like hell I'd tell you where!" Monokawa rolled his eyes. "And even if you found out where it was, you wouldn't be able to activate them." He let out a small laugh. "Well, now that that's in the open!" He floated away to places unknown, leaving the rest of the people here.

But… That did raise some questions. "Why have seven escape pods, then?" Gemini crossed his arms. If there was only one escape key, then there'd be no point, right?

"Well, we discovered yesterday that someone could escape without the game being over." Seira pointed out, remembering what Ian's plan was. "If someone forces an abstain, that's one person who leaves. Another can escape via a different trial. And maybe a third via the escape key…"

So many different ways to escape, and yet Gemini couldn't bring himself to do any of them…

"Say…" Winter spoke up, inspecting one of the escape pods. "Why is one of them… missing?"

Hearing that, Gemini moved over closer to inspect the one Winter was looking at. "You're… You're right. Why would-"

Suddenly.

Otter.
"Oh wow! Crazy!" Monokawa slowly lowered himself down from the ceiling.

The trio was mostly fed up with his antics that they didn't even seem to panic.

"Monokawa." Winter said softly, closing her eyes. "Why is there an escape pod missing?"

Letting out a sigh, Monokawa let his limbs droop. "You want the truth…?"

"Would you even give us the truth?" Seira out here asking the real questions.

Ignoring her entirely, Monokawa continued. "I pissed off Nova, so she launched me out of one of the escape pods. Apparently "causing mental distress to the participants" isn't part of my job."
Thinking for a moment, Seira seemed to recall something like that…

Covering his mouth, Monokawa let out a small laugh. "Because, it's just ironic how Benoit's father was able to avoid all of that, only for his son to be killed by a killing game so many years later."

"Stop it…" Hae-Won slammed her first on her podium. "Stop treating this whole thing like a game."

"Huh?" Nova turned her head to the side. "But this whole thing is a game."

However, she could understand Hae-Won's point. "That's enough Monokawa. Our goal isn't to make them have a mental breakdown. We should continue on with the trial."

But… wasn't that an odd thing for an overseer to even say. "It's weird…" Seira mumbled out, looking the other way.

Gemini raised an eyebrow. "What is?"

Quickly, Seira shook her head. "Oh! Nothing! Don't worry about it."

Deciding to move the conversation along, Winter turned to look at Monokawa. "Is there anything else about these escape pods you wish to tell us? Or was that everything?"

Monokawa shrugged. "What exactly do you want me to tell you? There's nothing else worth noting."

That's what she figured, but it was worth asking anyway. "Alright, onto the next location, I guess."

As the two girls began to walk away, Gemini lagged behind, his focus absorbed by the escape pods. He spent a few seconds looking at them before letting out a small sigh. "No…" He mumbled out, running off to catch up with his group.

Circular Hallway (Repair Ship) (Lower Level)

As Gigi and Atlas continued to walk through the repair ship, they reached an interesting room.

Well… Calling it a room at all wasn't exactly the truth. It was more accurate to say it was an extension of the hallway that just so happened to be in a circle.

The only difference was that there was nothing in the center. No matter where they stood, they could see the other side.

"The hell is this…" Atlas took a few steps forward, before he glanced down over the railing. "It's just glass…" He could see stars from where he was standing.

Gigi crossed her arms, frowning slightly. "I'm not exactly sure why they would need to have something like this." It felt like a lot of open space for no reason.

"Hey." Atlas said softly, looking up. "There's another floor to this place."

"Hmm?" Heading his words, Gigi looked up, noticing that there seemed to be another railing identical to the one they were standing in front of. From the looks of it, there was another circular hallway right above them. "But we can't really reach it…" She pointed out.

It was much too high for anyone to be able to jump up to, and there was nothing they could grab on to pull themselves up.

That did raise the question… If there was a second floor, where were the stairs-

"Hey." Atlas had moved away from the spot they had been standing in front of. "I found the stairs." Once again, no doors, but it felt like an entrance of some kind.

As tempting as it was to go explore upstairs, Gigi had other ideas. "We still haven't checked out everything on this floor." In fact, there was another hallway she was staring at. "Let's finish up with that first."

"Tsk." Of course his idea wouldn't be considered. And yet, he followed her anyway as they left the circular hallway.

Ultimate Tap Dancer Station

As soon as the trio of Gennosuke, Melody, and Michael stepped foot into this room, they were greeted by really old jazz music.

"Huh…" Gennosuke raised an eyebrow. "This music's over a century old." Almost a century and half at this rate… Jesus… He turned towards Melody. "I think we found your station."

Melody herself hadn't said anything, as she looked around the room in amazement. Taking a step forward, she soon found herself on the dance floor that took up about a fifth of the room. "Wow…"

Despite the music, Gennosuke was still impressed with how the room looked. Almost. "It's a really nice place…" He took a few steps forward, eventually stopping at the record player. Wow, this old piece of shit…

Soon, Michael approached Melody on the dance floor, watching her move in rhythm. "You're really good at this…" He complimented her.

Melody had begun to tap her feet on the ground, in rhythm with the music that was playing. "Come on, who wants to join me?"

Gennosuke seemed to ignore her completely as he walked past some tables, to check out some of the pictures on the wall.

That left Michael alone, standing in front of her.

Extending her arm out, Melody offered him a sweet smile. "Come on, Mac. Dance a little. Isn't the music just right?"

Taking a step back, Michael looked at the ground. "I… I've never danced before…"

"That's no excuse." Melody was holding this entire conversation while the rest of her continued to dance away. She spun around as her feet kept tapping the ground, her clothes fluttering a bit from the motion. Soon, she found herself facing Michael again. "You won't know till ya try, you know…"

It just seems like Melody spread positivity everywhere she went. Because for once… Michael couldn't find another reason to deny her request. "Fine…"

"Like this." Melody continued to tap her feet on the ground in a rhythm, all while dancing around the floor. "You just gotta get in a beat."

Easier said than done… "Huh…" Michael mumbled out.

Seeing that he was struggling, Melody offered him a smile and a hand. "Here, I'll guide ya."
She was always happy to allow new people to learn the dance she had fallen in love with.

While the two of them were dancing their lives away, Gennosuke had gone to explore the back corner of the room. The first he noticed was that there was a pool table taking up part of the back corner. "Are you any good at this?" He felt like he'd do good at the very least.

As Melody turned to look at him, still tapping her feet on the ground, she nodded her head. "Yup! I'm pretty good at it, all things considered."

"Interesting…" However, that wasn't the most important part of this back room. Instead… It was the large metallic cable that poked out through the ground and connected itself to the ceiling. "..."

"Hey! Look what I found!" Laki called out, getting the attention of the four other people in the room.

The first person to look over at her was Gemini, who saw her hand hovering over the button. "Hey, I really don't think you should-"

Too late! Laki went and pressed it anyway..

In an instance, the wall she had been standing in front of opened up completely.

While he had been against the idea originally, he couldn't lie that he was impressed with what he saw. "What the…" Gemini took a step forward. The wall hadn't really been a wall. Instead, it was shutters covering a large window.

Seira walked by besides him, remaining silent as she looked on. "This has to be the center of this place, right?"

May got closer to the window before slowly nodding her head. "I'd say so…"

On the other side of the window, was a large, mostly empty, circular room. The only thing of notice was the large room suspended in the air by eight different steel cables, each connected to one of the corners. The steel cables were then attached to the walls.

"What is this… Some attempt at an art piece?" Gennosuke wasn't really impressed with what he was seeing.

However, his eyes trailed off to the side when he… noticed something off. "Is that… a metal cable?" Gennosuke didn't know what it was for, but off in the back of the room, there was a metal cable protruding out of the ground, and attaching itself to the wall. That would be something he'd need to keep in mind. It didn't seem like the others had noticed yet.

It wouldn't be the first time Gennosuke saw the metal cable, and it wouldn't be the last. There had been eight in total, and he's only found two so far. "Four upstairs, four downstairs…" He mumbled out to himself, placing a lollipop in his mouth.

There should have been two in the Psi Sector, but they only ever found one…

Letting out a small chuckle, Gennosuke turned his attention back over to the dancing duo, to see how they were doing.

How was Melody doing?

Great, she's an Ultimate after all.

How was Michael doing?

He fell.

Wait, weren't they holding hands?

Yes. Melody fell because of Michael.

Despite falling, Melody seemed to still be in a bright mood. "That was really good." She quickly got up, fixing her clothes. "It was nothing too darb, but with practice you could really excel."

Michael slowly shook his head. He wasn't feeling that at all… "Dancing isn't really for me."

Pouting slightly, Melody took a step towards him. "Are you telling me dancing didn't make you feel energised?"

For one, it felt almost impossible to get Michael energised. "No…" He glanced towards the bar. "It was fun, but it wasn't worth the pain of falling down…"

"Oh! You'll come around eventually." Melody offered him a bright smile before her mind wandered off.

What were they doing here again?

Oh right.

"But right, this reminds me of the speakeasy I set up." Melody moved over towards the counter, peering over it.

Behind the counter was alcohol, however, unlike Ian's Ultimate Station, this one did not have a robot blocking you from accessing it. That's because in the year 1920- :boom:

"You had alcohol here?" Melody didn't really seem the type to have something like that.

Melody spent a few seconds looking at him. "Do you know what a speakeasy is?"

"A… dance club?" Michael please.

Shaking her head in amusement, Melody continued to walk over, until she approached the dart board. "They were popular back in the 1920's because of probation."

That was so long ago, though. "But… Why have a speakeasy nowadays?"

Picking up a dart, Melody tried to focus on the throw. "Because, the vibes that I receive from it are splendid." She got it on the board, but it wasn't a good score. Maybe she shouldn't be doing this and having a conversation.

"Besides." Melody turned towards him. "People like to drink giggle juice while they are here."

Giggle… juice? Ah wait… Michael quickly understood what she meant. "Those are words for alcohol."

"Well, it does make you giggly." Melody hummed out.

"Unless it makes you rage." Gennosuke said, standing beside the two. When he got weird looks, he just shrugged. "Just stating the truth." He began to make his way towards the door. "We should probably head out now, don't you think?" He turned to face the others. "We'll have enough time to dance here later."

Well! That made sense. Melody moved away from the bar. "Lead the way, bird."

"..." Gennosuke didn't say anything in response as he left the room.

Kitchen (Repair Ship)

After wandering through the circular hallway, Gigi and Atlas soon ended up here, which looked to be a makeshift cafeteria of sorts.

Except not really… There were, however, several cupboards.

Moving over towards one, Gigi opened up, revealing a large selection of canned food and other non-perishables.

"This ship has its own food, huh?" Atlas took a glance inside the cupboard before walking away.

Closing the cupboard, the room began to look similar to the one they had on the space station. The only difference being that there wasn't any fridge. The only food available was dry storage. But hey! They had an oven.

Sitting down at the table in the center of the room, Atlas huffed. "Nothing here really helps us."

Was he done exploring? Then it was up to Gigi, it seems. The first thing she noticed was that there were two vents on the ground, both in opposite corners in the room, but she didn't feel like exploring them further.

However, it looked large enough for someone to crawl into. It wasn't the first one they saw either, so it didn't really surprise her.

Taking a few steps around the cupboards, Gigi finally saw something she hadn't seen in the ship yet.

Hanging on the wall was a long wooden stick with a hook at the end. Picking it up, she moved it around in her head. "What do you think this is for?"

Atlas hadn't really been paying attention, so he looked over towards her, shrugging slightly. "Fuck if I know." Why the hell would she ask him?

Placing it back, Gigi shook her head. "It's odd to have something like that here… I don't know what the use for it would be."

Despite that, the kitchen here didn't offer anything else except the same pots and pans that the space station had.

"Alright…" Gigi stepped away from the counter, looking at the way forward. "We should probably keep going… I don't think we have that many rooms left."

Getting up from his seat, Atlas began to follow her again. "It's probably just going to be a bunch of nothing again."

That could be true, but Gigi at least held out some hope of finding something useful…

Docking Zone

Edison quickly bounced into the hallway, looking around. "This hallway seems important."

"Slow down a bit." Hae-Won felt like going at a leisurely pace, not wanting to run around quite yet. And also because May was still trailing behind.

Of course, Edison didn't get very far, as he reached a sign. "Oh!" He adjusted his goggles to read better. "Repair ship, and a shuttle?"

Well, it was obvious which one was more interesting.

Turning towards the others, Edison adjusted his goggles again, doing the anime glass flash thing. "We're about to embark on a trip for the century."

May had finally caught up, standing around idly. "Aren't we already on a trip for the century…?" She hummed out. "It's not often you get to go on a space station…" More like almost impossible.

"Scientifically speaking…" Edison had begun to swirl his flask, before realising he didn't have a counter to this. "Hey look, another hallway." He would just need to distract them, it seems.

"Heh…" Hae-Won shook her head, amused by his antics. Edison didn't seem to be someone she could be mad at.

Soon, the trio approached the same door that the other group had already passed by. "Oh! Oh!" Edison got closer, inspecting the door itself. "Yes, I see. This door is actually two doors."

"How can you figure that?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow.

"Simple deduction." Edison swirled around his flask as it became an orange colour. "The way this works is by having the first door detach from the second door. That's the only way the repair ship is connected to the space station."

That made sense. So much sense that Hae-Won felt no need to ask any further questions. "Alright, then let's head on in…"

Airlock (Repair Ship)

Leaving the previous room, Atlas and Gigi found themselves in another room. This time, there was a door in front of them. "Dammit…" Atlas mumbled out, noticing the lack of usual way to open it.

"Hmm…" Gigi approached the wall, which had a sign on it. "Spacesuits must be worn past this section." That didn't sound good to her, but she still wanted to explore further. Glancing to the side, she found another vent. These things were just everywhere, weren't they?

"Spacesuits? What fucking spacesuits?" No matter how much Atlas looked around, nothing seemed to line up with that.

"I think…" Gigi trailed off, grabbing the square fabric under the sign. "This might be it…" On the fabric, there was a square button in the center. Turning towards Atlas, she moved to him.

Instinctively, he took a step back. "What are you doing?"

Of course, Gigi shouldn't have tried it out on someone else. "I may have an idea on how this might work." Placing the fabric against her, she pressed the button, causing the fabric to attach itself to her clothes, before expanding out.

In no time, Gigi found herself wearing a spacesuit, covering her body comfortably. "I've never seen something like this." Then again, she wasn't very interested in space as a whole, so she never really looked into it.

The only thing that was missing was a helmet, but she found one in no time. Above the suits, was a line of helmets. Grabbing one, she placed it on her head, and twisted it close. It had enough room where she never had to worry about twisting it incorrectly.

Once it was twisted in properly, Gigi felt the suit sealing itself. "I'm not exactly confident in this…" Then again, it's not like Nova would make a death trap for them.

"Hey, give me one." Atlas narrowed his eyes on her.

Reaching for another square fabric, Gigi pressed it against him, before pushing the button.

Similarly to her, the suit formed around him. However, unlike hers, they seem to cut off where his limbs ended.

"What the hell…" Atlas couldn't figure out if he should be annoyed or grateful. Given he couldn't decide, he chose to complain. "Piece of shit…"

Shaking her head, Gigi reached over and grabbed a helmet for him. "You could have had floppy sleeves to deal with." She twisted the helmet onto him. As soon as it was twisted on, his suit too sealed itself off.

"Is this really necessary?" Atlas followed her where she went, like a lost puppy.

"You're free to stay behind if you want, but I want to explore as much as I can." Gigi made sure that her spacesuit was completely safe before moving on.

Atlas grumbled some things under his breath, but he didn't say anything further.

Now that the two of them had spacesuits on, Gigi moved over to press the button. After a few seconds, the door eventually opened. "An odd delay… Perhaps it was a safety precaution."

"What? To make sure you don't go through without?" Atlas stepped through the door as soon as it opened up. He spent some time looking around, but there seemed to be a lot of high-tech things he just didn't understand. "What is all this stuff…?"

Gigi followed through, allowing the door to close behind her. While Atlas was looking at all the machinery, her eyes were fixated on the last door. Outside of it was space. "This is probably how we can access the outside of the repair ship." Hence the spacesuits.

However, eagerly jumping outside the ship didn't sound ideal, so she found it best to look around a bit.

"What's this?" Atlas called out, standing in front of something.

Moving over to him, Gigi noticed what looked like several long ropes coiled around a contraption against the wall. At the end of the ropes were electronical hooks. Grabbing one, she glanced around the room.

That is, until she took a glance at the space suits they had on. "Oh…" Gigi hooked it onto her spacesuit, and the moment she did, it locked automatically. "This is so that once we exit the ship, we are still attached to this room."

"Good, I didn't want to fly off." Although, not like Atlas could put it on himself.

Like she did for the suit, Gigi grabbed another hook, attaching it to Atlas.

"What the fuck- I'm not going out there." Atlas quickly took a step back.

Letting out a soft sigh, Gigi shook her head. "Safety precaution. I'm not sure how the doors open up. So, if we're going to be exploring this room, we better make sure that-"

Suddenly, the lights completely went out.

"What the FUCK!"

Control Room (Repair Ship)

Now, where had Lorelei wandered off to? Why! The most dangerous room for her to be in! Dangerous for herself? Oh no! Dangerous for literally anyone else on the ship.

Walking into the place like they owned it, she completely skipped over the room right before this one. When they walked in, her attention was immediately taken up by the control panel in the back of the room. "What the hell does this control?" However, it didn't take a genius to see just what it did.

"Oh shit." Lorelei had a grin on her face. "If that bitch let me detach this earlier, I could have been taking this piece of shit out of here." She placed her hand on the ship controls. More specifically, the controls that allowed the ship to move. When she tried to do anything, it didn't let them.

"Of course. Why would it?" Lorelei was glancing around at the other things she could attempt to do.

And that's when she spotted it.

Four unique buttons with pictures on them.

"Oh?" Well that was something new at the very least. The four buttons showed these icons: a hook, a door, a vent, and lastly, an exclamation mark.

"Hmm…" Lorelei tilted her head to the side.

Might as well press them all.

The first one they pressed was the hook, and to Lorelei's horror…

…

Nothing happened.

"Like, what a ripoff." Lorelei let out an annoyed sigh. Next button! The one with a door on it. As soon as they pressed that one-

THUNK!

Quickly glancing behind her, the door closed behind her, ceiling her in. "What the hell?" But that told Lorelei something. "Hmm, so they were doors." Good way to crush someone, she thought. Next up, the vent button.

When she pressed that one, a similar result played out.

SLINK!

It almost sounded like shutters closing. Lorelei stepped away from the console, hoping to find the source. It didn't take her long to find a vent tucked away in the corner. "Hmm…" Despite their best attempt, they weren't able to open it. "Fuck it." Back to the console.

After all, Lorelei still had one button left to press.

The one with the exclamation point. The others were self explanatory, but still, she grew ever curious with each passing second.

Throwing caution to the wind (there is no wind in space), Lorelei pressed down on the last button.

At that very moment, the lights all turned off.

"That's like, the most expensive lightswitch I've ever seen."

Soon, however, a faint red glowing came from the lights, illuminating the room, before fading back to darkness.

"This is fucking stupid."

Navigation

The next stop on their journey was a room that actually looked like it belonged on a space station.

Stepping inside, Gemini, Seira, and Winter would be greeted with a large window taking up most of the room.

"Woah…" Seira took a few steps forward, stopping right before reaching the console. She began to lean forward, almost pressing some of the butto-

"Woah there." Gemini managed to stop her from being in her daze. "Watch out…"

Snapping out of her daze, Seira glanced down, and noticed the console. "What's this for…?" There were several different buttons.

"I'm glad you asked." This time, it wasn't Monokawa who was here. It was Nova.

The duo quickly turned to face her, definitely more put off by her appearance.

Winter saw her walk in, so she didn't seem shocked.

Given that nobody else was talking, Nova decided to continue with what she was saying. "This is the navigation room. Or more precisely, the front of the station."

"Is this…" Gemini began to think a bit, before an idea popped in his head. "Is this how we control the station?"

Clapping her hands together, Nova nodded. "Yes! Exactly! This is how to control the station. More specifically, it's how you move the station."

"Woah woah woah!" Seira's eyes' lit up. "So we can move this wherever we want?" She got closer to the controls, ready to-

"Hold on there." Nova shook her head. "It doesn't work quite as you would expect it. Yes, you are able to move the station, however, you can't remove it from its pre-existing orbit."

Scratching his head, Gemini seemed a bit confused. "Pre-existing orbit? What exactly are we orbiting?"

"Oh, you haven't realised it yet? Though, I suppose it makes sense… It hasn't been in view quite yet… But we are orbiting the moon."

"Orbiting…" The moon? Seira was finding it hard to believe, but it made sense. They couldn't be orbiting the Earth without being spotted. The moon was slightly more difficult to see… But still… How did they even get it around here?

"That's surprising." Winter tilted her head to the side.

"But…" Seira glanced at the ground. "There have to be other things orbiting the moon." She knew this for a fact. "The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter would have run into us by now, right?"

Shaking her head, Nova continued. "You would think, but the LRO actually manages to orbit the moon every two hours. With us orbiting the moon every twenty four hours, there's a high likelihood that we will never encounter the LRO."

"Ugh…" That was true… but Seira was hoping for something impossible here. "And there's no other satellites…"

There had been years ago, but one of them accidentally drifted too close to the moon and crashed onto it, and the others had finished their missions. Which meant at this moment, the LRO was their only hope for someone to realise something was off about the moon.

But knowing they were orbiting the moon at least put Seira's mind at ease. "Is there anything else we should know about this place?"

Nova hummed out in thought. "There's only one other thing, but I doubt you'd get to use-"

Suddenly, a ringing sound took over the entire room, causing the quarter to stop their conversation.

"Oh, speak of the devil." Nova let out a little giggle.

"What the…?" Gemini mumbled out.

The first person to find where it was coming from was Seira, who approached a monitor off to the side. Looking around, she eventually found a glowing button. Pressing it, a static noise could be heard for a second.

From the sounds of it… it almost sounded like radio static…

"H-hello?" Seira decided to see if it was some form of communication. "What's going on?"

However, the voice she heard was less than ideal. "Oh! Hey Seira!" Edison called out, rather eagerly. "Science is what is happen-"

Not wanting to humour this conversation any further, Seira quickly hung up the call with the same button from earlier.

"Seira!" Gemini shook his head. "You didn't have to cut him off like that.

Seira crossed her arms with a small pout. "He keeps rubbing his science into my face, so I feel like I have no choice but to-"

That same noise from earlier, indicating another call had happened.

Begrudgingly, Seira pressed the button again. "Edison? Please stop, we're trying to-"

However, the voice on the other end did not belong to Edison. Instead, it belonged to May. "Hi…"

Given that someone completely different had answered Seira, she was more than willing to talk to them. "Oh, sorry May. How are you talking to us?"

"We found a communication room on this ship…" May began to explain, but the second part of it never came along.

Finally realising that she wasn't going to provide a follow up, Seira decided to ask her next question. "You mean on the station?"

"No."

"..." Silence.

"..."

"Like an actual ship?" Seira finally concluded.

"Yes…" May mumbled out. "We found a ship attached to the station… We're allowed to detach it…"

Hearing this, Gemini's expression changed drastically. "What?" He took a step forward, to stand next to Seira. "Does that mean we can just leave?"

Winter let out a sigh, shaking her head, before an amused look appeared on her face. "I doubt it would be that easy."

Nova's expression changed to one of joy. "It isn't." There goes that idea.

After a long silence, May finally spoke up again. "I'm going to go now…"

Before Seira could stop her, the sound of static could be heard. "Uh…" But a ship… That certainly was news. Pressing the button to end the call, Seira turned to look at everyone else. "I think that might be all that's in this room…

Communication Room (Repair Ship)

Now that the trio of Edison, Hae-Won, and May had entered the repair ship, they had unknowingly followed right in Lorelei's steps, stopping in the room right before hers.
"Woah!" Edison looked around, his love for all things technology firing off. "I know exactly what kind of room this is!"

"Oh?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow. Then again, this was Edison, so it made sense for him. "What kind of room is this anyways?"

Moving further into the room, Edison sat down at one of the many chairs. "It's a room solely for communication." Placing the headset on his head. "If I had to guess, this allows us to communicate with the space station." Quickly, he started to sort through some settings. "I want to see if I can get any signals."

After messing around for a bit, a voice finally called out.

"H-hello?" It was Seira. "What's going on?" Clearly, she hadn't expected the giga chad move that Edison was pulling off.

"Oh! Hey Seira! Science is what is happen-" The sound of static. "I- Did she hang up?"

Moving over towards the headset, May removed them so she could wear them. "Let me try…"

Edison mumbled something under his breath, but he was still willing to let her through.

"Edison?" Seira called out again. "Please stop, we're trying to-"

"Hi…" May responded, staring out into space.

Hearing someone else besides him, Seira beamed up slightly. "Oh, sorry May. How are you talking to us?" Now she asks the real questions.

Clearly the comment Edison just made set her off.

"We found a communication room on this ship…" May explained, without providing further details.

After a bit of silence, Seira finally responded. "You mean on the station?"

"No."

"..." Silence.

"..."

"Like an actual ship?" Seira finally concluded.

May nodded her head along. "Yes… We found a ship attached to the station… We're allowed to detach it…"

"What?" Gemini could be heard in the background. "Does that mean we can just leave?"

Letting out a sigh, Winter spoke up. "I doubt it would be that easy."

"It isn't." Apparently Nova was there too, for some reason.

Well, system tested! "I'm going to go now…"

Before the others could respond, May stopped communication.

"Hmm…" Hae-Won hummed out, having only listened to May's side. "I don't see much of a use for this now, but it could prove handy."

Meanwhile, Edison was sitting on the floor, still mumbling elements to himself. Something about boron.

"Come on buddy, get up." Hae-Won stood over him, looking down at him-

Suddenly, a loud THUNK could be heard.

Looking around, it became very apparent that both the doors closed. "What the…" Hae-Won moved closer, trying to see if she could get it open. "It's not… Shit." Even trying the scanner didn't seem to work. From the looks of it, it only accepted keycards.

"Don't worry…" May pointed down at a vent. "There's a vent here… if we want…"

SLINK!

"... There was a vent…" May didn't even bother trying to get it to open. She already knew it wouldn't work.

"Fuck… Someone must be messing around with… Something." Hae-Won was growing increasingly irritated.

And finally…

Lights out.

"Hold on!" Edison adjusted his goggles, which didn't help any. "I could concoct a mixture that will glow in the dark!"

What followed next was the sound of glass shattering to the ground.

"Haha! I cannot see!" Thanks Edison.

After a few seconds, a faint red glow overtook the room. "This makes me think something bad happened…" Something horrible…

However, it didn't take long for the light to come back to the room.

Followed by one of the doors opening.

"So that's what the keycards are for." Lorelei said, stepping out of the room. She stopped walking as soon as she saw that there were three other people here. "What the hell are you losers doing here?"

Trying to take a calm approach, Hae-Won took a few steps towards her. "Hey, you wouldn't have happened to mess around with anything, did you?"

"Don't have to answer you." Lorelei moved past her, or at least attempted to.

Stepping in her way again was Hae-Won. "Y'know… I'm not stupid. You're clearly the one who went and messed around with things."

"Ugh, what are you, my mom?" Lorelei's face showed disdain. "You know, you can't get out unless you let me use this." She flashed the keycard. "It's the only way to open the doors around here."

"Where did you get that…?" May hummed out, approaching the two.

Putting it away before anyone could take it, Lorelei looked over at her. "There were two at the entrance of this place. Gigi grabbed the other one."

Letting out a sigh, Hae-Won didn't want Lorelei to trap them in here any further. "What rooms have you explored so far?"

Shrugging, Lorelei didn't really seem to care. "I made a beeline right here. Didn't even look around this room." From the vibes it gave, they didn't find it interesting. "There's an entire second floor that I haven't explored yet."

"Were there any other rooms?" Edison joined into the conversation, after cleaning up his mess.

Lorelei shook her head, crossing arms. "If there were any other rooms, I would have at least given them a cursory glance."

Lorelei really was difficult to deal with at times. "Hey." Hae-Won hummed out. "Instead of exploring as a group of four, why not split up into two groups to explore the top floor?" That way she wouldn't have to deal with her.

"That would be efficient, so I agree with it." Edison nodded his head along.

That's all she needed to hear. "Alright, you can come with me." Hae-Won moved closer to the door.

"Sounds like you're just trying to get rid of me." Lorelei swiped the card against the card reader. "Whatever, I can go with May." Not that she would give out any worthwhile interactions

As soon as the door was opened up, the group of four moved out.

Airlock (Repair Ship)

Not wanting to move around in the darkness, both Atlas and Gigi mostly remained still. However, calling it complete darkness wasn't exactly true.

"What's that flashing button over there?" Atlas was the first to notice it, given Gigi was facing away from it.

When she finally turned around to look at it, she spotted it. "Hmm…" Soon, the red lights from earlier faintly illuminated the room.

Still, Atlas was still interested in the button that lit up. Once the lights faded out again, the button glowed red once more. "What does this even do?" Given how big it was, he would have no problem pressing it.

"Wait, we really shouldn't-" Gigi had begun to say, but it was too late.

All it took was a rather light press from Atlas…

And…

In a single moment…

All the air, including them, were quickly ejected out of the room.

It was a different feeling.

A feeling neither had quite experienced in their life.

A feeling of hopelessness that came with being at the mercy of space.

Only for the two of them to almost stop in their tracks when the rope finally ran out, causing them to bounce back slightly.

When everything finally registered to Gigi, she briefly began to panic, looking around. All she could see right now was the repair ship that they had been ejected out of.

Looking around some more, she could also spot the space station they had been residing in for a little over a week.

And lastly, she saw Atlas floating around, still attached to the tether. Based on his facial expression, he was clearly cursing, but she couldn't hear a single thing.

Gigi's priority right now was to try and get back into the ship. But, almost possessed by the spirit of Seira (who was very much still alive right now), she couldn't help but look out at the vast expanse of space. Sure, they had seen it during the trial, but being out here in space itself was a different feeling entirely.

Of course, Gigi knew she couldn't stay here forever. Turning towards the ship, she tried to figure out how she would even get back.

Luckily, they were still tethered to the repair ship, so all she had to do was start pulling on her own rope, allowing her to slowly approach the ship once again.

Stopping for a moment, Gigi turned to look over at Atlas, who was helplessly floating around. There wasn't much he could do at the moment, so she reached over and grabbed his rope to pull on it.

Once she had a comfortable way to hold onto his rope, she began to pull herself and Atlas back towards the ship.

Plopping herself and Atlas back in, she made sure that the ropes were fully in the airlock before pressing the button again.

Slowly, the door closed, and air began to fill the room again, allowing gravity to return to them.

"What the HELL?" Atlas had difficulty walking around, still off balance from the zero gravity they had just experienced. He had learned his lesson.

Once enough oxygen was in the room, the other door opened back up, allowing for them to leave the room. Stepping outside, Gigi removed her helmet, letting it clatter to the ground. "Never… again…" It was a rather unpleasant experience. Especially since she hadn't been expecting it. She moved over to Atlas, removing his helmet. "Never do that again."

"Yeah… Yeah…" Atlas glanced at the ground, not saying anything else.

Unhooking their suits, Gigi coiled them back up in the area she found them before moving over towards the area she found the suits. Pressing the button again, the suits retracted, turning back into the square of fabric.

She then did the same for Atlas.

Taking a deep breath, Gigi leaned against the wall. "I'm sure someone will find that fun. But it was not for me." Despite the panic she had felt momentarily earlier, she was back to mostly having a neutral expression.

"Let's just get out of here." Atlas moved over towards the door, which was now locked. "..."

Pulling out a keycard, Gigi approached the door. "Don't worry, I'll open them." With a quick swipe, the door quickly opened itself, only to reveal that the next door was also closed.

"Piece of shit." This place had annoying doors.

Garden (Pi Sector)

Stepping into this next room, an amazing aroma began to evade the three people who just opened the door.

"Oh…" Michael mumbled out, smelling the pleasant smell. "I guess there really was another one…"

"Well look at this." Melody hummed out, stepping further into the room. "Such lovely flowers."

Gennosuke frowned slightly, seeing the garden as another eyesore. "Why do we need another garden?" Wasn't one enough?

"Right…" Michael took a step forward. "Not everyone heard Nova say this… But there's more than one garden in this facility…"

Nova's visor turned to one of surprise. "Oh! Of course not! However, we do have samples of the flower, which is why you're able to have it with you right now."

May let out a small yawn, before taking a shot in the dark. "This garden… It's not the only one, is it? Is it possible that there's another garden out there that's growing this flower."

For a moment, Nova's visor changed to black, and she remained still. After a few more seconds, it flickered back to a green colour, which showed a happy expression. "Oh, you're so smart. Yes, the flower is currently being grown in this very facility. However, I would be careful about heading into a room like that without the proper equipment. One wrong step, and you might find yourself in a coma."

A haunting warning.

Hearing that, Melody took a step back. "Are you sure it's safe to enter?"

Michael took a quick look around, nodding his head along. "Yes… The flower that was used for the drug isn't here."

"Curious…" Gennosuke looked down at him. "Did Nova show you what the flower looked like, or do you somehow just know what it looks like?"

"Oh… Nova told us what it looked like…" Michael turned to look the other way.

"Wait, then doesn't that mean there's another garden out there?" Melody suggested, taking a few steps forward to inspect the flowers.

Tilting his head to the side, Gennosuke shrugged. "If I had to make any guesses, there will be four gardens in total. One in every corner of the station, no?"

Michael slowly nodded his head. "Right… There's one on either side of Omicron Sector… So there might be one on either side of Tau Sector…"

Walking further into the room, Gennosuke glanced up, spotting the filtration system. "Ah, I suppose that's one use for a garden."

Looking at where he was, Michael nodded his head. "Right… We figured out that the gardens were used exclusively for oxygen…"

That made sense. "Disappointing that we couldn't find that flower." Gennosuke continued to step further into the room.

"Huh?" Melody had been inspecting some of the flowers when he said that. "Why would ya want to get close to a flower like that?"

Choosing to ignore answering, Gennosuke stopped in front of a door. "Huh…" He hadn't explored the other garden, but based on the trial, there had been a wooden door in the other garden. "Odd…" The door here was metallic.

Michael got closer, frowning slightly. "That's… different." Why would it be different? Looking around, he also failed to find a scanner. "We can't scan our bracelets…"

"No, instead…" Gennosuke moved his hand over to a button next to the door. Pressing it down, the door opened. "Odd." Definitely the weirdest door so far.

Melody finally caught up to the two, peering over Michael to look into the room. "Did ya find anything?"

"Not yet…" Michael stepped into the room, glancing around. While it was in the same spot as the shed, it was completely different.

Compared to the last one, this one seemed to be well maintained. "There's some cool things in here." Gennosuke flashed a smile as his eyes landed on the chainsaw attached to the wall. "Could make for an interesting case."

Quickly turning to look at him, Melody began to pout. "Don't think like that."

"Yeah… yeah…" Gennosuke shook his head, mostly out of annoyance. He stepped away from the duo, deciding to check out the corner or something.

As Melody was walking around, she accidentally kicked something on the floor that was heavy. "Oww…" She mumbled out, before glancing down at the ground. Kneeling down, she found a tool kit. Opening up, it was a full one! Lucky.

Michael was standing behind her, looking over her shoulder. "Oh… They actually bothered to have a full one this time…"

Glancing over at him, Melody tilted her head. "The one in the other garden wasn't full?"

Michael shook his head. "It had the bare minimum…" Looking in, he could spot several useful things, like a hammer, screwdrivers, wrenches, honestly, anything you'd want in a tool kit.

Closing up the toolbox, Melody moved it over to be under the table. "Don't need anyone tripping here."

Well they were still here, Michael decided he wanted to take a look around for- "Ah…" Yup, this garden had hatchets too, not that it really meant anything. If someone wanted a hatched, the first garden was there too. For the most part, all the equipment that was in the first garden was also here too.

"I don't think we're going to find anything new…" Michael mumbled out, stepping away towards the door.

"Hey." Gennosuke called out, looking at a screen next to the door. "What do you think this is?"

Michael approached the log that was next to the door. One they couldn't see when they first opened the door. "What's this…?" He mumbled out, staring at the screen.

Taking an extra second to look at it, Gennosuke was able to realise just what it was. "Ah… It shows us the time that we opened the door."

Looking at the display, it showed November 25th, 2045, 2:12pm

It seemed to be the only one. Checking his watch, Gennosuke nodded his head. "That lines up with when we pressed the button."

"But why…" Michael shook his head.

Gennosuke shrugged. "You want my best guess? It's so we can use it as evidence next time someone collapses dead, and something from here was taken."

"H-hey!" Melody moved her way over to him, her shoes clacking on the ground with every step. "That is a bad thought to have."

Flashing her a smile, Gennosuke shook his head. "I'm only being realistic. Nothing else about it." He placed his hands into his pocket. "I think this is the extent of this shed, so we should probably leave now."

To exit, the door had the same button, and when pressed, Michael could see the logs update in real time. "It works both ways…"

"Probably so someone can't be sneaky." Gennosuke shrugged as he stepped out into the main part of the garden. "That's my only guess…"

Deep down, he hoped that they wouldn't need to use any of this. "I… Think I'm ready to leave now." Michael stepped out, passing the flowers on the way out.

Melody hummed to herself as she examined all the flowers. "I wish we had pots so we could have flowers in our room. That'd be swell."

Gennosuke shook his head as the trio left the room.

Ultimate Ventriloquist Station

Bursting into the doors was- We aren't doing this again-

Tatiana was the first person to step into the room. "Behold! Our second new-" Well, she didn't really freeze up this time. Instead, turning to look at Dolly. "Hey! We found your room!"

It was immediately obvious, given the numerous dolls strewn around the place.

"Hmm…" Dae-Hyun hummed out, before picking up the first doll he saw. "This is really well made…"

"Duh!" Dolly moved closer to him, taking the doll out of his hand. "Master's father was a really excellent dollmaker! He made me, after all."

"Wait… Are you saying that all of these were made by your father." Tatiana turned to look at Benjamin specifically.

Dolly shook her head. "Nah! That wouldn't make sense! These are clearly just replicas."

Dae-Hyun had his own doubts about that, given that the doll seemed to be of this quality. "If it's a replica… They sure knew what they were doing." He stepped away from the counter that had some of the dolls.

Now, his focus was on Benjamin. "You know, you're a ventriloquist, but is that the only doll you use?"

"Huh?" Dolly almost seemed offended by that. "Why would master need to use any other doll!?" Long pause. "Well, he could if he wanted, but he definitely won't!" She raised her hands up in the air, aggravated. "He only really needs me."

That's about what Dae-Hyun figured. Might be why he didn't see much in Benjamin. "I just would have assumed Benjamin had multiple characters. Wouldn't the same thing get stale after so many times?"

Before anything else could happen, Tatiana stood between the two of them. "Boys, boys-" Oh right Dolly. "Boys and doll." She placed her hands on her hips. "We can have this discussion another time. Shouldn't we be exploring this new amazing room?"

Dae-Hyun didn't feel like arguing anymore anyways. "Right." Wasting no time, he moved away to explore another section of the room.

Which left Tatiana and Dolly to have another adventure together! Yay them.

The first place that Tatiana was drawn to was the small stage that could barely be considered one. "Is… Is this where you perform?" Honestly, it was just a chair with some curtains.

"What a ripoff!" Dolly huffed. "Where's our stage?" She turned to look at Benjamin. "You hear that master? They're trying to rip us off!"

"So, this isn't where you normally perform?" Tatiana crossed her arms. It was odd that she would get the stage, and they wouldn't.

"No!" Raising her hands in the air, Dolly was getting increasingly angry. "I would normally have a stage like yours. This looks like it's for children!" Like one would see at a school.

"Haha! Then my solution for you is quite simple!" Tatiana twirled her knife around. "Forgo this stage, and simply use MINE! We can have a dual performance." She began to nod her head along, as if it was the most genius idea.

"Oh! Oh!" Well, it got Dolly's attention. "Yes, a dual performance would be nice!"

"Yes!" Tatiana raised her hand in the air. "I strap you to the wheel of death while you give out your comedy act!"

"YEAH- wait what now?" All the excitement had completely left Dolly's voice.

Tatiana kept nodding her head along. "It will be the show of the ages- Dolly? Where did you go?" She began to look around frantically.

Now, Dolly and Benjamin were behind the small curtain, sitting on a chair. "Master? We better get out of here! At the chop of a hat, she could kill us. It isn't worth our knives."

Tatiana watched on with mild amusement, twirling a knife around. "Are you doing knife puns, now?"

"H-huh!" Dolly began to panic. "Have a knife day!" With that, the curtains were closed, and the duo made a speedy retreat?

Where?

Well wherever the fuck Dae-Hyun was…

Where was he anyways?

Dae-Hyun moved over to what seemed to be a repair station. "Hmm…" He hummed out, sitting down at the desk. Maybe calling it a repair station wasn't exactly true, because-

"Oh!" Dolly had quickly run up to Dae-Hyun. "What are you doing here?"

The answer felt almost obvious, so he didn't see a reason for Dolly to even ask him anything. And yet, Dae-Hyun chose to answer the question anyway. "Investigating… I don't suppose you can make your own dolls, can you?"

"Well!" Dolly raised her hands in the air, before she let them plop to her sides. "No, master has never attempted to make his own doll before. Why would he need to? He has me!"

Slowly, Dae-Hyun's focus shifted over towards Benjamin, who kept a neutral expression the entire time. "Then why is this here?"

"Because of what I mentioned before! Master's father was a dollmaker. This looks a lot like his home." Dolly pointed out.

Shaking his head, Dae-Hyun looked back down at the tools. From the looks of it, there were two different variations. A set of tools for wooden dolls, and a set of dolls for more common dolls. "Hmm… You're made of wood, aren't you?"

"Gah! Master! He's asking me creepy questions!" Dolly raised her arms up in a fit.

Letting out a small sigh, placing his head in his hand, Dae-Hyun shook his head. "I didn't mean anything by it… I just want an answer." No way was she going to make this more difficult than it needed to be.

"Yes, I am. Master's father was a master at making wooden dolls, but he wasn't afraid to try new things! That's why those two sets of tools are there." At least Dolly was explaining things properly.

From the wooden side, there seemed to be paint supplies, saws, and more things of the like. As for the other set of tools, it contained pinking shears, different coloured materials, buttons, and other things.

Opening the drawer, he even found several sewing needles, all of various sizes. Dae-Hyun pulled out the biggest one, eyeing it. "I didn't think they made them this big."

"Those are for the really big dolls!" Dolly nodded her head.

Without skipping a beat, Dae-Hyun responded with sarcasm. "Thanks, I gathered that."

Given that this room didn't seem to have as much to offer compared to Tatiana's station, Dae-Hyun was ready to call it here. Standing up from his chair, he turned towards the others. "We should probably get a move on."

"No, no!" Tatiana pleaded, turning to look at Dolly. "Dolly should perform a show for us."

They… They weren't actually doing this. "You'll have a ton of time tomorrow. Now doesn't really seem like the time."

"Aww…" Tatiana pouted as the quarter left the room, on their way to return to the cafeteria.

Mu Sector

After leaving the navigation room, the trio of Gemini, Seira, and Winter had left, ready to find another room.

"That room was really to your liking, wasn't it." Winter hummed out, looking over at Seira.

"Well, it brought upon a calming aura. And a great view." Seira needed a distraction after the events of yesterday.

"Knowing we can control the space station slightly is good news as well." Gemini had his hands in his pockets. "Not to mention we actually have confirmation of where we are." Long pause. "The moon…"

Seira looked at the ground, grabbing onto her own arm. "Honestly… It's reassuring knowing we aren't just endlessly drifting off into space. And with the escape pods…" She cut off her own thoughts.

The odds of actually using those escape pods were next to none…

Not wanting to let that bring the conversation down, Gemini spoke up. "Hey, there's another room over here." He made his way over to the scanner, pressing his watch against it.

Except…

Nothing…

"Huh?" Maybe he missed? Gemini pressed his watch against it again, but still… Nothing.

"Let me try…" Seira tried her own watch, but to similar results.

Winter didn't even bother trying, picking up on context clues. "Maybe it's not a room we're meant to access right now?"

And that's when she remembered something…

Finally, Gemini's eyes glanced over to the side, to the one thing he didn't want to bring attention to.

A door. Slowly, he moved over towards it. It was all the other doors in the station; it had its own scanner. Bringing his watch to the scanner, nothing happened. "Ah."

"Let me try." Seira offered, but she was met with the same results.

"... Gigi!" Gemini called out, looking over at her. "Do you mind checking this out?" Besides, maybe because it was her station, it would work for her watch.

Gigi put down what she was looking at, and approached them. "What is it?" That's when she noticed the door, and it didn't take long to figure out what they wanted. However, similar to the results of the other two, nothing happened when she scanned her watch. "It didn't even decline." She crossed her arms. She knew about the door in the security room, but that one at least told them they weren't allowed in. "Maybe this is something we should ask Nova about."

"Right…" Seira took a step away from the door. "There was something similar in Gigi's station. And we never figured out how to open that."

Seeing no point in continuing here, Winter turned to glance over at the last door they had yet to explore. "Then maybe it would be best to check this room out." She was the first to move towards the door.

With no counter, the other two followed her towards the door.

Ultimate Love Guru Station

Entering into this new room, the group was greeted by a warm feeling, as well as a sweet aroma. The room was casted in a faint red light, with a bit of purple here and there. It felt like a very welcoming place. It felt very Japanese.

On the wall, several hearts were decorated, as well as some text in Japanese.

In the center of the room, there was a table low to the ground, prompting people to sit on the ground. Fortunately, the ground under the table wasn't hardwood floor. Instead, they would be able to sit down on a tatami mat, which had a dark purple colour.

On the table, there were several candles. All unlit at the moment. Next to it, was a small red lighter.

Behind the table were dark blue curtains, set up in a way that completely blocked off the back center portion of the room, with a small opening right where it meets with the table.

"Oh my." Winter looked around, a sincere smile on her face. "We have finally reached my room. This is a welcome surprise." She took a few steps into the room.

Seira took a few steps forward, looking around. "I've never been to a love guru before, but somehow… I felt like it would look like this."

"It's a bit dark, though." Gemini pointed out. Sure, they could still see, but…

Winter nodded her head. "Let me fix that for you." She motioned over towards the table.

Moving herself over to the other side of the table, Winter used the lighter to illuminate the candles, casting the room in a warm glow. Then, she sat herself comfortably on the floor. "Sit down with me." She looked at the two of them.

At first, they were unsure, but Gemini was the first one to sit down. "What are we doing?"

Seeing that he did that, Seira quickly followed suit. "I'm not quite sure."

Was Winter… about to use her talent?

Slowly, Winter closed her eyes. Keeping her eyes closed for a long period of time, the room was enveloped in silence. Finally, she opened her eyes. "Yes, I can see a pairing between the two of you."

Hearing that, the two of them kind of became flustered rather quickly.

"W-what are you talking about?" Seira took a step back.

Gemini quickly shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck. "I thought we came here to explore the new rooms…"

Winter frowned slightly, but it was quickly replaced with a smile. "What are you talking about? We found my room. What else would I do but talk about love?"

Seira wanted to talk about almost anything else, so she decided to move the conversation along. "Is this similar to the room you used for this-"

"Oh my, changing the subject already? Can't have that." Winter covered her mouth, letting out a little laugh. "Tee-hee…"

Seira had to quickly cover her face. "I know it's your job… But this doesn't feel like the time."

Letting out a soft giggle, Winter shook her head. "Fine, I'll stop." She stood up from the table, looking around the rest of the room. "This really is a recreation from back home." She'd be impressed if she wasn't creeped out.

Given that this was seemingly a replica of her work place, it got Gemini thinking. "Then, what's this curtain for?"

"Oh? That?" Winter turned her attention towards it. "Simple. Normally when I'm working, I block myself off from customers, so they can't reach me. However, I'm not always needed, so I retreat in the back while I wait for lovebirds to appear." She parted the curtain away, allowing her to enter the hidden area. "You are free to join me if you want."

Gemini had no problem, and quickly slipped into the back area, leaving Seira behind to look at everything.

"Ah, perfect." Winter moved over towards a corner in the back

Guess what?

More tea.

Get over it.

While Winter was doing that, Gemini moved over towards the corner of this makeshift room. "Love Letter…" He hummed out.

Hearing that, Winter's small smile slowly faded from her face. "I see this brought this as well." It was a poster with information on the app.

"What's Love Letter?" Gemini hadn't heard of it before.

Feeling a little annoyed, Winter turned her back towards Gemini. "Just an app my father made. Nothing too special."

Oh! An app. "Like Tinder." He nodded his head, thinking of the first one that popped in his head.

"Yes, like that. But worse." Winter took a sip from her tea. "When I started my career as a love guru, I was tied to Love Letter."

"As an employee?" Gemini raised an eyebrow.

Slowly, Winter shook her head. "Calling me an employee isn't accurate. As a love guru, I worked separately, however, we had the same stream of customers."

However, this didn't feel like the time she wanted to go into details about her past. She already spoke to Gemini about things of her past, so she didn't want to do it again.

Luckily, she was away from Seira, so she could change the subject. "So, how are things between you two?"

They were doing this again. "Hey, I know you're a love guru, but you don't have to do this all the time." Gemini turned the other way.

Winter shrugged, growing a smile on her face. "Tee-hee, just getting a bit of revenge from your questioning." Bringing her cup of tea out, Winter exited the room.

Upon leaving, she would be able to spot Seira looking at the Japanese text.

"Love starts here." Seira read out, before noticing that Winter was approaching her. "I love the decor of this room."

Winter slowly bowed. "Yes, I decorated it myself… Technically." She definitely didn't decorate this room.

And Genkei helped, but that wasn't important.

Letting out a small sigh, Winter shook her head. "The only downside to a room like this is that I can't see it being of any use for anything. It might just be a room I spend some time around." Sip of tea.

"Well… I…" Seira glanced to the side. "I can see a use for a room like this…"

"Hmm?" Winter darted her eyes to the side, deep in thought. "How many coins do you have?"

That… was an odd question… "Huh…" Seira opened up her watch to check, given she had forgotten what it was yesterday. "428 coins…"

Nodding her head along, Winter used one of her hands to cover her mouth slightly. "I'll offer my services for a low fee of two hundred coins."

"H-huh?" Seira took a step back. "Why would you want-"

Twirling her finger around a strand of hair, Winter averted her gaze. "The motive is over, so I doubt you'd need those coins for anything. And honestly… I'm hoping to buy something from the store one of these days."

Well… In all fairness, Seira didn't really have a use for the money at the moment. At best, she was hoping to be able to give the money to Gemini… But… "Fine. I'll do it."

"Tee-hee, I thank you for your cooperation." Winter kept her mouth covered with her hand. "I look forward to your visit."

After a few seconds, Gemini finally came out of the curtains. "Are we done exploring here?" He had heard nothing that was going on.

"Huh! Y-Yeah!" Seira quickly nodded her head along. "We should be returning to the others…" They had spent so long looking around, that they probably forgot about the meetup time…

Circular Hallway (Repair Ship) (Upper Level)

Hae-Won and Edison had made it to the second floor, having already split away from Lorelei and May.

"Woah!" Edison looked down the railing. "I could jump down to the lower floor from here?"

When Hae-Won decided to take a peak, she would see the lower area of this room, which was identical. A circular walkway with a large hole in the center. "Please don't, you'll break your leg." It felt like she was looking after a young reckless brother.

Edison moved away from the railing, shaking his head. "Scientifically speaking, there was no risk of me actually jumping off." He wasn't that stupid.

While looking at Hae-Won, he noticed something right above them. "Woah…" Edison hummed out, looking at the glass above them, showing outside the spaceship. "With every new area, we get to see more of the beauty of space." Oh great, now he was starting to sound like Seira.

"Heh." Hae-Won smiled slightly, before looking over at the door. There was only way to go from here, so Hae-Won began to make her way down the hallway. "We're still not done here. You can admire all of that stuff later."

Well he wanted to admire it now- Oh wait nevermind, he's actually following behind her.

Ship's Core (Repair Ship)

The room Lorelei walked into had an overwhelming presence. For one… The lights emitted a warm blue colour, raising the temperature by several degrees.

The second thing was that Lorelei's eyes were fixated on the machine right in front of her. "Found it…" They mumbled out.

May walked in a few seconds later, letting out a yawn. However, she froze up slightly after feeling the shift in temperature. For once, she seemed a bit more awake now. "This must be what's keeping the ship running…"

It was unlike the power supply in the security room. That only provided electricity to some parts of the station.

This… This allowed the entire repair ship to run.

Lorelei took a few steps forward. While she had been careless when it came to the control room… She wasn't stupid enough to fuck around with anything in this room. "This place is dangerous to be…"

May took a glance at the controls… While she was smart, some of this stuff fell far out of range. She could understand enough not to mess with anything, though.

Instead, she wanted to find the source of the blue light…

Stepping past the computer, May would find her answers pretty easily. "Here we go…"

Following her, Lorelei placed a hand on her hip, frowning slightly.

The duo was looking at a semi transparent tube that would glow blue every so often. "One wrong move in this room, and that entire thing explodes."

"Don't be getting any ideas…" May turned around, having seen enough.

"What do you take me for? An idiot?" Lorelei narrowed their eyes as they walked back towards the door. "I'm not fucking around with anything in this room, because it would just get me killed." If there was some way to do it remotely. Well… Then she might be tempted to do something.
This got May thinking. "You know…" She yawned out. "You're as smart as me-"

Lorelei narrowed her eyes in disdain. "What are you trying to do? Insult me? Obviously I'm much smarter than you."

Waiting for her to shut up, May continued. "You're smart… but you don't really seem to be the type of person to help…" Something that has gotten in their way before. "Why?"

Is this the conversation they were really going to be having right now? "Why?" Lorelei rolled their eyes. "Does there need to be a reason why? Don't you remember? We're in a killing game. And trusting one of you assholes is like the first step into my grave." She crossed her arms.

That was an incredibly stupid way to think of this, but May wasn't mean like that, so she'd find a different way to say it. "Yes… But when it comes to the game… If we don't work together, we also die…"

"Look, you were able to solve the murder last time without my help." Lorelei reasoned, despite her leading the trial at one point.

That was true. Lorelei did help out during that part of the trial… But that was the extent of her help. "You wouldn't even provide me with your coin total…"

"Why would I?" This conversation was beginning to get on Lorelei's nerves. "The motive was over, so I was going to be able to hide my coin total again. Don't need any praying eyes knowing what my total was. But if it would help ease your conscience… I didn't gain any money yesterday."

Letting out a small yawn, May moved over towards one of the walls so she could lean against it. "But… It would have made my investigation easier…"

Lorelei wasn't just going to get yelled at the entire time… If you can even call that yelling. "What about yourself?"

"Hmm?" May had… no idea what they were talking about.

"You give me shit, but you let Benoit die, didn't you?" Lorelei let out a small laugh.

Hearing that, May felt her entire body freeze up. "I… I…"

She had no excuse.

At any point, she could have spoken to Benoit… She could have mentioned to him that his total was low.

And she didn't…

Lorelei was right… She could have done something to save him.

"That's what I thought." Lorelei crossed her arms, rolling her eyes. "How about you get off your fucking high horse for once, and realise you don't have any moral high grounds."

Seeing that May wasn't answering only made her laugh a bit more. "Oh? Was that all it took? My, my… I seem to have struck a nerve, didn't I?" She stuck her tongue out. "Can't say I blame you, though. I would have done the same thing." Twirling her finger around one of her locks of hair, Lorelei shrugged. "With him at zero, someone was bound to kill him eventually."

"You… You don't even care, do you…?" May mumbled out.

Lorelei's smile turned to a frown as she turned to look at Benoit. "It's the nature of this place. People are going to die. I'm sure nobody will care when I die, so why care about them."

"They won't care because you act like this…" May glanced at the ground.

This conversation was proving to be much more than she signed up for.

Lorelei felt bad… for how stupid she considered May to be. "Seriously, there's no point in getting attached in this game. If you start feeling sad that someone is dead, and you let it get to your head, you'll simply be next for anyone looking for someone vulnerable." From what they saw… She already knew someone was planning to do just that. Not that she would speak up about it.

"It's… wrong…" May wasn't a very social person. She was nice enough when she needed to, but conversations didn't exactly come easy.
"You already lost your chance to have any moral high ground over me." Lorelei reminded her, taking a step back. "Not everyone is going to use their intelligence for good."

Moving over to inspect the other side of the core, Lorelei continued talking. "I'll be helpful only if it's the only way I can live through this place. I'm not here to make friends."

In fact, since she's been here, she's had zero positive interactions with anyone.

Except like… Maybe Hae-Won, but that was still somewhat hostile.

Not bothering to follow her, May let out a tired sigh. This was beginning to become too much effort. These trials were proving one thing to her…

They were always unprepared for things to come.

Having to rely on Gennosuke last trial did not bode well for her.

"What? Are you done talking?" Lorelei popped back into view, a hand on their hip. "Did I finally get it through your head? Good riddance, honestly." It was becoming a drag for her. "You know, you don't strike me as the emotional type."

"... I'm not." May hummed out, turning to face away from her. The conversation didn't work, so she wanted to be done with it.

"Could have fooled me just now." Lorelei moved over to stand behind her. It was rare that she actually got to look down at someone, but it was satisfying. "I think I know exactly what your angle is; Why you want me to care."

To that, May remained silent.

"You don't want to put in any effort. If you're the only other smart person, you'll have to put all the effort in. You aren't noble or anything, you're just lazy."

She… Wasn't wrong. Putting in all of that effort was tiresome. But May once again wasn't going to get the chance to say anything, as Lorelei just continued to talk nonstop.

"You'd rather it be me that solves everything. But listen here, I'm not going to stick my neck out to save any of your sorry asses."

As cool as this room was, Lorelei didn't feel like staying in it with May any longer than she needed to.

Leaving her all alone in this room.

With a heavy sigh, May closed her eyes.

May and Lorelei seemed to have grown closer (probably).

Storage Room (Repair Ship)

Finally, the last fucking room on this god forsaken ship.

You want to know why this chapter is so long?

Blame this entire ship! Jesus Christ…

Anyways!

Edison and Hae-Won eventually entered this room. "Hmm…" The problem was that there wasn't much to offer.

"Look! Boxes!" Edison went up to open them. "Oh! Various tools!" From what he could tell, they were probably tools to help in any repairs to the station. "I guess we know why this is called the repair ship."

Hae-Won crossed her arms, looking away. "While I understand the reasoning for having a ship like this on the station, we probably won't need to use them, y'know?"

That seemed to disappoint Edison slightly. "But think of what we can repair."

Letting out a sigh, Hae-Won brought a hand to her head. "The point is, I don't think we'd encounter anything we need to repair." There's a chance she's wrong, but she'd rather not be.

Moving the conversation along, Hae-Won glanced off to the side. "Is there anything else in these boxes?"

Hearing that, Edison began to dive into more boxes…

After a while…

"Nope!" Despite that, Edison didn't exactly seem to be in a bad mood. "It's a bunch of tools and parts in all of them. This will come in handy if ever a catastrophe strikes!"

Seems that once again, he was failing to understand the point she was trying to make. Shaking her head in amusement, Hae-Won let out a small chuckle. "Whatever you say, kid. I think if that's everything here, we can leave now." Glancing to the side, she noticed a vent. "Hmm…" Wouldn't be the first one they spotted. "Let's go."

Monorail Station (Pi Sector)

Finally, the trio of Gennosuke, Melody, and Michael arrived at the last place they needed to check.

"Hey…" Gennosuke said softly, looking at what was in front of them. "Isn't this what Gigi mentioned last time?"

"Oh! Yeah!" Melody approached the doors, noticing the scanner in front of it. "You could see it whenever you head out to play soccer." Or decided to be a nerd. Both were valid options.

"I guess we can finally use it…" Michael scanned his bracelet to open the doors to the monorail.

Stepping inside, nothing was really different from when Gigi and the others had explored it before.

"I guess we'll be the first people to test it out." Melody seemed excited to do so. Searching around, she eventually found another scanner. Putting her bracelet to it, a menu appeared on her watch. "Oh! Look, we get to decide the location." The only option currently available was Psi Sector, so she tapped her screen.

After a few seconds, a low rumbling could be heard.

Not wanting to be taken off balance, Gennosuke sat down on one of the many seats. He decided to take a look out one of the many windows. "..." All he could see was metallic walls flashing by. "What was the point of that?"

Michael just shrugged, choosing to sit down away from the others. "I suppose it was built with the intention of having a view outside… But maybe it wasn't safe?"

"That's a boring reason…" Melody let out a sad sigh. Seira would have loved to be able to see the stars outside.

The trip didn't take too long, only lasting thirty seconds. "Ah…" Michael stood up as soon as the monorail calmed down. "I think we're here…"

A moment later, the doors quickly sprung open, allowing the trio to walk out.

"I suppose it allows us to get from one side to the next." Nothing too exciting in Gennosuke's eyes, but it meant that he didn't have to walk if he ever needed to go the other way.

"Wow!" Melody noticed that they were in fact in the Psi Sector now. "Do you think this could bypass the elevator?" She turned to look towards the other two.

"We… We won't know until we test it. It could be offline at night." Michael began to step away from the group.

Watching him leave, Melody tilted her head to the side. "Where are you going?"

"... It's best if I just head back to my room…" Michael flipped his hood onto his head. "Just explain what you found, but leave me out of it… I don't want you getting in trouble because of me…" With that, he continued his walk.

Melody went to stop him from walking away, however, Gennosuke placed a hand on her shoulder. "We should probably report back to the others soon. They should be finishing up their own exploration."

"Oh! Right…" Still, Melody felt bad leaving Michael alone like that…

Cafeteria

All fourteen people had gathered back up, ready to give out any information that they had found. Of course, that didn't come with its own issues.

"Weren't you supposed to be watching Laki." Hae-Won shot a glance towards Gennosuke.

From his facial expression alone, it was clear he didn't care about the task he volunteered for. "Got bored."

Gigi shook her head. "We don't need to watch her all the time. Like I said, I'm sure she won't be making an appearance any time soon."

This could be the start of another argument, but Hae-Won had better things to do. "Whatever, let's just go over what everyone found."

"What better place to start, then myself!" Tatiana placed one of her feet on the bench of the table. "Finally, after so long, it's been discovered-"

"We haven't been here that long." Lorelei rolled her eyes.

Tatiana took a momentary pause, before shaking her head. "Nonetheless! I have finally found my Ultimate Station! And it was beautiful!"

"It was just like a circus!" Dolly exclaimed excitedly.

"In fact! It was a bit creepy!" It took this long for Tatiana to realise that. "They had some of the stuff I highly value. Which includes my unique knives…"

Dae-Hyun nodded his head around. "According to her, they were just like the real deal…"

"Would explain why they seem to know so much about us." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "They've literally been stalking us."

Quickly shaking her head, Tatiana continued. "As creepy as it is… I like to believe they are just replicas. I use those knives all the time for my show, so it wouldn't be out of the question for someone to know what they look like!"

"Can we get on with it?" Atlas stomped his foot on the ground, growing impatient by the second. "What else did you find there?"

Waving her hand dismissively at him, Tatiana continued. "It was like any normal circus." Like a circus was ever normal. "We had a seating area for the audience to sit down."

Dae-Hyun nodded his head along. "It took about a third of the space of the room. The rest go to the stage, and the area behind it."

"Haha! And that's the most important part of my station!" Tatiana lifted her hands in the air. "My stage!"

"It was amazing up there!" Dolly decided to join in.

Tatiana nodded her head. "They had my act up there! The Wheel of Death!"

Edison adjusted his goggles. "Can't any wheel be a wheel of dea-"

He was cut off as Tatiana continued her explanation. "You strap someone to the wheel, and it begins to spin. Then, you are free to throw knives at them."

"W-what? Why would you want to do that? That sounds highly dangerous!" Seira took a step back.

"Y-yes… That's… That's why it was called the Wheel of Death." Tatiana shook her head.

Then, there was a pause, while she tried to remember what else there was.

"Ah yes!" There we go. "There was also a curtain system that required two ropes, but nothing out of the ordinary."

Given that Tatiana hadn't brought up this last part, she might have not seen it, so it was up to Dae-Hyun to mention it. "There was an area behind the stage."

"Huh?" Yup. She didn't see it.

Shaking his head, Dae-Hyun continued on. "I found a door, but I wasn't able to open it up. There's a lock on it."

Gemini let out a sigh. "Why do we keep finding locks?"

"It's fine, this isn't an ordinary lock. It's one of those trick locks. I just didn't feel like opening it." He was practically being rushed out of the room.

"And that concludes her room!" Dolly was excited to get to her room. "Next, we found master's Ultimate Station!"

Dae-Hyun covered his mouth slightly. "Despite the two of them being part of a circus, his station was a workshop."

"A doll workshop, to be more precise." Tatiana jumped back in. "It wasn't as marvellous as my station, but it had its charm."

Not caring either way about the charms of the room, Dae-Hyun continued. "The room itself had a workstation used to make a variety of dolls, whether they be wooden, or made of fabric. It also had the tools to go with them."

"Master's father was a dollmaker, so it makes somewhat sense for it to be there." Dolly explained. "What doesn't make sense is the very bad stage we were given!" She raised her arms in the air.

Tatiana let out a small laugh as she remembered. "His stage was nothing compared to mine. Almost not even worth mentioning." Time to banter with Dolly.

Dolly crossed her arms. "At least my station has cool dolls everywhere."

Getting impatient over this entire bit, Atlas spoke up. "Are you three done yet?"

"I had nothing to do with this." Dae-Hyun shook his head.

Sensing some tension, Melody bounced forward. "Oh! Our group can go ahead and explain." Weird that she was using group when it was totally only her Gennosuke who did some exploration.

"First thing we found was a second garden." Melody opened up her side of exploration.

May nodded her head along. "I knew there'd be another one…"

"Was it identical?" Winter tilted her head to the side.

Melody shook her head, tapping her foot on the ground. "According to what Michael said, it wasn't-"

Hae-Won raised an eyebrow upon hearing that. "I thought he stayed in his room."

"Well- I-" Melody stuttered over her own words.

Gennosuke patted her on the back. "Actually, Melody here dragged him out of his room. Hope you don't mind."

Not wanting to spend any time on this entire Michael thing, Gigi turned to look at Melody. "Please, continue."

Now that she didn't have people drilling holes into her with their eyes, Melody nodded her head. "Right, they were different, and much prettier." Not that she had ever gone to the original garden, but she could only assume they were the best.

Placing a lollipop into his mouth, Gennosuke decided to take charge of this next part. "Similarly to the other garden, this one also had a shed." He placed his hands in his pockets. "However, unlike the other garden, this one had a metal door."

"Think Nova got mad at Michael for breaking the door?" Lorelei laughed a bit.

"So, just a normal scanner?" Dae-Hyun concluded.

Melody shook her head. "Nope! A button."

Before anyone could voice their confusion, Gennosuke continued. "You press a button, and the door opens up. Simple enough. However, that's not where it ends. This door comes equipped with a log. It tracks whenever the door opens up."

Which reminded him of something important. "We also got to see confirmation of a date." Gennosuke tilted his head to the side. "November 25th." He decided to leave the year out of the reveal. He was sure they wouldn't care that much, would they?

"Ah! That matches up pretty closely with the dates we found in the kitchen." Gemini nodded his head along. "So it's definitely something we can trust."

"There were a lot of tools in the shed." Melody continued her explanation.

Given that there wasn't much else to talk about in relation to the garden, Gennosuke was hoping to get the conversation moving. "We also found Melody's Station."

Her eyes lit up at the mention. Melody was going to save it for last, but now she couldn't wait to talk about it. "It looked just like my speakeasy back home."

Hearing that, Winter began to get a bit more uncomfortable. "It's like they know what our lives were like before."

"Lastly…" Gennosuke hummed out, getting rather bored from this entire conversation. "We were able to try out the monorail."

Hearing that, Gigi seemed to perk up. "How was it?"

Shrugging, Gennosuke shook his head. "It was boring, mostly. There were no windows, so we couldn't see any good sights. But it brought us to the Psi Sector pretty quickly."

"Only option we had." Melody added, just in case it wasn't obvious for everyone else.

"If it can only reach that area, there isn't really a use for it." Tatiana didn't seem too interested. "At that point, you can simply walk to your destination!"

That was another group that was done with their explanation, so naturally, someone else would need to proceed with their explanation.

"I think I'd like to go next." Gemini took a step forward, given that he had something he was almost dying to talk about. "I… We… We found escape pods."

The entire room quickly froze up.

"Escape pods…" Edison mumbled out. "Plural?"

Nodding his head along, Gemini placed his hands on his hips. "In total, we found six escape pods."

"Don't forget that one was missing." Winter hummed out. "Monokawa told us it was because Nova was punishing him, but I highly doubt his words. It's clear he's lying."

Gennosuke raised an eyebrow. "But even if he's lying, what does that tell us?"

"Nothing." Hae-Won shrugged. "If he's lying, it would have been used by someone we don't even know, so I doubt he'd have a reason to lie about that."

Still, Winter wasn't going to make the mistake of trusting someone's words. "If you say so."

"But wait!" Edison wanted to get right back to the escape pods. Adjusting his goggles, he continued. "Why are there six in total?"

"Well…" Seira hummed out. "There's many different ways someone can escape. We saw that with the trick Ian tried to pull. So, there might be reasons to have multiple escape pods."

Gemini rubbed the back of his neck. "Not to mention the escape key we can pay for in Ian's station."

Wow, all the means of escape tied itself back to Ian. Amazing.

"Is that all?" Tatiana knew that the prospect of escape was exciting! However, it didn't seem feasible right now, so she rather move onto something else entirely.

"Next up." Winter spoke up. "We found my Ultimate Station. Like Melody's, it's quite similar to how it was in my hometown. It's based on the business I managed to get off the ground."

Seira nodded her head. "It's like we had actually gone to a love guru."

"The lighting of the room was similar to what I had going on." Winter continued her explanation, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "Even some of my decorations were the same." But she was getting off topic here. Smiling, she kept going. "Candles and a lighter were provided."

Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "Why would a lighter be provided? Doesn't it make it kind of counter productive to offer a lighter there, and then sell one in the casino?"

"Well, it's easy to keep track of a single lighter." Gennosuke pointed out. "If it goes missing, Winter would notice. However, those other lighters aren't traceable."

Winter nodded her head along. "Given that I'll spend a decent time in this new room, I doubt that anyone would try and take anything from it."

There really wasn't much else to offer in her room compared to some of the others.

"Lastly, my room has a closed off section." Winter continued, before immediately backpedalling her own words. "Calling it closed off isn't exactly the truth. You can easily reach it, but it blocks off the rest of the room. It's very cosy there."

Gemini nodded his head. "It's different from the rest of the room. It's somewhere someone can go to relax."

Winter nodded her head along. "It's what I would normally retreat to when there was nobody who needed my services. Besides that, there wasn't much else my station offered."

Which meant, they once again had to move on to the next room.

"We found a rather important room-" Gemini was starting to speak, but he quickly got cut off.

"Navigation!" Seira beamed as she explained it. "With this, we can control the space station!"

"... Then what the hell are you waiting for?" Atlas took a step forward. If they could get out of here, then-

"Don't get your hopes up." Winter shook her head. "According to Nova, we can only control where it is in orbit."

"Orbit…" Dae-Hyun mumbled out. "I've been curious for a while… But where exactly are we?"

"We're orbiting the moon." Seira began to explain.

The smile faded away from Gennosuke's face. "How can you be so sure about that?"

Hae-Won nodded her head along. "Right… I find it hard to believe, myself."

Seira figured that people wouldn't exactly believe what she had to say, so she was going to elaborate. "Nova told us that while the space station can theoretically move us-"

"AH!" Edison bounced around. "She said the thing-" A glare from Seira got him to stop.

Now that silence had returned, she continued. "While we could move the station, since it has the capability, it's currently locked to the moon."

That wasn't what Dae-Hyun wanted to hear. "Any way we can change that?"

Winter let out a small sigh. "We tried to ask her that, but she seemed to dodge the question."

"Then DUH!" Lorelei placed a hand on her hip. "Obviously there has to be a way if she was being dodgy."

"Yeah…" Gemini slowly nodded his head. "If we find that, then we're in the clear and we can make it home."

"Hmm…" Hae-Won hummed out, looking at the ceiling. "The real question is whether they'd even let us near that…" She let out a small chuckle, shaking her head. "Something tells me we wouldn't be able to get anywhere near there."

Hearing that, the mood quickly dampened, until Seira tried to bring it back. "There were a few other things we found." Well… that was a lie, but… "The navigation room has access to a communication system with the ship."

"You can communicate with the rest of the station?" Dae-Hyun was slightly impressed. With the station growing larger, it would make talking to people easier.

"Not… Not exactly…" Seira shook her head. "I mean, there's a ship attached to the station."

Nine out of the fourteen people already knew that. Still, it took the others by surprise.

"What!?" Dolly almost bursted right then and there. "You mean there's an entire ship we can use?"

"Don't get your hopes up." Gemini shook his head. "Nova already confirmed there's no way we can escape with it."

"But did you try?" Dae-Hyun wasn't about to let their one means of escape go because they decided to listen to Nova for once.

Placing a hand on her hip, Lorelei rolled her eyes. "I wanted to try, but Gigi was being a real bitch about letting me detach the ship."

Crossing her arms, Gigi narrowed her eyes. "We had no means of controlling the ship at that time. I did not want to wander aimlessly in space."

Edison took out a flask of liquid, swirling it around. "Maybe we should worry about this after? My group could better explain everything we need to."

"Why don't you just explain it now?" Gennosuke suggested. "Wouldn't it be for the best?"

"Nope!" Edison swirled around his flask. "Because instead, I'm going to explain Hae-Won's station."

Before he could get very far, Hae-Won herself jumped in. "I think I can explain my station pretty easily." Long pause. "It's a tattoo parlour."

Several heads began to nod.

"What?" Edison took a few steps back. "How could you explain it like that? There needs to be MORE details than that!"

"Heh, you would think." Hae-Won shook her head. "But there isn't really any need for something like that. My room doesn't have as much to offer compared to the others, so that's all that needs to be explained. I guess… My tattoo tools were there, but that's the only thing worthwhile. Just talk about the ship." Since that's what everyone was really interested in.

"Finally, it is our time to shine!" Edison raised up his flask in the air, examining its contents. "We were actually able to board the repair ship!"

"As were we." Gigi placed a hand on her hip. "It would probably be best if we combine our findings together, given that we explored the same ship."

Edison adjusted his goggles, nodding his head along. "The first room we found on the ship was the communication room. That's how I was able to call the navigation room."

"How were you able to talk, by the way?" Gemini felt the need to ask. "All of us could hear you, and we could respond… But it didn't seem like multiple of you could talk."

"No… To talk, you required headphones…" May pointed out.

"But fear not!" Edison shook his head. "While the headphones were unique to the room, there were actually small earphones you could take to talk to communication."

Hae-Won raised an eyebrow. "But we never tested them, so there's no way to tell if they work."

"..." Edison remained silent for a bit before finding a way out of the mess he created. "While that IS true, we could always test them out tomorrow!"

"I guess I'll go next." Lorelei rolled her eyes. "I found the control room. As stated before, it can control the ship. Couldn't go anywhere." It almost looked like they were glaring daggers at Gigi.

"Heh… It did a lot more than just move around." Hae-Won kept her eyes closed. "You went around messing with some of the buttons, didn't you?"

"Ugh, you don't have to be a bitch about it." Lorelei crossed her arms. "Yeah? So what? Not like we'd discover anything by being passive. There were four special buttons. Three of them I could figure out, but the last one I don't know."

Gigi frowned slightly. "Were you the one that made the lights go out?"

Lorelei was already done with this conversation. Why did they all feel the need to keep talking? "Yes. That was me. That was the exclamation button. For some fucking reason, it turned off all the lights, and cast the entire ship into an eerie red glow."

"Fucker…" Atlas mumbled out. "You were the fucking reason we were-"

"Um! Not done talking, sit down and stop talking." Lorelei gave him a look of disdain. "The other two buttons could close the doors and vents. The vents could be reopened with the button. However, due to a dumbass being in charge of building it, the doors do not reopen via the button."

"Wait, are the doors not normally closed?" Tatiana crossed her arms.

Lorelei shook her head. "Nope. Doors are automatically open, unless the button is pressed. To open them…" They reached into their pocket, pulling out a key card. "You need one of these. Gigi has the other one right now."

"It felt safe with me." She didn't even bother showing it off.

Lorelei didn't really care about Gigi's reasoning. "Then, May had I found the core of the ship. Seems pretty dangerous."

"It could explode." May added ominously.

"Yeah, what she said." Glad someone else did. "Nothing else was there, though. Nothing I'd be able to understand. Maybe you would, Edison."

Adjusting his goggles, Edison took a deep breat- "Sorry, I'm only good at chemistry."

"Then why did you know things about birds?" Hae-Won narrowed her eyes.

"Next up!" Edison moved the conversation along like nothing had happened. "We found a storage room full of repair parts."

Gemini nodded his head along. "Right, so we can repair the station from the outside."

"Bingo!" That's the only correct assumption to make. "It makes me wonder if we'll get to use it."

"Fucking hope not." Atlas shook his head. "Is that everything."

"... Maybe."

"Fuck it." Atlas turned towards everyone else. "Let me tell you what Gigi and I found. We got flung out into space."

"Haha! Amazing!" Tatiana blurted out. "And you managed to survive this harrowing situation? Do tell us ho-"

"We had spacesuits, dumbass." How else would they survive?

Gigi nodded her head along. "They were small square fabrics that, when pressed against you, form into a full suit."

"Oh!" Edison seemed to like that. "That was a newer model they were trying out. Glad to know it works."

Closing one of her eyes, Gigi continued. "Then, we walked through the airlock, and attached a hook to ourselves. The hook was attached to a rope."

"Oh, the rope must be made of kevlar." Edison nodded along.

"The hook has a safety feature, that makes it so we can't open the way outside unless all participants are in a suit, and hooked." Gigi continued on.

Raising an eyebrow, a thought appeared in Gemini's head. "Did you willingly choose to go outside."

"..." Gigi chose not to answer. Instead, sending a glance over towards Atlas.

"Tsk…" He quickly understood. "The lights went out, and we couldn't see anything except for a glowing red button. I decided to press it against my better judgement. But I barely touched it."

Tatiana raised an eyebrow, frowning. "That seems like a safety hazard."

"Maybe, but they couldn't exactly get to that point without the suits, right?" Gemini pointed out.

"We were saved by the kevlar ropes." Gigi continued. "I was able to drag myself and Atlas back through the opening, before we were allowed to close the airlock. I would not recommend such an experience."

"Well…" Seira hummed out, glancing to the side. "It wouldn't hurt to try once… Would it?"

Now Gemini had to stop her from doing anything stupid. "I don't think it's worth being thrown out into space briefly…"

"Was that all?" Hae-Won kept her eyes closed.

"Yeah, it was." Atlas mumbled out. "Nothing else besides that."

"There's still a lot of uncertainty around all these new rooms." Edison pointed out, swirling his flask around. "We should detach the repair ship tomorrow."

Tilting his head to the side, Dae-Hyun spoke up. "I agree. Just to see how far it gets."

"Pfft, not like we'd be able to do anything with it. The moon's too far away for a ship like that to make it. We wouldn't have enough fuel."

Another avenue, cut out right in front of Gemini's eyes. "I also want to see if I can mess around with the escape pods, even if nothing comes of it."

Given that they had talked about everything they needed to talk about, most people had nothing else to say.

"Well…" Gennosuke hummed out, glancing over towards the elevator. "I think we should all get some rest."

Hae-Won nodded her head along to his suggestion. "Right, I have no problem with that." She had been exploring all day, and tiredness was starting to catch up to her.

"We should all meet back here tomorrow-" Gigi had begun to say before being cut off.

"No thank you." Hae-Won walked over to the elevator. "I think the people are free to do what they want to do before speaking to anyone." Knowing her, she was just going to hang out in her own station, or join up with Edison.

Most of the other people remained silent while this drama seemed to unfold in front of them.

Of course, Gemini wasn't one to be silent. "You two, you can't keep trying to get into fights." Even if it was mainly Hae-Won who initiated them.

Still, he knew they wouldn't listen to him. "I know what happened yesterday was…" He couldn't even find the right word, so he just shook his head. "We can't let that get to us."

"Whatever…" Hae-Won stepped inside the elevator.

Eventually, more and more people stepped inside.

Gemini was made to stand there, shaking his head.

"Thank you…" A voice said to him, rather softly. Looking at who it was, it was Gigi. "I don't know what's gotten into her lately, but ever since Benoit…" Well that explains it.

Placing his hands on his hips, Gemini let out a sigh. "I think… We're all just on edge." He knew he was. "Maybe some more rest should do us some good…" He stepped into the elevator.

"Right…" Gigi followed in right after him, letting out her own sigh.

Vacant Rooms

Everyone stepped out of the elevator, with most people heading towards their room.

Today had been a long day for exploration. They had found so much, and they still needed a lot of time to process the information they learned.

However… There were a couple of people who stayed behind.

"Hey…" Hae-Won spoke softly, turning her attention over to someone. "Gennosuke… You didn't exactly do what I asked you to do."

"Woah there. First of all, you didn't ask; I volunteered." Gennosuke had a grin on his face as he said that. "Second of all, I never promised I would stay there the entire time."

Well, he got her there…. Hae-Won couldn't deny any of those facts. "Still, I would have preferred if someone had watched her today. We don't want her attempting to try something else."

Frowning slightly, Gennosuke shook his head. "Someone's a bit paranoid, aren't they?" He took a step forward, looking down into her eyes. "Or better yet, you're just bitter about what happened. I don't think you care if she's a danger or not."

Hae-Won remained silent for a bit before letting out a small chuckle. "Heh… You're free to believe what you want, but I can't be the only one who sees that some of these people can be problematic." SHe moved past Gennosuke, walking over towards her room. "I'll talk more about this tomorrow."

When she was finally gone, it left Gennosuke alone in the hallway. Pulling out a lollipop, he stuck it into his mouth as he mumbled out a sentence in japanese. "Ningen no gomi…"

As he entered his room, an announcement began to play out from Monokawa. "It is now nighttime, as always, I recommend you make your way to your room. There was a brutal murder yesterday, so I'm hoping for a bit of peace as of right now. Well… At least not for too long…"

With that, the silence of the night slowly began to overtake…

Finally! We see the start of chapter 3! Wow! We must be almost halfway there! Probably. Anyways, we're getting closer and closer to one of the earliest murder cases I've conceived for this fic. But… We still have a little while before that actually happens, so! For now, enjoy this first part.

This entire part was a bitch to write, solely because of the knowledge I needed about moon satellites, and space in general. Hell, at one point I had a document open about birds (thanks Hae-Won). I couldn't even begin to explain all the pages I had to look through just to get the details I wanted. Now, I could say this is the last time I have to do research of this intensity level, but I know it won't be the last time, so I guess we just have to fucking buckle up.

As for other stuff that happened in this chapter, yes! I included two free time events in part 1. It felt organic to have these talks now, and it saves me the time of having to do them later, so it was a must have.

Shoutout to ExtraMeme for completing his first chapter of Obscurities' Disgrace! It was a pretty good chapter, so you should give it a read whenever you have the time to do so. (I haven't read the epilogue yet)

Participants Remaining: 16

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

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]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Computer Security Specialist [CandleFire45]

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [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]

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]