Danganronpa: Obscurity’s Disgrace (SYOC) Chapter 28: Triple Shot, One Shot (Part 1), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 3: Triple Shot, One Shot (Part 1)

Warning!

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

"Hey! You're on in 2!"

"Got it! Remind me of the song again?"

"How did you forget? It's Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye."

"Right, thanks for reminding me! Ok, I'm ready!"

"Good! Knock 'em dead!"

[Cell]

I felt myself slowly start to stir. My eyes felt insanely heavy... like they were somehow being weighed down. Was I dreaming? But that wasn't something that I experienced...

I think... from the depths of my slumber... I could just barely hear three voices with me in my cell.

"Dr. Yokomizi, Dr. Nakata? Did this test work?"

"Yes, it did, Asher. These results have been extraordinary so far."

"Zen is right. Akimitsu's research has been... incredible so far. If this reaches the ideal end goal... then all of them will finally be able to rest in peace. Yvette... Hideyoshi... Asher Sr... and Yuri."

"Not... just them. Everyone who lost their lives that day will finally be avenged."

"I... I hope so..."

"Yes... this bitch won't get her way for any longer..."

...

The conversation slowly fizzled out into silence. Perhaps they were waiting for the full grasp of consciousness to reach me. I wanted consciousness to reach me... so I slowly opened my eyes.

The three soon noticed me waking.

"Oh! [REDACTED]! How... are you doing?" Asher was the first to go to my side.

"Don't show so much concern over her, Asher..." I heard Hannah mutter under her breath.

Zenkichi didn't say anything. I assumed that was my cue to talk!

"I'm... okay." I slowly got up in my bed. I wasn't chained down or handcuffed or anything like that, so that was pretty good. My body felt surprisingly... limber and free too.

"Ah." Zenkichi walked up to my bedside. "How is your body feeling, [REDACTED]?"

"It's..." I began to stretch my arms out. "I feel... strong. And agile."

"Is that so?" Zenkichi noted something down on a clipboard he had.

"Dr. Nakata?" Asher looked over Zenkichi's shoulder. "What are you noting down?"

"Hm? Oh." Zenkichi showed off his notes to Asher. "Since Ms. Allegra is arriving today, Akimitsu wanted to test out..." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "He wanted to test out a new drug on her." I couldn't hear what he had said, but the readers sure could hear it. "I'm noting down the effects it has had."

"Oh... I see!" Asher adjusted his glasses and nodded. "So everything is alright with our experiment? Ms. Allegra isn't going to...?"

"Akimitsu is sure that having her here will be alright. He apparently has a plan." Despite the way Zenkichi spoke, it seemed like he was nervous about this "Ms. Allegra" as well.

"Oh god..." Hannah's hands started to shake. "Deep breaths... deep breaths..." She started to employ some of her own therapy methods on herself. Out of the three, she was clearly the most nervous about whoever this "Ms. Allegra" was.

"Um... excuse me? Who is Ms. Allegra?" I decided to ask.

All three turned to me like I forgot I was there. Then immediately after, they turned to the hallway next to my cell, almost like they sensed something.

"...Guys?" I sure didn't sense anything though! What was their deal?

"...She's here," Zenkichi said breathlessly. "Asher. Hannah. Stay calm and play along with Akimitsu. Let's trust him here."

Hannah and Asher both silently nodded.

I just sat there, confused by what was happening. Who was Ms. Allegra? Why did she seem like a big deal? I didn't get it. So I just awkwardly sat there for a few seconds... until who I assumed to be Ms. Allegra looked into my cell.

"Ah... there she is." Ms. Allegra slowly walked into my cell.

"Ms. Allegra! It's a pleasure to see you again." Zenkichi went in for a handshake.

"Y-Yes... it's a pleasure." Hannah was clearly still nervous.

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Allegra!" At least Asher was hiding his nerves as well.

"You got here rather fast, Aria! Eager to meet the patient?" And there was Akimitsu, just then coming into my sight in front of my cell. "I suppose I don't blame you for being eager!" He joined the other four in my cell.

Ms. Allegra didn't respond to anything the others had said. The whole time, she was just... staring blankly at me. Like she was trying to stare into my very soul. Her pale and golden eyes pierced me deep... and her long white hair almost had me... enchanted. This was a strange feeling. Just who was this woman?

"Excuse me?" I tilted my head. I had the feeling that I shouldn't be rude to this woman, so I tried to stay polite.

Ms. Allegra continued to stare at me for a few seconds... before sitting down next to me on my bed. "I... am Aria Allegra. I own this facility. It's a pleasure to meet you, [REDvACTED]." She didn't hold out her hand.

It sounded like... when she said what I'd assume to be my name... she said a v when she spoke. Huh. I chose to not worry about it.

And now that she was sitting next to me, I got a better look at what she was wearing. She had on a white undershirt with a black suit vest, black pants, and a purple tie. Then with the purple heels and the white labcoat over her shoulders... she has a relatively similar look to the other scientists. Nothing too special.

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Allegra." I returned the calm greeting. I wasn't sure why the scientists seemed scared of her. She seemed nice!

"You... can call me Aria." Aria moved right to a first-name basis.

"Oh! Okay! Aria then!" I nodded.

...

The room fell back into silence. All four of the scientists seemed to just be waiting for Aria's next move. Akimitsu didn't seem as scared of her compared to the rest of them, but all four of them seemed to be a little frightened. I guess, if she does own the place where they worked, that made sense!

Aria continued to stare at me for a solid minute... before slowly pulling something out of her pocket. "Here." She held it out to me.

It was... "A white dagger?" I tilted my head as I took it.

"Yes. A white dagger." Aria spoke slowly as she observed me. "How... does it feel?"

"...Natural." I made a few quick, harmless movements with the dagger. "It feels good."

"I see." Aria darted her eyes toward Zenkichi for a brief moment, signaling him to start taking notes. "Now... Akimitsu. Set up the target."

"At once." Akimitsu diligently agreed as he went and grabbed a small target from his pocket. He set it up on the cell wall.

"[REDvACTED]. Throw that dagger at that target." Aria commanded me. I mean, I still can't hear them saying my name. So I assumed she was commanding me here.

"Um... okay." It wasn't like I had a reason to deny her. So I took a deep breath, aimed, and threw the dagger.

...

"...Perfect!" Akimitsu nodded in approval as the dagger hit the target square in the center.

"Impressive!" Asher seemed genuinely impressed.

"Hmph." Hannah just crossed her arms.

"...Hm." Aria went back to staring at me. "Akimitsu?" She held out her hand.

"Ah! Yes!" Akimitsu grabbed the dagger out of the target and gave it back to Aria, who subsequently gave it back to me.

"Keep this safe." Aria delicately told me. "Keep this with you."

"...Okay?" I shrugged and stored the dagger securely under my bed. "Why? Is this dagger important?"

"...It may seem inconsequential now... but in the future... it may help you. Help you... grasp your hope." Aria got up. "I must take my leave. I'll see you again... [REDACTED]."

I blinked. What... were they saying? My name? That's not my name though... right? I thought my name was... no. Wait. What's my name? Is it... um... or is it...

Asher, Zenkichi, and Hannah all looked like they'd seen a ghost as soon as the name "[REDACTED]" was brought up. Weird. I feel like... the name Aria just said is different from what she said previously. That feels important... but I don't know how.

"Akimitsu. Asher. I'd like you two to join me." Aria said without looking back. She then hobbled out of my cell, surprisingly unsteadily.

"Yes! Of course!" Akimitsu diligently rushed to the cell door. "Zenkichi! Hannah! Finish up preparations for the third test! And fetch the photo of Alexis Powell! We'll be back! Come on, Asher!" He urged the young scientist along as the two of them rushed out of my cell.

"Right!" Asher readjusted his glasses as he rushed out, clearly a bit discombobulated.

...

I sat there in silence with the two scientists. Alexis Powell? That name feels familiar... something about a guitar...

While my thoughts tried to decipher who this "Alexis Powell" was... Zenkichi sat down on the single chair in my cell, and Hannah balled her hand up into a fist.

"That damn... gah!" Hannah threw her hands up in the air. "Aria Allegra is such a prissy little owner. She thinks that, just because she's a Former Ultimate, that means she can say whatever she wants?! She didn't even get this facility through legitimate means! She's ridiculous!"

"Yoko... calm down." Zenkichi sighed. "Ms. Allegra is likely within hearing distance still. And she's been through a lot after the FUP. Don't be so hard on her. She's not even in the same field as us. She doesn't understand what she's saying." Aria did frustrate Zenkichi to an extent, but he still stayed respectful of her.

"Whatever." Hannah brattily crossed her arms. "She's blind and deaf too right? No way she can hear. Don't know how she even got here. Ugh... if only..." She looked at me. "If only this bitch wasn't here..."

"Yoko?" Zenkichi saw that the woman he was having an affair with was thinking about something.

Hannah wordlessly walked over to me. It seemed like her thoughts drifted back over to me. "Hannah?"

"Don't say my name." Hannah picked up one of the spare pillows on my bed. "This... is all your fault!" She held the pillow in front of her. I didn't react.

"Hannah?! Hannah, wait!" Zenkichi got up, a worried look across his face.

"No... I won't wait!" Hannah started to lower the pillow onto my face. "Everything is all her fault... fuck these tests! I'm getting my revenge...

...

now!"

[Pheme's Room]

Pheme woke up with a fright from her daydream. That... was startling. What was what? She looked around. She was... sitting in her chair. She was in her room. She... was safe.

"Miss Pheme? Were you having a nightmare?" Asclepius walked up behind her chair.

"Um... no. It's nothing." Pheme rapidly shook her head. "Don't worry about it!"

"Was it... a memory?" Asclepius set his hand on the goddess's shoulder.

"A memory... was it a memory?" Pheme narrowed her eyes. She... wasn't sure what that was. "I... don't know. I couldn't place it."

"...I see." Asclepius pocketed something, then took a step back. "Well, if it's nothing, I trust you. In other matters, has the third floor been opened up?"

"Third floor...?" Pheme went silent. "Oh! Oh yeah! The third floor! Of course, it has!" She jumped up out of her chair in excitement, that strange feeling of fear evaporating rather quickly. "I am sure that the stars will love this new floor!"

"Yes... I'm sure too." Asclepius calmly nodded. "Considering how late the previous Studio Trial was, the stars are likely still sleeping. We have the luxury of time, it appears."

"Yes! Time!" Pheme struck a pose. "Time is a wonderful luxury to have! Utilizing that time... I believe I will head out! It can be rather stifling sitting in here all day. I'll wait patiently for my stars downstairs!" She ran out of the room.

"Heh." Asclepius chuckled. He always was amused by Pheme's antics. He was glad that she wasn't aware of the true nature of that little dream she was having. If she was aware... well, he didn't want to think about that. Actually... perhaps he should give her an extra dosage today. Hmm... he'd have to make time to do so.

Well, anyway, everything was going exactly as planned so far. This whole game has gone swimmingly. But now, coming into this new day and new floor...

Asclepius grabbed a few documents off of a table. Documents belonging to the stars, specifically. All he could do... was hope this motive of Pheme's finally crushed a few bugs that shouldn't have been here...

...

[Ultimate Horror Novelist's Studio]

-This note is to Yoshino or anyone else who may read it. I, Adam Brooks, am currently writing this in the infirmary. I am with Raiha, as we are watching over the four injured people. Right now... everyone is down there trying to figure out who killed Genjiro. But... I killed him. I killed Genjiro. It feels... liberating to say that. Or write that, in this case. But I'm not here to ramble. By the time someone is reading this... I'll be dead. I fully intend on confessing to my crime if everyone can't figure it out. It'll be hard. It'll be really hard... but I'm going to do it. I have no regrets... so I'll accept my fate.

This note is here to answer anything or explain anything I may not have explained before my death.

I took Aurora's Star-Phone and Bessie's Remote out of pure curiosity. I wanted to tinker with them. The remote didn't prove to be much... though I figured out it was connected to Bessie's Studio after the talk I had with Aurora in the same place.

But the phone... was peculiar. It held the motive apps still, which was strange. I experimented a lot with them. The Map (T) app worked as expected. Nothing strange. But the Audio and Camera apps were strange. Since it was Bessie's, there should've been eighteen options on those apps. But there wasn't. There were nineteen options. The other eighteen people were on there still. The rooms like the Horror Studio and the boarded-up room weren't options. Aelia's name didn't work... but that's expected. But there was a blank option. I was able to click on it, but I wasn't able to hear or see anything. I'm not sure what that means. It can't be the spare Star-Phone that Aelia utilized... so I'm not sure.

Next... all I became aware of through those motive apps was the fact that Genjiro's rum had been poisoned. It sounds like Ayaka did it. I heard Damien saying something about the number of perfumes taken being "strange," and I heard Ayaka humming to herself while saying she was preparing Genjiro's drink. I put two and two together. I don't know why Ayaka did it... but that's not relevant. But luckily for me... I faked drinking the rum at the party. I'm glad.

I also heard Alpha's real name. Mabel. I have so much to say about her and Genjiro... but writing it down won't help. Just... I hate them. I hate them so much. Prancing around, bullying, and hating on others... their existence is so... sickening. I'm glad Genjiro is gone. I wish I could've killed Alpha too. But the remote was partially broken. It only caused one spotlight to drop. I pressed all of the buttons too. So... Alpha survives.

Now... I want to apologize to Yoshino. I don't even know if you're reading this, because, for all I know, I won't have the guts to give this to anyone before I die. I'm so sorry I killed a person while standing right next to you. I can't take that back, and I don't expect you to simply forgive me for that. But Yoshino... it wasn't for long, but I valued our friendship a lot. I'm glad I got paired with you. I don't want this to be weird... but you're a great girl, and I hope you survive this horrible Killing Game. Thank you for supporting me and trying to help me. I hope I won't have to see you for a long time. Good luck and I wish you a great future.

I extend the same to Joji. It might've not been for long, but I really appreciate you being there for me. We won't be able to train after all of this is over... but that's alright. All I wish is that you survive too. You're a good man, Joji. Thank you.

I also want to apologize to Rosalind. For knocking you out. When I saw you lying there... I got the idea to pin my crime on you. I feel horrible now... and there's nothing I can do that would make up for that. Just... I hope you come out okay.

I don't want this note to be too long... so I'll stop it there. Alpha is starting to wake up, and knowing her, she'll want to rush down to the trial room. I'm more and more scared... but I'm trying to stay calm. If I forgot to say anything... well... it's too late now. Everyone... I'm sorry... and I hope you best this Killing Game.

P.S. - Alpha is starting to get her bearings, so I don't have a lot of time. One more thing. I don't believe this will screw Aurora... because it's only me saying it. The person who fetched us after the first Special Event... was named Asclepius. He was a very nondescript and nonchalant man. His clothes didn't stand out... but he had on a white and blue mask that covered his whole face. He also held a cane with a snake design on top of it. A design like that is associated with the Greek God of Medicine, Asclepius, so that makes sense. I didn't get a good read on his personality, so I can't discern his role. If Aurora remembers more, be careful. I don't want her to get punished.

Our time together was short Aurora... but you're a beautiful girl, and I hope you survive too. Thank you for everything. I'm so glad I got to meet and fall for a girl like you. I know Jean D'Rue is very proud of you.

And I know Ms. Durama, Mom, and Dad probably aren't proud of me... so I'm sorry. I really am sorry. But... I feel like I'll die with no regrets. Genjiro Mashimoto is gone... and I have no regrets.

Alpha is now screaming, so I'm out of time. I'm sorry everyone... and good luck.

...

"Adam... damn it." Yoshino, who was currently sitting at her desk in her Ultimate Studio, gently set the note she was reading down. When Adam gave this to her before his death... she didn't know what to expect. Now that she was reading it... it felt like those emotions she was feeling were swelling up again. Her tears were dried out by this point... so she just sat there in silence.

"I wonder if he... accidentally knocked these over?" Yoshino grabbed one of the horror figurines that were on the floor and set it back on her desk. Her Ultimate Studio luckily escaped most of the carnage of this case... though her figurines were still all over the floor, and there was a little bit of Rosalind's blood on the floor too. She didn't know how Pheme's cleaning of these places went, and she didn't care to know. At least the blood didn't smell or anything.

...

Yoshino looked over to the small trash can in her studio. And... yeah. It was still there. There was still a single piece of paper in there.

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

Part of her wanted to just tear that to pieces... but she left it alone for now. Maybe... just maybe...

No. That wouldn't happen. No way... she couldn't do that... there's no-

"Yoshi-nya? Are you in here-nya?" Having been rudely robbed of screentime for the Chapter 2 Deadly Life, Kuroko entered Yoshino's Studio.

"Roko!" Yoshino perked up. "It's good to see you!" She got up out of her chair and gave the hypnotist a quick hug. "How are you doing?"

"Nya...ha..." Kuroko giggled and blushed at the horror novelist's touch, accidentally replicating Cathy's laugh in the process. "Um... I'm good-nya! I'm good-nya! She quickly collected herself.

"Really? ...That's a relief." Yoshino sighed. "When you started to have that seizure and stuff... that was scary. And... wait. Do... how much do you know about... what happened?" If she wasn't aware yet, Yoshino wanted to be careful about bringing this up.

"I... know-nya." Kuroko solemnly. "Last night... Rai-nya told me everything-nya."

"Ugh... where am I-nya..." Kuroko, her head absolutely pounding, slowly opened her eyes. Where... was she? What happened? The last thing she remembers... was busting out of her Ultimate Studio with Cathy... then she got to the party... and...

"Oh! Kuroko! You're awake!" Raiha rushed over to the hypnotist's bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"...Huh? Rai-nya?" Kuroko slowly sat up and looked around. "What... happened-nya? Where's Cathy-nya?"

Oh... right. Kuroko had been out for so long, that she didn't even know that the motive had ended. "It seems like you're okay..." Raiha breathed a sigh of relief. "So... um... don't freak out, aight?"

"Freak out...?" Kuroko looked down at her wrist. It took her a second to process what was wrong here. "The handcuffs... they're off... that means..." Her hand started to slightly shake. "Who... who is...?"

"Genjiro. He's... dead." Raiha said it like she was ripping off a bandaid.

"Genjiro is... dead-nya?" Kuroko slowly blinked. She set her hands in her lap.

"How... are you doing, Kuroko?" Raiha obviously wasn't used to this sort of thing, so she wanted to navigate this as delicately as possible.

"I'm... okay-nya." Kuroko took a few deep breaths. She knew it was morbid to think like this... but she wasn't too torn up at the fact that he had died. She wasn't particularly close to him or anything. "...Wait-nya. If he's dead, then what about the trial-nya?!"

"...It's over." Raiha motioned to the infirmary monitor, which had been showing the Studio Trial for the non-attendees. "They finished it up a little bit ago. They've already voted and stuff."

"Oh..." Kuroko felt a chill run down her spine. "Who... who did it-nya?"

"...Adam." Raiha closed her eyes. "He was sick of being bullied... so he struck back. His... execution... is soon." She hated even muttering the word "execution."

"Adam-nya..." Again, it wasn't like Kuroko was particularly close to him. But compared to Genjiro... that stung a little more. "...How is everyone else-nya? How's Yoshi-nya? I know she was paired with him-nya."

"Everyone else? Uh..." Raiha realized just how many people had been affected by this case. "Well... Rosalind got knocked out twice, but she's good. Alpha got messed up pretty badly... but she'll be okay. ...Aurora got poisoned... but thank god she's okay..."

"You seem... pretty concerned over Auror-nya... hm?" Kuroko smirked. Her mind might've been foggy as all hell right now, but she noticed the blush on Raiha's face when she brought up the starlet.

"H-Huh?!" The blush on Raiha's face only grew larger. "I'm not... well, I am concerned... but I'm just... I'm just glad she's... I wanna..." She struggled to formulate a thought.

Kuroko quietly giggled. "Sorry-nya! I didn't mean to fluster you-nya!" She felt like she had to say something about that though. "I mean... you wanna hear what I think-nya?"

"Uh... yeah." Raiha sheepishly looked down at her feet. How did it come to this? Getting love advice from a woman who just woke up from a couple-hour-long coma? But... if she was going to ask anyone here about this, it'd be Kuroko.

"My gaydar is pretty good-nya..." Kuroko had to admit. "So I'm confident Auror-nya... plays for the other team-nya. She has those vibes-nya."

"Um... really?" Raiha felt so stupid right now. Of all places to get a silly crush like this?

"Really really-nya! I'm not saying you should go and confess to her right now... but if you do... I think you have a shot-nya." As the fog in Kuroko's brain started to clear, she couldn't help but be a little giddy that she got to help a girl out like this. "You don't even need to straight-up confess... just ask if she likes girls-nya! From there... well, I'll let you decide-nya! But just know I'm supporting you-nya!"

"...Thanks, Kuroko." Raiha smiled sadly. "I... don't think I deserve to feel like this... but I appreciate the advice a lot. You're... a lot better at this than I am. You're so... nah. Nevermind." The trendsetter rapidly shook her head. "Sorry! Sorry for yapping right when you wake up!"

"No, don't be sorry-nya!" Kuroko shook her head. "Why would I be mad about helping a pretty girl land another pretty girl-nya? This is a pretty nice way to wake up-nya!"

"Oh... if you say so." Raiha still felt very embarrassed.

"I do say so-nya!" Kuroko nodded. "Again, it's up to you if you want to go for anything... here-nya. But if you do... I believe in you-nya! You two would make a good couple-nya!"

"Well..." Raiha didn't know what to say. It felt good hearing that... but it also felt... ugh. No. She didn't want to keep harping on this. Kuroko might've said she was fine, but Raiha didn't want to overwhelm the girl with her stupid crush! "Okay okay... that's enough about me. Let me continue what I was saying."

"What you were... oh-nya. Right." Kuroko resumed listening to a very disheartening report. "The three girls got heavily injured... Adam and I helped them and you during the trial." The fact that a literal murderer was in the room with her... she felt so sick to her stomach.

"I... didn't have any idea-nya." Kuroko shook her head. "That... must've been hard-nya." It wasn't like she was conscious for it... but the fact that a literal murderer was in the room with her-

"Ah!" Kuroko suddenly clutched her head.

"Kuroko?! Are you okay?!" Raiha widened her eyes.

"Woah... yeah. Just... sudden head pain...-nya." Kuroko continued clutching her head. Why... did she get head pain after thinking about... murder?

"Well... alright." Raiha felt like there was something she was missing here... but she let it go for now. "But that feeling of being next to a murderer... well, it's nothing compared to what Yoshino must be going through right now."

"Yoshi-nya..." Kuroko gazed at the monitor. The sound was currently muted, but she could see Yoshino bawling her eyes out. "I hope Yoshi-nya is okay..."

"I hope everyone is okay..." Raiha especially hoped that Aurora was okay, but that was obvious. "But uh... what about you, Kuroko? Are you okay?" Her curiosity got the better of her here.

"Hm? Me-nya?" Kuroko blinked.

"Yeah. I never... or... no." Raiha had trouble with her words here. "Uh... are you aware of why you ended up here in the first place?"

"Why I'm... oh-nya." Kuroko looked down at her trembling hand. "I entered the party with Cathy-nya. That's my last memory-nya.

"Right..." Raiha looked away.

"My mind isn't completely clear yet-nya..." Kuroko clutched her head with her trembling hand. "So... how did... I end up unconscious-nya?"

"Well..." Raiha didn't know if she should bring this up or not. "Genjiro... he purposefully threw a letter opener at you. When you caught it... you had a seizure and passed out. He used that as a distraction so he could poison Pheme's wine".

"A... letter opener..." That made Kuroko's head pound even harder. "Huh..."

"...Kuroko?" Raiha cautiously asked. "What's up?"

"While I've been unconscious... in my mind... I was dreaming-nya." Kuroko took a deep breath.

"Dreaming? What do you mean?" Raiha tilted her head.

"Maybe not dreaming-nya... but images flashed in my head-nya," Kuroko spoke slowly. "It was... A smiling, red-haired girl... a swinging pocket watch... the girl draped over a couch... a gold-and-pearl handled letter opener... then... blood." She recalled with a shaky voice.

"Oh god..." Raiha didn't know what to say.

"Then..." Kuroko wasn't finished. "I also heard... a voice-nya. A voice telling me... to stay sleeping-nya. To stay blissfully unaware-nya. To keep running away-nya. To not accept the truth-nya."

"..." Raiha had nothing to say to that.

"I don't know what that voice was... and it's pretty scary... but... I'm staying strong-nya." Kuroko's shaking hands betrayed her words. "I'd like to eventually confront these thoughts and voices... and I will-nya. My mind is just... a little scattered right now-nya."

"Kuroko..." Raiha gasped. She never expected something like this out of the hypnotist. She never expected her to be so... impressive.

"But, uh... I don't know-nya." Kuroko shook her head. She was still a little out of it. "Eh... I'm probably just saying nonsense-nya!" She truthfully had no idea what to make of everything she saw and heard while she was unconscious. It's like... her mind was split. Part of her wanted to accept it... and part of her wanted to run away. ...You know what?

Kuroko finally got up out of her bed.

"Woah! Kuroko?" Raiha still didn't know if she was good to walk yet. "Are you good to walk?"

"I... think so-nya." Kuroko took a few unsteady steps. "Rai-nya... thanks for caring for me-nya. This... made my mind start to wander-nya. I don't know how late it is, but I'm going to sleep on it-nya. Sleep on... everything-nya." She still wanted time to process the deaths of Genjiro and Adam too.

"Oh! ...Okay!" Raiha slowly nodded. "If you... say so!"

"Yeah. I'll see you in the morning-nya! And good luck with Auror-nya!" Kuroko quickly gave Raiha a wink before shakily leaving the infirmary.

Raiha just stood there in silence. There... was a lot for her to think about it. Kuroko definitely helped her sort out some feelings... but... now... she felt a wave of jealousy of the hypnotist.

Ugh... now wasn't the time to think about that. Raiha glanced at the monitor and saw that the trial was over. She... wanted to talk to Aurora. So, she quickly left the infirmary behind her...

It seems like Raiha and Kuroko grew a little closer last night!

Kuroko recounted essentially her entire talk with Raiha, including the trendsetter's crush on Aurora. "I'm aware of everything... of Genjiro and Adam-nya."

"Wow... okay." That was a lot for Yoshino to take in.

"But... I don't matter right now-nya. How are you, Yoshi-nya?" Kuroko was more concerned over her friend than herself. "I know that Adam was..." She didn't want to say it.

"I'm... fine." Yoshino wasn't even sure if that was a lie or not. "It hasn't even been twelve hours yet... but down there... that was the most I've ever cried in my life. Letting that out... didn't feel horrible."

"Really? That's good-nya." Kuroko was a little relieved to hear that.

"And..." Yoshino stared down at her fist. "I hate the idea of sitting here and wallowing in despair. I wanna go out there... and make sure that Adam didn't die for nothing." She knew she barely had any actual time to grieve the kid... but there'd be time for that later. Right now... it was time for action.

"You're... really impressive, Yoshi-nya." Kuroko blushed a little. She honestly tried to think of a sly compliment to tell her to flirt with her, but she couldn't think of anything. Perhaps she was still a bit foggy from everything that happened.

"I ain't special..." Yoshino scratched the back of her head. "But uh... if you're feeling alright... I gotta ask."

"Gotta ask what-nya?" Kuroko tilted her head.

"Roro and Rai-Rai, huh?" Yoshino chuckled. "I can see them being a couple." She didn't have the same enthusiasm over it compared to Kuroko, but she still supported it.

"Right?!" Kuroko radiated giddiness. "Oh... those two would be so cute-nya! Such a power couple-nya!"

"Yeah... hey, is Roro a lesbian? Or bi? Or whatever?" Yoshino didn't actually know anyone's sexualities here. Well, besides for Kuroko's. Hers is rather obvious.

"Hm... my gaydar is telling me she at least likes the fairer sex-nya! I'm 100% sure-nya!" Kuroko nodded confidently.

"Well... shit. I trust that gaydar of yours." Yoshino shrugged. Who wouldn't trust Kuroko's gaydar? "Oh! That reminds me!" She checked her Star-Phone. "It's already 3:00 PM?!" Time flew by faster than she would've thought. "I've been in here for a few hours already..." She picked up Adam's note.

"I think Pheme canceled the morning announcement because of how late the trial went-nya." Kuroko assumed. It wasn't like she was actually at the trial, due to Genjiro rudely robbing her screen time from her. "I woke up a little bit ago... and I started to wander around, to see if anyone was already up-nya!"

"I see..." Yoshino groaned. "That's a semi-nice thing Pheme did for us, I guess. Letting us sleep."

"I... guess you couldn't sleep, Yoshi-nya?" Kuroko inferred.

"Well... just had a lot on my mind. Got some sleep though." Yoshino would catch up on her sleep later. For now... "Hey... you wanna see if people are waking up by now? Kinda forgot... but a new floor should be opening up today. I'm kinda curious to see it. The quicker we see the new bullshit we have to deal with, the better."

"Oh! True-nya!" Kuroko completely forgot about that. "I don't think anyone else was up yet... but... Yoshi-nya? Real quick, what's that note-nya?" She pointed to the note in Yoshino's hand.

"This?" Yoshino held the note up. "It's... from Adam. It's a confession/slashing explaining shit note. He has some interesting things in this... so I wanna share it with the group." She could only imagine how Alpha would react to the fact that Adam was fully trying to kill her.

"Oh... okay-nya." Kuroko didn't expect that. "In that case... let's go-nya! Let's hold our heads up and face this new day-nya!" She pumped herself up.

"Heh... that sounds good." Yoshino cracked a small smile. "Let's do this, Roko. We "glamourous stars" aren't gonna give in so easily."

With some of her determination revitalized, Yoshino left her studio with Kuroko, both eager and a little anxious to see what this new day might bring...

[Grand Lobby - 2F]

When Kuroko and Yoshino reached the central part of the second floor's Grand Lobby, people were already there! ...But it was the last people they'd ordinarily expect.

"Oh shit! The lesbos finally done scissoring each other?" Alpha casually leaned back on the sofa she was relaxing on.

"Nyahaha! The faker is up and about now! Had a nice and long cat nap then?" Cathy was currently lying like a cat on a different sofa than Alpha.

"Alpha? Cathy?" Yoshino was surprised. "Why are you two here?" She wouldn't have expected the antagonists of all people to be first to the group meeting up.

"Do I need a reason to be here?" Both Alpha and Cathy said in sync, before glaring at each other.

"Well... no-nya. But it's still strange-nya! Weren't you pretty beat up, Alph-nya?" Kuroko didn't know if she was concerned about Alpha, it was more... simply curiosity.

"Alph-nya? Jesus Christ..." Alpha rolled her eyes. "But to answer your question bitch, I'm fine. Still a little sore, but some more meds and some rest did me some good. So I'm chilling. I can still knock a fucker's ass flat though."

Yoshino almost compared Alpha to Genjiro for saying that, but she thought it'd be a little tactless. "Well... good. But... what? Did getting the crap beaten out of you make you want to actually be with the group now?"

"Eh..." Alpha shrugged. "Given the shit that's happened so far, I figure it's more trouble than it's worth to ignore you circle-jerkers. I wanna at least know about your suicidal bullshit plans when you suggest them."

"Geez... alright-nya." Kuroko found that refreshingly honest... if not a little rude. "But what about you, Cathy-nya? You really want to associate with us humans-nya?" She tried to speak in a language that Cathy would understand.

"It's because she does whatever she wants to." Suddenly, Darren!

"Huh?!" Cathy actually jumped up a little at the sound of the bartender's voice. "Bartender human?! When did you get there? How did you get there so quietly?" She was afraid she might've been losing her touch.

"I've been here the whole time." Darren shrugged.

"Wha-? Don't lie to me, human! There's no way you could've been there the whole time! I would've sensed you!" Cathy sniffed the air, as a way to show off her allegedly impressive senses.

Darren shrugged, then took a drink of... something. "Huh. Weird. I'll be sure to make myself known next time."

"That's... good! But you won't have to, for I will have already sensed you by then! Nyahaha!" Cathy said her signature laugh before laying back down. Truthfully... she felt like she knew the reason why she couldn't sense him... but she didn't want to acknowledge it. She didn't feel like it.

"I'm sure you will." Darren took another sip of... something.

...

"God you two need to fuck already." Alpha groaned, clearly seeing something brewing between these two.

Darren didn't react to that.

"Huh? Why would I want to get frisky with D-" Cathy widened her eyes. "Ah, never mind! Nyahaha!" She played off her Freudian slip with her usual laugh.

Yoshino leaned over to Kuroko. "Hey. You think Cathy..." She raised her eyebrows as she whispered.

"Cathy? She... oh-nya!" Kuroko realized what Yoshino was implying. "Um... you know, I'm not even going to try with that-nya. Cathy... that's her own business-nya." After being handcuffed to her for a few days, the less she was around the cat burglar, the better.

"Eh... fair enough." Yoshino couldn't blame her. "They wouldn't be the worst couple in the world. Opposites attract and all that."

"That's true." Kuroko nodded. "Hm... you know, I didn't expect romance to be in the air today-nya." She kind of liked it, to be honest. Even if she couldn't land anyone, she enjoyed this sort of aura in the air.

"It's... nice." Yoshino didn't hate it either. "I feel like it's a little easier here... compared to last time. Everyone hates Genjiro. And I still do. So... moving on from him ain't difficult." She didn't bring up Adam.

"Yeah... it's nice to see everyone not being all doomy gloomy-nya!" Kuroko giggled.

"Hm... people are *cough* already here, it seems." On cue, the doomy gloomy COVID goddess herself arrived. Rosalind hobbled over to the group...

"Oh... everyone's here." And right behind Rosalind was the doomy gloomy emo boy himself, Rival!

"Heya Val! Rosa!" Yoshino gave them a jovial wave.

"Hey..." Rival slowly sat down on one of the sofas, seemingly still tired. So, he was his usual self then.

"Hello, Yoshino. Kuroko. It's nice to *cough* see you both." Rosalind gave them a quick and cordial greeting before sitting down on the same sofa as Rival.

...

Yoshino leaned over to Kuroko again. "Hey. You think Val and Rosa..." She raised her eyebrows as she whispered.

"Rival and Rosa-nya-lind? She... oh!" Kuroko realized what Yoshino was implying. "Hm... I can see it-nya! I don't know if they feel that way about each other though-nya!"

"Right... maybe I'm jumping the gun here." Yoshino chuckled. "Ah well. It's just good to see... the more reclusive ones here already, you know?"

Speaking of reclusive... "O-Oh! Everyone..." Ayaka/Nozomi came up the stairs and approached the group.

"Hey! Good morning Zomi!" Yoshino greeted the talentless version of Ayaka.

"Ah... no. I'm Ayaka." Ayaka corrected her.

"So you're the depressed bitch instead of the stick-up-her-ass bitch? Gotcha." Alpha was definitely back to her old self.

"You... okay... Ayaka? I don't know how much you're aware of what happened..." Rival was the first one to ask. "Did... Nozomi tell you what happened?"

"S-She did." Ayaka shakily nodded before sitting down. "I'm aware of it all."

"So... you okay?" Rival repeated himself. "The trial must've been... a lot for you."

"...Y-Yeah. I'm still... processing that you all k-know about Nozomi now..." That wasn't exactly something that Ayaka was glad about being out in the open now.

"We do *cough* indeed know." Rosalind didn't really have any strong opinions on the split personality.

"Yeah... we do." Rival sighed. No one, including him, was quite sure of what to say here that would comfort Ayaka at all. I mean, that trial seemed to be fairly traumatic for her. Especially... because of...

No one had the guts to say it. Not even Alpha. The last they saw of Ayaka, she slapped the shit out of Damien. Twice! It was-

"So, violinist human? How are you feeling about the beautician human, hm?" Scratch what I just said. Cathy apparently had the guts to say it.

"Cathy!" Kuroko hissed at the cat burglar. The hypnotist had her own thoughts about Damien in this situation... but no matter what those were, she knew that bringing it up with Ayaka was a... prickly matter.

"What?" Cathy shrugged like she didn't just bring up a person Ayaka now detested.

"..It's f-fine." Ayaka squeaked out. "I don't want to think about h-him right now." She moved a bit further away from the rest of the group. She didn't want to think about Damien... and she didn't want to think about trust in general. She was still mentally berating herself for trusting that fucking bastard in the first place. Why... why was she stupid enough to trust a man again? God...

"I hear you. The less I hear about that slimy fuck, the better." Alpha put her feet up on a nearby table.

"...Slimy fuck? The hell?" Joji, followed closely behind by Lake, seemed confused about what they were talking about.

"Damien," Yoshino answered immediately. "Good to see you, Jojo. You doing alright?" Despite the topic of conversation being that shady beautician, Yoshino wanted to make sure the carpenter was alright after... everything that happened.

"I... see." Joji crossed his arms. Honestly, he understood what everyone was saying. But at the same time... Ayaka was an extremely likely suspect at the time. Berating someone just for accusing the wrong person was a little ridiculous in his mind. But the way Damien went about it... was weird. So he was a little split on the matter.

"To answer your question, Yoshino... I'm doing alright." Joji yawned as he stretched his arms out. "Some good rest did me good." The sleep he got after the trial was mostly good. Because... there still was...

"...Lake? ...What's up?" The sheer tired feeling was slowly starting to hit Joji.

"I... well, this didn't get brought up in the trial..." Lake fiddled around in their pocket. "But... I wanted to give this back to you!" They pulled out a small wooden figure.

"It was on the floor in your studio... so I wanted to give it back to you...!" Lake let out a small yawn as they held out the figure.

Joji, his mouth slightly agape, slowly took the figure from their hands.

"There! That's all I wanted to do! Good night Joji!" Lake waved as they went up to their room.

...

Joji didn't respond as he gripped the figure tightly in his hand. Man... he was grateful he was so tired. Because if he wasn't, he might've lost his mind upon seeing this...

Joji didn't... really know how to feel about that damn figurine. Pheme really loves fucking with them...

"I'm glad to hear that, Jojo!" Yoshino smiled. "And you, Monty?"

"Huh?" Lake momentarily forgot the nickname that Yoshino gave her. "I'm... I'm doing okay." The impact of four of them dying was hitting them pretty hard... but they were determined to power through it. They just... don't want to lose anyone else. "Right now... I just want to face this brand new day!" They cheered.

"Damn right, Lake." Joji patted his former motive partner on their back. They just had to keep going... that was all that mattered.

"Yeah!" Lake gave a half-tired cheer as they sat down. They seemingly weren't caught up on their sleep just yet.

"Huh..." Yoshino looked around at who had gathered so far. "We're missing five of us ain't we?"

"Three, actually!" Damien casually walked into this scene, eager and ready to cause Gold/Nathan/Sin to go on an hour-long rant about him.

"Yep. Three." And Kei, who was right behind him, reaffirmed the beautician's basic math skills.

Ayaka visibly flinched at the sight of Damien.

"Hi, Kei! Damien!" Lake waved to them. Unlike some other people, Lake didn't have a problem with Damien.

"And hello to you too, my dear Lake!" Damien gave the ballet dancer a gentle smile. "Ah... it's good to see us all up and about after this recent trial."

"Sure took us long enough to be up though." Kei didn't have a problem with this taking place in the middle of the afternoon, he just found it a little funny.

...

"Hm? It's rather quiet." Damien pointed out. "Ah! Yes, that does remind me." He turned towards his former dear Ayaka. "Ayaka-"

"Don't say my name!" Ayaka flinched. "I don't even want to look at you!" She closed her eyes tight. "Just... don't talk to me!" She hated that this bastard could just... walk around like nothing happened last night.

"Stay away from her... Damien." Rival didn't consider himself to be a white night of sorts, defending and sticking up for girls will-nilly, but after the last trial... he didn't want to look at Damien. Just like his creator!

"I wasn't addressing you, Rival," Damien said with some snark. "But as you wish... Ayaka. I merely wanted to apologize for my behavior to you and Nozomi."

"Apologize, huh? Sure man." Alpha didn't believe that for a second.

"I'm very serious," Damien said very seriously. "I tunnel-visioned too hard it seems... and I see the error I made. Forgive me, Ayaka. And Nozomi as well."

"..." Ayaka didn't respond.

"She doesn't want to talk to you, Damien-nya." Kuroko stepped up to the beautician.

"Ah, my dear Kuroko! It's good to see you up! How are you?" Damien attempted to claim Kuroko's shoulder as his new bounty, but she slapped his hand away.

"Damien... stop-nya." Kuroko shook her head.

Damien blinked. "Stop?"

"I watched back the recording of the trial-nya." Kuroko was kind of morbidly curious about how it went. "And... the way you acted towards Ay-nya-ka... it was horrible-nya. Tunnel vision or not, acting like that towards someone you were there for... is horrible-nya. I... can see why Cathy has such a low opinion of humans. The way you string girls along with honeyed words... then immediately throw them under the bus... I don't know about everyone else here, but that's not something I can just ignore-nya. So for now on, ditch the "my dear" for me too, just like Yoshi-nya, Alpha, and Ay-nya-ka."

"Roko..." Yoshino didn't expect that out of the hypnotist. She definitely agreed with her though.

"Shit..." For once, Alpha was a little impressed by someone here. "Didn't think you had enough lady-balls to say some shit like that."

"Heh." Rival chuckled.

"..." Ayaka still didn't say anything. It wasn't visible due to her mask, but a small smile came across her face.

"...Well then." Damien had a lot of thoughts regarding what he had just heard. But now wasn't the time to express those. "I'm sorry you feel that way Kuroko. I never wished to give you that impression of me." He bowed his head. "I hope my reputation can improve in your eyes, as well as in the other's eyes as well." He not-so-subtly eyed a certain violinist while he said that.

"Well... for the record... I think Damien was just... too lost in the moment." Lake came to his defense. "I can't bring myself to blame him too hard." They had trouble acting rude and stuff towards anyone, but still.

"Thank you, my dear Lake." Damien quickly thanked the ballet dancer before retreating a little ways away from the group. He knew he had made a mistake... and that he had to remedy his relationship with some of the people here. That was alright. He had time. It wasn't like he was going to die in Part 5 of this chapter or anything.

"Well now..." That exchange had caught Kei's interest, but he was more curious about something else at the moment. "We're still missing three of us, it seems. Ji-hoon, Raiha, and Aurora." He felt like he knew what Ji-hoon was doing right now, so he wasn't worried about him. The girls though... he wasn't sure. After all, it wasn't like something awkward happened last night between those besties, right?

"Hm..." Kuroko tapped her finger against her lips as she thought. Raiha and Aurora... considering her talk with Raiha yesterday... what if she...?

"Ah, I'm sorry I'm late!" Since every character in this chapter was arriving on cue, that meant Aurora had to arrive on cue as well! "Pheme's morning announcement not playing seems to have caused me to oversleep!" She nervously chuckled.

"That so?" Kei raised an eyebrow.

"Are you alright, my dear Aurora? You never struck me as the type to oversleep." Damien, like the nice person he is, showed concern over another person, like he usually does.

"I'm fine. Yes, don't worry." Aurora gave the beautician a reassuring smile. Unless it wasn't obvious, she was in fact, not fine. What happened last night between her and Raiha caused her to lose some sleep.

Seeing Aurora so supportive made Raiha's heart beat a little faster. "Okay then... screw it." She knew she had to get this out. So she took a deep breath... and asked. "Aurora... do you... like girls?" The trendsetter's blush reached unprecedented levels.

...

"What?" Aurora blinked.

"Do you... like girls?" Raiha asked again. "As in... do you like-like them?"

Aurora felt a small chill run through her body. "W-Why do y-you ask?" She seemed oddly nervous.

"Uh... no reason! None at all!" Raiha frantically shook her head, the blush across her face betraying her words. "Just... curious. Yeah."

"You're... curious. Okay." Aurora took a deep and mentally painful breath. She was afraid of this happening. Damn it... why did she have to ask? "Raiha... I..." The starlet's hands slightly shook as she shut her eyes tight. "I-I'm... s-straight." She declared with some uncharacteristic stuttering.

"Oh." Raiha looked down at her feet. That... wasn't the answer that Raiha had wanted.

"I'm... sorry." Aurora couldn't bring herself to look her bestie in the face.

But Kuroko and Yoshino, the ones who were aware of Raiha's crush on the starlet, since they couldn't see that flashback, weren't aware of Aurora coldly and rudely rejecting her bestie.

"Auror-nya!" Kuroko called her over.

"Kuroko! It's nice to see you." Seeing the hypnotist alright did Aurora's heart good.

"It's nice to see you too, Auror-nya!" Kuroko winked. "Hey... random question-nya. Did Rai-nya talk to you last night-nya?" She didn't know if the trendsetter decided to do anything last night, but she tried to subtly see if she did.

"W-W-What?!" Aurora uncharacteristically stuttered. "Um... no! Nothing happened between us! Or... she didn't talk to me!" She tried to hide her blush as she tried to cover up her rejection. God she hoped Kuroko wasn't aware about... any of that. Considering how she felt right now... and about Raiha... she was anxious over how the hypnotist might react to it all.

"Oh...? Hm...?" Kuroko misinterpreted the blush as she gave the starlet a saucy smirk. "Did Rai-nya ask?" She wasn't as much of a tea-hound as the trendsetter was, but she was very curious about this.

Aurora felt her heart stop for a moment. Did... Kuroko know? "Ask... what?" She tried to play dumb.

"Hm... I see-nya! I get it-nya!" If Aurora didn't want to divulge any details, Kuroko wasn't about to force her to. Besides, Kuroko was positive that Aurora was attracted to girls... and Raiha confirmed that she was attracted to girls! And the two would make a great couple, so the hypnotist was confident that these two could bloom into a total star couple.

"...You get it?" Aurora wasn't sure what to say. God, why did this have to happen here?

"I do! I get it-nya!" Kuroko giggled. "I won't pry into your relationship with Rai-nya-"

Yes, you know who's arriving now.

Raiha finally arrived at the scene, slowly walking up the stairs. Ji-hoon was right behind her.

"Ah, I see you've *cough* arrived, Raiha." Rosalind gave the starlet a nod.

"Yeah...! Sorry I'm late! My b! I overslept!" Raiha giggled.

"Same... as Aurora then?" Rival, unaware of what happened, pointed at the starlet.

"Aurora...?" Raiha's eyes landed on the starlet. Then, rather awkwardly, she silently sat down on one of the sofas.

"...Okay." Rival didn't know what that was, and frankly, he didn't care.

"Rai-Rai...?" Yoshino muttered, trying to glean what was going through the trendsetter's mind right now.

"Hm..." Kuroko glanced between Raiha, who had gone silent, and Aurora, who wasn't looking at her bestie. Huh...

...

Oh. Kuroko realized what might've happened. Maybe... last night didn't go perfectly for the trendsetter.

Before she could ask for more details about that...

"Alright, everyone!" Ji-hoon walked to the middle of the group. "It's... 4:00 PM. Pretty late in the day. But we got the rest we needed."

"You sure got a lot of rest, Mr. Leader." Alpha rolled her eyes. "What, Raiha sucking you off take a little too long? Why'd you get here so late?"

"...Alpha. You're here." Ji-hoon crossed his arms, completely ignoring her comment. "I'm surprised. You're finally going to be joining us now?"

"After Adam's dumbass case, I figure it's better to be in the know about whatever retarded shit you guys plan. So I'm here." Alpha aggressively shrugged.

"Don't fucking...!" Joji didn't appreciate the Adam stray.

"It's okay Joji...!" Lake set their hand on their former motive partner's back. "It's okay..." They tried to calm him down. They weren't particularly close with Adam... but they knew Joji was. And they wanted to help him get through this, however they could.

"Lake... thanks." Joji took a deep breath. "I'm... glad that you're here anyway, Alpha." He held back his anger.

"Indeed. The more of us that are here, the better. It helps our unity." Damien happily nodded.

"Suck yourself off." Alpha gave Damien the most deadpan insult. "Don't just... assume I'll cozy up to you all. I'm not the little pussy over there." She pointed at Cathy, who was currently lying on the sofa in the weirdest possible position. I'll leave the position to your imagination.

But that position gave Darren... an interesting view. As he was currently standing behind the sofa Cathy was on, he took a step back. "Yeah. Cathy's here." He pointed out the obvious.

"Nyahaha!" Cathy smirked as she didn't adjust her position. "I don't appreciate the gas station manager human implying I'm cozying up to you all! I merely do whatever I want! Nyaha!"

"That... makes sense." Lake awkwardly chuckled, now definitely used to Cathy's antics.

"Well... Cathy being here is good too. I'd rather be aware than unaware of her movements." Ji-hoon didn't hide his distrust of the cat burglar.

"Look at that! Everyone is here!" Kei slowly nodded. "It's nice to have all of us together as we venture up to the next floor isn't it?"

"Yeah! It really is!" The sight made Lake rather happy.

"It's... not bad." Even Rival couldn't hate it.

"I hadn't *cough* expected this... but it's not unwelcome." Rosalind lay her parasol across her lap. "It's still a marvel I've made it this far... heh."

"T-" Rival almost said something in response to Rosalind's dark humor, but he held himself back.

"It's good you're here, Rosalind. It's good we all are here." Ji-hoon certainly was glad after seeing everyone already up here. "Now... I'd like to get right to exploring the new floor that opened up... but I'd like to talk about two things first."

"U-Um... can I ask something?" Ayaka held her hand up. "Where are the s-stairs to the next floor, again? After... the last trial... my mind has felt a l-little scrambled." She was glad that no one was bombarding her with questions after Nozomi's reveal. But showing her off, and her realization that Damien was a horrible person kind of shook her up.

"They're in... Bessie's Studio." Aurora pointed to the closed double doors that led to the previous crime scene.

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

"That's... right." Rival almost forgot about that. He also had a feeling what that second floor to the studio might be... but he'd deal with that when the time came.

"Ah... okay. T-Thank you." Ayaka quickly nodded, before going back to looking at nothing.

"Right... are you alright, Ayaka?" Ji-hoon decided to quickly check on her. "Your... mental state and all?"

"I'm fine." Ayaka quickly reassured him. "Everyone knows about N-Nozomi now... so I have to accept that. I'm working on that. So I-I appreciate that no one is... being too forward with me right now." She shot Damien a look. It's unknown if the beautician noticed or not.

"Alright. I understand." Ji-hoon wasn't going to push it then. There still was the factor of Ayaka's involvement in poisoning Genjiro... but that could wait for later. It wasn't at the forefront of Ji-hoon's mind right now. "Now, with that out of the way, I want to ask someone else something. Kuroko." His eyes landed on the hypnotist.

"Huh? Me-nya?" Kuroko didn't expect to be called on.

"How are you?" Ji-hoon showed some concern for her. "Ever since your absence last trial, I've been curious about your condition." He still cursed Genjiro for causing something like that to happen to Kuroko.

"Oh. Well... I'm okay-nya!" Kuroko quickly glanced at Raiha and Yoshino, the two she'd explained some of her "coma dreams" to. "I have... tough things to sort out, like Ay-nya-ka. But I'll be good! Don't worry-nya!" She reassured the celebrity detective and the rest of the group who didn't care to ask about her.

"..." Ayaka glanced at Kuroko upon hearing her name being mentioned. Things to sort out... huh.

"I'm glad that both you and Ayaka are doing good, Kuroko!" Lake was their usual self.

"Knowing that Genjiro and Damien didn't cause too much carnage is... good to know." Rival didn't even flinch at showing off his distrust of Damien.

"Excuse me?" Damien reacted like how Oddly usually does when Damien is falsely/wrongly accused of something. No one said anything though. No one wanted to dwell on the last trial right now.

"Right then. That's good." Ji-hoon was never that worried about Kuroko in the first place... he was confident she'd be okay. He just wanted to make sure of what her mental state was like. "Last thing before we get going. Yoshino." His eyes landed on the horror novelist.

"Huh? What's up, Jiji?" Yoshino didn't expect to be called on.

"Adam's note." Ji-hoon brought up something he was very curious about. "Did you read it? If so, what was on it?"

"Ah... yeah. I read it earlier." Yoshino sighed.

"Right... don't leave us in suspense! What's on it?" Kei, as the other brain cell hoarder, was curious as well.

"...What was on it, Yoshino?" Joji was more... morbidly curious about it.

"...I'll tell ya. Don't worry." Yoshino brought the note out. "So..."

Yoshino went over with the group all of the relevant information that Adam wrote in his note.

...

"Little fucking shit. He wanted to kill me? Ha." Alpha dryly laughed. "What an idiot."

"Damn it... Adam...!" Joji gritted his teeth. "To think he really wanted to kill Alpha too..."

"To be pushed to such a point..." Aurora felt a chill run through her body. "Adam..." She felt horrible for him.

...

"A blank option in the motive apps?" That caught Kei's interest. "It's not the Horror Studio or the Boarded-Up Room... so it's apparently not a place with a hidden camera. That's... pretty weird."

"That's real weird... idk." Raiha slowly shrugged. "Just an error, IG? Pheme non-bestie ain't the best with this sorta thing."

"I... don't know either." Ayaka looked down at her own Star-Phone. That fact... unnerved her a bit.

...

"I'm the most curious about the appearance of this Asclepius person." Damien crossed his arms. "A blue and white mask... with a staff with a snake design. Is... this true, my dear Aurora?"

"Don't ask her, you prick! That could be dangerous!" Yoshino didn't want to risk Aurora getting in trouble as Adam had written.

"No... I'd like to hear too." Ji-hoon shook his head. He had wanted to hear more immediately after Adam said it, but he knew that wasn't the right time. "Is what Adam said correct, Aurora? Answer."

"Oh... well..." Aurora felt nervous about answering this... considering that the man had forced them to secrecy.

"Aurora?" Raiha spoke up, wanting to help the girl that bestie-zoned her. "If you don't wanna say stuff... you can just confirm what Adam said, yeah?" She comforted her in a way.

"...Right. T-Thanks." Aurora just felt... awkward talking to Raiha now. God... she didn't know what to do about what had happened last night. "Well... what Adam wrote was correct, about the mask and staff. His clothes weren't very noteworthy." She gave a safe testimony.

"I see." Upon having it confirmed, Ji-hoon noted it down. "Thank you, Aurora." He wasn't sure who this guy was or what his role was... but he was sure he was important.

"Who do we think this Asclepius guy is-nya? Part of the staff-nya?" Kuroko got right to theorizing.

"All of the staff are gods and goddesses? Hmph! Ridiculous!" Cathy seemingly didn't like it.

"The Greek God of Medicine..." Darren muttered because he could.

"Let's... leave the theorizing for now, guys." Kei held his hand up, as a cue for them to stop. "We could theorize all day over this. But we don't have all day, and we have a whole new floor for us to explore, don't we?"

"Shit... let's not waste the day. Should we get going? We can talk about more stuff later, yeah?" Yoshino looked around.

"Yoshino is right." Ji-hoon checked the time on his Star-Phone. "I just wanted to get a few things out of the way. Let's leave anything else... for tomorrow, most likely. We need to know what we're dealing with now."

"And especially if there's anything like my or Damien's Studios... with the tools and poisons." If there was more stuff like that, Joji was ready to vigorously guard them.

"Yes..." Damien gazed at the door to his Ultimate Studio. He still semi-lamented its broken state. "That reminds me, actually. What happened to your room, Ji-hoon?"

"Oh! Right! It was... fumigated, or something?" Lake tried to recall.

"Sorry. I'm just trying to work it out in my head." Ji-hoon shook his head. "But to get to the point... the box was broken into."

"Indeed it was!" Pheme decided to chime in. "Believe me, I never expected to be called to fumigate one of your rooms!"

"W-What?" Ayaka blinked. "Fumigate?"

"That's correct Ms. Naganohara!" Pheme winked. "Mr. Jo has stashed away all of the poisonous perfumes I had so loving given you all! But-"

...

"Yes Pheme. Did you make sure my room is safe?" Ji-hoon did honestly want to make sure of that. It was his room after all.

Pheme giggled. "Of course I did! There should be no more poison in the air, and there's no way it could've spread!"

"Yes. When I came back to it last night, it was perfectly fine." Ji-hoon was glad to know he wasn't about to lose his room. But that just made him think of the twentieth room in the VIP Quarters... hm. That's for another day.

"Good! I'm glad!" Joji was relieved. "What about the tools and poisons themselves? Was the floor cleaned up?" He asked an important question.

"It..." Ji-hoon trailed off for some reason. "It... was. It was cleaned up. Sorry Joji, but I'm assuming Pheme seized the tools." He only felt a little bad for Joji. Frankly, he was glad to not have so many dangerous tools lying around.

"Damn it...!" Joji frowned as he punched a sofa half-heartedly.

"Anyway... I do believe that's it, no?" Damien asked as he stood up from where he was standing.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is." Ji-hoon realized how easy it was for this group to get sidetracked. "No more sidetracking. We're going." He walked up to Bessie's Studio and opened the door. And without wasting more time, everyone slowly but surely followed behind their leader...

[Ultimate Pop Star's Studio]

"And... it's the same." Kei looked around at the wreckage still being the same as when they investigated it last night. "You and Pheme really did a number on this place, eh Alpha?" He elbowed the gas station manager's side.

"Fuck off." Alpha tried to stomp on Kei's foot but missed. Grumbling, she walked further into the studio.

And like everyone thought, the shutters blocking the stairs were gone. They had free reign to go and explore the third floor. That wasn't the only thing there though. Genjiro's body was gone... and...

"I'm here too!" Pheme struck a pose from the middle of the central aisle. "Don't forget about me~!" She skipped over to her stars.

"Pheme... you get enough screentime already-nya." Kuroko sighed. "Are you going to distract us, or can we just go and explore-nya?"

"Dang Kuroko..." Joji was impressed by how boldly the hypnotist told off the goddess.

"Gasp! So rude, Ms. Kurobara!" Pheme did the :kei_fingerwaggle: emote irl. "I merely want to help my glamorous stars explore the third floor! There'll definitely be stuff that I need to explain, so I'm afraid you're stuck with me whether you like it or not!"

"Fine. Let's just go." Ji-hoon didn't want to fight this. Besides, seeing as Pheme was in a good mood, they might be able to get some information out of her.

"Great! Lead the way, Mr. Jo!" Pheme acted like she was part of the team for some reason, and went and stood behind Cathy.

"Goddess? You're standing with me? Nyahaha!" It was unknown how Cathy felt about that.

"...The more the merrier." Darren shrugged, being the only other person to react to Pheme's presence. Fair enough nobody else did. Who knows how she could end up distracting them?

"Indeed, Darren. Indeed!" Kei ominously chuckled as he, and the rest of the group Pheme, took their first steps onto the stairs.

...

"Wow!" Lake exclaimed as they looked up the square-shaped stairwell. "This is... really big!"

"Can't wait for you to say that when you and Joji get down to-"

"Alpha! Shut it!" Yoshino cut off Alpha with a punch to her back before she could finish a classic Alpha Insult(tm).

"Christ!" Alpha stumbled a little, due to her back still being sore. "Fucking whatever..." She huffed as she stepped ahead of the group.

"Yoshino?" Lake tapped the horror novelist on the shoulder. "What was Alpha about to say?"

"Lake! Uh... don't worry about it." Joji came to the rescue, not wanting his former motive partner to be corrupted by Alpha's influence. "Anyway... you're right." He looked up as he kept walking. "This is... what? Seven or eight stories tall?" His carpentry knowledge came in handy.

"Right you are, Mr. Kaneshiro!" Pheme, who was a little ahead of Joji, congratulated the carpenter. "It's eight stories tall specifically!"

"W-Why is this so tall? What's the point?" Ayaka, who was trailing a little behind the group, didn't get that part.

"I believe... I *cough* know why." Rosalind was currently trailing the furthest behind the group, due to her obviously not being as physically able as the rest of them.

"You... do?" Rival tried to subtly slow down his walking speed so he could stick a little closer to the cinematographer.

"Mm-hm." Rosalind nodded. "Considering the past of the studio, I believe this *cough* specific area was used for shots where they needed the height. When filming, areas such as this can be rather *cough* useful. I remember seeing this area utilized for something like that back when I was here last as *cough* well." She flexed her totally not plot-important knowledge of this place.

"That's... exactly it! Good memory, Ms. Reinhardt!" Pheme awarded the COVID queen with a few claps.

"Memory..." Ji-hoon muttered to himself while he continued to walk.

"Okay... so I get that part-nya." Kuroko kept looking around this large stairwell. "But... what's with the pole in the middle of it-nya?" She then pointed to a long pole with a few small square platforms on it in the middle of the stairs.

"Sharp eyes, Ms. Kurobara!" Pheme gave Kuroko a few claps of her own.

"The giant stripper pole is so fucking obvious, you'd have to be as blind as a knife thrower to not see it." Alpha didn't think that was worthy of praise.

"I don't think that was necessary, Alpha. You..." Lake was about to say something that would've contained a little of what Adam screamed at Alpha last night... but they decided against it.

"Just ignore her, Lake." Joji sighed. If she was just going to keep on insulting everyone, he questioned the purpose of her even being here. Without someone like Genjiro to perpetuate her nastiness... she really stands out... in a bad way.

Alpha didn't say anything as she started to speed walk up the remaining stairs.

"Anyway..." Pheme loved some classic Alpha goodness, but she also wanted to explain the point of the pole. "The pole you see is for structural support! And before you say anything, Mr. Kaneshiro, the pole is very sturdy! It helps keep the ceiling where it is!" She pointed up at the ceiling.

"Uh... that's not how it works...?" Joji narrowed his eyes. "A single pole can't provide that much support. Besides, if that actually was the point, there should be a bit more than just one!" He knew this was nonsense.

"Ah, you and your pesky details! Don't worry about it!" Pheme brushed off his argument like it was no big deal.

"How in the fuck are these "pesky details"?!" Joji didn't appreciate his knowledge being treated like nothing.

"Joji!" Lake, sensing the carpenter might be inching closer to losing his temper, tapped him on his shoulder. "Just go with it! I don't think it's carpentry-related anyway! If it was for support..." They briefly looked up at the ceiling. "That probably would've fallen by now, right?" They giggled.

"Ah-" Joji took a second to think about that. "You're... right. Damn it..." He couldn't believe he was gonna lose his temper over something like this. "Sorry Lake. Thanks." He shamefully patted the ballet dancer on their shoulder.

"No problem!" Lake giggled again.

"If you two humans are done flirting..." Cathy stopped to stretch for a moment.

"You tired already?" Darren half-expected Cathy to be at the top already, considering how athletic she was.

"Not in the slightest, bartender human!" Cathy smugly wagged her finger as she leaped onto the railing of the stairs.

"Woah! Cathy non-bestie?!" Being near the front of the pack, Raiha looked down with widened eyes at Cathy's pristine balance.

Ji-hoon just groaned and crossed his arms at the sight.

"Whatcha doing, Cathy?" Kei wasn't concerned in the slightest. He was curious though.

"I wish to test this here... pole!" Cathy suddenly lept from the railing of the stairs to the central pole, which wasn't actually super far away.

"Felt like she'd do this." Darren was unfazed as he went back in time and took a drink from 3327 BCE and took a sip.

"Nyaha! Simple!" Cathy got a grip on the pole so fast, that only Darren got a reaction line to it. She wasn't a pole dancer, and she wasn't about to show off for these humans like that, but she really wanted to see what this was like.

"My dear Catherine? Are you... sure this is safe?" Damien wasn't sure how to react to this.

Cathy didn't respond as she skillfully and acrobatically climbed up the rest of the pole, then flung herself into the third floor.

"I suppose she's... fine?" You'd think he'd learn by now, but Cathy's cat-like traits still threw Damien off a tad.

"Well well! Looks like Ms. Munchkin took a rather inventive way up!" Pheme giggled in amusement.

"Huh." Yoshino looked up. "If by inventive, you mean just cutting off like ten seconds, then yeah. You're right."

"Oh! I didn't realize, but we're already almost there-nya! That wasn't too bad-nya!" Kuroko didn't consider herself a fitness god, but that wasn't bad at all. It felt good to stretch her legs.

"Yeah. This wasn't too bad!" Joji, along with Alpha, were probably the most physically fit people left. Alpha had already entered the third floor, so he didn't know how she felt. But hey, he was alright with the workout. That weird pole still confused him, but he was going to try and not worry about it.

"...Phew!" Raiha was the first one to make it to the top, and actually wait there. She was a little tired, but it wasn't the worst feeling in the world. "Hey... Pheme non-bestie? This really the only way to get up to this floor? No... escalators or elevators or something?"

"That's correct, Ms. Miyahara!" Pheme skipped on up and landed right beside the trendsetter. "These stairs are the only way of making it up to the third floor! Also, both of the stairwells are exactly the same, including the pole!"

"Enough about the damn pole!" Joji was getting real sick of that word as he reached the top, and went right into the third floor.

"H-Hold on Joji!" Lake was still decently fit due to their talent, but they still wanted a moment to catch their breath.

"Ah... that was rather nice." Damien was rather deceptively fit, so this didn't bother him at all. As he reached the top, he looked behind and saw a certain someone lagging behind. "Ayaka? Do you need a hand?"

Ayaka looked away from the beautician's piercing eyes as she picked up her pace.

"Damien! C'mon, let's get going!" Acting like they were lifelong friend, Kei walked up and wrapped his arm around Gold/Sin/Nathan's favorite character and attempted to urge him forth.

"...Kei?" Damien raised an eyebrow but kept walking with the lawyer anyway.

Upon seeing the backstabbing, treacherous, and lecherous beautician (Ayaka's thoughts not mine) leave, Ayaka sighed in relief as she continued to steadily make it to the top. She didn't want to keep everyone waiting though, so she picked up her pace a little, and entered the third floor.

Now, at this point, everyone had made it up.

...

Well... mostly everyone had made it up.

"Heh... looks like *cough cough* everyone has... already made it..."

"Yep... that's... right..."

Rosalind and Rival, the most physically unfit members in the cast for different reasons, were still a little behind. Both had severely underestimated these stairs.

Rival knew he could handle these stairs, but this was just a little more physical activity than what he was used to.

Rosalind though... "T-This is..." Her arms and legs shook as she slowly and carefully walked up the remaining steps.

At this point, Rival was walking right next to her. He didn't want to be weird or anything, but he wanted to make sure she didn't slip and fall or anything. He... didn't want that to happen.

"Rival. Y-You *cough* don't need to stick around me like this, you know. I can handle this *cough* myself." Rosalind showed some surprising boldness.

"Are you... sure?" Rival accidentally chuckled a little. He didn't mean for that to be mean, but Rosalind's struggles were evident.

"I..." Rosalind took a moment to steady herself before continuing. She didn't finish her thought.

Rival didn't want to bother her, but he also didn't want to leave her here. "Just..." He went a few steps behind her. "Ignore me." He wasn't about to just abandon her here. So, he just chose to stick behind her for the few remaining steps. He obviously didn't need a cane, so he didn't understand Rosalind's feelings here. But he didn't see the big deal in getting a little help from someone. Was what happened last night bothering her? Was he overthinking it? He wasn't sure.

...

"There..." Rosalind let out a deep breath as she made it to the top, Rival following behind a few seconds later.

"Yeah... here we are." Rival had complicated feelings about his past, but if he could change one thing, it'd be that he wished he did a bit more exercise during his main time as a hikikomori.

"Come now, Rival. Let's not waste more *cough* time." Still putting on a bold front despite her shaking legs, Rosalind walked forward into the doorway.

"Jeez... what is her deal...?" Rival didn't mean that in a rude way, but in a genuinely curious way. "...Whatever. I'll learn later... maybe." It wasn't like Rosalind was going to die soon or anything.

...

Anyway, Rival sighed, then went and joined up with Rosalind and the rest of the group.

[Ultimate Backing Vocalist's Studio]

"Rival! Rosalind! Sit d- uh... you two alright?" Ji-hoon was going to tell the late arrivals to have a seat, but he stopped when he saw how tired they looked.

"We're *cough* fine." Rosalind spoke for the both of them as she took a seat.

"...Guess we are." Rival shrugged, then also took a seat. He wasn't about to ignore the fact that he just walked into his own Ultimate Studio, but he'd worry about exploring the whole place later. He... did kinda need a rest.

"If you say so." Ji-hoon chose to accept that answer. He wasn't worried about those two anyway. His mind was preoccupied with some certain other people right now.

"Hm... Mr. Jo? Am I correct in assuming that this is the moment where you all split into groups to go and explore the brand new floor?" Pheme was still sticking around for whatever reason.

"What else would this be?" Alpha sat with her legs crossed in one of the nondescript seats in the new Ultimate Studio.

"That's exactly what this is, Pheme." Ji-hoon was actually a little glad she brought that up, because that meant they could move on without any more distractions.

"Oh yeah! Let's check the map first, right?" Kei whipped out his Star-Phone and went right for the map app. He was grateful these Star-Phones weren't too complicated. "Let's see... on floor three, there are seven rooms to investigate, counting this one!" He swiftly pocketed his Star-Phone.

"I... can investigate... here." Rival volunteered for obvious reasons.

"S-Should someone stay with Rival?" Ayaka looked around. "It's b-better to investigate with another person, right?"

"Yeah. We're not going to investigate with just ourselves." Ji-hoon shook her head. "Let's have..." He narrowed his eyes as he looked over the group, attempting to find someone to force to stay behind.

"...I'll investigate with *cough* Rival." In case you somehow didn't expect this chapter leading to this, yes, Rosalind chose to volunteer.

"..." Rival met Rosalind's sight for a split second, before looking away.

"That works. Now let's split the remaining thirteen of us among the six remaining rooms." Ji-hoon clapped his hands, as a sign for people to get into groups.

After a minute... seven groups were formed.

The groups were:

Rival and Rosalind.

Joji, Lake, and Ayaka.

Kei and Damien.

Alpha and Ji-hoon.

Aurora and Kuroko.

Raiha and Yoshino.

Then Cathy and Darren didn't volunteer or give any effort to put themselves into groups, so those two got put in a pair by default.

"Huh..." Kei eyed a certain pair, before eyeing his former motive partner.

Ji-hoon already knew what Kei's thought was here. "Raiha." He snapped his fingers to get the trendsetter's attention. "Come with me. Alpha, you go with Yoshino."

"Uh, fuck no?" Alpha wasn't about to go with the horror bitch of all people.

"Huh?! Again?!" Raiha narrowed her eyes. "Didn't you want me last time we explored a new floor?" She was fine enough with it the first time, but now...

"Just... I want you with me." Ji-hoon didn't offer any more details.

"Ji-hoon kinda-bestie, why?" Raiha still had no idea why he was doing this.

"You... just..." Ji-hoon needed to be very careful with his words.

"Hold on, Jiji." Yoshino stepped in front of Raiha. "You have a problem with Rai-Rai?"

"This isn't your problem, Yoshino. This shouldn't be a problem at all." Ji-hoon glared down at the horror novelist. "I just want to investigate with Raiha. That's all."

"Is that all?" Yoshino crossed her arms. "Jiji, it sounds like there's something weird going on here."

"Yeah! Why are you so fascinated with Rai-nya?" Kuroko took a step forward.

"This also isn't your problem, Kuroko!" Ji-hoon didn't want to deal with this right now. "Listen! This shouldn't be taking so long! I just want to investigate with Raiha! That's it!"

"I... don't want to investigate with you now? It's giving... I don't even know what this is giving." Raiha huddled behind the shorter yet stronger-willed woman. "Sorry Yoshino-bestie..."

"You're good, Rai-Rai." Yoshino wasn't sure what Ji-hoon was on right now, but whatever it was... she didn't like it. "...Jiji, no. If she doesn't want to go with you, she doesn't want to go with you. Man, step off." She still tried to be semi-kind to their leader.

"Yeah... Raiha doesn't deserve suspicion like that!" Aurora stepped in and said something too.

"Aurora..." Raiha thinly smiled at the sound of her voice.

"You guys..." Ji-hoon balled his hand up into a fist. Damn it... if only he could just say it... but that would cause more problems than it's worth right now. "...Fine." It frustrated him, but he knew he couldn't 1 v 4 the lesbians. "Let's head out." Acting like nothing happened, the celebrity detective left the studio.

Alpha followed close behind him, not caring about what she just witnessed.

"Ji-hoon..." Kei sighed before eyeing Raiha being comforted by Yoshino and Kuroko. He personally believed Ji-hoon could've had a little more tact... but he got where he was coming from. But... it should be okay. He felt alright with this. "Let's go, Damien! New rooms await!" The lawyer whistled as he exited the studio.

Damien couldn't but chuckle at that... fascinating exchange that just took place. He'd have to... think more about that. "Right. Let us go."

"You okay, Rai-Rai? I don't know what the hell his deal was..." Yoshino patted the trendsetter on her shoulder.

"I'm... good." Raiha took a deep breath. "That just shook me a little!"

"I don't blame you." Yoshino dryly chuckled, before giving a thumbs-up to Kuroko. Yeah... she didn't know how she felt about this whole plan... but she'd humor it. "Hey, let's go. Try not to think about him right now, yeah?"

"Right... thanks, Yoshino-bestie!" Raiha flashed a peace sign, then eagerly ran into the rest of the third floor, her energy clearly back.

"Sheesh... okay!" Yoshino ran after her.

"You ready, Auror-nya? I think Yoshi-nya and Rai-nya are all good now!" Kuroko... might've had a distant, lingering idea on why Ji-hoon acted like that. But... she couldn't quite grasp it.

"Um... yes. I believe so." Aurora gave a determined nod. She was a little apprehensive over going off with Kuroko, considering it was likely that she knew about... what happened last night. But... she'd deal with that when the time comes! That's all she could do!

"Great! Let's go-nya!" Kuroko led a blushing Aurora by the hand as they left the scene.

After them, Joji, Lake, and Ayaka all left in the middle of whatever that exchange was, because Lake didn't like watching people fight. So they were long gone.

Rival and Rosalind were still resting.

But Cathy and Darren were- oh nevermind they're gone too.

[Ultimate Bartender's Studio]

"Let's see what's- bartender human?! You're already in here?" Unlike what Nathan was likely hoping for, Cathy and Darren didn't leave together. As soon as Darren got his chance, he went right to Ultimate Studio. He's actually been a little excited for it!

"Oh. There you are, Cathy." Darren was already behind the bar counter, acting like he'd been working here his entire life. Part of him had considered waiting for Cathy before he left, but he figured she was just going to do whatever she wanted. So he went along anyway.

"Nyahaha! You seemed to have made yourself comfortable! You wanted to get to your disgusting liquor shrine so badly, you left early! How pathetic!" Cathy found Darren's devotion to alcohol both amusing and pathetic.

"That's what I did." Darren didn't deny it.

...

Cathy also found Darren's tendency to merely accept her teasing to be... interesting.

"Anyway..." Cathy took a few more steps further into the studio. "The goddess truly wasn't lying, was she?"

"Hmph." Pheme crossed her arms. "I see how it is. And I would've been more than willing to provide some special drinks for the occasion too but I guess you don't want them!" She stepped off the table.

Darren got the slightest bit of emotion on his face at Pheme's words. "Special drinks?" He turned around in his chair.

"Yep! Special drinks from your Ultimate Studio Mr. Taylor! I'd be more than willing to fetch some nice drinks for your wonderful party, considering Mr. Taylor's Ultimate Studio is on the next floor! It's not far from here!"

"She wasn't." Darren was glad that she wasn't, because that meant he found the room he could now spend the rest of the Killing Game in.

"I may not indulge in your human "pleasures" such as alcohol, but even I can admit that this isn't a bad room!" Cathy took a thorough look around.

The Ultimate Studio had a nice, blue carpeted floor, with wooden walls and a wooden ceiling, though the wood seemed to only be for the aesthetic. There are seemed to be a vent grate in the ceiling that Cathy was dying to investigate.

For the room itself, lining essentially the entirety of the walls were racks and racks of alcohol. There were also a few glass cases, displaying more alcohol. Protecting all of this was a large wooden bar counter that stretched across the entire side and far walls of the room, forming a "C" shape. Also, on top of the counter, were more bottles of alcohol.

Despite all of the bottles, it still felt like a surprisingly chill place to be.

And the "seating area" only perpetuated that feeling. There were multiple bar stools right at the bar counter, as well as a few tables and chairs in the middle of the room too.

Despite not being the biggest room ever or anything... it truly was a bar. So, just because of that, the room was all Darren could've ever wanted.

"Well well well!" As soon as she was done observing the place, Cathy leaped behind the bar counter, eager to get in Darren's way and annoy him. "What's back here?"

"Oh, hey Cathy." Darren acknowledged the cat burglar again as he finished doing whatever it was he was doing.

"What are you doing, bartender human?" Cathy peeked over his shoulder.

"Just cleaning a glass. I'm finished now." Darren put the glass away.

"Nyaha? Really? That's all you're doing? I thought a room like this would be like a playground to a human like you?" Cathy started to quickly rifle through a few cabinets.

"I guess you could say that." Darren turned around to look upon the ample counter spacedrawers, and mysterious button behind the bar counter as well. "Just taking my time. I'm not in a rush."

"Hm... can't relate! Nyahaha!" Cathy didn't realize just how many cabinets and drawers there were behind the bar counter, so she took it upon herself to... "check" them for anything dangerous. And if there was anything dangerous, or just anything normal, she'd take it! Good plan!

Without caring if D- er, if the bartender human was watching her or not, Cathy began to rifle through the drawers and cabinets en masse.

"Nothing... nothing... nothing..." Most of the drawers held bartending related stuff for some reason. Cathy didn't care one bit about that, so she ignored it.

"Still nothing... still nothing... still- oh? What the heck?" Cathy let out a confused chuckled as she reached a drawer that finally wasn't just filled with bartending supplies.

"You find something, Cathy?" Darren would've had to have been as deaf as a knife thrower to not hear Cathy- wait that's the wrong joke. Eh, whatever.

"Bartender human?" Cathy raised an eyebrow as she plucked something out of the drawer and pocketed it. "Why do you have a drawer full of silver rings here?"

"I do?" Darren wasn't aware. Given the height difference, he was easily able to see over Cathy at what she had found. And yes, like she said, there was a drawer full of literally just silver rings. You know, the ones that Darren wear and the ones that Cathy likes to steal? Those silver rings. She even took one in the previous paragraph!

"Wow." Darren felt... something at the sight. He didn't know what he felt, but he sure felt something.

"Do you like those silly rings that much, bartender human?" Cathy set her hands on her hips.

Darren looked down at his hands. "I mean... I don't hate them. Honestly, I'm more curious on why you keep-" He looked back up at Cathy and the drawer, but discovered the entire drawer empty.

"You were saying, bartender human?" Cathy subtly finished stuffing the last of the silver rings into a bag of stolen goods she somehow kept hidden on her person.

"...You know what, you can have your fun. I won't stop you." Darren actually chuckled a little at that! Crazy!

"Amusing is it? Nyahaha!" And Cathy definitely noticed. "I don't need your permission, but I will do just that! Nyahaha!" She rushed away to another corner of the room, to begin her pillaging anew.

"Nothing... nothing... nothing..." But Cathy's renewed pillaging didn't actually amount to much. All she found was more and more proof that this place really was a bartender's paradise. "Bah! Bartender human! Why aren't there more interesting trinkets hidden in these drawers?"

"Don't know." Darren astral projected himself closer to Cathy. "Sorry you're disappointed."

"Hmph." Cathy realized she might've set her hopes too high. She assumed a secretive man like Darren would've hidden more away... but it looks like that's not the- "Oh...?" She opened up another drawer... and found one thing in it. She pulled it out, and examined it. "...Bartender human?"

"That's my name." Darren took on his new title with pride as he began to clean another glass.

Cathy lightly snickered. "Who is Ricardo?"

And at the mention of that name, Darren almost dropped the glass he was cleaning. He turned around surprisingly fast. "Who?"

Cathy held up a dirty, chipped, broken and bloody driver's license. "This was in that drawer. It belongs to a Ricardo. Is that a human friend of yours?" She was legit curious here. Using this as an opportunity to tease Darren wasn't even on her mind here.

"Huh. It's not important." Darren managed to snatch the driver's license from Cathy, then pocket it. "Anyway." He went back to cleaning that glass.

"Wha-?" Cathy was baffled that Darren somehow snatched that so fast. Was she really... no! There's no way she was! Why would she... and around him? No way!

"..." Darren just continued to clean that glass.

"Grr..." Cathy could sense that Darren wanted to keep this a secret... whatever this Ricardo was. And... she found it more entertaining to slowly get a secret out of someone compared to just hounding them for it. So... he won this round.

But because he won that round, that meant Cathy could continue to pillage!

...

But this time, it seemed like she wasn't going to find anything else interesting. She spotted a coffee machine and a radio... but that was it. She was down to the last drawer... she didn't want it to just be more bartending supplies, but it looks like that might just be what it is...

...

"Nyaha?!" Cathy cried out as she opened the last drawer. "What in the..." It certainly wasn't bartending supplies. This... was the last thing she would've expected. How does this even relate to Darren?

"Cathy?" Darren turned his head to her, seemingly alerted by her unique cry.

"Bartender human! Look at this!" Cathy didn't even want to touch this. She didn't trust it. It felt like a trap.

"Okay." Darren casually walked on over. "What's the deal- oh. A gun?" He picked up the gun that was sitting in the drawer. "A 9mm pistol? Weird." He began to inspect the gun. "It's got... six bullets in it." He looked through the drawer. "And... thats all of the ammo for it. Hm. Interesting."

"Uh..." Cathy didn't expect this from Darren. "Are you an expert with guns, bartender human?"

"I'm not an expert. I just know my way around them." Darren continued to inspect the pistol. "I'm better with shotguns though."

"Hm... I wouldn't have expected that from you, bartender human." Cathy was pleasantly surprised. "So... this is the goddess's weapon for us this time? A pistol! Ha!" She scoffed.

""Ha" indeed..." Darren slowly pocketed the pistol.

"You're taking it for yourself, bartender human?" Cathy raised an eyebrow.

"Not exactly." Darren made sure it was securely pocketed. "Probably going to let Ji-hoon know."

"Really? You're going to let the celebrity detective human know?" Cathy crossed her arms. "With your apathy, I would've expected you to call doing that "too much work" or some nonsense."

"I-" Darren didn't actually have a counter for that. "Don't worry about it." He turned away and stepped outside of the bar counter to hide his expression. "Anyway, let's go."

"Bartender human! Hold on!" Cathy front flipped over to him and blocked his path. "Before you go anywhere... I have a record I need to set straight!"

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Darren's expression didn't change.

"Something happened both earlier and back at the trial... and I don't want you to get the wrong impression, got it?" Cathy tapped her foot against the ground.

"...You're gonna have to jog my memory." Darren shook his head.

"Ugh! Human memories!" Cathy rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you!"

"Hmph!" Cathy crossed her arms as she also looked away from Darren. "I don't need your thanks D-" She stopped herself. "I don't need your thanks, bartender human!" She corrected herself. She couldn't be actually saying someone's name now! She hasn't had enough development yet!

...

"Huh? Why would I want to get frisky with D-" Cathy widened her eyes. "Ah, nevermind! Nyahaha!" She played off her freudian slip with her usual laugh.

"...Should I react to that?" Darren apparently didn't get it.

"Ugh!" Cathy groaned again. "All humans lack so much self-awareness..." She held her head in her hand. "Listen. I refuse to acknowledge any human. I don't wish to associate with them."

"That why you never use our real names?" Darren summoned a glass from the shadow realm and started to clean it.

"Exactly!" Cathy seemed... oddly prideful over that. "So know this! Just because I might've accidentally started to say your human name... it doesn't mean that I'm cozing up to you, or that I'm letting my guard down around you, okay?" She started to blush just a little while she protested a bit too much.

"Got it." Darren liked cleaning that glass.

"I mean it, you know! I'm not growing close to any humans here, including you!" Cathy pointed at the glass cleaner.

"Got it." Darren didn't even look up from the glass.

"Humans... always so keen on ignoring others!" Cathy huffed. "Well, that's fine! The record has been set straight! As long as you're aware of where I stand, then that's fine! Nyahaha!"

"Got it." Darren turned into a broken record.

"You really like repeating yourself, don't you Da-" Cathy immediately stopped herself, a blush racing across her face.

Darren looked up from the glass, the smallest, most microscopic hint of a smile on his face. "Cathy?"

Cathy kept blushing. She didn't say anything as she ran out.

...

"Heh." Darren set the glass he was cleaning back in the shadow realm. "I'll see you later... Cathy."

[Ultimate Cinematographer's Studio]

"Oh... interesting." Kei didn't expect to be finding this room yet.

"Yes... this is my dear Rosalind's Ultimate Studio, is it not?" Damien kept being dragged around by the lawyer today, and it seemed they found a room that didn't belong to either of them!

"She's back with Rival though... and let's not bother that." Kei shook his head. "Neither of us are cinematography buffs, but we should be able to investigate this for her, yeah?"

"Of course! I'd never deny something like that!" Damien, the nice person he is, would always come to the aid of his dear Rosalind.

"Right..." Kei chuckled. "Let's get straight to it then." As he took a few more steps further in, he started to look around.

The room was a similar size to Darren's Studio. Not too big, but not too small either. The lights were rather dim, and the walls, floor, and ceiling were all black. The room was a little creepy, to be honest. Set up in one of the corners of the room was a very advanced filming camera. Kei nor Damien were even going to think about touching it. The camera seemed to be attached to a rail, meaning it could be moved circularly around the room. In the middle of the room, there were a few trees. And on one of the side walls of the room, there were various horror props.

There also was a strange panel right next to the entrance, as well as another strange panel next to a door on the far wall of the room. There also was a button next to the door.

"Huh... deja vu. This a mini Horror Studio?" Kei remembered how he got brought into this Killing Game.

"Ah yes... you first woke up in the Horror Studio, correct?" Damien recalled.

"Correct!" Kei affirmed. "Anyway... I guess it makes sense. Recording movies/films and all of that." He started to tinker with the large camera.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Damien has assumed that Kei would've wanted to stay away from something like that.

"Eh." Kei shrugged. "Not gonna actually use it. Just curious, is all."

"If you say so..." Damien decided to not question it as he began to wander around the room.

The earlier description had gotten pretty much everything important, so Damien's main focus here was on two things. The horror props and the far door. He started looking through the props.

There was a fake chainsaw, some bedsheets, a fake knife, two ladders... wait. Are ladders even horror releated? Eh, it's probably not important.

But besides for that, there was also an audio recorder. Fitted with play, pause, fast-forward, rewind, and record buttons. Damien clicked on the "play" button.

...

"At only 17... Ms. Reinhardt seems to be diagn-"

...

That was it. Damien attempted to see if he could get more, but to no avail. Hm... he'd have to remember this. For now, he left the recorder there. He didn't want to risk accidentally overwriting this recording.

Next, Damien moved onto the far door. It seemed like... a door. A normal handle, a normal everything. Nothing too out of the ordinary. So, because of how normal it seemed, he naturally went to open it, due to the sheer normality.

"Let's see here- what the?" As soon as Damien went to open the door, the handle disappeared. "Fancy trick..." He assumed that it went invisible, so he still tried to open it. But nope! The handle was completely gone. "Strange..." He wasn't sure what to make of this.

"Could this be involved?" Damien's eyes landed on the button directly next to the door. He gave it a press. And a second later...

"The handle is back?" Damien wasn't an expert on tricks and illusions like this, so he couldn't even begin to guess how this worked. But since it was back...

"What the? It's gone again?!" Damien went to open the door, but the handle disappeared right as he tried to open it. He wasn't about to let this rile him up... so he decided to quit while he was ahead, and consider this a "prank" on Pheme's part.

"What's the matter, Damien?" Kei, having messed around with the camera enough, wanted to see how the beautician was doing.

"Ah, Kei. Look here." Damien motioned to the door. "It's quiet the pickle. You see this outline of a door? It lacks a handle, yes? Watch." He clicked on the button.

A few seconds later...

"A handle appeared?" Kei stuck his hands in his pockets while he let Damien explain this strange door.

"Correct." Damien nodded. "But when I go to-" He couldn't even finish his explanation as he watched the handle vanish again. "Well, that shows what I wanted to show, I suppose." He sighed.

"Hm... let's ask Pheme about it." Kei wasn't about to waste time trying to figure out what the deal was with this door.

"That's likely wise." Damien didn't want to waste more time on this either.

"Yeah... well, while we're over here..." Kei's eyes landed on one of the strange panels in the rooms.

"Right..." Damien had nearly forgotten about this. "Let's see... Kei? Would you mind checking out the other one? So we can compare." He pointed across the room.

"Sure thing." Kei smirked, before moving over to the other panel, which was right next to the entrance.

"You know... now that I'm looking at this..." Kei raised the tone of his voice, to make sure Damien could hear him. "This panel is pretty simple! Just three buttons!"

"Same over here!" Damien yelled back, despite the room not being that big. "Merely a left arrow, right arrow, and a circular button!"

"Well well... the camera moves by pushing it, so it's not for that." Kei thought aloud. "Well... let's give it a whirl!" Kei clicked the right arrow button on the panel near the entrance.

Instantly... metal bars rose up and trapped Kei near the entrance and trapped Damien near the far door.

"What in the-?" Dropping his usual calm and collected attitude for a second, Damien widened his eyes.

"Oh..." Kei's attitude wasn't dropped though, as he watched through narrowed eyes how the room started to change. The floor itself moved under the room, taking all of the horror props and supplies with it. As the floor moved, a new floor with new supplies took its place, and filled in the gaps.

"Fascinating..." Damien ran his hand through his hair. "The horror movie seems to have changed to a... comedy movie?"

The fancy and high-tech camera stayed, but everything else changed. The center now held a microphone stand and microphone, with a small brick backdrop. The lights were a lot brighter, and the props got replaced with various comedy props.

"I think I see..." Kei muttered before pressing the right arrow button again.

As he did, the comedy movie moved under the floor as well, and was replaced by an action movie set-up.

Notably different from the first floor's Action Studio, the center seemed to be a high-tech meeting table, along with superhero costumes right next to it. The lights stayed bright, and the props got replaced with various superhero props.

"Ah... memories." Damien wasn't sure if he looked back on the Action Studio fondly, but it sure was a memory. "And if it keeps going..." He clicked the right arrow button on his own panel, and the action movie set-up moved along, showing that both panels can work at the same time.

Then as expected, the mystery studio was next up. As the new floor came into view, the boys saw a fake dead body being in the middle of the room, surrounded by fake blood and another fake knife. Kei flinched at the sight.

The lights drew darker, and the props were now various investigative supplies.

"Interesting set-up." Kei felt like this room needed to be investigated more thoroughly, but he wanted to save that for later. For now, he clicked the right arrow button once more, intending to bring it back to the original setting. After all, this was obviously based on the original four studios they all woke up. I mean, surely there isn't a fifth setting here, right?

...

"This is all sorts of fascinating... yet also disconcerting. More things to use for murder..." Damien didn't like the idea. Who would? "But we'll need to report this to the rest of the group post-haste. This is all sorts of-"

"Damien." Kei cut the beautician off.

"Hm? What is it?" Damien noticed a strange look on the lawyer's face from across the room.

"Look." Kei pointed to the changing floor... or more accurately, the lack of the floor.

"Oh. Where is the horror movie setting?" Damien tried to peek through the bars to get a better look, but the entirety of under the floor was pure black.

"It sounds like it's still working..." Kei could distinctly hear a whirring sound.

"It is stuck? How strange- ah! I think it's going!" After about 1 minute, the floor finally started to change. But as it did... the boys quickly realized it was no horror movie set-up. "Oh?" Damien raised an eyebrow.

"This room only gets more and more strange..." Kei muttered as he witnessed this new floor rise up from the abyss. This new floor... being a hospital. The camera stayed, but the middle only held a hospital bed. There seemed to be a note on top of it, but neither of the boys could read from here. The sides of the room were filled with medical supplies as well. Well... after finding the Ultimate EMT's Studio, at least they have plenty of medical supplies now!

"I don't believe we've encountered a medical movie studio..." Damien tried to glean details from the room, but he couldn't do much due to the bars blocking him.

"I don't believe we have either." Kei shook his head. "You know, there's gotta be a way to lower these bars, right?"

"I'd assume so..." Damien's eyes shifted back over to the panel. "Well..." He clicked on the circular button. A few seconds later...

"The bars are gone!" Kei saw the bars lower into the floor. "So that's what the circle button does... it retracts the bars on both sides. Oh boy... let's hope Pheme has a cheat sheet for us."

"This is rather complex. Compared to my Ultimate Studio for example, I wonder why this has such complex machinery. What's the point? Favoritism?" Damien posed a valid question.

"Favoritism in a Killing Game is pretty silly." Kei fully realized the irony of what he just said, considering he's allegedly Pheme's favorite. Can only imagine what his Ultimate Studio will look like when he gets there... considering he stays alive long enough for it. I mean, there's no way Kei is dying before reaching his Ultimate Studio, right?

"Anyway." Damien walked into the strange hospital setup. "I fret to imagine Ji-hoon angry at us for taking so long, so let's see this note and get out of here." He suggested.

"Ji-hoon ain't that scary! He's a nice guy! ...Most of the time!" Kei tried to defend his former motive partner. "You're right though. Let's see it, shall we?" He waltzed up and grabbed the note off of the hospital bed before Damien could. "Huh. It... only says one thing."

"And what's that?" Damien's magnificent height of 6'2 compared to Kei's measly height of 6'1 meant that the beautician could technically peek over the lawyer's shoulder, but he stayed back and waited for the reveal like the respectful person he is.

"Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. That's what it says." Kei pronounced the complex medical words with ease.

"I see... I'm afraid my lack of medical knowledge prevents me from knowing what that means." Damien admitted, slightly ashamed.

"Well... let's ask Rosalind about later." Kei pocketed the note. "Considering we found this in her Ultimate Studio, chances are that she knows what this means."

"That's true. Very well. We'll save that problem for now." Damien slowly nodded. "Shall we head out now then? With all of the information we've gathered, I'd like to sort this out."

"Mmmmm... sure." Kei briefly turned into a microwave. "If Rosalind for some reason doesn't like this hospital set being out, then oh well! She shouldn't have stayed behind with Rival!" He shrugged, before heading towards the door. "Let's go."

"Yes... you make a fair point. Let's depart..." Damien trailed off.

"Damien? Something up?" Kei noticed that trail-off.

"...It's rather inconsequential... but I was wondering something." Damien crossed his arms. "During the last trial... you voted for me, didn't you?" He had a blank expression on his face.

"Oh ho... you knew?" Kei smirked.

The room was eerily silent, besides for Nozomi still losing her mind. Damien was probably the only person who voted immediately. Everyone else voted with some hesitation. But after a few minutes...

"Okay! It looks like everyone has voted!" Pheme cheered. "Now... let's see the results shall we?" With another snap of her fingers, Pheme caused a monitor to descend from the ceiling behind her. A monitor that showed the votes. The votes...

...

Ayaka: 6

Damien: 4

"I'm not mad. I'm merely looking for confirmation." Damien crossed his arms.

"I see..." Kei chuckled. "Then yes, I voted for you. And for the record, the other three votes were Nozomi, Rival, and Ji-hoon."

"Hm... Nozomi and Rival I expected... but even you and Ji-hoon?" Damien raised an eyebrow.

"...Ji-hoon doesn't trust you. He claims he "knows the type of person you are" or something." Kei shrugged. "That's why he voted for you."

"...And you?" Damien didn't react to that.

"..." Kei stayed silent for a moment... before turning around. "Let's get going." He left the room.

"...That's how it is then? Heh..." Damien chuckled to himself as he followed Kei out.

[Ultimate Starlet's Studio]

Aurora quietly gasped when she walked into the room. "Is this... my Ultimate Studio?"

Kuroko looked around the new room. "I... think so-nya! It sure seems like it-nya!"

The room the duo of girls walked into was a similar size to Darren's Studio. Not too big, but not too small either. The room had a very brown and red color scheme, with the colors adorning the walls, floor, and ceiling. There seemed to be a few small spotlights on the ceiling, as well as a door on the far wall. There was a button next to the far door too. There were also two panels in the room, one near the far door and one near the entrance.

The main appeal was the center of the room, which had a large and fancy stage. Surrounding the stage were various chairs. There also seemed be a few props atop the stage too. All in all... a humble yet effective stage for a starlet.

"This... isn't too bad!" Aurora's mood hadn't been the best as of late, but this already kind of helped to cheer her up.

"Ooo yeah! This room screams you, Auror-nya!" Kuroko giggled as she started to explore the room more thoroughly.

Aurora giggled. "Does it?" She took a few steps onto the stage. "Well... I suppose it does." It wasn't a stage on the level of Bessie's Studio, but that was alright with her.

"Auror-nya, what's that by your feet-nya?" Kuroko had playfully taken one of the seats, but she couldn't help but notice the pile of props on the stage.

"Hm? Ah!" Aurora bent down to get a closer look. "It appears to be a myriad of acting props! There are... a lot of parasols in this pile too!" She dryly chuckled as she picked up one of the parasols. "These are... oh." The cover part of the parasol came off very easily.

"Is... that supposed to happen-nya?" Kuromo tilted her head.

"Erm... no. Not usually." Aurora may have been constantly carrying around a parasol that I often neglect to mention, but that didn't mean that the starlet was the Ultimate Authority when it came to parasols.

"Let's see... ow!" Aurora tried to investigate the shaft portion of the parasol, but she quick reeled her hand back.

"Auror-nya? Are you okay-nya?" Kuroko stood up from the chair.

"Yes... I'm fine." Aurora set the coverless parasol down as she looked at her bleeding finger. "The tip of the parasol is deceptively sharp. I'll need to be more careful." She stood up.

"Hm... how dare Pheme put in sneaky and dirty tricks like that-nya!" Kuroko set her hands on her hips.

"Yes... dirty indeed." Aurora shook her head. She was right about to walk over to another part of her studio, but she stopped when she noticed something weird in the pile of props. She bent back down to dig it out.

"Auror-nya? What is it?" Kuroko moved closer to the stage, out of concern.

"..." Aurora stayed silent for a moment as she dug out a photograph. And as soon as she got it in her hands, she felt her heart skip a beat. She instantly started to sweat. He breathing quickened. Her hands started to shake.

"A-Auror-nya?" Kuroko watched the starlet start to shake and lose her composure.

"...N-Nothing! It's n-nothing!" Like she just then realized what she was doing, Aurora rapidly crumpled up the photograph and shoved it in her pocket. "Let's g-go over to the door over t-there!" She very suspiciously moved on from the topic as she hopped off of the stage and moved over to the far door.

"Um... okay-nya?" Kuroko saw how blatantly weird that was... but she decided to not question it.

Aurora breathed a sigh of relief at the sound... or lack of sound coming from Kuroko. She was glad she didn't question what that was. "A-Anyway... this door is... strange." As the starlet reached the door, she realized how weird it was.

Mainly, it didn't have a handle. "That's... not normal." Aurora pointed out the obvious. She looked around the door, and her eyes quickly landed on the button next to it. Without any other better ideas, she pressed it. A second later...

"A handle appeared?" Aurora narrowed her eyes as a handle magically appeared onto the door. "Fancy trick..." She muttered as she went to try and open it. But...

"It's gone again?" Aurora was becoming very baffled now.

"What's up, Auror-nya?" Kuroko overheard the starlet being confused.

"Kuroko... can you click this button for me?" Aurora motioned to the button on the wall.

"Um... sure!" Kuroko casually clicked the button.

And like last time, a quick second later, "The handle is back..." Aurora wasn't sure how this was working.

"It's back-nya?" Kuroko wasn't sure what this was.

"This door started out with no handle, but when the button is clicked, the handle reappears. But when I try and open the door..." Aurora reached out to the handle again. But right before she could turn it...

"The handle is gone-nya?" Kuroko tilted her head.

"...I'm beginning to think this is a trick door or something similar." Aurora took a step back.

"You know what... you're probably right, Auror-nya! Let's not waste time on this-nya." Kuroko shook her head.

"Right..." Aurora gave the door one last look, before shifting her attention over to the the other thing of interest nearby.

"Are you curious about the panel now-nya?" Kuroko followed Aurora's eyes.

"Yes I am." Aurora nodded. "There's another one near the entrance, yes?"

"Yeah there is-nya! I can go and check it out-nya!" Kuroko eagerly nodded as she headed over to the entrance.

"Okay then. Let's see here..." With Kuroko over at the entrance, Aurora began to investigate the strange panel. It wasn't too complex, as it only had three buttons. "A left arrow, a right arrow, a normal circular button." She spoke aloud her observation.

"It's the same over here-nya!" Kuroko waved, having heard what Aurora had said.

"I see... let's try it out then." Swallowing her doubts, Aurora clicked the right arrow button.

Instantly... metal bars rose up and trapped Kuroko near the entrance and trapped Aurora near the far door.

"Woah!" Kuroko got scared by the sudden sound.

"What is this?" Aurora set her hands on the bars. "Surely not another trick-" She cut herself off as she started to witness the true purpose of the panel.

"Oh wow..." Kuroko widened her eyes as she watched how the room started to change. The floor itself moved under the room, taking all of the acting props and supplies with it. As the floor moved, a new floor with new supplies took its place, and filled in the gaps.

"Wow... wait. Is this any different?" Aurora tilted her head as she witnessed the new floor come up.

"It's a little different-nya!" Kuroko pointed at the stage. The stage and chairs stayed the same, but a microphone and microphone stand now stood on the stage. And the acting props had been replaced with papers with song lyrics.

"Ah... this is for singing." Aurora realized. "Oh... I think I see. Kuroko? Can you press a button on your panel?"

"Oh! Sure-nya!" Kuroko nodded as she pressed the right arrow button on her own panel.

A few seconds later, the singing stage ducked under the floor, and was replaced but a slightly different stage. It seemed to be a runway for modeling now. Fancier spotlights were around the runway, and the chairs had been rearranged.

"Yes... this must be showcasing my various talents." Aurora casually bragger. "Acting, singing, now modeling."

"Ooo!" Kuroko's eye's started to sparkle. "This is so interesting-nya!" Without waiting for another word from Aurora, the hypnotist clicked the right arrow button once again.

The floor quickly changed once again. As the new floor rose up, the girls could see that this one was fairly different. The runway, spotlights, and chairs were all gone... having been replaced by a simple desk and chair. Various pieces of paper were atop the table, along with a cup with various pens. There was also a single desk lamp on the table too.

"Writing... I suppose I dabble sometimes." Aurora didn't consider her writing to be much compared to her other talents... but she might use this. She'd have to see what happens.

"This has a nice and cozy aura-nya. I like it-nya!" Kuroko nodded in approval. "Let's see what's next-nya!" The hypnotist clicked the right arrow button one more time, her curiosity overtaking her.

"I can't imagine what else..." Aurora struggled to think of another possible talent that could be showcased. "...Hm?" She narrowed her eyes as she glanced into the abyss below the floor. She tried to see what the next one was... it was different. She could tell. But what was it showcasing... "Wait... is that-!" For the second time today in her Ultimate Studio, Aurora felt her heart skip a beat. No... how?! How did Pheme...

Aurora started to frantically click the left arrow button. She really didn't want anyone to see this, much less Kuroko. "Work... work..." She kept spamming the button, hoping to hide this other floor.

"Auror-nya?" Kuroko could see Aurora frantically doing something from across the room, but she couldn't tell exactly what. "Oh... wait-nya." She drifted her eyes away from the starlet and down to the floor when she noticed that the floor had stopped. "Is the new floor... going back-nya?" The hypnotist looked on in confusion as whatever the next floor was went back into the abyss the way it came... then the writing floor replaced it.

"H-How weird... it must be glitched!" Aurora felt a drop of sweat drip down her forehead as she tried to cover for herself. "Oh well!" The starlet gave an exaggerated shrug as she looked back at the panel.

"Oh... really-nya? That's disappointing...-nya." Kuroko slightly frowned, none the wiser of Aurora's attempt to hide the floor.

"Y-Yes... very!" Aurora nervously chuckled. God, she could swear that Pheme was purposely putting stuff like this in here just to mess with her. "Okay, l-let's get these bars down n-now!" She didn't actually know how to do that, but luckily, clicking on the circular button seemed to accomplish that.

"What an interesting gimmick-nya. I kinda want to ask Pheme about it... if I knew where she was-nya." Kuroko stepped onto the writing set-up.

"Yes... I'd love to know what was going through Pheme's mind while she set this up..." Aurora underestimated the mental anguish that the goddess of fame was going to inflict upon them. "Anyway... I think that's everything. Let's... get going. Kuroko?" The starlet wanted to come back to this room... but later. For now, she just wanted out.

"Yeah... okay-nya!" Kuroko gave the room one last look before looking at Aurora. "Auror-nya? Before we go, can I ask something-nya?"

"Um... sure!" Aurora was nervous what this could potentially be about.

Kuroko wanted to approach this in the smartest way possible. "Okay... I'm curious-nya. Do you like girls-nya?"

Aurora felt like her head just got figuratively shot. Seriously?! Two days in a row?! "Um... I'm s-straight, Kuroko." She decided to just get her answer out, but not without stuttering a little.

Kuroko blinked. "You're... straight-nya?" She didn't believe that for a second. "Is that right-nya?"

To Aurora, it felt like her heart was being pummeled. "Y-Yes... that's correct. I'm s-sorry." It didn't feel like Kuroko was asking for the sake of starting a relationship, but she apologized anyway.

"No need to apologize-nya!" Kuroko shook her head. This wasn't the answer that Kuroko was expecting. She's claiming she's straight? Hm... this stinks of a deeper, mental problem. Maybe...

"I'd like to get out of here now, Kuroko." Aurora felt all sorts of... bleh right now.

"Right right... let's get going-nya." Kuroko understood. "But uh... Auror-nya?"

"...What is it?" Aurora bit her lip.

"Everyone is in your corner-nya. And... there's nothing wrong with showing your true colors-nya. Just know... that we'll accept you-nya. I will... and Rai-nya definitely will too-nya." Kuroko gently smiled as she set her hand on Aurora's shoulder. "And you know... I'd be willing to utilize hypnotherapy if it'd help too-nya. Alright?"

"...Alright." Aurora sighed deeply.

"Um... I'll go on ahead-nya." Kuroko could sense that Aurora wanted to he alone now. She accomplished her goal... and now she just had to wait to see what Aurora does next. "I'll see you later Auror-nya!" The hypnotist waved before leaving the room.

...

As Aurora stood there... she felt a wave of jealousy at the hypnotist. She didn't expect Kuroko to be such an impressive girl.

"Showing my true colors..." Aurora looked down at her shaking hands. "If only it was that easy..."

...

Aurora stood there in silence for a few more moments, before leaving her Ultimate Studio.

[Ultimate Ballet Dancer's Studio]

"Oh!" Lake's eyes lit up as they walked into this new Ultimate Studio.

"Hey... this has gotta be your Ultimate Studio, right Lake?" Joji smirked as he followed behind the ballet dancer.

"T-That seems likely..." Ayaka rubbed her arm as she entered last.

"Wow..." Lake's heart felt a little glad for once. They didn't expect to feel this feeling here, of all places.

Lake's Ultimate Studio was a relatively large, square-shaped room. The walls, ceiling, and floor had a white and lavender color scheme. A large, floor length mirror covered the entirety of the left wall. Then there were stationary barres on the right wall. There were also a few portable barres by the far wall. The center of the room was slightly elevated, with a vent grate above the elevated part.

"I bet you like this, don't you Lake?" Joji smiled at seeing Lake smile.

"Yeah! I really do!" Lake started to excitedly run around their studio.

"This r-room... it has a nice aura." Ayaka adjusted her mask.

"I get what you mean." Joji sighed contentedly. "Just like Lake. A nice and... calming aura."

"Heh." Ayaka chuckled. "It's kind of f-funny... but I agree."

"Hey. Uh..." Joji turned to look at the violinist. "Are you okay? I know this is a little random... but after the last trial..." He knew there was technically a chance that Ayaka/Nozomi had masterminded poisoning Genjiro... but seeing the way Ayaka just stands there timidly... he couldn't help but feel a little.

"Oh! Um... well..." Ayaka wasn't sure how to answer. "I'd b-be lying if I said I was fine... but right now, all I want is to not see his face." She shuddered at the thought of Damien. That manipulative bastard. And that ridiculous show of him wanting to "apologize" was just... ugh. What a horrible person.

"I gotcha... okay." Joji slowly nodded. "Just..." He knew this might come off as awkward, considering he and Ayaka hadn't interacted much, but he still wanted to say it. "Just know that you've got people you can rely on and stuff. Got it?"

"...Wow." Ayaka blinked.

"H-Huh? What did I say? I say something weird?" Joji sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"N-No... I just didn't expect something like that from you. No offense." Ayaka shook her head.

"Ah shit..." Joji chuckled. "None taken. I'm just..." He quickly glanced over at Lake. "I'm trying to channel some of Lake's spirit, admittedly. Sure beats being angry all of the time."

"M-Makes sense." Ayaka slowly nodded. "If you don't mind me asking, where did your anger-"

"Guys! Come over here! Come look!" Lake eagerly yelled over at the duo.

"Ah... looks like we're needed. Let's go Ayaka!" Without waiting for the blooming FTE to continue, Joji ran off towards Lake.

"...Well... okay." Ayaka shrugged before promptly joining them, not particularly caring that her FTE with Joji got accidentally quashed.

...

"Look at this pretty mirror!" Lake eagely pointed to the mirror that lined the left wall.

"Shit..." Joji checked his reflection in the mirror. "It's nice quality." He knocked on it a few times. "Very sturdy too. Made of metal. This ain't breaking anytime soon."

"Hey, Lake? I've always w-wondered why ballet studios have such large mirrors like this..." Ayaka checked her reflection too.

"Oh! Well, in a nutshell, it's so that the dancers can watch and track their movements while they dance!" Lake lightly hopped on the balls of their feet. "Being able to watch your movements is very important in ballet!"

"Huh... makes sense." Ayaka nodded along.

"It'd be real interesting to see you dance one day, Lake." Joji chuckled heartily. "It must be really elegant and stuff."

"Heh..." Lake lightly blushed. "I wouldn't mind putting on a small dance for you! And for everyone else too!"

"This w-would be the perfect place for it." Ayaka looked around.

"Yeah! Um... maybe I will!" Lake didn't hate the idea of putting on a small show for everyone. "But let's think about that later. I want to continue looking around!" Like an excited puppy, Lake ran over to another part of their Ultimate Studio.

"Hm... they're usually a little more... r-refined than this." Ayaka pointed out as she slowly followed behind them.

"They've been going through a lot... I don't blame them for relishing an opportunity to be excited." Joji sighed. He knew that, compared to everyone else, Lake was a lot more... innocent. So much so that the previous four deaths were definitely still heavily impacting them. So he understands them seizing the opportunity to be excited. He'll just have to do what he can to make sure that Lake's attitude doesn't dim...

"Joji! Come on!" Lake called the carpenter over.

"Oh! Sorry!" Joji didn't realize he was zoning out. Even Ayaka had gotten ahead of him! "Coming!" He jogged over to where the duo was.

...

"I've seen these before... w-what exactly are they?" Ayaka stared at the barres on the right wall.

"They're called barres!" Lake started to stretch their leg out on one. "It used for balance and support during warm-up exercises and training!"

"Oh... I'll leave that to you." Ayaka had a feeling she wasn't flexible enough for that.

"Again... this is some sturdy stuff. Made out of metal." Joji knocked on the barre. "Stretches across the entire wall... I imagine this to be pretty useful, huh?"

"Oh! Joji!" Lake somehow didn't hear the carpenter approach. "Yeah... this'll be good for training! I don't know how flexible you are Joji, but this is a decent workout you know!"

"Uh... maybe not." Joji nervously chuckled. He knew he had the muscle... but he wasn't sure about flexibility.

"Aw, come on! One of you should try! It's easy!" Lake pointed between Ayaka and Joji.

"Um... no." Joji and Ayaka said in unison. They didn't want to disappoint Lake, but they also knew their limits.

"Aw... okay!" Lake shrugged. "Next... is that wall! Come on!" They skipped over to the final wall.

"Heh... let's go!" Joji didn't waste anytime in jogging after Lake.

"W-Wait up!" Ayaka didn't want to be left behind! She didn't jog though, she merely walked after them.

...

When she reached the duo after a few seconds... Ayaka happened to spot something strange. She could've sworn they saw Lake take something off of the portable barres and shove it in their pocket. What... was that?"

"I see... so these barres are portable then?" Joji read off the non plot important narration.

"Y-Yep! Exactly!" Lake was clearly a little shaken by whatever it was that they found, but Joji didn't seem to notice. "They can be wheeled around too! That's- uh, why they're portable!" They realized that what they said was little redundant.

"Right..." Joji pushed one of them back and forth a little. "There are three of them, huh? Again, this sure seems useful!"

"It really is the p-perfect studio for you, Lake." Ayaka decided to ignore that previous strange sight she saw.

"Yeah..." Lake looked down at their pocket. "You know... I think I want to call it there. We've investigated everything, I think!"

"Huh? I... guess so!" Joji looked around the room. "There ain't actually that much in here... now that I'm looking at the whole room."

"I still like it of course!" Lake nodded. "But I think that's enough for now! We don't want to keep Ji-hoon waiting!"

"I d-don't know if he's already waiting down at the cafeteria... but you have a point." Ayaka wasn't exactly ecstatic about making a man like Ji-hoon annoyed.

"Right?" Lake giggled a little. "So let's go!" They skipped towards the entrance.

"Hold on Lake!" Joji jogged after them, not expecting them to leave immediately.

"Hm..." Ayaka thought back to Lake stuffing that thing in their pocket. She didn't imagine it to be too important... but they couldn't get it out of her mind. In fact... hm. She may have figured something out. But she'll leave that for later.

"W-Wait up!" Again, not wanting to be left behind, Ayaka ran after Lake and Joji as they left the Ultimate Studio.

[Pool]

"Wow that chlorine smell is strong..." Ji-hoon immediately got flashbacks to the broken box in his room.

"The fuck?! Really? A pool?!" Alpha seemed disgusted.

...

"Huh... you know, I'm surprised the BDSM bitch didn't have something like this on a lower floor." But she quickly changed her tune.

"...I agree." Ji-hoon quickly started taking cautious steps around the room. "Given a woman like Pheme, she seemed like the type to show something like this off already."

"That's literally what I just said." Alpha leaned back against the wall, generously letting Ji-hoon do all of the legwork here. "

"Hmph. Not helping me investigate?" Ji-hoon wasn't exactly expecting some magical character development from Alpha after what happened, but he had hoped that she'd change a little.

"Nope." Alpha popped a piece of candy in her mouth. "This is all you. Show off those leader skills or whatever."

"Fine." After earlier, Ji-hoon wasn't in the mood to fight with anyone. Besides, it's not like the room was that big. "First off... I'd like to know the dimensions of this pool..."

"It's pretty damn big. You need to know more than that?" Alpha took another piece of candy.

"There's nothing wrong with having more information." Ji-hoon looked around the walls. "Ah! Found it." He spotted a small piece of paper taped onto the otherwise barren white wall. The floor was white, and tiled as well. "75 x 25 x 10 ft, huh?"

"Like I said. Pretty damn big." Alpha kept indulging in some candy. "So it's 75 feet long, 25 feet side, and 10 feet deep. Big fucking pool."

"Right..." That was all of the relevant information Ji-hoon could spot. With that out of the way, he shifted his focus to the pool itself. "Well, it looks like the dimensions aren't a lie. The water..." He bent down and stuck his hand in. "It's lukewarm."

"You gonna take a dip or some shit? There's a locker room on the far wall." Alpha motioned to the far wall.

"There is?" Ji-hoon looked to where Alpha had motioned. And like she said, there was a door that said "Locker Room" on the far wall. Presumably where people would change first, before jumping into the pool. "Hm..." He walked up to the door and tried to open it. "Locked. Annoying."

"Bitch doesn't want us in there, I guess." Alpha shrugged.

"Hmph." Ji-hoon made a mental note to ask Pheme about that later. Wait. Where even is Pheme? He thought she wanted to join them to explain some stuff... huh. Weird.

"You almost done?" Alpha impatiently tapped her foot on the ground.

"I'm not forcing you to stay in here, Alpha." Ji-hoon wasn't the type to take Alpha's usual nonsense.

"You sure seemed keen on forcing Raiha along with you. The fuck even was that?" Alpha stopped leaning against the wall and took a step forth the celebrity detective.

"..." Ji-hoon rolled his eyes and took one last look around the room. That... was essentially all there was to see here. There was a vent grate above the northeast corner of the pool, viewing it from the entrance. But he couldn't be sure if that was even important.

"Hey? Earth to fuckface? You gonna answer me?" Alpha stood in front of the exit.

"...It's not your problem, Alpha." Ji-hoon didn't feel like he needed to let her know.

"Oh yeah?" Alpha didn't believe that. "You're not the type of person to randomly be suspicious of- oh. You're suspicious of Raiha, aren't you?" She cracked on it fairly quick.

Ji-hoon quietly groaned. "I'm not asking for your cooperation or any nonsense like that." He decided to explain a little of his thought process. "Just know... that Raiha Miyahara cannot be trusted. And right now, I'm attempting to be sutble... but I'm going to make sure that she doesn't attempt anything. She hasn't yet... but I'm afraid she will soon. And when that happens... I'll stop her." He showed the determination of a true celebrity detective.

"She been on your radar for a while then?" Alpha's expression stayed unmoving.

"For a while, yes. Even prior to this Killing Game. After the two incidents she was involved in, I've had my eye on her." Ji-hoon dropped a little lore. "She's the type to backstab and betray anyone and everyone... so I'm going to make sure she doesn't do that. This Killing Game gave me a lucky opportunity to catch someone like her... and I'll make sure I do that... by any means necessary. She won't get to abuse her privilege... or abuse anyone in general while I'm here."

"I see." Alpha acted surprisingly serious. "Lemme guess. You don't wanna express this to everyone to avoid chaos and misunderstandings and whatever?"

"Essentially." Ji-hoon nodded.

"Well shit... alright." Alpha nodded too, then stepped out of the way. "All I wanted to fucking know." She shrugged.

"Good. Let's go. We're done here." Ji-hoon walked out without looking back.

"Betrayal... we'll see about that." Alpha balled both of her hands up into fists... before joining Ji-hoon a few seconds later.

[Grand Lobby - 3F]

"Again... you sure you're good, Rai-Rai?" Yoshino wanted to check one more time.

"I'm gucci... DW!" Raiha shook her head.

"Aight... good." Yoshino sighed. "What the hell was Jiji's problem..."

"Heh... it's probs nothing!" Raiha nervously chuckled. "I don't wanna keep thinking about it! Let's investigate, yeah?"

"Yeah... but where?" Yoshino wanted to start investigating too, but she wasn't sure what rooms weren't taken at this point.

"Erm... lemme see..." Raiha looked over the map as she walked around the third floor. "How about... the room behind Darren's Studio?"

"Sure! Works for me!" Yoshino had no problems with that.

The girls were only little bit away from the room in question, so it didn't take long for them to find... a rather interesting room.

"It should be right here- what the fuck?! Seriously?!"

"Dang... that's kinda crazy!"

Yoshino and Raiha looked on in shock at the sight of a third boarded-up room. This door rocked countless wooden boards, all secured tightly onto and around the door itself. A handle, lock, or anything similar wasn't even visible.

"Well gee..." Raiha went up to the door and attempted to open it. To the surprise of no one, it didn't budge.

"What the hell... these damn rooms!" Considering how deeply the previous two boarded-up rooms were involved in the past cases... Yoshino couldn't help but be a little agitated at the sight of another one.

"Dang... can we even do anything?" Raiha wasn't sure what to do.

"Nah... but let's be sure to report this to everyone else." Yoshino groaned.

"Yeah... IG so." Raiha sighed. "But YK... I wonder."

"Wonder what?" Yoshino asked as the girls moved onto another nearby destination.

"The second boarded-up room... was the Ultimate EMT's Studio." Raiha recalled. "Was... the first boarded-up room an Ultimate Studio?" She looked back sadly... considering her bestie Bessie perished in that room.

"Huh... hadn't thought about that. Maybe? Don't know what or who it'd be for." Yoshino decided to not bring up Bessie's untimely death in that room.

"Yeah... prolly a waste of time to think about it..." Raiha nervously chuckled. "Anyway, let's look at this!" Brushing past the topic, the girls reached their next destination. It was a door that didn't appear on the map.

"Weird door." Yoshino said plainly as she tried to open it. Unsurprisingly, it was locked. "Shit." She swore plainly.

"Unlucky for us! Getting all of the locked doors! Hmph!" Raiha pouted.

"Fuck... well, it's still useful to know, I guess." Yoshino shrugged. "Uh... but that's probably everything we can look into, huh?"

"IG..." Raiha kept pouting.

"But you know... before we head out... can I ask you something, Rai-Rai?" Yoshino crossed her arms as she turned to the trendsetter.

"Ummm... sure! Whatcha got?" Raiha shrugged.

"So... you don't have to answer this if you don't want to. If this is too much or whatever... it's all good." Yoshino started to feel a little awkward about going with Kuroko's "plan."

"Uh... okay?" Raiha tilted her head.

"Okay... so last night... did anything happen with you and Roro?" Yoshino just went and asked it.

Raiha's face instantly and figuratively turned into a tomato. "Uhhhhhhh... w-w-why do you ask??" She wasn't subtle at all.

"No reason I guess... just curious." Yoshino's goal here was to just confirm what exactly happened with the two besties last night, yet she didn't want to be too intrusive with it.

"Oh... well... nothing. I guess. Nothing happened. Don't worry about it." If Raiha was attempting to hide the downcast look on her face, she was doing a bad job of it.

"I... gotcha." Yoshino felt like Kuroko's theory was true. "Anyway... that's it I think. You wanna get going?" She didn't feel like prying.

"Yeah... yeah! L-Let's go!" Raiha tried to put a smile back on her face.

Yoshino patted Raiha on her back. The girls didn't say another word as they started to head down.

[Ultimate Backing Vocalist's Studio]

...

"Are you... good to go... Rosalind?" Rival wasn't sure how long they'd been sitting here... but he was getting a little antsy. He was fine with waiting as long as he needed to... but even he couldn't deny that itch to explore his Ultimate Studio.

"Oh..." Rosalind slowly opened her eyes. "Forgive *cough* me. I seemed to have fallen asleep." She shook her head in attempt to get her cobwebs out.

"Not the first time you've done that..." Rival remarked.

"Hm? ...Ah. That's right." Rosalind had almost forgotten about that.

"Hey... Rosalind?" Before Rival broke it as he turned to look at the cinematographer. "You... oh." He had something he wanted to tell her, but he stopped when he realized he could hear her softly snoring. "Well... I'll leave her alone." He whispered while getting up.

"I didn't mean... any offense." Rival scratched the back of his head.

"None *cough* taken." Rosalind dryly chuckled as she slowly got to her feet, using her parasol for support. "Now... we've wasted enough time."

"Are... you okay?" Rival didn't want to be overbearing or weird or whatever... but... he simply found himself being concerned over the cinematographer.

"I'm *cough cough* fine." Rosalind hit Rival with the rare double cough as she began to move around. "Let's get to investigating... shall we? I'll attempt to not burden your exploration of your Ultimate Studio."

"Uh..." Rosalind's attitude gave Rival whiplash at times. But... if she says she's fine... "Yeah... let's see here." He got up from the chair he was in, and finally gave his Ultimate Studio a proper observation.

To describe it simply... Rival's Ultimate Studio was basically a smaller version of Bessie's Studio. It had much of the same things. A decently sized stage, rows of seating, spotlights above the stage, as well a microphone on a microphone stand on top of the stage. The lights were generally dimmer compared to Bessie's Studio and the walls, ceiling, and floor took on a more blueish color scheme.

"Well... Pheme certainly took Backing Vocalist... kinda seriously." Rival sighed.

"Indeed. It appears to basically be a *cough* smaller version of Bessie's Studio." Rosalind moved to behind the seating.

"Yep." Rival wasn't sure how he felt about that. "But... there is the stairs." He pointed to the open stairwells. "That's a little... different."

"That's true. Not to mention *cough* the bridge connecting here to the rest of the third floor." Rosalind started to move towards the bridge.

"Yeah... that's also... wait. Bridge?" Rival wasn't aware of this. "Where?"

"Over *cough* here." Rosalind waved the backing vocalist over as she reached the bridge first.

"Oh... wow." Rival didn't realize it at first, but there sure was a bridge that connected his studio to the rest of the third floor. "Can't tell... how long it is." He walked the length of it, then set his hands on the railing. "It... woah." He looked over the railing, and saw Bessie's Studio.

"According to *cough* Pheme, that must be an eight story drop." Rosalind looked over the railing as well. "It's a neat view... yet..." She didn't finish her thought.

But Rival knew exactly what she was going to say. The railing seemed decently sturdy... but a drop like that could easily kill someone. And this doesn't seem like something that could be solved with a secure wooden box. "Well... at least the bridge probably won't fall." He hopped up and down a few times. "The bridge itself feels sturdy."

"That's *cough* good then." Rosalind nodded. "Let us move back over to the main part of the studio now." She hobbled over to, like she said, the main part of the studio.

"...Okay." Rival had no problems with that. He gave one last look down at Bessie's Studio... before joining Rosalind.

"Hm..." Rosalind hummed as she hobbled back to where she and Rival were initially sitting. "You know, I believe this is *cough* already it."

"Huh..." Rival looked around. "I guess so..."

"...This is a nice Ultimate Studio, Rival." Rosalind nodded.

"...Thanks." Rival didn't know how to respond to that.

...

A... not so awkward silence fell upon the duo. A surprisingly... nice silence.

"Rival..." But Rosalind just had to break it! "What's that over *cough* there?" She pointed to one of the seats.

"What's... what?" Rival turned in the direction of where she was pointing. "Oh... that's..." He slowly walked over to what he had spotted. It was a photograph.

"She's... cute." Rosalind had crept behind Rival shockingly fast, and looked at what he had picked up.

Rival wasn't scared or anything. He just stared at the picture. It was of a pink-haired girl smiling and waving.

"Rival...?" Rosalind tilted her head. "Is this... Hanako?"

Rival visibly flinched. "...Yeah." He actually admitted it. Just like with Nozomi, everyone knew about her already. He didn't see any point in hiding it.

"She seems like a *cough* nice girl." Rosalind spoke slowly.

"...Yeah." Rival replied with the same tone as he turned the photograph over. He didn't fully turn it over though, as when he saw what was on the other side, he quickly pocketed the photo. "I think... that really is it."

"Hm? Rival?" Rosalind noticed something on the other side of the photograph, but she wasn't able to see what it actually was.

"Do you... wanna go now... Rosalind?" Rival took a few steps towards the stairs.

"Very well." Rosalind slowly nodded. There wasn't actually much in Rival's Studio, generally speaking. "Shall we- *cough* oh wait." She had approached the stairs, but there was something that caught her eye.

"Rosalind...?" Rival slowly narrowed his eyes. "What's up?"

"Look." Rosalind pointed to a yellow lightning bolt on the wall next to the left stairwell. "What is that?"

"A... lightning bolt?" Rival couldn't think of any way that could relate to him, so he took a few curious steps towards it.

"Any ideas, Rival?" Rosalind slowly followed behind him.

"Huh..." Rival felt around the lightning bolt... until he discovered a handle that blended in with the wall. He pulled on it, and...

"What *cough* is this?" Rosalind blinked.

"I... don't know." Rival didn't dare experiment with this any more... considering he was staring at a bunch of wires and switches. Nothing was labeled, so he had zero idea what to do with this. "Uh... I'm going to close this." He closed the strange... fuse box? Is that what it is?

"It'd be wise to report this to the *cough* rest of the group." Rosalind took a step back.

"I don't know... if anyone would even know what this is... but you're right." Rival tried to take some mental notes of what he was looking at. "Okay... now that's it... I think." He walked ahead of Rosalind and onto the stairwell.

"Yes..." Rosalind checked her Star-Phone. It had gotten late rather fast today. "Let us go, Rival." She hobbled on over to the stairs, and started to take careful, methodical steps down.

"..." Rival kept ahead of her, but he didn't say anything. Admittedly, he wanted to go ahead of her to make it easier if he had to catch her if she fell.

...

He felt a little embarrassed saying that though, and she seemed to be adamant about not needing help earlier, so all he did was try to keep a watchful eye on Rosalind as the duo slowly walked down the stairs...

[Cafeteria]

"...What." Rival gave the most deadpan expression possible as he entered the cafeteria.

"How..." Rosalind looked behind herself. "How were we *cough* beaten here?" She blinked.

Yes, literally everyone else managed to beat the duo down to the cafeteria.

"Your really confused how you two, the fucking covid queen and emo king themselves, managed to get here last?" Alpha leaned back in the chair she was sitting in and crossed her arms.

"No one left the third floor before us though..." Rival was still confused.

"It's because you two are slow. That shit is obvious." Thank god for Alpha and her bluntness. "That or you were making out. Rosalind probably has a-"

"Rival. Rosalind. Sit down." Ji-hoon motioned to the seats, not wanting Alpha to finish her thought.

"...Right." Rival didn't need to be told twice as he quickly took a seat. Rosalind took the seat next to him a few moments later.

"Okay, we're all here!" Ji-hoon didn't fully count this afternoon, so he was glad to see everyone actually attend a meeting, even Cathy and Alpha.

"Yes we are. And..." Kei checked his Star-Phone. "It's already 10:00. Let's get going on explaining what we found, yeah?"

"You know... I'd kinda like to have Pheme here-nya. There are things I'd like to ask her-nya!" Kuroko said something that no one, besides for maybe Sempi, has ever said before.

"Indeed, Kuroko. I have my own questions for the goddess as well." Damien nodded.

"I thought she was gonna explore with us or whatever... but I guess not." Yoshino shrugged. "Eh. We don't need her here anyway." She understandably wasn't eager to talk with the goddess.

"I understand where you are coming from, Akiyama. But Ayaka wanted to ask her something. So, I'd like her presence here as well." Suddenly, Nozomi!

"Woah!" Lake got a little jumpscared by that. "Are you... Nozomi?"

"That's correct, Beaumont. Ayaka informed me of something she wished to ask Pheme, and she believed I'd be able to articulate it better. So, I am here." Nozomi held up a note detailing Ayaka's thought.

"Nozomi. I'd like to-"

"Is there a way to call the goddess here?" Nozomi boldly ignored and cut off Damien as she looked around.

"...Perhaps Kei should?" Damien crossed his arms, sensing that Nozomi didn't want to talk about anything regarding the last trial. "He is her favorite, no?"

"You jelly, Damien?" Raiha lightly giggled.

"Far from it." Damien denied the accusation immediately. "I'd rather not be the favorite of a woman like Pheme."

"Damn... that felt pointed." Kei chuckled.

"Hey man... I forget if this has been asked before... but Kei? Any ideas why you're Pheme's favorite?" Joji raised an eyebrow.

"Heck if I know." Kei shrugged. "Anyway... I'm curious." He cleared his voice. "Hey Pheme?" He looked around expectantly.

...

"Ah! Mr. Aikawa! Did you call for me?" Pheme suddenly burst through the door to the cafeteria.

"Nyahaha! It appears the goddess is still around!" Cathy chortled.

"Hey Pheme." Darren waved to the batshit insane goddess.

"Hey... you're still around I see. You abandoned us earlier." Kei raised his eyebrows.

"Forgive me everyone! I know you all yearned for my wonderful presence!" Pheme put her hand up to her neck.

"Why did you suddenly disappear, Pheme?" Ji-hoon knew that Kei was just going to be all carefree about it, so he decided to go and ask the question on everyone's minds.

"Oh! Well..." Pheme rubbed her neck. "Don't worry about it!" She avoided the question as she jumped up onto the central table, then sat down and crossed her legs.

"Are you... sitting on the table-nya?" Kuroko's mind couldn't help but drift as she layed her eyes upon Pheme's long and shapedly legs.

"Kindly, that is rather unsanitary." Damien, like the kind person he was, looked out for the health of his fellow stars.

"Unsanitary?!" Pheme seemed offended. "You ought to be honored I'm gracing the table with my presence!"

"Aight this is getting kinda..." Raiha felt the ick start to slowly rise up in her body

"Enough! It's fine!" All Ji-hoon wanted was to stay on topic. Was that so much to ask?

"If the goddess isn't going to answer why she disappeared, I say we get right to what we found." Nozomi layed her hands down in her lap.

"Exactly, Nozomi." Ji-hoon kind of appreciated the presence of Ayaka's other, superior half.

"...I can start." Rival volunteered. Not because of initiative, he's just getting tired.

"Go for it!" Stealing Ji-hoon's line, Kei leaned back in his chair.

"Very *cough* well." Rosalind nodded. She was alright with getting their findings out of the way first. It wasn't like there was a lot anyway. "As you all already saw it... I'll keep it quick. But Rival and I investigated the Ultimate Backing Vocalist's Studio."

"Yep." Rival nodded. "To sum it up... it's basically a smaller version of Bessie's Studio." He was proud of himself for not tripping up when saying Bessie's name. "Same... kind of stuff. Stage, seats, spotlights, whatever. There was the... bridge though."

"Oh yeah! That... made me a little nervous, if I can be honest!" Lake seemed a little embarrassed saying that.

"I can understand that, Lake." Aurora gently nodded. "I may not be afraid of heights or anything like that, but being suspended eight stories in the air... isn't comforting, to say the least.

"It seemed super sturdy though!" Joji realized how much he's been saying the word "sturdy" this chapter. "No way that's breaking or falling!"

"Someone sure could be pushed off." Alpha didn't care about bringing up death like that.

"Please don't say that..." Lake hugged themselves.

"Lake... it's alright!" Joji patted them on the back, in attempt to comfort them. "What the hell, Alpha?"

"Am I wrong?" Alpha shrugged.

Ji-hoon groaned. "She really isn't... but bring it up a little more tactfully next time." Said the master of not having tact. "The matter of someone potentially pushing someone off... we'll deal with it later." He honestly wasn't sure of a way to properly defend against that. "Rival. Rosalind. Continue."

"...Okay." Rival stretched his arms. "Besides for that... and the stairwells... I think there was a fuse box or something like that?"

"Oh! You found the fusebox?" Pheme turned to face the backing vocalist, extending her legs out while she did so.

"Uh... that's what I said." Rival looked away from the legs in the center of his vision.

"Is that truly what that *cough* was, Pheme?" Rosalind tilted her head.

"Indeed! That's what it was! A fusebox!" Pheme took out her dagger and thrust it in the air. "It controls the lighting systems in multiple places throughout this entire studio!"

...

Rival blinked. "That... seems incredibly important."

"Yeah! Why is it in Rival's studio-nya?" Kuroko was confused.

Pheme shrugged. "Don't worry about it!"

"She's like a fucking doll with that answer." Alpha rolled her eyes.

"Makes sense she ain't answering though." Yoshino groaned.

"I'd be happy to explain more about it if anyone is curious!" Pheme checked her Star-Phone. "Most likely tomorrow though! It's getting late, and I need my beauty sleep! So let's move on!" She clapped her hands. "Mr. Kaneshiro, Mx. Beaumont, and Ms. Nozomi! Your turn!"

"Why the hell are you-" Ji-hoon didn't expect to get usurped by Pheme of all people.

"We can go!" Lake accidentally parried Ji-hoon's complaint with a bright smile. "So... Joji, Ayaka, and I found the Ultimate Ballet Dancer's Studio! So, my Ultimate Studio!" Their excitement about it was very apparent.

"No shit? Good for you!" Yoshino kind of understood that feeling of excitement.

"It truly was a proper studio for ballet dancers, according to Ayaka." Nozomi nodded. "The left side of the room had a floor length mirror that stretched across the entire wall."

"It was a high quality mirror too!" Joji appreciated the chances he had been getting to flex his carpentry skills.

"I've always wanted to at least try ballet..." It was an area that Aurora had never really dipped her toes into.

"If that is your wish Beaufort, the studio had multiple barres to utilize for practice. Both stationary and portable." Nozomi explained.

"Again, like I've said, they're real sturdy too!" Joji repeated himself.

"Yeah... thanks for the studio, Pheme! It's even nicer than the one I usually go to!" Of course Lake would thank Pheme for that.

"You're very welcome, Mx. Beaumont!" Pheme appreciated someone appreciating her efforts.

"You don't gotta thank her Lake..." Joji eyed the goddess. "But anyway... that it for Lake's Studio?"

"I believe so." Nozomi nodded. "Ah, but there was a vent grate in the ceiling. Right in the middle of the room."

"Really?" Ji-hoon raised an eyebrow. "There was a vent grate in the pool too."

"Oooo! A pool-nya?!" That sounded like fun to Kuroko.

"I'm surprised it took this long for a room like that to appear." Damien didn't hate the idea of a pool either.

"Sounds you like you want to go next, Ji-hoon?" Kei looked at the celebrity detective expectantly.

"Sure. I can." Ji-hoon nodded. "Like I said, Alpha and I found the pool."

"Yep." Alpha affirmed. "Weird having a pool on an elevated floor, but I'm not questioning shit here."

"Right." Ji-hoon hadn't actually thought specifically about that. "The pool was... your average pool room. The dimensions were 75 x 25 x 10 ft. Plenty of room for all us."

"Pool party inc???" Raiha predicted this chapter's event that totally won't go wrong.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves..." Aurora didn't hate the idea of a pool party. But with Raiha there...

"I mean, there is a locker room in there. So people can change and shit." Alpha shrugged. "It was locked though."

"Oh yes!" Pheme stuck her finger up like she got reminded of something. "I've had trouble getting the lock on the locker room to work correctly, so that's why it's locked! I'm going to attempt to trt it working for your enjoyment tomorrow!"

"Thanks for actually answering a question, Pheme." Darren wanted to make a cameo.

"Huh... okay." Ji-hoon started to wonder about that locker room. "Besides for those, again like I said, there was a vent grate above the corner of the pool."

"Nyaha! I've just recalled! There was a vent grate in the bartender human's Ultimate Studio!" Cathy decided to not withhold information for once.

"There's a joke to be made here about a *cough* certain game..." Rosalind alluded to a certain game. She would've explicitly said it, but Pheme didn't want to get hit with a copyright strike.

"Really? That's basically everything in the pool, so you go ahead Cathy." Ji-hoon handed the cat burglar the metaphorical talking stick, not sure if he actually expected her to talk.

"Nyahaha!" Cathy stuffed the metaphorical talking stick into her metaphorical bag of stolen goods. "So be it then! The bartender human and I found the Ultimate Bartender's Studio!"

"Oh, perfect! I was hoping you'd get to explore it, Mr. Taylor!" Pheme's eyes lit up. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Yeah. I did." Darren took a sip of some vaguely alcoholic drink. "My Ultimate Studio had a lot of alcohol. Like expected. Even a few empty alcohol bottles."

"For the humans that enjoy booze, it seems like a paradise!" Cathy scoffed at the idea of booze. Like she'd willingly indulge in human nonsense like that. "Behind the bar counter, there were plentiful bartending supplies! Easily beating out the Comedy Studio!"

"Yep." Darren nodded, fully knowing that he could potentially spend 24/7 in there. "Along with the supplies, there was a drawer full of silver rings." He held up his hand. "But Cathy stole them." It was unclear if Darren was actually upset over that.

"Truly, Ms. Munchkin? ...I'm impressed!" Pheme nodded in approval.

"I'm not looking for your approval, goddess!" Cathy rolled her eyes.

"Oh right. I almost forgot. Ji-hoon? I found something in my Ultimate Studio." Darren's expression didn't change.

"What is it?" Darren going out of his way to say stuff was strange to Ji-hoon, but this did technically involve alcohol, so it made sense.

Darren held his hands up as he slowly reached into his pocket... and pulled out a gun.

"What the hell?!" Ji-hoon immediately stood up.

"Taylor?" Nozomi widened her eyes.

Darren kept his hands up. "I found it in my Ultimate Studio. Cathy can attest."

"Nyahaha!" That was Cathy's way of attesting.

"Well why the fuck was there a gun in your Ultimate Studio?!" Joji instinctively held his arm out in front of Lake.

"I have experience handling guns. I'm assuming Pheme can attest to that." Darren shifted his eyes over to Pheme. "I have more experience with shotguns though."

"Hm... yes! Mr. Taylor is right!" And Pheme did attest.

"Okay..." Ji-hoon calmed down a little. "What are the specs?" He wanted to know just how dangerous this gun was.

"It's a 9mm pistol. It's loaded with six bullets. Neither Cathy or I could find any other bullets, so six is all the ammo, it seems." Darren gave the specs.

"This is scary-nya! Pheme really gave us a gun-nya?" Kuroko for some reason acted like that was ridiculous.

"After Damien's poisons and Joji's tools... I'm not surprised." Aurora nervously smiled.

Pheme just giggled. She didn't say anything.

"Got it." Ji-hoon noted that down. "Now. Let's-"

"Can I make a suggestion?" Darren was getting tired of holding his arms up, but he didn't want to throw anyone off. "If you're going to ask for the gun, hold on. Let me watch it."

"You?" Ji-hoon crossed his arms, waiting for the bartender to explain further.

"Like I and Pheme said, I have experience with guns. So I know what I'm doing. And if I keep it in my Ultimate Studio... it'll be very secure. I'll never leave." Darren was self aware of one of his endearing character traits.

"...Fair point." Ji-hoon nodded.

"Is Dare-bear really gonna guard it 24/7?" Yoshino gave Darren a nickname! Apparently she deemed him worthy!

Darren didn't react to the nickname, but he did internally acknowledge it.

"That's a cute nickname-nya!" Kuroko externally acknowledged it.

Darren still didn't react.

Yoshino chuckled a little. "Felt like I had no reason to not give him one. And I mean... I trust the guy." She showed her trust in the bartender.

Darren still didn't react. "So, Ji-hoon?"

"...Is everyone alright with this?" Ji-hoon turned to face the rest of the group.

"I am!" Pheme eagerly nodded.

"I wasn't asking you!" Ji-hoon immediately bit back at the goddess.

"I mean... I trust him." Joji slowly nodded. "For as secretive as he is... I don't think he's evil or something."

"Yeah! I believe in Darren!" Lake believed in everyone, but still.

"Taylor is... strangely trustworthy." Nozomi wasn't sure why she felt that way... but she did.

"I think... I agree." Rival couldn't imagine Darren being a schemer or whatever.

"And you *cough* know... if anything does happen... it'll be clear who is suspicious." Rosalind dryly chuckled.

"That is true. I... don't believe he'd do anything though." And now Damien is believing in Darren!

"Well alright. Keep it safe, Darren." Ji-hoon sat down, any worries he had being sufficiently crushed.

"...Thanks." Darren realized that he's gotten too much focus, so he immediately sat down, pocketed the gun, and faded into the background. But not without noticing Cathy looking away from him... with a slight blush on her face. Heh.

"Was that everything, Darren?" Kei wanted to make sure.

Darren faded back to the foreground. "After the vent grate in the ceiling, then yeah." He faded back into the background.

"Okay. The hell is up with these vent grates?" Joji had enough of being blue-balled regarding this information.

"Ain't they been in three rooms now?" Yoshino had to recall. "The pool, Monty's Studio, and Dare-bear's Studio, right?"

"There is one outside of Mr. Taylor's Ultimate Studio too!" Pheme corrected her.

"Okay... so what the hell is the deal with them?!" Yoshino threw her hands up in the air.

"Patience, Ms. Akiyama! I shall explain!" Pheme giggled. "There isn't much to explain though! There are merely multiple vent systems in the ceiling of the third floor! And the openings are in the pool, Mx. Beaumont's Studio, Mr. Taylor's Studio, andoutside Mr. Taylor's Studio!"

Alpha rolled her eyes. "Vents? Christ, this really is Am-"

"Hey! Ms. Jane! We don't have the authority to say the name of the game you were about to say! So kindly be quiet!" Pheme shushed the gas station manager.

Kei chuckled. "Well, if we can't say that, can we at least ask why there are vents?"

"For fun of course!" Pheme clapped her hands together. "I'll leave it a mystery as to the exact map of the vents, but some of you should be able to fit in them!"

"Rly?" Raiha looked down at herself.

"Huh... we'll have to do that tomorrow. Test who can and who can't fit." Ji-hoon already started making plans for tomorrow. "That's all the vent grates we've seen so far then?"

"I believe so!" Damien spoke on behalf on the entire group.

"Alright then." Ji-hoon took down a few notes. "Let's keep going. And since you spoke up Damien, how about you describe what you and Kei found?"

"We can do that!" Damien ran his hand through his hair, wasting no time on explaining his findings. "So, Kei and I discovered the Ultimate Studio of my dear Rosalind! The Ultimate Cinematographer's Studio!"

Rosalind raised her eyebrows. "Oh really? Tell me *cough* more." She was understandably curious.

"It was a fascinating room, honestly." Kei didn't intend for that come off as sarcastic, but he was aware it might've. "It had five different... modes, I guess."

"Modes?" Rosalind narrowed her eyes.

"Indeed." Damien took over. "There were two panels in the room that controlled the modes. Ok these panels were three buttons. A left arrow, a right arrow, and a normal circular button. When you clicked either of the arrows, metal bars rise up to assumedly protect you."

"Really?" Aurora couldn't help but find that familiar.

"Uh huh." Kei nodded. "Clicking the arrow buttons cycles through different movie genre modes, I suppose. They all have their own things, but make it quick, it was Horror, Comedy, Action, Mystery... then hospital."

"Yeah... okay... wait. Hospital?" Raiha stopped her nodding along when she heard that last word. "TF you mean hospital?"

"We were hoping to ask my dear Rosalind about that." Damien stared directly at one of his few remaining dears. "As they cycled through these modes, the floor itself would move under the floor and vanish. A second later, it'd be replaced by a new floor, one which featured whatever movie genre. But the last one... was styled after a hospital. With more medical supplies, by the way."

"You have any idea 'bout that, Rosalind?" Kei raised an eyebrow. "And by the by..." He took out a piece of paper, made a paper airplane out of it, and tossed it Rosalind's way. "This was sitting on the hospital bed. Any ideas at all?"

Rosalind silently caught the paper airplane and unfolded it. As soon as read it, she glared at Pheme, then pocketed it. "To answer your *cough* question... yes. I believe I know. But it's not relevant, I assure you."

...

"Eh. If you say so!" Kei shrugged. Despite how blatantly suspicious that was, he chose to ignore that.

"Rosalind...?" Rival quietly asked, but the cinematographer seemingly didn't hear.

"If that's the case... then I'll move on." Damien respected his dear Rosalind's boundaries. "For notable things... there were two ladders and an audio recorder in the horror mode. And..."

"What about the door, Damien?" Kei moved the beautician along to a different topic.

"A... door-nya?" Kuroko found this all too familiar.

"Ah yes! There was that trick door in the back of my dear Rosalind's studio!" Damien recalled. "You'd occasionally be able to spot a handle on it... yet it goes away rather quickly. There was a button next to the door that you could push that could summon the handle back... only for it to disappear a few seconds later. Frankly, it was rather annoying.

"Sounds annoying..." Joji shook his head.

"..." Both Kuroko and Aurora stayed notably silent.

"Roko? Roro? What's up?" Yoshino noticed the look on both of their faces.

"Um... Kei-nya?" Kuroko specifically avoided addressing Damien. "Is that all you guys found? Because... Auror-nya and I would really like to go now."

"Uh... I think so." Kei shrugged. "Heck, even if we forgot something, we can bring it up tomorrow. So the floor is yours, Kuroko!" He snatched the metaphorical talking stick out of Cathy's metaphorical bag of stolen goods and metaphorically handed it to Kuroko and Aurora.

"Good... thanks Kei-nya!" Kuroko grinned.

"Hey! Don't give the metaphorical talking stick to the faker!" Cathy wasn't about to drop that "faker" shtick.

"So... funny story." Aurora ignored Cathy and she started to explain her findings. "Kuroko and I found my Ultimate Studio... the Ultimate Starlet's Studio. And it's remarkably similar to Rosalind's."

"Oh?" Kei gave an even more powerful eyebrow raise.

"Similar to Rosalind's? How so?" Lake was curious.

"Yes... in what *cough* way?" Rosalind didn't expect to hear this.

"Well... let's see." Aurora had to quickly recall everything. "Just like Rosalind's, my studio had two panels with the same buttons. Mine also had the same floor-switching function... t-though mine only had four modes."

"Four of them?" Raiha tilted her head, a little off put by that stutter.

"Yep!" Kuroko nodded. "Modes for acting, singing, modeling, and writing! All of Auror-nya's talents!"

"I'm not that impressive..." Aurora blushed a little. "But she's right. The acting mode had multiple parasols... and multiple modes had a lot of chairs." She recalled what she considered important.

Kuroko remembered Aurora finding a photograph as well, but she chose not to mention that. "There was the exact same door too-nya! The button, disappearing handle, everything-nya!"

"Oh??" Kei further raised the power of his eyebrow raise.

"This is too suspicious." Nozomi shook her head. "Pheme. Why are Reinhardt's and Beaufort's Ultimate Studios so similar?" She asked the question that was on everyone's minds.

"They ain't connected or some shit, right? So why?" Even Alpha was curious.

Pheme giggled. "These rooms were why I wished to accompany you all earlier! I was afraid you'd find it confusing!" She sighed and shook her head. "Very well! Allow me to explain!" She stood up while still on top of the of table.

"First... the modes! Allow me to give a thorough explanation!" Pheme clapped her hands. "Under the floors of Ms. Beaufort's and Ms. Reinhardt's Studio lie five different floors! The default ones are the acting and horror movie floors respectively! When you click on either of the panels, metal bars rise up to protect you, because the floor movement system is dangerous!"

"Dangerous? Is it?" Ji-hoon was afraid of that.

"Mm hm!" Pheme nodded. "The way it works, is that when one of the arrows are clicked, and after the metal bars are up, the floors move! Using Ms. Beaufort's studio as an example, after you click the right arrow button, the acting floor slides under the actual floor, and the new floor, which is also under the actual floor, goes to replace the open floor!"

"That's a lot of floor..." Lake was getting confused.

"Wait... how exactly is it dangerous?" Joji wasn't sure on this part yet.

"I'll explain, Mr. Kaneshiro!" Pheme gigged. "Ah, but first, allow me to state for the record the order of the floors! For Ms. Beaufort's Ultimate Studio, it goes acting, singing, modeling, writing, then the one she refuses to mention!"

"I-" Aurora's breath got caught in her throat.

"..." Luckily for the starlet, no one said anything in regards to that.

"Then for Ms. Reinhardt's, it goes horror, comedy, action, mystery, then the hospital!" Pheme kept confirming. "Now, under both of the floors, the modes are arranged like a pentagon! Now, to why it's so dangerous!" She kept giggling. "Since the floor that moves slides perfectly under the actual floor, that means that, if anyone was on it, they'd fall into the abyss! Then if someone managed to get onto a lower mode... they could potentially be crushed, hydraulic-press style!"

"Oh god... how?" Yoshino didn't like the sound of that.

"Well, the next mode to replace the moving floor is kept directly under the actual floor! So, if someone were to ride it, they'd end up crushed against the actual floor, if they could somehow ride it that far! If that were to happen, then someone moved that mode into sight as the new floor... it wouldn't be a pretty sight!" Pheme kept on giggling as she talked about something very morbid.

"So the bars are here to protect us?" That sounded strange to Damien. Pheme actively wanting to protect.

"Indeed! And the bars only come down when you press the circle button!" Pheme drew a circle in the air with her finger. "But fret not! The floor moving system automatically stops if it senses a living being on it!"

"Okay... that's good." Lake was relieved.

"And we're supposed to take your word?" Nozomi wasn't about to immediately believe this.

"I suppose you don't have to, Ms. Nozomi!" Pheme playfully shrugged. "But it's what you're getting! If you doubt me, feel free to prove me wrong!"

"...I think I'll choose to trust you." Nozomi wasn't eager to be risking her life.

"What an unnecessarily complicated system..." Ji-hoon noted down as much as he could. He wasn't sure if he fully understood it... but he'd save thinking more about it for later.

"Okay..." Aurora didn't particularly like that system actually... but it wasn't like she could do anything about it. "What about that door then? If that's all for the floor system, I'd like to learn about that trick door."

"Yes... what an annoying ruse..." Damien shook his head.

"Trick! Pft!" Pheme covered her mask-covered face with her hand. "Ms. Beaufort and Mr. Lux... those doors are connected!" She revealed.

Damien blinked. "...I'm sorry?"

Aurora also blinked. "...Truly?"

"Truly!" Pheme playfully pointed her dagger at Aurora. "You see, Ms. Beaufort's and Ms. Reinhardt's Ultimate Studios are connected via that one-way door!"

"One way... door-nya?" Kuroko also also blinked.

"Yep! Allow me to explain as if I was in Ms. Beaufort's Studio!" Pheme looked down at Aurora. "Let's say that the handle to the door wasn't there! In that case, you'd click the button, and a door handle would instantly appear for you to use! Then you'd simply open it and walk into Ms. Reinhardt's Ultimate Studio!" She turned to look down at Rosalind.

"Oh... I think I see." Kei saw through it. "I'll resume your explanation. After walking into Rosalind's Studio, the door back wouldn't have a handle. So to get back through, you'd click the button in Rosalind's Studio. Then handle would appear, then you could go back."

"Ah... the handle can only be active on one side at a time-nya!" Kuroko palmed her head.

"I... see. So the "trick" was just unlucky timing with me and my dear Aurora?" Damien felt a little stupid.

"Exactly!" Pheme enjoyed giggling this much.

"...Wow." Aurora slowly nodded. She felt a little stupid too. "So a one-way door and floor moving system... that's a lot to take in."

"I've noted it all down." Ji-hoon reassured her. "We can discuss it more tomorrow, if you'd like. For now..." He checked the time on his Star-Phone. 10:50. It wasn't like they had to go to bed at 11, he just supported the idea of a consistent sleep schedule. "Yoshino... and Raiha. You're last up. What did you find?" He didn't even try to hide his contempt for the trendsetter.

"Oh! Right..." Raiha stared blankly at Ji-hoon. "Ours will be quick, DW. We only found like two things anyway."

"Yeah... first." Yoshino went... well, first. "We found a door that was kinda just... there. What's the deal with that, Pheme?"

"Oh! That's the door that leads to the stairs to the fourth floor!" Pheme happily gave an answer. "It's locked at the moment, but after more of you die, it'll open right up for your exploring pleasure!"

"You little..." Yoshino muttered with a scowl.

"Anyway..." Raiha wanted to try and and draw Yoshino's attention back to the topic at hand. "As for the other thing Yoshino-bestie and I found... well..." She snuck a glance at Rival and Alpha. "We found a third boarded-up room."

...

"Shit. I ain't surprised." Alpha didn't react much.

"...Me neither." Rival didn't react much either.

In fact... nobody reacted much in general. "Well, that's just another thing to check out." Ji-hoon casually noted it down.

"No one... is more surprised?" Raiha didn't expect this.

"Eh. It's expected at this point." Kei shrugged.

"What the lawyer bitch said." Alpha pointed at the lawyer bitch.

"Oh... okay." Raiha quietly shrugged. I guess after how involved the previous board-up rooms were in the last cases... no one wanted to think too hard about it. "I mean, if that's it, then that's it! That's the third floor!"

"Perfect timing, Ms. Miyahara!" Pheme suddenly snapped her fingers.

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

And her nighttime announcement played!

"Good." Darren phased out of existence, treating the nighttime announcement as his cue to leave.

"Nyaha! That's my cue to depart!" Cathy treated that as her cue to leave too.

"Dang. They're gone." Kei chuckled a little. "Random, but it's good to know that you can do that nighttime announcement remotely, Pheme." He pointed at her hand.

"Well of course I can! My powerful fingers can do many things!" Pheme wiggled her fingers back and forth.

"..." It took everything in Alpha's power to not make a snide remark there. "Aight, I'm out." So she simply left.

"Yes... let's all get to bed." Ji-hoon, along with everyone else, stood up. "Reset our sleep schedules after the trial and such. Got it?"

"Got it!" Lake was the only one who actually replied. "Okay, have a good night everyone!" As soon as the nicest person here left the room, the floodgates opened, and everyone else left as well...

Raiha and Aurora shared a look before they left...

...

Hm... it looks like two people were still there.

"Pheme. Question." Nozomi approached the goddess.

"Hm? What is it, Ms. Nozomi?" Pheme tilted her head.

Nozomi pulled out the note Ayaka had written for her earlier. "Ayaka had a thought. And I'd like to express it. Pheme. In our Ultimate Studios..."

She explained her thought off-screen.

"Oh ho!" Pheme gave an impressed laugh. "Ms. Naganohara has a sharper eye than I gave her credit for!"

"Is she correct? Is this... is this Killing Game..."

Nozomi explained more of her thought, still off-screen.

"...That..." Pheme held her finger up to Nozomi's lips. "Is something I cannot speak on. Now, I wish you good night Ms. Nozomi!" Without waiting for a reply, Pheme vanished into the ether.

"Hm... I see." Nozomi glanced down at the note. She didn't say another word as she slowly left the cafeteria.

[Grand Lobby]

"Raiha Miyahara..." Ji-hoon muttered to nobody as he went up to his room.

...

"Ah! My dear Lake!" Before Lake could head up to bed, Damien seemed eager to catch them.

"Hm? Oh! Damien! What's up?" Lake innocently turned around.

"It's nothing much or anything vital..." Damien brushed off his clothes. "I'll be quick. I merely wished to... tell you something..."

...

[Rosalind's Room]

"W-Why..." She didn't know why... but ever since she had to climb those damn stairs... Rosalind has just felt... so weak. But she knew she wasn't this weak.

She hobbled further into her room. She didn't even have the strength to change into her pajamas. Damn it... this feeling...

Rosalind kept hobbling closer to her bed... she just needed to lay down... and... rest.

She hobbled further and further...

...

"D-Damn it!" Until she fell. "Ugh..." Her parasol had rolled slightly out of reach... so she had to struggled to reach out for it. "I... just need to..." She started to crawl to her parasol... until she accidentally brought her hand up to her mouth. "Wha- no. I can't..." As she moved her hand away... and as she noticed the blood on her fingers... she realized her mouth was bleeding. She felt like she was starting to lose consciousness. "Why n-now of all times... my perfect shot... no... I can't..."

...

"I can't die yet..."

Oh no! Rosalind! What's the matter? Oh, if only Rival could help her out!

Anyway... it's Chapter 3! We're here! And with a 30k chapter to boot!

I'm sorry for how long this took me. I got the flu roughly a week ago, and that severely slowed down my progress. But... we back! Chapter 3 and floor 3 in general were things I was very excited to show off. Along with that, it seems some romance may or not be brewing! Well, besides for Raiha x Aurora. Damn it Wolfie, making Aurora straight :tch:

Anyway, I hope the new floor made sense too! The floor switching system felt complicated to explain... so tell me if you want me to re-explain it or anything!

But you know... I think that's it! It's pretty late for me, so imma cut this a little short.

Not without shouting out Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration by Otterplay! My man reached Chapter 4! I'm proud of him! And I have nothing to say regarding Chapter 3!

Now... tell me! With all of the tricks and gadgets of Chapter 3 revealed, who do you think will die next, and how will they die? What couples will inevitably get split up through death? Tell me your thoughts and theories! I'd love to hear them!

Alright then... I'll see you next time!

Glamorous Stars Remaining: 15

Aurora Beaufort - Ultimate Starlet [WolfieRed23]

Ayaka Naganohara - Ultimate Violinist [Sempi]

Catherine Munchkin - Ultimate Cat Burglar [Nekoja]

Damien Lux - Ultimate Beautician [oddlyillregular]

Darren Taylor - Ultimate Bartender [Otterplay]

Ji-hoon Jo - Ultimate Celebrity Detective [TheRoseShadow21]

Joji Kaneshiro - Ultimate Carpenter [SureJahn]

Kei Aikawa - Ultimate Lawyer [theotakureader101]

Kuroko Kurobara - Ultimate Hypnotist [MrUtenaHolic]

Lake Beaumont - Ultimate Ballet Dancer [KadachiNova]

Mabel "Alpha" Jane - Ultimate Gas Station Manager [Epifanio Therion]

Raiha Miyahara - Ultimate Trendsetter [Prince PokePersona]

Rival Seizon - Ultimate Backing Vocalist [SinWriter7]

Rosalind Reinhardt - Ultimate Cinematographer [Orlando Butler]

Yoshino Akiyama - Ultimate Horror Novelist [DeathlyJazzHands55]