Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration Chapter 33: Abandoned Principles (Part 3), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 4: Abandoned Principles (Daily Life Part 3)

Come on guys, do you still need a warning for this story? You literally saw what happened to Tatiana, it shouldn't get much worse than that. Or it might… Either way, I'm warning you. Seriously.

The sound of a rather loud whistle could be heard.

A yellow card was raised up, and a point of the glove at the offender. "Yellow card, tripping."

Gigi had seen it with her own two eyes. Most of the time, people try to fake this kind of behaviour. But this one had been genuine.

"What?" The player walked up to her, clearly furious. "I didn't trip him, he just fell on his own."

But Gigi wasn't going to change her mind. "I know what I saw. Please accept the penalty now, or things will only get worse." She was always used to people like this.

Always accusing her of being biased.

But why would she bother tarnishing her reputation over a game like this? It just wasn't worth it.

It took the player being dragged away by a teammate for them to calm down.

Watching them leave, Gigi could only let out a small annoyed sigh.

Just another day, huh…

…

Like any other day, work took a good portion of her time. Not that she even had much to begin with, from having to worry about school, to having to take care of her siblings.

Stepping into the house, she could see that it was mostly clean.

It wasn't to her standards, but it was better than Gigi was used to. "Are you all doing your homework?" She heard a few voices calling out with confirmation.

However, saying that reminded her of the fact she wouldn't even have much time to hers. "I'll get dinner ready."

Given that her parents weren't really around at this time, it meant that all responsibility fell on her to be the guardian of her siblings.

The reason her parents weren't able to be here at the moment was because they were currently at the hospital.

It's also why Gigi had to take on a different employment, and could no longer work at the family diner.

The reason they were even there was because of the diner. Given that they tried their best to make ends meet, they ended up overworking themselves into exhaustion, and it almost felt like their bodies had given up completely.

The next few hours all went about as normally. Gigi got dinner ready, and all her siblings came down to eat. Once everything was done, the youngest ones went back to their room, while the oldest one stayed behind with her to help clean up.

Normally, this would be her one time to relax, at all. But now Gigi was stressing for an entirely different reason now.

Bills.

She knew she had enough money to pay for rent, she made sure of that. Groceries were taken care of, so another area that she didn't have to worry about.

However, there was one spot that took up her entire focus.

Medical bills…

Looking at the bills again, the thoughts began running rampant in her head.

All of the money she was making simply wasn't going to be enough.

Gigi couldn't continue to pay for the medical bills. Nor could she even begin to save for college for her siblings.

At this point, it felt more like she was working herself at an impossible level. She just wasn't making enough money, even when she reached the top. "I…"

If Gigi had a more steady source of income, then none of this would be an issue, but she's already doing the best she can on her own. There wasn't anything else she could-

For a moment, the exasperated look on Gigi's face slowly faded away, leaving a rather neutral expression on her face.

No…

There was one thing she could attempt to do.

Quickly, a single scene flashed back into Gigi's mind.

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

Biting her lower lip, Gigi found herself at a moment where she felt nothing but desperation. If she wanted her family to live the life they deserved, would she have to stoop this low just to make ends meet.

Letting out a sigh, she stood up, moving over towards the door. "I'm heading out… Please make sure you all don't stay up too late if I'm not back before nighttime."

"Where are you going?" One of the younger siblings called out, tilting their hide to the side curiously.

"I'm…" Silence.

Gigi couldn't even figure out a convincing lie. "I'm just going out. Stay safe, all of you."

Without waiting for a response, she quickly moved out of the door, regretting the choice she was about to make.

…

While Gigi had long since moved after the diner was no longer sustainable, the area they had moved from wasn't too far. Just a simple taxi drive away, she found herself in the familiar area.

Letting out a sigh, she ran into her first problem.

Mostly…

Being curious, Gigi had definitely looked into who the mafia boss had been after the incident, so his name was still fresh on her mind.

Which also meant that she knew who to ask for.

Now, going out looking for the mafia would be something that should terrify most other people, but Gigi knew she couldn't let that stop her.

Any hesitation at this point could lead her to failure.

Taking a deep breath, Gigi moved down an alleyway, looking for any mafia members. This was the area they were often spotted around after all.

"What is someone like you doing around here?" A rather scary voice called out to her.

This caused Gigi to freeze in her tracks, before slowly looking over at them. She saw two people looking directly at her, but one of them was still obscured in the shadows of the night.

"I'm looking for…" She had to examine how they were dressed. Pretty nicely for someone who was just wandering around in the dark of night. "Yes, I'm looking for someone important around here."

"Heh, and who the hell would that be at this time of night? Aren't you a little too young to be wandering on your own." The mafia member took forward, almost as if to threaten her.

Standing her ground, Gigi tried not to let any fear show on her face. "I just want to talk to your boss."

Raising an eyebrow, the boy didn't seem to believe her. "What? You think you can just talk to the Boss?" He let out a mocking laugh. "Keep dreaming."

"I met him a few years ago, and he offered me a deal." Gigi wasn't going to back down.

"Like I'd believe-" The boy started to say, but he felt a hand on his shoulder.

And, for the first time, the man standing behind him in the shadows stepped forward. "Wait a second… I remember you… From the diner." It had been the man who played against the boss when she spoke to them.

Gigi wasn't about to let this chance slip away from her. "I'd like to talk to your boss." She repeated.

After a few seconds, the man took out a cellphone, before calling someone. It took a few rings, but soon enough, a voice spoke up. "Hey, Boss. Yeah- Yeah it's me." Some pause. "You remember the girl from the diner, years ago?"

There was a bit of silence. "Yeah, just like you said a while back, she's finally shown herself again."

Hearing those words, Gigi felt a bit uneasy about it. This meant that they had to have been waiting for her for a while. "See…?"

"Yeah, I'll bring her to you." He hung up the phone, turning to look at her. "Get her to the car."

Without a moment of warning, Gigi found a bag over her head, preventing her from actually seeing where they were going.

All she remembered was that they entered a car…

…

After moving around, through hallways and doors, Gigi found herself sitting on a chair. She dare not move, mostly out of fear.

"Come on boys, remove the bag. She's a guest here, don't piss her off." It was the voice of the boss she remembered.

Quickly, the bag came off her head, allowing her to finally see her surroundings.

Gigi wasn't exactly sure where she was even transported, not like she even cared to begin with. All she knew was that from this point forward, there wasn't exactly a chance to back out. She had made her choice.

Directly in front of Gigi, was a rather large desk, with a chair facing the other way.

And while she couldn't see them, she just knew that the boss was sitting on it.

After a few seconds, the chair turned around, revealing the man from all those years ago. "After all this time… What did I tell you?" He sounded rather cocky.

It was a sting to Gigi's pride, but she didn't want to push any unneeded button. "You were right." Slowly, her eyes drifted to the plaque on his desk, which only seemed to have his last name. Enantios.

Letting out a small laugh, Enantios leaned back in his chair. "I always knew you'd see things my way. Now, tell me, what brings you here, finally?"

Once again, Gigi had to swallow her own pride. "I… I'm in need of money."

Exactly what Enantios was hoping for. "Haha, why would you need money after all these years? You have that diner at your disposal."

Gritting her teeth, Gigi held back her tongue. They should know they no longer have it anymore. "My parents are… unwell." Was all she would leave it at. "Paying for their medical bills is proving to be rather difficult."

Of course they'd be in the hospital by now… After all, after Gigi refused his original offer, he increased the price of the protection money, which forced her parents to work harder if they wanted to make ends meet.

"That's awful to hear." Enantios tried his best to sound sincere, but there was still that mocking tone to his voice. "Well, like I've told you before. You're always welcome to come work for me."

It took a bit longer than he would have hoped for, but now she was here.

"Yes…" Gigi mumbled out, looking away for a brief moment. "So I take it you still need someone like me?"

"Haha, of course I'd still need someone like you. Unlike most people, you seem to lack fear." Not true at all. "You refuse to let anyone break a rule, so we need that kind of work ethic."

From the looks of it, they did need her, which was reassuring in a weird twisted way. "So, you're letting me join, right?"

Letting out a sigh, Enantios shook his head. "Slow your step. We haven't even discussed exactly what you will be doing. Or how much I'd be paying you."

At this point, Gigi just wanted to get hired so she could get money. "Well, I assume that I'll be watching over any games you'll be holding here."

"Yes, pretty much. But I have to warn you, that all those happen at nighttime." Enantios crossed his arms. "I hope that doesn't get in the way of your daily life."

For a moment, Gigi froze.

She needed this job, but working at night didn't really sound viable. Especially when she had to watch over everyone else- "That's fine with me."

No… She needed the money, so she'd have to sacrifice a few things to keep everything together.

It would just mean one of the older kids would need to replace her at home.

"As for the pay." Enantios opened one of his drawers, reaching in for some paper. Writing something down on it, he eventually slid the paper over.

When Gigi finally read over it, she paused a bit.

It was definitely enough money to help out at home, but she knew it wasn't going to be enough. She wouldn't have the option to only work here a bit, and then dip out when she felt like it. "I…"

But once again, it all looped back to what she needed to do now. "The money is fine, as well."

Seeing that she agreed, a grin appeared on Enantios' face. "That's exactly what I like to hear." He pulled out another piece of paper. This one had written text on it already.

After looking it over, he slid the document over to Gigi with a pen. "All you have to do is sign your name on this contract, and the deal is yours."

Well, for one, she noticed a very clear problem with this. "Contracts signed by minors aren't legally binding."

This got a laugh from Enantios, who only shook his head. "Who said anything about the law here?" His expression quickly dropped. "This is to make sure you follow the rules of the contract. If you break the rules, I'll be the one doing something about it."

Gigi figured as much, but she just couldn't keep her mouth shut sometimes.

After giving the contract a quick read, she reached over for the pen, slowly signing her name. "There."

"Beautiful." Enantios took the contract away, placing it away in his drawer again. "From this point forward, you're part of the family." That didn't feel reassuring at all. "For tonight, I'll let you head back home, but from this point forward, I expect you to show up almost every night, with a few exceptions."

This was going to be her life now? And was this just going to be who she was? Someone who sold off her morals just to try and keep her family functioning. "Right…" Gigi didn't really have much else to say about the matter. At this point, she just wanted to go home. Slowly, she stood up.

However, before she could leave, Enantios extended his hand out, a grin on his face.

Now, Gigi didn't really want to shake this man's hand. She knew not doing it would pretty much be an insult. So, she extended her own hand out to shake his.

"I'm looking forward to doing business with you."

"Likewise…" Once Gigi had shook his hand enough, she let go, turning around to leave the place, guided by one of the many members.

Watching her leave, Enantios couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "They all come crawling back one day." He reached into his drawer, and pulled out a cigar, lighting it. After inhaling for a rather long time, he let out a puff of smoke. "Heh, I don't think she'll ever be able to leave this place now…"

Gigi's Room

Normally, around this time, Gigi would be gearing to head out of her room to make it over to breakfast. After all, she had a schedule to keep up. She's done it every morning, and tried her best to get everyone to follow it.

It somewhat worked for a while, and she was able to get most people down in the morning.

And yet, for the first time since this game started, she was going to be late to the morning meeting.

Not that Gigi really seemed to mind. Instead, she was too transfixed on her watch. For one, it now had a large number thirteen on it.

Someone had voted for her, now that she truly seemed to care. She knew she was going to get at least one.

Letting out a small sigh, Gigi opened up her watch, accessing the motive app. Once inside the motive app, she clicked onto the secondary motive.

Right.

On top of the main motive, Gigi had to deal with this bullshit. Her secret.

It wasn't really one she wanted people to know, but she also wasn't going to do anything about it. Why would she? Doing anything about it would be against the point she's trying to make.

Even after her talk with May, Gigi wasn't exactly sure what she should be doing.

Slowly, she got out of bed, continuing to keep her focus on the app.

Once again, the last words Tatiana spoke to her resonated.

Rule #6…

She hadn't made any progress into any of that, not like she would. She already knew what the rule was, and so did everyone else, probably.

Letting out a sigh, Gigi moved over to the rules app, hoping to give it one last look.

However, she found herself pausing as soon as she saw the contents inside. "What…?"

That was odd, and definitely not something she was expecting.

"Why is…" Gigi narrowed her eyes as she landed on the problem.

One of the rules was deleted.

Ultimate Gambler Station

Letting out a rather loud sigh was Gemini.

After so long…

Slowly, he stood up from the chair he was sitting on. "Finally…" Checking his watch just to make sure, he could confirm that he indeed had all the required coins. Hell, he even had more than he needed.

Not only that, but the number fourteen was visible on his watch.

Once confirmation was done, Gemini moved over to the prize corner, looking around for Monokawa-

"What? People still want to use this place." Who was less than thrilled.

Flashing a smile in his way, Gemini nodded his head. "As long as you keep selling useful things, I'll be there to buy things." Looking around, he spotted that the map hadn't been bought yet. "I'll take the map."

Slowly, Monokawa turned to look at it. "Really…? You won't even buy a blaster or something… You're going to go for the useless map."

"We'll see if it's useless after I buy it." Gemini was going to pretend like it didn't bother him, but if the map turned out to be useless, then that means he wasted his time.

"Knock yourself out, kid…" Monokawa floated up towards it, grabbing it off the wall. "Shouldn't you just have tried to buy the escape key?"

"Originally, I would have. But you priced it so highly, that there wasn't any reasonable way I would have gotten it. Even Ian didn't bother with it."

"I miss Ian." Monokawa added, letting his arms fall to the side. "Boy sure knew how to gamble, and it at least made things more interesting around here. I bet in an alternative timeline, you two would have teamed up."

"What?" Gemini wasn't sure what to do with the hypothetical information.

"Anyways!" And Monokawa wasn't going to elaborate. Quickly, he pulled out a machine. "Just scan here."

Gemini did as he was told to do, scanning his watch to purchase the map.

Which didn't leave him with much left. "Hmm…" Part of him wanted to keep the money, just in case.

However, the other part of Gemini just wanted to get rid of the money completely. He never wanted to have to use it again, after all. "What else can I buy?"

"Well, I'll tell you what you can't buy. The escape key."

Long pause, as Gemini spent the entire time looking into Monokawa's soul.

Slowly, the otter raised up a lighter. "You can buy this to get rid of the rest of your coins."

"Perfect!" Now Gemini was flat out broke.

Stepping away from the prize corner, he let out a sigh, holding onto the map keycard. "This better have been worth it…" He needed to learn as much as possible if he wanted to get himself and everyone else out of here.

With that, he quickly left the station, hoping to run into the others to tell them the good news.

Cafeteria

"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!"

That was the sound that broke the mostly mundane talking that was happening around in the cafeteria.

The source of the voice belonged to Hae-Won, who was currently glaring at Atlas, who had just entered the cafeteria. On her watch, she had the number twelve.

"Tsk… What's your problem?" He sat down at the table, narrowing his eyes.

"What the hell do you mean?" Hae-Won walked over to his side of the table. "You dropped two votes on me."

"So what?" Atlas didn't really seem to care. "Don't act like you wouldn't do the same thing." Despite saying that, he did find himself with fourteen points still. For this first round, not a single vote went against him.

"Wouldn't do the same-" Hae-Won started to repeat before letting out a sigh. "Why would I vote for anyone else but Gennosuke?"

"Because it's a waste." Winter hummed out. It's why she didn't bother voting for him, and instead, threw a vote on Edison, to raise her own chances at survival. At this point, she still had fourteen points.

Lower other people down to make sure you remain on top.

"Didn't mean he had to fucking go after me." Hae-Won narrowed her eyes. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't hit you right now."

"Because you'd lose that fight." Atlas had no qualms fighting someone else.

"Everyone, calm down." Seira was getting more worried as this entire argument went on. Not that she could really say much, given she only had eleven points left. Probably one of the lowest points total around.

Where was Gemini to stop this argument?

"Huh…" When Michael saw that, he couldn't help but be confused. "Who voted for you?"

Quickly, Seira glanced at her watch. "I didn't vote, and I also don't know who voted for me-"

"I did." Edison? After he got a few eyes on him, he quickly adjusted his goggles. "It was only going to be once." Besides, he didn't know Seira was going to abstain.

For a moment, she just stood there, frozen, which allowed Atlas and Hae-Won to go back to fighting verbally.

"Piece of shit." Hae-Won narrowed her eyes. "Well, don't expect yourself to get out of this now, because I'm dropping two votes on you, fucker."

"Tsk, see if I care." Atlas already knew there was no surviving this motive. But now it was time for him to drag everyone else around him down.

Laki, who was caught in the middle of this argument, ignored the entire thing, and simply spent the time eating. Her watch still had the number fourteen on it.

Most of the other people also seemed to follow the same trend. Benjamin didn't want to be involved, but he had lost some points overnight, only having twelve points remaining.

Normally, Gemini could be around here to play piece keeper, but given that he wasn't-

Standing up slowly, Michael looked around the room. "Guys…" His voice was calming, but it did drown out most of the noise. "Why are you all acting like this?"

"Um…" Lorelei rolled her eyes. "Because if we don't play into the motive, we'll die. We're kind of, like, being forced to do this."

"Yes, I get that, but…" Michael trailed off. "Doing it in a way like this is only going to make people go against each other. Atlas, why did you drop two votes on Hae-Won?"

"Tsk, as if I'd have to explain myself, fucker. Just trying to save myself."

Despite how that literally wouldn't save him…

Michael let out a sigh. "Honestly, I think it's probably better if we abstain."

"No thank you." Winter didn't even bother looking at him when she said that. "We have our own lives to prioritise."

It cut a bit, having her be the one to cut him down, but he continued on. "There's no way Nova would kill half of us for a motive."

May had some choice words, but didn't feel like fighting anything. Instead, she just leaned her head at the table, and closed her eyes. A quick look at her watch revealed she had fourteen points left.

Taking a deep breath, Seira seemed to calm down a bit. "Sorry…" But she was still pretty mad at Edison for the dumb move he had just done.

Looking around the room, Melody realised that she couldn't let Michael alone carry the burden. Slowly, she stood up as well, keeping one hand covering her watch. "He's right, we shouldn't be resorting to this."

Smiling at the assistance, Michael turned to look at everyone else. "We've been on this station for a little over two weeks by this point. We shouldn't be letting a motive like this be what breaks us…"

Letting out a sigh, Hae-Won glanced the other way. She was still furious, but she had managed to calm down. "Yeah… You're right."

"Tsk…" Atlas didn't want to say anything, mostly because he disagreed with everything Michael said. Who cares how long they have all been here for? It should be every man for themselves. "Whatever…" Quickly, he stood up, walking over towards the elevator.

This wasn't going well, but Michael didn't have many complaints. Most of the people had stopped fighting, which was fine with him. "I personally think we shouldn't even vote for this motive…"

"Alright, that's just stupid." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "As if you could get anyone to agree with that."

Michael figured as much, but it was still worth… something. "Right…"

"I… Don't think it's a bad idea." Benjamin jumped in to help. "I didn't vote at all." Which is why he even lost any votes. "It just wouldn't be right." Even with a few people who should get votes, it just didn't make sense to him.

"You have to remember that we can't expect someone like Atlas or Gennosuke to be like that." Winter frowned, glancing to the side.

And her for the matter. Why would she willingly lose points if she could guarantee her safety?

Letting out a small sigh, Michael shook his head. "That's fine…"

He'd just continue doing what he's doing. "I'd just prefer it if nobody tried to use this motive to start fights." Like Atlas, who chose to vote for Hae-Won instead of someone else.

This got a snobby laugh from Lorelei. "As if, some of us got random votes already, so we aren't just going to sit around and do nothing."

Even at this point, Seira wanted to throw a vote on Edison, just to send a message. Whether she'd actually do it or not was still largely unknown.

Slowly, she stood up. "I think we should all just do our own things… I'm not sure if this morning meeting is even accomplishing anything."

From the sounds of it, it only solidified most people's opinions on the matter.

Seeing that things were going this way, Michael slowly nodded his head. If Gigi were here, she would have solved things better. "Right… We should probably just go and do our own thing now…" As much as he didn't want this.

Melody watched him head over towards the elevator, and while she wanted to say something this time, she wasn't even in the right headspace to say anything. So instead, she watched him leave.

One by one, more people began to leave.

Until it left Melody as the only person still remaining. After a few seconds, she let out a sigh, moving her hand away from her watch.

Instead of the twelve someone would expect to see, it showed off a thirteen.

With a frown on her face, she moved her hand back onto it, covering it in case she ran into anyone else today.

Motive Room

For some reason, despite knowing that results wouldn't be posted in the motive room, Gigi still found herself coming here.

Mostly just to give a look at the ominous timer that was ticking down. A little under 87 hours remained.

No matter what, there was going to be death by the end of this timer.

"Oh…" A low hum came from the doorway, prompting Gigi to look at who it was.

Seeing Michael, she turned her focus towards his watch, which seemed to sport the number eleven. "How did you get so many votes on yourself?" Gigi didn't even bother looking at him when she questioned him.

Granted, it would only require two people to send him that far down.

"Oh… Uh…" Michael glanced at the floor. "I'm not sure about one of those votes… As for the other two, it's because I abstained…"

"You… What?" Gigi turned to look at him, a frown on her face. "Don't think I believe that for one second." Why would someone like him abstain?

Out of all the things Michael thought he'd need to prove, this somehow didn't feel like it'd be one of them. 'Why would I vote…?" He moved over closer towards the screen. "Many people abstained…" He wasn't sure how many, but he knew it was definitely more than just him.

But, before he could give it any more thought, Gigi glared at him. "I know you're lying. You've lied before, so I don't see why you wouldn't lie now."

Is this how she really saw him? Michael knew people didn't really trust him since he was revealed as a cult leader, but the people he was wary of were always Atlas and Hae-Won.

Gigi hadn't really gone out of her way to be against him. "Where's… Where's this coming from?"

The two hadn't really had the chance to speak since Benoit's investigation. And even when they were in the same room together, there were always other people around.

"You should know exactly what this is about." Gigi crossed her arms, a frown on her face. "Due to your nature, I know you wouldn't just abstain." After all, he lied to try and save himself before.

For a moment, Michael didn't say anything. Instead, opting to stare at the floor.

People always assumed things about him.

"No…" His voice was rather quiet. "Why are you trying to make me a bad guy… I only lied to protect myself… Isn't that natural?"

"What? No. Not in a game like this. You could have cost us all our lives." Gigi pointed her black glove at him.

"Does it really matter…?" The more Michael stayed in this place, the more he felt the need to stand up for himself. "In the end, I helped bring Ian's plan to the foreground." Maybe not all the way, but he at least paved the path. "Doesn't that make me-"

"Why would it make you good?" Gigi felt sure of her verdict. "Irregardless of how much good you try to do to offset the bad you've done, at the end of the day, you almost cost us our lives, and you are also a cult leader."

Another thing like this… "What does me being a cult leader have to do with this?" Michael tried to flip his hood on to cover his face, but failed.

"It has everything to do with this." Gigi crossed her arms. "You don't just become a cult leader through being nice. You must have filled their heads with awful ideas."

"No… It's not…" Michael tried to defend himself, but it didn't seem like she was going to give him the chance.

"Not only that, but being a cult, how many people must have died because of your actions." Gigi went back to pointing the black glove at him. "You can try and pretend to be good all you want, but I know deep down, you won't be able to chang-"

"Enough." Michael looked directly at her.

He hated doing this, but if he wasn't going to be given a chance to talk and defend himself, he was going to force his way through.

Gigi froze up the moment his eyes stared directly into hers, but her facial expression slowly shifted to annoyance.

Now that he was allowed to talk, Michael let out a sigh. "I didn't ask for any of that… Being a cult leader, or any of it… I was taken from my family at a young age, and forced into this position… No matter what I said, people would always assume they knew what I wanted." Taking a few steps back, he broke eye contact with her.

Now Gigi had the chance to interject here, but she chose to remain silent.

"They'd bring me things, serve me…" A pause, as Michael's eyes stared directly at the wall. "They even killed people for me. But… I… I never wanted that." Turning back towards her, he placed his hands on the table in the middle. "You think I want people to die for me? No, they just go off and do that on their own."

It doesn't even matter the reason…

"They all say they're doing it to appease me, or for my own protection." Michael swiped the cards off the table, given it was the only thing that was there. "Do you know how frustrating it is to have so many people die? And not being able to do anything about it…"

Well, as someone who was supposed to be the leader of the group, Gigi had some choice words about that.

The only difference was context…

"That doesn't change the fact that you stayed with them." Gigi pointed out, with a frown.

For a moment, Michael paused, leaning on the table again. "I… I tried to leave. It's like living in a cage there." For a moment, he clutched his dove pendant, before letting it fall against his clothes. "But, just because of the role I've been thrusted into, it shouldn't dictate what kind of person I am."

But the problem was, to Gigi's knowledge, that should exactly dictate who you are. Especially since most of his actions hadn't been favourable, so he can't even fall back on that. "Look at this conversation right now. You didn't get a chance to talk, so you forced me to shut up. What kind of good person would do that?"

Michael wanted to argue.

The only reason he did that was so that he could defend himself. But, he regretted having to rely on something like that. "The point is…"

"There is no point you are trying to make." Gigi was not changing her stance. "Like I said, there's no room for any middle ground. It's always been one or the other."

"Is that really how you view the world…?" Michael looked at the ground, a frown on his face. "All black and white… So… monotonous."

"It's the truth of how the world works." Gigi explained, crossing her arms. "I'm sorry, but there's no way aro-"

"No…" Michael shook his head. "You're wrong about all of that. That isn't a truth about how the world works." He stepped away from the table, stepping right over the cards he scattered on the ground. "That's how you want it to work."

For a moment, Gigi found herself at a loss for words.

But filled with one very clear emotion.

Anger.

"Take it back."

"Hmm…?" Michael didn't understand why he'd need to take anything back, especially because he hadn't said anything offensive. "Nothing I said warrants taking it back." He was going to stand firm on his own beliefs.

"I'm not just going to let you call me a liar. I know how things work. I've seen it work that way for years." Gigi placed a hand on her hip, pointing her black glove at him. "So shut up." Now she was getting bitter.

For a few seconds, Michael only looked at her, before shaking his head. "You've seen a few people… So you've decided everyone was just like them." He flipped his hood back onto his head, hiding his eyes.

"That's not it at all!" Gigi quickly tried to defend herself, but it was clear that it wasn't going to work.

Michael wanted to keep arguing, but at this point… He was just tired of it all. "You know, you weren't there for the morning meeting today, and things really took a turn for the worst."

Neither was Gemini… And the only other person there was too busy yelling at someone. "Instead, you were standing around here, moping."

"I wasn't moping." Gigi huffed her cheeks a bit, pointing her black glove at him. "I was deep in thoughts about the best way to tackle this motive."

"Well, accusing me of lying doesn't really feel like the best way to go about this." Michael opened the door, standing still for a few seconds. "And you can't take the moral high ground with me when you're giving into this motive." With that, he was gone.

Watching him leave, Gigi couldn't help but get angrier at the very sight. "He doesn't know anything… Damn cult leader."

It seems that Gigi and Michael have had a free time event.

Cafeteria

Finally, with the map purchased, Gemini was ready to start examining it. Of course, he didn't want to be the only one doing so, in case he missed anything vital.

That's why he made his way towards the cafeteria, hoping to find any of his friends there. Luckily, he did find two people he hung out with! Both Edison and May were still in the cafeteria. As was Michael, who had just returned after the talk with Gigi.

"I finally did it." Gemini announced, with a rather large smile on his face.

"Did… What?" May hummed out, looking over at him lazily.

"I bought the map app." Gemini moved over to sit next to them.

Now, Michael hasn't exactly been in the know about Gemini's plans, so that confused him slightly. "What was the point of that…?"

Letting out a sigh, he shook his head. "I wanted to buy the escape key, but that seems unfeasible now that Ian is gone, so I thought I'd buy something more within my range." Holding out the keycard, he scanned it onto his watch.

Within a few seconds, a new app appeared. "There it is."

"Open it! Open it!" Edison was eager to learn something new.

For a moment, Gemini hesitated. A part of him felt like there wouldn't be anything to learn, and he had just wasted days getting this.

The other part of him knew there had to be a reason that this was worth five thousand coins. Quickly, he opened up the app, which brought out a projection of a map. "Woah…"

"It works…" May hummed out, scooting over closer so she could get a better look.

"Yeah, it does. But there's an entire area I can't see." Gemini quickly realised why, given it was for an area they hadn't opened up yet.

The map gave him the freedom to switch between the lower and upper floor, as well as its own map for the repair ship.

"This is really well made!" Edison adjusted his goggles.

Gemini nodded his head along. "Yeah, they really are." He was quick to notice that most of the rooms were named, except for the Ultimate Stations, which were unnamed.

While he was worrying about that, Edison noticed something else entirely. "Hey, there's a name down there!"

Following his eyes, Gemini eventually landed on a name at the bottom of the map. "Regina Frelsier?"

Hearing that, May perked up slightly. "Is that what it actually says?"

Gemini moved his wrist over so she'd get a better look at the watch.

"What does that name mean?" Michael mumbled out.

Letting out a small yawn, May leaned her head back. "Before I went to Hope's Peak… I did some reading about it. That name… She used to be an Ultimate back before Hope's Peak closed…"

That didn't fully answer Michael's question. "But what does that have to do with this…?"

"She was the Ultimate Architect… Her name popped up when I did research on the Hope's Peak building…"

"Oh!" Edison was quick to figure things out. "Are you saying she helped build the new Hope's Peak?"

"Yes…" May hummed out, tilting her head to the side.

Furrowing his brow, Gemini had a bad feeling about this. "Then what is her name doing on this map?" He already knew the answer, but he felt the need to ask.

"She… Built this station?" Michael mumbled out.

May shook her head. "Built isn't the right term… She designed it…"

Once again, Hope's Peak seemed to be behind all of this.

Gritting his teeth, Gemini wasn't exactly sure what to do with this information. "This just confirms what I already knew…"

"About Hope's Peak involvement?" Michael had no reason to think that before, but it seemed pretty out in the open now.

"Do you know anything else about her?" Edison turned to look at May.

Shrugging, she shook her head. "No… Not really. I only briefly came across the name while I was doing my research…"

"We'll just have to be on the lookout for the name in the future." Gemini let out a sigh.

The name for now was a bust, so he'd have to keep looking through the map for further information.

"Hey!" Edison called out, pointing to something on the map. "I don't remember this!"

When Gemini looked over at it, he saw what he meant. "Wait…"

Looking at the Zeta sector of the map, the hallway that he had been obsessing over seemed to actually continue on, until it reached a room further in.

"Ah!" Edison realised. "That thing you were talking about!"

"Yeah…" Gemini narrowed his eyes. This entire time, he had been right about that path being odd. "There's an entire room beyond that." This was good news, since it meant he wasn't crazy.

"But…" Michael trailed off. "You couldn't access it?"

Shaking his head, Gemini moved the map around. "No…" Next, his attention focused on the name of the room. "Main Station Control Room?"

"Huh?" Edison let out a hum. "I thought navigation was how you controlled the ship."

Shaking his head, Gemini frowned. "No… That's only to move it around on an orbit."

"Then…" May trailed off leaning her head back slightly. "Do you think we could actually control the station from that room?"

"We might be able to get back home…" Michael suggested, especially if it could actually move the ship around.

All these ideas only further fueled Gemini's desire. "Then we need to break into that room, and get ourselves back home."

Still, May felt a bit sceptical about all of this, given Monokawa, but to her knowledge, it didn't break any rules. "We can try…"

"Was there anything else of note?" Michael didn't want to close out the map just yet.

"Hmm…" However, this time it was May's turn to spot something. She was looking at one of the nameless rooms, although with where it was, it was very apparent that it was the security office. "There's a room missing here." She pointed it out.

"Huh…?" Michael looked over at it, before confirming it was the security room. "Right… Isn't there supposed to be a room in the back?"

"Hypothetically speaking…" Edison trailed off. "Would that mean that the room was added after the plans were made?"

"A new room…?" Michael mumbled out. It seemed plausible… But what would be the conclusion they could pull from that. "Why would they add that room?"

May wasn't sure about this either, but standing around theorising wasn't going to get results. "I… Think that's all the map has to offer."

Still, Gemini seemed pretty pleased with the results. "This is perfect! Now I know I'm not crazy."

"You still might be." Edison brought up, adjusting his goggles.

Turning off the map, Gemini let his hand fall to his side. "Alright, now we should focus on what to do next. Now that we know there's a room there, we can do something about it."

"Oh! Oh!" Edison moved away from the table rather happily. "This is where my expertise comes into handy." He adjusted his goggles.

"Wait…" Gemini trailed off. "Wouldn't it be my expertise? I'm the escape artist here."

"You may be that, but…" Edison swirled around his flask. "But I'm the one who knows how to use various chemicals. Hypothetically speaking, I could concote a mixture to get us through the wall."

The first person to have a bad feeling about this was Michael. Or at least the first to verbalise this. "Are you sure that's a good idea…?" Part of him was concerned with how dangerous this might turn out to be.

"Of course it is!" How dare he question Edison? Finally! His talent was going to be useful for all. "I could swing by my lab-" Um, they're called stations here, Edison! "-to see what I could make."

Nodding his head along, Gemini didn't seem to have a problem with that. "Honestly, I think that's a brilliant idea."

Michael, on the other hand, wasn't really sure what he should do in a situation like this. It's not like his talent would be of much use. "I'll…" He trailed off, realising it was a wasted effort.

Standing up from the bench, May turned to look over at the door leading out of the cafeteria. "I think… I'll just head to my station." With a quick yawn, she left.

Watching her leave, Gemini turned towards the other two. "Honestly, I think this is perfect. Edison, you check your own station. May, Michael, and I will head over to her station. From the looks of it, she might have a plan in mind for us."

"I don't think that was it at all…" Michael mumbled out, but his voice was quickly drowned out.

Adjusting his goggles, Edison was proud that it was finally his time to shine. "On it!" Moving away from the bench, his little legs carried him further into the station.

"Alright." Gemini placed both his hands on his hips with a grin. "Let's go meet up with May."

Michael was going to say something, but instead, he just slowly followed behind him. He just didn't have the energy to counter him.

Ultimate Chemist Station

Well, given that Gemini had an idea, Edison wanted to see if he could make it a reality. That's why he moved over to his own station, mostly just to see what he could do to help.

However, he hadn't been expecting to see someone else in the room. "Oh! Hello Hae-Won."

Turning to look at him, she placed down what she had in her hands. "Oh, morning Edison. How are you doing?" She had definitely calmed down from this morning.

Quickly moving over to stand beside her, he gave her a thumbs up. "Great! I feel like for once, my expertise is finally going to be useful."

"Oh?" Well, Hae-Won was glad to hear that.

Until she tried to figure out why exactly… "For… what?"

Adjusting his goggles, Edison took out a bunch of chemicals. "Gemini and I are working on a plan, and I hope to maybe make some chemicals for him."

That only seemed to further worry Hae-Won. "You aren't trying to do anything dangerous, are you?" She wasn't really good with this stuff, so whatever he ended up making, she probably wouldn't be able to understand.

For a moment, Edison paused. "Nope! Why would I be doing something dangerous?" Because it's you.

Hae-Won had about seven different answers to that question, but didn't want to fret over the details. She still trusted Edison after all. "Fine, if you say so."

Bringing the chemicals, Edison began to examine them all. "Aww… I don't think I can make the acid I want…"

Alright, now Hae-Won wasn't in the know about most acids, but what the hell- "What do you need that for?"

Adjusting his goggles, he turned to look at her. "I need to see if I'm able to melt any metal."

"Why…?" Hae-Won got closer, moving some of the chemicals. "I know you're the expert here, but I can't help but be worried about what you're trying to do."

"Well, Gemini found a secret room somewhere, but it's blocked off by a wall. I'm hoping to find something to melt the metal." Edison sounded like such a big fucking nerd here.

"Melt… metal?" Not that Hae-Won doubted it was possible, but doing that on this station didn't feel like a good idea. "If he ends up being wrong, you might just melt a hole through the wall."

"Nope!" Edison was certain that wouldn't be possible. "Gemini got himself a nice map of the station, so it would be completely safe."

Wait, the map was finally bought? Honestly, Hae-Won never thought it would be possible, but she was at least happy he could complete his goal. "That son of…" She said in a rather happy tone. "But still, shouldn't you try and use something else?"

If there was a room behind the wall, then wouldn't there be a trick to it. "Like, Gemini's an escapist… Shouldn't he try and figure out a normal solution first?"

She wasn't well versed in escape rooms, but this was starting to feel like Gemini's station might actually be behind those walls.

Ha! Imagine having to solve a puzzle to get into the building for an escape room.

Amazing.

The more Edison listened, the more he seemed to understand. "So… Are you saying that we don't need my science to solve it?" He seemed a bit sad.

For a moment, Hae-Won didn't get what he was trying to relay…

But the moment she did, she felt kind of bad. "No… That's not-" She took a moment to take a deep breath. "I'm sure your science has a ton of applicable solutions. But I don't think it should always be the first thing you resort to."

Glancing down, Edison shook his head. "But it's always looked down upon. Even this station is being looked down upon! How is it any better than Seira's?"

Well, presentation for one, but Hae-Won didn't want to shatter his fragile heart. "Yours is made strictly for you, so of course you'd like it." Her, on the other hand, could never like something like this. It only gave her some bad memories. "But what are you getting at about always being looked down upon?"

"Well…" Edison trailed off, glancing to the side. "Just like home, nobody really cares to understand my solution to things. Even last time, everyone flocked to what Seira had figured out, but nobody seemed to realise just how bad it was to rely on something like that."

Was that all the issue was. "But with what we had, it was the only reasonable solution we could take." Sure, it messed up at the end, but there was nothing else that could be done.

"I just want my expertise to be useful for something." Edison was getting down to the core of the issue. "I spent so much of my life working to be a chemist, and it hasn't saved us in the slightest." Not even once.

Letting out a sigh, Hae-won wasn't exactly sure how to even navigate this conversation. "I'm sure there will be a moment in the future for your expertise to come in hand." She ruffled his hair a bit. "I understand the importance of it."

Honestly, Edison needed to hear that, given how things were currently going. "So that's why, for the first time ever, I have the opportunity to be the most important person in a plan." He adjusted his goggles. "I'll make something to break through that wall."

Well, from the looks of things, it didn't seem like Edison was going to give up any time soon. "How about we try and go for a safer option."

"How do you safely blow up a door?" He let out a hum.

"By… not blowing it up at all?" Hae-Won knew he was smart, but he always had dumb moments like this. "Let's try and think of something else."

"No, no." Edison shook his head, a smile on his face. "I think this is something that I need to do on my own. If I figure out a plan with someone else, it won't feel like I'm the one doing it."

Besides, he didn't want someone else's ideas to get in the way.

So, with that, he tried to change the subject. "Why are you here anyways?"

For a few seconds, Hae-Won remained silent, her eyes closed. When she came up with an answer, she glanced off to the side. "I needed a place to cool down, and this was one of the rare places that wasn't my room that Atlas couldn't show up to ruin my day."

"Right…" Edison slowly nodded his head. "He voted for you, after all… Do you want me to vote against him too?"

For a moment, Hae-Won pondered his offering, before shaking her head. "There's no reason to do that, you might just be targeted instead. Besides, I'm already dropping points on him tonight." At this point, she didn't seem to care about voting Gennosuke.

"Are you… sure?" Edison adjusted his goggles, before opening his own watch to look at his results. "I'm still trying to figure out who voted for me." He had thirteen points.

"Hmm? Who does it say it was?" Hae-Won didn't like the thought of someone voting for him.

"My options are Seira, Lorelei, Winter, or Gennosuke." Edison quickly explained.

It took a few seconds of thinking, but Hae-Won eventually came up with her own answer. "From the sounds of it, it was probably Lorelei or Winter." Gennosuke would not throw a vote to him, and Seira had clearly not voted.

Not many options left.

"Then!" Edison adjusted his goggles. "That's who I will be voting for. One of those two!" They would think to throw a vote his way? He'd show them! The flask in his hand began to bubble up.

"Calm down there, kid." Hae-Won had a small grin on her face. "You shouldn't let your anger dictate your actions." Despite her letting that happen to herself.

After a few seconds, the mixture began to calm down. "Right, sorry!" Then, a genuine smile appeared on Edison's face. "Thank you for this conversation, I think I really needed this talk.

"Heh, anytime, kid." Hae-Won was more than pleased with how this entire thing went as well.

It seems that Edison and Hae-Won have grown closer.

Ultimate Academic Prodigy Station

May was also off doing her own thing, more or less.

Well, that was a lie. She wanted to be doing her own thing, but Michael and Gemini tagged along.

"Oh, wow." This was the first time Gemini had even seen her station, but he was definitely impressed. "Definitely better than Edison's."

"..." Michael spent a few seconds looking at him. "I feel like I'm missing some context here." Why did Edison need to be thrown under the bus?

"Why did you two follow me…?" May let out a hum. Sure, she saw the map, and sure she wanted to help out with whatever plan Gemini had, but…

"Oh!" The escapist looked around. "I thought you were coming here to do some research."

"Well… technically…" May moved over towards the machine, putting in a name that loaded up several articles. "But I was mostly just continuing what I was doing the other day…"

"Oh…" Well now Gemini was a bit disappointed. "Do you want me here for this or…"

However, before the question could be answered, Michael spoke up, with a bit of panic in his voice. "May… What… What are you looking up?" Hell, there was a bit of panic in his eyes.

"Hmm?" She wasn't sure why, given she had just searched up a group- "Oh." It quickly dawned on her just why his reaction was like that.

Stepping away from the kiosk, Gemini could see what the panic was about. May had simply searched up the Celestial Paragons. "I… Don't know what this is."

"It's…" Michael trailed off. "My cult."

"I didn't know that." May let out a yawn. While she obviously figured out he was a cult leader a while back, she had never learned the name of the group.

This fact only seemed to further confuse Michael. "Then… Why do you know the name? And why are you researching it?"

For a few seconds, May was contemplating on whether or not she should elaborate on the research she was doing. "Well… It's…"

"If you need me to leave, I can go." Gemini didn't want to accidentally learn things Michael didn't want out.

"No… It's… It's fine." The cult leader crossed his arms.

At this point, hiding things would only be a detriment. People needed to know as much as they could.

Seeing that everyone was fine with it, May took a deep breath. "Remember the book I picked last time…? Well… The name of your cult appeared in some of the research."

"Then…" Michael narrowed his eyes, recalling when he first saw the flower.

Slowly, Nova nodded her head. "Yes, teaching is something I do all the time. So, listen up students." She raised her arm slightly, that way she could play around with her screen. After only a few taps, a projection popped out of the screen. "This is the flower used to make the drug." It had a purplish colour, and it looked unlike any flower that the others had seen.

Well, except for three people.

"O-Oh…" Benoit slowly nodded his head. "I've… I've seen pictures of that flower before."

May shrugged, nodding her head along with Benoit. "It's from Japan, isn't it?"

"Japan…?" Michael had definitely seen that flower in person before, but he knew he had never been to Japan before.

Michael knew he had seen that flower before, but he just didn't know from where… But if his cult was brought up, then did they have a connection with the flower. "Can you continue…?"

May nodded her head along. "I haven't been able to do much research right now, but…" She trailed off, moving over to where she had left the book. "But it says that your cult might have taken a large portion of the flowers…"

"And you didn't know about this?" Gemini raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you their leader?"

"I…" Michael was at a loss for words. "I am… But saying leader isn't exactly right… I'm just the person everyone worships…" In fact, there was someone else he'd consider a leader above him, given they actually did all the work. "I'm just a figure."

That was definitely odd to May, but she wasn't going to comment on that, given she had other things to worry about. "From the looks of it… your cult had started growing some of those flowers in America…"

"Why…?" Michael was just so lost on this entire matter. "I…" Is this why he had seen the flower before? "They never told me…"

"Who runs the cult behind the scenes?" May felt like she needed to get that out of the way.

Slowly, Michael shook his head. "Nobody really… runs the cult. They all just do whatever…" Saying someone ran it behind his back didn't really make sense. "It's possible that they just have those flowers for me…"

But the more he thought about it, the more things started to come back. "May…" He mumbled out, glancing away. "What are the properties of the flower…?"

Remaining silent for a few moments, she eventually switched over to the book from earlier. "It's just like Nova said…" She hummed out.

But that probably wouldn't be enough on its own. "The max dose from the gas can cause comas, and even death, but…"

Michael waited a few seconds, but didn't see any follow up. "But…?"

Oh, May fell asleep. "But… Lower dosages from the gas can cause different effects, like hallucinations, and even sleeping."

"Same with the liquid form, then." Gemini wanted to clarify, given that's how the motive worked.

Nodding her head along, May continued. "With the liquid form, it's much easier to simply knock someone out. Hallucinations become less common, and death can only be obtained after a large quantity."

However, Michael was caught up on something completely different. "It can… knock you out…? Wait a second…"

Remembering something important, Michael clutched his head. "Then back then…"

Michael hadn't noticed because he was too focused on the strange man… But he had just inhaled some weird gas. To the point where he began to cough, and his vision began to blur. "W-what…?"

"That's enough… We don't want to kill him." The man said softly.

Despite his best efforts to fight whatever he had inhaled, Michael's body grew weak, and his vision began to fade away. "Stop…" He said weakly.

But, his legs couldn't hold forever, and he found himself collapsing to the ground.

The last thing he saw were the legs of the man as he slowly approached Michael.

And then…

Darkness.

As it all came back to him at once, Michael had a rather distressed look on his face, as he leaned against the bookshelf.

"Michael?" Gemini took a step forward. "Are you alright?"

Thinking for a moment extra, he looked over at the other two. "That flower… was around before I became the leader."

That was an interesting fact, which only got a hum out of May, as she moved over to grab the news articles. "Interesting…" She wasn't exactly sure what to do with all this information.

Gemini, on the other hand, was a bit confused. "Wait, but I thought Hope's Peak was the one who set up this game."

"Right… you said that earlier…" Michael mumbled out.

"With everything that this game must know, it could only be them." Gemini quickly explained himself. "Only they had the information to give me my secret."

"... What was your secret?" Michael wanted to at least try.

"Not happening." Gemini shook his head. "Getting back on track, doesn't this mean that Hope's Peak and his cult are working together."

May spent some time looking through the articles, before letting out a rather defeated yawn. "I doubt it… Michael, you would have known about it, right?"

"Honestly…" He gleaned the other way. "The only reason I went to Hope's Peak was to try and give myself some space from the cult. I… It was like a prison there, after all…"

"I know what that's like." Gemini nodded his head along, but otherwise didn't add anything else to the conversation.

"So…" May trailed off, trying to process all the information they had gathered.

The flower must have come from Michael's cult, but now it was in possession of Hope's Peak.

Hope's Peak didn't seem to be connected to the cult…

But that didn't really leave them anywhere. "Ah… This is a headache…" May was starting to feel too tired now.

Frowning slightly, Gemini let out a sigh. "Yeah, I'm not too sure what to think… Michael, do you have anything else you want to say about your cult?"

"I…" He glanced at the ground, trying his best to think of anything, but the flashes of memories he kept getting only brought on pain. "No…" He shook his head, before taking a step back.

Since it felt like a bust, Gemini turned towards the exit to the room. "Then, if we can't think of anything else, let's go meet up with Edison."

For a few moments, May wanted to counter that, but she didn't put up any fight, given she got to learn more than she was planning to already. "Alright…"

As the two left, Michael took a look over at the articles May had left behind.

Part of him wanted to read them now, but he also didn't want to keep them waiting.

Turning towards the exit, Michael followed behind them.

Ultimate Astrologist Station

Despite being part of the friend group that gets the plot moving on, Seira was lacking from almost any scene that allowed for it.

Damn, she was getting replaced by Michael of all people.

The real reason she wasn't getting involved, was actually because she wanted some time away from everyone else.

After all, with the secret she just received, she had been feeling on edge since yesterday. Just how did they even get a hold of something like that?

Suddenly, the sound of the door opening alerted Seira to someone else's presence. However, when she turned to see who it was, she froze in her tracks.

After a few seconds, her rather neutral expression turned into a deep frown. "Do you just walk around, finding places to be a nuisance?"

Standing in the doorway was Gennosuke. "Aw, don't give me that attitude." He already had a lollipop in his mouth. "I didn't get to go around looking at all the rooms like everyone else did. I'm just familiarising myself with all the new things we have." His watch was currently out of view, in his pocket, so one couldn't even see how many points he had left.

"Why, so you can plan out another murder plot?" Seira wasn't going to have a nice conversation with him. She was already in a bad mood at the moment.

Tilting his head to the side, Gennosuke didn't immediately answer. Instead, he focused entirely on taking a look at her facial expression. "What's got you so grumpy? Though…" He trailed off, opening his own watch. "I suppose the secondary motive did come in, huh? You must have gotten a secret."

"H-huh?" Seira froze up a bit.

How did he even know that? "You weren't even there." She pointed at him.

"No, but I didn't need to be." Taking a step forward, Gennosuke's eyes scanned her face again. "But you always felt like a girl who had something to hide."

Taking a step back, Seira looked around. This was not the person she wanted to be having this conversation with. "Go away…" She mumbled out, trying to find a way around him.

However, Gennosuke wasn't stupid, so he positioned himself in a way where he was still mostly blocking the door. Taking out his lighter, he lit the tip of the lollipop on fire. "Honestly, in that regard, you have had my interest since the start."

Not to mention, out of everyone still left on the station, Seira was one of the prime candidates for the suspect he was after.

Just everything about her screamed she was hiding something important.

"Can you just leave…" Seira said, rather bitterly. "You are the last person I ever want to talk to."

"Oh? That's kind of hurtful. I thought we had a few good conversations." Gennosuke put on a fake frown. "After all, we had those conversations about how you can tell so much based on their zodiac signs, and then we had the one where I opened up about myself."

Honestly, out of everyone here, Seira was probably the one person who actually got to know anything about his past. "So honestly, I'm hurt."

But she didn't believe any of that. "Don't try and play that card."

Slowly, a small grin formed on Gennosuke's face. "So on the defensive today." Which was fine, he just wanted to get a better read on her.

"Anyone would be defensive near you." Seira narrowed her eyes. "What are you really here for?"

For a few seconds, Gennosuke only looked at her, scanning her face, trying to judge her expression. "Well, you already know there's nothing you can do to keep my mind out of your head."

That's if Seira even wanted to believe he was a psychic.

But who was she to risk something like that anyways? She tried her best to empty her mind of the most important thoughts.

"Heh…" Gennosuke let out another chuckle, shaking his head in amusement. "Come on, what you're hiding can't possibly be that bad."

"You're the bad parts of being a Gemini." Seira tried to change the subject quickly. "The two faced part of it."

Flashing a smile, Gennosuke didn't seem to be too bugged by it. "Oh right, your whole astrology gimmick. You know, I can tell you don't have any clue what you are talking about when it comes to it."

Not again… Seira seemed a bit bitter now. "You're going to start insulting me now… What did I ever do to you?"

She never really did anything to Gennosuke specifically. He just didn't trust her one bit. "Well, for starters, you didn't catch me in a lie."

"What…?" Seira blinked a few times. "What lie are you even-"

Before she had time to finish, Gennosuke was already answering. "You remember the conversation we had a while ago, in the casino? About astrological signs."

"The conversation we had-" And like all at once, Seira seemed to remember just what he was talking about.

Nodding his head along, Gennosuke eventually began to shake it. "While it's true, some people hide their intentions very deeply. I'm not sure how far the zodiac signs will be able to carry you."

"Oh?" Seira almost seemed a bit disappointed to hear that. "But the signs should hint at their true personality."

Gennosuke did not believe that in the slightest. And the more he spoke with her, the less he believed. "That may have held true for most of your life, but remember, people have a tendency of putting on a face to show the world. Secrets to hide, and whatnot."

He leaned back in the chair he was in. "Besides, you'd be required to trust that they don't lie about their zodiac sign."

Seira frowned slightly. "But that's cheating. I can't get an accurate read if someone lies to me."

A frown slowly formed on Gennosuke's face. "People aren't fair. They'll lie and do whatever they have to to get far in life. You shouldn't solely rely on something like zodiacs to figure out how a person is."

"You… You…!" Seira pointed over to him. "You aren't a Gemini at all!"

"Heh… Took you long enough." Gennosuke shrugged, pulling the lollipop out of his mouth. "Like I told you, it's such a dumb way to try and learn about someone, especially if we can just lie about it."

Seira's mind started to race, trying her best to find out just what sign he would even be in this situation.

But the more she thought about it, the more she drew a blank. "You're… You're…"

"You aren't going to get it. Not everyone fits into a category." Gennosuke put the lollipop back into his mouth.

Something Seira had used for so long had completely been turned against her. "Why… Why did you-"

Leaning his head to the side, Gennosuke had to spend a moment thinking. "Well, I used it just like you would assume I would. Just to get myself put in your group."

"Believe it or not, but my name is the same as my Zodiac." Gemini seemed rather proud of that fact.

"Oh thank god." Seira honestly felt relieved. If it wasn't she would have gone crazy.

"Me too…" May let out a yawn.

Slowly, Laki rose up between the group. "Hi." She said, in a rather low voice.

After a few seconds, Gennosuke stepped up, lifting his hand lazily. "There's also me."

"Wow…" Seira wasn't aware just how many people were Gemini's. This is crazy.

"Well, just getting close to you wasn't my only goal. I also felt the need to get close to Laki." Gennosuke let out a small laugh.

Seira's eyes kept darting around the room, looking for any sort of out for this room. "So what? What do you have against us?"

Frowning slightly, Gennosuke let out a sigh. "I can't hope to learn from people if I don't get close to them. I can't just do what I do from a distance."

At this point, Seira wasn't even sure what he even did. She had no idea if he was actually psychic or not anymore. But if he had been suspicious of her the entire time. "Just go away…"

For a few seconds, Gennosuke remained silent.

She was guarding whatever this secret might be pretty well. Even after tormenting her for a bit, he wasn't able to crack the code. "Heh…" He let out a small chuckle, before taking a step back. "Fine, fine. I won't pry into your mind." Mostly because it just wasn't working.

For a moment, Seira seemed to calm down a bit. "Well, if you have nothing else to do, then go."

While he couldn't determine what her secret was, there was another reason he even bothered seeking her out.

That reason being his mission. And while she had been his main suspect this entire time, the more he spoke to her, the more his mind changed.

After this entire conversation, Gennosuke could at least confirm one thing.

Seira wasn't the person he was looking for. Sure, there was still something major she was hiding, but he didn't get the vibes that they were the ones going behind everyone's back. It had to be someone else entirely.

But that was fine, given that he still had three other main suspects in mind. The next few days would be about slowly whittling down the suspect list until only one person would remain.

"Well…" Gennosuke trailed off, turning his focus towards the door. "I'm going to head out now, I've gotten to speak about everything I've wanted to, now. Later."

Seira looked like she wanted to yell something out at him, but instead chose to remain silent. This was her one way out of the conversation, so she wasn't going to screw it up.

Then, as he left, she just let herself slowly slide against the wall, sitting down on the ground…

Why was all of this happening now of all times?

It seems that Seira and Gennosuke had a free time event. Maybe they grew closer? I'll leave that up to you to figure out.

Ultimate Chemist Station

Alright, now that everyone was ready to meet back up, the quartet found themselves located in Edison's station. Edison had to open the door for them, of course.

However, Michael couldn't help but say what was on his mind. "This station… it feels kind of plain."

"Gah!" Edison took a step back, pointing at him. "Get him out! Get him out now!"

Letting out a sigh, Gemini shook his head. "Let's not go around, kicking people out, alright?"

May, on the other hand, had a completely different opinion from everyone else.

Sure, it didn't beat her own station, and it probably wouldn't beat Seira's. But to her, it wasn't that bad. "Like I'm back in school…" She hummed out, which to her, was a good thing.

"So…" Michael trailed off. "What's the idea you had, exactly?"

Grinning from ear to ear, Gemini moved over to the island table in the center of the room. "Well, if there's something behind a metal wall, the simplest idea is…"

…

"We blow it up!"

Long pause for silence.

The first one to speak up was Michael, who seemed a bit unsure. "Is that… Really a good idea?"

"Yeah…" May was having similar thoughts. "I don't think we should be playing with explosives…" Especially since nobody on this station is good with that kind of thing.

However, Gemini didn't seem to think it was a bad idea at all. "This might work. We don't have any other way to break through the wall, do we?"

Opening up the map, he gave it another look. "Besides, if there's a room there, we shouldn't be able to blow a hole through the ship."

Still, this entire thing filled May with a sense of uneasiness. "What other solution do we have…?"

"Acid." Thanks Edison.

Now it was Michael's turn to feel uneasy. "Are these really our only solutions…?"

There had to be some other way, right?

Thinking for another moment, Edison remembered what he and Hae-Won spoke about. "Well, hypothetically speaking, there might be a puzzle we need to solve."

"A puzzle?" That caught Gemini's attention. "Hmm… I would understand it if it was my Ultimate Station, but it doesn't seem to be the case, so that can't be it."

Still, after that talk with Hae-Won, Edison didn't want to immediately jump into blowing things up. "We could always think of a different solution."

After thinking for a few seconds, Gemini shook his head. "I've checked the wall before, and there's nothing there to indicate that there's a secret to opening the door."

"Maybe it's a one way…" Michael mumbled out, throwing out ideas. "Like there's a way to open it from the inside."

May was quick to counter that idea entirely. "Maybe… But that doesn't help us get in… It's probably just a room Nova and Monokawa can access."

"Well." Gemini said, placing his hands on his hips. "It isn't against the rules to break in, so we should try everything we can."

"But why is everything we can… explosives?" Michael was still caught up on that part. "Maybe we should ask Nova about it…?"
"Right!" Edison adjusted his goggles. "Given her office opened up, wouldn't it be pretty easy to go talk to her."

However, Gemini's facial expression already showed off what his answer would be. "But it's Nova. Look, she might not be like Monokawa, but I'm not about to tell her what our plan is, just so she can turn it down."

"Yeah…" May hummed out. "It would be best if we didn't tell them about this…"

"Wouldn't Monokawa already know?" Edison thought for a moment. "I thought he watched the cameras and stuff? And if we yelled out his name, he would show up."

After some silence, Gemini took a step forward. "Monokawa!" He shouted out, just to see how often he listened.

Suddenly!

Otter!

"What." Monokawa was less than pleased. "You can't just go yelling my name."

"Ah…" Gemini seemed a bit disappointed. "Have you been listening to everything we've been saying?"

Shrugging, Monokawa floated down to rest on the table. "Not really. There's like fourteen of you fucks around. I don't have time to pay attention to everything you all say. I just listen to our name."

"Oh." Well, that more than just confirmed it. "Thank you for telling us…" Michael seemed a bit relieved.

After a few more seconds of silence, Edison spoke up. "Aren't you… Going to leave now?"

"What? Why the hell would I leave?" Monokawa floated back up. "First of all, you called me here, you have to deal with me. Second of all, it seemed like you were talking about some important things, so why would I suddenly leave?"

Welp, they completely fucked up their own plans.

"Well…" Gemini trailed off, trying to find an escape to this conversation. "We just wanted to test out if you were paying attention to the conversation."

"Yes, yes. I gathered that." Nope. Monokawa wasn't leaving at this point.

They really messed up this time.

Letting out a sigh, May rubbed her eyes. "Maybe we should just talk about this another time."

"Why are you excluding me?" Monokawa let his arms fall to his sides. "I want to be included too… This is bullying."

"You've literally killed some of us." Michael was very quick with the retort. "The way we treat you is entirely justified."

"Yeah." Gemini frowned. "We haven't forgotten what you've forced us to do."

"Thank God… I'd feel awful if you somehow forgot all of that." Monokawa put his arms behind his head.

Looking at him for a few seconds, May eventually looked away. "I'm going to head off… I'm going to go to my own station…"

Maybe now she could actually do the research she wanted to do.

Watching her leave, Monokawa stood up straight. "She makes me worried. She could be thinking about anything."

"Probably better than what you're thinking…" Michael, once again, has no chill when it comes to the overseers.

"You guys are the worst." Monokawa crossed his arms. "Well you know what! Fine! I'm not leaving now!"

After a few extra seconds of standing around, Gemini found the perfect solution to the dilemma here.

Leaving.

"This isn't working out." He had a defeated smile on his face. "Edison, keep thinking of things we can do, and we should be able to talk again tomorrow."

"On it!" Finally, he was being relied on. This is what he always wanted.

"Michael…" Gemini trailed off, not really knowing what the cult leader would be able to do. "Stay safe."

That's all he could say.

After leaving, this left the three of them alone in the station.

"I… Should probably head off too." Honestly, Michael didn't like how most of this day had turned out anyways. Maybe he needed to sleep it off.

Now that Edison and Monokawa were left alone, the latter slowly turned to look at the chemist. "So… Come here often?"

"Please leave my station."

"Fine! Fine! Alright!" Monokawa floated over towards the door. "You don't have to ask me twice."

No, instead they had to ask… what? Trice?

"Hmm…" Edison let out a small hum, seeing that he was once again alone in his station.

Nova's Office

There were several questions that had popped up in Gigi's head since this new area opened up, and now, with how things were going in these last few days, even more had begun to occupy her mind.

Now, she had definitely talked about wanting to do this, but she just didn't expect she'd be here so soon.

"So…" Nova was pouring herself a glass of wine. "You said you wanted to talk about some things?"

"Yes, I do." Although, Gigi wasn't exactly sure where she wanted to start. There were several different subjects that she could have gone for, but it was best to try and go for the most pressing issues first.

"First of all…" She started off. "Why did one of the rules get deleted?"

For a few seconds, Nova looked directly at her. "What rule was deleted?" It's not that she didn't believe her, but she just wanted to know how well she had memorised the rules.

Without skipping a beat, Gigi was able to perfectly read off the rule. "Rule #5: It is forbidden to show your motive app to anyone else, to talk about what might be on it, or to look at someone else's."

For a moment, Nova was rather quiet…

Until the expression on her face turned to yellow, to express joy. "Wow, you really did memorise it. You are rather impressive."

However, Gigi didn't care a single bit about the compliments. "Why remove it?" She wanted to get right down to business.

"That's a good question." Part of Nova's visor rose up, allowing her to be able to drink from her glass. "The way things were going, it was getting rather dangerous to keep that rule up. Especially with this current motive."

This got an eyebrow raise from Gigi. "What… Do you mean?"

Taking a deep breath, Nova leaned back slightly in her seat. "Because of a coding error, I was worried that talking about your vote would be classified as talking about the motive app. Instead of waiting around for someone to break the rule without knowing, I figured the easiest solution was to remove the rule entirely."

Remaining silent for a few seconds, Gigi attempted to piece together a few things. "But as overseer, you would have the last say on what broke a rule, right?"

"..." Nova had finished her glass already, and begun to pour herself another. "Not exactly… Rule breaking isn't something I worry about. The moment a rule is broken, Monokawa is alerted, and he goes off to administer punishment. You have to remember, unlike yourself or me, he's just an AI program. He does what he is programmed to do, nothing more."

So, if any of them were to break a rule, Monokawa would be the one to kill them. "So when Tatiana attacked Monokawa…"

"Well, she was already going to be executed, so there was no reason to speed up." Nova shrugged, leaning her head back slightly. "I also have the authority to deal out punishment, but I felt it was unnecessary due to her death arriving soon after."

A lot of useful information that Gigi was currently learning. "So, you'd only deliver a punishment if Monokawa is unable to."

"Yes, pretty much." Nova nodded her head along. "For now, I've had no reason to do such a thing. Monokawa pretty much takes care of everything else."

From the sounds of it, it felt like Monokawa was running the game more. "What exactly do you do?"

For a moment, Nova remained silent, before a panicked look appeared on her visor. "Honestly… I'm not too sure myself. I make the food sometimes, if that helps."

"You… feed us?" This conversation was turning out to be rather strange, and Gigi wasn't exactly sure where to go next.

After a few more seconds of thinking, she found her next avenue. "You only really attend trials, and give out motives, right."

"Yes, I suppose I am in charge of the main motives around. And attending trials is mandatory for me." Nova explained.

In an instance, Gigi understood why. "Because attending the trial is mandatory for everyone, and given you must follow the rules… Why is that a rule anyways?"

"Well… It's to discourage us from breaking any rules. This prevents Monokawa from killing anyone indiscriminately. Same for myself. If we killed someone without enacting a punishment, we would be considered the blackened."

For a moment, Gigi froze slightly, her eyes darting to the side. "You both can be a blackened…?"

"Technically, yes. However, it would be almost impossible for Monokawa to actually end up as one." Nova tapped the screen of her visor. "After all, his programming refuses to let him do so. Myself, on the other hand, am not restricted by any coding."

Which meant if she wanted to, there was nothing stopping her. That did make Gigi a bit uneasy, but she didn't comment on it. "This is a lot of stuff I didn't really take into account." She crossed her arms.

"Oh! I didn't expect anyone to be this interested in the rules." Nova clapped her hands with a joyful expression on her face. "So it's refreshing. Most people read them once, and never look back."

"Well, ever since it was revealed that you don't tell us when a rule is added…" Gigi recalled such an incident during the Benoit and Ian trial…

Gigi opened up the rules app, noting that it was now there. "There wasn't a notification for this?"

Monokawa shrugged. "Yeah, sorry. The watch doesn't notify you when a change to the rule occurs. Nova or I are supposed to tell you."

From the looks of it, Gigi also wasn't notified that a rule was even deleted.

"Well, those rules haven't been important." Nova waved her hand dismissively. "After all, us removing a rule won't cause your death. And, the rule we did add wasn't going to kill you either. Especially since we informed you all of what it was."

Still, it didn't sit right with Gigi about all of this. "There's something else I wanted to ask… It's about rule #6-"

"Nope. Please choose another subject to talk about." Nova was very quick to be dismissive about this.

"I…" Gigi didn't like that answer, but she also didn't want to get on her nerves. "Fine…"

Then, a new question appeared in her head. "Yeah, I have one last one for you… Why are you so open to answering most of my questions." She wouldn't expect a killing game overseer to be this friendly in general.

This got a laugh from Nova. "Oh! That's an easy answer for me to give. You are my third favourite participant on this station." She said with such glee in her voice.

However, this caused Gigi's thought process to get derailed entirely. "Wait? Third?" Why did she even care? "Why would you rank us?" Long pause. "Who's your favourite?"

"Edison." Nova was out of her mind.

Gigi frowned slightly, but given his relation to science, that probably made some form of sense. "And who's your second favourite?"

"Lorelei."

After some more agonising silence, Gigi finally spoke up again. "I think you need a new list of favourites."

Quickly, a blue expression for sadness appeared on Nova's visor. "What? But I love them all so dearly."

It was still an odd assortment of people. None of the three of them really had anything in common, except maybe being nerds on the side.

Was Nova a nerd? Hard to tell.

After a few seconds of silence, Nova realised that this conversation wasn't advancing anymore, so she moved back over to her drink. "If that's everything, then I wish you a good rest of the day."

Looking over at her watch, Gigi let out a small sigh. It was already getting closer to night time, and she hadn't really done anything. Maybe this motive had already begun to take a toll on her. "Right, that's all I wanted to ask you." Standing up, she moved over towards the door, stopping for a few seconds.

Nova was a weird one. Unlike Monokawa, she didn't seem malicious in what she was doing. In fact, it almost felt like a mother figure.

Which was weird to think about. Nova had pretty much trapped them in this killing game after all.

"Good night." Gigi offered, before leaving her office.

Nova swirled around her wine glass, waiting for the door to close before taking another sip.

It seems that Gigi and Nova have- wait a fucking second. You can't have a free time with the overseer. Get out of here.

Ultimate Academic Prodigy Station

Well, since Gemini wanted to try his best at this, what better place to start then with May's station.

Moving over towards the kiosk, he began to input a few words.

Words that would normally get him put on a watch list or something.

"What are you doing…?" A voice called out from behind him, but it didn't take a genius to figure out it was May.

"Oh, well…" Gemini rubbed the back of his head. "I figured it would be best if we tried to learn how to make some kind of explosive. I'm not quite sure how else we plan to get through the wall."

Great, her own station was going to be used to make explosives. "Have you ever been put on a watchlist…?"

"Yes, why?" Gemini raised an eyebrow.

For once, May was left with more questions than answers, as she moved past him. "Never mind…"

Moving over towards her kiosk, she tried to get a better look at what Gemini was typing. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Heh." He had a cocky smile on his face. "When I have an idea set in my head, nothing can stop me. Besides, I wouldn't be the one making the actual explosive. I'll leave that part to Edison."

That was an entire problem on its own. "I'm not sure… If Edison is the best person to trust with something like that."

Well, trust wasn't exactly the right word. But he seemed a bit unstable with explosives.

Gemini pondered this for all of two seconds, before shaking his head. "But if we're going to attempt to find out more information, we have no choice but to do something like this." Once he had found a book he wanted, he pressed on the screen to summon it.

A few seconds later, a book was dropped in front of him.

"... Still…" May didn't really know anything about explosives, so she was really unsure about all of this.

"I'm not sure Edison is even the best person to ask…"

Gemini waved his hand dismissively. "You're probably right, but we still have to try something." As long as there was a way forward, he wasn't just about to give up.

"Do you… ever stop?" May didn't mean to sound rude when she asked it, but it probably came off like that.

"Hmm…?" Gemini looked over at her. ."Stop… what exactly?" That was another word he didn't really know the meaning of.

As someone who didn't really find the need to even try in her life, it was strange for May to see someone like this. "Well… I mean… Even after something doesn't work, you keep going…"

"Of course I'd keep going." Gemini placed a hand on his hip. "If I didn't stop trying, I wouldn't have become the Ultimate Escapist."

"Hmm…" May let out a hum. There's times where she had stopped trying entirely.

When it came to school there wasn't such a thing as trying for her. What was the point? She was going to score the highest anyways. "I see…"

Thinking for a moment, Gemini spoke up. "What about you, do you give up easily?"

"I…" Well this had already turned against May in a way she didn't want it to. "Something… like that." After a few seconds of silence, it was obvious that he was waiting for an explanation.

Letting out a sigh, she continued. "Is there really a point in trying when you'll succeed anyways?"

Gemini pondered this for a few moments, before shaking his head. "But success isn't guaranteed just because you are good at something. If I didn't try, I wouldn't be able to do the things I do." After all, not once has he ever given up while he.

Well, besides the escape pod, but that was just being realistic. "You mean to tell me you've never failed at something before?"

"..." May didn't turn to look at him, instead opting to look at the article she had grabbed from earlier. "Well… That's not true…"

No reason to lie to Gemini of all people. "There was… one thing I failed at." Normally, she would refrain from saying it, but she caught it earlier this morning.

"I failed a test when I was in school."

Gemini spent a few seconds looking at her, before a smile appeared on his face. "That's it?" Wow, Gemini has at least failed like… one of those too! Probably.

Now, a frown appeared on May's face. "Hey… This is important to me… I'm not supposed to fail tests…"

The fact that it even happened made no sense to her. "I answered all the questions… And I know I had to have gotten them right."

Thinking for a moment, it did feel odd for an Ultimate to suddenly fail at their talent. But then again, a conversation like this did pop up yesterday when they were in Edison's station. "Are you certain of it?"

"I… I want to be…" May didn't really know it was the truth or not, but she wanted to have some confidence in herself. "It was the first time I ever failed a test, and also the last time…"

That was strange… Why would that happen all of a sudden? "Hmm… Are you sure that nothing else happened? It's likely that the teacher made a mistake."

"I asked… but they were certain that they didn't…" Now May was feeling dejected again, even though it happened years ago. "It did cause me to put a bit more effort into my work, at the very least…"

"Well, then maybe this was a learning experience?" Gemini had a bit of hope in his eyes.

"No." What a quick answer from May. "It… It didn't really last." After all, she felt herself slowly falling into the same slump as before.

"Ah…" That's not the answer Gemini wanted to hear, but he couldn't really blame someone like May. "So… If the teacher swears that there was no mistake, and you know you answered the questions correctly…" He trailed off. "Hmm… Did the teacher not like you?"

For a moment, May paused to consider this thought.

Well, most teachers did like how smart she was. However, there were some who thought her sleeping during class was rather disrespectful. "I… Don't think the teacher liked me…"

"Anyone else who didn't like you?" Gemini was just trying his best to get to the bottom of this.

Anyone else? Well, May never really spent time thinking about who didn't like her. She didn't really have much of a social life back in school. "Not… That I could think of…"

However, an idea did pop in her head. "There were some that seemed… jealous…"

That did pique Gemini's interest. "Really now?" Now he had some ideas forming in his head, but nothing concrete. "I think either way, there was foul play involved." That's the only answer that made sense.

"But… why?" May didn't really understand why someone would go after her. She hadn't caused anyone any harm, after all.

"People don't like seeing others succeed." Gemini explained, letting out a sigh. "Kind of a crabs in a bucket mentality. If I can't succeed, why should you? And I think that might have been fueled by the fact that you were doing so well, without even feeling the need to try."

Well, that was pretty stupid… Or at least May thought so. "Just because I'm born smart, doesn't mean they have to try and bring me down…" With a hum she moved away from the shelf, making her way further into the library.

Following behind her was Gemini. "Yeah, but people don't tend to view things like that. People can be pretty selfish, you know." With a sigh, he shook his head, looking off to the side. "But there's always people who are the exact opposite. People who'd want to do anything to see one person succeed, even if it means sacrificing themselves."

For a moment, May paused before turning to look at him. "You have experience with something like that?"

For a moment, Gemini froze up, before quickly shaking his head. "Haha, I don't know what you're talking about."

On one hand, May wanted to call him out on such a blatant lie. On the other hand, she also didn't want to pry into the life of a friend. "If you say so…" Ah… Thinking this much is starting to make her sleepy.

"I was just using it as an example, so don't look too deeply into it." Gemini had to cover his basses at the very least.

Letting out a yawn, May slowly lowered herself onto the beanbag chair.

After a few seconds of waiting for a response, Gemini heard snoring. Ah, she had fallen asleep.

He wanted to shake her awake to continue the conversation, but it was probably for the best to leave her there. "Alright, I'll talk to you later." He smiled, stepping out of the room.

It seems that May and Gemini have grown closer.

Vacant Room

It had once again grown late in the day, which meant most people had retreated to their rooms. All, safe for two people.

"Hmm…" Winter let out a hum, looking down at her own watch. Luckily, her total still showed off fourteen, so she hadn't received a single vote. "How did you fair after the first day?"

"Oh, don't kid yourself. You know I couldn't avoid getting votes." Lorelei rolled their eyes. However, soon, a smirk appeared on her face. "But only getting one? I think that's pretty nice." Her watch had the number thirteen on it.

Looking at it for a few seconds, Winter nodded her head along. "I see…" So after one day, they weren't in a terrible spot. "Who did you put your vote on?"

"Gigi." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "I was hoping more people would vote for her, but I was the only one. Guess there are bigger fish to fry out there."

"Well, the person I voted for also only lost one point. I put my vote on Edison." Winter let out a slight hum, looking at the doors to the vacant room.

Nobody was coming out, which was good for her.

However, this got Lorelei to raise an eyebrow. "You threw a vote on Edison? Why him of all people?"

"Hmm… I was hoping he would start blaming someone else for the point he lost." Winter explained, glancing at one of the doors. "I think from the looks of things, the best way to survive this motive is to turn everyone against each other."

"Yeah, no shit." Meanwhile, Lorelei didn't really put much thought into it. All that mattered was that people she didn't like had the highest chance of dying. "So then, what do you recommend we vote now?"

Thinking for a moment, Winter shrugged. "It's still pretty early, but I don't recommend voting for anyone who still has all their points." And because she was keeping a watchful eye the entire time, she was able to figure out exactly who those people were. "Gemini, Laki, May, and Atlas all still have full points."

"Woah, woah." Lorelei already felt something was wrong here. "Alright, I can understand how Gemini and May have no points." They hadn't exactly stirred trouble around here. "But how the fuck did Laki and Atlas escape without losing any points?"

Twirling a strand of hair around her finger, Winter looked off to the side. "Well…" She pretty much already figured it out. "Hae-Won was the most likely to vote for either of those two people, however, she already voted for Gennosuke, granting the two of them some safety." However, it wouldn't last.

"Pfft, so all Atlas had to do was not drop two votes on Hae-Won, and he likely would have been safe?" To Lorelei, this was the best motive so far. She had only received one vote, and it wouldn't take long to narrow down the list. In fact, she pretty much already narrowed it down to May.

"That's another reason I don't see any worth in dumping points on him until the very end." Winter didn't want to be a part of that fight.

"So, how about we meet up tomorrow, and talk about what we're voting for." Lorelei was liking the idea of actually having someone on her side when it came to the motive.

Still, she wasn't going to fully trust Winter yet, that would have to wait a bit longer.

After a few seconds of silence, she slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, we can do it after the regular morning meeting. We should spend some time focusing on which seven people we'll make sure remain at the bottom."

Honestly, Lorelei had always seen Winter as one of the nicer individuals. Little did they know just how scheming she actually was.

Suddenly, an announcement played out, alerting the two girls that it was probably time to head to bed.

"I think the first day of voting was a success!" Like usual, it was Monokawa talking. "Don't let that steam slow down. But also… Those that didn't vote… What the hell are you doing? Are you willingly choosing to die? Do something, three of you abstained. Don't throw away your life like that. I'm hoping for different results tomorrow!"

Letting out a small hum, Winter approached her door, scanning her bracelet. "I'm glad we got a motive like this. I don't think we have anything to fear."

Watching her leave, Lorelei was left alone in the hallway, before shaking their head. "Yeah, whatever. Just doing this to increase my odds at survival.

Not like she'd actually trust Winter or something…

And with that, we reach the end of another daily life. And honestly, I think I'm writing this a bit faster than I thought I would. We're already halfway done with the daily life, so expect a body soon :D Like mentioned before (somewhat), there will be six daily life parts like the last chapter. Just so I can have more fun with the motive, seeing how things are already starting to happen because of the results.

And hey, I think this was a pretty important chapter lore wise, since we did get to learn a lot of extra information. Information that I was waiting to reveal :D

Which, by the way, I feel like I should mention that the map information would have been revealed in Chapter 3… Had Ian lived instead. Which he didn't, so you all got stuck waiting another chapter.

Man, I miss Ian.

I probably won't be able to get another chapter out before I leave, mostly because I leave on Wednesday, and look how close that is already. Not to mention that I want to shift back over to my Zero Escape fic. I was supposed to use my time off to plan for it further, and just… didn't.

Anyways, moving back to this story. At the end of the chapter, I'll be more than glad to provide what everyone's score is :D Given we actually see it being mentioned. So if they hid it from the viewers, then you don't get to know. Have fun figuring things out from there.

Next part should be posted sometime in March, so look forward to all of that :D

Participants Remaining: 14

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16] (13)

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23] (11)

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue] (14)

Giustina "Gigi" Giulio - The Ultimate Referee [Nekoja] (13)

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody] (14)

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny] (12)

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Hacker [CandleFire45] (13)

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin] (11)

Melody Eleanor Hopkins - The Ultimate Tap Dancer [Prince PokePersona] (13)

Lakshmi "Laki" Krishna - The Ultimate Lucky Student [Sempi] (14)

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova] (14)

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple] (14)

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101] (?)

Kim Hae-Won - The Ultimate Tattoo Artist [Weekaro] (12)