Danganronpa: Obscurity’s Disgrace (SYOC) Chapter 29: Triple Shot, One Shot (Part 2), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 3: Triple Shot, One Shot (Part 2)

Warning!

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

[Pheme's Room]

"We're getting down to it... aren't we, Miss Pheme?" The Figure set his hand on Pheme's shoulder.

"Yes! Yes, we are!" Pheme had been frantically sorting through various forms. She had been struggling to find ones that they hadn't read over yet. "The fifteenth person to join our Killing Game... we're so close!"

"Yes... you are so close, Miss Pheme." The Figure chuckled. "How about it then? Any candidates?"

"It's gotten so difficult... but... maybe... this... one?" Pheme held out as much hope as she could, but finding eligible alumni proved to be so much more difficult than she would've thought- "I got it!" She suddenly threw a document into the air.

"Is that so?" The Figure caught it with ease and began to read it over. "Ji-hoon Jo... the Ultimate Celebrity Detective. I'm not sure..." He showed some hesitation.

"Aw, don't be like that!" Pheme turned around in her chair. "I understand how he might be risky, but don't deny him without even seeing what The Contact provided for us!" She then turned back around in her chair and started to pull up a flashback scene for Ji-hoon on her computer.

"Miss Pheme..." The Figure didn't outright reject him yet... but he was very hesitant to include a man like Ji-hoon. But... he was willing to hear Pheme out. So he patiently waited while Pheme pulled up the video...

...

[Ji-hoon's Flat]

"I'm back, Saori!" Ji-hoon Jo arrived back home to his flat after a long day of doing some fieldwork for a case he was working through.

"Hey, Ji-hoon! Welcome back!" Saori Yoshida, an acquaintance of Ji-hoon, was currently sitting down on the couch in his small but cozy flat. "Long day?"

"You could say that." Ji-hoon set some stuff down on a table and sat down at the desk he had out in the living room. He then set down a variety of pieces of paper, notes, and various things on his desk. "How's Kimi?"

Saori looked at the spare room the flat had. The door was closed. "She's resting. She's alright."

"Good." Ji-hoon started to sort through the things he scattered on his desk.

"Ji-hoon..." Saori got up and walked up to him. "Thank you-"

"Stop. You don't have to thank me." Ji-hoon had heard that enough. "You know why I do it. It's not a problem at all. Please... don't worry." He spoke sincerely even with his back turned to her.

"...Alright." Saori quietly sighed. She was so grateful to have a man like Ji-hoon in her life. Or, more like, she was grateful he came back into her life. Without him... she didn't know where she'd be right now.

"...Put this here... that there..." Ji-hoon started to mutter to himself as he organized the material he had on his desk.

"How was your day? Any progress?" Saori knew she couldn't be of any help to Ji-hoon with his profession, so she opted to support him from the sidelines.

"Good progress, actually." Ji-hoon kept organizing his information. "I've managed to find a good amount of information on the eleven missing Ultimate alumni today. In fact..." He pulled out his laptop from a drawer. "I think I might know who might be kidnaping them even."

"Woah... slow down." Saori knew that Ji-hoon was skilled at what he did, but not that skilled. "You... already know who?!"

"First, they definitely aren't the overall culprit. And it could be a coincidence. But I have someone on my radar." Ji-hoon started to pull up a picture of someone. "One of the people I talked with today, Ichiro Mashimoto, gave me an interesting testimony. Another girl, Alister Blighlowa, backed it up."

"Wait... okay, please slow down." Saori couldn't handle the ominous yet interesting namedrops. "Mashimoto... that's the name of the wrestler that got taken, right?"

"Correct. Ichiro Mashimoto is the uncle of Genjiro Mashimoto, the fourth one reported missing." Ji-hoon grabbed a piece of paper from earlier. "I talked with him today about Genjiro's disappearance, and he told me something interesting. He gave me a written testimony." He showed it to Saori.

Saori squinted her eyes as she started to read the testimony. "On the night Genjiro went missing, he and I were having a drink at the bar. He stepped outside to use the bathroom and never came back. When I went out to check on him, I spotted a delivery truck in the distance. I thought it was weird it was out that late." She finished reading it. "A... delivery truck?"

"Yep. There's more where that came from." Ji-hoon took back the paper testimony from Saori as he started to pull up a chat log on his laptop. "Earlier today, I got in contact with Alister Blighowa, a fan of Damien Lux, who was kidnapped ninth." He put extra protections on the chat log, so it took him a second to open it up. "I won't read it verbatim, but I'll summarize. Alister visited one of Damien's beauty salons one day for a recommendation for a perfume her boyfriend would like. In the middle of talking with Damien, he excused himself to collect a delivery from the back. Naturally, he never came back. She first reported him missing."

"Delivery... that's not a coincidence." Again, Saori didn't have Ji-hoon's skills, but she picked up on some of his insightful skills.

"Right." Ji-hoon went to pull up something else on his laptop. "Another thing I did earlier was get the security footage near the bar Genjiro and his uncle were at the night he went missing."

Saori widened her eyes. "How'd you do that?"

Ji-hoon chuckled. "Luck would have it, the manager of the biggest security firm in the city, the one that manages street security footage, was blackmailing his employees into working for shit pay and in horrible conditions."

"Oh... you told me about that!" Saori always enjoyed hearing about Ji-hoon's exploits. "Whatever happened to him?"

"An anonymous post was made on an online forum right after the firm was investigated for "poor work ethic" or something. The anonymous post sounded suspiciously relevant to the public details of that investigation, so I looked into it. It luckily wasn't a coincidence, and after a few weeks, I did what the police couldn't, and I got the manager arrested." Ji-hoon explained one of his exploits. "After that, the new manager insisted on paying me for the job, but I didn't take the money. They were already going through financial troubles, and I wasn't going to make it worse. I instead asked for a favor in return, and I finally cashed it."

"Wow..." Saori muttered in disbelief and awe. She's heard these stories so many times, but they never get any less crazy. "So you got the footage you wanted then?"

"I did." Ji-hoon nodded. "The footage from near GranSue's Bar that night was pretty dark, but it was still just bright enough for me to see what I wanted to see."

"The delivery truck that Genjiro's uncle mentioned?" Saori put two and two together.

"Exactly." Ji-hoon pulled up the footage and skipped ahead a little. "You can see a delivery truck... right here." He stopped the footage when the truck came into view. "Mashimoto wasn't able to see details on the truck itself from where he was. But look here. You can make it out on the cameras." He pointed at the screen.

"Oh... I see it!" Saori kinda liked being shown all of this stuff. "Hold on though. Is that a delivery truck? It's completely unmarked."

"Exactly," Ji-hoon smirked. "It is one, but it doesn't have the logo of a company or anything. Strange, right?"

"Suspicious... this must've taken that wrestler, then?" Saori narrowed her eyes.

"I'm not going to say anything definitively... but here. Look at this." Ji-hoon went a little further through the footage and then zoomed in. "See that? You can see the license plate." He pointed at the screen.

"Hey... you can!" Saori kept her eyes narrowed. "It's... an Osaka license plate... and it's 87-41." She read out the numbers.

"Right. That doesn't narrow it down though. But..." Ji-hoon pointed out another thing on the license plate. "That does. Do you see that symbol on the license plate? It's blurry, but you can just barely make it out."

"It's..." Saori didn't consider her vision bad, but she had to take a step forward to see what Ji-hoon was talking about. "Oh... oh god." She realized what it was. "That's a Hope's Peak symbol!"

"It is. Hope's Peak Osaka." Ji-hoon pulled up an image of the symbol for the Osaka branch. "I don't believe she's the culprit for the kidnappings themselves, but Yuki Shirazane is definitely involved in this somehow. She has to be."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised... considering who she is." Saori sighed. Yuki Shirazane was a very controversial figure, and for good reason.

"A lot of people want her removed from her post, but it's easier said than done." Ji-hoon pulled up a picture of her. "She keeps her position purely on privilege and treachery. She's a smart, yet dangerous woman. I've started building a case against her, but it's taking longer than I thought." Shirazane was exactly the type of person that Ji-hoon fought to bring to justice.

"Hold on. You said she isn't the culprit for the kidnappings, right?" Not wanting to dwindle on her for too long, Saori called back to what Ji-hoon said.

"Ah, right." Ji-hoon didn't want to get distracted. "So the license plate indicates that Hope's Peak Osaka is involved. But the interesting thing is... that truck doesn't belong to them."

Saori blinked. "It doesn't... belong to Hope's Peak Osaka? What do you mean by that?"

"I called in a favor from the police, and had them look up the license plate in their database." Ji-hoon pulled up the result he had gotten. "And when I did... it showed that the license plate and subsequently the truck itself belonged to a certain person." He showed this certain person's picture. "It belongs... to Johnny Harte, the Former Ultimate Stalker." Gold's favorite talent!

"Johnny Harte?!" Saori widened her eyes. "I thought he was MIA after the FUP! He knew he couldn't show his face in public anymore!"

"I thought so too." Ji-hoon scowled at his picture. "But rumors have been saying that he's become active again. His last known address is apparently vacant though, so it's difficult to track him. But this truck being in his name... I believe that's not a coincidence."

"You think he is the kidnapper?" Saori couldn't believe how spicy this was getting.

"I do." Ji-hoon sighed. "You know what the man is like. All that perverted creep cares about is money. That's it. Employing his annoyingly impressive skills would be easy. Provided you have the cash, obviously."

"So the real culprit must be rich... well that's a given, I guess." Saori slowly nodded along. "Where does that leave you then?"

"I'm starting to look into Johnny Harte. He's been MIA for roughly 40 years, but he's never been reported dead, unlike other Former Ultimates. I believe he's alive, and I'm going to start looking into him." Ji-hoon's resolve shone brightly.

"Well... alright." Saori knew she couldn't stop Ji-hoon when he got like this. "But... stay safe. Please. I know you look into danger all the time... but this is danger danger. Don't get yourself hurt, okay?" Their relationship might've been a little complicated, but Saori still cared for Ji-hoon.

"...Right." Ji-hoon wasn't sure if he could grant her wish. "...Anyway, I'll stop for tonight, I think."

"Okay... good. You should rest." Saori didn't want Ji-hoon overworking himself. "...Oh wait! Weren't you also looking into Raiha Miyahara today?" She immediately went back on her word. "Any progress on her?"

Ji-hoon dryly chuckled. "Yeah... I did." He stretched his arms out.

"...Anything?" Saori knew that Ji-hoon had been on Raiha's trial for a while now.

"No..." Ji-hoon groaned. "Raiha is an incredibly smart woman. She knows how to play her cards right, to avoid any and all blame and controversy. The way she prances around like she's a good person... like she's done nothing wrong... abusing her privilege... it makes me sick." Just like Shirazane, Raiha was the exact type of person that Ji-hoon worked to bring to justice.

"Yeah... from what you've shown me, she seems like a very bratty... deceptive... nasty... and narcissistic person." Saori was thankfully never a fan of her.

"That's exactly what she is." Ji-hoon balled his hand up into a fist. "To make matters worse, I'm confident her parents, Kanami and Tomohiro Miyahara, have paid a lot of money to cover up Raiha's crimes."

"Even her parents?!" Saori wasn't aware of that.

"Remember, both Kanami and Tomohiro are in high-up positions. Tomohiro is a well-known marketing and business consultant, and Kanami is the CEO of EyeCandy. They're not gonna let their trendsetter daughter simply get caught for her crimes. It's only natural for self-obsessed celebrities like them. It runs in the family..." Ji-hoon let out a deep sigh.

"Ji-hoon..." Saori didn't like seeing him so troubled.

"...I'm not letting that stop me though." Ji-hoon took a deep breath. "I will bring Raiha Miyahara to justice. I can't simply let her run free, making her fans think she's a good person. I will get her." He's faced better-guarded celebrities before. Catching Raiha Miyahara in the act should be child's play compared to someone like Sonosuke Sonohara.

"Okay... I believe you." Saori giggled at his insistence. "But again... please don't get yourself hurt. For your sake, and for Kimi's sake." She eyes the closed guest room door. "I don't want the Miyahara's hurting you... and I especially don't want you becoming another victim to the alumni kidnappings too."

Ji-hoon sighed... then smiled. "Like I'd let that happen to me." He stood up, and his smile suddenly disappeared. "But..." He set his hand on Saori's shoulder. "If anything does happen to me... tear my place apart. Search everything I have I'll leave something for you. Don't let the police get access."

"Ji-hoon? What's... something?" Saori shakily asked, not liking where this was going.

Ji-hoon sighed. "...I don't know. But if I do get taken, I will leave something here for you. I swear on my heart, that I'll leave something behind. If I go missing, find it. I'll trust you to handle it from there." He spoke completely seriously.

"J-Ji-hoon..." Saori's voice shook, a few tears falling from her eyes. "...Okay. If you say so." She didn't know if her feelings were one-sided or not... but she really didn't want to lose him.

"Don't worry. I don't plan on going missing." Ji-hoon cracked his neck and then looked at the closed guest room door. "I have too much to live for..."

As Ji-hoon envisioned Kimi... his parents... and his siblings in his mind... he knew he couldn't let this go on. "Fame is a weapon, and I wield it to enact justice." That's his catchphrase. And that's exactly what he'll do. He'll use his fame... and enact justice on Shirazane, Harte, Miyahara, all of them. Because that's what the "Celebrity Detective" does...

...

[Pheme's Room]

The video cut off.

The Figure stared at the screen with wide eyes. "Did he... just figure out that Johnny is the one we have kidnapping?" That thoroughly threw him off.

"Wow! He's so impressive!" Pheme didn't even care that he nearly figured out their entire operation.

"Johnny you imbecile..." The Figure muttered under his breath.

"So, what do you think?" Pheme didn't pay attention to The Figure's face. "Won't he be great?"

"Miss Pheme..." The Figure tried to put Johnny out of his mind for now. Ji-hoon Jo... he's a slicker foe than he would've expected. But he doesn't fit his vision of this game... he'd only be a nuisance.

"For a glorious Killing Game about fame, Mr. Jo would fit almost scarily well, wouldn't he?! Just think about the possibilities!" Pheme still loved the idea. "Besides, what's the saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Perhaps having him here will prevent him from sniffing us out!" She still acted rather casually about their Killing Game getting found out.

"That's... a fair point." Ji-hoon might not have fit the purpose of this Killing Game... but The Figure couldn't deny Pheme's point.

"And if he brings with him too much knowledge, let's let The Contact give him an extra dose to cloud his memories!" Pheme suggested.

"That's... another fair point." The Figure knew she had a point. He did. But it felt so risky. A man like Ji-hoon Jo could easily disrupt their whole plan... but perhaps having him closer and at risk of death was a good idea. He thought about it for a moment.

...

"...Fine. Let's do it." The Figure begrudgingly agreed with Pheme's suggestion.

"Truly? Yes!" Pheme hopped up from her chair in excitement. "To think that Ji-hoon Jo will be the fifteenth person to join the Killing Game... how exciting! Oh, I can't wait!"

"Yes... I can't either." The Figure deadpanned. He felt like he gave into Pheme's wishes too easily... but he put that out of his mind. All he could hope for was that this decision doesn't prove to be his undoing...

...

[Ayaka's Room]

"...Hm?" Ayaka slowly and tiredly opened her eyes, a little confused about why this chapter was starting in her room and not in Ji-hoon's.

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

"Oh... it's morning." Ayaka rubbed her sleepy eyes and sat up in her bed. "I should..." She glanced at her open closet. "Get going." She got up out of her bed, but not without tucking in the teddy bear she slept with.

It's strange. When she first got to this god-forsaken place... she was more than ready to just hold herself up in her room. Just being out there was... frightening. And it still is. But... Ayaka almost felt more trapped while in her room. She knew she had Nozomi with her... but the thought of, say, Damien knocking on her door to "apologize" or some nonsense really scared her. She was proud of herself for not freaking out every time she saw that scumbag, like back in the trial. But she... just didn't want to see him. And being in here... she felt like she was cornered, almost. So every day, she resolved herself to make sure she left her room. Fear is one hell of a motivator.

There were also others that... weren't horrible to be around.

So with that in mind, she got dressed and left her room.

[VIP Quarters]

"Ah, Ayaka! Good morning!" Like a hawk, Damien, who was still standing in the VIP Quarters, spotted his prey leaving her room. He began to walk towards her.

"A-Ah!" Ayaka yelped at the sight of him and turned away. Why does this guy have to keep on-

"Heya, Damien. Got a minute?" With the legendary interception, Kei walked up and blocked Damien's path. "I want to ask you something."

Damien raised his eyebrows. "Hm? Of course! But I was hoping to apologize to-"

"It'll be better to ask it in the cafeteria. Come on!" Kei patted the beautician on his back and led him away.

"Kei..." Damien's voice took on a slightly annoyed tone as he was dragged away from his former dear Ayaka, yet he didn't fight it.

...

"Phew..." Ayaka let out a deep breath. She felt a little... ashamed, honestly. Ever since the trial, she hasn't been able to confront the bitch-ass beautician herself. Only Nozomi was able to. God... she didn't know where her guts went.

"Hey! Morning, Ayaka!" Following after the betraying beautician, a much more likable fellow walked up.

"Oh! M-Morning, Joji." Ayaka waved. Joji might've had an intimidating presence... but you know what? She kind of saw what Lake saw in him. Not in a romantic way or anything... but there was something... strangely trustworthy about him. He was just a guy... who was trying his best, she thought. And Nozomi didn't have any problems with him, so that helped a lot.

"Hey, you doing alright?" Joji noticed the dour look on the violinist's face.

"I'm... o-okay." Ayaka tried to give a reassuring nod. "Thanks though!"

"Of course!" Joji smiled. Joji wasn't necessarily the type to check on every single person like this... but after yesterday, he felt... concerned for Ayaka. It was essentially the first time they've ever conversed... but it's weird the effect a single conversation can have.

"Joji! Ayaka! Good morning!" Lake excitedly ran out of their room and spotted their friends.

"Woah! Lake! You seem excited!" Joji noticed the wide grin on their face.

"Tee hee... maybe a little!" It seemed Lake had something on their mind. "It's something I want to bring up with everyone around, so come to the cafeteria! I'm excited to bring up the idea! I'll see you down there!" They waved before running off.

"Lake, wait!" Joji tried calling out but to no avail.

Ayaka giggled a little. Out of everyone, even from the beginning, Ayaka immediately trusted Lake. I mean, how could someone not trust Lake, huh? Their boundless energy and charisma, despite the four deaths that happened so far, is very impressive. It even rubbed off on Ayaka a little.

But... wait a second. An idea? This early after a trial... oh no. Ayaka felt a chill run up her spine.

"I... w-want to say something." Ayaka of all people stood up.

"Ayaka-nya? What is it-nya?" Kuroko seemed curious.

"Hm... w-what is it Ayaka? A-An idea as to w-what to do with the dangerous things p-perhaps?" Adam seemed curious too.

"W-Well..." Ayaka looked at her feet. "No. Not exactly. It's an idea. B-But of a... different sort."

Damien gave his dear Ayaka a knowing smile, like he knew what exactly she was going to say.

...

"I think w-we should have gathering. Or... no. A party. To help build the bonds between us... or something." Ayaka held her breath as she awaited people to react.

...

"W-Well... it's because I want it to be a... drinking party." Ayaka revealed. "It might be a fun way for us all to grow closer, I thought. And y-you are the Ultimate Bartender. So that's why."

Ayaka hoped that was her just making things up. Because there's no way that Damien...

"Ayaka? I'm going to head after Lake. I'll see you down there!" Joji waved to the violinist before running after Lake.

"O-Okay!" Ayaka widened her eyes in surprise. Joji sure could be loud...

"Ah... you are still *cough* here, Ayaka?" A totally fine and not sick sick Rosalind hobbled up to the violinist, looking as... well, as weak as ever.

"Rosalind?" Rosalind was kind of a mixed bag for Ayaka... but she couldn't imagine her being harmful. She didn't want to be rude, but a girl like Rosalind... is kinda too weak to be untrustworthy. "Ah... yes. I am. I w-was planning to head down soon though."

"I see." Rosalind took a few unsteady steps, gripping tightly onto her parasol for support. "I'll make my *cough* way down there as well then."

"Are you... erm... never mind." Ayaka was about to ask if she was good to walk, but... she kind of underestimated the cinematographer's aura. She still didn't seem harmful... but her general aura was a little... unapproachable. She opted to just let her silently walk away.

"Okay... I s-should get going too now." Ayaka spoke to herself as she looked around. She wasn't sure if there was anyone left up here, and frankly, she didn't like that feeling. So she just wanted to... wait. Her eyes landed on a certain door. A door... that was open. Strange. She didn't envision anyone here as the type to accidentally keep their door open. Who was-

"Hey... Ayaka?" Suddenly, Rival!

"Ah!" Ayaka jumped up, feeling the full brunt of the Rival jumpscare as he approached behind her.

"Oh... sorry." Rival offered a weak apology for scaring her. "Have you... seen Rosalind?"

"Um... she already l-left." Ayaka pointed to the stairway out of the VIP Quarters. "Why do you ask?"

"Uh..." Rival scratched the back of his head. "I thought I heard something... from her room last night. I was... wondering what it was."

"You heard something?" Ayaka tilted her head. "Aren't the r-rooms mostly soundproof?"

"Okay... good." Yoshino just stayed concentrated on her moment. "Last question. For you Pheme." She turned back to the goddess. "Simple one. Not too hard. Are the rooms soundproof?"

"I-I still don't understand...?" Adam didn't know what to do or how to react.

Pheme giggled. "Oh wow, this is an easy one, isn't it? In case I haven't told you all this before... all rooms are almost soundproof. Most of the sound is blocked. Is that sufficient, Ms. Akiyama?"

"Oh. Uh..." Rival scratched the back of his head again. "I guess... I have good hearing... because I'm into music or something." He gave an excuse that wasn't entirely untruthful.

"...That makes sense." Ayaka knew she had good hearing too, so she assumed that was a totally not death flag inducing trait that musicians had. "But uh- you s-said you heard something, right? From Rosalind's room? I-I was probably sleeping... because I don't remember hearing anything." Since we've been going over it, for the record, Rival is slightly above average on the trust scale for Ayaka. He was still a quiet and secretive guy... but the motive for the last case basically forced the two musicians to foster some trust between the two of them.

"I think so..." Rival narrowed his eyes. "Like... someone falling. The sound, I mean. I wanted to... make sure she was okay."

"Ah. I d-didn't expect you to care about her like that." Ayaka blinked.

"Care...?" That word caused a slight blush to come to Rival's cheeks. "It's just... uh... I'm gonna go and check on her now." He not-so-subtly took an exit out of this conversation. "I'll see you later." Without waiting for a response, the backing vocalist left.

"Well... alright." Ayaka wasn't as romantically-minded as someone like Kuroko for example, so she didn't think much of it. Anyway... back to that ajar door! Upon walking closer to it, she found it was Ji-hoon's room. You know, the guy that should be getting the focus of this chapter?

Ayaka didn't like creeping on people... but the silence unnerved her. She...

"Nyahaha!"

Uh oh. Cathy was around? Screw it, Ayaka just went and crept into the celebrity detective's room. She wasn't sure if she could deal with the cat burglar right now.

[Ji-hoon's Room]

"Ji-hoon...?" Ayaka quietly muttered as she crept into the ajar door. She didn't consider herself to be a sneaky type like Cathy... but she was a little... curious. And concerned as well. She slowly stepped into his room... and stopped when she noticed the celebrity detective quietly sitting on his bed... doing something she never would've expected.

He was... knitting.

"So... damn... frustrating!" Ji-hoon quietly muttered to himself while he angrily knitted a small hat. "I need to do something... I can't back down..." His quiet rage translated into surprisingly good knitting skills.

Ayaka wasn't sure what to do. She just awkwardly stood there and watched.

"Kimi... Saori..." Ji-hoon muttered two names while he continued to knit. "I won't falter..."

"Saori?" Ayaka accidentally spoke aloud.

"Huh?!" Ji-hoon looked up at Ayaka, eyes wide. "Ayaka?! What the hell are you doing in here?!" He shoved the project he was working on into one of the drawers of his nightstand.

"Um!" Ayaka nervously looked away. "S-Sorry! Your door was open and people asked me to get you! So-" She might've trusted Ji-hoon to an extent, but she underestimated how scary the celebrity detective could be.

"...It's fine. It's okay." Ji-hoon's voice took on a surprisingly gentle tone as he brushed himself off and stood up. "I didn't mean to overreact. Sorry."

"Oh! It's fine." Ayaka shook her head. She didn't expect him to be... gentle. At all. "W-Well, that should be it-" She turned around to leave, her mission having been accomplished.

"Ayaka. Hold on." Ji-hoon stopped her. "Can you stay here a second?"

"Uh... okay." Ayaka steadily turned around, unsure of what the celebrity could want.

"I've wanted to ask you about multiple things." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "You mind?"

"Uh... sure." Ayaka didn't expect Ji-hoon to actually ask for consent before asking questions. She's heard a little bit about what he's like from Raiha and Kuroko. And Ayaka was definitely expecting to be interrogated by Ji-hoon eventually as well... so she just wanted to get it over with.

"Good. First. Uh..." Ji-hoon glanced back at his nightstand. "You... did you see what I was doing there?"

"...Yeah. I d-did." Ayaka saw no reason to lie. "Were you knitting a hat?"

Ji-hoon sighed. "I was." He went and fetched what he had knitted so far, and showed it to Ayaka.

"It's cute!" Ayaka looked it over. "I h-had no idea you were into this sort of thing."

"I-I am, yeah." Ji-hoon stuttered a little. "Guess I had no reason to hide it. Or- well, never mind."

"I'm not really into this s-sort of thing, but this seems small?" Ayaka held the small hat up. "Do you not knit for yourself?"

"Uh-" Ji-hoon looked away. "Uh, don't worry about." He snatched it away. It seemed like he was starting to get annoyed with this situation.

"Oh. Sorry!" Ayaka bowed her head, sensing she may have upset him.

"You're fine." Ji-hoon closed his eyes and shook his head. He seemed genuinely thrown off right now, despite how he started this conversation.

"A-Are you... into anything else similar?" But Ayaka was genuinely curious about this now. She never expected a side like this from Ji-hoon.

"...I like to bake as well. Can't exactly do that here though." Ji-hoon sighed again.

"Really?" Ayaka tilted her head.

...

"Um... am I... upsetting you?" Ayaka showed some self-awareness.

"No... no, you're not." A lot of thoughts were bouncing around in Ji-hoon's head. "This just has me thinking about certain people in my life more than I usually do."

"...Okay." Ayaka nodded. "D-Do you knit and bake for those people?"

"Heh. Never would've expected you of all people to start asking me questions about my life." Ji-hoon narrowed his eyes.

"..." Ayaka shakily blinked. She wasn't sure what to say to that.

"Sorry. I didn't mean for that to sound accusatory." Ji-hoon shook his head. "Perhaps I've been thinking about Raiha too much..." He muttered to himself. "Anyway. To answer your question... occasionally, yes. For Saori and..." He trailed off.

"And?" Ayaka wasn't sure why he trailed off.

"And nothing." Ji-hoon firmly shook his head, shutting off any possible bonus lore about him.

"Oh!" Ayaka gulped. She knew she heard him say the name "Kimi" earlier... but she wasn't going to press it. "So... w-who is Saori?"

"She's..." Ji-hoon sighed deeply and looked away like he was concentrating hard on something. "She's my... roommate. Let's say that."

"Roommate... okay." Ayaka nodded along. "So you sometimes bake and knit for her?"

Ji-hoon was starting to regret indulging this line of questioning. He mostly trusted Ayaka... but not enough with this. "Yes. I do." He gave a quick and simple answer. "Anyway, this is getting off track. This wasn't something I even wanted to talk about here."

"What did y-you want to talk about then?" Ayaka was going to say "sorry," but she felt like she'd said that enough throughout this FTE so far.

"Well..." Ji-hoon felt like he was going to go off track from what he initially wanted to talk about again. But... he was curious. "Ayaka. Why are you even talking to me?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Huh? What k-kind of question is that?" Ayaka took a step back.

"Again, I don't mean for this to sound accusatory." Ji-hoon prefaced. "But you... never struck me as the type to take any sort of initiative in a conversation. With your paranoia and everything. Why are you sticking around for this conversation? That's what I'd like to know."

"Hm... well..." Ayaka didn't expect to be asked that. She took a quick, deep breath. "I-I guess I don't have a specific reason." She shrugged. "But... I guess it's because I trust you."

Ji-hoon raised his eyebrows. "You trust me?" He popped a small smile.

"I find it difficult to trust men..." Ayaka thought of Damien and... him. "But you... I've seen how y-you fight for us... and fight Pheme. You... seem trustworthy to me. That's why I'm "sticking around," I guess. You're one of the more trustworthy guys here to me."

Ji-hoon kept smiling. "I'm glad to hear that. I would've expected you to distrust me more."

"L-Like how you distrust celebrities? Celebrities... like Raiha?" This was something that Ayaka had actually really wanted to ask Ji-hoon about.

Ji-hoon stopped smiling. "Why bring her up?"

"It's c-clear that you don't fully trust her." Ayaka glanced at a note she wrote for Nozomi. "I-I don't know as much as you do about celebrities... but what did Raiha do? S-She doesn't seem bad..." It wasn't like she completely trusted the trendsetter or anything, but she just had trouble distrusting a goofy and positive girl who littered her words with slang.

Ji-hoon groaned. He wasn't sure if he wanted to get into this. "I have reason to believe that she's not a good person."

"What r-reason?" Ayaka didn't want to be annoying, but she was desperate to not misplace her trust again while here.

"Raiha..." Ji-hoon was on the fence here. Alpha took this easily... but he wasn't sure how Ayaka might react to this. He's definitely approached some situations here without much tact before... and he wanted to change that. "If you trust me Ayaka, then please trust me with this information. Be careful around Raiha. That's all." That's what he chose to say.

"Be careful... a-alright." Ayaka shakily nodded. She... wasn't sure what to think about that. "Ji-hoon... you really distrust celebrities, don't you?

"Heh. What gave it away?" Ji-hoon deadpanned. "But yes. I've gone over it a little with some of the others... but frankly, I hardly trust anyone here."

"R-Really?" Ayaka looked down at the ground.

"Well... maybe "hardly" is a strong word." Ji-hoon showed a teensy bit of development. "But it's just how I am. I'm not going to let myself be taken in by some of these people... like Raiha and Damien. I've devoted myself to taking people like them down, and that's what I fully intend on doing, even while I'm trapped in here."

"Damien... and Raiha." Ayaka obviously knew that Damien was a complete bastard... but Raiha was too? Hm...

"Speaking of taking people down..." Ji-hoon glanced at his Star-Phone. "Ayaka. Answer me a question. Be honest."

"Huh? O-Okay." Ayaka got a little spooked by Ji-hoon's tone.

"We didn't question it yesterday... which is fine. But I'm going to question it now." Ji-hoon gave the violinist an icy cold glare. "Ayaka. Did you or did you not poison Genjiro?"

"H-Huh?" Ayaka widened her eyes and took a step back.

"Remember what Adam put in his note?" Ji-hoon kept up his glare.

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

"All I'm asking... is to hear if he was right. From your mouth." Ji-hoon stared the violinist deep in her eyes.

"..." Ayaka took a deep breath. Not to bring out Nozomi, no. She could sense that Ji-hoon wanted an answer from her and not her other personality. His glare might've been scary... but she mustered up what courage she could... and returned the glare. "Ji-hoon. I did not poison Genjiro. I swear."

...

"I thought so." Ji-hoon seemed relieved. "Thanks, Ayaka. I just wanted to hear you say it."

As soon as Ji-hoon relented with his glare, Ayaka let out a sigh. "N-No problem." She bowed her head. "Since you brought this up though, w-was Adam just wrong then? I-I don't know why he'd say that."

"I don't think he was purposefully lying. I didn't put much stock in it anyway." Ji-hoon shrugged. "I get that he was just trying to help, but in the end, all he heard were out-of-context sounds. I can't trust that."

"Fair enough." Ayaka nodded. That... made her feel a little better. She didn't like the idea of Adam accusing her of that for no reason. "W-Was that all you wanted to ask me then?"

"Right..." Ji-hoon ended up getting off track earlier. "I did have one more thing to bring up with you." Sensing that the FTE was coming to an end, it was time for the celebrity detective to do his usual thing! Screw having tact!

"What is it?" Ayaka asked, not sure what else he'd want to ask of her.

"First... you don't have to explain if it's too much for you." Never mind, Ji-hoon had a little tact. "But... I'd like to know more about Hinata Maki if you don't mind?"

At the mention of that name, Ayaka felt like she got punched in the gut. "No... not... him..." She muttered as she started to clutch her head.

"Ayaka? Are you alright?" Ji-hoon was starting to regret bringing him up.

"No... no... no...!" Damn it! Ayaka thought she could handle this better... but as she started to shake, she knew that couldn't be further from the truth. Before she could go any further, Ayaka let out a low sigh and squeezed her eyes shut as hard as she could.

...

"Ayaka?" Ji-hoon reached his hand out in concern.

"...It's Nozomi, actually." Nozomi came out as she brushed herself off. "Hello, Jo."

"Oh! Nozomi." Ji-hoon whipped out his Star-Phone. "While you're out, answer two questions for me." He immediately shifted gears.

Nozomi sighed. "Jo? What were you and Ayaka talking about?"

"Hinata Maki." Ji-hoon immediately answered.

Nozomi sighed again. "Really, Jo? You ask about something traumatic to Ayaka, then shift gears like you did nothing wrong?"

Ji-hoon looked up from his Star-Phone with a slightly annoyed look. "You don't have the context, Nozomi. It wasn't my intention to upset her. Hinata Maki had been a person of interest for a while for me. I wasn't able to be involved with his case, so I've been curious about him. Naturally, Ayaka was the only person who could tell me. But as she was a victim of him, I wasn't going to push it. I care about victims, you know." He gave a surprisingly passionate speech.

"...I see. I apologize." Nozomi admittedly was a little cranky when she came out. "So be it. Ask your questions." She checked Ayaka's Star-Phone. "We're late to breakfast, you know."

"It'll be quick." Ji-hoon decided to drop the topic of Hinata Maki for now. "I'd you to confirm two things for me. One, how exactly do you and Ayaka switch? Two; is there a limit for how long you can be out, Nozomi?"

"I see. I can confirm for you." Nozomi nodded. "Whenever Ayaka lets out a low sigh and squeezes her eyes shut, that's her calling for me, essentially. Then I can be "out" for roughly twelve hours. After that, Ayaka starts to develop migraines, forcing me to switch out. Is that sufficient?"

"Yes... very." Ji-hoon finished noting that down. "That's all I wanted to know."

"Very well. I'll see you down at the cafeteria, Jo." With a bow, Nozomi left Ji-hoon's room.

"Nozomi..." Ji-hoon muttered as he watched her leave. Nozomi... was the type of person he was grateful was here. A person who didn't take shit from others. Ji-hoon wished he could've done more for Ayaka, prior to Damien getting his claws in her. But... there's no going back now. All he could do was stick to his ideals and keep moving forward. And doing that... meant making sure that Raiha, Damien, and Pheme, didn't have their way. He'd do whatever he had to do to make sure of that. Even at the cost of... well, let's not say that.

Ji-hoon kept thinking to himself as he finally left his room, closing the door behind him.

It seems like Ji-hoon and Ayaka/Nozomi grew a little closer today!

[Cafeteria]

"Christ, were you gooning for that long?" Alpha, currently chowing down on a bag of candy, was the first to notice Ji-hoon enter.

"..." Raiha, who was currently not sitting next to Aurora, looked Ji-hoon's way when he entered, but she didn't say anything.

"Good morning, Ji-hoon!" Aurora gave him a graceful greeting, despite her current intense mental turmoil.

"Well well... our glorious leader finally joins us, hm?" Kei chuckled.

"Can you stop calling me that, Kei?" Ji-hoon suspected he was just poking fun at him, but he still didn't like the nickname.

"Ji-hoon-nya! It's good to see you-nya!" Kuroko happily greeted him.

"Huh? Oh... Jiji. Good morning!" Yoshino waved. She still happily greeted him and all... but she still felt weird about yesterday.

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

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

...

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

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

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

...

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

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

...

"You guys..." Ji-hoon balled his hand up into a fist. Damn it... if only he could just say it... but that would cause more problems than it's worth right now. "...Fine."

Yoshino tried to chalk that up to Ji-hoon being stressed or something. Because that was real weird.

Anyway, Ji-hoon couldn't hear Yoshino's inner thoughts, so he went and grabbed a red apple to snack on, and then sat down. "Everyone's here... even Alpha and Cathy." He was still pleasantly surprised at that.

"There a problem?" Alpha took a break from her candy bag.

"No." Ji-hoon immediately replied. Like yesterday, he had no problems with it. The more people here, the better.

"Nyaha! I do whatever I wish to!" Cathy was munching on some sashimi for breakfast.

"You eat fish for breakfast?" Darren decided he wanted to have a line in this chapter. Also, he didn't mean this in a judgmental way, it was an honest question.

"Nyaha! I do whatever I wish to!" Cathy repeated her line and she dug into her fish, seemingly purposely trying to avoid looking at Darren, who was sitting next to her, by the way.

"Fair enough." Darren shrugged. He had no problems with that.

Ji-hoon sighed. He wasn't a connoisseur in romance or anything but even could see something there between Cathy and Darren. Eh, he's probably the best person here to wrangle her, ironically enough. "Darren? How was last night with the gun? Did you actually sleep in your studio?" He wanted an answer to this.

"Oh. Yeah." Darren shrugged once again. "The gun is safe. And I slept in my studio."

"What the hell, Dare-bear? Actually?" Yoshino didn't expect to hear that.

"Truly?" Aurora hadn't seen Darren's studio or anything, but that sounded like a bit much.

"Truly." Darren reaffirmed as he took a sip of an enigmatic drink.

"Hey, if the man wants to sleep in there, let him sleep in there." Kei shrugged.

"Well... I suppose it keeps it safe. After all, I doubt any of us would willingly sleep in our studios." Damien reasoned. And considering the destroyed state of his own studio, it's not like he could even if he wanted to.

"Yeah... hell no am I sleeping in mine." Joji was going to forever lament his demolished studio now, though he acknowledged it was a fair part of Genjiro and Alpha's plan.

"Can we see the gun, Darren?" Ji-hoon didn't necessarily distrust the bartender, but he still wanted concrete proof it was safe.

"Yep." Darren steadily pulled the gun out of his pocket. He didn't fully bring it out, just enough to show people that he still had it.

"That's enough." Ji-hoon gave a nod of approval.

"Okay." Darren re-pocketed the gun, then took another sip of his idiosyncratic drink.

"Nyaha! Don't you think carrying it with you is foolish, bartender human?" Cathy glanced at the gun before Darren pocketed it.

"Eh." Darren didn't have anything to say to that.

"Pussy, we saw what happened when idiots go and hide dangerous shit," Alpha called back to the last case.

"Alph-nya, wasn't that technically your fault-nya?" Kuroko narrowed her eyes.

"Bitch, that tight-ass outfit of yours cutting off the blood flow to your brain? That was Genjiro's fault! Bitch got the info from Pheme, remember!" Alpha metaphorically slapped Kuroko upside the head.

"Oh... right-nya." Kuroko hadn't exactly been super involved in the last case, so it makes sense she got that wrong.

"Alpha! Kuroko wasn't able to be involved in the last case, so it makes sense she got it wrong?" Yoshino plagiarized the narration.

"Fine... whatever." Alpha rolled her eyes. "That shit kinda makes me think though. What do we think about Pheme?"

"What do we... think about her?" Aurora tilted her head.

"That's what I said!" Alpha threw her arm up in the air. "I ain't gonna say she's defenseless or whatever... but god it's easy to mess with her. Or to just throw her off. I expected the bitch to be smarter than that." She raised a valid point.

"Valid point, Alpha." Kei decided to plagiarize the narration as well. "Have we talked about that at all? How... scatterbrained Pheme can be at times?"

"I don't think so..." Raiha shook her head.

"Yeah... Pheme can be all over the place sometimes." Lake sighed. "And I know it might be weird to say... but she doesn't seem all bad sometimes." Even when talking about Pheme, Lake couldn't stop being their usual self.

"Don't say that, Lake." Joji immediately stopped them. "She kidnapped 19 people and threw them into a Killing Game. How could she not be all bad?"

"Well... yeah, I guess." The bodies of the four dead people flashed into Lake's mind for a second. Maybe they were being too... themself right now.

"Joji is right. Even if she seems fairly inept, let's not cut her any slack because of that." Ji-hoon shook his head. "But it's still strange, nonetheless. With the world's history of countless Killing Games, having a person start one, and be "successful," while being all over the place? It's strange. I... don't even know what to make of it."

"If you want my opinion, I can't imagine this is connected to the past Killing Games." Damien offered his worthwhile and valid opinion. Sorry Gold.

"I agree with him." Darren raised his unearthly drink up in a toast.

"I agree as well." Aurora calmly nodded. "It's just my gut feeling, though." She thought back to her manager, Jean D'Rue. There was a chance that... no. That's ridiculous. This isn't a... yeah. That impossible.

Not everyone had an opinion on this Killing Game being connected to the past ones, but the ones who were more involved and knowledgeable about the past Killing Games seemed to agree that this isn't connected.

"That raises the question... of who Pheme is. Even if this is... connected or not." Rival yawned, not having any big theories or ideas on this.

"Hm... Ros-nya-lind?" Kuroko got the cinematographer's attention. "This might be a silly question... but have you ever met Pheme before-nya? Like when you visited this studio in the past?" She wasn't sure if this had been asked yet, but she wanted to be sure.

"Have I *cough* met her?" Rosalind took a good second to think about that.

...

"No. If I have, I cannot recall." Rosalind shook her head. "When I *cough* visited this place, I met Asher John Sr, the Former Ultimate Filmmaker."

"Naturally. He owns this entire place, does he not?" Damien was aware of the fellow's credentials.

"Asher John Sr..." Kei narrowed his eyes, for some reason feeling weird at that name being brought up.

"Rosalind. Do you think he could be involved? How was the guy when you met him?" Ji-hoon hasn't gotten the opportunity to meet any Former Ultimates himself, unfortunately. There were a few he'd be really interested in questioning.

"Hm... I think not." Rosalind shook her head. "If *cough* anything, I see him being a victim rather than a conspirator. My opinion shouldn't be heeded readily though." She sprinkled in some classic dark humor/low self-esteem.

"Asher John Sr. is the dad of Adam's friend..." Yoshino sighed. "I think he's a good guy!"

"Akiyama is right. Judging by the news during and after the FUP, he seems to be a good person. And I know this logic can't apply to real life, but someone like him being a conspirator... would be too easy." Nozomi wanted to have a line.

"I wholeheartedly agree, Nozomi." Damien agreed with a girl he accused of murder. "I don't think he's of importance here."

Nozomi didn't grant Damien a response. She just ignored him.

"Switching gears here..." Kei glanced at Joji for a split second. "How do we feel about Hiroyuki Yuto?"

Joji still flinched at the guy's name being brought up. "Yuto... what about him?" The incident doesn't haunt him as much anymore... but he still doesn't like thinking about it.

"I haven't thought about Yuto in a while..." Aurora didn't like reliving that at all.

"Why bring him up, Kei?" Ji-hoon was curious.

Kei shrugged. "No real reason. I've always figured the guy has to be important somehow... considering what happened to him." Admittedly, Kei felt like he knew who the guy was... but his memories were too fuzzy for him to properly recall anything.

"Along with Yuto... what about Yukari Nakata-nya?" Kuroko thought back to Gold's favorite MILF. "We've never really talked about her at all, have we-nya?"

"Right... her." Lake knew those two were probably important... but they still didn't like thinking back on what happened to them. That wasn't something that would simply go away from their mind.

"We... even know anything about them? Like at all?" Personally, Raiha had no idea about those two.

"...Unfortunately not." Ji-hoon sighed. He was sure that, if he had all of his memories, he'd have something on them. The name Nakata felt familiar, at least. But as he was right now? Nothing.

"I'm afraid so," Aurora confirmed that she didn't know anything about them, because of her being with them in the PEC.

...

And everyone else's silence spoke volumes. It was only Chapter 3, so fair enough they didn't have anything on those two yet.

"A dead end? Nyahaha!" Cathy laughed at the stumped looks on the humans' faces. "What's the point in theorizing like this anyway? What will it accomplish?"

"It never hurts to theorize." Ji-hoon shook his head. "Besides, we haven't gotten a chance to do this as a group yet. And I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this Killing Game so far."

"You never know, Cathy." Darren didn't look the cat burglar's direction as he drank some sort of liquid.

"Hmph! Whatever!" Cathy shrugged, then went back to enjoying her sashimi.

"Thoughts on the Killing Game..." Ayaka thought back to what she had Nozomi do last night.

"Pheme. Question." Nozomi approached the goddess.

"Hm? What is it, Ms. Nozomi?" Pheme tilted her head.

Nozomi pulled out the note Ayaka had written for her earlier. "Ayaka had a thought. And I'd like to express it. Pheme. In our Ultimate Studios..."

She explained her thoughts off-screen.

"Oh ho!" Pheme gave an impressed laugh. "Ms. Naganohara has a sharper eye than I gave her credit for!"

"Is she correct? Is this... is this Killing Game..."

Nozomi explained more of her thoughts, still off-screen.

"...That..." Pheme held her finger up to Nozomi's lips. "Is something I cannot speak on. Now, I wish you good night Ms. Nozomi!" Without waiting for a reply, Pheme vanished into the ether.

"Hm... I see." Nozomi glanced down at the note. She didn't say another word as she slowly left the cafeteria.

Nozomi wrote that she didn't get a concrete answer... so she'll keep it to herself for now. She'll explain her thoughts to the group later.

"So does... anyone have thoughts then?" Rival sure didn't, but he didn't know if anyone else did.

...

"I... guess not-nya." Kuroko sighed.

"Huh. Awkward end to the theorizing." Kei chuckled.

"Well, it's good to get some thoughts out!" Lake stayed optimistic.

"Hold on a moment... I might have something to say." Aurora narrowed her eyes as she thought about something.

"Aurora?" Raiha still felt awkward around her, but she was still curious about what she was going to say.

"The starlet bimbo has something... that'll be good," Alpha said sarcastically as she kept indulging in her bag of candy.

"Don't call her a-" Raiha attempted to defend her, nonetheless.

"It's fine, Raiha." Aurora shot her a gentle smile. "It's funny you speak up Alpha, because I'd like to ask you something."

"Really? Alpha?" Joji wasn't sure if he believed that Alpha could offer something important... considering she hadn't offered much overall.

"Yeah... Alpha?" Yoshino shared in Joji's disbelief.

"Fuck you!" Alpha didn't appreciate that disbelief. "Anyway... the fuck do you want from me?" She surprisingly seemed open to answering whatever Aurora had.

At Alpha's openness, Aurora let out a quick sigh of relief. "This may seem like a strange question, but are you related to a Former Ultimate, by chance?

"Former Ultimates again?" Rosalind set her hands in her lap.

"Why ask that Auror-nya?" Kuroko tilted her head.

"Bitch, she asked me, not you!" Alpha didn't appreciate Kuroko chiming in. "But why the fuck ask that?" She didn't immediately confirm or deny.

"Well, I'm sure that Ji-hoon and possibly others are aware of this, but my manager is Jean D'Rue, the Former Ultimate Talent Scout." Aurora silently wished that he was doing alright.

"Right, I'm aware of that," Ji-hoon confirmed.

"Who... isn't aware of that?" Even Rival was aware of that. Well, it was more that he was aware of Jean D'Rue himself. The Former Ultimates constantly clog the news, and he basically forcibly learned about them during his time as hikikomori.

"Shit, even I know that!" And Yoshino didn't really care about the news or famous people in general.

"Well... okay!" Aurora giggled. Even to this day, she gets a little sheepish seeing people know her. Or maybe it's just her current mental turmoil talking, who knows?

"What's the point, Aurora?" Alpha urged her along, even using her actual name this time!

"Ah, sorry!" Aurora bowed her head. "Well, I've been curious for a while on if you are related to a Former Ultimate, Alpha. You see..." A sad smile drifted across her face. "Adam and I... we made a theory together."

Adam narrowed his eyes for a second. "T-Theory? Oh! Ah yes!" He remembered what he had thought. "I don't have any concrete p-proof at the moment. But I w-wonder if... the reason b-both of us were taken and put into the Killing Game... it w-was because of our relations to former ultimates. Perhaps t-that's why we were placed into it in a s-strange way as well." He explained his theory.

Aurora knew he was referring to the first "special event" in his last sentence, but she didn't wish to think more about that. But that theory... very well could be true. "That's not a bad theory Adam. Former ultimates have been the topic of much controversy... and I know this is a morbid thought, but it's sadly realistic to think someone would take us because of our relationships to former ultimates."

"Indeed... that's u-unfortunately very logical." They could talk and debate all day over the former ultimates, but now wasn't the time. "I'll k-keep thinking on the theory. It makes me p-ponder if perhaps Alpha is related to a former ultimate as well, considering her own strange entrance into this game."

"That's a valid point." Aurora had almost forgotten about Alpha's strange circumstances of entry into this Killing Game. "It'd be difficult to get information out of her I'm afraid. Perhaps that can be a future goal?"

"Adam..." Yoshino and Joji muttered in unison.

"Interesting..." Something like that hadn't crossed Ji-hoon's mind.

"I want to pursue his theory!" Aurora had a determined look on her face. "Adam's teacher was a Former Ultimate... and my manager is a Former Ultimate. And we entered this Killing Game in a strange way. Since we know that Alpha's circumstances are strange as well... please, tell me Alpha. Are you related to a Former Ultimate?" Ever oozing determination, she put the gas station manager on the spot.

Alpha watched as everyone's eyes landed on her. "Ah hell..." She cracked her neck. She really didn't like this attention. And under normal circumstances, she'd just tell everyone to fuck off, she'd leave, she'd punch something, etc. And she did feel like doing one of those things right now. But... these idiots probably wouldn't stop hounding her if she denied it.

"I got an Uncle. Former Ultimate Mob Boss." Alpha groaned as she admitted to the group, showing a teensy bit of development!

"Really?" Aurora smiled brightly, knowing that Adam's theory proved to be correct.

"Hey, thanks for actually cooperating for once!" Yoshino said with half snark/half surprise.

"Quiet!" Alpha shot the horror novelist a glare, but nothing else.

"C'mon, Yoshino. Don't mess with her." Joji admittedly was tempted to say something similar. "But damn. "Uncle" is your actual Uncle? The Mob Boss himself?"

"I can... see it." Rival slowly blinked. Alpha coming from a Mob Boss... made sense.

"Yes... I believe I can see that as well." Damien agreed with a guy who didn't like him. "An elusive yet threatening man like Uncle being your actual uncle... yes, I'm not surprised." He chuckled.

"Good to have that confirmed." Ji-hoon made sure to note that down. "I assumed that, but I wasn't 100% sure. Good to know."

"Hold on..." Kuroko furrowed her brow. "I'm not super well versed with the Former Ultimates-nya. Who's... Uncle-nya?"

"You don't know, Kuroko?" Kei was surprised. "Crazy to think that there are people who don't know the Former Ultimates."

"Uncle is a secretive one. I don't blame her." Darren offered his two cents.

"God hearing you guys say Uncle is throwing me off." Alpha was starting to regret this. Hearing these idiots saying "Uncle" like "Uncle" was their actual Uncle.

"Alph-nya, who is your uncle? Is... he actually named Uncle-nya?" Kuroko was getting more curious.

"No, dipshit! That's not his actual name!" Alpha couldn't believe Kuroko actually said that. "It's Michael Jane. That's his real name. Gods sake, please call him that. I can't stand this "Uncle" business."

Ji-hoon raised an eyebrow. "You told us his real name? I'm surprised. I can't imagine he'd like that." Ji-hoon was actually already aware that the real name of "Uncle" was Michael. He had to jump through some hoops to figure that out. So he's thrown off by Alpha just... admitted it.

"Eh, he's fine. Bitch acts all cool like his real name being exposed will destroy his reputation." Alpha's uncle really did annoy her sometimes... but she could never fully hate him. "If he somehow sees this, he'll just have to deal with it."

"Surprising attitude to take with your uncle. You not like him?" Joji crossed his arms.

"Shove it. This isn't about to turn into a mass FTE." Alpha was getting an FTE later in this chapter. It's too early to reveal too many details! "But I'll tell you this, Kuroko. He's a Mob Boss."

"I... figured that-nya." Kuroko blinked.

"Michael Jane is rather notorious. Out of all of the Former Ultimates, he was impacted the least by the FUP." Ji-hoon took over. "He still controls the largest mafia in North America, and he has a hold in a variety of businesses. He's both a successful entrepreneur and a dangerous criminal."

"Though, for a criminal, he stays in a remarkably good light." Despite Kei's hatred of criminals, he couldn't fully bring himself to hate Michael Jane. "I don't know as much as Ji-hoon does, but I know that a lot of his business ventures are fairly harmless, or they provide support to the needy. It's just the way he gets the money that treads into criminal territory."

"It's not just the way that's criminal, but you're mostly right. He gets blood on his hands. A lot of blood. Especially considering... you know. He's killed people before." Ji-hoon took back over. "But he's a complex man who pursues his own goals."

"You homos an encyclopedia on my uncle or something??" Alpha didn't expect them to go off like that.

Kei chuckled. "I only know a little. I'm a lawyer, remember? I have to know details about famous criminals." He acted like that was his duty.

"And why wouldn't I know about the Former Ultimates? It's essentially my job." It stands to reason that Ji-hoon would know about celebrities of their caliber. "Former Ultimate Mob Boss... Former Ultimate Blacksmith... Former Ultimate Neurologist... I know about them all." He unintentionally started to brag.

"Christ, I get it! You two have no life!" Alpha's voice dripped with sarcasm. "But that's basically it, Kuroko. Congrats on your free lesson on my fucking uncle!"

"That's... wow-nya! Interesting!" Kuroko seemed to enjoy it.

"That was rather interesting..." Aurora didn't know that much either. "But anyway... that's fascinating. That all three of us... have a connection to a Former Ultimate."

"What does that mean though?" Lake scratched their head.

"Hold on, Lake." Ji-hoon stopped the ballet dancer. "Before anything else... I want to confirm something. Is anyone else here connected to a Former Ultimate? In the same vein as Aurora, Adam, and Alpha are?" As far as Ji-hoon knew, he didn't believe anyone else was. But he wanted to be sure.

...

Kei raised an eyebrow. "Is that a no-"

"I think-"

Someone suddenly spoke up. It was...

"Cathy?" Darren looked over to the cat burglar, who had a surprisingly serious look on her face.

"Something to say, Cathy?" Kei's eyebrow stayed eternally raised.

Cathy closed her eyes for a moment... like she was thinking hard about something. Why did it... why did it feel like she was connected to a Former Ultimate? Why was her mind telling her that? She isn't though... right? But who? Who could she...

"Cathy?" Darren spoke in the same tone as he tried to get a better look at her face.

"...Nyahaha!" Suddenly, the seriousness on Cathy's face disappeared as she jumped up. "You humans truly think I would associate with the Former Ultimate humans? Ha!" She dropped the -nya from her laugh as she sat back down, her signature smugness now back where it rightfully belongs- right across her face.

"It seemed like you were about to say you *cough* were though." Rosalind was never going to be able to keep up with Cathy's antics.

"What... she said." Rival tiredly agreed with the potential member of his harem.

"Nyaha! Don't worry about it!" Cathy brushed it off as she leaned back in her seat and she conjured some more sashimi into existence to enjoy.

"You heard her. Let's not worry about it." Darren immediately trusted her word.

"Eh... alright." Yoshino didn't want to bother dissecting Cathy's words. "To get back on track then... Adam's theory was right." She smiled sadly.

"Right. It was." Aurora sighed. "It's interesting that Adam, Alpha, and I are connected like that... but what does it mean?"

"If all of you were in the PEC... maybe I'd get it. But because of Alpha non-bestie... IDK." Raiha was at a loss.

"All three of them lack their memories... so can we even figure something out from this-nya?" Kuroko tried to think of what this could mean.

"If all of us were connected to a Former Ultimate, that'd paint the motive clearly." Ji-hoon tapped his foot on the floor as he thought about this. "After all, there are 19 Former Ultimates. But... we aren't all directly connected to one. So I can't imagine the motive is related to the world's general hatred of them."

"Even if... that was the case. Killing people connected to them and not the Former Ultimates themselves... is weird." Rival didn't get it.

Kei tapped his fingers against the table. "But those three are. And their circumstances are different from ours."

"And they all start with the letter A!" Lake chimed in.

"Er- I don't think that was is relevant, Lake." Joji chuckled.

"But it's strange. What could it mean?" Damien tried to come up with an answer... but he couldn't.

...

"Nothing, then?" Ji-hoon sighed in slight annoyance. "That's alright."

"Not even you, Jiji? Nothing at all?" Yoshino expected their leader to have something here.

"Well... circling back here... my only guess is that it's something related to Pheme's motives for this Killing Game. As well as... Asclepius' motives... whoever he is." The topic of this mysterious Greek god of medicine stayed on Ji-hoon's mind ever since Adam brought it up. "Pheme is too much of a wildcard to get a definitive answer for her motives... and we don't even know who Asclepius is." He looked to Aurora, wondering if she'd chime in.

"Yes... Asclepius is a wild card as well." Aurora hung her head low, annoyed and ashamed she didn't have more information on the god of medicine.

"We're still so fucking much in the dark here... damn it!" Joji slammed his fist down on the table. "Pheme... Asclepius... the fuck did we do to them?"

"Every time we ask that, we're just gonna run into the same dead end every time, Joji." Kei wagged his finger. "This is the type of thing best saved for Chapter 6." He knocked on the fourth wall. "This is... too early. There's no point."

"Aikawa is right. I believe questioning motives to be pointless at this point." Nozomi agreed.

"I know you're frustrated Joji... but it's okay!" Lake tried to comfort the carpenter. "We might've not been able to confirm motives or anything... but this has been a good meeting nonetheless!" They stayed positive.

"Monty is right! With Alpha actually contributing, getting a lot of this out in the open is good." Yoshino wasn't going to act like she was crazy smart or anything, but even she couldn't deny talking about this stuff felt important.

Alpha just ignored that slight... slight towards her. "Don't assume it'll be a habit." She crossed her arms. "I don't think this was that useful... but this Former Ultimate bullshit is weird."

"Right." Aurora was glad to see Alpha being cooperative at all. She also liked knowing that Adam had the right idea. "Alpha? Out of curiosity, did Michael ever bring up Mr. D'Rue?"

"Huh? Did Uncle ever bring up your manager?" Alpha had to think about that. "Fuck... he never really talked about the other Former Ultimates. I think he and D'Rue were friends. No gay shit, but they got along. That's all I know."

"I see. Thank you." Aurora always liked learning about Mr. D'Rue, despite her basically knowing all of that already.

"That gas station manager human warming up to the others... Nyahaha!" Cathy scoffed. "So is that it then?" She continued to speak before Alpha could bite back.

"Do you have somewhere to be, my dear Catherine?" Damien asked with genuine curiosity.

"Of course, you'd want to know, beautician human!" Cathy rolled her eyes, his voice dripping with disdain for him. She didn't tell him to stop with the "my dear" stuff though. Frankly, she just doesn't care. "Ever since yesterday, I've been interested in the vents on the third floor!"

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

...

"Patience, Ms. Akiyama! I shall explain!" Pheme giggled. "There isn't much to explain though! There are merely multiple vent systems in the ceiling of the third floor! And the openings are in the pool, Mx. Beaumont's Studio, Mr. Taylor's Studio, and outside Mr. Taylor's Studio!"

Alpha rolled her eyes. "Vents? Christ, this really is Am-"

"Hey! Ms. Jane! We don't have the authority to say the name of the game you were about to say! So kindly be quiet!" Pheme shushed the gas station manager.

Kei chuckled. "Well, if we can't say that, can we at least ask why there are vents?"

"For fun of course!" Pheme clapped her hands together. "I'll leave it a mystery as to the exact map of the vents, but some of you should be able to fit in them!"

"That's right. Thanks for reminding me, Cathy." Ji-hoon legitimately feeling thankful to Cathy was strange, but things happen sometimes. "I think that's enough of the theorizing for now, so that brings me to something I wanted to bring up. I don't have much on the agenda for today, but I want to investigate those vents. Pheme didn't explain where they led, so we'll see for ourselves then. I also want to see who can fit in them." God forbid more murders happen, but if they did, he felt like that'd be important to know.

"I won't say no... but are we sure those aren't a trap-nya?" Kuroko was a little skeptical.

"Vents? Those are a little sus, NGL." Raiha was legally obligated to reference Among Us.

"No way of knowing for sure if it's a trap until we see for ourselves!" Kei had no problems with it.

"I'd rather not do it...-nya". Kuroko didn't like tight spaces that much. Ironic, considering how tight her clothes were. "But if it's quick... I'll be alright."

"It might be a little exciting, honestly!" Lake didn't hate the idea. "Crawling around the vents... sneaking around... hm?" Any possible evil use for it didn't even cross their mind.

"Like it or not, I'd like everyone to try and fit in them." Ji-hoon worded it gently enough, but for all intents and purposes, it was basically an order. "Got it?"

"Don't know if I can..." Joji flexed his arms. "Shit, I'll try though!"

"Eh... screw it. I'll try too!" The sussiness of the vents suddenly decreased for Raiha.

"I..." Rosalind considered asking to be excluded from this venture but decided against it. She didn't know if she could even get up into a vent... despite her thin stature. But... she wasn't crippled, or disabled, or something similar. She could do it. Somehow. Somehow...

"Should we get going right now then? Get it out of the way, then we all can enjoy the rest of our day?" Kei offered, preparing to stand up.

"Sounds good to me!" Alpha, having finished her bag of candy, already stood up. "This meeting shit is draining, anyway!"

"Hold on! Before we go, can I say something?" Lake raised their hand.

"Hm? Of course, you can, my dear Lake!" Damien was immediately receptive.

"What's up, Lake?" Joji was receptive as well, even flashing Alpha a glare to make sure she didn't say something here. She didn't.

"Speak, Lake." Ji-hoon didn't want to waste more time here.

Nozomi had a bad feeling about this, but she kept her thoughts to herself for now.

"Okay!" Lake excitedly nodded. "So... I know how this might sound. But... I think I have a fun idea! An idea for something we can do as a group, to raise morale and stuff!"

"An... idea?" Rival internally groaned. Was this going to happen every chapter now?

"Okay...?" Ji-hoon was getting a little sick of this "idea" stuff, considering it led to both Bessie's and Genjiro's deaths. But he waited to see what Lake was going to say.

Lake took a deep breath. "So... the idea. I think we should have a..."

...

"Pool Party!" Lake shot their hands up in the air.

"Ooooo! I love it-nya!" Kuroko already liked the idea.

"Eh..." Rival was already eh on the idea.

"Hm..." As Raiha snuck a glance at Aurora, she didn't know what to think.

"A pool party, Lake? Where'd that come from?" Joji didn't want to discount the idea, but he just wanted more information first.

"I gave them the suggestion for the idea." Damien immediately admitted.

"Really?" Nozomi hit the beautician with a cold glare. "What's up your sleeve now, Lux?" She sounded very annoyed with him.

"Up my sleeve?" Damien sounded a little offended as he looked to his sleeves. "Nothing! I merely thought it might be a nice idea! And I ran it by my dear Lake first!"

"Yeah! Damien isn't planning anything! Why would he?" Lake still showed a lot of trust in the beautician for some reason. "Or, well, I guess he planned the idea. But you know what I mean!"

"You're really not... Damien?" Rival narrowed his eyes.

"Hmph. I suppose I can understand where this hostility is coming from..." Unlike Damien's creator, Damien himself wasn't going to straight-up deny it. "But rest assured, it's merely a fun idea. And for when we'll have it, there's no in "three days" nonsense this time. How about tomorrow?"

"Yeah!" Lake kept eagerly nodding. "And we have swimsuits in our closets, don't we? I don't want them to just sit there!"

"I *cough* suppose we do..." Rosalind hadn't really acknowledged the alternative outfits they had in their closets.

"Is it wise to trust in the garments that Pheme provided us with?" Nozomi was very slowly starting to warm up to the idea.

"The fuck? The bikinis ain't poisoned or some shit! How would the BDSM bitch even sabotage that shit?" Alpha thought that was a bit too much skepticism.

"I don't... even know how to swim. So... I'm out." Rival shrugged.

"Oh..." Lake sounded a little disappointed. "Well, we still have the fourteen of us! So, how about it?"

"It sounds like so much fun-nya!" Kuroko was the biggest supporter of the plan. Damien's involvement would've sussed her out under normal circumstances, but how would he even sabotage this? Surely he wouldn't, right? I mean, it's not like he sabotaged the drinking party or anything.

"Let's hear what our leader has to say, hm?" Kei chuckled, not having any strong feelings one way or the other.

"...Sure. I see no problem." Ji-hoon didn't think the idea wasa horrible one. Essentially for the same reasons as stated in Kuroko's narration. It wouldn't be as organized as the drinking party, which is good. No bottles of rum just sitting out in the open. And they'd all be able to watch each other as well. He'd be able to keep an eye on Raiha too. ...That sounds a little weird, considering they'd be wearing swimsuits, but he didn't worry about it.

"Really? Awesome!" It wasn't like Lake needed approval from Ji-hoon, but they still appreciated getting it.

"If we're going to be doing this though..." It sounded like Ji-hoon had a concern. "I'd like to look into the locker room in there. Considering it's locked, so-"

"Oh, don't worry about that, Mr. Jo! I got the lock working! It should be fine!" Pheme reassured the celebrity detective.

"Really? Good then." Ji-hoon nodded. "When we go up to investigate the vents, we can scope out the locker room- wait." He turned his head in the direction of that voice, and found Pheme standing behind him. "Pheme? How long have you been there?" He wasn't aware that the goddess was here for this conversation.

"Oh, not too long!" Pheme conjured up a chair and sat down next to Ji-hoon, much to the celebrity detective's annoyance. "I've been here roughly since... "Have we talked about that at all? How... scatterbrained Pheme can be at times?"" She gave her best Kei impression.

"Huh?" Kei chuckled as recognized the impression. "Oh... heh. Essentially the entire conversation then?"

"Yep!" Pheme nodded. "And I must say Mx. Beaumont, I love the idea of a pool party! I'm all for it!"

"You joining this party too?" Darren.

"Ah, really?" Yoshino groaned. She was down for the pool party, but Pheme being there kinda soured her view.

"Do you not like me, Ms. Akiyama?" Pheme sensed the hostility. "What did I ever do to you?" She placed her hand on her chest, like she truly was offended.

"That's a long list..." Yoshino didn't want to deal with Pheme right not. That damn bloodied needle was still on her mind... so she opted to ignore the goddess.

"Okay, hold on. Back up." Joji wanted to confirm something. "The Locker Room is unlocked now, right?"

"Yes! That's what I said!" Pheme giggled.

"Those are your concerns crushed then, right Ji-hoon?" As Joji saw Lake's smile start to grow, his own eagerness for this pool party started to grow.

"...Yes." Ji-hoon felt... surprisingly good about this. It wasn't suspenseful like Bessie and Rival's show, nor was it suspicious like Ayaka's drinking party. "I'm for it." He stood up. "And I say we get going to the third floor."

"Fucking finally..." Alpha groaned before leaving, clearly sick of these idiots.

"Fine with me-nya!" Kuroko got up and stretched her arms.

"Um, thanks Ji-hoon!" Lake smiled brightly. They were excited for the previous big events in Chapters 1 and 2 of course... despite how they ended. But now... something about this felt different. This just sounded like a lot of fun to them!

"No need to thank me." It was people like Lake... they were the type of person Ji-hoon does his job for. "But c'mon people. Let's move." He had enough of the sappiness.

Everyone was essentially finished with their breakfast already, so no one had a problem with getting up to leave.

Before everyone could leave though...

"...Pheme?" Rival, the last person in the cafeteria, stopped the goddess before she could leave.

"Hm? Oh! Mr. Seizon! What is it?" Pheme set her hands on her hips.

"Uh... well..." Was he really about to ask this? God this felt embarrassing... but he knew she wouldn't ask it... so Rival had no choice here. "So... Pheme. Those stairs to the third floor... that's really the only way up... to the third floor?"

Pheme raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

"Well..." Rival felt a small blush reach across his face. "Yesterday... Rosalind had trouble with those stairs. After we got up there... I sat with her for a while... before we did anything."

"Is that so?" It appeared that Pheme somehow wasn't aware of that. "Why bring that up, Mr. Seizon?"

Rival was just asking for this for the sake of a friend... so why did he feel so embarrassed right now? "Rosalind... I don't know what's wrong with her... but it's clear she's sick somehow. And... those stairs are a lot for her. So... can you get her an elevator or something... somehow?" He was aware that a normal person can't conjure up an elevator... but she was goddess. Maybe she could?

...

"Ah... I see." Pheme gave Rival a very knowing smirk from beneath her mask, before giggling. "Mr. Seizon... before I give an answer, I must ask. You wouldn't happen to like Ms. Reinhardt, would you? As in... like-like her?"

Rival looked at the ground, the blush on his face slowly intensifying. He didn't know how to respond to that.

That was all Pheme needed to see. "Tee hee! Sorry Amogus!"

"...Huh?" Rival, despite his embarrassment, was thrown off by that foruth wall break.

"Don't worry about it!" Pheme cupped Rival's chin in her hands. "You ask for an elevator for Ms. Reinhardt! Hm... I should be able to do that. Ask me again tomorrow. I'll see what I can do!"

Rival slowly nodded. "...Thanks." He didn't offer any other words as he shuffled out of the cafeteria.

Pheme kept smiling to herself as she watched Rival leave. Romance is truly in the air, it seems. Aurora and Raiha... Rival and Rosalind... perhaps even Kuroko and Yoshino? Man... she loved it. And the fact that the motive is going to ruin these fledgling feelings her stars are growing for each other... well, that was utterly delicious.

[Grand Lobby - 3F]

"We're... here." Rosalind's wobbly legs finally made it up to the third floor. Unsurprisingly, she was the last person to make it up to the third floor.

Well, second to last person. "You... alright, Rosalind?" Rival purposefully stuck behind Rosalind as they trekked up to his studio, then to the actual third floor. And he hadn't gotten the chance to ask her about what he heard... so better late than ever.

"I'm... fine. I'm *cough* okay." Despite her little incident last night... Rosalind was fine. Yeah... she was fine

"Well... alright. I thought that... last night..." Rival still couldn't just ignore what he had heard. "Sorry... I just thought I heard something from your room... last night."

Rosalind felt a drop of sweat drip down her forehead. "Is that *cough* so? It must've been something else, I'm afraid. Don't *cough cough* worry about me." She reached fingertips up to her mouth like she was expecting something to be there.

"Oh. Uh... alright." Now, Rival was fairly dense. He was. But even he could sense how strange this was. Despite her commonly dark humor about her condition... it seems that Rosalind doesn't like seriously acknowledging whatever it is that's wrong with her.

"Let's not dilly-dally, Rival." Rosalind started to hobble over to where the rest of the group was.

"Rosalind..." Rival sighed. He... didn't know what to think. He didn't think that he was necessarily upsetting her... but he also didn't know what the right thing to say was. Then there was him requesting an elevator for her... man he hoped that wasn't a bad choice.

...

"Alright. Everyone's here." Ji-hoon did a quick head count as everyone stood beneath the vent outside of Darren's Studio. "Let's get right to it."

Everyone looked up at the vent.

"Ji-hoon, not sure if we can... uh... reach it?" Depsite Joji's magnificent height of 6'2, he attempted to reach up to it, but he couldn't reach it.

"Yeah... I ain't even gonna try." With Yoshino's height of 5'0, yeah, like she said, she ain't even gonna try.

"...Fair point." Ji-hoon hadn't realized that.

"Ah, hold a moment." Damien stopped anyone else from commenting. "How about the ladders from my dear Rosalind's studio?"

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

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

"That's right... you *cough* brought those up, didn't you?" Rosalind still hasn't even stepped foot in her Ultimate Studio.

"Good idea, Damien! I got it!" Joji ran over to Rosalind's Studio to grab a ladder.

"Joji! Do you know how-"

"It's alright, Damien." Damien wasn't sure if Joji knew how to make the floor system work, but Kei stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "I'll make sure he gets it right." The lawyer strolled after the carpenter.

"Hm. Alright." Damien had no problem with that.

"Well... they're gone. What do we do now?" Lake looked around.

"We... wait." Rival shrugged.

...

Kuroko sighed, then tapped her heel against the ground. "Anyone seen-" She attempted to make some small-talk.

"Here we are!" But Joji cut off that small-talk attempt as he walked out of Rosalind's Studio, ladder in hand. Unsurprisingly, Kei wasn't helping.

"Thank god. That could've been awk." Raiha didn't like that awkward silence.

"No need to fret, Raiha. No awking will be happening." Kei half-mocked her as he rejoined the group. "Anyway, let's hope that ladder works."

"Right!" Lake watched as Joji set the large stepladder down underneath the vent.

"Here we... go!" Joji situated the ladder. "Alright! Who's going first?" He turned to the rest of the group.

"Me." Alpha of all people volunteered, shoving Joji out of the way as she stepped onto the ladder. "The quicker this is done, the better." She sounded rather annoyed as she stepped up the ladder.

"Geez..." Joji sighed as he took a step back.

"Fine, but tell us what it's like, Alpha." Ji-hoon wouldn't tolerate any nonsense from her.

"Yadda yadda, whatever. I fucking know." Alpha groaned as she finally reached the top of the ladder. "Alright... I can reach the stupid grate from here. Easily."

"Good to know." Kei nodded. "Assuming it's the same with the other grates, the only way to reach the grates is with a ladder." He bolded his statement to make sure the readers know it's important.

"Can you get the grate off-nya?" Kuroko stood on her tippy-toes to see what Alpha was doing.

"Uh... fuck." Alpha started to monkey around with it. "And... oh shit. There we go." She took the grate off. "Yo, Ji-hoon? You wanna take out your little notepad ot whatever? Got some bullshit you might want to know."

"Alright...?" Ji-hoon didn't have his notepad on him, so he took out his Star-Phone.

"Not sure about Pheme did this..." Alpha moved the grate around in her hands. "First, this grate is fucking heavy. If this shit fell on you, you'd be out cold. Could even fracture your skull or some specific bullshit like that."

"Oh no..." Lake felt a shiver run through them.

"Shit..." Ji-hoon didn't like more dangers, but he noted that down anyway.

"Well is it firmly on the vent itself?" Aurora hoped that was the case.

"Nope." Alpha said with a hard "p." "This shit was loose as fuck. Say someome threw something up here, that could easily call it to fall. Gotta be careful with this shit."

"Got it." Ji-hoon was concerned about that... but he'd have to address it later. "Does it-"

"It does. It easily goes back on, bitch." Alpha said "bitch" in the most casual way possible as she answered Ji-hoon's question before he even asked it.

"T-That's... good?" Ayaka, now back to, well, Ayaka, tried to look on the bright side.

"Fucking Pheme... making this as annoying as possible." Yoshino groaned. "That's all for the grate, right? You able to get in there?"

"Don't rush me, titless!" Alpha took an insult directly from Miu Iruma's book as she started to climb into the vent.

After a few seconds, she was fully in the vent.

"H-How is it, Alph-nya?" Kuroko's voice shook a little as she thought about how potentially small that vent could be.

"A little tight! Fuck..." Alpha quietly groaned as she started to look around the duct. It wasn't insanely tight... but it really wasn't spacious either. She could just manage to crawl through it. The duct was made out of a sturdy metal, with a thin layer of dust touching every surface. Alpha tried to breath shallowly. "I'm gonna check it out!"

"Good luck, Alpha!" Lake cheered on the gas station manager.

"Christ..." Alpha rolled her eyes as she started to to crawl forward through the vent. It didn't take long for her to see that the vent split into two paths. One to the left, and one that continued straight. She went down the left path first, and found it fairly short. She could already see the vent grate at the end of the path.

And when she looked through it... she saw Darren's Ultimate Studio. "Makes sense... these're close and all." Satisfied with this path, she backed up the the fork, then continued straight. It was a bit of a longer path, and it even started to curve as well. After the curve, she saw another grate.

When she looked through that one... she saw Lake's Ultimate Studio. "Huh... The studio of Joji's bitch..." She gave Lake a kind and affectionate nickname as she messed with the grate, opened it up, then dropped into Lake's Studio. She immediately left to rejoin the group.

...

"Is Alpha- oh!" Lake looked in the direction of their Ultimate Studio, and saw the gas station manager walking out.

"Wait- huh?" Joji looked to the vent grate above him, then to Alpha. "The hell kinda magic trick did you just pull?" He felt bamboozled.

"Really, dude? You're that fucking stupid?" Alpha crossed her arms.

"I'm assuming you dropped down from the vent in Lake's Studio?" Kei spoke the obvious.

"Just tell us what it was like, Alpha." Ji-hoon cut off any ha ha funny Alpha remarks before they were even spoken.

"Heh. Yeah, okay." Alpha cleared her voice. "This vent system connects to Darren's Studio and to Lake's Studio. Nothing else to it. And that's all you're getting from me. Fuck this." Without another word, Alpha wandered off to who the fuck knows where.

"Got it... very good to know." Ji-hoon noted that down.

"You aren't gonna stop Alph-nya?" Kuroko tilted her head.

"Why would I? Her helping us out in any capacity is still astounding. I won't push it. It's not worth it to push it, honestly." Despite everything, Ji-hoon considered Alpha to be... fairly harmless, funnily enough. "Alright, let's resume. Let's see if we all can fit in these ducts or not!" With a snap of his fingers, Ji-hoon resumed the test.

The repetitiveness of walking up and down a ladder dragged on and on and on for mostly everyone... but after a few minutes, and after a few scared mews from Kuroko due to her claustrophobia, and after some general struggles from Rosalind, everyone had finally gotten to see if they could fit in the vents. And the results...

"I see..." Ji-hoon noted it all down. "Everyone besides for Damien and Joji could fit."

"Yep!" Joji flexed his muscles. He wasn't sure if that was something to be proud of... but he was!

"Yes..." Damien had no desire to flex his sleeper build, considering he was a fairly humble man. "It was just a mite too tight for my liking."

Lake observed Damien's sleeper build, then Joji's wide-awake build. "Do you have muscles like Joji hidden away, Damien?" They said, half-teasingly.

Damien chuckled. "On Joji's level? Not at all. My build isn't important here." He stayed humble.

"I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if the Damien Lux is rocking a sleep build." Raiha giggled. "You ever think about starting an OF, Damien?" It was difficult to tell if she was serious or not.

Damien chuckled once again. "I'm flattered my dear Raiha, but I have no interest in that."

"Hm... if you say so!" Raiha shrugged. "Gotta say though, you'd make bank with something like that. But IDK." Her eyes drifted over to Aurora for a moment, before drifting back to Damien. Even now, she's still on her mind...

Damien noticed the drifting of Raiha's eyes, and made a mental note of it. "Anyway, shall we try out the vent in the pool now? It didn't connect to this one, so I wonder where it does connect to."

"Right!" Joji turned around to pick up the ladder and move it-

"Wrong!" But he encountered a Pheme jumpscare, even cutting off his narration in the process.

Joji had to stop himself from recreating that video of that one guy punching that laptop. "Gods sake, Pheme!" He huffed and stepped away.

"Do you always have to scare us, Pheme-nya?" Kuroko held her hand over her heart.

Aurora held her hand over her heart as well. You'd think they'd get used to the Pheme jumpscares by this point, but evidently not.

"Wrong?" Because Darren is incapable of getting scared, he focused on Pheme's word choice instead.

"What do you want, Pheme?" Ji-hoon already sounded done with her.

Pheme giggled. She always found so much joy im scaring her glamorous stars. "What I want is to tell you that you cannot investigate the pool vent!"

"And why is that, goddess?" Cathy didn't appreciate being told what to do.

"Because I said so!" Pheme giggled a little louder. "Nah, I'm just kidding! In actuality, that vent isn't finished! While constructing this place, the foolish workers forgot to finish it! Now I have to get my hands dirty, and do it myself!" She pouted. "So yes, that's why!"

"Oh... okay." Rival wasn't sure what he expected, but it wasn't that.

"U-Unfinished... I don't like the sound of that." That weirded out Ayaka for some reason.

"That feels awfully convenient... but eh!" Kei gave an exaggerated shrug. "Guess it's just this little system for now. It's good we investigated it though."

"Wait... Pheme?" Lake raised their hand like they were in a classroom. "The locker room is open and everything though, right?

"Why, of course it is!" Pheme reaffirmed. "That's all good, don't worry!"

"Okay! So..." Lake was still clearly excited for the pool party. "If this is all for the vents, I say we investigate the locker room now!" They took a little initiative.

"Do we... all *cough* need to do that? I'm sure you don't need someone like me." After climbing into that vent, Rosalind was admittedly rather tired.

"No... no we don't." Ji-hoon his head. That pool vent grate radiated suspicious vibes to him... but it's too brazen to go against what Pheme claims like that. "Alright... fine. We can split off now. Lake, myself, and anyone else will go to the pool and locker room. If you don't want to, you can do whatever you'd like to."

"Ah! Before you split off, a quick word?" Pheme clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "I'd like to quickly inform you all of something!"

"What?" Yoshino groaned.

"Oh, don't act like that, Ms. Akiyama! It'll be quick!" Pheme chuckled. "I just want to inform you all that every room on this floor is able to be locked from the inside! Our chief writer, Extr A. Meme forgot to state that in the last chapter, so I must say it now!"

"O...kay?" Rival didn't know who this Extr A. Meme guy was, and he frankly didn't care. I mean, it wasn't like this guy held Rival's life in the palm of his hand or anything.

"Alright! That's all!" With a wave, Phemr faded into the ether, and left.

...

"Let's go, everyone." Ji-hoon was going to note that down, but for now, he just split off from the group with a few others. He was happy to see that others, including Raiha, had joined him as well

[Pool]

"This is the pool then?" Damien nodded in approval.

"It's giving school pool vibes, but that ain't all bad." Raiha shrugged.

Ji-hoon looked behind him. Joji, Damien, Kei, Raiha, and Aurora all joined him and Lake with this. He was fine with that.

"Hey... this idea keeps growing on me!" Joji wasn't a master swimmer by any means, but he saw this as a good potential way to get some exercise in here.

"I'm glad!" Lake liked seeing Joji happy.

"That's enough talk, hm? Let's get to the main event!" Kei was the first one to reach the door to the locker room. "Let's see what we've got!" He turned the knob, and it opened seamlessly.

"This is rather nerve wracking... yet also a little exciting! Funny, considering it's a locker room of all things." Aurora lightly giggled as she approached the locker room door.

"Well... let's just see." Ji-hoon ended up going in first. And he found...

[Locker Room]

A... locker room. That's what he found. As expected.

The room was tiled, and the walls and ceiling had a faded green color to them. The room had two long rows of lockers on the left and right sides of the room. The rows were double sided, meaning there were way too many lockers, considering there were only 19 people here.

Near the right side of the lockers, there were a variety of pool supples and pool toys, which quickly caught Lake's eyes.

Then near the left side of the lockers, there was a lone and suspicious bucket of water.

Besides for those, it was a pretty normal locker room.

"Glad there are some pool things here!" Joji picked up an innertube that were unceremoniously laying on the ground. "Should make the party more fun!"

"Right!" Lake excitedly picked up a water gun, then sprayed it at the wall.

"Damn! Pheme spoils us." Kei snickered as he picked up a pool noodle.

"It feels degrading in a sense..." Ji-hoon eyed a beach ball. "We're trapped here and forced to kill each other, and she gives us these toys. Tch."

"Perhaps..." Aurora noticed a number of pool chairs in the corner.

"C'mon, Ji-hoon approaching-non-bestie status. It's not that bad!" Raiha stayed cheery. "I mean... it might be fun! You never know!"

"Don't call me that. Just call me Ji-hoon." Ji-hoon didn't know what Raiha's game was here, but he wasn't going to take any of it.

"..." Raiha didn't say anything to that. "So... these lockers!" She changed her focus as she opened up one of the lockers. All of them were unlocked, and after a long round of off-screen searching, all of them were empty. "Well... at least we have them?" The trendsetter tried to look on the bright side.

"Yes... they might be useful." Aurora didn't know how other than to store clothes while you swam in the pool.

The group of seven slowly stepped around the locker room, methodically investigating the room.

"Hey, I was wondering where the towels would be!" As the group reached the back of the locker room, Joji spotted a large towel rack, with plenty of towels. "It's feels kinda separated... but at least it's here."

"The towels are soft too!" Lake was just enjoying themselves.

"Alright, that's enough." Ji-hoon didn't think any more words had to be spent on clearly unimportant towels. "Let's keep going."

At his command, the group continued to circle around the room. And their circling brought nothing much of value, as it just led them back to entrance. Though that suspicious bucket did enter their view again.

"What is this? Water?" Damien sunk his hand into the clear liquid.

"Seems like it?" Joji scratched his head. "Weird thing to leave around."

"Is it water, Damien?" Lake watched the beautican reach his hand out of the bucket.

"I believe so-"

"Ah, my stars made it to the locker room! And- wait. Mr. Lux?" Pheme sauntered into the locker room all Pheme-like, but she looked strangely amused at Damien. "Mr. Lux? Did you just feel that liquid?"

"Ah, Pheme." Damien didn't sound pleased with her presence. "Yes, I did. It's merely water, isn't it?"

"...Pft!" Pheme snickered. "You truly go around and investigating mysterious liquids like that, do you Mr. Lux?"

"Get to the point, Pheme." Ji-hoon didn't want this scene to be too long.

"Yes, what even is this?" Damien started to get a mite concerned at what he might've just touched.

"I'll tell you! First, is Ms. Akiyama here?" Pheme looked around. "No? Good!" The goddess snapped her fingers, causing the lights to go out in an instant.

"Wah!" Lake let out a small yelp as they backed up in the darkness.

"Woah! Lake?" Joji reached out to make sure Lake was alright.

"Sheesh! Jumpscare!" Raiha half giggled/half yelped as she jumped up a little.

"This meant to scare us, Pheme?" Kei chuckled.

"Not in the slightest!" Pheme shook her head, though it wasn't visible in the darkness. "Everyone! Look at Mr. Lux's hand!" She uselessly point in the direction of Damien.

"Damien?" Ji-hoon steadily turned around in the darkness to where Damien was standing. And when he did...

"Woah! Damien!" Lake cried out. "Your right hand is glowing!"

Damien stared at his right hand in bewilderment. Like what Lake had stated, his right hand was glowing a dull green. It became a strange beacon in the darkness. "What... in the blazes is this?!" He wasn't necessarily mad... he was just purely baffled.

"Ha! Mr. Lux, I put some glow in the dark chemicals in that water!" Pheme revealed. "So now, your right hand will glow in the dark!"

"Wha- is this some practical joke?!" Nevermind, Damien started to lose his cool a tad.

"Pheme...?" Out of all of the things Pheme has done so far, this was the most out there and random. Ji-hoon didn't know what to think. "What's the meaning of this?"

Pheme shrugged in the darkness. "I thought it might be amusing to see if someone would fall for it! And I wanted to see how something like this might affect the inevitable murder as well! I love the idea of throwing in small, little wrenches into the mix!"

Ji-hoon... probably should've expected an answer like that. "Is it harmful?" He got right to the safety of it.

"No! Not at all!" Pheme shook her head in the darkness. "It'll wear off naturally after two weeks, so don't fret!"

"Two weeks...?" Damien realized that he was essentially going to have this for the rest of the Killing Game then. It wasn't the end of the world... but it was still fairly annoying.

"Oh, and you want to know something fun? Mr. Lux! Touch one of the lockers!" Pheme excitedly commanded him.

Damien sighed, and did as she asked. He walked over to one of the lockers, and touched the handle to it. When he pulled his hand away, he noticed that the locker handle was also glowing. "Are you kidding?" He blinked in disbelief.

But Pheme just giggled in response. "That glow in dark effect spreads to whatever you touch, too! It can be spread to objects and people! And if someone gets it on them, they can spread it too!"

"What a ridiculous gimmick..." Damien already sounded sick of this.

"Really running out of ideas, aren't you Pheme non-bestie?" Raiha sighed.

"Um? How dare you say that, Ms. Miyahara! I'll have you know I have plenty of ideas!" Pheme ran up to Raiha in the darkness like it was a horror game. "And you know what...?" Her voice lowered to a sensual whisper as she leaned down to one of the trendsetter's ears. "I know you'll love my idea for tomorrow... Raiha." She ditched the honorifics as her frightening words pricked at the trendsetter's brain.

"Anyway!" Pheme causally walked away from Raiha and turned the lights back on with another snap. "That's all! I hope you enjoy that little present, Mr. Lux!" She waved before phasing out of the locker room.

...

An awkward silence fell upon the group of seven for a moment.

"That was... something." Joji didn't know what to say.

"Indeed..." Damien sighed in annoyance, bringing out great pleasure from Gold/Sin in the process. "I can't imagine this'll be too impactful... but it's still annoying."

"Right..." Kei couldn't lie to himself here. He rather liked this outcome. "We won't linger on it then. That's all of the locker room investigated, it seems. You satisfied, Lake?"

Lake was a little thrown off by what happened, but they weren't too perturbed. "Yeah! I think so! Having some things to make the party fun... I like it!"

"Yeah! I'm liking this idea more and more!" A good swim was really starting to appeal to Joji. "We'll worry about a time and all that tomorrow. For now, let's call it good!"

"I'm fine with that." Ji-hoon nodded. He was satisfied enough with this mini investigation. "Nothing else to do then. Let's go." He gave the cue for people to leave if they wished.

Damien went first, an annoyed look still on his face. Kei flashed Ji-hoon a knowing smile as he followed after the beautician.

Joji left with an excited Lake a few moments later.

"I'll leave as well. Goodbye, Ji-hoon. ...Raiha." Aurora still felt horribly awkward around the trendsetter. She wished she knew something to say... but she just swallowed any other words she had as she left.

Which left... Ji-hoon with Raiha. "You're not going?" He waited for the trendsetter to leave.

"I..." Raiha's mind lingered on Pheme's words as a terrified expression slowly spread across her face. She didn't even know what Pheme meant, yet it felt so... scary. "I want to be alone right now..." She didn't feel like leaving yet.

"No." Ji-hoon refused. "If you want to be alone, be alone in your room."

"H-Huh?" Raiha didn't expect an answer like that. "What do you mean?"

"You think I'd really let you be alone in a place like this?" Ji-hoon wasn't going to take any chances. "I know what you're capable of."

Raiha felt how pointed those words were. "What? What? What the hell is your problem?!" Her fear started to melt into aggression.

Ji-hoon bit back a groan and stepped forward. "You know what my problem is. Your little act might work on Aurora and the others, but not me. I know how and what you really are." He grabbed her by her babydoll dress and pulled her closer in a surprising act of aggression. "You've gotten away with both of your crimes due to your privilege. It's people like you that I fight to put to justice. Raiha... while I'm here, you're not going to get away with anything, so don't even try it! You... scumbag!" He spoke with pure and utter disdain for the trendsetter.

"Hey! S-Stop it!" Raiha struggled out of his grip. "God, just f-f-fuck off and please leave me alone!" Without acknowledging any of Ji-hoon's words, she ran out, a few tears falling from her eyes.

"...Hmph." Ji-hoon simply rolled his eyes and walked out after Raiha.

[Ultimate Bartender's Studio]

After the group split off, Darren naturally broke the laws of existence itself to go back to his Ultimate Studio. You know, in hindsight, if he was going to keep the gun on him, he didn't actually have to sleep in here. It wasn't like he was a fierce warrior or guard on the level of an olde-english speaking knight, but he found it easier to stay aware while in his studio. Yeah, let's say that.

Anyway, he took his usual glass from the shadow realm and gave it a nice clean. It was quiet... but he didn't hate this. Cathy wasn't here... which was probably the cause for the quiet, actually. Hm... what was she up to right now? Hm... why did he care? Hm... why did he care? He wasn't dumb enough to not notice Cathy becoming a blushing mess around him... but was he also starting to...

"Hello? Darren?" A voice, cutting off Darren's thoughts on his feelings for Cathy and Nathan's dreams at the same time, appeared at the doorway.

Darren looked up from his glass. "Oh. Rosalind. Here for a drink?"

Rosalind hobbled over to the bar counter, and sat down on one of the stools across from Darren. "Yes, in fact. What do you *cough* recommend?"

"Well, let's see." Darren turned to take a look at his referential liquor cabinet. "For you... probably some Kciredor Wine. Not what I prefer, but it's light yet airy. It's said that it came from a deep see fisherman who got a bucket of salty sea water on his boat. The sea water got mixed with the fluids of sea monster, and it somehow made wine." He grabbed the bottle, a wine glass, and set on them down in front of Rosalind.

"Hm... that's an *cough* interesting story. I wonder what that deep sea fishman is like." Rosalind wasn't aware of her creator's other character.

"Who knows." Darren wasn't aware either. "Anyway, why'd you come here for a drink?" He started to pour the cinematographer a glass of the wine.

"A... *cough* whim." Rosalind sighed as she moved her parasol closer to her.

"A whim?" Darren didn't show any doubt or belief in what she said, he merely just repeated what she said.

"I thought it *cough* might be... a nice break. I'm not fond of taking breaks, but, well, I have little choice in here. It's not like I can work while I'm in *cough* here." Rosalind sighed again.

Huh. Darren already had a few questions he'd like to ask. "Are you a drinker in general? I don't feel like I saw you drink much at the party." He passed the glass of wine over to her.

"Ah... I drink socially, I suppose." Rosalind took a sip of her wine. "For gatherings and *cough* such." She took another small sip. "At the party, I didn't drink, no."

"How's the wine?" Darren poured for himself a glass of Ja-Red Gin. Gin that's said to have came from the best damn police officer there ever was... or something.

"It's nice." Rosalind took slow, methodical sips. She let out a long sigh.

"Good." Darren took a sip of his gin, then looked at Rosalind's face. It may not seem like it, but Darren was fairly... perceptive. Being a bartender and talking with countless people will do that to you. So, on her face, the fatigue was clear.

...

Actually, probably anyone would be able to notice that. Nevermind.

"You mention that you don't like taking breaks, Rosalind." Darren called back to a few lines ago. "Why not?" It may not seem like it, but even Darren takes breaks! ...I think.

Rosalind dryly chuckled. "I wish to *cough* work on my craft rather than not, I suppose. Do you not understand that, Darren? I assumed you... to be like me, in that regard."

"Hm." Darren didn't expect to be counter-questioned. "You're assuming that I'd rather be bartending than not?"

"Am I wrong?" Rosalind took another sip of her wine.

"..." Darren didn't actually know how to properly answer that question. "Yes... and no."

Rosalind blinked. "I'm *cough cough* sorry?" She hit him with the legendary double cough, signaling her confusion.

"It's not a bad thing to take breaks, you know." Darren abruptly changed the topic back around.

Rosalind chuckled. She could sense that Darren wasn't going to explain his answer. "You're right. I *cough* acknowledge that. But... I can't. I have too much I wish to do."

"What do you want to do?" Darren got back to his usual tricks.

"...I want to achieve my Perfect Shot." Rosalind turned her head to the side.

"Your Perfect Shot?" Darren, and the rest of the readers, wanted to know what exactly this meant.

"Yes..." Rosalind looked down at her hand as it started to slightly tremble. "Something that tells everyone that... no matter what cards life dealt you... you can achieve anything you set your mind to. That's... what I *cough* wish for."

"Is that so?" Darren took a second to contemplate that. "That sounds nice." He liked the idea of it.

"It does, yes." Rosalind's hand stopped trembling. "That's why I *cough* can't stop... take breaks... or do anything else. With what time I have left... I need to achieve it."

Darren noticed that particular choice of words. But he saved that for later. "Do you know what your "Perfect Shot" is? Is it a movie? A person? Is it here?" This was the part he was admittedly curious about.

"That's why I *cough* continue my craft. To find out what the "Perfect Shot" is." Rosalind finished her wine. "What you said about finding it here... I wonder if that's true." She started to ponder.

"Do you think you'll find it here?" Darren took her wine glass and started to clean it.

"Perhaps." Rosalind couldn't deny that this would be a fitting place to find it. "If I find it here though..." She trailed off.

"Hm?" Darren noticed the trail off.

"If I find it *cough* here..." Rosalind held her hand over her chest. "I feel as if it'll be at the cost of my own life."

Now, a normal person would react worried to that. But Darren? No. "You'll sacrifice your life for your "Perfect Shot" will you?" He asked with an unreadable expression on his face.

"...If it comes to it... then yes." Rosalind admitted. "A person like me... it's all they can *cough* do. I may be sick..." She finally outright admitted. "But it won't stop *cough* me. I'll work and work for my "Perfect Shot," even if it costs me my life." She didn't want to be held back by her sickness... but she also knew that it could technically make her "Perfect Shot" even brighter.

"I see." Darren set down whatever glass he was holding. "Giving up your life... to make an impact. That's it, isn't it?"

"That's correct." Rosalind talked so nonchalantly about potentially losing her life for her goal.

"I see." Darren repeated himself, then looked away from her. "I get it."

"...You *cough* do?" Rosalind didn't expect to hear that.

Darren sighed and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Wanting to make an impact... wanting to leave your mark on the world... I get it. Or maybe just wanting to do something for the greater good. I understand that."

"... *cough*" Rosalind didn't expect passion like that from Darren of all people. Or, well, as passionate as Darren can be. "To leave your *cough* impact on the world... would you give up your life?" She wanted to hear his opinion on that.

Darren stared at the wall in contemplation. "...Depends." He gave a vague answer.

But that was all that Rosalind needed from him. "I see." She coughed. "Forgive me for *cough* making you speak with someone like me." She didn't expect to go so deep with Darren of all people.

"You're good." Darren shrugged. "You're not unpleasant or anything. This was pleasant." He spoke honestly.

"Pleasant? Why would you *cough* say that?" Rosalind has heard people say to her "oh you're not that bad" a few times while here, but no one had described her as "pleasant."

Darren very lightly chuckled. "It's because... we're pretty similar." He dropped vaguely. "Wanting to leave a mark on the world... sticking to themselves... and..." He trailed off.

"I suppose..." Rosalind ignored that trail off.

"You know Rosalind..." Darren went to grab another bottle of referential alcohol from his cabinet. "I'm not the only person who thinks your pleasant. Rival does too." He subtly played wingman.

"..." Rosalind didn't say anything.

"Oh. Here we go." Darren found what he was looking for. Kingston Vodka. Vodka that stayed eternally cold. It was a bit of an acquired taste, as it could be a little sour and bitter. But it's pretty good overall, despite the person who first brewed being... not the best person in the world.

Darren poured himself a glass of Kingston Vodka and took a sip of it. It was cold. "What's your opinion on Rival?"

"Rival?" Rosalind took a second to think about that. "He... is not dissimilar to you, at a glance." She referred to their shared standoffishness.

"Yeah." Darren agreed.

"But you two are *cough* still different." Rosalind closed her eyes. "Rival... he is a quiet man. He moves slowly... but without *cough* purpose." She spoke bluntly.

"He's stuck close you lately, right?" It may not seem like it, but Darren was always watching. Always.

A faint blush came across Rosalind's pale face. "That's right." She didn't deny it. Despite the blush currently across her face... she didn't really know what to think about that. I mean, of course the first thought was that he liked her. But no way. Rosalind couldn't imagine anyone being romantically interested in her... even if she...

Darren watched Rosalind as she was deep in thought. He waited for her to say something else. But she didn't. So he had to. "Nothing else to say?" He had no problem with that.

"Hm? ...No. I have *cough* nothing else." Rosalind shook her head. That's all she had to say on Rival for the moment. "But why ask about *cough* him in the first place?"

Darren glanced at the drawer full of silver rings that Cathy stole for a second. "...No reason."

"Nothing to do with *cough* Cathy, by chance?" Rosalind didn't mince her words.

"..." Darren didn't say anything.

Rosalind dryly chuckled. "Cathy likes you, doesn't she?" Even she could see that.

"Funny how that works, isn't it?" Darren finished his vodka and set it in the sink. "I haven't even done anything." An ever-so-slight smirk drifted across his face.

"I think it's because you *cough* haven't done anything." Rosalind was no Winter Hibiscus, but she offered her opinion, however worthy it was.

"Maybe." Darren shrugged, not offering anything else on his thoughts regarding Cathy.

Rosalind let out a long sigh. This sudden feeling in her chest... she knew she needed to go. "If you're being truthful in that I'm *cough* not unpleasant, then forgive me." She shakily got up from her bar stool and grabbed her parasol. "I believe I need to go."

"Alright." Darren gave her a lazy wave as he got to cleaning some random glass.

Rosalind shakily hobbled out of Darren's Studio. Despite this sudden pain in her chest... despite this sudden wave of fatigue... she was glad she chose to talk with Darren. It was more worthwhile than she could've imagined.

So yes! Darren and Rosalind did grow a little closer today!

[Ultimate Backing Vocalist's Studio]

As the group split off, Rival kinda just wandered over to his own Ultimate Studio. No real reason. His studio still gave him such a peculiar feeling... he didn't know how to describe it. Just... yeah.

Rival sighed as he slowly walked up to the stage. He kinda had nothing to do right now. Nothing to do but just stand there... and do nothing.

Or, well, that was what he was originally going to do. But as he randomly turned his head, he spotted a certain someone sitting in one of the furthest away seats on the right side. "...Alpha? Why... are you here?" He wouldn't expect Alpha of all people to be here.

"I don't need permission to be fucking anywhere, you fucking fuck." Alpha didn't even look his way as she responded.

Given how quietly Rival spoke there, he was surprised she even heard him. "I... guess so."

...

Rival didn't know what to do now.

...

"The fuck are you doing?" Alpha finally looked Rival's direction. "Just standing there, jerking off?"

"...No." Rival denied the allegations. "Just... not much to do."

Alpha groaned. "...Question for you, Rival. Answer it." You know things were serious when Alpha didn't use any insulting nicknames.

"...What is it?" Rival stepped a little closer to Alpha.

"What's Bessie to you? She still on your mind?" Alpha asked, not knowing or caring on if it still was a sensitive topic for him.

"Bessie..." Rival wasn't going to claim Bessie wasn't a sensitive topic to him... but... "Why do you ask...?" He avoided the question for now.

"Just fucking answer it, bitch!" Alpha wasn't going to let him dodge it, for whatever reason.

"Uh... okay." Rival didn't dodge it then. "Well... she's not my Hanako. I know that. And I keep telling myself that. And... it makes me feel a little better." It didn't completely alleviate all of the pain of that case, but still.

"Okay... what about Bessie herself? How'd you feel about Hanako Yamamoto, not just Hanako whatever the last name of yours was." Alpha couldn't play sudden therapist without being a little disrespectful at the same time.

"Oh." Rival had to think about that for a second. "Hanako... Yamamoto. She... I liked her. N-Not in a weird way... just... she was nice."

"Nice? That's it?" Alpha gave him a suspicious look.

"...Yeah. Honestly." Rival slowly nodded. "The main problem... is that after that stupid thing that Pheme did... I only ever saw her as my Hanako. Not as Bessie. And because of that... and because of her death... it feels like I never got the chance to know Bessie. That's... a regret I'll have to carry with me." He sighed, then looked down at the ground.

Alpha sighed as well, then shook her head. "I see. Makes sense. You idiot." She offered no comfort.

"Yeah... I know." Rival smiled sadly. He wasn't actually beating himself up over it... but it wasn't going to be something he'd simply forget. "But, uh, why ask? I didn't peg you as the type to... care about others."

"Ha!" Alpha found that amusing. "You're right enough about that. I asked because I was curious if you knew anything about Bessie, not Hanako."

"Oh... why?" Rival still didn't get it.

"You know..." Alpha debated even telling Rival this, but she was in an FTE right now, so that meant she had no choice. "I was a fan of Bessie."

...

"...Huh?" Rival blinked. That was the last thing he would've expected to hear out of Alpha's mouth.

"You heard what I said, bitch. I was a fan of Bessie's music." Alpha repeated herself.

"...Huh?" Rival also repeated himself. "I... need more details." He felt a bit confused.

Alpha groaned and rolled her eyes, a common action for her. "I think... a few months before this shit happened. I found some of her music on Dotify. It... was fucking freaky. But I couldn't deny it was... kinda good. I dug the vibes and everything."

"Wow... okay." Rival had of course listened to and heard of Bessie prior to this, but he didn't know if he would've considered himself a fan back then. "Did you... tell Bessie this? While she was... here?" He still avoided straight-up calling her dead.

"Huh? Fuck no!" Alpha acted like that was a ridiculous thing to ask. "You think I'd willingly tell someone something that could potentially give them leverage over me in a Killing Game??"

"Well... fair enough." Rival slowly nodded. "But... you're just fine with her being gone? You got to meet someone you admired... and you weren't able to say anything to them?"

"Eh." Alpha shrugged. "That's not my kind of thing. I'm not a simp, a stan, or whatever." She sighed. "I just hope that bitch, robot or not, is resting easy. Can't imagine it was easy having Ryuji Yamamoto of all people as manager."

Rival never expected Alpha to speak so seriously regarding something. "Yeah... I agree." He might not've really known who Bessie really was... but he hoped she passed on easy. Robot or not, traitor or not.

...

"Hold on. That... reminds me." It took Rival a second to process the last bit of Alpha's statement. "Alpha... did you know Ryuji Yamamoto?"

"...What?" Alpha flashed the backing vocalist a confused look. "Why would I know some random Japanese bitch?"

"Uh... no. Sorry, I could've worded that better." Rival took a moment to word his question better. "Something you said during the first trial felt... weird to me. It didn't... make sense."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Alpha wasn't sure what this emo bitch was on about.

Rival closed his eyes "It sounded like... you knew about Ryuji Yamamoto. As in... the bad side of him."

"Just... about Ryuji Yamamoto. Bessie's boss. Or manager. Or whatever. That's... it." Rival slowly answered.

"I see..." Ji-hoon slowly nodded. "Then-"

"Hold on. Forgive me for butting in, but Ryuji Yamamoto was Bessie's manager? Really?" Aurora spoke in disbelief.

"N-no... he was Bessie's manager?" Ayaka's voice shook as she for some reason butted in as well.

"I've heard rumors about him..." Lake muttered.

"No shit? That fucker managed Bessie's ass?" And now Alpha of all people spoke up.

"Why did you... speak up then? Aurora, Ayaka, and Lake... I get. They're involved in music and the arts and... whatever. But why you?" Rival found himself being more curious to learn the answer than he would've thought.

"Uh... fuck." Alpha seemed at a loss for words. "God damn it." She seemed annoyed with herself.

"Alpha?" Rival wasn't sure what to do now.

"...It's because of what you said." Alpha sighed. "Yeah, I'll admit it. I knew of that bitch-ass Ryuji Yamamoto. And its for the same reason as the other three hos."

"Same... reason?" Rival blinked. "You mean... being involved in music and the arts? But you're... not? You're... a gas station manger."

"Bitch, people can be different things in the past!" Alpha rolled her eyes, like she usually does. "Like... back when I was young. Around 10 or something. I was... in a gang."

"Gang...?!" Rival was surprised. Well, maybe he shouldn't have been surprised. This was Alpha we were dealing with here.

"Not like, violent shit. I'm not that type of bitch." Said the niece of a mob boss. "It was just... a group of my friends, and we all rode around on bikes and crap and shared our passion for music."

"Huh. Alright." This was kinda interesting to Rival. Alpha was the last person he would've expected to be legitimately interested in music. "What... kind of music did you like?"

"Eh... rock and rap. That type of thing." Alpha shrugged. "Not your type of shit, huh? You into... what? Emo?" She really liked that "emo" joke.

"Uh... J-pop... I guess." Rival shrugged.

"Huh. Figures." Alpha nodded. "Anyway, our gang just liked to express ourselves and shit. Called ourselves "The Ego Rockers" after the song "Ego Rock." You know it?"

"Yeah... I do." It'd be hard to find a japanese song that Rival didn't know.

"Right. We just... liked to do our own thing. We kinda had a band-like thing going too." Alpha got a slight sad smile on her face, a show of proper emotion too. "Then that bitch... uh. Rival?" She suddenly turned to him.

"...What?" Alpha might've being showing proper emotion, but Rival didn't care too much.

"You know the name Celica Maldonado?" Alpha briefly took Ji-hoon's shtick.

"Celica... Maldonado..." Rival took a second to thing. "She's... the Ultimate R Singer, right? I've listened to... some of her songs. Why... bring her up?"

"...No reason." Alpha scoffed, then turned away. "Whatever. My point is that, yeah, I was into music, and still am. That's why I knew about Ryuji Yamamoto's bitch-ass. Happy?"

"Eh..." Rival didn't know a good answer to that. "Good to know... I guess." That's how he chose to answer. "But... why tell me that? Why... open up?" Now he questioned the genuine emotion he saw from Alpha.

"Okay, first. Don't say "open up" like I'm trauma dumping like an incel." Alpha scowled. "Second... don't worry about it." She avoided the answer as she looked away like a tsundere, a word she would not appreciate being called. "Okay, wait. Third!" She suddenly stood up. "Why the fuck are you talking to me? Haven't you been horny for Rosalind lately?"

Rival almost got whiplash from that topic change. "Horny for... huh?" That threw him off.

"Man, don't hide it. You've been sniffing around her lately. You into her?" Alpha scoffed. "Crazy girl to go for. Betcha she's a freak though. Coughing on your dick like-"

"Do you... have a point... right now?" Rival raised the volume of his voice just a smidge, not wanting to hear where Alpha was going with that.

"Heh." Alpha chuckled at his slightly flustered reaction. "Sorry... couldn't help it." She shook her head. "But seriously man, are you into her?"

Rival knew he'd be teased no matter what his answer was here. So he tried to choose it carefully. "She's just... having trouble, clearly. So... yeah." That was an answer.

"Way to dodge the question, smart ass." Alpha chuckled. "Fine. Keep your little uwu love drama to yourself. Fuck it." She started to walk away, but stopped when she reached Rival. "But if you're gonna do anything... think about what she wants. Not what you think wants." She surprisingly offered some advice, further crushing Amogus's dreams.

"Uh... alright." Rival didn't know how to take that advice.

"God your so fucking emo." Alpha might've been able to stand it for however long this FTE was, but she was getting sick of this "..." nonsense between all of his words. "See you later, you selfless fucker. Try not to break her in half when you dick her down later!" She called out before leaving.

...

"..." Not having anymore words to say to that, Rival quietly left his studio. Despite his mannerisms... he was going to be sure to remember Alpha's words.

And because of those words... Rival and Alpha grew a little closer today!

[Ultimate Hypnotist's Studio]

"Hmhmhm..." Kuroko hummed to herself as she sat down in her Ultimate Studio. She didn't know if she'd call it comforting, relaxing, or any words like that... but she sure did like it. She wasn't about to go thanking Pheme for it, but she did appreciate that it was here. She also appreciated that, unlike Damien's and Joji's it was still fairly pristine.

"Well, besides for the broken lock-nya." Kuroko continued her thoughts outwardly as she glanced at the lock that Genjiro ended up breaking open... as a means to get to the letter opener she hid in there.

Kuroko clutched her head just thinking about it. That... letter opener. She got Yoshino to take it after the trial. But... images would still suddenly flash in her mind periodically, after Genjiro did his plan. Images... of her. Of her blood. Of... Miyuki-

"Roko? You in here?" Yoshino suddenly knocked on the open door to Kuroko's studio, curious to see if her friend was in here.

"A-Ah! Yoshi-nya!" Kuroko jumped up a little surprise. "H-Hi!" She gave the horror novelist a shaky and surprised wave.

"Oh shit, I didn't mean to scare you! My bad!" Yoshino sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "You okay?" She took a few steps inside.

"Oh... yeah. I'm good-nya! Don't worry!" Kuroko laughed it off. "But it's good to see you-nya! What's up-nya?" She quickly got back to her cheery self.

"Uh... nothing much, I guess." Yoshino shrugged as she took a seat next to Kuroko. "Just wanted to talk to you about something!"

"Oh...?" A curious look spread across Kuroko's face. She could sense what this could potentially be about from Yoshino's tone. "About what-nya?" She wanted to hear Yoshino say it though.

"About Roro! What else?" Yoshino smiled. "How'd it go with her yesterday?" The girls hadn't gotten the chance to exchange information over their quest to hook up Raiha and Aurora.

Kuroko smirked. She knew she was right. Though it wasn't a tough thing to figure out. "Right, I need to tell you-nya!" Kuroko always loved a bit of gossip. Shame the gossip-girl herself, Raiha, couldn't be here. But that makes sense.

"So what happened with her?" Yoshino didn't consider herself a gossiper, but she couldn't deny being interested in how these events were going to develop. "I'll tell you about Rai-Rai too! You go first though!" She gave her friend the metaphorical talking stick.

"Oo okay! Alright-nya!" Kuroko cleared her voice. "Okay... so after Auror-nya and I were explored her studio yesterday... I'm confident about something-nya."

"And what's that?" Yoshino gave her an expectant look.

"I think she's in the closet-nya." Kuroko nodded.

"Oh shit... really?" Yoshino slightly frowned. She obviously didn't know Aurora's life, but that wasn't a pleasant thing to hear by any means. "You sure?"

"Yeah... I am-nya." Kuroko spoke surprisingly serious. "Being a hypnotist... it has helped me get better insights into the mind and emotions-nya. And... I'm confident in my gaydar!" She giggled at that last statement.

"Well damn. Anything else?" Yoshino was starting to feel bad for Roro.

"Hm... well it seems to be hard for her-nya. Like... she doesn't like that side of her. Those are the vibes I got-nya." Kuroko didn't like the idea of that being the case. "I obviously can't know for sure... but it's my professional opinion-nya."

"Huh... shit, there's no reason to not like being true to yourself! No one is going to think less of her!" Yoshino slammed her head down on the table.

"Her fans might though..." Kuroko muttered loud enough for Yoshino to hear.

"Fuck... I guess. Fans... ugh." Yoshino seemed to get grossed out at that thought for some reason.

Kuroko made a mental note to circle back around to that. "I'm not going to force her to come out in a Killing Game or something-nya. That'd be ridiculous." She didn't want to force someone to do something they'd be uncomfortable with. "But... I hope I can help her-nya."

"Right..." Yoshino sighed. "...Oh yeah! About my talk with Rai-Rai... all I got was basically that she confessed to Roro, but got shot down. I'm confident that did happen now."

"Shoot..." Kuroko really wanted to do something for these girls. "I know this is a Killing Game... but I don't like the idea of girls who clearly like each other being like this... I want to do something-nya."

"I feel ya, Roko. I do. I mean... shit." Yoshino's mind went back to Adam for a moment. "Even if they... do die... it's better to die with no regrets. Making sure you die... while being true to yourself." She spoke sadly.

Kuroko was thrown back by Yoshino's morbid words, but she couldn't deny the point she held with those words. "...You're right-nya. Rai-nya and Auror-nya aren't going to die..." Famous last words. "...But you're right." She looked down at her hand. "I'll try having an honest talk with Auror-nya tomorrow. See how receptive she is to me. If she doesn't want my advice, I won't push it-nya. But if she does... well, I just want to help her-nya." The sincerity oozed from her voice.

"Roko... heh." Yoshino chuckled. "I'll be real with you, you kinda make too strong of a first impression. But... you're a really good person. I'm glad to be friends with you."

"Aw...!" Kuroko blushed, then set her hands over her heart. "That's so nice Yoshi-nya!" She didn't know what to say.

"Don't mention it..." Yoshino blushed a little too.

Now, Kuroko didn't want to ruin this moment. But she felt like this was a good time to circle back around to something. "Yeah... hey, Yoshi-nya? Can I ask an unrelated question?"

"Sure! Go for it!" Yoshino had no problems with that.

"...When you brought up fans a minute ago, you almost seemed... disgusted by the word itself-nya." Kuroko didn't consider herself a straight-up therapist, but she knew she sensed something weird there. "Was that for any reason...-nya?"

"..." Yoshino went silent for a moment... before chuckling. "Shit... I not tell you?"

"Um... no, I don't think so-nya." Kuroko tilted her head. Yoshino's casual laugh threw her off a little.

"Heh... alright." Yoshino shrugged, before pointing to a scar below her right eye. "You see this?"

"Oh... yeah. I do-nya." Kuroko of course had noticed that scar before, but she didn't know its story. "What's the tale behind it-nya?"

"Well... you guessed right earlier." Yoshino dryly chuckled. "I got this from a fan."

"What?!" Kuroko widened her eyes.

Yoshino shook her head. "Yep. I got told he was a fan of mine after the incident, but a few years ago, some fat fuck broke into my house and cut me up good! It's whatever now... and the guy is in prison. So he's locked up now." She acted so casually about being assaulted.

"Oh god, what-nya?! Are you okay?!" Kuroko start to act very concerned.

"Yeah Roko, it's all good now!" Yoshino tried to reassure her. "It happened when I was 14. The guy was a stalker of mine, the police told me. When he broke in, he... uh... wanted to sexually assault me." She spoke very bluntly about that part. She didn't want to dance around it though. "But I grabbed a lamp and beat that fucker back! Bitch probably got more beat up than I was! Ha!"

"Oh my god..." Kuroko still couldn't believe she was acting so casually about this. "Do you know what the guy's name was-nya?"

"Uh... shit. I think his username was bigHorrorl0ver128. His name... Makai Yugo? I think so. I didn't care to learn it. Bitch is gone now anyway." Yoshino shrugged.

"Wow..." Kuroko still didn't know what to say. "That sounds so traumatic-nya..."

"Eh... I got my internet presence erased after that, and stuck to pen and paper after that. I was still successful and all after that... so I'm good. Yugo is paying for his crimes, and that's what I care about." The incident honestly wasn't affecting Yoshino any more.

"Yoshi-nya... you're so strong..." Kuroko clutched her head. "Facing your trauma head on... I want to... do that too-nya."

"Roko? You alright?" Yoshino noticed the head-clutching.

"I..." More images flashed into Kuroko's mind. Miyuki... blood... a letter opener... Miyuki... blood... a letter opener... "I think I was assaulted too..." She clutched her head harder, like she was trying to bring something to the forefront of her brain... but also not at the same time.

"You... were?" Yoshino beat herself up a little for not knowing what do do here.

Kuroko clutched her head a little harder... before stopping. The images stopped. A wave of -nyaness washed over her. "Ugh... sorry Yoshi-nya. I'm not sure what that was-nya." She shook her head.

"Oh... all good." Yoshino shrugged. She didn't know how to help with Kuroko's problem, if it even is that, at all... so she just chose to trust her word.

"Hm... Yoshi-nya?" Kuroko, her usual demeanor returned, got back to the questions. "Sorry but... how did that stalker incident affect you, if you don't me asking-nya? Like in school and all that?" She found herself so curious about this.

"Huh? Roko..." Yoshino chuckled. "It's really not that of a deal." She sighed. "But fine. It... didn't affect me that much? And for school, if I can honest, I didn't do that good. I wasn't the smartest." She had no problems admitting that. "You know, in my senior year prior to Hope's Peak, I-" She suddenly stopped speaking... with a look on her face like she just then realized what she was about to say.

"Yoshi-nya?" Kuroko waited for her to continue speaking.

"Uh... fuck. Fuck!" Yoshino suddenly stood up. She felt like a whirlwind just blew through her mind. "Fuck! Sorry! Fuck! I need to go!" She ran out of the room.

"Yoshi-nya!" Kuroko yelled out, but to no avail. What... was that? That wasn't a natural reaction. Her senior year in high school? What... happened? Hm...

Kuroko got up from her chair, and walked over to her still broken open drawer. She wasn't an inherently spitely person, but she definitely did hate Genjiro for this. Anyway, she pulled out a black binder from the drawer. As she started to flip through it... her mind drifted to Yoshino... Raiha... Aurora... and the rest of the girls. All Kuroko had ever wanted in life... was to helpothers. And... no matter what images and pain flash through her head... she was determined to do just that!

If it'd help to say, know that Yoshino and Kuroko grew a little closer today!

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

Upon hearing the nighttime announcement, Kuroko left her studio with a spring in her step. She didn't know what it was... but she was excited for tomorrow.

Yeah... tomorrow was going to a good day... she could feel it!

...

[Pheme's Room]

"Ah... tomorrow is going to be such a good day!" Copying Kuroko's narration, Pheme leaned back in her chain. "I'm so excited for this motive! It's going to be great!"

"Yes... I agree, Miss Pheme." Asclepius knew that this could potentially backfire, depending on what happens. But the pros far outweighed the cons here. This could be exactly what the plan needed...

"Let's see..." Pheme sorted through a computer program on her, well, computer.

Seeing that program caused Asclepius to remember something. "Miss Pheme?" He walked up behind her. "For the sake of confirmation, let me ask. Has the real traitor gotten the one they wanted?" He ominously inquired.

"Of course they have! See?" Pheme pointed to the screen, proving the the real traitor had indeed gotten the one they had wanted, whatever the hell that meanr.

"Alright... good." Asclepius ominously chuckled. "As you say, I am rather excited for tomorrow as well." He checked the time. "I believe I'll retire for the night. Good night, Miss Pheme." He left the room, leaving Pheme by herself.

Pheme sat in silence, just sighing contently to herself. "Their little group truly thinks they can keep on persisting like this... well. Let's see what this does to your morale!" She talked/taunted to herself. These miserable ultimates were about to truly taste the pain of fame... and it was going to be amazing!

...

Pheme sure is hyping up the motive! Let's hope it lives up to the hype! (Famous last words)

Anyway, it's Part 2! And with it, I brought a surprisingly amount of lore! As soon as I accepted Ji-hoon, I knew that I wanted to make his focus chapter very lore-heavy. I also knew I wanted his flashback to be in Chapter 3... and that I wanted his flashbacks to be him just straight-up figuring out the case. It's all very fitting for him, isn't it? And gotta say, his hatred of Raiha is very fun. That's all I'll say on that though.

This chapter also showcased the vents, which surely won't be important. Honestly, this chapter just made me all the more excited for Chapter 3. I don't want to keep incessantly hyping it up... but I'm so excited to write it all.

But because of that, I won't waste any more of your time! I'll see you next time for Part 3, and according to Pheme, the motive reveal! See you!

Okay nevermind quick shout out to Damien's too enjoyed, SilverMark16 and his story: Danganronpa: Twisted Tragedy! It's an awesome fic, and he's onto Chapter 4 soon! Look out for it!

Okay, now I'll see you later!

Glamorous Stars Remaining: 15

Aurora Beaufort - Ultimate Starlet [WolfieRed23]

Ayaka Naganohara - Ultimate Violinist [Sempi]

Catherine Munchkin - Ultimate Cat Burglar [Nekoja]

Damien Lux - Ultimate Beautician [oddlyillregular]

Darren Taylor - Ultimate Bartender [Otterplay]

Ji-hoon Jo - Ultimate Celebrity Detective [TheRoseShadow21]

Joji Kaneshiro - Ultimate Carpenter [SureJahn]

Kei Aikawa - Ultimate Lawyer [theotakureader101]

Kuroko Kurobara - Ultimate Hypnotist [MrUtenaHolic]

Lake Beaumont - Ultimate Ballet Dancer [KadachiNova]

Mabel "Alpha" Jane - Ultimate Gas Station Manager [Epifanio Therion]

Raiha Miyahara - Ultimate Trendsetter [Prince PokePersona]

Rival Seizon - Ultimate Backing Vocalist [SinWriter7]

Rosalind Reinhardt - Ultimate Cinematographer [Orlando Butler]

Yoshino Akiyama - Ultimate Horror Novelist [DeathlyJazzHands55]