Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration

by Otterplay

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

25. Misalignment in the Stars (Part 5)

Chapter 3: Misalignment in the Stars (Daily Life Part 5)

---

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

---

Slowly moving down the hallway, a young Benjamin was curious to where his father had wandered off to. He knew he was home, and it was very rare to catch him around the house, given he spent so little time here.

"Dad?" Benjamin called out, switching from hallway to hallway, until he eventually found where he was.

Victor Mason was currently sitting at his workstation, working on another doll.

However, his neutral expression quickly grew annoyed as he heard his son making his way over to him. "Not right now. I'm busy."

Still, Benjamin didn't really seem to take notice of his tone. Instead, he was far more curious about what was going on. "What are you working on?" He was always curious for what his father was doing.

Irritated that his words were ignored, Victor stood up, looking down at Benjamin. "I said, I want to be alone. Please leave my workstation at once."

Quickly taking a few steps out of the room, the door was slammed right in front of Benjamin, leaving him alone. "Okay…" He said rather sadly.

Things have been like this for a while, any time he wanted to try and get closer with his dad, he would quickly get pushed away.

Not like Benjamin had anyone else to go to, given that his mother had passed away as a result of his birth.

So his father was really the only family he had at this point…

Walking around, Benjamin finally stopped in a room he didn't often frequent. Mostly given that it was because his father kept it locked.

The room itself was filled with several different dolls. He had seen Victor in his workstation a lot, but it never clued in just what he was making.

Walking over to the display case, Benjamin slowly grabbed two dolls, looking at the two of them.

They were well made, better than anything he could ever find in a store.

And since he didn't really have any toys, for the first time ever, he found something he could actually play with.

A small smile formed on Benjamin's face as he moved the dolls around. "Oh! Hello there!" He even tried to give them different voices. At first, they only sounded like slight alterations of himself, but he would get the hang of it eventually.

Playing around with these, Benjamin managed to keep himself entertained for a good hour or two, before he decided that it would probably be best to put them away before his father found him.

But now… He had found something to keep him busy when his father didn't want to spend time with him. Something he very quickly grew to enjoy…

…

…

…

Today, the room was left unlocked, which meant Benjamin could sneak into the room and play with the dolls he had gotten accustomed with over the last several months.

"There you are." He voiced for one of the dolls, making them turn to face him. Compared to the first time he did it, his voice work had heavily improved. Now, it was almost impossible to tell it was Benjamin's voice.

"Yeah, yeah." Benjamin hummed out, nodding his head. "Sorry I can't always stop by here. My dad doesn't let me into this room."

"That's awful." The second doll commented.

Benjamin shook his head. "It's fine. These are probably precious to him, like me." He decided to delude himself.

He was going to keep playing around with the dolls. Until he heard the sound of the floor creaking in the hallway.

However, being a little too slow, Benjamin wasn't able to move quick enough to place the dolls back as Victor entered the room.

For a moment, the house grew quiet, as neither person wanted to move.

The one to break the silence was Victor, who asked rather calmly. "What are you doing with those dolls…?"

For a moment, Benjamin had an idea pop in his head. His father made these dolls, so it would be fine to play with, right? "I was playing with the dolls you made."

"Put them away." The order was calm.

And yet, for a moment, Benjamin felt a little terrified. "I…"

"Put. Them. Back." Victor ordered again, not taking his eyes off him.

Obeying his father, Benjamin slowly put the two dolls back, before turning back to look at his dad.

"No son of mine is going to be playing with dolls. Get out of the room. Now." Victor's tone had shifted subtly from a calm command, to one filled with rage, as he pointed towards the door.

Not wanting to upset him any further, Benjamin dashed out of the room, heading for his room.

Once he was out of sight, Victor slammed the door shut, locking it in the process. "You're not going to be going back there ever." Pocketing the key, he moved away from the room, heading back towards his work station.

…

…

…

Ever since that incident with his father, Benjamin had been finding himself in a bit of a rut socially. He already didn't have any friends at school, but now his confidence was shot further into the ground. It had been years since he had been caught playing with the dolls, and now he kept finding himself alone at recess.

Not because nobody wanted to be his friend, however. Instead, it was because he felt like nobody would like him.

Hell, his own father didn't even like him, after all. Someone who should have always been there by his side. So why would anyone else give him the time of day?

So, Benjamin did what he always did when he didn't have anything else to do…

He played around with his voice. Since it had been years since he first started doing this, he had improved dramatically, being able to play the voice off as if someone else said it.

He had tried this on his father before with bad results, but Benjamin still wanted to mess around with it.

That was until someone finally approached him.

It was a boy from his class, and for a moment, Benjamin thought he was going to get pushed around, just like how it was at home.

"Hey there." However, the boy instead offered him a hand.

For a moment, Benjamin was a bit sceptical, looking at his hand.

Frowning slightly, the boy shook his head. "I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to talk to you."

Choosing to trust him, Benjamin reached out and shook his hand.

"I'm Brandon." Might as well get names out of the way. "And you're Benjamin, right?"

Now he felt a bit bad, since he didn't immediately know the name of the kid. "Yeah, I am… Why are you talking to me?"

"Well, you seemed lonely, so I thought I'd offer you company." Brandon said, sitting down next to him. "I heard you doing some voices. You're really good at that!"

For a moment, Benjamin wasn't sure how to process this. Nobody had really given him any compliments.

Instead, he sat there for a few seconds, only blinking.

"Benjamin?" Brandon tilted his head to the side.

Shaking his head, he finally snapped out of it. "T-Thank you… I've been… I've been practicing for a few years."

"Woah! No wonder you're so good at it!" Brandon seemed pretty happy to hear about this. "What kind of voices can you make?"

"A few, actually…" Benjamin had a rather rare smile on his face, being able to talk to someone about what he could do. "There's this one…" It sounded a bit like a cranky old man. "Then there's this one." It was almost a singing voice, but one that belonged to a girl. "But they are nothing compared to this voice." It was a typical tough guy voice.

Returning to his normal voice, Benjamin seemed pretty content with himself. "There's a bunch more, but if I had to do them all, we'd be here for hours."

Seeing all of this just raised questions for Brandon. "Why are you always alone? You're awesome!"

"I… I normally just go off on my own…" Benjamin didn't feel like telling him the actual reason for something like this, given it was personal. "And people tend to leave me alone because I stay away from them."

"Well, not anymore." Brandon patted him on the back. "I'll be your friend now, got it?"

He would be… Benjamin's friend?

He had never really had one, despite always wanting one.

Someone to just talk to felt rather nice. "I… Yeah!" Benjamin found himself almost at a loss for words. This wasn't anything he was expecting today, but he had made his first friend.

Things were really starting to look up for once…

---

Ultimate Ventriloquist Station

Benjamin had chosen this room to sleep in. Well, that's not exactly true. He had chosen to start off in the Ultimate Knife Thrower Station, but as soon as Tatiana had passed out, he had moved over to his own Ultimate Station to be alone.

Why?

Well, he was busy fixing up Dolly. A lot happened yesterday that prevented him from fixing her hair from the tomato splatter that got all over here.

"H-hey! Master! You're going to ruin my hair!" Dolly protested, with her arms raised in the air.

There was also the matter of the clothes. Honestly, Benjamin would have done it yesterday, but so many other things happened, so it made it impossible.

For a brief moment, he stopped the word he was doing, and turned to look around at all the other dolls in the room.

Suddenly, however, a voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "Ah! That's where you went."

Quickly turning to the source of the voice, Benjamin found that it was Tatiana. "..." As usual, he didn't say anything.

"I woke up, and you were gone, so I got a bit worried. But you were just here, huh?" Tatiana looked around. "I see some lights have returned.

Oh, right. Benjamin had forgotten that those were out last night. Monokawa must have fixed a few overnight, so now they only had the problems with the doors.

Still, not walking to talk directly, Dolly went center stage. "He's just fixing me up from the show yesterday! I took two tomatoes to the face."

For a second, Tatiana wanted to say something else, but maybe that was a conversation for later on in the day. "Dae-Hyun and I were forced to clean that up when all the other performers left."

"Oh!" Well, now Dolly felt bad…

Not that she would have done anything to help anyways.

"It's fine. There's still a bit more cleanup to do today, so I'm probably going to focus on that for a bit." Tatiana moved towards the door. "But I do want to have a proper talk with you later today, if you would let me."

Raising her hands in the air, Dolly nodded. "You got it!"

As soon as she left, the doll let her hands fall to the ground.

For a moment, Benjamin didn't really move Dolly anywhere. Instead, his eyes moved to focus on the mirror that he had been using to help clean Dolly. "..."

And then he went back to working on her. He had to bring her back to how she was before the show. After all, it was the last thing he had from back home…

---

Ultimate Tattoo Artist Station

Despite three people being here when the night started, they were now only down to two. That being because Edison had gone off to check navigation.

Which left Hae-Won and Laki alone…

However, despite what one would think, Hae-Won was currently not kicking her ass in a corner.

Instead, she was continuing the drawing she had started a few days ago. Since then, a lot of it has been completed.

That might have been where she was spending all of her time.

As for Laki, she was sitting on the chair in the center of the room, almost as if she was grounded. "So, what's your fascination with birds?" She had been quick to notice.

Stopping for a brief moment, Hae-Won let out an annoyed sigh. "I thought I said I didn't want to hear you make a sound."

"Oh… Right…" Laki's mood dropped to the floor as she glanced away.

It was bad enough that Edison was in a rush to leave, but he left Laki with her? Ugh… Hae-Won was trying to calm herself down, but she hadn't forgiven Laki over the last trial.

And yet people like Gennosuke felt it was fine letting her walk around? Hell, even Edison was fine being around her.

If anything went wrong…

Despite telling her to shut up, Hae-Won let out a small sigh. "You better not have done anything to Edison." She almost felt the need to protect him like a brother.

"Huh?" Laki tilted her head to the side. "What would I have done to him? I just joined him with the navigation stuff."

Well, Edison seemed fine, so Hae-Won couldn't really say anything. "Fine. But I'll have you know that nobody on this ship will ever trust you again."

"Yeah…" Laki seemed to have already come to terms with that, for the most part.

Something that only seemed to tick off Hae-Won. Letting out a heavy sigh, she stopped her drawing, turning to look at her. "Why go and kill? You might not have done the actual killing, but you might as well have electrocuted him yourself."

The problem with that question was… That Laki herself wasn't really sure why she did it. The only answer that appeared in her head was… "Ian wanted to do it… He wanted to kill and get us out of here."

"And look how that turned out." Hae-Won grumbled bitterly, turning her attention back towards her painting. "He's dead, and you have nothing to show for it. You'd be lucky to survive any longer than this, when some people want to see you pay." Mostly her, but she wasn't going to specify that.

Once again, Laki wasn't really sure what to say… Facing consequences wasn't really something she was used to. "I…"

"Because Ian wanted you to." Hae-Won mocked a bit. "Are you saying that if he asked you to do something, you would do it with zero hesitation?"

"Yeah, that's how it's always worked. He came up with the idea, and I executed it…" However, she realised using the word executed was in poor taste, so Laki hung her head low.

"If Ian told you to jump off a building, would you?" Hae-Won didn't even bother to look at her.

Honestly, at this point she was starting to sound like her own parents…

"Well, I'd trust that he knows what he's doing." Laki said, with a hint of hope.

Clenching onto her pen tightly, Hae-Won took a deep breath. "That's exactly the problem here. You're too easy to take advantage of. I bet you he didn't even care about you. You were probably just a pawn for him."

"No!" For once, Laki actually sounded a bit angry when she said that. A new feeling, given she had never had the need to before. "... Ian wasn't like that. He was my bestie."

"And yet, he was going to make you the killer, and have you die." Hae-Won scoffed a bit, shaking her head. "Some friend that is."

"You're wrong!" Laki blurted out. "He wanted me to…" What was even the point of explaining it to someone like her? Hae-Won would just choose whatever she wanted to believe.

Instead, the lucky student went quiet, not really wanting to continue this conversation.

After a bit of silence, Hae-Won finally spoke up again. "Even if all of that is true." Something she very much didn't believe. "He still put you in danger. And from the sounds of it, it's a regular occurrence. Sounds like a terrible influence."

As soon as she said those words however, a frown formed on her face as she thought about her brother.

Now she really was starting to sound like her parents.

Taking a deep breath, Hae-Won was starting to slowly lose her mind, so she needed to calm herself down. "Whether Ian actually cared for you or not, the truth of the matter is that he used you in whatever way he saw fit."

"Stop that!" Laki stood up for once, prompting Hae-Won to stand up in retaliation.

"Sit. Down." She ordered, narrowed her eyes.

Laki was fine with being insulted, and having her name dragged through the mud. But Ian… "He's dead, so leave him alone."

"And so is Benoit. I wonder who did that." Hae-Won tilted her head to the side, closing her eyes. "The point remains, that if you two had done nothing, both of them would still be alive. And yet you felt the need to try and escape with a plan like yours. A plan that didn't even fucking work."

Slowly, Laki sat back down in her seat. "It… It would have-"

"And yet it didn't work." Hae-Won needed to relieve some stress, so she moved over towards drawing again.

Letting herself lean back in the chair, Laki couldn't even bring herself to say anything. Because the points Hae-Won was bringing up weren't wrong.

If… If they hadn't tried to do the plan, Ian would still be alive, and nothing would feel so confusing as it does now.

Given that she had said almost everything she needed to, Hae-Won didn't bother speaking up, and instead let the silence consume the room as she absorbed herself back into her drawing.

It seems that Hae-Won and Laki… Well. No. They didn't.

Hae-Won and Laki had a nice talk, and nothing else :)

They will never grow closer.

---

Navigation

When Edison finally walked into the door, he was greeted with…

"Seira?" He blinked a few times, taking in the state of the room. "Theoretically speaking… Are you wasting paper?"

Compared to yesterday, there was more paper scattered everywhere.

Quickly, Seira moved most of it to the side. "No! These were all printed by the machine."

Taking the first page that was available to him, Edison examined it. "Wait… Are these all asteroids?" Picking up another, he began to panic more.

Letting out a sigh, Gemini finally spoke up. "We've checked them all, and they seem to be smaller than the last two asteroids that hit."

Still, this wasn't easing Edison's panic as he continued to check them all. "Wait a second…"

As he checked them one by one, knowing the order of when they would happen was easy.

The main issue was…

"What… What time is it right now?" Edison looked over at the group.

"Huh?" Seira had been too preoccupied with getting the papers all sorted, that she might have completely forgotten about one little detail.

Looking at her watch, her face began to pale up. "We… We don't know what time it is…"

"Doesn't that make most of these next to useless?" Gemini let out a sigh. Of course Nova wouldn't make it this easy.

"Then, there's only one solution." Edison adjusted his goggles. "We have to build our own functioning clock."

Where's Alisa when you need her?

However, as Seira began to calm down a bit, she remembered something. "Wait a second…" Moving over through some of the paper, she eventually found the exact drawings she wanted. "Edison, do you think this will work?"

Oh? Did Seira already make something? This would be so easy if she did. "Yeah, let me take a look." Taking a quick look at the paper, he let them fall to the ground. "Are you trying to tell the time with… Stars?"

Well, when he puts it like that- Frowning slightly, Seira wasn't about to let Edison insult her work again. "I've been spending the last few days working on this. Star charts are used countless times, and there's even ways to perceive the time with it."

Using a piece of paper she had cut before, Seira was able to block off most of the star chart. "If you cover certain areas, you are able to figure out what time it is, based on the stars that are visible."

Walking over, Seira compared the chart to her stars. After a bit, she was able to find the one that matched the most. "It is around 8 in the morning right now."

Edison felt imagery pain as he looked at the chart. It seemed rather well made. "I… I refuse to believe-"

"I know it may not be accurate long term, given we are on the moon, and not Earth, however, for this motive, it would serve us well."

Looking at what she was, Gemini began nodding his head. "That's perfect, actually. With that, we can know when the asteroids will hit."

"Well…" That wasn't entirely true, and Seira wasn't about to lie. "We'll know around what time they will hit, but it's almost impossible to get a precise reading."

The more Edison looked at it, the more he couldn't see flaws in this.

Especially with how limited their resources were.

"Fine." Edison seemed a little ticked off, admitting that her talent actually helped for once. "You win this round, Seira."

"Well, that's still one over any rounds you've won." She was quick to point out.

"H-hey!" Edison took a step back, shaking his head. "I've won… I've won plenty!" Alright there buddy, keep dreaming.

Now that it was all in order, Seira turned towards the exit of the room. "We should go down to the cafeteria to inform everyone of our findings."

Gemini nodded his head. "Yeah, you two can go. I'll join up with you guys shortly." He still had one place he wanted to check out.

"Are you sure?" Seira didn't want to go without him, but it's not like she could force him.

Flashing a grin, Gemini nodded his head. "It's fine. This shouldn't take too long, anyways."

Seeing that he wasn't going to take no for an answer, Seira nodded, making her way towards the exit.

---

Ultimate Knife Thrower Station

This was the place Gemini meant to check out. Mostly because he realised he sort of left without helping out yesterday.

"Look who finally showed up." A voice called from the stage. It was Dae-Hyun.

Letting out a small laugh, Gemini shook his head. "Sorry, after almost drowning, I needed a break."

Honestly, hearing that, Dae-Hyun couldn't really complain that Gemini sort of ditched them. "Fine." He said coldly, turning to look back on stage. "Tatiana wants things set back to the way they were before."

And who should show up just now?

That's right!

Monokawa.

What? You thought it was going to be Tatiana? Jokes on you, she's already here! Haha!

"What are you doing here?" Dae-Hyun wasn't exactly the most welcoming.

Floating over towards the stage, Monokawa shrugged. "I unfortunately missed the show. Which was a shame because someone almost died."

"Two people almost died." Gemini corrected with a smile.

Walking out of the curtain was Tatiana, holding onto a broom. "Please, nobody was ever in any danger! Gemini had an escape, and I'm a master at my craft, so Benjamin was never going to get hurt."

"You should do an encore!" Monokawa raised a paw in the air. "For your ol' pal over here?"

Looking around for a bit, Dae-Hyun couldn't seem to find this ol' pal of his. "I think you're mistaken…"

"Shut up, Male Kim!" Monokawa blurted out, flying up on stage.

"Male?" Dae-Hyun took a step back. "What the hell are you even talking about?"

Floating around him, Monokawa shrugged. "Well, your last name is Kim, Hae-Won's last name is Kim. Thus you being Male Kim. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it."

"Can you choose another name?" Yeah, he wasn't having any of it.

Like a genie, a terrible idea popped up in Monokawa's head. "Alright! If you say so, Die-Young."

"Heh." This got a laugh out of Tatiana, before she realised that it wasn't appropriate. Coughing a few times. "Monokawa, you aren't invited to my station. Please leave immediately."

"Oh yeah!?" He crossed his arms, a smug aura around him. "And what will you do to make me leave?"

Twirling around the broom, she managed to give it a good throw, almost decking Monokawa.

"H-hey!" He called out, covering his head. "What the hell do you think the big idea is? Do you know what would happen if you hit me?"

"Yeah." Tatiana didn't particularly seem too bothered.

Noticing that his attempt to threaten Tatiana failed, Monokawa sort of just let his arms droop to the ground. "Well… Huh… Good thing you know!" And with that, he was gone.

Letting out a sigh, Dae-Hyun shook his head. "He's already harassing us enough. I wish he would just go away."

"At least Nova is better to deal with." Gemini ran a hand through his head. She actually at least tries to help out if she can.

Moving towards the edge of the stage, Tatiana jumped off. "I think that's enough cleaning for today." That, and she threw away her only broom, and she didn't feel like picking it up.

"Everyone else is going to the cafeteria to discuss what to do next." Gemini suggested.

Crossing his arms, Dae-Hyun frowned slightly. "Not like we have much of a choice…" He didn't really care about the meeting, but he did want to figure out when the asteroids would be hitting the station next. "Let's go." He was the first one to leave the room, with the other two following behind shortly after.

---

Cafeteria

Once the elevator opened up, the trio of Edison, Gemini, and Seira would step out.

From the looks of it, they were the last group to join up.

Glancing over, Hae-Won noticed that Seira had some papers. "Some things for us?"

Dropping the stack of papers on the table, Seira nodded her head along. "Yes. Information on the asteroids hitting us, as well as what time it is."

"It's about ten minutes before eight." Gigi said with almost zero hesitation.

Atlas quickly turned to look at her. "What are you? A fucking clock?"

Without looking in his direction, Gigi shook her head. "You get used to a schedule, so you eventually know what time it is while you're doing certain things." She normally broke away from breakfast shortly after eight.

Seira couldn't help but nod at the time. "Yes, when I checked the star chart, it was around eight in the morning."

Raising an eyebrow, Tatiana gave her a weird look. "Star chart? You can use those to tell the time?"

Scattering her papers across the table, preventing anyone from actually using it to eat, Seira showed off the star chart. "It's quite easy, actually. Using this, we can estimate the time pretty accurately."

Gemini nodded his head along. "Pretty important, given that we need to be able to tell the time for when the asteroids hit."

Since nobody else was going to ask, it was up to Gennosuke. "So, exactly how many asteroids are said to hit today?"

"Um…" Seira had the number on the tip of her tongue, but it seemed to have left her brain briefly. "It was around twenty for now and the next sixteen hours."

"Are they going to be as bad as the last two we've got?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow.

"No. They're much smaller." Pointing out at the chart, Seira continued her explanation. "They all seemed rather harmless."

"What about this one?" Winter was quick to notice that one was unlike the others. "It seems to overlap with something from the station."

Seira's confidence seemed to drop slightly. "I'm… I'm not entirely sure on that front. I can't quite tell what it is."

"Oh my g-" Atlas was getting ticked off by all of this. "NOVA!" He yelled out. First it was the watches going offline, he wasn't sure he could stand something else going offline.

It would only take a few seconds before she made her appearance with Monokawa by her side. "Yes, what is it this time?"

"Explain." Atlas was getting right down to business.

"..." However, Nova made no movements to explain anything. "Explain… What?"

Letting out a sigh, Hae-Won slid over the paper Winter had looked over. "What is this going to hit?"

Looking at it for a second, Monokawa spoke up before Nova did. "Ha! As if we're going to tell you any-"

"Oh! Easy! That's part of the oxygen filtration system." Nova was eager to explain.

Letting his arms droop to the side, Monokawa spoke in a slightly insulted tone. "Why are you the way you are…?"

"Wait…" Gigi narrowed her eyes. "Are you saying that if that gets hit…"

"Yes, the station wouldn't be able to manufacture oxygen." Nova finished her sentence.

Ohmygod, just like a couple! Couple goals!

"In fact, there's a high possibility you will lose a large portion of the oxygen currently on the station."

Standing up, Hae-Won looked over at Nova. "I'd like a more precise number. How much time would we have left?"

"Well…" Nova tapped away at her visor. "If that's hit, you'd have about two days left of oxygen before you'd begin to suffocate."

"Reassuring…" Hae-Won let out a sigh, before sitting down in her seat.

Humming in thought, May spoke up. "But… Don't we have the stuff to fix it…?"

Clapping her hands, Nova nodded along. "Exactly! Thanks to the repair ship, you'd be able to fix most of anything. You'd just need the expertise."

"Hey! Is anyone secretly a mechanic here?" Dolly looked around. When nobody answered, she turned to look at Benjamin. "Are YOU secretly a mechanic?"

"Hmm…" Hae-Won hummed out, closing her eyes. "I wouldn't mind seeing what it's like." She wasn't confident, but she also wasn't the type of person to do nothing.

Adjusting his goggles, Edison nodded to himself. "While my expertise is in chemistry." Then he trailed off.

After a few seconds, Seira spoke up. "Yeah?"

"Oh, that's it." Edison crossed his arms. "There was no follow up."

Why did she even bother half the time? Choosing to ignore him, Seira turned to the rest of the table. "If they left us stuff to repair the station, it might not be too complicated."

"I agree…" Hae-Won nodded her head. "It might be best to go check that out now, as soon as we can."

"Oh." Quickly taking a look at the chart, Seira frowned slightly. "Unfortunately the frequency of asteroids makes it difficult to stay there for long."

"I will mention." Nova joined back into the conversation. "Similarly to the station, the repair ship should be able to take on a few asteroids no problem."

"Then I guess it's probably best to just make sure we aren't exploring outside." Gemini pointed out.

Standing up, he was ready to leave.

"Anyone wishing to join us…" Hae-Won trailed off, hoping that the others would piece together what she meant.

Eagerly, Edison quickly stood up, and was getting ready to leave.

That is until someone caught his attention.

"Oh…" May hummed out, looking over at Edison. "Do you mind… If I borrow something from you?"

"Huh?" Well, that was a first! Nobody really had uses for what he carried around, given that nobody else was even versed in the things he had. "What would you need?"

However, he was always eager to help anyway.

Looking at the vials he carried around, May let out another hum. "The luminol… I want to use it for something."

Given that it was only really good at finding blood, Edison couldn't fathom a reason she'd want to use it for now.

Still, he wasn't about to deny her request. Handing her the vial, he reached into his pocket, pulling out a nozzle. "Here you go, that way you can spray it around."

"Thank you…" May closed her eyes, turning away from him. Now she had to go check something while everyone else went about their day…

---

Now that May was equipped with the luminol, she could find out for sure if that was the same blood from Alan.

Of course, stepping into the security office, there was already an obstacle.

"Didn't I tell you yesterday?" Monokawa was back to guard the place.

Letting out a small yawn, May tilted her head to the side. "Don't you need to sleep eventually…?"

"Why the hell would I sleep? I'm a robot." Long pause. "Although a nap would do wonders for my health."

Right. The health of a robot.

Nodding her head along, May was going to try and convince him to leave. "Yeah… Just take a ten minute break… And I'll guard the door for you…"

"Yeah, sure!" Although Monokawa's tone of voice seemed to indicate that he wasn't going to budge.

Being left with no option, May raised the spray bottle. "Alright…" She didn't really seem to hesitate as she sprayed the general area with the spray.

"Hey- What the hell-!" Monokawa began to trash around dramatically. "Nova! Nova I'm being murdered."

He received no aid.

"It's just a bit of chemicals…" May pointed out, not really paying attention to him.

Instead, her focus was on the spot right before the door.

Slowly by slowly, the blood began to reveal itself.

The dried up blood matched up with the luminol spots.

"Same…" Then that means that the dried up blood had to be from Alan.

Once Monokawa had stopped panicking, he flew towards May, trying to shove her out of the room. "Get out!" He ordered her.

Given that she had mostly gotten the answers she wanted, May was fine with leaving the room for now. But she'd be back… one day…

---

Ultimate Talent Manager Station

Since that meeting was done, Dae-Hyun felt the need to retreat from everyone. Given that he couldn't go to his room, he decided to go to the room he slept in last night. That being his own Ultimate Station.

Of course, he would be accompanied by someone else. "Melody…" Dae-Hyun trailed off, looking at her. "Why did you follow me…?"

"Huh?" She tilted her head to the side. "I presumed you'd be feeling lonesome."

Letting out a sigh, Dae-Hyun shook his head. Melody was someone who went at her own pace, and that pace was much too fast for him. "Not like I can stop you."

"That's the spirit!" It didn't feel like it.

Walking into the room, Melody looked around. Honestly, not counting last night, it had been a while since she had been here.

About nine days it felt like. "You know…" She hummed out. "You never quite filled me in on what the ruckus with this station was."

"I'd rather not say anything of the sort." Dae-Hyun sat neatly in the chair by his desk. "These are things from my personal life, and I'd like to keep it so."

Feeling disappointed, Melody let out a small sigh. "If ya say so…"

But now that the two were alone, did you know what time it was?

That's right, it was time for a Melody and Dae-Hyun free time event-

Wait, what's that?

However, something did manage to catch Melody's attention. Someone was walking by the station. "Oh?"

Taking a look at who it was, it was May, and she was coming from the security room. How… Odd.

That's right! Get cucked! This isn't a free time event! Hahaha! Maybe next time, losers.

Suddenly, Melody was holding a magnifying glass. "Dae-Hyun, what do you suppose the doll's up to over there?"

He wasn't really in the market to humour this behavior, so he just let out a sigh. "I think she was going for a shower. They're in the same area, so."

That was true! "Her hair wasn't dampened." Detective Melody was on the case! Just like all those books she read when she was a kid.

"Um…" May hummed out, having stopped when she heard Melody the first time. "Why… Why are you pointing that at me?"

Realising that she had been using the magnifying glass, she quickly put it away. "What were you up to?"

Letting out a small yawn, May turned her head to the side.

In all honesty, she didn't exactly have a reason to tell them what she was doing. But it didn't hurt to mention it. "I went to check out the security room… The door in the back opened up."

While this seemed to interest Melody, it had almost the exact opposite effect on Dae-Hyun. "And you wish to waste your time with that?"

"I wouldn't say wasting…" May mumbled out. "I just wanted to check out…" However, she never finished that sentence. "Monokawa is keen on keeping us out…"

"Well, I daresay there's a sound reason behind it, wouldn't you agree?" Melody said as she turned to look at Dae-Hyun.

However, he wasn't having any of it. "Personally, I wouldn't want to risk anything with him around." He crossed his arms. "One wrong move, and it's the end of your life."

"Hmm…" May hummed out, tapping her chin. "I… Don't think so… He can't actively kill us without breaking a rule."

Tilting his head to the side, Dae-Hyun decided to challenge that. "Then why haven't you entered the room?"

Truth be told, while she didn't believe it would be breaking a rule, May was worried that Monokawa was still going to try something. "Because he seems… crafty…" That was the best word she could come up with. "He would force us to break a rule somehow…"

Shaking his head, Dae-Hyun let out his own sigh. "And that's what I mean by none of this really seems worth it. Whatever you're hoping to find out isn't worth your life."

"But think of the mystery!" Melody was quick to call out, stepping out into the hallway. "Let's hit the road!"

Not much road to hit. Letting out a small hum, May shook her head. "I already checked what I wanted to…"

Besides, she was growing tired, so she might retire to a corner to sleep. Unfortunate that she couldn't go to her room.

"Well, ain't that a bit of a letdown." Melody's bright aura quickly faded away at the prospect of two people shutting her down.

Given that she had nothing else she wanted to say, May quickly made her way back down the hallway, leaving Melody and Dae-Hyun alone again.

"What in the world prompted you to turn down my little jaunt." Melody turned to look at him, putting both her hands on her hips.

For a few seconds, Dae-Hyun didn't answer. Instead, he was focused on his computer.

After a bit, he let out a sigh, turning to look at her finally. "Because I don't think anything you'd find would really be worth it. I don't trust Monokawa to not break a rule. So if May wants to risk her life out there trying to uncover whatever she believes is out there… Let her. Just don't join her."

"You're acting like we'd kick the bucket doing this." Melody pouted slightly, taking a step forward.

Once again, Dae-Hyun went back to looking at the monitor. "Nothing good happens when you get involved with things. If she wants to die finding the truth, just let her."

Now Dae-Hyun was just bringing the mood down. "What's this about?"

He didn't feel like he needed to answer, but he did anyway. "After the stunt Ian pulled off, it's clear anyone here could be willing to kill, no matter if there's a good motive to or not." Ian and Laki didn't really have any reason beyond their secret, and it was a pretty nothing secret.

"Just be careful around here, alright."

With the way this motive was shaping up, someone was going to kill. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when.

Melody wanted to say something to counter it, but she also didn't want to argue with Dae-Hyun, so instead, she let out a small sigh. "If you say so."

Realising that he might have sounded a bit too harsh, he tore his eyes away from the monitor. "Sorry… I didn't mean any harm by saying that."

"It's all peachy! You were right. I should tread a bit more lightly." Melody wasn't going to hold it against him, after all.

Slowly, Dae-Hyun nodded his head. "Alright…"

See, this would have been a great free time event!

Too bad May ruined it! How awful D:

---

Omicron Sector

Once again, with not much to do, Michael found himself wandering around aimlessly. There was the idea of going around to head into the repair ship, but he wasn't sure if he was completely on board with it yet.

He hadn't even gone there, yet.

However, as he was making his way to the elevator, he stopped when he saw someone leaving the elevator.

Winter.

She seemed to be heading towards the Pi Sector.

It had been days… Days since they actually last spoke. The last words they spoke to each other was during the trial, and then it had been complete silence.

They had both been avoiding each other, but Michael wasn't going to let it continue any longer.

Taking a deep breath, he called out. "Winter."

For a moment, Winter stopped walking, but didn't face him.

Michael had gotten her attention, but didn't even know where to take it from there. He had hoped that Winter would have said something, but she remained silent the entire time.

Letting out a sigh, Michael spoke up again. "Winter… I'm…I'm sorry about what happened. I didn't mean to lie…"

He just had to lie. Or else there'd be a target on his back.

"I… I wanted to tell you about my talent, but because of the motive…"

He waited a bit for Winter to say anything, but still, no words came out of her.

Michael had a feeling things would turn out this way, but that didn't mean he just wanted to give up. "You don't have to forgive me or anything, but I just want to say I'm sorry…"

Tilting her head to the side, eventually, Winter turned to look at him. Although, the expression she had on her face was rather unreadable. "Michael…" She trailed off.

He wanted to say something, but he didn't want to ruin this chance. So instead, he glanced away, attempting to avoid making eye contact.

Seeing this, Winter couldn't help but frown. "You don't even want to look me in the eyes…"

"That's because-" Quickly, Michael's eyes darted over towards her.

He wanted to explain it…

But he knew he wouldn't be able to look her in the eyes even if he didn't have that ability.

Still, Winter didn't stop looking at him. She also had things she wanted to say, but her own pride prevented her from talking about it.

"I told you I'd take time to think about whether I trust you or not." She finally said after a bit of silence. "And it hasn't nearly been enough time to make my mind up about something like this."

"I…" God, why was it so hard to talk to her about any of this. Even after his talk with Benoit… Even after his talk with Melody… Even with May… He's able to talk to those three rather easily, but the moment Winter stands before him, he feels himself freezing up, and the words evading him.

Tilting her head to the side, a part of her hated to see Michael like this, but she wasn't going to cave in, especially since she realised she still knew next to nothing about him. "You can't blame me for putting this much doubt on you. Cults aren't exactly seen in a positive light. Your refusal to bring it up proves that what you are part of isn't any good either."

"They aren't, but-"

This time, Winter wasn't going to give him a second to speak. "See, you're admitting that you aren't part of a good cult, and yet you stand on the top as their leader." It pained her a bit to be this mean to Michael, especially since the image she had from before the trial was still in her head.

Almost like her two perceptions of the man in front of her were fighting for control for reality.

"Even if somehow, you're innocent in the dealings of the cult…" Something Winter couldn't really bring herself to believe, given that he was the leader of the whole thing. "You've still shown you'd rather prioritise your own safety over those of others." Had he said anything during the trial, they would have had so much time left to deal with Ian's bullshit. Maybe they wouldn't have been on the verge of death.

This was a situation Michael didn't know how to deal with, exactly. Talking with May and Melody had set him up for false hope about how things could turn out. And while he wanted Witner to forgive him, he knew forcing her to do so would be hollow.

For the first time in his life, this felt like the first time anyone has been against him to his face. Opposition wasn't ever a problem before given his ability.

After a bit more silence, Winter spoke up again. "Aren't you going to say anything?" She didn't want to rush him, but this was hardly a conversation if he was just going to stand there, looking at the ground the entire time. "I have other things to do."

Not really, but spending time in her own station would beat this conversation, especially if Michael wasn't going to offer anything worthwhile.

"I…" Still, no matter how much he tried, Michael couldn't bring himself to say anything of value. It was so hard for him to have a genuine conversation with anyone else, since they were always caught in his ability.

To the point that he wasn't even sure if the Winter from before the trial was only nice of him because of who he was, and not because she actually enjoyed his company.

So instead of saying anything to her, he could only watch as Winter continued down the circular hallway, towards the Pi Sector.

"Why can't I speak…?" Michael let out a sigh as he moved over to the closet wall. Sliding down it until he was sitting on the ground.

It seems Michael and Winter have grown closer… Well… You know… After they grew apart. They aren't even close to the prologue bond yet.

---

Ultimate Soccer Player Station

Now, Gigi didn't know why she didn't join up with the rest of the group, but here she found herself.

Of course, she wasn't alone, given that she had basically followed Atlas here. Walking into the room, completely ignoring the door, she found him at the stand, looking down at it with annoyance.

"Fucker…" Atlas mumbled out, realising he couldn't scan his watch for coins. "Fucking useless."

"Atlas." Gigi called out, stepping onto the field. "Have you been spending all of your time here?"

"Where else am I supposed to go? There's nothing else to do on this damn station." Atlas kicked a ball over towards the center of the field.

At the very least, he could still play soccer normally. "Talking to the others doesn't really do anything for me, and I have next to interest in what they're doing on the repair ship."

Although he said that first part, Gigi was one of the only people Atlas didn't mind talking to. Maybe it was because of her serving as a referee.

However, something did confuse Atlas. "Wait… Why the hell are you here?"

For a moment, Gigi looked away, crossing her arms. "I don't have to go everywhere everyone else goes." As much as she wanted to be involved with the repair ship.

"Like hell you don't." Atlas didn't even bother looking at her. "You act like you own the place, and at the first sign of conflict, you give up."

Not at all what happened, but go off, Atlas.

Frowning slightly, Gigi crossed her arms. "You know you're just generalising the events that happened, right."

"So what if I am?" It was clear that Atlas wasn't going to give a shit about the specifics. "What problem are you even hungover about? Is it your damn morals?"

Gigi glanced away, failing to answer the question, which told him all he really needed to know.

"Well, maybe your worldview is too narrow." Atlas was one to talk, given he just viewed everyone as awful, including himself. To him, good didn't really exist in the grand scheme of things. Just everyone looking for an opportunity to do bad.

Life was just about getting ahead of others before they even had the opportunity to do so.

"Not to mention that you don't even hold yourself to your own morals." Atlas added after a few seconds.

H-huh?" For the first time, Gigi was stricken aback by his rude comment. "What do you mean by-"

Before she could finish her thought, Atlas continued. "For someone so black and white, you seem to be fine talking with me. Aren't I the damn definition of a bad person?" He hasn't exactly done any good here.

Hell, he was definitely one of the worst people here, so why did Gigi even give him the time of day?

"Well… you are…" Gigi couldn't deny that she didn't view Atlas in the best light.

Which meant he was right, why even bother with him? Clearly he wasn't going to change his ways any time soon. But he also felt like one of the only people she could talk to about anything. Gemini being the only other person.

Hae-Won could have fit in that category much earlier during the game, but that path had long since blocked itself off.

"And you know what, I'll be honest." Atlas kicked the ball into the net, not even bothering to look at her while speaking. "You're kind of a bitch."

Narrowing her eyes, Gigi pointed at him with her black glove. "And? You're much worse than I am."

"Am I?" For once, Atlas didn't even bother going to get the ball. "I'd rather be an asshole liar, than someone who parades themselves as good, despite everything pointing otherwise."

"I am a good person." Gigi crossed her arms. "Nothing is going to change that."

"Tsk. You walk around like you own the place, more than anything." Atlas didn't even know why he was being this rude. Maybe he just needed to vent a little.

"And you know what?" Gigi took a step forward. "I'm the only person willing to give you the time of day." Well, besides Benjamin and Dolly. "Maybe you're an asshole, but I see no reason to exclude you from everything."

That was true, but Atlas wasn't about to admit it as so. "I never asked you to reach out to me, you know. I'm more than content being left alone in my corner."

"But how is something like that fair?" Gigi crossed her arms, a frown on her face. "Especially in a game like this, being on your own is just asking to be picked off. I'm just looking out for you and-"

"Never asked for it." Atlas responded rather quickly. "And I'd like to see someone take me on."

Closing one eye, Gigi didn't want to take her eye off him. "Oh? And what do you plan on doing to combat getting electrocuted? Benoit wasn't exactly a weak person either, and yet, he fell too."

"Tsk. Easy. I won't be as stupid as he was." Atlas, this is why you have no fans. Except Gold and Omakin, but something is very clearly wrong with both of them.

Gigi couldn't believe she was even giving this asshole any time of day. "Why are you like this?"

"What?" Not really a question Atlas felt like he was ever asked. "What the hell do you mean like this?"

"Obviously you weren't born with this personality. So what made you like this?" Gigi wasn't going to back down from this.

"Tsk… Why the hell do you care?" Not like Atlas was going to tell her anywa- "You get pushed around by the world, eventually you start to push back." Well, he did, but that was a very basic answer.

He answered Benjamin way better than he did with her.

"Life can be cruel, and can make you do things you don't want to do." Gigi frowned at him. "That doesn't mean you should use it as an excuse to be a bad person. Take past experiences, and use them to learn to improve yourself. You're a walking red card."

To the point that Gigi had to suspend that just so she could have a conversation with him. "Just because you've found yourself at the bottom, doesn't mean you should stay there."

"Are you speaking from experience or something?" Atlas wasn't the brightest, but sometimes, he knew just where to hit.

For a moment, Gigi lost her composure, but it very quickly returned, as if nothing happened. "I don't know what you are talking about. We are talking about you here, not me."

Nodding his head along, Atlas smiled slightly.

Not like… A happy smile, more like a sinister one. Or like… Huh… The smile you have when you figured out something you shouldn't have. "No… I think I hit it right on the fucking mark."

Quickly, Gigi blew into her whistle, before taking out a yellow card. "Stop asking personal questions!"

From the looks of things, neither person would be able to gain any ground with the other.

So this conversation pretty much ended in a stalemate.

However, it seems that Atlas and Gigi have grown closer!

---

Docking Zone

Only a select few people had actually bothered to show up right now.

The obvious people you'd expect, like Edison, Gemini, Hae-Won, and Seira.

But there were also some other people who didn't quite make any sense, like Gennosuke, Tatiana, and lastly the duo of Benjamin and Dolly.

"What are you three doing to join us?" Hae-Won couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Not that she actually minded, given more people was always a help.

"Haha!" Tatiana let out a laugh. "I have yet to explore the repair ship. Besides, I thought it would be best if more people helped." Long pause. "And because Dolly wanted to head on the ship again."

Crossing her arms, the doll pouted. "It doesn't mean you have to accompany me."

"Nonsense!" Tatiana let out another laugh. "The others… I'm not too sure."

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Gennosuke shrugged. "Is there really a problem with me joining up? I was just curious, is all. Besides, I'm good at finding things, so I was hoping I'd be able to spot the stuff we need."

While the circus duo was fine, Hae-Won wasn't sure how much faith she wanted to put in him as of now, especially given his take on Laki. However, she had no reason to prevent him from entering. "Fine."

"Alright." Edison adjusted his goggles. "We should move over the ship closer to the expected area of impact. That way we can examine it beforehand, and see if we have any parts that match."

"We should also try and see if we can repair our watches." Seira added. "Nighttime is more dangerous now, and I'd rather be able to sleep in the comfort of my own room."

"Yeah, no kidding…" Gemini let out a sigh, placing his hands on his hips. "I'm just glad most of the stuff still works on this station."

"Well, Nova did promise she'd find a way to keep most other functions running." Edison adjusted his goggles, walking over towards the door. "I don't believe she'd want us to starve."

"Yeah, but we're going to be running out of oxygen if we don't do something to stop the asteroids." Hae-Won pointed out, opening the door for everyone else. "So don't parade her as some kind of good guy."

True, true! "We'll be fine." Edison didn't seem to think that, however. "What's a game with no participants? If she truly enjoys this game, she won't let us all die at once.

This game was starting to have less of an effect on him.

Quick! Traumatise him!

Wanting to continue the conversation along to something more normal… "Seira and I can explore the outside." Gemini suggested, crossing his arms. "We just split up into groups of two, right?"

"Well, one of the groups will need to be a group of three." Gennosuke pointed out.

"Technically two groups." Dolly crossed her arms, still considering herself a person. "Oh! Master and I can pilot the ship if you want!"

Hae-Won wanted to counter that, and point out that it wouldn't be wise, but it also wouldn't be fair to deny someone else the chance. "You were there when Nova showed us how, right?"

"Yup! I even tried it out." Dolly said with a bit of excitement in her voice. "Besides, I won't be alone, Tatiana will be there with me!"

"Haha! Legally I cannot drive." Maybe that's not a good thing.

"Luckily this isn't a car." Dolly nodded her head along like that mattered in the slightest.

Hae-Won could counter this, but it's not like them piloting the ship really meant anything, given that it didn't go fast enough to actually damage the space station. After all, it's already shrugged off a few asteroids so far. "Alright, then I guess us three can go check out the repair supplies." She was speaking specifically to Edison and Gennosuke. The latter, who she just wanted to keep an eye on.

"We should probably start now, before we get pelted by the storm of asteroids." Gemini suggested, hoping to move things along smoothly.

"Oh!" Edison called out. "We should use earpieces to communicate with each other. That would make finding the correct part easier."

Ruffling his hair, Hae-Won turned to the others. "Yeah, we can do that. Then we split off."

---

Cafeteria

After a failed chance to talk to Winter, Michael found himself back in the cafeteria, with the sound of the occasional asteroid hitting the side of the station.

Letting out a heavy sigh, this eventually annoyed one of the occupants of the room.

"Are you going to shut up?" It was Lorelei.

"Sorry…" Michael glanced away.

"Ugh, it's bad enough that we have to deal with a cult leader, but a depressed cult leader?" Lorelei rolled their eyes, placing a hand on their hip. "What do you even have to be depressed about?"

"Lorelei…" Michael said softly, turning to face her. "Now's not the time."

As much as she wanted to keep insulting him, she felt compelled to stop. "Whatever."

…

"What the fuck did you just do to me!?" Lorelei wasn't just going to ignore it this time. "You did the same dumb shit in the trial, didn't you?"

---

Slowly, Lorelei lifted up her hand, which was holding onto Michael's hair. "Girl, it's a match. How much closer do you want to get? We need to find someone who fits the fucking bill!" The entire time, they kept pulling down on his hair.

"Please… Stop…" Michael begged.

For once, Lorelei actually listened to someone. Weird.

---

"I…" Great, now Lorelei figured it out. That wouldn't end badly.

"Pathetic, is that how your stupid cult thing started?" She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes. "Honestly, now that I think about it, it's kind of pathetic that you haven't actually done anything with it. If I had something like that, I'd be abusing it every day."

Michael slowly hung his head low. "It's a good thing you don't… Then…"

"Come on, I'm not like, the worst person for something like that." Lorelei rolled her eyes. "That would be someone like Ian."

"Hey!" Oh yeah, Laki was there.

I did say one of the occupants earlier. That means that there were at least three people!

Why is Laki here?

They forgot to make someone watch her. Whoopsie!

"Shut up, dice for brains." Lorelei didn't want to have to deal with both of these fucking bozos.

Hearing dice for brains, Laki started nodding her head along, as if to some unknown rhythm.

Choosing to ignore her, Lorelei turned to look back at Michael. "Like I was saying, be glad Ian wasn't the one born with something like that, or we'd all be pawns in whatever dumb ass game he wanted to play.

Having already been a pawn in Ian's last game, Michael shuddered at the very thought. "I… I guess so."

"But honestly, getting everything I could ever want, you really should be abusing this power." Lorelei teased him with a mocking tone to her voice.

Looking at her directly, Michael spoke to her with two simple words. "Shut up."

For once in their goddamn life, Lorelei shut the fuck up.

She wanted to say something, but she was so compelled to be quiet.

"Wow, the silence is so wonderful." Laki hummed out. "Isn't that right?"

"I don't want to talk to you either…" Given she was half the reason he even went through that entire ordeal.

"Right!" Laki figured as much, and went back to humming to herself.

After enough time had passed, Lorelei was able to speak again. "When I said use it on others, that very much didn't imply me, fuckface."

Shrugging, Michael was losing a bit of patience. "Hey… You're the one who went poking the bear… You only have yourself to blame."

He didn't like using his powers at all, but sometimes, people just had to shut up.

Except Laki apparently, because she was allowed to keep humming around.

Growing increasingly annoyed, Lorelei stood up. "Well, whatever. Talk to me if you actually want to try and do something with that power of yours."

"Not likely…" Michael didn't even bother looking at her. "Have fun doing whatever…"

Seriously? He wasn't going to react like she wanted him to? "Whatever." Lorelei walked away, heading towards the elevator.

"So…!" Laki hummed out.

"No."

"OK!"

This conversation wasn't going to happen.

---

Airlock (Upper)

This would be the second time Seira would get blasted out of the ship, and it would be Gemini's first time.

Of course, with such a new experience, Gemini couldn't help but feel a bit curious. "So, what does it feel like?"

"Hmm?" Seira didn't exactly understand what he meant, until she took the time to process it. "Oh? Getting ejected? At first it was a bit scary. It's a weird feeling getting pulled away like that. But when you run out of tether rope, and you're made to float around in place… It's wonderful." She placed the helmet on her head.

"Honestly… It's the best view I ever had of the stars. The only part I didn't really like was the silence." She trailed off, looking at the ground. "It leaves a feeling of emptiness…"

"Heh…" Gemini shook his head, a small smile appearing on his face. "I'm sure it's not that bad." Although, that did get him thinking. "Do you hate the silence, or something?"

"Well, if there's no noise, it just starts to feel like I'm alone." Seira made sure that Gemini also had his suit on before she moved into the next room. "Even if it isn't true, it still gives off this eerie feeling."

"Well, I'll be right there with you." Gemini approached the button. "We should probably switch to our earpiece." He had to briefly take his helmet off to turn it off.

Seira followed suit, and, when both parties were ready, she pressed the button, sending them both out of the airlock.

Like usual, there was a long period of silence as Seira floated around aimlessly. She wanted to say something, but chose to just remain quiet,

After a few seconds, a voice could be heard. It was Gemini. "See, it won't be quiet this time. You can hear me."

"And me." Dolly also joined in.

Feeling slightly relieved, Seira let out a happy sigh. "T-"

"And me!" Edison joined in, ruining the mood.

"Please only talk if you have relevant things to say." Yeah, Seira was going to shut him down without any remorse.

Enough about that, now it was time to access the damages to the space station. "Dolly, could you get us closer?"

"On it!" Her voice called out. Soon, the ship slowly began moving itself over above the station.

After a few seconds, Gemini sent the next message. "That should be good." He used some movement to get himself onto the station. It felt weird to stand on it, but here he was.

From the initial look of the satellite, it felt like almost the entire top of it was removed, with only some slight bits remaining from what it once was.

"Would we even be able to repair this…?" Seira mumbled out, moving over to be next to Gemini.

Letting out a sigh, he shook his head. "At this point, it might be better to just replace…"

That might be true. "We should tell them what we need."

"Right." Even if they could be heard the entire time.

---

Supply Room

Just like last time, all the supplies were still here. From the looks of it, nobody had been here since the initial exploration.

"There sure is a lot of stuff here…" Gennosuke couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "More than I thought there would be."

Not wasting any time, Edison opened up a box. "Well, they have to make sure we have a replacement for all parts."

Hae-Won moved over to another side of the room to pretty much do the same thing. "I don't imagine this station can get much else for parts, so something like this is required to be fully stocked."

Walking around the room, something caught Gennosuke's eyes, but he didn't go check it out further. Instead, he followed suit with the other two and opened up some boxes. "Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Just what kind of space station this is."

"What do you mean?" Edison stopped his search, instead choosing to focus on his statement.

Shrugging, Gennosuke didn't have too good of an idea of what he himself meant, but he also couldn't just leave it at that. "If it was created with the idea of a killing game in mind, why have so much stuff like this? The station clearly wouldn't need to function too long for a game like this." Especially since two people were bound to die around every five days… At this rate, the game wouldn't really be playable in a month.

Thinking for a moment, Hae-Won shrugged. "There's no way to really know what the purpose of this station was."

Although, she understood his line of thinking very well. It did raise a few questions. Just who made this place anyways?

Thinking about it some more, Hae-Won realised something else. "Not to mention, Nova doesn't seem that adept with certain things."

"Hmm?" Edison found that a bit odd. "What do you mean?"

Stuffing her hands in her pockets, Hae-Won shrugged. "From the looks of it, she isn't the greatest when it comes to technology, y'know. After all, she lets Monokawa do all of that. But if that's the case… Who made Monokawa? She clearly couldn't have done that."

Now that she mentioned it, it got Gennosuke to put a little more thought into that. "Now that you mention it…" Maybe there was a brain in there after all. "There's probably another person we didn't even consider to worry about."

That was a lot to think about, but Edison realised a conversation like this was best suited for when the others were around. "Shouldn't we be seeing what we have?"

For a brief moment, a frown was on Gennosuke's face, but it was quickly replaced with a smile. "Sorry about that. Yeah, let's take inventory."

After a few seconds, a voice could be heard, belonging to Gemini. "Alright, we made it to the satellite that was damaged."

Hearing that, Hae-Won was the one to take charge. "What does it look like?"

"A mess."

Letting out a sigh, Hae-Won shook her head. "That's… Not what I meant." See, if Edison pulled that off, she wouldn't have been as annoyed. "Anything you can tell us about what we'd need?"

Long silence, before Seira was the one who took over. "Well, for one, it is almost like a satellite, so starting with any parts to do with that would be a great start. I also see some exposed wires, so we'd have to replace that."

Getting all of this information, both Edison and Gennosuke began to sort through the boxes.

The first person to actually find anything of worth would be the latter, who placed a box down. "Not sure if these would work." The box was full of satellite heads.

Hae-Won nodded her head along. "We found some stuff we could use. Anything else that's of note."

After a bit more silence, Gemini was the one who spoke up this time. "There seems to be screws we'd need too…"

"Star shape." Seira added right after.

"Here!" Edison called out, offering a small container of the screws they'd need.

Hae-Won looked at them for a few seconds before going back to speak on the earpiece. "We have those too. Anything else?"

"From the looks of it, that seems to be everything we need." Seira responded.

That was good for starters. "Alright…" Hae-Won trailed off. "Now, are you able to find the next one?"

"Yeah, I spotted it earlier." Gemini called out. "I didn't have time to check it out, but we can make our way over there. Dolly, can you move us over?"

"On it!" She called out, and soon, a slight shift in movement could be felt.

"This might not be so bad, y'know?" Hae-Won had a smile on, despite how she was feeling earlier in the day. "How much time do we have until the next asteroid."

"Haha!" Edison let out a laugh. "Ten minutes."

That wasn't good. Hae-Won moved over to turn on her earpiece. "After you see what it looks like, please come back inside. We don't want you getting hit by a stray asteroid."

"Got it." Seira was the one to reply.

"You know…" Gennosuke spoke up, leaning against a wall. "Now that I think about this… It's very boring."

Shrugging with a hint of amusement, Hae-Won shook her head. "If that was the case, then why did you accompany us?"

"Thought it would be more interesting than this." Gennosuke's eyes trailed off to the side.

Besides looking through parts, they didn't really have much else to do. It was going to be a boring day for him at this rate.

---

Control Room (Repair Ship)

Given that he no longer needed to move the ship around, Benjamin took a step back from the controls, his eyes landing on Tatiana.

Of course, he didn't say anything to her. Instead, Dolly did. "What are you doing there?"

Moving away from the buttons, Tatiana shrugged. "I haven't been here before, so I'm just taking a look at the controls here. Interesting ship, isn't it?"

"It sure is!" Dolly raised her arms, before Benjamin moved to look out the window. "It also has a wonderful view."

After finishing her inspection of the buttons, Tatiana moved away, placing her hand in her pocket. She spent a few seconds looking at Benjamin before letting out a sigh.

He didn't seem to notice anything, and just kept looking out the window.

Which meant that she'd need to initiate the next part of this conversation. "Benjamin, I've wanted to ask you this during the morning, but there were other things to talk about." Tatiana took a step towards him.

For a moment, Benjamin turned to glance over at her, before the look in her eyes made him look away.

Sensing some unease, Tatiana let out a sigh. "It felt like your performance was a bit off. Was something bothering you?"

"Nope!" Dolly was quick to answer. "Nothing was bothering master."

Tatiana didn't want to be rude… But Dolly was also a doll, so she didn't see the issue. "I want to talk to Benjamin."

"Master doesn't talk to anyone except me. And I talk to everyone else for him!" Something Dolly was very happy to be doing.

Still, Tatiana wasn't going to back down. "And why's that? I feel like I've heard the right to have an audience with Benjamin at this point. It's not like he can't talk at all, given he uses you to speak."

Running out of excuses, Dolly had to think of something quick. And that's why she gave the same excuse as before. "That's because master can be a bit weird, while I'm nor-"

"Hahaha!" Tatiana let out another laugh, shaking her head. "I may be bad at seeing lies for what they are… However, that doesn't mean I can be so blatantly lied to. From the time we spent together, I can say with absolute certainty that you and Benjamin share the same personality."

"GAH!" Dolly called out, as Benjamin was forced to take a step back. "How could you even conclude something like that?"

Shaking her head, Tatiana's confidence didn't waver. "Perhaps I've seen something like this before. Who's to say, honestly?" She placed a hand on her hip.

Soon, that confident smile turned into a frown. "The only question I want to know is… why? Why hide like that? It's not like anybody hates Dolly here."

Say hello to Atlas :D

Lowering her arms, Dolly didn't have anything to say immediately.

Instead, Benjamin moved over towards the window, to look out at the stars.

Walking up to him, Tatiana let out a sigh. "I know a thing or two about that."

"You… do?" For a moment, Dolly let down her guard. "What do you mean?"

"Haha… What do I mean indeed…" For a moment, there was a bit of sadness in Tatiana's voice, but she shook her head. "Sometimes, you just have to pretend, don't you?"

"Well, yeah!" Dolly raised her hands in the air. "But what are you pretending? I thought you've been genuine the entire time."

"I have been!" Tatiana nodded her head proudly, but her expression began to falter a bit near the end, almost as if something else was occupying her mind. "But sometimes I feel like I have to be this way." It was hard to describe.

Hearing this, Benjamin glanced away, quickly covering his face with Dolly. "What do you mean?"

"Haha…" It was a much weaker laugh than all the other ones. "It's more so if I don't act this way, I will let myself think of other things. So the only way to continue on as normal, is to act the way I do."

However, even talking about it was lowering her spirits.

In an attempt to get her energy back, Tatiana let out another laugh, except this one lacked a part that all her other laughs had.

It didn't sound genuine anymore.

Lowering her arms, Dolly would have frowned if she could. "You don't have to act like that if you don't want to."

"But you fail to realise that I want to act like this." Tatiana crossed her arms. "It gives me the chance to smile!"

That's true…

But comparing Tatiana to herself, Dolly realised something. "What made you like this in the first place?"

"W-well!" Tatiana glanced away, and it became pretty clear she didn't want to talk about this. "It's personal stuff, for my mind only."

Luckily, Dolly seemed to back off. "So something happened to both of us to make us the way we are now."

"Well, I was always like this." Tatiana let out another laugh. "I live for the stage! The only difference now is that I feel like I have to keep being like this." Or else the magic would go away. She took one of her knives out to twirl it.

"Are you sure you should be doing that now?" Dolly didn't exactly have a good feeling about this.

Twirling around her knife, Tatiana let out a laugh. "Things like these, they're second nature. It would take something truly awful for me to-"

Almost as if instant karma, the entire ship shook violently as the impact of one of the asteroids could be felt across all of it.

Something Tatiana hadn't exactly been expecting, and so, the knife quickly slipped right out of her hand…

And…

She let out a pained sound as blood splashed out of her arm.

"Tatiana!" Dolly called out to her, quickly moving over towards her.

Despite having just cut herself pretty bad, Tatiana still attempted to keep her smile up. "Haha! A mere blade like this is not enough to fell me!"

There you go Extra.

She's hurt.

I hope you're happy.

It's not an eye, but shut up, and take what you can get.

Still, the wound was bleeding pretty badly, and Dolly was beginning to panic.

And for once, something unexpected happened.

Dolly was placed on the ground.

"Huh?" Tatiana was a bit confused for a second, until Benjamin instead acted. Taking off the top part of his suit, he managed to wrap it clumsily around her arm.

She wanted to say something, but it was the first time she had seen Benjamin himself react to anything, so she just let it play out.

Once that was done, he quickly moved away, grabbing Dolly again. "There we go! All better!"

Not really, because blood still seeped through his sleeve, but it would at least prevent most of the bleeding. "Why, thank you Benjamin."

Hearing himself get thanked directly, he quickly glanced the other way, refusing to have it be acknowledged.

Well, even if Benjamin wasn't ready to talk, it was still nice for Tatiana to witness something like that. "Alright, they seem to be done with their exploration. We should head back to the station."

Nodding his head, Benjamin turned back to the controls, piloting the ship back to the station.

Progress was always nice.

It seems Tatiana and Benjamin have grown closer.

---

Docking Zone

Now that things were checked out, the three groups all reconvened at the entrance.

"So, things don't seem that bad." Gemini was the first person to speak up. "Just a bit of fixing, and we should have everything back online again."

Now that it was all sorted out, it was time to bring out the elephant in the room.

"So…" Gennosuke trailed off. "What happened here?"

"Haha! Fret not!" Tatiana called out, still wearing part of Benjamin's suit around her arm. "For I have only marginally wounded myself."

"She cut her arm open with a knife." Dolly was quick to point out.

"Nonsense! A simple blade! That alone would not be enough-"

"It happened when the asteroid hit." How is Dolly the serious person in any fucking scenario?

"Is the wound bad?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow.

She had felt the impact earlier, but it didn't seem terrible.

Unless… You know… You were playing with knives.

"Haha. It's fine. The wound will close very quickly." Tatiana didn't seem to mind in the slightest. "It was my own fault, so there's no one else to blame."

"We weren't blaming anyone else." Dolly deadpanned.

Waving her hand dismissively, Tatiana had a smile on her face. "Whatever. My injury is besides the point. Did you manage to find what you needed?"

"Yup." Was the only answer Hae-Won needed to provide. She seemed pretty content with herself. "As expected, the repair ship has all we'll need if we want to fix the station."

Stepping further into the station, she turned to look back at the others. "We should probably at least inform the rest of-"

Suddenly, however, the impact of another asteroid could be felt across the station.

Although, compared to the other ones that have hit the station itself, this one didn't seem to knock anyone off their feet.

And for a few seconds, everything almost felt like it would be fine.

That was until a red flashing light drowned out everyone's vision.

"What's going on?" Seira quickly looked around.

Hae-Won gritted her teeth, taking a look out the window. "I can't quite see where it hit."

"It must have hit the thing Nova warned us about. We can't distribute oxygen anymore."

"Yeah but…" Gennosuke narrowed his eyes. "This doesn't feel normal. Why would the station go into a panic like that?"

Coughing a few times, Tatiana looked around. "Is it just me, or does it feel like there's a slight breeze now…?"

And that's when it dawned on everyone. It didn't just prevent distribution of oxygen…

They were actively losing it by the second.

"Oh my." Nova was here now. "It seems that our oxygen supply is running low. She didn't really seem to be too concerned.

Now that Nova was here, Seira had some questions for her.

Or, more specifically, one. "Who builds a station like this!?"

Monokawa was also here, given that he was the one to answer. "Um? Us? We made it this way just for the motive! Isn't it great!"

The red lights continued to flash across the station, delivering an entirely different message along the way.

"How would this be good?" Edison swirled around a flask, allowing the contents to turn a dark blue colour. "What if we suffocate?"

"Oh, you won't die." Nova said in a reassuring tone. "Yet, at least." Ah, there it is.

Frowning slightly, Gemini wanted to move onto a more important question. "How long do we have?"

Tilting her head to the side, Nova had to think about it for a moment. "With everyone on the station at once, you might have less than a day left. However, the repair ship would have been unaffected, so it should still be full of oxygen."

Gritting her teeth, Hae-Won looked away. "This is bullshit, and you know it. We're all going to die if nothing is fixed. I thought you said that it was going to be at least two days."

"I did say that, yes." Nova's visor changed to express sadness. "However, I am not a machine, and thus, can't accurately calculate something like that on the spot."

"Besides, who cares if you all die?" Monokawa shrugged, spinning around. "If someone kills, then that issue can be avoided completely."

"We aren't going to let that happen." Seira was choosing to be hopeful. After the last trial, she never wanted to have to go through that again.

Of course, something like that was impossible here.

"Well, you could either have two people die, or everyone can die." Monokawa shrugged. "I'm not too picky."

"Or." Nova felt the need to add another option. "You do have the option to fix the station. However, it's risky given the predicament you are in. While an asteroid would not damage the station walls, it will kill you on impact."

"Not to mention…" Tatiana waved her injured arm around. "Holding things can end badly too."

Clapping her hands together, Nova's visor changed to one of joy. "Exactly! Honestly, the easiest way out is to just do as Monokawa suggested." Then, it changed to a blue saddened expression. "I'd hate for all of you to die at once."

"Technically speaking." Edison had pulled up a chart, but he was completely ignored so the plot could progress.

"How much time did you say we have?" Hae-Won needed to think of something quickly.

"Hmm… Less than a day if you all stay here on this station." Nova hummed out with a smile on her visor.

Now that she's pretty much said all that she needed to, Nova and Monokawa made their leave.

"Dammit…" Hae-Won mumbled out. "We need to tell the others this as well."

On the bright side, the flashing red lights finally went away.

Leaving them in mostly darkness! Yay!

---

Cafeteria

After an event like that, it was only natural for everyone to gather back up in the cafeteria. After all, the red lights were going off.

"What the fuck was that?" Atlas barked out as soon as the group of seven returned.

Not really wanting to deal with his bullshit, Hae-Won thought to shut him down right now. "Quiet down, will you? We're running low on oxygen, don't need you wasting most of it, y'know?"

"What?" Gigi narrowed her eyes. "How are we running low on oxygen?"

Letting out a sigh, Gemini shook his head. "For some reason, it seems that part of the oxygen system runs outside. We've pretty much sprung a leak. But… With air." That was weird to say.

"Huh? How much do we have left?" Melody tilted her head to the side.
"Less than a day…" Seira mumbled out.

"I've got an easy fix for that." Lorelei was here to offer her wisdom- Wait no, if it was her, then that would mean- "We just eject a few of you, and boom! Suddenly we have more oxygen."

Gennosuke nodded his head along. "Not a bad idea. We should start with you."

"Ugh, drop dead." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "Dropping what was obviously a joke…"

Letting out a sigh, Gemini shook his head. "Calm down, will you. We've already got a solution on our hands." He turned towards the one person who would probably want to talk about it.

Edison was of course the person I was…n't referring to.

Instead, Seira spoke up. "We took a look at the repairs that would need to be done."

"We checked what we needed, and we have everything." Hae-Won placed her hands in her pockets. "We'd just need to stop by the shed to pick up some things, and we'd be all set."

"What's the plan going to be anyways?" Edison hummed out, tapping his chin. "How many people should we have?"

"Well…" May hummed out, thinking for a moment. "We don't know how fast we'll go through our oxygen… And the ship has its own… So shouldn't we try and minimise the amount we use?"

Gemini shook his head. "Well, from what Nova told us, we wouldn't last a day with all of us here."

Frowning slightly, Dae-Hyun didn't seem to like the idea. "Are you saying we should just all go on the repair ship?"

"Not exactly…" May rested her head on the table. "But it would remove the strain… if most of us went…"

"I'd be fine with going on." Winter hummed out, closing her eyes.

"The ship is big enough to accommodate all of us." Gennosuke pointed out.

"Besides!" Seira eagerly jumped in. "It would feel like we're manning an actual ship."

"Hey!" Edison stood up, pointing at her. "That's supposed to be my line!"

Tatiana thought for a moment. "From what I've seen, we could station people in various rooms. " She was very fond of the communication room. It had a nice feeling to it.

"Oh! Oh!" Dolly raised her hands in the air. "I want to pilot the ship again!"

Letting out a small sigh, Tatiana shook her head. "Yes, you can get the control room."

Rolling their eyes, Lorelei spoke up. "Alright, but how many people are actually going to be fixing the ship? The rest just feel like dead weight."

"Are you going to be helping?" Hae-Won looked over at her.

Letting out a small laugh, Lorelei shook her head. "No, probably not. But I'll like, get on the ship anyway."

So in other words, she was going to be dead weight.

"Well, it's not like most of us can do anything, anyways." Winter took a sip of her tea. "We don't need twelve people trying to fix something. Three should be fine."

"But won't we just use up all the oxygen on the ship if we throw everyone on?" Atlas pointed out.

"That's fine. You can stay at the station." Hae-Won shrugged. She didn't really care where he ended up.

"Fuck that, I'm going on the ship. I'm not going to be gasping for air." Atlas narrowed his eyes.

Thinking for a moment, an idea popped in Edison's head. "Wouldn't it be better to have some people stay behind in the communication room to watch the repair ship from a different angle?"

"Ah, how nice of you to volunteer." Gennosuke grinned.

Hearing those words, Edisons' eyes lit up. "Yeah! I'll be the one to volunteer!"

"Before we do anything." Gigi placed a hand on her hip. "When is the next asteroid going to hit? I don't want anyone outside if they are at risk of being struck by one."

"Oh! Right!" Seira had that information on her somewhere…

Pulling out a piece of paper, she pointed at it. "The next one shouldn't be for another ten hours."

"That gives us enough time to sleep." Gemini mumbled out. "And then we should have two hours to pull it off."

"Cutting it close, but it should be fine." Hae-Won turned to look at everyone else at the table. "We should all head to bed so we'll be ready for tomorrow."

Letting out a small yawn, May got up from the table. "Fine by me… See you all tomorrow…"

One by one, everyone got away from the table, moving over towards roughly the same location that they had slept in the previous night, given that they still couldn't access their rooms.

---

Omicron Sector

"Alright." Edison declared, first thing as soon as this scene started. "Because you had the honour of sleeping with the printer."

"Don't phrase it like that…" Gemini let out a sigh.

Ignoring him completely, Edison continued. "That means that I should be the one that should sleep there tonight."

However, Seira wasn't one for that idea. "But the star chart is my idea. I should be the one using it."

That didn't matter to Edison. "I'm doing this to be fair, so let me collect the papers tonight!"

Quickly, Seira stashed away her chart. "No, I won't let you."

Slowly getting tired of their antics, Gemini let out a sigh. "Alright, new solution. None of you two check out navigation."

"What?" Seira was a bit caught off guard by this. "You aren't siding with me on this?"

Letting out another sigh, Gemini shook his head. "You two need to stop fighting. We're all stuck in this place together, and your bickering is a waste of time." Besides, he didn't like seeing two friends fight.

"Gemini is right." Edison adjusted his goggles, almost as if to take the superior high ground.

That only further pissed Seira off, but she wasn't going to make a scene. "Then fine. Tomorrow, we'll both go take a look to see what else has been printed."

That seemed to be fine for Edison. "Alright!" Then he would just join back up with Hae-Won to sleep in her Ultimate Station again.

As the trio left to do their own thing, that left one person in the hallway now.

After confirming that everyone had left, they pulled out a piece of paper from their pockets, neatly folded up. Opening it up, it revealed itself to be one of the papers taken from the printer. With a time set thirteen hours from now…

Letting out a sigh, they folded the paper back up, and placed it in their pocket.

Tomorrow… Something big would need to happen.

---

And with that, we've reached the end of another chapter. Thankfully this one didn't take as long as the last one. That one almost took an entire month. Thankfully working the nightshift is very good for my writing, simply because Gold and Project leave me alone :D

It didn't make it come out any faster though. This still feels like a month later.

Wait...

It IS a month later! What the fuck have I been doing?

I need to get my ass into gear if I want to get this chapter finished by the end of the year.

But fuck man… That's five entire parts… That might be a little too much for me.

That doesn't mean I won't try. I like setting unrealistic goals for myself, and completing them anyways! Is this too unrealistic? Absolutely! Will I still try? Of course!

But enough about that! Next part is the final daily life, which means it's getting closer to a body dropping. Hahaha… I missed killing off characters.

Do you want to know what else I miss?

I miss Ian.

Anyways…

With the body growing ever so closer, I'm curious for who everyone thinks the body will be :o I've already seen several predictions on the horizon, so it'd be fun to get some more. Let's see if someone can figure it out :D hahahahahaha

With that, I have nothing else to say, so see you when blood splatters everywhere.

---

Participants Remaining: 16

---

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

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

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Computer Security Specialist [CandleFire45]

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin]

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

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

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

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Tatiana Novak - The Ultimate Knife Thrower [ExtraMeme]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]

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