Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration Chapter 30: Misalignment in the Stars (Part 10), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 3: Misalignment in the Stars (Deadly Life 4)

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

The lights were currently off, and the murmurs of the audience was the only sound that was audible.

Harvey was standing off stage, watching the act go down. He should be preparing for his next show, but he also wanted to see how this one would go.

"And for our next act!" The one speaking was Grant, the troupe leader. "We have the wonderful Sol, ready with her knife throwing act.

Like usual, a board and a wheel was brought onto the stage, but the big difference this time was that nobody was attached to it yet.

Stepping on stage, Sara raised her hand up. "Good evening everyone, we've got a rather special show today."

That wasn't her usual intro, so Harvey was a bit interested in hearing this. He didn't really notice her practicing something new, but he also hadn't really been paying much attention either.

"Today is the introduction of my assistant. She's been practicing in secret, and for the first time ever, she will perform in front of you."

For a moment, Harvey found himself confused. Mostly because to his knowledge, there hadn't been a new performer at the circus that he didn't know about.

However, all of his questions would be answered, the moment he saw the girl step on stage.

"Everyone, give a warm welcome to Luna!"

Seeing Tatiana standing on stage, Harvey felt his soul leaving his body.

He quickly tried to move onto the stage and stop her, but Grant was quick to stop him. "Stop it, she's been training for this for a while now."

This didn't help alleviate any concerns he had.

However, while he wanted to jump in and stop this from happening, there wasn't much Harvey could do, given it would ruin the show. Taking a deep breath, he could only pray that Sara trained her properly.

Back on stage, Tatiana walked around differently than she used to. This time, she was definitely trying to have all the attention on her. Now, she quickly took a bow.

She waited a few seconds, before rising back up with a smile on her face. "Welcome all!" She raised her hands in the air.

There were a lot of murmurs in the audience, given that Tatiana was about thirteen at the time, so she almost seemed way too young to be doing this.

Still, she had been training for this for the last three years, so she wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by. "You may all call me Luna." Pulling out a knife, she twirled it around a bit, before pointing the tip to Sara, who had placed herself on the wheel.

"And today is my debut!" Tatiana exclaimed, turning to face Sara completely.

It had been a year since her training on a live target started, and so far, she hadn't majorly injured Sara, so that was a good sign.

But now, Tatiana was on a stage, in front of an entire audience.

This was the point where nerves began to get to her.

But it wouldn't be her time to shine just yet.

Instead, Tatiana found herself as the target for the first bit.

When Harvey saw this, he got ready to jump on stage to stop this.

However, once again, Grant was there to stop him. "Don't ruin the show. This will be good for the circus."

Harvey really wanted to, but he couldn't just ruin anything. But seeing his daughter in danger like that…

Sara twirled around her knife, before letting it leave her hand.

As the knife flew, it struck the board right behind Tatiana, missing her by a couple inches.

With each throw, Harvey felt his soul drain from him, his fears getting the best of him.

Luckily, nothing bad happened to Tatiana, and she came out of the performance unscathed.

At least the act was over…

However, he quickly realised that it was only the beginning. When Sara got Tatiana off the board, she then placed herself on it.

"What…?" Harvey already had a bad feeling about this.

Now, Tatiana was standing center stage. And quickly, she revealed her own knife.

And that's when Harvey realised just where this was going.

Despite seeming so confident, Tatiana's hand began to shake slightly, looking at the crowd in front of her. She had only practiced with Sara, so she never really had an audience, except the rare instances when Grant came to watch.

Not only that, but they were skipping doing the dummies, and it was only Sara.

Slowly, Tatiana turned to face her, twirling the knife a bit, but quickly stopped to try and get her nerves under control.

With a very simple knife throw, she managed to stick it into the board.

The only problem was that it lacked any excitement. There was no build up. She simply threw the knife.

So while the idea of someone as young as Tatiana throwing knives was amazing, it didn't mean anything if it didn't look entertaining.

With another lacklustre throw, she began to realise that the audience didn't sound excited, which meant that she'd need to pick up the pace.

Taking a deep breath, Tatiana could feel her nerves fighting against her, but she had to fight through it.

She'd put on a show for them.

Quickly, Tatiana began to twirl her next knife around, trying to be careful as to not cut her own fingers.

Now, the audience seemed to be interested in what she was doing.

In fact, while doing this, Tatiana began to move around the stage, instead of being stuck in one spot. Her performance had to have movement, if it wanted to be good.

Not only that, but to keep the exciting up, she began to throw the knives at a quicker speed.

Less time to aim, less time to make it safe.

Honestly, she had begun to throw them faster than Sara would have risked, but each knife landed itself on the board just as the next knife was thrown out. Now this was getting the audience's attention.

After a few more knife throws, Tatiana was finally done with her performance.

Or at least that's what she thought, especially since Sara was let free from the board.

However, when a third board slowly got wheeled in, Tatiana's expression quickly paled up.

Because that wasn't any ordinary board. It was a wheel, and she knew exactly what that meant.

Looking around nervously, Tatiana's eyes eventually landed on Sara, who only gave her a nod in approval as she was strapped to this new wheel.

She had only tried this once, and it wasn't with a human target. It was with a dummy… And yet, now she was being asked to do this in front of an entire audience.

As Tatiana's hands began to shake, she reached for another one of the knives she had.

She could do this…

She practiced for this… It wasn't a person, but she had gotten pretty good with the dummy… She just had to make sure… She didn't mess this up…

Taking a deep breath, and twirling around her knife, she wanted to take it slow to begin with again.

Throwing the knife…

…

It stuck without a problem, and Tatiana felt a huge sigh of relief leave her.

However, with each throw, the speed had increased, and judging by the fact that Sara hadn't started screaming, Tatiana knew that she hadn't messed up.

Finally, when she was out of knives, she turned towards the audience, striking a pose as they cheered.

When the wheel slowed down, it revealed that not only was Sara completely fine, but that the knives had formed a symbol as well. The kanji for moon to match her stage name Luna.

Watching all of the people cheer her on, Tatiana had never felt such emotions.

Too much in fact, that she felt her legs grow weak.

Before she could fall, Harvey ran in and caught her, taking her backstage.

…

Despite Harvey's act being next, it had to be postponed, given there was a lot that needed to be talked about. For now, the other performances could go up. He needed to have a thorough conversation.

In fact, he had sat Tatiana down at the table, and was looking down at her.

After several agonising seconds of silence, she finally spoke up. "Am I in trouble…?" Like a kid trying to guilt trip by acting sad.

"How long have you been doing this?" Harvey wanted to get to the point. Because nobody picks up a skill like that overnight.

"I… Three years." Tatiana couldn't keep her eyes focused on Harvey.

Three entire years? And he hadn't realised a thing? Letting out a sigh, he shook his head. "Why? Weren't you training with me to become an animal handler?"

Tatiana lowered her head slightly. "Not that I hate it, but…" She trailed off, having difficulty finding the right words to use. "But it's just not as exciting as knife throwing…"

Shaking his head, Harvey should have figured that this was her opinion on this. After all, she had always been fascinated by knife throwing, ever since she first saw Sara perform. "But it's safer than throwing knives."

"But that's now what I want to do." Tatiana crossed her arms. "I trained really hard for this. And look!" She raised her arms in the air. "Sara was fine! She wasn't hurt a bit."

These were all fair points. Even the fact that Harvey hadn't heard of any injuries in this regard was amazing.

"And the audience loved it!" Tatiana had a bright smile on her face, no longer feeling guilty about it. "If the show could go on without a hitch on my first day… Imagine what I can do when I'm older!"

Harvey couldn't exactly fault that argument. She had performed spectacularly, and the audience did seem to love it. Not only that, but she was already close to the level that Sara was.

Deep down, he knew the person he should be mad at wasn't Tatiana. No… instead, it was… "I'll be right back."

Leaving the room, Harvey went out to find Grant, who had moved towards the back after the performance.

Seeing him, Grant had a large smile on his face. "See? Wasn't that amazing? I told you to trust me!"

"You put her in danger." Harvey was going to get right to the point. "All without telling me? What would have happened if she or Sara would have gotten hurt?"

"But here's the thing." Grant crossed his arms, that smile faded slightly. "Neither got hurt, and the show was a hit. You know that better than I do."

It was the truth, Harvey had seen the entire show play out in front of him. And while he was worried about the safety of his daughter, the performer in him couldn't deny the show he had just watched.

As much as he wanted to counter it, it was not only good for the circus, but this was something Tatiana really wanted to do… And she had the talent for it.

"Fine…" Harvey eventually relented. "But I want to supervise her when this happens, instead of being left in the dark about it."

Perfect! Just what Grant wanted to hear. Extending his arm to shake, he nodded his head. "Then you have a deal."

Once that deal was made, Harvey had to return to Tatiana.

As much as he didn't want to give his approval, he also didn't want to make her sad.

As soon as he stepped into the room again, Tatiana quickly looked off to the side, part of her still feeling guilty about lying for all of those years.

"Tatiana…" Harvey called out, in a softer tone, which caused her to look at him. "I've spoken to Grant about this, and I've decided…" Long pause. "You can continue doing this, but I have to be the one watching you when it happens."

The sparkle in her eyes became very apparent as Tatiana stood up from her chair, almost bouncing to hug him. "Thank you, dad!" She cheered out.

Now the worrying part was telling Sonia about this… She wouldn't like this one bit…

Trial Ground Beta

"..."

The room was silent, the trial was pretty much over.

However, unlike last time, there wasn't some sort of sense of victory here.

"Tatiana?" Benjamin mumbled out, still unsure about these results.

It couldn't be her… Even after everything, they all had to be wrong.

"Benjamin…" Tatiana mumbled out, still refusing to look at anyone else. "It's fine."

No… It wasn't fine. "Why would you…?" He said with a lot of sadness in his voice. "Now you'll…"

Despite the fate that awaited her, Tatiana tried to make sure her emotions didn't show. "I am very aware, yes."

"But…" Melody spoke up next, not sure what to make of any of this. "Why…?"

"You know…" Gennosuke trailed off, a smile on his face. "I've been asking the same question as you. I helped her out, but she never explained just why she was doing it."

"You know why someone had to die." Tatiana crossed her arms.

Glancing to the side, Gennosuke couldn't deny that much. "Sure, but you never exactly explained why you wanted him specifically."

Letting out a laugh, it seemed Tatiana might not even give a reason right now. "What are the many reasons for the things we do?" Soon, a frown appeared on her face.

For the time being, it didn't seem like she wanted to explain anything.

Sensing that this was going nowhere, Gemini decided to go down a different route entirely. "How about the reason you killed someone in general."

"Yeah…" Hae-Won placed her hands in her pockets. "You had that conversation with me, and then you went and killed someone right after. Kind of makes you a hypocrite, don't you think?"

"If it was about the oxygen…" Seira trailed off, a small frown on her face. "That would have been fixed. Did you not believe in us enough?"
"No, it's nothing like that." Tatiana shook her head, refusing to make eye contact. "Fixing the station wouldn't have solved the problem."

"Maybe not forever, no. But at least it would have fixed it for a fucking bit." Atlas narrowed his eyes. Honestly, it would have preferred not having this trial, given that he got his ass beat because of it.

Looking at Gennosuke, Tatiana let out a sigh. "You still have what was printed, don't you?"

Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a piece of paper, slowly unfolding it.

Looking at it, Seira recognised it as one of papers that would tell them about the asteroid. "Huh? But I didn't think I missed any."

In fact, she had all the ones that had hit so far, including the one this case was around.

Flashing a smile, Gennosuke moved over, handing it to Seira. "Then why don't you take a look at it."

She got a bit defensive when he walked over to her, but after seeing that he only wanted to hand her the paper, Seira calmed down a bit. Looking at the paper, however, caused her to feel confused.

"What…?" She mumbled out, looking at it. "I don't see the ship… There's only a large black circle…"

After a bit of pause, Seira's hands began to shake a bit, understanding just what she was looking at. "W-wait…" Slowly, she looked over at Tatiana. "You don't mean…"

"What's wrong?" Gemini had a bit of concern in her voice. "What's it showing?"

"This asteroid… This asteroid would have…"

…

"Taken out the entire station."

Hearing that, Edison had a rather concerned look on his face. "What do you mean take out the entire station?" his hand shook a bit as he swirled his flask.

"Wait a second…" Gemini slowly realised something. "That's why… That's why there weren't any new papers."

"Exactly." Nova hummed out, as her visor changed to one of joy. "Why would there need to be anything else if one more asteroid was all that was needed?"

For once, Monokawa seemed to be the one that was concerned. "Why would we want to kill them all at once…?"

"Oh, that's rather out of character for you." Nova pointed out, but she wasn't going to bring too much more attention to it.

Glancing to the side, Tatiana let out a sigh. "I checked it out a little after you all left, and I realised what it meant."

Pulling his lollipop out of his mouth, Gennosuke shrugged. "Of course, she wasn't the only one to spot it either. I followed her there."

"Would have preferred it if you didn't." Tatiana narrowed her eye.

Letting out a small chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "And why's that? We both worked together on this."

Slowly turning to look at him, Tatiana had a pretty serious look in her eye. "If I knew how you actually were, I wouldn't have let you have a hand in any of this."

"Heh…" Despite all this, Gennosuke could only seem to find amusement in all of this. "Then whatever plan you would have had would have failed. You didn't even consider the fact that someone would have been in the way… What would you have done about Atlas?"

When she first thought of the plan, there were so many factors to consider, that someone resting in the kitchen didn't even appear in her mind. Much less someone like Atlas. "I…"

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Gennosuke continued on. "Or what about if Gigi had decided to go into the control room first? You wouldn't have returned in time to create your alibi."

With everything mentioned, Tatiana felt her confidence diminish. "So what?"

"Just pointing out." Gennosuke shrugged, a grin on his face. "Either way, I'm as guilty as you are." Not something that seemed to bug him. "However, you have all the credit as the blackened."

With each word he spoke, Tatiana could only feel herself getting more pissed. "Shut up…"

Pulling out his lollipop, Gennosuke let out a laugh. "Let's be real here, you're hopeless, so why-"

Suddenly, the stick he was holding broke in half, causing the lollipop portion of it to fall to the ground.

"..." Gennosuke spent a few seconds staring at it, before looking over towards the clattering noise of a knife as it fell to the ground.

"I said… shut up…" Tatiana wasn't even looking at him when she threw it. "I don't want to hear another word from you…"

For once, Gennosuke followed her words. Mostly because there was nothing really stopping her from killing him. "Fine."

Seeing how all of this was playing out, Monokawa felt himself growing bored. "You know, I think we should move this along, shall we?"

"Wait!" Benjamin called out. "There's still a lot to talk about!"

Flying over towards him, Monokawa seemed angry. "We can talk about all of that stuff after the vote. There's still time, you know." He slowly floated away.

"Heh…" Tatiana let out a rather weak laugh. "We should just vote and get it out of the way." It was probably better this way.

For a moment, Benjamin hesitated.

"Come on Master!" Dolly called out. "It's what she wants, so wouldn't it be the best thing to do…?"

Gritting his teeth slightly, Benjamin slowly moved his hand over to vote. But he wasn't going to vote for her…

One by one, everyone put in their votes.

Once all the votes were received, Monokawa slowly rose up from his spot next to Nova. "That's all the results! Let's see who everyone voted for!"

Quickly, the results were displayed on the monitor next to him.

Tatiana: 12

Gennosuke: 3

Seeing the results, Gennosuke couldn't help but laugh. "Really now? You all wish I were the killer."

Still, he only expected to get two votes. To see himself with three was something else completely.

"It should have been more…" Benjamin mumbled out, his hand resting on his podium.

Letting out a sigh, Tatiana shook her head. "You had no reason to vote for him." Even if she was hypocritical for saying that, given she voted for him.

"But…' Benjamin mumbled out, before realising arguing this issue wasn't worth it.

However, Gennosuke was still stuck on the last person who voted for him. Scanning the trial, his eyes quickly landed on the culprit, given it was written all over his face. "That's interesting." He let out a small laugh.

Well, interesting wasn't exactly the right choice, but he didn't think they had it in them to vote for him, so he was amused anyways.

Looking at the results, Monokawa floated up. "Now, let's see if you're right about this!"

Beside him, a slot machine slowly lowered down.

Quickly, it began to spin, before landing on the first head, which belonged to Tatiana.

The slots continued on for a while longer, until the second head also landed on Tatiana.

Lastly, as the final one continued to spin, Monokawa flew over closer.

Only for it to land on Tatiana again, with words guilty right over her three heads.

Seeing the results, Monokawa flew away from the slot machine. "Tatiana is the blackened!"

Even with knowing the results would turn out this way, Benjamin found himself still not believing any of it. "No… It-" His only friend here, and he was about to lose it.

At this point he couldn't even bring himself to speak through Dolly, because he had to be genuine.

"Haha…" Tatiana let out another laugh, but this one was a bit more on the nervous side. "Fear not about my fate." Despite the fact that she was literally doing that.

The vote was right, but there were still a lot of questions…

"What…" Melody began to say, looking down at her podium. "What was Dae-Hyun planning on doing?"

Now, Tatiana wasn't the person who could answer that. "I don't know… I didn't even know he took my knife until Gigi told me. My guess is that he was trying to kill…"

"No!" Melody was quick to come to his defense, still. "He wouldn't just try and bump someone off…"

Dae-Hyun was better than what they assumed of him… There was no way…

However, a laugh interrupted Melody. That laugh was coming from Monokawa. "Is that what you really think?"

For a moment, she froze up, unsure what he was even implying. "What are you…?"

Letting out a happy sigh, Monokawa continued. "Truth be told, Dae-Hyun was planning on killing someone today. His target was whoever sent that letter."

"Which he would have figured out was me." Gennosuke couldn't help but grin. "There was no way Atlas would have been able to send the letter."

"Then… FUCK!" Atlas realised that had he not attacked Dae-Hyun, then they could have at least killed Gennosuke together. "Piece of shit…"

"But… But why?" Melody held her head in her hands, shaking her head. "I don't believe this! He wouldn't have brought us to this trial, so why would he-"

Some angry grumbling came from Monokawa, as he floated back and forth. "That's the thing! You're right!"

"Huh?" Melody looked a bit confused when he said that. "What do you… mean?"

"If Dae-Hyun had been the killer, he would have…"

…

"Confessed right on the spot."

Hearing that, Melody didn't know what to say… He would have confessed on the spot? Somehow… That reminded her exactly of the Dae-Hyun she knew.

"He would have… what?" Tatiana, however, wasn't glad to hear any of that. "..." She glanced towards the ground.

"How do you know he would have confessed?" Gemini was a bit confused on that part. He didn't expect Monokawa to know about Dae-Hyun like that.

"Never mind that." Gigi had other things she wanted to focus on. "If his goal was never to get away with it, why didn't he just tell us what was going on?"

"Because…" Michael mumbled out, shaking his head. "If we knew… We wouldn't have let him do it."

Biting her lip slightly, Gigi immediately backed down from her own thoughts. Because he was right… Had she known, she would have stopped him. She didn't understand the full image, but to her, murder was still murder.

"Honestly, the real question you should be asking yourself is… Why was he so ready to try and murder someone?" Gennosuke grinned slightly.

"To protect Melody, obviously." Edison felt like the answer was a little too obvious.

"No…" May hummed out, thinking for a moment. "We're missing something else…"

Seira stopped to think for a moment… What else could they be missing? Dae-Hyun's motive was clearly to protect Melody… What other motive would she have…

And that's when the idea clicked to her… "Hey… What was Dae-Hyun's secondary motive?"

As if wanting for someone to ask that question, May was ready to answer. "His… Was a threat."

And that's when it all clued in for Melody… "Oh…" She remembered the conversation they had had before.

"His motive… was the lives of his students…" She felt herself freeze up again, because she can't imagine how Dae-Hyun must have been feeling these past couple of days.

"Exactly!" Monokawa let out a laugh. "The lives of Dae-Hyun's past students were held against him! If nobody were to die, well then… They'd just have to be one who kills." He covered his mouth with his paws.

"That's…" Hae-Won narrowed her eyes. "Why would you do something like that?"

The laughter continued as Monokawa slowly lowered to the ground. "Because those are the only people I could have threatened to get a reaction out of him. It worked like a charm!" He raised his paw up.

Melody held onto her podium, trying not to let her tears fall to the ground. "You… You are…" She wanted to call him a monster, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

"You know what!" Monokawa still couldn't contain himself. "How about I show you what he was doing in his final moments? Would that make it up for you?"

Melody perked up slightly, but quickly realised that wasn't exactly a good thing. "Why would you show…"

"Too late!" Monokawa was having too much fun already. "Let's show the footage!" A screen slowly lowered down, allowing all fifteen participants to watch the footage of Dae-Hyun's final moments alive.

Ultimate Talent Manager Station

What a letter to wake up to…

Everything was going fine… Fine until Dae-Hyun woke up this morning.

Staring at the letter in front of him, the intent of the letter was pretty obvious. Someone had to die.

While the letter described that it was a choice of himself and Melody, Dae-Hyun viewed it in a different light.

Melody was not going to be in danger, because he would show up there.

At that point, the person in danger is either Dae-Hyun, or the person who sent out this letter.

He already knew there was no chance to stop Melody from boarding the ship. And that proved itself to be the case when she told him otherwise.

Letting out a sigh, Dae-Hyun slowly stood up.

An asteroid, huh? He was worried, but for the time being, Seira had reassured that something like that wouldn't happen. At least that's what she said yesterday.

Who knows if that still holds true.

Walking out of his own station, Dae-Hyun looked over towards the cafeteria.

At this point, most people were gone, which meant nobody would see him now.

Taking the elevator up to the second floor, Dae-Hyun made his way towards the Mu Sector.

Or, at least that's where his end goal was. For now, he made a detour towards a different room.

Tatiana's room. Looking into it, the first thing he noticed was that the curtain had fallen onto the stage.

From a quick scan of the stage, Dae-Hyun was able to conclude that the rope for it was missing. "Hmm…"

But that's not why he was here. Moving away from the stage, he stopped when he arrived at the knife rack. It contained the knives Tatiana used for her show, and only one seemed to be missing.

But that didn't mean much for him, given that he knew Tatiana had her signature knife on her.

Taking a random knife, he moved out of the room, with navigation as his next destination.

Given it had a view of the repair ship, if something were to happen, he'd be able to see it himself…

…

Just like Dae-Hyun feared, the worst had happened.

An asteroid had hit, which meant his timer had started now.

He wasn't sure who the body belonged to, but he knew it wasn't Melody.

But if Dae-Hyun didn't act now, then she could very well wind up dead.

Boarding the shuttle with Edison, Gigi, and Michael, he mostly remained silent, only throwing in a comment whenever he felt the need to.

He knew his path.

As soon as the shuttle docked to the ship, Edison opened the door.

At first, the room was dark, but it quickly light up with red lights, only to return to darkness.

"Looks like Benjamin hit the emergency button." Gigi noted, frowning slightly.

Dae-Hyun took a step forward, ready to head further into the ship, until he realised just what the problem with doing any of that was. "Really…?" All the doors were locked, making travel much more difficult.

Luckily, he had a backup plan if things were to go wrong.

"Don't worry." Gigi reached into her pocket, pulling out a keycard. "We kept one on the station just in case something like this happened." Despite saying that, she didn't seem to move right away. "That was the lower airlock, right?"

Adjusting his goggles, Edison nodded along. "Right! Which means it's probably not Seira, Laki, and Hae-Won, right?"

Now, Dae-Hyun wasn't too sure about that. There's no way they kill Melody off now to lure him in, so she's already off the table. They were running out of potential suspects. "I wouldn't make any assumptions…" He crossed his arms.

"Yeah… Let's not make any assumptions…" Michael slowly moved over towards the door.

Quickly, Gigi scanned her card against the leftmost door, walking in.

Edison and Michael followed behind her, but something caught her attention. "Are you coming with us or not?"

Dae-Hyun's eyes slowly moved over to focus on the vent, not that they could notice that. "I'll… I'll join up with you two soon…"

They had made a fatal error here… The doors would take too long, so Dae-Hyun was going to take the more direct path.

Once the lights had turned off, he dropped down into the vent, which seemed to be roomy enough for him to walk around comfortably.

Perfect… That's all he needed…

Slowly, Dae-Hyun travelled down the vents. The darkness didn't help, but for the most part, it was a straight line, with only two turns, so he just fully sent it.

Once he had reached the end of the vent, he slowly opened up the vent, moving out of it quickly.

What Dae-Hyun hadn't expected was for a fight to be happening.

With a brief flashing light, he saw both Gennosuke and Atlas engaged in some kind of fight…

Although… Even calling it a fight was pathetic, given that Atlas didn't seem to know where Gennosuke was, while the latter knew exactly what he was doing.

It didn't take long for Dae-Hyun to clue in to just who sent out the letter… Gennosuke had done it.

Gold star to anyone who can figure out why Atlas couldn't write the letter. It's a very difficult question.

Unfortunately, things wouldn't go as planned. Taking a step forward into the room, his presence was made known.

Not by Gennosuke, but instead by Atlas.

And that was the worst person Dae-Hyun could have alerted.

In one swift motion that he couldn't see, he felt a foot connect with his head, slamming it down into the counter with enough force to knock him out…

Leaving him unconscious, never to wake up again…

Seeing all of that play out… It didn't raise Melody's mood at all.

In fact, it only made her cry some more. "Why…" She only wished that Dae-Hyun had spoken to her. Maybe she would have understood then… But…

To save her, and his former students… He had so much on his plate, and Melody never realised a thing.

"Still…" Gigi crossed her arms. She was going to sound a bit insensitive with what she was going to ask, but it felt worth discussing. "To resort to murder so fast? I know Melody and the others were on the line, but why did he wait until now to act? All the setup he did was done today."

"He was probably hoping someone else would kill before his threat became a problem." Atlas pointed out. "Melody being in danger made him get the fuck up for once."

"But…" Lorelei had a different idea on their mind. "Why the fuck would he kill for someone like Melody."

The tap dancer wanted to respond, but she felt her heart get caught up, so she remained silent.

Which allowed Lorelei free range to continue. "Like, we've only known each for around two weeks. Why would you go that far for someone you just met?"

Letting out a sigh, Gemini shook his head. "I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that question."

Well…

There was one person who could answer that question.

Leaning on the podium slightly, Melody found herself staring at the ground, before letting out a sigh. "The fella didn't want to lose another student."

Given how closed off everyone else was, this was the first time anyone had ever heard of something like this.

"One of his students died…?" Seira repeated.

"Yup!" Monokawa raised a hand in the air. "Well, more specifically she kind of killed herself." He let his body float around, lifelessly, as if he was hanging from the ceiling.

"Stop that." Gigi frowned, pulling out a yellow card. "You shouldn't make light of something like that."

Frowning slightly, Hae-Won thought for a moment. "Who was his student?"

Melody wanted to be the one to answer the question, but Dae-Hyun had never provided the answer to her, so she remained silent.

In fact, even Monokawa expected her to have the answer, so he was a bit surprised that she didn't.

Seeing that even Monokawa was lost, Nova let out a sigh. "The name of his first student was Ming-Hee Song."

Hearing that, Hae-Won had to think for a bit… She figured that Dae-Hyun's students would be from Korea, but this was actually name that… "Wait…" It slowly clicked. "That was his student?" She didn't really care about all of that stuff, but Ming-Hee had become a rather big name in Korea. And when she lost her life, the story had been extensively covered.

"Who was she?" Seira looked over at her.

Taking a deep breath, Hae-Won didn't feel like it was her place to say any of this. "Honestly, she was a lot. She started off as an actress, but quickly grew to eventually become an idol. My friend Raven was a fucking big fan of hers."

How did she never realise that Dae-Hyun had been her talent manager this entire time. "But, that's all I really know. I didn't pay much attention to the news, y'know. Wasn't my type of shit."

"But you want to know who does know?" Monokawa slowly floated up, before pointing to himself. "That's right! Me!"

Nova's visor switched to one with a frown. "Monokawa, that isn't ours to reveal."

Shrugging, he didn't seem to care. "What? He's dead, it's not like he can tell us."

"You know that's not…" Nova cut herself off, before shaking her head.

Hae-Won frowned slightly. "You shouldn't reveal stuff like that. It should be private."

"And yet…" Monokawa let himself float down. "We know about it. Wild how things like that happen."

"That's because of L-" Once again, Nova had to cut herself off. "I advise you don't say anything."

But still, it didn't seem like Monokawa was going to heed her warning. "Aw, I'm just having a little fun. Besides, I know a few people would want to know why Dae-Hyun did the things he did, isn't that right, Melody?" He turned his head to look over at her.

She couldn't deny it… She only got the rough story from Dae-Hyun… But she wanted to know the whole thing.

Of course, she wouldn't admit to it, so instead, Melody only looked away, refusing to answer him.

"See?" A smile appeared on Nova's visor. "You can drop this entirely."

"No." Monokawa was determined, so he wasn't going to wait for anyone else to ask for it, he was just going to deliver the news.

On the monitor, several news clippings appeared, detailing most of the events that followed.

It had been a few months since Dae-Hyun had become Ming-Hee's manager, after the last one quit right in front of him.

They had poked fun at him, telling him he'd just fail like they had. But no, here he was, still months later, having been the most successful manager by far.

Dae-Hyun had been right about the others… They didn't know what they were doing. But him? He actively made Ming-Hee's life better, finding the perfect balance in her school life, and her acting life.

Hell, Dae-Hyun had even gotten her to spend a little less time in the spotlight, and more time focusing on school, given that she was falling behind in her classes, and he couldn't have her failing school.

But for the moment, none of that was really the issue… It was this upcoming show of hers that worried Dae-Hyun slightly.

It's nothing he signed her up for, but Ming-Hee had been so adamant about applying, that he eventually caved in.

The show in question was called "Young and Beloved". It was a show about the upcoming stars, more specifically kids and teenagers.

Honestly, the reason he was against the show was because Dae-Hyun didn't think she would even need this to rise to the top, but he also didn't want to disappoint her either.

That's where Dae-Hyun found himself at the moment, on the set of the show.

Ming-Hee had just finished her appearance on the show, and was currently still on set.

Not wanting to keep her alone, Dae-Hyun stepped onto stage. "How did it go?"

Letting out a small laugh, she shook her head. "Why are you asking me that, you saw the whole thing."

True, but it was good to ask her opinion on it. "Well, you wanted this so much, so I thought I'd ask…" Dae-Hyun crossed his arms.

Suddenly, however, another one of her castmates would come running up to her. "Ming-Hee." He called out, in a rather lovely tone.

Not wanting to be part of this conversation, Dae-Hyun took a step back to let the two talk. All he knew was that this was Nam-Seon, someone who was beloved. More so than Ming-Hee, it felt.

"Yeah? What's up?" She had a bright smile, talking to him.

Flashing a smile at her, Nam-Seon tried to play it cool. "Honestly, you were really wonderful out there. I bet you all eyes were on you."

"Oh!" Ming-Hee hadn't expected the flirting, but she wasn't going to shut him down, mostly because she didn't want to make assumptions. "Thank you, you were pretty wonderful too."

Taking a step closer, Nam-Seon nodded his head. "I'm glad you think so." Now he was getting a bit too close.

This was making Ming-Hee a bit nervous, because she didn't see him in that way at all. "Honestly, I should get going, I have some other things to do." Clearly trying to find a way to end the conversation.

"Really? I was thinking about inviting you to dinner tonight." As he said that, Nam-Seon put a hand on her hip.

Before anything else could happen, though, Dae-Hyun had moved in, slapping his hand away, and shoving him to the ground. "Keep your hands to yourself."

As soon as Nam-Seon recovered, he slowly got up. "What was that for?"

"I don't need someone like you talking to her." Dae-Hyun didn't even bother looking at him. After all, he didn't see a spark in him like he did for Ming-Hee. "Nobody should be wasting time talking to someone like you."

Despite this, Nam-Seon tried to act innocent. "Where is this coming from?"

Now wanting to waste any more time, Dae-Hyun escorted Ming-Hee out. "Learn how to act like a decent person." He could have said more hateful things, but he didn't have the energy for it. Especially not on someone worthless like that.

Now that they were out of the studio, Ming-Hee let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you for that… I didn't know what to say to him…"

"It's fine…" That's why Dae-Hyun was there after all. To make sure she's kept safe. The entertainment industry was not a kind place.

…

It had been a few days since Nam-Seon had tried to make a move on Ming-Hee, so Dae-Hyun had pretty much forgotten about it, given he had found the boy to be insignificant.

At the moment, he was with Ming-Hee, given that she had a show to go to in the morning, and it was easier to travel together.

"Ugh…" She mumbled out, looking through her phone. "There's another post like this…"

"Hmm?" Dae-Hyun didn't really care much about social media. "What kind of post."

At first, Ming-Hee didn't want to say it, but she also didn't want to keep it a secret. "There's… There's posts online bashing you…"

What? That was the first he'd ever heard of it. Getting up from his chair, Dae-Hyun walked over to her. "Can I see?"

Hesitantly, Ming-Hee handed him her phone.

Sure enough, there were a few posts calling him various things like jealous, and violent. "What?" How could something like this happen? "What are these from?"

"I'm trying to figure that out." The fact that they even seemingly knew Dae-Hyun's name was a bit worrisome. He didn't really have a presence on social media, so how would they know who he was?

It didn't take long for Ming-Hee to find the source of the posts. "Oh…"

In view of Dae-Hyun, she played the video. And it was a moment he remembered very clearly. However, in the video, it was much different than what he knew happened.

As Ming-Hee was getting ready to leave the stage, she heard a voice call out to her. "Ming-Hee."

It had been none other than Nam-Seon, who came to her side.

A smile appeared on Ming-Hee's face as he approached her. "Yeah? What's up?" She glanced off to the side, but Dae-Hyun was off screen, so he wasn't visible.

Smiling brightly at her, Nam-Seon tried to be as nice as possible. "Honestly, you were really wonderful out there. I bet you all eyes were on you."

"Oh!" Ming-Hee responded before returning the compliment. "Thank you, you were pretty wonderful too."

"I'm glad you think so." Nam-Seon wanted to get closer to continue the conversation.

However, before anything else could happen, Dae-Hyun moved in and shoved him to the ground.

Obviously, Nam-Seon was a bit confused. "What was that for?"

"I don't need someone like you talking to her." It was impossible to see Dae-Hyun's expression, but it felt like he viewed himself better than Nam-Seon. "Nobody should be wasting time talking to someone like you."

Getting onto his feet, he was obviously confused. "Where is this coming from?"

However, without responding, Dae-Hyun escorted Ming-Hee off the stage.

"..." Dae-Hyun watched the entire video in silence.

"Like, what is this?" Ming-Hee pouted slightly. "They completely edited around the part where he touched me. They keep saying that you're just jealous, and painting you in a bad light."

However, unlike her, Dae-Hyun didn't really seem to care that much. "Why would something like that bother me? None of it is true, and I don't really care about my public image…" After all, he was just a manager.

"Still…" It bothered Ming-Hee, especially to see them bad mouthing Dae-Hyun like this. "You should care about something like this. It's not true, so why…"

Before she could keep going, he cut her off. "Let people talk. A topic like this will be dropped in time, when people stop carrying. Bringing more attention to it will only cause more problems…" He walked back over to his desk, clearly done with this conversation.

Still… Ming-Hee knew she couldn't let something like this go… She'd need to do something…

…

Here Ming-Hee was, sitting down for an interview. Like she told herself a few days ago, she had to do something about all these terrible posts that had been circling around. It had only gotten worse in the last couple of days.

It was about halfway through the interview, and it almost felt like Ming-Hee was going to have to bring the subject up herself.

Luckily, the interviewer was the one who asked first. "So how about all those posts about your manager, Dae-Hyun? I can't believe he'd go out of his way and attack Nam-Seon like that. It must be awful to have such a jealous manager like that."

Ming-Hee could feel her blood boil over with rage at the thought of them treating him like that. "That's not at all what happened. Dae-Hyun is a great manager. He only did that because Nam-Seon wouldn't leave me alone."

"Oh really? That's not what it looks like." The interviewer played the clip of Dae-Hyun shoving him. "From the looks of it, it felt like Dae-Hyun attacked him for no reason."

Quickly, Ming-Hee stood up, clearly ticked off. "No! That's not what happened. I was there, and Nam-Seon was touching me. Anyone who makes fun of Dae-Hyun is clearly out of their mind!"

"Once again, that's not what's shown on camera." But that got the interviewer thinking. "Is there a reason you're trying to protect him?"

"What?" Ming-Hee was rather confused on where this was going.

The interviewer couldn't help but laugh. "It sounds less like he's your manager, and more that he's your boyfriend."

A faint blush appeared on Ming-Hee's face. "W-What? N-No! It's not like that! All I'm saying is-"

…

Ming-Hee stopped the video of the interview, a frown on her face.

She tried to fix things for Dae-Hyun, but it only made things worse.

Now, instead of people just bashing Dae-Hyun online, she had started to receive some messages as well.

"She's an idol but has a boyfriend? Doesn't she even start to think about how her fans would feel about that?"

"Now that I know she's seeing someone, I don't think I'm interested in watching her anymore."

Those were the ones that didn't cut as deeply. But then there were others, more specifically from fans of Nam-Seon, who would do anything to defend him.

"Does she put on a nice face for every guy that walks her way? What a fucking whore."

"Flirting with her manager and Nam-Seon? What? Just because she thinks she's pretty, she can have them both? What a bitch."

With every message she read, Ming-Hee felt her soul slowly leave her body. She was on the verge of crying.

It was at this time that Dae-Hyun had arrived back. It didn't take him long to notice something was off. "What's wrong?"

Ming-Hee tried her best to hide her tears, but her voice betrayed her. "Everything's… fine…" Her voice cracked slightly.

Not waiting for her to give an actual answer, Dae-Hyun swiped the phone out of her hand, looking through the posts. "What… What did you do?"

"I… I had an interview today and…" Ming-Hee hugged her knees. "I tried to defend you, but…"

This was exactly what he warned her about. Letting out a sigh, Dae-Hyun returned the phone to her. "I told you not to say anything… Just… Ignore it, and it'll eventually go away. Got it?"

Ming-Hee wasn't sure about that part, but last time she went against him, it only got worse. "Got it…" If she just ignored it, it'd go away…

…

But it never did. The posts online only go worse. Especially when people found out that the two of them were living together.

More than once was Dae-Hyun forced to call the police because someone had attempted to break into their house.

They had already needed to move twice because of it, but it wouldn't be long before someone doxxed them again.

And that wasn't the only issue…

"What do you mean?" Dae-Hyun was currently taking a rather important phone call for an upcoming gig that Ming-Hee was supposed to have. "None of that is true, so why would-" He had to calm himself down. Letting out a sigh, he continued. "Yes… I get it. Goodbye." He hung up the phone.

"What was that for?" Ming-Hee had been listening the entire time.

Letting his head rest in his hands, Dae-Hyun shook his head. "One of your gigs just cancelled."

"What…? That's the third one in the last two weeks." Ming-Hee let herself fall onto the couch… "Why…?"

Everything around her was crumbling down.

But she still wanted to stay positive about all of this. "You know what, they were probably things I wasn't looking forward to anyways. This whole thing will blow over after a while."

After all, that's what Dae-Hyun said last time, and she was going to hope the same thing.

However, he noticed something might be off. "Are you sure?" It must have been her tone of voice or… something. He just had this feeling.

Tilting her head to the side, Ming-Hee had a rather innocent looking expression. "Why wouldn't it be alright? I've honestly gotten used to it."

Almost as if forgetting she was an actor, Dae-Hyun chose to believe her. She seemed genuine when she said it. "Alright, I trust you."

Still… What were they going to do now, she only had a few shows left, and more places were calling off because of bad publicity. Once this whole thing blew over, things would finally return to normal.

That's what she hoped at least…

…

Dae-Hyun had been a little late getting back home. He figured it was best for Ming-Hee to not go out in public right now, given that all eyes were on her, and he knew she wouldn't want the negative attention.

As for Dae-Hyun? He couldn't care less about what other people thought of him. To him, they were all just annoying pests, so he found it better to ignore them.

With the errands for the day done, Dae-Hyun reached out for his keys, he unlocked the door.

"I'm back Ming-Hee." He called out, turning on the lights.

However, he even found that part odd, given that she should have at least turned on the lights.

Not only that, but he hadn't gotten a response back from her. "Ming-Hee?" He called out again, setting the groceries down onto the table.

Now he was getting worried.

Maybe he shouldn't have left, given that their address might have gotten leaked again, but had made sure everything was fine.

"Ming-Hee?" Dae-Hyun called out again, turning on the lights as he went through the house. "Are you sleeping?"

It wasn't late, but maybe she wasn't feeling good.

For someone so pessimistic, he just kept thinking of explanations for why she wouldn't respond.

What he hadn't expected was to open her door, and see a sight that he would never forget.

Sometimes, it takes a few seconds for something to register in your mind, especially when it's something so unbelievable that you can't comprehend it.

"Ming-Hee…?" Dae-Hyun mumbled out rather weakly as he looked up at her body, suspended from the ceiling, gently swaying.

Everything would come crashing down from that very moment…

It was much worse than Melody could have ever imagined. Like he said… if only Dae-Hyun knew about what she was going through…

"That bastard…" Hae-Won couldn't help but get angry. "Nam-Seon would later be exposed as a creep and was pretty much barred from joining shows again. To think he started this whole thing…" She gritted her teeth.

"Is there anything else you know…?" Melody felt like the only person she could ask was her.

Letting out a sigh, Hae-Won nodded her head. "Yeah… Raven was pretty mad when it happened. Fans online immediately tried to play it off, like the posts made were all just a joke she couldn't take. They refused to take accountability…"

It was nothing less than horrible… Melody had a few more tears run down her cheek. "All… Awful…" Why did the world have to be this cruel?

"To avoid someone he cares about dying again…" Gemini trailed off. "He wanted to kill to protect."

Gigi found herself at a loss of words, turning the other way.

It was still murder, but…

"I'm sorry Dae-Hyun…" Melody mumbled.

Just like Ming-Hee, she hadn't listened to his warnings, and went off doing her own thing.

"So!" Monokawa floated back to be beside Nova again. "That's all I have about Dae-Hyun. Hope you are satisfied with the answer."

How could anyone like an answer like that? The room mostly remained in silence.

Until Tatiana spoke up. "I… I didn't know he went through something like that." And yet, she went ahead with this plan of hers.

"Oh right!" Monokawa lifted his arms in the air. "How could we forget about the blackened?"

Tatiana delivered a glare with her one eye, before turning towards everyone. "I guess I should go into details on how the murder happened on my end."

"You probably should." Gennosuke was making it very obvious that he wasn't going to mention anything on his part.

Letting out a sigh, Tatiana began her explanation.

Kitchen

After making sure Benjamin was too focused on piloting the repair ship to even notice that she had slipped away, Tatiana had jumped into the vent in her room, crawling over towards the kitchen.

However, there was a problem.

Atlas.

She was worried about someone being here during the entire situation, and Tatiana knew that their plans had to change the moment that Atlas said he'd find himself in the kitchen.

Which meant that she couldn't simply move over to the other side without Atlas catching her.

Not that catching her meant anything in the long run, but she wanted to be safe.

Which meant that Tatiana would just need to wait for Gennosuke to do his part of the plan.

Taking a deep breath, she waited for what felt like a bit.

Finally, the vent over the kitchen slowly opened, and Gennosuke quickly dropped down from the ceiling, something Atlas hadn't even noticed, given he wasn't looking in that direction.

As soon as the fight started, Tatiana used this opportunity to jump through the kitchen, straight into the other vent. As soon as she was through, she grabbed the helmet she'd use, removing the sleeve from around her injury, and letting it bleed a bit.

Using the extra skirt she managed to sneak on, she spread the blood, before quickly putting the suit on.

Violently, the ship shook, which meant Tatiana was running out of time to pull this plan off. Placing the hook on just as the lights went out, she moved over towards the button, making sure her helmet was secured.

With one last deep breath, Tatiana hit the button, sending her flying into space.

It was the first time for her to experience this, which did cause her to briefly panic.

However, Tatiana had no time to take in the sensation, given that she had to act like a dead body floating in space.

The worst part was not being able to see anything because of the blood covering her visor.

And a feeling of hopelessness overtook Tatiana, which quickly faded away when she felt a slight tug pulling her back.

Letting out a sigh, Tatiana couldn't help but feel a pane of guilt. Without even knowing it, Benjamin was helping her commit murder.

He'd understand, wouldn't he?

Once Tatiana was back in the ship, Tatiana hit the button, closing the doors behind her.

Time was running out.

Slowly, she removed her suit, holding onto the button and the hook. Then, she made sure to grab the skirt she had used to smear the blood.

Moving through the vent, Tatiana met up with the aftermath of what Gennosuke had done. "You… You knocked them both out?"

"Eh…" Gennosuke didn't feel like lying. "Atlas took care of Dae-Hyun, and I finished the rest."

That wasn't part of the plan, but it worked in her favour, so Tatiana should count herself lucky.

"Shit…" Although, with each passing moment, she wasn't sure about any of this. Was this really what had to be done?

With a lollipop in hand, Gennosuke looked down at her. "You know, they'll be here any moment. At this rate, we'll be caught red handed…"

"Right, right." Tatiana couldn't have seconds thoughts now of all times. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the tattoo needle she had stolen earlier.

Using the button, she was able to morph a suit around Dae-Hyun, before stabbing him right in the shoulder.

"Oh…" Tatiana reached over, handing him part of her skirt. "Are you able to get rid of this?"

"Yeah, I can burn it." Gennosuke didn't really seem to have much of a problem. "I'm going to get ready to leave now." Time was running out after all.

Nodding her head along, Tatiana hooked Dae-Hyun up, before moving over towards the airlock.

Using the crank, she was able to reel him back in through the vent without too much trouble.

Now comes the difficult part.

Making the throw in one try.

Sure, Tatiana was confident, but there was still a chance she messed this up.

Making sure the helmet was on, she took a few steps back, holding on tightly to the tattoo needle.

Without any further hesitation, Tatiana waited until the lights went out, and the eject button slowly glowed to life, telling her where to aim.

With one swift motion, the tattoo needle had left her hand, and flew in an arc towards the button, hitting it dead on.

The moment it connected, the doors in front of her closed, and she watched as Dae-Hyun was ejected out of the ship.

There was no time to come to terms with what she just did, because Tatiana had to quickly retreat back into the vent, just as two people walked into the airlock.

Waiting for a bit, the two quickly left, with their next destination being very clear…

The control room.

When the duo was gone, Tatiana exited the vent, to run across to the other side, just so she could get into the other vent.

Crawling her way over to the communication room, she moved out of her vent, moving to be under the console.

Now Tatiana just had to wait for the others to show up to confirm her alibi.

It wouldn't take long for the door to open up.

"Tatiana!" Gigi blurted out, storming into the room.

While she had been expecting them, she wasn't expecting them to be so loud. Quickly, she raised her head up, slamming it right into the console. "OW! Don't surprise me like that!"

"Huh…" Edison walked into the room, a look of concern on his face. "What… What are you doing?"

Quickly jumping onto her feet, Tatiana tried to play it off, and solidify her alibi. "Well, I tried to call you guys after the asteroid struck the ship, however, you refused to answer. Instead of assuming I was being completely ignored, I realised that nobody was speaking on the earpieces, so I assumed that the communication line was broken."

Raising an eyebrow, Gigi looked over at her work. "And… You thought to fix it?"

"I was trapped in a single room. I was doing what I thought I could do." Tatiana had a rather deadpan expression when she said this.

"Did you make any progress?" Edison was a bit curious on that part.

Of course not, she wasn't actually here. Obviously, Tatiana couldn't answer that. "Haha! Absolutely not! I am not an electrician."

Edison took a step back, clearly not expecting that as a response. "Then why even try-"

Not wanting to waste any more time, Gigi stepped over towards the door. "We need to get to the control room."

Obviously, Tatiana was just lucky that they decided to do this after. "It was just a simple asteroid, the ship should be fin-"

"There's a body." Gigi didn't even bother to look at her.

Now, Tatiana wasn't expecting her to be so nonchalant about it, but she had to play it off. "I- What? What do you need the control room for, then? I hope you aren't implying Benjamin is dead-"

"It's in the lower airlock, we need to recall the body." Gigi explained as she scanned her card.

Now comes the real problem… Tatiana couldn't let any of them use the control room, or else the illusion would be broken.

So she had to quickly move into the room, only to be greeted by Dolly. "There you are! I closed the doors like you said, but then I realised I was trapped!"

It wasn't ideal for Dolly to bring up the fact that it was Tatiana's idea in the first place, but that didn't matter at the moment.

So instead, she completely ignored them, making sure to hide the buttons from them. First, she hit the "vent" button to recall the hook to collect Dae-Hyun. "There! You should be able to go now!" Then she turned off the emergency lights. "Lights should be back to normal, and I opened all the vents. The doors need to be opened manually, however…"

For a moment, she was worried about being caught in a lie, but instead, something else happened.

Instead of thinking anything of it, Gigi thanked her instead, before leaving with Edison.

Once they were gone, Tatiana let out a sigh of relief.

"Is everything alright?" Dolly found that odd, but didn't think much of it.

Nodding her head, Tatiana placed a hand on her hip. "Yes, I'm just glad you are safe."

"I didn't even notice…" Benjamin shook his head. He had been so occupied with piloting the ship, he never noticed that Tatiana had completely vanished.

"I'm sorry…" Tatiana hung her head low. "I'm sorry I used you in this murder, but it was the only way to pull it off."

"There's…" Melody began to say, cutting herself off to let her emotions calm down. She still wasn't alright after Dae-Hyun's past was revealed to her. "I have one question…"

Tatiana knew that people wouldn't let her go that easily. "Haha… Ask away!" She tried to put on a smile, but none of this warranted it.

"I…" Melody began to say. "I want to know why you chose Dae-Hyun specifically…" Even with all the reasoning given, nothing pointed specifically to him.

None of it made any sense.

Letting out a small sigh, Tatiana leaned her head back, before her one eye began to focus on Monokawa.

"What are you looking at?" Despite asking this, he knew exactly why.

"I wonder if it's truly alright to even bring up, or if someone will hope to cut my life short if I ever utter the words." Tatiana was still looking at him, narrowing her eye.

Covering his mouth with his paws, Monokawa let out a laugh. "Oh? Do you wish to test your fate? I wouldn't really count on it quite yet."

Thinking it over for a moment, Tatiana weighed her options.

Either way, she was going to die, there was no stopping that.

So if she was going to die, she'd rather go out fighting. "Haha!" The laugh that Tatiana would normally do had returned. "You think I was going to go down so easily? I fear not for your rules."

Hearing the word rules, that seemed to perk up Gigi. "What do you mean about the rules?"

Knowing how she was, Tatiana was glad that she caught on to the word. "Haha, it seems I have been mistaken on a word used. I must have mistaken what "save" meant…"

Gigi didn't change her facial expression, but she did glance off to the side.

"You know exactly what I mean, don't you?" Tatiana didn't even have to look at Gigi to confirm anything. The girl was obsessed about rules…

There was no way she would have missed one without asking questions.

"Stop talking." Monokawa practically ordered her.

But no, she wasn't going to stop.

Quickly, Tatiana jumped back onto her podium. "But the show has just started! Why would I stop right now?"

"Wow! You really do want to die! Well, I'll be more than happ-"

However, he ended up missing her, because something threw him off course.

A knife embedded in his forehead.

"Stop talking." Tatiana frowned, having thrown the knife directly at Monokawa this time, with full intent.

After a brief moment of panicking, Monokawa pulled out the knife, causing his red eye to glitch out for a moment. "You… You…"

A rule broken.

Aiming his arm at her, an electrical sound could be heard.

It didn't take long for Tatiana to know what was about to happen, as a beam flew towards her.

With quick movement, she was able to avoid most of the attack.

However, slowly, something began to flutter towards the ground.

An eyepatch, which caused Tatiana to look away from everyone else for a moment. "I no longer care about your rules, as they don't make much sense."

Honestly, Monokawa was just shocked he had missed. Then again, he had never needed to actually shoot someone yet, so he was a bit rusty. "Stop talking, or the next one will hit."

Letting out another laugh, Tatiana shook her head. "Will it? You seem to have an abysmal aim, so I doubt it."

Looking at her direction, Gigi spoke up. "Are you referring to the missing one?"

Perfect, the conversation was still going. "You've never brought it up to any of us, so I assume you already know what it is."

For a moment, Gigi didn't respond, remaining silent.

This could only really be one thing.

However, Gigi didn't want to make any mention to it, given she was worried about what Monokawa might do to her. But she knew exactly what it was about. "What about it?"

Seeing that she had some sort of understanding, that's all Tatiana needed to know. "It's very faulty in how the rule works, don't you think?"

"Stop talking." Given that his aim was off, he was just going to have to lunge at her himself. Quickly, Monokawa flew towards Tatiana, who expertly avoided it by blocking his claws with her knife.

"Haha! Nice try, but you aren't very much of a challenge." She taunted, moving over to a different empty podium.

Honestly, with how skilled Tatiana was, it seemed like she was going to have the upper hand. She wanted to reveal so much, but having Nova join into the fight wouldn't be beneficial.

"Just! Stop!" Monokawa was getting no ground on her, and it would be a bit before he could fire another shot.

Which meant he'd actually have to use his words this time.

Backing away from her, a dark gleam appeared in his red eye, glitching out for a second, before he began to laugh.

And it wasn't a good laugh either. "What…" Tatiana felt herself getting nervous again. "What are you laughing about this time?"

"Oh, I just wanted to know if you really want to die right now? When there's so much that hasn't been answered?"

This did cause Tatiana to stop for a brief moment. "What… What are you talking about?"

Monokawa let out another laugh. "What I want to know is…"

…

"Don't you wish to learn the truth about what happened to your mother?" Monokawa looked down at her.

For a moment, Tatiana felt herself freeze up, just like she was on that stage the first time. "What…?" Her eye didn't even bother focusing on him.

"Don't you remember what your secondary motive was?" Monokawa covered his mouth with his paws.

It took a few seconds, but May came with the answer. "It was Truth…"

"Given that she completed a murder, then the rules say she's earned the answer to a question." Gigi frowned slightly.

Benjamin looked over to her, a worried expression on his face. "You never mentioned anything about your mother…"

"I…" In a moment, the fight had completely left Tatiana. "What… What happened to her…" She had been eating herself about what she thought the answer could be for years…

"There, calm down, will you?" Good, they stopped fighting, which meant they were less likely to reveal anything worthwhile.

Covering his mouth, Monokawa let out another laugh. "After all, you just did a similar trick to what actually happened."

"I… What?" Tatiana didn't recall doing anything remotely similar.

"How about I tell you about it, then?" This was always the fun part!

Well, besides the execution.

This was a close second.

Letting out a sigh, Tatiana wanted to know the truth, no matter what… Even if she knew she would hate the answer she receives.

Things had gotten rather confusing at this point for Grant…

For one, the circus had received a lot of money ever since Tatiana had started performing as a knife thrower, and money was great.

That's one of the reasons he started the circus.

The downside to that, was that only Tatiana seemed to be bringing in large amounts of money.

She wasn't the only knife thrower. Sara, his wife, had been the face of the act for a long time at this point in time. She had always brought in a fair amount of money. He could tell based on sales on tickets. If she was advertised, he'd sell more compared to when she wasn't.

And yet, now, it had changed completely.

Now, Tatiana was the face of the act. If she wasn't part of the act, sales plummeted. Almost as if Sara didn't matter to these people anymore.

Of course, she didn't seem to care.

But that wasn't important. That didn't matter. What mattered was his own pride. His wife should be the face of the act, and not some newbie like Tatiana.

It had been a great decision at the start, but now Grant was heavily regretting his decision.

Standing up from his desk, he knew something had to be done about it…

…

When Grant finally found where Sara and Tatiana were, they were doing a new routine. "What's this?" He hadn't been keeping full tabs of what was happening.

"Oh, it's something I've been wanting to try for a while, dear." Sara moved over to the wheel, but he noticed that Tatiana didn't have any knives on her to do the throwing.

"Instead!" She said rather proudly. "We'll be spinning the knife thrower!"

That sounded dangerous, and just like it'd get them even more money. Grant was proud, to say the least, but he still had a problem to deal with. "Would you mind if I try?"

Hearing that, Tatiana's smile faded away. "Why would you try?"

Sensing the doubt, Sara let out a laugh. "Oh, please. I've given him lessons just as much as I've given you lessons." To prove a point, she handed Grant one of her knives.

Just like she said, he was rather good at handling them, and he almost hit the wheel right in the middle. "Admittedly, I'm a bit rusty, but this new idea you have sounds great." And it was the perfect excuse.

Sara nodded her head along. "We can have you try it out then." She knew her husband, and she felt confident he could do it. Probably not as great as Tatiana, but still commendable.

It took a bit of help to get Grant set up on the wheel, and the knives were handed to him. "I'm ready."

Despite him being ready, nobody had stopped to ask if Tatiana was even ready.

Because despite everything, she wasn't sure how much she trusted Grant with throwing knives at her. Especially in a new method.

However, as the knife left his hand, it flew right over Tatiana's shoulder, hitting the board behind her.

She was completely fine.

Safe.

Letting a sigh of relief, Tatiana felt her body relax, as if the danger had completely passed.

Sara was right; he wasn't an amateur.

In fact, even the second knife missed her, and landed right above her left shoulder.

If Grant could do this, then Tatiana knew that she would be able to do it without any problems.

However, Grant had other plans in store for today. Aiming his next shot carefully, he had to be extra close about this next one, given that he didn't want to kill the girl.

As he let the knife go, it slowly flew towards Tatiana.

And, as it got closer, she felt herself freeze up, realising that this knife wasn't going to hit the board.

It was going to hit her.

Like a deer caught in headlights, Tatiana didn't move an inch as the knife grew closer.

Closer and closer…

Until…

A loud scream could be heard as Tatiana stumbled back, the knife currently lodged into her eye.

In a panic, she fell to the ground, only causing the knife to dig deeper into her eye.

Due to the scream, several people were now on scene, trying to help her out.

Sara felt herself freeze up as well, but quickly moved to get Grant down from the wheel, before running over to Tatiana.

The pain was immense, but for a brief moment, she seemed to have a moment of clarity, as if there was too much pain to even register, or like she was running solely on adrenaline.

Without putting much thought into it, Tatiana did about the most painful thing she could have done.

She pulled the knife out in a rather quick motion, as if to try and stop the pain from getting worse.

However, it had the opposite effect as the pain returned, and an image burned itself into her mind, never to be forgotten.

The last thing Tatiana saw before passing out was her own eyeball, bloodied, and on the ground, with the knife still embedded into it.

With a sight like that, and the pain she felt, it was all too much, and she found herself fainting on the spot…

…

It would be about a week before Tatiana would even regain consciousness. The shock and pain had placed her into a coma.

Slowly, she opened her eye and saw…

Well…

Nothing.

That was strange, because Tatiana knew her eye was open, but maybe she just made a mistake.

Closing her eye, she tried again, but only got the same result.

She couldn't see anything.

And that's when she heard a voice she didn't recognise… Must be some doctor.

Tatiana was still in a state of shock, so she could only hear a few words here and there, but she got the gist of it…

From the sound of it, she had received damage to her optic nerves, amongst other things, so it had completely ruined her vision.

Everything she had been working for over the past years… Gone… All because of an accident…

…

"I'm… I'm sorry…" A voice called out to her, but her mind was still rather fuzzy, and she couldn't see who it was.

But she could hear who it was… It was Grant.

"It was due to my recklessness that this happened…"

But Tatiana didn't care at the moment… Everything had been lost, and that was all that was on her mind…

Blind, and unable to see. Unable to continue her passion… There really wasn't any hope for her…

…

Now, several weeks had passed since she had woken up, and her condition had only marginally improved. Not enough for anything substantial. She had been given a cane, but she hated carrying it around, as it was only a reminder of what she lost.

Her attempts to return to the troupe had been repeatedly shot down by both Harvey and Grant, albeit, for different reasons than what she would think.

Not only that, but her mom had to almost be by her side at all times to help her in her daily life.

The only person who had anything different in mind, was Sara.

"Alright, we're here." For once, she had gone somewhere with Tatiana.

Now that she could even figure out where, given she couldn't see. "Where are we?"

Sara figured that she wouldn't be able to see where they were. "It's where I always took you to train."

"Why… Why bring me here?" Tatiana wanted to cry, having been given another reminder of something she'd never be able to do.

However, Sara had other things in mind. Reaching out for Tatiana's hand, she gave her a knife. "Hey, listen… Just because you lost your sight, doesn't mean things are over. There's more to knife throwing than just visuals. There's a lot of memory involved with how you throw a knife. And I know that's not something you can forget."

Slowly ,she stepped away, leaving Tatiana alone with the knife. "But… I don't even know where to aim."

Moving behind the board, Sara turned to face her. "No, but you're able to hear my voice, right? If you can locate me based on sound alone, you might have an idea on where you should aim."

Tatiana felt her body shift over towards the direction that she was in.

Taking a deep breath, she attempted her best to throw the knife. And while it was in the right direction, it didn't quite reach it, landing in the ground a few feet away.

"That was close, but you should put some more force into it." Sara was trying her best to be as encouraging as possible. "Keep trying, I left some knives beside you, to your left."

It took a few seconds, but Tatiana felt the handle of the knife, and grabbed onto it.

Follow the sound of her voice, and try to figure out how far away it was…

That's all she had to do… Tatiana could do this…

Each knife throw was a bit closer to the board then before.

However, every knife throw was also painful to Tatiana, who couldn't even see how close she was actually getting.

"Keep going." Sara continued to reassure her. "You're almost there. You're doing the impossible right now, and I believe you."

As if fueled with a confidence boost, Tatiana threw the next knife…

However this time, she heard it hit something wooden.

She had done it… She had hit the board.

"See! Now, can you try and aim it at that same spot again?" Sara smiled at her.

Taking a deep breath, Tatiana reached over for her next knife, before throwing it towards the board.

Once again, she had landed it on, and, while she couldn't see it, it had been right next to the previous knife.

"See what I told you?" Sara smiled warmly. "It's all muscle memory. Even without seeing it, you're still able to throw it at a target accurately."

Then… That meant there was hope for Tatiana after all…

Maybe she could make a debut again…

…

"Come on…" Sara crossed her arms, a frown on her face. "I've been practising with Tatiana for a while now, and she's able to throw as well as she used to.

Still, Grant wasn't entirely sure of the idea.

Sure, a blind child knife thrower would bring in the bucks, but that wasn't the issue anymore.

If Grant let Tatiana in again, all the attention would be taken off Sara. This wasn't a circus he ran to let some outsiders take all the glory. This was the Yorke Troupe.

"It's still dangerous." Grant tried to reason, using it as an excuse.

"Come on honey, for me." Sara was practically begging him now. "She's worked so hard to get to this point… The Yorke Troupe will become bigger than ever before with her coming back."

Mumbling some things under his breath, Grant let out a sigh. He couldn't deny a wish from his wife, even if he didn't want the outcome. "Fine…" He stood up. "I'll talk to Harvey…"

But he knew this entire thing would only hurt his pride further… That an outsider from the family would become the star of the Yorke Troupe…

…

And honestly, a star she was. Ticket sales had not been this high… Ever! Everyone had begun to flock around just to see the blind knife thrower perform.

And while she couldn't see the audience, Tatiana tried her best to engage them as she threw her knives, continuing to strike poses and the likes.

As for how her eyes were doing, they had tried several things to get her vision back, but the only thing that seemed to have any hope were contact lenses, which didn't fix the issue, but allowed her to see something. Her vision was still poor, but Tatiana wasn't expecting a miracle.

Once the show was over, she stepped off stage, a happy expression on her face. "Luna is back in full action!" She hadn't messed up a throw since she started this new act, which was good in Tatiana's eyes.

Of course, Harvey was any less concerned. "You have to stop being so reckless at your shows… Something bad could happen."

Letting out a laugh, Tatiana covered her eyepatch with her hand. "And yet, Sara remains unharmed! I am doing amazing!"

"There's the star of the show!" Grant called out, walking over to the two of them. "Tatiana! You were amazing out there!"

Flashing a smile his way, she nodded her head. "Thank you for allowing me this opportunity again!" Still, none the wiser of what Grant had done to her.
Harvey let out a small sigh. "I think this is just worrying me too much. I don't think Sonia would…"

Letting out a boisterous laugh, Grant him on the back. "Then how about you bring your wife along. I'm sure she'd love to see her daughter perform again."

Hearing that, a sparkle appeared in Tatiana's eye. "I would love to have her watch my performance."

Well, Sonia hadn't exactly been against it, but Harvey knew she always worried about Tatiana. "Alright…" Maybe having her watch it would alleviate his nerves.

"Hmm…" Grant thought for a moment. "Last I recall, Sonia put a lot of trust into her. We should ask if she wants to be part of the act."

Hearing that, Harvey got a bit defensive. "What are you even saying?"

"I'm saying that she should be the target for Tatiana. Just think of it! Blind daughter throws knives at mother. Can you imagine how much the idea of that would sell?"

Harvey didn't like the sound of that. He didn't want to put Sonia in danger, but he also wanted to put some trust into Tatiana. "I…"

"Haha!" Tatiana let out a laugh. "That would be amazing!" She hadn't really spent too much time in her life with her mother, given that she spent most of her time with Harvey.

"Alright, I'll talk to her…" He shook his head, still unsure about the entire thing.

…

It had taken a lot of convincing, but Sonia eventually agreed to it. After all, she didn't really spend enough time with Tatiana. It was only after the injury that the two of them got close again, so she was more than happy to see her perform.

But not only see her perform, but to be part of the act.

The very thought of having knives thrown at her did make her have second thoughts, but she also trusted Tatiana heavily.

Speaking of her, how was she doing?

Nervous as all hell.

Tatiana had to repeatedly take deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves. She had never felt this nervous when Sara was the target, but she also knew what she was signing up for. Her mom, however? That was a different story entirely.

"Don't let your nerves show." Sara was there to reassure her. "Just remember what we trained, and you should be fine. You haven't missed a shot yet."

"That's true!" Tatiana let out a nervous laugh. "Then I have nothing to worry about!"

Which meant it was time to get ready for the show…

She had to make sure she had all the information she needed. Where the wheel was, the speed of the wheel, when it would start, where she needed to stand.

EVERYTHING.

Even with her new contact lenses, they were not enough to rely on, so she had to use the old method she had.

While she couldn't see the crowd, the sheer volume of murmurs informed her that they had a full house for the first time in almost forever. Even more than when she came back as a blind knife thrower.

Seems that Grant had been right… This did sell like crazy.

After waiting the right amount of time, the wheel began to spin with Sonia on it.

Now Tatiana would just need to remember the timing, and she'd be golden.

That was, if everything went on as normal.

Due to her vision, Tatiana hadn't noticed that something off just happened.

After the wheel started, for just a second, it stopped.

Nobody else had really been paying attention to the wheel except for Sonia, and she didn't even see anything was off about it.

Taking one last deep breath, Tatiana began twirling around some knives, making a show of it before she got ready to throw.

Quickly, one by one, she threw the three knives she had been messing around with.

And as they soar, Tatiana was none the wiser about what had just transpired.

That was until a single loud sound could be heard.

Screaming.

Tatiana's entire body froze up as she heard the scream of her mother ring out through the entire circus.

She couldn't even figure out what had happened. The throw should have been perfect. "Mom?"

Everything after that was a blur to Tatiana, given her panic. People kept trying to ask her things, but all she heard were voices she didn't recognise as she cried for the next couple of hours…

…

It wouldn't be till night had started that Tatiana was in any state to talk. By then, the police had arrived to investigate just what had gone on.

She wasn't too keen on talking to them, but she had nothing to hide.

The officer in charge of questioning her hadn't left her for a while. "Are you really blind?" Was one of the many questions he had asked. He found it hard to believe that they'd allow a blind child to throw knives for a show, but this was the circus.

"I lost vision in my eye a few months ago…" Tatiana answered weakly. "I have contact lenses, but they don't help that much."

Then she shouldn't have been throwing knives. "What were your opinions on the victim?" Sonia wasn't dead, but the knives had torn through her shoulder, landing her in the hospital for the foreseeable future.

"She was my mom." Tatiana got a bit defensive. "I wouldn't do anything to hurt her." Saying that, she began to cry a bit again.

Letting out a sigh, the questioning hadn't really been going anywhere. "Are we allowed to search you?"

Tatiana was a bit confused, but she didn't have anything to hide. "Alright…"

After sorting through several knives, the officer only found one thing of relevance.

A remote. "What's this…?"

"That's…" Harvey had been around during the questioning, speaking to another officer, when he noticed what was pulled out.

However, Grant was the first one to speak up. "That's the remote that controls the wheel."

Now the officer was getting somewhere. "So, with this, you can stop and start the wheel?"

However, Tatiana was a bit confused. "What… I…" She didn't have that on her when the show started, so how did it end up with her?

The truth was that Grant had planted it on her. In his mind, he thought that would make her guilty in some way.

"And you had this." The officer pointed to Tatiana, despite the fact that she couldn't see him.

"N-No! I-" How had this happened?

Harvey quickly stepped in. "Are you accusing Tatiana of the crime?"

"Well, she has the remote on her, she could have tried to play it off, but this seems deliberate."

No, Harvey knew Tatiana better than that. She wouldn't try and do something like this to her mom.

However, there was nothing he could really say that would get suspicion off of her.

Sure, he could keep vouching for her, but that wouldn't be used as actual evidence, so he had to think of something else to take the blame off of Tatiana.

Taking a deep breath, Harvey only saw one possible solution.

"I'm… I'm the one who planted the remote on her." He lied.

Tatiana froze up, looking at the direction she knew Harvey was in. "W-what?" Not out of shock of what he did.

But because she didn't believe him. There was no way Harvey would do something like that.

The officer was a bit confused, but he had just been given a confession. "Are you being truthful right now?"

"I have no reason to lie." He lied, again. Harvey had plenty of reasons to lie, and it was to keep Tatiana safe.

"Wait! No!" She quickly tried to stop him, but she also couldn't tell exactly where he was at the moment.

It wasn't the officer's job to decide what the truth was, and right now, he had someone confessing to the crime. "Then you'll be coming down with me."

Harvey didn't resist when the officer handcuffed him. He'd do anything to make sure Tatiana would be safe.

"Stop!" Tatiana had gone back to crying.

There was no way any of this was true…

It had to all be a bad nightmare. First she injured her mom, and now her father was being arrested…

An awful nightmare…

Once again, everything she had worked for had come crumbling down in an instance…

Hearing all of this, Tatiana just stood around, frozen.

"What the heck…" Benjamin mumbled out. "That Grant guy is horrible…"

All this time… Tatiana had chosen to believe in what Grant said… And yet… It turned out like this… "I…"

"You see what I mean? Grant got you to injure your own mom by stopping the wheel. And you want to know what you did for this murder?" Monokawa couldn't contain himself. "You stopped the entire ship to give the illusion of time having stopped. Honestly, I applaud you."

Tatiana was trying her best to hold it all together… The truth had finally been revealed to her.

But if there was one silver lining to this…

"Dad is innocent…" Tatiana felt herself about to cry. Then that means the only reason he confessed was to protect her…

All the fight she had was completely gone.

"Tsk… What an asshole…" Atlas mumbled out.

However, there had to be one asshole that ruins it. That's right Genno- :boom:

Monokawa let out a laugh. "Isn't it great to see them like this?"

However, Nova didn't seem to agree with that. "Monokawa, I've told you time and time again to not do this. We aren't here to administer mental pain."

Grumbling under his breath, Monokawa slowly allowed himself to be lowered.

There had been some fight left in Tatiana after she had been revealed as the killer, but now… Nothing.

Having found all of that out, she was satisfied with the answer she had received.

Gigi wanted to ask her more questions, but she had answered enough.

"You can't be fine with dying." Benjamin looked over at Tatiana.

"Haha… You're right…" She shook her head.

She wasn't ready to die. Even after killing, she thought she had found a way around any of this, but, it seems she had just been played.

"Haha…" Another laugh from Tatiana.

Turning to Monokawa, Benjamin wanted to try anything he could. "No! Don't… Don't kill her…" He felt himself grow weak.

Letting out a yawn, Monokawa stretched a bit. "Well, I think we've been going out of our way to avoid this for some time now." He raised a small mallet. "But how about we get this show on the road?"

Seeing what was about to happen, Benjamin felt his face pale up. "Wait! Don't!" No, not like this.

"I've prepared a special punishment for Tatiana Novak, the Ultimate Knife Thrower!"

Time was running out, and Benjamin wasn't sure what to do.

He couldn't let her die, but he also knew there was nothing he could do to stop it.

So instead, he reached over, and handed her something.

"Benjamin?" Tatiana felt something pushed into her hand. "What are… What are you…?"

"You were right…" He couldn't look at her. "It's pretty much the same. I was just using her as a cover to hide behind."

Looking in her hands, Tatiana was now holding Dolly. "Wait, I can't take this with me."

"I…" Benjamin had a hard time articulating the words he wanted to. "I… Don't need her anymore."

"Let's give it everything we've got!" Monokawa didn't care if there was an emotional moment going on, he wanted to kill someone off.

Holding onto Dolly tightly, Tatiana wasn't exactly sure what to say. "But still… You… Why?"

Staring at the ground for a few seconds, Benjamin let out a sigh. "I… I don't want you to have to go through the execution alone."

When Tatiana heard those words, her hold on Dolly only tightened. Even her mind was refusing to acknowledge the truth…

She was about to die, and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. "T-Thank you…" All those fears were slowly creeping up on her.

But she didn't want it to be all tears. "See? I always knew the real you was like this…" A good friend.

And now, Benjamin wouldn't need to hide behind a doll.

"IIIIIIT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!" Monokawa called out, raising the mallet above his head.

As the moments grew closer, Benjamin felt a tear slowly trail down his cheek. "Don't leave me."

"I'm…" Tatiana wasn't even sure what to say anymore, so she just closed her eyes. "I'm sorry… I really am…" She went ahead and killed someone, so she was only getting the consequences she deserved.

Just as those words were said, Monokawa hit the button with his mallet, initiating the execution.

Tatiana Novak, the Ultimate Knife Thrower, has been found Guilty.

Time for punishment!

As Monokawa hit the button, a collar quickly lowered itself from the ceiling, heading directly towards Tatiana.

However, she did nothing to try and avoid the fate that awaited her. She just accepted that she was going to die, as the collar closed around her neck.

Looking at Benjamin, she could only frown before giving him one last smile before being pulled up.

As much as she wanted to fight a little longer for her life, she knew it wasn't worth it.

Instead, she focused her attention on making sure she held onto Dolly.

It was her parting gift from Benjamin, and she didn't want to lose it before her time was up.

Slowly, she disappeared from sight as she rose up into the ceiling.

Ultimate Knife Thrower Execution: Final Lunar Performance

Holding on tightly to Dolly, Tatiana found herself being pulled back by the collar some more, up until she felt herself slam back against something wooden.

For a split second, she wasn't sure what it was, but the metal clamps that locked her in place revealed all too well just what was about to happen.

One hand was free to hold onto Dolly, however, and Tatiana quickly clutched onto her, trying to feel safe.

Around her, there wasn't a single light source.

Then, a single light flashed on, revealing someone standing several feet away from her.

It was Monokawa, and he seemingly had a knife in his hand. Slowly, he turned to face the audience, striking a pose, almost as if mocking exactly what she did.

When Monokawa finally turned to look at her, Tatiana felt the wheel roar to life, as it began to slowly spin around.

This was going to be her own fate, huh?

Twirling around the knives, Monokawa got ready to throw it.

With one simple throw, Tatiana felt herself brace for impact, only for it to stick into the board, next to her head.

She was being toyed with.

It wasn't going to be apparent what knife would actually strike her, which meant there was no way to fully prepare herself.

Next knife also missed, landing between her legs.

However, the third knife was what finally struck her, right in the left leg.

Tatiana let out a painful scream, but otherwise tried to hold it in. Clutching onto Dolly, she used her to reassure herself.

She would be fine…

Even if she knew it wasn't true.

Growing rather bored, Monokawa decided that it was time to up the game a bit. Now, he had grabbed three knives, and began twirling them around.

It looked all too familiar to how she did it during the performance that injured her mother.

In fact, when the knives were thrown, it damaged her in the same exact way, cutting right through her shoulder.

However, Tatiana resisted the urge to scream this time, despite how overwhelming the pain was.

With each new throw of the knife, they were less likely to miss. Hitting her in the arms, legs, and even stomach once.

As more blood leaked out, Tatiana felt herself growing weaker, especially since the wheel would not stop spinning.

In fact, it started to increase in speed.

This made it rather difficult to keep holding onto Dolly, but Tatiana was determined to not lose her in this moment.

With each knife, Monokawa was getting increasingly angry that Tatiana was holding on, so he did the next best thing.

This time… He didn't aim for Tatiana.

With a single throw of the knife, it had a new target.

Dolly.

Tatiana wanted to move her out of the way, but she had been strapped to the wheel, so her limbs couldn't move.

She had to watch as the knife hit Dolly square in the head, knocking her head right off, and pinning it to the wheel.

Tatiana had to close her eye when that happened, unable to bear the emotions now, as she imagined that happening to Benjamin.

Now, most of her hope was gone, she didn't have Dolly anymore, so she was truly alone during her execution.

The next knife was targeted, because Tatiana felt the same panic she felt that one time…

Seeing the knife slowly approaching her, it was becoming rather obvious that it was going right for her remaining eye.

She tried to close her eyes to avoid seeing it coming towards her, but it was much quicker than her eye was, and she felt the blade pierce her eye, leaving her with no way to see.

For good this time.

She let out another painful scream, as she tried to break free from the wheel.

She wanted to pull the knife out, to stop the pain in her eyes, she had been squirmish ever since the first time.

But her limbs did not respond. Even if she wasn't strapped onto the wheel, there had been so many knives dug into her skin that it practically pinned her to the board.

And yet she was left alive, to suffer just a bit longer.

Now, she wouldn't be able to see the last knife coming. She'd just have to accept her fate.

Tatiana waited, and waited… And eventually…

With one last knife stuck right into her chest, all the pain went away…

Trial Ground Beta

Having watched the entire thing, Benjamin slowly fell to his knees.

The person who had finally gotten him to speak again after all these years, as himself…

They weren't coming back…

And he had to watch them get executed in such a brutal way. Almost as if a mockery of who they were.

He felt tears slowly fall down his cheek.

The person that went to comfort him was Gemini. "Hey…" He wasn't looking any better either. "Get up…"

Slowly, Benjamin pushed himself back onto his feet, holding onto his podium for support. "She's… She's…"

The only friend he had made here so far… Ripped away from him…

What a cruel world this was.

Letting out a laugh was Monokawa. "Oh! It's always great to see the results end up in this! Ian left me yearning for tears. Nobody really cried when he died."

Narrowing her eyes, Laki took a step forward. "H-hey! Don't bring him up here of all-"

Quickly, the gap between her and Monokawa was crossed, as he stared into her eyes. "Don't tell me what to do…" For a moment, his eye seemed to glitch.

"Monokawa…" Nova ordered, standing up. "Don't threaten the participants. The trial is over. Besides, I'm not sure how many warnings I have to give you because of your behaviour."

For a few seconds he didn't move, only continuing to look into Laki's eyes. However, he quickly got the hint, and backed off, covering his mouth. "Oops! My bad!"

"Why do you find this fun…" Benjamin mumbled out.

How could anyone find this fun?

Still standing, Nova let out a sigh. "This trial is over. Please, return to your room. You all deserve some rest after this trial."

"You can stop acting friendly." Hae-Won had her hands in her pockets. "Acting caring isn't going to improve our mood. We still hate the both of you."

That was something Nova was fine with. "Still, you should get back on the ship."

"Let's go…" Edison mumbled out. He didn't want to have to be here any longer.

One by one, everyone slowly moved right onto the repair ship. Most stayed inside the docking zone of the ship, while some others moved into the hallway.

From the looks of it, some people needed space. Who could blame them after a trial like this? There just wasn't much of a sense of victory this time…

After a while, the repair ship slowly moved back over to the Mu Sector, connecting itself.

The first person to step out once the doors opened was Hae-Won, who stopped in her tracks after a few seconds. "Everyone, get some sleep tonight." She had to start being a little more caring now. Tatiana was right, and she wasn't going to ignore those words because of the trial.

While everyone else soon left the repair ship, Gennosuke decided it was probably best for him to hang back.

After all, who would want to walk right beside him?

Vacant Rooms

When the group finally returned to the Omicron Sector, they all stopped right in front of their rooms.

It had days since they actually got to sleep in their rooms, so it was nice to have it back.

Even if the cost for it wasn't worth it in the slightest.

The first person to move forward was Benjamin, who scanned his bracelet and disappeared into the room.

Everyone else didn't really seem to move, most still disturbed by everything that happened today.

"Shit…" Hae-Won mumbled out, thinking back to some of the events of the trial. She had been so focused on Laki the last couple of days, that she had completely ignored just how much of a horrible person Gennosuke was. Sure, she had bad vibes about him, but they weren't to this level. She'd need to think about what to do next.

One by one, everyone entered their room…

Leaving but one person standing in the hallway.

They stood by for a bit, looking at all of the doors, before turning around, walking the other way.

Turning down the hallway, they slowly made their way over towards the Psi Sector.

When they were sure nobody would be able to follow them, they reached into their pockets, pulling out a watch. After a few seconds, the name Alan flashed on it.

Reaching the room they had claimed, they let out a sigh.

Because of the motive, it had been impossible to get back in the room, which put a small hold on the work they had started.

Scanning his bracelet, they were able to enter the room, revealing that Alan's room was still a mess like the last time anyone had seen it.

Especially the walls.

The walls were still covered with some of the things that Alan had written down.

The only difference now was that it wasn't the only text that was on the wall.

There was some added writing from a completely different person there.

Staring at the wall for a few seconds, almost as if to read everything over again, the person walked over to the desk, grabbing the pencil that was neatly tucked away next to the alarm clock.

Climbing onto the bed, they used it to get some height as they began to write some more.

This time, they wrote down Tatiana's name, next to the letters K and C. Then, a line broke away from the K, which then pointed to Dae-Hyun…

After that, they moved on to other parts of the wall, to add text to that too…

Just what were they working on?

Omicron Sector

Given that nobody really wanted him to be in the elevator with them, Gennosuke had lagged behind a bit compared to everyone else.

That was fine, he did just reveal his true nature to the others, so they weren't even comfortable being around him.

But in a place like this, they wouldn't be able to avoid him for much longer.

As he made his way down the hallway, Gennosuke pulled out a lollipop from his pocket, sticking it in his mouth after removing the wrapper.

As he took a few extra steps, however… He heard the sound of a door opening.

For a brief moment, he paused in his tracks, glancing to the side.

Next to him, the door to the motive room had opened up. However, there wasn't anybody in the room. "Hello?" Gennosuke called out, not risking walking into the room.

In fact, he was getting ready to run away, in case someone wanted to murder him right there on the spot.

What he hadn't been expecting was for the monitor in the back of the room to turn on, with a rather familiar person on it.

"Hello, Gennosuke." It was Nova, with a bit of static in her voice, probably from the monitor.

Now that he realised none of the others were trying to kill him, he felt himself relax a bit. "What do you want?" He approached the door, but didn't actually step in.

"Come on in. I have something I want to discuss with you." Nova extended her hand out, despite the fact that she was on the monitor.

Letting out a low chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "I don't really have much trust in other people. Much less someone who doesn't even show their face, and refuses to actually meet me in person."

"Oh? Is that so?" Nova tilted her head to the side, before her expression on the visor was replaced with a crying one. "I just wanted to have a conversation with you. To make a deal."

Make a… Deal? Gennosuke's interest was definitely piqued. "What kind of deal?"

"It's the kind of deal you don't want others knowing about." Nova changed her visor to a laughing one. "So i'd recommend you step in and let the doors close."

Frowning slightly, Gennosuke weighed his choices here. He could talk to Nova, but that's a risk to his own life.

However, the prospect of a deal did catch his interest. "Fine." He eventually said, stepping into the room.

Behind him, the door closed, blocking him off from anyone who wished to spy on this conversation. "What do you want?" Gennosuke was quickly growing impatient.

Seeing that he stepped inside, Nova's visor changed to a rather happy expression. "Good. You are interested!"

Her visor quickly turned off, leaving her without any expression. "Shall we get down to business, then?"

Hope's Peak (2043)

It had been a few weeks since the conversation with the future foundation member, and Alan hadn't really been able to make any leads to what he was researching.

Sure, he had the names he could look into, but finding them had always been a difficult task.

For now, he had locked in on one of the names presented to him.

Michael.

Watching him in class, he didn't seem to be really doing anything. Only waiting for the next period to start, and staying away from most people. "What's his deal anyways…?" Alan mumbled out to himself.

"Hey… Stop staring at my classmate like that…" A soft voice called out from behind him.

This caused Alan to almost jump away from the spot he was hiding. Turning to look at who had said it, it was a rather short blonde girl. But he didn't recognise her. "W-who are you?"

Letting out a small yawn, the girl spent a few seconds looking at him, before answering. "May…"

May…? Yeah, that definitely wasn't one of the people he had to look into. "What kind of Ultimate are you?"

Are they really doing introductions now…? Maybe she shouldn't have disturbed him. "Only if you tell me yours first…"

A rather tough bargain! Alan wasn't sure if he could have his cover blown so early, so he glanced the other way. "Huh…"

Figuring that he also didn't want to say anything, May let out a hum. "It appears we've reached a stalemate…" Good, she didn't have to say anything about herself.

However, the issue was still there. "I ask again… Why are you looking at my classmate…?"

Looking back at Michael, Alan let out a sigh. "Do you know nothing about him? Not even his talent?"

May wasn't exactly sure where he was going with any of this. "The Ultimate Cult Leader…?"

So she did know? Then why… "Aren't you worried about him? He's dangerous!"

Slowly, May looked over at Michael, tilting her head to the side. "No… I don't think so… We sit next to each other, and he's harmless…"

Harmless? How could anyone ever assume a cult leader was harmless? This girl only further confused Alan, who began to lean against the wall. "But… That's still-"

His attention was caught off when he saw someone walk into the class.

It was a girl, who only seemed to have one destination in mind. Talking to Michael.

"Who's that?" Alan went back to eavesdropping.

Slowly, May let out a yawn, shrugging. "I don't know… She's from the class above us… But she comes around everyday to talk to Michael…"

It had already started… Alan was certain of this. Not long after, Michael would have the entire school under his control. "Listen." He turned to look at May. "You can't trust someone like that. I know you might want to, but wherever he goes, death is sure to follow."

Alright, maybe he was exaggerating a bit, but the future foundation member had sent him on a mission, and he was going to see it through to the end.

For a few seconds, May let the words resonate in her mind, before dispelling the thought rather quickly. "I'm not sure what you are trying to do… But he's really nice…"

Most people just ignored her, but he at least made an effort to be nice.

Maybe that's how he tricked it, but May had her doubts. "What are you really here for?"

This girl was starting to get too much into Alan's business. "I'm…" He couldn't have his cover blown, but he didn't want the girl to go tell on him. "I'm just someone who was sent to investigate Michael."

"Well… I can tell you it isn't really worth it…" It's not something May saw herself doing ever. "Can't you find someone else to look for?"

Looking around, Alan reached into his bag. "Actually… Yes…" He pulled out a document, showing it to her. "There's someone else I'm supposed to keep an eye on for, but I don't believe they've started school yet. You know people?"

"Not really…" It sounded like work that May didn't want to do… But she'd be fine with trying to identify them. "Just show me…"

This was a really bad idea, but it was becoming obvious Alan couldn't work alone, and this girl felt different from some of the other people he had met. Quickly, he showed her the image and the file name.

"Oliver…?" May hummed out, tilting her head. The body seemed to have green hair, and he looked like he might be rich… But that was the only thing she could really tell. "I don't believe he's started yet… He's not in any of the first year classes…"

The future foundation member did inform Alan of this, so he had some thoughts on this. "I see…" Which meant he would have to wait an extra year just to find out more information about this.

However, the more she talked to him, the more May got curious. "Why are you doing all of this…?"

Adjusting his glasses, Alan turned the other way. "I'm working on something private, so I'm afraid I can't say."

She figured as much, but still, May wasn't going to give up. Especially if he was going to pester her classmate. "You know…" She trailed off with a yawn. "All talents are publicly available." That's how Michael was already known as the Ultimate Cult Leader. "I can just find out what your talent is…"

Letting out a small laugh, Alan wasn't going to be defeated that easily. "You'd have to figure out my name first-"

"Alan."

"What the-"

If she found things humorous, May would have let out a laugh, but instead, she only yawned again. "It's written on the folder you're carrying…" A pretty easy observation to make.

Quickly, Alan stuffed his folders into his bag. "Whatever…" His cover was pretty much already blown, which meant he should just leave now before things get worse.

Without even offering a goodbye, he had run off, making sure to keep his bag secure.

All while May watched him with a rather bored expression. "... I don't think that was worth my time…" Next time she wouldn't stand up for a classmate…

And that concludes Chapter 3… And holy shit I can't believe I've even reached this point. This chapter sure took a look out of me, let me tell you. I say as I wrote three chapters in like… Four days.

But enough about me complaining about writing, there's a lot to talk about, so let's go into details, shall we?

First of all, I'd like to thank ExtraMeme for sending me Tatiana. She was an absolute blast to write, especially since it was very easy to have her talk in a unique manner, which is something I can sometimes struggle with when it comes to other characters. I just love her personality so much, so it's a shame I had to kill her off in chapter three, but oh well!

The moment I accepted Tatiana, I already knew what her fate would be. She never changed once at all. Sorry :D

She was by far one of the funnest characters to write. I did have to put her on the back burner for chapter two, but I think she still got an ample amount of screentime, all things considered.

I know I joked about her backstory being way too fucking long, but it was still one of my favourites. The wombo combo of me reading Dae-Hyun's backstory, then jumping right into Tatiana's and having to go "guys, stop" back during the application process.

Thank you once again for giving me the opportunity to write her.

The only downside is that now I can't joke about killing her off.

As for the title, this was actually my favourite title so far, since it fits in with so many different things. For one, it fits into the motive, given that Seira only noticed it because a constellation had an extra star. Then, Tatiana moved the ship, to give the illusion that time was different, making it another misalignment in the stars.

Not to mention that the two biggest people in this chapter were Dae-Hyun and Tatiana. One being someone who managed stars, and the other being a star themselves. Both of them had horrible things happen to them in their life, with Dae-Hyun losing Ming-Hee over a horrible scandal, and Tatiana losing her eye, and then injuring her mother.

I knew I wanted the word misalignment to be in the title for so long, specifically because of the ship moving, and because of Tatiana. Given that it's also what injured her mom, as the wheel wasn't aligned the way she thought it was. Stars didn't come into my head until about two weeks before posting the first part :o

Lastly, I should go over the little story at the start of the chapter.

That was entirely me fucking around because I found a story where someone threw something and accidentally injured someone and went "lol, eat shit, Tatiana."

I'm such a nice guy :D

That's pretty much all I had to say about this, I once again thank Extra and Oddly for allowing me to use their characters in this fic. I wish they could have lived longer, but this is where their story ends.

As for what will be happening next, I'm going on vacation to the states in a few days, so I probably won't be doing much writing.

Not to mention I don't even have a chapter title for chapter four yet…

And also, I want to maybe work on two of my other fics. I do have a Zero Escape SYOC to officially start, since I promised that when I finished chapter three. I've been looking forward to starting it.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Years, and I will see you with the next update in several weeks, when I finally figure out how I want chapter four to play out.

Participants Remaining: 14

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 Hacker [CandleFire45]

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin]

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

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

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]

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

…

Hope's Peak (2045)

Today felt like a somber day with a light rain pouring from the sky. The sky was visible, but the sun itself was blocked off by a few dark clouds.

The wind blowing just enough to make any article of clothing flutter lightly.

And there he stood…

Looking at the building right in front of him.

It had been years since the man had graduated from here, and yet he had no choice but to return today.

Although, he never thought he'd be back here in a million years.

Letting out a small sigh, Dae-Hyun shook his head, a visible frown on his face.

He had been standing outside for a few minutes, trying to figure out just what he'd actually do as soon as he entered the building.

After debating internally with himself for a few more seconds, he ultimately decided it didn't matter.

Taking a few steps forward, Dae-Hyun pushed through the doors, before sticking his hands back in his pockets.

As soon as he stepped into the opening hallway, he heard a voice call out to him from behind some glass.

"Sir!" A receptionist called out, seeing him walk into the building without a care in the world. "You can't just- Sir!"

She wasn't going to stop him.

As he continued to walk, Dae-Hyun figured he could walk at a leisurely pace. The woman wouldn't catch up with him anytime soon, anyways.

As the walk continued, he found himself stopping for a brief second when he passed by a classroom door. "..."

For a few seconds, memories began flooding his mind, before he quickly shook his head.

All in the past.

As Dae-Hyun continued on his way to his destination, he had to turn another corner to go down a longer hallway.

However, his walking began to slow down as he saw something in his peripherals.

Or, more specifically someone.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he turned to look at the person. "What are you doing here, Sakura?"

She was standing off to the side, leaning against some of the lockers, arms crossed, and a frown on her face.

It would be a few extra seconds before Sakura even bothered to look at Dae-Hyun. "Shouldn't I be asking you that question?"

"I asked first." He wasn't going to let her get any grounds in this questioning.

That was a response Sakura very much did not like. Her face turned into a scowl as she stopped leaning against the lockers. "I work here."
That response only deepened Dae-Hyun's own frown. "Oh? You do?" He hadn't really kept tabs with any of his classmates, because he didn't really see much of a point to do so.

Taking a step forward, he crossed his arms. "Then, is this another one of your failures?"

His words struck a nerve in her as she took a step forward, almost as if to confront him. "What the hell did you want me to do? I'm only one person-"

Dae-Hyun turned back towards the rest of the hallway, as he continued to walk. "I don't have time for your anger…"

Letting out a sigh, Sakura began to follow him. "Are you here because of what happened a few days ago?"

"Of course that's why I'm here." Dae-Hyun wasn't going to offer her any respect. "I don't have any other reason to fly in from Korea."

Sakura should have figured that, but she didn't want to make assumptions. "Then what exactly do you want?"

"I want to speak to the headmaster." Dae-Hyun was certain that it was still the same man from the time he was in school. He saw no reason that it'd change.

Although, after an event like this, maybe they thought to get rid of him to save themselves some PR.

"Well…" Sakura rubbed her forearm a bit. "He doesn't want to be disturbed at the moment. He's working on-"

"Does it look like I care?" Dae-Hyun continued down the same path. "I have some choice words with him."

"Still…" Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't think it's wise to approach him right now. He should be done in an hour, and then after that you can-"

"He's just trying to hide, isn't he?" Dae-Hyun had stopped walking completely. "A coward, if you will."

With each passing word, Sakura only found herself getting increasingly more pissed off. "What the hell are you talking about? He's trying his best to-"

"Seems he doesn't want to take accountability." Dae-Hyun stuffed his hands into his pockets. "But I'll make him own up to his failure of running this school." Turning his back towards Sakura, he kept walking back down the hallway.

There wasn't really much she could do at the moment. She wasn't just going to tackle him, but she also couldn't let him disturb the headmaster.

So instead, Sakura simply followed him, making sure he wouldn't cause any further issues…