Danganronpa: Obscurity’s Disgrace (SYOC) Chapter 30: Triple Shot, One Shot (Part 3), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

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

Warning!

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

[Pheme's Room]

Pheme held onto the chains on her shackles while she stretched her arms out. "Ah... I'm so glad this is going well!"

"Right, Miss Pheme." The Figure casually looked through a few documents. "The Contact managed to provide us with some fascinating alumni..."

"Mm hm!" Pheme elegantly twirled her body around, while still sitting down. "We're already at the ninth person too!" She grabbed at a random form she had on her desk. "And I think..." She narrowed her eyes while she read over the form she had. "I have them right here!" She elegantly thrusted the form in the air.

"You do, do you?" The Figure chuckled while taking the form from Pheme's hands. "And it's... Lake Beaumont, the Ultimate Ballet Dancer?" He could already see the potential as he started to read their form.

"Right? So much potential!" Pheme exclaimed, somehow reading The Figure's mind in the process. "We must see more of what they're about!" She began to pull up one of the videos The Contact provided them.

The Figure could already sense very good potential from this ballet dancer... but they patiently waited for The Contact's video start before making any further judgments...

...

[Summers Mall]

"Hey, Mom? Dad! Can I get some candy?"

"Why, of course sweetie!"

"Anything for you, Lake!"

A young Lake Beaumont was currently walking through Summers Mall, a fairly high-end mall in their neighborhood. They lived in a rich neighborhood, and the mall subsequently was very fancy as well. So the presence of people like Ocèane and River Beaumont, Lake's mother and father, made sense.

Ocèane and River's careers were a little much for Lake's young mind to comprehend. Ocèane's position as the CEO of Pond Industries, the primary water-treatment plant for the province the Beaumonts lived in... was a bit too complicated for Lake. And River's position as owner of Sea Beaumont, the highest rated supplier of boats and boating needs in the country was even more complicated for Lake to comprehend.

So they didn't! They were just happy to love and be with their mom and dad. And Ocèane and River were happy to love and be with their child. Finding time off was a struggle for the rich parents, so any time they could muster was, frankly, a blessing. But despite their busy schedules, they always made sure that Lake knew they were loved. And that led to their outing today!

"Thanks, mom! Dad!" Having gotten permission from her parents, Lake excitedly ran into Sleepy May's Confections, the store the family was facing.

"Look at them go... so full of energy..." River smiled, just enjoying the sight of their child having fun.

"Yes, it's a pleasant sight." Ocèane nodded in agreement. "But let's not let them get away from us. Shall we?" She cocked her her towards the store.

"Ah, yes. We shall." Ocèane and River then elegantly followed behind their child.

[Sleepy May's Confections]

"Wow! Look at all of it!" The young Lake stood in awe at the sight of all the pretty candies and sweets lining the shelves. They admittedly weren't the biggest fan of junk food, but even they could afford to indulge once in a while. And they were a kid! AKA, the best time to indulge like this!

"I say... this is rather impressive." Ocèane stood impressed at the store as they followed behind their child. "A wonderful variety of options."

"Yes... we haven't been in this store before, have we?" River took his time observing the store and what it had to offer. "I'm glad we took Lake with us here. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to see this for ourselves! Thank you, Lake!"

Lake giggled at the thanks they received, basically just for being curious. "Hm..." They suddenly narrowed their eyes. "Mom? Dad?" They turned around. "How long has this mall been here?" They titled their head.

"How long? I'm... not sure." River didn't expect to be asked that. "It's fairly new. I know that much."

"Yes, it finished construction roughly a month ago, I believe." Ocèane added. "It's been fairly anticipated. This area had always been fairly rural. I'm glad they renovated this part of the city."

"Oh... cool!" Lake nodded. They liked learning new things. "I'm glad that this part of Quebec is doing good!"

"That's right! I recall now." River got reminded of more details after Ocèane chimed in. "There was this ghastly old barn here previously. It was such an eyesore. I'm glad they tore it down. It won't be missed."

"Indeed. There wasn't anything of value there." Ocèane and River's inner-richness started to shine through, as they got a tad snobby.

"Oh, okay!" But Lake didn't care. They were just having fun. And with their curiosity sated, they turned back around and started to observe the candy store once again.

Seeing their child's attention shift, Ocèane and River shifted their attention too. "Well, that's enough of that for now." River chuckled. "Shall we get back to searching for a treat?"

"Mm, yes. That sounds lovely." Ocèane smiled and nodded. "Let's go, Lake." She reached down to take her child's hand.

"Okay!" Lake giggled, then started to walk through the confectionery with her parents.

As they passed by so many different candies and treats, this experience only got better and better for Lake. It was just a fun outing with their parents... and they couldn't ask for anything else. The store was fairly empty besides for one other family, so Lake essentially got first pick of anything they might've wanted.

"Wow..." The awe on Lake's face never departed as they continued to look through the selection of the confectionery. "Algorithmic Chocolate... Alteration Caramel... Nova Strawberries... Kawamono's "Lazy" Truffles... AcaProd Almond Bark... there's so many options!" They read off all of the referential names.

"Yes... there's even more over here too." River looked at another shelf. "Yenamono's-" He didn't finish saying the label out loud.

"River? What the matter?" Ocèane looked over her husband's shoulder to look at what he was about to read. "That's... oh my!" She widened her eyes at the sheer amount of profanity on this "Yenamono" brand of sweets. "River, let's step away. We can't let Lake witness this."

"Yes, lets." River went with his wife as they lead Lake to a different part of the store. Lake was none the wiser at the profanity protection they just received.

...

From there, Lake and their parents continued to explore the store, with Lake amassing a small bag full of sweets as they did. But all good things must come to an end, with this being no exception. As Lake examined the last shelf, they slightly frowned when the reached the end of it. "Aw..." They were sad that they had seen everything the store had to offer.

"That's it then?" River took one last quick look around.

"It seems so." Ocèane took a look also. "Well, we've certainly seen everything this store has to offer. Lake? Are you ready to go?"

"Hm... yes. I think so!" For as much as they enjoyed this, they also wanted to explore other stores as well. "Okay, let's go-" Lake started to walk up to the register, ready to have her parents pay for all the sweets she wanted. But... she suddenly stopped and glanced at something on the wall.

"Lake? What's the matter?" Ocèane, slightly concerned by her child's sudden stop, walked up to them.

"Honey? What is it?" And River was close behind her, as he walked up and followed Lake's gaze. As he did, he saw what their child was transfixed on. It was... a poster.

"Wow..." Lake whispered, in awe at the poster in front of them. It was a poster of... a ballet dancer named Annapav Lova. She was dressed in a beautiful ballet outfit, with pretty white ballet shoes to match. She was on stage, with this depiction of her showing her in the middle of a twirl. There was text on the bottom of the poster as well. It read:

See Annapav Lova live today at Summers Mall! She'll be giving a performance in the main stage at 2:00 PM!

"Well, she's awfully beautiful, isn't she?" Ocèane admired the poster as well. "Annapav Lova... she's famous, no?"

"Yes... she's an Ultimate Ballerina, I believe. I recall hearing news of her before." River joined in admiring the poster. "In fact, I think I've spotted these posters all up throughout the mall." He looked to another part of the store that had another one of these posters up, and saw a family similar to theirs- a young girl and her parents examining it as well.

"It's a fair enough thing to advertise, River." Ocèane giggled. "An Ultimate Ballerina putting on a performance is rather exciting. And it's..." She checked her overly-fancy watch. "1:30 PM. It's free admission, evidently. Well? What do you say, River? Lake? Shall we?"

"Hm... yes, that sounds like a wonderful thing to partake in." River nodded, being all for the idea. "How about you, Lake?"

"..." Lake continued to stare in awe at the poster.

"...Lake?" River chuckled at their child's reaction to this poster. He couldn't exactly blame them, considering that Ms. Lova was fairly enchanting.

"...She's so pretty! I love her outfit!" Lake finally said something. "Mom? Dad! What did you say she was? An... ult-im-ate?" They hadn't heard that word before.

Ocèane found Lake's reaction to this rather endearing. "Yes, Lake. An Ultimate." She nodded. "An Ultimate is a person who is the absolute best at their craft. Hope's Peak Academy is the place that helps hone and produce Ultimates."

"Your mother explained it well." River nodded in agreement. "In fact, I believe Ms. Lova is one of the first proper Ultimates. As in, she was one of the first Ultimates after the FUP officially ended."

"Yes... I'm glad Ms. Lova is nothing like those disgusting Former Ultimates. She is an actually talented individual." Ocèane showed a snobbish attitude towards the poor, poor Former Ultimates.

"Indeed, indeed." River didn't like the Former Ultimates either. "But, er, I believe we've confused Lake, Ocèane." He motioned to their child's very confused face.

"Oh! Our apologies, Lake." Ocèane bowed her head. "Don't worry about what we said. Just... Ms. Lova is very good at ballet. Would you like to see some ballet?"

"Yeah! She's really pretty, so I want to see her dance!" Lake gave a response that was full of wonder. They didn't know exactly what ballet was, just that it was dancing. And they liked watching dancing!

"Is that so? Then let us get rang up, shall we?" Ocèane took their child's hand, reminding them that they still needed to pay for their sweets.

"Okay!" Lake eagerly nodded as they followed behind their mother.

"Let's go then." River followed behind his wife and child, his heart filled with happiness at the sight of them happy.

...

"And... there." Ocèane finished paying a hefty sum for the sweets, then handed the bag to their child. "These are all yours, Lake. Remember to not have them all at once, okay?" She gently reminded.

"Don't worry, I know!" Lake nodded. They weren't the type to binge sweet anyway. Again, sweets were more an occasional treat for them.

"Well, with that out of the way, shall we get going?" River checked his own overly-fancy watch. "It's getting closer to the time of the show."

"Yeah! Let's go!" Lake, eager as always, ran up to the exit of the store.

Both River and Ocèane loved watching their child's antics. Both merely chuckled as they caught up with their child.

When Lake saw their parents catching up, they were about to move to leave the store... but they didn't. They glanced to the side, and saw a young girl, about the same age as them, looking at another poster of Annapav Lova they had up. Judging by the young girl's face, she seemed fairly entranced by the poster.

"Hi!" Lake waved to the young girl. "Do you like that poster too?"

"Huh?" The young girl turned around to face Lake. "Um... yeah. I do! I've always wanted to see Annapav Lova perform! I love ballet!"

"Really?" Lake's face lit up. "I'm going to see her right now with my mom and dad! You want to join us?"

"Uh..." The young girl glanced to Lake's parents, feeling a little thrown off by the sudden offer. "Is that okay...?"

Normally, Ocèane and River would've been on the fence about having a random girl join their outing. But they recognized that this wasn't any random girl. This girl was...

"Yeah, that's okay!" Lake didn't wait for their parents to give an answer, instead giving one in their place. They held out their hand. "What's your name?"

"Um... Alicia Swan. What's yours?" Alicia still felt a little apprehensive, but they took Lake's hand.

"I'm Lake Beaumont! Let's be friends, Alicia!" Lake smiled as they shook Alicia's hand, pure joy emanating from their being.

"Friends? That..." Alicia took a quick breath. "That... that sounds nice!" They returned Lake's smile with one of their own.

"Yeah!" Lake countered Alicia's smile with an ever brighter smile. "C'mon, Alicia!" They took their hand and led them out of the store.

"W-Woah! Okay!" Alicia was a little overwhelmed... but she didn't hate this either. Not at all. Friends... huh? That... didn't sound bad...

...

[Pheme's Room]

Pheme was rather enjoying that, so when it cut off, she frowned. "Hey! Wait a second!" She checked the video to see if she missed anything. "Where's the part of Mx. Beaumont getting accepted into Hope's Peak? It can't be a proper flashback without that!" She didn't appreciate the pattern getting changed.

"Well, The Contact apparently didn't get a lot of information on Mx. Beaumont. But he promised to try and get more, including their acceptance into Hope's Peak." The Figure didn't care one way or the other about the pattern getting changed, but he knew it upsetted Pheme, so he tried to reassure her.

"Hm... I suppose that's fine!" Pheme slightly pouted. "They better live long enough for two flashbacks!"

The Figure chuckled as he felt the fourth wall slightly crack. "Yes, well let's hope that's the case. Well- hold on. You act as if we've accepted them already." He hadn't made an official decision regarding Lake yet.

"Well, why not accept them?" Pheme shrugged. "A young individual like them, so innocent and naive with their head up in the clouds... so ripe for traumatization... well, they simply don't deserve to be alive!" She said the thing.

The Figure chuckled again. "Well, I indeed see your point." He couldn't argue with what Pheme said. "Hm... yes. I don't see the need to needlessly deliberate. Lake Beaumont shall be the ninth member of the Killing Game." He decided without much deliberation.

"Very good!" Pheme clapped her hands. "Wonderful! Oh... I can already see it!" She waved her hand in front of her. "I can already see the delightful antics they shall get up to..."

...

[Lake's Room]

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

"Ahh..." Having heard the morning announcement, Lake sat up in their bed and stretched their arms out. They understood the argument that treating the announcement like an alarm clock is a bad thing, but they honestly didn't see much of a problem with it. They liked having it. It wasn't exactly comforting per se... but it's just a reminder that... they were okay. They were alive. Lake didn't consider themselves an anxious person on the level of Ayaka, but still.

And with each new day, that meant more time to be with the rest of the group and grow closer together with them. That was the important part. To Lake, that power of friendship could truly beat this horrible Killing Game. And they kept that attitude, even through the past four deaths. Admittedly, they didn't like the feeling that ran through their body when they thought of them... so they tried to just focus on the present... and protecting who was here... like Joji and the others.

But that's enough inner monologging for one day!

Lake got up out of bed and changed out of their lilac pajama shirt and pants and into their normal clothes. And while they did that, seeing their swimming clothes in the closet only reminded them of what today was going to be! The Pool Party that surely won't go wrong!

With that in mind, Lake quickly left their room, truly eager to get going today.

[VIP Quarters]

Lake left their room with a spring in their step, still beaming with positivity. But as they did, they were met with... a still VIP Quarters. No one was around. Well, that wasn't necessarily a bad/worrisome thing. There was always the chance that the others were already down at the cafeteria, or maybe some were still asleep.

Hm... Lake giggled to themselves as they got an idea. They crept around to each of the rooms, putting their ear on the door to listen in. They wanted to see if anyone was actually still sleeping.

"Hm... no... no... eh... wait, no." Lake spoke aloud to themselves as they partaked in a miniscule amount of tomfoolery, wondering if they could catch anyone off-guard. But it seemed likely they wouldn't be able to partake in a little bit of trolling. They were, in a sense, a musician, so that meant that they had the totally not death flag inducing trait of good hearing, and with that good hearing, they were fairly sure they were alone up here. Oh well!

Lake shrugged to themselves, then started to go and leave the VIP Quarters. But before they did, they glanced at the one door they didn't check. Joji's. They crept up to his door with a playful smirk... but they quickly realized that playing little pranks on Joji... might not be the best idea. They platonically loved him, but... they didn't want to accidentally test his anger. Instead, they calmly knocked on his door. "Joji? Are you still in there?"

...

"OH SHIT!" After a few moments, Lake heard a muffled swear from behind the door, and giggled to themselves. Not at the swear, but at the fact that Joji had seemingly overslept. They stepped away from the door, and after another few moments...

The door burst open, with an out of breath Joji with it. "Shit! I overslept! Where... Lake!" His eyes landed on the ballet dancer. "What time is it?!"

Lake giggled. "It's barely past morning time, Joji. Don't worry! You're fine!" They reassured him.

"That... so?" Joji checked his Star-Phone. "Yeah... guess so." He breathed a quick sigh of relief. "Shit... sorry, Lake. You shouldn't have to be the one to drag me out of bed." He scratched the back of his bed, clearly embarrassed.

"Don't worry, Joji!" Lake grabbed his hand. "I don't mind! I mean... even I can acknowledge that it's not the easiest thing in the world to wake up in this place!"

"Heh. Ain't that the truth..." Joji quietly chuckled.

"And I just woke up too! I think everyone already somehow beat us down to the cafeteria too!" Lake noticed a trend of the flashback character of the chapter commonly being the last one to get to the obligatory group meeting of the chapter.

"Really? That... makes me feel better." Joji took another sigh of relief. "But if everyone is already gone, shouldn't we get going? It's the day of the pool party too, right?"

"You're right! And that's right!" Lake answered both questions, happy that Joji remembered their idea. "I'm ready if you are, Joji!"

"Yeah!" Joji brushed off his clothes, then nodded. "I'm good to go!"

And with that, the remaining two swiftly left the VIP Quarters, very eager to move along with a day both were rather excited for...

[Cafeteria]

"Mx. Beaumont! Mr. Kaneshiro! What took you two so long?" As soon as Lake and Joji walked into the cafeteria, they were immediately met with Pheme's voice reaching their ears.

"What the...?" And Joji certainly didn't expect that, much less seeing Pheme casually sitting at one of the tables, between Yoshino and Aurora.

"Pheme? Why are you here?" Lake innocently asked as they tilted their head. If it was anyone else, it'd probably be a more aggressive question. But since it was Lake, it was a rather normal question.

"Am I not allowed to be here?" Pheme gave Lake a slightly confused look, implying that the tormenter of 19 random people sitting with their victims was normal.

"...Yoshino?" Joji looked to Yoshino, wondering if she could possibly give an actual answer as to why Pheme was here.

Yoshino groaned as she shrugged. "Sorry, Jojo. She kinda just forced herself in here. Got no idea here."

"Indeed." Aurora quietly agreed with the horror novelist.

"Of fucking course..." Joji sighed and held his head in his hand. He was confident he could control himself and his anger, but being around Pheme could make that difficult sometimes.

"Just sit down, Joji. Lake." Ji-hoon urged them along. "Try not to pay attention to her." Pheme was such an enigma, but Ji-hoon knew it was wise to not let her rile them up.

Pheme gave an over-exaggerated gasp. "How rude of you, Mr. Jo!" She held her hand over her heart.

"Ji-hoon is probably right, Joji!" Lake pulled at the carpenter's shirt as they ignored Pheme's offendedness, which I'm aware isn't a word. "Let's sit down!" They were still excited for today, and nothing was going to change that.

Joji felt his annoyance melt away as he saw Lake's smile. "...Yeah, okay. You're right." He nodded. "C'mon." He led them over to two open seats, already feeling calmer.

"Hm... very good." Damien was glad to see Joji in a calm state.

"That's finally everyone here then? Let's get started, yeah?" Kei took a quick look around. "We... well, what all do we have to talk about, besides the obvious?" He referred to Lake's pool party.

"Huh... I don't think anything?" Raiha tried to think, but she couldn't come up with anything. She snuck quick, sheepish glances at Aurora as she did, still feeling awkward in her presence. "I mean... not much going on besides for it." She shrugged.

"And that's definitely not a bad thing-nya!" In a place like this, Kuroko would always be grateful for a nice, simple, and fun day. And she was obviously excited for the pool party too.

"Nyaha! It seems that all we have is the ballet dancer's pool party then! How pointless!" Cathy cackled to herself.

"Pointless? You don't like swimming?" Darren spoke a line.

"No! I despise water!" Cathy huffed, then crossed her arms.

"Par for the course with a cat..." Kei chuckled.

"Alright then." Darren spoke another line... before getting a small idea. He didn't consider himself the teasing type, but... "I'm going to be there. And you can have a lot of fun without swimming too." He tried to see if he could subtly urge her into going.

"Wha-?" Cathy glared at Darren, a small blush creeping across her face. "W-Why would you being there matter?" She stuttered, clearly flustered for some reason. "And... I can't believe I'm agreeing with a human like you, but you have a point." She sighed as she considered his second statement. "Hm... fine! I'll go!"

"Just like that?!" Joji, perhaps ironically, couldn't keep up with Cathy's mood swings.

"Yes! Just like that! Nyahaha!" Cathy gave a lil' chortle.

Darren internally smiled to himself. He didn't say anything.

"Cathy saying that reminds me." Ji-hoon set his hand down on the table. "Let's confirm attendance for the pool party. I'd like to know who is and who isn't going."

"I admit, I still find myself surprised at how readily you agreed to the pool party idea, Ji-hoon." Damien commented. "But anyway, I, of course will be in attendance.

"Well, I don't see a reason why not." Ji-hoon answered. "If anything, it's a great idea to pull something like this this early, before any motives and before anyone getting... ideas." He alluded to the m-word (murder).

"Those were my thoughts as well, when I suggested the idea to my dear Lake." Damien claimed credit for those thoughts. "But, I'm just glad this'll come to fruition."

"Yeah! I'm so excited for it!" Lake smiled brightly. They'd usually try to stay elegant about matters like this, but after the stuff that has happened so far, they had more than enough reason to just be excited about something.

"I can tell you are!" Joji liked see Lake happy. "All the more reason to keep this moving! So, who's coming?"

"Hold on, Jojo." Yoshino stopped him. "How about we just ask who isn't coming. Probably easier, right?"

"Oh... good point! I didn't think of it like that!" Joji nodded.

"I don't think you think much at all, carpenter human! Nyaha!" Cathy poked fun at the carpenter. She might've been obviously developing... you know... for Darren, but she was still herself!

"Shush, Cathy!" Joji didn't want to deal with her right now. "Anyway, speak up!" He slammed his hand down on the table with a little more force than he intended to. "Who isn't coming?"

Lake hoped that everyone would come, including Alpha and Cathy, but they knew that might've been too optimistic. But they still hoped for it.

"I'm... not coming." Rival shook his head, then yawned, copying the :rival_yawn: emote in the process.

"Oh... really, Rival?" Lake sounded disappointed.

"Why not? That'd dissapoint my dear Lake, you know." Damien gave Rival a slightly judgmental look. He didn't appreciate people who disappointed his dears.

"Whatever, Damien." Rival muttered as he rolled his eyes. "I said it yesterday... but I can't swim. I... don't even have a swimsuit. Both here... and in general. So... I won't be going." He let out a sigh as he leaned back in his chair.

"Hm... I see." Rosalind nodded as she learned the news, sounding the slightest bit disappointed.

"W-Well... even if you can't swim, can't you just hang out?" Ayaka asked for her first line this chapter.

"Eh..." Rival took a long pause as he thought about it. "...No." He shook his head. "I'm... good." He leaned back a little further in his chair.

"You sure, Rival?" Joji had admittedly wanted everyone to attend this, just like Lake. So he wanted to be sure.

Rival took another second to think about it. "...Yeah." He never in his life was a big swimming fan. He knew that Hanako was- no. He's not going down that train of thought right now.

"Well *cough* then... no use forcing him to attend." Rosalind wasn't in the business of forcing people to go anywhere. Though, she was a little disappointed to hear he wasn't attending.

"Oh... well, that's fine!" Lake tried to stay positive. "If you don't want to go, that's okay!" They gave Rival a reassuring look. Rival either ignored it, or he didn't care.

"Hm... one down." Kei checked off Rival's name on an imaginary list. "Anyone else not going?" He asked, curious to see.

...

"Oh... so just Rival?" Kei didn't actually expect that.

"Wait... really?" Rival blinked. He would've expected someone else to back out of the pool party. Now he felt a little awkward.

...

"Hm... it seems that it truly is just Rival who won't be attending." That was a tad amusing to Damien.

"Huh... wait." Joji thought about this a little more. "Guess we already heard that Cathy is coming just to cause trouble..." He gave the cat burglar a quick glare, and was rewarded with a "Nyahaha!" sent his way. "But what about you, Alpha? Ayaka? Even you two?"

Ayaka flinched slightly at her name being said. "Huh? W-What do you mean by that?"

"Yeah, the fuck you mean, Lake's dildo?!" Alpha gave Joji a creative and inspiring nickname. "You have a problem with me going?"

"No, no! Not at all!" Joji opted to ignore that ridiculous nickname. It'd just make him mad if he didn't. "But... this doesn't seem your jam, Alpha. And Ayaka... you're..."

"Shy. Rather... shy." Damien finished Joji's sentence, not looking at his former dear while he did so.

Ayaka unfortunately had to acknowledge Damien's words, as she knew he had a point. "Well... t-this just might be fun, is all." She showed a little optimism. "And like Ji-hoon said, it doesn't seem like anything weird or bad would g-go on... so I feel okay about it." She hated that that satan-spawn Damien Lux had a part in planning it, but again, she couldn't imagine him pulling anything here.

"Huh... alright." Joji didn't expect an answer like that. He was pretty impressed.

"Wait... Ayaka." Rival apparently wasn't impressed. "What about... if..." He trailed off, struggling to find the right words.

"What a-about... what?" Ayaka tilted her head, curious to hear what one of the few men she had a modicum of trust in had to say.

Rival's mind flashbacked to the last motive, where Rival accidentally almost saw Ayaka's... you know. "Are you gonna be okay... being in a swimsuit... around..." He gave Damien a quick glare." "Men?" He tried to respectfully ask, knowledgable enough about her personality from the last motive.

"O-Oh..." Ayaka looked down at her feet. She wished she wasn't asked that with every around like this... but she knew Rival had a point. She... hadn't fully thought about this yet.

"Well, if that's what you're worried about, then don't be, Ay-nya-ka!" Kuroko slammed her hand down on the table. "I'll protect you from any leering stares-nya!" She glared at Damien, implying that she was singling him out. The beautician didn't pay the glare any mind.

"Yeah, Aya. No need to feel embarrassed, if that is what you're worried about." Yoshino joined in. "It ain't like this is a highschool gym class or something. Just a group of friends... hanging out!" She more than understood that apprehension around men, so she wanted to help Ayaka feel alright.

"Totes, Ayaka bestie!" Raiha channeled some cheer. "DW, you got nothing to worry about!"

Ji-hoon was supportive too, but he gave some silent support.

"Yes-"

"Wow... okay. Thanks g-guys." Ayaka spoke up, cutting off whatever the hell Damien was about to say. "I... f-feel alright about this now." After the last trial, she was so scared about how her mental state might change... but with supportive girls like Yoshino and Kuroko, who also hated the demon named Damien Lux... she felt okay.

"I'm gladdened to hear that, Ayaka." Aurora showed her support with a gentle smile.

"Yeah, I'm glad too!" And Lake was all around supportive of literally everyone.

"Gag!" Cathy audibly said the word "gag" as she rolled her eyes. "This is all so silly! Violinist human, you should do whatever you want! You don't need validation from others!"

"I..." Ayaka didn't know how to process that. Was that Cathy's way of being... nice? She couldn't tell. She wasn't going to object against support from people she actually relatively trusted, but she also acknowledged that being independent... wasn't the worst idea. Or maybe she's thinking too hard about what might just be nonsense from Cathy. That's also a possibility.

"I wouldn't call it silly, but this shit is annoying." Alpha groaned. "All the boys here are too chicken-shit to grope you, Ayaka. Even if they weren't, you ain't that special."

"..." Ayaka didn't say anything to that. But in a strange way, that did actually help her feel a little better.

"I don't think wording like that was necessary, Alpha." Joji crossed his arms. "So even if you're cooperating with us, you're still gonna throw out stupid shit like that?" He raised an aggressive eyebrow.

"My attitude ain't your problem, Jojo." Alpha mocked Yoshino's nickname for him. "I'll say and do... whatever I want. That includes the party, too! So fuck you, I'm going."

"Um... that's... good?" Lake was a little confused, but they sussed that out as Alpha confirming her attendance.

"Then... that's *cough* everyone accounted for? As in, the outliers? The one who might make for a strange *cough* scene at a pool party?" Rosalind slowly looked around.

"How about you, Rosalind?" Kei pointed out the other outlier. "You didn't strike me as the type to enjoy the pool."

"NGL, me neither." Raiha hasn't really gotten a good read on Rosalind since this Killing Game started, so this was more based on vibes.

And Rival honestly agreed with Kei and Raiha, but he kept his thoughts to himself as he waited for Rosalind to answer.

"Hm... I can't blame you for thinking *cough* that." Rosalind dryly chuckled to herself. "A blight like me doesn't fit at a scene like a *cough* pool... but I find myself... curious, is all."

"I don't like it when you joke like that, Ros-nya-lind..." Kuroko wasn't really a dark humor sort of person. "But... what do you mean by curious-nya?"

"...I suppose... I just *cough* am, is all. Forgive me, I can't seem to think of the right way to express it." Rosalind closed her eyes, seemingly deep in thought.

When Darren heard that, he remembered something Rosalind said to him yesterday.

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

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

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

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

...

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

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

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

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

Darren couldn't imagine the mental state of a woman like Rosalind... but he could imagine her curiosity being about her Perfect Shot.

"Hm... well, I'm just glad you're coming, Rosalind!" Lake on the other hand, didn't think too hard about Rosalind's words.

"The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned." Aurora gently smiled.

"..." And Rival kept up his little silent act. If she was going...

"Alrighty..." Kei clapped his hands. "I'd say now that covers our outliers. So... everyone but Rival is going then?" He wanted to confirm, one last time.

"Nyaha! It seems so! Nyahaha!" Cathy pointed and laughed at Rival. "The lonely little backing vocalist human can't handle a little water, hm? Nyahaha!"

"Ignore her, Rival." Ji-hoon never payed much attention to Cathy anyway. "It's fine for you to stay out of it."

"I mean, fair not everyone would be about it. No worries, Val." Yoshino shrugged. She wouldn't have minded Rival being there, as she personally considers him one of the more trustworthy men here. Or, maybe not trustworthy. More one of the more harmless men here.

"..." Rival kept on being silent. He snuck a glance at Rosalind.

"Well... okay!" Lake was kind of hoping that Rival would change his mind, but if he wasn't going to, then that's that. "Since that's attendance confirm-"

"I'm not staying in the background this time!"

Showing that he forgot that this was still the daily life, Rival slammed his hand down on the table with some surprising aggressiveness. But despite it technically being an interjection, no wind manifested.

"Woah!" But Lake reacted like wind did manifest. "Rival?!"

"Holy shit!" That even threw Alpha off. "The fuck was that for, emo boy?"

"...Rival?" Rosalind looked at the backing vocalist with hesitant curiosity.

"Uh..." Rival blinked as he realized everyone's attention was on him. He hadn't meant for that to be so... showy. "Um... sorry if that... scared anyone."

"All good...!" Joji let out a confused chuckle. "But what's up, man?"

"You're n-never so... loud." One of the reasons why Ayaka didn't hate Rival was that he was usually pretty quiet. "What's wrong?"

"Well... I just..." Rival snuck another glance at Rosalind. "I... changed my mind. I'll go to the party. But I just won't... swim. I guess." He dryly chuckled to himself.

"Is that so?" Damien noticed Rival sneaking a glance at Rosalind.

"Really?" Lake was happy to hear that.

"Why the *cough* change of heart, Rival?" Rosalind tilted her head.

"Eh..." Rival looked away from everyone. "Don't worry... about it. Just changed my mind is all."

Now, despite Rival x Rosalind being a straight ship, Kuroko could still sense and appreciate it. She gave the averted backing vocalist a knowing smile. "I'm glad to hear you're joining, Rival-nya! I'm sure you're glad too, right Ros-nya-lind?" She shifted her knowing smile to Rosalind.

"Well..." Rosalind shifted her eyes to the side to look at Rival. She set both of her hands on her parasol, which was laying in lap. "I suppose I *cough* am..." She very thinly smiled.

And Rival internally smiled after hearing that.

"Well... alright. Everyone is going then." Ji-hoon personally didn't care about the possible Rival x Rosalind ship. His mind was too preoccupied to think about ships. "That sound good to you, Lake?" He gave the metaphorical talking stick back to the person who should be leading this conversation.

"Of course it does!" Lake was always a believer in "the more the merrier" mindset. "So... should we talk about when we're gonna have it now?"

"Sounds good to me!" Joji nodded.

"Sounds good to me as well!" Pheme nodded... as well. And yes, she was still here.

"Oh hey. You're still here, Pheme." Darren spoke what Nathan thought when he read the line above.

"Hm? Did you forget my presence?" Pheme sounded playfully offended.

"I sure didn't..." Yoshino groaned, being the one sitting next to the neurotic goddess.

"I didn't either." Darren had surprisingly good awareness, depsite the fact that there was no alcohol around.

"Well, that's good then?" Pheme giggled in satisfaction. "And by the by Mx. Beaumont, I will be attending the pool party as well! Just to let you know! I already have a beautiful swim suit picked out!"

...

"You'll... what?" Joji blinked in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"A... swimsuit-nya?" Kuroko wasn't going to deny that the image of Pheme in a swimsuit was... intriguing. But she tried not to focus on that.

"G-Great..." Ayaka sarcastically muttered to herself, suddenly feeling a lot more nervous about this now.

"What's with those reactions?" Pheme gasped. "Is it that big a surprise? I attended the drinking party too! How is this different?"

"I guess it isn't..." Ji-hoon considered it. Everytime he has a conversation with Pheme, Ji-hoon never really knows how to process it. One day, she lords over them and tortures them, then the next day she acts like she's a part of their group. That's the one thing he just couldn't pin down. What's her game? Or Asclepius' for that matter? Ugh... he could go on like this for a while, but he knew now wasn't the right time.

"Yeah... I guess it isn't different..." Raiha was apprehensive about replying to anything Ji-hoon says. "But... Pheme non-bestie? Imma be real, you ain't really comforting to be around. And you kinda cause trouble too."

"Trouble?! Ms. Miyahara, I'm offended!" Pheme has been getting offended a lot this chapter. "When have I ever caused trouble?"

"Nyaha! You have time for the whole list?" Cathy mocked a fellow trouble maker.

"I can give you a big example." Raiha spoke with surprising seriousness as she glanced at Aurora.

"...Oh! You mean me almost becoming the blackened by poisoning Ms. Beaufort? Pft!" Pheme rolled her eyes.

"W-What's with that reaction?" Aurora shook a little, not liking that traumatic experience of hers being treated so flippantly.

"Ms. Beaufort. Ms. Miyahara. That was Genjiro's fault. Not mine! I simply did what I had to do!" Pheme acted like she did nothing wrong. "A goddess like me couldn't have been bamboozled by something like that!"

"Even s-still..." Ayaka didn't like being reminded of the drinking party, and Pheme being at the pool party would only do that and more.

"Maybe it's silly to judge a goddess by human standards..." Kei mused. "But when in duress, people do silly things. Like switching their poisoned drink with someone elses. And given her position, and from her point of view, I get what she means." He shrugged.

"The fuck? Why are you glazing this bitch?" Alpha never saw Kei as a glazer.

"Never said I was. And I never said I agree with what she did. Don't even imply that." Kei injected a drop of seriousness in his tone. "Just saying... it might be fine having her. Again, we aren't in murder territory at all, so what could even happen? What could she incite?" He truthfully felt like "murder territory" was rapidly approaching, but he tried to yoink Ji-hoon's mindset a little. Good to just have this happen while everyone is calm.

"See, that's why you're my favorite, Mr. Aikawa! Such a shining star!" Pheme shone a metaphorical spotlight down on Kei. "And by the way, I'm going no matter what." She suddenly shut down any other people willing to argue. "It sounds like fun! I trust Mx. Beaumont to put on a fun party!"

"Oh, thank you!" Lake thanked the neurotic psychopath.

"Lake! Don't thank her!" Joji platonically loved Lake, but wow they needed to keep their naivety in check.

"Oh please, Mr. Kaneshiro!" Pheme giggled at his aggravation. "Anyway, I'm going! I, again, already have a swimsuit picked out! And think about it this way! An overseer in a swimsuit is pretty novel, isn't it?"

An image of Pheme in a swimsuit flashed into Kuroko's brain again. She tried her best to ignore it, but to little avail. "Weird way to justify it... but I'm okay with her coming-nya! It's not like we have a choice!" She said that last sentence surprisingly cheerfully.

"Shit... guess so." Yoshino sighed. "Just gotta deal with it."

"Yes... while this certainly wasn't part of the original plan, let us try to stay on course." Damien tried to stay positive about this development. "If she's coming, then she's coming. Let's shift back to my dear Lake, shall we?"

"Yeah... we should." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. He begrudgingly went along with Pheme attending this pool party. But he made sure he'd watch her the whole time.

"Oh! Well..." It wasn't like Pheme coming threw off Lake's plans, but they still needed a second to recollect themselves. "Okay... now, we need to talk about when to have it." They checked their Star-Phone. "It's 11:00 AM right now... how about 3:00 PM?" They randomly chose a time.

"Huh... works for me!" Joji firmly nodded, showing he was fine with that time.

"Sounds good, Lake bestie!" Raiha was fine with it too. The idea of Aurora in a swimsuit was starting to sink into her mind more, but she tried to ignore it.

"It's not like anyone actually has shit to do, you know." Alpha pointed out how open everyone's schedules are. "Besides for Darren's bitch-ass drinking 24/7."

"I don't drink 24/7. But you're right." Darren took a drink of god knows what. "But I can make it."

"That's a good plan, Lake." Kei spoke for everyone else. "It'll be a good time, I'm sure. And for prep...?" He brought up the next point.

"Oh! I can handle that!" The focus character of this chapter themselves stood up. "It's not like it's a lot, so I got it!" Lake gave a determined nod.

"Are you sure, Lake? I'm more than happy to help." Joji didn't want them to be alone.

"Well, you can if you want to!" Lake wasn't going to deny the free help. "But it's pretty much just moving the pool supplies to the pool! I got it!"

"Oh... well, if you're sure!" Joji was proud of Lake for showing such initiative.

"There's that *cough* problem solved then." Rosalind sure as hell knew that she wasn't going to help with any prep. "I believe that's it?"

Ji-hoon checked his Star-Phone. "We've got nothing else to discuss, so yeah." He stood up. "We're good to leave it here. We'll meet at the pool at 3:00 PM."

"Sounds good!" Yoshino stood up.

And with Yoshino standing up, that triggered the chain reaction of everyone else standing up and leaving as well. Alpha and Cathy left immediately like usual, and Lake skipped out too, eager to get to preparing. After another few moments, mostly everyone had filtered out... besides for two people.

Pheme walked up Rival, who was still sitting down. "Mr. Seizon?" She leaned down.

"...Huh? What...?" Rival had been zoning out a little.

Pheme giggled. "You remember your little request yesterday? I've made it happen!"

"My... request... oh." Rival quickly remembered.

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

...

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

"Wait... are you..." Rival didn't actually think Pheme would be able to conjure up an elevator.

Pheme slowly nodded. "I'll wait for you and Ms. Reinhardt in Ms. Yamamoto's studio!" She left without another word.

Rival watched her leave with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Huh..." He slowly got up... and left, curious to find Rosalind and see if Pheme actually followed through.

[Ultimate Pop Star's Studio]

"Rival? I don't mean to be *cough* rude, but are you going to explain what the meaning of this is?" Rosalind didn't consider herself rude, just honest. And honestly speaking, she was very confused right now.

"Yeah... I will." Rival slowly nodded. It luckily didn't take him long to find Rosalind. "I mean... we're already here." As they reached Bessie's Studio, Rival took the lead in walking through the wreckage, but not without occasionally looking behind himself to check on Rosalind.

"Yes... you mentioned something about *cough* Bessie's Studio..." Rosalind looked around. "And... why is Pheme standing next to the *cough* left staircase?" She drew attention to the goddess, who was standing there innocuously.

"Just... hold on. I got... well... I'll show you." Rival couldn't think of a good way to word it, so he opted to wait until they got to Pheme.

"If you say so..." Rosalind narrowed her eyes. She didn't distrust Rival or anything. In fact, it was closer to the opposite of that. She... didn't hate him at all. She rather liked him. Maybe she even...

"Okay. We're here." Rival stopped walking as they reached Pheme.

Rosalind un-narrowed her eyes. "It seems we are." She calmly steadied her parasol cane on the ground.

"Mr. Seizon! Mr. Reinhardt! It's been too long!" Pheme spread her arms open, as if she were expecting a hug.

"It's been like... ten minutes..." Rival couldn't understand Pheme sometimes.

"I wouldn't worry *cough* about it, Rival." And Rosalind couldn't understand her either. "Now... what's going on, Pheme? I'd like to *cough* know."

"Impatient today, Ms. Reinhardt?" Pheme giggled. "But alright! I have a busy day anyway, so I'll get right to it!" She pulled out a small remote. "You see this?"

"I do. What is it?" Rosalind was sick, but she wasn't blind.

"It's a remote!" Pheme stated the obvious. "And for its function..." She revealed that it had two buttons on it. She clicked the top one. "Just watch and see!" She pointed to the wall.

"Hm...?" Rosalind slowly turned to the wall to watch, with Rival doing the same.

After a few seconds... the wall opened up... revealing an...

"Elevator?" Rosalind continued the narration's thought as she blinked. Behind the wall, there was a decently large elevator. From what Rosalind could see, it rocked an elegant tan color, giving it a fairly fancy look.

"Huh..." Rival wasn't sure if Pheme would actually fufill what she promised. He... was glad she did.

"So? What do you think, Ms. Reinhardt?" Pheme eagerly awaited Rosalind opinion.

"...Was this... *cough* always here?" Rosalind tilted her head. She wasn't sure what to think yet.

"Yes, actually!" Pheme confirmed. "There are elevators on both sides of Ms. Yamamoto's Studio, yet I blocked them both off! I thought it'd make the impending murder case more interesting with only the stairs available!" She casually explained, like it was a fair reason.

Both Rosalind and Rival just zoned out that last part. "I see... why unblock *cough* this one then?" She was still confused.

"Well..." Pheme walked up to Rosalind and set the remote in her hand, prompting another confused look from the cinematographer. "Mr. Seizon came to me yesterday... and asking if I could arrange for an elevator for you, Ms. Reinhardt! Luckily, unblocking this one didn't take too long."

Rosalind, still holding the remote, slowly turned to look at Rival. "What...?"

Rival sighed, then scratched the back of his head. "I... don't know. I just..." He was slightly dreading explaining this, already feeling the embarrassment creep up in him.

"Please explain, Rival." Rosalind gently yet firmly asked the backing vocalist.

Rival took a deep breath. "I... saw how much trouble those stairs were for you... both yesterday and two days ago. That... was pretty obvious."

Rosalind sighed and averted her gaze. She didn't say anything.

"And... I just thought... an elevator might be... good." Rival slowly shrugged. "I mean... I want you to be comfortable... or something. I don't want to assume... but you seem sick and... I want you to be..." He had no idea if he was explaining this well or not, but judging by the look on Rosalind's averted face, he was not.

Rosalind sighed again as she heard the tail-end of Rival's explanation. "I see." She shakily walked up to Rival, the slightest bit of irritation in her stance.

"Rosalind...?" Rival was really hoping he didn't mess that up.

"Rival." Rosalind set the remote in his hands. "I appreciate the *cough* thought... but I don't need this."

"Huh...?" Oh god, Rival definitely fucked this up.

Rosalind kept up a firm glare at Rival. "This is a *cough* waste on someone like me. Besides, I'm not an *cough cough* invalid...!" She actually raised her voice a little as she spoke with some passion. "Don't give me... that. I can walk up those stairs... on my *cough own!" Raising her voice, even if for two lines, was having a clear affect on her as she started to get shaky.

"Rosalind..." Rival stuck out her hand, suddenly feeling horrible about himself and for her.

"I'm sorry, but I'll be *cough* going now. Thank you." Rosalind calmed down enough, even trying to stay cordial as she began to shakily walk out of Bessie's Studio.

"Rosalind...!" Rival raised his own voice as he called out after the cinematographer. Neither she turned around nor did he pursue her. He slunk his head down.

Pheme blinked. She was all for drama, but she didn't expect it to go down right now. She wanted drama after she reveals the motive. Bah, whatever. It's fine. As she glanced at Rival's form... she couldn't help but giggle. She walked up to him. "By the way, the top button is to open the elevator and the bottom is to close it. It's all yours now, Mr. K- hm. Mr. Seizon!" She teased him a little before walking away... and leaving Rival by himself. But she gave him one last glance before officially leaving herself...

...

After a few minutes, Rival quietly left the studio.

...

[Locker Room]

"Okay... let's see!" After everyone split off, Lake, like they said, went up to the locker room to prepare some pool supplies and such. No one actually came with them to help... but that's okay! They could get it ready on their own. Joji did say he'd be up to help them later. But that just sounded like an opportunity for them to show off how much they could get done themselves! They'd make Joji proud!

"Christ, you like staring at the wall like a schizo?" Eager to interrupt the inner monologue, Alpha strolled into the Locker Room.

"Oh! Alpha!" Lake jumped up a little. "You scared me!"

"It's easy to scare a bitch like you, ain't it?" Alpha chuckled to herself as she walked closer to Lake without apologizing.

"Heh... I guess so!" Lake shrugged, not denying the claim. "But anyway... are you here to help set up for the pool party?"

"What? Fuck no." Alpha looked offended that Lake would even suggest that. "Why the hell would I help you?" She acted like that was such a stupid thing to suggest.

"Well... out of the kindness of your heart?" Lake felt a little disoriented from that question

"Kindness of my heart? Cute." Alpha stepped over and grabbed one of the beachballs. "You think my heart is kind?" She sarcastically asked.

"Yeah! I do!" Lake immediately answered, not sensing the sarcasm.

"...Huh?" Alpha blinked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah!" Lake smiled and nodded.

"...Ugh..." Alpha sighed. "Yeah, no. I'm not about to deny any of the shit I've said throughout this Killing Game." Alpha was the type to be proud of her profanity. "So even after all that shit, you say my heart is kind and stuff?"

"I mean... yeah!" Lake was stuck on repeat.

"God, say something else!" If it was anyone else, Alpha would've slapped them upside the head for being annoying. But Alpha had some restraint. "I'm curious now. Give me an actual reason on why you think a monster like me is rocking a kind heart."

"Oh! Um..." Lake needed a second to think. "Well... I've always seen you as a sort of "tough love" person. You may seem harsh on the outside, but I believe you have a heart of gold! And you may be a little crude... but I can tell that you're hard-working, supportive, and confident too!"

"...Where the fuck did you get that idea?" Alpha neither confirmed nor denied the having a heart of gold allegations. "When have I ever been hard-working, supportive, or confident?" She crossed her arms.

"Well... weren't you all of those things during Genjiro's plan?" Lake tilted her head.

"Genjiro's... plan?" Alpha blinked.

"Yeah!" Lake nodded. "I don't really agree with everything you two did during the last case..." Their plan had too much bloodshed to Lake's liking. "But you worked hard on the plan to take down Pheme. And you were very supportive of it too! Why would you go through with it if you weren't? And... do you remember what you said before fainting from the Adenosine? Pheme showed us the video!"

"What... I said?" Alpha took a second to recall.

"Ha! Down... you go, Alpha!" Genjiro had a smug look plastered across his face as he watched his motive partner react to the pill she just consumed.

"You... fucker... you... holy shit." Alpha didn't expect the effect to be so quick. It was hitting harder than she would've thought. She tumbled down onto the ground in her sudden bout of weakness.

But due to their height difference, Genjiro was able to stay standing. "Don't you worry Alpha. Take your little baby nap." He looked away from his motive partner. "And when you wake up... you'll be free of this shit. Don't worry about thanking me. Ha!"

Alpha felt herself start to slip into unconsciousness. That itself might be more due to the effect of their fight, and not the pill. "You... bitch. You... got... this..." She muttered before losing consciousness.

"You believed in Genjiro's ability at the end! That's being confident and supportive!" Lake was glad that they knew that Alpha had a good heart underneath her thorny exterior, even if Epi might deny it.

"..." Alpha hated that she couldn't refute that. So she took a different route. "Why the fuck... are you you?"

"Why am I... me? What do you mean?" Lake didn't get it.

Alpha groaned. "You prance around like the world is sunshine and rainbows. You act like everyone is a good person. Your head is simultaneously up in the clouds and up your ass. This fucking optimism... how the hell can you manage it?"

Lake sensed a more... serious tone in Alpha's voice, like she actually wanted to know. "It's just... who I am!" They giggled. "I like being like this! Being all pessimistic and grumpy doesn't help anything! I never understood why people would rather be all... bleh instead of happy!"

Alpha sneered. "That a slight at me? Am I bleh? Am I pessimistic and grumpy?" She used the ballet dancer's terminology.

"Huh? No! That's not it! I didn't mean to offend!" Lake shook their head.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Alpha rolled her eyes. "But that's really it? It's just... who you are?" That sounded ridiculous to the gas station manager.

"Yeah!" Lake happily nodded.

"No, that's bullshit. There has to be more to it than that. You can't be naturally that stupid." Alpha didn't believe it. "Like... your upbringing. That has to have influenced you kinda." She didn't know why she was so determined to find out the root cause of Lake's optimism, but she's gone this far already. May as well see it through.

"Hm... well..." Lake thought about that for a moment. "Maybe! My mom and dad, Ocèane and River Beaumont, did... coddle me a little." Even Lake couldn't deny that. They weren't that naive.

"Really? Ocèane? River? And they named their kid Lake?" Alpha couldn't believe that the author of this fic had gone with such ridiculous names for Lake's parents.

"Hm? What's the problem?" Lake tilted their head. They didn't get it.

"Uh... nothing." Alpha shook her head. Now wasn't the time to focus on pun names. "So your mom and dad coddled your ass? I can see it. And with names like "River" and "Ocèane," I know they gotta be loaded. Pretentious ass names."

"Well..." Lake ignored the slight at her parents' names. "I guess they are! They never really told me what they did, but their jobs had do with water! I know that much!"

"Oh my god..." Alpha couldn't believe how far that the author of this fic had taken that joke. She tried to ignore that though. "Anyway, that shit tells me all I need to know. You did have heavily sheltered vibes."

"I... guess so?" Lake didn't realize how strange of a conversation this would end up being. "They just kept me safe and protected and loved!"

"And your worldview went to shit? Yeah, I assumed so." Alpha sighed.

"...The s-word?" Lake censored themsleves, refusing to swear, like always.

"You... oh." Alpha took a second to realize what Lake was asking. "Alright... maybe "shit" ain't the right word here." She admitted. "But that worldview is fucking dangerous."

"D-Dangerous?" Lake stuttered a little, Alpha's chosen word scaring them a little.

"Uh... fuck, maybe that wasn't the right word either." Alpha sighed. "But Lake. Being optimistic is all fine and dandy..." She admitted, even if she didn't fully agree with it. "But the way you are with it? Trust me, that shit is gonna be your downfall."

"W-What do you mean?" Lake didn't know where Alpha was going with this.

"I bet your guard is down, considering we're deep into this Killing Game." Alpha crossed her arms. "But you're so fucking easy to manipulate. You trust way too easily, and that's gonna fuck you over. That optimism of yours is gonna make you do something bad. I can feel it." She dropped some ominous foreshadowing meant to scare Lake's creator.

"W-W-What?! No! I won't..." Lake tried to deny Alpha's claim. "I don't know... I... no! I'd never do something bad!" They didn't know how to refute that.

"Oh yeah?" Alpha scoffed. "That trusting nature of yours has been proven already, no-nuts. You talked with Damien's sketchy ass about the pool party, yeah? He gave you the idea?"

"Well... yes! He's not sketchy though! I know the impression he gave off last trial wasn't great... but he's kept on trying to apologize to Ayaka! He knows he was wrong!" Lake jumped to defend the beautician.

"Is Ayaka being creeped the fuck out by him nothing to you then? How about the way she screamed multiple times during the last trial? You don't think she's justified? You think she should just accept that dipshit's apology?" Alpha countered.

"Well... Ayaka was just flustered! And it's fine if she can't accept the apology immediately! It's understandable!" Lake held firm. "It takes time!"

"Jesus Christ..." Alpha held her head in her hand. This was becoming a waste of time. "Fine, you wanna think like that, then whatever!" She wasn't going to humor this anymore.

"Okay... thank you." Lake thanked Alpha for some reason as they took a deep breath. "I know we don't think the same Alpha, but on the matter of Damien, I think you should cut him some slack!"

"Why the hell would I do that?" Alpha fondly looked back on that moment in Chapter 1 in which she punched Damien.

"He's very nice!" Lake nodded. "Last night, when he brought up the pool party idea, he seemed very genuine! And he was very genuine when he brought up the other stuff too-" Lake abruptly stopped talking, like they realized they said something they shouldn't have.

That immediately caught Alpha's attention. "Hold on. I thought he just talked about the pool party. What's this other stuff nonsense?" She gave Lake a burning-hot glare.

"Uh... shoot! I shouldn't have said that!" Lake giggled sheepishly. "Sorry, but Damien wanted me to keep that other stuff a secret!"

"A... secret?" Alpha wasn't a Damien hater on the level of Rival or Ayaka, but this was just too suspicious. "Sure sounds harmless!" She said sarcastically.

"Yeah, it is pretty harmless!" Lake didn't catch the sarcasm. "It's something Damien wanted to keep between me and him, so I'm going to do that!"

"Is that right?" Again, if Alpha was a higher-tier Damien hater, she might've done something more about this situation. But only as a mid-tier Damien hater... she let her apathy win over. "Shit, alright. Not my problem." She shrugged.

Lake giggled. "Yeah, it's fine! Don't worry about it!" They waved it off. "Anyway... where were we?" They acted like none of that just happened.

Alpha groaned. This bitch was just... ugh. She didn't even know why she was still here. "We were on your coddle-ass parents. Yep, having loving parents must be so swell!" She oozed sarcasm with that last word.

"Yeah! It is swell!" Lake's sarcasm detector was pretty bad, as previously proven. "I'm sure your parents were great too, right Alpha?"

"Heh. Wouldn't call them great, but I wouldn't call them shit either." Alpha groaned. "Uncle was the only fucker in my life who felt like an actual parent to me. He was still a greedy and sarcastic bitch though."

"Oh... I see." Lake was a little saddened to hear that. "So... did you come to live with your uncle after something happened to your parents?" They took a wild guess.

Alpha blinked. "Damn, you growing senile? You not remember my little outburst at the end of the last trial?"

"Your... outburst?" Lake furrowed their brow. "...Oh!"

"That's what you think, huh?! HUH?!" Alpha pulled Adam's body closer to her. "Tell me! Have you seen your own fucking dad get run over by a car in front of your eyes?! Have you seen your naked mother covered in baby oil, fucking the twentieth new guy this week?! Have you ever had your best friend betray you and steal your greatest dream?! HUH?! HAVE YOU?!"

"Oh..." Lake saddened once again at the mental image that popped into their head.

"You remember it then?" Alpha hadn't realized just how truly fucking angry she was in that moment. She hadn't intended to let any of that go, but it was too late now. "Dad cheated on mom with a prostitute, then died pushing her out of the way of a truck. Mom crashed out after that, became a slut, and I even walked in on her oiled up for some random guy. She eventually disowned me. Uncle took me in after that."

Lake felt blown back by the sudden intensity of Alpha's backstory. "That's so... sad..." They felt like crying.

"I swear to god you better not cry." Alpha didn't want to deal with that. "If I didn't cry back then, no way in hell am I letting a random ass pussy-bitch like you cry."

"W-What? You... didn't cry when you watched your father die? Or even when you were disowned?" Lake held back their tears, not expecting to hear that.

"Damn right. Not everyone is an emotional bitch like you, Lake. Not everyone can just... express emotions." Alpha sighed, then widened her eyes, as if she just then realized how much she was talking about herself. "Uh... I'm going now. Fuck this." She turned around and started to walk away.

"W-Wait! Alpha!" Lake called out. "I... thank you for... opening up!"

Alpha loudly groaned at that. "Don't describe it like that, and don't act like I did it because this was an FTE or some shit!" She looked over her shoulder. "This is just so... confusing." She looked down at her hand.

"...Alpha? Um... why did you then?" Lake didn't take a step closer to the gas station manager.

"Why, huh?" Alpha debated telling Lake why she was feeling more open to being cooperative... but she figured it wasn't worth the trouble. "Just... stay out of trouble, Lake. Don't let someone betray you." She sighed. "Not that I actually give a fuck about you. But you're the type that, if you get hurt or die, people will bitch and moan about it, and that sounds annoying." She left Lake with some classic Alpha words as she left the locker room.

...

Lake stood there silence for a few moments. They... didn't know how to process all of that. "Betrayal..." Lake fought back the urge to cry. "Alicia..." They muttered to themselves... before getting back to preparing for the pool party a few minutes later.

It looks like Alpha and Lake grew a little closer today!

[Ultimate Starlet's Studio]

"Oh! I was hoping I'd find you in here, Auror-nya!" Kuroko peaked through the doorway to Aurora's studio, and found the starlet sitting down at her desk, holding a photograph in her hand. The room seemed to have been set in the "writing" floor.

"Wha- ah! Kuroko!" Aurora hurriedly pocketed the photograph and looked up at the hypnotist. "To... w-what do I owe the pleasure?" Knowing what Kuroko could possibly want from her, she tried to stay composed by sounding elegent.

"Well... I wanted to talk about a few things..." Kuroko strolled into the studio, a mischievous yet gentle spring in her step as she walked up to Aurora's desk. "First... if you don't mind me asking, was that the same photograph from yesterday-nya?" She seemed to have noticed the starlet gazing at the photo.

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

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

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

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

"H-Huh?! Um... you noticed?" Aurora gave an annoyed and embarrassed chuckle. She considered hiding it, but she didn't want to gaslight Kuroko or anything.

"I did-nya. Do... you not want to talk about it-nya?" Kuroko figured that was the case, judging by Aurora's reaction. But she wanted to confirm.

"Forgive me Kuroko... but I'd rather not." Aurora slowly shook her head. "It's... worthless anyway..." She muttered that last part to herself.

"Worthless?" Kuroko tilted her head.

"Huh? What? Did I... say that?" Aurora chuckled nervously. How the heck did Kuroko hear that?!

"You..." Kuroko debated pushing this, but she sensed it wasnt the right time to do so. "...didn't-nya. I just misheard! My bad-nya!" She giggled.

"Oh. Right!" Aurora was glad she dropped that. That was something... that didn't need to be shared with anyone else. "Anyway..." She cleared her throat. "What was your reason for coming to see me?" She asked in a curious way, not in a rude way.

"Well..." Kuroko had come in here prepared to tell Aurora that gay is okay, but she knew she needed to take a careful approach. So... she started off slow. "I just wanted to know more about you-nya!"

"Oh... really?" Aurora tilted her head. That wasn't what she expected to hear. "I'm flattered, I suppose. What would you like to know?" She approached this kindly and calmly.

"Hm... there isn't anything specific..." Kuroko tapped her finger against her chin as she spoke. "But I just feel like I don't know much about you, Auror-nya! What about your past?"

"Is... that so?" Aurora gently smiled. "I'm afraid there's not much to say."

"Really-nya?" Kuroko looked surprised. "How can there not be much to say about the past of a beautiful starlet like you-nya?"

"Well..." Aurora wasn't sure how to answer that.

Kuroko noticed the slight frustration on Aurora's face. "Hm... can I suggest something-nya? What about... your parents? What about them-nya?"

"My parents..." Aurora narrowed her eyes. She took an oddly long moment to think about that.

"Auror-nya?" Kuroko was confused by the look of concentration on Aurora's face.

"Hm? Oh, sorry!" Aurora shook her head. She's been losing her composure a lot these days... she needed to try staying on the ball here... try and stay who she is... elegant and kind. "To answer your question Kuroko, my parents are Lucien and Collette Beaufort, my mother and father."

"I see... alright-nya." Kuroko nodded along. "What are they like? Did they support your career-nya?"

"They did, yes." Aurora confirmed. "Though after Mr. D'Rue discovered me, he was the one who accompanied me on things like shows and performances and such."

"Right, you've mentioned him before-nya!" Kuroko remembered. "I'm curious. He's the Former Ultimate Talent Scout, yeah-nya? And he's your manager? Did he manage anyone else-nya?"

"Hm? Yes, he did. I was admittedly his main "star" you could say, but he did manage some others." Aurora nodded. "He even managed Judith Ivy as well."

"Really-nya?!" Kuroko widened her eyes. "The Former Ultimate Actress? I can't believe you haven't brought that up before!"

Aurora giggled. "Well, I never thought it to be relevant. Besides, I realize I could've brought it up yesterday, but I unfortunately never got the chance to be close with Ms. Ivy. I would've loved the chance to get to know her. It's a shame what happened to her..." She sighed and shook her head.

"Oh! Yeah... she's dead, isn't she-nya?" Kuroko wasn't up-to-date on the Former Ultimate lore, but she knew that much at least.

"Correct. I think her death was a little strange... but I'm not Ji-hoon, I'm afraid. I'm not a big theorizer." Aurora chuckled sadly. "I just wonder if she truly did commit suicide or not."

"Hm... maybe ask Ji-hoon about it later-nya? Or even Kei later-nya?" Kuroko suggested.

"I could, I could..." Aurora considered it. "I believe Mr. D'Rue found it strange as well, but he never looked into it. Perhaps he was afraid of the truth... the truth of what happened to his lover..."

"Oh? Jean and Judith were in a relationship-nya?" That was tea that Kuroko was surprised to learn.

"It wasn't public, but yes. They were." Aurora confirmed for her. "But.. ah, I didn't mean to go off-topic. We were talking about Mr. D'Rue, weren't we? I didn't mean to get distracted."

"No, that's okay-nya!" The fact that Aurora was opening up like this was exactly Kuroko's goal. "This is interesting, no worries-nya!"

"Well... that's good, then." Aurora gently smiled. "Then like I was saying, Mr. D'Rue almost become more of a parent figure to me than my real parents were. My mother and father were still plenty supportive nonetheless. Especially my mother, Ju- ah, Collette. She was very invested in my career path." She pretended like that slip of the tongue didn't happen.

Kuroko thought that was a strange slip-up, but she chose to ignore it. "That's good! I'm... happy for you, Auror-nya!" That kind of hit Kuroko harder than she would've expected, but she played it off with a giggle.

"Yes, yes... hm." Aurora narrowed her eyes for a split second. "Say, Kuroko? If you don't mind me asking, how are your parents?" She retuned the question.

"..." Kuroko smiled a sad smile. "Mine...-nya?" She had no reason to hide it, but... "Honestly, compared to yours... they aren't great-nya." She chose to be honest.

"Ah... I see." Aurora coughed. "I didn't mean to..."

"No no, it's fine-nya!" Kuroko shook her head. She didn't want Aurora to feel bad. And... this might actually be perfect for her. "It's just... they weren't supportive of me... at all."

"I see... they weren't into hypnotism then?" Aurora tried to approach this respectfully

"That's right-nya." Kuroko nodded. "Kozo and Kozue Kurobara, my dad and mom respectively, are a physicist and surgeon-nya. Also respectively-nya!" She giggled at that last sentence.

"Really? I... believe I can already see where this was going." Aurora has been a part of enough media to know where this was going. "Did they not believe in the concept of hypnotism then? Their positions being rooted in science?"

"...Basically-nya." Kuroko pouted a little. "They never respected my profession or my choices at all-nya. They wanted me to follow in their scientific footsteps... but I chose not to-nya. I followed my own path... and they didn't respect it at all-nya." She's mostly gotten over it at this point... but that didn't mean that it didn't still sting.

"I'm sorry to hear that... that doesn't sound pleasant." Aurora held her hand over her heart. She was suddenly more grateful for her parents than ever.

"You want to know the worst part-nya?" Kuroko closed her eyes as she crossed her arms, then took a deep breath. This wasn't something she intended on telling anyone about... but this might just work. "They didn't support me... or my sexuality-nya."

"..." Aurora's entire aura and demeanor changed after hearing that. "...O-Oh?" She felt her hands start to slowly shake.

"Well, I'm assuming they don't-nya." Kuroko started to scowl. "As you know, and as probably everyone else here knows too..." She dryly chuckled. "...I'm a lesbian. And I'm proud of who I am-nya."

"..." Aurora didn't say anything.

"The day I figured out who I was... well, it was after one of my shows-nya. I was with my best friend, Haruhi Hojo-nya." Kuroko continued. "She's supported me through thick and thin... and it just... clicked one day-nya. I looked in her eyes... and I realized it-nya. I like girls. I love them..." She didn't think she'd get this reminiscent, but this might be for the better.

"...Y-You... liked your... best friend?" Aurora looked away from Kuroko as she shakily spoke.

"I did-nya!" Kuroko smiled as she nodded. " I never told her my feelings though..."

"...!" Aurora didn't say anything, but her expression said it all.

"I didn't want to potentially ruin the friendship we held..." Kuroko looked down at her hands. "But now? I think I regret it-nya. Not telling her, I mean-nya."

"You... d-do?" Aurora still didn't look Kuroko in the eyes.

"It's probably because of this horrible Killing Game-nya..." Kuroko had to admit. "I don't intend on dying here! But... the thought of dying without telling Haruhi my feelings... it's scary. I don't want to die with regrets-nya!" She looked up with a determined expression.

"..." Aurora closed her eyes.

"But that's how things stand with me and Haruhi-nya. I want to get out of here so badly... so that I can be honest with her-nya." Kuroko took and step closer to Aurora's desk, and bent down to her eye-level. "Anyway... after I initially figured out who I was... I wanted to tell mom and dad-nya."

"...R-Really?" Aurora didn't meet Kuroko's eyes.

"Really-nya." Kuroko giggled. "They might've not supported my talent, but they were my parents in the end-nya. I wanted them to know, you know? But it's funny. On the day I went to tell them..."

"Mom... dad... I..." Kuroko slowly walked into the living room after working up enough courage to be honest with her parents. But she stopped when they were in the middle of talking with each other. She hid around the corner and listened in on what they were saying.

"Have you seen the news?" Kozo aggressively held up his phone for Kozue to see. "It seems "Madam Blackrose" is making a splash! It's ridiculous!" He threw the phone down on the couch.

"Tch. To think people buy into the psuedo-science of our daughter. It's ridiculous." Kozue scoffed. "What a waste... why did our one daughter have to go and choose a useless and fake profession? She's such a disappointment..."

"I know. And get this!" Kozo grabbed the phone and held it back up. "Women absolutely flock to her. They make fan clubs. It's her main target audience."

"Oh, please." Kozue rolled her eyes. "Please don't tell me our daughter is a lesbian..." She spoke the word 'lesbian' with utter disdain.

"I would hope not, but it wouldn't surprise me." Kozo crossed his arms. "We don't need any of that nonsense in this house. A girl simply can't be with another girl. The very idea is nonsensical!"

"I agree." Kozue glared at the phone. "But this LGBT movement has been growing stronger. Let's hope our miserable daughter hasn't been taken in by it. We don't need that. She just needs to follow what's natural and right- a woman being with a man."

"Exactly!" Kozo wholeheartedly agreed.

...

Kuroko tried to stay quiet as she started to cry. Seriously?! They... god! Why?!

Kuroko ran back up to her room, holding her head in her hands as she continued to cry.

"Oh god..." Aurora didn't know how to react to that. "I'm so sorry..."

"It's water under the bridge now... I cut ties with them a while ago-nya. I didn't need that negativity in my life-nya." Kuroko revealed with a sigh.

"How..." Aurora held both of her hands over her chest. "I... won't claim to understand what you went through... but..."

"But what?" Kuroko gave the starlet a gentle look.

A few tears started to fall from Aurora's eyes. "How did that experience not cause you to... hate that part of y-yourself? Even if you didn't like your parents... isn't it crushing... not being accepted?"

Ah. Kuroko understood now. "Well... yeah-nya. It was crushing. It really... really hurt-nya." She smiled sadly. "For a time, I even thought that maybe they're right. Maybe this side of me is bad... maybe it is something that no one wants to see..."

"...A-And?" Aurora finally met Kuroko's gaze, tears still forming in her eyes.

"And... I didn't think that-nya." Kuroko firmly shook her head.

"...Huh?" Aurora slightly widened her tearful eyes.

"I had friends with me... people who actually loved me and trusted me... and they helped me realize that the way I feel is perfectly fine-nya!" Kuroko took one of Aurora's trembling hands and held onto it. "It's so much better to be true and honest with yourself-nya. Any of those doubts in your head... they're just your mind playing tricks on you-nya! That's what I learned... and... I hope you can learn that too."

Aurora's eyes widened slightly more at Kuroko's words. She... "I can't believe how emotional I'm getting..." She wiped her eyes with her free hand. "Forgive m-me, this is so embarrassing..." She tried to hide her face with her hand.

Kuroko giggled at the sight. "There's nothing to embarrassed about-nya!" She let go of the starlet's hand.

Aurora promptly held her other hand over face as well. "How can... h-how can you be... you? You're so honest w-with yourself and your intentions... you're such a f-free and positive spirit... not l-letting the past or anything else define you. How are you just... you?"

Kuroko's mouth went slighly agape at that question. "Hm..." She thought about it for a moment. "It's just... who I am-nya!" She smiled brightly.

"It's who you are... huh?" Aurora removed her hands from her face. "This i-is unbecoming of me to say... but I'm rather jealous of you. I w-wish I could be more like you, Kuroko."

Kuroko blushed a bit and looked away for a moment. "I'm not special-nya!" She stayed humble, but she appreciated hearing that. "But if you do want to be like me... let's try a small exercise. A mental one-nya."

"O-Okay." Aurora slowly nodded. "What is it?"

"First, close your eyes-nya." Kuroko gently instructed.

"Alright..." Aurora closed her eyes. "N-Now what?"

"Pretend you are anywhere else but here." Kuroko closed her own eyes with her. "Now... imagine happiness-nya. What do you see-nya?" She was essentially performing a form of hypnosis without any tools here, so she wasn't sure if this was going to work.

"I see..." Aurora concentrated. "I see Mr. D'Rue... my fans... their loyalty... musicals... fantasy novels..."

"I see, I see-nya. Now open." Kuroko opened her own eyes.

Then Aurora slowly opened hers. "What next?"

"Now... this'll be more difficult... considering where we are-nya." Kuroko looked around the room with a surpressed sigh. "But once again... imagine happiness. What do you see-nya?"

"Ah..." Aurora realized what she meant. "That is a little more difficult... but..." She concentrated once again. "When I imagine happiness... I envision..." She took a deep breath.

...

"Raiha-" Aurora stopped herself from saying more as a massive, and frankly very adorable blush according to Kuroko, spread across her face.

"Is that right-nya?" Kuroko stood up. "Just focus on that feeling... okay-nya?" She took a few steps towards the exit. She knew she couldn't do this herself. In the end, the responsibility falls to Aurora. "I'll see you later, Auror-nya! Maybe at the pool party?" She waved before leaving Aurora alone in her studio.

"Raiha..." Aurora muttered her name... while smiling. Maybe... maybe tomorrow she could... hm. Aurora had a lot to think about. She couldn't believe she got that emotional... but... maybe that's good.

She let out a content, anxious, relived, and nervous sigh as she relaxed in her chair. She need to think about... a lot of things. Her feelings... most of all.

But while she does that, know that Aurora and Kuroko grew a little closer today!

[Pool]

Rival checked the time as he sauntered into the pool. 2:58 PM. It looked like he was somehow the first one to get here. He heavily considered not going after what happened with him and Rosalind... but he kinda just... didn't. He still so awkward about it... but hearing her thoughts on the elevator were... enlightening. He didn't really know what this feeling was... and what he was feeling towards her... but he'd try to be more careful in the future. He's messed up enough things involving girls...

Rival looked down at the elevator remote in his hand and sighed. He sat down on the cold floor of the pool, despite multiple pool chairs having been set up by Lake, and let the remote slowly fall out of his hand and onto the ground. He was going to try and not dwell on that elevator too much. For now, he just would look forward to the-

"Rival! You've made it!" Breaking Rival out of his thoughts was Lake as they skipped out of the locker room.

"Lake." Rival didn't have the energy for an exclamation point right now. "You've... changed." He couldn't help but notice that Lake had shedded their usual outfit, and replaced it with a white wetsuit with vertical lilac stripes going down the sides. Pretty much what he would've imagined Lake wearing as a swimsuit.

"Yeah! I have!" Lake giggled. "So... what do you think?" She motioned to the assortment of pool toys and supplies scattered about.

"Um... good. It's good." Rival didn't think he'd play with any of it... well, maybe he'd hit a beachball a few times.

"I'm glad to hear that!" Lake appreciated the unenthusiastic praise.

...

Whoops, awkward silence. Well, it was awkward for only a few moments. As quite literally everyone, barring Pheme, entered the pool at the same time.

"...!" Rival widened his eyes, not expecting the sudden influx of people. ...In hindsight, he probably should've expected it.

"Hi everyone!" Lake happily waved to everyone from across the pool. "Glad to see you're here!"

"It's good to be here!" Joji cheered, holding his swimsuit in his hands.

In fact, everyone held their swimsuits in their hands. Nobody had changed yet.

"Wow...! This looks great, Lake bestie!" Raiha was impressed. I mean, it was just pool stuff scattered around. But still.

Rosalind tentatively felt one of the pool chairs. "This is... *cough* high quality. To be expected of Pheme, I suppose."

"Bitch doesn't skimp out on quality, I'll give her that." Alpha didn't like praising Pheme at all, but she wasn't one to deny the obvious either.

"Well then... should be fun!" Kei nodded in approval. "Shall we, everyone? No time like the present." He began walking to the locker room.

"Yeah, no way we're swimming with normal-ass clothes." Yoshino didn't like the sensation of wet clothes. Never did.

"Right... a-are there bathrooms or changing rooms or anything in there?" Ayaka pointed to the locker room. She hadn't been in there yet after all.

"Hm... no, I don't believe so." Aurora shook her head... and it just then clicked for her what that meant. She tried to hide the small blush on her face. Her emotions were still all over the place after her FTE with Kuroko, so she did a fairly bad job hiding her blush.

"Oh..." Ayaka didn't have any luck hiding the blush on her face though. Well... at least she'd be around other girls while changing.

"Don't worry Ay-nya-ka!" Kuroko set a comforting and non Damien-hand on Ayaka's shoulder. "We won't let any of the boys peep! You have my word-nya!"

"What is this, an anime?" Ji-hoon didn't appreciate what Kuroko was implying. "Don't overthink it. We're all adults. Let's just get changed." He was the first one to enter the locker room.

"Verily, Ji-hoon." Damien, showing some self-awareness for once in realizing that saying anything to Ayaka right now would be pointless, entered in after him.

"Nyahaha!" Cathy didn't even have any words to offer. She just laughed as she ran into the locker room.

Ayaka let out a deep sigh. "Well... l-let's go." She knew she was probably being too paranoid here, so she just wanted to get this done. She, along with the rest of the girls, entered the locker room as well, but not without Aurora and Raiha sneaking quick glances at each other.

The boys followed suit, with Joji being the last one. He patted Lake's back before entering. "We'll be just a minute, Lake. Rival." He acknowledged both of them before entering as well.

Rival could almost see the positivity radiating off of Lake. They were really happy right now. Well... good for them. He stretched his arms out before getting up and approaching them. "Well... now we wait."

"Yep!" Lake nodded as she looked to the closed locker room door.

Now, if this was a different type of fic, I'd probably have a scene of them in the locker room changing. But since it isn't that type of fic, you'll just have to imagine what's going on in there.

Also, this would've been the perfect time for a Rival and Lake FTE, but since Lake already got one this chapter, that meant that the duo just stood their in an awkward silence as they waited for people to reemerge.

...

The door suddenly slammed open. "Ah, let's get this started with the star of the show, shall we!"

"Oh!" Lake widened their eyes at the sudden noise. "Who just-" They stopped talking as they saw who it was.

"...How the hell...?" Rival could've sworn she wasn't with the group...

"What's wrong, Mr. Seizon? Mx. Beaumont? Too stunned by my beauty to comment?" Pheme struck a pose to show off her new outfit. Her dress was gone, and she replaced it with a white off-shoulder bikini top, a slim white bikini bottom, and a pure white swimming shawl over her shoulders and down her sides. Her shackles around ankles and wrists stayed, and she also kept her high heels on for some reason. She also still had her mask on.

Rival felt like there was no good thing he could say here, so he just stayed silent.

"Oh? Too stunned, Mr. Seizon?" Pheme traced a teasing finger up his chin. "Hmhmhm... how about you, Mx. Beaumont?" She shifted her attention away from the backing vocalist.

"Me? Well..." It was times like this where Lake wished Pheme looked like the overseers of the past killing games and not like a... normal woman. "You look good, Pheme! Very pretty!" She didn't deliver it with the enthusiasm of how Kuroko probably would, but still.

Pheme gave a triumphant giggle. "Thank you! I'm glad to see someone can compliment a lady!" She poked Rival's shoulder, prompting a slight aura of anger to emanate from him. Pheme didn't care.

"Hey, Pheme?" And Lake just didn't notice the anger at all. "Question... I didn't see you enter with everyone else... so how did you enter the locker room?" They tilted their head.

"I have my ways!" Pheme winked before going to lay down on one of the pool chairs.

"That... wasn't an answer." Lake was confused.

"...Whatever." Rival just wanted to ignore Pheme right now. "Alright... where is everyone else?" He immediately moved on from the goddess.

"Um..." Lake peeked their head into the locker room, them retracted it. "Oh! More people are coming!" She stepped back to give the "more people" room.

First was...

"Woah! Jesus..." Rival felt like he got jumpscared as he saw Cathy leap out of the locker room.

"Nyahaha! What's wrong, backing vocalist human? Scared?" Cathy chuckled at seeing his shocked expression.

"I... guess so...?" Rival didn't look Cathy in the eyes, feeling too weird about looking at her swimsuit. She ditched her already fairly skimpy clothes and replaced them with a revealing red bikini with a ribbon tying it together at the front and side-tie bottoms. She also had on a red choker with a golden bell. Just... wow she felt no shame.

"Hi, Cathy!" Lake waved to the cat burglar. They didn't feel as much of an effect from Cathy's swimsuit as Rival did, due to their inherently more innocent mind. "You look good!"

Cathy wagged her finger. "I didn't ask, ballet dancer human! Nyahahaha!" She hit them with an extra long laugh as she lept away.

"Sheesh... no shame." Joji stepped out next, shaking his head at Cathy's antics.

"Hey, Joji!" Lake was a little more eager to see Joji compared to Cathy. "You... also look good! Y-Yeah!" They felt a little flustered seeing his bare, muscular chest on full display. For his swimming outfit, he obviously lost his shirt, as well as his pants, and had on simple and effective black swimming trunks instead.

"Yeah, man. You... look good?" Rival didn't realize he signed up for a complimenting session. Welp, his fault for not knowing how to swim.

"Ha! Thanks! Both of you!" Joji heartily laughed. "You gonna wait here for everyone, Lake?"

"Yeah!" Lake gave a simple answer.

Joji shrugged. "Hey, works for me. I'll see you in the pool then!" He waved before running and jumping into the pool, causing a lot of water to suddenly splash out.

"Ah! Carpenter human! Watch yourself!" Cathy shrieked as she almost got assaulted by unsolicited water.

The sight of Cathy flustered was a little amusing to Joji. "Come on Cathy, you're fine!" He laughed it off.

"Yeah, she's probably fine."

Rival and Lake both jumped up a little at the sound of Darren's voice. They turned around and saw him already sitting in one of the pool chairs somehow.

"Wow. You... got out fast, huh Darren?" Rival couldn't comprehend the bartender's sheer power.

"I guess I did." Darren took a sip of a drink with a small umbrella in it, for a more "fun" look. Along with his changed drink, his changed outfit had him losing his shirt and pants, and replacing them with black and green swim trunks that have very faint designs of... something on them. Neither Rival nor Lake could tell what the design was.

"Well, you look good, Darren!" Lake kept up the compliment train, not particularly caring about how the heck he got out here.

"Thanks." Darren raised his drink, then took a sip from it.

Well, that's that I guess.

"Ah, it's good to see you again, my dear Lake."

"Heh. It hasn't even been ten minutes, Damien."

Next up were Damien and Kei, who came out of the locker room at the same time.

"Hi, Damien! Kei!" Lake waved.

"Yeah... hi." Rival didn't wave, and he definitely didn't wave to Damien.

Damien ignored Rival's presence and focused on Lake instead. "I didn't say it before, but that wetsuit of yours looks wonderful, my dear Lake. It suits you perfectly!" He winked as he bowed his head.

Lake giggled at the compliment. "Thanks, Damien! And you look good too!" They ran their eyes over the beautician's new outfit. For swimwear, he opted for stylish, form-fitting swim trunks, in a solid cream color. Over these, he wore a white, lightweight, open button-down shirt creating a casual yet put-together pool look. Subtle yet apparent muscles could be seen beneath the shirt. His footwear consists of stylish sandals in a nice brown color, perfect for the pool. To complete his ensemble, he added a pair of sleek black sunglasses. Though he wore them above his head out the moment.

"Why thank you!" Damien appreciated the compliment, adjusting his swimwear while he did so.

Rival quietly groaned at the sight. His disliking for the guy grew with each day.

Kei chuckled, noticing the groan. "You good, Rival?" He raised an eyebrow at the backing vocalist.

Rival sighed. "Yeah... I'm fine." He slowly shook his head. "And you..." As he got a proper look at Kei, he realized how weird it was to see the lawyer without his suit, and dressed in only black jammers with blue linings on the side. "...look equipped for swimming." He finished his sentence.

"...I'll take that as compliment." Kei smirked. "Anyway..." He stretched out his arms. "I might take a dip in the pool. You, Damien?"

Damien chuckled and shook his head. "Perhaps later. But for now..." He went and layed down on one of the pool chairs. "I believe I may just relax right here." He made sure he looked his best while he basked in the pool's glory.

"Oh well!" Kei shrugged. "I'll see you two later!" He winked before going and jumping in the pool, making a notably less impactful splash than Joji.

"Woah! Kei!" Joji himself sure noticed the splash though.

Lake smiled seeing Joji and Kei already having fun.

"Damn, those boys getting each other wet already?"

"Can you go two seconds without some shit like that, Alpha?"

Alpha and Yoshino were next up, with the former crossing her arms as she stepped out. "Can you go two seconds without sucking Kuroko's tits? You're fine." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway..." She cracked her knuckles as she continued, not giving Yoshino time to rebuttal. "Time to show those fuckers what's what!" She bent down and picked up a beachball.

"Sheesh... aggressive..." Rival knew the gas station was referring to merely passing the beachball around, but the way she went about it was... aggressive!

"Sheesh... emo?" Alpha mocked him, turning to meet him. "You know, it ain't fucking difficult to swim. Why haven't you learned?" She surprisingly asked.

"Huh? Well..." Rival took in Alpha's new look as he thought about it. She was dressed in a dark green wetsuit with blacklines, and she even tied her hair into a ponytail. That... wasn't a bad look for her. "I just... never had interest, I guess." He slowly shugged.

"Huh... really? Whatever." Alpha returned the shrug. "Your loss, bitch." Without another word, she ran and jumped into the pool, purposely trying to aim right for Joji. "Think fast!"

"Woah! Holy shit!" Joji swiftly swam to the side, narrowly dodged the Alpha bullet.

"Heh! Wow, Alpha! Not bad!" Kei chuckled as he felt water splash onto him from Alpha's jump, apparently not too perturbed by it.

"I'm beating a dead horse here, but damn she's aggressive." Yoshino sighed. But she couldn't deny the urge to jump into the pool like that too.

"You're... not wrong!" Lake nervously chuckled as they turned to get a good look at what Yoshino had on. The horror novelist had changed into a single-piece, dark purple swimsuit that cuts off at the thighs with gaps on the sides that extend to just above the waist and below the shoulder. "That's a nice swimsuit, Yoshino!"

"Heh, thanks Monty." Yoshino gave them a nod of thanks. "Wait until you see the others though!" She foreshadowed as she ran to also jump in the pool, but in non-intrusive way. "Here I come, Jojo!"

"Hey! Yoshino!" Joji was a little happier to see Yoshino compared to Alpha, as the former wasn't aiming right for him.

"Wow..." Rival yawned. He didn't come to this party actually expecting to do anything, but not doing anything was making him surprisingly tired. "How many are we waiting on...?"

"I think... Rosalind-"

"*cough*"

Lake got cut off by, you guessed it, the covid queen herself. Rosalind hobbled out of the locker room, still utilizing her parasol cane. The cinematographer had on a simple, covering, black and blue wetsuit. She also still had her sunglasses. "Lake. ...Rival." She gave them both curt nods before quietly going over to one of the pool chairs.

"Oh! Well... okay! Bye!" Lake was thrown off by Rosalind's sudden departure.

And Rival knew what Rosalind was wearing was extremely modest, but he couldn't help but blush a little. He kinda hoped he could apologize... maybe this party would provide a good opportunity to.

"You alright, Rival?" Lake noticed the thoughtful look on his face.

"Yeah... I'm fine." Rival slowly nodded. "Anyway... I think I see... woah." He blinked, his eyes slightly widened.

"Hm? What is it Rival- woah." Lake had the same reaction as they saw Aurora leave the locker room next.

"Ah! Hello, Lake. Rival." Aurora gave them a curtsy, despite not having on any sort of dress of skirt. In fact, Aurora had on a beautiful, matching dark blue bikini top and bikini bottom, with dark blue sunglasses. Her hair also had been styled to seem artfully loose.

"Wow..." Rival tried not to stare... but again, wow. Aurora was a beautiful girl.

"I guess I never really realized it before... but you're so pretty, Aurora!" Lake innocently pointed out.

Aurora blushed at the attention. "I'm not too special..." She brushed off the praise with a thin smile. "Besides, I think that Raiha-"

You know who's here now.

"Heya besties! It's Raiha!" Right on cue, Raiha sauntered out of the locker room as well. "Lake bestie! Rival bestie! It's good to see you! And-" She went to greet Aurora, but she looked away with a blush before she could.

"Raiha..." Aurora made the first move, trying not to blush too much. "You have very pretty swimsuit. It suits you perfectly." She gave a gentle smile.

"...Thank you." Raiha had no idea what to say to that or her. And by the way, for Raiha's swimsuit, she had a bright purple two piece bikini swimsuit that was patterned with black and pink tropical flowers. Over that she wore a translucent purple beach shawl, and she also had on pink strap straw sandals and a pair of pink rimmed sunglasses. So yes, it did indeed suit her perfectly.

Rival blinked as he watched them interact. Did he... miss something? Were they... huh. If they were, more power to them. But... he still felt like he was missing something here.

"Both of you look so good!" Lake suddenly cut through the awkward atmosphere with a metaphorical knife.

"Right? Don't they-nya?" Saving the best girl for last, Kuroko rolled up out the locker room, dressed in a suggestive black two-piece bikini and black sunglass. "Lake-nya! What do you think?" She struck a quick pose.

"Ooo! It's very you Kuroko!" Lake enjoyed complimenting everyone like this.

And now with three conventionally pretty women around him dressed in swimsuits, Rival felt himself freeze in place. It's been a long time since he's felt this flushed.

"Thank you, Lake-nya!" Kuroko winked, before sneaking a look at Rival's flushed face. As endearing as that was, her mind was focused on two other certain individuals. "C'mon, Rai-nya! Auror-nya! Let's go!" She led them both off by the hand, eager to go full matchmaker.

"Hm? I wonder what they're doing?" Lake tilted their head, not sensing an ounce of the romantic tension.

"I... wouldn't worry about it." Rival didn't want to get involved in that. "But hey... just Ayaka and Ji-hoon left now, right?"

"I think so!" Lake nodded. "I wonder if... yep! There she is!" They pointed at the encroaching violinist. "Hi, Ayaka!"

"Wrong. It's Nozomi." Nozomi calmy set foot through the door of the locker room. "Before either of you ask, Ayaka was getting too flustered, so I took over. That's why it's me right now."

"Oh... okay." This whole split personality thing still threw Rival a little off, but he didn't question it. It's not like he was an expert on it.

"Well... that's fine!" It threw Lake a little off too, but if it worked for Ayaka, it worked for them too. "I like your swimsuit, Nozomi!" They looked over the white one-piece with black lining that Nozomi donned.

"Thank you, Beaumont." Nozomi gave a polite smile. "Now... I believe I'll take a seat on one of the chairs." Going as far away from Damien as possible, Nozomi settled onto one of the pool chairs.

"There she goes..." Rival muttered. "Now it's just Ji-hoon..."

"Yeah. Just me." On cue, Ji-hoon slowly walked out of the locker room, dressed in some simple dark blue swimming trunks.

"Hi, Ji-hoon!" Lake eagerly greeted the last arrival.

"...Lake." Ji-hoon ominously spoke the ballet dancer's name. "You want to go and play with the others now?"

Lake furrowed their brow. "Um... sure?" They didn't expect to be asked that that way.

"Oh..." Rival sensed something in Ji-hoon's voice. He sounded serious.

Lake sensed the sudden change in the air. "Well... I'll go on ahead...!" They felt a little strange now, but that feeling melted as they went to jump in the pool. "Here I come, Joji!"

"Woah! Why is everyone calling me out?" Joji laughed as he saw Lake eagerly jump in.

...

"Ji-hoon. What's up?" Rival could sense something was wrong.

"This was a bad idea." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "We shouldn't have done this. We fell into Pheme's trap."

"Wait... what? What do you mean?" Rival didn't get it.

"You remember the first and second motives?" Ji-hoon brought up some unpleasant memories. "Pheme announced those motives three days after the trials. In the case of the first motive, it was the third day in general."

"Right... wait." Rival realized what he was implying. "Oh no..." He looked around at everyone having fun.

"Shit... why didn't I see this coming..." Ji-hoon cursed himself, anxious to see what he's expecting to happen.

...

As Pheme, dressed in her glamorous swimsuit, watched her glamourous stars have fun, she chuckled to herself. She was truly glad that Damien and Lake had gone with this idea. This was enjoyable, being around everyone like this! This felt... right. Proper. This felt... where she should be. She checked her Star-Phone... and her eyes lit up with devilish excitement. It was time!

Pheme got up from her chair and walked closer to the pool, the clack of her high heels already drawing attention to herself. "Excuse me, my glamorous stars? May I have a moment of your time?" She purposely stomped her foot down and catch everyone's attention.

"Huh? No!" Cathy pointed and laughed as she splashed water onto Darren. Darren didn't react.

"Hold on, Cathy..." Kei stopped her from saying anything rash. "Let's hear her out." He wondered of she was going to announce a motive or not. He expected it.

"Man, what is it?" Yoshino groaned, then set down the beachball she was holding. All of her effort into pretending that Pheme wasn't here went down the drain.

Damien lifted the sunglasses he had on up. "This isn't something to disrupt the party, I hope?" He'd rather that not happen.

"Yeah, c'mon Pheme-nya. You may rock that swimsuit, but that doesn't give you an excuse to ruin this!" Kuroko shook her head disapprovingly.

"Goodness! So much distrust of me!" Pheme shook her head. "It's just a small announcement is all!" She tried to reassure her stars.

"Fine, just say it!" Joji felt like this was about to be some bullshit.

"Yeah, what is it, Pheme?" Lake innocently tilted their head.

"Here it comes..." Ji-hoon muttered in anticipation.

"You really want to know, Mx. Beaumont?" A haunting grin crept up from behind Pheme's mask. "Then I'll happily tell you! First. Everyone! Do you have your Star-Phones on you?" She pulled out her own. "And for those in the pool, don't fret about damaging them. They're waterproof!" She reassured them.

"Ugh..." Alpha groaned as fished out her Star-Phone.

"Well, yeah. I always have it!" It wasn't a proper phone, but Raiha was still attached to it. She pulled hers out, then looked to Aurora, who was standing a bit away from her. Turned out that bonding while in swimsuits was harder than one might think.

"I believe I have it too..." Aurora took a second to find hers, choosing not to meet Raiha's gaze while she did so. If she was going to attempt to be honest with her... she'd rather it be while they were properly dressed.

"...There." Rosalind shakily pulled hers out. "What is this *cough* announcement, Pheme?" She adjusted her sunglasses.

"Well... the announcement is... a brand new app!" Pheme snapped her fingers, causing fifteen seperate *DING* sounds to reverberate throughout the pool. "Take care and check it out!"

"This is suspicious... but so be it." Nozomi knew they had no choice here. When she checked her Star-Phone, she quickly saw the new app there. It was titled "Secrets."

"What's this, Pheme?" Darren needed a line.

"Click on it and find out!" Pheme commanded them all. "I'm sure some of you will find it very interesting...!" She ominously trailed off.

"Hm... alright." Ji-hoon slowly clicked on the app. And when he and everyone else did...

"Shit!"

"What the hell?!"

"No...!"

"How...?!"

"What?!"

Everyone in the room let out expressions of shock and fear when they witnessed what was waiting for them in the Secrets App.

"Ha ha! Yes!" Pheme laughed triumphantly. "Welcome to the third motive, my glamorous stars! The Secrets App!" She cleared her voice. "In this app, you will see two things. On the left side of your screen, you'll see some of your deepest, darkest secrets! And on the right side of the screen... you'll see someone else's deepest, darkest secrets. The other secret you see was chosen at random, of course! Just to make it fun!" She giggled. "And! If no one turns up dead within the next 50 hours, then everyone's secrets will be revealed to the public! Fun, right?" She asked, expecting an answer.

...

But no one did. Because... this a motive that actually shocked everyone to their cores, even if they didn't outwardly express it.

Pheme giggled as she observed everyone's reactions to the secrets they were reading.

Ji-hoon and Joji were enraged.

Cathy was confused.

Kei, Alpha, and Damien, and Darren were curious.

Raiha, Aurora, and Yoshino were mortified.

Kuroko was clutching her head in pain.

Lake and Rosalind were simply upset.

Rival, and Nozomi were expressionless.

"...Goddess??" Cathy spoke up, sounding very confused. "These secrets... they're... real... right?"

"Why, of course they are!" Pheme set her hands on her hips. "Why ask?"

"No... reason..." Cathy narrowed her eyes before pocketing her Star-Phone somewhere.

"Well okay then! Any other questions?" Pheme waited to see if the stunned silence would break.

...

"It seems not!" Pheme chuckled in satisfaction. "Well, that's all I need! I believe... I'll be going now!" She smiled brightly from beneath her mask, personally being very proud of this motive. "I'll see you all tomorrow! I had great time!" She waved everyone goodbye before disappearing into the ether.

...

The most awkward, tense silence full upon the group. Any sounds of water splashing and having fun drew to a quiet halt. You could barely even here the sounds of everyone breathing. It was complete... utter... silence. The aura in the room changed in a split second. It's funny. Everyone truly was open and ready to having some fun in the pool today. But now... they all got quickly reminded of where they were, and of what Pheme was forcing them to do.

"G-Guys...?" Lake muttered shakily, looking around. They fought to hold back tears. What... what happened? How did everything change so quickly? Weren't they having fun? How... why...

The sound of wet feet broke the silence as Raiha, Aurora, and Yoshino all shakily walked back to the locker room.

"G-Guys...?" Lake muttered again, feeling concerned by their expressions.

...

They didn't answer. They walked back into the locker room without another word.

Very soon after the girls, everyone else slowly walked back to the locker room. Some with shakier steps than others. Rival just left the pool in general.

Lake stayed steadily bobbing in the pool, tears starting to slowly fall out of their eyes. "J-Joji?" Theyed reach out to the carpenter, who was the last person still in the pool area.

Joji didn't reply as he went into the locker room, clearly having trouble keeping his cool.

"Guys...?" Lake sniffled as they looked around. This was supposed to be fun... why did it turn out like this? They just wanted everyone to have fun together... so why...

...

Lake wiped the tears from her eyes, got up out of the pool... and walked with unsteady steps into the locker room.

...

No one shared a single word as they all got dressed, then quietly left the locker room and po behind. In the course of one simple motive announcement, the entire atmosphere surrounding the group had changed. No one knew what to say.

...

Ji-hoon stayed behind, watching everyone leave before he himself did. He sighed, then glanced at his Secrets App. He didn't want to do this... but... "Kei." He stopped the lawyer, who was the last person still there, from leaving.

"What's up?" Kei turned around with a blank expression on his face.

"Can you do me a favor?" Ji-hoon gripped his Star-Phone tightly.

"...Sure. What is it?" Kei could sense... something in Ji-hoon's voice.

"I'm not even sure if this place has this anywhere. But could you see if you could get me..." Ji-hoon whispered what he wanted to Kei off-screen.

Upon hearing what he wanted, Kei raised his eyebrows slightly. "You want... that? That's pretty random. Why do want that?" He was slightly concerned over this.

"Please, just trust me Kei." Going into this, Ji-hoon didn't think he'd be relying on anyone here like this. But he's glad he found an ally in Kei. "I have a plan... involving that. Please." He implored the lawyer.

"Hm..." Kei wondered why Ji-hoon was asking him for this. Couldn't he just get it himself? Well... maybe there was a reason he couldn't get it himself. If that was the case... then... "Alright. I got it. I'll check the Ultimate EMT's Studio for it." That room was still open by the way.

"Thank you, Kei. I appreciate it." Ji-hoon set a thankful hand on the lawyer's shoulder before departing.

Kei stood in silence for a few moments. "Ji-hoon..." He muttered his name before leaving as well.

...

"Attention my glamorous stars! It is now 11pm, and that means it's night time! It's time to go to bed, and get a good night of beauty sleep! Sleep well my stars!"

A few minutes after Kei and Ji-hoon left, someone else wandered back into the pool, directly after the nighttime announcement.

"Hm..." The person mused out loud to themselves as they looked around. "...Ah. There." They whispered to themselves as they spotted something on the ground. They went over to it and picked it up. It was Rival's remote. The one meant for Rosalind's elevator. The backing vocalist accidentally left it behind.

"Yes... this could be useful..." The person muttered to themselves before leaving the pool.

[Ultimate EMT's Studio]

Kei still had a bad feeling on why Ji-hoon would want something like that... but he went to the Ultimate EMT's Studio anyway to see if this place even had that. I mean... surely Ji-hoon wouldn't use that for something nefarious... right? He's not the type of person to do that. Yeah... Kei believed in him. He trusted him.

"Let's see here..." Having inner-monologued enough for the moment, Kei stepped into the still and empty doorway that the Ultimate EMT's Studio was behind. And when he did... he saw...

"Cathy?" Kei spotted Nathan's favorite cat burglar sitting on the edge of the ambulance in the studio, holding a small red charm in her hands.

"Hm? Oh! Lawyer human? What business do you have here?" Cathy looked up at Kei with a surprisingly non-smug expression.

"My business isn't too important..." Kei chuckled, not seeing any reason in telling Cathy why he was here. "I'm curious why you are here though." He raised an eyebrow. "What business does a cat burglar have in here? The motive? We already explored this plenty during the last investigation, you know."

"Nyaha! My business is none of your business! Nyaha!" Cathy hit him with the ultra rare double laugh as she jumped up from her seating position.

"Hm... fair enough." Kei nodded in amusement. "But if I can take a guess, is it related to that charm?" He pointed at the small red charm that was still in her hands. "I remember you finding that."

"Hm... I wonder what this room is-" Cathy cut herself off as he pulled out a non-medication item out of one of the drawers. "What is this?"

"Whatcha got, Cathy?" Kei got a closer look at what she pulled out. "A small red charm?"

"This is..." Cathy narrowed her eyes, and lost a surprising amount of her smug and annoying aura as she stared at the charm.

"...Cathy?" Kei didn't expect the cat burglar to freeze up at a meer charm.

...

"What?" Cathy vigorously shook her head. "Uh... I'm fine! Anyway, finders keepers!" She jumped up onto her feet, successfully regaining her smug and annoying aura.

"Hm..." Cathy glared down at the charm. "That's not your business lawyer human, like I said!" She repeated herself. "But to answer your question... yes." She answered anyway.

"That right?" Kei leaned back against the wall. "I didn't ask you about that during the investigation... as we were pretty busy." He tried to not imagine Genjiro's gruesome scene. "But what is that charm? You seemed pretty shocked by it."

Cathy twirled the charm around in her hand. "It didn't click at the time, but I remember seeing this charm before!" She kept up with glare at the charm. "And I was just reminiscing a bit in here!"

"Reminiscing?" Kei raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Look at you, acting more human by the day!" He poked fun at her.

"Tch!" Cathy scoffed, while not actually refuting the statement. She brushed past it completely. "You're not going to ask me about the charm, lawyer human? You're not gonna ask me how I remember it?" She flashed him a smug look.

Kei chuckled. Her brushing past his teasing was... telling. But he let it go. "You want me to? Then sure. What do you remember about it?" He crossed his arms.

"Nyahaha! You want to know, do you?" Cathy kept up her smug look.

"That's... what I just said, isn't it?" Kei was slightly more tolerant of Cathy's antics compared to everyone else here, but even he could get a little annoyed by it sometimes.

"Nyaha! Indeed!" Cathy went back to twirling the charm around. "Well then... I believe I saw this charm when I got my letter of invitation into Hope's Peak!"

"...Huh." Kei didn't expect that. But his curiosity was just a bit more piqued now. "You don't say?"

"I do say!" Cathy refuted. "The human who gave me my letter had this on her!" She showed off the charm proudly.

"Really?" Kei raised an eyebrow. "So... was the human who delivered your letter Hazel Lenora then?" The card for Hazel was within reach, so he grabbed it. "She work for Hope's Peak?" He wouldn't've minded learning more about this mysterious Ultimate EMT.

"What? No! How could you think that?" Cathy acted like that was the stupidest possible question Kei could've asked.

"Gee..." Kei chuckled in amusement, and slight bit surprise. "Who did deliver your letter then? Someone else from Hope's Peak?" He was getting more curious on where this was going.

"What? No! How could you think that?" Cathy copy and pasted her response from above, still acting like that was the stupidest possible question Kei could've asked.

"...Okay." Kei's usual grin died down a little. "Tell me then, who was it?" He just wanted an answer now.

"It was this strange little girl!" Cathy started started to play with the charm and with one of the rings she stole from Darren simultaneously. "This young human with yellow hair! She claimed to have taken the letter from the original Hope's Peak affiliated human, as they didn't like cats! So she volunteered to go in their place." She flashed a quick sneer. "Not liking cats? Nyaha! I'm glad I didn't have to see that scaredy-cat of a human? Nyahaha!" She laughed at her own joke.

"I'm sure." Kei dryly chuckled. "But that's an interesting story you got there. What the girl's name?" He didn't know if this was relevant, but he thought he may as well ask.

"Hm... I never usually remember human names..." Cathy narrowed her eyes. "But the small human said... Yvette? Yvette Yokomizi? Something along those lines, at least. She had that charm on her!" Of all the full human names Cathy would say first in the story, it was Yvette Yokomizi, and not Darren Taylor. Sorry Nathan!

Kei had no time to focus on the narration, as his curiosity somehow got even more piqued. "You said... Yokomizi?" He got out his Star-Phone to note this down for later.

"That's what I said! What, can't you hear?" Cathy mockingly tapped her ear.

"No... I can hear fine." Kei shook his head. But did Cathy... not remember?

"To answer your question Adam?" Ji-hoon chimed back in. "No. There was Akimitsu Agata and Hannah Yokomizi. Do those names ring a bell for you? Or for anyone?" He extended the question yo the rest of the group.

...

"No thoughts at all... guess I'm not surprised." It wasn't like Ji-hoon necessarily had any thoughts of his own on the matter. Just a variety of theories.

"Are you humans going to continue wasting time?" Cathy snickered. She didn't actually care or anything, she just likes saying things sometimes. And for the record, she didn't know anything about any "test" or "experiment." Though... the names Yokomizi and Agata was familiar to her. She couldn't remember why though...

Unfortunately, Kei wasn't able to read Cathy's narration then and there, so he wasn't aware of her hidden thoughts.

"Lawyer human? You've gone silent! Cat got your tongue?" Cathy snickered.

"...Hm? Ah, no." Kei most assuredly had his tongue. "But Cathy? The name Hannah Yokomizi was brought up in the Special Events that Pheme has pulled. Does that mean nothing to you?"

"You mean that adult woman human and that small human sharing last names? I remember. But what do you expect me to know?" Cathy shrugged with a little force. "Your job is to figure out the truth! I'm aware of that connection, but my job is to be a burglar, not a lawyer! So you worry about it!" She pointed her figure at the lawyer human, attempting to surpress an amused "Nyahaha!" while she did so.

"Wow... you know what? Fair enough." Kei slowly nodded. "I am a lawyer. And you are a cat burglar." He knew he wasn't getting more out of her regarding this, and he sure as hell didn't want to talk about his own traumatic experience getting his Hope's Peak letter, so he saw this as a good opportunity to shift topics. "Given our positions, Cathy... as a lawyer... I'd love to know." He took a step closer to her. "What drives a rambunctious woman like you?"

"What drives me? Nyaha! I'm no car!" Cathy scoffed.

"You know what I mean." Kei grinned. "Prior to this Killing Game, being in the legal world, I've heard of a "Mrs. Claws" going around and stealing from humans. You never operated in Japan though, so I've only read case reports. So I'd like to hear about your exploits straight from the cat's tongue!"

Cathy was going to laugh him off with a "Nyahaha!," but the sudden... aura that surrounded Kei as he approached her... threw her off. She didn't sense hostility, and this wasn't like when Ji-hoon tactlessly interrogates people. This felt... different. "If you're hoping for me to divulge details about my exploits, you need only ask, lawyer human!" She decided to indulge him. "You get one question! Make it count!"

"Only one?" Kei feigned a disappointed gasp. "Ah well! I can make that work." He cleared his voice. He was operating on curiosity here... so he had to approach this right. What would be the best thing to ask her...? Maybe...

"I've heard enough about you here... to where I have to know something about you." Kei was going to make this question count. "What is justice to you, Cathy?" He crossed his arms.

"Justice? Ugh, you humans and your ridiculous terms!" Cathy rolled her eyes.

"Are you gonna answer? Or do you not know what the word means, hm?" To combat the slight impatience growing in him, Kei teased the cat burglar.

"I know what it means!" Cathy stuck her tongue out. "And don't worry! I'll answer your question!" She stretched out languidly before answering. "To me... justice is wronging the people who have wronged the innocent! And's that what I do! I enact justice!"

"Huh... that's interesting definition you got there." Kei wanted to hear more.

"Nyaha! I say that, but "justice" isn't exactly on my radar. I steal from the greedy humans who only value materialism, and from the malicious humans who have wronged others! That's what I do!" Cathy stood proudly while confessing her crimes.

"Interesting..." Kei nodded along. "Are you the type to do anything to enact justice?"

"Anything?" Cathy repeated Kei's words with the same emphasis. "Lawyer human, you talk like I concern myself with moral conundrums! I merely do what I do! That's all there is to it!" She tossed one of Darren's rings up into the air, then caught it. "That's why I enjoy what I do! It's just me, enacting justice on the humans that have wronged others... and the ones that have wronged me." She got the slightest bit serious at the end.

"...Hm." Kei kept nodding. "We've wronged you?"

"That's right! My birth parents and the people of Summers Mall have wronged me!" Cathy pointed an accusatory finger at Kei for some reason. "But I'm not the type to hold grudges! Nyahaha!" He seriousness evaporated as she casually shrugged off her aura.

"That... right?" Kei smirked a little. "That basically told me all I need to know." He gave a satisfied shrug.

"Good then!" Cathy tossed one of Darren's rings Kei's way, to ensure she still had the lawyer's attention. "And lawyer human? Don't think you're getting out of here without spilling anything about yourself!" She copied his smirk.

"Oh yeah? Where'd that come from?" Kei raised an eyebrow, not expecting Cathy to care about a lowly human's backstory.

"You're right! I don't particularly care about a lowly human's backstory!" Cathy smugly laughed as she managed to read Kei's narration. "But I've heard how you manage to weasel your way out of talking about yourself! And I think it'd be amusing to change that!"

"Huh..." Kei hadn't realized that all of his FTEs so far consisted of little to no actual information about him being divulged. "Sure." He shrugged. "What should I spill?"

"You're actually going to answer?" Cathy was surprised.

"Why not?" Kei shrugged again.

"In that case..." Cathy narrowed her eyes. "Let me throw your question back at you! What is justice to you, lawyer human?"

"Justice? Fair enough thing to ask." Kei smirked. "Justice to me... well, righting the wrongs committed by criminals." He injected a dose of bitterness into that last word.

"That so? Not so dissimilar to me! Nyahaha!" Cathy was amused by the answer. "And is righting those wrongs getting a successful conviction?"

"Naturally." Kei upped his smirk to a chilling smile. "To be transparent with you..." He looked up at the ceiling. "I hate criminals. So I make sure to do my job well." He upped that previous dose of bitterness too.

"I'm sure you do!" Kei ever so slightly opening up was amusing to Cathy. "Am I a criminal then? What about justice against me?"

"You?" Kei chuckled. "You're... a special case. And you are essentially a feline Robin Hood, so I'll give you a pass for now." His chilling smile stayed plastered on his face.

"I'm flattered!" Cathy said mockingly. "Anyway, let me throw your other question back at you!" She set her hands on her hips. "Are you the type to do anything to enact justice, lawyer human?"

"...Yeah." Kei gave a simple answer.

"Oh...?" To Cathy, Kei's chilling smile hit a little different now.

"I will do anything to enact my justice. I don't care what it is." Kei's aura took on a different feeing. "I'll even forge evidence if I have to. To me... the ends justifies the means. No matter what... I won't let any criminal escape me... and especially not the bastard that-"

Cathy raised her eyebrows as Kei stopped. It sounded like he was going to explain something a bit more personal. "I didn't steal your tongue, lawyer human. Continue!" She urged him along.

"Mm... nah." In a second, Kei's aura shifted back to his usual casual one. "That's enough out of me, I think."

"Nyahaha! What a coward you are, lawyer human!" Cathy mocked him. "What harm is a little backstory drop?"

"Eh. I think that's enough, yeah?" Kei shrugged, as he hadn't even had an actual backstory drop yet. Neither has Cathy, but that's not the point.

"Hm... fine!" Cathy relented. "But to think that you're that obsessed with justice... how interesting! Nyaha!"

"It's amusing to you?" Kei smirked. "I suppose we are a little similar in our views about justice. Though I'm likely just a bit more passionate about it compared to you." He chuckled.

"Gross! Don't compare me to a human like you!" Cathy was disgusted at the thought... but she admittedly understood what Kei meant. Going after people who have wronged others and such.

"Oh, what?" Kei feigned being hurt by her words. "You don't want to be compared to a human? But you've been steadily getting a little more human!"

"I told you to stop saying that!" Cathy glared at him. "And yes, don't you compare me to you, or to anyone else here!"

"Not even Darren?" The smugness in Kei's grins reached unprecedented levels as he spoke the bartender's name.

"Wha-!" A blush raced across Cathy's face. "Listen, Dar-" The blush grew even stronger when she realized what she almost said. "I'm out of here!" Eager to escape his conversation, Cathy suddenly and abruptly ran out of the studio.

...

"Heh." Kei chuckled to himself. "Funny girl, that one." He had to admit that he felt some strange sort of... connection? Bond? Well, some sort of strange something with Cathy. Like they could get along well if they both were serious

Anyway, it seems like Kei and Cathy grew a little closer today! Kei won't be cucking Darren though, so don't worry Nathan!

...

With Cathy gone, Kei got reminded of his original objective. To see if this place had that. He wouldn't be surprised if this place did have that... so he started to look around.

...

And luckily, he found that rather quickly. "Hm... gotta wonder what Ji-hoon's wants with that... but I guess we'll see." He tried not to worry as he gently placed that in his pocket. And with that done, he went to leave the studio.

He also realized how long Cathy had kept him here. He hadn't been able to keep an eye on him for a while now... hm. Kei left quickly to see if he was still up and about...

[Grand Lobby - 2F]

Following the awkward departure of everyone from the pool party, Damien chose to stay awake for now, despite it being nighttime. He wandered down to the second floor's Grand Lobby, no particular destination in mind. He appreciated this time to just... decompress.

Or, he would've appreciated it. Until he saw the figure of Raiha Miyahara in the dark, sitting on one of the sofas. He could tell from here that something was on her mind. Hm... this could've been exactly what he was waiting for.

Damien walked up to the trendsetter slowly, yet in a way that made her aware of his presence, as to not scare her.

Raiha shakily looked up at the encroaching beautician when she heard him approach. "Hm? That you, Damien kinda-bestie? What's up?" Despite the near-darkness she was sitting in, she sounded as peppy as ever. Surprising, given her reaction to the motive.

But Damien could sense that was an act. Especially because, out of everyone, she seemed especially mortified at the motive announcement. So, because Damien is the kindest person here, he wanted to see if she was okay. "My dear Raiha? Why are you sitting alone in the dark? This look doesn't suit you, my dear." He approached the sofa she was sitting on.

"H-Huh?" Raiha blinked, like she just then realized what she was doing. "I-I guess it is weird... huh?" She nervously chuckled as she scratched her cheek.

"Yes... it is." Damien took an unsolicited seat next to the trendsetter. "And if I may be bold, it's even stranger how you didn't abbreviate "I guess" to "IG," hm?" He called out the lack of slang.

"W-Wha-? Did I?" Raiha seemed all out of sorts. "I guess- uh, IG I did... but it's not like I always use slang, Damien kinda-bestie!" She playfully crossed her arms.

Damien lightly chuckled in response. "I suppose you are right. I didn't mean to sound accusatory." He shook his head. "I just... wished to see if you were alright, is all."

"Oh... really? I'm f-flattered you care, Damien kinda-bestie!" Raiha nervously giggled. "I appreciate it..." She trailed off.

"Of course!" Damien nodded. "But, well, are you alright?" He repeated himself.

"H-Huh?!" Raiha widened her eyes and shook her head. "Can you r-repeat that...?" She somehow didn't hear him.

Damien sighed. "My dear Raiha..." He set his hand on her shoulder, eager to take it as his prey. That's probably what Gold thinks, anyway. "You clearly... aren't fully here." He pointed out the obvious. And he also thought it obvious what was on her mind, but he didn't specifically say it. "What's on your mind?" He gently asked.

Raiha heaved a heavy sigh. She didn't say anything.

...

Well, this wasn't going anywhere. Raiha's silence was very telling... and Damien wanted to help her, if he could. But perhaps he needed to take a different approach.

"You know, my dear Raiha... what say you to a... talk?" Damien kept a consistent, gentle tone.

"A... talk?" Raiha looked up at the beautician, apparently hearing him that time. "What... do you mean?"

"No need to over complicate it." Damien shook his head. "In fact, I've been wanting an opportunity to converse with you ever since we all had been put in this horrid situation." He revealed.

"Erm... r-really?" Raiha titled her head. "Again, I'm flattered and stuff..." She looked down at the ground. "But why?" She then looked back up.

Damien lightly chuckled. "Simple. We know each other, don't we? It's been roughly three or so years since we've last spoken? I believe that's correct." He nodded his head as he organized the details in his head. "Quite a coincidence that Pheme would choose both of us for this Killing Game, isn't it?"

Raiha eyes widened, like she just realized something important. After a brief silence, she nodded her head. "Y-Yeah! Totes! Crazy... crazy coincidence!" She gave what sounded like some fake cheer.

"Yes... crazy indeed!" But Damien seemingly wasn't bothered by it. "I rather enjoyed interacting with you back then. We... seemed like kindred spirits, if I may be so bold."

"Kindred...? Oh, for sure! Super kindred!" Raiha playfully punched Damien's arm. "But, YK, humor me a sec... Damien?"

"Hm? Of course." Damien was curious on what she was going to say.

"I know we met and all that... years ago..." Raiha trailed off, a slight hint of some emotion in her voice. "Remind me... where we met?" She narrowed her eyes, as if she was trying to remember something.

Damien blinked, then raised an eyebrow. "Oh... do you not remember our meeting at my beauty salon all those years back?" He thought that perhaps he had overestimated the trendsetter's memory.

"Oh, no! I totes do!" Raiha gave a relieved giggle. "What was it called though? Sorry, my B for not remembering."

"Oh, is that so?" Damien grinned. "Well, no fault of yours for not remembering the name of my beauty salon, of all things. It was called Evenly-Regular, my dear Raiha. Ring a bell?"

"Ohh yeah! Sh- uh, I remember now!" Raiha nodded in relief as the memories came flowing back.

Damien noticed her trip over a word in a strange way, but he brushed it off. "Yes, yes. Perhaps that meeting had more of an impact on me than you?" He asked with a slight smirk, while surprisingly not sounding offended.

"Nah, come on!" Raiha shook her head. "How could a meeting with the Damien Lux not impact me? Course I remember it! How could I not?" She reaffirmed.

"Is that right?" Damien was a little glad to hear that. "I don't believe I'm worthy of that much praise, personally. I'm just a simple man who strives to transform women into their best selves." A very elegant and charismatic aura seemed to come over Damien.

"Heh, that's for sure!" Raiha seemed to have gotten a modicum of her peppiness back. "I've always been low-key curious about... how you work, you know! Social media blew up after I visited you with the HPA guy to give you your Ultimate title! Not gonna lie, seeing everyone rave over you made me hella curious." She had a thoughtful look on her face. "The way you do things and garner attention... I'm jelly, gotta be honest."

"Really? I'm honored to hear a beautiful girl of your caliber say that!" Damien took Raiha's hand in his left hand, causing a small squeal from the trendsetter. "Again, it truly is an honor to finally get to speak again with you, my dear Raiha. I'm glad to have this chance."

"U-Uh... yeah!" Raiha tried to stop herself from turning into a blushing mess, but to no avail. She definitely underestimated Damien's aura.

Upon noticing the blush on her face, Damien retracted his hand. "Ah, forgive me. I didn't mean to make you flustered." He elegantly chuckled. Gold/Nathan/Sin/Wolfie/whoever else can hate him all they want, but they gotta admit his rizz is unmatched.

"Oh, all good! All good! Just... surprised me!" Raiha took a deep breath to calm her inner fluster, then looked down at her hand. She knew it was probably pathetic, but she did kinda wish it was Aurora who held her hand...

Upon retracting his hand, Damien noticed the peculiar way Raiha was gazing down at her own hand... and realized something. "Thinking about my dear Aurora, are you?" He boldy asked.

"H-H-Huh?!" Raiha's blush returned for vengeance as she processed Damien's words. "Where d-did that come from?!" She widened her eyes.

Damien sighed in amusement. "Am I wrong?" He gave her a very knowing look.

"Um! Y-You... well..." Raiha started to fidget in her seat, not sure of what to say. She knew that Yoshino and Kuroko knew about... the whole crush thing. But... did Damien know? "I... yeah." Perhaps against her better judgment, she admitted it.

"I thought so." Damien slowly nodded.

"Wait... do you... know?" Raiha knew that Damien was perceptive, but was he that perceptive?

"If I may be blunt... you're not exactly subtle about it, my dear Raiha." Damien said with a half-teasing smile. "The way you look at my dear Aurora... the way you act around her, well, to me it was fairly clear that you harbored some feelings for her."

"Oh god..." Raiha shut her eyes in embarrassment. "It's so embarrassing... everything." She sighed.

"Hm? But why?" Damien set a comforting hand on Raiha's shoulder. "Matters of the heart can be rather confounding... but for a girl of your stature, I'm sure it's not too difficult to handle. Haven't you had plenty of admirers?"

"Uh... yeah, I guess." Raiha titled her head. "Guess I hadn't thought about that." She lightly chuckled. "I love my Riactioneers obvi, but some prolly love me too much!"

"Yes, I can understand that." Damien held his other hand over his heart. "When you have such a strong presence on the internet like we do, we're bound to get admirers... both good and bad."

"Yeah... for sure." Raiha shook her head. "I've never really humored any of them, TBH. Doesn't help that the guys love sending me gross stuff... like dick pics." She shuddered. "I keep my DMs closed now."

"Oh my, that sounds like a wise choice." Damien slightly widened his eyes. "I'm sorry you had to go through that... but that does remind me of something." He reversed the widening of his eyes by narrowing them.

"IDK what that would remind you of..." Raiha didn't know where this was going.

"If this is too personal a question, feel free to not answer." Damien preface. "But, my dear Raiha... you are bisexual, correct? No judgment, I'm just curious."

"Huh...?" Raiha though that was such a random question. But she didn't really have a reason to not answer it. "Well, yeah! I am! Why ask?"

"Hm... yes. Well, I got reminded of an interview I once read involving you." Damien ran his hand through his hair.

Raiha's eye ever-so-slightly twitched. "I-Interview? What interview?"

"Well, it was just you answering from FAQs from your fans." Damien explained. "But in that interview... I seem to recall a question about your sexuality."

"O-Okay...? What's your p-point...?" Raiha's breathing quickened.

"It's likely nothing..." Damien admitted. "But I remember Raiha saying that she, while still being bisexual, heavily leans towards men rather than women. I know that means nothing, but I just found it curious."

"H-Hm... I had a change of heart... I guess..." Raiha giggled nervously, before looking down at her feet.

"I suppose so, yes." Damien nodded in understanding. "You... truly do like my dear Aurora... don't you?" He shifted topics back to the heart.

"...I do." Raiha didn't think she'd be talking about stuff like this with Damien of all people, but things happen sometimes. "IK it's embarrassing... and I know we kinda have an age gap... and I know that I of all people shouldn't get so easily flustered... but... I do."

"Hm..." Damien hummed in contemplation as he looked upon Raiha's embarrassed form. "Have you told my dear Aurora your feelings?"

"Well... kinda? I asked if she liked girls... and she said no." Raiha sighed in sadness.

"I... see. A fair enough method." Damien tapped his fingers against his leg. "So she wouldn't return your feeling in the first place... well, there's not much you could do about that." He wasn't the type to gaslight people into being gay. "The rejection is difficult then? If I can be honest, you never struck me as the type to get hung up over rejection, my dear Raiha."

"I'm u-usually not, no." Raiha shook her head. "But it's just... complicated, IG." She gazed down at her hand.

Damien subtly followed her gaze, and saw that she was staring at her Star-Phone. He slighly adjusted his position to get a better look. And when he did, he noticed that her Star-Phone was open to the Secrets app. Hm... for the other secret... could Raiha have gotten...

"Well... if you say so." Damien wasn't going to push it. "But know that, should any... developments come up with you and my dear Aurora... you'll have my support!" He was a very supportive man, after all. You can't be mad at him.

"Heh..." Raiha chuckled, then looked up from her Star-Phone. "IDK what would happen..." She clutched her Star-Phone a little tighter. "...But thanks, Damien. You... really are nice guy." The whole poisoning shebang from last case was still on her mind... but she didn't know what to think about that. So for now, she chose to trust in Damien's words.

"Of course! It's just who I am!" Damien gave a bright, shining smile... that wasn't very visible to the darkness of the Grand Lobby. He knew his own smile wasn't visible, but Raiha's mood starting to slightly lift was visible.

"Just who you are?" Raiha chuckled, then sighed.

"Is something still troubling you, my dear Raiha?" Damien noticed the sigh as he pulled something out of his pocket.

"I... don't know if..." Raiha noticed the movements of Damien's hands. "Hey... whatcha got there?" She pointed at the faint outline of something in her hand.

"This?" Damien held his hand out. "Some candy! Earlier this morning, Alpha yelled some profanities at me, then shoved a few candies into my hand. I'm still not entirely sure what happened there, but... I have these now. Would you care for one?"

Raiha shrugged. "Sure!" Maybe a little sugar could help with her fluctuating mood. She grabbed one out of his hand. "What kind is it?"

"Pineapple, I believe." Damien read the label on one of the candies.

"Oh!" Raiha suddenly shoved the candy back into Damien's hand. "Shoot, uh... sorry! I can't have that!"

Damien blinked. "Why not?"

"I'm actually allergic to pineapple." Raiha revealed. "Prolly not a lot of real pineapple in that... but I wanna be safe, YK?"

"Ah, forgive me! I didn't realize!" Damien bowed his head in forgiveness, then shoved the candies back into his pocket. "How long have you had that allergy?" He asked out of curiosity.

"My allergy? Uh..." Raiha took a strangely long amount of time to answer. "Why... do y-you ask?" She tilted her head.

"Well, you recall me mentioning that interview I read that involved you?" Damien called back to however many words ago. "I seemed to recall another comment made by you. Raiha said that she loved pineapple. So that is why I ask." He wasn't an expert on allergies, so he wondered if someone could develop an allergy to pineapple.

"Oh! Yeah! I did say that..." Raiha seemingly had forgotten that. "Yeah, YK how it is!" She dismissively waved her hand. "I must've developed it a-after that interview, IG!"

"I see, I see." Damien grinned, having learnt a new fact today. The fact that you can develop an allergy to pineapple. "Your... what was it? Your... ah, your rival, Airi Nishigai. Didn't she dislike pineapple as well?"

Raiha flinched at the sudden mention of Airi's name. "D-Did... did she? I... can't remember..." She nervously muttered. "And IDK I'd call her my "rival"..." She thought that was a strange way to describe their relationship, considering that she wasn't Seizon.

"My mistake then. I suppose I've only heard about my dear Airi in passing." Damien wasn't super knowledgeable about her. "But it's a shame what happened to her, isn't it?"

Raiha flinched again. "Yep! Real... real shame." She closed her eyes.

Damien sensed he was reaching some sensitive territory, so he chose to back off. "Indeed... just like with... Aelia. A real shame... no?" He spoke Aelia's name like it was forbidden.

Raiha got hit with the third flinch in a row. Why was he... "Yeah... real shame."

"Yes... I still feel bad knowing that you and my dear Aurora lost my dear Bessie that day... all at Aelia's hand." Damien scowled at the thought of Aelia. Wotch could be heard cheering.

"..." Raiha hadn't really thought too hard about Bessie in a while. Her mind had been understandably occupied with thoughts of Aurora. She... she did wonder how Bessie would be if she were still with them... but it's too late for that now. Raiha's hands started to shake at the thought of Bessie and everything that happened with her... and at how...

"My dear Raiha?" Damien grabbed her shaking hands with his left hand, attempting to calm her down. "Please do forgive my tactlessness. These are sensitive topics for you, I'm sure."

"Huh? No, no... you're good." Raiha felt very... small right now. "Your got nothing to apologize for." She shook her head. Damien wasn't on Ji-hoon's levels when it came to tactlessness, at least.

"Well, still. I didn't mean to make you upset." Damien let go of her hands. "This talk went on for longer than I thought... but it was nice. I hoped that I was able to help you, even if only a little.

"You... did help." Raiha wasn't magically happy now or anything... but still. "You've got such a way with words, Damiem. Such an impressive... everything. You're so able..." She sighed. "Hell of a lot better than me..." She smiled sadly.

"Come now, don't say that." Damien slightly frowned. "Don't act like you're inferior." He reached his right hand up and cupped Raiha's chin, turning her gaze towards him. "You are such an able girl who has amassed a large and deserved following. I understand that feeling inferior is something that haunts everyone... but let it not haunt you. You have no reason to feel like that."

Raiha blushed at the contact of Damien's hand and at his words. She wasn't about to go falling for him or anything... but she understood how girls could fall for this guy. "I... okay. Thanks, Damien."

"Anytime, my dear Raiha." Damien gave a gentle smile. "But I believe I've taken up enough of your time. It's getting rather late." He checked his Star-Phone with his free hand.

"...Alright. Yeah. Alright." Raiha took a deep breath. After that motive announcment... frankly, she was mortified. And that didn't change... but talking with Damien had helped... surpress those feeings. For now, at least.

"Ah, but before I go..." Damien cleared his voice, then with his hand still cupping her chin, he leaned forward to whisper something to her. "Allow me to... tell you something..."

...

It seems as if Raiha and Damien grew a little closer today!

That's not what Damien just said to Raiha, by the way.

[VIP Quarters]

After Raiha, Damien immediately went to go to his room and get to bed. This day had been a rollercoaster for all of them... and he only hoped that the upcoming days would be better. Considering the motive though, he had to unfortunately admit that that was unlikely.

Anyway, still with no one behind him, Damien went to go to his room. But before he did... he spotted Aurora standing outside of her room. The lights were dimmed for the night at this point, so seeing the starlet just standing there was a mite ominous.

"My dear Aurora?" Damien quietly called out, not wanting to scare here

"H-Hm?! ...Oh. Damien." Aurora jumped up a little at the voice, but calmed down a bit after seeing it was Damien, the most trustworthy and wholesome person here. "D-Do you n-need something...?" She kept uncharacteristically stuttering, her mind clearly elsewhere.

"No, no. I don't need anything." Damien started to walk up to her. "I was just wondering... is everything alright? You standing outside of your room like this... it's an ominous image."

"Oh... sorry." Aurora shook her head. "I was just... t-thinking about s-something."

"I see..." Damien nodded. "The motive, I presume?"

Aurora flinched at the mention of the word "motive." "Um..." She didn't answer the question

"Hm..." Damien would've pressed further, but he unfortunately didn't have time for another FTE this chapter. "Well, I can at least see you're going through some mental turmoil right now. But... my dear Aurora?"

"W-What is it?" Aurora shakily looked up at him.

Damien reached down with his right hand and delicately grabbed Aurora's right hand. "No matter how difficult it may seem... people are here for you. If it is indeed the motive that's haunting you..." He gripped her hand a bit tighter. "Just know that... you can rely on us. Myself, Kuroko, and of course my dear Raiha. Keeping it bottled in... will only result in turmoil."

Aurora looked down at Damien's right hand gripping her hand as she thought about what he said. She... had been given a lot of these speeches lately, huh? From people that... care? But... do they care about her... or do they care about...

Aurora shook her head, shaking away her thoughts. "I... understand. Thank you, Damien." She thinly smiled.

"Any time, my dear Aurora." Damien returned the smile. "I'll let you go now. ...Ah! But not without one other thing." He seemed to have remembered something.

"Yes? What is it?" Aurora felt a little more receptive to the beautician now.

"It's nothing major..." Damien kept his grip on her hand tight as he leaned closer to her. "I merely wished to... tell you something..."

...

[Pheme's Room]

"Ah, yeah!" Pheme gave an uncharacteristic cheer as he elegantly ran into her room. "This motive gave just the reaction I was hoping for! Ms. Miyahara and Ms. Beaufort won't be able to worm their ways out this time!"

"Excited, are we, Miss Pheme?" Asclepius gave a content smile as he witnessed Pheme enter her room.

"Of course!" Pheme struck a pose. "I've noticed that, even with the past four deaths, the group is a little too... friendly. Even ones like Ms. Jane and Ms. Munchkin are getting cooperative! But this motive will crush that! Ah, and it'll be so exhilarating!" She felt herself get hot under them collar as she thought about it.

"I'm sure it will, Miss Pheme." Asclepius shared in her sentiments. "But, before anything else, would you mind... getting changed?" He pointed out that she was still wearing her siwmsuit.

"Hm? Oh!" Pheme hadn't realized that fact. "Give me a quick second!" She excused herself to go get changed.

...

With Pheme out of the room, Asclepius sat down with a sigh. "Secrets..." He muttered to himself as he checked some of the security footage. If this motive goes well... this could be exactly what he needed. But if goes poorly... well, he saw no point in thinking about that.

Asclepius shifted his focus over to the master list of everyone's secrets, which he had up on another monitor. "Hm... hm... hm..." He hummed to himself as he glanced over the list. Some of these secrets were just... and then there was her secret. "If only that wretched girl wasn't here..." He groaned to himself, leaving it a mystery as to who he's referring to.

"Bah, whatever. Let's just... hold on." Asclepius stopped as he noticed an irregularity in the master list. Something... had gotten deleted. "Was Hazel's- no. That can't be." He shook his head. There was evidence that something was deleted from this master list... but he can't imagine what it was. Hm... it's might be nothing.

"Asclepius! I'm back!" Pheme reentered the room, now dressed in her usual attire, breaking Asclepius out of his thoughts.

"Miss Pheme! Welcome back!" Asclepius closed out what he was looking at, then greeted her.

"Thank you!" Pheme giggled before sitting down on another chair. "Say, Asclepius. Is... it ready?" She ominously asked.

"It...? Ah. Changing gears already, Miss Pheme?" Asclepius perceived Pheme staying on the topic of the motive for longer, but apparently not. "But yes, Miss Pheme." He reached into a drawer behind him... and pulled out a golden 9mm pistol. "Yes... it is ready for tomorrow..."

...

A gun? An irregularity? A wretched girl? Tomorrow? What does it all mean???????

Anyway, hi! It's been roughly a month, hasn't it. Sorry for the long wait!

I didn't mean for this to happen, honestly. But I think I started to get a little burnt out. Writing for this fic was like, the only thing on my mind, and it started to turn into more of a chore than just something to do for fun.So I think this break was the right move. Helped me get back into the right mindset for this.

But enough of that! It's the third motive! Secrets!

In my original plans, this was pretty much just meant to be a copy of DR 1's chapter 2 motive. But after watching a let's player play V3's chapter 2, I decided to mix the motives together, and I got this! I thought that, in a Killing Game like this that involves celebrities, this would be perfect for this fic. And already, writing this motive has been fun. The mood of the group changed immediately, didn't it? Let's hope nothing bad happens!

Poor Lake though, getting their pool party ruined. For this chapter, I knew I wanted to make the motive announcement a little more special! So the reason I even included a pool on this floor is just because I liked the idea of Pheme ruining a party by announcing a motive. And a "Pool" Party was my first idea! The stars maybe didn't have a lot of fun, but I liked showing off everyone's swimsuits, and Rival's lack of one!

Also, I don't know what possessed me to make these FTEs so long this time around. Damien and Raiha's is the longest in the story yet, at 3,069 words! Crazy! But I did enjoy writing them. But I'm very nervous about Kuroko and Aurora's FTE. I won't give details... but I hope it turned out okay. It was one of the first FTEs I thought of, and I really hope it, again, turned out okay. I was very nervous while writing it. The others I was more fine with, but Damien and Raiha's FTE was also a little tricky to write. Again, I won't give details, but yeah.

But... I think that's all I've wanted to say! So I'll leave it here!

I hope you look forward to the next part, and to seeing where the motive goes from here! Let's hope Lake feels better next time! Surely you won't have to wait another month to find out!

Glamorous Stars Remaining: 15

Aurora Beaufort - Ultimate Starlet [WolfieRed23]

Ayaka Naganohara - Ultimate Violinist [Sempi]

Catherine Munchkin - Ultimate Cat Burglar [Nekoja]

Damien Lux - Ultimate Beautician [oddlyillregular]

Darren Taylor - Ultimate Bartender [Otterplay]

Ji-hoon Jo - Ultimate Celebrity Detective [TheRoseShadow21]

Joji Kaneshiro - Ultimate Carpenter [SureJahn]

Kei Aikawa - Ultimate Lawyer [theotakureader101]

Kuroko Kurobara - Ultimate Hypnotist [MrUtenaHolic]

Lake Beaumont - Ultimate Ballet Dancer [KadachiNova]

Mabel "Alpha" Jane - Ultimate Gas Station Manager [Epifanio Therion]

Raiha Miyahara - Ultimate Trendsetter [Prince PokePersona]

Rival Seizon - Ultimate Backing Vocalist [SinWriter7]

Rosalind Reinhardt - Ultimate Cinematographer [Orlando Butler]

Yoshino Akiyama - Ultimate Horror Novelist [DeathlyJazzHands55]