Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration

by Otterplay

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

32. Abandoned Principles (Part 2)

Chapter 4: Abandoned Principles (Daily Life Part 2)

---

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

---

"Well guess what!" A voice called out, with a bit of venom behind their voice. "I'm not coming back, ever!"

Just like any other job like this, Melody found herself being yelled at by a customer who was just pissed off they weren't able to get their way.

For the last ten minutes, she had been trying to help the customer as best as she could, but in the end it meant nothing, and all she was left with was a customer storming off.

"Ah…" Still, Melody kept her smile up as she watched the customer leave.

Someone like that wouldn't break her spirit.

After all, the very idea of what this was all for put a smile on Melody's face.

Quickly, she got to putting away the stuff the customer had left behind, before a familiar voice called out to her.

"Really? After all that, you're still keeping positive?" Looking over, it was her friend that she had made while working here, Trevor Dolovan. He had a teasing smile on his face. "Honestly… How. Do. You. Do. It?"

"Ah, it's eggs in the coffee." What?

For a few seconds, Trevor looked at her, dumbfounded. "And how do you know all these sentences?"

"I have them all memorised." Melody nodded her head with a bright smile. "But, to answer the question better… It's just easy to have a smile."

Looking over at the door, Trevor let out a sigh. "Honestly, if that customer went off after me, I think I might have found myself out of a job. I wouldn't have been able to be as nice as you."

"Ya can always try." Melody was still looking for a positive to all of this.

Letting out an amused laugh, Trevor shook his head. "No, I can't, really. Trust me, I've tried. Nobody does it as well as you."

However, after a few moments of silence, he let out a sigh. "Why do you put up with this anyways?"

Hearing that only seemed to confuse Melody. "What do ya mean?"

"This job. Don't you have tons of money back home? Last I checked, your family was kind of rich." Not that he was judging.

It was just… odd.

"Oh!" Was that all that was the problem here? "Because while my family is rich, I have to make my own rubes. Gotta work hard and earn my own keep."

Still, Trevor was a bit sceptical about all of this. "There's no other reason?"

Glancing off to the side, Melody had a rather sheepish smile on her face. "Well…"

There was one other reason she'd even want all this money…

…

…

…

After their shift at work, Melody had brought Trevor along for a walk.

"Do you have to walk home from work every day?" Although, he seemed rather annoyed.

Something Melody didn't really seem to realise. "It's a beautiful day out, we should be walking."

Letting out a rather happy sigh, Trevor shook his head. "You're really just a bundle of joy, aren't you?" Whatever, he had only known Melody for months, and she had already boosted his spirits high above anything he ever thought possible.

After five more minutes of walking, Melody finally stopped in front of a building. "Here we are!"

For a moment, Trevor didn't really seem impressed. "It's just an unmarked building."

"Inside, silly!" Melody grabbed onto his arm, dragging him inside against his will.

Once inside, he would quickly find that the appearance did not match the one outside.

It's the same room that Melody had found in her last backstory segment, but it had definitely been through a lot of changes.

"Woah…" Trevor looked around the room. "It feels like I've been transported back in time." Whether that was a good thing or not was unknown.

"Exactly!" Melody had moved over to the back of the room, starting up some music. "Look at the fantastic atmosphere." She tapped her foot on the ground.

"So… What? You've been spending all your money here?" Trevor narrowed his eyes.

"Yes!" Melody saw no problem with any of that.

Meanwhile, he had to budget his money to get things he really wanted. "It's… Nothing." Guess that's what happens when you are born rich. Why waste money on things you need when your parents can get you anything.

Still, seeing her dance did put a smile on his face. "So, what are you thinking of doing with this place once it's fully furnished?"

That was an easy question for Melody to answer. Her smile quickly turning to a grin, she moved over to the back. "I'm going to turn this place into a speakeasy."

Now, Trevor wasn't exactly familiar with the term, so he was just going to wait for some elaboration.

When none came, he let out a sigh. "What's that?"

"Oh!" Melody had thought more people would know what it was, but then again, it's been a long time since they've been popular. "Think of it like an old school bar." That was the simplest explanation she could offer.

"You're trying to make a bar?" Trevor seemed a bit confused, before letting out a hum. "How old are yo-"

Quickly, Melody moved over towards the record playing. "We need some tunes in here."

When the music started playing, Trevor felt himself transported to over a century back. "Where are you even finding these things?" He thought finding something like that would be impossible.

Striking a dancing pose, Melody turned to look at him, a smile on his face. "Where do you think all the dough is going?" She needs that money to buy all the expensive things this room needs.

Letting out a laugh, Trevor shook his head. "Why did I ever doubt you?" Watching her dance around the room, he couldn't help but smile. "So, what do your parents think about this?"

This quickly caused Melody to stop dancing. "Well… Um…"

That's when something became very apparent. "They… Don't know about this?"

Glancing away, Melody shook her head. "I'm not sure if they'd approve of this." After all, this isn't what they wanted her to do when she grew up.

Of course, she wasn't going to let that stop her!

"Yeah, that's the spirit." Trevor was all for. "So, how much longer before you think you can get this place running on your own?"

"Hmm… At least a few more months." Melody still had a lot she needed to do. "I still need to find staff to help run the joint."

"Hmm… What kind of staff are you looking for?" Trevor had an idea, but he needed a little more confirmation.

"Well, I'd need a bartender for one." Melody started to list off. "Oh, and some musicians."

Bingo. That's exactly what Trevor wanted to hear. "Well then, you remember Caitlin, right?"

It took a few seconds for Melody to piece it together, before she nodded. "Yeah, your sister right." But then, it all clicked together. "Right! The dame is an amazing singer. She could be a deb here!"

Yeah, sure. Whatever that meant. "That's what I was thinking. I'm sure she wouldn't turn it down. Besides, I think she'd have the voice for jazz."

Which was perfect, because that was kind of the only music that Melody would want to have playing here. "Yes! That's one person down." So many more to go. "Ah, but let's not worry about that."

While hiring staff was pretty high on her list, there was no point in worrying about that, if Melody couldn't even finish remodeling this, then she shouldn't worry about the people.

"Well, I might not be able to help financially." On account that Trevor was broke as fuck. "But I can at least help with moving stuff in whenever you buy it."

"Ya don't have to." Melody didn't want him to force himself.

"Hey, hey. I suggested it." It was clear Trevor didn't mind in the slightest. "I want to see what this place eventually turns into."

Despite coming from a rather rich family, Melody was always grateful to the things she has by her side. "Ya really are a great friend, mac."

Trevor still wasn't sure if mac was his nickname, or just a term from the 1920's, but he wasn't going to stop her. "I can see this becoming a rather popular place." He had no way of knowing, but he wasn't about to shut down her dream without letting her at least attempt it. After all, what made her such a great friend was that her spirit never broke.

"Alright, I should be heading home now." Trevor waved her off. "See you at work tomorrow."

"See you." Melody hummed out, before looking at everything she had accomplished so far…

In a few months, this was going to finally see the light of day…

…

…

…

And just like she had set out to do, Melody had successfully brought the speakeasy to life, with way more than she could have ever hoped for.

Walking into it, she was met with the vibrant energy of the 1920's, all in her own building. And while most people would argue that there wasn't a market for something as niche as this, the patrons seemed to tell a different story.

On stage right now was Caitlin, doing her best to entertain the regulars who had shown up.

Behind her, was the rest of the makeshift band that Melody had been able to hire.

In the back, she eyed the door to her dance studio, which currently had a class in session. She would join herself, had she not been swamped with school work, and her mom trying to teach business to her.

"Ah, decided to stop by tonight." The voice of one of the workers called out to her.

When Melody looked over, she saw Julian, the bartender of the place. Quickly, she nodded her head along. "Of course I'd stop by the joint." She said it rather proudly. "Look at all these owls."

Having only worked here for a month, it was still enough for Julian to pick up on some of the slang used. "I could say the same to you. It's getting pretty late already."

"Well!" Melody had no counter to that, so instead, she smiled brightly at the bartender. "Aren't ya happy to see me, at least."

Well, given that she was literally the boss of the establishment. "I don't really have much of a choice, now do I?" He let out a low laugh, before shaking his head. "Do you want some water?"

Given she definitely wasn't old enough to drink yet, she couldn't really have any of the good stuff.

Which was definitely weird to Julian, given that she owned the place.

"Hmm… Yes, I would love some." Melody hadn't gotten anything to drink since she finished her work at home, so she was quite parched.

After a few seconds, Julian placed a glass down. "Here you go. Don't get too tipsy." He joked.

"This is only water, not giggle water." Melody giggled as she- hey wait a second.

Shaking his head, Julian moved over to a different customer.

Now that she was alone with her thoughts, Melody took a look around the room.

It had only been open for a month, but it had been everything she had ever dreamed it could be. Everyone around seemed like a live wire with all the energy they brought.

The dance studio was doing great, and Melody was earning a lot more money than she ever could have earned with her old job. One day, she was going to have to tell her parents about this-

"Melody?" A voice all too familiar to her called out, causing every bone in her body to freeze up.

Slowly, she turned towards the door, seeing who had just entered her establishment.

Standing in the doorway was Diana, her mother. "Um- huh…"

There was only one way that she would have discovered any of this, and that's if she had been followed.

Looking around, it was unknown just what her thoughts on the entire place were.

After a few more seconds of looking around, her eyes finally landed on Melody. "We need to talk about this…"

---

Melody's Room

As she woke up, Melody found herself staring directly at the ceiling.

For once, that welcoming smile she always tried to wear was missing. As much as she wished to believe she was fine, she couldn't keep lying to herself.

Slowly, she sat up, looking over at the time.

Her alarm hadn't gone off, which meant that it still must be pretty early in the morning. Barely anyone would be up at this point, which meant that she could at least wander around without meeting anyone.

That was fine… Melody didn't really want anyone to see her in this state.

Moving over to her mirror, she spent a few seconds staring into it, seeing her once joyful face reduced to nothing but a frown.

Dae-Hyun was gone, and it was her fault, wasn't it?

Had she just not…

Melody let out a sigh, stepping away from her mirror.

She could go down and get ready for breakfast, but she didn't feel like showing her face at the moment anyways.

Maybe she needed to do something that would cheer her up…

Right, she hadn't been to her Ultimate Station in a few days, so maybe that was just the ticket she needed to get herself in a good mood.

Some nice music, and maybe some dancing should put her back in the right spirits.

Heading towards her door, Melody scanned her watch, watching as the door opened up, letting her outside.

Looking around, she didn't seem to spot anyone else around, which meant that the coast was clear, and she was free to roam around.

With that, Melody was off to her own station.

---

Ultimate Tap Dancer Station

The room was once again filled with catchy tunes from over a century ago, filling the room with a mood fit for dancing.

However, abtruly, the entire music was stopped, letting the sombre silence fill in the rest of the room.

For once, Melody had stopped the music in her own station.

After a few seconds, she let out a sigh, moving towards one of the tables. It didn't really matter which one.

Had she not gone on the repair ship like Dae-Hyun had advised, then would he still be alive?

Of course not… Then the asteroid would have killed them all, or Dae-Hyun would have made a move anyway.

Melody felt herself fighting a battle in her head she couldn't possibly win.

And then, she heard the familiar sound of footsteps. When she looked over to see who it was, her heart sank.

"Ah, you came here." Standing in the doorway was Gennosuke.

For a moment, Melody didn't move, only staring at him.

Even just looking at him made the pit in her stomach twist into an unnerving shape.

After a few more seconds of looking, Melody spoke one word. "Scram…"

Frowning slightly, it wasn't the greeting Gennosuke had been expecting, but it made it all the more satisfying. Slowly, a smile formed on his face. "What? Why? Don't you remember when we explored this place together?" He took a few steps into the room.

Melody took a step back, wanting to create as much distance as possible. "I said scram…"

The smile on Gennosuke's face only increased in size. "Now, if I didn't know any better, I would assume you hated me or something."

"How could you…" Melody held onto her arm. "How could you treat Dae-Hyun like that…" Nevermind the things he said to her during the trial.

Raising an eyebrow, Gennosuke shrugged. "I just helped in his death, it's not like I insulted his very existence." Pulling out a lollipop, he stuck it into his mouth.

That's not true at all… "Ya just see him as part of this game…" It wasn't like her to think this way, but she couldn't ignore what he had done like she could with the other two.

Frowning slightly, Gennosuke could feel a bit of hatred in her.

That was a new emotion from her. "Is that the same reason you voted for me during the trial?"

"I- What?" Melody didn't think he would have connected the dots.

Letting out a chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "And here I thought you were better than this. What would happen if more people thought like you? We'd all be dead. Is that what you want?" A step forward.

Quickly, Melody moved back, shaking her head. "No… I…" She couldn't even find the words. For the first time in her life, she had acted in anger over something. And now she wasn't sure how to feel about things.

And for Gennosuke, it was fun to be able to push her buttons around like that. "I'm not sure why you're mad at me for all of this. After all, I didn't kill Dae-Hyun. Tatiana did. Shouldn't your anger be aimed towards her?"

"The dame didn't enjoy it." Melody quickly countered, looking away. "You seemed happy about your part in all of that…"

"Ah, is this what this is about?" Of course it is, Gennosuke. "What if I only enjoyed it because the motive would come to an end?"

As if a lie would work against Melody. "Still, even now, you're smug about it."

Gennosuke couldn't lie about that part. The trial yesterday was really something. It wasn't on the level of Ian yet, but hey, he wasn't aiming to beat him. "I'm just happy to be alive. Shouldn't you too, as well?" He leaned forward slightly.

"After all… Dae-Hyun died to save you."

Slowly, Melody's entire body shook a bit, whether from anger, or trying to hold back tears was unknown. "Stop it…" She said, trying her best to keep her composure.

Standing back up straight, Gennosuke let out a small chuckle. "Or else what? You can't really hope to be able to do anything to me…"

Honestly, even if she could, Melody knew she wouldn't actually do it. She just wasn't that type of person. "I…"

After seeing her mostly stunned silence, Gennosuke let out a small chuckle. "That's about what I thought, coming from you. You can complain all you want, yell at me all you want… But nothing will change what happened." A grin slowly formed on his face. "But hey, it's fun to see you change from how you used to be."

Now it was actually fun to be around her. Instead of being stuck with a sickening ray of sunshine, there were cracks on the surface now.

Slowly, Melody's frown only grew in size, seeing just how Gennosuke was going to view all of this.

He was just here to play around with her emotions. "Scram…" She repeated from earlier, refusing to be involved in his entertainment.

Shaking his head, Gennosuke let out another chuckle. "You know, you can't really force me to do anything." He moved over towards the doorway, tilting his head to the side. "However, I have other more important things to do at the moment. So you should count yourself lucky."

Even this entire conversation wasn't being taken seriously. "You really are the worst…" Melody mumbled out, feeling a tear roll down her face. "Ya don't feel any sort of guilt for what happened… You don't…"

Frowning slightly, Gennosuke shook his head. "Why would I feel guilty about any of what's happened?" After all, he had his fun, and everyone else save for two people were still alive.

This only seemed to reinforce to Melody just how vile this man was. "What did Dae-Hyun ever do to you…?"

"Nothing, really." Gennosuke shrugged. "After all, it wasn't my idea to kill him. It made it easier to lure him in, but that part was all Tatiana. But then again, she never did explain her reasoning, did she?" Not that he cared in the slightest. Granted, he already had an idea on why. Especially after that conversation she had with Gigi, there could only be one reason.

"Just… leave…" Melody didn't want to hear whatever excuse he had anymore.

Because no matter what Gennosuke would actually say, it would only be filled with nothing but emptiness. There would be no emotion behind his words.

In fact, she was starting to think he couldn't even feel any emotion at all.

For a moment, Gennosuke was going to raise an objection. After all, he had so much more things he wanted to say… However, a different thought appeared in his mind.

Honestly, why was he even wasting time with someone like Melody? He had other stuff to do, like figuring out who took the vacant room, and given that it clearly wasn't her, he really shouldn't be spending any time here.

"Well, I think I've said what I needed to." Gennosuke took a step back, scanning his bracelet against the door.

Seeing that he was finally gone, Melody was allowed to let out a sigh of relief.

Finally…

She was alone again.

Melody and Gennosuke had a free time event. Saying they got closer was a lie.

---

Cafeteria

Like usual, almost everyone was gathered this morning to have breakfast.

Save for two people, those being Melody and Gennosuke, who were stuck having the world's worst free time event.

Bless her heart.

"So." Gemini hummed out, hoping to get everyone's attention. "There's a few things we have to do, aren't there?"

"I'd say." Hae-Won pretty much had her schedule for the day cleared out. For one, she made sure to take a look at her watch.

Only three hours left before she could claim the job at the laboratory.

The only thing she could do is pray that someone like Gennosuke didn't find it before her. Damn job rules.

"Yes, it seems like today is going to be a rather busy day." Gigi nodded her head along. "If I can find Nova, I would like to see if she'd be willing to answer some of my questions."

"Why are you so obsessed with Nova?" Laki tilted her head to the side, blissfully unaware that the ship even existed.

Why does it exist?

Fuck if I know.

"It's the first time we can openly go talk to her." Gigi tried to reason. "Besides, she gave us some information last time, so I believe entertaining her would at least net us some more information."

Besides, Nova didn't seem as malicious as Monokawa was, so it might be a good start.

"You have fun with that." Winter took a sip of her tea.

While everyone else had some grand plans to do stuff, she didn't really have much in mind. All she felt like doing today was talking to one person. In fact, she eyed that person right now.

Who was completely unaware. "Yeah, what she said. I don't believe I would be able to stand a conversation with Nova."

"She didn't seem… completely awful." Benjamin tried to reason, but no, he didn't even believe that slightly.

"It should be obvious what I'm going to do." Gemini nodded his head with a smile.

"Are you really sure there's something beyond that wall?" Seira on the other hand… Quickly, she pulled out the book of horoscopes. "Actually, let me read ours for today."

.

"You may find it hard to get your act together as the new week begins but that's really no big deal. Cosmic activity in your opposite sign means you will accomplish more if you let other people take the lead. You don't need to always be in charge."

.

May tilted her head back. "Does this apply for all of us…?" If it was, she really didn't like the sound of that.

"Um… What's mine?" Michael no! Don't encourage her!

Without skipping a beat, Seira was able to call out his zodiac sign. "Pisces…" Does she have them all memorised?

.

"Your No. 1 priority as the week begins must be to have fun with friends and family members. Even if you have a ton of work to get through you must find time for the kind of one-to-one relationships that make life worthwhile."

.

"..." For a moment, Michael remained silent, before shaking his head. "No… I don't think that…" He didn't even remember his family. This just felt like it was rubbing it in his face.

"This is fucking stupid." Here comes Atlas to-

.

"Something new and exciting will catch your eye today and you will go all out to make it your own. Don't worry if it costs a dollar or two more than you think you can afford because the planets indicate it will be a worthwhile investment."

.

"Fucking stop! What the hell am I going to buy?!" Atlas was getting sick of this book.

"Well, my shop is always open!" Monokawa said as he floated down.

Wait…

Suddenly!

Otter!

"Fucking Christ…" It was too early in the morning for Atlas to deal with any of this.

"Wait!" Gemini quickly stood up, a shine in his eyes. "Screw whatever is behind that wall, I still have other things I need to do. Thank you, Monokawa."

"Um…" He had never been thanked so sincerely. "You're… welcome?" This was new.

"And with that!" Gemini pulled out a smoke bomb from his pouch, and slammed it on the ground.

In a second, he was enveloped in smoke.

The only problem was that the cafeteria was so large, that everyone also saw him running towards the elevator.

"Well alrighty then." Benjamin had no other comment.

"Ah…" Seira just realised what all of this was. "He's probably going to go gambling soon…" At least he wasn't trying for the escape key.

"Right!" Edison nodded his head along. "Wasn't he trying to get the map?"

"Oh." Winter hummed out. "I suppose that would be even more valuable now, given we have a rather strange hallway."

"Ugh." Lorelei narrowed their eyes. "Don't tell me that buying that thing would actually be a benefit."

For a moment, she took a look at her own coins.

Technically, she could easily buy it. They hadn't exactly removed her coins yet-

"Oh right!" Monokawa let out a laugh, before flying over to Lorelei. "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo." He said this in a rather monotonous tone. "Your coins are now my property."

"What the hell!?" Lorelei quickly stood up. "What the fuck was that for?"

This only got a snort from Atlas. "Serves you right, bitch. At least earn your coins fairly!"

Well, so much for actually helping Gemini, then.

That did bring another issue to Gigi's attention. "Speaking of which, Lorelei…" She trailed off.

"Nope!" They crossed their arms. "You had your chance during the trial, but you chose to focus on the murder." She stuck her tongue out. "Now's not the time for asking questions."

"Wait…" Michael called out. "But if you're able to hack into stuff, wouldn't you be able to…" He then realised that now wasn't the best time to ask that, given that Monokawa was right there.

Slowly, he floated over towards him. "No, no! Go on! I'm really interested."

Fuck it, why not. "Can't you just disable Monokawa?" Michael said all of this while staring directly at him.

"What the-" Woah, they're talking about killing him?

"Pft!" Lorelei rolled her eyes. "You don't think I've already tried that? But there's not much I can do without access to his code."

Letting out a hum, Winter turned to look at Gigi. "Ask Nova about that."

"I'm literally right here." Monokawa felt his arms fall to his side. "Don't you care about me?"

"Why would we?" Benjamin was just being honest. Tilting his hat down slightly, he shook his head. "After what you did to Tatiana…"

Quickly, Monokawa floated over to him. "Why would you be mean to me? I'm just a silly little doll."

"Dolls don't murder people!" Benjamin quickly countered.

Adjusting his goggles, Edison spoke up. "Unless it was from that one movie-" Ignored.

"The point is!" Monokawa spoke up. "You can't get rid of me that easily. Only Nova has direct access to my code."

"So it's in her room." Atlas concluded.

More reason to break in.

"You just want to go into her room." Yup, Lorelei was continuing this joke.

This time, Atlas wasn't even going to respond to that. It just wasn't worth it anymore.

Floating back up in the air, Monokawa looked down at all of them. "You'll never truly get rid of me! Haha!" He let out a laugh, before rising towards the ceiling.

When everyone was still staring at him, he tried to shoo them off with his hand. "Just… Just look away! I can't leave if you're all staring at me."

Given that this was a lost cause, Gigi looked at everyone else. "So, we all know what we want to do today."

May moved off the bench, stretching slightly, as if she just woke up from a nap. "I know what I want to do…" She had to get to the bottom of Alan's station, after all. Nobody else would likely put in the effort, so she'd need to be the one to do it.

Other people, like Seira, didn't really have much in mind. "I might just hang around my station."

"Actually…" Hae-Won stood up, looking over at Laki. "You and I need to have a talk." This would help her kill time while she waited for her job to be over with.

"U-um?" Now hearing those words wouldn't normally make her worried, but coming from Hae-Won?

Now that was something to set off some alarms.

Turning around, Hae-Won made her way over towards the elevator. "You and me, in my station." She didn't even bother to look at her.

Slowly getting up, Laki made her way towards the elevator.

She didn't want to run away, but she also didn't want to go anywhere near Hae-Won. Especially alone.

Then again, last time they were alone, nothing bad had happened…

---

Ultimate Tattoo Artist Station

Laki wasn't really one to feel fear, so there wasn't that feeling at all as she was pushed into Hae-Won's station.

Instead, there was an uncomfortable feeling, as if she was trying to feel it, but it just wouldn't show.

Once the door closed, Hae-Won finally spoke up. "You and I need to have a talk."

"Um… About what!" Laki didn't mind having a talk, but it felt weird talking to only her.

However, Hae-Won didn't answer the question right away. More so because even she didn't really know what to have the conversation be about. "Listen…" She placed her hands in her pockets. "Just because you save me from space, doesn't mean that you're just forgiven."

"Huh? But I wasn't trying to do it for forgiveness…" Laki mumbled out.

"Bullshit, that and the paper, you were just acting reckless to hopefully get on our good side." Hae-Won saw right through her, so her tricks wouldn't work.

If Laki even had any tricks to begin with. "What…?" Honestly, she seemed genuinely confused. "I was just doing that… because that's what I do." The thrill of it, after all.

Or more so the fact that nobody else would actually do it.

"... You think I believe that?" Hae-Won kept her eyes closed.

She still wasn't over her entire involvement with Benoit's death, so no way she would believe anything she said about the situation.

Frowning slightly, Laki narrowed her eyes. "I'm being truthful. Why would I do that for forgiveness?"

"Ah…" Slowly, Hae-Won nodded her head along. "You're right. How could I forget." She let out a low chuckle. "You don't believe you've done anything wrong, don't you?"

Pausing for a moment, Laki wasn't even sure how to respond to this.

Because while she still hadn't apologized, she could at least recognise she did something wrong.

Because of her, two people had died, and that was something that couldn't be undone.

"I…" Laki had begun to say. "Why do you think so lowly of me?" Now she was just sad, which wasn't something she felt often.

Hearing the sad tone, that seemed to catch Hae-Won off guard, but she wouldn't relent anyways. "You got Benoit killed, you managed to get your only friend killed, and almost got half of us killed. I'm sorry if I don't seem to like you as much as some of the others." Hell, she couldn't understand why Edison wanted to be around her.

At this point, Laki was slowly getting sick of the way she was getting treated. "You're acting like I'm as bad as Gennosuke."

Thinking for a moment, Hae-Won shrugged. She wasn't as bad as him, given that he was in his own league. "Just because he's the worst person on this station, doesn't erase the mistakes you've made."

That was something that Laki was well aware of. "I… I know! I'm not trying to erase my mistakes!"

"Really now?" Hae-Won let out a hum. "But you're still acting like nothing happened. You're back to your usual self, doing dumb things to your heart's content."

"Is there a problem with that?" Laki wasn't just going to take this treatment anymore.

"..." For once, Hae-Won remained silent, trying to figure out how to handle this conversation. She was hoping that Laki would back down, but that didn't seem like it would be the case at all. Letting out a small sigh, Hae-Won looked over at the drawing she had been spending the last several days working on. "Is there a problem with that?" She repeated, letting out a small chuckle. "Of course there is, and I hate that you fail to see it."

No, that was it for Laki. "I've put myself through two situations where I could have almost died, just to help out with the group, and you're still on my ass?" Anger wasn't really an emotion she knew well.

But now, for the first time, it's all she could feel.

"..." Clearly, none of this was going how Hae-Won wanted it to go. "Whatever…" Maybe it was just best to drop it for now.

"No, you don't just get to leave this conversation because you're losing." Laki wasn't letting her go away that easily. "Yes, I killed Benoit, and that's something that can't go away, but I'm trying my best to at least fit back into the group."

She didn't give two shits about anything like forgiveness. If nobody forgave her, that would be fine. But to continuously bring it up like this…

Choosing to remain silent, Hae-Won moved over to the wall. "You say all of this, but you haven't once apologised for your actions." She needed to continue her drawing to relieve some stress.

That talk with Tatiana still seemed to resonate in her head somewhere.

"Why would I…?" Laki mumbled out, before realising that it sounded bad. "If I apologised, you'd just say I was being insincere, or trying to lie my way into forgiveness."

What's the point of saying something that the other person wouldn't even believe. "Besides, apologising means nothing in this situation. That's not exactly something you can say sorry for."

Hae-Won was going to respond, but stopped.

Because Laki was absolutely right… She wouldn't have accepted something like that. Honestly, Laki apologising would have probably made her more furious.

"Fine…" Hae-Won let out a sigh. "You've got me there." While she didn't want to admit it, she had no choice. "If you tried to apologise, I probably would have tried to hit you."

"See…" There was no way Laki could go ahead and apologise when this was what was waiting for her. "What's done is done, and I haven't done anything like it since…" She glanced off to the side. "I've learned my lesson the hard way." If only she had realised sooner, maybe Benoit and Ian would have still been alive.

Thinking over it a bit, Hae-Won let out a sigh.

At this point, the anger she had felt was starting to get old. Nothing good was going to come out of it anymore.

It was hard to just ignore it, but yelling at Laki for all of this was never going to change the past either.

Hae-Won was just wasting her breath now.

"You're free to leave now." She finally said, not bothering to look over at her. "And I won't go out of my way to harass you. I'll still be keeping a close eye on you, though."

She still couldn't bring herself to trust Laki anyways. Regardless of what Edison thinks, she's still the same crazy girl as before.

For a few seconds, Laki just stood around awkwardly, before moving over towards the door. She was getting ready to leave, before letting out a sigh.

"I'm…" A pause. "I'm sorry… Alright. I know you probably won't believe me, but I think now, you at least won't hit me for saying it. Whether you believe me or not is up to you." She didn't really care either way, she just wanted to get it off her chest.

After a few seconds of silence, the sound of the door opening could be heard, followed by footsteps. Which left Hae-Won along, to attend to her drawing again. "What am I going to do…" She mumbled out.

It seems Hae-Won and Laki have grown closer, somehow.

---

Ultimate Love Guru Station

Now why the hell did Lorelei even bother following behind Winter to this place? The vibes were just way off.

Especially to someone like them, who didn't give in to any of this romance bullshit.

And yet, there was Lorelei, sitting down in her usual spot. "Ah, you actually showed up."

"What the hell do you want?" Lorelei wasn't here to play any games. She just wanted to get to the bottom of this.

Besides, it's not like Winter would attempt to kill her or anything.

Putting the cup of tea down, Winter offered a smile. "I just wanted to talk. We hadn't really gotten the chance to talk because of the investigation, and the trial. But now that everyone knows, there's no real reason to worry about it."

"Really?" It was very clear that Lorelei had no interest in where this conversation was going. "Can't we just say we're both at fault, and call it a day?"

That could happen, but Winter had much more to say than just that. "Hmm… No."

"Ugh." Lorelei let herself fall back onto the rather soft floor. "Whatever, just say what you have to say."

"First of all, I have something to return to you." Winter reached into her kimono, eventually pulling out an object and setting it on the table.

Given their position, Lorelei couldn't exactly see it. Letting out a sigh, she sat up, looking down at the table.

On it was a blaster.

"I believe this is yours." Winter said, despite knowing damn well it was hers.

However, Lorelei didn't reach for it. "Why are you giving me this back? I almost killed you with it."

"Yes, I know." It didn't seem like Winter was seeing the problem. "I have no reason for two, and I'm not about to give it out to some random person."

Still, Lorelei was hesitating. "This seems like a really bad idea."

Seeing that they weren't going for it, Winter had to shake her head. "You want to know why I know giving it back to you isn't a bad idea? Because if you wanted to kill me, I would be dead."

"..." Lorelei glanced off to the side.

"And yet…" Winter twirled a strand of hair around with her finger. "You very clearly missed the first shot, despite me being directly in front of you. That doesn't seem possible." She giggled slightly. "You seem like you are good at games, after all."

Lorelei couldn't deny that… She had missed on purpose, but she wasn't going to admit something like that. Instead, she let out a laugh. "You really think I missed you because I didn't want to kill you. Well, I didn't, but it's not for the reason you think. I missed because if I had killed you, it would be the most obvious thing ever, and then I would have been executed."

Letting out a small hum, Winter didn't exactly believe that. "Is that really true? Would you truly miss on purpose? After all, I had my gun aimed at you, as well. If you missed, what was stopping me from killing you?"

An interesting debate!

However, Lorelei only frowned. "Well that's because…"

Honestly, the reason she assumed that, was because she didn't believe Winter would actually kill her either. "I knew you were a shit shot."

"Is that really it?" Winter had a knowing smile on her face. "After all, we were point blank. How could I possibly miss a shot like that?"

"Um… You were caught off guard, duh." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "You weren't expecting me to shoot you, so you were panicking."

"That could be true." Winter twirled around a strand of hair with her finger. "But still, how could you be so certain that I wouldn't?"

Very quickly, Lorelei was getting tired of this conversation. "Alright! Alright! Neither of us had any intention to kill! Is that better?"

Slowly, Winter nodded her head, closing her eyes. "Was that so hard? Now we've both come to an understanding. And thus, I can safely assume that you won't try and do it again in the future."

"Well, to you, at least." Lorelei rolled her eyes. "What's to say I won't do it to someone else."

To that, Winter didn't say anything.

"You… Don't care?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow.

"No, not that I don't care, but it would be pretty stupid to use the blaster in a murder, don't you think. Only two of us have one, so it would be dumb to narrow down the list so much." Winter knew what she was doing.

"Ugh, you're so annoying." Honestly, this whole thing had been a losing fight for Lorelei. Normally they'd be dominating these mental games of chess. It happened with May, it happened with Gemini.

And yet, for once, someone else had the upper hand.

"What do you hope to gain from this entire interaction?" Lorelei had to get to the bottom of this.

However, Winter seemed surprised. "What do you mean? Why would I have anything to gain?"

"I'm not stupid…" Lorelei crossed their arms.

Frowning slightly, Winter shook her head. "You act like I have some malicious intentions, but in all honesty, it's just nice to have someone I can trust."

"You really think you can put your trust in me?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow.

After all, nobody had ever seriously placed their trust in her. "Keep dreaming. I'd never put my trust in someone like-"

"Why not?" Winter didn't even give her a chance to finish her sentence. "Why not put your trust in someone else?"

Narrowing their eyes, Lorelei didn't immediately answer, almost as if she thought this entire thing was still a chess game, and she had to choose her moves carefully. "Because…" And yet, a blank kept appearing in their head. "Because… Because putting your trust into someone ends you up with a situation like Michael."

Winter kept her eyes closed, a neutral look on the rest of her face.

She could take the bait that was so clearly laid in front of her, but she wasn't going to. "Oh, you're so right. You hide secrets just like him. However, instead of your secret being something absurd like being a cult leader, you're actually just a hacker." She twirled a strand of hair around with a finger.

"How scary."

Really? Was Winter just not answering her in the way she wanted?

"Ugh." Lorelei let out a sound of annoyance. "Just… Why?"

"Because I've thought long and hard about what I should do. We both need someone we can rely on, given we're both lacking someone. Why not just put faith in the other." Winter kept her eyes closed as she gave her reasoning.

For a bit, Lorelei didn't seem to have anything to say.

Which made sense, given the overwhelming sense of confusion she was feeling. In their own eyes, they weren't exactly someone people should trust.

And yet, Winter was willing to offer that to her. "I…" As badly as Lorelei wanted to counter it, she couldn't really find a good reason to deny it. "Fine. I can also put my trust in you."

Seeing that she got what she wanted, Winter offered a sincere smile. "See? Was that so hard to do? Now we know we'll have each other's back from this point onward."

Letting out a sigh, Lorelei stood up from the floor. "Yeah, yeah. Congrats, you broke a barrier or something."

It felt so weird to her, given nobody had managed to even get close to her. Even her online friends didn't seem to mean much of anything to her. "I'm going to head off."

"Alright, that's fine. I was done talking about what I needed to do." Although, unlike them, Winter didn't bother getting up. Seems she was pretty comfortable sitting down in her station.

Looking down at her for a few seconds, Lorelei mumbled something under her breath, before heading towards the exit of the room.

It seems Lorelei and Winter have grown closer.

---

Cafeteria

Almost as if everyone knew what was happening, people were gathered in the cafeteria.

Well, except for Gennosuke again, but he was playing the smart game. Oh, and Edison or whatever. He wasn't here either.

But that did mean that Melody was hanging around here for once.

"Melody." Michael walked over to her, speaking in a rather normal tone. "Is everything alright? I didn't see you this morning."

Every moment he spoke to her, he just kept getting bad feelings.

Rubbing her arm, it took a bit for Melody to actually respond.

But this time, she didn't respond with a smile. Instead, she shook her head. "Not really… I ran into the grifter today, and… Well… It wasn't exactly a pleasant talk."

At first, Michael was a bit confused on what she meant, but it didn't take too long. "Gennosuke."

He wanted to do something about that, but…

Why was he immune to what everyone else clearly couldn't be? He had gotten Gigi with it, he had gotten… Melody, admittedly, but he was doing it so she wouldn't get hurt.

Hell, even Lorelei wasn't immune.

So why was Gennosuke immune?

"Just, try not to be alone." Was all Michael could suggest right now.

But that only made Melody look away, because she wanted to be alone, so people didn't see her in this sorry state, but she also didn't want to avoid everyone entirely.

Besides, she needed food.

Letting out a deep breath after waiting in silence for a bit, Michael shook his head. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to do anything to stop him."

"Huh?" For once, Melody's mostly different expression changed back to a regular expression of shock. "Now, what would ya have been able to do, mac?" And once again, a smile appeared on her face. "Just being here is enough."

Glancing around a bit, Michael lowered his voice. "I… Those powers I mentioned… They didn't work on him."

Which was weird, because nobody in his life had ever been immune to them.

This caused Melody's expression to drop slightly. "You tried to-" She had said this part a little too loud, so she had to lower her voice. "You tried to mind control the fella?"

"Yeah… But he didn't seem to respond." Michael didn't really know how his powers worked, so there was clearly something missing here. "But… Forget about it." Just talking about using them on purpose made him feel bad. This wasn't the person he wanted to turn into.

If he began to abuse his powers, then he would really be just as bad as some of the other people here.

Despite how she was currently feeling, Melody wanted to say something in an attempt to cheer up Michael, but something else happened which would ruin her chance entirely.

A presence…

Suddenly!

Otter!

Monokawa floated back down, just in time to greet almost everyone. "Did you miss me?"

"Do you just like, hang out in the cafeteria?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow.

Glancing to the side at his bed tucked away in the ceiling, Monokawa shook his head. "No."

"What do you want?" At this point, Hae-Won just wanted to get things over with. "You only show up like this if you have something to announce, so get to it."

"Wow… what a mood killer… Now I don't want to reveal it." Monokawa slowly lifted up towards the ceiling.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Laki smiled at him, before he quickly moved over to her.

"Hey! You're supposed to be encouraging, not dragging me down further!" Monokawa raised his hands in the air. "You are the worst kind of friend."

Laki blinked a few times, confusion apparent on her face. "We're friends?"

"Yeah! You're crazy! I'm crazy! It's like a friendship made in heaven."

Laki blinked a few times, trying to contemplate his words, before shaking his head. "No thank you…"

She wasn't that crazy.

"We don't like your presence here, so can you just get along with it?" Winter already knew where this was going, after all.

For a moment, Monokawa just stared down at everyone else. "Wow… You all really don't like me, huh…"

"Obviously." Hae-Won didn't even dignify him with a look, choosing to stare directly at the table instead.

"Alright! Fine! Then let's get this out of the way now!" Monokawa raised a paw in the air. "I'm here to provide you with your secondary motive!"

"Another secondary motive…" Seira mumbled out.

"This bullshit again?" Atlas scoffed. "Come back with something actually interesting."

"Oh come on!" Monokawa was starting to get annoyed. "You should be used to all of this by now. Two days after the trial, I give out a secondary motive." Brief pause. "Wait, why is the secondary motive before the main one?" Ah, he doesn't get paid enough to think about it.

Judging by what it was last time, Melody felt herself being a bit uncertain about the entire thing. Not for herself, but for what others might receive.

"So!" Monokawa let out a shout. "Let's reveal what everyone got this time!" He floated over towards the monitor on the wall, which flicked to life, revealing the new motives.

.

Atlas: Revelation

Benjamin: Truth

Edison: Promise

Gemini: Promise

Gennosuke: Revelation

Gigi: Secret

Hae-Won: Threat

Laki: Promise

Lorelei: Truth

May: Secret

Melody: Threat

Michael: Promise

Seira: Secret

Winter: Threat

.

For a moment, it felt like the room went silent. It was hard to see who was affected by what, but Winter was the first person to speak up. "Are you…" She grimaced, looking down at her own watch. "Why would…?"

"Um…" Seira seemed a bit pale upon seeing hers. "How do you…" Fear seemed to be visible in her eyes.

"Oh wow!" Monokawa floated up, letting out a small laugh. "Seems like we got a few good ones this time. That does make things more exciting for me."

Taking a step back, Seira wasn't really sure how to even react to the information she was given. "There's… There's no way." That fear quickly turned to horror as she turned off her watch.

Like normally, there were some people who seemed unbothered. "Pretty much ran out of anything useful, didn't you." Lorelei shrugged, not really caring about hers. "Lame."

"Tsk…" Atlas seemed a bit annoyed by his, but he otherwise didn't really say anything else.

"Eh." Monokawa shrugged. "It's impossible to get all of you at once, but as long as I get a few of you, that's all that matters."

"Really now?" Hae-Won let out a small laugh. "I personally think you're losing your edge." She didn't seem to be bothered either.

Letting his arms fall to his side, Monokawa seemed a bit disappointed, but quickly gained his mood. "Well! We'll see about that! How long can some of you last with what you've given!" With that, he floated away.

Closing his watch, Gemini let out a sigh. "It's fine. At one point these motives won't bother us anymore." He went to turn to look at Seira except…

"Huh?" He knew she had been here, but she was now completely missing. "Seira?"

"She ran off." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "Seems she got something pretty bad." She had to hide the smile on her face.

"Where did she run off to?" Gemini looked over at her, hoping for at least some sort of answe-

"Pfft, as if I'd want to tell you." Lorelei mocked him, before the smile faded from her face. "From the looks of it, she wanted to be alone."

Running a hand through his hair, Gemini wasn't sure if that was the best solution to all of this. "I'll… I'll go find her." If she had gotten something bad like he had, he should at least try and talk to her about it.

Seeing how everything turned out, Monokawa slowly floated back up. "With all of this, my work here is done." He was about to float out of view, until he remembered something important. "Oh! Right! Before anything else, I should specify that Nova will be calling you all later today."

"Already…?" It didn't take long for Winter to figure out why. "Haven't we suffered through enough motives yet?"

"Um… No." Was all Monokawa said before he floated away completely out of view.

Looking down at her watch, Gigi eventually closed it. "There's nothing we can do now, but hope it isn't as bad as the asteroid motive."

"Tsk…" Atlas already knew it would be worse. "As if they'd start going easy on us. The longer we spend here, the less likely we are to kill."

After all, everyone had slowly been growing closer, which meant they wouldn't want to kill their friends.

That's something that Gigi feared, but she didn't make another comment on it.

Instead, her eyes trailed over towards the door leading to the Tau Sector, catching a glimpse of May opening the door, and stepping in.

That's someone she wanted to talk to, after all…

---

Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist Station

Now, Gigi had been told that this room was a little weird…

However! She had underestimated just how weird it was. "This place is…"

She wasn't able to put it into words.

"I know…" May hummed out, letting out a yawn as she stepped further into the room, stopping right where the floor was clear. "There's something here… I can tell…"

Gigi wasn't exactly one for something like this, so it felt safe leaving that to someone like May. "Have you figured anything out yet?"

"... No." Thanks May. She tilted her head to the side. "It just opened up yesterday, so I haven't had much time to come back here…"

Well, Gigi couldn't expect someone to solve a mystery right away. "Fair." She glanced off to the side, looking at all the newspapers.

Eventually, her eyes landed on one of the newspaper articles about Hope's Peak. "Hmm…"

Reading it over, the date was from 2010, so it was far before Gigi was even born. "Why would an article like that be in here?"

May didn't even need to look over at where she was to know what article she was reading about. "When I first got accepted to Hope's Peak… I wanted to do some research on it." Especially when she found out that they closed their doors a while ago.

Reading over the article, it seemed to talk about a different killing game that took place in Japan. "The entire class died." Gigi noted.

A killing game with Ultimates, and here they were again.

"It wouldn't be the only time…" May had done a lot of research on the topic.

"Right…" A fact Gigi knew about, but she hadn't really known about the first instance of it. "Did they ever figure out who did it?"

"... It took a while, I believe." May moved over to the blank spot on the ground. "But they eventually got them."

Her attention was on the wall directly beside the blank spot.

Could this possible be a-

"So… You got a secret as well." Gigi spoke up, not realising May was in the process of thinking.

"... Yeah…"

Now, Gigi didn't want to admit what hers was. Not because it was an awful secret or anything… haha… But because of the rules. Always gotta follow the rules. "Was it bad?"

"... No…" May let out a yawn.

Given who she was, it was almost impossible to get someone like her to kill. If anything, she'd be the one who gets killed. "But there's not much they could do against me…"

That wasn't exactly pleasant to hear… Given the one Gigi got was… "They really know how to hit some of us where it hurts."

"Honestly… the only one that got a reaction out of me was the revelation…" May ran her hand against the wall paper, before noticing something.

It took Gigi a few seconds, but she glanced over towards her. "Monokawa said that we could talk about past motives, given that they were no longer active. What did you get?"

For a moment, May remained silent, staring directly at the wall.

She could tell Gigi about it, but a part of her nagged at the back of her brain that she could keep it a secret.

"I… Don't feel comfortable sharing it." May mumbled out. "It was a weird revelation… Just trust me."

This got a frown out of Gigi, who felt like she had made herself pretty reputable. "If you say so." But she wasn't going to force her to say something she didn't want to. "Is there any reason why, though." Naturally, curiosity still existed.

Thinking for a moment on how best to answer this question, May let out a low humming sound. "It's… best if I just don't reveal what I got."

Hearing that, it made Gigi feel a bit uneasy. Not even the reason why she can't mention it. "Fine." But she wasn't going to force any information out of her.

May was probably one of the most trustworthy people left on this station anyways.

"Is it because it's me, or because you don't want to tell anyone?"

"The latter…" May hummed out, kneeling down to take a better look at the floor. "You're trustworthy… It's just that…" Ah, she really couldn't bring herself to mention it.

Trustworthy… Well at least her and Gemini thought so, but Gigi was now having her own doubts. "You really think that?" For once, she sounded a bit sad.

Something May picked up on, and while she wanted to continue investigating, she was also curious about this development. "What's wrong… You sounded…" Well, no need to specify it.

For a few moments, Gigi remained silent, only looking off to the side. "Well… Why am I trustworthy? I can tell some people don't like me, so I was just curious why you are one of the few who do."

Why she's trustworthy… May let out a small hum as she tried to think of an answer. "I don't know… You just always seemed like the leader of the group…"

"That doesn't immediately mean I'm trustworthy. Hae-Won seems to think that because I am the leader, I'm not to be trusted."

And honestly, with how Gigi's failed to prevent anything from happening… Maybe she was right.

"Hey…" May said rather softly. "I also failed to stop something from happening…" After all, the entire Benoit situation was still fresh on her mind, even after it's been a week. "So don't use that to judge yourself…"

Frowning slightly, Gigi crossed her arms. "Well, it's more than just that…"

However, there wasn't much she could actually say, given the way the rules are structured, the motive had to say a secret until after this period was over. "Never mind…"

May was about to ask her to keep going, but quickly realised that she probably wouldn't mention it. "If it's about your past… Then that doesn't really matter here…" Well, at least to most people. Her past didn't mean much compared to this entire killing game.

"I'm… Not so sure at this point." Gigi narrowed her eyes, looking at the ground. "The more I think about it, the more I feel unsure. Especially by all of it." It wasn't just to her… But there had to be a reason why all of them were here. It couldn't have been by sheer chance that they were thrusted into this killing game. "I know you've seen the second door in my station, right."

"Yeah…" Of course, how could May miss something like that? It had been locked since they discovered it.

"Well…" Trailing off, Gigi had to figure out the best course of action to continue. "I believe it being in my station isn't an accident. I fear it has to do with my talent."

"Fear…?" Why would that even be a fear? Several different ideas went through May's head, but she didn't hold onto a single one. "Why?"

Lowering her gaze, Gigi thought long and hard about what to say next. Eventually, she raised her eyes back to meet with the sleepy academic. "Every coin has two sides."

"Hmm…" Common saying, yes… But May couldn't find how it applied to her. "Are you saying… There's a side of you, you rather people don't see?"

Quickly, Gigi blew on her whistle, looking away. "Why would you take it like that?"

However, based on her reaction, May knew that she had to be right. "I see…" She didn't quite understand what exactly that side would be like, but she hadn't really felt any ill intent from Gigi.

"That… Doesn't really change anything…" May hummed out, turning back towards the wall. "If you think you can't be trustworthy because of your past… just ignore it…"

She wasn't really good at giving advice, but that was something she employed in the past to help her get through her own problem.

"Ignore it…?" Gigi wasn't even sure she could do something as simple as that. Because to her, ignoring it wasn't simple at all. "I can't just ignore something like that. After all, the past has shaped me into the person I am today."

"Then…" Yeah, May sucked at this. All she wanted to do was solve Alan's room and be on her way, but this was making it rather difficult. "Then… Don't." Easy enough of a solution.

She was smart in school, but being a therapist didn't really fall into that category. Maybe if she studied it, that would be a different story entirely… "I'm not really good at this…" She let out a yawn. "Go talk to someone like Gemini…"

True, Gemini also seemed to have a secret he didn't want to talk about. Maybe they could bond over something like that. "I…" But she wasn't really sure if talking to him would be the right solution. "Well… I thank you for at least trying."

She might not have gotten any of the information out of May like she wanted, but at least her mood had improved.

Sure, Gigi's secret would still weigh her down, but it didn't feel as crushing as before. "I'll talk to you later."

"Sure…" May let out a small yawn, not even bothering to look over in her direction.

Once the door closed, the sleepy academic slowly felt her eyelids getting heavier.

It seems Gigi and May have grown closer.

And also May didn't get to solve anything. She wasted all of her energy in this conversation.

---

Ultimate Astrologist Station

Seira didn't mean to leave so suddenly, but with what she got from the motive, she might have needed a second to herself…

What she wasn't expecting was for someone else to already be here.

And no, it wasn't Gennosuke. "What are you doing here?" Maybe Seira sounded a bit too bitter here, but she wasn't currently in the mood to talk to the person she was standing in front of.

Slowly turning to look at her was Edison. "Oh! I just wanted to take a look around the other rooms I didn't get a chance to look at. Especially because…" He adjusted his goggles. "I had to see if your station was truly as great as you said it was…"

Long pause.

"It's not." Edison swirled around his flask of green liquid. "Sorry, it just doesn't compare to my station.

This really wasn't the time to be annoying Seira, but she was going to hold off on yelling. "Is that really the only reason you're here."

"Yeah, pretty much." Edison didn't even bother to look her way. "But it's mostly been a waste of time over a science I don't care about."

Here he was going off again. Letting out a small sigh, Seira shook her head. "I bet my station beats whatever your station is." For all she knew, Edison was stuck with a boring science lab.

Who would want to hang out there, when this place had an amazing view of the stars? Clearly he was out of his mind.

After contemplating that for a few seconds, Edison shook his head. "Nope! Mine still beats yours." What the hell- "And given that I've seen both of the rooms, my opinion holds the most weight, wouldn't you say?"

"That's not how-" Seira was at a loss of words. "You're just saying that because you're biased." Where's Gigi when you need her?

"Well…" Edison trailed off, swirling his flask around absentmindedly. "Aren't you the same? You'd say yours was better no matter what."

That's… True. After all, Seira's station was fit for her alone. "Then we'll just have to get an unbiased source."

Almost as if on cue, Gemini entered the room. "Hi, unbiased source here." For a brief moment, he forgot the reason he even came here in the first place.

Wait a second, this isn't a free time event.

Getting back on track, Gemini remembered the reason he was even here. He looked over at Seira. "Hey, I wanted to talk to you-"

"Hey, we're trying to settle a bet here." Whatever he wanted to talk about could wait, from the looks of it.

"Hey, no." Gemini tried to reason. "It's about the motive-"

Frowning slightly, Seira shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it…"

"..." Gemini wanted to protest, but he also didn't want to make her mood worse, so he just relented.

"I wouldn't really call Gemini an unbiased source. Hypothetically speaking… He's just going to say you have the better station." Edison wasn't about to play a losing game.

"She does." Gemini lost his credentials immediately.

"H-Hey!" Edison pointed at him. "You see what I mean, he doesn't even know what my station looks like."

"True." Gemini flashed a smile on his face, before placing his hands on his hips. But he had all his faith in Seira at the moment. "Then let's say this. We haven't had the chance to go see your lab." Mostly because it was completely blocked off from anyone else. "Let's go there now."

"Are you sure that's a good idea…" Seira had some doubts, given that some people would rather restrict the area. However, before anyone could answer, she came to her own conclusion. "Actually, you know what. I want to go, just so I can prove mine is better."

Now that things were getting serious, Edison was fully invested in this little stunt. Adjusting his goggles, the light reflected off of it. "Then let's go there right now…"

…

…

…

It wasn't that long of a trip, given it was in the same sector. However, what they weren't expecting was running into someone else here. "Hmm? Hae-Won?" Edison hummed out.

She was currently leaning against the wall, inspecting her watch. When she saw the trio appear, she turned her watch to show them. "My timer is up in a minute, just waiting to claim the job."

"So…" Gemini trailed off. "Any of us could have claimed it since yesterday."

For a few seconds, Hae-Won didn't actually answer. Instead, she just waited for the time to run out, so she could scan her watch. "Yeah, pretty much."

And as she expected, nobody else claimed the job. After all, she made sure to distract Laki long enough, given she would have been the only other person not to know.

But now comes another question. "What are you three doing here?"

"Oh!" Edison was the one to answer. "I was just going to show these two to my station."

Well, it was only Gemini and Seira, so Hae-Won wasn't worried in the slightest. "What for?" Almost like she was asking her actual brother something.

"I'm going to show them that my station is the best!" Edison seemed rather confident.

"It's not!" Seira quickly jumped in to counter.

Looking at the two, Hae-Won shook her head. She already knew it was a losing battle for Edison, given she had next to no interest in his station. But who was she to crush his spirit? Scanning her watch against the scanner, a blinding flash took the three others off guard.

Seira almost fell to the ground, rubbing her eyes. "Why does it need to be so bright…?"

Gemini had to cover his face with his hand. "Honestly, I don't feel like going back in after this…" Especially if it was going to blind him every time.

Now stepping into the laboratory section, the duo that hadn't been here before spent some time looking around.

"Woah, there's a lot more than just the things you mentioned." Gemini mentioned, looking at some of the junk in the corner.

"Yeah, but none of it was cool stuff." Edison quickly corrected. "Only useless junk that could be scavenged for parts." Unfortunately, he was a chemist, not an inventor.

Or maybe he was both, hard to tell.

Soon, they reached the door for Edison's room, but Gemini spotted something else. "There's another door here."

"Oh, right…" Hae-Won never really mentioned that part. "There's another room here, but we weren't able to access it. Monokawa said Nova wanted it closed for the time being."

That was a bit weird, but Gemini wasn't going to say anything else…

Once inside Edison's Ultimate Station, the duo who hadn't seen it, were met with the exact level of disappointment that you would expect.

"It feels like I've walked back into school…" Seira mumbled out.

Running a hand through his hair, Gemini found it hard to disagree. "Like… Not that it's a bad thing, but…"

In the meantime, Edison had moved over to collect some more chemicals. "Yes, yes. It looks just like a lab from a school. But that doesn't matter to me. It's what you can find here that matters." He began shaking his mixture until-

BOOM!

Exploded again.

This did get a laugh from Seira. "Aren't you supposed to be an Ultimate? What kind of failure was that?"

Taking his goggles off to clean, Edison didn't really seem to mind. "Success isn't guaranteed in the field. Sometimes, you have to fail a few times to get some results."

"I've never failed." Seira quickly pointed out.

However, the other two remained silent. Gemini hadn't gotten out of the station yet, and Hae-Won had definitely messed up a drawing or two.

"Oh yeah?" Edison swirled around his flask, not even bothering to look at Seira. "Then how were you not able to tell the star chart was off? You should have known something was off."

"That's because-" Well, to be honest, she didn't exactly have a good reason for that.

Letting out a sigh, Gemini shook his head. "We're not having this argument again. Let's just say you two were both wrong at the end of the day."

"Nono…" Edison shook his head. "Don't say I was wrong, when I was right to doubt her from the beginning."

"Is this what it's like every time?" Hae-Won had only seen a fraction of their fights.

"Afraid so…" Gemini had seen nearly every fight, on the other hand.

"Ugh… This isn't even why we're here." Seira had only gone to Edison's lab to prove hers was better. "My opinion doesn't change."

"Neither does mine." Gemini was going to be by her side.

Letting out a laugh, Edison shook his head. "Then I'll just have to pull out my secret weapon." Quickly he turned to look at Hae-Won. "Which one is be-"

"Seira's." Zero hesitation.

She wasn't going to lie for his sake.

"W-what?" Edison took a step back. "But you haven't even seen hers yet."

"Heh…" Hae-Won let out a low chuckle, shaking her head. "No, but I've never really been into science. Not great in school, remember. Besides, stars are pretty, so I'd rather see them."

It was official.

Edison's lab fucking sucked.

"Nonono…" The liquid in his flask began to bubble up. "This can't be…"

"We should probably just leave him to his devices." Hae-Won had no intention to fix this, given Edison was acting like a child.

"Right…" Seira also didn't want to deal with this.

Before Edison could blow up, the three of them left, leaving him as the loser for the coolest station.

Once he snapped out of it, he looked around. "Huh? Where did everyone go." After waiting a few seconds, only one idea appeared in his head. "Ah, they were far too intimidated by the truth of how great my Ultimate Station is, haha. I won." He's delusional.

---

Ultimate Ventriloquist Station

Given that he was still having a hard time fitting in with the others, Benjamin had retreated to his own station.

Part of him still wanted to hide how he truly was… The other just wanted to slink away to the back of the room, and ignore all other things going on.

So here he found himself, in his own Ultimate Station, working on a doll. He wasn't a doll maker, but he had seen his dad make one enough times that he sort of got the idea.

With Dolly gone, Benjamin didn't have anyone to rely on.

How could he even be a ventriloquist when he had nothing to show for it? Sure, he wouldn't have changed his decision to give Dolly to Tatiana. It still didn't make him feel any less lonely.

"Hey. What are you doing locked up in your room?" A voice called out to him.

"H-huh?" Benjamin turned around to see who it was, only to be greeted with Atlas. For a few seconds, he remained still, his mouth slightly ajar from shock.

After a few seconds, he finally closed it, thinking about what to say next. "What are you doing here?"

"Fuck man, I don't know." Honestly, Atlas had gotten bored of his own station, so he moved to this area of the station. After all, he hadn't done anything else since getting here. "Bored, I guess."

Benjamin wasn't exactly sure if he believed that excuse, but he wasn't going to counter him. "Well, I can't promise there's anything of interest here. After all, I don't believe dolls are up to your speed."

Maybe to punt them, but no, Atlas wasn't very fond for a multitude of reasons.

For a while, the room fell to silence, before Benjamin spoke up again. "Why are you really here? You wouldn't just wander into a random room because you're bored." He didn't mean it in a rude way, he was actually curious.

Honestly, Atlas didn't really know why either. Maybe almost being killed caused something to change, or maybe-

"Now that you don't have that stupid fucking doll." Atlas said, without really thinking.

For a moment, Benjamin froze up slightly. How could he call Dolly a stupid fucking doll?

But, he didn't want to ruin the conversation, so he remained silent.

Seeing that he wasn't going to say anything, Atlas continued. "Those talks we had a while back, we had those when you only talked through that doll. Well, now you ain't got no doll to fall back on."

That was true for all of his interactions up to that point. No matter what kind of conversation he tried to have, Benjamin only really did it through the lens of Dolly. Nobody had really been able to talk to him, as him.

"I guess… not." Still, talking to someone alone, face to face still proved to be difficult, Benjamin wasn't even sure he could make eye contact.

The main reason Atlas hated talking to Benjamin, was because he was never actually talking to him. "Last time we spoke, you said I looked lonely, and that's why you always pestered me."

"Y-yeah…" For a moment, Benjamin hesitated with his response, before choosing to double down with a frown. "And you still do, you keep pushing everyone else away."

"How is that any different from what you did?"

For a moment, Benjamin felt himself freeze up at what Atlas said. "What…?"

"You heard me. You might have done it differently, but you pushed people away from yourself, and onto the damn doll."

Benjamin hadn't really considered it that way before. He did make an effort to talk to people, but any time someone tried to talk to him directly…

He'd always push them away, or put Dolly in the foreground. The first time he ever acted without Dolly was when Tatiana hurt herself…

"I…" Benjamin wasn't even sure what to say about the accusation. "You're… You're right…"

"I know I'm right." Atlas wouldn't make a declaration like that if he knew he'd be wrong.

"Why… bring it up?" Benjamin wasn't exactly sure, but there couldn't be a good reason right? Atlas had made it very clear that didn't want people to talk to him. So then why-

"Tsk… Do I really need a reason?" Yes? "It feels like every time we talk, we always end up having a comparison made. First time, we both had scars around our neck, second time, you pointed out how I'm lonely-"

"But…! I wasn't lonely, I had Tatiana." Benjamin quickly countered.

"And where is she exactly, now?" Atlas didn't seem to care about how he said it either.

Benjamin made a small sound with his voice, which almost sounded like a squeak. "I…" He couldn't deny that ever since he lost both her and Dolly, that he was now feeling pretty lonely.

"And now, the third thing is we try to push people away." It was weird for Atlas to see part of himself in someone so unlike him.

They had definitely gone through different things, but at the end of the day, it was still someone who had similar experiences.

It was weird… Normally Gigi was the only person he'd tolerate, but now that had extended to Benjamin himself.

"You see yourself in me…?" Honestly, this was the most confused he had ever been, but he couldn't exactly deny it either. Atlas felt like an angrier version of himself.

"We both had terrible parents." That was another thing he felt they had in common. "Or at least you had a terrible dad." He never heard mention of a mom, so he couldn't be sure. "You're just what would have happened to me if I didn't let my anger dictate everything."

That was a core issue with Atlas, and something Benjamin felt like he needed to talk about. "Why do you let yourself act out like that?"

For a few seconds, Atlas remained silent, staring at the ground. "Because… Because if I let up for just a second… I lose."

"You… what?" Benjamin was a bit caught off guard with that response. "How do you… lose?"

"If I soften up, that gives the world the opportunity to strike me down one last time. But if I stay angry, I can keep getting up, no matter what the fucking world throws at me."

The literal definition of too angry to die.

"But that can't be healthy." In fact, nobody else beside Benjamin and Gigi had even gotten close to Atlas.

"So what? Why would I care?" He turned away. "The world never cared about me, so why should I care about the world? The entire thing is shitty."

"But… That's no way to live." Benjamin felt like he was being hypocritical, given how he's lived for the past several years. "I know that feels wrong coming from me, but trust me, I know it's not how anyone should be living."

Letting out a loud, exasperated sigh, Atlas shook his head. "It might not be any way to live, but it's the way I've had to live for my entire life. Kind people only come once in a blue moon, and if I blink, I miss it. Everyone else treats me like I don't matter."

And yet, Benjamin was one of the few people who always made an active effort to talk to him. Even if he did consider him to be annoying as fuck, so was Gigi some times.

While Benjamin couldn't agree with the sentiment, he could at least understand why Atlas would think like this. Hell, if things had gone slightly differently, Benjamin was sure he might have turned out the same way.

Slowly, a smile formed on his face. "Well, when all else goes wrong, we can have each other to talk to."

Why the FUCK would Atlas talk to someone about his problems?

I mean, he literally just did, but that's not the important part.

For a few seconds, Atlas narrowed his eyes at Benjamin, unsure of what to say about this entire situation. "I think I'm good." From the looks of it, he was ready to leave this conversation.

"Ah…" Well, it was worth a try.

But, looking at everything, it felt like this conversation went pretty well!

It seems that Benjamin and Atlas have grown closer.

…

…

…

And just when you thought the interaction was actually done, there was one last thing to deal with.

Just as atlas was getting ready to leave, he stopped the moment an announcement began to play out.

"Please, would everyone gather into the motive room?" Nova's voice could be heard. "Attendance for this is mandatory, so I want to see you all there, including you, Gennosuke. No more hiding around!"

"What the fuck…" Atlas mumbled out, clearly annoyed. "What she's going to get us to do now." Well, it could only really be one thing, after all.

Benjamin let out a sigh. "We should…" He didn't exactly have a good feeling about any of this, but he also didn't really have much of a choice on whether to go or not.

---

Motive Room

The air was thick with uncertainty. While the secondary motive could tend to cause some people to panic, the real reasons things tended to go South was always the main motive.

But for once, it wasn't actually the motive that seemed to have everyone on edge.

Instead, the main reason was that for the first time since the trial, everyone found themselves in the same room as Gennosuke. "What's the problem?" After all, he didn't seem to think of one.

"Why didn't you stay in your room this time?" Hae-Won didn't even bother to look at him.

With an annoyed look on his face, Gennosuke replied. "Because I don't want to get punished. Attendance was mandatory. You can kick my ass now, if you really want."

"Let's… Not do this right now." Seira seemed to be on edge, and she didn't want anything else bad to happen.

"Aww, how kind of you." Gennosuke flashed her a grin.

Which only seemed to make Seira shudder slightly, before glancing away.

All the rest of them could really do right now was wait until Nova showed up.

Although, Gennosuke didn't seem too worried about whatever the motive would end up being, given he was guaranteed immunity from it.

"Ah! There everyone is! I can't believe they all arrived before me." It was Nova.

"Yeah, we're just so eager to receive the motive." Hae-Won replied rather sarcastically. "Can you just get it over with?"

Quickly, a blue expression of sadness appeared on Nova's visor. "Why can't you greet me like normal? I'm always happy to see you…"

"Well, you're about to give us another motive, so why should we be happy?" Gigi said without a hint of emotions.

This got a laugh from Nova. "That is true, I wouldn't want to see me if I were in your shoes. But come on, a motive should still be fun, right?" I know the audience is looking forward to something like this!

"Can't you ever give us a break?" Gemini let out a sigh, rubbing the back of his head. This was starting to get annoying.

"Haha, but things like this are what makes it fun!" Nova didn't seem to have any problems with it.

"Will it at least not be something like last time?" Winter closed her eyes. "We barely had any control over that motive, compared to the first one."

"Yes, that was the part that pained me about the previous motive." Nova nodded her head. "However, no longer will you have to worry, because now we'll be playing a game."

"Game?" Lorelei raised her eyebrow. "Coming from you, that can't be good."

Hearing that, Nova felt her mood drop slightly. "But… The games I make are fun!"

"Are they?" Winter didn't seem to believe so. "The coin motive was inconvenient, and the asteroid one wasn't even a game."

"Well…" Nova trailed off, before the expression on her visor changed to a blue frown. "Why do you have to be so mean to me?"

"I mean…" Gemini trailed off. "I feel like you've given us enough reasons to be mean to you."

"I suppose…" Even if Nova didn't want to believe it. "But I promise this one will be the most fun. After all, it will be a game of strategy."

Hearing that, it seemed to perk May up. "Really…?"

A flash appeared on Gennosuke's face. "Really now? That sounds at least better than what it was before."

"Of course you'd find these things fun." Atlas barked, narrowing his eyes.

Letting out a sigh, Gigi shook her head. "Can you just tell us what it is? I'd rather not have to stand here the entire time."

"Oh! Certainly!" Nova began clapping her hands together, an expression of yellow joy on her face. "So, it's quite simple actually. All you'll be playing is a voting game."

"That's… it?" Gemini was a bit surprised. Because it did sound simple.

"What exactly are we voting for?" However, Winter wasn't about to let that go.

Clapping her hands again, Nova nodded her head. "Oh, well you'll just be voting for who you wish to die."

Long pause.

"Um…" Edison adjusted his goggles. "Did I hear you right?"

"Yes." Nova looked down at him.

"... HUH!?" Edison quickly took a step back. "We have to vote for who we want to see die?"

"What the hell is this?" Hae-Won grimaced upon learning it. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Only partially." Thanks Nova.

Frowning slightly, Winter shook her head. "This sounds less like a motive, and more like we're voting at the end of a trial."

"I can assure you that this is a motive." Nova moved to the side, getting ready to show something on the monitor. Just… not yet. "After all, just because you vote for someone, doesn't mean they'll actually die."

Now at least partially interested, Gennosuke flashed a smile. "Tell us more."

"What's the point, we're already voting for you, y'know?" Hae-Won was going to make sure of it.

However, because of his deal, Gennosuke didn't really seem too worried. "Yeah, you do that."

Letting out a sigh, Gigi spoke up. "How does this voting work?"

Finally! Someone asked! Nova knew Gigi was one of her favourites for a reason. "Glad you asked. Every night, after the nighttime announcement, you will be prompted to vote for someone of your choosing. You have two choices. You can either put two votes on them, or only one."

"Hypothetically speaking…" Edison trailed off. "What's the point of only putting one vote?"

"Putting two votes on someone alerts the other person that you did so, so they could target you in further rounds. However, only putting down one vote will make it so they are given a list of potential suspects, so you could easily go undetected."

That seemed rather simple…

"And what happens to the person with the most votes." Laki felt like she had a chance to be one of those people.

"Well…" Nova trailed off, glancing off to the side. "Nothing special happens to the person with the most votes… Instead…" She paused herself. "Right, I should probably explain something before that."

On the monitor beside her, the number fourteen appeared. "Everyone here will start with fourteen points. With each vote you receive, you will lose one point. Two if someone puts two votes on you."

"And… if we reach zero?" This didn't exactly sound good, so Michael felt he needed to ask.

Nova shook her head. "Nothing will happen until the end of the motive. But know that if you received fourteen votes… Then you might as well be as good as dead."

That really wasn't good. "Huh…" But Michael also didn't want to say anything else.

"Having the least amount of points out of everyone at the end of the motive doesn't really matter all too much." Nova moved the monitor to the next slide. "And that's because… The seven people with the lowest score… will all die at the end of this motive."

Quickly, the room grew quiet, hearing the fate that awaits them.

However, hearing just how this motive was going to work, and how half of them would die, May could only think of one thing…

Her conversation with Alan.

---

Closing his watch, Alan leaned forward on the table, getting into a more serious pose. "From the looks of it, Nova seems content with killing half of us at a moment's notice. Sure, maybe it's to give us a bigger incentive to kill…" But for it to be brought up twice? It had to be more than just a coincidence.

However, May seemed to have a different line of thinking. "It's only been stated twice, so maybe it's just a coincidence."

---

It happened once with the rules… Then, it happened again with the first motive.

Now, to see it happen a third time with this fourth motive. Once was a happenstance, twice was a coincidence…

But thrice?

Now that was a pattern.

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

Why was Nova fine with letting half of them die at any given point?

However, she was getting completely overshadowed by everyone else.

"And… We have to vote?" Michael grimaced slightly. He didn't want to be part of this. He already had a hard time voting for someone to die… This just felt even more personal.

"Nope!" Nova clapped her hands together. "You don't have to vote at all if you don't want to."

"Oh… thank God…" Michael felt a sigh of relief at being relayed this informat-

"However…" There was always something else, wasn't there. "If you choose to abstain, then you will automatically lose two points."

"What?" Michael took a step back. "So we'd be killing ourselves if we choose not to vote?"

Looking around in a panic, Melody had a rather dumb idea. "And what if none of us vote? And we all get the same amount of points?"

"You really think I wouldn't consider that?" Nova laughed a bit. "Seven of you dying is a minimum. If something would happen to result in a tie, that would ruin that number… Everyone in the tie will simply die."

Now, loaded up on a screen, where fourteen people, all with various numbers. "Let's say the bottom six people all have lower than 7 points. However, the next two lowest both have nine points. Then instead of randomly choosing someone, the two of them will just die."

"What?" Hae-Won gritted her teeth. "How the hell is that fair?"

"I don't like people attempting to break my game." Nova said rather coldly. "This applies to any number." Suddenly, the other six people who should have been safe now had nine points. "If a situation like this happens… Well, then everyone would just die."

"So, we can't even cheat in this game…" Gemini's face paled up.

"Ugh…" Lorelei, pro cheater, in shambles.
"When does this game end?" Gigi didn't like any of this, but she at least wanted to know all the information they needed to."

Giving her head a quick bow, Nova nodded her head. "You will be allowed four voting rounds. After the last voting round, the next time the nighttime announcement goes off, those marked for death will perish."

Quickly, the monitor changed to show a timer. This timer displayed 96:26:37.

"Four entire days." Hae-Won let out a sigh.

Then it was a guarantee that in four days, someone would die, or multiple people would die. There wasn't any escaping this.

"This time will always be displayed…?" May hummed out.

Nova nodded her head. "Think of it like a doomsday clock. This clock will keep going until the motive is over, or until someone dies."

Oh… That was different, May thought to herself. The first time something like this happened, the motive only ended once the body was discovered.

Suddenly, a beeping could be heard coming from everyone's bracelet. Now, they all displayed the number fourteen.

"Wait…" Michael realised quickly what this meant. "Everyone can see what our counter is at…?"

"Of course." Nova nodded her head, moving away from the monitor. "It wouldn't be much of a strategy game if you couldn't see what others had. You can choose to hide your watch, or openly show it."

This got a snort from Lorelei. "So we can see who's in danger of dying?"

"Precisely. Though, on the final day, you won't be able to see the number of points everyone has." Nova felt the need to add. "You'd only be able to see whether they are safe or not."

Interesting… Gennosuke grinned slightly. So this was how she intended to hide his score at the end.

Still, it also meant he'd be forced to play the game.

After waiting for a bit, Nova noticed that nobody else seemed to have any questions. "The motive app will now be updated with this new rule set. To access voting, you must open up the motive app as well."

Being the rule girl, Gigi was the first one to open up the rules, just to see if it matched what Nova had said.

.

You all start with fourteen points.

Every night, sometime before morning time, you have to vote for someone to remove points from.

You can either choose to remove two points, or to remove only one.

Removing one point keeps your identity a secret from the person you attacked. However, they are given a list of four suspects that could have voted for them.

Although, if you choose to risk it and remove two points from someone, they'll know you were the one to do it.

Failure to vote before the time limit is up will result in you losing two votes for yourself.

At the end of the motive, the seven people with the lowest score will all be killed off.

If a tie were to happen between two people, which would result in either less or more than seven people, it would result in killing off everyone in the tie.

The motive ends when the nighttime announcement is reached after the fourth vote, or if someone dies.

.

Looking down at the rules, only one scene could appear in Gennosuke's mind.

---

"While I can't stop someone from outright murdering you, I can, however, grant you certain immunities."

Raising an eyebrow, that certainly caught Gennosuke's interest. "What kind of immunities are we talking about?"

"There's a motive that is coming up that I don't see you having any chance at surviving." Nova let out a small laugh. "Especially with your behaviour in the last trial."

---

At least Nova had been truthful about all of this.

Still, while the idea of them all voting against him did appear in Gennosuke's head, he also should at least be given some credit. He let out a small chuckle, looking at everyone else's reaction.

"I don't know what you find so funny." Hae-Won had a small smile on her face. "I think you're losing all your points right out of the gate."

"Maybe…" Gennosuke didn't really seem bothered. "But that'd just be a waste of a vote." Not like he would elaborate.

Some of the smarter people knew not to waste any time on him if they wanted to live.

"Oh, speaking of which." Nova clapped her hands, looking over at the timer. "The first round of voting should be starting soon, given that it's almost night time. I hope you get in your votes before sleeping, because I would hate to miss out on voting."

With that said, she was now gone, leaving the fourteen participants alone in the room.

"We should head to bed, then." Hae-Won closed her eyes. She was starting to get tired from all the things she had to deal with today.

Not to mention she'd rather vote in private.

"Right…" Gemini made a few steps towards the door. It was getting late, and he had to figure out if he wanted to vote in this.

One by one, everyone left the motive room.

---

Vacant Room

After the motive had been revealed, most people felt uneasy, given they'd have to vote for others to increase their chances of survival.

Even if some of those choices would be obvious, it still caused panic amongst themselves.

To everyone, except for Gennosuke, who watched as everyone left their room, a small smile on his face.

"What's your fucking problem?" Well, everyone but one. Atlas.

Looking at him, Gennosuke shrugged. "It seems like a fun motive. Why would I be up in arms about it?"

Was this guy stupid? That was a thought that went through Atlas' mind. "You're going to get everyone to dump votes on you, you know that."

Something Gennosuke was vastly aware of. "Yeah, so what? I don't think I have anything to worry about."

Not only because of the immunity he had been granted, but because that also meant he could go wild with this motive.

"What?" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Well, I'm dropping two votes on you tonight. Pay back for bashing me in the back of the head."

"Is that really the best course of action for you?" Gennosuke had a rather smug expression on his face.

For a moment, Atlas remained silent, not knowing what to say. After pondering it, he narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Letting out a chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "You already know everyone is going to vote for me, right? So why add onto that? It's not the lowest person who dies. It's the lowest seven who die."

"Get to the fucking point." Atlas wasn't the brightest individual, so the psychic would need to say something a little more concrete.

Letting out a sigh, Gennosuke shook his head in amusement. "Next to me, who else is most likely to receive votes?"

"... Me?" Atlas wasn't exactly a stranger to how others felt about him. "Fuck…" That's when it clicked in just what he meant. "It's going to be me and you at the bottom, isn't it?"

Which meant the two of them would die at the end of the motive.

"Well, me for sure." Gennosuke pulled out his lollipop. "But you still have a chance to save yourself, don't you? All it takes is dragging a few extra people under."

Right… if Atlas could make sure he was above the others, then he could easily survive this motive. "Why tell me all of this?" Which also meant that Gennosuke was planning something.

Shaking his head, the psychic didn't have much to say. "There's no point in me even trying this motive. After all, I'm already marked for death. The only thing I can do is hope for a body to pop up."

Knowing these people however… That shouldn't take too long.

"Fuck…" But this also meant that if it didn't happen, Atlas would also be screwed unless he tried something. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Well…" Gennosuke trailed off. "There's four voting rounds, aren't there? Then we should just focus on making sure we get as many people to drop as we can."

Man, Atlas didn't ever think he'd be scheming with Gennosuke of all people, but he brought up some good points.

He pretty much didn't have a choice in the matter. "Like who?"

Shrugging, Gennosuke didn't exactly have anyone in mind. "Anyone you want. After all, you would be sentencing them to death by the end of the motive, so maybe not someone you enjoy the company of."

Well that should be obvious.

However, given that Atlas wasn't given a name, his mind went over to the one person who's annoyed him the most since getting stuck on this station. "Got it…"

"You want to make sure they really get down in points, so you probably put two votes on them." Gennosuke suggested, pulling the lollipop out of his mouth.

"Yeah, no shit." That was the plan for Atlas anyways. Why waste time playing mental games, when he could just for results?

Perfect.

Everything would slowly get in motion.

Meaning there wasn't a single thing Gennosuke had to worry about. "You better not stay here too long, if anyone catches us talking, they might figure something out."

"Right, right." What the hell was Atlas even doing anymore? He still couldn't believe that he'd team up with him of all people. Turning around, he headed over to his room, using his voice to open the door like normal.

Watching him leave, Gennosuke couldn't help but have a smile slowly creep onto his face. Sure, he was offered safety for the motive, but if everything went alright, he wouldn't need it in the slightest.

After all, these people could easily all be manipulated.

Suddenly, a voice spoke up, alerting him that it was now the nighttime period.

.

"Hey assholes, it's night time now." As usual, it was Monokawa. "Nova should have explained the newest motive to you, so you should all be spending the next few hours thinking about who you want to see die. Or you can just be boring, and not vote for anyone. But then you'd just be dooming yourself, so do you really want that to happen? Let's see what happens tomorrow."

.

Well, for one, Gennosuke knew he was going to wake up with single digit points, so there was no use trying to fight that.

The first vote would be boring… What really interested him was the vote after it… That would be when the real fun begins… Letting out a small laugh, he slowly moved over towards his room, heading off for the night.

---

I didn't think I'd write part 2 this quickly after part 1, but here we are :D Not that I mind. I just thought my writing would slow down because of my Zero Escape SYOC.

Couple that with the fact that I normally slow down around the start of the year, and that leaves me very confused.

Also holy fuck I wrote like eight thousand words today, that was not part of the plan. I was supposed to spend today relaxing, but I really wanted to post this chapter now so the others couldn't catch up to me.

This wasn't that long of a chapter, but part 2 is always shorter than part 1, so it makes sense :D

However, we did get two new motives this time, and this main motive is one that I've been looking forward to for a long time. It's not the first time I've used it, though :o I've actually used that back in the first Danganronpa RP I ever hosted (maybe I'll host another one, who knows)

It's slightly changed up from then, but it still works pretty much the same way.
For those wondering about me, I'm still alive, yeah. Just needed a break from certain things because my mood was starting to feel down. I'll be back whenever I feel like it. For the time being, Omakin will be giving you guys updates on my story progress, including the next teaser, which should be going up soon!

Hopefully I'll be back in like a week or so, whenever I'm feeling better.

Until then, back to writing I go! I want part 3 out pretty quickly as well, after all.

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Participants Remaining: 14

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Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

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

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Hacker [CandleFire45]

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin]

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

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

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]

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