Chapter 3: Triple Shot, One Shot (Part 5)
Warning!
This is a Danganronpa Fic, so expect dark and serious themes! And also expect some choice words that might upset people - thanks to a certain Gas Station Manager! But expect fun and whimsical themes as well! I hope you enjoy!
[Pheme's Room]
"Ah... I've always loved this drink." Pheme sipped away on a glass of Cassie's Wine, which, along with Okukik Wine, was a preferred drink of choice for her.
"Indeed you have, Miss Pheme. You've always been a wine enjoyer, haven't you?" The Figure sipped away on his own nondescript, unimportant drink as he conversed with Pheme. "But while it's fine to indulge at times, should we not be getting back to our main objective?"
"Yes yes, I'm aware!" Pheme set down her glass of wine. "We need to find the eighth person for the Killing Game, yes? Let's see..." She looked around the room. "Are there... documents that we haven't gone through yet?"
"There should be..." The Figure looked around with her, but he had trouble finding stuff that they hadn't already looked through. "Hm. That's strange... are we in a rut until The Contact provides more then?" They could definitely afford to wait, but just because they could, that didn't mean he wanted to wait.
"Well... hold on! Here!" Pheme bent down to pick up a piece of paper that was face-down and under her desk. "This is... new. And... interesting." She read it over.
"Allow me to see." The Figure took the form from her. "This is... Darren Taylor, the Ultimate Bartender. Hm... yes, rather interesting, like you said..."
Pheme was already booting up a video The Contact provided for them. "Well then, let's see what he has to offer! Shall we?"
"Yes..." The Figure observed the screen of the computer with analytical curiosity. "Yes we shall..."
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[Playotter Bar]
"What are you having?"
"Give me... a beer. Non-alcoholic."
"Non-alcoholic beer? Sure. Coming right up."
An 15-year old Darren Taylor currently stood behind the bar counter of Playotter, the bar that his father, Eric Taylor, owned.
"Say... your name is Darren, right?" The young patron he was serving asked.
"That's right." Darren nodded, before getting a beer for the patron. They had beer on tap, by the way. Even the non-alcoholic kind. "Why do you ask?" He asked him as he handed him the beer.
"You don't have a nametag!" The patron joked. "But no, in all seriousness." He took a sip of his beer. "My dad used to come to Playotter a ton."
"That right? Who's your dad?" Darren kept the patron talking while he began to clean some glasses.
"His name was Nathaniel Nahtan. He was an architect in these parts. He helped your dad in building this place, actually." The patron dropped a little fun fact.
"Oh... I know who you're talking about now." Darren managed to recall. "When I was younger, I remember seeing my dad hanging out with a bigger, kinda gruffer guy. I think I remember his name being Nathaniel." He slowly nodded. "That was your dad?"
"Yep! That's definitely him." The patron laughed jovially. "I'm surprised you even knew who I was talking about, honestly. You've got a good memory!"
"I guess I do." Darren shrugged while popping a small smile. "Didn't know he was an architect, or that he helped build the place though." He looked around the nostalgic, packed bar. "Why bring your dad up?"
"Ah... right." The patron's face darkened a little. "My dad passed away a few years ago. A... drunk driver hit him while he was crossing the street." The longing in his tone was sadly palpable.
Darren stopped cleaning the glass at that unfortunate news. "I... see. I'm sorry for your loss." He took his drink to refill it for him.
"It's okay, don't worry." The patron shook his head. "I didn't mean to bring the mood down. But... it's the three year anniversary of his death today. I remember him singing praises about Playotter so often, and about how much he loved his good friend Eric, as well as his dutiful son." He had a sad smile on his face as he explained.
"Go on." Darren passed him his drink back. He wanted to hear where this guy was going with this.
"Right, thanks." The patron took another sip of his refilled non-alcoholic beer before continuing. "I've been wanting to go here... see what it's all about, you know? And I knew I could, because I know you guys allow people under twenty-one in here." He looked around the bar himself. It was mostly people in here who were clearly of age, but there were a few people who were definitely in their late teens.
"How old are you, by the way?" The reminded Darren that he never asked him that.
"Fifteen." He answered with a slight chuckle. "I know what I just said, but shouldn't you have already asked me that?" He didn't sound annoyed or angry, he sounded mainly amused by that.
"Huh... probably should've." Darren lightly chuckled as well as he resumed cleaning some glasses. "Anyway, you said you've always wanted to come here?" He gave him the prompt to continue his story.
"Ah, right." The guy took another sip of his drink. "I've always wanted to come in here... but it's... difficult, I guess. Like I'm walking head-first into the last remnants of my dad, in a way. It's hard to take that step. Know what I mean?" He wanted a little reassurance.
"Hm... I'm obviously not in your shoes, but I do get what you mean." Darren nodded in understanding. "But you worked up the courage for it today. Congratulations." His tone might've been flat, but you could tell that he was sincere.
"Thanks... I appreciate it." The patron smiled before taking another sip of his drink. "I always remembered the names he told me - Eric and Darren. I've wanted to meet the people that my dad enjoyed so much... and I'm glad I have." He held out his hand.
"...Glad to meet you too." Darren extended his own hand out, and shook the patron's hand. "I'm sure your dad is proud of you, wherever he is."
"Thank you... that really does mean a lot." His smile turned more... content. And relieved. "Oh, wait. I haven't even said my name yet, have I?" He just realized he forgot arguably one of the most important things to say.
"You... haven't, no." Darren shook his head. "I might've heard it from dad before, but I'm not sure. So, what is your name?"
"Ricardo. Ricardo Nahtan." Ricardo stated with a grin as shook Darren's hand one more time before pulling away. "Nice to properly meet you, Darren."
"Ricardo... I've definitely heard my dad mention to before." With his hand now back in his possession, he began to clean another glass. "And again, nice to meet you too."
"So your dad has mentioned me before? What has he said?" Ricardo was legitimately very curious about this. What his dad's best friend thinks of him.
"Well it's mainly unassorted memories." Darren prefaced. "But... a lot of stuff about how bright and gifted his friend's son is. And... now that I think about it..." He slightly narrowed his eyes. "He... wished that he was doing okay... especially after his father's passing." The memory of Eric saying that just then popped into his head.
"Really...?" This was turning out much more... heart warming than Ricardo would've thought. "I'm flattered that he's... thought about me." Even now... it was like he could feel his dad with him... watching over me.
"If you... don't mind me asking..." Something came to Darren's mind as Ricardo spoke. "Your mom still in your life?" He asked something that could potentially end very badly.
"Yeah! She is!" But it didn't end badly! In fact, Ricardo's smile lit up at the thought of his mother. "Her name is Kinoma Nahtan. She's a little quiet... and bars had never been her type of scene... but she encouraged me to come here and... hopefully get some closure." He was glad to still have her in his life.
"Kinoma... that's a nice name." Darren liked the name. It was... something alright. "But she sounds nice. And I understand that this type of thing isn't for anyone." He motioned over the entire bar. He enjoyed his hobby, but he definitely understood how it wasn't for everyone.
"Yeah... and... mind if I return the question?" Ricardo asked with a little hesitation. "What about your mom? She around? You really only hear about your dad around these parts, so..." As he continued to speak, he realized that he likely already answered his own question.
As soon as Ricardo stopped talking, Darren started to slowly shake his head. "Mom wasn't around. She apparently left when I was young. I don't even know her name." He sounded rather detached considering that he was talking about his own mother, but on the other hand, he never properly met her. So it makes sense.
"Oh... sorry." Ricardo felt like he was going to regret asking. "But... that means your dad raised you on your own, while managing one of the most famous bars in Seattle? He sounds like an impressive guy." He's definitely met Eric Taylor before, but it was back when he was so young, so he barely remembers anything. "I'd love to meet him again. He around?" He looked around. He saw plenty of bartenders, but no Eric Taylor.
"He's off today." Darren immediately answered. "He rarely gets a day off for himself, but today managed to work. The guy in charge instead of him is in the back right now." He pointed over to a small hallway, which led to the office portion of the bar.
"Is that right? Damn, that's a little unlucky." Ricardo quietly chuckled. "Would've loved to see him. But that's okay. I'll have to come back more often. I... definitely see what my dad saw in this place." He enjoyed the atmosphere a lot.
"Oh yeah?" Darren always liked hearing about a potential returning customer. "He should be back tomorrow, so I'll be sure to save you a seat."
"That... sounds good!" Normally, the idea of a 15-year old returning regularly to a bar would be a little weird, but... who cares, right? But that did actually make Ricardo think of something. "Hey... Darren? Random question." He passed his empty glass over to him.
"Shoot." Ricardo's body language implied that he was done drinking, so Darren started to clean the glass instead of refilling it.
"You're fifteen years old... and you work at a bar?" Ricardo asked a question that had been on both his and likely the readers minds.
Darren started to properly laugh at that comment, an rare smile of genuine amusement on his face. Well, rare compared to the present day Darren. "Yep. You've got that right." He nodded. "People like me, and how I pour drinks. People say I have a 'natural affinity' or something for this."
"I can see it!" Ricardo hadn't even known Darren for a full hour, but he could already see how skilled he was at his craft.
"Thanks, I guess." Darren went back to cleaning Ricardo's glass. "But... in the end, this stuff is just a hobby for me. My real passions... are elsewhere..."
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"Darren! We're closed up now, feel free to hesd upstairs."
"Sure."
A now 18-year Darren Taylor had just finished up cleaning the bar counter after a long, but good night of service. It got a little exhausting near the end, but Darren still did his job wonderfully.
"You did a good job today, Darren. Like always." And his father, Eric Taylor, liked to be sure that his son always knew that he did a good job, even as he grew older.
"Thanks, dad." Darren cracked a small smile and nodded before stepping out from behind the bar counter. "You going to bed too?" He always had an unconscious habit of checking in on people after they've drank a fair bit.
"Well..." Eric fished something out of his pocket. "In a second. First, this came in the mail today. Would've brought it up earlier, but I didn't want to interrupt service. So... here." He tried to hide the proud smile on his face as he handed the letter to his son.
"A letter? What is-" Darren stopped talking when he saw what the letter was. He went from utter astonishment to utter joy in a split second. "It's... Hope's Peak Acadmey? Seriously?" He tore it open with a gentle ferocity.
Eric didn't say anything. He didn't want to potentially ruin the moment. He just wanted his son to... enjoy this.
Darren's mind raced with possibilities and hope as hurriedly opened up the letter. This was all so sudden... but... was his hard work finally going to pay off? Was he finally going to get what he desired?
Darren's mind turned into a proper speedway as he fished out the letter itself, a look of excitement on his face as he started to read it aloud. "Dear, Mr. Darren Taylor. We of Hope's Peak Seattle have acknowledged your extraordinary abilities, and would like to offer you the opportunity the study under our curriculum as the Ultimate-"
Darren abruptly stopped reading it.
Eric assumed that his son just switched to reading it in his head. But based on his son's face... he felt like that wasn't the case. "Darren? What's wrong?" He honestly wasn't sure what could be wrong.
Wordlessly, Darren set the letter down on the bar counter, and walked away. He didn't look back.
"Darren! Hey! What's up?" Eric grew more concerned by his son's behavior as he watched him retreat upstairs. "What could've caused him to..." In a concerned confusion, he reached for the letter that Darren left behind.
Instantly... he knew why Darren reacted like he did. "Oh. I... see." Eric heaved a heavy sigh as he picked up the letter, then looked to the stairwell that led to where they lived. "Darren..." A sad, understanding look washed over Eric's face...
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[Pheme's Room]
The video cut off.
"Oh! The video cut off!" Pheme copied the above narration as she slightly widened her eyes. "And... abruptly as well!"
"Yes... indeed..." The Figure looked over Darren's form with enhanced interest aftet witnessing how the video ended. "What an interesting person, this Mr. Taylor."
"Mm... I think I agree." Pheme needed a few seconds to properly digest what she just witnessed. "You know... wouldn't Mr. Taylor be absolutely perfect for this?" She mused. "His unrestrained apathy... the way he spits on his fame then silently curses others... well..."
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"He simply doesn't deserve to be alive!" Pheme said the thing.
"Yes... I agree." The Figure agreed almost instantly. "Darren Taylor shall be the eighth person to join the Killing Game. I see no reason to deliberate. He would fit wonderfully." He shook his head while filing Darren's form away with the other acceptances.
"Wow! That was quick!" Pheme stood up from her chair. "But I'm fine with that!" She giggled creepily. "I'm so curious to see if he'll open up to his future fellow stars... or if he'll wither into obscurity itself..."
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[Ultimate Backing Vocalist's Studio]
"No! Stop it! Please!" Cathy kept on begging... until... she yelled out one last time...
"DARREN!"
*BANG*
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"What the-?"
"Did he just...?
"Holy shit!"
"Darren?"
Voices echoed through Cathy's mind as the reality of the situation hadn't caught up to her yet. Her small hands still held onto Darren's forearms, the pure distress of seeing someone she liked threatening to commit suicide still fresh in her mind. "Darren!" She unabashedly shouted his name again as she held onto his arms with a sharp intensity.
"Cathy..." Rival muttered from behind her.
"Darren! Darren!" Cathy kept yelling out to her crush.
"My dear Catherine..." Damien whispered from behind her.
"No! Darren!" Cathy kept crying out, tears finally falling from her eyes.
"Cathy!" Ji-hoon hissed at her, placing his hand on the cat burglar's shoulder. "Look up!" He understood that the cat burglar was currently upset, but he also wanted her to acknowledge what just happened.
"H-Huh...?" Cathy, with stinging, human-like tears in her eyes, did as Ji-hoon said, and slowly looked up. She wasn't paying attention to the bullets as Darren shot them, so she fully expected to see a chilling hole right through Darren's forehead. So, when she did look up... she saw...
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Nothing. Where she expected to see a despair-inducing, bloody bullet wound... she saw... nothing. Not even a small mark. Darren's forehead was completely clean. "Oh my god! Darren!" She instinctively dug in closer to his still clearly alive form, going for an unusual hug. But as she felt Darren's oddly comforting warmth, her eyes drifted to... the gun. Firstly, she's felt like she's seen it before. But that's not the issue. The issue... is that... it wasn't against his forehead. Darren wasn't holding in there. He was holding it...
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Over his shoulder. Behind him. "W-What...?" Cathy vigorously blinked away a few tears, trying to focus her vision. "D-Darren...?" His name flowed out naturally now as she peeked behind him, following where the gun must've been shot. And when she did... she saw the last thing she wouldn't ever expected...
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"You... you... you... YOU... YOU... YOU... MR. TAYLOR!"
When Cathy peeked behind Darren, she saw the absolutely enraged face of Pheme, their collective tormentor.
"Goddess...?" Cathy muttered, not fully realizing what was happening, or what had happened. The pure and utter fury emanating from Pheme was unlike anything she'd ever witnessed in her entire life. Sure, she'd see people angry after she steals things from them. But nothing like this...
"MR. TAYLOR! HOW DARE YOU?!" Pheme stormed up to Darren like a goddess out of hell, gripped his shoulder with red-hot intensity, and twirled him around to face her. Cathy got knocked away as a result, landing back on her seat for the Special Event.
Nobody else said a word at this tension-filled encounter, being only able to wait and see what happens. No one knew what to do. Well, besides for...
Darren's very alive face showed no emotions as he was viciously turned around to face Pheme. "Pheme? What's up?" He asked casually, showing no fear at the sight of the furious goddess.
"WHAT'S WRONG?! YOU... YOU..." Pheme violently shoved her right shoulder directly into Darren's field of vision. "YOU SHOT ME!"
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"Wha-?" Cathy's mind was all sorts of scrambled at the moment, so it took her a second to process those words. "Darren did... what?" From her seated position, she was just barely able to see it. There was a bullet wound in Pheme's right shoulder. Viscous red blood steadily dripped from the wound.
"Huh... did I?" Darren finally spoke again, his face lacking sort of reservations or fear as he narrowed his eyes at Pheme's bullet wound. "Yeah... I did, didn't I?" He acknowledged his transgression with almost chilling casualty.
"Uh... dude?" Alpha was absolutely baffled by what she just witnessed. She had no idea no ides how to react to this.
"...Darren...?" Rival didn't have any idea either, the casualness of the bartender even freaking him out a little. He knew how Darren was of course. But he wouldn't expected him to show some emotion now!
"YOU DARE TO ACT CASUAL, MR. TAYLOR?! YOU... YOU..." Pain flashed across Pheme's face as she pulled out her dagger with her right hand, and stuck it right up to Darren's neck. "YOU BROKE A RULE!" She shouted, her visceral anger only seeming to grow and grow.
"Darren did... what...?" Cathy's grinch-like heart dropped at those words, a cold sweat starting to permeate from her. She sat frozen in her seat, not daring to move.
"He did... didn't he?" Ji-hoon was a mixture of both confusion and utter shock, still having difficulty processing what was happening. He just watched Darren break a rule... and it's like the bartender doesn't even care.
"A rule...? I broke one...?" Darren, despite his casual manner, started to sweat at the sensation of cold steel directly against his neck. "Using... what? This?" He held up the golden gun that he still held in his hand.
"YES! WITH THAT!" Pheme viciously tore the gun from Darren's grasp with her free hand, then tossed it away. "YOU VIOLATED RULE #2!" She clutched her bleeding shoulder with her left hand as she continued to scream like a banshee.
"Rule... #2...?" Cathy muttered like a meek little mouse, as she recalled what that specific rule was.
2. Violence and acts of aggression against Pheme are strictly prohibited. Ones who attempt violence or acts of aggression against Pheme will receive punishment.
"Goodness... he did..." Damien was borderline speechless at this development. This was far from what he expected of Darren.
"Oh... fuck..." Rival widened his eyes as he took a step back, a thorough, actual chill running down his spine. Was he... was he about to watch Darren die?
"Huh... I did... didn't I?" Darren slowly nodded in understanding, his eye starting to slightly twitch. "That's... unlucky for me..." He felt like he could feel the steel of Pheme's dagger pulsing against his neck.
"Unlucky? That's all you have to say? Seriously, man?!" Alpha grew even more baffled at Darren's insanely detached attitude to this.
"Wha- but..." Cathy's eyes widened in human-like terror. "But... wait!" She jumped up out of her seat and grabbed onto Darren's shirt. "Hold on! Darren! Why... why did you even..." More burning tears began to fall. "Why didn't you..." She couldn't see to fully articulate her question.
"Cathy..." But Darren knew exactly what she was trying to ask. He looked over his shoulder and behind him, greeting the face of the crying cat burglar. "I..." It seemed that he didn't how to articulate an answer to het plea.
"Look at me, Mr. Taylor!" Pheme's voice seemed to drop an octave as she lowered her volume. She grabbed Darren's chin with her free hand, and twirled his head back around to her with frightening strength. "I wasn't able to enact punishment on Genjiro... and Ms. Jane skirted around the rules. The last case was rather unsatisfactory for me! But now..." She slowly trailed the tip of her blade along Darren's neck, her still furious eyes twinkling at the sight of blood slowly trickling from the wound she was inflicting.
"No! Please! Stop it!" Cathy cried out in despair as she reached her unfortunately pretty weak hands up to Pheme's wrists. She had agility, but her strength was lacking. Her efforts did nothing to stop the goddess. Pheme didn't even acknowledge her.
"Shit... Cathy! Stop!" Ji-hoon wrapped his arm around the cat burglar's waist and pulled her away. "Don't provoke her! You'll lose your life too!" If he could do something to stop a death, he'd do it. Even for someone like Cathy.
"Yes, my dear Catherine! It's not worth it!" Damien added his grip as well, not wanting to see his dear lose her life as a result of provoking Pheme.
"Damn it! Let go of me!" Cathy clawed at Ji-hoon's and Damien's arm. "I can't... I can't lose anyone again! I can't!" Her sobs flowed in full force as she couldn't stop herself from being pulled away.
The others, Rival, Alpha, and Kei just stood and watched. After all... what could they do? Nothing. None of them wanted to lose their lives at the moment. They could only... watch.
"Any last words... Mr. Taylor?" Pheme's voice took on its most frightening tone yet as she gripped the bartender's shoulder with one hand, and kept tracing a line along his steadily bleeding neck with the other. The shooting pain from her bullet would only fueled her sadistic malice, only growing more eager to inflict punishment on a rule breaker.
"I..." Genuine fear clouded Darren's face as he struggled for words. Honestly, he should say something. He knows something he could say. But it just... wouldn't come out. Expressing anything... anything at all... it was so damn difficult... even at a time... like this...
Darren didn't dare look away from Pheme, but he did dart his eyes over to look at Cathy. Her sobbing, emotion-filled face. He... felt horrible right now. He could've done this so much better... but he didn't. He felt the same as her... but he never said it... well. It's too late now. He only wish... that she'd live on...
Cathy's human emotions only grew more erratic as Ji-hoon held her back. Her movements grew animalistic as she so desperately tried to break free to save Darren. "No! No! Let me go! Celebrity detective human! Beautician human! Please! Let me go!" Her pleas felt simultaneously like a cat hissing and a human begging. She couldn't handle this. She felt like her brain was overloading. She... didn't want to lose Darren. She couldn't handle losing anyone ever again. "Darren! Darren!" No matter how many times she yelled his name out, nothing changed. Nothing at all.
After tracing a bleeding line along Darren's neck, Pheme moved her dagger down, and hovered it right above where Darren's heart would be. "Now... Mr. Darren Taylor..." Her dagger inched closed and closer its target. "Let the punishment..."
"STOP IT! DON'T DO IT!" Cathy's desperate voice grew louder.
"Let the punishment..." Pheme repeated as dagger inched even closer... and closer... until... "Commence!" She plunged her dagger forward at full speed.
"NOOOOOO! DAAARRREEEEENNNNN!" Cathy called out... one last time...
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"Not so fast!"
An all-encompassing, blustering, smooth, and cool wind suddenly shot through the entirety of Rival's Studio. The tempest blew about everywhere, shaking and rattling everything that could be shaken and rattled.
"The hell...?! Alpha shielded herself with her arms in attempt to lessen the impact of the wind.
"What in the...?!" Damien's grip on Cathy's loosened slightly as he fought to make sure the sudden wind didn't mess up his look.
"...H-Huh...?" Cathy's tear-stained face blinked as she acted like the wind didn't exist. Her eyes darted around lethargically. She didn't process what just happened.
"Who dares...?!" Pheme's dagger stopped a mere millimeter away from Darren heart, as she looked around frantically. "Who dares interrupt?!"
"Me. I did."
"What?!" Pheme's wide, frantic eyes looked around more, until finally landing on the culprit. She growled at the sight. "You?! How dare you interrupt the punishment! You..."
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"Mr. Kei Aikawa?!" Pheme stared daggers at her favorite star.
"...Kei?" Rival stared in shock at the lawyer, as well as interjection.
"Kei... you..." Ji-hoon's mouth was slightly agape, completely lost at what Kei's game was.
"..." Darren's breath was shallow and shaky as he acknowledged the lawyer's interjection with a look. He didn't say a word.
"Sorry, Pheme!" Kei casually strolled over to the enraged goddess. "I know you probably want some blood so badly! But... I'm afraid that you can't! Shedding some blood here is a bad idea!" He casually shrugged, his aura growing even more smug as he got closer to the goddess.
"Lawyer... h-human...?" Cathy's voice cracked as she witnessed Kei continue his smug approach, her words injecting a drop of hope into her veins.
"What?!" Pheme kept a firm grip on Darren's shirt, but pointed her dagger to Kei instead. "What gives you the right to say that, Mr. Aikawa?!"
"It's n-not about rights, it's about rules!" Kei's voice shook a little at the sight of her dagger being point at him, but he managed to keep smug. "A little tidbit, Pheme? I wouldn't kill Darren if I were you."
"...Hm?" That was the only sound that Darren could make right now. He didn't dare say another word.
Pheme's grip on Darren tightened as Kei's smug look started to tick her off. "And why the hell is that?! I don't appreciate my time being wasted, Mr. Aikawa!" The arm holding her dagger started to shake. Not out of nervousness, but out of overflowing rage.
"I'd be happy to tell you, Pheme!" Kei focused on stay calm and smug as he took another step forward. "You see, punishing Darren right now would be pretty bad! Why? Well, if you do..."
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"You'd be breaking a rule!" Kei's smug smile turned chilling as he gave Pheme an almost predatory look.
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"I'd be... what?" Pheme's words finally stopped being bolded and italicized as she slowly blinked.
"Wait... what?" That wasn't what Rival expected Kei to say. Frankly, he wasn't sure in general what he was going to say.
"A... rule...?" Another drop of hope got injected into Cathy as she stopped struggling in Ji-hoon's and Damien's grips.
"I get it now..." Ji-hoon caught onto Kei's game. It was a very risky game, but he decided to let Kei cook here.
"Heh..." Darren managed to chuckle at what Kei said, almost as if he knew that the lawyer was right.
"What rule?! What rule would I break?! Speak!" Pheme still kept pointing her dagger right at Kei, demanding he elaborate.
"The rule-setter doesn't know her own rules? That's funny." Kei quietly chuckled to himself. "But as you ask, I'll be happy to tell you!" He brushed off his shoulders, then cleared his voice. "Pheme, if you were to kill Darren, you'd be breaking rule number..."
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"Thirteen!" Kei twirled his Star-Phone around in his hand.
"Rule number... thirteen...?" Pheme wanted to reach for her Star-Phone, but both of her hands were currently occupied.
"Ah, yes..." Damien loosened his grip on Cathy entirely, and took out his Star-Phone. You're a smart man, Kei. She would, in a sense, be breaking Rule #13..."
13. In the case of special events, such as the Pilot Episode Climax, you must follow Pheme's instructions. Failure to follow her instructions will result in punishment from Pheme.
Agitated confusion started to enter Pheme's look as her rage only slightly started to disperse. "Wha... wha... what?! Explain yourself, Mr. Aikawa!" The ferocity in her grip on her dagger slowly started to dissipate.
"Heh heh heh..." Kei chuckled to himself once again. "Isn't it obvious, Pheme?" He boldy taunted the goddess. "Darren followed your instructions! And he's getting punished for that?"
"He's right." Ji-hoon completely let Cathy go, choosing to back Kei up. "You'd be killing Darren for following instructions. And knowing mascots and overseers of Killing Games, I'm sure you don't want that to happen, right?" He was wary but curious on how Pheme would react to this.
"No...? No! No! That's not right! He didn't follow instructions at all!" Pheme pointed her dagger back towards Darren. "I acknowledge your point about the rule, but don't you remember what I said?!"
"Mr. Taylor! I ask you to load those bullets into your gun!" Pheme continued, ignoring any comments from the peanut gallery. "And when you do... you must use the gun to shoot your fellow stars, one after the other! Get through this without your fellow stars being shot, and you'll win a prize!" She gave Ji-hoon a quick look, knowing exactly what he was hoping for from this.
"I clarified that he must shoot at his fellow stars! So, not me!" Pheme intensified her grip on the dagger. "Your point is moot, Mr. Aikawa!"
"Um... Pheme?" Kei kept chuckling, not bothered by her words. "That's a... funny thing to say. Wow." He slowly nodded, a smug grin plastered across his face.
"What? What?! Stop grinning!" Pheme shifted her dagger back and forth between Darren and Kei. "Why is that funny?! Why?!" She started to really feel the power of Kei's aura.
"I can tell you why." Ji-hoon was all aboard this train now. "Pheme... you're lying." He boldy accused the goddess, an aura overtaking him as well.
"The goddess is... lying?" Cathy felt more and more hope entering her mind.
Kei gave Ji-hoon a relieved smile, seeing that he caught on quickly to what he was going for.
"Lying, you say?" Damien understood what they were going for with the rule, but accusing her of lying in general was further than he expected them to go.
"Yes, how I am lying?! How?!" Being accused of lying wasn't something that Pheme appreciated.
"How?" Kei kept chuckling. "Pheme... that's not what you said!" He wagged his finger.
"Not what I said?!" Pheme repeated in still furious mockery. "What did I say, then?!"
"Pheme." Ji-hoon pulled out his note pad. "I like to make a habit of writing things you say down." He tapped the note pad with a pen be had on him. "Pheme, what you actually said was..."
"Mr. Taylor! I ask you to load those bullets into your gun!" Pheme continued, ignoring any comments from the peanut gallery. "And when you do... you must shoot your gun, dispensing with the bullets! Both the fake and real ones! Get through this without your fellow stars being shot, and you'll win a prize!" She gave Ji-hoon a quick look, knowing exactly what he was hoping for from this.
"Oh shit...!" Alpha adopted a cocky smirk of her own. "That bitch did say that, didn't she?" She picked up what the brain cell hoarders were putting down.
"What... uh..." Pheme's voice lost some of its edge. "What's the difference?!"
"It's in... how you worded it, Pheme." Even Rival joined in. "In your 'story'..." He used air quotes to imply that he also believed she was lying. "Your rule was that Darren had to 'use the gun to shoot your fellow stars, one after the other,' according to you." He repeated what Pheme said.
"But that's a lie." Kei's aura turned even more chilling. The smug look on his face made it clear that he knew he was winning. "In reality Pheme, the rule you told Darren was 'you must shoot your gun, dispensing with the bullets! Both the fake and real ones,' you see?" He pointed out the contradiction.
"But... but I..." Pheme's rage started to drain faster, being replaced with something akin to embarrassment. "That's... really what I said?" She spoke slowly.
"The difference is obvious, Pheme." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "Using... some subtle manipulation, you talked about that viral Your Turn to Live mini game that involved the gun. And that burrowed into everyone's heads, including our own. That's what we processed as the rules, and that's what you counted on. So you generalized the actual rules, presumably so you could taunt us with them after Darren accidentally shoots someone." He acted like he was in a Climax Return.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me!" Kei somehow managed to point smugly at Pheme's bullet wound. "Pheme, you lied twice! You said that the twelve bullets were evenly split in terms of fake and real!"
"Now... Mr. Taylor!" Pheme turned her attention back to the bartender. "Take a look at these!" She opened her hand, and revealed twelve bullets. "That golden gun you hold can fit twelve bullets! So, here you are!" She handed the bullets to him.
"Thanks." Darren gave a quick and plain nod as he took the bullets. He held one of them up to examine them.
"Now, as for what the purpose of these bullets are!" Pheme clapped her hands. "First... you should know something! Six of these bullets are fake! And the other six are real!"
"But as we can see..." Kei emphasized his pointing.
"You lied, Pheme." Ji-hoon took over. "It was seven real bullets, and five fake bullets." That particular lie was blatantly obvious now.
Now at this accusation, Pheme started to sweat as she took a small step away from Darren. She looked at her still bleeding, still painful wound. She... couldn't deny that one.
"Ha ha... you're fucked now, bitch!" Alpha flipped her off. "Can't worm your way out of that one!"
"Yes... you can't, can you?" Damien had a smug grin of his own, curious to see how this would play out.
"Yeah... you tried to trick us, and look where it got you!" Kei enjoyed pointing at Pheme's bullet wound. "I know you're an overseer and all, you gotta trick us, yadda yadda. But that stuff failed, Pheme. And if you don't want to fail again..." He looked at her with another predatory grin. "You better make sure you don't kill Darren for no reason!"
Pheme looked like prey right now, finally feeling the brunt of her plan come crashing down on her. Everyone, besides for Darren and Cathy understandably, we're looking at her with a mixture of anger and victory. "Damn it... this was supposed to be entertaining!" She fully backed away from Darren as she lept closer to the stage. The bartender collapsed into one of the seats.
"It wasn't." Rival gave a rare line without an ellipsis as he gave Pheme a look of contempt. He's experienced getting fucked with by Pheme before. And seeing another plan crumble and backfire before it could properly fuck him or anyone else up... frankly, he was overjoyed.
"Grr... you stars think you're so superior, aren't you?!" Pheme growled as she gripped her dagger like she was ready to strike. "I told Asclepius this was a bad idea... but I went with it anyway!" She gripped her shoulder in pain.
"Oh really...?" That very much piqued Kei's interest, but he didn't dare provoke her anymore. He didn't want a repeat of what happened in the last Special Event-
"You all... you all..." Pheme started to glow with rage once again at her plan she didn't want to do failing, while also jinxing what Kei was thinking. Her rage started to overwhelm her as she clutched her head in pain. For two Special Events in a row... she's been... made a fool of! This is... this is... "This can't be... I... I... I..." Her breathing started to quicken.
"Shit... get back!" Ji-hoon recognized this from last time as he warned everyone to step away.
"I... I... I... I-I-I-I-I... I..." Pheme suddenly stopped movement. Until...
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"GRRAAHHHHHHHGH!" She let out an almost demonic howl as she dashed forward like she was possessed. With an unnatural force, she slashed through all of the dummies like they were paper, then darted up to the stunned Kei, where she slashed his right arm with her dagger. After that, she shot like a bullet towards the stairs and disappeared. No one dared followed her.
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Everyone stayed silent at what they just witnessed. Besides for Kei, who let out a half chuckle/half groan of pain as he clutched at the slash wound on his upper right arm. "Shit... heh... pushed her too far I guess..." It wasn't life threatening in the slightest, but the wound hurt for other reasons as he stumbled a bit. He leaned on one of the seats for support.
So many answers were needed right now... especially from Darren... but right now... they needed to get them help. Neither Darren or Kei were in immediate danger... but they needed their wounds to be treated.
"I'll go to my dear Rosalind's Studio! It has medicine!" Damien volunteered as he briskly ran off, remembering his time investigating the place.
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"Forgive me for the wait! My dear Rosalind's studio was on the Horror floor, so I had to wait for it to change!" Despite his words, it didn't take Damien long to return. He wasn't a massive medical expert, so he grabbed basically whatever he could. But Ji-hoon had some decent knowledge, and Alpha of all people had some knowledge too, so those two attended to Kei and Darren respectively. It was luckily pretty quick, as the wounds they got from Pheme weren't too deep.
After that was over...
"Okay..." Ji-hoon was the first to talk. "Kei? Darren? You both are fine, right?" He wanted to make sure.
"Hm..." Kei moved his right arm around. "Yeah, I'll be good. It hurts a little, but... I'll survive. Just let it heal and stuff." He managed to shrug so casually despite it all.
"And Darren?" Ji-hoon looked to the bartender.
"I'm..." Darren held his hand up to the bandage on his neck that Alpha aggressively applied. "...fine." He curtly nodded.
"That's good then. That was a... rather violent display from Pheme." Damien was relieved that it was over. "I swear that woman gets more unpredictable with each passing day."
"Yeah..." Rival sighed. "And we didn't even get one of those... audio log things. With the scientists?" He looked around, still half-expecting a monitor or something to descend out of nowhere to show off another one of those mysterious logs. But nope. Nothing.
"Sore ass loser." Alpha spat. She didn't give a shit about those logs, but she was just generally annoyed at Pheme for not even showing it. "We didn't break any rules with that shit. Not like there's a rule saying we can't gaslight or lie." She aggressively shrugged.
"Yeah, I'm annoyed at that too." Ji-hoon really was annoyed. In his eyes, those audio logs were crazy important... and missing out on one just because Pheme got mad annoyed him. But he's smart enough to not argue with the dagger-wielding psycho. "That can wait though. Right now..." He stare intensified on Darren. It wasn't gentle... but it wasn't aggressive. It was something in between.
"Yep... we need to hear some answers, Darren." Kei stuck his hands in his pocket. "Gotta know why-"
"Why..." Kei got cut off by Cathy abruptly standing up. Tears still stained her feline face as she sniffled between her words. "Why... why..." She slowly walked up to the stationary Darren. No one stopped her. They knew that she needed to handle this herself.
"Cathy... I..." Darren knew he had a lot to answer for in terms of what he did.
"Why... you... you..." Cathy grabbed onto Darren's shirt with hold hands, then looked up. Fresh tears fell from why eyes as distressed rage raced across her face. "You... you... you..."
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"You stupid human!"
*SLAP*
Cathy reached up and slapped Darren across his face, the sound resounding throughout the entirety of the studio. "Why?! Why didn't you shoot me?! Why?! Why did you almost kill yourself?! Why?! WHY?! TELL ME WHY!" She demanded between sobs as she shook him back and forth.
"Cathy..." Rival couldn't help but feel bad for the cat burglar.
"My dear Catherine..." And Damien as well.
"..." For as much as Ji-hoon didn't particularly care much for Cathy, and for as much as he wanted to hear what Darren had to say... he almost felt... bad... questioning him here. He looked to the other four around him, and cocked his head to the stairs. A signal to tell them they should leave them alone. He could answers tomorrow.
And everyone, even Alpha, understood the signal. They all slowly backed away, until they reached the stairs, where they started to slowly descend. Their presence probably would've made Cathy feel even more... you know.
"Darren! Please!" Cathy continued to shake him between sobs and sniffles. "Why?! Why didn't you..." She hung her head down as she sobbed even more, the tears both giving her pain and relief.
"Cathy..." Darren set his hand on the smaller girl's shoulder. "I... I'm sorry. It's just..." He closed his eyes. "Shooting the dummies... and everyone else... was easy. I've handled guns, so I knew I could do it. And when I loaded the bullets... I alternated them between fake and real. With that, it'd be easy to know the status of the next bullet." He started to explain himself.
"But why?! You... when you got to me..." Cathy gripped his shirt tighter.
"Yeah... don't worry. I'm... I'm gonna..." Just then, a particularly strange thing started to happen. Darren's arm... the one holding the... it started to shake. "Just gotta... do it..." His hand and arm started to shake more and more the longer the gun kept being lined up with Cathy's head.
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"I'm not... I'm not..." Darren felt his breath started to pick up. Shit... what is this? He was able to go through with everything else just fine... but now... staring at Cathy's smug, non-serious, and cute face... he felt... doubt creeping into him. "Shit... I... I don't..." His arm shook almost violently as he fully realized what this. Confident or not that she'd be safe... Darren... he didn't want to kill her. He... couldn't even bring himself to do this.
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"I... damn it... I..." Darren didn't expect to... feel this way. At all. He came into the Killing Game... with no expectations. He was just going to... go with it all. But now... here he was. Shaking like a leaf. "Cathy... I can't... I can't..." For the first time, actual emotion was apparent on Darren's face. He... was scared.
"Yeah... It..." Darren took a deep breath before acknowledging his feeings. "The game felt... way too easy. In the TV show, it was a revolver they used, and they spun it before the shooter would shoot, so they didn't know... the starting bullet. But Pheme didn't do that. So... I felt like... something was up. As I shot at everyone... and the dummies... that feeling grew. Then I reached... you." His voice took a surprisingly tender tone as he started to direct refer to Cathy.
"...Me?" Cathy looked back up at him, her distress and rage having been replaced with something a little... gentler.
"There was that doubt in my mind..." Darren continued. "Like Pheme rigged something. Like... she lied about what bullets were fake and real. And that thought... never left my head. So when I reached you... I couldn't do it. If that bullet was real... I couldn't do it. In general... I... didn't want to shoot you. Even if I was confident that the last bullet was fake... I couldn't do it." He touched his hand against the bandage around his neck once again.
"But... but why?! Why not?!" Cathy was like a never-ending fountain as even more tears began to flow out. "Why didn't you just... do it?!" She demanded to know.
"...I just... didn't like the idea. I didn't want to shoot you... and I... didn't want to lose you..." Darren gave a slightly ironic answer, considering he already knew of Cathy's feelings for him.
"You...!" Cathy sobbed even more into his shirt. It felt like that answer he gave made Cathy's heart burn... in a good way... and in a bad way... "But even so! Why did you try to kill yourself?! Why?!" That's what she needed to know the most.
"Right. I need to... specifically apologize for that, Cathy." Darren set both of his hands on her delicate, yet firm shoulders. "I saw how upset that made you... and I really am sorry. But... that was never my intention. I'm not in the market for losing my life at the moment." He added with a dry chuckle.
"...What...?" Cathy slightly loosened her grip on Darren's shirt, that response making her feel... relieved.
"I was so afraid of shooting you... so in those few seconds... I tried to think of a plan." Darren slowly explained. "If I was right about the bullets... that would mean that Pheme lied. And... I realized that I could use that. I'd act like I'm shooting myself... so she'd let her guard down. Then... at the last moment... I'd just reach behind my shoulder and shoot at something random. If Pheme questioned me, well, I planned to do exactly what Kei did. Lie my way out of it. And knowing Pheme and how she works... it felt like a decently safe bet. I was banking on being correct... so that I didn't have to kill you. That was my plan."
"Wow..." Cathy was in awe. "That's..." She was astounded. "That second secret of yours definitely wasn't lying..." She added with a slight smile, her tears finally starting to dry.
And upon seeing Cathy smile, Darren cracked a small smile of his own. "I will say that Pheme's shoulder being right in the path of the bullet wasn't part of the plan. Probably could've avoided that... if I didn't pretend to shoot myself first. Thought she might stop me if I pointed at nothing from the get-go. But... it's over now." His smile grew a little larger. "I've gotta thank Kei and Ji-hoon for catching on so quick... guess I should've expected nothing less."
"Yeah... the lawyer human and the celebrity detective human are pretty intelligent for humans..." Cathy sighed. "But... hold on. Darren? When Pheme was about to... punish you..." She hated imagining that again. "You didn't... object. You just let it happen? Why...?" That was the last thing she needed to know.
"..." Darren didn't say anything. He took out his Star-Phone to act as his answer.
"...!" And Cathy understood the answer. "Darren..." She felt a scar on his heart faintly pulse. She... didn't know what else to say.
"It's alright, Cathy." Darren tried to reassure her with a weak smile. "Hey, if you don't mind a topic change..." He was still a pretty sturdy guy, but he wasn't exactly eager to keep thinking about this Special Event. "You've... uh... you've called me Darren. Multiple times. No more... 'bartender human'?" He didn't exactly care either way. But... he didn't hate the sound of his name in Cathy's cute voice.
As soon as those words flowed out of Darren's mouth, Cathy's face lit up like a red-alert siren. She suddenly became very aware of how close they were... of how she acted over everything that just happened... as well as how much she had spoken Darren's name. Her first instinct was to instantly berate Darren and dash away. But... she didn't. She took a step back from him... but she didn't retreat completely.
"Cathy?" Darren watched her as she moved back. He wanted to see how she was going to react.
"Darren..." His name flowed naturally as Cathy moved over to the bridge connecting Rival's Studio to the rest of the third floor. She looked over the edge.
Darren quietly followed behind her. He looked over the edge as well. "Long drop." He commented.
"Yeah... it is." Cathy quietly chuckled. "I could probably land it." She quietly bragged.
"Oh yeah?" Darren smiled again. "You think I could?"
"If you fell? Pft!" Cathy scoffed, both playfully and gently at the same time. "No way. Humans like you need something to... cushion the blow. To lessen the impact. A trained cat burglar like me can make it no problem!" She stood proudly.
"Ah... makes sense." Darren nodded a few times.
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The two fell into a... not too awkward silence.
The genuine smile on Cathy's face started to fad a little. Not out of sadness, but out of... contemplation. "Bartend- no. Darren." She corrected herself with a resolute look. "I need to go. It's..." She pulled out her Star-Phone to check the time.
"Attention my glamorous stars! It is now 11pm, and that means it's night time! It's time to go to bed, and get a good night of beauty sleep! Sleep well my stars!"
Or, well, Cathy didn't actually need to. The nighttime announcement said what the time was for her.
Cathy softly giggled at the timing. "I don't know what else you're expecting from me... but I need to... think." The humanity weighing on her consciousness was... a lot. "I'm going to go." She turned around. "Bye... Darren. I'm..." She gave him one last genuine smile. "I'm really glad you're okay."
That was what she left Darren with as she slowly walked off.
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After a couple minutes of silence... deep... contemplative silence... Darren left as well...
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"Here we are." A bit after Darren left, and after the lights had properly darkened in Rival's Studio... someone strolled into the place, using their Star-Phone as a light.
"Did she..." The person began to look around the relatively small studio, as if they were trying to find something. They acted as quietly as and discreetly as they could.
"...Here." The person picked up the golden 9mm pistol, glad that their assumption was correct. Pheme didn't collect it after wrestling it from Darren's grip.
"Now..." The person wandered up to the dummy that Pheme had slashed open. It was almost lucky that Pheme had that breakdown, because that meant that they could grab the real bullet out of the dunmy's head with relative ease. They didn't even know if it'd still work, but they loaded it into the gun.
"This... could be useful." The person held up the gun one more time before pocketing it and leaving the studio.
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[Grand Lobby]
After the other five from the Special Event left Cathy and Darren on their own, they all pretty much headed off to bed. It was close enough to nighttime anyway. Explaining what exactly went down at the Special Event to the others was going to be... something, alright.
But anyway, Ji-hoon was the only one to stay up for now. He at least wanted to see Darren and Cathy come back down. He wasn't going to press them for answers when they did, but he just wanted to make sure that they were safe and okay.
So, after the other four had split off, Ji-hoon found himself sitting down on one of the sofas in the Grand Lobby, having a decent amount of trouble staying awake, actually. The Special Event took a lot out of him. But... he got more than aware when he noticed a certain group of three come down the stairs from the second floor.
It was Joji... Yoshino... and...
"Lake?" At the sight of the alive and well ballet dancer, Ji-hoon immediately got up and went over to the group of three.
"Hm? Oh! Ji-hoon!" Lake waved to the celebrity detective before letting out a small yawn. "Did you have a good day? Sorry for being absent today!" They bowed their head in forgiveness.
"Today was... something, alright." Ji-hoon crossed his arms before looking to Joji and Yoshino, wanting an answer for the reappearance. He also noticed Cathy out of the corner of his eye, walking up to the VIP Quarters.
"Uh... according to Lake, they only overslept." Joji took it on himself to explain. "But it was enough to where that catching up with everyone else kinda became a hassle. I'm not gonna worry about it personally. I'm just glad they're okay!" The sheer relief in the carpenter's voice was very clear.
"Same, Jojo." Yoshino offered a tired nod. Her voice lacked some of the usual spunk it had, but Ji-hoon just chocked it up to tiredness.
"And that's true, Lake?" The celebrity detective wanted to hear it from the ballet dancer's mouth now.
"Yeah! That's true! Again, I'm sorry!" Lake once again bowed their head in forgiveness. "In addition to oversleeping, well..." They looked down at the ground. "The pool party ending that way... with the motive... it kinda bummed me out. Made it... difficult to get out of bed at first." They had a sad smile on their face. "But when I did, Damien eventually found me and caught me up with everything!"
"Can't blame you, Monty." Yoshino gently patted the ballet dancer on the back. "That shit would be hard on anyone..." She covered her mouth as she yawned.
"Yeah! No worries, Lake! No need to feel bad!" Joji went all in all the comforting as well.
"Thank you, Joji. Yoshino." Lake still felt bad for missing everything... but the words of her friends, even if they were tired words... it made them feel better. Even if only a little.
"That right...?" Ji-hoon's tone subtly implied that he didn't fully believe Lake. It was interesting that Damien apparently wasn't lying though. But he especially didn't believe Lake because... he noticed a certain something on Lake's body... even in the darkness. He could understand passing over it in normal circumstances... but in a place like this... that wasn't normal. He wanted to call it out... but he didn't.
Ji-hoon gripped that in his pocket a little tighter as he slowly nodded to the group. "Well... I'm glad you three met up with each other then." He looked over shoulder, and saw Darren walking up to the VIP Quarters. Good. "You'd better get to bed now. The nighttime announcement already played, and it's better to at least retreat to your rooms than to not to."
"Yeah, we were planning on doing that." Joji reassured him. "So... we won't waste anymore of your time! Good night, Ji-hoon!" He waved before heading off.
"Yeah! Good night!" Lake waved as well before following after Joji.
Yoshino didn't say anything. She merely nodded at Ji-hoon before heading up to bed as well.
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"I..." Ji-hoon glanced in a certain direction at a certain something. "I'll go to bed as well..." He announced to no one in particular as he slowly made his way up to his room... his mind full of so many different thoughts...
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[Pheme's Room]
Pheme's eyes shot wide open as she felt herself getting woken up by a stinging pain in her neck. Her eyes immediately darted around, and she found herself in her... bed? She looked up and to her left, and found Asclepius injecting something into her neck. "Asclepius-"
"Shh..." Asclepius cut off whatever Pheme was about to say with a gentle shush. "It's okay. Just rest." He spoke with a gentle tone. "I know what you want to say. But... you'll be okay." His eyes drifted over to the fully contained and bandaged bullet wound on Pheme's right shoulder.
Pheme's body felt lethargic enough to where she couldn't move a muscle. So all she could do was follow Asclepius' gaze. "It feels... better. Thank you, Asclepius." She thanked him with a notably more quieter tone compared to her earlier crash out.
"Of course, Miss Pheme." Asclepius slowly nodded. "Now... just rest. I'm sure that you have a lot to say regarding the Special Event..." He was rather enraged at her for being gaslit by Kei and Ji-hoon... and he was also enraged at Darren skirting around the rules. But... that could wait. "Yes... just sleep, Miss Pheme. I'm sure that, by the morning..." He pulled out another syringe. "It won't bother you at all..."
He stuck the the other syringe into her neck... and watched silently as his beloved goddess lost consciousness...
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[Darren's Room]
At no particular signal... and at no particular time... Darren... kinda just... woke up. He slowly sat up in his bed. He knew that he slept in his studio on the first day after discovering the gun... but he was always going to prefer his room. It was still a room prepared for him by a psycho, but it was still his room, you know?
Anyway... Darren took a quick morning drink out out of the void and took a sip of it. It was... pretty good.
...
He still felt like he had a lot to think about from yesterday. He felt like he didn't afford any time at all to actually think about it all. Cathy... the gun... his life... his dreams... Cathy- heh. He silently chuckled at his mind thinking of the cat burglar twice in a row. Damn... he really couldn't deny it... he...
"Hello my glamorous stars! It is now 8am, and that means it's morning time! It's time to wake up and get moving! Get ready for a day full of stardom!"
Oh. That's his cue to get going! He'd give Nathan exactly what he wants later. For now, he changed out of his blue shorts and white t-shirt into what he usually wears, then he promptly headed down to the cafeteria.
[Cafeteria]
"Darren!"
"Good to see you man!"
"We heard what happened to you!"
Not even a second after entering the cafeteria, Darren was immediately met with a impromptu wave of concern. "Hey... guys." It threw him off a bit, honestly. He felt awkward as he went and sat in his usual seat, which was right next to Cathy. The cat burglar, for once, didn't get super embarrassed. She just... went with it.
"Darren." Ji-hoon nodded to him. "I get we all have stuff to talk about..." He still wanted some answers from last night. "But did you see Raiha on your way here?" As Raiha's resident hater, he needed to be aware of where that damn trendsetter was.
"Yes... I know yesterday must've been a lot, so I feel bad about questioning you." Aurora acted like a simple question equated to an interrogation. "But have you seen Raiha on your way here?" Unlike Ji-hoon, Aurora had more... romance-based reasons for wanting to be sure that Raiha was okay. Aurora and Raiha weren't an item or anything, but you know what I mean.
"Raiha?" Darren looked around the room to confirm their claim. And yeah, Raiha wasn't anywhere to be seen. "Huh... weird. No, I haven't see her." He promptly shook his head.
"Well... it's still damn early. Rai-Rai could just be sleeping, right?" Yoshino didn't want to jump to any conclusions. After all, that's basically what she did yesterday.
"Maybe Raiha just had somewhere to go first!" Lake also refused to jump to any conclusions. They didn't care that it was Part 5 of the Daily Life, the part where someone dies! They weren't going to believe that anyone would die!
"I'd like to hope so..." Ji-hoon's mind rang the alarm like no tomorrow. Especially with the motive... he didn't trust Raiha in the slightest. He didn't know what she was doing... where she was... but he knew she was up to-
"Hi hi! Sorry guys, I'm here!" Eager to prove Ji-hoon wrong, Raiha jovially entered the cafeteria, looking slightly disheveled.
"Hey... she's here! Maybe this ain't a repeat of yesterday!" Kei was in the same boat as Ji-hoon, as he didn't trust a word that came out of Raiha's mouth. He's still the type to listen to excuses, but he was curious if there was more to this. And maybe he was overthinking it. Who knows?
"Oh, Raiha! Good morning!" Aurora tried to act like she secretly wasn't worried. Being... expressive about whatever feelings she held for Raiha was easier said than done for her. "It's good to see you!"
"Yeah, sry! Again, my makeup would not cooperate this morning. NGL, its still kinda... not good." Raiha motioned over her face like her apparent makeup mishap was obvious. "But anyway... yeah! I'm here!" She smiled warmly at the sight of Aurora, before going to sit down next to her.
"And that's the truth?" The amount of suspicion in Ji-hoon's tone was almost earth-shattered as he shot the trendsetter a glare. His unease of her only grew larger as he noticed a certain something on her body.
"I-"
"Yes, it is the truth." Aurora stepped in for her girl before Raiha could say anything. After what happened yesterday...
"Ji-hoon... he..." Raiha heavily debated how honest to be here. "He... scares me..." She just went and said it.
...
Raiha suddenly looked directly at Aurora, eyes wide and full of... fear. "Uh... no. N-Not at all. I... don't know why." Her acting wasn't very good. "I don't know what the hell his problem is with me... and I wish he'd just f-f-fuck off..." Her voice shook as she spoke, sounding genuinely upset.
...
"I am!" Raiha yelled out, an aura of distress overtaking her. "I am sure! I don't know why he hates me so fucking much! And I-I wish he'd just... stop!" She slammed her hands down on one of the empty podiums. "God damn it..." Tears started to fall from her eyes. "First him, now you..." Her mind didn't even process Aurora's presence as she began to cry in earnest.
Aurora was still convinced that Ji-hoon had to have some reason for his attitude towards Raiha. But at the same time, Raiha's emotions yesterday were real. She was sure of that. "Respectfully Ji-hoon, you'll solve nothing by incessantly doubting Raiha." She mustered up some confidence to say what she wanted to say.
"Aurora..." Raiha's eyes lit up with gratitude at the starlet's defense. She... wouldn't have expected her to do that...
Ji-hoon shifted his glare from Raiha over to Aurora. "Respectfully Aurora, this isn't your problem." He didn't want to deal with this. He didn't need two scumbags somehow having people still defending them.
"Yes, it is." Aurora firmly nodded. "I'm sure you have your reasons Ji-hoon, but I think it'd be good for you to back off of Raiha. Your constant questioning of her is just increasing the tension of the group."
"Aurora, you don't understand-" Ji-hoon silently cursed at seeing that Raiha had officially stuck her claws into Aurora.
"Ji-hoon... I understand wanting to stay on top of things..." Aurora took on a slightly more understanding tone as she continued to defend her girl. She didn't want to be seen as being pushy or anything. "But this only serves you. The incessant questioning... it doesn't solve anything. At least don't do it in front of the whole group." She shifted to a more 'gently advising' sort of thing.
"I think Roro is right, by the way." Yoshino knew that the lesbians had to stick together, much to Nathan's dismay. "Lay off of the girl, yeah Jiji? Shit only makes things more tense." Like with Aurora, Yoshino didn't think that Ji-hoon acted the way he did for no reason. But he still needed to calm down.
"I also agree-nya!" With Kuroko in the fray, the lesbians were growing too powerful. "Leave Rai-nya alone, Ji-hoon! She's just trying her best!" She debated saying something regarding her feelings for Aurora, but she kept that to herself. After all, she doubted she wanted that to be public knowledge. And she also didn't know the exact status of Auroraiha ship anyway.
"Mmhm! Ji-hoon, this questioning stuff... it makes me uneasy." Lake hopped on the glazing Raiha train as well, more than okay with expressing how they felt.
"Indubitably. I believe that this sort of questioning should be kept for... well, not here at the very least." And of course Damien, the objectively nicest person in the cast, jumped in to defend Raiha as well.
"Christ, anyone else want to suck Raiha's toes?!" Alpha just didn't give a shit in general about Raiha. As per usual.
"Guys... he only asked a single question..." Rival did honestly agree, as he was kind of close to Raiha. But at the same time, they kinda did jump on him for just a single question.
"It's fine, Rival." Ji-hoon groaned and shook his head. He really didn't realize how many people here actively liked Raiha. Well, he wasn't sure if he'd count Damien. But still. Why did they have to make this so damn difficult! He's trying to make sure that no one falls victim to her! And now, even if he were to reveal what all he knows, they probably wouldn't even believe them.
Kei shifted his eyes toward Ji-hoon, and noticed his friend getting a little frustrated. "Probably drop it, Ji-hoon." He advised him with a wink. He was easily in the same boat of not believing a single thing out of Raiha's mouth, but Kei at least had something Ji-hoon could only dream of having... tact. "Probably listen to them." He gave another wink.
And Ji-hoon took those winks to heart. He was right. They all were. It's been a little ridiculous of him doing this out in the open. And considering he's not even spilling what he knows about Raiha... yeah, they were right. He'd just interrogate the fuck out of her later, when they were alone. He shouldn't have been making everyone else listen to this.
"Right. Sorry, Raiha." Ji-hoon gave a quick, curt, and polite apology to the trendsetter.
"There... thanks, Ji-hoon." Aurora was relieved that he so readily agreed to drop it. The look in his eyes implied that he wasn't... but she chose to trust his words.
"Yeah... thanks." Raiha spoke very half-heartedly as she witnessed Ji-hoon still staring daggers at her. Less subtle daggers than before, but still. She could sense he wasn't done with her. She already felt her hands slightly shaking.
"Finally! The celebrity detective human drops the fascination with the trendsetter human!" Cathy threw her hands up in the air. She personally couldn't care less about any hidden secrets or whatever, and she also didn't care about whatever intimate event she witnessed yesterday between Aurora and Raiha. She just found Ji-hoon to be a little annoying sometimes.
"Yeah... think it's about time we drop that." Joji scratched the back of his head. He had no idea on what to think about the whole Ji-hoon vs. Raiha thing. He just wanted people to get along. "Let's get back to the man of the hour, yeah?" He motioned over to Darren. You know, the guy who should be the focus of this chapter?
"Me?" Darren raised an eyebrow while taking a sip of a regular ol' drink. "What's up?" He acted so casual despite what happened yesterday.
"Heh. Awfully *cough* casual, aren't you Darren?" Rosalind couldn't help but find that attitude a little amusing. "Ji-hoon filled us *cough* in on what happened yesterday. So we are well *cough* aware of how things transpired." Truthfully, Rosalind would've loved to see it in person. She felt like everything she heard... would've been fascinating to have on film.
"Yeah... I remember hearing all of those f-faint gunshots..." A slight shiver ran up Ayaka's spine. "I was so confused... and scared... I didn't know what was happening." She started to slowly rock back and forth in her seat. "I had to switch to Nozomi to help me sleep..."
"Damn... didn't realize how... freaky that might've been." Rival couldn't help but feel a little bad for Ayaka. "Sorry Ayaka... and everyone else."
"All good, Val! Last night was... kinda fucky, but we know what happened now!" Yoshino was notably less paranoid than Ayaka, but even she was thrown off by yesterday. Hearing random muffled gunshots isn't good for anyone.
"Yes, we admittedly should've notified everyone of what happened last night instead of this morning." Damien realized this in hindsight. "Allow me to apologize on the behalf of the group that attended the Special Event." He stole the apology-thunder from Rival.
The backing vocalist didn't say anything, but you could tell he was a little ticked off.
"It's okay, Damien! Don't worry!" Lake, like always, was quick to forgive. "It's not like any of us tried to investigate it at all." They gave a mixture of a shrug and a giggle. A grug, if you will.
"Right... that reminds me." Kei felt like showing some initiative today. "You ever explain where you were yesterday, Lake?" He directed a somehow non-threatening glare to the ballet dancer. Due to his ample control over his tone, it came off as a nice and normal question instead of a Ji-hoon-esc interrogation.
"Hm? Oh! I... guess I didn't explain to everyone yet, did I?" Lake awkwardly scratched their cheek. "It was two reasons. I overslept... and the pool party kinda... bummed me out." They spoke with a sad smile. "Made it hard to leave my room yesterday... so that's why." They really hated how they felt yesterday. They never wanted to feel like that again.
"Guessing you're feeling better, Lake?" The guy who should he getting screen time asked while taking a sip of his drink. It's Darren who asked, just in case you couldn't tell.
"Yeah! I am!" Lake's blinding smile returned as they eagerly nodded. "When I came out of my room, I first met up with Damien. Then after that, I met up with Joji and Yoshino pretty quickly! Just being around them made me feel better!" They... really enjoyed being around their friends.
"Shit... lemme tell you how relived I was..." Joji took a breath as he relived the moment. "Seeing Lake alright really made me feel better too." He avoided any explicit murder talk, like expressing how he thought Lake might've been dead. He didn't want to scare them.
"Gotcha gotcha..." Kei nodded along, his tone making it impossible to tell if he believed the story or not. "Were you with them during the Special Event, Lake?" He asked another one.
"I... was, yeah." Lake nodded again, before suddenly blushing. "Those gunshots... really were scary. I uh... I might've..." They squirmed a little in their seat as they recalled what they 'might've' did.
"You might've done what, ballet dancer human? Do tell!" Cathy teased with slightly less Cathy-ness than usual. She might've been slowly developing as a person, but that didn't mean that she was going to stop being herself.
"They... don't want to say, alright?" Joji held up with hand, also donning a small blush on his face.
"Yeah... don't worry about it, guys." Yoshino wasn't blushing, but she was well aware of what happened, and she knew that Joji and Lake didn't want to talk about it. The sight was rather cute though, she had to admit.
"Pah! Boring!" Cathy huffed and crossed her arms, dropping the topic pretty quickly.
"What, there's no way it's that embarrassing. Both you and Joji wouldn't do some crazy shit." Alpha wasn't keen to drop it. "You probably just jumped into his arms or some shit, yeah?" She took an educated guess.
Lake's eyes and blush widened as they realized that Alpha immediately got it. "That's not... um..." They squirmed a little more as they remembered how comforting and warm Joji's muscular arms were...
"LET'S MOVE ON!" Joji's blush peaked while he slammed his fist down on the table, nearly knocking over a few cups. "Lake is fine! Yoshino is fine! Aurora and Raiha are fine! Let's... move on!" He went over the missing people from yesterday.
"Alright! Moving on time!" Kei chuckled at Joji's reaction to all this. He made the wise choice to move on, not wanting to provoke him. "We probably should've talked about exactly what happened yesterday anyway."
"Yeah... I'm totes curious..." Raiha quietly commented, grateful that the conversation wasn't going to go to why she was missing yesterday.
"Yes... I very much find myself *cough* curious as well." For Rosalind, it was more of a morbid curiosity. She wanted to know what she missed.
"Aight, Dare-Bear." Yoshino used the nickname that Nathan absolutely adored. "What went on?" She took it on herself to hand the metaphorical talking stick to the bartender.
"...Well..." Darren didn't think he'd ever have to deal with everyone's eyes on him at once in this Killing Game. Did he love it? Did he hate it? Eh... he didn't know. Anyway, he figured it'd be best to best explain. "So..." His hand reached up to the bandage on his neck. "For the eight who weren't there, you know of the show Your Turn to Live?"
"Oh, yes I have! I remembered being offered to join in season eight. I ended up rejecting the offer, as I already had a prior engagement." Aurora wondered what that experience would've been like.
"Oh shit, really? You would've been interesting to see in the show, Roro." Yoshino considered herself an average fan of the show. "But yeah, I've watched it before. I get the appeal of it. It's not bad." There were some elements of horror to the show as well, so that helped her enjoyment a bit.
"I-I don't think I have seen it..." Ayaka felt a little left out, not having anything else to say about it.
"That's fine. You don't actually need to know the show to understand what happened." Darren toom another sip of his drink with neck-healing properties. "The reason why I bring it up though, is that Pheme took one of the games from the show and used it for the Special Event. She made me load six real bullets and six fake bullets into a gun, the she made me shoot six dummies, Ji-hoon, Kei, Damien, Alpha, Rival, and C-Cathy." His voice noticeably stuttered as he spoke the name of the cat burglar.
"Interesting... sounds like one of the games from season *cough* one of the show." Rosalind slowly nodded along, actually showing a little interest in this. "The cinematography of the show had been praised for aiding in setting up the *cough* tension perfectly." She promptly explained why she was interested.
"Maybe a little interesting, but it sounds... scary-nya." Kuroko could see the appeal in watching something like that, but living through it... nah. She didn't like it.
"You're right, Kuroko." Darren agreed with both things the hypnotist said. "I chose how to load the bullets, and I shot the twelve targets in whatever order. But... I had a feeling that this was too easy."
"Too easy, you say?" This was getting into unexplained territory for the people who were actually there. So all of them, including Damien, were curious on what he was going to say.
"Yep." Darren nodded. "Because Pheme let me load the gun, I could load it perfectly so that there'd be no one getting shot. So that's too easy." He succinctly explained. "I felt like she was lying... and that she was lying about the bullets. A lie about the ratio of fake and real bullets, I mean." He made his explanation less... intimate compared to when he explained this all to Cathy.
"Right. Pheme getting shot is proof of that." Ji-hoon looked at a few things he had noted down on his Star-Phone. "You have good insight, Darren. Good job you thought of that." He praised him. The thought of course had crossed his mind, but he foolishly assumed that'd be too far for Pheme. He's definitely learned his lesson now.
"God... what a fucked game!" Yoshino threw her hand in the air. "Lying about the most important thing of a simple game... just to trick Dare-Bear until killing someone? Fucking Pheme..." She couldn't stand that bitch.
"Huh... that really must've been scary-nya." Kuroko put it all together in her head. "Feeling like something's wrong... but nothing happens. The anxiety gets greater with each shot-nya." Even she couldn't help but shiver at the thought of a feeling like that.
"It... wasn't fun." Darren spoke bluntly. "I was incredibly lucky that the first eleven went fine. But when I got to the last bullet and the last person... I started to get real worried." The feeling of anxiety is something he dearly wished he'd never have to feel again.
"Who was t-the last person?" Ayaka, nor the other non-attendees, were aware of this part. Ji-hoon only explained bits and pieces to them all.
"I was." Cathy quickly answered, looking up at Ayaka with a neutral look. "I... uh... I'll let Darren explain what happened." She took on a serious tone as she realized that it'd be better for him to explain all of it."
"Uh..." A certain word that Cathy just said threw Yoshino off. "Cathy? You just call him... Darren? Not 'bartender human?'" She missed more than she would've thought.
"Yeah... that's..." Raiha's tea sensors started to ring. She knew that Cathy liked Darren. That was pretty obvious. But she didn't think that they were getting so close so fast.
"I-" Cathy's usual blush resurfaced, a metaphorical cat snatching her tongue in the process. Her mind still felt... pretty chaotic, so she didn't know a good way to respond.
"That's not relevant." Darren stepped in, seeing that Cathy was getting flustered. He thought the blush was cute, but considering they were about to talk about him almost fucking dying, he thought it was best to drop it.
"Anyway, when I got to Cathy, I couldn't risk shooting her." Darren left out the fearful shaking parts. "So I thought of a way to hopefully cirmcumvent the rules she set. I held the gun up to my head instead of Cathy's."
"What?!" Lake drastically widened their eyes at Darren's casual explanation of suicide.
"I wasn't actually going to shoot myself, Lake." Darren thought that was obvious. "It was a way to get Pheme to lower her guard."
"She seemed like you were going to..." Rival muttered.
"Well, I didn't." Suicide wasn't on Darren's bucket-list at the moment. "I wanted to catch Pheme off guard. At the second right before I pull the trigger, I stead shoot over my shoulder at something random. That way, the real bullet and Pheme's lie would be revealed. And if it was fake, I assumed gaslighting Pheme would be easy." He spoke very calmly about the idea of gaslighting a psychopath.
"No way? That was your plan from the beginning, Darren?" Genuine astonishment was written across Kei's face. "Damn... alright." He seemed impressed.
"Gaslight Pheme is... something." Ayaka wasn't sure if she'd be able to do that herself... but she could see that being doable. Pheme didn't exactly have all of her ducks in a row, to word it nicely.
"Fucking bold of you..." Joji wasn't sure if he'd be able to do either, but he could also see that being doable. "But... did that happen? You listed two outcomes, but you basically got a third one, right?"
"Yeah... Pheme's shoulder was in the line of shot with the bullet." Darren still explained casually, but the annoyance at the outcome was clear in his tone. "It was pretty unlucky for me, and she... wasn't happy. She almost punished me for breaking a rule..." He flashed Kei and Ji-hoon some appreciative smiles.
"Kei and I stepped in with a spur of the moment lie." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "We gaslit Pheme about the rules, then after Rival and Alpha backed us up, Pheme was convinced. Luckily." That whole interaction still lived rent-free in his head.
"Yep." Kei confirmed. "Luckily, the only things that were injured out of the ordeal were my arm..." He held up his right arm, which still bore a bandage under his clothes. "And Darren's neck." He pointed to the bartender's neck.
"Pheme crashed out after her shit failed dramatically. And she didn't even give the "audio log" bullshit. What a sore fucking loser." Alpha's nonexistent respect for Pheme only seemed to lower with each passing day.
"Wow... you're so brave, Darren-nya!" Kuroko directly addressed Darren for probably the first time this story. "And the way you came up with such a plan to make sure Cathy doesn't get shot..." She flashed the duo a playful, knowing look.
"I did, yeah." Darren gave an anticlimactic answer. He understands Kuroko's interest, but he had no intentions of sharing any of his or Cathy's feelings. That moment together... that was staying between them. And judging by the eternal blush on Cathy's face, she agreed.
"Shit..." Joji sighed, reeling as if he had experienced all of that himself. "These Special Events keep on getting worse and worse..." An image of Yuto flashed into his mind. He's been told so many times to not blame himself... and he tries his best to do so. But he... he had one shot... and he failed.
"We'll need to stay especially wary when/if another one comes up." Ji-hoon still wished that they would've gotten that third audio log.
Yoshino suddenly narrowed her eyes. "I wonder what these Special Events are even about. The scientists and shit. What even is it?! The fuck does it mean?!" She hated that she had no idea.
"That... I wish I knew." Darren had done his own personal theorizing about it all, but he didn't have anything. He also assumed the resident theorists, Kei and Ji-hoon, didn't have anything either.
"Hm..." Damien started to tap his fingers against the table just loud enough to indicate that he'd like someone to address him.
And Lake decided to take the bait. "What's up, Damien? Is there something on your mind?"
At the voice of the ballet dancer, Damien flashed a very much kind and non-predatory grin. "Ah, I'm glad you asked, my dear Lake!" He spread his arms wide open. "You see... you speak of the audio log we've missed out on due to Pheme being an ungrateful loser. But..." He suddenly pulled a disk out of his pocket. "I believe I have that audio log right here!"
"Wow! Really?" Lake was instantly impressed, not even questioning how Damien obtained that.
"Huh? No way! How?" Yoshino on the other hand instantly disbelieved it.
"Yes... how, Damien?" Ji-hoon didn't believe it either, but he was curious on how he was going yo explain this.
"Your shock makes sense." Damien nodded in understanding. "But I shall explain. Last night, after everyone had gone to bed, I made my way up to Rival's Studio, where the Special Event had taken place." He began to explain.
Rival silently groaned, not liking the idea of Damien being anywhere near a place of his.
"Oh ho! Really now?" That seemed to really catch Kei's interest. "What'd you fish up there Damien?" He spoke with over-exaggerated curiosity.
"The disk, Kei." Damien waggled the disk around. "It way left laying on the stage unattended. I checked it, and it said..." He began to read it off. "Third Log." He showed the disk around as proof.
"It... does say that, *cough* yes." Rosalind adjusted her sunglasses as she examined the disk.
"Eh... this feels a bit too convenient." Yoshino still called bullshit on this. "You just so happened to find this? Really?"
"I g-guess Pheme is kind of clumsy..." Ayaka almost retched as she unfortunately acknowledged that Damien could possibly be telling the truth here.
"Yes, Ayaka. I believe to blame it on Pheme's clumsiness." Damien responded respectfully. "But if she is to be clumsy, I see no reason to not take advantage of it." He waggled the disk once again.
"I mean... I guess..." Rival also hated the idea of Damien being in the right in any capacity, but it truly did feel like he just luckily found it.
Amidst the begrudging acceptance of Damien's find, Kei kept chuckling. "Well well..." He slowly nodded. "That's quite valuable, isn't it? Do we have a way to play it, though?"
"There is a disk holder over here." Aurora pointed under the table near where she was sitting. "I... am not sure how long that has been here, but it's fairly convenient." She shrugged. She thought it a little suspicious, but she also didn't see how this could be a trap in any capacity.
This 'convenience' only served to increase Ji-hoon's suspicions. "Kei." He whispered to the lawyer. "You think...?" He left the rest of the thought unsaid.
"I'll see." Kei returned the whisper with a nod, before clearing his voice. "Well, let's see how convenient it is! Doubt Pheme would... booby trap it, I guess." He shrugged.
"Right. I'm down to try it." Darren took a sip of his plot-relevant drink as he also joined the shrug train.
"Very well then." Damien nodded, before handing the disk to his dear Aurora. "Here you are, my dear Aurora."
"Thank you, Damien." Aurora smiled a gentle smile as she took the disk, then set in the disk holder. The holder responded immediately, taking the disk into the table itself.
Raiha widened her eyes at the sight. "The table is a... what? DVD player?" Out of all the technology and devices that she knew, a DVD-playing table definitely wasn't one of them.
"I don't think that's-" Joji was about to say something, but he got cut off as the lights in the cafeteria started to dim. Soon, a monitor descended from the ceiling, bearing an audio spectrogram. Everyone was dead-quiet as Damien's find began to play...
...
"This is... um..."The voice of Asher hit the group's ears first. "This is..." He seemed to stumble over his words.
"Allow me, Asher." The voice of Agata seemed to step in upon noticing Asher's hesitation. "Let's see here. This is start of Audio Log #3. The date is June 5th, 20XX. Time is... 18:00. Dr. Akimitsu Agata and Dr. Asher John Jr. are here to report on what happened during the third test." He sounded fairly professional.
"Yeah... Dr. Nakata... and..." Asher seemed distracted and distressed as he spoke.
"No need, Asher. No need." Agata seemed to attempt to comfort him. "I can finish the log myself, if needed. It's the least I can do to... carry on Hannah's legacy."
"If you... say so." It sounded like Asher took a step back from the tape recorder they used.
"Right. Here we go." Agata cleared his voice. "Test #3 was mostly a success. The Patient's reaction to the stimuli provided, as well to the guitar of Alexis Powell, was what we expected. Aria seemed to have been pleased with the results as well. The drugs are working nearly perfectly, but this incident seemed to expose a flaw in the drug... one I will work on." He coughed. "Zenkichi said that Test #4 is ready. We'll work on that whenever he... calms down."
Agata coughed again. "Asher... seems to have left. I'll... call it here. This is Dr. Akimitsu Agata signing out. Log #3... finished."
...
The lights turned back to the normal, and the monitor retreated back into the ceiling.
For a moment, everyone continued to be silent, not knowing exactly what to think of that. Until...
"Did we get... anything out of that bullshit?" Alpha narrowed her eyes. That was just a bunch of nonsense to her.
Kuroko shrugged. "I don't think so-nya? At least, I'm not sure if that... makes anything clearer?" She was so lost. From the beginning, she didn't have a clue what to make of these things.
But... that didn't mean that nobody had any ideas.
Aurora slowly shook her head as she grabbed the disk from the player, then quickly handed it back to Damien. "Alexis Powell?" She muttered. "Why her...?" She narrowed her eyes in concentration.
"Hm? Aurora?" Raiha turned her more-than-just-bestie after hearing her muttering. "You know whoever that name is?" She sure didn't know. She didn't recall that name at all.
"You know her too, Aurora?" Ji-hoon heard the mutter as well.
"Yes... I do." Aurora slowly nodded. "Alexis Powell was an Ultimate Guitarist. I met her while I attended Hope's Peak. She was visiting from Hope's Peak New Orleans. She came to the branch I was at to perform a show..." She spoke slowly as some buried memories resurfaced.
"Interesting..." Darren nodded along. "What else?" He decided to show some effort in deciphering these logs.
"I remember..." Aurora narrowed her eyes once again. "I can't remember how long ago... but she died. During a show of hers, she got shot in the head by a fan of hers." She slightly trembled as she recalled such a tragic event.
"That's what I remember too." Ji-hoon was glad that his memories were the same as Aurora's. "The fan that shot her was allegedly disgruntled after learning that she had a boyfriend. He snuck a gun into the show, shot her, then escaped. The police never found him. And the boyfriend seemed to have been uninvolved." He noted his words down as the memories flowed back to him.
"Holy fuck..." Yoshino gasped. "That's a... downside of fame for you..." She slowly shook her head.
"Hmph. What a pathetic human, that shooter. Tch." Cathy scoffed. She couldn't imagine the mindset of a person who would even do that.
"Now that you b-bring it up... I might've heard of that incident too..." Ayaka shook as she thought about it. Someone shooting you in the middle of s show... well, that's a new fear to add to the pile.
"For as fucked up as that shit is..." Joji didn't even want to think about shit like that. "What does it mean? These scientists showed this patient a guitar, and it was 'as expected?' The hell is that?" He felt himself getting a little frustrated, but he kept it under control.
"They also mentioned things about a 'flaw.'" Darren added. "They also said it was 'nearly perfect' and 'mostly successful.' That's something to think about." He took a slow, thoughtful sip of his drink.
"There's also the fact that Alexis was killed with a... gun." Kuroko motioned to Darren, who still held the gun. "That's definitely connected, right-nya? It has to be!"
"Boy... we got a lot this time." Kei thought a few things over as he slowly nodded. "Gotta say, thanks Damien. Good find." He sounded sarcastic for some reason as he gave the beautician a thumbs up.
"Of course! I do what I can!" Damien bowed his head, either not noticing or not caring about Kei's sarcasm.
"Well..." Alpha groaned as she stood up. "Theorizing is for the nerds here. And I've been here for too damn long. I'm out." She, like usual, left early. She could only stand being around these fuckers for so long.
"That is probably a good point to stop." Ji-hoon didn't stop the gas station manager as he stretched his arms out. "We've got things to think about... stuff to mull over. Let's just slowly think things through as we continue to live our daily lives. No need to stress." He gave a decent attempt at calming whoever may be worrying. And worrying they likely are, considering a certain thing Pheme said during the motive announcement.
"Welcome to the third motive, my glamorous stars! The Secrets App!" She cleared her voice. "In this app, you will see two things. On the left side of your screen, you'll see some of your deepest, darkest secrets! And on the right side of the screen... you'll see someone else's deepest, darkest secrets. The other secret you see was chosen at random, of course! Just to make it fun!" She giggled. "And! If no one turns up dead within the next 50 hours, then everyone's secrets will be revealed to the public! Fun, right?" She asked, expecting an answer.
That oddly specific deadline would be up by tomorrow. Or, technically, it'd be up at around 1:00 AM. He specifically avoided mentioning it. In Ji-hoon's opinion, it'd only serve to make people more nervous. And he didn't need that. He tried to not think about it.
"Very well. I will see you later." Damien bowed his head before departing himself.
At seeing the beautician leave, Ji-hoon flashed Kei a look. Immediately understanding what that look meant, Kei silently left.
And with that, mostly everyone left as well, a unreadable aura in the air as they did so. After seeing Joji and Lake leave together, Ji-hoon witnessed Aurora and Raiha leaving together. He got up. Not to stalk them, but to do what Aurora said.
He'll find the right time... and get the truth out of Raiha. Alone...
[Grand Lobby - 3F]
"Wait, what?! My studio is blocked off?!" The rare Lake voice raise happened as they accompanied Joji to right outside their studio.
After the usual cafeteria meeting had ended, Joji quickly told Lake about something "really important" he wanted to show them. Lake was a little scared by how serious he had sounded, but this "really important" thing was the last thing they had expected. "What... what happened to it?" Lake sounded genuinely upset as they sadly looked at the lightly boarded-up door. They really liked their studio.
"I'm sorry, Lake. I wish I had more details." Joji didn't like seeing the ballet dancer upset like this. "Pheme said some stuff about one of us seeing a 'gas leak' in the place, so they got her to close it off. That's... all I know." He scratched the back of his head.
"Oh... okay." Lake was still bummed out as they continued to stare at the door of their studio. "I guess if there was a gas leak..." They were still bummed, but they didn't really want to get gassed while dancing. So they supposed they had to deal with it.
"Uh... Lake?" Joji looked down at them. "Don't take this the wrong way, but... you just... trust all of that?" Personally, he found it suspect.
"Hm?" Lake then looked up at Joji. "Well... yes. Why wouldn't I trust it?" They legit didn't know she they would/should distrust it.
"Um... well..." For as much as Joji loved being around Lake and soaking up that optimism, he still had his own opinions on the limit of said optimism. "Well... okay. Let me word it like this." He wanted to continue this in a way that wouldn't hurt Lake's feelings. "Lake... how often have you used your studio?"
"How often?" Lake tilted their head. "Hm... well, I didn't use it yesterday..." They thought the reason for that was obvious.
"Right, right. I know that." That whole MIA Lake situation still made Joji feel anxious. "But... prior to that? Did you use it? Dance in it?" In addition to the whole questioning optimism thing, he was actually curious about this.
"Oh! Well, yeah!" Lake cracked a smile as they thought back. "In the two days after discovering the place, I spent a decent amount of time in there!" They accidentally giggled as they reminisced. "I practiced different steps... different dances... I lept around... it was... so fun." The smile on their face took on a permanent quality as those memories flowed back to the forefront of their mind.
"Yeah? I'm glad." When Lake was happy, Joji was happy too. "Was that all you did in there?" Damn, he kinda wanted to hear more now.
"Hm... well, yeah. I guess so!" Lake shrugged and giggled at the same time. A shruggle, if you will. "I know it was a room that Pheme provided for us... so I shouldn't really enjoy it that much... but... I did." Their smile turned a bit more solemn. "I enjoyed just being able to have fun... and forget about it all."
"...Yeah." Joji sighed. "That... really is a valuable thing to have in a Killing Game..." He kind of wished that he had something similar. Or, well, Lake themself is essentially that for him.
"...I think about them. A lot." Lake leaned back against the cold, hard wall.
"You think about 'them?' Do you mean..." Joji felt like he knew what Lake meant, but he wanted to hear them say it.
"All of them. Bessie... Aelia... Genjiro... and Adam..." Lake hugged themselves as they recalled the fallen glamorous stars. "I know that I didn't really know all of them that well... but still." They gripped their forearms a little tighter.
"Lake..." Joji felt sympathy well up in him as he joined them in leaning against the wall.
"I think about Bessie being a robot... and her horrible father. Then about Aelia's desperation for attention... and her horrible parents. And I remembered from the fight between Genjiro and Pheme that he never was able to get the belt... and then how much Adam has gone through being bullied... and... it's all just... so much..." They started to cry. "I don't care w-what people say about them... but none of them deserved their fate... this cruel... horrible fate..."
"Lake..." Joji muttered their name again as he let out a shaky breath. "You're... you're exactly right. None of them... including Yuto and Yukari Nakata... deserved any of this." He tightened both of his hands into fists. "I don't give a shit what Pheme's reasons are... or even what Asclepius' reasons are... those fuckers aren't going to keep getting away with this."
"Y-Yeah... yeah." Lake usually didn't like wishing ill will on people, but those two were a special case. "Joji..." They turned to face the carpenter, and gripped his shirt with both hands. "I... I don't want to lose you, Joji." Their eyes welled up with more tears. "Again... I don't care what people say... you're a good person! You try so hard... and... you being here... it helps me so much. So please..."
Joji felt a lot of thoughts and emotions after hearing that... but he needed to push them down for right now. Right now... he had to comfort Lake. "Don't... don't worry, Lake." He pulled them into a hesitant embrace. "I'm... I'm not going anywhere. It'll be okay..." He did his best to comfort them. And... on the flipside, he definitely didn't want to lose them either. Their relationship was... peculiar, in a way. It wasn't one out of romantic feelings... but they felt like something more than friends...
As soon as Lake got pulled into Joji's strong arms... they instantly felt calmer as they let out a few more tears. They... they needed this. They of course cried at all the dead bodies... but the feeling still builds. They needed this moment to just... be calm. "Thank you... Joji..." They wrapped their arms around the carpenter's waist as they shared a quiet moment together...
...
...
...
"Um..." Deciding to break the moment, Lake shakily pulled away from Joji, realizing how... intimate it had gotten. "What... were we talking about again?" They wiped their remaining tears as a faint blush appeared on their face. Their heart did feel less... heavy.
"Er... right." Joji awkwardly coughed at the realization that Lake and he had hugged two days in a row now. "It was... the gas leak." He remembered that his goal was far from just hugging Lake.
"Yeah... that gas leak." Lake saddened a little at the thought of it. "What exactly... about it?" They weren't sure what exactly needed to be questioned about it.
"Uh... you know what? Nothing. Nothing needs to be questioned. It's just... unlucky. That's all." Joji had heavily wanted to question why Lake just immediately believes stuff... even in a Killing Game... but he didn't. The innocence in Lake's face... that sparkle of joy that stayed everlasting... he didn't want to do anything to it. Perhaps against his better judgment... but still. "It's good that someone caught it. Before... well, anything happened." He sighed.
"Yeah... that's for sure!" Lake felt the positivity from her positivity storages overwrite any remnants of sadness they still had. "It's unfortunate that I won't be able to dance in there for a while... but I trust Pheme to eventually fix it!"
Joji debated countering that with a "like how she fixed mine and Damien's studio?" but he didn't. "I wouldn't blindly trust Pheme... but yeah. I'm sure she will." He took an optimistic approach.
"Yeah! I agree!" Lake eagerly nodded.
...
...
...
Another calm moment of silence fell upon them... before Joji got an idea. "Hey... Lake? You may not be able to dance in there anymore... but can't you dance somewhere else, maybe?" He thought it might be a good suggestion.
"Somewhere... else?" Lake blinked, then went silent again. As if that thought had never popped into their head. Which it hadn't, by the way. "Well... I dance in my room sometimes. The carpet isn't really... good for ballet, though. So it's... not really the same." They shriggled.
"Oh... I see." Joji nodded in slight disappointment. "Guess that makes this gas leak even more unfortunate, huh? This really was made for you... damn." He felt saddened on behalf of Lake.
"It's okay, Joji. Honestly!" Lake almost said something else... but they held it back for a second. In its place... a seprate thought appeared into their head. "But... Joji? I think I've asked you this before... but have you ever danced with someone? Like... um..." They blushed for a moment. "...R-Romantically?" They slightly stuttered at the thought of such a foreign topic.
"R-Romantically...? Uh..." Joji copied the stutter as he looked away. "Why... do you ask...?" He wasn't sure what Lake's game was with this question.
"N-No reason..." Lake subtly glanced down at their Star-Phone, which was in their pocket. "O-O-Or it doesn't have to romantically! It's j-just... uh..." They didn't even know what they were saying anymore. They didn't even care that they weren't being subtle.
Joji had a slight sinking feeling in his chest... but he ignored it. That stammering of Lake's told a story... one that he acknowledged with a long sigh as he pulled out a small wooden figure from his pocket. "Remember this, Lake?" He held onto it gently.
"H-Huh...? Oh... yeah! Ayaka and I found it during the... last case..." Lake couldn't help but stutter a little bit more as they took in the familiar figure.
"This is cute!" Lake spotted a small wooden figure on the floor amongst the clutter and picked it up. "I... don't know what this is though."
"Let me see." Ayaka took figure. "W-Well... it's a figure of a pretty woman. There are some letters done here too. See?" She pointed to the bottom of the figure.
"KA-?" Lake read the letters out. "Wait... the rest of the letters are cut off!"
"Maybe d-due to the damage to the room?" Ayaka guesses as she handed the figure back to Lake.
"Maybe!" Lake took back the figure. It was small enough to fit in their pocket, so they stored it safely there.
"Yeah... and you gave it back to me after the trial." Sorry Nathan, no flashback for that one. Deal with it.
"Right..." Lake recalled that as well. "What's... the significance?" They put the pieces together in their head based on how Joji is responding, but they wanted to see what he had to say first.
Joji heaved another heavy sigh as he turned the small figure in his hand. "Pheme put this in my Ultimate Studio, probably as a way to piss me off." He couldn't deny that it was effective. "But... her name is Karin Fujioka. She is... she was... she's my..." He struggled to find the right word. "My... old... girlfriend. Let's say that." He sounded unsure of that for some reason.
"Old... girlfriend?" Lake blushed a bit as they thought about that. "I... see. She's... she's really pretty." She admired the wooden figure. Due to its wooden nature, it wasn't the best visage out there, but they could tell that she was very pretty.
"...She is. She... really is." Joji had a sad smile on his face as he thought back. "We met at Hope's Peak. She was the Ultimate Policewoman. She was headstrong... independent... and way too good of a lady." He set the figure back in his pocket with gentle precision.
"An... Ultimate?" Lake gasped in surprise. "And a Policewoman? She sounds... impressive." They could never imagine themselves in a position like that.
"She really was." Joji kept reminiscing. "One year, we were prom king and queen at Hope's Peak prom. That... was an amazing night." Sorrowful nostalgia overtook him as he sighed. "And... we... danced romantically. Like... what you asked." He finally answered the question.
"Ah... right." Lake nearly forgot that they had asked that. "Guess that's my... question solved." They added with an awkward blush... before think of something else. "Wait... you said she was your old girlfriend? Things didn't..." They didn't finish their thought.
"...Yeah. Things didn't work out." Joji solemnly nodded. "The details aren't important. But... I had one shot with her... and... I screwed it up." He shut his eyes tight and clenched his fists.
"Joji..." Lake muttered in sympathy.
"Sorry... I shouldn't dwell on it." Joji quickly shook his head to dispel that influx of negative emotions. He tried his best to not think too hard on... everything surrounding Karin. "But... there's your answer, Lake."
Lake stared at Joji for a few seconds... almost as if they were contemplating saying something. But... they didn't say a word. They merely giggled... then said words. "I guess I have it!" They sounded like their usual self. "Sorry for the personal question, Joji. It's just..." They looked him in the eyes. "If you wouldn't mind... would you... like to..."
"Dance with me sometime?"
That was what Lake wanted to say. They... really wanted to say it... but... Alicia didn't let them say it. They so badly wanted to ask it... but they couldn't.
"Would I like to... what? What's up?" Joji seemed to be back to normal as he questioned what Lake was asking.
"Would you like to... g-go to the cafeteria! Grab a snack! Or something!" Lake's mind forced out a cover as they just couldn't say what they wanted to say.
"A snack? Eh..." Joji couldn't sense any of the inner turmoil as he checked the time. "I guess so! Sure! And..." He faced the unfortunate door one last time. "It might be nice to not be... reminded of this. Yeah?" He flashed a bright smile.
A smile that really fitted him, in Lake's opinion. "You're right. Yeah... you're right! Let's go!" They might not have been able to ask exactly what they wanted to ask... but that's okay. They had time. It wasn't like Joji was going to be dead by the end of this chapter anyway.
So... with both Joji and Alicia in their thoughts... Lake left the scene with the carpenter to get a nice midday snack...
It looks like Joji and Lake grew closer today!
[Ultimate Beautician's Studio]
"Huh... funny place for you to be, Damien. Why'd you come here?" After Damien departed the cafeteria, Kei immediately went after him. Knowing what he knows about the beautician, and after him showing that audio log... well, Kei felt like he finally had to ask the debaucherous bastard some questions.
"Hm? Ah, it's you Kei. Welcome." Damien has his back turned as he welcomed the lawyer with a rather neutral tone as he finished doing... whatever we was doing while he was kneeling on the ground.
"Happy to be here." Kei chuckled... before zeroing in in what exactly Damien was doing. "What... are you doing?" His suspicion got briefly replaced with curiosity.
"Well, to answer both of the questions you asked of me..." Damien stood up from where he was kneeling, and turned around to properly greet the lawyer. "I'm doing what I can to fix my Ultimate Studio."
"Fix it, huh?" At those words, Kei looked over the remnants of Damien's Studio. It was still clearly... busted. But the floor appeared to have been swept of any debris and glass, and the room appeared more... organized than before. The smell in the room was still a little... overwhelming, but Kei couldn't really blame Damien for that one.
"Cleaning up after Genjiro and Alpha's mess, are you?" Kei smirked as he observed Damien's still collected form, despite the labor he had been engaging in.
"Indeed." Damien didn't return the smirk as he joined Kei in looking over the studio. "I've swept the floor of any debris and glass... and I mopped and cleaned the floor to get rid of any remaining makeup as well. I then organized the structures into a broken section and a useable section." He motioned to various sections of his studio as he explained his progress.
"Damn... not bad." Kei felt a slight twinge of annoyance at behind impressed by the beautician. But even he couldn't deny that he had actually done good work here. He wondered how Pheme would react to all of this.
"Ah... and as for what I was doing when you entered..." Damien moved the way as he motioned to an only slightly broken shelf. And on top of that shelf... was a...
"Mirror?" Kei raised an eyebrow as he approached and picked up what Damien wanted him to approach and pick up. It was a very pristine mirror that seemed to have been covered in gold. Whether fake or real, he wasn't sure. He was no Goldologist.
Damien walked back up to Kei. "That is correct." He confirmed that the mirror was indeed a mirror. "I fished it out after spotting it under an pile of rubble that I had missed."
"I see... I see..." Kei slowly nodded as he set the mirror back down on the shelf. "Well, now you've got me curious Damien." He turned to look the beautician in the eye. "What's the story? What's the significance?" He knew there had to be more to that mirror.
Before answering, Damien grabbed the mirror and set into a still working drawer, then closed it. "Wouldn't you like to know?" He gave a surprisingly sassy answer as he took a small step back, then popped a subtle smirk.
Kei blinked at that response. He... didn't expect Damien to hit him with something like that. Or at least not this early. "Dang... look at you, Mr. Smoothtalker." His own smirk turned slightly chilling. He had honestly wanted to know about the mirror... but that would have to wait for later. No way was he getting information about that. He could sense it.
Damien's smirk into a more visible one as he slowly shook his head. "'Mr. Smoothtalker,' hm? Well, I've been called similar in the past." He saw no problems with Kei's sarcastic statement.
"Have you now?" Kei leaned back against an unharmed portion of the wall. "Enlighten me, Damien. Who's called you that? I'm curious." He's been waiting to have a conversation like this with the beautician for a long time.
"Hm?" Damien immediately noticed what Kei was going for here. He wasn't stupid. But... he decided to humor this. He was curious to see how far he'd take this. "Well... some of my... haters, I suppose." He ran his hand through his beautiful hair.
"Haters? Now, who would ever want to hate you?" Kei didn't even try to hide the sarcasm in his voice as his smirk grew ever smugger.
Damien chuckled at the sarcasm dripping from the lawyer's tone. He didn't acknowledge it as he began to explain. "Simply... well, when you have a fanbase as plentiful as my own, haters are bound to rise up. I'm sure even you have haters, Kei." He deflected back onto the lawyer.
But Kei parried the deflection with a raise of his eyebrow. "Well, of course I do! Being an Ultimate Lawyer is bound to get people on your bad side." That was a fact he was more than aware of. "But... we're talking about you here, Damien." Again, he wasn't going to let him deflect.
"Ah... we were, weren't we?" Damien was pleasantly surprised by that smooth deflection. "Then as I was saying, haters are bound to pop up, no matter what. A price of fame, it is." He gave a solemn nod.
"You've got that right." Kei noticed that Damien still hadn't answered his question. "What sort of... haters have you had to deal with?" He wasn't going to let him skirt around this forever.
"Plentiful ones." Damien had no qualms about answering this. "No one too specific or noteworth, though. These haters with blinded and biased judgments are usually drowned out by the voices of my fans." He looked at his reflection in the mirror from earlier.
"Drowned out? Elaborate for me." Kei had a feeling this was the case, and now he wanted even more details. He was going to try and draw out as much as he could from this interaction.
"Well, you know." Damien mused as he slowly began to walk around the demolished room. "Their approaches may be... a little much, to some. But my fans call my haters jealous and vindictive. They'll claim that the hater is 'overreacting' or that I'm simply 'not like that.'" He listened numerous examples.
"I see... so they gaslight the hater, then." Kei immediately saw those expected words for what they were. He had heard stories of Damien Lux before... but due to them operating in widely different areas, he's never gotten the chance to properly look into him. But from being trapped with him for roughly two weeks, well, he felt like he had a good read on him. And the beautician's words only served to confirm his reads.
"Make them doubt their perceptions of you. Make them think, 'Hm, with this many fans, no way he's bad!', right?" Kei spoke with a mocking tone as he called out Damien's fans.
"'Gaslight' is a... rough term." Damien wasn't sure if he'd use that word personally. "But from your perspective, I can understand. Loyalty... and companionship must not be something you're used to, Kei." He threw a not-so-subtle jab at the lawyer.
The quickest flash of anger ran across Kei's face as that jab, but it got instantly replaced by his usual smug look. "Perhaps not. I certainly haven't experienced having a loyal fanbase like yours. Please, tell me more about them." He didn't even want to give Damien time to dig into that jab more.
But judging by the Damien's face, he knew that he had already hit his mark. But he chose to let it build for now. "As you wish." He acknowledged the command. "Another thing my grateful fans commonly is spread stories of my kindness, talent, and goodwill." He again ran his hand through his immaculate hair.
"Constant positive reinforcement... I see." Another thing Kei had expected. "All to drown out any and all haters... loyal indeed." He still spoke a little mockingly of Damien's loyal fans.
"Yes, quite." Damien would always be grateful for his amazing fans. "They make the weight of these haters... bearable. Makes sure they don't get into my head. I'm very thankful for them." He pulled out a quick victim card.
"Heh, I'm sure." Kei internally scoffed at his attitude. "But the haters weigh on you, huh?" He wasn't sure how true that was. "How about your resident hater here? How about Ayaka?" He dropped the violinist's name like it was a bomb.
"Mm... yes, Ayaka." Damien slowly shook his head. "Well, if you must know, she does not weigh on me. Despite how Nozomi acted towards me during the last trial." He kept that victim card out for a while longer.
"Oh... must be tough for you." Kei spoke with mocking sympathy. "I mean, from your perspective, Ayaka must be the one who poisoned Genjiro? Who else would've?" He was curious how Damien would respond to this.
"It's sad and unfortunate... but yes. That's simply the only possibility." Damien, saddened, slowly shook his head. "I fully acknowledge that my attitude towards her during the last trial was... not very tactful. I acknowledge I could've approached it all gentler. But... the truth is still apparent. Ayaka utilized the plan I gave to her... by using it to poison Genjiro. To what ends, I sadly can't say. I wonder if we'll ever find out..." He wished that he could go back in the past to change the dark path that his former dear Ayaka had gone down.
"So that's still your story... got it." Kei didn't expect anything less. "Ayaka must be a damn good actress then, huh? Definitely giving Aurora a run for her money with how she acts around you. The flinching, the scared looks, then even how she screamed during the trial. Must be an Ultimate Actress, yeah?" He was being clearly sarcastic here.
"Hm... perhaps you're right." But Damien either didn't notice or didn't care about that sarcasm. "I'd hope to learn more about her... and why she did what she did... but perhaps that's something for later." He gave another saddened shake of his head. "For now, I just choose to stay grateful that some people here still choose to believe in me. Besides for you, of course." He was more than aware of Kei's suspicions.
"Heh. Damn!" Kei didn't expect him to just... say it. "You're not wrong there." But he also wasn't going to hide it. "But on the other side, you are right about some people still choosing to believe in you. Like... Raiha, Aurora, and Lake." He listed the main examples.
"Correct. My dear Raiha, my dear Aurora, and my dear Lake are very intelligent people." Damien instantly began to glaze his dears. "Not simply falling in with the crowd or with the easy truth... very admirable, I must say." He smiled as he thought of his dears.
"Admirable... is sure a word to describe it." Kei wasn't sure it he'd use that word. He frankly didn't know what was going through the head of those three. He chocked up Lake being nice to him as Lake just being... Lake. But Raiha's and Aurora's attitudes were... stranger to him. He envisioned both of them as being smarter than this. But... maybe the girls were more insecure than he thought.
"Yes... and still, unfortunately understandably, there are still haters in this place as well." Damien liked doing that saddened head shake, so he did it again. "Rival... Ji-hoon... Yoshino... Kuroko... and again..." His eyes landed on Kei's with predatory interest. "You, Kei." He took a step forward towards the lawyer. "Can I ask? Is this hate simply your intuition? Or..." He took out his Star-Phone and waggled it a bit. "Something more?"
"Heh..." Kei knew exactly what Damien was implying. "You're claiming I have your secret, Damien? For the motive?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Hm? I never said that." Damien narrowed his eyes with smug interest as he pocketed his Star-Phone. "But since you bring it up, I must ask you... do you have my secret? It's suspect that you'd bring it up." He put the lawyer in the hot seat.
"Hm... since you ask..." Kei decided to use this hot seat to his advantage. "You're right. I do have your secret, Damien." He took out his own Star-Phone and waggled it around. "So yes, that's why my suspicions of you are... rather high." He decided to not hide it.
"Oh! I see!" Damien elegantly chuckled in... surprise? "To think you'd lie about something like that, Kei! How bold of a justice abiding lawyer!" He immediately called him out.
"You think... I'm lying? Why's that?" Kei kept his smirk as he awaited further explanation from the bastard beautician.
"Because I know who has my secret. My dear Raiha does. We discussed it the night of the motive." Damien dropped an interesting revelation. "And you aren't actively showing your Secrets App. So, that lie of yours was a mere bluff." He shot down the lie with ease.
"..." Kei didn't respond. He didn't expect his bluff to be called out that quickly. But that part about Raiha did interest him...
"Hm? What's wrong, Kei?" Damien lorded over the lawyer now. "Are you... upset?"
"Hmph. Don't act so superior, Damien." Kei gave a surprisingly serious fingle waggle as he pocketed his Star-Phone and took a step back. "Yeah, you're right. It was a bluff." He saw no way of convincing him overwise. "But you know, that mention of Raiha has me curious-" He wanted to move onto that... but he couldn't. As he cut off his thought when he saw what Damien had in his hand.
"I have your secret, Kei." Not letting the lawyer get a chance for more questions, Damien swiftly took out a Star-Phone and opened it up to the Secrets App. And on it... was Kei's secret.
Kei Aikawa's Secret:
-Kei has-
Kei looked away before he could fully acknowledge the secret. He tired to hide his steadily decreasing aura.
"Oh? Is this... a sore spot for you, Kei?" Damien's superiority reached it's peak as he wormed around to see the lawyer's now non-smug face. "Well now... where did that aura go, Kei? The smugness? The questions? Where did it go?" He started to really rub it in.
"..." Kei didn't respond.
"Well well..." Damien absorbed Kei's smug look and took it for his own. "Looks like someone cut off that lifeless tongue of yours... hm?" He put emphasis on two specific words.
Another flash of anger ran across Kei's face at those words. He still didn't say a thing.
"Wow... it's interesting that you can show emotions that aren't just an artificial and smug facade." Damien nodded in mocking surprise of him. "Let's see if we can up that a little." He looked down at Kei's secret. "Takahiro Aikawa... and Hana Aikawa, hm? Truly a-"
"Fine! You win!" Showing actual aggression in his voice, Kei instantly stomped off, having been defeated by Damien.
And Damien just watched the lawyer leave... before chuckling a few moments later. "...I always do."
With that, Damien went back to cleaning up his studio, very pleased by how that interaction turned out...
...
...
...
Huh... did Damien and Kei grow a little closer today? Eh... probably not.
[Ultimate Cinematographer's Studio]
"Oh hey... you're here... Rosalind." Rival slowly and awkwardly walked into Rosalind's Studio. Despite the slightly feigned surprise in his tone, this was exactly what Rival was hoping for. Ever since he got that elevator... he had been wanting to talk with her about what happened. If it was to apologize... or just to talk... he wasn't sure.
"Ah... Rival. Hello." Rosalind, who hadn't been doing anything in particular, slowly turned to breet the backing vocalist. "Do you *cough* need something?" She asked, despite likely knowing what he wanted. And if it was what she thought... well... she'd wait and see.
"Uh... yeah." Rival tried to endure the awkward air in the room as he stepped further in. When he did, he noticed that the room was currently on the Medical floor. "You... needed medicine?" He motioned over the floor as his dumbass tried to break the ice.
"Hm?" Rosalind didn't get what he meant at first as she followed his motions with her eyes. "Ah... I *cough* see." When she did get what he meant, she slowly shook her head with a small smile on her face. "No... I'm afraid not. It's like this... because Damien needed medicine and *cough* bandages for Kei and Darren yesterday, correct?" She spoke slowly as she recalled the reason.
"Oh... right." Rival had no idea how he managed to forget that. "Damien... did do that." He hated the idea of acknowledging that Damien did any good.
"Yes..." Rosalind started to slowly saunter around the room, just as an effort to keep her moving. "He left the room in a fairly *cough* neat manner... which I suppose I can appreciate." She wasn't actively using it for actual cinematography or anything... but still. She liked knowing it was neat and tidy.
"That's... enough about Damien." Rival abruptly shut down any more talk of the beautician. That bastard was not the reason he came in here for. "Rosalind. Let me say... wait." He once again got distracted by his objective as he noticed something on the ground.
"Rival? What is it?" Rosalind tilted her head as she followed his gaze. When she followed it enough, she saw what caught his interest. "Hm? Is there a problem with *cough* the ladder?"
Rival continued to narrow his eyes at the single ladder leaning against the wall. "Well... no. I guess not." He shrugged. "Just not sure why a ladder would be... here of all places." In his mind, a ladder and a hospital room don't really mix.
"I... guess I haven't questioned it." Rosalind slowly hobbled up to the ladder. "But I haven't questioned much of *cough* anything in my Ultimate Studio, I suppose." She slowly shrugged. "This is my first time being in here, after *cough* all."
"It... is?" Rival kept getting further distracted from his main objective, as he grew more curious in this line of questioning. "It's your own Ultimate Studio... and you haven't stepped foot in it once?" Rival himself wasn't the most passionate person, but even he didn't hate hanging out in his own studio.
Rosalind dryly chuckled as she rubbed her right arm with her left. "I... haven't, no." She looked in the general direction of where the stairs up to the third floor would be. "I haven't... for two *cough* reasons. First... I understand the point of this room. It's to let me engage in my *cough* talent." She went back to looking around the room. "But... the scale is small enough to where it wouldn't be *cough* enjoyable for me, I'm afraid." She sighed.
"I... think I see." Rival joined her in looking around the room... and realized that the room itself wasn't actually that big. It's bigger than your average room, but it still wasn't gigantic. It wasn't your proper movie set, that's for sure. Rival hadn't actually been on a movie set... but you get what he means. "That's fair enough."
"Right... and reason number *cough* two." Rosalind felt... more than a little awkward bringing this up. "The... stairs. The eight story climb isn't... the *cough* easiest for me." She hated to acknowledge that fact... but she did.
"...Oh." Rival stuffed his hands in his pockets. That... was awkward. A mixture of various emotions came across the backing vocalist's face as he took a step closer to the cinematographer. "Rosalind... I... I'm sorry. For the whole... elevator thing." He finally got to do what he wanted to do in the first place. "I... didn't acknowledge how you might've felt about it... or what you wanted. I... didn't mean it as a slight or an insult or a..." He trailed off as his brain stopped supplying the apology.
At his apology, Rosalind took a step closer to him. "Rival..." A... gentle smile appeared on her face as she adjusted her sunglasses. "It's okay. I forgive *cough* you." She backed up the gentle smile with a gentle, slightly shaky nod.
"You... do?" Rival met Rosalind's gaze with hopeful yet hesitant eyes. He... didn't expect her to forgive him, honestly.
"Yes... I do." Rosalind gave another gentle nod. "I *cough* overreacted about the whole ordeal. And I should've acknowledged that that was your *cough* way of attempting to aid me." She felt legitimately bad about it all.
"Rival." Rosalind set the remote in his hands. "I appreciate the *cough* thought... but I don't need this."
"Huh...?" Oh god, Rival definitely fucked this up.
Rosalind kept up a firm glare at Rival. "This is a *cough* waste on someone like me. Besides, I'm not an *cough cough* invalid...!" She actually raised her voice a little as she spoke with some passion. "Don't give me... that. I can walk up those stairs... on my *cough own!" Raising her voice, even if for two lines, was having a clear affect on her as she started to get shaky.
"Rosalind..." Rival stuck out her hand, suddenly feeling horrible about himself and for her.
"So... forgive me." Rosalind bowed her head in forgiveness.
"You don't need to..." Rival didn't expect her to apologize to him. "Rosalind... no. It's fine. I should've thought about your feelings." He didn't want Rosalind to feel bad about this. This... was his mistake and his alone.
"Rival..." Rosalind still felt bad... but... "If you say so." She did as he wished.
"Yeah... thanks." Rival was glad that he was the one who felt bad, despite how strange that is to say. "Well... that's what I came in here for." He announced that like he was planning on leaving.
Rosalind slowly nodded. "I see. Well... I appreciate you coming to *cough* apologize." She repeated herself.
...
...
...
"...Rosalind? Can I ask...?" Rival broke the all-encompassing awkward silence with a question. "You... don't like being treated like an invalid. That's... sensitive for you... I'm guessing?" He knew this was a risky topic to go through. But... he wanted to know.
"Ah..." Rosalind slightly widened her eyes, not expecting such a... to the point question. "You are correct, *cough* yes." But she saw no point in denying it. "After I was diagnosed with..." She det her free hand over her chest. "With this... people had a tendency to treat me like I *cough* needed help with every little thing. It was... annoying." She used the bluntest word she could think of.
"Right... that sounds annoying..." Rival couldn't put himself in Rosalind's shoes in the slightest, but he tried his best to empathize with her.
"But... I'm still fully *cough* capable of doing my job." Rosalind continued her thought. "The year I got diagnosed with this..." She set her hand over chest again. "...was the worst year of my life." She dropped ominously.
"The... worst year of your life?" Rival quietly questioned, not wanting to interrupt Rosalind opening up a little. He's been... wanting to hear more about her for a while. "Why... is that?"
Rosalind dryly chuckled at the question. "The why... isn't *cough* important." She wasn't ready to open up that much apparently. "But despite everything that happened... I'm still here. I'm going to make sure I use whatever *cough* time I have left to it's fullest. I swear it." She let out a breath, signaling that she was done with her little rant.
Then despite Rosalind's usual lethargic personality... Rival felt himself feeling... oddly inspired by that. The sheer determination in her tone was almost... palpable. "Wow." He said breathlessly. "Allow me to... apologize again, Rosalind. I... wasn't aware how... strong you were." He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.
"It's okay, Rival. Thank *cough* you." Rosalind replaced that momentary bravado with something gentler. "That means... more than you *cough* know." Knowing that the person she was the closest with here sees her as strong... that's all she wanted, really.
"...Yeah." Rival slowly nodded... a realization seeping into his mind at his actions. One that he... kind of hated... in a way. "You're welcome." But he ignored that realization for now... as he managed to crack a small smile.
All Rival had wanted from this was to apologize for his elevator thing... and he managed to do so. But... he got more than he expected. He felt like... he saw Rosalind in a totally new light today. Funny how a simple apology can... go so far.
"Rosalind... I think I... I've been seeing you as Hanako... for a while." Rival abruptly dropped that realization he had two paragraphs ago.
"Oh...?" Rosalind slightly tilted her head. "Is that... right?"
"Ah... shit." Those words kinda just flowed out of Rival's mouth before his brain could process them fully. Welp, not like he could take them back now. "I... didn't mean to say that..." He muttered.
"No... it's *cough* alright." Rosalind slowly shook her head. "I appreciate honesty, Rival." She took a step closer to him, not feeling offended, shocked, or any significant emotion at that reveal. "And..." Rosalind started to fumble around for her Star-Phone. "If I may be *cough* honest as well..." She managed to pull out her Star-Phone. "I have your *cough* secret, Rival." She showed him the Secrets App as proof...
But Rival didn't even look at it. "I... I'm sorry." He apologized again as he felt... a slight blush race across his face. He felt embarrassed enough already... but now he felt mortified that Rosalind knew everything about Hanako. And to top it off... he felt his heart start to beat faster as he thought more about Rosalind... damn it. He... did he... like her?
"Rival?" Rosalind pocketed her Star-Phone as she attempted to get a better look at his face. "You don't need to *cough* apologize..." After all, given what she knew about Hanako... she couldn't exactly blame Rival for how he acted.
"No... I... need to go." Rival felt like a storm was blowing through his mind as he turned to the exit. "I'm sorry, Rosalind. I..." Without finishing his thought... he left Rosalind alone.
"Rival..." Rosalind didn't attempt to call him back as she sat on the hospital bed in the middle of the studio. She felt a slight feeling rising in her chest... but whether or not that was relating to the backing voclaist or to the urge to cough up blood... she didn't know.
But when she reached her hand up to her lip... she saw blood on her fingers. Hm... maybe it was both...
...
I think, despite how it ended... Rival and Rosalind grew a little closer today!
[Boarded-Up Room]
Ji-hoon's moment of opportunity eventually came for him after a few hours of waiting. After tailing them, he witnessed that Aurora and Raiha had spent most of the day together. The aura between the two girls was... peculiar. Equals parts... emotional... and equal parts... sinister. He didn't like it. It didn't seem like the girls were planning anything, as far as he could tell.
But anyway, after the girls finally split off from each other, Ji-hoon noticed Raiha heading into... the Boarded-Up Room on the first floor. AKA, the scene of Bessie's death. He wasn't sure what to make of that as he quietly entered behind her, opting to just listen for now until the right moment to properly question her.
"..." Raiha didn't say anything though. She merely stood in the still charred room in silence. She slowly shifted between looking at various things in the room.
Ji-hoon couldn't read Raiha's expression from where he was standing. And because of that... he was getting a little restless. If he wasn't going to overhear anything, he figured it'd be better to just... go for it. So...
"Raiha." Ji-hoon announced his presence as he pretended to just walk in at this moment. "What are you doing?"
"Kya!" Raiha let out a quiet scream as the voice of Ji-hoon jumpscared her. She turned around in a fright, her eyes wide with with fright. "J-Ji-hoon! Um..." She couldn't get over how scary of a glare that he had. Earlier in the game she'd be able to resist it well enough... but now, especially after the motive, she straight up felt like she couldn't breath while being in the same room as him.
"I asked a question, Raiha. What are you doing in a place like this?" Ji-hoon stayed relentless as he crossed his arms. He noticed her obvious fear, but that didn't change anything. It was just a defense mechanism as far as he was concerned. It wasn't real. Not at all.
"Uh... I..." Raiha tried to control her breathing, genuine anxiety rising up in her. "I-I just... needed to... um..." She struggled to think of anything as her entire body started to tremble. "I... I..." Her mind drew an entire blank she froze completely in place.
"Raiha? Answer me." Ji-hoon's tone lost a little venom as he watched the trendsetter tremble as she struggled to think of an excuse.
"Damn it... I... uh... um..." Raiha tried so hard to think of an excuse... but she couldn't think of anything. She tried to work up the courage to tsll the truth... but she couldn't do that either. She shut her eyes tight as she tears start to form. God she wished that Aurora was here to comfort her... she couldn't stand this...
Ji-hoon continued to stand there as he watched Raiha now add crying to her repertoire of methods to garner sympathy for attention. This was ridiculous. He knew this selfish bitch for who she really was. Yet here she was, shaking like a leaf and crying at a simple question. God... she's such a scumbag who uses her fame to get away with whatever she wants... she'll do anything to destroy whoever is in her way... and she'll manipulate people as she sees fit...
And yet... Ji-hoon felt himself getting manipulated too. Scumbag or not, interrogating a young girl while she cries and trembles... he wasn't into that. And besides, she couldn't even respond to him like this.
Ji-hoon sighed as he pulled something out of his pocket and walked up to Raiha. "Here. A handkerchief. Use it to dry your tears." He handed her what looked like a homemade handkerchief.
Raiha, her fear at its peak with Ji-hoon so close, shakily took the handkerchief, and used it to clean up her face.
While he watched her do so, Ji-hoon went to the least burnt portion of the room, then sat down on the ground. "Sit down with me." He directed her next to him, somehow sounding forceful and gentle at the same time.
"...O-Okay..." It's not like Raiha felt like she could refuse his command anyway. She took another to dry her face and try her best to collect herself, before going to shakily sit down next to Ji-hoon, but still keeping a decent distance. Her hands continued to tremble as she refused to meet his gaze, some stray tears still falling from her eyes.
…
…
…
"Did you… m-make this…?" After a heavy stint of silence, Raiha held up the soiled handkerchief, her soul feeling a little less heavy after getting a moment to calm down.
"…I did." Ji-hoon didn't see any reason to deny it. "Pheme… she really knows everything about us." He slowly shook his head while he stared at nothing. "She put a knitting kit in my room. She knows that I like to… knit while I'm stressed. Or… just in general." He took out the small hat he knitted during his FTE with Ayaka.
"Really…?" Raiha sniffled as she thought about that. Knitting… didn't really seem to fit Ji-hoon's hard-boiled image, in her opinion. "That… doesn't really fit your image, Ji-hoon." She expressed that thought aloud as she finally mustered up the courage to look at him.
"Heh." Ji-hoon chuckled. "Can't blame you for that. Saori said something similar once." He clutched at something under his shirt.
"Saori…? Who's that?" Raiha hadn't been able to have a good, proper, non invasive FTE with Ji-hoon before, so she basically knew nothing about the guy. Well, except for the fact that he hates her. And… despite what she says… she definitely knows why…
"She… doesn't matter." This was the very last rabbit hole he'd ever want to go down with Raiha. He'd never he stupid enough to let her know personal information like this. Much less telling her about Kimi. "But she's just a friend who said something similar to you once."
"A friend… right." Raiha slowly nodded as her eyes drifted down to Ji-hoon's hand as it stuffed that small hat back into his pocket. "Do you… knit a lot, Ji-hoon?" She slowly started to feel herself get a little more comfortable with this atmosphere.
"Mm…" Ji-hoon took a second to think about that. "I really only knit in two specific situations. When I'm stressed is one of them. And the other I won't be telling you." He bluntly shot that down without even meeting her still slightly red eyes.
"Ah… r-right." Raiha's voice shook a little as she got reminded of how… firm and rigid Ji-hoon could be. "Sorry for… asking. I guess." She assumed it was something really personal, so she thought she may as well apologize.
"Don't. You're fine." Ji-hoon didn't want to hear an apology of all things from Raiha, even if it's for a minor transgression like that.
…
…
…
The conversation again fell into a heavy silence as neither party said anything else. Raiha looked down at her hands while she contemplated… things. And Ji-hoon continued to stare at nothing while he contemplated… the best way to approach this. This was going alright… but he knew that pure aggression wasn't going to work as well as he would've liked. She he opted to take a more slow approach-
"Why… do you hate me, Ji-hoon…?" Raiha suddenly and shakily asked, inadvertently determining the celebrity detective's course of action here. And… she did know the answer to the question she asked. But part of her just wanted to know… how much he knew. She assumed all of it… but she still wanted to hear him say it himself.
Ji-hoon looked to the trendsetter's downtrodden form at that question, his mouth slighly agape at the gall of a query like that. "Don't you dare act like you don't know." Truthfully, he never took Raiha Miyahara to be so... sensitive. Or... no. Wait! It's an act! The hell was he thinking? He can't be falling in her trap!
But despite those words, Ji-hoon slowly sighed... and took a small step into the trap. "Raiha. You ask why I hate you?" He kept looking at her, even as she avoided his gaze.
"Y-Yeah..." Raiha bit her lip as she felt somehow even more tense than before.
"Hm..." Ji-hoon slowly nodded, before pulling out his paper notepad. He took a second to flip to a specific note. "Raiha. Do you know the name Nao Fudo?" He clutched the notepad tight in his grip.
"Nao... Fudo?" Raiha sounded the name out, noticing a slight hint of sadness in his voice as he spoke the name. "I... don't. Who is she?" She wasn't sure of the answer he wanted from him.
"Hmph. Don't know why I'm surprised." Ji-hoon scoffed, evidently not wanting that answer. "Well... I'll still tell you." He looked to the note he had open. "Nao Fudo was a student at the old school I attended. The one I attended before Hope's Peak, I mean." He took out a pen and tapped it against the note.
"Okay..." Raiha tensed up just the teensiest bit more at her apparently wrong answer. Now, she just opted to listen and not say anything else that could be 'wrong.'
"Now, I never personally knew Nao." Ji-hoon clarified. "But I know her story. I know... about how and why she committed suicide." He abruptly dropped that unfortunate truth.
"Oh no..." Raiha didn't expect to hear that. "What... happened?" She swallowed her own anxiety to take on a more serious... everything. She wanted to try to be respectful.
"You don't remember it? Tch." Ji-hoon scoffed again before holding his head in his hand. "Guess you don't remember all of the tweets you make. Figures." He hit her with the double scoff.
"My... t-tweets...?" Despite her efforts, some of Raiha's anxiety got regurgitated as she dreaded where this might be going.
"I'll get to it." Ji-hoon cut her off before she could say anything else. "I mean, since you don't remember, I may as well catch you up on it." He spoke with a mixture of anger and sarcasm as he read over the note he had open. "Nao Fudo got sexually assaulted by one of the top dogs at my school, Kikotei Koji. Kikotei was the heir to a famous chain of hotels and boutiques in the wider area."
"Oh... I know of Koji Boutique! It's super booshie! I've been there a few times, and it was-" Raiha was about to rant about how luxurious the boutique, but one glare from Ji-hoon was more than enough to shut her up. Yeah, that probably wasn't smart of her to so. Force of habit.
"As I was saying..." Ji-hoon didn't pay any more attention to Raiha's nonsense. "Due to Kikotei's influence, he had ample power to slander and hate on her after he took advantage of her... and he even did so before she could say a word of it." He felt some Joji-like rage building in him as he recounted the tale. "The entire school eventually turned against her, and it turned into a nationwide scandal relating to girls making up rape accusations."
"Oh my god..." Raiha spoke breathlessly, knowing exactly where this was going.
"Exactly. After the entire nation turned against her and treated her like a pariah for being a victim... she killed herself." Ji-hoon clutched his notepad almost hard enough to break it. "It even continued after her death..."
"That's... that's horrible..." Raiha felt a few fresh tears fall from her eyes, but this time out of sadness for the poor Nao Fudo. "Did... did you catch that scumbag? The scumbag that orchestrated all of it?" She really wanted to hear that he did.
"Of course I did." A hint of a triumphant smirk appeared onto Ji-hoon's face. "I managed to get Kikotei Koji to join me on a livestream, and I tricked him into confessing. That little shit is being held at... Howaitokarā Prison now. I remember see his dad fight with the cops as he watched his stupid son get brought in." His smirk faltered a bit as he spoke the name of the prison for some reason.
"That's... crazy impressive." Ji-hoon's skills both amazed and scared Raiha. "I'm glad he's behind bars now. ...But..." She got reminded of something. "This relates to me... how?" She almost hesitated to ask, not knowing how the celebrity detective would respond.
Ji-hoon's eyes flashed with recollection as she brought up the main point of what he was going for here. "Right... and you still don't remember it..." The recollection got replaced with disgust as he turned to a different note. "Raiha, you tweeted about the situation."
"S- uh, I did...?" Raiha tried her best to keep her composure, but he wide eyes and shaking hands betrayed her.
"Yes, you did." Ji-hoon was still so appalled that she didn't remember. "Prior to Kikotei's confession, you tweeted something along the lines of this." He showed her his notepad, where he seemed to have written down his recollection of the tweet.
The Nao Fudo situation is a sad reminder of what women will do for attention. The girl slandering the son of the Koji chain is unprecedented, and I hope this doesn't end well for her. As a strong, independent woman myself, I acknowledge that we shouldn't needlessly ruin men's lives, just because people are more inclined to believe us.
Sorry for the seriousness, just thought I'd address this. I'll talk a little bit about it on my next GramInsta stream too.
Aight, see you later Riactioneers!
And to women like Nao Fudo, know that the riactioneers do not welcome people like you! :tch: :raiha_disgusted:
"...Oh." Raiha squeaked out as she read over the written tweet, and even the written out emojis. "Did she really... uh, I mean... I... think I remember this now..." She tried to hide that small slip up.
"Finally, huh?" And Ji-hoon somehow didn't notice it as he set the notepad on the ground. "Guess I can't expect you to remember everything you say... but still. You were one of the first ones online to mindlessly go along with Kikotei's word. That... wasn't something I could let go." The fact that he literally wrote the tweet down is pretty good proof of that.
Raiha let out a strained sigh as she struggled to think of the right thing to say here. "Well... I didn't know-"
"Don't give me that." Ji-hoon shot down that excuse like a trained sniper. "I don't have it written down, but I know that after I exposed Kikotei live on stream, you still defended him. Hell, you slandered me a little too." His glare had shifted between various modes this FTE, and now it was a fairly charged one.
"Shit..." Raiha quietly muttered. "Did I... actually?" Her mind scrambled to recall what Ji-hoon might've been talking about here.
"You seriously don't remember?" Ji-hoom was starting to find this excuse stale. There was the chance she legitimately didn't remember, as everyone's memories were a little messy. But still. "Whatever. After a little bit of calling me a "presumptious and arrogant upstart" online, your tune did eventually change as the actual evidence stacked up against him." He almost chuckled as he recalled that specific insult.
"Oh... I... did say that..." Genuine recollection flashed in Raiha's eyes as the insult burrowed into her brain. "Right... Tomohiro- or, no. Father worked with Hiroaki Koji, Kikotei's father. He said that once..." A few dots connected in her head.
"I'm already aware of that. I've done my research." Ji-hoon crossed his arms, finding it slightly weird that Raiha would ever refer to her dad by his first name. "But defending a guy like him because of your father's connection isn't an excuse. And don't apologize. It won't do anything." He picked his notepad back up and began to flip through it.
Raiha flinched at Ji-hoon's... everything. "O-Okay..." She knew it was smarter to just do whatever he said.
"And I'm not done, by the way." Ji-hoon finally found the note he had wanted. "You were among those who at first defended Ichiro Yamanaka, the businessman who killed his entire family due his gambling debts and his wife threatening to leave him."
"Oh shit... I did..." Raiha gritted her teeth as she recalled a certain tweet she made.
This Celebrity Detective has gone too far now. Like, Ji-hoon Jo? Yamanaka is a respected and well-known guy, and you're blaming the home invasion on him???? He got injured from it?!???? God, this Ji-hoon Jo guy is just another fame hound.
When she snapped back to reality, Raiha saw that Ji-hoon had written that tweet down as well. "Even that... huh?" She dryly chuckled as the sheer evidence he had against her began to pile up.
"Of course, that. Your father worked with Yamanaka as well. Just going along with whatever your parents say..." Ji-hoon groaned in disapproval as he shook his head.
"..." Raiha had nothing to say to that.
"Then... one last thing." Ji-hoon was relentless in his reasons for hate assault as he... pulled out a picture from his pocket.
"What's that...?" Raiha spoke with wary curiosity as she pointed to the picture he pulled out.
"A picture of my older sister." Ji-hoon showed the picture to the trendsetter. The picture featured a beautiful dark-haired girl, who seemed to be acting on a movie set. "Her name is Ji-hye Jo. She's an Ultimate Movie Actress." He dropped some interesting lore.
Raiha slowly blinked. "Your sister is an Ultimate too? That's... interesting." That was lore that simultaneously made sense and was surprising. It made her a little more curious than afraid of him too...
"Hmph." Ji-hoon seemed to hit a partial shrug as he pocketed the picture. "Pheme included this with my knitting kit." He felt the need to explain. "But... that's not relevant." He quickly shook his head. "And... you know... she's less a reason why I hate you and more a reason why I hate celebrities." He shifted his eyes to the side.
"Is that... right?" A distant tea sensor went off for Raiha as she learned that this topic might not be directly about Ji-hoon's hatred of her. "Did she... do something?"
"...Something like that." Ji-hoon heaved a sigh full of emotion and meaning. "As she dived into the acting world, our relationship got naturally... shaky. We had disagreements... things happened... and then she..." It sounded like he was about to say something important... then he stopped. "Nevermind."
"Nevermind? But-" Raiha got legitimately interested, but on the inside, she knew that she shouldn't dare press Ji-hoon of all people for more information. She didn't want to make him hate her more. "A-Alright. That... sounds like a lot."
"It was." Ji-hoon answered, grateful that Raiha didn't dare press for more details. "It had a strain on my entire family. Mainly on my older brother and younger sister, Ji-heok and Ji-soo respectively."
"You have... more siblings?" Raiha blinked. This unprecedented Ji-hoon lore was throwing her off a little. She even managed to momentarily forget about her own anxieties as she felt herself get drawn into this conversation now.
Ji-hoon kept looking away from her. "I do. There's not much to explain about them... but the divide that grew between me and my sister affected them as well. Ji-heok was always pretty quiet, but he almost grew... wary of me, in a way. And Ji-soo became straight up scared of me." He heaved another sigh... still full of emotion.
"Scared... of you? Why?" Asked the girl who was scared of him.
"You don't need to know the exact reason." Again, that wasn't lore that he was keen on Raiha knowing. "But... that brings me to my honest final point." He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting with her in here, but he knew he couldn't do so forever. "My younger sister. Ji-soo." He shifted eyes back to face Raiha.
Raiha scooted a centimeter away from him as she recognized his eyes getting filled with that frightening passion she knows so well. "Ji-soo? W-What about her...?" She gulped, her anxieties slowly resurfacing.
Ji-hoon ominously chuckled. "Ji-soo was a Riactioneer. A fan of yours. A more casual one, but still." The sheer power of his gaze forced Raiha to keep it.
"O-Oh r-really? That's... g-great!" Raiha couldn't keep herself from stammering as she felt herself freeze in place. "Love to h-hear about... my fans! Yep! L-Love it!" Her voice lacked actual enthusiasm as she struggled to control her breathing.
"I'm sure you do. I'm sure." Ji-hoon could tell that Raiha knew where he was going with this. Good. He's been waiting for the right time for this... and now was perfect. "And... she might've been a casual fan... but she went to the grand opening of your fashion boutique, "Me, My Dress, and I." Remember it?" His tone suggested that he was about to drop something big.
"Oh... I... um... uh... well..." Words became a monumental struggle for Raiha as she felt her entire body start to tremble. She felt like she was biting her lip hard enough to make it bleed.
"...Really?" Ji-hoon hoped she would've at least offered something more than useful stammering. "Fine, Raiha. I'll remind you." He abruptly stood up, then reached down to grab the trendsetter by her collar. He then promptly dragged her up with him. "I'll remind of exactly what you did, Raiha." He stared her dead in her trembling eyes. "You..."
Ji-hoon gripped her collar tighter as a wave of righteous fury washed over him. "You killed Emisa Nanjo! You murdered that girl, right in the bathroom of your precious boutique!" He yelled right in her face, his classic tactlessness revitalizing him.
"W-W-What?!?!" Raiha yellled out in distress as she felt herself start to sob in earnest. "I-I-I d-didn't-" Her first instinct was to attempt to defend herself.
"Don't you fucking dare!" Ji-hoon screamed at her, not wanting to hear a single excuse from her. "You killed Emisa Nanjo, AKA, 'Missi Meister,' right in the bathroom. You ended the life of one of your precious fans! I don't know why, but I know you did! And your parents payed to cover it up!" He slung out the accusations left and right.
"N-N-No! No! T-That didn't-!" Raiha didn't even know what was happening anymore. Her mind was in a state of desperation, her words on frantic autopilot.
"And that's not all!" Ji-hoon gripped her collar even tighter. "You also killed Airi Nishigai! You murdered her at your celebration of getting into Hope's Peak Acadmey! You pushed her off the balcony of your place, and she fell to her death! That bullshit wasn't suicide! You killed your little rival from your private school, didn't you?!" It felt liberating to finally be able to accuse this scumbag of her crimes.
"H-H-Huh?! No! I-I-I didn't do that! She did-" Even more desperate, autopilot excuses flowed from Raiha as she felt the worst she's ever felt in her life. She felt like she was about to die. She felt like she was about to pass out. Everything in her mind was just... chaos.
"You...!" Ji-hoon loosened his grip on her collar. "You asked why I hate you? Here's an answer. You prounce around like you've done nothing wrong... like you're the perfect trendsetting angel with her perfect fanbase. But that couldn't be further from the truth. You walk around with blood on your hands, and you embrace that fact. You're disgusting. And I can't stand the idea of my little sister being a fan of yours. Much less Kimi growing up to be one as well. Since you murder your fans and all. So... that is why I hate you." He completely loosened his grip, the trendsetter collapsing to the ground in exhaustion.
"Raiha..." Ji-hoon whispered one last time. "If you dare do anything for this motive... I will catch you and bring you to justice. Mark my words. You won't be able to run from your crimes forever." Leaving the crocodile-tear crying trendsetter on the floor, Ji-hoon quietly left.
...
Raiha slowly wrapped her hands around her knees, and rocked herself back and forth as she continued to sob like a dam had broken in her. "Mom... Dad... Aurora..." She muttered as she continued to rock heself back and forth. She felt so... so... so... alone.
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Uh... yeah, I don't think Ji-hoon and Raiha grew closer together today man, gotta be honest.
[Ultimate Bartender's Studio]
After Aurora split off from Raiha, she... kinda just started to wander around the place. Being with Raiha today was both terrifying and comforting... so after she left by herself, Aurora was left... alone. And with the knowledge of the 50-hour deadline ending in roughly 3 hours, well, she was feeling extremely anxious.
So, instead of wandering around aimlessly, she chose to go to the place that could possibly ease her concerns... with alcohol. Despite Okukik Wine basically being dead to her due to the trauma of being poisoned from it, she wasn't going to let that stop her from enjoying some other kinds of alcohol.
As Aurora approached the ajar door to Darren's Studio, she knocked first. She had to be polite, after all. "Hello? Darren?" She slowly opened the door, and was met with...
Darren! Who else? "Aurora? Welcome." Darren looked up at her while cleaning a glass. "Here for a drink?"
"Why... yes. I am." Aurora gently smiled as she went inside. Already, this place had a much more comfortable aura than the Comedy Studio. Perhaps that was mainly due to Pheme not being here.
"Oh yeah? Have a seat." Darren motioned to a bar stool before going to the referential bar cabinet behind him. "What would you like?"
"Let's see..." Aurora got comfortable on her bar stool as she thought about it. "Definitely no Okukik Wine." She said with a dry chuckle. "How about... Star-Seira Wine?" She pointed to a dark blue bottle in the cabinet, of which she assumed was the wine she mentioned.
"Good choice." Darren took the Star-Seira Wine from the cabinet. "I'm assuming you know about it? It's said that a great astrologist made this wine. She apparently infused "real stars" in it as well, but her green-haired chemist husband didn't like that." He chuckled as he recalled the lore of the drink. "I'll pour a glass for you."
"Thank you, Darren." Aurora smiled as she waited for her drink. Something about that lore didn't sound right to her, but she chose to not worry about.
"Here you are." Darren set down a wine glass filled with dark blue liquid near Aurora. "Now-" He cut off whatever he was about to say as he suddenly eyed the door to his studio.
"Darren? What's wrong?" Aurora hesitated to take a sip of her drink yet, Darren's sudden change in body language throwing her off.
"It's... weird." Darren kept eyeing the door. "I feel like... someone is about to hijack our FTE-"
All of sudden, the door was suddenly kicked wide open. "A glass of Star-Seira Wine for me as well, Mr. Taylor!" Excited to hijack his FTE, like he said, Pheme busted into his studio, striking a pose immediately afterwards.
"P-Pheme!" Aurora's eyes widened at the sight of the goddess, memories of the drinking party making her hands tremble a little.
"Pheme..." Darren whispered, reaching a hand up to his now bandage-less neck. The cut she left had healed enough by now, but it was definitely going to leave a slight scar. For the record, he was fine with that.
"Yes! It's me!" Filled with energy at the sight of both Aurora and Darren being a little scared of her presence, Pheme sauntered up to the barstool next to Aurora and took a seat. "A glass for me, Mr. Taylor! Please and thank you!" She motioned to the Star-Seira Wine, which Darren hadn't put away yet.
"...Sure." Darren knew better than to disobey the goddess. He wasn't keen on pushing his luck since what happened last night. "You seem... cheerful, Pheme." His eyes drifted to her bandaged up shoulder.
"Why, of course I am!" Pheme giggled. Despite showing such venomous malice against him yesterday, now, it was like Pheme had forgotten all about what happened yesterday. "Why do you ask, Mr. Taylor?" She raised an eyebrow.
"No reason." Darren quickly shook his head before passing a notably non-poisoned drink to Pheme. If she wasn't going to bring it up, then neither would he.
"Thank you, Mr. Taylor!" Pheme raised her drink up in a toast. "You can leave now! Thank you for your service!" She shooed the bartender off.
Darren blinked. "...Leave?"
"Yes! Leave!" Pheme cocked her head to the door. "You don't need to be here! I'd like to have an FTE with Ms. Beaufort here! And you know that FTEs can't have more than one person!" She acted like 'FTE' was an actual term in the dictionary.
"You... what?" Aurora gulped as she watched Pheme explaining how she wanted to talk with... her. Her mind already started to race.
"Yes! I've always wanted the chance to converse with you, Ms. Beaufort!" Pheme beamed as she looked to the starlet. "So, please leave for now Mr.-" She briefly looked back over to Darren, but she found that he was already gone. "Oh! Very good!" She nodded in approval.
"How did he...?" Aurora looked around the room, baffled on how Darren escaped so quickly. She swore he had some sort of special powers... but that was something reserved for Nathan and Gold's fics. Here in ExtraMeme country, he have real, non-fiction characters... who just so happen to have teleportation powers.
"Well, shall we?" Pheme held up her wine in toast.
"Um..." Aurora fidgeted a little before holding up her own wine, and clanking it against Pheme's. "Y-Yeah... c-cheers!" She forced a smile as she went along with... whatever this was. She highly doubted she could escape... so she chose to begrudgingly accept her fate.
"Yes, cheers!" Pheme took a sip of her Star-Seira Wine. "Mm, you can really taste the stars!" She apparently believed the lore Darren gave.
"Yes... it's q-quite nice..." Aurora stammered as she took a sip. The drink did actually taste nice, but the anxiety from being so close to a psycho goddess kinda soured it.
"Hm?" Pheme noticed Aurora's stutter as she took another sip. "You seem... afraid, Ms. Beaufort." She flipped her hair, as if already knowing the source of the starlet's fear. "What are you fearful of, Ms. Beaufort?"
Aurora gave a shaky sigh as she set her drink down. "I don't think it n-needs explaining..." She gave the goddess a slight glare. "But ever since the drinking party prior to... Adam's case..." Her glare got replaced with a dose of sadness as she thought back to the academic. "I've found it hard to... stay calm around you, Pheme." She opted for the most delicate honesty she could give.
"Oh?" Pheme raised her eyebrow, curiosity instead of anger clouding her. "Why is that?" It hard to tell if she truly was playing dumb.
Whether she was playing dumb or not, Aurora was getting a little annoyed by it. Her emotions were fluctuating so much while talking with Pheme... and in hindsight, maybe that's what the goddess wants.
Well, anyway, Aurora continued to be honest. "I understand that you technically had your reasons for doing so, but you giving me your poisoned drink... and then the sensation of vomiting blood..." She held up her hand to her bottom lip. "It wasn't pleasant, Pheme." That was an experience she was sadly never going to forget.
"...Ah." Pheme slowly nodded in something almost like understanding as she took a sip of her wine. "I see."
"...You... see?" Aurora blinked. She didn't expect a response like that.
"Yes. I do see." Pheme seemed semi-serious as she addressed this. "I'll be honest Ms. Beaufort, I have no reason to apologize. I protected my own life. That's simply a matter you must do in a Killing Game..." She stared off in the distance at nothing while she absentmindedly pulled at the chain on her shackle.
"I... suppose I understand." Aurora didn't really see the point in blaming someone for protecting their life in a Killing Game of all things. "But still... I..." That didn't mean she'd forgive her, even if she did offer an apology.
"Yes, I know that you wouldn't forgive me, even if I did offer an apology." Pheme casually read off the narration. "So I won't offer one. I'm afraid I can't undo the affects of poisoning on one's mental state." She offered a... pragmatic view instead of an apology.
"Well..." Aurora, again, didn't expect that response. "You're right. You cannot." She shook her head. Despite how slightly awkward this had gotten, Pheme's words somehow made her relax a little.
"Indeed." Pheme nodded. "I can't undo it on your mental state, nor can I undo it on my mental state..." She took a small sip of her wine.
"Undo it on... what?" Aurora slightly raised her eyebrows, immediately latching onto what Pheme just said. It sounded like she... revealed lore about herself? My god, this truly was an FTE!
"Hm? What's with the- ah." Pheme suddenly realized why Aurora acted like that. "Are you curious about what I mean, Ms. Beaufort?" She flashed a knowing smirk from underneath her metal mask.
"Um... yes. I am." Aurora felt a little wary about where this could be going, but she couldn't deny her own curiosity. I mean, being able to learn about the overseer of your Killing Game, even if just a little, is very valuable!
"You are? Well..." Pheme tapped her fingers against the bar counter, before leaning in closer to Aurora. "Keep this between us, but..." Her voice switched from being more serious to being more playful. "My memories... feel like a puzzle to me. Just bits and pieces... and I find it difficult to remember it all." She offered a little insight into her how her mind works.
"Really?" Aurora tilted her head... not too sure on how to take this. "So... you have... a memory disorder?" That'd explain a lot actually, but she wanted to hear Pheme confirm it first.
"I think so!" Pheme rapidly nodded, like some of these memories were coming back to her. "One of the bits I have in here..." She clutched her head for a moment. "It tells me two words. The bit tells me... memory loss... and bipolar disorder."
"Bipolar disorder?" Aurora widened her eyes. Now that would explain a lot. "You have bipolar disorder, Pheme?" She was getting into this now.
"Well... I'm not sure." Pheme furrowed her brow. "That bit I just mentioned... it's like out of context memory. Have you ever experienced something like that, Ms. Beaufort?" She kind of hoped the starlet had, so that she wouldn't be alone in this sensation.
"An out of context memory... like remembering something, but no details about it? Like remembering that an event happened... but nothing else about that event?" Aurora wanted to confirm.
"Yes! That's exactly it!" Pheme's face lit up at Aurora's understanding. "Have you experienced something like that before?"
"Hm..." Aurora had to think on that for a moment. "Well... I believe so. I've had a few shows where the only memory I have of them is that they happened, but nothing else. They were shows from my early years though." She was confident she didn't have any memory problems, besides for the ones Pheme had inflicted on her.
"So you do understand! Great!" Pheme shot her hands up in the air. "Yes, it's like all of these scattered puzzle pieces in my brain are out of context memories. Like those words. And... something about witnessing someone being poisoned. That's another little bit I... partially remember." She explained what she meant with that earlier line. "And it wasn't you, by the way." She felt like she should clarify.
"Oh! That's... interesting." Aurora kind of wished that Ji-hoon or Kei were here to keep track of this stuff, as they were much better at this thing than she was. "You've... hm." She wanted to ask for more details, but judging by the look on Pheme's face, it seemed as if she truly was telling the truth here. "That's interesting, Pheme..."
"Right? Don't you love some good ol' gossip?" Pheme acted like mental disorders were worthy of gossip.
"Gossip is... a word to describe that." Aurora wasn't a gossip-hound on the same level as Raiha or Kuroko, but that didn't sound right to her. "Anyway... you also said you were... bipolar?" Again, that explains a lot.
"Yes! I... think so." It almost was like a memory thay scratched on the outside of Pheme's head, begging to dive back into her brain. "Why do you ask, Ms. Beaufort?"
"No... reason." Aurora eyed Pheme's bandaged shoulder as she remembered the information she learned about Darren and the Special Event. "It's just that... I assumed you'd be more angry at Darren for injuring you, Pheme." She decided to be bold and say it.
"What? Mr. Taylor?" Pheme giggled as she reached for her bandaged right should with her other hand. "At the moment I was enraged, but now? I see no reason to dwell on it!" She moved her right shoulder around, prompting a small wince of pain on her face. "I-I can't stay mad at my glamourous stars forever, now can I?"
"I... guess not." With all the sudden mood changes that Pheme had had, including right now, Aurora was surprised that she hadn't predicted something like this before.
"And besides, I've been injured before!" Pheme dropped a little more lore. "And not by Genjiro Mashimoto!" She also clarified.
"Huh..." Aurora's first instinct was to of course ask for more details, but like usual, she saw no point. She'd just file that information away for later. "You're right, Pheme. This truly is some... informative gossip." She didn't realize how... strangely enjoyable it was to gossip with Pheme.
"Really? Ah, I'm so glad you're enjoying this!" Pheme clapped her hands together. "I've missed just... having so nice gossip with a girl-friend!" She meant that in a platonic way as she took another sip of her drink. "Oh! Speaking of girlfriends..." She took on a teasing look. "I heard about what happened with you and Ms. Miyahara!" This was something she was excited to discuss.
At the mere mention of her name, Aurora's face blushed like a ripe tomato. She immediately looked away to hide her face. "W-Why do you want to t-talk about... Raiha?" She played dumb as she avoided meeting Pheme's knowing gaze.
"Oh, don't give me that!" Pheme reached out to cup Aurora's chin, and forced her to re-meet her gaze. "I think you know well why I wish to talk about Ms. Miyahara!"
"I-I..." Aurora's blush somehow intensified as she was forced to meet Pheme's gaze. She tried to muster out more words, but she just couldn't do it.
"I know you two kissed!" Pheme leaned in a little closer to her.
"Pheme, please!" Aurora squirmed more in her seat as the deep icy blue eyes of the goddess slowly approached hers.
"Hm? Why are you nervous? I think you two make a great couple!" Pheme shook Aurora's head using her grip on her chin.
"Pheme..." Aurora hated how much she was at Pheme's mercy right now. At this point, she was confident her blushing cheeks were literally radiating heat.
"I also know how long you've harbored feelings for the girl!" Pheme leaned in even closer until their faces were mere inches apart.
"Pheme...!" Aurora wanted so badly to look away or slap her arm away, but she didn't dare. She frlt so small under the gaze of the goddess.
"I also know that you're currently planning to-"
"PHEME!" Aurora couldn't stand it anymore, and wrestled her arm away from her, then moved her barstool away. She knew exactly what Pheme was going to say... and she couldn't stand to hear it. She couldn't bear it. She looked away from the goddess as she finally took some personal space back.
Pheme stayed frozen in place for a second, her arm still suspended in midair. After a few moments of a suspenseful silence... she lowered her arm down... then chuckled. "Heh heh... that's too far for you, Ms. Beaufort? I apologize." It didn't sound like she actually meant it.
"It's... whatever." Aurora should've figured she'd bring that up to mess with her. Ugh...
"Ms. Beaufort..." Pheme got up from her barstool and walked up to where Aurora had moved. She set her hand on her shoulder. "Being completely serious for a moment... no matter what happens... I think it's rather impressive you could be honest about your sexuality." Her voice took on a comforting tone, which was terrifying in its own way.
"...Thank you." Aurora's blush had luckily started to fade as she only had to deal with Pheme's hand on her should instead of her chin. "I... get what you mean." She spoke with... reluctance, of all things.
"Of course you do!" Pheme removed her hand ad she began to stroll around the studio. "As a pansexual woman myself, it's always nice to see others being honest about themselves!" She spoke almost... proudly of Aurora, which again was terrifying in its own way.
"You're pansexual, Pheme?" The reveal of Pheme's sexuality caught Aurora off-guard.
"Correct!" Pheme nodded. "And I'd love to explain more for you! But..." She pulled out her Star-Phone, then pressed a button on it.
A moment later...
"Attention my glamorous stars! It is now 11pm, and that means it's night time! It's time to go to bed, and get a good night of beauty sleep! Sleep well my stars!"
For the second time this chapter, the nighttime announcement played.
"Oh... it's that late already?" Aurora looked up at the ceiling as the announcement played, taking a mental note that Pheme is able to play those announcements from her Star-Phone.
"Unfortunately, yes!" Pheme went back up to the bar counter, took what was left of her wine, and downed it all. "Ahh! Refreshing!" She put her glass in the sink to save Darren a little time before heading to the door. "I enjoyed our talk, Ms. Beaufort! I'll see you later, provided you don't fall victim to the motive!" With a taunting wave, Pheme left the studio.
With Pheme gone, Aurora let out a relieved breath. "She... is a lot to deal with." She said to no one as she quietly finished the rest of her wine. She set hers in the sink as well. With that... she headed to the exit, not saying another word as she departed. But... not without realizing a certain thing.
The fact that, of all things to happen this chapter, Pheme and Aurora grew a little closer today!
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"And... they're gone." Darren raised up from behind the bar counter, they place that he had disappeared to. He honestly hadn't meant to eavesdrop on the girls, it kinda just... happened. Though truthfully, he was going to remember what all he had learned. Aurora and Raiha's relationship... Pheme's memories and disorders... who knows how useful that stuff could be.
Well, with that behind him, Darren chose to spend a little more time in his studio before heading to bed.
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And by a little more time, Darren apparently meant an hour. As he checked his Star-Phone, he saw that the time was 12:15 AM. Good time to head to bed, he figured. So, after finishing up, he moved out from behind the bar counter. But as he went to leave... he heard something from right outside his studio.
"Nyahaha!"
It was Cathy's signature laugh. The sound of it caused him to crack a small smile. "Cathy? You're still up?" Darren called out.
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"Nyahaha!"
That was all Darren got in response. "Uh... Cathy?" He knew that she was going through a lot right now, but he figured she could at least properly respond to him.
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"Nyahaha!"
Again. She laughed again. She wasn't saying anything. Darren knew that something was wrong. "Cathy...?" He asked one more time as he approached the door, his hand hovering over the gun in his pocket.
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"Nyahaha!"
Darren fully took out the pistol to arm himself. There was definitely something very wrong here. He didn't know what exactly was wrong... but he prepared himself for anything. He didn't say a word as he slowly stepped outside of his studio into the darkness...
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And found nothing. Nothing at all. Even in the darkness, he couldn't spot anything. Cathy's voice seemed to be coming from the right of his studio, so that was where he immediately turned after he exited. But... he found nothing. Unfortunately... Darren didn't know how grave a mistake he just made...
Darren heard someone approach from behind him.
"I'm sorry..." He heard the voice say.
"What?!" He tried to turn around in time... but...
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[Cathy's Room]
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Cathy's eyes suddenly shot wide open. She... didn't know why she got jolted awake. She... she felt like... she heard something. She sat her in bed, putting all of her focus into listening to her surroundings.
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Nothing. Honestly... she felt like might've heard a gunshot... but maybe her ears were playing tricks on her. I mean, her general... everything... had been fluctuating recently. So... she wouldn't be surprised if what she heard was nothing. But... she couldn't get rid of this sinking feeling in her chest... like... like something was wrong. What... was this feeling?
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After a few more quiet moments... she felt like she couldn't sit still. She jumped out of bed, threw on her clothes, and quietly crept out of her room. This... this was probably nothing, right? Yeah... no way. This had to be nothing...
[Grand Lobby - 3F]
My journey and exploration of the darkened studio that housed me started off slowly. I crept and snuck around the first floor at first, attempting to sense any shenanigans afoot. Or, just eager to sense anything that might help quell this unease growing inside of me. The first floor seemed fine... so I moved to go up to the second floor. Until...
*BANG*
I jumped up a few feet in the air at the sudden chilling sound, my hair standing on end. "What the?! That was... a gunshot!" I yelled out to myself, my awareness of my surroundings now on high alert. I stayed perfectly still... waiting to hear anymore sounds...
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Nothing. I... had to get moving! I quickly swallowed the fear rising in me as I dashed up the stairs and onto the second floor.
The floor was devoid of anything, just like the first. Only darkness surrounded me as I ran to the backup dancer non-human's studio, refusing to waste anymore time. I... I had to find what those gunshots were!
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The pop star non-human's studio was... also devoid of anything. She saw nothing strange. It was very dark, but she still didn't sense anything off. Ironically, her unease only grew with this... aura devoid of anything. "I... can't waste time here!" I muttered to myself as I ran up to the stairwell that led to the third floor. But as I did...
*BANG*
Another gunshot! No!
I couldn't afford to be frozen in place, listening for everything now! I had go!
The fear creeping in me was unlike anything I've ever experienced before as I absolutely sprinted up the eight-story high stairwell. My only focus... getting to the top. I didn't know what I was going to find... but... I couldn't afford to be scared! I couldn't... afford to be...
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As I made it onto the third floor, I wiped the sweat off of my forehead as I ran through the backing vocalist's studio. The sheer sound of my heart beating felt like it deafened every other sensation I was feeling. My sprinting had become more frantic as I scrambled through the remaining area of the studio... and across the bridge. After I made it across the bridge... and properly into the third floor... I saw a ladder set up to the right of me. But... that wasn't it. I...
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I also saw... it. A body. Laying right in the intersection between Darren's Studio and the cinematographer human's studio. It layed absolutely lifeless, almost as if it already had been buried and put to rest, but it had been dug up. As I... as I processed who this body belonged to... I felt my legs starts to shake. My hands and arms as well. The actual darkness of the area seemed to almost enclose around me, my only focus... the body. The only thing I was able to see... the body. The body... that belonged to...
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Darren Taylor, the Ultimate Bartender.
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"No..." I muttered, stinging, burning tears falling from my eyes. This... can't be, right? There's no way... he can't be... no... no... no!
"Darren!" I shouted as I ran over to his body, my tears flowing as if a cat's claws ruptured a bottle of water. "No... Darren! Please, no!" I begged as I tripped and fell right next to his lifeless body. In desperation, I embraced his body, hoping to find some trace of life still left in him. And...
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He was still breathing! He was still alive!
"Oh, thank god...!" Cathy sobbed right over his body and she attempted to shake him awake. In the past, she would've just assumed he was in a drunken state, and ignored him. But no... she knew better. And she could tell, too. He wasn't drunk. Something was wrong with him. She assumed that due to the... slightly dented vent grate laying next to his body. There was also a small device of some sort next to him too.
"B-Bartender human! Darren! Darren, wake up!" Her voice shook as she shook him more vigorously. "Hey! W-W-Wake up! Right n-now!" Her voice betrayed any sense of collectedness as her shaking became desperate.
After a few moments...
"C... Cathy...?" Darren's eyes fluttered open, still half-slits. "What... what..." He slowly reached his hand up to his head, a resonating pain pounding through it. "Shit... I..."
"Darren!" Cathy unabashedly embraced him, sobbing even more into his shirt. "You're okay! I... I...!" The intense surge of these proper human emotions were throwing her brain into a tizzy, but she tried not to focus on that feeling. She... she was just so glad that Darren was okay.
"Cathy...?" Darren's face twitched into a small smile as his vision focused, the face of the cat burglar becoming clearer. "Hey... can you... get me... something to... drink?" He was happy to see her, but he still felt insanely out of it. He needed something to help him out, even something small.
"H-Huh? Oh...! Okay! Yeah!" Cathy jumped up like a loyal puppy in an ironic sense, and quickly ran up the closed door of Darren's Studio. I mean, if you want any sort of drink, there's no better place than the Ultimate Bartender's Studio, right? So, Cathy went to open the door. But...
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It was locked. "H-Huh...?" Cathy jiggled the doorknob a few times. "What the... what is this...? Why..." After a few more jiggles, and a few quick attempts to even use her rather small body weight to bust it open, "Wait... hold on!" A memory popped into her head.
"Oh, don't act like that, Ms. Akiyama! It'll be quick!" Pheme chuckled. "I just want to inform you all that every room on this floor is able to be locked from the inside! Our chief writer, Extr A. Meme forgot to state that in the last chapter, so I must say it now!"
"Hey! Human! I know you're in there!" Cathy didn't know which human was in there, but according to Pheme, one of them had to be. "What are you doing in there?! Open this door!" She knew she had the ability to pick open locks, but her hands were still way too shaky to do so.
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No response. "Gah! Human! I swear to-!" To add to her influx of foreign human emotions, Cathy felt some rage sink into her... but it quickly faded away when she heard Darren's voice once again.
"Cathy... check... Rosalind..." Darren managed to say, his body still too lethargic to move. He still wanted something to drink, and he banked on the parallel studio having something, despite it being unlikely.
"The cinematographer human's studio... okay!" Without thinking too hard about it, Cathy left the matter of the locked door alone for now as she lept over to Rosalind's Studio, then entered, the door being unlocked.
[Ultimate Cinematographer's Studio]
When Cathy lept inside of the room, she wasn't sure what to expect. But, what she honestly didn't expect was...
...there being nothing wrong or weird. She hadn't actually entered Rosalind's Studio before, so for all she knew, there could be something wrong or missing. But as far as she could tell, there was nothing wrong.
"A drink... a drink... or... something...?" A slight dose of desperation entered Cathy's voice as she started to scrounge around the studio. It was currently set in the hospital floor, so she had plenty to rifle through. In fact, she was kind of glad, because that meant she could maybe find some medicine for Darren!
So, she searched... and searched... and searched... for about two minutes straight. "Damn it! Nothing!" Even more desperation entered her being as her search turned up absolutely nothing useful. The urge to scream in annoyance, a rather human urge, bubbled up within her. But... she didn't act on that urge. Because...
*BANG*
"Ah!"
Another gunshot rang out, followed by a small, quiet yelp that Cathy didn't do. It sounded like that yelp came from the adjacent room, Aurora's Ultimate Studio. She didn't worry about that though. She couldn't right now.
She put that yelp out of her mind, as the returning fear pushed it out for her. "Another one? Wait... Darren!" She didn't spare another second to look as she quickly left the studio, her concern for Darren only rising higher and higher.
[Grand Lobby - 3F]
Immediately after hearing that gunshot, Cathy darted out of Rosalind's studio. "Where?! Where was- Huh?!" Her awareness was on a 10, so as a result, she immediately noticed something... that scared the shit out of her.
"Darren?" Cathy stared unblinkingly at Darren... or, no. She stared unblinkingly at where Darren was. Because... he was gone. His unconscious, muddled body had disappeared. That vent grate was still there... as well as the device... but that was it. "Darren?! Darren! W-W-Where are you?!" Her voice cracked as she frantically looked around the hallway. She couldn't see him anywhere.
"Where... where... wait!" Cathy's eyes widened as she looked towards Rival's Studio. That was the direction she heard the gunshot from... no! He can't... he can't be!
Cathy sprinted right into the darkness of Rival's Studio, stopping on the bridge connecting it to the third floor's Grand Lobby. She didn't see anything. She... felt like she might've sensed something deeper in Rival's Studio... but... the sensation quick left her. Hm... maybe it was nothing.
Her eyes drifted around the darkness more, before landing on the railing of the bridge. She crept over to it, and looked down into Bessie's Studio. It was so dark... she couldn't see a thing. Or, well, maybe she could? She could make out a very fuzzy shape down eight stories below her... but it might've been nothing.
"Darren... he's... not here!" Cathy's anxiety levels raised higher and higher as she looked everywhere she could. But... she had no luck. "Where... where did he... hold on!" Her head turned on a swivel in the direction of Aurora's Studio, where she heard that small yelp. It... it might've been Darren! Yeah... surely it was him!
Cathy continued her comforting coping as she ran away from Rival's Studio...
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And right into Aurora's Studio...
[Ultimate Starlet's Studio]
"Darren?! Are you-" My pleas for the bartender immediately got silenced as I entered the starlet human's studio. Because, when I did, four things stuck out to me as... peculiar.
First. The metal bars that were meant to protect from the floor switching system were up.
Second. The floor switching system was going as I took it all in. But... no one was controlling it. It kept cycling through the starlet human's floors, without a human operator.
Third... the panels that were supposed to control this system... were broken. Both the one next to me and the one on the far side of the room had some sort of spear stabbed into both of them.
Fourth... and the most alarming of all...
"What... what is that stench?!" I plugged my nose as I tried to get a closer look in the studio. I'm not sure what this stench was... but it putrid. It smelt like... death.
"Hm... these floors were starting to annoy me! Nyaha!" Attempting to ignore the stench, I yanked the spear out of the nearby control panel and tossed it to the ground.
Then... I narrowly managed to slide myself through the gaps of the metal bars. The floors were still switching... but I needed to remove that other spear. So I took a deep breath... and jumped.
Focusing all of my efforts into acrobatics, I lept across and swung across the room, using the slowly moving objects to my advantage. I made it to the other side safely, then swiftly yanked the other spear out of the far panel.
Then...
After a few more seconds...
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It stopped.
The switching of the floors ground to a halt. "Finally!" I exclaimed, not enjoying those sounds.
With the metal bars out of the way, I stepped onto the floor it was on now.
And when I did...
I saw the true source of the stench from earlier.
"Attention my glamorous stars! I have something very important to tell you all! What is it? Well... a body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the Ultimate Starlet's Studio at once!"
"Oh- oh god!" In a display of human emotion I still wasn't used to, I covered my mouth as I felt the bile rise in my throat. I heard the BDA, but my mind was too busy to acknowledge it. The sight I was forced to look at... was horrid.
What lay in front of me... wasn't even a human anymore. All I saw was a grotesque pile and pool of crushed guts, organs and bones. Blood almost flooded the entirety of this floor, clearly coming from whoever that was. Their entire body had been crushed.
But despite the sickening sight in front of me... I could still tell. I could tell exactly who this was. From what remained of their clothes and hair... it was clear. The name that belonged to the sight in front of me could only be...
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Yoshino Akiyama, the Ultimate Horror Novelist.
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[Kei's Room]
*BANG*
Kei's eyes suddenly shot wide open, after hearing the same gunshot that Cathy heard before finding Yoshino's body. These rooms might've been mostly soundproof, but a regular gunshot is still extremely loud!
He quickly sat up in his bed. His eyes darted around, despite the darkness in his room. He sat there for a moment... listening only to the sounds of his own breathing...
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Kei felt restless. His instincts told him something was wrong. He got up, got dressed, then ran out of his room.
[Grand Lobby]
As Kei ran out of his room and down into the Grand Lobby, he moved to run up to the right side stairs. But he stopped when he heard another pair of rapid footsteps behind him. It was...
"Kei! Are you okay?" Aurora ran up behind him, looking a little startled.
"Aurora. You hear the gunshot too?" Kei's voice lost its usual casual tone.
"Y-Yes... I think it was..." Aurora tried to calm herself down. "I think it came from Bessie's Studio." She may not have had a music focused talent, but her hearing was still very impressive.
"Bessie's Studio? Got it." Kei didn't want to waste time arguing. "Let's-"
"Kei! Aurora!" Raiha suddenly yelled out, coming from Kei's right side. "You alright?"
"Raiha! You're safe! Thank goodness!" Aurora felt relieved seeing that the trendsetter was still alive and kicking.
"Raiha?" Kei was relieved too and whatever, but... "You... you seem ragged." He was more interested in why she was panting, clearly out of breath.
"Sorry... that gunshot... scared me!" Raiha shivered. "I got up and ran out of my room..." She wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. "It was Bessie's Studio, right? C'mon!" Despite her exhaustion, she wanted to figure out what was happening.
"R-Right!" Aurora regained her composure with a firm nod. "Let's go!" Leading the charge, Aurora ran up the right-most stairs.
Kei felt a little weirded out right now, but he knew there'd be time to worry about that later. For now, he quickly followed behind Aurora and Raiha.
[Grand Lobby - 2F]
Kei ignored the anxiety slowly creeping into his mind as he reached the second floor. He... he hasn't felt this way in a long time. And that anxiety only peaked when he heard something that, even he wished he'd never have to hear again...
"Attention my glamorous stars! I have something very important to tell you all! What is it? Well... a body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the Ultimate Starlet's Studio at once!"
Having heard the same BDA that Cathy triggered, Kei stopped his running for a moment, even more anxiety creeping into his mind. He didn't say a word.
"Huh?! My studio?!" Aurora stopped running with her hand over her heart, the implications of that already sinking in. "No! Who..."
"Damn it... guys, let's keep moving!" Raiha managed to hold on to enough will power to keep going. "We're going up there! Now!" She looked behind her at the starlet and lawyer.
"R-Right!" Aurora shakily nodded, restoring some spirit before running along with Raiha.
Kei, still unmoving, watched the girls run ahead into Bessie's studio. Again, he hadn't felt this much anxiety for a long time. Not ever since... that happened. But as he took a step forward... it somehow got even worse. Because... as he watched Aurora enter... he heard it again.
"Attention my glamorous stars! I have something very important to tell you all! What is it? Well... a body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the Ultimate Pop Star's Studio at once!"
His heart dropped when he heard it... the second BDA. "Shit... no!" Kei forced himsef to run up to Bessie's Studio, watching Raiha enter before he did. He just wished... and wished... and wished... that this wasn't who he thought it was.
And Kei held onto those thoughts as he bolted into Bessie's Studio...
[Ultimate Pop Star's Studio]
"Oh my god!"
"What the... hell?!"
I heard Aurora and Raiha shout out from ahead me as I charged into Bessie's Studio. But it was too late. My feet were moving faster than my brain. Adrenaline had taken over. The BDA played. I couldn't pay attention to anyone's words. I just had to see.
So... as I stepped foot into Bessie's Studio... I immediately saw them. Aurora was on her hands and knees near them, frozen in fear. Raiha covered her mouth with her hands, frozen in fear as well.
And with neither of them saying another word, I had no choice but to focus... focus on the two bodies laying to the left of me.
The first body layed flat on their back... with their limbs all broken and out of place. Bones could be seen from underneath their bruised skin, making it a truly haunting and grotesque sight, their body almost like a broken ragdoll.
And that wasn't all. They had various cuts all over their face... cuts... chilling cuts... with blood still steadily dripping out. To top it off, there was a clear gunshot through their head.
My mind and body felt like jelly. I kept telling myself... yelling at myself... screaming at myself... to look away. But I didn't. I couldn't. I couldn't look away from the lifeless body of...
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Ji-hoon Jo, the Ultimate Celebrity Detective.
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That wasn't all. Next to Ji-hoon's corpse... was another body. They were bruised as well... though notably less damaged than Ji-hoon was. And just like before, whether I liked it or not, my mind forced me to look... and accept. I was forced to accept the sight of the body of...
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Darren Taylor, the Ultimate Bartender.
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"I'm- it's-"
My heart stopped for a moment. I was still frozen in shock... but I could acknowledge and see Darren moving his hands and speaking.
"Little..." Darren coughed up some blood. "Help...?"
Then like that... he lost consciousness.
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None of us knew what to do. We were all frozen in place. But what we did know... is that Ji-hoon might've been dead... but Darren... was still alive!
Hey! Darren's okay! Yay! Woohoo! Your boy is fine, Nathan!
Alright, I know that giving Darren literally four death fakeouts in one chapter might've been a little much. But honestly, as I was planning this case, I saw the opportunity to do this... and I did! I promise I'll reign it in on the death fakeouts. But this just sounded too promising to pass up.
And I thought it'd be fitting to do this in his focus chapter. Finally giving him a chance in the spotlight... this was a long time coming. From how the Special Event went... to his intimate moment with Cathy... it was very enjoyable to write. I won't say too much on all of it... but Darren is a lot of fun.
Anyway, since he's alive, Darren doesn't matter! Let's move to the ones who do matter! Firstly...
Thank you so much DeathlyJazzHands55 for giving me Yoshino! From the beginning, I had a lot of fun writing her. The tomboy combined with the nicknames combined with her little quirks... made her super fun. Her relationships with Genjiro, Joji, and Adam were definitely the highlights for me. She was such a charming character, and I'm so glad I got the chance to write her. I know she didn't really exist in Chapter 1... but she was still pretty great in Chapter 2 and 3 to write. So... thank you once again! By the way, Chapter 3 Victim was always her fate! She never moved on the death order! Not even once! Crazy, right?
Secondly...
Thank you so much to TheRoseShadow21 for giving me Ji-hoon! Man... just like Yoshino, this one is a painful loss. I loved Ji-hoon as a character ever since I saw his form! Even now, I still think he fit the story scarily well. The perfect talent... the perfect personality... just a awesome character. He was a lot of fun too, especially his whole 'saying a traumatic name from a character's past' bit. His background made stuff like that doable... and it made him even more fun to write. His relationship with Raiha and Kei were definitely the highlights for me personally.
Also! Something interesting about Ji-hoon! This wasn't always his fate! At first, he was a Survivor! After that, I changed him to Chapter 6 Victim! Then after that... he moved down here! Chapter 3 Victim! I know it's a drastic change... but honestly? Out of every death that will take place in this story... Ji-hoon's is the one I feel the best about. I think this is the perfect place for him to die. Make of that what you will.
But man... we really lost two people today! Ji-hoon and Yoshino. Such unfortunate losses... but that only means we have to figure out who killed them! Any theories! Be sure to let me know!
And I hope you look forward to the investigation and trial!
Glamorous Stars Remaining: 13
Aurora Beaufort - Ultimate Starlet [WolfieRed23]
Ayaka Naganohara - Ultimate Violinist [Sempi]
Catherine Munchkin - Ultimate Cat Burglar [Nekoja]
Damien Lux - Ultimate Beautician [oddlyillregular]
Darren Taylor - Ultimate Bartender [Otterplay]
Joji Kaneshiro - Ultimate Carpenter [SureJahn]
Kei Aikawa - Ultimate Lawyer [theotakureader101]
Kuroko Kurobara - Ultimate Hypnotist [MrUtenaHolic]
Lake Beaumont - Ultimate Ballet Dancer [KadachiNova]
Mabel "Alpha" Jane - Ultimate Gas Station Manager [Epifanio Therion]
Raiha Miyahara - Ultimate Trendsetter [Prince PokePersona]
Rival Seizon - Ultimate Backing Vocalist [SinWriter7]
Rosalind Reinhardt - Ultimate Cinematographer [Orlando Butler]