Chapter 4: Abandoned Principles (Deadly Life Part 1)

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

Hope's Peak New York (2021)

Summer had just ended, which meant that it was time for school to start again… Students coming back here for another year, while other students were arriving here for the first time. To any new student, the school would be intimidating.

In fact, there was one such student showing up to this school right now… Looking up at how tall the school is.

A young Nova (not telling you her real name, deal with it) stood in front of the rather large school, staring up at how imposing it seemed to be. "Woah…"

In recent times she had heard of many rumours of shady things going on with Hope's Peak in general, but all of those thoughts seemed to push themselves towards the back of her head as she stood there. "It's much bigger in person…" She had only seen images up to point, so she wasn't sure what to expect.

Taking a few steps forward, Nova began to walk forward. However, she only made it a few extra steps before she checked everything on her. She had to make sure she had the required equipment, or else her talent would sound like a joke. "Yup…" She nodded her head along. "Everything is here." She wouldn't look like a fool on her first day!

Quickly, Nova began walking back towards the stairs, stepping into the entrance hall. Many students roamed the hall, all ranging from new students, to those entering their last year.

Unfortunately, she didn't really know anyone. It was way different here than it was back in middle school. "Hmm…" Nova pulled out her phone, checking out the email she had received. "Class 1-C…" Where the hell was that even? "Hmm… Probably the first floor." She concluded as she moved down the hallway.

It wouldn't be long before Nova got some confirmation on her theory. "Oh! 1-E… 1-D… Here we are!" Standing right outside the class, she hesitated for a moment, before stepping inside.

Once inside, she saw a few other students gathered, but none really took notice of her presence… They were either already talking to someone, or absorbed in their own world. In total, she counted six people. She took in some of their features as she made her way to the back.

The most notable one was the boy with a top hat. He was sitting on one of the desks, holding a watch in his hands. He was talking to a girl taller than him, who seemed to be wearing a purple dress. Oh… And a crown.

"Hmm…" Nova blinked a few times, but she didn't seem to mind. In fact! This meant that she wasn't the only weirdo today.

The next pairing she saw was with two girls. One had red hair tied into a short ponytail, will the other one had long light blue hair. They seemed to already be on good terms, given they were playing patty cake.

This left the last two people in the room… Nova's attention was first taken by a girl with indigo hair. She seemed rather bored with herself. In one hand, was a sewing needle, that she would continuously poke the tip of with her finger.

After a few seconds, she got the distinct feeling that she was being watched, so she turned to look directly at Nova. Quickly, the sewing needle disappeared, and she looked away.

That person seemed rather shy, so Nova wasn't going to bother her at the moment. That left one last person… They were sitting in the far back, at the desk closest to the window. They had emerald coloured hair, and they were wearing a red dress with blue flowers. In hand, they had a book that they were absorbed with.

Humming to herself, Nova took the seat right next to her. "Good morning."

It took a few seconds for the girl to even realise that she was being spoken to… Slowly, she glanced over towards her. "Oh… Morning." She said rather weakly, before turning her attention back over to the book she had in hand.

After waiting a few seconds, Nova caught on pretty quickly that they didn't want to be bothered… Unfortunately, she had already committed to this person, so there was no backing down. "Are you excited for your first day of school here?"

"I suppose…" This time, the girl didn't even bother to look at her.

Ah… Maybe it was going to be harder to make friends than she thought. "Well… What talent did you get?"

"... Nothing special." The girl flipped to the next page. "It's not something I've done for myself… I just won the lottery."

"Oh!" Nova had to think a bit. She knew this was a thing, but she forgot what they were- "Right! An Ultimate Lucky Student?"

"That would be the term, yes…" Once again, it was becoming clear that the girl had no interest in the conversation at hand.

The longer this went on, the more Nova felt discouraged. "Well, my name is -" Nova said, with her actual name. "What about yours?"

"..." This time, the girl didn't answer as quickly. But, like usual, she relented. "Katrine…"

Yeah, if she was going to answer every time, Nova wasn't about to give up anytime soon. "Aww, that's a cute name. It's very lovely. As for my talent, I'm the Ultimate -"

For a moment, Katrine turned to look at her, taking in the entire outfit. "That would explain what you're wearing. It is a weird title, though."

Oh? That seemed more enthusiastic, so Nova had to be making some progress. "Well…! It was sort of just a fun gimmick… I didn't think I'd ever get accepted into Hope's Peak." She let out a nervous laughter, before looking away.

"Hmm… Hope's Peak is weird like that." Finally concluded that she would get no more reading done, Katrine put down her book. "They'll reward talents for much of nothing…"

"Hmm?" Nova tilted her head to the side. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"... No." Katrine tilted her head to the side. "But I guess it just feels weird being here with not much to show for it. Compared to everyone else that will show up, I don't exactly have anything to back it up."

"What? But you won that lottery!" Nova tried to be positive. "That must count for something, right?"

For a moment, Katrine frowned slightly. "Yeah… But that can hardly compare. Anyone can win the lottery. Everyone was entered. Without the lottery, I wouldn't be able to be here."

However, Nova was very quick in brushing that off. "Well, even if that's the case. I think you'll fit in around here. They say luck is a real talent." She crossed her arms, nodding her head along. "I can feel my luck increasing already, just being around you."

"... We'll assume that's what it is…" Katrine didn't want to break the news to her, so she just moved back to her book. "We should stop talking, since class is going to start soon, don't you think?"

"Oh!" Right… Nova had completely forgotten the part where they were at school. Since she had first entered the class, seven more students had joined. But there are far too many people for her to worry about descriptions now. Besides, she had just made a friend, which would require all her attention. "Hmm! Class hasn't started just yet." For starters, there was no teacher around to start class.

Seeing that there truly wasn't any stopping her, Katrine put her book down. "Tell me, what does hope mean to you? It's the theme of the school, after all. Building hope for the future."

A brilliant question! Nova would need to take some time to think of an answer. "Well… When I think of hope, I think of building something for the future generation. That even if the tunnel is dark, there's a light at the end of it to guide you."

"..." For a moment, Katrine contemplated that answer, before offering her first smile. "I like that answer… It's a good one. You seem to be a really hopeful person."

This got a small giggle from Nova. "Of course I'm hopeful. I wouldn't have made it to Hope's Peak without that, right?"

That smile that was on Katrine's face slowly faded away, leaving a frown. "I wouldn't say that is necessarily true… Tons of people who have no business being here have made it in… At least, that's what my father told me."

"Oh?" That seemed to have gotten Nova's attention. "Was your father an Ultimate?"

Quickly, Katrine turned away. "Nothing like that…! Anyways, let's talk about something else."

Nova wasn't stupid… Clearly this was something that she didn't want to talk about. But she also wasn't an asshole, so she was fine with changing the subject. "Hmm… What do you hope to achieve here? Like, do you have any goals?"

"..." Katrine glanced off to the side. "Not really… I'm just here to attend school and have that guarantee of success… There's nothing else to really do here, is there?"

That wasn't exactly the answer that Nova wanted to hear, but she couldn't expect everyone to have outlandish goals. "That's a bit disappointing…" She leaned back in her chair. "Personally, I want to make the world a better place!"

"With a talent like that?" Katrine blinked. Not because she didn't believe it, but because it sounded a bit out there. "Are you going to do that?"

"Hey!" Nova narrowed her eyes, a frown on her face. "My talent name is only a showy thing! I still know my stuff. I just preferred the extravagant title." She quickly began writing some things down on a blank piece of paper.

Well… It was more like drawings, but that's besides the point. "Trust me on this!"

Katrine spent a few seconds looking at the symbols that she was drawing, before shaking her head with an amused smile. "You have a good attitude, at the very least. But aren't you being a bit too ambitious for your first year of Hope's Peak?"

"That's what being an Ultimate is all about." Nova let out a hum, swaying her head from side to side as she finished her drawing. "I have to make sure I use all three years responsibly! If I let up even once, then what's the point?"

The more Katrine talked to her, the more she just saw her as a bundle of hope. "Those are some big words…" Still, that did put a smile on her face. "Hope's Peak knew what they were doing when they sent that acceptance letter to you."

Nova was going to say something else, but she was interrupted by the sound of the last people entering the class, followed by the teacher. Taking a moment to look at the time, she quickly realised class was about to start. "We should talk again later!"

"Hmm…" Katrine let out hum of affirmation, before going back to reading the book she had.

This was only the first day here, and Nova was already excited for everything to happen!

Nova's Office

Things had mostly been quiet today, except for one blast that happened shortly after breakfast, but Nova had expected that to happen.

After all, she had kept a close eye on what Edison was doing. Was she going to stop him? Of course not… If they managed to break into the main control room, who was she to stop them?

Like usual, Nova remained in her office, especially when she had nothing to do. Maybe in hopes that someone will come to alleviate her boredom… But they never did… Something she had come to accept. Most people didn't really want to talk to her. After all, she was running a killing game…

Given that she was alone, Nova opened up the drawer of her desk, slowly pulling out a picture frame. Upon seeing it, the display on her visor kept changing between joy and sadness.

In the image, there were sixteen people. It seemed like a graduation photo.

Well, she couldn't dwell on that for too long! Quickly, Nova placed the image back into her drawer, before going back to being bored.

Still… Nobody had shown up…

Which meant, like usual, she only had one person to rely on when it came to these types of things. Tapping at her screen, Nova eventually sent out a phone call to one Monokawa.

It rang for a few seconds, before he eventually picked it up. "What? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Busy doing… what?" Nova tilted her head to the side, a smile appearing on her visor.

"Doing nothing." The view of Monokawa zoomed out, showing him lazing around on his back. "Got a free show earlier, so I'm just enjoying the high of that."

"Oh?" Nova covered her visor with a hand, as it was actually a mouth. "What kind of exciting show did you have? I have the time."

Sitting up, Monokawa crossed his arms. "Laki was crying in here a while ago. It was entertaining! She didn't cry this much when we killed off Ian, so I'm a bit disappointed…"

This got a small laugh from Nova. "Honestly, you have to stop enjoying these types of things."

However… Speaking of enjoyment. "I did call you for another reason." Looking at the timer on her desk, there was only around seven hours left before the motive went off. "From what I've seen, it's highly unlikely that a murder will occur."

"So?" Monokawa rolled his eyes as best as he could. "That doesn't really matter, we'll just do what we always do."

Nova figured that would be the answer, but maybe she was hoping for something different. "That's the boring answer."

Shrugging, Monokawa let himself rest on his back again. "I'm not sure why you're even paranoid. Someone has been plotting to kill for a while now."

"Oh?" Nova had no knowledge of this, so she moved her chair closer to her desk, despite the fact the monitor was attached to her suit. "Who is it?"

Obviously, Monokawa, being the little shit he was, didn't answer. "Why would I tell you anything? Aren't you the Overseer? Shouldn't you be keeping track of these things? It wasn't like this at the start."

True…. Nova had let herself fall into a pattern. "Oh, alright… That's fine…" Her eyes glanced off to the side, pausing for a moment. "Oh… The timer… Stopped?"

"Yeah, someone just died." Monokawa didn't really seem to care. "You took too long to speak, you bored them to death."

This got a small laugh from Nova. "Honestly, where did you get a mouth like that?" Nova spent a few seconds skimming through the cameras, before finding the victim. "Ah." Then, she shifted her attention away from the cameras. "I'm honestly surprised, the way some people were acting, it didn't feel like it would happen."

Monokawa shrugged. "Sure, they've gotten pretty chummy, but there's always the outliers. You can always rely on them for a situation like this."

"I suppose…" Nova glanced off to the side. But now comes the much more important question… How did this happen? Admittedly, she hadn't paid as much attention as she should have, but Monokawa would be able to fill her in.

"Are you going to fly down to my office?" She tilted her head.

This got a laugh from Monokawa. "Nope! I think I'll stay right here! I have to prepare the trial ground. You can stay and watch the fun go on." Then, the screen turned off, leaving her alone.

Sitting there for a minute or so, it was evident that nothing else was going to happen. However, when she looked back over at the camera monitor, she noticed something peculiar. "Hmm…" She hummed out. "What…?"

She had no idea what happened, but once again she had been far too distracted to notice something like this. "Now why would-"

However, Nova had no way to predict this next part. Violently, her entire room shook, knocking her to the ground and almost cracking her visor. "What the fuc-" She called out, breaking character.

It sounded like an explosion… And it wasn't too far.

Looking over at the monitor, Nova quickly began to flip through the cameras before eventually landing on the Laboratory. "What the…?"

Soon, the monitor on her arm turned back on, revealing Monokawa. "What's going on?" He called out, despite knowing the answer.

Raising her visor, Nova used this opportunity to make sure she hadn't gotten an injury when she fell to the floor. "Jesus Christ…" Now she was a bit irritated. "Don't act like you don't know what just happened. Someone blew up the damn Laboratory." That was one of her favourites places in this station.

Why did this have to happen now of all time?

Nova flipped through the cameras, trying to spot if anything else was going on. "Huh…?" She blinked a few times before turning off the camera. "Well, this motive definitely worked…" Maybe more than she assumed…

"You should seriously get down here." Nova got up from her desk. "The trial can wait-"

However, an announcement stopped her mid sentence, forcing her to look up.

"Air quality in the Laboratory is reaching critical levels! Blocking the Zeta and Sigma Sector off from the rest of the station. Scanners will be disabled, and all doors will remain locked."

"..." While Nova liked hearing the voice, she did not like what it had to say. "Ugh… Just what did they do this time?"

"Come oooon." Monokawa called out with a bit of giggle in his voice. "Isn't this what we wanted?"

Putting her visor back down, Nova adjusted her suit. "God…" This was a nuisance. "Sure, but I'd rather not have too many problems arise at once. Now I'm trapped here, and you're stuck in the rest of the station."

Shrugging, Monokawa floated off screen. "I fail to see how that's much of a problem. It will make for a very interesting trial. Now, if you'd excuse me, I have to go make this more fun!"

Hearing the sound of the call ending only made Nova more annoyed. However, she had to pause at her door. "Right… Right…" She was losing a grip right now. She had to take a deep breath. She was supposed to be a chipper Overseer, so she had to get back to that mentality. Which… Took way longer than she wanted to admit, but what can she really do? Being happy like this all the time wasn't something she was able to do anymore…

Once enough time had passed, she checked her monitor again. "Ah…" Nova mumbled out, seeing Edison walk into the Laboratory. "I see…" That was her cue to play the body discovery announcement, and head out to greet them…

Laboratory

Winter stood by the body, looking down at it. "I… I don't know…"

It took a few seconds for Gennosuke to join back up with her. He wasn't crazy enough to run into this first, after all. "Woah… Would you look at that." Not a hint of sorrow in his voice. "Wish we knew who it was, though…" He couldn't identify a single feature from them. "Oh, well… I guess it's not Atlas." He shrugged, pointing out the fact that they had arms.

That didn't make Winter feel any better, given that the pool of potential candidates just got smaller. "The body discovery announcement didn't go off…"

"No… I guess not." Gennosuke crossed his arms. "But this investigation is going to get really annoying if we can only have two people investigate this place at a time."

"We should at least set it off…" Winter mumbled out. "That way the others who aren't in this sector can at least know what happens."

"That, and I think we can only get the Station Report once the body discovery announcement goes off." Gennosuke had made sure to pay close attention to those things. "Let's go back…"

"Wait…" Winter called out, moving over towards the watch. "We should figure out who died first…" Grabbing onto it, she tapped onto the screen, only to reveal…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Is it broken…?" Winter mumbled out, unable to open it.

Walking over to her, Gennosuke shrugged. "It would make sense for it to break. Have you seen the destruction around you?"

Still… Winter wouldn't be able to confirm who it was. Even sending one last message to Lorelei didn't tell her anything. "Alright…"

As the two walked further, there was one last thing they noticed.

"Hey, we might need this…" Gennosuke knelt down and picked up a gas mask.

"Hmm…" Winter let out a small hum. "Is that why you only grabbed two of them?"

"Exactly." Keeping the gas mask close to himself, Gennosuke began to walk over towards the door. "By the time I got there, one of them was already missing."

While he spoke, Winter took notice that the gas mask was close to the door. "Hmm…" She hummed out as they left the room…

Zeta Sector

Once they had finally left the room, the pair would notice that everyone was currently staring at them.

"Well?" Edison took a step forward. He needed to know who had died.

After a few seconds, Winter shook her head. "We weren't able to identify the body… It's been burnt beyond recognition…"

"A terrible fate, really." Gennosuke grinned, leaning against the wall.

"But, what about the watch?" Seira suggested. "Was it there? Wouldn't you be able to check who it belonged to?"

Pulling out the watch, Winter displayed it. "All I can tell is that it's someone who was marked for death… But I can't open the watch."

"The body discovery hasn't gone off… We should go set it off." Gemini suggested… Although he took a step back. "Not it."

"Not it." Seira said right after.

"Not it." May somehow beat Edison.

"I-What?" His face became pale as he realised he would have to go in. "I- I don't think I can."

Quickly, Gennosuke tossed him the gas mask. "Your turn to shine, kid."

"Ugh…" Edison mumbled out, putting on the gas mask. Why was he always the one who had to go see bodies… Every time… Slowly, he approached the scanner.

Once he scanned, the camera flashed everyone again.

Then, he was gone.

While waiting for him, the others decided to talk. "I doubt we'd be able to leave the area yet." Gemini mumbled out, shaking his head. "There hasn't been an announcement about it."

"So…" Winter trailed off, a frown on her face. "We won't be able to see who's alive?"

"This feels… Almost deliberate." Gennosuke hummed out, a lollipop in his mouth. "Maybe not by the killer, but I can see it being something Monokawa thought of."

"Well…" Gemini trailed off. "We won't really be able to kn-"

He was cut off when an announcement played out.

However, unlike any other time, it wasn't delivered by Monokawa… Instead… Nova spoke up.

"A body has been discovered. Those who are currently in the Zeta Sector, please stay right outside the Laboratory. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"This already feels weird…" Seira mumbled out, looking around.

After a few seconds, the door would open up, and Edison would walk out. "It… It looks so bad…" He mumbled out.

Winter frowned, having removed her gas mask. "Yeah… I… I just want to know who it is…" Even if the results might not be what she wants to hear. Her mind wandered off to Michael and Lorelei again…

"How long do you think it will take Nova to get here…?" May mumbled out. Not that she was impatient or anything… But she also didn't like not knowing who the victim was.

"Well…" Winter twirled a finger around a strand of hair. "Her office is in the next sector, so it shouldn't take too long-"

"I'm here!"

Suddenly!

Nova!

Wait that's not part of the script-

Nova was now in the hallway, looking out at the large doors leading to the Laboratory. "Hmm, this is definitely the most… out there body discovery." She let out a sigh. "I was in my office when the explosion went off, so I was definitely caught off guard."

"Who is it?" Winter said, getting straight to the point. She wouldn't be able to rest easily unless she knew who the victim was.

"Oh my!" Nova covered her visor with her hand, as if she was covering her mouth. "Aren't you all just a little too eager to find out?" She moved her hand away from the visor. "I have no reason to tell you who died… It sort of adds to the mystery, doesn't it?"

Letting out a sigh, Winter knew there'd be no point in fighting it. "Well… The watch of the victim broke."

Slowly, Nova shook her head. "Actually, that was my doing. The watch is still in perfect working order! A little fire wouldn't damage it!"

"Why would you…?" Seira mumbled out.

Letting out a sigh, Nova shook her head. "It's like you don't listen when I speak… The reason I did it was so you couldn't check the profile app… It would ruin the mystery if you could just see who the victim was."

"So I'm guessing you aren't opening the way to the rest of the station any time soon, huh…?" Gemini rubbed the back of his head.

Thinking about it for a moment, Nova let out a sigh. "I wouldn't even be able to anyways… I can't risk having people opening and closing the doors all wildly. It would allow the toxic gas to spread."

"Um…" Gemini trailed off. "But aren't we perfectly fine in the hallway? I doubt that if the door was unlocked, anything bad would happen."

"Well, no, not the hallways." Nova continued on with her explanation. "However, the vent system would be affected. It's much easier to just close off everything, then it is to close off one very specific part of the system. Especially on a time restraint."

Placing his hands into his pockets, Gennosuke tilted his head. "That seems like a highly inefficient system."

This got a small laugh from Nova. "Yes, it can be a bit inefficient… But that's how it was designed." Pause. "I'm not the one that designed it, by the way."

"Wait wait…" Gemini took a step forward. "So you're the one running this place, but you didn't design it?"

"Oh, of course not!" Nova crossed her arms. "Don't act like you don't know who designed it, it was said in the map app, right?"

"Right…" Regina whatever… So that wasn't Nova. Good to know, but that blew one of his theories out of the water.

"Do you know how long it will be before we're about to leave?" Edison also had some concerns about who the victim was, and wanted to see who was still alive.

Nova's visor changed into a blue expression of sadness. "Unfortunately… no… This could take a long time. I've never had to worry about anything like this, so there's no way to know a time estimate."

"Ah…" Edison lowered his flask, a frown on his face. "That's… Fine…" He knew it wasn't, but there wasn't much else he could do at the moment.

"This is good and all, but…" Gennosuke trailed off. "When are we going to get the station report? I kind of want to know how they died…"

"I feel like being burnt to death is a safe assumption." Winter didn't even bother to look at him when she said that.

"Oh, right!" Nova reached over to her monitor. "For this investigation, you'll need the Station Report! Let me provide you with that!" After tapping on her screen a few times, everyone else received a message.

The first person to open it was Gennosuke. "Hmm… There's an image this time?"

.

The station report had a picture of the body. Notably, it was taken before Winter and Gennosuke found it, because the image still contains the watch, fully visible. Even the display on it could be read.

.

"Yes!" Nova nodded her head along. "I felt like it would work out best, given some people can't join the investigation. That way, they can at least pull their own conclusion from this image."

"Hmm…" Winter still found it a bit weird, but it would hopefully prove to be helpful down the road.

Now, it was time to read the Station Report!

.

Station Report

.

The victim was found in the Laboratory, and was found completely burnt to a crisp. They are unrecognizable. They have a large gash in their stomach, and the cause of death was blood loss. Time of death was at 2:35pm.

.

"What was that about the cause of death?" Gennosuke looked over at Winter, a smug look on her face.

"..." She kept eyes closed as she twirled a finger around a strand of hair. "I can admit when I'm wrong." Which isn't often, but-

As for the rest of the station report…

Thinking back, Seira slowly nodded her head. "Yeah… That matches up with when the timer stopped… There was only about seven hours and twenty five minutes left…"

"Huh?" Edison blinked a few times. "You saw the timer stop?"

"Yeah…" Gemini ran a hand through his head. "Seira and I were talking in the motive room…"

"Oh, how lucky." Gennosuke grinned. "You two are both safe."

Twirling a finger around a strand of hair, Winter shrugged. "I wouldn't be talking like that, if I were you… After all, you're the most suspicious one here."

"Hmm…" Gennosuke tilted his head to the side. "You know that's not true. I wouldn't have been able to get into the Laboratory… Edison on the other hand…"

"H-hey!" He took a step back. "I didn't do anything."

"..." May thought for a moment, but didn't say anything about that. "Shouldn't we get to investigating…?"

"Oh! Right!" Nova clapped her hands together. "I wouldn't want to keep you waiting for so long, so I'll let you get to it… But I'm always available for guidance!" Pause. "As long as it's not in the Laboratory… I'm not going there for a bit."

"Right…" Gemini ran a hand through his hair. Then, he turned towards everyone else. "How should we do this? I know Edison mentioned seeing something in the Sigma Sector…"

"I think to cover more ground, we should divide ourselves in groups of two." Gennosuke suggested, placing his hands in his pockets.

"Gemini!" Seira quickly blurted out, before realising that nobody had really made a move to pair up with someone. "I mean… Huh…" A blush appeared on her face. "If you don't mind."

"Why would I mind?" Gemini blinked a few times.

"Then…" Edison adjusted his goggles. "I will pair myself up with May!"

"... OK…" She hummed out.

Letting out a sigh, Winter looked at the ground. She knew exactly what this meant. "I don't suppose you have a reason to want to pair up with me, now do you?"

A grin on his face, Gennosuke shook his head. "What are you talking about? I didn't have a say in this."

Winter didn't believe that in the slightest, but she also didn't want to argue. "What should we explore?"

"Oh!" Edison let out a sound, turning to look down the hallway. "I was thinking of exploring the Sigma Sector. I was in the middle of my own investigation when I ran into May and Gemini."

"Right…" Something about her station being trashed. "That's fine with me…"

"You know…" Gennosuke tilted his head to the side. "I'm really partial to investigating the body. I'm sure we'll be able to learn a lot of interesting things about it."

"..." That's not at all what Winter wanted to do, but now she really had no choice. "Are you hoping to mess with it while I'm not looking?"

"As if I could avoid your ever perceptive eyes." At this point, Gennosuke was just taunting her.

"What should we… do?" Seira let out a small hum.

Gemini ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not sure… Maybe we should just be in charge of anything miscellaneous…"

"Well!" Nova removed a mask that she had the entire time. "You can keep this, if you wish to enter the Laboratory to investigate as well."

Taking it, Seira examined them. "Where did you get this?"

Tilting her head to the side, a yellow expression of joy appeared on Nova's visor. "My personal supply. In case I needed one for whatever reason."

Raising an eyebrow, Gennosuke found this oddly curious. "Your helmet doesn't protect you from stuff like that?"

"Haha, you would think it does, but it's only for show most of the time. It wouldn't even protect me from space…" Nova trailed off sadly, but that only lasted a moment. "That's not entirely true! I do have a second suit made for that. But it's uncomfortable to wear all the time, so I leave that somewhere else. Not to mention the visor colours are wrong…"

"Cool…" May was hoping this conversation would move along so they could start investigating.

Still, Seira's question from earlier hadn't been answered. So once again, she turned to look at Gemini. "Seriously, though… Where should we go?"

"We can probably enter the Laboratory… Most of the evidence would be in there, anyways." He crossed his arms.

Now that everyone had a goal in mind, the quarter of Gemini, Gennosuke, Seira, and Winter moved towards the Laboratory, while Edison and May moved over to walk down the hallway.

Laboratory

The quartet all stepped into the Laboratory, smoke still clearly visible. However, the fires seem to have mostly died down by now.

"Truly is amazing…" Gennosuke trailed off. "Who would have thought that the fire would be possible in such a place. What is there even to burn?"

"You raise a fair point." Winter frowned behind the mask. "How would a fire even stay for this long in an almost completely metallic place?"

"Hmm…" Gemini crossed his arms. "There could be a number of reasons, honestly… Whatever that explosion was must have fueled the fire."

Taking a step forward, Gennosuke didn't want the fun to wait. "I'm going to get a head start on the body."

"And… I'll make sure he doesn't do anything." Winter didn't trust him in the slightest. Especially with the last trial.

That left Seira and Gemini alone. "So…" He trailed off. "What do you want to investigate first?"

But this wasn't about them!

This was about the body!

As Gennosuke slowed down, he tried to get a better read on the body. "Hmm… Can't really tell much about them." It was really unfortunate.

"Right…" Winter frowned behind her mask. "I can't even tell if it's someone I care about." It's not like she could even visualise the height here, given it felt like part of the victim had turned to ash. "Is there even anything left to investigate?"

"Hmm… Probably not." Gennosuke shrugged. "But remember, the cause of death wasn't fire related. It was blood loss…"

"Which would indicate that there's a wound somewhere." Against her better judgment, Winter crouched down. "But wherever it is, wouldn't it be cauterised by now?"

"If we ran a hand over their body, I'm sure we could find it eventually." Gennosuke wasn't going to be the one to do that, though.

"Gross…" Winter stood back up. Her eyes then focused on the incinerator next to the corpse. "I've never been in here before, but I doubt it's supposed to look like that…"

The incinerator itself hadn't moved from where it had been before… However, instead, evidence of an explosion was all over it.

"Heh…" Gennosuke let out a small chuckle, approaching it to inspect it. "It's almost as if the incinerator itself was what blew up."

Winter was getting the same vibe. "How would that even happen? They don't just explode for the hell of it."

Looking into it, Gennosuke eventually began to search around it with his hand. "It's possible someone threw something in here, and it blew up." … "Oh!" He had grabbed onto something. Pulling it out, he revealed a melted piece of metal. "What the hell is this?"

"I wish I could tell you, but I'm just as lost as you are." Winter twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "Never seen anything like it… Maybe it's just part of the incinerator?"

"No… I don't think so…" Gennosuke took a look at the incinerator. "If any parts were to get blown off, they all would be found further away." Taking a better look inside the incinerator, he also noticed some ashes. "Hmm…" The only problem was that it was impossible to even tell what that was. "Of course… Someone likely disposed of evidence here…"

"Typical…" Winter wasn't even surprised. "Well, whatever they got rid of… it must have caused this entire thing to go off…"

The only question was… What would even do that?

But enough thinking about that… Instead, he knelt down, inspecting the ground around the incinerator. "Hmm…" The bottom of it seemed pretty damaged too.

"Watch out." Winter hummed out, her eyes fixated on the ground. More specifically the liquid pooled around the incinerator.

"Hmm?" Gennosuke eventually spotted what she meant. Quickly, he stood up. "I see… Must be some kind of fuel from inside the incinerator…" But for it to be leaking out like this. "Whatever it was really did a number on this thing."

As soon as they figured out what they would be able to make some ground.

While he took a step away, Gennosuke was still the closest to the incinerator. And now he could see the whole thing, and just how damaged it truly was. He noted that the explosion happened internally. "Hmm… Someone definitely placed an explosive in here…"

"Where would they even get something like that?" Winter trailed off, twirling a finger around a strand of hair. "I don't think there had been bombs."

"Heh…" Gennosuke let out a small chuckle. "Did you really not know about what some of the others were doing? I'm pretty sure someone was building a bomb."

Closing one eye, Winter glanced off to the side. "And how do you know this? I didn't see you around that much. You pretty much only showed up for the motive, and this morning."

"I definitely got around…" Gennosuke shook his head. "But someone had searched up a book like that in May's station."

Hmm… Winter pondered this information for a few seconds, before shaking her head. "I see… And I guess I do remember gunpowder being brought up."

Did someone really make a bomb?

"Well, that stuff is probably best saved for the trial…" Gennosuke took a step away from the incinerator, however… something caught his eyes. "Hmm?" He hummed out, getting a better look. A lot of the sharp edges of the incinerator seemed to be coated in… blood…

Moving his hand over to the jagged edge, he poked his finger on it. "Oh, this is definitely enough to stab someone… Should be careful."

"Do you think this is how they died?" Winter got closer to investigate.

Letting out a small hum, Gennosuke could only shrug. "More than likely, but there's no way to tell if we can't compare to the wound." Granted, this thing would have caused immense blood loss. "I still think it's a safe assumption."

Winter looked down at the body, frowning. "What a state to end up… Do you think they died of blood loss before this happened?"

"I would say so…" Gennosuke crossed his arms. "If it hadn't, like you said, the wound would have been cauterised… So they likely wouldn't have been alive to feel any of this."

That was reassuring… Winter stepped away from the body. "Is there anything else in the immediate area?"

Looking around, Gennosuke couldn't really spot anything. "Not really… I think we're done here."

"Oh thank God…" Winter wasn't exactly sure how much more she could handle. Still, she found herself looking at the body. "There's not much we can even tell from this… We can't make any assumptions either…"

"I think we should just go and find somewhere else to explore…" Not that Gennosuke wanted to leave the body, but staying here wouldn't help them.

"Agreed." Winter had already started to head towards the door to leave. Gemini and Seira could investigate the rest of this area on their own.

…

…

…

"Hmm…" Seira let out a small hum, looking up at the Monorail. "We… Can't really access it anymore, huh…"

"Yeah…" Gemini was also looking up at it.

The stairs leading up to the Monorail had been reduced to ashes, rendering the way up impossible.

"This is probably what the fire fed on…" Gemini noted. "Amongst other things…"

"We should see if we can access this via a different Monorail…" Seira hummed out, bringing a hand to her chin. "There was one in the Sigma Sector… Maybe we can use that to bypass the lock here…"

Hearing that, a bright smile appeared on Gemini's face. "That's brilliant! After we've run out of things, we can check that out. We might be able to find who's still alive to determine who the body belongs to."

Stepping away from the destroyed stairs, Seira spent a bit more time looking around the room. "There really isn't much here…" There was a pile of scrap, but there didn't seem to be anything in here. "What's all this, anyways?"

"Oh… Right…" Gemini rubbed the back of his hair. "I'm pretty sure those were just failed experiments… Or something. Edison and I used some of this to build the bombs."

Hearing that word, Seira quickly turned to look at him. "Right! I still haven't forgiven you for that! I seriously got hurt!" She was no longer bleeding, and was completely fine.

"Right…" Gemini glanced down sadly. "I… I'm sorry about that…"

Seeing his mood drop, Seira began to panic slightly. "W-wait! No! I'll forgive you-" This was off to a great start.

Letting out a small laugh, Gemini glanced off to the side. "Should we check other parts of the room?"

"Right…" Somehow, Seira was the one who ended up feeling bad about this entire situation.

As the two walked, they slowly came up to something not far from the pile of rubbish…

"Hey…" Seira hummed out, crouching down to get a better look. "There's shards of glass…"

Gemini reached over carefully, and grabbed a piece. "Hmm…" He couldn't quite tell what it was. "This is probably important to remember…" Following along the rest of the room, they eventually reached the one thing that still confused the escapist. "Seriously…? Why a catapult…" He may never know the answer.

"Maybe they just threw whatever into this room…?" Seira suggested, not really knowing either.

Looking at the catapult, it seemed unharmed.

"Hmm…" Gemini hummed out, crossing his arms. "I guess the fire wouldn't have done much to this… It's made completely out of metal."

Still… Seira felt like something was off. "Doesn't it feel like… it's missing something…?"

Looking at it for a few seconds, Gemini shrugged. "It seems fine to me, but I'm not really well versed in stuff like this… But if you say something is missing, I'll choose to believe you."

That was it for the catapult, so they moved over, to where the wardrobes were.

"This stuff is still intact…" Seira mumbled out, looking at all the mahogany. "I thought it would have burnt up in the fire…"

"Well…" Gemini trailed off, looking at the markings. "It definitely caught fire, but maybe it just takes longer to burn? And then it was put out."

"Hmm…" Seira tilted her head to the side. "I suppose… Should we open up the wardrobe to see if there's anything inside?"

Stepping forward, Gemini grabbed onto the handle. "Yeah, I can do that! Get ready for an amazing reveal!"

Having said that, he pulled open the wardrobe, revealing…

"Oh." Seira blinked a few times, looking to his side. "What's that doing in here?"

Inside was a single lab coat.

"Hmm…" Gemini pulled it out, inspecting it. "I'm not too sure…" However, something wrong with it became apparent. "It's all burnt up… And…" There was a large hole in the back… "I think it started to burn from the back…"

Seira took a closer look. "There's also… blood on it…" Although, the stain had dried up, and almost didn't look like it.

"Huh…" Gemini blinked a few times. It was hard to notice, because of how faded the colours were. "That had to be because of the fire, then…" But he also had a different question he wanted to ask. "Isn't this from the infirmary?"

"Is it?" Seira hadn't gone there yet, so wouldn't be able to answer the question honestly. "I thought it might have been from Edison's station…"

"No… There wasn't anything like that in there…" Gemini had been there enough to guarantee that. "I could probably mention it to the others… I'm sure someone has been to the Infirmary."

"I personally think it's a safe assumption to make…" Seira decided to take another peek inside, but found nothing else.

Letting out a small sigh, Gemini closed them up. "The interior is in perfect condition, though."

"Yeah… It even seemed unaffected by the smoke…" Seira didn't really think it meant anything. "That's almost everything in the room…"

There was only one place left…

Moving over, the duo made their way towards the door to Edison's Ultimate Station…

There was only one problem.

"Um…" Seira blinked a few times, looking at the rubble that blocked off the room. "What… We can't possibly move that, can we?"

"Oh my!" A voice played out over the intercom for the room, which everyone quickly identified as Nova. "I didn't even notice that had happened. Please try not to move anything, I would hate for any of you to injure yourself."

Looking up, Gemini placed his hands on his hips. "But what if there's important evidence in there?"

"Hmm…" Nova let out a hum, checking some things. "I doubt there's any evidence in there… Is there something you'd want to know?"

Gemini could only think of one thing. "Inside the station, there's a monitor that displays who entered the Laboratory…"

"Oh! Right!" Nova seemed to have forgotten. "I could acquire the files myself… But I lack a monitor to show it on. I could send them to the trial when I'm ready, if that works for you."

"Yeah, that's fine." Seira had no problem with that. After all, they didn't need it at the moment. And if she showed it at the trial, that meant everyone could see it, and it wasn't just word of mouth.

"Hmm…" Gemini crossed his arms. "I'm not sure if there's much else in this room."

"Yeah…" Looking around, she also noticed that Winter and Gennosuke had already left. "Maybe we should go check out a different place…" She had a place in mind.

Gemini nodded his head, a small smile forming on his face. "You want to check out your own station?"

"W-Well!" Seira's face grew a bit red. "I just want to make sure my station is fine! I wouldn't want to see it ruined… It's really pretty." A small smile formed.

Slowly nodding his head along, Gemini began to head for the exit. "We should head there now, then!"

Now that they were both in agreement, they could leave the Laboratory behind.

Ultimate Academic Prodigy Station

Stepping into her own station, May found herself pausing. "What…?" It was clear that she wasn't exactly in a good mood.

What Edison had said earlier had been true… her station was a mess.

"See?" He frowned, looking around. "It's been trashed…"

Books were strewn on the floor, and all the bookshelves had been toppled over.

May took a few steps forward, looking around the room. "Why would… Why would anyone do this…?" It wasn't often that she was in a bad mood.

Rubbing the back of his head, Edison wasn't sure what to answer. "I… Don't know…"

Letting out a small annoyed sigh, May realised she'd have to keep herself awake if she wanted to find out what happened. "Let's get this over with…"

Although, finding a place to start wasn't exactly easy… Given the entire place was a mess.

However, the first place May decided to go check out was her little study corner. "Oh…" This at least seemed to be intact. Mostly.

She allowed herself to plop down into her bean bag chair. "Everything is better now…"

However, Edison had other ideas. "Shouldn't we be investigating?"

It took a few moments for May to say anything. She really did want to, but her resolve was quickly diminishing. "Maybe..."

Quickly, Edison had to pull her up onto her feet. "Snap out of it!" He couldn't be the only one trying here, after all. "Don't you care about what happened to your station?"

Of course May did... the only problem was that she had been forcing herself to stay awake the last couple of days to attempt to figure out what was going on... she had almost completely depleted her energy. "I'll try..."

That's all Edison needed to hear to put a smile back on his face. "That's the spirit!" He began swirling a flask around. "Alright... Hypothetically speaking... How mad would you be if your desk got damaged?"

"Hmm?" May let out a small hum, before quickly realising it wasn't a hypothetical. "Where...?" She glanced around her desk, before eventually finding it.

Lodged in her desk were a pair of scissors.

"..." May had a rather blank expression on her face, before letting out a sad sigh. "Why...?"

Edison moved over to grab onto the handle. "I don't know… I don't even know where they got scissors…" After a bit of force, he was finally able to get the scissors free. "There… I don't think they were jabbed there."

"Hmm…?" May let out a small hum. "How can you be sure?"

Inspecting the scissors, Edison wasn't sure if this was concrete evidence or not. "I was able to remove them… If someone had personally lodged them, I… Think it would have been more difficult."

That was definitely a leap in logic, but May couldn't fault him for that. "Let's… Keep that in mind." As they walked away from the desk, she began to speak up. "Did you notice them when you first entered the room?"

"Hmm…" Edison had to think back. "Oh! No!" It's as if he remembered something. "My mind was taken by something else." He moved over towards the door.

It didn't long for May to notice what he was going to show. "A… Dent…?" Next to the scanner, there was a dent in the wall. Not only that, but a slash was near it too.

"Personally I thought all the rooms had metal walls…" Edison trailed off.

Slowly, May shook her head. "No… That's mostly just the hallways and such. Every room has a unique inside." Inspecting the slash, she tilted her head. "Do you think this might be the scissors…?"

"Oh!" Edison hadn't considered that. "Well, it would have to be, right? Unless there was another sharp object around?"

Walking away from the door, May hoped that there wasn't, simply because that meant more searching… And that's not what she wanted to do at the moment. "Yeah…"

Those were the big two spots that didn't directly involve the book shelves. "Hmm…" May hummed out, as she looked over at one. "Hey… There's another one here…"

Approaching the spot she was at, Edison noticed another slash against the bookshelf, although this one wasn't nearly as deep. It was fainter than the last slash. "Someone was really trying to kill here…"

"Yeah…" That's all May really had to say before she crouched down to look through the various blank books. Nothing really stood out to her at the moment.

Seeing her do that, Edison decided to do the same. Clearly she was doing this for a reason, so he wasn't going to stop her. After a while, he stopped when he noticed something. "Hey…" He trailed off, getting her attention. "Why is this book marked…?"

Walking over, May stopped when she looked down at one of the books in the pile. While all the other ones around it were unmarked… This one had a title. "Hmm…" Crouching down, she picked it up to get a better look. "Poison…?" She didn't like the sound of that one bit. Flipping through the pages, she tried to skim through them, but her attention was caught when she noticed that one of the pages had neatly been cut out. "Huh?"

Seeing her react to something, Edison went over to take a look. "Did someone just rip out a piece of paper?" Had she not noticed it, he never would have.

"No…" May shook her head, inspecting it closer. "It's more like… someone cut it out…" It was far too neat for someone to rip it out haphazardly.

"So… We can't just see what they made?" Edison had completely forgotten which station they were in.

Without saying a single word, May moved over towards her kiosk, turning it on. "I can just make another one…" Looking through the history, she noticed that from the last time she looked… There definitely was a new search. Clicking on it, it led her to a variety of books on poison. However, she had to scroll down before she found the exact match. "Really wanted to hide it…" Unless they had the original book, they wouldn't know where to start looking.

Tapping on the screen, the machine began to work, moving over towards-

"Oh…" May hummed out, in a rather deadpanned tone when she realised the shelves were still down, so there was nothing to grab. "We… Have to fix this…"

"Huh?" Edison took a step back. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but I'm extremely weak!" He swirled a flask around. "And you aren't any better off."

"..." May was well aware of this. "Then…" They would need to think of something. "We just need a book for it to grab in range…" She reached over and grabbed a blank book, handing it to Edison. "Hold this over your head."

Well, he wasn't going to turn down the idea, but now he just looked like an idiot, holding a book over his head.

Moving back over to the kiosk, May gave it another try. This time, it detected the book Edison was holding, and grabbed it from him.

"Oh!" He seemed pretty happy that it worked.

After a few seconds, the book was dropped off next to May at the kiosk. She reached over for it, flipping through the pages. "What page was missing?"

Grabbing the book, Edison had to look through for a bit. "Ah, page 35 and 36."

Hearing that, May moved over to that page instantaneously. "Hmm… I found something…"

Except, there was a slight problem. "That covers two mixtures…" That wasn't exactly good either. "We won't know which one was used…"

Edison moved over to take a better look. "Let me see them…"

May felt like she would be fine reading on her own… Especially since she loved reading, but she wasn't going to stop him from taking a look either.

"This one is dangerous if ingested…" Edison continued to read off. "However, high temperatures should be avoided, given it easily turns into a gas when temperatures reach around 200F…"

That seemed rather low, in the grand scheme of things. Especially with how some melting points were higher than that. "Do you think someone would want to make this?"

May took another look at the mixture, noting it's purple colour. "Hmm… Maybe…" But the unknown person hadn't died via poison…

Although, there was that announcement…

"Air quality in the Laboratory is reaching critical levels!"

"Hmm…" May let out another hum. "It's possible this is why this sector had to be closed off…" She hadn't gone into the Laboratory, so she couldn't confirm anything…

Thinking about it more, Edison slowly nodded his head. "Now that I think about it… There definitely was something strange in the air when I set off the body discovery…"

Oh? Then that pretty much confirmed it then… "So do you think that was the only thing that was used…?"

"..." Edison didn't want to make any assumptions, so he switched over to the next page. "Hmm…?"

This one wasn't for any type of poison, but instead, an acid. "... That hasn't appeared at all, right?"

Slowly, Edison shook his head. "Nothing of the sort, yeah…" At least yet, and from what he was reading, it seemed to be a pretty potent one. "Hey… Wait a second…"

Flipping through the two images, he started reading off the ingredient list. "Both of these can be made with what I have in my station-" This wasn't good, and the possibility of these actually being made did exist now.

That sounded like the next destination for May. "We could go to your lab…"

"No…" Edison shook his head. "When I was in the Laboratory, I moved closer to my station after discovering the body… But it was blocked off."

"..." May felt her body slouch slightly out of annoyance. "Right…" That was a bit too convenient for the killer, but she couldn't say anything else. "Then… Do you think there's anything else to do…?" She didn't see anything right off the bat, but maybe she was just being lazy.

Taking one more glance around the room, Edison slowly shook his head. "No… I think we got everything that was important…" Although, he wasn't quite sure where else to go. At least, until an idea formed in his head. "We should head over to explore the rest of the Sigma Sector… We haven't checked out the Infirmary or the Monorail yet…"

"Sure…" May moved over towards the door. Standing here any longer would just make her sad.

Sigma Sector

After having investigated her own station, May and Edison stepped out of the room. "Hmm…" She let out a small hum as she looked around.

Edison, on the other hand, wasn't too sure. "Is that everything we need to do in this area? We haven't checked Nova's office or the room next to yours…" He had only come here to investigate May's station… Even if he did that earlier.

For a few moments… She remained silent. "I think we can leave those rooms alone" She already knew what happened in Alan's station… And she had doubts that anything important would be in Nova's office.

"Where did you want to go first, then?" There were two spots they spoke about, but Edison found it important to be on the same page.

"Just… the infirmary…" May hummed out. She had remembered something from last night, so she was growing curious if someone showed up after she left. "It should be down the hall…"

In fact, the infirmary was just around the bend in the hallway, so it wasn't too far of a journey.

However, when the duo finally turned the corner, they would both freeze in their tracks…

"H-huh?" Edison froze up slightly, looking at the ground. "What's- What's-" His eyes were fixated on something on the ground…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Blood…

May spent a few seconds looking at it, her eyes trailing down the hallway. The further down it got, the worse it became. "We should…" She began to say, before moving further.

"W-wait!" Edison had remained frozen, looking at the blood. Snapping out of it completely, he ran after her.

However, when May followed the trail of blood, she stopped right at its destination…

The infirmary…

"..." She remained silent, however she also couldn't just stand there. "I'm going to open the door…"

Edison felt himself pause at the mention… He had already seen enough… but he also couldn't ignore the fact that someone else might be dead. "Do you want to go first…"

Letting out a sigh, May knew this would be the response she got. So, she moved her arm over to scan the bracelet, holding in her breath slightly…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Infirmary

To say this place was a mess was an understatement… As I stepped into the room, I felt my foot land in a puddle of blood, splashing it a bit around the area…

As my eyes trailed over the floor… I just kept seeing more blood… All leading towards one source…

One of the infirmary beds…

And as my eyes landed on it, it didn't get any prettier… Blood soaked the bottom of the sheets, leaving next to no white spots on it…

But the real horror was what was directly on the bed… It almost felt like a deformed corpse… With the skin melted to look almost unrecognisable… I couldn't even tell who I was looking at… The hair was gone, and it would have been a similar situation to the first body…

The only saving grace to figuring out who this was, was the clothes they were wearing… It seemed to be the only part of them still intact, and there was no doubt who I was looking at…

It was…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Gigi Giulio… The Ultimate Referee…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

After a few seconds, Edison stepped into the room, freezing at the sight in front of him. "A-AHHHHHH-" He let out a scream, falling down onto his back.

Before May could even react, however, an announcement played out from Nova again.

"A body has been discovered! This is not a mistake, another body has been discovered! Please meet up in front of the Infirmary."

A second one…? Edison kept shaking his head… None of this could be real… And to Gigi of all people?

Stepping away from the body, it was clear that May wasn't doing so well right now. "I…" She almost looked sick. "The smell around here is awful…"

Edison hadn't even realised, given how panicked he already was. "I… Why did she have to-" He couldn't even finish his sentence… Poor boy…

However, after a few seconds… May began to realise something. "Did you catch that…?"

"Catch… what?" Now Edison was just confused…

Looking around the room, May eventually reached a single conclusion. "I'm talking about…"

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"The body discovery…" She trailed off… "We were the only two people in this room… And yet it went off…"

"Wait-" Edison blinked a few times. "So you're telling me that someone else already saw this body?" He began to swirl a flask around. He took a glance towards the body, before looking away again. "That's weird…"

It really was… But figuring out right now would be impossible, so May didn't even bother trying to think about it any more. "We should… go…"

"Right…" Edison had been shaking the entire time, some of the liquid slowly splashing out of the flask. "I… Don't think I can stay here…"

Sigma Sector

Not being able to be around the body for too long, Edison had chosen to wait outside, with him being joined by May a bit after. "We're going to need to investigate the body soon…"

"Yeah… But…!" This game was getting to be a little too much for him. "We should just wait for the others to show up…"

And it didn't take too long… In fact! The four others were coming down the hallway now!

"What the hell?" Winter mumbled out as she walked down the hallway. She tried her best to avoid stepping on any blood.

"Hmm…" Gennosuke didn't really seem to mind as he stepped onto the blood. "This feels worse than the last body… Who's the unfortunate one this time, or are we dealing with another unknown?"

"No… We… We know who the body belongs to…" Edison trailed off, a frown on his face. "Gigi is…" He didn't even need to say the last part.

"What?" Seira took a step back. "She's-" The fact that there even was a second body was insane already…

Frowning slightly, Gemini stopped in his tracks. "What does it look like…?"

"A lot of blood…" May answered.

"Yeah, yeah…" Gennosuke continued to walk. "We gathered that already." He stopped at the door, using his watch to scan it. "Hmm…" He waited for the door to close before turning to the others. "It's pretty bad in there…" He grinned.

"Only you would find this amusing…" Seira slowly shook her head. "I… I'm not sure if I want to investigate this body…"

"Well…" Winter hummed out, also in a similar boat. "We already investigated the last body, so…"

"Fine…" May turned back towards the door. "We can take this one…"

Moving back to the group, Gennosuke shrugged. "And if there's a third body, your group can handle it."

"There- There won't be a third one!" Seira paled up. She didn't even want to consider it…

"Unfortunately… It's true…" Now Nova was here again. "It's the first time that's happened here, which really is interesting!"

"I fail to see how that's interesting…" Winter frowned, before glancing away. "At least this one isn't unknown…"

Having two unknown victims would be awful…

"So…" Gennosuke trailed off, placing his hands in his pockets. "We're all here, so shouldn't we be getting the Station Report?"

"Oh right!" Nova had a similar reaction to last time. "How could I almost forget again!" She brought her hand over to the screen on her arm. "Sending it… right now!"

After a few seconds, everyone got a notification.

Like last time, there was an image attached to this one.

The station report showed an image of Gigi, lying down on the bed.

.

Station Report.

.

Found in the Infirmary, the body has mostly been melted. There is a large gash in their back. Cause of death was impalement. Time of death was 2:48pm.

.

Having read it, Gemini turned to look over at Nova. "Say… I have a question…"

Quickly, she began to clap. "Yes! I'm always open to answering questions! What is bothering you?"

Taking a quick glance back at the file, Gemini lowered his arm. "This is the first time that there's been two bodies… So how would a trial work?"

"Oh, what a lovely question!" Nova's visor changed to a yellow expression of joy. "I was wondering how it was going to work as well, but we've decided that it would be whoever died first. We thought it would only be fair that way."

"Then…" Edison trailed off, a frown on his face. "Does that mean that whoever killed Gigi doesn't matter…"

"That's one way to look at it…" Nova's visor changed to a blue expression of sadness. "But please don't say it doesn't matter… Gigi will always matter!"

Raising an eyebrow, Gennosuke crossed his arms. "But let's say that there are two killers… Would the other one get to escape?"

"Unfortunately… No…" Nova shook her head. "In this instance, the blackened would be whoever killed the unknown body! Meaning that if there is a second killer, they would not benefit from getting away with it. Their goal is to also find the first killer."

Tapping his chin, Gennosuke glanced off to the side. "So it would be in the second killer's best interest to reveal what they did?"

"..." Nova pondered that statement for a few seconds before shaking her head. "Not necessarily. It might be better for them to not reveal anything, lest they be treated like you were."

"Hmm…" This did get a small grin from Gennosuke. "Understood…"

"Well…" May trailed off with a yawn. "Personally… I want to figure out who killed Gigi as well…"

Gemini nodded his head at the sentiment. "I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out."

Clapping her hands together, Nova was adoring the determination they had. "Wonderful! You always fill me up with so much hope. Now, I wouldn't waste any more time if I were you! There's only so much time before the trial begins, and you want to make sure you have all the evidence ready!"

"Alright…" May took a step forward, her destination being the Infirmary. "Let's go… Edison…"

"Right…" He seemed less than pleased, but there wasn't much he could do at the moment.

Once those two were gone, that left the other quartet.

"Where should… We go?" Seira looked around.

Thinking for a moment, Gemini crossed his arms. "Maybe we should go check out some of the other rooms…"

"Right…" Winter hummed out in agreement. "I want to head over to the garden, for obvious reasons."

Hearing that, a grin appeared on Gennosuke's face. "I'm fine with that…"

Seira turned to look at Gemini. "Then… Should we head over to my station?"

A bright smile appeared on his face. "I'd like that, yeah… I think looking at the stars right now would be nice." With both bodies, it was apparent that a lot was on his mind.

Now that this was settled, both groups split off to do their own investigation…

However, Gennosuke noticed something on the way out. "Hey, what's this…?"

That caught Winter's attention, and she moved over towards the door he was standing in front of. "A vacant room… Did you not investigate this area?"

"I know what this is." Gennosuke sneered, before turning his attention to something else. "I'm talking about that…" He pointed over towards the display.

Following his finger, Winter quickly realised what he meant. "O-Oh!"

While the display would normally say vacant… It now said one name…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Gigi…

Frowning slightly, Winter shook her head. "I'm not sure why Gigi would move her room down here…" That did raise some questions, but it would be relevant for the trial, wouldn't it? "Let's just go to the garden. There's a few things I need to figure out before this…"

Watching her leave, Gennosuke took one last look at the door, a small grin tugging at his lips. "Hmm… I see how it is." An idea was already forming in his head.

Ultimate Astrologist Station

There was a very big detour from this room, given that they had to go to the infirmary after another body discovery went off. But now, Seira found herself in the comfort of her own station.

Looking around, she let out a rather happy sigh… Honestly… This is what she needed right now.

Gemini was right behind her, taking a look as well. "Are you sure it's fine to spend time here…?" From a quick overall glance, he didn't exactly notice anything that was off.

"I…" Seira knew the answer was no, but at the moment, she just wanted to watch the stars. "Sorry… I know I shouldn't be doing this, but my nerves have been through the roof these past couple of days…"

Hearing that caused a frown to form on Gemini's face. "Do you want to talk about it…?"

Part of her did, the other part kept telling Seira to never talk about it. Of course, that's the part that won out. "No… I'm fine." She offered a smile, like everything is fine.

Of course, that wouldn't go unnoticed by Gemini, but he also didn't want to pry, so instead he offered a smile back. "If you say so."

The stars were rather pretty this time. The two spent a few seconds looking at them. Honestly, Seira wanted to just ignore the investigation and watch them… That's almost all that mattered right now. But, unfortunately, her conscience ran at the back of her head, telling her they might need to get a move on. "I think that's enough for now."

Gemini had been stuck staring at the stars, that he didn't even realise that she had stopped.

Seeing that he wasn't listening, Seira began to shake his arm. "Gemini!"

That snapped him out of it, causing him to turn to look at her. "H-huh?"

"Is your head on the moon?" Seira smiled slightly, even if she knew she really shouldn't be happy in a moment like this… Someone had died, after all. "We have more important things to do right now…"

"Right… Right…" Gemini ran a hand through his hair. "We should probably leave the room now. I don't think we'll find anything here…"

Taking his hand, Seira began to guide him out of the room.

That was until Gemini felt himself step on something strange. "Hmm…" He hummed out, looking at the ground. "Are these… glass shards?"

Hearing that, Seira took her own turn to look at the ground, spotting them as well. "Oh… That's… Weird…" Especially since there wasn't really anything glass related in her station. Slowly, she let go of his hand. "There were glass shards in the laboratory as well…" Although there were less here. Kneeling down, she went to inspect them. "Hmm… They look like the same glass…"

"But why would it be here?" Gemini ran a hand through his hair.

Now, Seira couldn't answer that question, but she could at least come up with a single solution. "I'm not sure… But this means someone had to come here during the case, right?"

Slowly, Gemini nodded his head. "I think that's the only conclusion that we can take from this…"

After that, a bit of silence popped up, as the two spent some time looking around the room. However, they didn't find anything else… Just those glass shards.

The one who broke the silence was Gemini. "Hey… Seira." He turned to look at her.

"Hmm?"

Waiting a few extra seconds, Gemini let out a sigh. "How is that injury of yours? Is it still bleeding?"

"Oh!" Taking a quick glance at it, Seira shook her head. "No, I told you, I'm fine." But she did appreciate his concern. "It was a close call, but nothing bad happened."

"..." Closing his eyes, Gemini nodded his head. "That's good… I'd hate to have hurt you like that…" He wasn't sure what he would do had she been badly injured. "I think I became a little too obsessive with reaching the main control room…"

Slowly, Seira shook her head. "Don't worry about it… You were just trying to help us escape!" She was doing her best to make sure he felt better.

Placing both hands on his hips, he glanced off to the side. "Yeah, but I should have known blowing up the wall wouldn't have done anything… I could have injured you worse… So those thoughts have just been on my mind the entire time."

Grabbing his hand again, Seira shook her head. "Well, it didn't happen… So it's all fine."

Still, Gemini couldn't let that thought escape his mind. Ironic. However, hearing her words put a smile on his face. "Alright… Let's just get back to the investigation… Where did we want to go next?"

Tapping her chin, Seira had to think about this one. "Oh! Didn't we say we wanted to try out the Monorail? There's one in the Sigma Sector, so we should be able to reach the other floors, if the lockdown doesn't apply to the train."

That worked for him! "I doubt anyone else has had the chance to check it out yet… Although I wish we would have gone there first… A lot of walking."

"Oh…" Well, Seira only felt partially sorry… Mostly because she really wanted to go to her own station. "Stop complaining… We still have plenty of time." She reached her hand over to grab his.

With hands held together, they left the room.

Garden (Zeta)

Entering the garden, it wasn't disturbed like some of the other rooms. In fact, it was rather calm, just what Winter was hoping for. Not knowing who the victim was was having adverse effects on her mind.

Not only that, but Lorelei had still refused to answer her. The option that she was simply ignoring her to troll her was quickly becoming less likely.

Given two announcements went off, it should mean that Lorelei would send her a message… And yet… Nothing.

But right now, she had a completely different concern. Looking over her shoulder, she found she was still paired up with Gennosuke, who wasn't taking this investigation seriously. "So, you grabbed two masks while you were here?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Gennosuke placed his hands in his pockets. "It helped us find the body, so I don't really see how that's much of a concern."

There were many alarms that were going off in Winter's head, so she might as well address the ones directly related to the murder first. "Why were you even in the area in the first place?"

Leaning against the wall, Gennosuke lit up the tip of a lollipop stick. "Do I really need to share that?" Looking over, he noticed the dirty look he was getting. "Fine… Fine… I was here for two reasons. The first was because I wanted to speak to someone… Unfortunately they were talking to someone else, so there wasn't really a chance to. As for the second…" He trailed off, putting the lollipop in his mouth. "I had a feeling that something was going to happen."

Now that just set off even more flags. Raising an eyebrow, Winter had an expression of disbelief on her face. "How could you know something was going to happen? You aren't working with the killer again-"

"Relax…" Gennosuke trailed off, shaking his head. "As if I could get anyone to work with me again." He placed a hand in his pocket. "But as much as you believe yourself to be perceptive… You are somewhat lacking. The signs were there… You just failed to notice them."

"Are you saying you know who the killer is?" Winter narrowed her eyes, taking a step forward.

Thinking it over for a moment, eventually Gennosuke shook his head. "Not at all, I'm actually quite in the dark about this one. However, I do know a bit of what might have transpired."

"Then why not tell us?" Winter was slowly losing her patience. This man knew things, and always refused to say anything. "Our lives are on the line."

"Isn't that the fun part?" Gennosuke grinned. "Why would I ruin the fun by allowing myself to reveal the answer. Besides, it wouldn't do much to help in the long run…" He glanced off to the side. "Once again, I don't know who the killer is…"

The longer this conversation went on, the more Winter realised that it was all pointless. Anything involving the trial, he wouldn't help with… Which meant she had to switch up her questions ever so slightly.

And she had one in mind… One she's been wanting to ask ever since they were formed into a pair. Enough time had passed, and they were finally away from everyone else. "I think now is the perfect time to ask this question…"

"Hmm?" Gennosuke now had a grin on his face… This should be interesting. "And what would that be?"

"Why?" Was all Winter said at first. After letting the silence settle, she continued. "Why did you want to group up with me?"

"I don't really know what you're talking about…" Gennosuke stuck his hands in his pocket, shaking his head. "I didn't choose anything."

"No, but you knew that if you asked to split off in pairs, you'd get stuck with me." Winter finally turned to look at him, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "I'm not stupid… Anyone could see what you were doing. After the two obvious pairs formed, it would leave you with me… Which was likely your goal from the start, but you also couldn't verbally request this pair, or else I'd catch on to you."

Titling his head to the side, Gennosuke shook his head. "Well, if that was the case, you still seemed to have caught on to what this was."

Slowly, a frown appeared on Winter's face. "So tell me… What was the reason you separated me from the others? You can't possibly think I'm the killer, can you? I have a rock solid alibi as of now."

For a moment, Gennosuke pondered that last statement… He found it humorous, but no need to comment on it. "It's nothing to do with this case, honestly. I've just been meaning to talk to you… Honestly, you weren't the first person I wanted to speak to, but it would have been impossible to isolate them."

What the hell did that mean? Winter wanted to ask, but knew it would be a pointless endeavor. "So what? I'm your second choice? That doesn't really sound flattering."

"Honestly, you're like my last choice." Wow, Gennosuke is really rubbing salt in the wound. "But you are a choice…"

Narrowing her eyes, Winter was already getting sick of this conversation. "Can you just get to the point? I don't need you avoiding the issue the entire time…"

He could get to the point… But Gennosuke knew he wouldn't reveal anything useful to her… This was just another candidate for who had the extra watch. "Tell me, what is your goal around here?"

"Hmm?" Winter didn't seem to understand the question that much. "To survive… Why would it be anything else?"

"Hmm…" Gennosuke still wasn't sure… Whoever this person was had to be crafty… And for the time being, she was one of the most crafty people around, especially if you take into consideration the motive. "That's a fair point… But sometimes, people might have different answers. But you gave me the one I expected."

Giving him a slight scowl, Winter shook her head. "Well, all you're really doing is wasting both of our time. So either state the reason why you wanted to talk to me, or go back to looking around."

The more he talked to Winter, the less that Gennosuke felt like she was the candidate. Not because she couldn't do it… She very well could have. The only problem was that she was playing it as safe as can be… She'd have no reason to go behind Nova's back to do something like this…

Which left him with only one candidate…

"Well…" Gennosuke trailed off, a smile on his face. "I think I've gotten everything I wanted out of you."

That was an ominous thing to hear from him, which only caused Winter to frown. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

Waving his hand dismissively, it was very clear that Gennosuke wouldn't say a word. "Forget about it, already…" Then, he placed both of his hands in his pockets. "You should just know that it's a good thing for you."

Winter had heavy doubts about that, given his nature, but worrying about it wouldn't really do much for her. "Are we done here…?"

Taking a look at the time on his watch, Gennosuke shrugged. "There was nothing in here when I stopped by earlier, so I doubt we'd find anything new. There hasn't been an opportunity for someone to sneak by. Besides, I spent most of my time waiting in this room until my assistance was required."

Every single word he spoke oozed suspicion, but Winter knew deep down that it all meant nothing… They'd get to the trial, and he would be proven innocent again. "Right…" Well, spending this much time in the room with him was starting to get to her, so she needed some fresh air. Ironic since this was the freshest air she would get in the station. "I'm leaving the room now. You're free to stay here."

She knew saying that was a bad idea, but she couldn't stand to be around him any longer.

Now, Gennosuke could have stayed in the room, but he was having a lot of fun pestering her, so before she could leave, he spoke up. "So, Lorelei hasn't answered yet, has she?"

This caused Winter to stop in her tracks. "W-what?"

Right on the mark, it seems. "Isn't that what you've been doing with your watch since you started waiting to enter the Laboratory?"

While she did let a brief moment of panic show, Winter's mood calmed down, only offering a smile. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Why would I associate myself with the girl who tried to kill me?"

"Good question…" Gennosuke pulled the lollipop out of his mouth, inspecting it. "But there'd be no reason to constantly check your watch like that… Unless the Ultimate Hacker did something to it…"

Quickly, Winter covered her own watch. "I don't understand what you gain from making assumptions like that."

"Oh… Nothing really." Gennosuke shrugged, walking past her. He brought his watch to the scanner to open the door. "I just think it's fun to be observant… But if it makes you feel any better, I doubt Lorelei is dead… I imagine her death to be a little more pathetic than how this played out." Then he left…

Winter stood there, alone, in the room… Unsure what to say… After a few more seconds back, she took a deep breath. "What the hell is wrong with him…" She didn't bother leaving the room for a while.

Infirmary

This is what he didn't want… And yet… Edison found himself in the room again. "Gigi…" He mumbled out rather sadly. Sure, he didn't spend any time talking to her, but he still had a lot of fun with the DnD sessions… And nobody deserves to have their body appear like this. "What are we even supposed to do…"

It's highly unlikely any useful information could be gathered from the body… Except for the fact that it was almost melted.

"Hmm…" May had been keeping her distance, but she was beginning to have the same realisation as he did. "We can at least still try…" Still, investigating a corpse wasn't exactly something she wanted to do. Taking a few steps forward, she tried to get a better look, but everywhere she looked just made her more sick.

"I can barely recognise her…" Even her hair was gone… May had to turn away.

"Her cause of death was on her back, right…?" Edison mumbled out, even if he knew this could only lead to a bad suggestion.

May already knew where he was going with this, so she only let out a sigh. "Right…"

Moving over to one side, they attempted to move Gigi's body on it's side, so they could at least get a better view of the wound… But one thing became very clear.

"She's… She's stuck." Edison quickly stepped back, rubbing his hands off. "I…"

Yeah, this was only making May feel a bit more nauseous. "She's glued to the bed…" Whatever was used to melt some of her skin probably resulted in this as well. "This is… an awful fate…" She wouldn't wish this on anyone.

"Do you think that was the killer's goal…?" Edison mumbled out. "That way we couldn't check the wound?"

May didn't want to make any assumptions, so she just shrugged. "It… might be why…" Her eyes trailed over towards the lone coat on the rack. She made her way over towards it.

Riffling through the pockets, May found a grand total of nothing important. "Ah…"

Disappointment!

However, Edison was still with the body, and he wasn't done investigating yet. "Hey…" He glanced down at the ground. "There's a lot of glass here, by the way…"

May turned to look at him, glancing at the ground. There was! Well… Not too much, but enough that it was noticeable. "Wait…" She hummed out, looking over at Gigi… "That's not the only glass…" She had just now noticed that Gigi herself had glass shards embedded in her skin.

"What happened to her…" Edison mumbled out sadly. "She's in such an awful condition…" He was still keeping his distance, however.

"Who would want to do this to a body…?" May hummed out, rather weakly. None of the other ones had been in a condition this awful. Honestly, both bodies were in bad shape…

While she was doing that, Edison was taking his time to look around everywhere else… But honestly, there didn't really seem to be much else evidence wise… It was almost weird how little evidence there actually was here… "I don't think there's much of anything here…"

"Weird…" May hummed out, verbalising his narration. "There's so much blood here, that you'd think that a killer would have left some more evidence behind." But she was running out of things to think of. Of note, the blood path took a path to the bed Gigi was on. It didn't stray from that path at all. "She must have dragged here…" That was the only conclusion she could take from this.

"Yeah…" Edison stepped away from the body, this time for good. He didn't want to have to go there again… "I think that's all we're going to find…"

However… There was one last thing that came to May's mind as she looked around the room. "Hey… It's missing…"

Given how vague it was, Edison had no idea what she was talking about. "What's… missing?" Either way, it didn't sound good, based on her tone of voice.

For a few seconds, May didn't answer. Instead, only giving the room another look around. "Yeah… It's definitely missing…"

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Her watch…"

"Huh?" Edison blinked a few times. "That- That can't be a good thing." A watch going missing…

"Hmm…" However, May didn't really seem too concerned. "It's fine… It's likely that the killer has it, no?"

"Still…" Edison began to pace around, mumbling things to himself. "If the killer took it, doesn't this open a bunch of possib-"

Letting out a small yawn, May made sure it was loud enough to stop him from thinking. "We shouldn't worry about that right now…" There was a chance this would come up in the trial, but without all the information, it was pretty much useless for now.

"Right…" Edison trailed off, glancing to the side. Honestly, if that meant that they would leave the room, he's all for it. Anymore, and he felt like he might puke from the smell. So without waiting for May, he was gone.

That left her alone in the room… She was getting ready to leave, before taking one last look at the body. "..." And then she was gone as well.

Monorail (Sigma)

Given that they had thought of the idea of using the Monorail, Seira and Gemini found themselves here.

"If this works… We should be able to find out who else is alive… And see if anyone was at the top of the Laboratory."

"Right…" Seira wanted to get out of this area, especially with there being two victims this time… As she got closer, she scanned her watch against the scanner.

However… The door did not open up. Instead, a message popped up.

This Monorail has been closed.

"H-huh?" Seira took a step back. "Why would it be-"

Moving past her, Gemini attempted with his own watch, only to get the same exact result.

This Monorail has been closed.

"What the…?" Gemini had a confused look on his face. "Was this so we didn't leave the area? I bet you Nova had something to do with this."

"No I didn't."

Suddenly.

Nova.

Seira jumped when she appeared, but Gemini didn't seem to flinch. "You didn't?"

Crossing her arms, Nova's visor changed to a red expression of anger. "No! I didn't. Why would I ever close down the Monorail? I'm quite fond of it, actually. It was my idea to even include it."

"Then…" Seira trailed off, glancing back at the door. "Why is it closed right now?"

"There are many ways to close it." Nova began to explain. "But myself and Monokawa had nothing to do with it, so figure it out yourself."

Letting out a sigh, Gemini shook his head. "So in other words, you aren't going to tell us anything?"

"Nope!" Nova clapped her hands together. "It would be pointless for me to explain stuff when trials exist. You are supposed to be the one that finds the answers. No using any cheats for this."

That was a bummer, but Seira was still determined to investigate. "It being closed probably has to do with the case." And she could think of one reason why. "Should we see if we can spot anything?"

"We can try… I guess." Gemini didn't know why. "I don't think we'll figure anything out by looking around."

Maybe… But Seira still wanted to try. Approaching the doors, she could see inside the Monorail, but found nothing at the entrance. "I don't see anything right away…"

Still, she wasn't going to give up. Instead, she moved herself along the Monorail, looking through every window, and trying all sorts of angles… Until…

"Hey!" Seira blurted out, a slight look of excitement in her voice. "I found something."

"Really?" Gemini raised an eyebrow as he approached to see what she spotted.

"There!" Seira pointed towards a part further into the train.

After trying his best to spot it, Gemini eventually saw what she meant. "More glass shards…?" Why was that everywhere?

"That makes… What? Three places with glass shards?" Seira pointed out.

"That's crazy…" Seriously, why was this the common thread between most rooms? "Once we figure out what all this glass is, I think we should be set for the trial." That was still asking for a lot, however.

Moving away from the Monorail, Seira let her arms fall to the side. "I think that might be everything we'll find…"

"You would be right." Nova nodded her head along. That's right, she didn't leave!

This caused Seira to jump slightly, before placing her hands on her hips. "Why are you so silent all the time?"

This got a small laugh from Nova. "Well, I didn't want to get in the way of your investigation." Suddenly, her visor went out, and her voice was transferred towards the intercom.

"That concludes the investigation period. Please, everyone join up in the cafeteria for the trial to start."

"Well… There's probably not much else we can do…" Gemini trailed off.

Seira had the same sentiment… It didn't feel like they nearly found everything they needed, but maybe one of the other two groups had all the answers. "Let's go…"

As the two left, Nova gladly followed behind them.

Zeta Sector

After being told to attend the trial, the group of six finally made their way back over to the entrance to the sector. "We're about to find out who the victim is…" Gemini trailed off.

"Yeah…" Winter glanced off to the side, a rather nervous expression on her face. "Part of me doesn't want to figure that out… But there's no other way."

The room quickly grew silent… They knew someone was dead, but not being able to know who was awful…

Letting out a sigh, Edison approached the scanner. "We've… We've dealt with this before…" Slowly, he scanned his watch to the scanner…

Except…

It didn't work.

"H-huh?" Edison blinked a few times before attempting it again. Same results… "What's going on?"

"Don't tell me…" Gennosuke sneered, taking a step forward. "Are we stuck in here, even now?"

"Unfortunately…" Nova approached the group, holding her hands together. "The air quality still hasn't improved, so opening the way forward would be dangerous."

"What?" Gemini took a step back. "The trial is starting soon! How could you do that if we're trapped here?"

"Well, there are still six other people who aren't stuck here." Nova explained, moving her hand around. "So it's not like it would be impossible for someone to attend the trial."

"But…" May trailed off, thinking of something. "Wasn't one of the rules about attending the trial?"

"Oh!" Nova quickly moved over to her monitor. "Right… It was rule #9… Or… I guess it's not rule #8 now…"

Rule #9: Once a murder takes place, a station trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving participants.

After a few quick presses of a button, Nova's visor changed to an expression of joy. "There we go! I have now removed the rule. Meaning you don't have to attend the trial."

"I'm sure this won't have lasting effects." Gennosuke shrugged.

"But…" Seira trailed off, realising there was still a problem. "We have the evidence… How are they supposed to figure out anything without us?"

This got a small laugh from Nova. "Oh… Trust me… I believe there will be a way for this trial to go on. We've been paying close attention to what people have been doing, after all."

For a moment, Winter took a step back… That felt oddly targeted. She was going to say something, until she saw something flash on her watch, out of her peripherals. "Huh?" There was something on it…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"If I don't answer the first fucking message, I'm not going to answer the next twenty four fucking messages."

Audibly, Winter let out a large sigh of relief, which caught the attention of everyone. "O-Oh!" She didn't mean to appear so blatant.

"Hmm?" Gennosuke had a grin on his face. "You've been looking at your watch since earlier… Finally ready to tell me I was right earlier?"

Looking around at everyone else, Winter eventually let out a defeated sigh. "Lorelei is alive… She just messaged me."

"Message?" Gemini raised an eyebrow. "Since when has that been a thing we can do?"

This got a small laugh from Nova. "It's not supposed to be something you can do. However, Lorelei was able to create an app to do it."

"..." For a moment, Winter remained silent, until she realised something. "You knew about this?"

"Of course I did! You think something like that would go unnoticed by Monokawa?" Nova crossed her arms. "Not that I mind! I find it rather cute, actually."

"Um…" Winter didn't seem to understand why, but whatever… "So is this the way we'd be able to start the trial?"

"Of course!" Nova nodded her head along. "You can simply give out all the information you've collected, and Lorelei can deliver the message!" A pause. "However, not all the information will be able to be transferred."

This felt like an annoying job, but it was down to Winter to actually do something about it. "Fine… Everyone, I'm going to send her all the evidence we've acquired…" Which was a lot from what she remembered. "Just tell me everything you know, and I'll send it her way…"

Before anyone else could say anything, Edison began to ramble off about everything he found, without a single pause-

"Calm down, will you…" Seira mumbled out. "You don't have to say it all at once."

"O-oh!" Edison took a step back. "How much were you able to catch?"

Tilting her head to the side, Winter took a look at what she wrote. "I've got… May's station was a mess." That was one of the many things he said. "But before that… I have some personal questions to ask Lorelei, if you don't mind." She took a respectful bow, before stepping away.

Tau Sector

Right now, Lorelei was standing right outside the Zeta Sector. Her watch wouldn't work on the door, and while she could try and open it by brute forcing the code, even they realised that it was a bad idea.

After sending a message from Winter, it took a few minutes for one to come back. "What the hell were you doing? I've been trying to contact you for an hour."

Seeing the message, Lorelei couldn't help but roll their eyes. "I was taking a nap. I get awfully tired when I talk to annoying people." She spoke to the watch, which transferred her speech into text.

If Atlas had a voice activated watch, what was stopping her from turning on the function for herself?

"Now of all time? Did you do that because you were safe, or?"

"Nope… Marked for death." Lorelei glanced away, even if there wasn't anyone to look at. "I didn't feel like winding up as a victim, so I stayed away from most people." It felt like the easier solution, anyways.

This next message took a bit before it appeared, maybe because of how long it was. "Well, I am glad that you are alright. If this happens again, I might not be so kind. But we're wasting time. I'm about to send you a stream of messages in a second, please be patient."

From the sounds of it, it wouldn't end well for Lorelei. "Please don't." They sent a message, but the fact that she received no message after it only grew her worries. "If you start spamming me again, I swear to God!"

Unfortunately for them, it was impossible to stop…

Seeing the stream of messages pour through, Lorelei lowered her watch in annoyance. Did Winter really expect her to go through all that information?

Something else was occupying her mind. Bringing her watch closer to her face, they were going to choose the laziest option they had available.

"That's cute and all, but that's the least of my concerns." Lorelei spoke into their watch.

"What's wrong?" The message from Winter said.

As Lorelei began to walk down the hallway, the silence around them became more apparent. "How many people are on the other side with you? You've got two bodies… And?"

It took a bit longer for the next reply to come in. "We've got six of us here, that being-"

Oddly enough, the rest of the message was cut off… Not something Lorelei assumed did on purpose.

So there's only one alternative. "They're blocking off your messages."

"I figured as much… Nova said something about this earlier."

As Lorelei entered the cafetera… Still… Nobody. "I haven't seen any of the five other people around here… And I don't think it's by accident." The trial was going to start soon… Hell, the elevator was open already, as if to invite them inside. "I'm going to head to the trial ground, and see just what's going on."

"Good luck… I wish I could share more information."

As Lorelei looked at the last message from Winter, they shook their head.

Stepping into the elevator, the doors closed right behind her.

And… Then… It began moving horizontally. At this point, Lorelei already knew there was another trial ground. What does this make… The fourth one?

Either way, it didn't really matter to them… What did matter was just how lonely it felt.

Last time she went to the trial, she was accompanied by fourteen other people. So it felt foreign to be standing in an elevator alone.

Not that Lorelei cared deep down. She was better off on our own anyways.

As the elevator made its way, a voice played out, alerting them of what trial ground they were going towards.

"Now entering Trial Ground Gamma."

More Greek letters… such a dumb naming scheme, but Lorelei couldn't really say much about it.

After a few seconds, gravity began to shift again. "Right… This bullshit again…" However, instead of appearing on the ceiling, she was dragged down towards the wall, where one of the doors was. "Different, at least…" But still pretty annoying to deal with.

The elevator kept going for an additional thirty seconds, before it finally stopped.

When the elevator doors opened up, Lorelei found herself slowly floating towards the bottom. This made it so that the elevator remained on the ceiling, as she was dropped off directly in the center of the trial.

"Oh! Glad you could make it!" An annoying voice spoke up, meaning it could only be Monokawa. "As you might see, things will be working a little bit differently this time."

Slowly, Lorelei glanced around the room.

Every single podium had a picture… Every single one, except for theirs. "I love what you did with the place… Does this mean everyone died? Did I win?"

"Oh, don't kid yourself." Monokawa floated down, until he was sitting down on the throne. "Come on, why don't you take your place!"

Giving him an annoyed look, Lorelei eventually moved over to their podium. Looking around, the atmosphere felt different from all the other times…

Her mind focused on the pictures around her…

The order had been the same as last time… E̶d̶i̶s̶o̶n̶,̶ ̶B̶e̶n̶o̶i̶t̶,̶ ̶S̶e̶i̶r̶a̶,̶ ̶W̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶G̶i̶g̶i̶,̶ ̶G̶e̶m̶i̶n̶i̶,̶ ̶B̶e̶n̶j̶a̶m̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶D̶o̶l̶l̶y̶,̶ Lorelei, M̶i̶c̶h̶a̶e̶l̶,̶ ̶M̶e̶l̶o̶d̶y̶,̶ ̶D̶a̶e̶-̶H̶y̶u̶n̶,̶ ̶L̶a̶k̶i̶,̶ ̶M̶a̶y̶,̶ ̶I̶a̶n̶,̶ ̶T̶a̶t̶i̶a̶n̶a̶,̶ ̶A̶t̶l̶a̶s̶,̶ ̶G̶e̶n̶n̶o̶s̶u̶k̶e̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶H̶a̶e̶-̶W̶o̶n̶.̶

To note, Benjamin's podium actually had two pictures. One for himself, and then one for Dolly. "Cute… I guess?" Lorelei's never felt so alone… Sure, she knew Winter and a few others were alive, but this didn't help her at all at the moment.

They waited a few seconds, but quickly noticed that nothing was happening. Even the timer hadn't started. "Is something supposed to happen?"

Having left enough time pass, Monokawa floated up towards the top of the room, raising his paws in the air. "It's finally time to start the trial! Tell me Lorelei… Are you ready?"

"Um…" They looked around the room again, still unsure what the goal here was… "Sure." But saying no wouldn't get them anywhere… They'd just have to accept whatever fate this trial brought them…

Soon, several pictures appeared, each with one of the participants.

.

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶L̶a̶k̶i̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶g̶l̶e̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶e̶y̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶e̶m̶p̶t̶i̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶D̶a̶e̶-̶H̶y̶u̶n̶,̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶n̶d̶i̶f̶f̶e̶r̶e̶n̶t̶,̶ ̶c̶o̶v̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶m̶o̶u̶t̶h̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶e̶y̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶b̶s̶c̶u̶r̶e̶d̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶H̶a̶e̶-̶W̶o̶n̶,̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶p̶o̶c̶k̶e̶t̶,̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶a̶g̶a̶i̶n̶s̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶w̶a̶l̶l̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶M̶a̶y̶,̶ ̶e̶y̶e̶s̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶e̶n̶g̶r̶o̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶n̶a̶p̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶B̶e̶n̶j̶a̶m̶i̶n̶,n̶o̶w̶ ̶h̶o̶l̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶T̶a̶t̶i̶a̶n̶a̶ ̶d̶o̶l̶l̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶t̶e̶a̶d̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶c̶u̶s̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶S̶e̶i̶r̶a̶,̶ ̶g̶r̶i̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶n̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶L̶e̶o̶ ̶n̶e̶c̶k̶l̶a̶c̶e̶,̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶s̶.̶

.

Ugh, this whole thing is a pain in the ass. How am I supposed to figure out this entire trial on my own?

.

An image of Lorelei, not paying attention. Instead, opting to mess around on her watch.

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶G̶i̶g̶i̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶s̶t̶l̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶m̶o̶u̶t̶h̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶d̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶y̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶A̶t̶l̶a̶s̶,̶ ̶i̶r̶r̶i̶t̶a̶t̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶g̶l̶a̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶I̶a̶n̶,̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶d̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶s̶,̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶c̶h̶i̶e̶v̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶g̶r̶i̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶e̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶M̶i̶c̶h̶a̶e̶l̶,̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶h̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶o̶v̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶v̶e̶r̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶a̶z̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶m̶e̶r̶a̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶E̶d̶i̶s̶o̶n̶,̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶p̶e̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶l̶a̶s̶k̶s̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶e̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶b̶b̶l̶i̶n̶g̶.̶

.

Then again, if there was anyone who would be able to do it, it would be me. Everyone else is too stupid for this.

.

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶G̶e̶m̶i̶n̶i̶,̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶h̶i̶p̶s̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶h̶o̶l̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶n̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶l̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶p̶i̶z̶z̶a̶.

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶B̶e̶n̶o̶i̶t̶,̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶n̶e̶r̶v̶o̶u̶s̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶r̶u̶b̶b̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶m̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶c̶a̶r̶s̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶W̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶e̶y̶e̶s̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶s̶l̶o̶w̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶i̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶u̶p̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶e̶a̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶M̶e̶l̶o̶d̶y̶,̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶s̶m̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶a̶n̶c̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶w̶a̶y̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶T̶a̶t̶i̶a̶n̶a̶,̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶v̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶e̶y̶e̶p̶a̶t̶c̶h̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶w̶i̶r̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶k̶n̶i̶f̶e̶.̶

A̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶G̶e̶n̶n̶o̶s̶u̶k̶e̶,̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶s̶i̶n̶i̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶g̶a̶z̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶.̶

.

So let's get this shitshow started…

There we go! Now I'm killing more people at a time. God Nathan, it only took you until chapter 4. Catch up, already!

While we don't know who the unknown victim is yet, we do know who the second victim is! I would like to thank Nekoja for allowing me to use Gigi. She was one of my favourites to write, even if other people didn't like her the way I did. I think she was awesome, and filled in a much needed role. A role that is now vacant! How fun! My only problem with her is that most of the time she ended up taking the spotlight in scenes, but that's just how she was. Oops. Oh well. Now she's dead, and you can finally cheer, Oddly.

It was definitely a hard fought battle when it came to accepting her, because I had two other really solid choices, but when I was going over my plans, I realised that the other two simply didn't fit in with what I had planned, so I went for Gigi instead. Also, I was bribed with DnD. Sue me :eyeroll:

As for this next bit… Oh boy, this trial should be fun. Especially since we're starting it off with only one person available. Now how the hell is Lorelei going to be able to solo this trial on her own? Well, only time will tell, but I think you will all enjoy what I have planned.

I've made good progress on the trial so far. Part 1 sits at 7k, and Part 2 sits at around 10k. And given how fast I tend to write these trials, it's definitely getting done before the end of May. In fact, I can see the first part of the trial coming out before April ends. But I'm not going to get ahead of myself, I might find myself growing exhausted as I get further into my work rotation.

See you all in the next part! :D I'm looking forward to seeing if you guys like the trial or not.

Oh, and I should probably give a shout out… Huh… Shoutout to Extrameme who just got to the body discovery of Chapter 3 of Obscurity's Disgrace! It's a pretty good story, so you should give it a read when you have the time!

Confirmed Alive: 7

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Hacker [CandleFire45]

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Mentalist [theotakureader101]

Fates Unknown: 7

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin]

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

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

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

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