Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration Chapter 26: Misalignment in the Stars (Part 6), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 3: Misalignment in the Stars (Daily Life Part 6)

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

Ever since the last time he was able to bring someone to greatness, many people had tried to call him, and for the most part, he ignored them all.

After all, Dae-Hyun wasn't exactly one to like the spotlight. He preferred to stay in the background.

However, today was a bit different. Sure, he got a call, and he would have ignored it like any other day.

Except for the fact that a large sum of money was on the line here. He wasn't exactly one for money, but a large sum wasn't something anyone would deny.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason he accepted the deal. Ever since he met up with Eun-so Ryom, he didn't want to miss out on the chance of encountering someone with massive talent.

As soon as Dae-Hyun arrived at the rather expensive looking house, he knocked on the door.

After only a few seconds, the door opened up with excitement, matching the face of the woman who greeted him. "There you are!" She exclaimed rather eagerly, reaching over to shake his hand.

Quickly, Dae-Hyun was able to move his hand away. "Sorry… I don't do greetings like that." Especially since he was only here to complete a job.

Speaking of which, he felt the need to issue a warning. "I should mention that there's no guarantee that I will take one of them as a student." If they lacked any talent, there was nothing he could do to change that.

Hearing this, the woman couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, I get it, but trust me. These two are just bursting with talent, I know it!"

Sure.

That's what they all said, and yet Dae-Hyun rarely ever found that to be the case.

Stepping into the house, he looked around.

It was pretty fancy.

Far too fancy for his liking. He preferred to live humbly, even having the clothes to match. "Where are they?" Honestly, Dae-Hyun just wanted to get it over with.

"Right this way!" The woman walked through the rather large hallway, leading to a room in the back.

Once Dae-Hyun reached the end of the hallway, he arrived in the living room, where two girls were waiting. They both had a bright smile on their face upon seeing him.

However, that was the only thing that shone.

Beyond that point, Dae-Hyun saw nothing.

It was always easy to tell when someone had the potential for talent, and they were lacking it in every place.

Letting out a small sigh, Dae-Hyun turned to look at the client. "Can I speak with you for a second?"

"Oh! Yes of course!" It was clear that she was hoping for good news, and Dae-Hyun would have to be the one to bring her down to reality.

Once they were away from the daughters, he shook his head. "I don't really see anything worth pursuing in them."

Letting out a laugh, the woman clearly took it as a joke. "Oh, we have a little jokester here. You haven't even seen them perform. Once they do that, I'm sure your mind will be changed. Wait here while they get ready."

That left Dae-Hyun alone for the time being.

Of course, being left alone like this in a fancy house like this was aggravatingly boring, which left Dae-Hyun with only one option.

To roam around the house.

He didn't make it very far before stopping in front of a door that was a jar. He only stopped because he heard a voice on the other side. Peeking through the cracks, he saw a girl younger than he was, sitting in front of a mirror.

Listening to her for a bit, it was very clear she was performing to herself.

"I don't care about anything like that." With the tone of voice she was using, she was clearly acting as a snotty royal. "When I say to do something, I mean it, regardless of the consequences."

Honestly, wasn't half bad-

Dae-Hyun was slightly taken aback when the girl turned to face him directly.

The girl was frozen in shock, a small blush appearing on her face. "C-Creep!" Quickly, she ran off, slamming the door right in his face.

He didn't really seem to care, given he deserved it.

However, the commotion did cause the client to see what was going on. "What was that noise?" For a moment, she dropped her nice act.

Pointing towards the door, Dae-Hyun was rather curious about the girl. "Who was that?"

Seeing his interest, the woman's expression faded slightly. "You want to know about her?" Her tone seemed to indicate some amount of hatred. "That's the daughter of my late husband, you don't have to worry yourself about her. She's just a nobody who's being punished. Poor girl keeps trying to run away to a worse life, so someone has to put a stop to things."

Looking back at the door, Dae-Hyun wanted to say something, but just shook his head.

Before he could do anything else, though, the woman turned to look back at the living room. "The girls are ready for you. Judge them fairly, but also remember that I am paying you."

"That won't affect my decision." Dae-Hyun answered with a slightly rude tone as he moved over to the living room.

…

Just as he thought… These two were a bore.

They lacked any form of talent, so he honestly didn't really see much of a reason to keep watching them.

The first chance he got, Dae-Hyun snuck off to try and look for the girl he saw earlier.

Although it was a brief encounter, that small moment held more talent than both of the other two girls combined, so he wanted to see if she was truly talented.

Knocking on her door, the girl quickly opened her door, looking at him with a bit of annoyance. "Look, just because you might be dating my mom, doesn't mean you have to meet me."

"... What?" Dae-Hyun had found himself confused many times in his life, but this was definitely the top of his list. "Why…? I'm not dating her." For once, she was very much not his type.

"Oh!" The girl's expression softened up slightly, realising she was getting mad over nothing. "Then… What are you doing here?"

"I was hired to see if her two daughters had any talent." Long pause. "They don't. And I doubt they ever will."

Hearing this, it got a small laugh out of her. "Finally, someone else sees it like I do." A brief pause as she glanced the other way. "Sorry… Sorry for kicking you out of my room…"

Shrugging, it was clear that Dae-Hyun didn't seem to care. "It's whatever…" After a bit more silence, he finally spoke up again. "I… I saw you performing."

At that point, the girl reached over for her door, ready to close it, but Dae-Hyun was quicker, and managed to place his foot in the way.

"What's your name?"

There wasn't much harm in telling him that, so she let out a sigh. "Ryom Soo-ah…"

That was progress. Slowly, Dae-Hyun moved his foot away, allowing her to close the door. "I think you have talent… I'm a talent scout. I'll be here for the next few days, so if you wish to perform for me, I can tell you if you have talent or not."

Not that he even needed that. Having a conversation like this, and looking at her told him all he needed to know.

Soo-ah trampled the other two talent wise, and if there was anyone he needed to take under his wing, it was definitely her.

For a moment, she was a bit caught off guard. "You think… I have talent?"

"I do, yeah." As much as Dae-Hyun wanted to stay here, he knew he'd have to move off, or else the girl would get in trouble. "See you tomorrow…"

…

With that, a cycle started where he'd go over to her house, preparing to care about the other two girls, only to sneak off to see Soo-ah perform in front of him.

With each visit, he managed to learn more about her than he otherwise would have.

"Honestly… I… I hate living here." She finally revealed to him.

"Hmm?" Dae-Hyun raised an eyebrow. It wasn't completely out of nowhere, but it wasn't close to their last conversation. "Care to explain why?"

"They… They treat me like a servant." Soo-ah crossed her arms. "They make me do all the cleaning. And she always grounds me for the slightest thing I do…"

None of this sounded good to Dae-Hyun. "Why were you grounded this time?"

"I…" Soo-ah seemed a bit embarrassed to say this one. "I tried to run away…"

"You… what?" Dae-Hyun didn't realise it had gotten that bad. "What happened?"

"The police returned me home, but when I tried to explain how she was, suddenly her personality had completely flipped around…" Soo-ah looked at her own reflection in the mirror. "It's… It's like a prison here…"

Frowning slightly, Dae-Hyun crossed his arms. "Well… Let me see what I can do for you…"

…

It had been a few days after that conversation with Soo-ah, and Dae-Hyun was finally ready to put a plan in motion.

Entering into the mansion like always, he was greeted by the woman. "Ah, here to see my daughters again? If you keep coming back, it must mean that you do see something worthwhile in them.

"Not really…" Dae-Hyun was finally ready to drop that part completely. "There's nothing worth pursuing with them."

"Excuse me…?" For a moment, the woman's tone turned bitter. "Haha, there you go with that joke again. You are quite the jokester, little man!"

"I can assure you that I'm not making a joke… Soo-ah far exceeds them in talent, and she's the one I'd like to recruit." Dae-Hyun crossed his arms.

The smile on the woman's face disappeared completely, as she glared at him. "What? Why the hell would you want her of all people? She's a nobody, haha, her biggest claim is that she somehow ended up in my family. Without me, she's not really much of anything."

"Actually, now that you mention it, I think her being part of this family is actually holding her back." Dae-Hyun wasn't going to hold back in the slightest. "Being around people like your daughters must really be ruining her chance to grow her talent." Given how barren those girls are.

"And… What exactly are you implying?" The woman narrowed her eyes.

Shrugging, Dae-Hyun wasn't really putting any emotions into this conversation like the woman was. "I was just saying I was hoping to get her out of this house."

If Dae-Hyun was intent on only taking in Soo-ah, then it meant the woman couldn't let her go. "No, I believe she's going to be staying right here."

This is about what he had expected, so Dae-Hyun was ready to make his follow up. "Are you sure? These past two weeks, I've been studying how she's been, and how you treat her, so I've gathered a lot of evidence. I could take this to court if you really wanted to."

Letting out a haughty laugh, the woman shook her head. "And what? They'd believe you over me?"

He didn't want to pull this card, but it seemed like Dae-Hyun didn't really have much of a choice. "And who are you exactly? You're just a nobody last time I checked, as opposed to me, who has a lot of media presence." Not really, given he avoided stuff like that entirely, but he was definitely well known.

More than she'd ever be.

Seeing what she was up against, the woman let out a few coughs, glancing the other way. "Well! I suppose I wouldn't mind you taking her off my hands."

As soon as she realised that she was entering a losing battle, she completely changed her tune.

Typical.

For once, a small smile appeared on Dae-Hyun's face. "Pleasure doing business with you…"

…

Now, Dae-Hyun wasn't one for the spotlight, but today was different. Sitting at a desk, he was joined by his father, Kim Ji-Hu.

In fact, the only reason he was even here was because this talk show belonged to his father. They were currently off the air, so the cameras weren't rolling.

This allowed Dae-Hyun to survey the live audience that they had gathered.

That was… Until his eyes landed on one person in the crowd.

A rather young looking boy who was sitting down alone.

And like many other times, Dae-Hyun got that same feeling again. Turning towards his father, he leaned over. "Do you know who that kid is? He's on his own."

It took a few seconds for Ji-Hu to spot the kid, but upon seeing him, he nodded his head. "Yes, I do, actually. He's the son of-"

Honestly, most of the information went right out his ears.

All he knew was the kid was the son of two actors. That means he might be brimming with talent that had yet to bloom, he could feel it.

…

After the show had concluded for the day, which meant that Dae-Hyun could finally talk to the kid like he wanted to.

Before the kid could really go anywhere, he approached him, greeting him. "Hey, kid."

"Huh?" The boy looked over at him, a bit confused. He knew who he was, but that didn't explain why he was talking to someone like him. "What's… What's up?"

"Why are you here alone?" That was the most important question to Dae-Hyun.

"Oh!" Upon hearing this, the boy looked away. "They're… They're busy with work."

As actors, they probably had a lot on their plate. Crossing his arms, Dae-Hyun tilted his head to the side. "How often does that happen?"

"All the time…" The boy said with a rather sad tone.

Standing there for a few seconds, Dae-Hyun eventually plopped himself into the seat right next to him. "Tell me a bit about yourself."

"Oh! Huh… There's not much…" The boy turned away from him.

"Start with your name, at the very least." That would be a good starting point.

Right! How could he even forget to introduce himself! "Ji-Hae!"

At least they were getting somewhere. "I wanted to talk to you because I felt like you had some sort of talent." Dae-Hyun began to explain. "I don't know what yet, but I'm sure you have it."

Ji-hae seemed a bit confused, given that he didn't even think he had any talent. "Are you… sure? I don't think I really do have any…"

While he might not be able to display any right now, Dae-Hyun was certain that there had to be some talent hidden behind him, given he had the same reaction to the other three people he managed. "I'm sure you'll find something, don't worry too much about it, you're still young."

After all, it took Dae-Hyun forever to realise he was a good talent manager, and here he is.

Ji-Hae nodded his head along at that. "Then… I'll just keep trying!"

…

However, no matter what was tried, nothing really seemed to work. From singing, to dancing, to even more beyond that, Ji-Hae didn't really seem good at anything in particular.

Which only further confused Dae-Hyun, given that he had definitely seen a spark from the boy.

This made today a day Dae-Hyun was dreading slightly, given he was invited onto a talk show to talk about his most recent client.

And given that he hadn't really gotten anywhere with him.

"So…" The talk show host trailed off. "What exactly is this new client of yours going to turn into? You've already had three so far, do you think this one will be able to top the other three?"

Absolutely not. "As of yet, we haven't exactly found what his talent is, but I know-"

Before Dae-Hyun could finish his sentence, the talent show host decided to take over. "He doesn't have any talent? Are you sure someone like that is worth pursuing?"

Who the hell do they think they are? A frown appeared on Dae-Hyun's face, and he was going to respond in defense of Ji-Hae.

But instead… He responded. "Just because I don't have anything yet, doesn't mean I won't. Or else he wouldn't have taken me as a student."

Now the talk show host was talking to Ji-Hae, causing Dae-Hyun to sort of fade away to the background.

"Oh? Talking such big words, aren't you?" The host felt a little more interested in hearing them now that they spoke back.

However, Ji-Hae didn't seem to care about the pressure that was placed on him. "They may be big words, but they aren't just empty words. Isn't that right, Dae-Hyun?"

Ah, he was hoping to stay out of this. "Probably." He wanted to stay out of this.

"Probably?" Ji-Hae repeated, almost a bit deflated. "You're supposed to be my mentor, you have to have some confidence."

"You've seen to have taken up all the confidence." Dae-Hyun deadpanned, which did seem to get some reaction from the audience.

That's when he noticed something…

The kid had completely taken over the spotlight, and it almost began to see that he was a natural at this sort of thing.

"Heh…" Dae-Hyun couldn't help but allow himself to chuckle. He might have just found what kind of talent this kid had…

Ultimate Talent Manager Station

Click!

Eun-so Ryom…

Not really caring about what time it was, Dae-Hyun had sat himself at his desk, looking through the various options he had.

As he sat there, the room finally finished shifting over towards the stage. "Hmm…" He looked on at the lights all around.

Yeah…

Click!

The next name he clicked on belonged to Soo-ah Ryom…

With another click of the mouse, the scene in front of him began changing again, this time, showing off a makeup room, filled with costumes. An actress…

"Hmm…" Dae-Hyun hummed out again.

Click!

Ji-Hae Myun…

Once again, Dae-Hyun found himself in a completely different room. This time, it seemed to be a talk show stage, with him sitting at the center of the long table.

He was running out of rooms at this point.

And lastly… He hovered over the last button of the list, staring at it rather intently. "..."

Before he got the chance to click it, the sounds of footsteps could be heard, and Dae-Hyun quickly had to revert it back to what it was before.

"Dae-Hyun?" It was Melody stepping into the room. "What were those noises?"

Despite asking, she already knew the answer to the question.

Seeing that there was no point in lying, Dae-Hyun let out a sigh, shaking his head. "I was just looking through the versions of my room…" Ever since that day, he hadn't really come back to it…

Taking a few more steps forward, Melody tilted her head to the side. "This room holds a heap of significance for you, doesn't it?"

"Yeah… It's a representation of all the students I've taken in. All four of them." Dae-Hyun kept his eyes fixated on the screen.

Just as Melody thought. Four.

Despite that, she had only technically seen three rooms, with the last room…

Despite that, Winter hummed to herself as she looked back at the computer. "There's one last room to check, but I don't know who it belonged to." Still, she moved her mouse over towards the icon.

Realising what was about to happen, Dae-Hyun turned to look at her. "Wait! No!"

However, his warning was far too slow, and slowly, the room began to shift, losing the bright lights it used to have, turning into a gloomy blue.

Before any more of the room could be registered, everything quickly turned back towards the regular room.

The reason being that Dae-Hyun had now unplugged the computer completely. He had no way of knowing if this would fix things, but he took a risk. "That's enough…" He didn't even bother looking at anyone when he said that. "Everyone, out now."

"May I have a word with you?" Melody kept walking, until she reached the desk. "What happened to the fourth student?"

Almost as if drilling holes through his monitor with his eyes, Dae-Hyun remained silent.

Seeing that she was going nowhere, Melody decided to shift the topic over. "Then, tell me about the other three."

Almost completely, Dae-Hyun's demeanor changed. "I met them all a few years ago, they were all pretty much struggling with something. Eun-so Ryom had a sick father, and was trying to make money. Thanks to the fame she got, she was able to get her father out of the hospital."

Now, Melody had a smile on her face. "That's wonderful! What about the other two?"

From the way he was talking, it was clear that Dae-Hyun had a lot of love for the people he had managed. "Soo-ah didn't live a good life when I met her, but she was quickly able to reach a path to stardom after I managed to talk to her. She's now a well known actress in the world today."

Honestly, that name sounded familiar to Melody, and she didn't even watch movies that came out recently. "Ain't that the bees knees. The doll must be happy with herself."

"And lastly…" Dae-Hyun trailed off. "Ji-Hae Myun was my youngest student by far, but he turned into a pretty great talk show host. Kicked my father right out of it, too." The way he said it had a bit of humour behind it, so it was clear that it was a planned thing.

"You hold them in high regard, don't you?" Melody moved to the other side of the desk, taking a look at the monitor.

And that's when she noticed the marked off name, unreadable.

"Yeah, I do. They mean a lot to me." Dae-Hyun's mouse slowly moved up to the other three names, before dropping down to the last name.

After a few seconds of agonising silence, he let out a sigh.

It really was difficult to try and keep something like this away. "Did I ever tell you the origin of the name Bright Honors?"

"I don't believe so… You merely mentioned the name to me." Melody had a slight bad feeling given his tone of voice.

Dae-Hyun didn't even know why he was mentioning all of this. Sliding the paper on his desk to the side, he took a deep breath. "I named it in honour of my first student. Honestly, to this day, I don't believe anyone has ever shone as bright as she did when I first met her. She's the entire reason I became a talent manager anyways."

With the way this conversation was going along, Melody found it harder to smile, given she believed she knew where this was going. "In honour of…?"

Holding his own breath, Dae-Hyun rested his head on his hand. "She's the reason my standards are so high, I guess. I'm hoping to find someone who can shine just as brightly as she did. But I don't believe I'll be able to find someone like that."

At this point, Melody had moved directly next to him at his desk, looking at the jumbled mess of text on the final button. Many thoughts occupied her mind.

Still, she didn't want to get the wrong impression, so she thought to ask a question. "What… What happened to her?"

Dae-Hyun didn't bother to answer right away.

Instead, his focus was completely locked to the screen in front of him.

Slowly, he blinked, glancing at Melody, and then down to his mouse.

After a few seconds, Dae-Hyun silently clicked onto the fourth button.

And then, the room was shifted over towards the room Melody had only ever gotten to see once, briefly.

However, upon seeing it for a few seconds longer, she couldn't help but get one feeling from this.

A feeling of broken dreams.

The room had an eerie blue feeling to it, and there was now broken glass all over the floor, from a mirror located in the corner.

Taking a careful step forward, Melody tried to get a better look around.

Unlike the other rooms, this one wasn't as detailed as the other three.

This room… Mostly felt empty.

Like there should have been something.

But besides the shattered mirror, the broken bed…

Nothing.

Except…

"Dae-Hyun…" Melody mumbled out, looking at the desk that was attached to the mirror.

On top of it was a single thing.

A rope.

"Dae-Hyun…" Melody turned to look at him, a worried expression on her face.

For a few seconds, he stared directly at the screen, almost as if refusing to answer.

Then, he let out a small sigh, leaning back in his chair. "She was the first person I managed. It was years ago, things were going well. She had quickly rosen up to be a star in lightning time."

Wanting to make some distance with the mirror, Melody moved back over to Dae-Hyun. "And… What happened?"

"I was much younger back then, and I didn't fully know what I was doing." He crossed his arms. "And because of that, there were a lot of signs that I missed…"

Without explicitly being told, Melody understood exactly what he was trying to say. And the normal smile that she'd always have to brighten the room had quickly faded away.

"She reassured me she was alright, that there was nothing wrong…" Dae-Hyun trailed off, leaning back in his chair. While he frowned, it was impossible to catch his entire facial expression, given that his hair covered the rest of his face.

"No matter how many times I asked, the answer was almost always the same. And I made the stupid decision to trust that she would tell me if something was wrong…" Dae-Hyun sat back up on his chair, looking down.

The implication was all Melody could rely on here. Holding her hands together, she looked gloomily at the ground. "Why… Why are you telling me this now?"

Before, he would have held this close to his chest. And now, it was all out in the open.

For a moment, Dae-Hyun paused, staring at his desk.

Why… Did he even mention this? He had no intention of ever bringing it up, and yet, here it was in the open.

"I…" Dae-Hyun trailed off, trying to think of a reason. "Ever since then, the thought of a student of mine dying has occupied my mind. I don't think I could stand to watch another one go."

Slowly, he turned his head towards Melody. "I want you to be careful out there, with how the motive is shaking up, I'm sure someone is going to try and kill."

Melody shook her head, doing her best to put on a smile. "Ya don't have to worry about me." She placed a hand on her hip. "I'll be fine."

I'll be fine…

Not the first time Dae-Hyun heard those words. Crossing his arms, he shook his head. "I'm still going to be worried about something happening, I wouldn't bother going on the ship."

Melody would have normally followed his advice, but staying on the station wasn't any better. "But we might run out of oxygen here. I want to help out the others."

Dae-Hyun figured as much, so he just slumped back into his chair. "Alright, do whatever…"

There was something at the back of Melody's head that was nagging her.

She wanted to listen to him, but she also wanted to help out the people of this station. "Then you should come with us! The more the merrier."

For a second, Dae-Hyun contemplated this, before letting out a sigh. "Maybe I will…"

"Well, I'll be in the cafeteria, see ya later Mac." Melody struck a small pose before leaving the room.

Watching her leave, Dae-Hyun let out a small sigh, reaching over for the piece of paper on his desk, before stuffing it into his pocket. "What am I going to do…?"

It seems that Dae-Hyun and Melody have grown closer.

Navigation

Given that it was a new morning, and Seira had opted to sleep on the repair ship to waste less oxygen on the station, she hadn't had the chance to check out what new papers had been printed out by the machine.

Walking into the room, she was joined by the usual crew of Gemini and Edison.

"There's probably going to be quite a few given how it was yesterday." Seira hummed out, moving over towards the printer. "..."

"So, you slept on the ship, right?" Edison turned to look at Gemini.

"Wasn't the most comfortable, honestly." He let out a sigh, shaking his head. "But we did get a nighttime announcement, so we at least know it works in the ship as well."

"Why isn't there…" Seira mumbled out, looking around the printer.

This caused both guys to snap out of their conversation. "What's wrong?" Gemini was the first one to speak up.

"There… There just aren't any papers printed." Seira was beginning to get worried. "Do you think someone else got them?"

"I don't remember seeing anyone having anything." Edison took a few steps over towards the printer, trying to see how to open it. "Hypothetically speaking, it might be out of paper."

"I doubt Nova would give us this, only to have us run out two days later." Seira brought up logically.

Running a hand through his hair, Gemini shook his head. "Then maybe we should head over to the cafeteria to see if anyone grabbed it while we were away."

"Why would anyone grab them anyways…" Seira was a bit disappointed. "This was supposed to be my job."

"Our job." I can't believe Edison is a communist. Light him up, boys.

Choosing to ignore his attempt to jump into her job, Seira looked over at Gemini. "You're probably right, though. We should just join up with everyone, and I'll ask when the time is right."

Seeing that he was clearly being ignored, Edison tried to speak up. "Hey! You can't just not acknowledge me-"

Gemini was also ignoring him. "Then yeah, let's go."

They both left Edison alone in the room.

After a few seconds, he moved over towards the printer, pressing a single button.

After it printed some paper, he adjusted his goggles, writing something down in a notebook. "Not… out… of paper…" Well, there went that theory! Next up was that someone stole the graphs! He'd get to the bottom of this.

Cafeteria

Most people had finally gathered up in the cafeteria, ready to put the plan into motion.

Something that seemed to annoy Gigi for some reason. "I thought you said time was limited." She had been waiting for what felt like an hour or so.

"Hmm?" Seira was a bit confused as she laid down the map of the ship. "We still have three hours left before the asteroid strikes."

"Three?" Gigi repeated, not exactly sure if that was right or not. "If you say so."

"I agree with Gigi, here." Tatiana stood up, crossing her arms. "How can we be so sure that the charts are accurate?"

"Hey." Gemini said softly, coming to her aid. "You don't like when people question your skill with a knife, so the same should be said with Seira's talent, alright?"

Letting out a small laugh, Tatiana sat back down. "Very well, but that doesn't mean I can't be worried about going out there."

Swirling around a flask with an orange liquid inside, Edison nodded his head along. "I agree with her! A star chart like that can't completely be accurate, so we might be running out into an asteroid."

"What do you mean we?" Seira narrowed her eyes at him. "You aren't even going on the ship." Speaking of which. "Who's going on the ship?"

Most of the people lifted their hands up, the only exceptions being Edison, May, Gigi, and Michael.

Atlas too, but he lifted up his arm, so that had to count for something.

Oh, and Dae-Hyun was currently not at the meeting, so it was unlikely that he would be going on the ship as well.

"Woah." That was way more people than Seira was expecting. "Alright, we can work with this." Still, with everyone doubting her, she couldn't help but feel like she could have easily made a mistake somewhere. "Then maybe it's best if we take safety precautions."

Hearing that, Tatiana beamed. "Well, when Benjamin and I were in the control room, I noticed some buttons."

"Oh! Right!" Dolly raised her hands in the air. "I quickly told her what they did."

"Now, Nova said that the repair ship could withstand an asteroid, but I don't trust her one bit." Tatiana placed a hand on her hip.

"Likewise." Gennosuke never trusted them to begin with.

Nodding her head along, Tatiana continued. "The repair ship was already struck once. One more time, and I feel like a hole will form."

"And poof! There goes our oxygen!" Dolly didn't need to help, but she was there anyway.

"Ah, I get it." A small grin appeared on Hae-Won's face. "If a hole appears on the ship, it would take away all the oxygen from the rest of the ship."

"Yes! Exactly!" Tatiana did a pose. "However, if we close the doors and the vents, then the rest of the ship should be fine."

"And what about the room that was hit?" Atlas raised an eyebrow. "Are they just shit out of luck?"

Letting out a sigh, Tatiana shook her head. "This is only a worse case scenario. While I don't fully trust Seira's star chart, I also know she wouldn't willingly put herself in danger, so it can be trusted to some extent."

"Hey." Gennosuke called out. "Wouldn't it be bad if the doors just suddenly closed while someone was between them?"

"Excellent point!" Tatiana had forgotten all about that. Turning towards Benjamin, she pointed at him. "Here's the solution I propose. Step one, Benjamin hits the emergency button. This lets everyone know to move out of the way of the doors, and then the door and vent buttons."

"Yeah!" Dolly raised her fists in the air. "This is way too easy."

All of this sounded reasonable to Hae-Won. "I dig it. The last thing we need is all of us to suffocate in the repair ship."

"Perfect!" Tatiana was happy with all of this. "I have nothing more I need to say."

But then, what did need to be said?

"Oh!" Edison hummed out. "The navigation room is able to communicate with the repair ship, so I was thinking of going there."

Hae-Won nodded her head along to the idea. "That works out perfectly, I think. Last I remember, there were earpieces, right? That should allow us all to communicate to the people on the ship, as well as the station."

"Haha! Then I shall attend the communication room, and will be responsible if we need to communicate." Tatiana was more than eager to take the job. "I won't be much help otherwise, after all."

Not wanting to interrupt the meeting too much, but still wanting to bring it up, Seira let out a small cough, hoping to get everyone's attention.

Once all eyes were on her, she finally spoke up. "Did anyone go to navigation earlier, and take anything that was printed?"

After a bit of silence, Gennosuke shook his head. "Why would we do that? Isn't it your job?"

"That's what I said." Finally, someone not putting Edison in the same category as her. "Then… Besides that one asteroid, we won't have any for the next sixteen hours."

Hae-Won let out a sigh. "That's a relief, honestly. They were starting to become a pain…" Closing one eye and looking over at the astrologist, she considered the next talking point. "Do you mind showing us where that one asteroid will strike?"

Pulling out a piece of paper, Seira laid it flat on the table. "This is where the next asteroid will strike." She pointed at a part of the ship.

"That's awfully close to the area we will be working." Gemini crossed his arms.

Shrugging, Seira didn't really see any problem with that. "Once again, we have two hours to work, so unless we are bad at our job, we should be fine."

"Well, not to be a pessimist or anything…" Gennosuke let out a small chuckle. "But I don't think any of us actually know what we're doing."

"Well, that shouldn't be an issue." Nova said, having totally been here the whole time.

Slowly, everyone turned to look at her, not saying anything.

After she realised all eyes were on her, she let out a few coughs. "This station was designed to be easily fixed, even I could do it."

"This implies that you wouldn't be able to do it normally." Gennosuke narrowed his eyes. "What is someone like you doing running a station?"

"Excellent question!" That meant Nova wasn't going to answer any questions. "But do you really have time to waste here? Don't you want to get there before the asteroid hits?"

Wrapping up the paper, Seira still wasn't exactly sure what the rush was about. "I checked the time multiple times." She was starting to get annoyed that people didn't believe her.

At first, it was fine when Edison was the only one, because she could easily counter him… But now that everyone is doing it…?

"Alright, you can leave her alone." Gemini came to her defense. "Let's just leave and hope she doesn't follow us.

Everyone was in agreement with leaving, until someone thought of something.

"Actually, we'd need keycards, right?" Hae-Won brought up, realising what happened last time the doors were closed. "That's the only way to open the doors."

"Oh. Right." Gigi reached into her pocket, pulling out one of the keycards. "I have one of them."

Hearing that, Tatiana nodded her head. "Then it would be best for you to keep it, no?"

Adjusting his goggles, Edison nodded his head. "If anything happens to the ship, we could board it, and we would have access if the doors closed."

"There was another one, wasn't there?" Gemini raised an eyebrow. "Who had that one?"

Shrugging, Lorelei rolled their eyes. "The world may never know."

"Lorelei does." Hae-Won said with zero hesitation.

Quickly, they stood up, pointing at her. "You need to learn to shut your mout-"

However, while complaining, the keycard was quickly removed from Lorelei's pocket, claimed by Gennosuke. "I think I trust myself far more with it than you."

"I'm not sure how much I trust you with it either." Hae-Won narrowed her eyes at him.

Seeing this, Gennosuke could only flash a smile. "Well, I have it now, so you don't really have a say in it, now do you?"

Seeing some tension rising, Tatiana decided it was best to speak up now. "Alright, alright. I think that's everything we need to go over. If you're joining us on the ship, please follow us. Remember, this should help us save up on oxygen in the station."

Watching the group of eleven people leave, that only left Gigi, May, Edison, and Michael.

"So!" Edison hummed out, looking at everyone else. "Do you all want to go to navigation?

A few murmurs were heard, before all of the other three reached an agreement.

At least this way they could watch the ship!

Docking Zone

The group of eleven people who would be joining the repair ship crew had finally arrived.

"You know…" Hae-Won trailed off, seeing just how many people had joined. "This was way more than what I thought."

"It'll be fine." Seira didn't exactly seem bothered.

Still, seeing some of the people that were part of this group, Hae-Won had her doubts. Especially with Atlas, Gennosuke, and Lorelei being here.

Oh.

And Laki.

Literally couldn't forget Laki. "You're not leaving my sight today."

"OK!" Now she pretended like she didn't care, but this was straight up the worst fate someone could ask for right now.

"Where are you even going?" Seira felt the need to answer.

Leaning her head back, Hae-Won had to think a bit. "I'm going to put her to work. We're going to try and repair the station."

"Oh!" Well, Seira hadn't been expecting to hear that, which allowed for only one thought to occupy her mind. "Can I join you? I mean, I've spent the most time outside out of anyone, so it only seems reasonable."

Shrugging, Hae-Won didn't exactly have a problem with that. "Sure, why not, kid."

That was three spots figured out. "Then…" Tatiana trailed off. "I'm fine with staying in the communication room. My eyesight is poor, but my hearing is phenomenal."

"You just want to be in the room next to me." Dolly deadpanned, staring directly into her soul.

"Haha! Nonsense!" Tatiana did not return the stare.

However, Dolly did seem to remember something. "How's the arm injury, by the way?"

Glancing at her arm, she still had it wrapped around with Benjamin's shirt. "It still bleeds occasionally, but it's fine for now."

"This is why you don't play with knives." Dolly crossed her arms.

As if in response to that, Tatiana twirled her knife around, letting out a laugh. "I am a professional! It's not my fault an asteroid hit the repair ship."

Couldn't argue with that logic, so Dolly let the topic drop.

Meanwhile, the others were still figuring out where everyone should be.

"What's the furthest room from the airlock you'd be going out of?" Atlas looked over at Hae-Won.

Except, Lorelei was the one to answer. "The other airlock."
Having been there, Atlas found the nearest room to that. "I'll be in the kitchen."

"You aren't… Helping?" Seira realised halfway through that question that it was dumb to even ask.

Of course he wouldn't.

"To be fair." Winter hummed out. "I won't be able to help too much. I'm only coming on the ship because of the oxygen problem."

"Yeah, honestly, same." Lorelei shrugged, not really caring about the whole situation.

At least Seira could turn to one more person, knowing that they'd help. "What about you, Gemini?"

"I was thinking of just roaming around." Gemini no! You weren't supposed to join!

"Heh…" Gennosuke let out a humorous chuckle. "If it makes you feel any better, I want to move to the supply closet. I still remember the exact pieces we need, so I should be able to provide some help."

Scary world when Gennosuke is more useful than half the people here.

"I guess that's as best as we're getting." Seira wasn't exactly sure what else to do right now. "We should all get on now, we have only about two hours to fix the station before the next asteroid."

Supply Room

Given that Seira had to make one last stop, it was only natural that she would end up here, where Gennosuke had decided to stay during all of this. "Why here?" She hummed out, looking around the room.

Shrugging, he didn't have much of an answer. "I guess because I remember what the pieces were, so I thought I'd help sort through them."

Despite saying that, it was clear Gennosuke was choosing to be lazy, given that… He… Wasn't doing much of anything.

"Is that so?" Instead, Seira was the one who was forced to pull out the required parts.

It had been a while since Seira and Gennosuke had a conversation, just the two of them, but here they were. "I just didn't expect you to want to join up with the repair ship crew. Even with the threat of low oxygen."

"Hmm?" Gennosuke glanced to the side. "And why's that?"

"Well…" Seira trailed off. "You just seem really carefree. You don't seem to get yourself too involved in things. That's all." Given that he wasn't even helping her out or anything.

It honestly felt like he was along for the ride more than anything.

"I suppose that's true…" Gennosuke pulled out a lollipop from his pocket. "But hey, I don't feel like suffocating in the station. I don't trust what Nova and Monokawa said."

Honestly, that's fair, and Seira couldn't exactly blame him. "She was already wrong about what she said earlier, so…" But that only made her worried about the repair ship. "I hope there's enough oxygen on here too."

"Eh…" It was obvious that Gennosuke wasn't too worried. "If we start running low on air, we can just dock the ship and get some people off."

That's true…

However, Seira's attention was slowly dragged away by something else, as she glanced at the lollipop stick.

"You know…" She hummed out, looking over at Gennosuke. "Something has been on my mind for a while."

"Hmm?" He tilted his head to the side, pulling out the lollipop from his mouth. "And what's that?"

"Well…!" What was the best way to put this? "Honestly, you go through a lot of lollipops." Ignoring the entire fact that he seems to have an endless supply.

Glancing down at his lollipop, Gennosuke shrugged. "Is there really an issue with that?"

Not… Really… "Just… Why? Do you have a sweet tooth or something?" For some reason, Seira sounded concerned.

"Eh." Gennosuke shrugged, putting the lollipop back into his mouth. "Not really. I actually use these for a different reason entirely."

"Oh?" That seemed to pique Seira's interest a bit. "For what reason, then?"

Frowning slightly, Gennosuke glanced to the side. "Honestly, it's to break a bad habit of mine. One that I had since I was a teenager."

After a few seconds, Seira seemed to clue in to what he meant. "Smoking?" It was the only thing she could see that would even be close.

"Heh, yeah, exactly." Gennosuke leaned against the wall. "Used to do it a lot when I was younger. Decided to quit a year ago, but it's hard to beat a craving." He inspected his lollipop, frowning slightly. "So far this is the only way I've found to do it."

"Well, I'd say you made some progress." Seira wanted to at least be supportive. "Why did you start smoking in the first place?"

"Heh…" Gennosuke let out a low chuckle. "Kids are stupid, you know. They'll do whatever they think is cool, or whatever they think will take the stress away. I was no different, I guess."

That only made Seira a little bit more concerned. "And which of the two reasons did you do it?"

For a second, Gennosuke had a small frown on his face. "Which one do you think?"

Seeing him somewhat sad, only moved the emotion over to Seira, who matched his frown. "What did you have to be stressed out about?"

Letting out a small sigh, Gennosuke shook his head. "Mostly my parents. You know, they put me to work as soon as they found out I was a psychic, you know?"

That's still debatable, but the last trial did lead credence to his claim, given he was able to save them all from Ian's plan. "How young was that?"

Tilting his head to the side, Gennosuke had to think for a moment. "I think I was only seven when it happened."

"Put to work that young?" Seira couldn't believe it. When she was that young, she didn't even have parents yet. "Why?"

"Because they wanted money, simple as that." Gennosuke let out a small chuckle, shaking his head. "My parents weren't exactly good people, and they weren't above means like this. Any way they could get richer, they'd take it. Even if they had to exploit me." There was a sad tone in his voice.

That tone only made Seira a little sadder. "That was… Awful. Is that all they treated you like?"

"Heh… Sometimes I don't even think they viewed me as human." Gennosuke stared at the ground for a few seconds.

As a fellow gemini, Seira felt the need to offer as much help as she could. "Well, you don't still live with them now, do you?"

"No, I live on this station." Gennosuke attempted a bit of humour, which only seemed to annoy her.

"H-hey! I'm trying to help you." Seira pouted slightly.

Letting out a chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "I don't really need help. I've come to terms with how my life was before. Besides, I've dropped the habit, haven't I?" He waved his lollipop around to prove a point. "I don't think there's a reason to be concerned."

How could he treat a life like that so casually? "Yeah, but you're doing that because you might need to smoke otherwise, right?"

For a moment, Gennosuke didn't exactly say anything. Instead, he glanced off to the side. "You're right there, but worrying about me like that won't do you any good." He flashed a smile at her. "How about your life? You obviously had caring parents, right?"

"Y-yeah! The family that adopted me was great." Seira beamed slightly. "They welcomed me like I was their own daughter."

For a second, an empty look appeared in Gennosuke's eyes, but it quickly faded away, replaced by his original look. "Well, that's good for you. I wish I had parents like yours."

"I'm sure they would have welcomed you in like a son." Seira had a rather happy expression on her face when she said that.

"You seem so sure of yourself, just how great were they?" Now Gennosuke couldn't help but be a little curious.

And it was something Seira was more than willing to talk about. "Out of everyone at the orphanage, they chose me, so that was a big moment for me. But thanks to them, I was able to pursue the career path I wanted, which eventually led me to being an Ultimate."

"Ah, so your parents are also responsible for your talent blooming." At least Gennosuke could find common ground. "Although, I guess it was from different methods." The smile slowly faded away from his face. "I couldn't imagine they forced you to take this path."

Slowly, Seira shook her head. "No, not at all. It was my own choice." Which made her feel a little bad, given the circumstances that Gennosuke grew up in.

Seeing the ever slight change of her expression, he shook his head. "Hey, don't feel bad for me. That's all in the past now. I've moved out. Seeing you being sad will only make me sad."

"O-Oh!" Well, Seira didn't want that in the slightest. "Sorry, it's just I can't help but feel bad about talking about this, when your life wasn't that great."

Shaking his head, Gennosuke didn't really seem to mind. "It shaped me into the person I am today, and I wouldn't want to be anyone else. So things turned out pretty well after all."

It seems that Seira and Gennosuke have grown closer.

Communication

Given that this was a rather important room, given the nature of the mission, that's where Hae-Won found herself. After all, she needed some earpieces, and she wanted to give some to Laki and Seira, to at least let them talk.

"Ah, there you are." The voice behind her belonged to Tatiana, who was making this room her home during the mission.

Turning to face her, Hae-Won's face remained rather neutral. "Were you looking for me?"

"Of course! Didn't think I'd find you in here, though." Given that this is where Tatiana was stationed before. "I wanted to talk about…" Now… How to go about this?

Waiting a few seconds, Hae-Won raised an eyebrow. "Yes? I'm waiting."

"You've seemed… off." Was the best way that Tatiana could voice this. "You aren't yourself, how about that?"

"Heh…" Hae-Won shook her head. "I don't think you know what you're talking about. I'm the same I've always been."

That's the part that worried Tatiana. She could clearly tell that it wasn't the truth at all. "You can keep telling yourself that, but it's clear as day to anyone watching. You have grown a rather large hatred."

"Oh? For Laki?" Obviously she would. "After what she did, it makes sense, y'know?"

Tatiana couldn't exactly fault Hae-Won here, given the hell they all went through with the trial. However, this was starting to affect other things. "That may be true, however, that anger seems to extend outwards to other people."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Hae-Won was going to pretend to be ignorant.

Shaking her head, Tatiana let out a sigh. "Really now, you seem to be outwardly antagonistic to people like Gennosuke, who haven't really done anything wrong."

"Saying he hasn't done anything wrong isn't exactly true." Hae-Won crossed his arms. "For some reason, he believes it's wise to trust Laki, and let her out of her room. Not only that, but there's just something about him that seems fake."

While that feeling was definitely there, Tatiana didn't believe it was reason enough to act like that with him. "If you don't remember, he's the only reason we're even alive. He saved us during the entire Ian trial. Without him, we'd have all been executed, and Ian would have been the sole survivor."

For a moment, Hae-Won didn't answer anything.

Mostly because Tatiana raised a good point that she couldn't exactly turn down… Still… There was always that nagging feeling in the back of her mind. "Still…" She trailed off, keeping her eyes closed. "That's the only person I've antagonised besides Laki, so your accusation doesn't hold any ground."

"Haha, not entirely true!" Tatiana placed her hands on her hip. "I've heard you and Gigi don't get along at all. Normally she'd be all for joining us on this ship, but she seems to be avoiding you."

"We had a disagreement about morality, that is all." Hae-Won didn't feel the need to explain anything else, because there was nothing to explain.

"Oh? How did the disagreement go?" Tatiana just wanted to learn as much as she could.

Keeping her eyes closed, and frowning slightly, Hae-Won had to think about how to answer this. "It was mostly about Michael, and how we should handle him. Sure, he might not compare to Laki or Ian, yet he willingly withheld information during the trial. Not to mention he's literally a cult leader."

That was a hard fact to ignore, and yet, Tatiana was fine doing just that. "Yes, but he doesn't seem like a bad person anyways. There's no reason to try and treat him like Laki."

"..." It was true that he was nowhere close to her, but still… Leaving someone like that on the loose didn't exactly feel right. "People have already shown they are willing to kill, so I'm just trying to be cautious."

"And there's nothing wrong with that, the problem is the way you treat people." Tatiana let out a small sigh.

From the looks of it, this might go nowhere.

"All I'm saying is that you are very clearly letting your anger dictate how you act." Tatiana still wanted to try and help out, however.

"Heh…" Hae-Won let out a small laugh, shaking her head. "I don't know what you are talking about. I've been about the same as I've always been."

Frowning slightly, Tatiana shook her head. "You'd like to believe that, but changes are quite noticeable for even someone like me!"

Now this conversation was starting to drag on for too long, especially for someone like Hae-Won. "Drop it now. I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve by being like this."

There it was again.

It was clear that Hae-Won was growing increasingly frustrated with every passing second, which Tatiana was going to use against her. "No no, we have plenty of time right now." She let out a laugh, continuing the conversation.

For a moment, a dark look appeared in Hae-Won's eyes. "Listen here, nothing has changed. I don't know what the fuck you think-" As her voice raised more, she eventually had to cut herself off.

All while Tatiana just watched her, not wanting to say anything.

Looking down at the ground, Hae-Won took a deep sigh.

Was the game finally getting to her? Was she letting the stress consume her? "I…" She had to take a moment just to sit down. "This game is becoming too much. Ever since Benoit died… It feels like at any given moment anyone else could follow suit, y'know?"

Placing a hand on her hip, Tatiana shook her head. "But something like that will only help you fall victim to this game."

Taking a deep breath, Hae-Won slowly nodded her head along. "You're probably right…" Still, part of her didn't want to change the way she was thinking.

She knew the moment she calmed down, that's when something bad would happen.

Tatiana frowned slightly, tilting her head to the side. While her words seemed to have some effect, it didn't seem like it would be enough. "All I'm saying is that if you let this keep going, you might believe the only way forward is to kill one of them."

That thought did appear in Hae-Won's mind briefly, and now that it was brought up to the forefront, the idea occupied more space in her mind now. "Heh… I wouldn't be stupid enough to do something like that, I know how this shitty game is. There'd be nothing to gain from killing someone here."

Except escaping, but then she'd doom some of the people she cared about, and that just wasn't in her books.

Taking another deep breath, Hae-Won leaned her head back against the wall behind her. "Alright, I think I've calmed down a bit. This isn't the person I want to be, after all." Slowly, she turned to look at Tatiana, a small smile on her face. "Thank you for having this talk with me."

"Anytime, I'm always available to offer my insight!" Tatiana twirled a knife around. "Now you should probably go outside, the other two will be waiting for you."

"Heh, I suppose they are waiting for me." Hae-Won moved away from the wall, grabbing the three sets of earpieces she knew she'd need before leaving the room.

It seems that Hae-Won and Tatiana have grown closer.

Ship's Core

Now, Winter didn't really have much reason to even be on this ship, except for the fact that oxygen was going to be running low on the station.

Even then, she didn't have a reason to be here of all places. But she also didn't want to be in the way of the people actually doing something to be helpful. So, here she was, looking at the warm glow of the core of the ship.

"What the hell are you doing here?" A voice called out to her. Turning around, she saw that it was Lorelei.

"Just finding somewhere to stand." Winter answered after turning her back towards them. "We're low on oxygen, so I thought it would be best to distance ourselves."

"Yeah, exactly." Perfect! She was on the same page as Lorelei. "Which is why I think you should leave. This is like… My area. Technology and all."

Good point, good point. Unfortunately Winter didn't seem like she was going to budge. "First come, first serve. Although, I suppose we could share it." Winter offered a small smile, although it was a bit mischievous in nature.

"Ugh, fine. Whatever." Lorelei wasn't going to waste her breath arguing about this.

However, now that the two of them were alone, a certain topic could be brought up.

"So… You and Michael, huh?" They were going to be as annoying as possible.

"I do not wish to speak about this." Winter took a few steps forward, choosing to ignore her completely.

Letting out a sigh, Lorelei shook their head. "Yeah, but I'm already tired of seeing him moping around, so I want to see some progress."

Why the hell was she even doing this? That thought definitely appeared in her head, but she chalked it up to her just being annoyed.

Unless Michael actually got her to go out of her way for this…

Nah!

"He tried to have a conversation with me." Winter shrugged, still not sparing a second to look at them. "But he couldn't even bring himself to say the things he wanted to say."

"Oh, like how he has mind control powers?" Lorelei was just going to bring this up, and see where the conversation went from there.

Had Winter been drinking something, she would have spat it out. But unfortunately, there's no tea on this repair ship (she hasn't checked the kitchen) "W-what?"

"Oh, you heard me." A sly grin appeared on Lorelei's face. "I said, Michael has powers."

"Don't be absurd, something like that is ridiculous." Powers didn't exist in this world, and Winter wasn't about to believe something as stupid as that.

Letting out a small laugh, Lorelei couldn't contain herself. "You mean, you don't know? Almost everyone else pretty much knows about it. He's even used his weird powers on me."

Knowing that Lorelei was still bluffing didn't help Winter's mind, to the point that she felt the need to ask one question. "What does he do…?"

Oh wow, that actually worked? Those thoughts occupied Lorelie's mind as she tried to hold back laughter. "He's able to control people with commands. I don't know how, but he was able to get me to shut up."

While they had started this conversation to maybe lend Michael a hand, this was the far better outcome.

Time to slowly dig his grave.

"That all sounds rather hard to believe, you know." Still, Winter wasn't sure she wanted to buy it.

That's about what Lorelei thought was going to happen. "But hey, you can't discount the fact he might have something like that."

As much as Winter wanted to ignore it, the fact that she had been stuck to Michael for that entire time only helped solidify that someone was up. She hadn't really ever gotten attached to someone like that except for Genkei.

And yet… Her and Michael had grown so close. "You… You said he can control people?" Winter was still going to choose not to believe it, but now that the thought was out in the open, she couldn't completely ignore it.

"Yeah, pretty much." Lorelei had no reason to lie here, because telling the truth provided far more interesting results. "Honestly, you should get him to look you in the eyes when he talks."

"I've been trying to do that, but he wants to avoid my gaz-" As soon as she said that, Winter slowly started to piece things together. "Wait…"

"Ah crap." Now Lorelei was helping too much. This wasn't part of the plan.

Pacing around the room, Winter felt like she was beginning to understand why Michael always acted the way he did. "He never even looked at me when talking… He always turns his head away…"

"You can stop now." Lorelei had a rather bored expression on her face.

"Was he trying not to use his powers on me, or… Had he already-" Winter was still going.

Anymore, and Lorelei would literally kill herself. "I said stop! Geez! You're worse than some of the people I've met online."

Stopping, Winter turned to look at her. "I'm not sure why you'd want to tell me this." There was still a lot unknown by Michael, and she still didn't truly believe this thing about powers.

At best, it just sounded like Lorelei wanted her to hate him even more.

"You yap too much, let's be real here." Lorelei rolled their eyes, placing a hand on her hip. "Does there really need to be a reason behind my actions? As I mentioned earlier, I'm kind of just annoyed watching Michael sulk all the time."

And maybe this would prevent him from going around using his powers.

And yet, Winter still refused to believe that. Lorelei was the kind of person who always seemed to have ulterior motives. "Is that really it? Because you were annoyed?" She hummed out, twirling her finger around a strand of her hair.

"God, you're so fucking annoying." Lorelei almost wanted to pull their hair out, but she worked hard on her hair today so that wasn't going to happen! "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything."

"Well, it's a tad too late for any of that." Winter let out a small giggle. "But I'll have to observe him a bit to even know you're telling the truth."

"Wow, you're going to stalk him? I always knew you were that kind of person." Lorelei let out a small laugh.

Winter's demeanor didn't change at the accusation, mostly because it was clear that they were only trying to get a rise out of her. "I wouldn't say stalk, I just want to know how he's acting. I haven't really been watching him since the trial… I wanted some distance."

If anything, Michael stalked her given he followed her up to the second floor yesterday to try and talk.

"You know…" Winter hummed out, twirling her finger around a strand of hair. "For once, you've actually been helpful. Is this you turning a new leaf?"

"Literally shut the fuck up."

"Tee-hee."

It seems Winter and Lorelei have grown closer.

Navigation Room

The group of four made their way over to navigation, a little bit after the others had all boarded the ship.

"Here we are!" Edison called out, checking out the machine for any new pages. "Nope! No more asteroids. Strange that we haven't gotten an update on them yet." Unless Seira took them all.

Michael hadn't really been here before, so he found himself looking out the window, seeing into the stars. "It really is a nice view…" A nice view they didn't have to go to a trial for.

"It just makes me sleepy…" May let out a yawn as she sat down on a nearby chair. "I'm going to bed…"

"So…" Michael looked around, not exactly sure what to do. "Is there anything you need us to do?"

"Not really." Thanks Edison. "Honestly, if I was the only one here, nothing would change."

Gigi placed a hand on her hip. "You make it sound like us being here is a nuisance."

Edison did not answer that at all, and instead moved a chair over towards the large monitor.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard coming from the door. Turning to look at who it was, it was Dae-Hyun. "Did the ship already leave?" He wasn't expecting it to just yet.

"Nope! Not yet-" Edison had begun to say, before the ship moved away. "Nevermind."

"Why weren't you at the meeting this morning?" Gigi was going to grill him immediately.

Placing his hands into his pocket, Dae-Hyun walked over towards the window. "It didn't interest me…"

Still… Missing out on something like that at a crucial moment?

Though, Gigi supposed it didn't really matter, given that it wasn't like Dae-Hyun was going to help out anyways.

Seeing the ship slowly floating to a stop away from the station, Edison moved over towards the monitors. "Already, scientifically speaking, this should go well. None of us have ever done this before, but…" He adjusted his goggles. "It shouldn't be too hard."

Still, Gigi felt a bit uneasy about this entire thing. She frowned, looking on from the window, seeing the ship slowly rise up, coming to a stop somewhere above the station. "Still…" She tilted her head to the side. "My concerns still exist. Nobody has been trained on this."

It didn't help that someone like May, who would have the intelligence for something like this, decided to stay behind.

Turning her attention back towards the window, Gigi let out a sigh. She too would have gone, but her and Hae-Won hadn't been getting along at all these past view days. For that reason, she felt it was best to distance herself.

When Gigi's focus moved away from the window, she could faintly see the reflection of someone else looking through. When she turned to look at them, it was Dae-Hyun. "... Why are you looking out?"

Placing his hands into his pockets, Dae-Hyun turned away, his frown intensifying. "It's none of your concern… Just worried about whether they can do it or not."

Gigi wasn't sure if she believed that, but she also didn't feel like asking questions.

Meanwhile, Edison had finished setting up a line of communication. "Testing, testing!"

There was a bit of crackling on the end, before someone picked up. "You have reached the phone of one Dolly. She's unavailable at the moment! Please leave a message after the tone!" There never was a tone.

Shaking his head in amusement, Edison decided to continue on. "Hi Dolly. So communication works for you? How about the others?"

"Yeah, it works for me." Gemini responded, being more helpful than Dolly was.

"Good to go." Hae-Won called out. "We have our team ready." Although, she seemed less than enthused.

Walking over towards the console, May looked up to see the data that was coming through. "Everything seems to be fine…" May yawned out. "How much time did we have until the next asteroid?"

Edison pulled out the piece of paper Seira had given him. "According to Seira… We still have two hours before our next hit. That should be ample enough time to fix what needs to be fixed. So if she isn't wrong-"

"Of course I'm not wrong." Her voice could be heard. "I know how to make a star chart."

Still! There was always room for doubt in this place. "If you say so."

"Who's even going out…?" May felt like she needed to figure that out. She had missed the morning meeting, so she was out of the loop.

"Myself, Laki, and Seira." Hae-Won spoke up. "Seira practically begged to be let out into space, and Laki because… well…" She just let out a small laugh, not providing an actual answer.

This got a frown from May, but she didn't say anything else.

Growing a bit impatient, Gigi moved over towards the monitor. "We're running low on time. Shouldn't you all be starting soon?"

"Don't fucking rush me." A bit of venom in Hae-Won's voice. "You didn't come on, so you don't get to complain about the time it takes."

Glancing the other way, Gigi refrained from saying anything further.

"You don't have to be rude." Seira called out. "But we're ready to leave now."

"Haha!" Tatiana did her iconic laugh over the communication system. "I wish you three luck!"

"We're going to be going outside, so communication might be interrupted." Seira spoke up again, before the audio started to get crackly.

"Hey, I no longer have to hear her." Edison seemed pretty happy about this.

"We can still hear you, y'know." Hae-Won felt the need to point out.

The next sound that followed was very crackly audio from presumably Seira, yelling at him.

Luckily, he didn't have to hear any of it, so Edison pretended like it didn't exist.

"Being in space feels so fun!" Laki called out, and he swore he could see her moving around wildly.

"Stop that!" Hae-Won was quick to say. "We're supposed to be serious right now. I don't need you to tangle yourself up."

In fact, he could see Hae-Won pulling on the rope belonging to Laki, dragging her alone to the station.

"Enjoying your show…?" Michael mumbled out, watching Edison's expressions of joy.

Quickly, he nodded his head. "As a scientist, this entire experience today is going to be phenomenal!"

The fact that they were stuck in a killing game filled Michael with the exact opposite sentiment. "If you say so…" He glanced off to the side, looking at the two people who were stuck staring outside the window.

As Gigi stood by the side, she eventually glanced back at Dae-Hyun, who had been staring off into space again. "Are you sure everything is fine?"

Still, no answer.

No answer, until his neutral expression slowly shifted to something else. He was staring… Intently at… Something.

Before Gigi could even ask him what was wrong, Dae-Hyun turned towards the others. "There's an asteroid coming."

"What?" Edison hadn't really been doing anything, given he wasn't expecting to be doing much. However, once he finally got his bearings again, he tried to use his earpiece. "T-"

Unfortunately, he was a bit too slow…

In a rather quick moment…

The asteroid didn't even hit the space station.

Instead, it had a completely different target.

As the asteroid impacted with the repair ship, it took it off course completely, tilting it ever slightly as it wandered aimlessly in space.

Gigi's expression also shifted away from a neutral one. "I thought Seira said there shouldn't have been another one for a while."

"That's what she said! I knew I shouldn't have trusted her." But that wasn't the issue right now . Instead, Edison tried to see if he could get a hold of anyone on the ship. "Come in!"

However, all he got was static. "It's no use…" Communication was completely down at this point.

"Then…" Dae-Hyun turned away from everyone else. "We're going on that ship…"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Edison adjusted his goggles. "We aren't sure what the damages are-"

"All the more reason." Dae-Hyun wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"There shouldn't be any more." Gigi pointed out. "I'll have to talk with Seira later, but there was only one, so we should be good to go on now."

Seeing that he was pretty much being outvoted, Edison let out a sigh. "Alright…" He turned to May. "Are you coming with us-"

However, her eyes were focused on something else entirely…

Something outside the window.

Slowly, Edison followed her eyes, eventually landing on something he wouldn't be able to see…

…

Floating just outside of the repair ship, was a body floating around in a space suit, floating around lazily, with the only thing keeping it close to the ship was the tether.

However, it wasn't coming from the upper airlock, but instead from the lower one.

"W-what the?" Edison took a step back.

Now that he spoke up, that caught the attention of the other three.

"What the hell…?" Dae-Hyun wasn't expecting to see that floating around.

"Why…" Michael narrowed his eyes, seeing it.

However, Gigi's focus was too much to even react.

Because she spotted something plastered over the helmet of the space suit. "Is that… Blood?"

"How can you even see that…?" Michael mumbled out.

"My job involves me seeing slight details…" Gigi quickly responded, not breaking her focus away from the floating person.

After taking a better look, Edison could see exactly what she was talking about. "It is blood."

Because of the blood, it completely blocked off the visor, making it impossible to even tell who was in the suit. "We need to go. Now." Gigi ordered, turning towards the door.

Michael and Dae-Hyun were quick to leave, but Edison stayed behind for a second. "May, are you coming with us?"

"No…" She hummed out, remaining in her seat. "I should stay here in case something happens… I should be able to watch it from here."

Besides, if one person remained here, there would be a witness.

Not wanting to argue with that, Edison nodded his head, before running out the door.

Docking Zone

Like normal, the shuttle was still there, allowing them easy access to the ship.

"God, why does this all have to happen now." Gigi mumbled out as the quartet entered the shuttle.

"Do you suppose Seira is behind this?" Dae-Hyun crossed his arms. "The times we were given were by her."

Adjusting his goggles, Edison was actually coming to the rescue of Seira for once. "No, I don't think she meant to do this." Long pause. "Her method of telling time was highly inaccurate, so I'm sure she meant no harm." Helping her by bashing her talent again. Way to go Edison.

As they reached the repair ship, Edison slowly approached the ship, so that the doors would connect. "Alright! Open them up!"

As soon as the doors opened up, they were assaulted by flashing red lights, followed by darkness. "Looks like Benjamin hit the emergency button." Gigi noted, even though she felt it was pointless.

"This makes it harder to see…" Michael had to cover his eyes to avoid being blinded by the occasional flashing red light.

As the quartet stepped into the repair ship, the first thing they noticed was that all of the doors were closed. "Really…?" Dae-Hyun mumbled out, rather annoyed.

"Don't worry." Gigi reached into her pocket, pulling out a keycard. "We kept one on the station just in case something like this happened." However, she wasn't entirely sure where to go yet. "That was the lower airlock, right?"

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

"I wouldn't make any assumptions…" Dae-Hyun trailed off, crossing his arms.

Given that he didn't know where Winter was in all of this, Michael couldn't help but feel a bit worried about where Winter was in all of this. "Yeah… Let's not make any assumptions…" He could only pray.

When Gigi scanned the card, the door opened up.

Edison and Michael quickly followed her in, but Dae-Hyun stayed right where he was.

"Are you coming with us or not? I don't want to be wasting time." Gigi narrowed her eyes.

Thinking for a moment, Dae-Hyun eventually waved his hand dismissively. "I'll… I'll join up with you three soon…"

Not wanting to argue on this point, Gigi just kept going.

As they rounded the corner, there was another door, blocking them off from the circular hallway. "Really…?" Now it was Gigi's turn to be annoyed. Like normal, she swiped the card, only for this time…

A message popped up on the screen, denying her access.

Not because the card didn't work, but because the entire system was doing a reboot. "Huh?" Edison quickly read the display. "A reboot? Why?"

Almost as if to answer him directly, the display changed. "An attack on the system?" He mumbled out, making sure he was reading that properly.

Not wanting to take no for an answer, Gigi kept scanning the card over and over again, not once changing her facial expression.

Swirling around a flask, Edison tapped the bottom of it. "They say insanity is doing something over and over again, expecting a different result."

Turning towards him, Michael shook his head. "I… Don't think you're helping." Turning to Gigi, Michael tried to give his own advice. "Why not try a different door?"

"They'd probably all be like this if there was a system attack." Edidson was the one who answered instead. "So there wouldn't be much of any reason to go a different way. Still, I'm not sure why you're expecting a different re-"

After the fifteenth attempt to scan the card, it finally worked. "A different result." Gigi said, almost as if to make fun of Edison, but it was her idea of a joke that landed flat.

They had already wasted two to three minutes trying to get this to work, given that there weren't any alternative paths.

When the door opened up, they were greeted with someone on the other side.

"Gemini?" Edison mumbled out.

"Haha, that's me!" He placed his hands on his hips. "Fancy meeting you here."

Gigi didn't feel the need to humour him. "Gemini, we have to hurry, there's a body."

"Yeah, obviously there's a b- What now?" Gemini almost completely misunderstood what she said. "Where did you-"

Gigi didn't feel like wasting anymore time. She moved over around the circle, using memory to make sure she didn't hit the railing, as the entire room was shrouded in darkness. Still, she found herself being forced to stop a few times just so she didn't run into a wall.

"What were you doing here, anyways?" Edison hummed out, looking at Gemini.

"I fell from the second floor." He shook his head. "Once I landed here, I tried to open the door."

"How did you fall down the second floor…?" Michael mumbled out.

Shaking his head, Gemini crossed his arms. "After the asteroid hit, the lights went out on the second floor, and I sort of just kept walking."

"Why did you keep walking?" Speaking of keep walking, Gigi had kept walking to the other side of the circle. "Nevermind that… We need to reach the airlock."

Given that there was a body on the line, the three boys nodded along, making their way over towards the other side of the hallway, just as the red light appeared again.

Walking some more, the new quartet eventually reached the end of the hallway, blocked off by another door.

With a deep breath, Gigi scanned the card, opening the door again.

The lights were off when the door was opened, but it almost felt like something moved past them.

Or at least Gemini thought so. "What the?" He quickly turned back to look down the hallway, but when the red lights slowly illuminated the hallway, there was nothing there.

"What's the matter…?" Michael mumbled out, having stayed behind with him while Gigi and Edison ran into the room.

"It's… Nothing…" Gemini shook his head. It must have been the wind.

In the space ship.

Makes sense.

"Let's just follow them." Gemini didn't want to waste anymore time, especially when the lights were currently illuminating the room that they had to go through.

However, stepping inside would have very different results than he or Michael would have been expecting…

…

Gigi and Edison had a pretty good lead over us, but they were forced to stop halfway into the room when the lights went out, and they didn't want to rely on memory.

After waiting a few seconds that we couldn't exactly waste, the red light slowly came back to us.

Gigi was the first to move, with Edison following her lead. They were heading over towards the door leading to the airlock.

Which left Michael and us behind to take a look at the room…

Because after only a few seconds, we noticed something that the other two were too in a hurry to even spot…

It was near the table in the center of the room, which blocked off sight of the floor on the other side of the room.

My eyes quickly trailed over towards the wooden bits of a pole that seemed to have splintered and broken apart everywhere on the ground…

Next to it, a rather small pool of blood, leaking from a head.

As the light faded away, I was forced to wait until the lights came back on just to identify who I saw…

Soon, the lights came back on after about twenty seconds, allowing me to see just what the rest of the scene looked like.

The head in question belonged to the person currently lying on the ground, on their stomach, not moving.

More of those wooden pieces were found in the hair.

Even with the red lights, it quickly became obvious just who I was looking at…

On the ground was…

…

Atlas Costande… The Ultimate Soccer Player

…

With the two boys seeing the person in front of them, they froze up a bit, with Michael being the first one to speak. "What- What the hell!?" This was not what he expected when he boarded the ship.

Hearing some sort of panic, Gigi stopped what she was doing, turning to look at the two of them.

"What did you find?" Edison ran over, freezing as well when his eyes landed on the body.

Knowing something was definitely wrong, Gigi finally joined up with the three of them. "What's the prob-" She froze up slightly upon seeing Atlas on the ground.

"Wait, and there's still the one floating around, isn't there?" Edison began to panic again. He had to stop walking in on bodies, for the love of God-

For a few seconds, Gigi looked down at Atlas, many thoughts running through her mind.

Until one idea popped into her head.

"Where?"

"Hmm?" Gemini was a bit confused. "Where's… What?"

"Where's the body discovery announcement?"

Thinking for a moment, Edison tapped his flask. "Do we even get announcements on this ship?"

Slowly nodding his head, Gemini responded. "I'm pretty sure we do, I heard the nighttime announcement last night with Seira-"

"Someone check his pulse." Gigi was the furthest away, and she didn't exactly want to push through them to check.

Being the most sensible one, Michael knelt down, and put two fingers to Atlas' neck. After a few seconds, he breathed a sigh of relief. "He's… He's alive. He's just unconscious."

For a moment, Gigi felt a sigh of relief leave her mouth, but she didn't want to waste too much time worrying about it. "Gemini, see if you carry him back to the entrance. He shouldn't stay on this ship if he's injured, and I don't want to leave him alone."

Despite having just joined them, he was already being kicked out of the club, which wasn't fair because Michael was right there.

"On it, I guess." Gemini wasn't exactly the strongest, but Atlas was also lacking a few limbs so he wasn't as heavy as he could have been.

Despite being a weak bitch, Michael spoke up. "I… I can help too." He probably wouldn't be able to do as much as Gemini could, but his other option was Edison, so…

"Yeah, thanks." Gemini gave him a genuine smile as the two carried the body out of the kitchen.

Which left the duo with one more location to go to.

The airlock.

As Gigi scanned her card on the last door, it opened up, letting the duo through into the first part of the airlock.

As expected, the door leading to the rest of the airlock was closed, but for a different reason entirely.

Through the small window, the tether cord was visible exiting the ship, however, they couldn't see any more than that.

Quickly scanning the room, Edison's eyes eventually landed on the button to open the airlock doors. "Here!"

However, before he could press it, he was quickly stopped by Gigi. "Wait. We can't." In her brief panic, she had forgotten one crucial detail. "If we open the door now, we run the risk of losing the body."

"Huh? Then why come all the way over here in the first place? We should have just used the shuttle!" Edison broke free from Gigi's grasp.

True, but they were already on the ship. "We need to make it to the control room. I remember there being a button for this."

That meant another trek back through the ship in almost complete darkness. "On it!" And of course Edison would be alright with this…

Communication Room

With a long trip back, Gigi and Edison made it over to this side of the ship, having only run into Gemini and Michael carrying Atlas.

After scanning her card, the duo walked in. "Tatiana!" Gigi called out, which was followed by the sound of a metallic bang.

"OW!" Tatiana cried out, clutching her head. She was currently under the console, messing with some wires. "Don't surprise me like that!"

"Huh…" Edison took a step into the room. "What… What are you doing?"

Quickly jumping back onto her feet like nothing happened. "Well, I tried to call you guys after the asteroid struck the ship, however, you refused to answer. Instead of assuming I was being completely ignored, I realised that nobody was speaking on the earpieces, so I assumed that the communication line was broken."

"And… You thought to fix it?" Gigi raised an eyebrow.

For once, Tatiana deadpanned a response. "I was trapped in a single room, I was doing what I thought I could do."

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

"Haha! Absolutely not! I am not an electrician." Thank you Tatiana.

Taking a step back, Edison was caught off guard. "Then why even try-"

"We need to get to the control room." Gigi announced, making her way over towards the door.

Shaking her head, Tatiana didn't seem to be in a hurry. "It was just a simple asteroid, the ship should be fin-"

"There's a body." Gigi added without a hint of hesitation.

This clearly caught Tatiana off guard, as she stumbled over her own words. "I- What? What do you need the control room for, then? I hope you aren't implying Benjamin is dead-"
"It's in the lower airlock, we need to recall the body." Gigi quickly explained, scanning her card against the door and opening it.

Hearing this, Tatiana moved into the room with her, where a rather panicked Dolly was. "There you are! I closed the doors like you said, but then I realised I was trapped!"

Tatiana moved over towards the console, looking at the buttons, before pressing the one to recall the rope. "There! You should be able to go now!" While she was at it, she might as well press the other buttons. "Lights should be back to normal, and I opened all the vents. The doors need to be opened manually, however…"

Now, all the lights were back on, allowing the duo of Gigi and Edison to move around freely without having to stop every ten seconds.

"Thank you…" The referee said, before turning back towards the exit.

Quickly Edison followed behind her, like a puppy.

This left Tatiana and Benjamin alone. Slowly, she turned to look at him. "Are you alright?"

Dolly crossed her arms. "I'm fine, thanks for asking." If the doll could pout, she would be.

After a few seconds, however, a thought appeared in Benjamin's mind, which he voiced through Dolly. "Wait! What happened to Hae-Won, Laki, and Seira?"

The trio had been exploring outside when the asteroid hit.

Tatiana narrowed her eye, not really getting the point. "You'd have a better view than I do."

Quickly, Benjamin ran back into the control room, trying to look out the window, all while Tatiana let out a small sigh shaking her head.

"I don't… I don't see them at all!" Dolly began to panic slightly. Normally she'd have visuals of them, but it's like they had disappeared.

Airlock

Now that only Gigi and Edison were left to discover the body, tensions were rising.

"It's just on… the other side." Edison still hadn't recovered from seeing Benoit's body, and witnessing Ian's execution. Hell, even the Atlas fakeout was still fresh on his mind. He was absolutely not ready to see another body.

Gigi froze as she approached the door that divided the two sides of the airlock. They had technically already seen the body, given that it was floating around outside. She had already seen bodies before, but still… She felt a bit uneasy.

"Yes. On the other side." However, Gigi wasn't going to let that show. Slowly, she pushed down on the button, opening up the door, leading them directly to the body…

…

As the door swung open, I saw Edison move to hide behind me, but I didn't really mind. My eyes were instead fixated on the space suit lying on the floor in front of me. The same blood covered the visor, so I couldn't see who it was.

Despite that, when Edison peeked out from behind me, a sound played, quickly informing me there was no mistake in what was in front of me.

"A body has been discovered! Finally, after so long! Please, everyone make your way towards the docking zone! We're landing this… Wait, landing isn't exactly the right term. Whatever, we're docking this ship."

It was unmistakably the voice of Monokawa, which meant that what I was looking at was definitely a body.

As I walked over, I noticed that it wasn't the only source of blood.

Around the shoulder of the body, there was a small puncture wound through the suit, with dried up blood next to it.

Slowly, inch by inch, I approached the body, kneeling down.

Still, this close, I couldn't tell who it was, given the blood covered most of the visor. The only way I was going to be able to figure out who it was was by removing the helmet.

Slowly, my hands moved over, ready to twist it off, hesitating slightly.

…

Letting out a small sigh, my hands gripped onto the helmet, before twisting it off…

…

And it wasn't a pretty sight…

It almost looked like the skin had begun to bubble a bit, as if whatever liquids were inside were trying to get out.

There were other gruesome details that I could go over, but my mind felt a bit weak just looking at the body in front of me.

However… Even while looking at the body, the overwhelming feeling wasn't horror or disgust…

It was confusion…

I ran the events that had just happened again…

The four of us had seen the body floating around space, then Edison, Dae-Hyun, Michael, and I got onto the shuttle to help out.

Right.

I saw that.

It made sense.

Nothing out of the ordinary…

And yet, I let the helmet clatter to the ground, staring at the body that I was met with…

Running the events in my head again.

And again.

None of it made any sense…

How…

How did…

Even Edison seemed to be confused as he looked on, unable to say anything. Either that, or he was just horrified…

Because the face that was staring back at me was none other than…

…

Kim Dae-Hyun… The Ultimate Talent Manager…

Man… What the FUCK happened? He was literally just alive a few scenes ago (allegedly). Now, I bet you nobody had this on their bingo card (except Omakin's bitch ass as a joke). Rip my main man Dae-Hyun.

Hahaha… I've been looking forward to getting to this chapter for a while. In fact, this is the second trial I've planned out, and the first one I've almost COMPLETELY planned out. So I've had this idea in my head for a while.

Now I know people are going to be confused for a while, and to that, I say GOOD. Be confused. I'm not going to answer any questions.

Everyone thought it was going to be people like Melody, Tatiana, or like… Winter.

I mean… It could still be them? There's still time.

Haha… This is going to be a very fun trial, I can already tell.

But to you, I have only one question to ask.

Man, what the FUCK are death flags?

You think I care about death flags? You think I care about some kind of order?

I killed Ian off in chapter two. I clearly don't care about much of anything. Get used to it.

Anyways, now that the daily life is done, that means I owe you all another teaser to the second fic, and a letter for the title. Urg, I have to GIVE you things.

Oh well, I don't care completely. But enough about that, it's time I give a thank you to oddlyillregular for letting me using his character. Dae-Hyun was a fun enough character to write for. He helped fit a mentor-like role for some of the talents like Melody and Tatiana, and to an extent, someone like Benjamin.

I know some of you would have expected him to make it way further than chapter three, but I ran into a similar issue that Gold did in one of his fics. There just wasn't too much plot I could do with him. And I think he served his purpose admirably.

He was a well liked character in the first chapter, but sort of fell to the wayside in chapter two. Thankfully, I think I was able to make him pretty relevant again in chapter three, with having him being involved with other characters at a decent rate.

Of course, a character like his was hard to put in the foreground, just because of how his talent works. He tends to work behind the scenes, and I think I might have captured how he works pretty well?

If not, Oddly can crucify me or whatever.

Speaking of which…

Oddly you little bitch you! You fucked up your backstory, the names were wrong you fuck! Come over here you little bitch, I got a wooden plank with your name on it.

Anyways!

I know Oddly is going to hate me for this death, but uuuuh… Sorry.

Tee-hee

Participants Remaining: 15

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

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

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Computer Security Specialist [CandleFire45]

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin]

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

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

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Tatiana Novak - The Ultimate Knife Thrower [ExtraMeme]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]

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