Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration

by Otterplay

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

34. Abandoned Principles (Part 4)

Chapter 4: Abandoned Principles (Daily Life Part 4)

---

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.

---

While he wasn't one to pry into other people's rooms, it had been a while since Alexander had seen Edison leave his room. It wasn't unusual for him to haul himself up in his own room, but today felt slightly different.

After all, by this point, he should have finished his homework, and should have left to get some food or at least some water.

And yet, not a single peep from his room.

Letting out a sigh, Alexander knocked on Edison's door. "Edison, are you done in there?"

After a bit of silence, he shook his head before unlocking the door.

Luckily, Edison appeared to be fine. Like usual, he was hunched over at his desk, papers strewn across his desk. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for how they were placed.

But the interesting thing to note was that Edison wasn't actually writing anything down, just staring at it with a rather distant look in his eyes.

"Don't tell me you're struggling on this." Alexander let out a small laugh, trying to ease the mood.

However, when he didn't get a response, he walked over to Edison's desk. "Hey, what's wrong?"

This time, that seemed to get a reaction from the young boy. "O-oh! I didn't see you there." He tried to adjust his glasses. "Just… Huh… Wow! This homework is really hard!"

His attempt at lying didn't go unnoticed by Alexander. "Is something wrong? You would normally have done this by now, and I know you wouldn't struggle with something like this…"

For a few moments, Edison remained silent, a small frown on his face. When he finally spoke up, he didn't even bother to look at him. "Do you think I'm doing the right thing with my life?"

At first, Alexander was a bit confused on what he meant, but it quickly clicked in. "Of course you're doing the right thing with your life. You're pursuing something like this, after all."

Letting his pencil drop onto the desk, Edison shook his head. "I know, but…" He trailed off. "I just feel so alienated at home, and I hate it… I wish I could get along with everyone else from the family."

That's always been the case here, but it was weird for it to be brought up now of all time. "What has you thinking like that?"

"..." Edison trailed off, frowning again. "I see everyone else with their families, getting along, and it reminds me that I don't really have anything like that. I just have my work, and that's it."

Letting out a soft sigh, Alexander shook his head. "Hey, don't let something like that get in the way of your studies. No matter the world around you, you'll be thankful you stuck to the work you've done."

Edison's eyes slowly trailed over towards his homework, most of which remained blank. "Are you sure? None of the others seem to like me because of it."

"Hey, I like you plenty." Alexandre ruffled his hair a bit. "Besides, one of us has to be the smart one in the family. Someone has to make a name for ourselves."

Edison let the hair ruffling go on for only three seconds, before he swatted the hand away. "But, the others will be remembered too, won't they? They'll all become sports players later on, right?"

For a few seconds, Alexander remained silent, before letting out a sigh. "Let's go outside, shall we? I think you need some fresh air."

Normally, Edison would deny this outright, but today felt different.

He wasn't getting work done, so he might as well humour his brother. "Alright…"

…

…

…

Their backyard was rather big, given how large the family was. Lots of space to play around. Space that Edison had never really given any care for. "Really…?" He hummed out, wearing a baseball glove. "If I knew you wanted to do this, I would have stayed inside."

Alexander had his own glove on, and a baseball in his other hand. "This is just to give us something while we talk." With a quick throw, he managed to throw it towards him.

Not really expecting it, Edison failed to catch the first throw, but he still grabbed the ball off the ground. "Wouldn't it be too distracting?" He attempted to throw the ball back.

"Hardly, I've held many important conversations doing this. It just gets my brain moving, I guess." Alexander had to run forward a bit to catch it, but he did. "So…" He trailed off, getting ready to throw it again. "Because of how we are, you are thinking of giving up your pursuit?" The ball left his hand, going towards Edison.

This time, the ball at least hit the glove, but it still fell to the ground. "Giving up isn't the right term… I just feel like maybe I'm doing the wrong thing." He tossed it back.

This time, Alexander didn't have to move as far. "Why, though? You've been doing this for years. It's what you're known for, why turn away from it?"

"I…" Edison didn't really have a good concrete reason. But the years of pretty much being an outcast from his family had started to take a toll on him. "I guess I'm tired of being alone…"

"Hey, some of us are trying to get you involved… Some of us try to do it better than others…" Alexander mumbled out that last part. "But I know it must be difficult to always be on the sideline for so long."

However, when Edison had been young, this didn't seem like as much of an issue.

"I just don't want you to abandon everything you've worked on so far." He tossed the ball back to him.

This time, Edison managed to catch it without letting it fall to the ground. "I'm… I'm not!" Even then, he wasn't sure about his own answer. "It's just I'm having second thoughts…"

"I don't really see a reason you should be having any second thoughts." Alexander shook his head. "It's good work that you're doing out there."

"Is it really…?" Edison looked at the ground, letting out a sigh.

Seeing him frown, Alexander shook his head, taking a few steps forward. "Listen, someone in our family has to succeed in life." He said that, like he wasn't a prime candidate to do so.

"But… There's all of you." Edison frowned at that. "You guys will already all succeed as sports stars."

"Tell me…" Alexander caught the ball, but didn't immediately throw it. "Would you be able to call out any person who won a gold medal in the olympics… Twenty years ago?"

"What? No? Why would I-" Edison felt almost insulted at the idea. Why would he waste his time with something like that?

"But, you'd remember an inventor, right?" Alexander crossed his arms, tilting his head to the side.

"Well… Yeah." Edison didn't really see what the point was.

Letting out a small laugh, Alexander shook his head. "Well, I can remember some of the most famous inventors, but I wouldn't be able to answer my first question." Then, he tossed the ball over to him.

Catching it like normal, Edison took a moment to ponder what he had said. "..."

Letting the silence flow for a few seconds, Alexander spoke up. "Look, history won't remember the name of someone like me… But you? If you go out there, history will remember you, I assure you."

Slowly, a smile formed on Edison's face. "You're just saying that." He tossed the ball back.

"That may be true, but that doesn't make my words any less valid." Alexander barely had to move this time, because the ball had an almost perfect arc. "Have you noticed, yet?"

"Huh?" Edison blinked a few times. "Noticed what?"

Tossing the ball in the air a few times, Alexander didn't even bother to look at him. "You've gotten decent at catching the ball and throwing it. Maybe we could do this more often."

"Huh?" Edison looked over at his glove. The moment they had started talking more deeply, it's like he had completely forgotten about what he was doing. It all became natural. "Maybe… Hypothetically speaking, if we were to do that… Would it only be us two?"

"If that's what you'd like, I don't see why not." Alexander let out a little laugh.

That's exactly what he wanted…

All this time he had been mostly outcasted… And he was fine with it while he was younger, now it was beginning to take a toll on his mind. "Thank you… It was starting to be awful to be alone all the time."

"Hey, we're family, so I'm going to try and be there for you as much as I can, especially since the others won't make as much of an effort as I would."

The two kept passing the ball around, until Edison finally broke the silence again. "You know…" He trailed off, a smile forming on his face. "You're very motivational when you speak."

"Well, I would hope so… I'm pretty much the team captain back at school, so I guess I picked it up from there." After thinking about it for a moment, an idea formed in his head. "Maybe one day I will be a good coach. Would suck to not be able to play professionally, but inspiring others to do better is something I find fun."

As Edison listened to every word, he nodded along the entire time. "Yeah… I'd like to inspire others with the work I do."

At that, Alexander had to stop his throw to think. "Well, that's still a possibility in your field, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Edison blinked a few times, waiting for the ball.

Which didn't get passed on. "Well, inventing things would be amazing, it could also be equally as amazing to teach the future generations so they can one day make discoveries that people right now can't make."

"Teach…?" Edison knew what he was implying, but the idea had never come to him before. "I could teach others!" His eyes sparkled a bit.

Just like how he had fallen in love with science, he could help other people fall in love as well. "I guess I have an idea for after I want to stop being a scientist."

Letting out a laugh, Alexander shook his head. "Now it sounds like you have a little too much on your plate. Shouldn't you choose one?"

But that's just not how Edison rolled. If he had goals in mind, it didn't matter how many, he would achieve them all!

Just ignore that he was having second thoughts only hours ago.

"I'm sure of this." Edison was a kid with a lot of dreams ahead of him. And that's what Alexander loved to see the most.

---

Edison's Room

Slowly opening his eyes, Edison turned to look over at his alarm that was going off. He didn't even need to look at the time to know it was seven in the morning.

Slowly turning off his alarm, he slipped out of bed, with a yawn.

Since he's been here, Edison has followed a routine since he woke up. However, that changed ever so slightly since the motive started.

Now, after turning off his alarm, the first thing he did was check his watch. Now, he only had twelve points left. He had lost another one since yesterday. "Winter or Lorelei again?" He opened up his motive app just to see what his four options were.

"Hmm…" Edison let out a hum, examining what it was. This time, his options were Gennosuke, Seira, Winter, or Atlas.

Honestly, any of these could be likely candidates, so he would need to spend some extra time thinking about this.

Slowly, Edison slid off his bed, moving over towards the bathroom.

From yesterday, he still felt bad about placing a vote on Seira. Had he known she would have abstained, he wouldn't have done it.

He just assumed she would have been smart enough to vote, but he must have forgotten that she seems to be nice.

Well, at least to everyone else but him. For some reason, Seira hated his guts. He didn't even do anything wrong!

Please note, that is all from Edison's perspective, as everyone else is vastly aware of how annoying he can be, especially about this talent.

But he didn't want to spend too much time thinking about any of this. Thanks to Gemini, they now knew about the hidden room, which meant he had to put all of his focus into finding a way through it.

In an instance, Edison's mood had improved completely. "Right, no time to worry about a motive like this! I'm going to show everyone what I can really do!" Words said moments before death.

Quickly, he moved over towards the door after getting ready, eager to start off his day.

---

Cafeteria

When Edison arrived at the cafeteria, he saw that most people were already gathered, with the usual suspect missing like always. Well, from the looks of it, Benjamin and Gigi also seemed to be missing. "Morning!" He cheered out, in a rather good mood this time.

He had a lovely dream last night, after all.

Seeing him, Gemini flashed a smile, a nice fourteen still on his watch. "There you are! I was thinking-"

However, before he could even say his idea, Seira had to butt in. "Don't be nice to him, he voted for me yesterday."

"He- What?" That was the first Gemini was hearing this. Especially since he hadn't even spoken to Seira yesterday. Slowly, he turned to look at Edison. "Why did you vote for Seira?"

Not wanting to look like the bad guy, he adjusted his goggles. "She insulted my very existence!"

"You do that on a daily basis to me." Seira chose to be rather blunt just now. "So what? I called your station boring, I was just being truthful!"

"Nonono, you may think you are being truthful, but you are plagued by falsities…" Edison nodded his head along. "The stars won't hold the answers like you presume."

Random line, but whatever. Letting out an annoyed sigh, Seira rested her head on the table. "Can you stop already, or I'm going to read your horoscope."

A pause.

"You wouldn't…" Edison took out one of his flasks. "You wouldn't dare speak something like that-"

"I will." Seira slowly placed the book on the table. "Don't tempt me."

"You do it, and I throw this at you." Edison swirled around his flask, as if to show off his intent. "Hypothetically, this could be a dangerous acid, given what I just found."

"I will take those chances." Seira opened up her book, eventually finding the right page she wanted.

.

"You will need to be ruthless today, especially when it comes to dealing with people who waste your time with the kind of petty issues that don't mean a thing to you personally. If their problems are of their own making then they must sort them out."

.

After reading this entry, Seira promptly threw the book onto the table behind her. "Whatever… This isn't fun anymore…"

"You know what!" Edison had a bright smile on his face. "Maybe there is reason to this fake science of yours, given that you seem to be wasting my time."
"Now hold on." Gemini jumped in, walking over towards the book. "We can't just give up like that. Let's see what our fortune holds." Opening the book to the same page, he read it out.

.

"You are in no mood to turn a blind eye to behaviour you consider to be outside the limits of what is acceptable. Be careful though about picking arguments with people whose power and position in life can be used to cause you trouble. Just avoid them."

.

Closing the book, Gemini shook his head. "Anyways, let's just move on from all of this. Is there anything else that needs to be discussed?"

For a few seconds, the entire cafeteria grew silent. Almost as if to give the illusion that everything was good.

Oh, how easily that illusion would be broken.

"Alright, now that that's settled." Laki said in a rather calm voice. "Can we talk about how the vote went?" It was strange for her to care about something like that.

"Huh… Yeah… Sure?" Gemini raised an eyebrow.

Laki hummed out, nodding her head along, before her eyes locked on one person. "You!" She pointed over to Atlas, standing up. "Why did you put two votes on me?" A quick look at her watch would reveal twelve points.

"Tsk, what about it?" Atlas wasn't doing any better, given that he had eleven points.

"What did I do to you?" Laki forgot everything she did like a week and a half ago, it seems.

"Are… Are you being serious right now?" Atlas was in disbelief. "The fact you had no votes on you is absurd already, you almost got half of us killed."

"W-Well!" Now Laki had someone else besides Hae-Won yelling at her.

"Heh." Speaking of her, she could only let out a small laugh in response. "He's got you there."

Letting out a sigh, Michael shook his head, standing up. "Can we not do this?" He was going to try again. "It didn't make anything better yesterday, and it sure won't make anything better today…"

"Um, but isn't it a bit too late for that?" Edison pointed out. "A lot of us have already voted for others, and most of us are mad." Speaking of him, he showed off that he had twelve points.

"Oh, stop your complaining." Seira rolled her eyes, showing off her own watch, which had ten points.

Quickly, Edison pointed at her. "Don't act like you didn't vote for me last night!"

For a moment, Seira froze up. "I-" She wasn't sure how to counter that, given she HAD done exactly that. "W-well! That was revenge for what you did to me!"

This is exactly what Michael didn't want. "Guys… stop voting for each other." Turning his attention to Edison, he continued. "You voted for her, she voted for you back. You two are even. That should be enough."

"That's not the problem!" Edison started to say-

Seira turned to look at him, pouting slightly. "I wouldn't have voted for you if you hadn't-"

"Enough." This time, Gemini was the one who was speaking. Quickly, he grabbed onto both of their arms. "We're going, now."

"W-wait!" Edison tried to break free, but the grip was surprisingly strong.

Seira on the other hand, didn't really fight back, and sort of let it happen.

Everyone else then watched Gemini drag the two of them out towards the Tau Sector.

Once things had calmed down again, the conversation about the vote was able to resume.

Crossing her arms, Hae-Won looked around everywhere. "Wouldn't it be better to just vote for the people who deserve it?" One look at her watch, and it was revealed she had ten points.

None of this was working… The more Michael looked around, the more he realised that there wasn't changing the way these people think. "Forget about it…" He just sat back down, laying his head on the table.

Seeing this, Melody scooted over closer to him. "Hey, don't feel down."

Lifting his head up, Michael shook his head. "What's the point in talking… If everybody is just going to ignore what I say."

Melody understood the pain he was going through, but she also knew that some of these people wouldn't ever change their mind. "That's just the way it is…" He had convinced her not to vote, so that should be all that matters.

Seeing how everyone was being, Hae-Won stood up. "I have things to do today, so I'll be leaving now." For some reason, despite the chaos, the morning meeting was far more enjoyable. Almost like someone was missing from it.

Slowly by slowly, everyone left the cafeteria, marking this meeting a failure in Michael's eyes. "Alright… I guess I'll go too…" However, by the time he said that, most people had already left. However, he did spot Melody going up to the second floor. In his eyes, there was only one place she would be heading for…

---

Tau Sector

Now with the trio out in the hallway, Gemini could finally speak a bit louder. "Guys… We've been on this station for a little over two weeks… When is this fighting going to start."

Somehow, the quickest on the draw, Seira pointed over towards Edison. "He's the one who starts it all."

"Nono…" Edison shook his head, swirling around a flask. Slowly, the colours began to change to a dark purple. "Don't pretend like I'm the only one to blame."

"Are you at least going to take some of the blame?" Gemini looked over at him.

After a few seconds of silence, Edison's stance on the matter became rather clear.

"Got it…" Gemini had his work cut out for him today. "Then I think you are both at fault in all of this."

"H-huh?" Seira quickly felt betrayed when that was said. "How can I be at fault about this?"

"Well, for starters, I think going out of your way to give Edison his fortune when he clearly didn't want it wasn't a good idea." Gemini kept his eyes closed the entire time.

"Haha!" Edison pointed and laughed at her.

"And you…" This time, Gemini's voice grew a bit more stern. "Don't think you can just laugh at her, when you've been annoying her far worse."

Quickly, Edison stook a step back, the liquid in his flask bubbling. "What? How could you accuse me of that? I don't walk around flaunting my talent all the time."

"..." Gemini wanted to say a few things, but he mostly had a look of disbelief on his face. "But…"

"You're doing that right now." Seira quickly pointed out without much hesitation.

The moment those words were spoken, the flask that Edison was holding onto burst, splashing him with liquid. He yelled out in pain, despite the fact that it was only food colouring.

Without missing a beat, Seira turned to look over at Gemini. "Come on, you can't put me in the same boat as someone like him."

"Look, someone has to be an adult in this situation, and it's very clear that the both of you are just being petty at this point." Gemini crossed his arms.

He would love to fully take Seira's side, but given that he seemed to be the only person still taking the role of leadership, someone had to be unbiased. "The reading of the horoscopes, the entire station debate. You guys didn't have to go that far to prove who had the better station."

"That far-" Seira repeated, frowning slightly. "All I did was ask you your opinion."

"Well, obviously he would answer that yours was the better one." Edison had finally recovered from his fatal injury, only to join back into the argument.

"Edison…" Gemini let out a sigh. "Please, just not right now."

"..." For once, he seemed to stop.

Now that there was silence again, Gemini felt confident that he could continue talking. "I'm also talking about how childish you two have been during this motive. Edison, you shouldn't have voted for Seira, and Seira, you shouldn't have returned the favour."

This time, she didn't immediately have a rebuttal. Instead, choosing to hold onto her arm and look away with a guilty expression.

"Well-" Edison wanted to say something, but the same look from earlier caused him to stop.

"I don't care about the reason you did it, you still went ahead and did it." Yeah, this wasn't a role that Gemini was enjoying having to play… But someone had to do it. "Do I have to remind you about what happens at the end of the motive?"

Both of them remained silent the entire time.

Because he was right… of course he was.

"We're supposed to be friends, and yet you'd so willingly vote for each other to die." That was the part that really bothered Gemini. "For once, I think Michael is right about this whole motive. It would just be better if none of us voted."

Slowly, silence enveloped the hallway, only broken when Seira spoke up. "Is… Is that what you want us to-"

"Of course not." Gemini quickly shut down that idea. "I don't want any of us three to die for the motive. But you shouldn't screw each other's chances over either."

With every word that left his mouth, Seira's expression of guilt deepend. "I'm… I'm sorry." She glanced away.

And for once, Edison felt somewhat guilty too, for the first time ever. "Right… Me too."

For once, things seem to have gone exactly how Gemini wanted them to. With a relieved sigh, he took a step forward. "We've lasted together on this station for this long, please don't let it all fall apart like that."

The two didn't immediately answer, instead choosing to look away, a guilty expression on their first.

Seeing that neither was going to say anything, Gemini concluded that the message had been received like he wanted it to. "Alright, then I think that's all for today. You two should reflect on how you two have been."

Once again, neither Seira or Edison even bothered to say anything. Instead, they just sort of stood around again, refusing to look at one another.

Taking the hint, Gemini left, not really knowing if he overstepped his boundaries or not… But he also felt that it needed to be done before things turned out worse.

Once he was gone, Seira turned away, heading over towards the Zeta Sector, leaving Edison to stand around alone. Once both doors were closed, he finally took the time to let out a sigh.

---

Ultimate Ventriloquist Station

Here Benjamin was again. After all, he hadn't even joined the morning meeting this time. And because of that, nobody had seen that his point total was now done to ten points.

Ever since Tatiana had died, he had spent more time in his station, for one single reason.

In his hand, was a doll he had been making. He wasn't as good as his father, but he had been able to watch him enough to get the basics.

Next to him, was a pile of purple and black fabric, taken from clothes from a different station.

Even with him being able to talk now, he still found it rather hard to go out of his way to do so.

"What are you doing cooped up in this room?" A voice from behind him called out, causing Benjamin to freeze up.

When he turned to look at who it was, he found Hae-Won standing in the doorway. Seeing her, his entire body began to ease up.

After a few seconds, she moved up to take a look at his work. "Ah, making a doll. I guess that makes sense if you are a ventriloquist."

"Y-yeah…" Benjamin hadn't expected anyone to talk to him at the moment, so he was thrown off guard. "It feels weird not having a doll to accompany me."

"I thought you didn't need a doll anymore." Hae-Won pointed out, looking around at the desk, before her eyes landed on a pair of scissors.

"Oh, well, I don't need one anymore…" Benjamin trailed off, before looking at her again. "I'm doing this because… It feels weird not having a doll anymore."

"Oh?" Placing her hands in her pockets, Hae-Won tilted her head to the side. "In what way?"

"Well…" Benjamin wasn't exactly sure how to describe it. "It's weird for a ventriloquist to not have a puppet of some kind." Then, his eyes landed on her tattoos. "It's like you… Wouldn't it be weird for you to be a tattoo artist if you didn't have any?"

Letting out a small chuckle, Hae-Won glanced down at her own tattoos. "Yeah, I guess you're right in that regard. Who would want to get a tattoo from someone who doesn't even have one." To prove a point, she showed off some of her tattoos.

Honestly, Benjamin had never taken the time to look at all her tattoos. She had to have about over twenty different tattoos. "How expensive are they?"

"Hmm? Pretty expensive, especially if you get a good artist." Hae-won let out a humorous hum. "Most I did myself, however."

"Huh?" Benjamin found that hard to believe. "Isn't that a little hard to do?"

"Somewhat. Depends where you are trying to tattoo." Hae-Won looked down at her legs. "It's just like giving yourself a haircut, though. But for any tattoo I couldn't give myself, I had a deal with a different tattoo artist. We'd tattoo each other free of charge."

Benjamin hadn't even considered any of that. "Wow…" Looking at the various tattoos she had, another question popped up in his head. "Which tattoo was your first?"

Nobody had really asked this many questions about her tattoos, so Hae-Won was more than happy to give answers. Lifting up her pants slightly, she pointed out the tattoo of a bird. "Starting to feel like a broken record now, but I got a crow as my first tattoo."

Benjamin hadn't been a part of all the crow talk that Hae-Won is normally involved in, so that first comment was lost on him, but he was interested in the tattoo. "Wow… Did you do this one yourself?"

"Sure did. I didn't have many connections when I started, so I used myself until I was able to meet more people." From the looks of it, Hae-Won seemed rather pleased with the story she was recounting.

However, something was nagging at the back of her head.

Slowly, her eyes moved over to Benjamin, who had done nothing but talk about her. "You aren't doing this to try and change the subject, aren't you?" It would take a lot more than that to get Hae-Won off track.

For a moment, he froze up. "Uh…" He didn't exactly know what to say about this. "W-what were we talking about?" He asked rather innocently.

Shaking her head with a small chuckle, Hae-Won offered him a reminder. "I was asking why you were building a doll after losing Dolly."

Of course, he knew he wouldn't be able to change the subject that easily. "I just feel like I'm not myself unless I have one." With that, Benjamin turned his focus back to the doll he was making.

"But, you got rid of Dolly, so are you hoping to make her again?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow.

For a moment, Benjamin paused. Not because he didn't know the answer, but because he didn't like where the answer might lead. "I gave up Dolly, because she's who I used when I was unable to speak… I… I don't need her anymore."

It was pretty clear he wasn't going to make her again. Slowly, Hae-Won nodded her head. "So, something completely new, huh?" Then, her eyes trailed over towards the purple and black fabric.

Slowly, gears started turning in her head. "I see why you're so nervous. I know what the doll will be."

"I…" Benjamin wasn't sure what to say. "Is it weird for me to do this?" Now he was a bit paranoid.

For a few seconds, Hae-Won didn't immediately answer. "I think it's a way to ensure that they are always by your side." It was a bit weird, but so was this entire place, so she couldn't exactly blame him for that.

Putting down the doll, Benjamin let out a sigh. "I hope Tatiana won't mind. It felt nice having her by my side, and I don't think I'm ready to lose the energy she had." He glanced back over at the pile of fabric, which he had taken from Tatiana's station.

"I don't think she'd mind." Hae-Won said that, despite being unsure. "I think as long as you give her the proper personality, there's nothing to be wrong about."

Not that it would be an issue for Benjamin, given his normal personality could be considered flamboyant enough. "I will do her justice." Still, he felt weird about this entire thing. "Do you think this is an unhealthy way to cope?"

For a moment, Hae-Won didn't answer. Instead, a frown appeared on her face. Was this somehow a sore subject? "If I said that this was an unhealthy coping mechanic, I would only be shooting myself in the foot." Raising the sleeve of her shirt, she revealed a tattoo that had been hidden.

Another bird.

"I… Is that someone you were close to?" Benjamin concluded that it had to mean something. "And… What bird is that?"

"A mockingbird." Hae-Won let the sleeve fall down again. "To represent my brother."

For a moment, Benjamin already knew where this was going. "Is he-"

"No. He's not dead." Hae-Won said, not a hint of worry in her voice. "He's very much still alive, and living a good life."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Benjamin let his body relax. "Then… Why get a tattoo?"

"... Because I'm unlikely to ever see him again." Hae-Won didn't want to reveal that to him, but she didn't really have a choice in her mind. "And it's all my damn fault."

A frown slowly appeared on Benjamin's face. Not only because it was a sad story to hear, but because he wasn't sure what to say.

Noticing the silence, Hae-Won shook her head. "Don't worry about it. Like I said, it was my own fault in the end." That was only partially the truth, but complaining about it now wouldn't lead her anywhere. "I had many chances to change, but I refused to."

"I…" Benjamin finally found what he should say. "I also lost a friend I had, and I believe it's my fault too."

"Oh?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow, not having expected that in the slightest. "And why's that?"

Looking down at the desk, a frown appeared on Benjamin's face. "I… I had a really good friend back when I was at school. Honestly, besides the dolls, he was the only friend I ever had before coming here. But… I…"

No, he couldn't admit to that part, so he'd just leave it out of the story.

"I ran away from home after something happened, and I've never gone back."

For a moment, Hae-Won remained silent. After all, she had pretty much done something similar once she became an Ultimate. "I didn't think you would have done something like that." She was almost impressed.

Shaking his head, Benjamin didn't really see it that way. "I… I wish I hadn't had to, but I…" The expression on his face slowly shifted away, a look of horror on his face.

Now, Hae-Won was concerned. "Benjamin?" She shook him a bit. "Benjamin, talk to me."

Finally, he snapped out of it, a bit dazed. "I…"

"It's alright… Whatever happened is in the past…" Hae-Won wasn't sure what the problem was, but she wanted to calm him down. "Let's forget about what we were talking about. I think you should focus on the doll, after all."

Slowly, Benjamin turned his head towards his work. "Right… I should finish making her." That way, he can go back to being able to talk more. "I should be done tomorrow."

Nodding her head along, Hae-Won took a few steps away. "Looking forward to seeing it. See you tomorrow."

That left Benjamin alone in the room. Once he had confirmed she was gone, he went back to his work. "Why do I remember that now of all times…" He mumbled out.

It seems Benjamin and Hae-Won have grown closer.

---

Laboratory

With everything in order, Gemini and Edison found themselves back inside the laboratory, with… Maybe one more person than they wanted.

Letting out a sigh first was Gemini. "I know Edison tagged along, but it doesn't mean you have to as well…"

"Oh!" Laki stood off to the side. "But you guys were talking about something cool earlier, so I was hoping to offer my expertise."

"What expertise would you have with bombs…" Edison let slip out.

For a moment, Gemini froze, before slowly turning to look at him. "Why would you tell her that?"

"Ooo~" Laki jumped into the pile of scraps. "Is that what we're doing? Oh! Let me help! Let me help!"

Placing his hand against his forehead, Gemini quickly realised this must have been some sort of losing battle. Maybe that fortune from earlier was more accurate than he could ever know. Maybe he should just avoid her.

However, Edison had a completely different idea. "Yeah, she can help. Scientifically speaking… The more the merrier."

There was nothing scientific about that, but Gemini didn't want to get into any arguments today. "Alright, but this is dangerous stuff, so I don't want you accidentally blowing us up." Not that he even thought they could make any progress on actually making a bomb.

Like, he'd rather make something like a hot air balloon again than do this. "Here's the book I found in May's station."

Quickly, Edison took the book, opening it to random pages, to try and read most of the information. "I'm surprised something like this even exists. You'd think something like this would be blocked off the internet."

Gemini never really considered something like that. "It's likely that if the book existed at one point, her station has access to it."

Laki attempted to peek over Edison's shoulder, but somehow he was able to completely block her view from the book at every attempt.

Given that now wasn't the time to read it, the chemist closed the book. "I'll read up on this when I'm alone." He didn't really trust Laki around a book like this.

"That's fine." Because neither did Gemini. "Should we find some metal casings for this, or…? How exactly do you want to make this?"

"Metal casing would be nice for transportation." Edison still couldn't believe this was the best plan they had. Building a bomb… What a time to be alive. "But!" He raised a finger up. "We should see what kind of metal we're dealing with."

"Um…" Gemini trailed off. "Wouldn't it be the same metal as all the other walls?"

"Maybe, but I doubt it." Edison had some ideas brewing right about now. "Should we go check the wall ourselves?"
Gemini wanted to shut the idea down, but he looked over at Laki, and realised this would be for the best. "Yeah, let's go and do that."

She just stood there, slightly in disbelief. "Was it something I said?"

…

…

…

The trio soon found themselves back in the Zeta Sector, more specifically, the hallway that was cut off. "This is the place?" Edison took a few steps forward.

"Yup." Gemini followed closely behind the two of them.

"You know…" Laki looked back at the door they had to come through. "You are right. This is weird." She moved over to the end of the wall, knocking on it.

"That's what I said!" Gemini placed his hands on his hip. "Why have a door for nothing… But now that we have the map, we know there's something here."

"What's here?" Laki turned to look at him.

Crossing his arms, he glanced off to the side. "It seems to be the room that controls the entire station."

Well, that seems like a good room to block off! "Oh! What if we can fly the station away with that!" Laki seemed pleased with her own idea.

Flashing a grin, Gemini nodded his head along. "Exactly! That's what I'm hoping happens. If that's the case, we should be able to finally get home."

While the two were talking, Edison had been examining the wall. First of all, he knocked on the fake wall, before moving over to the very real wall, delivering the same knock. "Hmm…"

Alright, back to the conversation that matters.

"Then yeah! Blowing up this wall is the best idea!" Laki just wanted to see an explosion.

"I'm just worried about making an explosion that's too big." Gemini let out a small sigh. "The last thing we need is for me to blast a hole in the station wall, and we all get sucked out."

"But couldn't we just blow it up while the door is closed?" Laki suggested with a hum, "That way we're safe if the walls blow up as well."

For once, Gemini found himself at a loss for words. Mostly because Laki had said a good idea that wasn't completely deranged. A smile slowly formed on his face. "You know what, that isn't too bad. Hey Edison, did you hear that?"

However, the chemist was still seemingly busy in… Knocking on walls?

"Huh… Edison?" Gemini raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"I told you what I was doing. Checking the wall!" He seemed rather proud of himself. "The fake wall is thinner than the real walls." He noted with a bit of eagerness in his voice. "That means that we don't have to worry too much about blowing a hole in the side of the station."

Man, the news just kept getting better. "Then there's even less to worry about." Gemini moved over to get a closer look at the wall. "What kind of material?"

"Hmm… Wasn't able to tell." Edison seemed a bit disappointed in himself. "But we got most of the information we needed."

However, a knocking alerted the two boys, who looked over at Laki. "Are you sure? Shouldn't we just keep knocking until we figure it out."

"No, knocking won't work anymore." Edison let out a sigh. "We have to use our heads now."

Laki took five seconds to process this before following his advice. Quickly, she bonked her head onto the wall, before stumbling back in pain. "Ow…"

Gemini let out a small sigh, shaking his head. "What did we learn?"

"That it's metal." Thank you Laki.

Gemini was about to point out that it wasn't what he meant, but quickly realised that it wasn't worth the effort. "Sure, let's just go with that…"

Seeing that they learned all they could for the time being, Edison was content with leaving. "I'm going to head back to my station and figure out what chemicals we'd need for the bomb. You're free to join me if you want."

Gemini was almost tempted, but he felt it was best to leave Edison to his own devices. "Nah." He flashed a smile. "I think I'm going to go do something else instead." He had something on his mind, after all. With that, he was off.

This left Edison and Laki alone.

Slowly, a small humming noise could be heard from Laki. "Mind if I join you in your lab?"

Normally, Edison would be glad for her to join, however… This time was different. "Unfortunately this is something I need to do on my own." After all, he had to fix a mistake.

For a moment, Laki had a rather disappointed expression on her face, but it quickly turned back to a smile. "OK! Then see you later." With that, she skipped off with a beat.

Now that Edison was alone, his own smile slowly shifted into a frown. "Well… Let's go find her, then…" There was only one place he knew where he would be able to find her.

---

Ultimate Academic Prodigy Station

Now, normally they wouldn't have a reason to go to a boring station like this, but Lorelei had other things in mind.

She wanted to figure out just what people were researching.

Moving over towards the kiosk, she began to look through some of the-

"Ah, there you are." A voice called out from behind her.

This caused Lorelei to close the kiosk in annoyance. "I don't think we really have a reason to speak, Gennosuke." They turned to look at him.

"Hmm…? I'm heartbroken to hear that, for I have reasons to talk to you."

After examining him for a few seconds, Lorelei shook their head. "Well, unfortunately I don't want to talk to you, so you can leave."

"Ah, come on…" Gennosuke leaned against one of the shelves. "Why not at least humour me? I'm far more interesting than most of the people on this station anyways…"

Lorelei felt like they didn't even need to humour that with a response, but she let out a sigh anyway. "Because you just probably want to talk to me for your own gain. Trying to make a plea for me so that I don't vote for you?"

"Heh, nothing like that." Gennosuke shook his head. "I know I wouldn't be able to convince you of all people not to vote for me. Not that you have."

"Oh? And you know that how? Already deduced the hints that the motive provides?" Lorelei frowned slightly.

"Just doesn't feel like a move you'd make." Gennosuke had a grin on his face. "After all, you're smart enough to not waste your time on me. I'm sure you'll receive votes on yourself throughout this motive. Sounds like you should spend time making sure that you stay above everyone else."

He wasn't exactly wrong, but Lorelei wasn't going to give him any credit. "Then what do you even want to talk about? Don't you already know everything you need to know? You already called out my real talent."

Letting out a chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "It doesn't really have anything to do with your talent, honestly."

However, Lorelei wasn't about to let that thought process go away. "Speaking of which, what was the point of revealing all of that? It didn't benefit you in any way."

Pulling out a lollipop from his pocket, Gennosuke quickly stuck it into his mouth after removing the wrapper. This was going to be a long conversation after all. "Because it got my point across quicker."

"Still, I never revealed the part about your talent." Lorelei countered quickly.

Something that Gennosuke didn't really seem to care about. "And?" A grin appeared on his face again. "People already know I'm not really a psychic. You revealing that doesn't change anything." He was done pretending, anyway. "These people won't trust me anymore, so there's no point lying about something like that."

"Alright, mentalist, or whatever the name of the talent would actually be." Lorelei placed their hands on their hips.

"That would be right." Moving over towards the wall, Gennosuke leaned against it.

Just like with Seira, the actual conversation meant nothing. Instead, he was just trying to get a better vibe from Lorelei.

"But, the things I've done are still impressive." Gennosuke tilted his head to the side. "I've been right about so much, so…"

Lorelei couldn't deny that fact. More often, he was able to accurately call things out. Like in the Ian trial, and then her own talent. "That doesn't really mean anything. With being a mentalist, you'd just need to pick up on context clues."

"Hmmm… I suppose you're right." Gennosuke once again didn't really seem bothered that much. "But enough about what I really am, and let's start talking about you."

Lorelei took a step back, getting a bad feeling about all of this. "What the hell are you even talking about?"

"You know, the others brought up a good point… Why haven't you done anything to help around." Gennosuke took the lollipop out of his mouth, before pointing it in her direction.

Instead of answering the question, Lorelei immediately deflected the question. "Don't act like you'd help these people out. You'd only do something if it benefits you."

"True." The only times he felt like helping was when his life was on the line. Had circumstances been different, Gennosuke wouldn't have lifted a single finger. "But that doesn't answer my question. I can't do all the things you do… I can only help out in a trial when we're close to death."

Placing a hand on her hip, Lorelei shook her head. "I already explained it to everyone else. I can't do anything if I don't have access to the code."

"And yet…" Gennosuke trailed off, thinking back to a variety of things. "How many doors are locked? You've proven that you can easily open the doors without actually having access." Thinking back to the trial. "So what's stopping you from opening the locked doors around the station? There's one in Gigi's room I'm very curious about."

"Because I don't have to do anything for any of you." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "Besides, it's not like any of that stuff would even help us out."

Not only that, she wasn't stupid enough to piss off Monokawa.

Watching her for a few more seconds, Gennosuke slowly shook his head. "I suppose you have somewhat of a valid point. But still, it makes one curious." He stuck his hands in his pockets, before using his foot to push himself away from the wall.

He took a few steps forward. "I know there's some other stuff you're keeping hidden, isn't there?"

"Pfft." Lorelei covered their mouth, trying to hold back a laugh. "And why would someone like you care about what I'm hiding? Everyone here has something to hide, so…"

That's true… Gennosuke had run into a fair amount of people with things to hide, but Lorelei felt like someone with a lot more things to hide.

But he also couldn't admit to why he cared, given what he was looking for. "Well, when you're plagued with catching every single detail of a person, it starts to eat away at you when someone is obviously hiding a lot."

"And that's my problem… how?" As this pointless conversation dragged on and on, Lorelei was finding themselves bored with each passing second. "Besides, you probably have more to hide, don't you?"

"Hmm? Like what?" Gennosuke knew he shouldn't be poking the bear, but this was just too fun.

That was the issue… Lorelei couldn't exactly pinpoint anything like that. She wasn't from the country he was from, nor would she even cared about a nobody like him. "I mean, it wouldn't be too hard to figure out." They bluffed. "I was able to figure out things about Gemini, so-"

"And?" Gennosuke raised an eyebrow. "Don't act so special, I've already figured out those things."

Now Lorelei's confidence was starting to falter a bit, but she wasn't going to let that stop her. "I'm just saying it's only a matter of time before I figure out what your deal is."

"You can certainly try…" Gennosuke took out his lighter, lighting the tip of the lollipop stick on fire. "But you have to tell me… Is finding out anything like that really worth it? What do you gain from finding dirt on me?" He grinned at her futile attempts. "You can't blackmail me like you've done with Gemini."

Gritting their teeth, Lorelei crossed their arms…

She really was getting nowhere with Gennosuke. Damn, that's two people she's going to lose too in mental chess. She needs to talk to someone like Benjamin so she can win next time.

Without even knowing it, despite Lorelei not gaining anything, Gennosuke had learned all he needed to.

And that was the fact that she wasn't the person he was looking for. She didn't seem to be hiding anything in that regard.

He had only suspected them because it would be easy to explain how she was able to open a vacant room.

Everyone else would have needed a second watch, she just would have needed to hack the scanner.

"I think I'm done here." Gennosuke moved away from the wall, putting out the fire on his lollipop. "It's been fun."

Normally it would have been fun, but Lorelei didn't enjoy this at all. Honestly, this was the first conversation she's had one on one where she came out with a negative amount of enjoyment. "Just go."

"Heh, fine by me." Not even bothering to wave, Gennosuke left the room.

… Crossing her arms, Lorelei had forgotten the reason she even came here for. "Creep."

It seems Lorelei and Gennosuke have grown closer.

---

Ultimate Astrologist Station

After that talk with Gemini and Edison… Honestly… Seira just needed a bit of distance from everything.

He had been right, though… She was contributing to the problem, even if at the time she didn't want to admit it.

Maybe it was the stress of everything else going on… Both motives… Especially the secondary one.

It's eaten up such a large amount of Seira's attention, she failed to even realise how devastating the main motive is.

However, despite what she would have preferred, her silence was interrupted when the door to her station opened up.

She waited…

Silence.

"Who's there?" Seira was hoping it was Gemini, but he would have said something… At the very least, she was hoping it wasn't Gennosuke.

"It's me…"

Now, she wasn't sure if this was worse than Gennosuke or not, but it did cause her to let out a heavy sigh, and turn to look at Edison

"What do you want?"

For a moment, he was hesitant. He had come to talk to her, but he wasn't even sure what to even say.

After a bit more silence, Edison finally let out a sigh. "I want to apologise…"

Seira had a response ready for whatever he might say to her…

However, she hadn't expected that to be what he said. "Apologise…?"

This was already hard enough for Edison to do, given his pride. But… "Yeah… I'm sorry for voting for you that one time."

For a moment, Seira didn't answer. Instead, she went back to looking at the stars in her station. "... I voted for you back, so we're even."

And that's all she would see it as.

Now, they could have left it at that, but Edison didn't come here just to apologise about the vote.

Honestly, he came to apologise about a lot of things, but the vote was the easiest one to start with, given it was the most recent. "That's not it… I want to apologise about everything else as well."

"..." Seira wasn't going to respond. Part of her anger from earlier was still weighing on her mind, but she wasn't going to stop him. Instead, choosing to focus entirely on the stars in front of her.

Given that she hadn't told him to leave, Edison figured it was safe to continue. "This entire time we've been here, we've been at odds the entire time…"

"And who's fault is that?" Seira sounded a bit better, but she quickly calmed down. "When we met, I was just happy to not be alone. I told you about my talent with such glee, only for you to shut me down like my work didn't matter."

Edison had a hard time looking at her now.

---

Staring at her for a few seconds, mixing around the solution in his flask, Edison shook his head. "Fake science."

"Fake science?" Seira repeated, slightly offended. "It's not a fake science." The two of them were off to a bad start.

Edison shook his head, examining the flask a bit. "I don't think astrology is going to help us get out of here."

---

Their initial meeting wasn't exactly pleasant, and that was mostly all Edison's fault. "I-" He adjusted his goggles, frowning slightly. "That was just meant as a friendly joke-"

"You didn't treat it like one." Seira frowned, holding onto her own arm. "You wanted to push yourself up, so you pushed me down to feel useless."

Edison couldn't deny the way he had been initially… And how he hadn't exactly gotten better since. "Well." He had so much he wanted to say, but she was actively making it difficult to even get any words with.

Because no matter how much he tried, he couldn't prove it wrong.

Seeing that he was silent, she decided to continue. "Why are you even like that? You always have a need to be right, always have a need to shut down anyone else." Seira turned to look at him.

Now, Edison would normally have an answer ready for something like this… But for once… He just stood around, not saying anything.

After a bit of waiting, Seira was growing impatient, and attempted to ask the question again, only to be interrupted.

"Theoretically, I have to be like this." Was the simple answer that Edison provided her.

That only seemed to anger Seira a little more. "What? No! You don't have to be like that! What's the point of trying to prove everyone else around you wrong?"

"I always had to do that." Edison's facial expression didn't really shift as he said this. "After all this work I've put into researching things… I have to be right…"

The more he spoke, the more Seira found herself to be lost. "I don't understand whatever logic you're trying to use. You keep saying you have to… because what…? The research you do? Why do you feel the need to be right?"

"I…" Once again, Edison was having a hard time articulating the words he wanted to speak. "Because if I'm wrong… What was the point of all of this?" For some reason, he was having vivid memories of when he and Alexander spoke. "When I was younger, I was always pushed around by my family for the stuff I wanted to do. I never really fit in."

At this, Seira grew quiet. Not because she didn't believe him… But because when she was at the orphanage, she had pretty much gone through similar things. "But I don't see how that correlates to-"

"They always told me the decisions I was making with my life were wrong. That hypothetically, it would all lead to nothing." Edison adjusted his goggles, but in a way to reflect the light so his eyes weren't visible anymore. "They always were the popular people… Everyone seemed to love them, which didn't leave anything for me."

Weakly twirling his flask, he wasn't sure where to even go next, but he eventually found his next line of thinking.

"I have to do everything to prove them wrong, to prove those who doubt wrong." Edison's grip on the flask tightened, but the liquids inside didn't seem to stir at all.

"But…" Seira shook her head. "Why did that turn into you immediately insulting my own talent the moment you met me? Calling it a fake science. Even during the last motive, you were quick to dismiss everything about it when I used the star chart. Sure, it went wrong, but that's not my fault."

Now, this was something Edison didn't want to admit at the time, but now that it was brought up, he had no choice. "I insulted it because I was mad… Alright? Not once have I been able to do anything worthwhile during my time here. Not once has something I done been beneficial. My science is supposed to be used to help people right…? But… It hasn't done any of that." He kind of let the flask slip out of his hand, letting it shatter to the ground.

"That's why when even a science I thought was below me could prove useful, it just made me angry…" To think at a time like this, he'd be admitting this. To Seira of all people, as well.

She wasn't sure if she could be pissed off that that was his reasoning or not, but she chose to take a more neutral approach. "Really? You were jealous then."

Well… "Yeah…" Edison glanced away. Most of his life he had been jealous. Maybe that was just a trait he never really knew he had. He was jealous when it came to his siblings, and now he felt the same way when it came to Seira.

"I just want to prove that what I've done with my life could eventually lead to something…" If not, he felt like his entire life would have been wasted.

"But you can do that without putting someone else down in the process." Seira frowned at him. "If you have to push someone else down just to appear greater than everyone else, then you weren't great to begin with."

Of course, once again, she was right, and Edison couldn't deny her words. "You're right… And that's why I also came here. I wanted to apologise about all of that." Still, doing all of this was proving rather difficult given the circumstances.

"I…" Seira looked at the ground, pondering this whole situation. "I think you've said enough, so you can just leave."

For a moment, Edison was about to deny that request, but he could also tell that this whole thing wasn't exactly working like he wanted it to…

Glancing at the stars around the room, he spent a few seconds staring into them, seeing the beauty for the first time.

Having said everything he came to say, Edison let out a small sigh and headed towards the door.

Once the sound of the door closing could be heard, Seira let out a rather loud exhale. She hadn't even realised she had been holding her breath the entire time.

Now, he may have apologised, but she wasn't exactly sure how long that would actually last. Only time would really tell, she guessed…

It seems Edison and Seira have grown closer.

---

Winter's Room

"This is weird." Lorelei had been invited to talk with Winter, despite them talking every day.

"Is it?" Winter didn't really see the problem in any of this. "I figure it would be best if nobody knew what we were talking about."

That was fair… "So, this is about the motive, I presume?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow.

For a moment, Winter's smile disappeared. "No, why would it ever be about that?" Long pause. "So, have you lost any more points?"

Oh thank God, Lorelei thought this was going to turn into a weird love confession. They would have hated that. "Yeah, I lost another point." They showed off their watch, revealing twelve points.

Slowly, Winter nodded her head along. "Well, I had the misfortune of losing two points today." She showed off her watch as well, revealing twelve points as well.

This got a laugh from Lorelei. "Who the hell hates your guts?"

Twirling a finger around her hair, Winter glanced off to the side. "I'm not exactly sure… I think Edison figured out I voted for him, so he might have voted for me in retaliation. As for the second vote, I have no starting ground."

"Well, we should still be in the top half, right?" Lorelei placed a hand on their hip. "I saw a few people with eleven or ten, so…"

"Still, I wouldn't get comfortable with where we are…" Winter let out a small hum. At any point, they could have multiple votes placed on them. "I saw that Laki lost two points today, so she's tied with us at the moment."

"Yeah, I think it was Atlas, given the way she reacted to him." Lorelei pointed out.

This got a small giggle from Winter. "He's so nice, doing so much work for us. He already brought Hae-Won down, and now Laki? This motive should be pretty easy if he never targets any of us."

"Not to mention that he got himself down to eleven points." Lorelei couldn't help but laugh as well.

Things were working out in their favour. "There's still some uncertainty going around. Like I haven't seen Gennosuke once since the motive started."

"Ugh, don't remind me." Lorelei was clearly annoyed by him being mentioned. "I ran into him today, and the asshole wouldn't leave me alone."

"Oh?" Winter hummed out, twirling a finger around a strand of hair. "How many points did he have?"

"That's the problem, he wouldn't show off his watch." Lorelei gritted their teeth. "I couldn't make out how many points he had, but he's figured out that I hadn't voted for him."

"Well, we haven't had a reason to do it right now." Winter didn't like the uncertainty, but Gennosuke was for sure part of the bottom half right now. "I think we should just focus on the others. He's a lost cause for now."

"Who are you thinking, then?" Lorelei had a few ideas, but she also wanted to hear what she had to say.

Thinking for only a few moments, an idea popped into Winter's head. "I think Atlas had the right idea throwing some votes on Laki. Especially now that she's tied with us, we can send some votes her way to put her below us. As for the other person… Edison and Seira seem to be having some sort of feud, so why not fuel it more?"

Hearing this, a grin appeared on Lorelei's face. "I would be more than glad to throw a vote towards Seira." No reason, honestly. She just wanted to be a little shit.

"Then I will throw my vote towards Laki." That made things easy. Seira would drop to single digits, and Laki would one step closer to following suit. Results were working in their favour, and Winter was more than happy with it. "Should we try and piece together who voted for us, now?"

"Ugh, we could do that." Lorelei opened up her motive app to see what her pool of suspects were. "Well, it's either Edison, Gemini, Gigi, or Seira."

"Hmm… We know it's not Seira, but we don't know about the other three. I hadn't seen Gigi at all today, so I wasn't able to confirm what her watch said." However, thinking it over some more, Winter shook her head. "I think it's either Gemini or Gigi. I believe Edison voted for me in retaliation. He must have figured out it was me who voted for him."

"That's probably why you shouldn't waste your time voting for someone smart." Lorelei mocked her a bit. "But if we're talking about that…" Had Gigi figured out they were the ones to vote her? It was likely.

"As for my other vote…" Winter had to load up her own motive app. "My suspects are Gennosuke, Laki, May, and you."

"Come on, you know I wouldn't vote for you." Lorelei rolled their eyes. But the more she thought about it, the odder it felt. "I'm not sure why the other three would vote for you."

"Laki is unpredictable, so it might be her…" Winter hummed out. "I don't believe May would have a reason to vote for me, and… Gennosuke… Well…" He was a different story entirely.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Lorelei leaned back on the bed. "Ugh… Maybe this was a dumb idea. We should try and figure out who voted for who… Maybe make a dumb chart or something." Here's looking at you, Omakin.

"I could try and do that tomorrow…" Winter spoke up before pausing. "Figure out where everyone voted, not the chart part." Omakin is the only one who's allowed to make a chart.

From the looks of it, that was everything that could really be discussed. "Alright." Lorelei stood back up on the ground. "If that's everything, I think we can meetup tomorrow."

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask." Winter let out a hum, now that their current talk about strategy had mostly died down. After a few seconds of waiting for a response and getting nothing, she decided to continue. "As a hacker, you're able to configure your watch, right? That's how you were able to get yourself all of those coins."

For a moment, Lorelei didn't say anything, only frowning in response. However, soon a sigh came from them. "Yeah? What about it? No, I won't give you extra coins. Stop asking people for money."

This got a slight giggle from Winter. "Why do you think so lowly of me? There's no reason to ask for money, I already got what I wanted from it. But…" She trailed off, twirling a finger around a strand of her hair. "Are you able to add anything to a watch."

"Yeah, I guess so." Lorelei raised an eyebrow, clearly unsure where any of this was going. "Out of boredom, I was able to add some basic games to my watch."

Nodding her head along, Winter was liking the answers she received. "Do you think you could set up an app to deliver messages?"

"..." Lorelei thought about it for a moment… Sending messages?

The idea wasn't completely farfetched, after all. Given how this motive worked, it was sending information to their watch to a central point, before sending it to other people's watch. All they'd really need to do is make use of that system.

Now, Lorelei had a different question entirely. "Why?"

"Well, I'm worried about this motive in general, and since we're constantly receiving votes, I would prefer if nobody knew we were working together on this thing." Winter's explanation was simple. "Besides, it allows us to communicate, for safety reasons."

Lorelei wasn't too worried about her own safety, because she's been mostly playing smart.

Mostly.

"Hmm…" They let out a hum, tilting her head to the side. They didn't have a reason to deny the request, and one of the things she did miss was sending annoying messages to people. "I can see what I can do, but there's no guarantee anything will happen from it."

"That's fine. I just wanted the idea thrown out there." That was good enough for Winter

"Now I'm leaving for reals, so don't like, add anything to this conversation." With that, Lorelei finally left the room.

Now that they were gone, Lorelei stood up, moving over towards the door. She wanted to relax a bit after all that talk, so she was off to her own station.

This wasn't a free time event, by the way. They already had one.

---

Ultimate Tap Dancer Station

Ever since the motive had started, Melody had found herself being a little quieter than usual. Either as a result of the motive directly, or more so because she just couldn't pretend everything was fine.

For that reason, she had moved back to her station, playing some music again. Her hope was that the music would get her in a dancing mood.

After all, if she was dancing, that meant everything was fine, right?

Unfortunately, Melody just couldn't seem to get the beat right, so she spent most of the time pacing around her own station.

"Melody?" A voice called out from the door, causing her to jump slightly. When she looked at who it was, she saw Michael.

"Oh!" She put on a smile again. "Didn't see ya there, Mac!" She made sure to put her hand behind her back so he couldn't see her watch.

While Michael missed it yesterday, he wasn't going to miss it this time. "Why are you hiding your watch…?"

"Huh? I'm… I'm not hiding it, silly!" Melody wasn't the best liar.

This prompted Michael to step further into the room, walking over to her. "I… How many points do you have…?"

Despite wanting to continue to lie, Melody knew she couldn't keep this up much longer. "I…" When she revealed her watch, she had eleven points left.

Now, this was worse than most people, however, Michael quickly clued into something. "You… Voted?"

Freezing up slightly, Melody did her best to try and avoid eye contact. "I- No- Why would-"

Yeah, Michael wasn't going to buy any of this. "If you hadn't voted, you'd have ten points or less right now…" He showed her his own watch, revealing eight points.

This caused what little joy Melody still had to fade away. "What- What happened to you?" She grabbed onto his arm to take a better look at his watch.

"I abstained twice in a row… And both days, I received a vote from someone…" Michael admitted, letting out a sigh. "It's fine… I don't think I have a chance to win this motive."

"H-hey!" Melody's face paled up slightly. "Don't think like that!"

"It's the truth…" Michael moved his arm away from her. "I don't want to win something like this anyways… I made my point rather clear already, that I'd rather abstain than to vote."

Hearing those words, Melody looked away, a guilty expression on her face. "I know…"

Letting out a sigh, Michael shook his head. "I don't blame you for putting a vote on him…" Seems that he knew who she voted for without her actually saying it. "If I were to vote, I probably would have done the same." Although, maybe not now, given how things have turned out.

"Yes, but…" Melody moved over to one of the tables, opting to sit down instead of walking around the room. This meant no dancing for her. "But to give up like that…?"

Letting out a sigh, Michael shook his head. "I'm not… giving up." Far from that. "But I refuse to stoop as low as Nova wants us to. If I have to vote personally for someone to die in this motive, I'd rather not." For a moment, he paused. "I know we already do that for the trials, but that's… different."

"But… Your life…" Melody glanced away. She didn't want Michael to sacrifice his ideals, but she also didn't want him to die because of it.

"And what about yours…?" Michael crossed his arms, looking away. "You didn't vote today either…"

"H-huh? But that's because…" Melody held her hands together. "Ya were so passionate yesterday about your speech…"

So the reason she didn't vote… was because of Michael? This is sort of what he wanted, but when she was the only one who listened, it sort of felt like she was being punished for it.

"This whole motive is balled up…" Melody felt herself shaking a bit. "Why are they making us create beef with each other?"

Hey, a term Michael actually understood. What a rare moment. "Because they just want us to die… They don't care about how we feel."

"But…" Melody found that odd. "Didn't Nova say something different?"

---

Monokawa let out a laugh. "Isn't it great to see them like this?"

However, Nova didn't seem to agree with that. "Monokawa, I've told you time and time again to not do this. We aren't here to administer mental pain."

Grumbling under his breath, Monokawa slowly allowed himself to be lowered.

---

That was true… Nova had gone out of her way to say that… Which made this whole thing even more weird. Unless this just didn't count as mental pain… But that's all Michael felt doing this. "I don't know…"

Frowning slightly, Melody let out a sigh. "I'm sorry for letting the motive get to me, Mac…"

Taking a deep breath, Michael turned to look at her. "How about this…" He couldn't believe he was going to suggest something like this. "Would you feel better if I voted once…?"

For a moment, Melody paused, hearing his words. "I-" She wasn't exactly sure how to feel. On one hand, it would make it so he didn't lose two points automatically. On the other hand, he would only be doing it to make her happy. "Ya don't need to do that for me." She frowned at him.

"I know I don't, but you're feeling bad about having voted already…" Michael began to pace around the room. "And you want me to vote so I don't die… I can allow myself to vote once, if it makes you feel better."

This still took time for Melody to process… This is somewhat what she wanted, but maybe not in this way.

After Dae-Hyun died, she didn't want to risk seeing any of her other friends to follow suit. "I…" But once again, to see Michael change his principles for just her sake. "Are you going to vote for the grifter?"

There was only one person she could be talking about, and even then, Michael wasn't sure. "I'll… I'll think of someone." For a moment, he loaded his own motive app to see the four potential suspects on who voted for him. "I'll probably just vote for whoever voted for me…"

And there was one likely candidate in his mind.

Not that Melody knew anything about it, she hadn't been there when he spoke to other people. "Alright…" She had a nervous smile. Mostly because this wasn't something she should be happy about, but she was glad to see Michael would at least make an attempt to stay alive…

She couldn't lose someone else again.

Slowly, Melody stood up from the chair she was sitting at, before offering him a hug.

For a moment, Michael didn't even attempt to stop it… Honestly, he hadn't really been hugged in so long, so it felt nice. For a rare moment, a smile formed on his face.

Once the hug was finished, Melody moved away. "Sorry about that." Now she was feeling embarrassed.

"No, it's fine…" Michael glanced to the side. "I think I also needed a hug… Everything here has been too frustrating." Although it was still unexpected. "Do you want to stay here?"

Melody had moved over to her music player increasing the volume a bit. She seemed to be in a better mood now. "I think I will. I feel like dancing a bit, but I won't hold you up."

Nodding his head along, Michael left the room. He had made a choice now, but it was just to make her feel better.

When he finally left, Melody began to hum to herself as she started her dance again. Things would be fine.

Things would get better.

It seems that Michael and Melody have grown closer.

---

Ultimate Love Guru Station

Winter had retreated towards her own station after her talk with Lorelei. She had gotten what she wanted out of the conversation, which meant the only thing she could do was wait for tomorrow, and witness the results.

For that reason, she moved over to an area that was much more relaxing, being her own station. After all, who wouldn't like the vibe around here.

What she wasn't expecting was for someone else to show up. "Hmm?"

Standing in the doorway was Gemini, who definitely looked like he had been looking for… something… "Oh, there you are." That something turned out to be Winter herself. "I was wanting to talk to you."

If someone wanted to talk to her, and it wasn't Lorelei or Michael, then it could only mean one thing. "Here to talk about love, then?"

Letting out a sigh, Gemini rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, yeah…" Although, he knew that he'd have to offer some amount of coins, given that's what happened with Seira. "How much?"

"Hmm?" Winter let out a hum. "What do you mean?"

"Didn't you charge others for doing things?" Gemini crossed his arms, looking down at her.

Twirling her finger around a strand of hair, Winter shrugged. "Yeah, but now coins are pretty much useless. I've bought the only thing I need to buy. There won't be a price this time. Besides, living on this station has begun to make me bored, so I'll take any form of entertainment." Finally, she stopped going for money. All the jokes can now end.

"Oh!" Now Gemini hadn't expected any of that. But this worked out in favour on account of how broke he is. "Well…" He moved over to where Winter was, sitting down on the ground across the table.

It was a slightly uncomfortable setup, but he figured this was just how she did it back home.

"So…" Winter hummed out. "Seira."

"Woah, who said it was about Seira." Gemini immediately acted defensive. "So… Anyways… About Seira."

Mentally, Winter rolled her eyes, but she kept the smile on her face to keep the illusion going. "Yes, yes. We spoke about her almost two weeks ago… How are things going? You two seem to be getting along quite fine. Didn't you save her the other day?"

Flashing a grin, Gemini nodded his head. "Sure did." And he also saved Laki and Hae-Won, but that part wasn't important.

"Well, I can't see why a girl wouldn't be in love with you after that." Winter let out a small giggle.

Oh My God…

Laki and Hae-Won were in love with him!

"Well, I think I already know she likes me that way…" The issue for Gemini wasn't even that at all. "It's more so… This killing game is an awful place like that."

"Hmm?" Winter let out a small hum. "Well, yeah. It's the worst place for something like that to happen. But it also means that feelings should be spoken, right? One wrong move, and you might not have the chance to say what you wanted to."

That's… true… And the thought bounced around in Gemini's head as he pondered it deeply. "Right…" But still, it all felt so problematic.

"Although…" Winter frowned slightly. "You might be right about this being the wrong time." She glanced off to the side. "A killing game is no place for any romance, as I've found out." And to think she had it preoccupied on her mind for the first week.

"Things haven't improved?" Gemini raised an eyebrow. He hadn't really been in the know for the whole Winter and Michael situation, but he could only assume that the fall out wasn't pretty.

"Well, they haven't gotten worse, at the very least." Winter let out a sigh. "But either way, I don't think things are going back to how they were, and that's fine with me." Or was it really? "I suppose because of the context of the killing game, being around Michael has made me worried… Especially with what I learned from Lorelei."

As someone who had been a victim of her before, Gemini shook his head. "Yeah, but she just makes up whatever she wants."

However, Winter wasn't going to believe a lie like that. "Hmm… I don't think so. They tend to be right about most things, and I'm choosing to trust their words on this one."

From the looks of it, it didn't seem that Gemini would be able to pursue her otherwise. "Alright, I should probably drop the Michael topic now."

Especially since he had a few more things he wanted to talk to about the initial subject. "The reason I brought up the killing game being a bad spot is because… Well earlier after the morning meeting, there was a fight-"

Suddenly, Winter let out a loud gasp. "You fought? Maybe you should have led with that instead of whatever the other part was."

"What? No!" Gemini was quick to counter that. "I didn't fight with Seira. It's more like her and Edison fought. I just stepped in to stop it."

"By taking her side, right?" Winter smiled earnestly. Mostly because she believed that's what should have happened.

However, Gemini's silence soon began to paint a different picture entirely.

"You… Didn't take her side in an argument?" Winter just wanted to make sure she was hearing things correctly. "If that's the case, what were you thinking?"

"Hey, I don't want to be biased when it comes to an argument like that." Gemini defended himself. "Her and Edison were both at fault with how they've been acting the last couple of days. Even if Edison was more at fault, she shouldn't have added fuel to the fire."

Winter spent a few moments pondering all of this. In her mind, Gemini should have sided with Seira no matter what happened, but things don't always go the way you should. "And you're afraid this has made Seira like you less?"

"I mean, probably." Gemini glanced off to the side. "She did look a bit betrayed while it was happening."

"Of course she'd feel betrayed." Winter took a sip of her tea, shaking her head. "She was relying on you to back her up, and you just stood there. What kind of boyfriend does that?"

I mean, they aren't technically dating-

Letting out a heavy sigh, all Gemini could really do was shake his head. "Yes… I get that, but with this being a killing game, they shouldn't play the motive so lightly and vote for each other."

Winter closed her eyes, pondering the fact that she already voted for not only Edison, but also Seira. "It is an awful motive, yes." Tea sip. "And yet you still choose to play it."

"Well, yeah… I don't want to die at the end."

"Hmm… No… I suppose not. Neither do I." Winter would continue to survive as long as she can. She hadn't really made herself a target, after all.

Now they had really gone off topic, given Gemini was only here to talk about Seira. "So… What should I do about this whole situation?"

"Oh, who's to know." Winter glanced away, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "For starters, you should at least talk to her. Make her feel better. Maybe vote for Edison." Hey, girl had to work for this.

"Have you-" Gemini couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I'm not voting for Edison."

"Then, tell me… who have you voted for?" Winter raised an eyebrow. "You're the only one remaining with a perfect score besides May, so I'm very curious."

For a moment, Gemini wasn't sure if he should even reveal it. Especially with how close Winter had gotten with them… But he was a terrible liar anyways. "Gennosuke for the first one, and then Lorelei for the second one."

"Oh?" Winter raised an eyebrow, mostly surprised by how honest he was. "And why's that?"

Now this was the part Gemini really didn't want to answer. First vote felt self explanatory. And then Lorelei knew things about him he'd rather the others don't figure out, so that's why he did the second vote. Maybe it was his way of calming his nerves. "I can't say, just have a feeling."

Well, it's not like Winter would do anything with that information, given that Lorelei and her had already established their plans for the vote. "Alright, that's fair." Not to mention throwing any votes on Gemini was a waste. "Well, I've offered all the wisdom I can for your matters. I think you should try your best just to talk to her, and explain the reason you did so. Maybe even spin in a little lie to make her think you only did it so Edison wouldn't scream that you were against him."

Now, Gemini hadn't considered that as an idea… But still, a bad liar. "I'll think about it." He stood up from the ground. "Thank you for the talk."

"My station is always open, so you're welcome to come back any time."

"Will do." Although, Gemini felt like he wouldn't really need a reason to do so after this.

As Winter watched him leave, she placed her tea cup down on the table.

Well, it was worth a try! Can't easily persuade someone to vote, it seems.

It seems that Gemini and Winter have grown closer.

---

Ultimate Academic Prodigy Station

Would this perhaps be a day where May could actually do some research without being interrupted? She at least hoped that would be the case.

Since her station opened up, she has been able to learn a lot of interesting things. Also in part because of Michael and Melody.

Walking over to her kiosk, she opened it up, to just check the history. Mostly because she wanted to see if anyone else had even used her station.

What May hadn't been expecting was for a name to pop up. "Huh…?" She hummed out, reading it. "Akane Fujimoto…"

She had no idea who that was, so out of curiosity, she clicked on the name, only for nothing to pop up. "..."

Letting out a small sigh, May moved out of there, looking at anything else. Nothing really popped up to her, so she took the books she currently had, and moved over towards her study station.

Sitting down comfortably, she took another glance at her watch, which still had the number fourteen.

For the first ten minutes, she was able to read without any form of interruption. However, that silence wasn't able to last too long.

"May…?" Michael called out, stepping into view. From the sounds of it, he had just arrived.

"Hmm…?" May leaned her head back onto the bean bag, clearly annoyed, but willing to have a conversation. "What is it?"

Why did people want to talk to her when she wanted to be alone?

"Oh… I was just wondering if you found anything else recently… About the flower, that is."

Slowly, May raised the book she had with her. It was the one she had picked out the other day. "Just… looking at more side effects…"

"Oh." That's when Michael realised he was probably interrupting something he shouldn't be. "If you're busy… I can go."

For a moment, May was going to tell him to leave… However, this was Michael, after all. And the more time she spent around him, the more curious she grew. "You can stay…"

A small smile appeared on his face. "Thanks…" Although, he didn't really have anywhere to sit, so he stood around awkwardly. "What did you find out…?

"Hallucinations…" May said without providing any context.

"Um…?" Michael was a bit confused… Especially since she mentioned this yesterday, so why bring it up again. "What about them?"

"It's such an odd flower…" May let out a small yawn. "They don't work normally… Most people would have their own hallucinations… But depending on the strand of flowers, the hallucinations could be shared across people."

"Oh…" Michael wasn't sure what to do with that information. "Do you think something like that is happening to us…?"

Truthfully…? "No…" May would be crazy to think it was what was happening. "Despite everything we've been through… It's all been rather normal."

Normal wouldn't be how Michael describes it, given all the death… But he would be lying if he said none of this was possible. "Is that only the gas form, right?"

"Yeah…" May hummed out, looking at the ceiling now. "Only the gas form…"

Slowly, the room grew quiet. Both people weren't exactly big on talking to others, so it only made sense.

Finally, May was the one to break the silence. "Michael… Are you sure you don't have anything to do with this flower…?"

As usual, he was forced to glance away to the side. "I know my cult is involved with it, but I'm being honest when I say that I don't know anything about it…"

For most people, looking away while attempting to give an honest answer would be a red flag. However, May knew better… She knew that it worked the opposite for Michael. If he was looking directly at you, then his words shouldn't be trusted. Glancing to the side meant he didn't want to try and influence your mind. "Alright… I believe you."

Even with the fact that she still had some suspicion about him for the first trial, the more she spoke to Michael, the less she was sure about her theory on the matter.

Still, there was more May needed to learn before she was certain with anything.

But, this line of thought took her down a different avenue… There were still some questions she needed the answer to.

"Michael… I've been meaning to ask…" May let out a small hum. "Your… powers…" It felt weird even calling it that, given she never thought that'd ever be a possibility. "Do you know how it works…?"

"I…" Honestly, Michael had never really put much thought into any of it. "Not really… All I know is that when I look at someone, they're more likely to listen to me, or do things for me."

Which is mostly why May was having this conversation with her eyes closed. "Hope you don't mind…"

Slowly looking down at her, Michael wasn't sure what to say. "I thought you were just tired…" Although, he couldn't fault her for being cautious around him. He would do the same in her shoes. "But why do you bring this up…?"

"Because I know you tried to use it on Gennosuke during the trial." Most people who didn't know what Michael was capable of probably didn't notice this, but May certainly did…

---

Seeing him push Melody around like that, Michael narrowed his eyes slightly. Looking right into Gennosuke's eyes, he spoke up. "Can you stop talking?"

However, the response he received wasn't the one he was expecting, as Gennosuke stared back at him. "I'll stop talking when I want to, so stay out of this."
For a moment, Michael felt himself freeze up.

He… Gennosuke just ignored him? He tried to help out Melody, but it didn't seem to work.

---

Looking at the ground, Michael didn't have a single clue. "It's never… I don't understand why I couldn't get him to stop."

Now, May had a few theories on how his powers actually worked. Granted, without actually being under the effects of his powers, she wouldn't be able to tell for certain.

However, she wasn't about to let that happen, so she'd only be able to voice what she thought. "Do you think they have to do with… emotions?"

"Huh?" Michael blinked a few times before looking her way. "Why would you assume that…?"

"Well…" May let out a hum, leaning her head back. "I'm assuming it doesn't actually control their minds… right? You've used it on others before…"

Not wanting to admit it, but also having no choice. "I've used it on Gigi, Ian, Lorelei, and Melody…" That last part he didn't want to admit, so quickly he tried to defend himself. "I didn't want her to break a rule, so I tried to stop her from fighting with Monokawa."

That's what May figured anyways, so she wasn't going to say anything negative about it. "That's fine…" She closed her eyes for a few seconds, only opening them half a minute later. Either she was thinking or almost drifted off into sleep. "They didn't really feel like they had been mind controlled, right?"

"I…" Michael thought back to when he did it to Melody.

---

Slowly, Melody's face twisted to a rather angry frown. "Don't speak about him like that-"

Michael had to stop her, as she began to take a few steps forward. "Don't let him rile you up."

That seemed to snap Melody out of it. "I…" She had never felt this much anger mixed with sadness before, so she quickly took a step back. "Sorry…"

---

"It did seem to change her emotions a slight bit… It lowered her anger." Now Michael was fully understanding this part of her theory…

The only problem was the second part. "What does that have to do with Gennosuke?"

Now, May wasn't exactly sure about this next part, but it was still fun to think about it. "Well… If your powers work by influencing the emotions of the people you target… Why do you think it wouldn't affect Gennosuke?"

"I…" Then the idea became all too clear for Michael. "Can he… not feel emotions?" That was a sad thought. "But that can't be true… He's been enjoying this entire thing. You can't do that without emotions."

"True…" That was the one wrench in May's theory… "That's just my leading theory for the time being."

She had one more, but she didn't like where that answer led them, so she threw it to the side. "That's all I wanted to talk to you about…"

"..." Slowly, the frown on Michael's face increased, glancing down at the book she was reading. "Are you going to be taking a break from all of this? Haven't you been doing research for the last couple of days?"

Closing the book, May let it rest on the chair with her. "... I spend most of my time resting, so the least I can do is try to help out…"

"Sure, but you don't have to make it the only thing you do." Now Michael was starting to feel a bit bad about all of this.

Normally, May would have been one to agree with that… However… Now? She couldn't just let herself sit on the sideline without doing anything. "But that's all I can really do." She couldn't do some of the things the others could do, so she was forced to use her brain. "I don't mind… It keeps my brain active."

Michael frowned slightly, mostly because he wished he could be as helpful as she was being. But the only thing he could reasonably do was frown upon, and he wasn't exactly the best at speeches. "Well…" He wasn't sure what to say about the whole matter. "Just don't overwork yourself while doing this… I don't want you to fall asleep in a bad spot."

Ah… As if that would prevent May from doing so. "I've been fine as of now." Despite that, she let out a yawn anyways. She wouldn't be able to get rid of the problem entirely… But ever since the sleeping motive, she's been trying really hard to fight back.

Letting out a small sigh, May closed the book in her hand. "I think that's all I wanted to ask you… Thank you for your time…"

Right, this was probably code that he should leave. "Right… I'll leave you alone." Michael nodded his head alone, stepping away from her study station. "Have a good night."

"Likewise." May didn't even bother to look at him when she said that.

Silently, Michael managed to slip away, causing the station to go back to being silent, with only the occasional sound of a page flipping.

Despite it being a conversation between two people, this wasn't a free time event. I just wanted to give May someone to talk to. Besides, Michael already had a free time event! Stop being greedy.

---

Vacant Rooms

As Gennosuke approached the vacant rooms, he stopped in the middle of the hallway. From what he knew, most people had gone to bed already, so he didn't really have much to fear as of yet. "Hmm…"

Two people that he had investigated, and none had revealed the information he wanted. And while he could technically be wrong about them, he knew himself better. If he didn't figure anything out, there was nothing to figure out.

Glancing down at his watch, Gennosuke inspected the number.

Hadn't changed from yesterday, meaning he hadn't received a single vote. He hadn't expected telling Atlas to go mental to work, but here it was.

Hae-Won had placed two votes on him the day before, but now she was nowhere to be seen. More than likely switching targets to Atlas.

Heh… What a fucking moron. Now all eyes were on him, while Gennosuke himself didn't have to worry for his life anymore.

Not that he would have needed to anyways, given the immunity, but if a lot of people voted for him, and he didn't die to the motive, then people would figure out something was up.

Not that he really cared, given that most people would be dead by that point.

"Hey." A rather stern voice called out to him, causing Gennosuke to let out an annoyed sigh.

When he turned to see who it was, Atlas was standing right behind him.

"What the hell am I supposed to do now? I'm fucked for votes." Now that he had twelve points left, and Hae-Won hated his guts, he wasn't going to get much chance to save himself.

Gennosuke did really well in hiding his expression, only offering a smile. "How did she figure out it was you? Don't tell me that you placed two votes on her."

Now, Atlas wasn't really one to think about the consequences of his actions, so he hadn't put two and two together. "Of course I did! What's the point of voting if you aren't going to drag them down further."

"Well, because she would switch to voting for you, obviously." The grin was still apparent on Gennosuke's face. "How many points do you have?" Not that he even needed to ask, it's not like he could hide his bracelet. "Ah… eleven points…"

"Tsk, yeah." Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Besides Hae-Won, another fucker voted for me."

Of course, Gennosuke already knew that. After all, he had voted for Atlas last night. "Who are your list of suspects?"

"Well, good thing you asked, fucker, because you were one of them." Atlas narrowed his eyes. He wasn't sure if he had done it, but he wouldn't put it past him.

"Why would I do something like that?" Gennosuke put his hands in his pockets. "What do I have to gain from you losing points? I'm trying to make it so that we both have enough points to get out of this. Who else was there?"

After a few moments of silence, Atlas let out a sigh. "Laki, Winter, and Edison were there too…"

Hearing those, a smile tugged at Gennosuke's lip. "I can already tell you who did it."

For a moment, Atlas was filled with doubt, until he remembered this was Gennosuke who was speaking. "You do? How the hell would you… Who was it?"

"Well, think of it like this…" He trailed off, humming a bit. "You voted for Hae-Won, right? And that was made known yesterday. Wouldn't it make sense that Edison would then in turn, vote for you? After all, he and Hae-Won are pretty close, remember?"

Now, Atlas wasn't one to notice stuff like that, but the more he thought about it, the two did tend to hang out a lot. "Shit… You're right…"
"I'll throw a vote on Hae-Won, if you're willing to throw down some votes on Edison." Gennosuke had no idea if he would vote for her or not, but the thought was out there now.

Listening to his words, Atlas was almost tempted to turn down the deal, but given that Hae-Won had just voted for him. "Yeah, let's do it." He wanted to see her numbers begin to plummet, as well as anyone else who dares to vote for him.

"Perfect." Gennosuke grinned, seeing that his plan worked out in the end. "Then you keep me informed of how things go tomorrow."

After all, he wouldn't be around to see the damage he causes.

"Right…" Atlas didn't really have anything else to say, so he moved over towards the door, unlocking it with his voice command.

Watching him leave, Gennosuke began to whistle to himself as he moved over towards his own room. Things were going swimmingly, after all.

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And with that, that's another chapter down. I think this part 4 broke the curse of part 4 from all the other chapters. Normally I would be struggling to write things this far into a chapter, but the motive allows me to not lose too much motivation. It only took longer than the last chapter because of my other fic I needed to write. And also because I went on vacation.

While this was a much easier chapter to write, it still took a month to get it out in the first place. But at least that's less because of how unmotivated I am, so :D Things are finally looking up.

As the motive gets closer and closer to being finished, we are only two parts away from a body drop, which means we should start getting some predictions on who's next to bite the dust!

I will say though, while this chapter was easier to write than other parts 4, I did have to move things around a lot! The Edison and Seira FTE wasn't supposed to happen until part 5, but I moved it here because it made more sense to have it happen with the Edison backstory. Originally it was a FTE for him and someone else, but that pushed to the next part. So at least it's already written and ready to go when I move on to writing that one.

As always, I'll see you in the next update, which hopefully won't take a month again :o I don't think I could stand to be forced to write 5 parts in May without losing my mind.

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Participants Remaining: 14

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Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16] (12)

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23] (10)

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue] (12)

Giustina "Gigi" Giulio - The Ultimate Referee [Nekoja] (?)

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody] (14)

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny] (10)

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Hacker [CandleFire45] (12)

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin] (8)

Melody Eleanor Hopkins - The Ultimate Tap Dancer [Prince PokePersona] (11)

Lakshmi "Laki" Krishna - The Ultimate Lucky Student [Sempi] (12)

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova] (14)

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple] (11)

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101] (?)

Kim Hae-Won - The Ultimate Tattoo Artist [Weekaro] (10)