Danganronpa: 141 Style/Issue 02

In the second issue of Danganronpa: 141 Style, the sixteen Ultimates spend their second day, after having being kidnapped, on the train and get to know each other in freetime.

Issue 02 - "Friendly Bonding"
Chika Kurosawa - Morning

Ugh. I didn't want to get up. I just wanted to stay in bed, pretend that yesterday didn't happen and hopefully have the kind of sleep I needed. I couldn't even manage to get my eyes open more than a little when the morning announcement from that cursed Mononeko came to do what it was meant for.

Ding dong, bing bong

I managed to open my eyes just a little bit more in order to look over to the Television and see Mononeko, sitting on that evil chair of his, that dark but childlike grin on his face as he said “this is the official Mononeko announcement to tell you that it is morning and it’s time to get THE FUCK UP and murder-I mean spend some lovely time with your new friends! That is unless if you were murdered last night, then you’re dead! Woops, sucks to suck! Hehehehehe, good morning!”

I let out a sigh as the television flickered off again and so I closed my eyes again, lowering my head back onto the pillow beneath it.

I hadn’t really managed to get a lot of sleep at all last night. Despite the admittedly comfortable bed.

I missed the sounds of waves crashing against the hull of my ship acting as a lullaby. I missed the sound of my crew working hard and in shifts to keep the ship afloat. I had expected to get this way when I decided to enroll at Hope’s Peak Academy but it was worse than I thought it would be due to this sudden change of situation.

I let out a sigh and raised my head from my hands in order to look around the room, taking a moment to watch as my Parrot, the surprise that had been left for me, happily flew around before he perched in his cage, eating at some of the food he had been left.

At least I wasn’t alone, I thought to myself and said thought set me a reminder that our group had decided to meet up in the dining car every morning. I had a feeling that those who had suggested it only did so we can quickly figure out if someone has been killed...

It was clear with the fact that we had spent the entire day of yesterday after our exploration inside our rooms that we didn’t really care about each other, only ourselves but it was at least something, right?

Shaking these depressed thoughts out of my mind, I finally lifted myself off my bed and placed my hat upon my head as I also grabbed my E-Handbook and exited from my room, it not taking long to move through the corridors and reach the dining car where I found a bit of a surprising sight.

Having been left prepared on the tables was quite the breakfast and as I walked through the room, noticing our names had been left on certain seats, the rest of my group filed into the room, looking curiously at the breakfast while Aoi was the one to speak up “arrr, looks like the pirate has prepared us a meal!”

“It wasn’t m-”

“Hey now! Don’t go giving other people credit for my hard work!” Mononeko squeaked in what sounded like a rather offended voice as he seemed to pop out of nowhere again, making a few of us jump while others just rolled their eyes “I worked a lot to prepare you each very nice meals and even arrange for your names to be paired with your meal, you should be grateful!”

As quickly as he appeared, he also disappeared and left the sixteen of us to share glances as we clearly were judging whether we should eat it or not but before any of us could speak up, Shun managed to find her breakfast and immediately started to eat it up as if she had been starved for life.

“What?” Shun asked with a mouthful when she finally noticed that the other fifteen of us were just standing there and watching her “it’s not polite to stare!”

“Well, I guess it isn’t poisoned or something” Hanako muttered while Aina walked over to her own breakfast and took a taste test, the rest of us waiting for her result and when she gave us the thumbs up, I shrugged to myself and went to find my own breakfast. If there was nothing wrong with it, I wouldn’t deny a free breakfast.

I noticed that seemed to be the shared thinking process of everyone else in the dining car as we all separated around the room and ate to our heart’s content. Surprisingly, as I started eating, I found myself a lot hungrier than I thought and understood why Shun was so quick to eat. Maybe it was the stress of our situation.

“So, what our are plans today?” Kurou asked to the general group of us, breaking our silence and causing the rest of us to turn to look at him as he got a bit flushed “I didn’t mean that to sound weird, I just wondered if we had any plans.”

“What, do I have to hold your hand?” Daisuke spat from across the room, a judging look in his eyes before he shook his head and laughed “there is no plan. Let’s get one thing straight, this group isn’t some buddy camp, we’re here to kill and sooner or later, one of us is going to at least try to kill. Until then, you do whatever the fuck you peasants do. End of discussion.”

No one offered a answer to that, we all just bowed our heads and continued eating. He was right afterall. Even if I looked around this room and wanted to believe that none of the cute souls in this room would murder, I knew it would happen.

It was him being right and us all knowing that which was why we ate our breakfast in silence, no more questions or talking, and slowly but surely the others finished their meals until it was just me in the room, poking at my food and finding myself unable to eat despite the hunger.

“Too sad to eat?” Shun suddenly said which made me look up from my breakfast in order to watch as she sat down opposite me, that teddy that Yuki had gifted her before in her arms as she sent me a grin “probably not good for you.”

“I’ll eat it all eventually” was the response I offered her as I practically forced myself to continue eating, Shun clearly not interested enough to offer any response as she turned her attention to playing with the teddy in her lap which caused me to watch her curiously for a moment before I finally spoke up again “you’re really not worried about this situation, are you?”

“Hm?”

“Us being kidnapped. You don’t look worried at all.”

Her hesitation to respond to me was obvious but eventually she just shrugged and bounced the teddy up and down as she said “if I allow myself to be afraid, I’ll be an easy target. If I be like I am now, no one will want to go near me.”

That was a very depressing outlook but I understood her point.

“Do you want to go with me to the recreation room?” Shun suddenly asked me before I had a chance to offer her a response to her previous statement.

“Why to the recreation room?”

“I want to try out the Monomachine and see what prizes it has since I found these!” she declared, reaching into a pocket in order to pull out a few weird looking coins “I assume these are the coins Yuki mentioned that are needed to use it.”

“Where’d you find them?”

“Looking around” Shun answered rather vaguely as she shrugged “we can go once you’ve finished eating!”

“What if you’re just luring me into a trap?”

“I guess you’ll have to find out!”

After I finished eating, I couldn’t help but allow myself to be dragged along with Shun to the recreation room. I at least felt like we had bonded a little. --- Minoru Nishimura - Morning

With a grin on my face, I placed the last chess piece on the board that had been set up in my room thanks to that cat thing. Being the Ultimate player of chess, I couldn’t help but take pride in even the smallest things such as memorizing where everything goes as chess was one of those games that played with a person’s mind, required true thinking and tactics and being the best of the best made me feel rather powerful.

Like a king, I noted to myself as I toyed with the king piece in my hands before a sudden series of knocking on my door caught my attention and lead to me putting the king piece down so I could rise from my seat and answer the door, finding my one and only brother standing in front of me.

“I thought now would be a good time to discuss our plans” Daisuke told me and I gave him a nod as I gestured for him to come in before closing the door once he had entered. I had been surprised that it took Daisuke this long to come and discuss things with me but I guess he wanted yesterday for thinking about it himself.

Heh, I guess he is growing up and soon won’t need me.

“Up for a little game of chess as we discuss it?” I asked him as I gestured to the board that I had just finished setting up, pulling out a second chair which he could sit on before I took a seat on my own, facing the board and waiting with a grin.

“Sure, I’ll play your game. We both know my little brother always wins though” Daisuke gave me in reply as he sat down opposite me, looking at all the chess pieces in between us before picking up one of the pawn pieces and chuckling to himself “playing a mind game while discussing a mind game, isn’t that something.”

“Just makes it more fun, hmm?” I mused in response, watching as he placed the pawn down again, making his first move which made me have to resist laughing at him. He always started the same way, he always had the same tactic. He was too easy to read for someone who knows him like I do.

“So, I was thinking” was how he started changing the subject, waiting patiently as I made my move before he made his next one “we’d obviously want to wait until one of these peasants has killed another. That way we can see how it all goes down and what happens when a murder happens. We’d also be able to start judging who is the most threatening.”

I gave him a nod and commented “a smart move”, definitely not referring to how he was moving his chess pieces, as I lifted my next pawn and placed it down on the board for my next move before I intertwined my hands “but I’m getting a bad feeling.”

“A bad feeling?” he asked me with a surprised look on his face which made me smile a little, the surprise of my brother causing him to make a extremely bad move as he was clearly too distracted to even provide some challenge in this game “about what?”

“Well, the rules clearly talk about the blackened, as in one. Not several. With that hint of additional rules being added in the future, it makes me wonder what will happen to the other Ultimates if one committed a murder.”

“That wouldn’t matter for us, right? We only need to worry about getting eachother off this train.”

“Alas, there are two of us and as I pointed out, it only mentions one blackened.”

My brother paused once I had said that, clearly thinking it over as he looked at all the chess pieces before letting out a frustrated sigh as he fiddled with his scarf “we’ll work it out, we’ll see what happens when one of these idiots fuck themselves up and kill another.”

I gave him a nod and smiled as I used my pawn to take out one of his, knocking it over and leaving the two of us to watch as it rolled off of the table and onto the floor before looking up at him as my smile widened “if you keep playing like this, we’re going to be at check mate in no time, brother.”

Daisuke groaned as his eyes were glued to the pawn piece that I had just used to take his own out “I’m out of practice.”

“I can tell.” --- Hideaki Oshiro - Morning

While our situation was bad and I could be stabbed in the back at any time, at the very least I had some extremely fun games to play which I had been finding out for the past hour down up in the recreation room.

My favorite had to been the arcade machine I was playing currently, that turned out to have multiple old and new, fantastic and perfect, games to play, and I could feel it inside of myself that only a few things could end up making me stop playing. I was a true gamer through and through, games of all sorts always came first.

I was so invested in the game itself that I didn’t even notice Ryouta coming into the room at first, I even almost missed him as he had apparently seen me and started backing out again before I finally died in the game and peeled my eyes away from the screen to look around the room, that being when I saw him at the door.

“Yo dude! You gonna come in?” I asked him casually as I decided to take a break from the games in order to grab my soda and take a sip from it, having worn myself out a bit with how madly I was playing the game “remember when we were complaining about games before? I don’t think there is a need to worry, plenty of fun games in this room.”

“Right...” Ryouta replied rather quietly and nervously as he toyed with the mask in his hands and left me unable to help but notice him being rather hesitant as he stepped into the room and looked around “not really sure what I’m doing here to be honest… guess I’m just looking around.”

“Don’t sweat it, man” I told him with an accepting smile, placing down my soda before pushing myself away from the table I had been using to lean on and walked back over to the machine as I gestured him over “come on, try this thing out for me, it’s got multiple games on it so I can guarantee we ain’t going to get bored.”

Apparently accepting my invitation, he made his way over to the machine with me, taking a moment to look it over until his eyes caught something and he pointed it out to me “ain’t that a coin down there?”

Following his finger, my gaze fell to a coin that I soon picked up and looked over, noticing it looked rather weird and had Mononeko’s face printed on it. It looked kinda cool I guess but I wasn’t really interested so I just shrugged and offered it to him “must’ve come out when I was playing the game. Here.”

“Huh? If it came out when you played the game, you should have it...”

“Finder’s keeper, bro” I told him with a grin as I took his hand and placed the coin in it before giving him a pat on the back “now come on, I want to see if you can beat my score!” --- Haru Satou - Morning

The great narrator, Haru Satou couldn’t help but have only a single thought in his mind as he walked down the corridor.

This is boring. Very, very boring.

There wasn’t even anything for him to narrate and it was already bringing him close to the point of hoping that a murder would take place so he could at least narrate on that. As much as the narrator himself knew that was a terrible hope to have and regretted it.

He just wished something would happen and, as if on cue, that something suddenly went into action.

“Oh, balls” the narrator heard Kurou “curse” further down the corridor, catching the narrator’s attention as he finally looked up from the microphone in his hands to a flustered Kurou as he bent down to start picking up several medicines of all sorts from the floor until he noticed the narrator and waved him over “hey, can you give me a hand?”

“The narrator guesses he could help, considering he has nothing else to do at the current moment” the narrator announced into his microphone, failing to notice the slight roll of Kurou’s eyes as he instead bent down as well in order to help start collecting the dropped medicine and putting it into a basket “the narrator wonders, what is Kurou doing with the medicine?”

“I’m trying to sort through it, organize it, I guess. Whoever made that medical room made it into a complete mess and, as a veterinarian, I have the best medical experience out of us to sort it out” Kurou answered the narrator a bit impatiently, huffing out in a lack of energy as he turned his gaze to look up at the narrator “why do you talk like that?”

“... Because I’m the narrator.”

Kurou only raised an eyebrow as he was clearly trying not to judge the narrator before shrugging it off as he put the last of the medicine back into the basket and stood back up “well, you said you had nothing else to do so why don’t you come and help me?” “The narrator thinks you should apologize first.”

“... For?”

Kurou let out a sigh to that, awkwardly shifting on his feet and looking down at the basket for a moment before looking back up to the narrator again while he said “there would be no point to do that as I’m going to be unable to not judge you but if it helps, I’m not judging you harshly.”

“Then why are you judging the narrator?”

“Because...” Kurou let out another sigh, chewing on the side of his cheek as he seemed to go through some deep thought before saying “I’m wondering why. You seem to narrate a lot, I can see it on your face, as if your entire life is made around narrating... doesn’t that... suck?”

The narrator tilted his head in confusion at this “why would it suck?”

“I don’t know. I feel like if I spent my entire life narrating, I’d feel like nothing but a character” Kurou mused in response before shrugging “look, I’m sorry. Sometimes I get ahead of myself in studying people… you can go now, I guess I’ll handle this alone.”

At first, the narrator said and did nothing but watch as Kurou started walking down the corridor again until he finally called out to the veterinarian with “the narrator has accepted your apology and decides to help with your task!”

That brought a smile to Kurou’s face as he stopped walking in order to allow the narrator to catch before the two of them continued on their way to complete the task. --- Takehiko Yamauchi - Morning

Over and over I was listening to the one same sound. Finding this as one of the only things I had to do in order to pass the time.

Letting out yet another sigh of the morning, I casually aimed my toy revolver at the only can that remained on the table opposite my bed and fired, knocking it off the table and onto the floor as the sound of the “ammunition” hitting it rang out across the room.

This had all been one entire terrible idea. I should’ve never left my hometown and joined that academy and now I was here, kidnapped and left to wonder about what was happening in the world outside of this train.

Reaching up to fiddle with my hat a little, I shook my head before reminding myself that I didn’t want to start thinking like this. I had to keep calm and collected. I knew I would get out of this somehow, I just had to wait and let it playout.

Just as I rose from the edge of my bed and crossed my room in order to pick up the cans and go for another round, I heard someone buzzing my door which made me instantly go on alert and raise my toy revolver ready, as if it would actually do anything.

“Who is it?” I called out on instinct, knowing full well of the danger that was posed by opening that door. Of course, it had completely slipped my mind that all the rooms of this train were soundproof and I only realized that after a few moments and let out a groan.

Why did I have to be such a damn gentleman and answer the door?

When I did eventually bring myself to open my door, I found myself face to face with the ninja girl who had quite the glare on her face, clearly not impressed with being made to wait so long but I was just hoping that wasn’t enough to convince her to kill me as I asked “Uhh, what can I do for you?”

“You were the one who had cans to target practice on, yes?”

“Yes?”

“Why confused? Surely you can tell if there are cans in your room or not.”

“I mean, yeah but why do you want to know?”

“I wish to do some target practice on them” Hanako told me as if that was obvious but I was only getting more and more confused as this conversation went on until she noticed a look in my eyes and gave a small smirk “the rules clearly forbid intended property destruction but if these cans of yours are meant for target practice, I should be safe. Rather than risk getting my own cans. Understand?”

Honestly I didn’t, it felt like that was being way too cautious but before I could protest, she had maneuvered herself past me and into the room where she quickly took in the set up before picking up the knocked over cans while I just watched her for a moment before asking “what are you even going to use for target practice?”

Without any response, Hanako simply set the cans up in a line again before moving to stand at the foot of my bed, leaving me to watch as she turned her back to the cans and revealed several darts, throwing them over her shoulder, one by one, and hitting each can in a order.

I couldn’t help but have to resist pissing my pants as I saw her tilt her head to smirk at me and said “not very difficult at all.” --- Aina Hisakawa - Morning

I was curious. Very curious and my curiosity was only continuing to grow as I stood at the bottom of the stairs, facing the wall. Ever since yesterday, after we made our collective reports on our room investigations, I couldn’t help but have only one thing on my mind.

Where was the front of the train? Neither our maps or a search of the entire train done by me gave even a hint to the answer of that question but logic had at least put me at the front of the train, just outside of the dining car. It had to be here but how is it accessed?

“If you’re waiting for someone to take a picture, I left my camera at home.”

“Hmm?” I wondered, turning my head to look at the source of the voice and finding it belonging to the journalist. Nanami, was it?

“The way you’re standing there as if posing for a photoshoot” she clarified with a soft smile before coming to stand beside me and also looking at the wall “so, assuming you aren’t waiting for that, what are you doing?”

I pursed my lips in debate for a moment before I shrugged it off and responded with “I’ve been trying to find where the front of the train is, the off-limits area. Logic has led me here and now I’m wondering how someone would access it.”

“That is AGAINST the rules!” declared a new voice which caused the two of us to turn around and look down at Mononeko who glared up at us as he waved his finger from side to side which left the two of us Ultimates to share a look before Nanami replied to him.

“Standing here?...”

“Don’t try to play coy with me!!! You’re looking for the way into my special room that has been clearly stated to be against the rules to access and you are trying to access it like the rule breakers you are!”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at that as I said “I’m not going to try and access it. I was just trying to find where it was.”

“AND WHY would you be trying to find it if you weren’t planning to enter it, hmm?! That is suspicious and against the rules!!!”

“Okay, okay we get it” Nanami told him, wincing as we watched Mononeko start stomping his feet as if he was a little child being told off “we’re going to stop looking for it now, okay?”

At that, Mononeko grinned at the two of us, his anger having suddenly disappeared “that is good to hear. I would hate to have to punish students before the game has even truly begun!” he said before giving us a wave and literally disappearing from our sight, Nanami deciding to voice her confusion at such an act while I was just standing there, rather annoyed with the interruption to my investigation.

“How does he do that?”

“Ugh. I don’t even care at this point.” --- Yuki Matsumoto - Morning

As I walked through the train, I was happily whistling to myself, even looking outside the windows in order to appreciate the view as I did. While I was sure most of the other Ultimate students that had been kidnapped with me were feeling scared, I was making sure to stay cheerful.

Sure, I might be killed at any moment, I could get shot the moment I finished walking down these stairs to the lower level but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to be happy. No, if I was going to die, I was going to be the happiest person alive at that very moment and I wasn’t even lying to myself.

I was completely happy.

It was this happiness of mine that caught the attention of the only other person in the dining car, Aoi Kita, as I entered the room myself, leading to Aoi curiously looking at me as he said “you’re looking awfully cheerful.”

“Nothing awful about it!” I retorted, giving him a grin and a thumbs up “it’s all just happiness baby!”

Now Aoi was clearly looking at me like I was the weirdest person on the entire train, despite his best attempts to hide his judgement, before he eventually shrugged and ran a finger around his glass as he said “whatever you’re having, I hope you intend to share.”

I laughed a little at that as I decided to move across the room and sit myself on the seat opposite him “if I had anything to give, I would buddy.”

Aoi narrowed his eyes at me but the grin on his lips gave off he was being playful while he responded with “I doubt that, I think you’re keeping it all to yourself!”

I let out a gasp as I placed my hand over my desk “are you daring to call me selfish, sir?”

“I am daring indeed!”

“Well, I feel insulted! I sat here to have a friendly chat and now I’m being accused of such rude things!”

I watched as Aoi chuckled and took a sip of his drink before looking at me with a pout “you are right m’lady. Could you ever forgive me?”

“I’ll have to think about it” I told him with a smile before a silent moment passed between us, long enough for me to watch as he awkwardly shifted on his seat and looked down at his glass until I finally asked “what’s wrong?”

He let out a sigh before looking up to me and saying “it just feels wrong. I usually like to be happy, slide through life with ease, you know? But I keep thinking about this situation we’re in, murder to depart? I could be forced to kill you or you could be forced to kill me and here we are, joking like this…”

I offered him a gentle smile as I reached forward and took his hands into mine “you’re assuming the worst. I think we’re going to be okay and get out of this, all together, somehow. You just have to believe that too.”

Aoi let out another sigh as his eyes looked away from mine again, another moment of silence passing between us before he muttered a question that I wasn’t quite sure how to answer.

“How can we do anything but assume the worst right now?” --- Momoka Watanabe - Morning

Even though the train wasn’t even that big, I was feeling myself get lost as I looked through each of the rooms in search of Kaoru Maeda because I had a plan, a plan that was going to help the group of us Ultimates come close together as well as make reasonable sense on doing it. I just had to confirm something first and Kaoru was my best chance in doing that.

At least I hoped. She did seem like the less threatening to ask. Of course, when I did eventually find her, it didn’t go as hoped.

“Hey Kaoru!” I called out to her as I came to stand in the doorway of the music room, trying to be as friendly as possible but only making my fellow Ultimate nearly jump out of her dress as she turned to look at me, looking as if she had seen a ghost and was now on high alert “woah, what’s wrong? I didn’t mean to take you by surprise.”

“N-nothings wrong!” Kaoru protested in response, leaving me to watch as she brushed herself down and done her best to look comfortable again but the glare on her face being sent my way didn’t do her any favors as she continued with “just don’t scare me like that again. What do you want?”

“Ah, well, I was hoping you could answer a question for me?”

“Sure” Kaoru said through gritted teeth which made me feel like I was already trying her patience, leaving me to hope that this conversation would go both smoothly and quickly.

“Well I was wondering if the weight that is stated in our E-Handbooks was correct or not so I thought I’d ask you if yours was at least generally correct.”

“I guess, about, why?”

“I couldn’t help but notice that if it was true… you and some others are underweight while a few of the rest are overweight.”

“First you scare me and then you point out my weight problems?” Kaoru said, annoyance tainting each of her words while her arms crossed and her glare remained on me “what next? Is my hair a mess?”

I was getting a bit flushed now as I quickly shook my head and raised my hands in defense “no, n-no that isn’t it at all! It’s just that seeing those weights gave me an idea on a great activity all sixteen of us can do together so I wanted to make sure the weights were correct!”

“Mhm” was all she gave me in response as she turned her attention away from me and sighed as she took a seat and looked a photo that had been placed on top of the piano nearby and as soon as my eyes caught the photo I couldn’t help but wonder…

“Who’s that?”

I noticed a little smile appearing on her lips as she said “my idol.”

For some reason, as I looked at the picture more and more, I couldn’t help but feel as if I recognized that girl in it which caused my mind to try and remember who she was and finally it clicked in my head with the mentioned word idol and I turned back to Kurou as I asked “Uhh, Sayaka Maizono?”

Thankfully, the mood appeared slightly more lightened now as she actually laughed at who I had guessed but also shook her head as she reached forward and grabbed the picture “no but she might’ve laughed at that. No, her name is Hiroko Tani.”

I don’t know her at all… at least I think?

Kurou seemed to catch my hesitation as she turned to look at me fully and smiled “it’s alright, I’m not going to judge you for not knowing her” was what she said but her face quickly fell again as she let out a sigh and lowered her head “I’m sorry for how rude I was earlier, I’m just… really tense.”

This time I was the one to offer a smile as I stepped further into the room and placed my hand on her shoulder “it’s okay. I hope to get to meet her one day.”

That brought the smile back to her face as she replied with “you’ll like her. So, what is this thing of yours that you have planned?” --- Ryouta Akiyama - Daytime

About half of the day had passed by and I still hadn’t brought up the courage to apologize to Kaoru. Instead I had just retreated back to my room and stayed there after spending some time with Hideaki but while he had been fun company, it hadn’t helped me get over the guilt that was currently weighing me down.

Letting out a sigh, I looked down to the mask in my lap as I flipped the Mononeko coin that I had been give earlier between my fingers. I knew I had to apologize somehow. I had only meant for it to be a little prank, no harm meant but now she hated me. Now she was probably thinking about how I was insane or crazy or something but I just meant it as a joke.

Shaking my head, I placed my mask aside on a nearby table and then I grabbed my E-Handbook and made my way out of my room, still flipping the coin between my fingers as I decided I would try it out in the Monomachine. Staying in my room, my mind full of regrets, wasn’t going to help matters…

Although, it soon turned out that going to the recreation area had been an even worse idea as when I entered, I found myself in the company of Kaoru herself who seemed to take a defensive stance while also remaining seated, a glare on her face directed at me, a glare so fierce I felt it trying to tear me apart.

“I’m, uhh, just gonna use this and… see what I get from the machine” I said, nervousness filling each word as I waved my Monocoin about before walking over to the Monomachine, feeling her glare remaining fixed on me as I placed the coin in the machine and pressed the button, watching it came to life and soon produced a bundle of flowers.

“Woo-hoo, you got a prize. Now leave me the fuck alone” she told me rather bitterly and when I looked over my shoulder, I could see she was no longer looking at me but her body was still tense but rather than letting her anger get to me and took a deep breath before grabbing the flowers and crossing the room to stand in front of her.

“Look, I’m really sorry, alright?” I tried to say to her as I offered her the flowers “I really didn’t mean any harm by it, okay? I saw that you were looking annoyed at us so I thought I’d lighten the mood with some play and I was wrong, I done a stupid fucking thing… I’m sorry.”

“... I hate flowers.”

“Well I’m sorry but that was what came out of the machine. Put them in your room to make it look nicer or something.”

“With what vase?”

“Listen, I literally only had one coin but maybe if I had two, it would’ve given me a vase too, can you just take the flowers?!”

For a moment, she only responded with silence as she looked between me and the flowers before she finally sighed and reached up to take them from me, looking them over as she muttered “I’m not going to forgive you, what you did could’ve got one of us killed, but I’ve got a feeling you’re being genuine… at least…”

“I spent all my money on you, I’ve gotta be genuine” I said with a soft smile, trying to lighten the mood a little which seemed to be at least a little successful as I saw a small smile spreading across her lips before her eyes locked with mine.

“I want you to go find me a vase though. Then, maybe, I’ll forgive you.”

“... Fine.” --- Kurou Abe - Daytime

Wiping away the sweat from my face, I placed the last medical container in the cabinet and then closed its door before I then moved myself to perch on the medical room’s lone hospital bed, allowing myself a moment to take a breath.

The help I had received from Haru earlier had been very appreciated but unfortunately he had been unable to focus enough on the task and ended up having to give up and leave it to me. I understood though as taking stock of a ton of medical supplies in a hot room wasn’t particularly fun which was why I was left to try and cool myself down a bit, raising my hand to even try fanning myself.

Of course, it didn’t work. All it ended up doing is using up even more of my energy but that was when I had a thought. Since I had finished with my plans, why don’t I go ahead and try out the swimming pool? That should be a good way to cool off.

Coming to agreement with my own idea, I rose from the bed and took a moment to look around the medical room in order to make sure everything was indeed done before I made my exit and headed further down the train and towards the swimming pool.

Truth be told, I still couldn’t really believe the fact that this train had a swimming pool. The rest of it was impressive enough even without the swimming pool and I couldn’t help but wonder just how expensive it must’ve been to make this train.

I tried not to think about that too much though, as that also reminded me that someone went into huge lengths in order to go through with this horrible plan of theirs.

After what felt like way longer than it should due to these thoughts of mine, I reached the swimming pool and pushed the door open, coming to a complete standstill as soon as I stepped inside and saw that it was currently occupied.

“Wow” Momoka said to me, a smile playing on her lips as she currently was swimming back and forth between the sides of the swimming pool “you really have a thing for watching a girl in a swimming pool, huh?”

I couldn’t stop the flush that spread across my cheeks as I immediately turned my head to look away the moment my mind managed to catch up. Although we both knew I’d gotten quite the eyefull before it finally managed that and I could only manage to stutter out “I didn’t know anyone else was here.”

“Obviously” Momoka replied with a little laugh and, as I turned to face away from her completely, I could hear the light splashing of her climbing out of the swimming pool as she continued speaking by saying “I found out some of the boxes over in the corner hold swimsuits with each having our names on, you can turn around now.”

Taking her word for it, I turned around to find that she had thankfully covered herself with a towel but that taunting smile was still on her face as she reached up with the one hand that wasn’t holding up her towel to run a hand through her ponytail “I assume you came here for a swim too, pervert?”

“H-hey, I’m not a pervert!”

“Oh? Evidence goes against that statement.”

“Yeah? You were looking at Shun too!”

“Where’s your proof?”

I let out a frustrated sigh and ran my hand through my hair as I averted my eyes away once again, trying to distract myself by looking around the room as I decided to answer her previous question by saying “yes, I came here for a swim but since it’s occupied, I’ll just go.”

“Such a rude boy, gets his show and then doesn’t even offer one in return. Tsk, I thought you’d look so cute in your swim suit too.”

I wasn’t quite sure how to reply to that as I continued looking around the room, just trying to figure a polite way to excuse myself, until my eyes landed on clipboard that had clearly been put in use recently and I couldn’t help but let curiosity get the better of me as I pointed to it “what you doing over there?”

“Peeping and nosing, huh?” she teased but I decided to ignore that statement as she playfully bumped my shoulder on her way past in order to grab the clipboard and bring it over to show me with a happy smile “it’s a plan of mine. Things are officially really tense around here so I thought it might be a good idea to get everyone together and work out. That way we can get healthier and loosen the tension!”

I smiled at myself now as I took the offered clipboard and overlooked it, seeing multiple different challenges had been listed, looking like a rather fun competition was in the process of being set up and I couldn’t help but note that Momoka was barely holding her excitement back which made me chuckle “you’re quite the sporty type, huh?”

She gave me a nod as she took the clipboard back before going over to sit down on the bench that she had collected it from so she could put it down on her lap and then grab the pen to start writing away “I’m more of a soccer girl, obviously by my talent, but swimming is my second favorite sports. One of my best friends was just crazy over swimming, that and donuts. Weird combination, huh?”

That was a rather weird combination…

“So, when are you planning for this happen?”

“I was thinking tomorrow would be good. The earlier we do it, the earlier we get rid of the tension and then we can start working on other ways to improve our relationships!”

“Heh, seems your really thinking about this hard, huh?”

“Well, I didn’t come up with it all. Kaoru was helping out earlier before she excused herself for a bit… Shame huh? You could’ve walked in to find two girls in the pool!”

Now I was flushing again as I nervously shifted on my feet “can we stop bringing that up?”

“Sure! If you give me a show in return!” she declared with a grin, placing the clipboard and pen back down before she walked over to the boxes in the corner and rooted through them until she picked out a swimsuit that I could already figure had my name on it “I promise I won’t look as you get dressed.”

Ugh, I guess I don’t really have much of a choice...

“Fine but you better not peek” I told her, letting out a groan as she happily handed me the swim suit before crossing her heart that she wouldn’t peek. This felt rather embarrassing but I had intended to have some fun in the swimming pool so I might as well go through with it.

Once I had made sure to watch as Momoka turned to face away from me, I quickly stripped myself out of all of my clothes, nearly tripping over several times as I was in quite the embarrassed rush, before practically forcing the swim suit on, finding it a bit too tight for my liking which caused me to sigh as I said “okay, you can turn around now.”

Momoka looked quite content with the sight she had been given once she looked me up and down, a large grin on her face before she winked as she said “I knew you’d look good!”

I flushed a bit at that but done my best to shrug it off as I instead turned my attention to getting into the pool, making sure to be careful and not slip like I had nearly done earlier when getting undressed as I heard Momoka do the exact opposite me and before I could even register that she screamed “coming in!” I found myself splashed with water when she dived right in.

“Heh, you’re very sporty indeed.”

“Come on, I bet you can’t beat me to the other side of the pool!”

Ugh, if she was like this, I don’t know if I’d actually be able to handle ever meeting that other friend she mentioned... I was already feeling worn out. --- Aina Hisakawa - Daytime

Stepping outside of my room and making sure I locked it behind me, I observed as multiple people passed me in the hallway, accidentally bumping into Hideaki who apologized more times than I could even try to count before continuing on his way.

Rolling my eyes a bit at the exchange, I kept on walking towards my destination, one of my hands gripping my toy pistol tightly while my other hand carried a bag that jingled with a bunch of cans inside with each step that I made.

I also noticed I had gained a couple curious looks but I quickly decided to ignore them once I had reached my destination, looking to the name on the door in order to confirm that the room did indeed belong to Takehiko Yamauchi before buzzing.

It felt like I was standing there forever in the amount of time it took for him to answer the door, so much that I had even been considering that maybe he wasn’t even in his room right now but just as I was about to give up, I watched as the door in front of me opened up and revealed the cowboy himself to be standing there with a clearly forced but polite smile.

“Uhh, what can I do for you?”

“Yesterday, during our reports, you mentioned you had been given a toy gun and some cans, is that true?”

“Yes… do you want to shoot them too? What is it with you woman and wanting my cans?”

...

I raised a questioning eyebrow at that statement but I decided to just not even bother actually questioning it in the end and instead simply held up my own toy gun and waved it before jingling the bag in order to let him hear the cans inside before I finally said “actually, I was wondering if you were up to a shooting competition.”

The cowboy’s eyes seemed to light up as if it was christmas before a confident grin spread across his face as he leaned against the door frame, crossing his arms for added measure that left me having to resist laughing while he said “I’ll have you know, I’m the best shot of all the cowboys in the world. You really think you can beat me in a shooting challenge?”

I gave him a mock shrug as my eyes remained locked on his “I guess the only way we’re going to find out is if you accept my challenge, hmm?”

“You better come in, m’lady” he replied, rather quickly and eagerly, as he stepped aside in order to allow me enough room to move into the room while he also bowed “are there going to be any stakes? I’m sure you’ll be fun enough with the challenge alone but the challenge is always made more fun with stakes!”

I pursed my lips, thinking about it for a moment. He was right, stakes made things so much better and I was never able to resist such a dare but in a situation such as this, what was there for us to make a bet on? What would be a reward for winning and a punishment for losing?

Takehiko seemed to notice this thought process of mine as he gave a little chuckle and reached up to fiddle with his hat “ah, how about whoever loses has to buy the other a drink or something when we get out of this?”

My eyes narrowed slightly as a playful smirk formed on my lips “oh? Now I think you’re going to just lose purposely as an excuse to take me out” I teased as he walked past me to start setting up his cans for the shooting contest and I backed up so I could reach my foot up to nudge the door closed from behind me.

He let out an overacted gasp at that as he finished setting up the cans before turning around to grin over at me “you’ve caught me and worked out my super evil plan before it has even started!”

I allowed myself to laugh at that, adding a roll of the eyes, as I took a moment to judge where I should set up my own cans before deciding to do so on top of his drawers and starting to set them up as I said “fine, I accept that bet. Although, WHEN I win, I’m going to make sure it’s not a date.”

“I don’t think there’s any reason to do this shooting competition... you’ve already shot me through the heart.”

“Well, I’ll press F for respects once I’ve beat your ass at this competition too.” --- Hanako Minami - Daytime

I let out a sigh as I watched from down the corridor as Takehiko became occupied with another female. It completely threw my plans out the window as I watched that door close, even allowing myself a silent curse.

The more and more time I had been spending alone, the more and more I kept thinking about my clan and whether they were alright or if something had happened to them. Unless if I distracted myself, I just couldn’t stop thinking about how my sword was currently here with me when it should be back home. It was giving off very bad signals.

So, I had intended to distract myself by spending more time with the cowboy. He had seemed like decent enough company and he had even expressed interest in my skills when I had been spending time with him earlier but I had been too late and now he was distracted by another female.

Pursing my lips, I had no clue on what to do instead now but I knew I had to find something to do. I didn’t want to be spending the rest of this day thinking about what was going on with my clan.

“Crushing on the cowboy, huh? Don’t worry, I won’t get in your way and your secret is safe with me!”

“Huh?” I questioned as I was broken out of my thoughts, turning my head to see that the weird female, Shun, was looking at me with a rather bright smile but also a curious look “what do you mean, crushing on the cowboy?”

Shun rolled her eyes at that, hugging that Mononeko teddy to her chest as she let out a rather insane giggle “pfft, you aren’t fooling me but I’ll play your game. I mean you’re attracted to the cowboy!”

My eyes immediately widened as I shook my head so much that I felt I was about to get dizzy and collapse “no, no, no! I’m not attracted to him at all! I just had plans!”

“Oh... I’m sure you did.”

“N-not like that! I wouldn’t dare break the oath of my clan that is a sworn to never do anything so sinful before marriage! How dare you suggest I would break that oath!”

“I’m not suggesting anything.”

I let out a breath of annoyance and turned to face away from her again as I muttered “whatever.”

“Oh come on, there’s nothing to be ashamed by. Sometimes we just meet a boy who… claims our heart, you know? I fully understand.”

I gave her a weird look at that, unable to stop myself, but she seemed completely unfazed by said look as she instead just gave me a grin and hugged her teddy tighter “attraction is the way of life, you may deny it now but there’s something inside of you that is just going to do anything for him and that’s okay!” she continued her thought process, giggling with her last statement.

I wanted to protest more. I definitely wasn’t attracted to this cowboy in any sense but I could tell by the look in her eyes that she wouldn’t believe me so I just rolled my eyes and waved her off and headed down the corridor and towards my room, only to hear her following behind me which made me sigh as I said “what do you want?” without even turning around to address her properly.

“To hang out! I know we’re going to make great friends!”

Fantastic...

Although, at least I’ll be distracted and that was the only reason I accepted her company. --- Nanami Suzuki - Daytime

As I ran my hand along each book and read over each title, I couldn’t help but notice that the entire collection that had been placed in the small library of the recreation room was rather a weird collection overall.

There was some books on how to get away with murder or a complete fact file of top ten murders with some “Genocide Jack” on the cover while others were books I remembered reading as a child, books made for all types of children, why would there be books like this in a place like this? The murdering books I understood but the children books?

I never thought I’d be complaining about children book instead of murder books…

Shrugging my shoulders, I came to the conclusion that I really shouldn’t try to rationalize the logic of the type of person who would force me and the others in a situation like this and just picked out the first book on the shelf that caught my eye and didn’t relate to either of the two subjects I had already been noticing.

“Hope you didn’t take the only good book” suddenly came a voice from behind me which made me jump and drop the book that I had been holding before turning around to find Minoru standing in the doorway with a rather blank look on his face that made me unsure whether he was being serious or not until a small smile slowly formed on his face, even though the smile itself wasn’t really that comforting.

“Oh, did you get bored of being an asshole and decided to be a creep instead?” I retorted, unable to hold back my anger that had been building for him and his brother as I reached down to retrieve the book I had dropped but I only received a chuckle from him in response as he fully entered the room now and made his way over to examine the books himself.

“I have no need to be a creep when I can have whatever woman I want and believe me when I say, you are no way the woman I would want.”

I scoffed at that before retorting with “the feelings mutual” and then shoving past him in order to make my way out of the room only to stop myself when I heard him give that annoying chuckle again, taking a moment to try and convince myself to just leave but being unable to and instead saying “what’s the deal with you two?”

“Hmm?”

“You both act like such assholes, it is as if you two actually want to be murdered.”

“Heh, we don’t act like anything. We are what we are and we come from a long line of rich blood, each of us owning more money than you could ever even dream of. You are beneath us and as such, we act as we should act. Above you.”

I felt my fist that wasn’t holding the book being clenched hard as I tried to bite back my anger at this asshole. He was literal shit acting as if he was anything more but then I let out a sigh and told myself to take a few breaths. The last thing I wanted to do right now was to to attack anyone, especially in a situation like this where I couldn’t really trust any of the other Ultimates.

“You seem smart, at least smart enough” Minoru suddenly said, breaking our silence as I opened my eyes again to see that he had turned away from the books in order to face me while he stroked his beard in thought “none of these books look interesting to me. Would you care for a game of chess?”

“Why would I play a game with someone like you?”

He smirked at that as he reached up to adjust his sunglasses slightly “oh, believe me, I don’t like the idea of playing such a amazing game with a peasant as low as you either but, as I said, you seem smart enough. A game of chess allows it’s players to study each other, learn them and aren’t you a journalist? I’m sure you want to figure out everybody here too. Well, I’m offering you a chance to figure out me.”

I had to admit, that did sound like a really good idea. As much as I already hated both him and his brother, I did want to get to know everyone on this train so I could hopefully figure everyone out if a murder was ever committed and it was obvious he wasn’t going to hand out these chances often at all.

Eventually, I let out a sigh and walked back across the room in order to put the book back on the shelf before turning to face him, clearly not happy with myself for this as I said “fine. I accept your proposal.”

“Good. I very much doubt you could come anywhere close to winning or that this will turn out to be a good way of spending my time but perhaps you will surprise me, now come along.”

With that said, he made his way past me and exited from the room, leaving me to mutter and curse to myself as I followed behind him. Yeah, I wasn’t liking agreeing to this at all but I was just hoping to myself that I put up with him for a little while, I could learn all I needed to learn about him.

It would also be neat and fun if I was lucky enough to beat him, I’ll never let him forget it if I do but unfortunately I was never that lucky. A girl could hope though, right? --- Hideaki Oshiro - Daytime

Now I know what you’re probably thinking…

Wow, yet another scene where we’re introduced to this little shit playing video games? I know what it looks like but I promise that I’m not addicted to video games despite my profession of making money from playing them!

I’m just making sure to set a score that none of the other Ultimates can beat is all!

Totally... not... addicted...

Okay, maybe I’m addicted but so what? Who knows what kind of prizes I can win from the Monocoins I get from playing these games!

“Damn it!” I cursed to myself as I once again failed to beat my highest score in “Flying Pigeon” but as the Monocoin was given to me in reward for wasting my time trying to, I at least recognized that if I couldn’t beat my high score then no one else could. I was the best of the best!

Placing the newest Monocoin into my pocket, I counted that as my fourth collected coin and I was very much looking forward to what I would get as my rewards for turning in these coins but as I turned in order to head over to the machine, I noticed that I was no longer alone in the room as that guy Haru rather quietly walked into the room until he had noticed that I had noticed him and he came to a stop.

“Oh, Haru greets Hideaki rather surprised due to his previous belief that the room had been unoccupied…”

“It’s cool” I told him, offering him a grin as I continued moving over to the Monomachine in order to take out the first coin and placing it in the machine before pressing the button so it came to life as I turned to look back at Haru “the more company, the better, you know? You come to try out the games?”

Haru offered me a shrug as he replied with “Haru isn’t quite sure what he is going to do… he is just looking around for something to do…”

“Nothing better to occupy your time than video games, my friend” I said, the grin on my face never going away as I turned back to the machine to see the prize that it had been given was a... “HOLY SHIT, EXCUSE MY LANGUAGE BUT IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?!”

I couldn’t believe my eyes as I reached down to grab the XBS4 DS that had been released from the Monomachine. It was the greatest handheld console for gaming that had been ever designed and my excitement only grew for it as I tried turning it on and it worked “dude, you can have them arcade games, I’ve just found the love of my life!”

I didn’t hear any response from Haru, not that I would’ve really cared to notice as I quickly fetched into my pocket and grabbed another coin, making the machine work again in hopes of getting some more amazing prizes and as if my dreams had been heard, my reward came in the form of a video game that looked to be just my style and playable on the console I had.

“Haru wonders if it is possible to ask Hideaki a question” the other Ultimate in the room suddenly asked me which brought my attention back to him as I put in another coin.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Haru has been thinking and wanted to know if Hideaki thought the way that the Ultimate Narrator acted was weird?”

“Weird? Nah. Sure, it ain’t normal but it isn’t something you should judge yourself over, you know?” I offered him in response, really having no opinion on his attitude as I looked with the corner of my eye to notice I had been awarded another game. Damn, must be my lucky day, I allowed myself to think as I asked “what got you thinking about that?”

“Kurou brought it up to Haru. Made him feel as if he was a thing to study rather than a person.”

“Well, who cares what that loser thinks? Hang out with the cool people” I told him as I put my last Monocoin to use in the Monomachine before turning to face him again as I gave a thumbs up “like me!”

A moment of silence then passed between us until finally Haru tilted his head in confusion “Haru has one more question for the Ultimate Youtuber...”

“Fire away!”

“... Haru wonders what Hideaki is going to do with that...” he said which made me completely confused until I turned around to see a massive Mononeko teddy, about as big as the machine itself, having been awarded to me for the last coin I had put into the machine.

“I... uhh… have no idea...” --- Daisuke Nishimura - Daytime

So, not only was I forced to live on some terribly designed and generally shit looking train with a bunch of lowest level peasants who thought being titled “Ultimate” somehow made them special but I was going to be forced to read the worst books I’ve ever laid my eyes on or otherwise die of sheer boredom?

This really was hell. I don’t know if I’m going to even stop myself from murdering one of these little brats long enough to work out the game with my brother…

I let out a sigh and closed the book before violently throwing it down on the table in front of me and instead turning my attention to look out through the windows of the dining car. The view wasn’t even that good, just the same boring as fuck trees and grass going by as if the train itself was just going in a circle over and over.

Thinking about that... it probably was. Whoever kidnapped us put us in some already terrible living arrangements and for added measure they were going to force us to see the same outside over and over until we died…

This person must be the biggest asshole in the world.

Shaking my head, I turned my attention to the tea that was in front of me before picking it up and taking a sip. While it was the complete opposite of the perfect tea I used to have back home, it was at least decent enough and, on top of that, I had some nice peace and quiet to enjoy it with.

“OOOH, what shall we do with a drunken sailor? What shall we do with a drunken sailor?? What shall we do with a drunken sailor?... Early in the morning!”

You had to be kidding me...

Annoyance and anger taking over each part of my body, I placed the tea down onto the table and looked up to watch as a very drunken pirate swayed into the room with the biggest grin on her face before she noticed me and it got bigger “hello sailor! Care to have a drink with me?”

“No. Go away. I’d literally rather be dead than anywhere near you.”

“Aww, why so rude? We’re all in the same boat! Hehe, so to speak!”

“We’re not the same anything. Now go away.”

Instead of going away as I wanted, Chika walked further into the room and even actually made her way over to me before leaning down so we were at eye level as she said “oh really? We’re both Ultimates, we both got kidnapped and we both don’t want to die. I’m already seeing three similarities that we hav-”

I couldn’t control myself any longer, with no care to anything I suddenly bolted out of my seat and grabbed her by the collar and shoved her down on top of the opposite table as I yelled “shut the fuck up you dumb bitch! We are nothing alike. You are an ant for me to step on! You are a worker who makes kings like me rich as you barely exist! You want to live? You’re never going to compare the two of us again. Do you understand?”

As if it never existed, Chika’s drunkenness suddenly disappeared as she just glared up at me for a moment before muttering “get your hands off me.”

“Just as long as you understand your place beneath me” I growled in retort before I obliged and removed her from my grip, adjusting my glasses and scarf as I turned to finally notice that in my movements I had spilt the tea and broken the cup, making me sigh before I said “go make me another tea, peasant.”

“Do it yourself, shit-face.”

“Are things like you even worth anything?”

Chika didn’t answer me right away and instead she just gritted her teeth before making her exit from the room, whispering “not to worthless dumbasses like yourself” into my ear as she did.

I simply rolled my eyes and didn’t even bother to acknowledge her anymore past that point as I turned my attention back to the tea and growled under my breath. I was really going to have to clean this shit up myself?

This situation really was hell. --- Aoi Kita - Daytime

I couldn’t help but let out a bundle of laughter as I listened to the “music” that me and Yuki were making. The two of us having randomly decided to come to the music room earlier on and give an attempt at playing all the instruments that were present. Currently I was playing the guitar and Yuki had decided to go with the piano and wow... ”we’re terrible.”

“Hey, I’m trying my best!” Yuki protested, letting out her own little laugh as she played the piano so roughly which just put the imagine in my head of a pianist out there just ready to die at how terribly she was currently using it. Although, I knew I would be no better.

“I am too!” I told her, flashing her a grin as I continued to happily play along with her, chuckling to myself as I suddenly stood up and started dancing around the room as I played it, going absolutely wild with it as if I was at a concert that made Yuki absolutely lose it with laughter and in turn resulted in me doubling over as I let out all the laughter and giggling that I had been trying so hard to hold.

“You know, I’m pretty sure we’ve broken a rule somewhere by spending so much time together and not taking a break” Yuki said in between her laughs before she placed her hand on her chest and finally started trying to calm herself before she run out of air, watching me with a grin as I found myself tripping over some of the instruments and falling onto the floor with a thud “are you okay?!”

“I’m fine!” I announced as we both stifled further laughter before my eyes locked with hers and I rubbed the back of my head and winked “sounds like your trying to make an excuse to leave me alone. No such rules exist!”

She rolled her eyes and got up from her own seat in order to help me up from the floor as I left the guitar laying down beneath us “well, this fun of ours has been going on for a while now and I’m starting to get a bit tired. I think it’s about time I headed back to my room.”

I done the best puppy eyes and pout I could but when she only laughed, I realized my efforts were in vain and grinned instead “well then, as a gentleman, I shall escort you back to your room!”

Once again, a grin formed on her lips as she asked “you’re a gentleman?” and caused me to do a mock hurting expression before she wrapped her arm around me and dragged me from the music room “alright, speedy, I’ll allow you to take me back to my room but that is as far as you are going with me.”

“A gentleman would never think of going any further!” I declared in response which had the pair of us falling into laughter again as we made our way through the train and back to the rooms which unfortunately didn’t take very long. Despite all that it had to offer, the train itself still wasn’t that very big or long to travel through at the end of the day.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Aoi” she said to me once we arrived to the rooms, offering me a small smile before she left me to watch as she used her E-Handbook to access her room before closing the door behind her before I took a moment to get my breath back and headed to my own room, doing the same in order to access my own room and making sure that it was locked behind me.

As if on cue, as soon as I took a seat on the edge of my bed and briefly looked down to the small race car that was whizzing around a equally small track on my floor, I heard the sound of the night time announcement coming into play which brought my attention to the windows outside, having not realized how late it was.

Ding dong, bing bong

Mononeko appeared on the television opposite me but I didn’t pay much attention to him as I started getting ready for bed, barely listening as he said “this is the official Mononeko announcement to tell you that is nighttime and it is time for you all to get your beauty sleep unless if you have some special plans! You all better make sure you have locked your doors though! Otherwise you might be found dead as fuck tomorrow! Hehehehehe, good night!”

I rolled my eyes, not allowing the announcement to affect me as my television turned off again and I simply crawled into bed. There was nothing to worry about, everything was going to be fine. --- You - Nighttime

“WOW! I cannot believe how good that issue was!” Mononeko suddenly announced, giggling to himself as he suddenly made himself appear before you and gave a friendly wave “I mean, just look back on it! That scene where Daisuke put Chika on a table? Phew, you can consider that ship sailing and the combined pervertedness of Momoka and Kurou? It’s getting really hot in here and I don’t think I can handle it already, we’re only on the second issue!”

“I must apologize for not giving this special ending scene last issue by the way, the writer forgot-wait a minute, that’s not what is on the script” Mononeko went on as he suddenly grabbed a script and looking over it before laughing to himself and throwing the script away “to hell with the script! Anyway, you better tune in next issue because OOOH BOY is it gonna be good. Hehe, Momoka thinks she has a plan to help loosen up tension but of course, I cannot allow that so YOU best be ready for some HOPE AND DESPAIR! Hehehehehe!”