Ryu Hotaru

えっ…えっ…！？ by べった

There he was. 

Haruki narrowed his eyes, rolling forward faster in an effort to catch up to the other figure, disappearing down the hallway. There wasn’t much time, after all… Soon enough, they’d be back in confinement, forced into their rooms.

But Haruki… needed to say something. Finally. He’d… taken his time, but now the feeling in his gut said that things were moving–something big was happening and everything might change in a single second.

He had to tell him now.

Haruki exhaled, trying to calm his racing heart even as he reached out.

“Hotaru,” Haruki called, voice as calm as he could manage and firm from behind as he gently grabbed the other boy’s wrist to stop him in his tracks.

Initially fear flashed through his body, before his eyes caught on Haruki’s form and he relaxes, “Oh hey. What do you uh,” He examines over Haruki’s visibly flustered form, “What’s up?” He places the dishes on the ground, so he can burrow his hands in his pockets.

He hadn’t really seen Haruki in a while and was both anxious and happy to see him. He shifted weight from foot to foot, not sure how to stand without looking weird.

Haruki took a deep breath.

“You… asked me, back then. Back a while ago… why I was avoiding you.” He looked down, eyes flitting from place to place. His foot tapped restlessly.

“I never answered.”

Haruki tightened his shoulders, squaring himself up before looking Ryu in the eye.

“I guess… I remembered that I should trust you. So… I think I can tell you.” 

"And I'm glad to hear you can trust me i uh," He was completely out of his element here in a situation with mutual trust and positive emotions, so he gives an awkward smile, before letting his face fall back to neutral.

( @shsl-thespian @cryptographer @shslcartographxr @shsl-crocker @ultimateglassblower @un-luckster @gameshowfever and everyone else!!  )

"Nothing that copious amounts of caffeine can't fix," Ryu grumbles to himself as he stumbled into the kitchen, still in his Pajamas with his glasses hanging from the neckline of his shirt. His pajamas consisted of a white tee shirt and fuzzy booty short Pjs that said JUICY on the ass. He flipped between squinting heavily to see and keeping his eyes shut to soak up some rest. Either way, he looked like the dead.

Ryu made a beeline for the instant coffee maker and flicked it on, sliding a mug under it. It took him far too long to recognize that another student was in the kitchen, and ryu didn't take the time to confirm who it was. "Gmorning, I feel like shit." He greets, "Nice ass hotel beds but the fuckin pillows are murder on the neck, amiright or amiright."

He wasn't particularly acquainted with his classmates yet, but he never felt that over the top introductions or faux first impressions were necessary. A light conversation with genuine intent at heart is all it takes to no someone, and Ryu wS entirely genuine about the pillows. His neck was absolutely killing him in addition to settling in to the new atmosphere. Strangers in a confined space made him unnerved, but these were his classmates. People who were hand picked by Hopes Peak, therefore they can't be too bad.

There he was. 

Haruki narrowed his eyes, rolling forward faster in an effort to catch up to the other figure, disappearing down the hallway. There wasn’t much time, after all… Soon enough, they’d be back in confinement, forced into their rooms.

But Haruki… needed to say something. Finally. He’d… taken his time, but now the feeling in his gut said that things were moving–something big was happening and everything might change in a single second.

He had to tell him now.

Haruki exhaled, trying to calm his racing heart even as he reached out.

“Hotaru,” Haruki called, voice as calm as he could manage and firm from behind as he gently grabbed the other boy’s wrist to stop him in his tracks.

Initially fear flashed through his body, before his eyes caught on Haruki’s form and he relaxes, “Oh hey. What do you uh,” He examines over Haruki’s visibly flustered form, “What’s up?” He places the dishes on the ground, so he can burrow his hands in his pockets.

He hadn’t really seen Haruki in a while and was both anxious and happy to see him. He shifted weight from foot to foot, not sure how to stand without looking weird.

(tagging everyone still alive!! @shsl-crocker @shslcartographxr @cryptographer @un-luckster @ultimateglassblower @gameshowfever ) (it’s under a cut ‘cause it got really long) Shujin was dealing with the situation reasonably well, considering all aspects. After the trial, he’d stumbled back to his room in a daze, barely able to see with his glasses fogged from tears. Orochi had been playing with him. All along, every smile, every offer of friendship… A performance worthy of an Ultimate Thespian, in every aspect. Even now, he had a grudging speck of respect for the actor - He’d been taken in completely by his act.

His reputation, however, had remained as the hotel jerk: a standoffish, grudge holding, rude kid. During the trial, he'd found himself lighter, and more joking than he should have been, despite his grief over Hoshiko's death and the subsequent drowning mention. Ryu had come to the firm belief that he needed to get out more, socializing would help his health and make him feel like life was back to normal.

Down in the kitchen, he prepared the first proper breakfast of his hotel days. The pancakes were slightly overcooked and lumpy, but he was proud of his efforts, and more proud that he had actually gotten it done. Red eyes scanned the table area, instinctively trying to pick out a free table. It struck him how tragic it was that nearly every table was free now that their numbers had been practically halved. The only other member currently in the dining area was Shujin, and Ryu felt a twinge of unease recalling their previous disagreements.

Before he could put more thought into it, he walked right over and put his plate of pancakes down opposite where Shujin sat, not thinking to ask if he could sit. The plate clattered down, the noise grinding against his eardrums, but he largely ignored it. One hand rested on the head of the chair, ready to pull it back so he could sit if need be, and the other lay next to his plate on the table as he hovered there in mid-action.

"Akaya," He began, voice a higher pitch than he'd like it, but not too far out of his regular range, "I believe there are... a few things I need to say that are... way past overdue," His brow furrowed as he began his speech, not out of disdain for what he had to say, but out of confusion, as if he didn't know where he was going or how to bring about his concerns to life. Ryu was thoroughly out of his element.

After the trial, the hotel was free of the fingerprint scanners and iron walls that confined them within an already confined space. Akemi breathed a sigh of relief, glad to be able to go around the hotel again. The nighttime announcement was sure to play soon, but the last place she wanted to be was her room. So she followed the crowd to the second floor, but only went into her room to grab a few things.

She had pulled all the wrinkled sheets off of her bed and carried her pillow under one arm to the elevator once everyone was safely inside their rooms. She didn’t want to be followed or found, as she was convinced an argument would follow. While some time had passed, she was unwavering in her belief that everyone hated her with as much passion she had in hating herself.

She entered the ball room without ceremony, blankets dragging on the ground behind her. The tables were exactly as they had been when there were nine students alive instead of seven. The numbness in her persisted until she crawled under a table and got her sheets wrapped around her.

For the first time in weeks, she felt sad. She felt everything crashing down around her, and there was nothing she could do but weep. She was trapped in a murder game, more than half of them were already dead, and the ones alive likely wanted her to be dead as well. She had no hope left, no discernable identity that she was aware of, and not a single friend. She cried silently, the hot tears getting absorbed by her sailor uniform. She was alone and there was no escape, her own death officially inevitable.

Her sobs were interrupted by a sneeze, despite the room seeming empty when she entered. Without ceasing crying she softly called out: “W-Who’s there? Are you here to kill me already?”

He was done with his seclusion, it was high time for him to get out, breath new air and socialize. He found that he hadn’t done much of the latter, but it was better than nothing. His first night was spent under a ballroom table, sleeping in an impromptu sleeping bag made with two pillows and copious blankets. He was all set for a night of mourning alone, but it beat his stuffy room. The dust from under the table tickled his nose, and he let out a quiet sneeze, not thinking to hold it back.

The bodily reaction was met with the voice of someone who sounded a lot like Akemi. He sat up in surprise, a dull thud being heard as his head bonked the underside of the table. “SonuvaBITCH,” he yelped, crawling out from under the table rubbing his head, “Jesus you scared me, what are you doing here? It’s late at night and i’m trying to get comfortable.” He gave her a squint and a once over, deducing that she wasn’t there to kill him, before his body relaxed significantly: bunched shoulders falling into a slouch, creased brows smoothing to a regular scowl, and twisted frown flattening to a more neutral, albeit sour, state.

Each Drawing Below!

Akemi Ishikawa @ultimateglassblower

Rinko Tsuburaya @gameshowfever

Aditi Patel @shsl-daredevil

Artemis Throne @shsl-who

Orochi Morika @shsl-thespian

Hyun Akintola @shsl-crocker

Katsumi Akiyama 

Ezra Marston @shslcartographxr

Akira Sasaki @botanist-akira

Kyoji Amano @shslplaywrightkyoji

Shujin Akaya @headofreservecoursecouncil

Haruki Takahashi @un-luckster

Noriko Mori @law-star

Takehiko Nakata @shslmathemathematician

Ryu Hotaru @cryptographer

He shrugged his shoulders, his expression becoming cold and unfriendly as he turned around and carried on walking, “Personally, I would like to live to see another motive, so I don’t really have time to indulge your petty little jabs. Ta-ta~”

Shujin finished his little speech with a sarcastic wave goodbye as he walked off, not entirely sure where he was going, but certain he needed to find something he could help with. In the back of his mind, he knew he was behaving badly, but Orochi had pricked his feelings too much for him to consider going back and apologising. Not yet, anyway. He had a feeling that he might have done some irreparable damage to their relationship, which surprisingly, pained him a lot more than expected, but…  At least in Shujin’s mind, they didn’t have time to be weeping over the bodies. They’d have a chance for that later. For now, the focus had to be on the investigation, and Orochi’s wasting time was akin to handing Monokuma the axe to strike their heads off with. Somehow, the seriousness of the situation had only just fully sunk in. If they got this wrong, even once… They were all dead.

Orochi looked at him with cold blue eyes. He was utterly… disgusted. He thought he’d had some kind of positive relationship with Shujin, but that was quickly falling to pieces. He knew that he should be the bigger person, and walk off to let Shujin do the investigating. He should’ve let them all investigate, but he couldn’t. He stepped forward, his foot making a moderately loud noise on the ground. “You never cease to amaze me Shujin!” he yelled, arms spreading wide and a bitter grin slinking its way across his face.

He stepped forward again, long strides going to meet Shujin as he talked. He spat out the student council member’s first name like it was arsenic, the words shooting off his tongue like bullets. “You really must hate the ultimates, no matter how much we try and try to be friendly with you, you can just sit there on your godforsaken moral high horse and watch us die with a grin on your face! You can look at someone who could have very well been your best friend in those three years we lost, and not bat an eye!” He snapped.

“And then you claim to be my friend, and you claim to care about me, yet you’ve done nothing but insult me this whole trip! I’d bet you my right eye that I could fall over dead right now, and you wouldn’t bat one of your groomed little eyelashes at my rotting corpse!” He stepped forward, a finger lifting to point at him. Blue eyes were slits now, full of an unrestrained rage. “You are a liar.”

“You’ve lied to me, and Moreau-san, and everyone else who’s died! They were our friends, Shujin!” His hand was trembling, so he let it fall. Then he nodded, a bitter sneer pulling at his lip. “But yes, let’s investigate. Let’s just ignore the fact that we’ve all just accepted this as life, and investigate. Then let’s smile and eat popcorn as Moreau-san’s murder gets their just desserts, am I right, Shujin? I bet you’re looking forward to it!”

(Tagging other people, in case anyone wants to intervene with this!)

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be, as yelling voices hit his ears, dragging him back to reality. Ugh, this shit? He headed to the kitchen, snatching up two of his coffee-stained cups to fill it with icy water. Ambling over to the fight, which was significantly heating up, he took the time to think about the whole situation. Someone actually fucking murdered over this useless fucking motive.

It wasn’t long until Shujin and Orochi came into his field of vision. He stood there, taking a sip of one cup of water, tasting a hint of coffee. He observed the argument, scoffing to himself about how juvenile it was. Without any word or warning, he splashed a cup full of water one each participant.

“Hey shut the fuck up.” He said, dangling both cups by his pinkies, "I would have brought a squirt bottle but nobody's allowed in the conviniemce store"

Orochi Morioka wasn’t feeling well. His feet dragged on the floor a bit as he made his way to the cafeteria for dinner. He didn’t want to eat anything, for fear of it just coming right back up. However, he didn’t want to worry anyone either. 

So, the thespian made his way to the cafeteria. It felt nice to have time to himself every now and then, to let down his guard and relax for a small while. This was too long though. It was getting to him… The isolation was going to tear him apart sooner or later. He had to see people. 

‘Fake it until you become it’.

Possibly a horrid motto, but he found that it applied well to how he had to behave in his time here. He had to continue this, as well. Based off of what he’d witnessed earlier… he had to try even harder for his friends. They needed him to be chipper and charismatic for them.

He sat in the cafe quietly, frowning a bit as he realized he was the only one there for the moment… However, the moment someone came in, they would be greeted with a confident smile. “Good evening!”

Ezra thought he had been doing okay with his whole little plan. He’d had a few bumps, sure, but for the most part he’d barely talked to anyone, and while it felt weird going back into isolation after everything, it was also strangely comforting. He was safe, his friends were safe, everything was okay. Well. Relatively.

One small, nagging worry though, was that he’d literally never seen Ryu. Sure, they weren’t exactly…friends, probably, but Ezra had seen everyone else but the cryptographer out and about at least once now, and Ezra was wondering if Ryu had come out of his room at all. How was he getting food if he wasn’t? Was he eating at all? Was he even still alive?

Okay, maybe that was a little overdramatic, but still. So when Ezra finally spotted the cryptographer, it felt like he was seeing a ghost. He took off his glasses and wiped at them, just to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating somehow, but no-Ryu was there, and real, and decidedly not looking the healthiest but he was alive, so. That was good. More than good, actually. Ezra hadn’t realized how worried he was until he felt the relief creeping back in. Thank god. No more death. Not yet.

After a moment, Ezra realized he had been staring, and quickly looked away as if the paint on the walls was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. He’d wait for Ryu to leave the hallway-there was no way the other student would want to talk to him, after all-and then he’d sneak back down and return to his room like he hadn’t even been there at all. Easy peasy. Well. Probably.

The hallways were empty and blissfully quiet, and if it wasn’t for his bright orange sweater, Ryu would probably not have seen Ezra. Out of the remaining members of the hotel, Ezra would be in about the middle of who Ryu would care to consider trustworthy. He never gave him reason for distrust, and was a fairly un-aggressive and non-confrontational presence. 

In addition, in their prior meeting in front of the clock, he had found the other to be intelligent, and came up with good points to brainstorm. It seemed he was a good candidate to bounce ideas off of.

With this in mind, Ryu decided to prod at him to see what he thought about the whole situation. He ambled over, notepad in hand, the paper pressed against his chest. He gave a half wave to Ezra with his free hand, pencil between two of his fingers, “Hey,” He said, “You got any theories or some shit about what’s going on, because mine are quickly falling into the shitter.” 

Orochi Morioka wasn’t feeling well. His feet dragged on the floor a bit as he made his way to the cafeteria for dinner. He didn’t want to eat anything, for fear of it just coming right back up. However, he didn’t want to worry anyone either. 

So, the thespian made his way to the cafeteria. It felt nice to have time to himself every now and then, to let down his guard and relax for a small while. This was too long though. It was getting to him… The isolation was going to tear him apart sooner or later. He had to see people. 

‘Fake it until you become it’.

Possibly a horrid motto, but he found that it applied well to how he had to behave in his time here. He had to continue this, as well. Based off of what he’d witnessed earlier… he had to try even harder for his friends. They needed him to be chipper and charismatic for them.

He sat in the cafe quietly, frowning a bit as he realized he was the only one there for the moment… However, the moment someone came in, they would be greeted with a confident smile. “Good evening!”

Being trapped in a hotel sucked and having your every move controlled by a bear also sucked, but there’s nothing Ryu loved more than solitude. He had been planning a self imposed isolation anyway: staying in his room and maybe popping out for food, so this was the perfect turn of events for him.

For the first few days, all he did was hole himself in his room and theorize about their situation. His thoughts were drastically clearer since he had no distractions and no need to worry about other people. In true theorist practice, he had pictures and notes pinned to the wall with red thread running between some of them. The theories were right under where the camera was positioned, so that his thought process wouldn’t be viewable by monokuma.

Hyun awoke earlier than normal, almost like something tipped her off there was a bad feeling in the air, probably because there was. After reading the messages on the E-Handbook, she set it down and promptly slammed her head against the closest wall, gritting her teeth. She pulled her arm back and banged on it one more time for good measure, before.turning and sliding down the wall. She observed the floor in front of her - a mess of wires and pliers engraved with “HPA SHOP” on the side. She turned her head to the box in the room, one she had snatched from the school store. She was alone, and it wasn’t breakfast time yet. She could finish. She pulled the assorted items out of the box and grabbed the shirt, scarf, planchette, and some scissors that had been haphazardly tossed across the room. She had work to do.

Orochi Morioka wasn’t feeling well. His feet dragged on the floor a bit as he made his way to the cafeteria for dinner. He didn’t want to eat anything, for fear of it just coming right back up. However, he didn’t want to worry anyone either. 

So, the thespian made his way to the cafeteria. It felt nice to have time to himself every now and then, to let down his guard and relax for a small while. This was too long though. It was getting to him… The isolation was going to tear him apart sooner or later. He had to see people. 

‘Fake it until you become it’.

Possibly a horrid motto, but he found that it applied well to how he had to behave in his time here. He had to continue this, as well. Based off of what he’d witnessed earlier… he had to try even harder for his friends. They needed him to be chipper and charismatic for them.

He sat in the cafe quietly, frowning a bit as he realized he was the only one there for the moment… However, the moment someone came in, they would be greeted with a confident smile. “Good evening!”