#normdays

Hikaru enters the staff room, looking around a bit before closing the door behind himself and moving to search through whatever he can find. 

…

Nothing. Absolutely fucking...nothing.

What did he expect? That finding a useful room would be as easy as going into the one with “Staff Only” on it?

“FUCK!”

Hikaru kicks over a chair, panting in frustration.

Nothing…

Every corner he looks in, everything he tries, it’s all for nothing. 

He’s probably going to die here, they all are. He can keep just telling himself that he’ll live, but that doesn’t make it true. He can keep begging for an escape route, but that doesn’t mean one will arise.

Losing himself in the moment, Hikaru just slumps in one of the chairs and...sobs. He’s so tired of keeping the emotions in, he’s tired of doing this...he’s tired of watching people die and pretending he’s fine. He’s tired of talking to people and then waking up the next day to them being nothing but a corpse, or a murderer.

He wants to go home. He wants to see his dads again. For once, is the story worth it? Is it worth it if no one even lives to tell the tale?

One day, he won't wake up to a corpse or a murderer. One day...

Yuuki had read in a book somewhere, once, that doses of normal routine served a great deal to help calm one's self in times of stress. Showering, cleaning, even doing laundry could help supply a sense of normalcy that serves to ground ones thoughts.

Yuuki held their normal clothes in a small sack, wearing a different looking hoodie and sweatpants. Somehow, they were even more lazily dressed than usual. It had been awhile since Yuuki had washed their clothes, that is to say, awhile since they gave them to their mom to wash. They had, to be honest, never done laundry once in their life.

They looked at the dials on the machine, with all these odd phrases. Warm-cold, cold-cold, warm-warm! Perm press, colors, delicates, whitest whites. Deep clean. Extra rinse. Medium soil? They looked at their hoodie... Heavy soil? Heavy hot delicate soil slow cold rinse? The novelist, for the life of them, didn't have the slightest clue what they were looking at.

The rumbling of another washing machine already going, though, provided them with an easy solution. Whatever settings that machine was on would no doubt be fine, and easier than figuring it out for themself. Pausing the already running machine, they looked inside, noting that cult bitch's white dress in there. Ugh. Whatever. Once it was done, they'd take their shit and bounce before she came back. 

Jito had felt anger before, it was natural wasn't it?  To get mad at Monokumi, this situation, the murderers that had been caught, the one that got away.  Those were all natural, and he could process them relatively well.

But this anger was different, it felt like he had been betrayed by someone.  Or some people.  That he was envious at some people who had gotten low scores and didn't deserve it.  Or maybe they did, but he was all the same wishing he were along with them.  He was confused, distraught, filled with dread constantly asking himself...

Why did people vote for him so highly?

Painting much like before didn't seem to alleviate the anger.  He wanted to try something different, something where he could visualize his anger and defeat it... with lethal precision.

It was for this reason that he had found himself in the SHSL Fight Directors Lab, armed with a sword held out into the air.  For a moment he felt cool, like the samurai he always imagined in the movies.  But not the honorable kind, the wrath filled one looking for revenge.  Perhaps trying to avenge their fallen lord.  That was a way to channel his anger.

And so he wildly  just swung through the air.  Looking more like a madman than a trained Samurai, if Shu were here she'd probably have some words on how to better make these moves happen.  But nevertheless it just helped to let off some steam.  With each swing he grimaced,

Why was he so high up?

Did they even appreciate him?

What's so great about the others anyway!?

How the heck did Ryoma beat him out!?

It didn't seem that swinging made the envy or negativity go away more so than just compound the thoughts.  But it felt good, it felt like he could at least target his anger for once.  And every so often he'd let out a little yelp or battle cry as he swung.  And he swung, and swung, and swung, just continuing to slash the air and working up a sweat until he heard footsteps coming up to his location.

Something in the hotel is whistling.

The sound drifts through the hotel halls. Coupled with the sounds of the howling winds outside and branches scraping at the windows, it's downright eerie. What with the panic that's setting in, some people might hear it and just avoid it altogether. Is it a ghost?

Someone who's brave enough to investigate will find that it's not a ghost - it's just Maverick! He's currently walking from the kitchen, crossing the grand foyer where his whistling echoes and can be heard through most of the hotel. It's pretty tuneless and his whistling itself isn't even great, but given the circumstances right now, that just makes it eerier. 

Right now, Orpheus could absolutely go for a cup of coffee.

With Atsuko’s laboratory being part of the new area that ought to be explored, he had every reason to enter said place to begin with. From his first impression, it was a cozy shop that one could get comfortable in - something that they desperately needed after yesterday’s shenanigans.

Therefore, he wasn’t exactly surprised to see the place being occupied by someone else already.

On the other hand though, the atmosphere was immediately awkward as soon as Orpheus realized who it was that he ran into. After all, given his accusiations - that he couldn’t exactly withdraw as of now -, he wouldn’t be surprised if Kimiko wouldn’t want to talk to him.

(Not to mention that she probably suspected him of doing the deed as well, huh--)

Despite that, it would be rude of him to not greet her, at least. Just because their situation got more complicated, didn’t mean that they had to forego pleasantries and the likes, yes?

Therefore, he gave the resident magical girl a careful smile as he bowed - more deeply than usually, that is. Maybe, someone still felt guilty for making her cry like this.

If there was one thing that Luna wasn’t too happy about, it was the absence of a room with enough room to actually work out. Thus, she had to find a substitute for that - and it just happened to be the foyer; to be more precise, mostly the middle and left side of it. The right section was too narrow and she wasn’t exactly eager to dance face first into a door that suddenly opened.

Luna had finished doing some stretches when she finally decided on her workout plan for today - it would be a rather light routine overall. She thought that she should take it easy after waking up confused in a building that she had no recollection of ever entering.

Starting near the entrance to the kitchen and dining area, Luna surveyed the area one more time - currently, no one was around for her to accidentally bump into. As that could change at a moment’s notice, Luna didn’t waste any time and assumed a stance. One of her feet was slightly placed before the other, only her toes touching the ground. Her arms were leveled slightly below her chest, holding them rather graciously. Fixating her eyes on a point to the far end of this corridor, she began to do quick twirls while moving to the other side. Her movements were fluid, her blue scarf whirling around elegantly as she stayed focused on the task.

However, around 2/3 of her path, she noticed something out of the corner of her eyes - which was already a feat, given how her head was whipping around even faster than her entire body. There was definitely someone coming from the hallways which led to the suites.

Seemingly effortless and, most of all, smooth was her transition from the quick spinning to taking a gracious bow to whoever had approached her, smiling all the while. She looked up and gave them a quick wink.

Either this was going to be the most tasteless joke of the century or they were in real, deep trouble - and sadly, Orpheus was more leaning towards the latter option. Hope’s Peak wouldn’t win anything but scaring their new students in such a fashion - not to mention that they have a reputation to uphold.

With furrowed eyebrows, Orpheus witnessed the reaction’s of his fellow classmates - which were rather varied, truth be told. Some displayed fear, some others didn’t buy this whole situation one bit, some seemed to even enjoy the premise...

(Like a colorful cast of quirky characters in a book.)

(Let’s see where this adventure is going to take them, hm?)

...

A few minutes after the reveal, Orpheus made his way to the newly unlocked dorms. There was talk about everyone having roommates, so naturally, Orpheus was curious whom he would share a room with for an indefinite amount of time. Hopefully, it was someone he could get along with easily...

As the fantasy novelist opened the door to his room, he was surprised to see that it was none other than Nisemono who was already inside in said place. Well, that was a pleasant turn of surprise! They’d already talked before the reveal - so it was at least someone whom he was somewhat familiar with.

“It appears as if we’re going to be roommates now, Yoshida-san.”

The NPC’s absence brought a multitude amount of feelings forth. Most of all, it was worry in Kaya’s case. After all, that had never happened before and therefore, one could only imagine the reasoning behind such an occasion. For all they knew, the NPCs could be up to something nefarious - not like that wasn’t the case already, but it could always get worse. By now, the cosplay idol knew that it would be foolish to believe that their captors would soften in their approach in any way. Instead, they would try to get under their skins even more - which disgusted her.

When the silence was finally broken at one day, Kaya sighed as she listened to Chihue ramble. The pink-haired girl made sure to pay close attention to what he said and couldn’t help but feel like as if that paid off; after all, they finally had confirmation about the mascots being actually robots. Well, not like there were many other possibilities to begin with, but having some answers was already a beginning.

That aside, the motive certainly did hit home.

Well, who wouldn’t feel their heart stop at the mere thought of losing a loved one? Almost immediately, the ones most important to her flashed before her very eyes - her parents, Shiho, him--

When she was shown pictures on her screen, the cosplay idol paled. Panic was starting to settle down and she wanted to scream at Chihue to not lay a finger on her loved ones or so god held her.

However, fortunately for her, a spark of rationalism managed to break through her panic, filling her mind with various questions - questions that helped her to get a grip of herself, to not give into this game for any longer. It was time for them all to resist these temptations for good.

“... Not this time, you fiends. You won’t fool me with your pathetic attempt. I know that they’re all safe... to dare and make me think otherwise is truly beyond disgusting.”

And with out - not like there was anyone around to even hear her words -, Kaya began to formulate a plan - to soothe everyone’s nerves and halt this mutual killing game for good.

...

At the very same day the motive was announced, everyone would find a letter in their room that was shoved underneath their door. It would read the following - with their own name written on it: