Chapter Text
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"-You can't directly kill each other off, too." The woman in front of us finished explaining a long list of... 73 rules. She's unfortunately a devoted worker and has practically raised anyone who was born in the past 30 years, myself included. She had just finished explaining the rules of this dumb thing as I filled out a questionnaire.
I swiftly ended my paper with my signature at the bottom of the page, while the girl next to me was just thinking about what to put for the name part of the question. Her name was Celestia, but she didn't have a surname, like the majority of people who are in the company.
"Just skip your surname," Jasmine advised her while she nodded, before handing the paper over just as I had a few seconds before. The thing was actually a form asking for our consent, which is funny because we get told to put yes in the box asking for it. Not much of a consent form if you ask me. "Right... I'll head you over to the final room,"
Neither of us felt in a talking mood at the time, though nobody ever really was here, so we just silently followed. The rooms were basically pitch black except for a cold light in the corner of each, which meant that I almost tripped over possibly more times than should be humanly possible. Not my fault the floors are coated in wires.
Jasmine held open the door and warmly, but subtly smiled.
I looked away and quickly heard the sound of the heavy door shutting. The newer room had a small table with 2 cups, both filled with the same liquid. From my understanding, it was pretty much... a drug to make you sleep? The motion sensors in the corners of the room flickered before the two of us drank it easily.
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I woke up in an oddly uncomfortable position on a navy blue coloured mattress. The room was enveloped by mirrors, making myself and the sleeping Celestia next to me vividly apparent, even if my vision was dazed from just being woken up.
I was in my standard uniform. White shirt with the blue, wool vest top over it, all put together with [a] black [trousers/skirt]. I wore a slightly lighter blue scarf with a polka dot pattern on it, as I usually did. I readjusted it so that it hid the back of my neck perfectly. Honestly, they could've given us different clothes to wear.
My attention shifted to Celestia. She was in the same uniform as I was, except the vest was yellow. They represented our houses, though that's not important. Her blonde hair drooped over her face, even while it was gently tied back into a braid. It was a little tousled. She had a skirt and green eyes.
Honestly, the most I did for a while was just sitting. I didn't know what to do. Do I wake her? Do I check what's going on outside?
Eventually, I concluded that I should wake her, in case I get shot or whatever if I went out. Which isn't too bad of a thing, really, but it's not especially desirable. I gently shook her shoulders to wake her up.
"Celestia," I gently said, also poking her arm.
She groaned, "Why are you-?" She stopped herself before her mouth formed into an 'o' shape. "Shit..."
"Yeah." I looked up at the blinding lights. It was worse how the room was covered in mirrors. Celestia quickly seemed to notice her messy hair and instantly untied it. It's a bad habit of hers, for her hair - and sometimes mine - to be perfect. "Tie your shoelaces. We should go,"
"You're very straightforward nowadays." She uttered, though she tied her laces anyways.
I chuckled, "I mean, why wouldn't I be, right?"
She stood up and headed over to the door, gently twisting the handle and peeking outwards. "Nothing,"
"You mean nobody's there?" She pushed the door open more and stepped outside.
"Yeah. I hear commotion from the hallway on the right, though."
"We've seemed to wake up later than I assumed... Might be a problem," I followed her as she made her quick-paced steps across the hall.
"In what way?"
"They've probably already settled together. Who knows how long they've all been here,"
"Good point," Celestia and I headed towards the hallway which had the most commotion. Of course, we were both wary, perhaps me more than her, seeing as the first thing she did was look in the room, and quite obviously at that. Unfortunately for me, she was holding my wrist.
...This meant that when she got pulled into the room, so did i.
"Wha- who are you?!" A ginger girl said. She looked at Celestia and me.
Before I could run away from this interaction, I got pulled back by whoever it was for whatever reason they wanted.
"H-Hey!" I shouted back, surprised, "What are you doing?!" Was not my plan but hey, as long as it ends soon.
She pulled me to face the actual room and not to the hallway, allowing me to glance at Celeste, who was also being held back. I wouldn't blame them for doing that however, we are practically strangers compared to these people's relationships somehow (which, may I remind you, is a friendship lasting no more than 5 hours maximum.)
"Well, they both seem to be cooperating..." A blond guy looked at me before continuing, "Sorta," Not my fault I don't want to be restrained.
"So... Who are you two?" The chick behind me asked, and received an answer instantly.
"Oh, my name is Celestia Jonas." She slightly hesitated when thinking of a surname, "I'm 16, so a first-year high school student."
"[Name] [L/N]. I'm 16 too," I got a weird side-eye from the blond guy. Perhaps it's because I just told a completely blatant lie and he noticed. My surname is not, in fact, [L/N]. I don't want to be associated with anything I truly am. Family and all.
The guy nodded and, I'm sure he has something against me already. "Anything else you want to know..?"
"Err... Not really," The ginger spoke from behind me. "Well... I'm guessing you're both willing to cooperate." Their grip loosened for both of us.
"As long as you're not planning to kill either one of us, I'm sure we'll be fine," I answered back.
She nodded uncomfortably at what I said. She probably took it as an assumption, which isn't incorrect. "And you?"
"Sure," Celeste replied back, slightly bothered. The ginger girl nodded before letting go of me, the old man following what she did. Protagonist much.
I wasn't expecting her to be alright with us so soon, but this is fine I suppose.
For once I looked around at the people. Everyone seemed to be quiet enough so I didn't pay much attention. An.. odd bunch, I'd say. But oh my god the number of recognisable people in the room was, actually not that shocking.
Shin? It’s understandable considering his... connections. He's probably going to die here, (then again, likely I am too) since he has both the strength and the charm of a dead flea. Unless he has some secret plan, which knowing him, is more likely than you'd assume.
"What's your name anyways, bangs?" I questioned.
"Sara Chidouin." Eugh. Scary. "I'm a high schooler, like you two..." She gently laughed.
I already don't like her. Do I have to cooperate with someone like this? I can virtually read her like a book already.
"We'll figure out all your names soon enough," I quickly said, trying to get the uncomfortable silence out of the way. I had made eye contact with a good few of these people in the past 10 seconds.
"Now then. Should we all split up and search for Nao?"
"Y...Yeah, Let's all split up!" A girl, (presumably 'reko' from what I've heard. Is popular and likes music or whatever.)
"Uhm, actually," Shin stepped forward a little, "Can I stay here and rest? I'm still feeling uneasy.."
"Yeah... Gin, Kanna, hell, even [Name] and Celestia, why don't you all stay and rest?"
"Huh? Why me?" I asked.
"You just woke up and you look certainly unwell. She does too," She continued. According to pretty much everyone I know, I always look unhealthy. That's not surprising at all. But I don't want to walk, so I'll take the opportunity.
"Fine, I'll stay, I guess."
"Well, I at least feel no need, personally. I'm pretty energised right now," Celestia physically showed the fact by doing a small twirl.
"I don't want to stay here, meow!" The kid clung to Sara. "Big sis Sara... I want you to take me, woof..."
"Gin, you should stay here," She placed her hand on his head, slightly stroking. Or petting?
"I'm begging you, woof!" He continued shouting.
"If you don't want to stay, come with me, don't bother Sara," Reko proposed the option to him. He seemed to agree and so most of them left, except me, Shin and Kanna, as she was addressed.
We were all sitting on the floor, and Kanna was half asleep for whatever reason (though Reko did say she should stay here, so I guess something must have happened.) For the both of us to talk about important stuff she needed to be fully asleep otherwise we have the risk of her hearing us... Which isn't the best scenario. I'm curious about whoever the hell Nao is and why she's gone.
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Almost silent snores were heard from the other side of Shin, presumably (and hopefully) Kanna now asleep. He looked as if he wanted to say something.
"Nice to see you here..."
"Y'know, apart from the fact we both might die in this place," I replied, fidgeting with my fingers.
"Mhm..." He responded, and paused for a moment, "Why'd you change your surname?"
Truthfully, two reasons.
A. I don't want any connections to my brother whatsoever. There's a new group of people, I may as well take the opportunity.
B. Why should I share my name anyways?
"I don't trust these people. Especially that Sara girl," I rolled my eyes at the thought. She really is like a main character. A stereotypical one. "I don't like her,"
"... I don't either," He stopped to think for a moment, pondering whether he should say whatever he was about to say. "She reminds me of him. I think Sara could have something to do with this as well... Perhaps even without her knowing." I nodded in understanding. "Oh. By the way. I hope you realised Alice is here too. He said his name was Gonbee Yamada. Not sure why..."
"An Interesting choice, I'll say."
He ignored what I said, and went straight into a new statement. "And I said my name was Sou,"
...
I took a deep breath. "You what-?!" I whisper shouted at him in a wave of confused anger. "I understand changing in general- but why his name..?!"
"I-I'm sorry, okay?! I was rushing for a name and when I tried to say something else, I ended up saying his and-. I was just panicking," He quickly responded, tugging on his signature beanie.
I took a breath and looked at Kanna before continuing. "Dumbass..." I closed my eyes, "Just thankful I didn't say my real surname now..."
"It's fine."
"Sure. ...Who's that Nao girl everyone's looking for?" I broke the silence, avoiding the previous topic.
"Er... She- Uh. She ran away somewhere because her professor died-?" Shin slightly covered his mouth while making a slightly nervous expression.
"Oh." I paused, "And why were you wanting to stay here?"
"The same girl recently hit me over the head for some reason. I still have a headache, so I wanted to rest more,"
"How much does it hurt?"
"...Quite a bit, but it's fine." He pulled his legs closer to his chest.
"Do you want some ice?" He thought for a moment, so I took it as a 'yes but I don't want to say yes' kind of look. The Bar seemed to be a complete replica of a room I'd been in before - maybe once or twice when I was younger while snooping around, and quite a few more in recent years - so it was easy enough to navigate where the stuff was. Bags and paper towels were in the same cupboard as I thought, so, yay. As I was doing it though, I could practically feel Shin's (Sou's?) gaze. I don't know what he was thinking because I wasn't looking.
As I had finished, I passed the bag to him and quickly returned to my spot beside him.
"Thanks." He slightly budged his beanie to the side to get the spot, "Sorry I stopped visiting you. I got caught up in work."
Shin hadn't interacted with me for a while before this. Which, at first I found unusual, but then I gave up and assumed he'd finally decided to give up on me. Honestly, it is a bit of a journey, and before that, he was visiting at a rate of once a month. Considering many don't get any at all, I was lucky.
"It's fine."
The conversation seemed to stop there. I didn't want to leave, exactly, and he seemed to be thinking, so I'd rather not have left him when it seemed like he was going to ask something.
"Did you, er... know... this was going to happen?" He ultimately asked, catching my wide eyes after a few seconds. "I mean- you kind of..."
He shook his head as to tell me nevermind, and looked at Kanna. I raised the back of my scarf a little in discomfort. I could already tell he was probably going to hate me if I did tell him everything, so I decided I'd try to put it off for a while.
"I'll explain every- most things I know soon... It might not be best to talk about it now." He nodded and fell silent again. I didn't feel as if either of us had anything to say after it.
I got up and began to look around the room. Obviously, it was a bar. And as I specified, I had seen the layout before, which meant this was almost a replica of what I've known. Hell, even some of the drinks here were the same as I last knew.
A smaller bottle caught my attention while I was browsing the area.
The label had a large 'P' on it, unlike most other bottles there which had a label with a full name on it. I felt wary of picking it up but decided to. If I was going to examine what it was, it was necessary.
"What's that?" I heard Shin speak up from behind me.
I wasn't sure how to respond, so I quickly looked at everything. It appeared colourless, so that was a start. A small "21 mg" was plastered on the back, also with a list of properties. Along with that, '25 °C, 100 kPa' could be seen.
"It's... probably a poison." I briefly responded.
We shared a small moment of silence as he was a little shocked. For me, I suppose it was expected this was going to be here.
"A what-?" Shin questioned, "What are you going to do with it..?"
I thought a little, "I might... I think I'll take it with me. I want to know what type of poison it is."
"God, you're crazy."
"I'll take that as a compliment coming from you." I saw him mutter something else, but brushed it off. I placed the bottle in a pocket I had after checking it was securely closed. "Will you two be okay on your own?"
He exhaled, "We'll be fine. See you around?"
I nodded and made my way over to the archway which separated the hall and the bar. Kanna looked as if she was just waking up, and I don't want to talk to her, as mean as it may sound.
I thought about looking for Celestia. I don't like being alone in new places, so being near someone I know helps.
Sadly, this place is quite large and she'll be moving around.
Out of the three hallways, I had just come out of the one on the right. I heard some commotion from the centre one, so I headed to the far left.
It had a smoking room, for some reason. Once, I tried smoking. I regretted it eventually, considering my punishment was to just smoke more. From the looks of it, the room the hall was attached to wasn't very interesting. Still, I wanted to escape the chatter of the others. Thus, I checked it out anyway.
It involved two more rooms. One with a blue door, one with a red. I assumed this was the room which was mentioned that Alice was brought out of, seeing as Sara said so while exiting the bar earlier.
I found no interest in anything else.
I went to look at the middle corridor. It directly was connected to a cafeteria of sorts, and a very familiar one. Nothing appeared unlocked, so I looked at the kitchen after entering.
It was quite unhygienic, compared to the rest of the place. Utensils and tools were scattered around randomly, it seemed, and there was pretty much mess almost everywhere, save for a spot in the corner of the room.
That was a place off my mental checklist of 'to look at', so I went to explore the rest of this area. There was a darkened section at the back where I could make out a light emitting from around the middle.
It was open, and very bright pink. Sometimes it feels like they're trying to make us go blind.
There was a vent thing on the wall and some shelves, but nothing to note, apart from the totally not suspicious patch of blood in the back corner, no, everything's fine.
The second floor was... Surprisingly empty. I could have sworn I saw someone in the hallway while I was coming up the stairs, but now it seemed they were gone. I didn't have enough time to recognise the silhouette, either.
I think I heard another argument from a room labelled 'mir' on the front. At the end of the pathway, was an ominous door. Definitely isn't suspicious.
I wanted to look at it. It may have been a dangerous decision.
As soon as I came around a meter close to it, I felt a sharp pain in my head, followed by darkness.
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