Wakumi

I simultaneously love me life and hate me life. Cause blimey, this is a fuckin' riot, but I can't take full advantage o' it. Joanie (Ginny, as I'll always call 'er) ain't allowed ta stop acting like 'er Aika character, like she's straight outta an anime. And it freaking makes me day!!! Unfortunately, me own code blocks me from havin' as much fun with this as I want. "Insult Anyone."

But what I can do is laugh and hoot and holler at 'er! "Aye, lassie, sing yer shanty!"

"You mean my theme song? Um, yes! I, Heavenly Blessing-Granter Aika, will sing the hymn of victory and love!" she quickly accepts. She pauses for a bit, trying to maintain 'er relentless grin. Sink me! Does she not have a shanty cause she ain't a real anime character?! And then she comes out with right about the best improvised song I e'er heard! Full o' gusto, joy, and pretty lyrics, she even manages ta pull off a dance! Granted, she's not the greatest singer to grace me ears, but she ain't making 'em bleed by any means! I applaud 'er gall and quick wit, but o' course, that doesn't mean I don't laugh me ass off. 'Er eyes twitch a bit, but she doesn't drop the act. "What was yer life like, Aika? What led ta ya becoming a hero?"

"Well, I was once the spirit of a woman in a wishing well, bestowing righteous blessings upon pure-hearted dreamers. But the city I reside in was crumbling and in disrepair due to decades of supervillain attacks and governmental corruption. So a sweet, young little boy wished to me that I'd become a hero and save the city. He even went through a complicated ritual to unbind my soul from the well. I became the embodiment of heavenly wishes given form, and I have come to cleanse the peoples!"

"Ah, Ginny, I can see why people want ye ta keep playin' this character. She's got real charm and 'er lore is top-notch!"

"Who's Ginny? I'm Aika," she emphasizes. But she takes me hand real briefly and squidges it, as though offering thanks. I pull away as soon as I get the message, but I nod. I lightly snap me eyepatch. "What about you? What led to you becoming a pirate?"

"Aye, yer gettin' a bit personal there. But I guess I can give ye a small scrap. Me family's full o' pirates. Me big bro is me ol' salt, and the capp'n. That's right. I'm not the capp'n o' me ship, I'm the first mate!"

"Wow! So you're like the little boy! The one who makes all things the captain does work out smoothly! I really do owe him," she reminisces. But it makes me wonder if the lass is okay in the head, cause she's gettin' all nostalgic for things that ne'er happened. And I don't like how feely she's gettin'.

"Aye. Wanna scuffle?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

"C'mon, fight me, lassie. Show me what yer powers are good for!"

"I don't want to injure you! I can sense that you are not dark of heart, though you may be a bit gruff!"

"Then I'll start! Ye best be givin' me a worthy scrap!" I lunge at her, not at me full capabilities, cause I dunno where 'er skill level's at. She gasps and struggles 'fore finally bitin' back a bit. She uses 'er staff and starts ta smack me with it and chant weird things and it's all way too funny ta me. I even start ta get a bit more darin', cause she's surprisingly good. At one point, she whacks me in the back so strong that I can't help but bellow aloud.

"Wakumi! I told you not to spring into a fight like this, you idiot! I didn't mean to actually hurt you! Are you okay?" she asks suddenly, clambering to her feet ta tend ta me. 'Er expression suddenly changes dramatically. "Ah, shit. Oh well. Sweet motherfucking freedom." She pulls her glove down slightly and chucks the detached bracelet ta the floor.

"What d'ye mean, 'idiot?!' I'm not an idiot, ye're just a—!" I cut meself off. "Ye're just me rival."

"Good catch."

The dumb ol' monitors kick on. "Hello, hello again! Now then! Would you all reconvene in Meeting Room A once again? I have a special surprise for you all!"

"All hands hoy, lassie, c'mon!" I gesture, pulling meself up and runnin' out the room 'fore the Monoinu start ta shove us around.

"Good evening, everybody!" Monokuma greets in that scratchy, annoyin' voice. We all grumble our acknowledgement. "Today is a very special day! Motive day! That wonderful, beautiful day where we unveil more deep, intrinsic pull to human corruption!"

"I thought the reward from the bracelet would be the motive!" Sayuri exclaims.

"Is there truly more to the picture than that?" Azumi frets.

"Argh, just get on with it," I roll me eyes in hatred.

"Perfect! I'm glad we're excited to get straight to the point of the matter! I'm sure all of you have questioned what exactly is going on here. You're all smarty-pants investigators, after all. That's what humans do! So, if you murder, your bonus prize will be... a private listening of an audio recording fresh from the mastermind! An exclusive scoop!"

"Wait, seriously?" Yuu gasps.

"Oh, yes indeedy! I must admit, it gets terribly lonely being the only one truly 'in the know.' Plus, I have a feeling it will bring some truly stunning despair! Pump it right into the building! Yahoooooo!"

"Guys, we can fight this one! We can find out the answers when all this is over! And if not, we can just invent our own answers! Right, Aika?" Fujiko bounces excitedly.

"You can quit it now. I fucked up. Wakumi witnessed it, so there's no use pretending I'm still in. But I, as Joanie Moore and not Aika, still very much agree with you," she nods, crackin' 'er knuckles.

"I'm all for making educated guesses," Ren shrugs. He sticks 'is thumbs into 'is pockets, makin' the chains jangle.

"Right then. All agreed to ignore the motive?" Monterio asks, havin' been hummin' all the while. 'Is wench still says nothin', but almost all the rest o' us affirm 'im."

"No promises," Keiji flatly responds. But we expected as much outta 'im.

We adjourn the meetin' ourselves and go back ta what we were doin'. No sweat off me back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ren

"I'm gonna kill you!" Monterio sings playfully. "Wha-bash! Pa-blam! Kapow!" His character dances along the screen, toying around and earning cheap potshots as we laugh. I'm pretty sure this is the most lighthearted I've felt since the last trial, even despite all of the crap Monokuma's thrown at us.

I briefly turn my head to Gou, one of the four people currently playing against each other. Of course, he's playing as one of the speediest characters in the game, usually pretty effective at dodging, as well. He's sticking out his tongue in concentration. This was all his idea, which, at this point, isn't that surprising. A guys' night was a pretty great idea, I have to admit.

Almost everyone seems to be in a good mood; Bisque is happily floating around the map, Chimon is fighting with a confident smirk, and Tozen and Yuu seem to be relaxed for once in their lives. Then, of course, there's the obvious offender. Nobody wanted him here. Hell, I'm like 99% sure he didn't want to be here. But none of us felt like it was a smart idea to leave this little prick alone or pawn him off on the girls. It's only gentlemanly to share the burden. Plus, we handcuffed him again like with Chimon's birthday.

I'm the one in charge of giving him food and drink when he requests it, cause he can't right well get it himself in this state. If it were anyone else (and at any time I didn't have a bracelet prohibiting it), I'd be making all sorts of flirty jokes about feeding him. But this is the bitch who tried to use Nari. Honestly, I was close to telling one of the others to do it themselves, but there's something inherently funny about watching him somehow even EAT spitefully.

When the game ends (with Gou as the victor, Chimon in second, Monterio in third, and Bisque in last), they start to debate which person from this round will join the next game with Tozen, Yuu, and me. "If you're going to abduct me, at least let me play," Keiji rolls his eyes.

"Alrighty then," Yuu comments, leaning in to detach his handcuffs.

"Wait, you actually want to?" Chimon asks in mild surprise.

"Playing is better than just sitting back and watching you all employ the same couple strategies over and over. This game DID sell nearly thirty million total copies as of last month, so of course it was going to get my attention," he explains. "Team Japan won the World Championship last year, so I tried to take some pointers."

Bisque tosses him a controller. When he picks a certain character who's particularly versatile and well-known for being strong, Yuu groans. "Dude, are you gonna be a power gamer?"

"That was my natural inclination, yes, but I suppose I'll change my game plan up a bit," he admits with a glare, choosing a lower-tier character based on swapping around their strengths and weaknesses. Yuu picks a joke character, I pick a slow, heavy hitter, and Tozen picks a somewhat quick, long-range character.

We get into the game, and pretty much instantly team up on Keiji. But as much as I hate to admit it, he does really well despite it, and we wind up all gradually having more and more fun over the course of the round. About three-quarters in, however, Tozen suddenly pauses. "D-Do you guys smell that?"

"No, turn it back on," Keiji answers swiftly. But I don't understand how he can think that. The odor is getting increasingly obvious.

"No, no wait. I do, too," Monterio insists.

"And me!" Bisque chimes in.

"Something's burning!" Tozen realizes, booking it out of the room. We follow along, and I can feel my heart start to pound in dread. We start to assorted, slightly panicked screams and Wakumi's laughter, which is never a good combo. Fortunately, it's just Fujiko being far more atrocious at cooking than anyone expected, and Tozen is easily able to put an end to the small grease fire.

Rattled, but at least now assured of our physical safety, we return to the game. "How did you not smell that, dude?" Yuu asks.

"Shut up and stop talking about it," Keiji commands gently. Yuu sticks his tongue out in quick defiance before zipping it.

"Keiji has a crappy sense of smell. A-At least I think," Gou observes.

"Why do you think that?" he asks, with pretty much no emotion in his voice. It's hard to tell what he's thinking.

"Well, he does wear that really strong cologne," Chimon points out.

"And occasionally mutters about my food being bland. Yes, I can hear you, no matter how quiet you try to be," Tozen chimes in with annoyance. "Being the oldest kid trains your ears."

Monterio, who has continued to whistle, laughs a bit. "I can hear it, too."

I decide to just be straight-up. "Is it or is it not worse than most peoples', Keiji?"

He grunts. "Fuck. Yeah, yeah it is."

"Keiji... what's your No-Go code?" Bisque asks.

He stays silent for a long while. "...Tell a lie. It's rather unfortunate. But I can always just choose to withhold information instead of fib."

"Then why are you telling us so much?" Tozen asks.

"I guess I'm just in a good mood. Now turn the game back on before that stops being the case." Finally, Tozen unpauses, and we jump right back into the fray. Monterio starts trying to make up lyrics for the background music, so I start to sing along with him. It's that Music Talent connection, I think to myself, but I hold my tongue and avoid spewing out whatever "Rhythm of Love" references or melodic pick-up lines building up in the back of my throat. And anyway, he's off-limits.

When we finish our round, we start to mix up the groups, do team games, add self-imposed rules, and even meme around a little bit like all simultaneously playing as the same character. By the end, everyone's singing the dumb songs Monterio and I came up with. At one point, the girls prank us. It's just a really great experience in spite of everything. By the time any of us even consider going to sleep, we've long since cleared out the haul of food Tozen made along with some less healthy snacks, and the nighttime announcement seems more like a distant memory.

I nearly let myself believe we might all make it out alive. But I stop myself just in time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sayuri

We were told that there's to be a Boys' Night tonight. I think my favorite benefit of this wretched code is that I've gotten a rare chance to be more authoritative than usual— especially since Yuu's been so patient with my silly little whims. So I decided that we'll have a Girls' Night, as well! Fortunately, they all went along with it, otherwise that might've been a tad confidence-crushing.

Everyone excitedly tried to throw together an agenda. Baking/Cooking time first, so we have plenty of snacks. Then we'll prank the boys— in part because it's funny, and in part because Wakumi isn't particularly interested in the next part. That next part is personal grooming: nail painting, face masks, and the like. Fujiko is exceptionally excited about that last part, because she claims that it'll make for even better makeup in the morning. Lastly, Joanie made a whole line-up of scary movies for us to watch.

We all decide we want to make one dish/snack each. Azumi effortlessly whips up a delectable-looking batch of funnel cakes. "They are a classic at my circus, and I have been unable to indulge for quite some time," she explains wistfully as she holds one tool in each hand and another in her right foot.

"Mmmm!" I exclaim, giggling.

"You sure do have a sweet tooth, don'tcha, honey?" Joanie raises an eyebrow.

"Maybe!"

Wakumi decides to take charge and make an actual dinner so that we don't just have buckets of snacks. "I didn't have the time ta cure meat or anything, so it ain't quite like the taste o' home, but I figure fish and beans'll work in a pinch. Ye wenches are prolly too dainty fer sludge, so I'll make the fish into rice balls."

Joanie follows in her spirit and creates a not bad chicken casserole. Kana bakes up some pretzels. I make some mochi. Everything is looking exceptional and we're feeling good.

And then Fujiko tries to make fries. Oh, goodness. We probably should have tried to be prepared for the likely chance that one or more of us would be terrible cooks. It's Fujiko. It's her. Grease flames. Lots of screaming. Wakumi laughing like she's the arbiter of Armageddon herself, despite not being the one to set the fire. Who cooks in your house?! I'm going to write a poem about this. Eventually, the boys rush in and Tozen ends the madness. We're all relieved that Azumi doesn't wind up passing out.

Then, despite the boys just being a huge help, we proceed with our plans to prank them. Kana takes up the helm of this job. "We have the speaker in the parlor, of course. But oh, we have so many more. And... a universal remote, to top it all off!" Now it's her turn to laugh maniacally. How many nutcases do I live with?! Am I one of them?! She flat-out walks straight into Monterio's room and takes the remote off his desk, because apparently he hides his key for her and she hides it in a different new place every time with a number! She gets various speakers from her own room, and we proceed to scatter them EVERYWHERE.

"Hehehe! You ready, girls?" she winks.

"Get on with it then!" Wakumi nods, slapping her on the back.

"I-Is this truly a wise idea?" Azumi asks.

"C'mon, it's too late to turn back now!" Joanie insists, for once denying her typical role as voice of reason.

"You've got this, Kana! Let's show those boys what we've got!" Fujiko giggles, twirling her hair.

"Sayuri, gimme a countdown!" she smiles.

"Three... two... one... NOW!"

She turns on all of the speakers at once and proceeds to crank the volume up so loud that it's almost mind-numbing. She then immediately hands me the remote. "If they come looking, make sure they know you have it!" she shouts. Ah, I see. Can't let Monterio take her by surprise and cause her to lose.

The boys start screaming at the tops of their lungs as they rush out, most of them still genuinely laughing. Six of them start looking for individual speakers to turn off, but Monterio and Gou come chasing after us. The girls bar Kana start tossing the remote amongst ourselves. Azumi makes graceful, elongated motions and bends unnaturally, Wakumi is willing to dive for it, and Joanie can fight back against the boys a bit, so it makes up for the less-than-stellar athletic ability of Fujiko and me. Kana herself sits back and watches the pandaemonium she's just caused. It takes a while for the boys to win and peace to be restored.

Having expended a solid amount of energy, we finally settle down. Fujiko provides us with face masks and nail polish that she found in the warehouse, tending to us warmly and sweetly. It's like she runs her own spa house or something. Wakumi rejects the care, but for once, even she seems relaxed. While Fujiko paints my nails, I start trying to compose a villanelle about tonight aloud. I worry that they might start to grow weary of my voice, but it's quite the contrary; when I dwell over a rhyme, they'll occasionally chime in with a suitable one (especially Azumi). I'll revise later.

After we all feel nice and refreshed, Joanie drags us off to the screening room to be suitably spooked. And boy, are they spooky. At the end, when she thinks we're all gonna be droopy and tired, I notice that she's chosen one of her own movies to show us, and we proceed to squeal and fangirl about it. "Damn, y'all, I wasn't expecting that. Thank you," she admits, taking her wig off in gratitude.

"Take a bow, you legend!" Fujiko cheers.

"Ah, no."

"Yes! Do it!" Kana urges.

"Don't be a— I mean, have a li'l fun, Ginny!" Wakumi heckles.

"You dearly deserve it. We are proud!" Azumi applauds.

"I wish I had a rose to throw you," I lament.

After all this encouragement, Joanie finally relents and takes a bow.

Then, at last, it is time for us to retire to our bedrooms and sleep for the night. I jot down the first draft of my Girls' Night poem, and curl up, ready for whatever comes next.