Chapter Text
“Helllooooo. Hello ! Blondieee!! Ah, he’s not waking up. What a pain.”
The words rang out in my head like a knife, though muffled. As if I was underwater.
“Have patience. He ought to wake up soon.”
Where am I?
“This is lame. Can’t we just leave him here? Please?” The first person asked. A boyish sort of voice, probably about, 16? 15? My age. “All he’s been doing for the past few minutes is twitching. He’ll be fine by himself!” It’s got the tiniest hint of an accent. Australian? Russian?
Rude, I thought. I couldn’t seem to pry my eyes open. Like I’d been sleeping for a long time.
A cough. “Childe, you can’t possibly think of leaving him here in the blazing sun.” The sun. right. It’s hot. I started to get feeling in my skin. I was sweating a bit. Was I on a pavement? “Come on, now.” The second person’s voice was directed at me this time. Their voice was deep and masculine, with a sort of rumble in the back of their throat when they spoke. Their age… I couldn’t put a pin on it. They could have been 17 or 50.
“Ooh, ooh! I have an idea!” Childe said. Childe? Like ‘child’? What kind of name was that?
Footsteps.
Ah, he’s finally left, I thought, until a few seconds later water was dumped onto my face. Ice water, searing cold on my skin.
“ Gah! ” I splutter, eyes shooting open, finally . “What the hell?! You didn’t have to do that!” I heard myself yelp, my brain still getting used to this overload of senses. Bright, hot sun. Hot pavement. Hot sweat, now mixed with the uncomfortable drip of the freezing water.
“Well, nice to meet you too, sleeping beauty. You could’ve said thank you!” Childe yelled back. My eyes adjusted to the sight in front of me.
Two guys crouch in front of me. I blink. The first one, Childe, blinks back at me mockingly. He’s got fiery ginger hair, ocean blue eyes, and a smattering of freckles on his nose. He’s wearing some sort of school uniform, but the jacket and tie are long gone. His pants are a bit ripped up at the knees as if he’d taken many falls. Wrapped around his hands are bandages. One has a little fresh blood at the knuckles peeking through. He used his hands when he talked. He had scowl lines.
The second man stared back at me with narrow amber eyes. Probably of Chinese or Korean descent. His black hair was tied back in a neat and long ponytail, stretching to his waist. The ends are tipped with the same amber as his eyes. His face was just as attractive as Childe’s, maybe a bit more, but exuded more of an elegant, masculine handsomeness while Childe had more of a louder, pretty aura. His outfit fell into the same pattern as well, a white dress shirt, black tie, chocolate brown jacket, and black dress pants, not a hair out of place. He looked like he’d fallen straight out of a Chinese romance drama.
“I apologize for the rude awakening,” he said, pointing a glare at Childe. The latter stared back teasingly. “You were lying unconscious on the ground. We woke up beside you.” He continued, putting a large hand on my shoulder. “My name is Zhongli Huang. Yours?”
I met his gaze, frantically pulling around in my frazzled mind for an answer. “Ah. Aether. Aether Tev. Sorry, my head hurts a bit…” My name is Aether. I think to myself. High school student. 15. 5”3, maybe 5”4 now? Long, blonde hair. I like travelling. My favourite food is Sweet Madame, from that restaurant around the block.
Childe scoffed. “Well, Aether. Do you know where we are right now?”
“Tevyat High. The safe-haven… safe house…” I pause. “...For Ultimate students.”
Oh no. Oh my god.
She never made it, did she?
“Lumine!” I snapped suddenly. Childe flinched back, and Zhongli didn't move. “Lumine. Is she here? Looks like me. My sibling. Twin. Is she here, where is she, where is-!”
Zhongli grabbed both my shoulders. “Aether!” I breathe heavily. “I’m sorry, we haven’t met anyone named Lumine. We woke up here, beside you, and we’ve been waiting for you to wake up. I’m sorry. Can you stand up?”
Despair sunk in, churning in my stomach. She probably hadn’t made it.
I nodded shakily, and the two stood up, Zhongli offering his gloved hand to me. I take it, wobbily getting up. “I’m… Aether Tev. Ultimate Traveler. I was coming here with my sister…!” The memories stung like a needle, the pour of rain, the slippery mud, and the yelling, oh, the yelling…
Childe’s face softened a bit in pity. “Ah. Well, the name’s Childe Tartaglia, I guess. Ultimate Fighter or whatever, because I was apparently just that good at beating people up. 17. This himbo here is the Ultimate Historian.” he stuck a bandaged finger at Zhongli, who stood stiffly beside him. “Turns out he’s 17, not 40, thank Tsaritsa. Just a history nerd. Wow, Aether, you are short!”
“I’m actually normal size, for your information.” I ground out, having said the same line millions of times. “You guys are 6 foot. Which is not normal size.”
Zhongli sighed. “We should head towards that building over there, no? We might meet someone else. There wasn’t a map for the safe house.” I then started to take in my surroundings. We were standing on a newly laid pavement pathway, lined with reddish-green trees. On one side, a dozen or so feet away was a tall gate, dark metal fencing stretching out from it. The other side, a bit far, was the outline of a school. The path stretched out into a circular courtyard in front of the building, an unmoving fountain smack in the middle. It was pretty.
“Nowhere else to go.” Childe drawled. We head down the path.
“Here.” I pointed to a pair of pastel pink doors ( what a peculiar colour, I thought to myself,) at the side of the school, labelled Gym. We had found no other entrances. The school had a greenhouse encased in glass, and many rooms (limited with what we could see through tinted windows). The closest we had gotten to doors were at an attached sub-building that had looked like a very skinny apartment complex, like a tower of rooms. The doors had been at the porches, the closest one about 15 feet up, with no way to scale the smooth-ish bricks that made up the building.
Zhongli pushed open the doors heavily. We were greeted with a large basketball court, with a stage at the back, along with a podium. And finally, people! I didn’t like people much usually, but in such a foreign environment it was nice to see others.
They looked about the same ages as us three, in high school, probably. I rake my eyes over the crowd of people. 13 others.
And no Lumine. No sister. Yet.
“Ayaya!” A voice immediately exclaims. “3 more warm bodies to add to our collection! Too bad they’re all guys though.” The perky voice came from the group, and a girl, about my height, separated herself from them. She had a hat adorned with flowers, a dark shirt, dark shorts, with pretty silver and gold patterns stitched into it. Long chocolate hair. Bright red eyes. “Th’ name’s Hu Tao! Ultimate Prankster! Don’t call me Hu. Hu Tao, please, it sounds much better,” she insisted. “M’ guessing you’re Ultimates as well?”
“Fighter. Historian. Traveller.” I point at the according. “Er. Why are we here?”
A tall woman stepped forwards, chin raised up assertively. “Well, this is a so-called safe house, is it not? We’re all hiding from that stupid Ultimate Chase, Hunt thing. Weird having a bounty over our heads, as if we’re gonna start a new killing game.” She narrowed her stormy purple eyes at the three of us. “I’m Baal. My last name, but I am not any of you guys' friend.”
We all introduced ourselves one by one. I made a mental list:
Ultimate Prankster, Hu Tao. Really loud.
Ultimate Actor, Baal. “What’s her problem?” Childe whispers to Zhongli later.
Ultimate Lawyer, Yanfei Chen. Seems pretty nice.
Ultimate Chemist, Albedo Kreideprinz. No idea how to pronounce his surname, I’ll just call him Albedo.
Ultimate Doctor, Sucrose Miller. A bit shy, latching onto Albedo like a scared child. She’s sweet, though. She and Albedo seem close.
Ultimate Writer, Xingqiu Li. Talks a bit quietly, but super nice.
Ultimate Ice Skater, Chongyun Zhou. Xingqiu’s best friend. He didn’t speak.
Ultimate Baker, Xiangling Mao. Xingqiu’s other best friend. Loud! Likes spicy food, which she was very verbal about.
Ultimate Rock Star, Xinyan Yang. Xingqiu's other best friend. (He has a lot of friends). Spiky clothing.
Ultimate Teacher, Jean Gunnhildr. Seems reliable. “Seems trustworthy, I don’t like the others, though.” Childe comments.
Ultimate Barista, Diluc Ragnvindr. Didn’t talk much. Hid in a corner of the gym after.
Ultimate Idol, Barbara Pegg. Jean’s cousin. Her voice was alarmingly soft.
And, Ultimate Librarian, Lisa Minci. “Ara ara indeed,” Childe observed, approvingly.
16 students total, including Zhongli, Childe, and I. Only 16 students had made it to the safe house in one piece.
And still no Lumine.
“Welcome, welcome everybody!” A squeaky, high voice echoed through the gym, causing everyone to flinch back (except Zhongli, is that guy a robot?). “No need to be tense! Ultimate students, welcome!”
Childe leaned in. He gestured behind the podium, on the stage. “There. She’s behind there.”
A loud groan emitted from behind the podium. “Who the heck made this podium so tall?!” With a grumble, the figure struggled to climb on top of the podium and settled with perching on it like a high seat.
“A child?” Diluc asked, incredulously.
“Yep! Ehe~!” She looked like she was in 3rd or 4th grade, with lavender-white hair resting on her shoulders, curling inwards like a long bob. Large, dark blue eyes, a white and pink dress. In her arms, a white and black stuffed bear stood out like a sore thumb. “I’m Paimon! I’ll be the host for your killing game!”
“Woah, what!?” Baal growled loudly. “Killing game?! I thought this was a safe haven for us! From the big bounty on each Ultimate student's head? Do you know? Because they were scared someone would use us to start a killing game? ”
“Ohhh, guess no one explained,” Paimon snivelled. “Yeah, that was a complete ruse!” She spread her arms out. “Ehe. Yeah, we actually brought you guys here for another one! The whole Danganronpa franchise got bombed because of that dumb lawsuit. ‘It’s not ethical’, ‘you can’t just kill people for entertainment, ‘you guys are sick’, all the dirt. Buuut, that doesn’t mean we can’t have our own little game! A lot of people miss the games, you know?” she smiled innocently. “Same rules as before. You aren’t getting out~! Unless you kill someone and get away with it. Easy peasy! Here, I’ll give you your PaiPads! Step right up!”
Silence. No one moved an inch.
Another Killing Game?
The Danganronpa franchise had been outlawed because of unethical means of entertainment about half a year ago. The whole, ‘bloody fun execution for the whole family!’ thing hadn’t played well with parents, and it was taken down. Following that, the Ultimate Hunt had begun, so a killing game could never happen again. By hunting down every single person that was eligible to be an Ultimate student, and killing them. Humanely, said the government, they’ll be fine, it was their fault for being so talented in an area! It’s so we can make sure a killing game never happens again! And then they’d hire mobs to break into the family homes of the students, killing them whether awake or not, and maybe their family, just for good measure. Lumine had been killed because of it. My sister. My only family.
“Aww, you guys are sooooo lazy! I have to do all the work myself, huh~?” Paimon leapt off the podium and skipped up to Zhongli, Childe, and me. She offered Childe a phone-like device. “Here ya go, lazy bones!”
Childe breathed in shakily. “I’m not going to be in your stupid killing game.”
Paimon frowned. “Well, it’s all arranged, I’m afraid. Sorry ‘bout that. Can’t back out, I mean, we even set up a customized room for you! C’mon, take the PaiPad, it won’t hurt, Aja-- !”
Childe roared in rage and punched Paimon’s head clean off.
I sucked in a breath.
“Y-you decapitated her!” Sucrose yelped from behind Albedo.
“No, he didn’t,” Zhongli stated. It’d been the first time he’d spoken since they’d entered the gym, other than a few confirmation grunts to Childe. “Paimon seems to be automated, is she not?” He gestured a leather-clad glove to the kid’s severed head. Indeed, it sparked, and instead of dark red blood, out poured wires.
Childe grumbled beside him. “Too bad she wasn’t real. Would’ve snapped her twig neck in half.”
Albedo winced. “That doesn’t sound very nice.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t!” Paimon’s voice came from behind the podium, yet again. Her little body popped out, and she jumped to the gym floor. “That’s not how you’re supposed to take a PaiPad, dummy. You don’t punch everything. ” She handed the fallen PaiPad to a shaky Childe, now a bit cracked. “Because of that, you get the cracked one. Alright everyone, straight line, c’mon up and get your PaiPad’s before I decide to get mad!”
Everyone grimly shuffled in line, taking the devices from Paimon’s little hands.
“So~ How to use your PaiPad! It uses facial recognition, so no one else should open it. When you open it, you’ll see your full name, Ultimate, etc.” I swiped up, and just like she said, I saw a sort of card of myself. Aether Tev. Status: Alive. Ultimate Traveller. Male, 5”4. 15 years old. Family: Lumine Tev (Status: Deceased). “Swipe left, there’s a menu. A whole school map, a little GPS if you’re too dumb to make sense of it. The Ultimate talents of your fellow students! You can’t text, or play video games, because that’s about it. It would be funny if you had social media though! Tweet, ‘hey guys, I just got voted, I’m about to die, ehe~!’
“The big rules! One, curfew is at 8 PM. Rulebreaking means execution! Two, you hafta go to the cafeteria and eat a meal at least once a day, we can’t have you guys rotting before the fun begins! Rulebreaking means slow, agonizing execution. Three, don’t purposely kill any of the plants in the greenhouse. 3 strikes and then it’s bone-numbing, painful execution! Four, no interfering in execution. If you do anything big, bam! Execution! Five, you can only guess the mastermind after 5 class trials. You know, the whole murder mystery trial. If ya do before 5 are done? Wee woo, you’re executed!” She grinned. “Any questions?”
We stared back at her, and she smiled innocently as if she was a normal elementary student that wasn’t a total psychopath at all. “Got the hang of it?”
Yanfei audibly swallowed. “...Yep.”
“Alright then~! Monokuma and I are gonna hop right out now. It’s almost 7, and remember what happens at 8, ehehe… better head over to your dorms. You guys will be in pairs! Bye-bye ~!” clutching her stuffed bear, Monokuma, she pranced over to behind the podium and promptly disappeared.
“...”
What the hell just happened?
I stood, my limbs refusing to work, in the gym. The other students began fanning out, either opting to head to the dorm area immediately or tagging behind to check the area out. I saw Jean and Barbara immediately head towards each other as if they recognized the latter (Jean had said they were cousins?). Xingqiu, Chongyun, Xiangling and Xinyan headed to the side of the gym like a pack of girls, whispering to each other. They were probably making some sort of 4-way alliance. The rest had beelined for the hallway to the dorms.
Breathe in, breathe out, Aether, Lumine’s words echoed through my frantic mind. It’s just a panic attack. You’re okay. I’m here. She would hug me lightly, not too hard, and it would be better.
I followed her instructions. In. Out. In. Out. There, better.
“Hey! Blondie!” Childe’s face appeared in my view, and I could see Zhongli behind him in my peripheral view. “D’you want to stay back for now or head with us to see our pairings?” He smiled, comfortingly. He seemed to be a bit tenser, but he immediately began laughing. “That little furbaby thinks she can order us around. It’s no biggie! I’ll just punch her again, Aether. You have your Childe senpai here! We’ll stop the stupid killing game before it can even start!” He cracked his worn knuckles.
Zhongli placed a hand on Childe’s. “You’re not going to punch her head off again. You can’t seriously forget what happened all of those times in the Danganronpa games. Try to hurt Monokuma, get speared in.” His emotions were finally showing in his voice, unlike his past emotionless, monotone voice. He cared about Childe and I’s safety. It made me feel a bit better.
“I’ll just stay behind for a while. You guys go ahead,” I smiled.
The two head out of the gym, and I head over to Jean and Barbara.
“--right? And when my mom knocked the water on the cat on accident?” Barbara giggled. “That was so funny! You stepped right in the water! When was that, 5 years ago?” Jean smiled, nostalgically.
Jean turned to me. “Ah, Aether. Hello. Haha, just reliving some old memories before the killing game, yeah?” her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were grim. “The memories are a bit fuzzy, so I guess we’re kind of piecing it together.” I nod, understanding. The two were lucky to have each other.
“Heh. Yeah, I guess.” It comes out as more of a stutter.
“...We’ve got to get out of this killing game together. All of us,” Jean says suddenly. “Paimon was dead serious. And I’m dead serious about getting us all out. Yeah? No one has to die.”
Barbara shrivelled a bit. “But what about when we get out? We’ll just get hunted again.”
Jean closed her eyes, thinking. “I…. I’m figuring it out.” She opened them again, her blue eyes meeting mine. They had hints of cyan in them. “Aether, you seem reliable. Me and you, we’ll get the others out of this sick game, alright?” She asked. I could see it in her eyes -- she was scared, desperate. Under her whole leader guise, she was just as scared as everyone else.
“Yes. We’ll get us all out.” I answered. I was sure of it. No one has to die.
That’s what everyone thinks, my head argues. That’s what Makoto thought, in the first game, and so did everyone else. Guess what happened? A few days later, there were only 10 left. Then 8, 6. 5. Only five made it out, and it decreased after that.
Shut up, my heart snapped. We’re all making it out safely. Stop having second thoughts or we’ll be the first to get killed.
With a slight nod, I head over to where Chongyun, Xingqiu, Xinyan, and Xiangling are. “How’s it going?”
The 4 of their heads whirled around to stare at me as if I’d jump scared them. “A-ah,” Xinyan faltered. “Sorry. Scared us. I don’t like this, I don’t like this at all.”
Chongyun made a little smile. “We’ll be fine. We have each other.” The four of them looked close, but also had an aura of uncertainty around them -- they couldn’t have known each other for long.
“Hey, if it’s alright to ask, did you guys know each other before this?” I questioned.
Xingqiu shrugged. “Nope. We just clicked in the gym while we were waiting. See? We’re best friends now, haha!” His laugh came out with a slight tremble. His hands were shaking. The four of them seemed to be the youngest here -- freshmen. Only 14 years old. “As if we’d known each other before. I can’t seem to recognize anyone here, and you’d think I’d recognize someone like Barbara. She’s supposed to be the Ultimate Idol, right? I don’t know why I haven’t heard of her before.”
Weird.
“Alright, I’m going to head over to the dorms,” I finished. “See you guys.”
“See you,” Xiangling gave me a pained grin.
I turned the corner in the hallway. I’d already memorized the map, props to my Ultimate talent. Turn left, keep going. An elevator should be there, and sure enough, there it was. The silhouettes of Zhongli and Childe stood in front of it, reading off some paper on the wall. I caught up to them.
“Greetings, Aether,” Zhongli said when he saw me. I saw Childe visibly roll his eyes behind him, mouthing ‘peepaw’ to me. “Here, the list of pairings.” He passed me the sheet with a clad in leather hand.
In flowery, bubbly handwriting was:
Heya hey! Paimon here, tellin’ you guys your dorm partners. Ehehe~ Have fun with them! Your side of the dorm is customized to fit your likings, but no tech, obviously. Some of your rooms are so boring though! ♡
Floor 1: Xinyan and Barbara!
Floor 2: Aether and Diluc!!
Floor 3: Yanfei and Hu Tao~!
Floor 4: Zhongli and Childe~
Floor 5: Xingqiu and Chongyun!!!
Floor 6: Jean n’ Lisa!
Floor 7: Sucrose + Xiangling!
Floor 8: Baal’s alone :( She hates people!
Floor 9: Albedo’s alone too~ For his lab :)) ♡
Have fun!! Feel free to make out or whatever. ♡♡♡♡♡ !!!!
Lotsa love, Paimon~
Childe regarded me in pity. “Too bad you’re not with us. Diluc doesn’t seem too bad though, but he has a mean glare, jeezus.” He glanced at Zhongli beside him. “Guess we’re lucky to share together, yeah?” Childe shrugged, flushing a little.
Zhongli’s lips twitched in a half-smile. “That’s right.” He didn’t seem to notice the red on Childe’s face, how nervous he was, or the fact that their hands kept brushing against each other’s. “Well, Aether, good luck with your new roommate. We’ll see you in the morning.”
I stared at the two incredulously as Zhongli turned around and pressed the elevator button. You’re an idiot, I glared at Childe. He made a face, oh, shut up. With a ding, the elevator doors slid open with a slight whine, and we headed up to our rooms.
“Hello.” I greeted.
“Mhm,” Diluc grunted back stiffly. He didn’t even glance at me, and just sat at the foot of his bed, looking around.
Both our rooms were very plain. He had greyish-red walls, a few blurry paintings. Organized desk. I had beige walls, a few anime and game posters, snacks, and on the nightstand was my all-time favourite photo: Lumine and me, smiling, holding up peace signs, in front of Mount Everest. We were all decked with climbing gear. It’d been super uncomfortable and cold on the mountain, but we’d been together, so it was worth it.
There were glass sliding doors, with a lock, and pretty white-lavender drapes to cover if we didn’t want light. There was a nice view of all the stars, even though it was only 7:45 PM. The moon shone brightly back at us. I could see the faint outline of the gates, reminding everyone that we were stuck, caged like animals. No matter how much freedom Paimon gave us, we knew that we were still trapped. Unable to leave.
As I took off my boots, socks, outer layers and climbed into bed, the fatigue hit me like a truck. I was used to skipping a few nights when we were travelling in dangerous places, but I always loved rest, and my arms and legs were already turning to jello with the soft feeling of sheets.
“Well, good night,” I muttered, just loud enough for Diluc to (hopefully) hear.
“Night.”