"So... should we explore the second floor?" Robin asked, trying to break the ice. The others nodded.

While we were walking out of the gym, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. It's probably nothing since a lot of people could be staring at me because of my new haircut.

We arrived at the once blocked stairs. "Hmm when Minami and I were first investigating here, the stairs were blocked. Now they are not," Ichigo explained.

"So we go in groups. Some of us will go to the left and the rest of us to the right. Let's see if we can meet up on the second floor, if not then our rendezvous point will the usual dining room," Robin instructed.

"So...who's going with who?" Amy asked. We all stared at each other. Awkwardly.

I mean after what happened last time, our trust in each other has shrunk even more. Which is understandable. How can you trust others if one of them could potentially murder you?

"Rock paper scissors maybe?" Yuki suggested.

"Or maybe we all pick a number and odds are in one group while evens are in another?" Jun suggested.

"Yeah that seems like an even better idea to be honest," Yuki muttered.

3

2

1

...

"Alright who got an odd number?" Robin asked.

Yuki, Sora, Toshino, Amy, Robin and I.

"Alright who has evens?" Robin asked.

Jun, Uyeda, Ichigo, Kazuno, Kana, Toshiaki and Hirohito.

"But a-aren't we a little u-uneven?" Hirohito asked.

"Well that is because Minami isn't here," Sora pointed out and she was right. The director wasn't here.

"Mind if someone goes and get her, she can be here with the odds," Robin said and Ichigo bounced in the air, waving her hand around.

"Ooh ooh! I wanna go and get goth director-chan!" She volunteered. Nobody objected.

She skipped away to go search for Minami. The rest of us stood or sat around. I was one of the few who sat down.

After a while...

"We're back~!" Ichigo cheered, pulling on the arm of Minami who didn't look too happy. Kana turned her back at this.

"I told you, I don't want to explore the second floor," Minami grumbled. "Nonsense, it's fun to explore with each other. Also we all need to stick together in case something bad happens," Ichigo explained.

"Tch fine but don't expect me to enjoy it," Minami muttered. "Alright Minami, you're with us," Robin waved and she walked over to us, not super happy.

"Alright so we decided to explore the right side," Kana said, fanning her face. The others nodded. "Whaaaa? You guys went on and decided without me?" Ichigo cried.

"Sorry but you weren't here when we were deciding but it was a majority vote so," Kazuno explained.

"Hmmph, alright I'll let it slide," Ichigo crossed her arms at this.

"Oh my, looks like Ichigo isn't enjoying this," Sora said. "Meh," Yuki stuck out his tongue in a 'blep' way. Amy just crossed her arms and Toshino said nothing.

"So let's go exploring," Robin said and led us to the left side.

[Exploration time]

We entered a hallway with very few rooms. A total of three to be exact. "Alright so some of us would be exploring one room, another handful to another room and the final one will be explored by the remaining few. Pick your group wisely," Robin explained.

He definitely seems like the leader type, I thought.

"Big Sis Amy wanna explore together?" Yuki asked and I heard Amy say "Sure."

I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw Sora. "Hey Kuro, shall we explore together?" She asked. "Ok," I replied.

"And I guess I'm with Toshino and Minami," Robin said. Neither of those two looked happy about it.

Sora and I went to the first room to explore. It looked like an arcade room. "How odd," I heard Sora murmured. Yeah it was odd but wouldn't hurt to explore it.

I went over to the machines and started poking around. They looked brand new and shiny. There were even some familiar titles in the games and some were unfamiliar. Then again I haven't exactly been outside to go play at an arcade in such a long time. I think I was still in grade school when I last went to one.

I decided to check the floor next. I felt like if this was an arcade, then there would be a bit of a mess below. The strangest thing however, is that the carpet looked like it has been there a while but no messes. Like someone had just cleaned up. I walked away to look at the floor more.

There, next to a Crossy Frog game, was a large dark stain. It had the faint scent of soda but it was buried underneath the smell of lemon cleaning supplies. Looks like someone spilled some soda and someone cleaned up afterwards, I thought.

...

But who?

"Hey Kuro, can you come over here for a second?" Sora called out. "Oh sure," I got up and walked over to where Sora was. She was looking at the prize corner.

"Hey now is not the time to be looking at stuffed animals and such," I said but she shook her head.

"There is dust on some," she explained. "Hmm?" I couldn't quite understand what she was saying.

"Let me repeat that. Some of the prizes are dusty, like they have been here a while but some of them don't. Some even looked like they got stitched up and even new button eyes," Sora explained. Actually...now that she said it, I took one of from the prize counter and examined it. Some of the stitching looks uneven, some of the string was sticking out. Like it has been ripped apart once before being put back together.

"Were other people here before us?" Sora wondered. "That's the million dollar question," I muttered as I put the stuffed toy back on the counter.

Talk to Sora?

[Yes] No

What should you talk about?

[Soda stain]

Games

Theory

You picked Soda stain

"When I looked around, I noticed a soda stain on the floor. It was faint and buried underneath cleaning supplies but it's there. What do you think happened there?" I asked.

Sora put a finger on her chin, thinking. "It's a possibility that either the carpet came with the stain or there was someone there before," she concluded.

Interesting. I honestly think that I'm leaning towards the second option. That someone has been here before, I thought.

Continue talking to Sora?

[Yes] No

What should you talk about?

X Soda stain X

[Games]

Theory

You picked Games

"These games look brand new. There are even some unfamiliar titles around here. I wonder...," I trailed off thinking about whether to check out the high scores or not.

"If you are thinking about checking out the high scores then go for it. I am sure that they pop up on the title screen," Sora pointed to the nearest one. I waited for the high score screen to pop up.

When it did, it showed zeros on all of them. So no high scores? Wait no there is one, I thought.

It0...who the hell is It0?

"Looks like this Ito person managed to get a high score on this," Sora pointed out.

"Wait, Ito or It with a zero?" I pointed at the score. "Hmm it appears that it's spelled with a zero," Sora noted.

So is it Ito or It with a zero...guess I'll call them It for now, I thought.

Continue talking to Sora?

[Yes] No

What should you talk about?

X Soda stain X

X Games X

[Theory]

You picked Theory

"So this theory about people being here before us. Do you think they went through the same situation as us?" I asked but shockingly, Sora shook her head.

"If that were the case, then this place would have shown signs of someone escaping. Or it's possible that no one survived and Monkomi was the one to clean up afterwards before we came along." Sora explained.

"Actually...that is a really good theory," I said. I just wondered what happened?

Part of theory has been added to your Theory Bullets.

I felt my pocket buzz and took out whatever was buzzing.

"Is that your E-Handbook?" Sora asked. Wait what?!

"Y-yeah possibly," I turned it on and I was greeted by a pixelated version of me, jumping up and down before the home screen came up. There weren't many apps though.

There was one for the rules, one for everyone's report cards and even one that has plans for other apps to be installed.

I remember Monkomi saying that he didn't know where my E-Handbook was. So why is it here now? I wondered.

Continue exploring?

[Yes] No

I took another walk around the arcade. There was a 'Staff only' door and I tried to open it. No luck.

What's even in there? I wondered.

I kept walking around, finding basically nothing other than what Sora and I already found.

Finish up exploration?

[Yes] No

"Hey Sora, should we go and see what the others are up to?" I asked. "It seems like the wisest choice," she replied.

Does she really have to be that formal? I thought.