"Oh, right, I almost forgot..." Komaeda mused aloud, as the two existed the beach. "There's a map of the island in our handbooks... Exploring the island is going to be very easy if we use it!"

Of course, you fool. Citrine mentally berated, but was courteous to just give a nod. Of course a map would be useful.

"Also, I... ah..." He paused, to blush, as they entered onto the pavement. "I looked up information about everyone before I came to the school, so that'll help."

Oh...? What's this?

"I can tell you some useful stuff about most of them. Not all of them, though." Komaeda explained hurriedly. "A lot of it was on the girls in our class, because... y'know, they practically have fancults around them. I feel for them..."

Citrine felt his glitter. "...You mean, you actually found information about them on the web?"

Komaeda tilted his head. "Eh? You weren't aware?"

The gem sighed. Of course, he couldn't truthfully answer that. "No."

"The Hope's Peak Fan Forum can get pretty disgusting... well, anyways, whenever Hope's Peak Academy recruits a new class, the message boards go a bit crazy..."

Citrine realized this is a key opportunity. If this human was a Hope's Peak fanboy like Hajime, there was a chance that this was a way to get more info. This was a strategic win for Citrine. "Does that mean... did you find something about me on that site there too...?"

Komaeda breathed in. "Wait, I think so..." A pause. "Hinata Hajime, Hinata Hajime... oh, right! You're the Super High School Level Therapist, Hinata Hajime."

Citrine nodded. Thank the diamonds. "Right! I am that. A therapist." He paused. "...I'm... Hinata Hajime, Ultimate Therapist. That's me!"

Ya don't stop, Ya proceed

"HINATA HAJIME"

SUPER HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL THERAPIST

Cuz' this is what you need

"Mhm. Since you might be missing memories, I'll speed you up... you're a quiet and reclusive SHSL Therapist, known for your miracle works in online therapy." Komaeda explained. Thank you. Thank you every high power and being for the gullibility of earthlings. "You're popular online for your appearance and tragic backstory."

Tragic backstory? Citrine realized, yet again, that was something he didn't research. God... that was a thing that earthlings thought about, right? Dammit. That's another thing they say in anger, right?

Well, regardless, that's another thing he'll have to dig Komaeda at.

Komaeda cracked his neck, placing a hand onto the base of it. "...AAAanyway, let's go on our introductory journey. I'll try not being useless."

"Y... Yeah. Let's go." I guess I'd better introduce myself to everyone and find out what they are.

ROCKET PUNCH MARKET

Citrine has never been inside a... what did Komaeda call it again? Subpar Market? Yeah, something like that. Entering it revealed it was... a quite sterile environment. Which Citrine enjoyed.

"It's a supermarket... and a pretty big one." Komaeda said aloud. "It looks just like what you'd expect to find on a resort island... I guess we are abroad after all. But, hey, it looks like we won't have to worry about food and supplies, at least for now.

God, being reminded that he was trapped was misery. "Um, what do you mean, 'at least for now'?" He groaned.

Komaeda's eyes widened. "I... you realize what I said was just a figure of speech, right Hinata-kun?"

Citrine crossed his arms with a huff. "Well, regardless, you don't even know if any of it is edible. What if it's all poisoned?" Thank god Citrine didn't consume nutrients like earthlings, but being stuck on an uninhabited island with a pile of dead earthlings would be an even worse nightmare than what he was dealing with now.

Komaeda shook his head, sighing. "...You really do suspect everything, don't you, Hinata-kun..."

Can you blame me? Citrine felt his lips purse, rage boiling inside his mind. Under the circumstances, can you really blame me? "But! Look around you! This place... it's massive! And there's no one here except us!"

"That can't be helped. Usami told us it's an uninhabited island, didn't she?" And, with a pause, Komaeda raised his hand to point at two girls conspiring in the first aisle. "Plus, it isn't just us in the supermarket. That's Nanami-san and Mioda-san over there."

Citrine let out a frustrated noise that even he, himself, couldn't describe. "You know that's not my point! I mean, I didn't even notice them and--!"

He was cut off by a girl jumping (glomping?) at him into a hug, wrapping her legs around his back. Which, considering the girl was an earthling, this was one of the worst experiences in Citrine's life. Well, not as bad as the entire situation he was in, but still quite atrocious.

"Hiiiiii, Nagito-chan ♪~! You brought hedgehog-chan!" The girl said, letting go off the poor and defiled gem.

The girl in front of him was a pale girl with pink eyes. She had long multi-colored hair consisting of black, pink, blue and white. At the top of her head was two horns which... was a bit weird, honestly.

She wore a white button up dress shirt with a pink tie (which Citrine could barely notice, had light pink-colored x's), a black pleated skirt with a thin belt. She wore a silver necklace, a black bracelet with a stitch-like pattern on her right wrist, a black and pink glove-like sleeve on her on her left upper arm with a silver bracelet and three silver rings on the other.

The girl's shoes were white. Her socks were ripped, which Citrine could clearly see that one was blue and the other was pink.

Citrine brushed his body off, feeling... weird. "Um... Hi. My name isn't... Hedgehog-chan. It's Hinata Hajime, the Super High School Level Therapist, and--"

The girl placed her hands on her hips. "Huh!? What was that!? Where's the energy, huh!? Are you still asleep!? That's NOT an introduction! THIS is an introduction! You ready?! Let's go!" She breathed in, her hands waving aimlessly, before speaking. "'Mio' from... Ibuki Mioda! 'Da' from... Ibuki Mioda! 'Ibu' from... Ibuki Mioda! 'Ki' from... Ibuki Mioda!"

She clapped her hands together, almost like Usami does. "Put it together, and whaddya get..." A pause, probably for dramatic effect. "...Well, me, duh! Mioda Ibuki ♪~!" After saying her own name, she did a little twirl, before pointing both her index fingers at her face.

Ibuki Mioda

Super High-school Level Light Music Club Member

Mioda stretched her arms. "Introduction: o-ver! But, man, this supermarket is something else, huh?! They have hamburgers and ramen and chilli beans and sausages and pasta... even melons!" She gave a confidant smile and a nod. "That's food that can satisfy Americans and Chinese and Mexicans and Germans and Italians... even Yubari residents! Uwah!" She gave a fist pump.

Citrine had... no clue what any of those things were.

"This is so exciting! Such a huge assortment of products is just so exciting! But being excited makes me so hungry! Ibuki doesn't get her own body..." She said, pouting. "Why does Ibuki get hungry when she's excited, huh!? The human body's mysterious, huh, Hajime-chan?!" She said with a chuckle.

Right, human body. The earthling anatomy was quite the mysterious to Citrine, the concept was ironically quite alien. For one, in the book he read, it left little to the imagination to what was under earthling clothing but also had little to no explanation for how it worked.

Komaeda then, with ease, pulled Citrine away from Mioda. Probably to explain Mioda's talent. Which, thank god, Citrine had no complete clue what a... "light music club member" was. Of course, it meant she was obviously a musician but... light music?

"Um..." Komaeda gave a soft sight. "This slightly overwhelming person is our very own 'Super High-school Level Light Music Club Member'..." He paused. "She comes from a girls-only high school, where she played guitar and sang for a super-popular girl band with her little sister. I heard that their hit single, a song called 'Life Will Change' sold a million copies."

...Life Will Change? What does that mean? Also, little sister? What... what was that?

Komaeda chuckled to himself. "But, a super-popular girl band... light music club... I think we've all heard about something like that before... somewhere."

"No."

"Oh." Komaeda responded, surprised. "I just thought... well, anyways, I also heard she left the band over creative differences. She's now pursuing a solo career." Komaeda continued, crossing his arms.

Citrine raised an eyebrow at that. "...Creative differences?"

"Are you intrigued?!" Ibuki bounded toward them, almost comically.

The gem jumped a little at that. How did she hear his voice, wasn't he far away from her...? "Whoa!" He squeaked. "Uwa... how did you hear us...!"

"Ibuki is a musician, after all!" She explained confidently, hands in fists and balled on her hips. "Just like Schubert and Bach and Edison and Van Gogh and Pele and Senna..." She listed people -- earthlings, probably -- that Citrine didn't know or care of. "I'm simply a gifted musician!"

Komaeda placed his fingers on his temples. "Mioda-san, I understand you're saying you have sensitive ears, but... two thirds of those people aren't musicians."

The girl gave a nonchalant hand wave. "Details, details, Nagito-chan!"

Barely in view, there's a short girl shuffling behind Mioda, holding a device similar to the e-handbook. She's totally immersed in it. Like... totally immersed. And totally unaware of what's happening.

She had short, pale mauve hair which slightly curled outwards with straight bangs. Additionally, her strands also curl inwards. The girl wore a white clip in the shape of the spaceship, a one button dark teal-grey cardigan with a symbol on the chest and a hood. She also has stripe decorations at the bottom of her cardigan that appear to pale gray.

Under her hoodie, she wore a white buttoned shirt with a black shirt line, with a pink ribbon and a pale beige skirt. The girl also wore black thigh high stockings and light pink mary-jane shoes.

Komaeda pointed a thin finger at the girl. "Hey, Hinata-kun. You haven't introduced yourself to her yet, right?"

"Yeah, I know." She's concentrating entirely on the game, but I guess I could try getting her attention. He gulped in, softly poking on her shoulder. "...Um, do you have a second? We should introduce ourselves..."

Silence.

"...Hey, Chiaki-saaaan!" Mioda called, pulling the short girl into a hug, scruffing the girls pink hair. "No sleeping on the job!"

"Ah! I'm sorry... I think I got a little bit too engrossed in the game..."

Mioda laughed. "Oh, there's no doubt about it. You were totally lost in it."

She tilted her head. "Um... Do you want me to introduce myself?"

Mioda slapped her hand on her forehead. "Chiaki-saan!!! That's why he's here! Get with the program!"

"Okay, on it, Ibuki-chan..." The girl breathed in, almost like she was doing the earthling equivalent of a gem buffering. "...My name is Nanami Chiaki. I'm a Super High-school Level Gamer. My hobby is playing games. I'm pretty good with all genres."

Nanami Chiaki

Super High School Level Gamer

She glanced at Mioda, before nodding. "...Nice to meet you."

Citrine nodded. What the heck was a gamer? "My name's Hinata Hajime. Nice to meet you too, I'm the Super High School Level Therapist."

...More silence.

Nanami shrugged. "Yeah, you too."

Mioda gave a noise that replicated that of a dying animal. A bit of an exasperated groan. "Chiaki-san!! You aren't very good with conversations! And she's still playing the game while she's talking, jeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzz...!" She whined, pulling away from the hug.

"Oh, it's not just that, Ibuki-san... I can't speak well unless I compose everything I want to say inside my head first. You of all people should know that already." Nanami explained, not taking her eyes off her console... gaming... thing. "If I don't have every word prepared, I'm just not a very good speaker like Ibuki-san or Komaeda-san... that's even more so with someone I'm meeting for the first time, like Hinata-kun..." She just said all that without taking her eyes off the game once. Pretty impressive.

Nanami paused once to look up, to give actual eye contact to the trio of Komaeda, Mioda and of course, Citrine. "...But I think things will move faster the more I get to know you."

...And it even looks like she's keeping up with it. Citrine realized that she really was a 'Super High-school Level Gamer', if she was able to do all that -- even if she was an earthling.

...Whatever a gamer was.

"Yaaaaawn..." Nanami mumbled aloud, a weird white bubble emerging from her nose. "...That got me so tired. Ibuki-san?"

Mioda's head perked up at her name being called (...was Ibuki a second name? Something like that). "Yes, Chiaki-san?"

She gave another yawn. "Can you help me to my cottage...? I wanna take a nap..."

The light club musician clapped her hands together. "Of course!"

With that, the two exited the market, hand in hand. Komaeda placed a hand on his chin, as if he were thinking.

"...Strange."

Citrine glanced back at Komaeda, raising an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"

The taller boy shook his head. "No, I'm just... they just met, but why are they on a first name basis...?" He paused. "Well, it's not my business, really. Shall we go continue our introduction quest?"

Citrine nodded. He didn't exactly know what Komaeda meant, but eh, if Komaeda didn't care, neither did Citrine.