The only memory replaying in my mind was how dominant Penelope was during her… fling with Nina, despite Nina being the one who seemed to enjoy it the most, she was definitely the bottom in that interaction. I pushed the doors open to the dining room to see everyone was there.
Hikari: “Alright! Everyone listen here!”
Hikari would tap a spoon against a glass cup.
Hikari: “I would like to announce that three days from now I’ll be hosting a grand feast right here in the dining hall!”
Shichiro: “Seriously, that’s what you wanted to announce?”
Hikari: “Yes! And I’ll tell you why it’s important! The reason why I’m holding a party three days from now is because I have something really important I wanted to tell you all, but I couldn’t exactly wait until then so I’ll tell you now!”
Hikari would stand on top of the dining table.
Hikari: “I discovered the “Flavors For All” perk!”
Shichiro: “Which means what exactly?”
Yoshiharu: “Wait a perk? Those things that were added by the new rule?”
Hikari: “Yeah! Because I was the first person to cook in the kitchen I can use this perk to cook food and make the flavor however I want it! How does that work? I have no idea! None of the sisters would answer my question, so this means I can take your requests and cook whatever you want, oh I’ll also be sharing the perk’s abilities with Avrom, Shichiro, Juno, Yoshiharu, and Makoto! I would share it with Jeremy, but… I worry he’ll be too drunk when using it.”
This was an amazing announcement! To an extent, but as long as something was keeping us from killing then I’ll accept anything… but these perks… They were definitely interesting.
Hikari: “So! I’ll start taking requests now.”
Everyone spent the entire hour requesting their dish to Hikari, Avrom, Shichiro, Juno, Yoshiharu, and Makoto, we even discussed amongst ourselves about whether or not we had the same taste or how the others taste were just plain horrible, again it was a simple moment of peace and clarity…
Atropos: “ATTENTION! Please report to the gate of Olympus this instant or else you shall suffer divine punishment!”
Alright time to relive hell… we all stared at each other in a moment of fear, well most of us anyways, we still didn’t know what to make of this killing game we were forced into.
Kanji: “Well you’re all welcome to stay here while I escape… A shame I won’t be able to see all the blood and guts though.”
Kanji smirked as he was the first one to move to where the announcement had told us to group up, and soon he was joined by everyone else…
Avrom: “…Hey you’re Jak right?”
Finally someone got it right!
Jak: “Yeah? What’s up?”
Avrom: “I just want to say… thanks for eating with the rest of us yesterday, it probably didn’t mean much to you but it’s nice eating with people at a table other than my sister…”
Jak: “You’re referring to Shichiro right?”
Avrom: “Yeah Shi-Chi, I don’t exactly mean anything mean about it… but she didn’t exactly let me eat at the school cafeterias before, so it was a nice change of pace for once when I ate Hikari’s pasta with others, even if they were only there for the food.”
With that Avrom moved on without me.
Cain: “Let’s go!”
OH FUCK NO! I quickly moved as Cain quickly gave chase behind me.
————
All eighteen students were grouped inside the gate of Olympus building, where Atropos stood, or as Jac refers to her, Cthulhu mask!
Atropos: “Good everyone’s here yea?”
Kanji: “Of course we’re here, where else would we possibly go?”
Atropos: “Jeez party pooper much? Look I’m being rather nice to all of you today by opening up one of these garage doors!”
Oscar: “You mean the shutters?”
Atropos: “Potato patato! They’re both metal sheets that pull in and out.”
At that moment Atropos would kick the metal sheet… which did nothing, so she kicked it again, and again.
Atropos: “Hey! Lachesis, open it up!”
Now the garage door finally started to ascend upward, opening up an entirely different section of our new world. You see the meadows had a fake sky that doesn’t allow us to see more about the building from a height, at least that’s what I was able to deduce from examination.
Valentinia: “What exactly are we walking into now?”
Haru: “Who the fuck cares! Let’s go check it out!”
Atropos moved out of the way as Haru was the first to investigate the new sight, and soon everyone followed her including me, soon we were all brought to an entirely different setting!
Cain: “Oh my god! Abel get my phone! We need to record this!”
Abel: “Did you already forget we had our electronics confiscated?”
We walked through the newly opened path, weirdly garage door shaped, so pretty big! We had to open a more normal looking wooden door, and beyond that door was a wooden floor with a few barrels, crates, farm equipment hanging on the walls, and other machines, as well as two paths, another door to the left, and an entire barnyard to the right. The right side caught more attention, because when you walked over there and under the arch you would enter a barn with six pens, a pig pen, a cow pen, a horse pen, a sheep pen, a goat pen, and a chicken pen, there was also an exit at the back of the barn that led to a more open grass area with a circle track. The only way the layout of this place would make sense architectural wise was if the field stretched all the way next to the dining room, if it was only next to the meadows it wouldn’t make any logical sense.
Hikari: “Yee haw partners! It’s time for us to have some fun!”
Avrom: “Woah hey Hikari! What are you doing!?”
Hikari, without a second thought, immediately unlocked the horse pen and slowly approached one of the steeds, a white horse with a black mane.
Hikari: “It’s okay fella, I ain’t here to hurt ya.”
We watched as Hikari was able to clip a saddle on top of the horse’s back and pull himself up.
Hikari: “Just like Dhelia, okay bud what shall I call you?”
Hikari looked for any kind of sign of the horse’s name.
Shichiro: “It says here you’re riding a horse named Abraham.”
She was standing in front of a bulletin board near the horse pen with some informational notes pinned onto it.
Hikari: “Abraham huh? Okay fella just follow my lead.”
And with that Hikari was off to the races, after two laps he would come back to us.
Hikari: “Alright, who wants to try?”
We all stayed silent for a moment, what was he thinking?! Who would want to give horse riding a try in the situation we were in?
Avrom: “Me! I want to try! It looks so fricken cool!”
With that, Hikari got down from his horse and helped Avrom find his steed.
Hikari: “Alright, here's what you wanna do…”
Hikari had Avrom stand in place and hold his palm out with some horse feed visible to the animals, and with that a golden like horse was the first to approach Avrom, I say gold but its fur was more palomino, and this horse was the one to eat out of Avrom’s hand.
Shichiro: “Hey, is this safe?”
Hikari: “Oh trust me it’s perfectly safe!”
Hikari would pet the horse before clipping a saddle on its back, it’s clear these horses were well trained before we got here… how they were trained is up in the air, but Hikari would then help Avrom up on the saddle and direct him on how to command and befriend the animal, soon enough Avrom was riding alongside Hikari, causing Avrom’s scarf to unravel which was caught by Shichiro. Soon everyone was finding their horse, even me!
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Cain: “Hey Abel! Look what I can do!”
Cain would stick his hands out to his side letting the wind blow past him as his gray horse ran around the track.
Abel: “Cain please don’t get yourself killed!”
Abel was also riding a gray horse.
Haru: “WOO! I LOVE DONKEYS!”
She wasn’t even riding a donkey, she was riding a mule! Where did she find a mule!?!
Yoshiharu: “Oh my, I didn’t take myself to be much of a horse girl…”
Juno: “Me neither, but… it’s refreshing.”
Yoshiharu and Juno were riding on brown horses, and I was a bit surprised they were enjoying themselves this much.
Shichiro: “Tch~ there’s nothing special about this…”
Kanji: “Speak for yourself! You just can’t handle that you suck at this!”
Oscar: “H-Hey too fast!! How do I slow this thing down!”
Shichiro, Kanji, and Oscar were riding red horses, not to be confused with the roan horses being ridden by Jeremy and Makoto.
Noir: “I didn’t take you for an animal guy, you seem more of a cooped up lab rat.”
Lapti?a: “…Oh are you talking to me?”
Noir and Lapti?a were riding on gray horses, in fact the only ones who couldn’t or wouldn’t ride were Valentinia, Nina, and Penelope, but I was riding on a knabstrupper horse! Oh you can bet I was having the time of my life!!
Hikari: “Look at this everyone! Feel that freedom! Feel that rush! Isn’t this great!”
Oscar: “No it isn’t!!”
Haru: “Hahahaha! It’s amazing!”
Soon, we all came to a stop, seeing as we still had more ground to cover, Hikari took the time to round up all of our horses back into the pen.
Hikari: “Oh quick note, don’t drop anything in the pigs pen, they’ll eat anything! But unlike goats, they’ll actually choke on it.”
Avrom: “Holy cow! It’s a cow!”
Everyone completely ignored Hikari to stare at the hallikar cow… it looks more like a giant goat to be honest, but if the sign next to it says it’s a cow then it’s a cow! But we all got back on track to actually investigate the new room we brushed past to go have fun in the barn.
Penelope: “So I’m sure we’re well aware that this room is some sort of storage space for farming equipment right? This is well below me so please excuse the mademoiselle.”
Penelope would immediately move to the unopened door that we all seemingly forgot about.
Nina: “H-hey master, wait up!”
Noir: “…m-master? WAIT NINA!”
Makoto: “Oh gods… Miss Badger please don’t cause any trouble.”
Valentinia: “Ugh, this place smells… bad…”
Haru: “Then come on let’s go follow the drama!”
Nina followed after Penelope, but her comment caught Noir’s attention, and Noir’s attention caused Makoto to fear for the worse which caused him to follow Noir who was following Nina, but Valentinia left the room for an entirely different reason! Which was because Haru jumped in to take her to the other room that didn’t smell like feces.
Lapti?a: “AHHH!”
Woah wait was that Lappy? Heh I see why Jac likes that abbreviation now.
Hikari: “Woah hey Lapti?a what’s wrong? Oscar what did you do!”
Oscar: “I-I didn’t do anything! I was just showing this off to him and he screamed!”
Lapti?a: “GET AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY! GET BACK!”
Everyone was crowding around to the situation, Lapti?a was backing into a corner shielding himself as Oscar held a sickle.
Juno: “Put the weapon down Oscar…”
Oscar: “I-I WASN’T DOING ANYTHING!!”
Jeremy: “It’s true, I saw the whole thing, Oscar was messing around with the sickle and when he showed it to Lapti?a and I all hell broke loose… but Oscar here didn’t harm anyone.”
When I broke through the crowd Lapti?a immediately jolted up and tripped as he gripped my sleeve.
Lapti?a: “GET ME OUT OF HERE JAC! JAK! JAK PLEASE!”
…Wait… did he just? … No nevermind that.
Jak: “Alright, alright come on, follow me…”
I had to get him out of this room, hence I put my hand over his and backed into the other room through the now open door.
————
Nina: “Auh! H-hey not here!”
Penelope: “Why? Are you ashamed of being my personal guard?”
Oh jeez what did I walk into?
Noir: “S-STOP THIS! It’s so! … lewd!”
I turned around to see Penelope pinning Nina to a pinball machine… well it’s more specific to say that she was bending Nina over on the pinball machine as she had her arms under Nina’s arms and crossing her hands to grip Nina’s shoulders.
Penelope: “…Just let me enjoy this while I can…”
Haru: “…Ew…”
Valentinia: “H-how did this even happen?”
Yeah how did this happen? In fact, where were we? I looked around to find us in some kind of arcade room? Expect it was just a wood interior with Christmas lights, the only few games here were the pinball machine Penelope and Nina were currently using… for better or worse, a pachinko machine, roll some balls into a hole, roll some balls into a bottle, roll some balls into a beehive, basketball, and a ping pong table.
Makoto: “I can… somewhat explain how this happened… Shortly after we walked in, Nina was talking to Penelope, and without knowledge of what they were talking about I can only guess that this is how… this! Happened.”
Nina: “A-All I asked was if she truly appreciated me! … and possibly some other stuff…”
Penelope: “…And I told you that actions are more clear than words…”
Penelope pressed her chest against Nina’s back.
Penelope: “Want to stop?”
Nina: “…W-well I- Uh-“
Jak: “FOR FUCKS SAKE THIS IS PUBLIC! GET A ROOM!”
It was that notion that caused Penelope to slowly back off and allow Nina to regain her composure… to which she quickly glared at me… AT ME! WHY ME!?
Penelope: “So, why are you two love birds here?”
She must’ve noticed that my hand was interlaced with Lapti?a’s.
Jak: “This isn’t what it looks like, Lappy just had a panic attack is all…”
Lapti?a: “…”
Lapti?a was still shaking, he wasn’t calm at all.
Jak: “Hey Lappy, come back to me here. Look, I’m gonna gently squeeze your hand for a bit, okay?”
I don’t understand why I was so anxious… why I was so nervous. Jac was the one who was good at this, I’m more so here to be the outgoing sports guy, but I enclosed my hand slightly and slowly… I didn’t want to make him feel claustrophobic.
Jak: “What are you feeling right now, Lappy?”
Lapti?a: “…warmth…”
Progress, huh I’m actually pretty good at this?
Jak: “You replied! Okay, okay… Can you at least see what’s going on around you?”
Lapti?a: “Walls… floors, I’m fine now…”
I probably could’ve let go, but I didn’t.
Makoto: “…May I ask what happened in the other room that caused this?”
Jak: “Oscar was showing off a farming tool, which I already said caused Lappy to freak out, so I brought him here away from it.”
Penelope: “…That’s it?”
Jak: “What do you mean that’s it?”
Penelope: “You don’t actually know the reason as to why he responded the way he did?”
Jak: “The hell is that supposed to mean!?”
Makoto: “PEACE EVERYONE! Miss Yoshinaga please stop…”
Noir: “You heard Makoto… Shut. Up.”
Valentinia was getting really uncomfortable so she and Haru scooted over to one of the games that required you to roll a ball, moving away from this conversation.
Penelope: “My, my, I meant no offense… it’s simply just curiosity, you understand what I mean, right Nina?”
Nina: “…”
Jak: “JUST SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU!”
I knew what they were getting at… I just didn’t want to confront it.
Jeremy: “What the hell is going on here? Why’s everyone yelling?”
Jeremy and the rest of the class stepped in to investigate the noise, but were in awe at the small arcade we now had access to.
Makoto: “Nothing, nothing is happening… right everyone?”
Penelope: “Right! It’s just a bit of talk between friends…”
Jak: “Yeah, friends…”
Then out of nowhere!
Atropos: “HELLO EVERYONE!”
Atropos popped out of nowhere and had her hands outstretched above her.
Kanji: “Oh for fucks sake someone get me out of here…”
Atropos: “Hey! Is that anyway to address your superior!”
Kanji: “Fuck you.”
Atropos: “…”
Atropos just stood there dumbfounded.
Atropos: “Well… Fine!”
She snapped her fingers and disappeared… Then Lachesis appeared behind us.
Lachesis: “Apologies everyone, our dearest sister is still on the younger side of things and hence she doesn’t exactly understand what it means to be your voice of information.”
Our watches would then beep.
Lachesis: “I would like to thank you personally for being so cooperative with us thus far, hence I would like to be here to announce that we have updated your patented watches, please enjoy.”
She would disappear as well at a snap of her fingers, smoke coming down concealing the area around us until it was just us again, all eighteen of us. Most of us did as we were told, we checked our watches and found that they had created profiles for us, so of course I read mine.
…
Name: Jack Miyata. Age: 18
The Ultimate Friend.
Height: 6ft. 2in.
Weight: 150ibs
Blood type: O-
Chest: 77cm
Likes: Sports, reading, talking, creative thinking.
Dislikes: Convolution, complexity, conundrums, pain.
…
Neat, it got most of my information right!
Yoshiharu: “PFT! Noir, are you seriously scared of bats?”
Noir: “H-hey don’t read mine!”
Valentinia: “Wait a minute my chest is not that small! It’s a decent rack!”
Haru: “…pft… 84cm? That’s rough… Mine’s 89cm!”
Jeremy: “For crying out loud this is just childish behavior…”
It seems we were all enjoying this to a certain extent… but that’s when I checked Lapti?a’s profile.
…
Name: Lapti?a Virgo. Age: 18
The Ultimate Forensic Scientist
Height: 6ft.
Weight: 139ibs
Blood Type: B-
Chest: 68cm
Likes: Glassware, syringes, experiments, “theories”.
Dislikes: Sickles.
…
That shouldn’t have surprised me… and yet I still felt a chill go down my spine.
Penelope: “Everyone, may I have your attention.”
Penelope had everyone’s attention directed towards her as she held her hand up, her commanding voice only heightened by the fact Nina was carrying her on her shoulders.
Penelope: “May I please direct everyone to Haru’s profile?”
Without a moment's notice we all followed her word, some due to curiosity, others simply did as she said because everyone else was doing it, I did it because something good must’ve caught Penelope’s eye.
…
Name: Haru Kurokawa. Age: 18
The Ultimate Veracious
Height: 5ft. 12in.
Weight: 130ibs
Blood Type: O-
Chest: 89cm
Likes: Lying, having fun, chicken, having no idea what’s going on.
Dislikes: Liars, public bathrooms, literature, the internet.
…
Haru: “I know! I know! My boobs are massive!”
Kanji: “Uh actually, Yoshiharu has a chest size of 420 making her boobs the biggest…”
Oscar: “The fuck you talking about? Her profile clearly says it’s 142cm…”
Kanji: “Wee, woo, wee, woo, we got a buzzkill here!”
Penelope: “Shut up the two of you… I’m directing attention to Haru’s talent.”
Her… talent? She’s the ultimate Perjurer right? I read her profile again.
…
Name: Haru Kurokawa. Age: 18
The Ultimate Veracious
Height: 5ft. 12in.
Weight: 130ibs
Blood Type: O-
Chest: 89cm
Likes: Lying, having fun, chicken, having no idea what’s going on.
Dislikes: Liars, public bathrooms, literature, the internet.
…
Ultimate… ultimate… Ultimate… Veracious?
Jak: “Haru, you’re not the ultimate perjurer?”
Haru: “Whaaaaaat? Of course I am! The sisters just got my information wrong! It should say "ultimate perjurer!””
Hikari: “My head hurts…”
Penelope: “Then let me dumb it down for your loosely screwed brains. Haru’s profile claims she likes lying, hence isn’t it likely that she’s simply been lying to us about her talent?”
Kanji: “With that logic how do you explain her dislike for liars then?”
Avrom: “Clowney's got a point, if Haru’s been lying to us then that means she’s the very thing she dislikes… a liar!”
Nina: “Hang on! We still can’t forget that her profile says that she likes lying!”
Jeremy: “Great now we’re running in circles! So what does this mean? What’s the point of this Penelope?”
Penelope: “The point? You must be under the impression I wanted something from this… but in truth, I simply found it intriguing.”
Likely story, she just wanted to stir the drama… but Valentinia was starting to distance herself from Haru… in fact, many were giving Haru strange side glances.
Haru: “H-hey what’s with all the weird looks? Do I have something on my face?”
Kanji: “Don’t mind these fuck nuts, they’re just afraid of what they don’t understand… Come on, let's get out of here, I’ll pay for the vending machine and get you that candy bar you want.”
Haru: “REALLY! WOO! Away I go!”
Unexpectedly Kanji was the one to defuse the situation, convincing Haru to follow him out and back to the main building.
Jak: “…”
I turned to Lapti?a however, who was fiddling with his watch… wait…
Jak: “LAPPY DON’T!”
Lapti?a attempted to pull it off, which caused his body to go into shock as the buttons of the band sent a freezing protrusion into his nerves.
Makoto: “God dammit!”
Makoto acted quickly clamping Lapti?a’s hand down to stop him from taking off the watch, but I could tell from his shiver that he felt the cold sensation as well.
Makoto: “Shit that burns!”
Makoto threw his hand back, crashing his wrist watch into the wall cracking it. Lapti?a’s watch however was now causing a serious burst of freezing energy towards us because the force coming out of the band colliding with the force Makoto had added was now conflicting, thus is caused some other things to crack, Jeremy and Abel’s own wrist watches, some other wrist watches the students had, the pinball machine, other arcade machines, and yet surprisingly it didn’t break anyone’s glasses.
Jak: “HEY! LAPPY!”
When Lapti?a’s watch was finished punishing him for attempting to take it off, I rushed over to gently shake him from his paralysis.
Jak: “Come on respond for fucks sake!”
Lapti?a: “I… I wanna… I wanna ______”
He was mumbling.
Jak: “What? Sorry I couldn’t quite hear that last part.”
Lapti?a: “I wanna go home…”
This time he stared directly at me, his eyes constricting.
Jeremy: “Okay I’m getting really creeped out here, ever since Oscar played around with that sickle, Lapti?a’s been nothing but a crazed mess! Do we have any kind of medicine to calm him down or something?”
Penelope: “Want me to brew him something?”
Jeremy: “Nope! Nevermind Lapti?a is perfectly fine!”
Jak: “…Come on Lappy.”
I took his hand and slowly led him back to the main building looking to bring him back to his bedroom door.
————
It was inevitable that we’d run into Kanji and Haru who were in the halls.
Kanji: “I get it, don’t worry.”
Haru: “You do!? Well not everyone can understand the sheep chasing the goat!”
Kanji: “Oh yeah don’t worry, I totally understand it.”
I saw the smug smirk on Kanji’s face. Haru would then turn towards my direction, and while her face was already illuminating pride and happiness, now her eyes were gleaming with mischievous glimmers of what I could only guess was a scheme formulating in her head.
Jak: “Hurry up, let's go!”
I made a mad dash for Lapti?a’s room, but Haru blocked my path.
Haru: “Hey you~ where do you think you’re going?”
Jak: “I’m just taking Lappy back to his room…”
Haru: “Alone? Just the two of you? Ooo~ steamy huh?”
Jak: “It’s not like that god dammit! Why does everyone think I’m gay!”
Haru: “You aren’t?”
Jak: “Can I just get past you before you start spreading another rumor about me?”
Haru: “Aww but that would mean I would lose out on my favorite doll? You’re such a doll you know that Jackie?”
Jak: “Can I just get called the right name for once…”
Haru: “But where exactly would be the fun in that?”
Jak: “It’s not supposed to be fun!”
Haru: “Well… maybe that’s the point…”
I couldn’t hear her through her mumbling
Jak: “What?”
Haru: “I said that you’re an idiot!”
She marched away mad… why was she mad at me!? She’s the one who got in my way!
Kanji: “Cya.”
Kanji followed after her… I should just get Lapti?a back to his bedroom. I passed my door with the cat and dog knocker, and found his door with a bull knocker, opening it up and leading him to his room. I sat him down on his bed.
Jak: “Hey, earth to Lappy! You there?”
I waved my hand in front of his face.
Jak: “Lappy! … hey Lappy are you okay?”
I was getting worried, his eyes were still constricted and his skin grew paler and cold.
Jak: “…”
I sighed and sat next to him, slowly wrapping my arms around his body as I carefully laid down with him in my grasp… I can’t believe I was doing this…
Jak: “Just focus on breathing for now, I’m still here after all, your ultimate friend…”
I could feel him relaxing, at least I hope that’s what it was. I didn’t get it, why was he reacting like this? Especially out of nowhere, but I shouldn't ask now… actually maybe I should check those profiles again. I turned my watch back on, keeping my arms around Lapti?a as I tapped the screen. I never really understood digital watches, but I suppose they aren’t as bad as I thought they were before, the touch screen was convenient after all. Now when I entered the profile tab, I found that there was a small box with an arrow at the bottom right of my profile, so I clicked on it and found a section of extended information.
…
—>
DOB: November 4th, 2022.
Status: Alive
Zodiac: Scorpio
Animal: Cat/Dog
…
Well shit…
—————
