Ash noted Isaac's quick personality change, his mood swings. His face did not quite represent his apparent happiness. It reminded him of Meira on a few of her more confusing occasions.

The mud splattered across her legs and shoes. Meira's mouth dropped open, confusion in her eyes switching to a violent rage. Ash couldn't suppress a small smile from sneaking onto his face, which Meira clearly saw, judging by the way she switched her death glare from Isaac to himself.

"Ash." Meira's tone was bone chillingly measured and polite, which normally would have concerned him quite a bit, but there wasn't a very probable way for her to kill him in that moment, so he kept walking through the mud towards her.

"Yes, my love?"

"Is this funny?" Meira asked. He could feel her glare still directed at him.

"It could be construed as such in some situations, my love." He climbed up onto the tree roots next to her and hugged her. She glared at him for a moment longer before conceding her defeat and hugging him in return.

"I know you're very angry at both of us right now, and that you want to kill both Isaac and myself in this current moment. But I believe I have a very compelling argument for you to not act on that rage." He slowly raised a fistful of mud, careful not to move close enough to disrupt her attention on him.

"And that is?"

Ash silently prayed to the gods that he wouldn't die for his actions and opened his fist over Meira's head full of blonde curls as he spoke.

"I just put a handful of mud in your hair."

Meira's face went a brilliant shade of red as the mud dripped down into her face and through her curly hair. A moment later, as if realizing exactly what had happened, she shrieked and pushed him away from her, sending him flying back into the mud with a giant splash. He blinked and wiped the mud out of his face in time to see her sprinting to the entrance of the building without a second thought to himself and Isaac, or the large amount of mud that was slowly turning her brilliant blonde head a nasty gray brown.

"Well, I suppose that dictates how tonight is going. In we go, then. Nice work there, Isaac, I mean that sincerely." He pushed himself to his feet and trudged towards the building without stopping again.

He stepped back, narrowly avoiding the mud splash when Ash landed, and watched as Ash departed. “Just leave me here alone then,” he mumbled. Then, he called out, “I suppose you’re going after her, then?”

He ran, catching up with him. “Cool. I like emotional girls. They’re nice.”

With that, they followed Meira into the building.

Still no response. She glared at the ceiling for another moment, as though it might generate Laura from sheer willpower, though that had never actually worked, and then gave it up and looked around.

The announcement to go to the gym seemed all too dreadfully familiar. Something she was reminded of. She still wasn't sure exactly which piece of distastefully racist culture she was dealing with, but it had to be one of them. Only WYCS would give anime prompts. She'd had to do multiple of them before, and this was clearly going to be no different, minus the clear lack of a script that she was usually provided with.

It was obviously a punishment scenario.

She zipped her backpack closed, swung it on, and clutched her favorite purple pen close.

"I am fully blaming you, bitch. This is your fault." She left the library with a contemptuous huff, and headed leisurely through the school. Ruby could not be particularly bothered to attend this meeting, though she figured it would confirm the missing information she needed to solve the stupid prompt. Maybe she could find the cliffs notes.

She turned a corner and a robed figure greeted her from down a longer hallway. Male. Hooded. Weird. This definitely had to be part of the prompt.

"Who are you and what do you have to do with this scenario? Are you one of those mysterious plot points?"

-----------



She was absolutely disgusting and Ash was going to pay for it. She loved her hair. She was incredibly proud of it. And of course he had to throw mud in it. It was all over her back and her legs, too. The nerve of her boyfriend sometimes.

She raked a hand through her hair, desperately trying to free some of the soggy, sticky mess, but it was a lost cause. It would have to wait. She'd have to be muddy in the gym meeting. At least Ash and Isaac were covered in mud too.

They entered the door behind her, talking in low voices, and she resolutely ignored them, and particularly Ash, and puzzled over Isaac Di Acroina. He was already an emotional mystery to her, but clearly dramatic like herself. Maybe he was similar to her. If he was, though, she sure as hell wasn't going to tell him.

Ash gently grabbed her hand as they traversed the hallways, following Isaac. She decided not to pull away. It felt better to be holding his hand.

Hidayat gave her a quick glance, then turned his gaze back to the floor. “You were told to go to the gym, so go to the gym. . .”

He didn’t stop walking though, hearing the echo of voices at the end of the hallway, he drew his hand to his face and took a deep breath. For a moment, he seemed to contemplate something. Then, he walked over to the girl, pushed her back inside the library, and closed the door.

Pressing his ear against the door, he said, “. . . You’d be wise not to make a sound.”

"I should've known you were a plot point that I would not appreciate." Ruby shook her head. "That damned bitch will be the end of me someday. Or won't. Fucking limbo clauses. Alright, so who are you? One of Kimmy's? Shadow's or CrimFox's, maybe? Too wordy for Cake, and it would be Mou-whatever if it was MasterLiza." She sighed, speaking quietly in a halfhearted and lackadaisical effort to comply with the instructions that she didn't feel like following.

"I see you're avoiding the apparent meeting as well." She hummed, tucking her pen into her pocket.

-----



Meira swore she heard a door slam as they turned another corner, towards the gym. But there were way too many doors to know which one. As they kept walking, she heard shuffling and stopped in her tracks.

"Who's there? Is someone stalking us?"

“Of course I’m avoiding it!” He turned his head. “I don’t like closed spaces, okay? And I don’t know what you’re ranting about but please—*please* shut up! I don’t want to—”



“The library?” Isaac suggested. He paused, pressing a finger to his lip. “But why stalk us? They should know that everyone here is relatively uninteresting and in the same boat. . . unless they’ve just woken up.”

He placed his hand down and giggled. “They must have only just woken up, then. We should tell them that it’s okay!” He gestured towards the library, gripping the door handle, and added, “Come, come!”

The door, however, opened itself. Isaac stumbled back at the force, and Hidayat leapt up and pushed him straight to the ground, folding two hands around his neck.

Ruby nodded to Hida in response and shut up, grabbing a few sharpened pencils out of her backpack pocket and taking up a position slightly away from the door as several people very clearly approached from the outside. Something sounded familiar.

The door handle twisted slightly and the hooded guy- Also familiar, now that she thought about it- threw it open and jumped through onto the blonde guy opening the door. Murder already. Just what she liked.

She froze. Her pencils clattered to the floor.

"HOW IN LAURA'S BATSHIT MIND ARE YOU FUCKS HERE?!" She shrieked.

A very mud covered Ash and Meira blinked at her.

"Did she just-"

"Meira hush." Ash murmured, squeezing her hand as Ruby glared, once again, at the ceiling with a gaze full of wrath to kill a god.

"I FUCKING KNOW YOU DID THIS NOW, YOU PSYCHO BITCH!!!"

She glared around at the four others and gave an exasperated scream.

"FUCKING STOP. NOW. SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS, FUCK THE MEETING, I DON'T CARE. I WANT TO KNOW WHO ALL OF YOU ARE AND WHAT ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH IS GOING ON. NOW."

“Hello, Hida.” He smiled—this time, it wasn’t an unconvincing smile. It seemed deeply affectionate. “How have you been?”

“I’m leaving! I—I’m not going!”

“That’s okay! I was never going to say that you had to!”

Hidayat sighed, releasing his grip. He rose his head, looked around, and added, “. . . You all look disgusting. Where on earth have you been?”

“Outside!”

“No shit!”

“Ah!” Isaac reached out, placing tentative fingers against Hidayat’s cheek. He frowned. “Your eyes are. . . why are you crying?”

Hidayat freaked out and slapped Isaac across the face. “Don’t touch me! I didn’t want to see you again!”

Isaac dropped his hand and sighed. He spoke again, obviously not directed at Hidayat. “My name is Isaac di Acroina and I do not know why we are here or what is happening. All I know is that I’m an ultimate. . . something.”

"He's gay."

"Meira."

"Meira, for all intents and purposes, we are all gay." Ruby interrupted in an attempt to shut down that conversation, rubbing her temples to easy the insanity driven headache she was rapidly acquiring.

"I am Ruby E. Hockenjos, an author of relative notoriety, but no matter, you won't know my books. I am here as the Ultimate Writer."

"Wait, but how did you know my name?" Meira interrupted suspiciously.

"He said your name twice." Ruby pointed to Ash. And I am far too experienced to make that kind of mistake, she added silently.

Ash shrugged.

"It is kind of obvious when you put it that way." The statement did not mollify her little blonde psychopath, who continued observing her with pronounced trepidation. Ruby resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"I'm Ashkon Sens, this is Meira Lux. It really doesn't bear repeating at this point, but we're both ultimates as well."

"Isaac was leading us to the gym, he says he's explored the whole place here looking for a way out." Meira contributed. The statement added another hint to Ruby's suspicions. They were all knocked out, they couldn't leave. Ultimates. What godforsaken manga was WYCS referencing this time? And Isaac Di Acroina... She vaguely remembered the name, association to Kyle's non character counterpart or something alone those lines.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all. Are we all intending to ignore the meeting, then?" Ruby picked at her fingernails for a moment, feigning disinterest, and then bent down to grab her fallen pencils and stuff them in her bag.

Familiar people.

What the hell was going on?

In an instant, Evlo pointed at Meri. “See! He gets it! He’s smart! Unlike Bertha.”

“Swamp lady!” he cheered. “Swamp lady!”

Then, he realised. “Wait, Bertha, did you just try to strangle him? Not cool Bertha, not cool!” He drew his hands to his face in haunting suspicion. “Eeevil Ogre! Bad swamp to walk into! Baaad!”

The announcement gave him a justification for leaving.

“Oops guess we gotta go to the gym and find out what’s up, huh? Sorry guys, gotta go!” He ran down the hallway, trying not to skid in the wetness of his sandals, and saw five strange figures in the distance. One yelling, two confused, and one sitting on the other one.

“Move!” he screamed. Their heads turned towards him.

He couldn’t slow himself. Instead, he tried to manoeuvre across the perilous floor like an ice rink, but they took up too much space!—

“MOVE!”

Hidayat couldn’t move before Evlo thrust a knee into him, tripping over Isaac. They both fell to the ground, falling far from the site of impact. Evlo opened his eyes and yelled.

“I said move! Is it that difficult to move?” He lifted himself up. “I couldn’t stop myself! This place is actually rancid! Why is everyone covered in mud? Do you all like mud? Mud isn’t that great! Are you all stupid?—”

Hidayat rose. Evlo, in frightful anticipation, rose too, and continued to run down the hallway towards the gym.

“COME BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE SHIT!” he yelled, running after him.

“Heike?” Ruby asked incredulously. “No, that’s not right. There’s no way. And if there is a way, I’m being punished to the point of insanity and I’m never going back.”

“So, ah… What do we do about that?” Ash pointed down the hallway to a disappearing… whatever his name was, and a rather small child who somehow screamed louder than Meira. Which was why he did not deal with small children. He left the Ruby girl to her own rambling devices and extended a hand to Isaac to help him up.

“Where are they even going?” Meira peered down the hallway curiously. “Did you know them? Did either of you know them?”

“No, he just reminded me of someone I did know, once.” Ruby answered immediately.

With the help of Ash, he raised himself.

“Hidayat!” Isaac called, reaching out. “Stop! It’s not worth it!”

He sighed, letting his hand fall. “God, I try not to be annoyed with you but sometimes it’s so damn hard. . .” He turned around and looked at Meira. “Yes, I know him—Hidayat, I mean. The one conspicuously hiding his face. The other. . . no.”

“Oh well. Are we attending this orientation or not? I’m down with not going. . . as long as you can help me find a way out of here in a place I haven’t already looked.” Then, he gestured to Ruby. “Also, someone please calm her down. I’d do it myself but. . . my mind’s kind of in a different place right now.”

Ruby rolled her eyes.

“Alright, goodbye then.” She marched back into the library.

Meira looked after her in confusion.

“Is there roof access or a basement that you know of?” Ash suggested, his mind already turning. “We could try there, maybe there’s some weird, secret way out of here.”

“Or we could follow them, or her, they seem interesting.” Meira was already moving towards the library. Ash tugged on her hand and she stopped.

“What? I just wanted to look. She’s weird.”

“Why don’t we find a way out of here?” Ash hinted at his concern once again.

“Isaac already tried everywhere, unless you just want to walk out of the swamp.”

“Or basement.” Ash repeated.

“Or the roof of the observatory, where I was trying. . .” he muttered. “. . . But I really don’t want to climb again. And I don’t know if there’s a basement. . . I haven’t seen any.”

He sighed. “Sure. Let’s follow her.”

“You lead, then?” Ash suggested. “I’m not usually one for… Leading a stalking expedition.”

Meira had already pushed open the door and gone inside, ignoring both of them and any sense of caution or reason. But that was Meira for you, Ash mused. She jumped headfirst and only planned when it was certain to benefit her.

He followed her in quietly, observing the large quantity of materials on various subjects. It was certainly nothing to some of the scholarly libraries he had seen, but it was quite nice. He would have loved to have sent more time exploring it earlier, but Meira insisted that she had had enough of sitting and reading. Ironically, she was now the one leading the expedition into the library, but she also was focused on stalking a person as opposed to indulging his desire to read.

“Do you suppose this Ruby person is crazy, or just very confused and disoriented?”

He followed them inside, closing the door behind him. Rash people were breathtakingly. . . moronic, in a way.

“Probably just crazy,” he muttered. “I don’t know anyone who worships a god called Laura. Probably pagan.”

With that, he continued following Meira. It wasn’t that he hated the library—in fact, he knew so much about the world through reading. However, this place was eerily unsettling.

Orion jumped, observing the loud girl for a moment before regarding her with a slightly nervous smile. If nothing else, it was a good thing that she'd run into someone--it meant she wasn't all alone out here. But on the other hand, if they both had no recollection of how they got here, then what did that mean?

Surely, it couldn't be anything good.

"We can find the gym together," Orion decided, offering a somewhat muddied hand for Johanna to shake. "It's nice to meet you, Johanna! To be completely honest, the same thing happened to me, actually. Woke up here and I don't know where I am, so I'm just...trying to find my way home."

Home...

Raul must be worried sick, Orion thought to herself, resisting the urge to bite her lip. How long have I been out here? Why can't I remember what happened? It couldn't be Palmer's fault somehow, could it...?

No, no...whatever's happening, I'm sure it's all okay. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this--I just can't think of it at the moment. Satisfied with this, Orion pulled herself from her thoughts and offered Johanna a more confident smile. "I haven't introduced myself, have I? I'm Orion Divi, Ultimate Astronomer. If you're an Ultimate too, then maybe your idea of this being a school isn't so far off..."

She glanced back in the direction that Johanna came from, swearing that she could see building-like shapes in the distance. "Oh! Do you think the gym's over that way? I've been wandering the swamp for a while and all I've seen is...well, swamp, so as far as I'm concerned that's our best bet. I wasn't even sure there were buildings here until the announcement mentioned something about them, honestly."

Ruby frantically scribbled in her notebook, her backpack forgotten on the floor next to her.

“Take me home… No. Get me the hell out of this place, no. Stop being a fucking bitch, also no. I want to go back to the conference room please and thanks or else they’re all going to die, not working. I’m not going to beg because that’s beneath me, but give me my journal back for the love of all that is holy didn’t work either. I found a gun? Will that one work for you? What does a girl have to do to get back in the conference room…” She groaned and dropped her journal and purple pen in defeat.

“Not even Therese is answering, think, think, think... How do I get their attention? Maybe the gun is the best idea, but I have no idea where to find one or even if I could find one. Gag me, then, I guess. And you three should find a better hiding spot than behind the shelves, everyone knows that it’s the first place someone checks.”

“How did you-” Meira was cut off by someone, probably Ash.

“It’s the first place someone checks.” Ruby repeated. “Also, the door opening and closing again, and three sets of footsteps is a good giveaway. I do believe we got off on the wrong foot, did we not? I was rather surprised by several people suddenly appearing and engaging in violence. As I said, my name is Ruby Hockenjos, include the E if you want my professional name. Admittedly, I doubt any of you have read anything of what I’ve written, it’s probably not to your taste, but it got me here and several million dollars in royalties, so I suppose I’m not doing too badly.”

No, the first thing you would check would be under a bed or inside a closet but, since neither of those were here, a shelf would have to substitute—and, given that shelves were the only thing here, that didn’t make the girl very intellectually smart.

“Fascinating. A true crime genius,” he replied. Then, he remembered the crude measures of hospitality and clapped his hands. “It’s impressive that you found us!” He smiled. “I thought we were quite well hidden!”

Idiot, he would’ve added, but he was trying not to be too sharp of tongue. It took quite a while for his patience to wear thin but these people were irritating. At least Ash was okay, he supposed. Just strictly unemotional.

“BERTHAAAAA!” a voice screamed. “SAVE MEEE!”

“I SAID SHUT UP!”

Isaac turned his attention to the door. Hidayat, in a reddish, angry hue, stared back at him. The child behind him flailed about like a fish out of water, wrapped up in something long.

“Does anyone have any tape?” he asked. “No, wait. We don’t need any tape.”

Isaac realised Hidayat had a rope in his palm, tightened firmly around the child’s waist. With a few unrelenting tugs he pulled the child over to a pillar in the middle of room and strapped him against it.

“Does anyone have a lighter?” His frustration was replaced with a smirk. “We’re sacrificing this little shit to the gods.”

Ruby could see the panic overtake Ash at the thought of setting a fire in a library. Damn Asian stereotypes. Admittedly, he didn’t actually look particularly panicked, rather ambivalent, but she knew. She always knew.

Meira looked interested. Ruby cursed Laura and everything she’d ever written prior canonically to Author. Just her luck to get stuck with an absolute fucking psychopath. Literally. And she doubted that ultimate title had been revealed to anyone.

Isaac di Acroina. She’d call him Ida for short. He was probably one of Kyle’s creations anyway, and Kyle’s opinion had no value to her. The one in the hood looked familiar still, but given that Heike wasn’t around she wasn’t sure who it was. A cousin, maybe.

And the screaming pixie child was a problem.

“Why set him on fire when you can torture him first?” She proposed. She’d deal with Ida’s snarky ass later. Meira’s head instantly whipped towards her. For fuck’s sake.

“Might as well get the best use out of him, though I would recommend doing this outside unless we want to die of smoke inhalation as all the paper and wood around us catches fire. Or are we trying to set fire to the school?”

“Hold on.” The cogs in Ash’s brain were clearly working. “Why? What has he done to deserve that? Why are you involved with him anyway? Have you even met him? And also… Please don’t set the library on fire?”

“To hell with books! No one likes them anyway!” He closed his eyes. “They’d make good fuel for the fire. . . and sure let’s burn this place! I never asked to come here!”

“BERTHAAA!” the child cried again. “I don’t like ropes! They’re too hairy and uncomfortable and I especially don’t like being tied to pillars because then I can’t move and not being able to move! And I like moving—I like moving okay! Moving is fun and it feels good AND I LIKE MOVING!—”

Hidayat slammed his hand against the pillar. “. . . Shut up or I’ll kill you.”

In an instant, the boy quietened.

He stared at Ash and sighed. “I can tie you up too, if you want. There’s no use for anyone who thinks a library is worth saving.“

No one touched him. Ever. Meira glared at the guy, fists clenched in silent rage, her interest from moments ago completely forgotten. Fear didn’t give you the right to kill. There had to be a justified reason. Always. Usually evil.

Though she didn’t quite think this guy was evil. He just seemed scared. But that didn’t give him the right to threaten Ash.

“Hold it!” Ruby sang out. “I see nothing wrong with a sacrifice, but I do believe that perhaps there are better alternatives than a screaming child. Perhaps just the school in general? It doesn’t need to be here, after all. And if there happens to be anyone else inside, oh well!”

“But, if we burn down the entire place, then the library still burns and this guy is going to get sad! Aww! The tragedy!” He leaned back against the pillar. “But I always like seeing sad faces, and I dislike when things are recorded! So, let’s burn history while we still have the chance!”

Beside him, Isaac quirked a brow.

“Oh, and the child. I don’t appreciate it when people hurt me.”

“Actually, the school in its entirety is preferable. We don’t want to be here any more than you do. But if we are stuck here, I’d rather have a library than not.” Ash shrugged and Meira’s fists unclenched as he spoke. Ruby mentally ticked off her approval. She’d have to reward him somehow if he kept up this negotiation. Maybe by not breaking Riley’s leg in the twenty third chapter. Something less traumatizing.

“You aren’t by chance related to Heike Amir, are you?” Ruby asked curiously, unable to continue containing her confusion. “Anyway, as I already pointed out, unless you feel like dying in here, setting a fire immediately is poor planning. Also, no, no one has a lighter, to answer your first question.”

“I have so many siblings that I don’t exactly remember their names. There’s Nahil, Fawaz. . . I don’t think any Heikes?—”

“. . . You don’t care about dying, do you?”

Hidayat narrowed his eyes, propping one leg against the pillar. “You don’t understand anything about me, Isaac.” In a whisper, he added, “I killed your father, too. . . why?”

Isaac knew that, if Hidayat thought hard enough, he already knew the answer.

“What the hell are Ultimates? It’s been weighing on my mind for a while now. . . why am i here?”