Chapter 1
The school was large, or at least what most likely was the school Hopes Peak academy. It was too soon to tell, but the layout was identical. It was definitely a possibility. There was also a second floor, She knew that much from the gates to another floor in the dorms and in the school. There could even be a third floor, and there were still rooms on the first floor locked. Which could contain pretty much anything.
Kyoko Kirigiri thought. There was a lot to consider about the situation they were put in.
She was brewing a cup of coffee, something she only drank occasionally, if she really wanted to put her mind to work.
Coffee was bitter, even for her, who didn't mind bitter tastes, but a small amount of milk made it taste ok. The caffeine was the important part. Even if caffeine is a stimulant, and it was only her second day there. She had to be carful not to turn it into a habit.
Not only could coffee have negative affects on your physical and mental health, which were both required top shape if she were to figure out what had happened to them, caffeine was a drug. An addictive drug. It would be like relying on a drug to focus. Which she knew she shouldn't do, as it would have a negative impact.
Though drinking coffee wasn't that awful. She did enjoy it after all.
The coffee took a while to brew, even though Kyoko didn't make that much.
While she continued to think about this killing game, and the building, and everything she had found while investing, somebody walked into the kitchen.
According to the clock, it was around four o'clock. So Kirigiri wasn't surprised that someone had decided to come for a snack or whatever. But that didn't mean she was very happy about it, after all her mind was best focused when she was alone. But she would manage.
Celestia Ludenburg, the ultimate gambler, was the one who had walked into the kitchen.
She was one of the strangest students she had met here. Though their school was sure to have some, different ultimates, she was still surprised to meet the ultimate gambler to here.
Kyoko was sure that she was also strange to everyone also. After all, she couldn't even remember what her ultimate was, she couldn't even remember why she decided to come to this school in the first place. She was very out of the ordinary, probably more than anyone else.
Still, out of all the interesting characters she had faced, Celestia was the most interesting to her. A gambler. It's certain that she had participated in illegal acts, and Kyoko wouldn't be surprised if she was a natural liar.
Actually it was almost certain that she was a liar considering she won enough to become the 'ultimate gambler'. She had definitely done something illegal before too. Probably even something dangerous.
If they were in a normal high school situation, Kirigiri would want to know more about her. She would want to talk to her much more. Investigate her. Even now she still wanted to know more about her, but they didn't have time for that.
She needed to get as many people out of here somehow, and it would be best if she did that before chaos broke loose and someone was found dead. no matter how unlikely that was.
At the moment, the room was silent, except for the sound of coffee brewing, and water boiling.
As much as she would love to spend this time learning more about Celestia Lubenburg, there were more important matters to focus her energy on. Celestia was a gambler, a liar, and probably criminal, she already knew that much even with no proof. She had one case to investigate already. She didn't need another one.
And she also didn't have the mental energy to spare on Celeste's mind games. There was a much more dire situation that needed all of her attention possible.
But, why did she feel so tense with the other girl in the room? They weren't interacting at all, not even eye contact, yet Kirigiri still wanted to know more.
It's like her mysterious aura was the bait and Kyoko had fallen for it. So now there was no way to escape the temptation of Celestia Ludenburg.
Kirigiri envisioned many many possibilities of her making the first move and striking up a witty conversation between them. Yet she still couldn't say a word.
Celeste must have been a mind reader at that moment. It's almost as if she knew that she was full of mysteries. Full of mysteries that would pull Kyoko towards her, like a moth to a flame, like the gravity of the earth. Kirigiri was being pulled in, and she couldn't stop it.
Celestia definitely knew it, that she herself was full of mysteries that Kyoko Kirigiri wanted to solve.
"Would you like to sit with me?"
Those words had captivated Kyoko, and they finally made eye contact that she didn't want to break. She shouldn't, she needed to focus on the task at hand, figuring out where they were and how to get everyone out alive. Before something awful happened.
But it didn't mater how dire the situation was, Kyoko Kirigiri wanted to drink her coffee and talk to Celestia Ludenburg.
"I don't mind if you don't."
Her voice hadn't changed a bit from her apathetic tone, even though she's never felt this gravitational pull from anyone else. She didn't want to turn down this opportunity to figure out the mystery gambler. Even if it meant taking on a side project.
They moved to the dining hall with their beverages in hand and sat across from each other. They were both inspecting the other, just in different ways.
Kyoko leaned forward holding her coffee in both hands. Her face stayed straight the entire time, and nobody would be able to tell she was taking note of every detail from head to toe on the other girl. Or Kirigiri thought so at least.
Celestia on the other hand was sitting in a much more posh manner. Her legs were crossed and she sipped her tea with her pinky out.
They both had different approaches, Celeste was good at putting on a fancy and polite persona, like royalty, even if Kirigiri knew it was fake, maybe an average person wouldn't. Even so it was hard to figure out what was underneath that fake persona.
Her smile was her poker face, if it never left her face nobody could tell if her emotions had changed, she was hard to read, which is to be expected from the ultimate gambler.
Kyoko was more professional. Her face was stone cold. Her apathetic expression had only changed barely from the moment she stepped foot into the school, and it wasn't going to now.
Her poker face was to stay emotionless and unreadable while Celestes was to cover her emotions with a mask, her true self with a fake persona.
Though even from just sitting there, not daring to break eye contact, you could tell they had one thing in common. They both didn't dare express their real emotions.
The eye contact was like two second graders in a staring contest. Neither one dared to look away first, and even when they took sips of their drinks, they started at each other from behind their mug.
If someone walked in, there was no clue whether the two girls would jump as if an intimate moment had been interrupted, or if they'd continue on, not giving a glance to whoever may enter and just refuse to loose whatever game they were playing.
But why did Celestia invite Kirigiri to sit with her anyway? Maybe Kyoko isn't as good as she thinks she is at concealing her thoughts and feelings. Or maybe perhaps she felt the same way as Kirigiri.
Perhaps Kyoko contained the same mysterious aura as Celestia, and she was pulled to her too. Maybe they were being pulled to each other, and just wanted to know more.
"Are you more of a coffee drinker?" Celestia broke the long silence, with a bit of small talk, but the tension was still thick in the air.
"Not always, but mostly yes." Kirigiri leaned back in her chair, still holding her drink with both of her gloved hands, and still not breaking eye contact. "I see you're more of a tea drinker."
The two were very different, Kyoko drank coffee for caffeine, with a tiny bit of milk so she could stand the taste. Celeste on the other hand, had carefully brewed her tea step by step so it would taste perfect. One was more minimalistic and goal oriented, while the other was high maintenance.
Even looking at their attire you could tell this difference. Kyoko wore some sort of uniform it looked like, while Celestia had on a dress that looked like it was made for a porcelain doll. Not only that, her hair probably took hours to do, and her makeup was on point, she looked like the porcelain doll the dress had been made to fit.
She looked like a noble from France, while the other looked more professional rather than traditional.
Yet this difference between them gave them one thing in common. It was the only one aspect of them that the others in the school with them could figure out.
There were still thousands of questions to ask.
Why is Kyoko so reserved? Why does she disappear often? How is she so calm headed? Why does she wear those gloves?
Why does Celeste choose to dress like that? Why is she so high maintenance? Is it because she's a successful gambler? How is she such a successful gambler at her age? Is she a criminal?
And these questions are what pulled the two together.
"I am. Tea is a much more sophisticated drink when made properly, and I don't see any reason to drink coffee." She sounded conceited, but even from how she came off from the start when they first met, you'd think she had a superiority complex.
Though, it wasn't expected to be because of tea.
They both continued to stare the other down and returned to another long silence. It was as if they were telepathically connecting and if they broke eye contact they'd never regain the connection.
Slowly their tea and coffee ran out. Kyoko had forgotten that her mug wasn't bottomless for a hot minute. Celeste probably did too. That's just how tense the staring contest was.
Almost in sync, without saying a word to each other they got up and walked back to the kitchen to put away their dishes. It's almost as if they had telepathically connected, or maybe the girls thoughts were just the same at the moment.
Or maybe they were more alike than they knew, or cared to admit.
Kyoko had just confirmed everything she had assumed about Celestia so far.
She was high strung, high maintenance, reserved, smart, gorgeous and full of herself no question.
Celestia probably thought the opposite of Kirigiri, from their interaction she probably assumed that Kyoko was too low maintenance for her taste.
But Kirigiri didn't notice she still seemed just as intrigued by Kyoko as Kyoko was by her.
Kyoko's assumption of what Celestia thought was disproved when she spoke.
"Would you like to walk with me for a while?"
Celeste grinned, her face wasn't any more genuine than it was before, but something about her voice changed. Her tone was more, inviting. It was probably that so very slight change that made Kyoko accept the offer.
"I guess I wouldn't mind, there's not much else to do after all."
They explored the school a little bit, the dorm part had not many unlocked places to see, neither did the school part.
They had walked around to every room and a few hours had past. Kyoko noticed nothing new.
She had investigated most of the rooms thoroughly and found pretty much nothing. Nothing that told her anything that lead her closer to answering who was behind this, what is their relationship to everyone here, when did this happen, how did this happen and how do they escape.
The only thing she knew is that they were most likely at Hopes Peak. Ironically that just created more questions.
Almost worse, she still had no idea why she was here at hopes peak, what is her purpose here and what is her ultimate. It threw her into an identity crisis.
Though she didn't let any of this show in front of Celestia Ludenburg.
Because until she found something to get her started on a way to escape, the ultimate gambler, was in her reach. There wasn't much reason for it, she just wanted to know more, so much more about Celeste.
They barely said a word to each other, they just walked, just like how they just drank and stared. And by the time they were finished, around four hours had passed. It was eight.
Kirigiri, being the polite person she is to the ones she feels magnetized so much towards she spends four hours with them barely talking, excused herself to go to her bedroom.
"Thank you, I think I'll head to my room now."
"Ok then. I'll see you later Kirigiri." Kyoko started to walk off but she was stopped right before she passes Celeste. "You're always welcome in my room, even at night. If you would like we could have some tea."
And they parted.
Kyoko kept thinking about the last part, why wouldn't she say it casually if it was just an invitation for tea? Because it wasn't.
Kyoko realized that the two girls had an equal interest in each other, and if they met up more often, they'd both find out more about the other.
As she got back to her room, she didn't lay in the bed, or shower or get ready for bed. She grabbed a notebook, and started to write down her notes.
Celestia Ludenburg?
Real name?-
Description-
- black hair, large drills, which are probably fake
- red eyes
- often wears makeup and dresses in Lolita fashion
- comes off very high strung, high maintenance, arrogant and non-genuine.
Other-
Kyoko thought, she didn't know at first if she even needed the other category, but she was pretty sure she had something to write down. In the end she finally had it.
She likes milk tea