Chapter 21- Alter Ego

(A/N) I just wanted to say that chapters may not post daily every Monday since school started and I have been hard at work. But I promise I'll try and get a chapter to you guys as daily as possible.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked Aoi shocked as I couldn't believe what she was saying as well.

Aoi saw Chihiro's ghost?! But that's impossible! I never really believed in that kind of paranormal stuff such as ghosts and such, but Aoi sounded so serious, it was hard to believe that she was actually telling the truth. But then again, there was a talking bear locking them inside a high school, so I guess anything is possible.

"Y-You saw a g-ghost?!" Yasuhiro said with widened eyes, as if he actually believed Aoi's words.

"What do you mean?" Celeste asked calmly.

"You guys think I'm crazy when I say this-" Aoi started again as I didn't want to say my best friend was crazy, but she was sort of acting like it when saying Chihiro's ghost was lurking around here somewhere.

"Of course you're crazy! L-Like there's anyway ghosts exist!" Toko said harshly and Aoi frowned softly.

"Or she is possibly tricking us into believing that," Byakuya said calmly as he pushed up his glasses.

I didn't know why Aoi would lie about something like that as I saw her disappointed face as everyone seemed to disagree with Ali's claim. Maybe Aoi really did see something, but I didn't want to believe that it was a ghost. Perhaps a blur of light or something because it was impossible for ghosts to actually exist. After all, I never actually believed in ghosts.

But if Aoi was telling the truth and actually saw a ghost then that meant Chihiro's spirit was somewhere here inside this school... Wait, what am I saying?! He can't possibly come backs as a ghost, there was no way.

I wrapped my hand tightly around Chihiro's necklace on my chest as I thought to myself about it. Maybe it's best if we investigate the matter just in case.

"Where exactly did you see this 'ghost', Hina?" I asked her calmly as she raised her eyebrows at me in a way shocked that I actually believed what she was telling us.

I didn't want to admit it, but I actually believed she saw something and was telling us the truth about it. After all, I'm an actress and it's pretty easy for me to read other people's emotions. And when I look into Aoi's eyes, she isn't lying to me and I know that.

"I-I saw it... inside the bathhouse," She answered with a nervous gaze.

"An odd place to find a spirit," Hifumi commented and I tried not to glare at him but kept my attention on Aoi instead.

"You aren't actually thinking we should..." Byakuya started as he looked at me.

"Let's just check the bathhouse just to be safe," I said to everyone as some looked shocked by what I said.

"N-No way I'm checking there! Y-You're saying shit!" Yasuhiro said with the same scared face on. Gosh, he seemed easily spooked by this paranormal talk.

"Why would there be a spirit of a deceased student here in the first place?" Celeste asked calmly as she twirled a finger in her hair and I was starting to see that as a habit of hers. "The deceased souls can't possibly come back as ghosts."

I rolled my eyes softly. Everyone was talking this too literally and that wasn't what I meant at all. Perhaps Aoi actually found something useful that we may need to see. It was probably just some conclusion she reached saying it was Chihiro's ghost when seeing whatever the hell it was. I would rather try to look and see what it could have possibly been.

"Henka is right. We need to investigate this matter and see what we find," Kyoko said as she caught everyone's attention. "It may be important to our escape from this place."

"Yeah, let's just look around to make sure," Makoto said as he agreed with Kyoko and everyone else nodded slowly.

Everyone started making their way out of the gym and towards the bathhouse as I turned towards one person left there, Byakuya.

I walked towards him as he had his arms crossed and scoffed quietly.

"You don't actually believe Asahina saw a ghost of our deceased student?" He asked me as he pushed up his glasses. "It's pointless to check the bathhouse.

I rolled my eyes softly at his attitude. We have nothing else better to do and I couldn't believe he didn't think we could find something. He always seemed to think nothing we found was of any use and I was kind of getting tired of it.

And... If Chihiro's ghost was really here somewhere, I wanted to apologize for what I told Chihiro and have one last talk with him before he was really gone for good.

"Then don't come," I said with a stern look as I walked to the doorway and out of the gym and I looked towards the doorway with a smile as Byakuya came out and avoided my gaze as we walked to catch up with everyone to the bathhouse.

"Don't say anything," He said in a sigh and I just smiled softly.

I knew he would follow along if I went. I would just call it a girls intuition when I had an ability to read people's faces easily. And since Byakuya is my boyfriend now I would suspect he would want to come with me.

We soon all entered into the bathhouse as everyone looked around for this ghost Aoi found last night.

I couldn't spot anything as I gazed around and I found myself a little disappointed that Chihiro's ghost never actually existed. I was really hoping to have one last talk with his ghost even if I never really believed the so-called ghost existed in the first place. I just sort of wanted to have a small hope that I could speak with my friend again and apologize to him that his life had to end. He didn't deserve any of this... And in fact, none of us deserved this and I wanted to remind Chihiro that and that he didn't die in vain.

Yasuhiro was looking rather frightened as we continued looking around. He certainly had a fear of ghosts and all that paranormal activity. If I said boo behind him, I'd bet he would run out of here screaming his lungs off. It was kind of stupid behavior from a high school student as well.

I continued looking as I walked toward Makoto, who was checking the lockers with Kyoko as they seemed pretty focused on their work.

"Find anything?" I asked them as they turned towards me.

"Not a thing," Makoto answered as Kyoko kept looking around. "Perhaps what Asahina saw was just a light."

A light... That probably was the only logical conclusion we could draw to since we couldn't find anything in here. But I then looked at Kyoko as she opened a locker near the bottom of the wall and I moved to her side along with Makoto as we gazed shockingly at the sight in front of us.

It was... a laptop! A laptop with a black screen as it was turned off. But, what was a laptop doing in a place like this? In a steamy bathhouse where the screen could fog up and the electronic cables could get fried. Unless this was...

"Fujisaki's..." I said softly as I moved my hand towards the laptop and put a hand onto the keyboard.

It had to be his. It was the only logical thing I could think of. He was the Ultimate Programmer so it made sense for him to have a laptop like this, but what was it doing in a place like this with the question on my mind.

"Wait... Didn't this belong to...?" Makoto said as he looked at the laptop in shock. He seemed to understand as well who it must have belonged to as well. "Somebody just left it here?"

"Haven't you noticed? The layout of this room. There's a very important difference here," Kyoko explained as I gazed around.

I just noticed it. It was very different then all the other rooms in this place. As I gazed at the corners of the rooms, I couldn't see the overly large security cameras in place to watch over us. How come they weren't placed here...?

"Monokuma didn't place security cameras here," I answered as I turned back to the computer screen.

"Yes, that's right. Monokuma can't see nor hear us. Which makes this an ideal hiding place," Kyoko explained as I thought about it.

If I'm right about my assumption, then Chihiro placed this laptop in here because Monokuma couldn't see in nor hear what they were doing. I see that the bear cared about the privacy in a public bathhouse and not in a private bathroom like my dorm. It made it very uncomfortable to shower in there with those security cameras watching over me but here we didn't seem to worry about that stuff.

"Should I turn it on then?" I asked anybody really for a next step on what to do.

"Yes. I would like to see what's stored on this," Kyoko said with a small nod and I moved my hand towards the power button on the side of the laptop and watched as it came to life.

I never actually expected it to actually work seeing the laptop in the library didn't work at all along with any other electronic device as well. But this seemed to work perfectly fine as the screen lit up and everyone gathered around to look at it.

I looked at it in shock as the screen turned into a green background and then a face popped up onto the screen and I almost jumped back in shock but instead gripped tightly of the necklace around my neck as I smiled softly at the sight.

Chihiro's face showed onto the screen as he looked like the smiling child I remembered so well and now I knew for certain that this used to be Chihiro's. He was a genius. I expected that he could make avatars pretty easily.

"Hi there! Good to see you, master!" Chihiro's face said in a bright energetic voice.

"G-Ghost!" Yasuhiro nearly screamed in shock as I then was shocked by the next thing he did.

I stood completely shocked and a little uncomfortable as he then wrapped his arms around the nearest person for protection and that nearest person... was me...

He wrapped his arms around me as he seemed frightened and scared by the laptop and seeing Chihiro's face. Yasuhiro clearly thought it was a ghost and freaked out.

I didn't know what to do as his arms were wrapped around me and my face became heated by his actions. He had a tight grip around my body and I didn't know how to get him off of me.

"L-Let go!" I said in a nervous stutter as almost everyone seemed to be staring at the two of us and I hated that Yasuhiro was causing a scene and especially since I was the one getting the most embarrassment out of this, but Yasuhiro didn't seem to care by that as his grip became tighter that I could barely breath in his arms.

"It's a ghost! I'm too young to die!" Yasuhiro said in a scream and I clenched my fist at my side as I couldn't believe he was leaving me with this option as I was about to do the only logical thing I could think of since he didn't seem willing to get off of me.

"Get off of her," The harsh voice of Byakuya said. "It's just a computer."

Yasuhiro gazed at the computer quickly before loosening his grip around me and soon letting me go so I could finally breath and felt my face heating up way too much as I sweated nervously by the act.

Yasuhiro scratched the back of his head nervously as I quickly walked back to the laptop's screen and tried to get the sudden event out of my mind.

Everyone else seemed to have seen the scene as well as I tried to brush it off but everyone else didn't seem so eager to do the same as me. I just wanted to forget it as I looked back at the computer screen.

"Wait... Master, where'd you go?" Chihiro's floating head asked as it looked around the computer screen.

"What's going on?" Makoto asked with a confused look to the computer screen.

I thought about it for a second as I thought about everything I knew about computers, which wasn't that much. But, I was guessing the computer wasn't programmed to follow voice commands as I reached my hand for the keyboard.

What are you?

"Well, hello-hello! Welcome! I'm Alter Ego! A specially designed artificial intelligence program!" Chihiro's head explained in a cheerful voice and when hearing his voice, I couldn't help but smile softly, even in this situation as I gripped my hand around the necklace on my neck.

So, Alter Ego was programmed by Chihiro. And he was a little genius to be able to create something as amazing as this was. It was a spectacular and I was glad Chihiro was able to put his skills to good use while here.

"So, Fujisaki made him then..." I said softly as I couldn't take my face off Chihiro's own. And to think he's only been gone for two days. Seeing him again was like seeing an old friend.

"So creepy, the voice sounds exactly like him," Aoi said.

I was also guessing the thing Aoi saw in the middle of the night was Alter Ego then. And in the dark, I'm guessing it looked like a ghost with the light traveling off the face.

"That is slightly unnerving," Sakura said.

"It's not uncommon for hackers to make vanity avatars. Remember, Fujisaki was something of a programming prodigy before being ensnared by this place," Kyoko explained to everyone as she looked at the screen.

I looked at Alter Ego with a curious look plastered on my face. I was guessing Chihiro put the laptop here for a reason so Monokuma couldn't see what he was up to, whatever it was and I was curious as to what it could possibly be as I started typing on the keyboard again.

What are you doing here?

"Analyzing all files on this hard drive. Give me a second please," Alter Ego answered as he went silent for a about a few seconds before speaking again. "The encryption's insane! I don't know, something tells me files this protected must belong to Hope's Peak."

"So that's why Fujisaki put this here..." I said as I understood what Chihiro was doing. "He was trying to hack into Hope's Peak's mainframe, the little genius."

Chihiro certainly was a little genius to be able to think up this stuff. He made an avatar that could probably easily hack into the network and override it in less then a few days. That was amazing news to hear.

"Anything that gives us an advantage over Monokuma," Kyoko said.

"It's about time we had a little luck!" Makoto said with a smile.

"You may have found our escape, Hina. It's lucky you were able to stumble upon this," I said to Aoi, who laughed softly and gave me a small smile before I turned back to Alter Ego.

"Um... So guys, I haven't seen Master for a while. Know where he is?" Alter Ego asked as I went still for a second.

It couldn't be that bad to break the news to computer avatar as I started typing.

Fujisaki was murdered by Owada.

Alter Ego's face went from happy to sad very quickly as I didn't know what else to tell it. It seemed sort of weird to try and sooth a computer as I just sat still.

"I understand... I was prepared... It was only a matter of time," He said and I didn't know whether to feel sad for the avatar or stay calm, because whenever I saw Chihiro's sad face, I would try to comfort him, but this wasn't necessarily Chihiro, was it?

I was about to type in my next question as I was then shoved out of the way as someone took my place and I looked confused as Taka stood over the locker and looked down at Alter Ego with a tear-stained face.

That's right, Taka never got over Mondo's death, did he?

"You're still with us... You never really died..." Taka said through sobs as he looked down at the screen.

"Ishimaru, hi," Alter Ego said with a small smile as he seemed to recognize Taka's face.

"It's okay if you hate me... I-I understand... I couldn't stop him from doing what he did. I was a coward!" Taka said through sobs as he looked down at the screen as Alter Ego stayed silent.

Taka clearly didn't realize that Alter Ego didn't understand voice commands. But, I couldn't really blame Taka. He was in a mourning state at the moment and he didn't seem to think straight like he once did. And, I guess Taka wanted to apologize for something he didn't do... So, I instead try typing on the laptop for Taka.

Do you hate Ishimaru?

"Uh-oh... You feel responsible for what happened to me..." Alter Ego started as his voice drifted away.

I then watched as Chihiro's head faded away and was then replaced with the familiar one of Mondo and I looked shocked as Alter Ego looked identical to Mondo. I suppose avatars can change how they look then...

"Dude, you can't carry the weight on your back for something I did. I made my own decisions. This wasn't your fault. I'm my own man. Just like you. Thing is... You wanna feel angry, fine. Just don't marinate in it; use it for something that's worth it. Might manage to wake yourself up from this nightmare. Gotta be ready, don't you? Think about it, bro. Seriously," The Mondo version of Alter Ego spoke.

I looked over at Taka and saw that he seemed touched by the words as he stopped sobbing and drilled as he stared at the screen.

Mondo's face then disappeared from the screen and Chihiro's smiling face came back to replace Mondo's.

"That was actually pretty good, huh? Owada's speech patterns were tricky to stimulate, but I'm confident that's what he would've wanted to say," Alter Ego explained and I smiled softly. Even a computer simulation seemed to know how to cheer people up as I gazed up at Taka.

"I am touched, truly and deeply... Those words were like his- I can feel his soul... It's moving through me!" Taka said as he closed his eyes.

"Uhhh... Ishimaru-" I started as my words were then drowned out as I saw something weird happened in front of me.

I looked up at Taka as he then screamed loudly and his hair changed from his regular black to a shining white as I was just plain confused by this. How could his hair change like that...?

"Ishimaru, are you alright?" I asked as I sat still where I was as Taka glanced down at me with his eyes completely changed as well.

He didn't look like he was in a sobbing state anymore, but instead he gave me an intimidating look that was a little different form his regular one he gave me when I was late to one of the breakfast meetings...

"No doubt, princess! But who's Ishimaru?! I'm.... ISHIDAAAA!" Taka continued to yell as he charged out of the bathhouse in some sort of war-cry.

What did I just witness...?

I tried to shake it off as I turned back to Alter Ego and decided to take that time to say one more thing to it before I was done asking the questions.

Please continue to analyze those files.

"Sure thing! Oh... there's something else... Right after I began my analysis of these files, I found something you'll want to see," Alter Ego explained as I looked shocked at the thing that then covered the computer screen.

I looked shocked as a picture showed up and I saw a shocking sight.

It was a picture... A picture of our deceased classmates. Leon, Mondo, and Chihiro were inside some sort of classroom as they were all three having fun and playing around together and I looked at it confused.

"What the hell!" I said shocked as I gazed at it in shock as everyone seemed shocked by it as well.

When was this picture taken? Did those three know each other before we entered Hope's Peak. It was a possibility but I couldn't believe that could be possible. They didn't seem to act like they knew each other when we all first met so how did this picture exist?

"It was my understanding we were all complete strangers before enrolling here," Sakura said as she gazed at the photo.

We were all strangers. I didn't know anyone here before showing up. Even if I did, I would probably remember... But... there was a possibility... But I didn't know if I should tell everyone about it in the open like this...

I glanced at Byakuya quickly before moving my gaze to the screen to avoid suspicion. I could tell him what I was thinking later.

"Wait, what if no one's really dead?" Aoi asked as she stayed in a state of shock.

"But that's impossible," I said as I remembered everyone's cruel deaths. Each and every single one of them died in front of our eyes. We saw the bodies up close. They were gone and not coming back. "We saw their bodies. They were real."

"The pic's gotta be fake. The damn bear's just messing with us," Yasuhiro said and I had to agree with him.

"He probably just photoshopped it," I said as I turned back from the laptop to look at everyone else along with Kyoko and Makoto doing the same as well.

"So what now?" Aoi asked.

"Alter Ego will be going through Hope's Peak's files. It may take some time so we have to wait," I explained but I found myself anxious to see what secrets Hope's Peak had and maybe had some information regarding our escape from here.

"Yes. And speaking of the Alter Ego. It's best we keep this a secret. We can't speak about it in front of the cameras in case Monokuma overhears," Celeste explained as she seemed deep in thought about something and I couldn't help but wonder what it was.

"Agreed. Monokuma can not hear about this or our chances of escape will drop down even lower," Kyoko said. "And so, with that being said, I say no one uses Alter Ego without permission, understood?"

And everyone, including myself, nodded in agreement to this claim. I didn't want anyone thinking they could probably tamper with Alter Ego's programming and mess up the search. But I couldn't think of someone who would want to do that.

"Maybe to prevent a tampering with the Alter Ego or to steal it, we should have someone watch over the laptop during night time," Celeste explained to everyone.

"But why would we need something like that?" Hifumi asked.

"You can never be too cautious," Sakura said in agreement with Celeste.

I thought about it for a second, who would think to steal Alter Ego when we were all against Monokuma and his plans? It made no sense to me.

"So, any volunteers for the position?" Celeste asked as she looked at everyone and saw everyone stay silent.

I thought about it for a minute. If anyone were to try and steal or tamper with Alter Ego, it could result in something bad. I also wanted to make sure Monokuma didn't find it. I didn't know about everyone else, but I wanted to leave this hell hole and I'm sure a few other agreed with me so I couldn't believe I was doing this...

"I'll take it," I said as everyone looked at me in mixed expressions of shock and confusion. "Someone has to do it and if no one else wants to do it, then I will."

I saw Celeste smile softly as she then handed me a key as I looked at it confused.

"It's to the locker holding Alter Ego. I found it while searching the room. Use it to lock Alter Ego in for the night," She explained to me as I nodded and put it into my purse and looked at everyone.

I guess I was the new protector of Alter Ego then.