Bugs in the System

Hajime and Nagito walked up to the palm tree and saw 5 others surrounding the tropical flora. One student had a particularly strong appearance, with black-and-white hair and a purple scarf that flew with the unobscured wind. His school uniform looked mysterious, the open gakuran looking more like a trenchcoat with cult symbols on the back, and his pant legs being inside boots riddled with straps. His hands- one of them being bandaged up to the elbow -were held perpendicular to the tree's rough bark. In contrast to his gothic look, in his hands were two hamsters, a grey and white one sleeping soundly, and a orange and white one happily munching away at a seed. Curious, Hajime walked up to the focused stranger. "Hey, what are you doing with those guin-"

Just then, a savage-looking boy with sharp-shark teeth and blood-colored eyes covered Hajime's mouth. A black beanie covered similarly colored hair, and a lime jumpsuit clothed the entirety of his body. They stared daggers into the other, not noticing the goth's heterochromatic eyes were glaring at both of them. The shark guy used his ironically squeaky, pubescent voice to whisper into Hajime's ear, "They're the 4 Dark Divas of Destroying. Don't get it wrong, or else he'll chew your head off!" The first man's eyes grew more angry, before guffawing and bullishly huffing out a puff of air.

"You fools... These are not guinea pigs, hamster, or any other type of rodentia! They are I, Gundham Tanaka, the Supreme Overlord of Ice's, 4 Dark Devas of Destruction! Born from the..."

As the three guys' had their piss party, Nagito walked over to two nervous girls. One had pink hair that was paler than the shark guy's, and a hooded cardigan rather than a more common blazer. She stimmed her fingers and seemed to sweat a bit, but otherwise was composed and calm- even bordering on lethargic. The other girl however held her fisted hands tight to her chest, and her face red from nervousness due to the boys' frightening yells. Her nurse uniform, although giving the impression of an educated professional, was adorned onto the Ultimate Nurse's bandaged-wrapped body.

"Hey Mikan, Chiaki, have any luck with the ring?" asked Nagito, having already introduced himself to them.

"N-N-N-No. I really want to help, but I'm to weak g-get myself up the tree. I'm so sorry!!!" Mikan yelped, almost on the verge of tears. Chiaki turned towards the clearly disturbed girl and told her, "It's okay Mikan, you don't have to apologize for anything... maybe." Despite the kind intentions, the last hint of doubt got to Mikan, and ultimately didn't do as much to relieve tension as she wanted to. Nagito scolds Chiaki for her inability to inspire hope and lack of verbal strength, before asking her specifically about the weird ring.

"It's still stuck," she said plainly,"I still don't think we should be going against Usami's wishes, but Maga-Z, Cham-P, and Aka-N- Akane, and are all in the tree."

"Akane started climbing? I thought Mahiru didn't want any of the girls to climb it?"

"I didn't," said a girl with "annoyed" written all over her face. She got up from her sitting position and dusted off the sand from her clothes. She wore an old-fashioned, yet stylish olive jumper and skirt with a red-and-white plaid tie around a basic dress shirt- if one didn't notice the camera on her hip, her fashion sense would have let you know that she was the Ultimate Photographer.

"Togami and Nidai scared Hanamura off- thank goodness -but it's still a disappointment; besides them and you, the men are being so irrational in an emergency situation."

As she was finishing her thoughts, a fuzzy orange ball dropped from the leaves and off of her head. She quickly grabbed it, and saw that it was one of Gundam's hamsters. Mahiru yelled for Gundam to come over, but was interrupted by his other hamster bouncing off of Mikan's head; luckily it managed to cling onto her much longer hair, despite the pain on her behalf. Before anyone could guess what happened next, a girl with a darker complexion and less clothes than everyone else- only a chest-tight dress shirt and red trimmed skirt -fell out of the tree and onto Chiaki.

"W-W-WH-WHAAA!!!"

"HOLY SHIT! What the hell happen Akane?!"

"Agghh, I got that damn ring out of the tree, but I didn't hold on to anything and threw myself off!"

"Akane, move off of Chiaki. Are you okay?"

"I'm... I'm fine. Akane, do you still have the ring?"

"Huh? I don't think so... nope! Probably got lost in the sand."

"WHO CARES ABOUT THE RING!? Maga-Z! Cham-P! Return to you ruler!"

As Hajime looked off at the others scurry around the beach, Nagito walked up to him and said, "Well, that's them! There are 8 others on this island, plus a robot rabbit called 'Usami.' There's also another island across that bridge, but Usami won't let us go across it yet."

"...I regret waking up," was all Hajime said before lying his back down onto the sand.

Nagito worriedly shaked Hajime and pleaded, "C-C'mon now Hajime, they're not all bad, right?"

"I don't care. The tide will do a better job at getting me home than these guys."

"You haven't even met the others- actually, I'd say Gundham was the only one you 'met' -but still, you need to hope that all sixteen of us Ultimates can make it back, not just you."

"I hope that there are people actually working on a raft... What are those six doing anyway?"

"Another girl, Peko Pekoyama-"
"Peko... Peko-Yama?"
"She said not to question it -Anyways, she found a ring stuck in the palm tree. You probably didn't see it because you were fighting with Gundham and Kazuichi, but it was 'no-clipped' into it, according to Chiaki. Usami tried to make us move away from it, but that just added fuel to the flame. Some people did leave, but only on their own accord... besides Teruteru-"
"Wha- Teru-Teru? Like the rain dolls? What kind of names-"
"Hajime, that isn't important. Back to the story; it eventually just became the 8 of us, and Akane just pulled it out. Everyone's looking through the beach for it now, I think we should help. Even if you aren't interested, talking with the girls and making up with the guys could make you feel better!"

"Mmm..." groaned Hajime, before ultimately getting up, "Fine, as long as the others are better at talking."

With that, Nagito and Hajime searched for a ring, along with 6 other castaways. Little did they know, this ring was one of two which held great power, able to distort the minds and bodies of anyone in this world. Something else they didn't know, was that the rings were placed by one of their own. Whoever gains a fraction of this grand power was up to faith and luck, only cousins to the holy concept of hope.