Danganronpa: Hope for the Hopeless/Chapter 3 - Lodge Life

## Story

I awoke with a slow stir and slowly opened my eyes to take in the world around me. Once again, I had confirmation the lodge was very real. That wasn’t to say I wasn’t aware of that fact already. In spite of the fact that my brain was in a haze, I knew that it was all too real including the deaths of Seno and Shiro and everything else that happened during the past miserable few days.

*(I hope next time Monokuma doesn’t threaten to kill us all.)*

It was sickening how normal that thought felt. Enough for me to let out a sigh as my gaze drifted towards the clock on the nightstand. I only sighed again at the time displayed on the face of the clock. It was 6:41 A.M. which meant I wasn’t going to get any real rest even if I did fall back asleep in short notice. But more importantly, it meant I was getting used to the sleep schedule that Monokuma gave us.

So, with nothing else to do, I practically crawled out of bed and my vision blurred as a stood up at first. Apparently, I wasn’t as well rested as I thought but it wasn’t like the reason wasn’t obvious between the last blood perk, the motive, the murder, the attempt on my life, and the knowledge that others were worried about me on top of that. Those weren’t the only problems either. Those were just the most obvious.

But I shook my head and went about my usual routine. I changed my clothes, hid one of the recorders where I usually did, and grabbed the other along with my ElectroID and knife. By 6:55, I was out the door. It wasn’t until then that I realized I was tense and took a deep breath to allow myself to relax.

As soon as I did, another thought came to mind and I looked down the hallway at Eto’s room. Eto likely had it worse than I did because I knew that I had one of the two last blood perks while she knew about them but knew that it wasn’t with her. Suffice to say, it would probably be best if I showed her that false picture, I took as soon as possible which luckily enough was now. So, I marched to Eto’s room and rang to doorbell.

*(I hope this isn’t too early.)*

It turned out that it wasn’t because Eto answered to door wearing her usual sage T-shirt and skirt shortly after. Though to my surprise, she didn’t look like she was very tired at all and she was somehow smiling in spite of literally everything that went wrong the day before. My pulse picked up with a slight irritation but I let it go just as quickly as she spoke up.

“Good Morning Nishi.” Eto remarked. She hesitated and briefly let her smile drop after that, but she spoke up again soon after. “Do you think today will be better than yesterday?”

“Well I sure hope so since yesterday was horrific to be frank with you.” I said in the most positive attitude that I could realistically muster. It was something along very cautious optimism. “But I doubt you want to talk about that. I actually wanted to talk about the last blood perk and-” I paused. A part of me doubted in the back of my mind that Eto wasn’t really just super depressed and hiding it. “You seem to be doing much better today.”

At that, Eto’s smile dropped completely to a more serious expression. “It still hurts, what Shiro did. But- well- I guess some sleep helped me to process it. And besides that, after she- died, everyone was there for me. She may not have cared, but you all proved that you do. So, do you have something to show me.”

“Yep.” I nodded before pulling out my ElectroID and flipping to the picture I took that was meant to trick Eto into believing I shoved the perk under one of the doors. “The last blood perk is in Yasui’s old room since I feel like he would have wanted to redeem himself somehow. I don’t know why I chose his over Naya’s or Seno’s but that’s beside the point. The point is, Yasui’s room has no windows so the only way for someone to ever get that perk again would be to bust the door down which would violate the rules and get said person punished. So, the worst of our last blood perk problems is behind us.”

As soon as I finished, I thoroughly watched Eto’s visual cues to see if she bought it or not. She hesitated for a moment, but in the end she had no reason not to believe me and a smile coupled with no indications of catching on to my lie told me I was in the clear. Something that would have made me breathe a sigh of relief if I had allowed myself to be overly worried about the ordeal.

Eto looked both ways to see if anyone else might have heard us, but the coast was clear. And shortly after, she replied. “I didn’t expect you to get rid of it this soon. Thank you, you don’t know how much this helps.”

“You would be surprised Eto. I went through the same earlier after all.” I responded as I put away my ElectroID

Ding dong, Bing bong.

About that time, Monokuma’s morning announcement kicked in. “Rise and shine everyone. It is now 7 A.M. It is officially morning. It’s time to enjoy another beautiful day here at Newpoint Lodge!”

The two of us just turned our heads and glanced at the nearest speaker for a few seconds before Eto spoke up again. “You know, those announcements annoy me just a little more each day.”

“Believe me, I know.” I agreed as I we both looked back at each other once more. “Anyways, I suppose that is my cue to leave. I know you need to get ready for breakfast so I’ll leave you to it.”

“Hmm, I suppose you’re right. Okay then. I’ll see you soon Nishi.” Eto concluded with a nod of agreement. “Until then, goodbye.”

At that, we both waved goodbye, Eto closed her door to probably get ready for the day in private, and I headed off towards the cafeteria. It was a bit early of course, but we were all supposed to meet there and I had nothing better to do that could be done before we were all supposed to show up.

The trip was once again uneventful even if it was darker and more silent than most trips. I simply went around the front hallways, past the AV room, past the first aid room, and proceeded down the hallway until I made my way through the same door to the kitchen as usual. About the only thing that was different was that Senji and Tanabe were the only people there already. Both of whom cut whatever conversation they were having to look at me.

“You’re up early Nishi.” Tanabe uttered as though it weren’t obvious. “Usually, Senji and I are the only ones up at this point.”

“Good morning Nishi.” Senji chipped in. “I would ask how you are, but I assume that nobody is happy after the events of yesterday. Tanabe and I were actually talking about breakfast. If I remember correctly, I still owe everyone for the dinner I promised.”

“I’m not going to say no to your food,” Tanabe cut in again. “But it isn’t necessary. I imagine everyone has forgotten about your promise by now. You know how easy it is to forget the small things when something critical happens.”

My stomach felt empty, yet I didn’t necessarily want to make Senji do anything if he wasn’t up to. Even if he was the best cook out of all of us. But he was offering to make breakfast for the group again so I considered trying to convince him to go through with his decision. Not that that mattered though, because he headed to the kitchen anyways after a few seconds of thought. And about the time he made his way to the kitchen, Saeki came through the front door to the cafeteria.

“Oh, greetings everyone.” She replied though a little more low key than usual. After that, she glanced around the room. “Hmm. I wouldn’t expect you two to be up this early. I suppose I assumed that Senji would be the early bird of the group. By the way, how are you two doing? I know yesterday wasn’t the happiest for any of us.”

“That is the understatement of the year.” Tanabe replied in his usual quiet tone. At the same time, he seemed to slouch and lean back against the table as if he were trying to get comfortable. “Senji is in the kitchen by the way.”

(I hope people aren’t going to be asking me that all day.)

Instead of saying my thoughts however, I simply insisted the same thing that I always did. “I’m fine Saeki. Just like last time, I’m not happy about what happened, but I’m okay.”

“Well, that is certainly understandable.” Saeki replied before sitting down at one of the tables. “I suppose the best we can do now is work to make sure everyone is getting along moving forward.”

“Yeah.” I agreed as I sat down across from her.

Not too much happened after I sat down except the rest of the group filed in and I got more of an understanding of who showed up when. Machi was the next to arrive followed by Wakuni and Yakawa. Shortly after that, Koike, Sasori, and Eto showed up. Finally, Sama and Sanda entered the cafeteria some time after the others.

By that point, Senji emerged from the kitchen and began to hand out breakfast. In this case, ojiya or rice porridge. It wasn’t my favorite, but smelled better than most that I have had in my lift time. Not to mention that a quick glance at Koike’s reaction to the breakfast told me exactly why he chose it. If I had to guess, the entire breakfast was his attempt to try and cheer her up in addition to making good on his promise from yesterday.

“You know, it's nice having breakfast without Monokuma showing up to ruin it. I mean, we usually don’t get lunch or breakfast without having to put up with that irritant” Sama remarked in a conversation with someone that I couldn’t help but overhear.

“I wouldn’t push your luck.” Sanda replied from the other side of me. Apparently, he heard her too. “Remember when he said a new area would be unlocked every time we survived a class trial? He’s still going to tell us what it is at some point.”

“Well I don’t have to. But since you called my name, I might as well.” Came a voice, Monokuma’s voice, from behind me. I wasn’t surprised in the slightest though I only had a few seconds to react before Monokuma landed on the table and on top of no less than three people’s porridge bowls spilling them in the process. Furthermore, the resulting splash stained Saeki’s shirt and created a mess all over the table. At that, he looked down without so much as changing his expression in the slightest.

“You did that on purpose.” Sama accused through grit teeth and narrowed eyes.

“You can’t prove that I did.” Monokuma happily refuted. “Now as I was saying, Sanda is correct for once! The ski lift and cave entrance are both unlocked. Both will take you to the top of the mountain.”

“How about to the bottom?” Machi interjected almost as flatly as Sama though with more obvious of an irritation in her tone. “Like away from here? Away from you perhaps?”

“Fat chance. I’ll be with you till the day you die.” Monokuma rebuked. “Which probably isn’t too far off for you Machi. Upupu.”

Machi bit her lip before she scowled and looked down at her food. Monokuma seemed to be getting a kick out of it all because of course he was. He just had to kick people while they were down every chance he got. It was just something that we all had to put up with.

“So, are you finished?” Saeki interjected after looking around for someone else to speak up on Machi’s behalf, noticing the silence, and narrowing her eyes once more. “Because the sooner we leave, the sooner we can clean up the mess you made and explore this new area that you seem to be so eager to show off.”

“Do you people ever stop mouthing off to me?” Monokuma asked in a happy tone but one that sounded insincere and came with protruding claws as well as the usual glowing eye. Then, seconds later, he reverted back to his usual self. “I was pretty much going to leave anyways but someone needs to teach you bunch some manners. Yeesh, what are they teaching children these days?”

Before anyone could respond to his question, Monokuma disappeared once more. This time, he simply jumped off and vanished into thin air the moment he landed. He always had to have the last word around here too. Of course, I looked back at Saeki to see if she was alright given the porridge incident and she seemed to notice.

“Don’t worry about me. I can handle myself.” Saeki calmly answered as she reached for a few paper towels to try and dry herself off after the porridge incident. “I just didn't expect that kind of an entrance from him is all. I’m actually more worried about you-”

“Don’t be.” I cut her off a little too abruptly as I held out my right hand in a stopping motion. “Yesterday sucked and I appreciate your concern but I insist that I’ll be alright.”

Breakfast was more or less quiet after that though most seemed to be happy about the prospect of exploring a new area judging by the look on their faces. Others, however, weren’t so enthused at the prospect such as Sasori who stayed relatively neutral throughout breakfast. But overall, breakfast was uneventful aside from the announcement.

And when it was over, I did what I usually did. I grabbed my stuff, went to the kitchen, washed everything, and put everything where it belonged. Sure Senji could have done it, but it would be lazy not too. Once all was said and done, I headed off to my first intended destination following the announcement.

*(Last time I neglected to search the new area of the storage room and it came back to bite me. I’d better not do that again.)*

So, I headed off briskly towards the storage room. Like the trip to the cafeteria, it was relatively uneventful. A few thoughts about what happened yesterday flashed through my mind once more, but I knew that was to be expected since I was still processing it all. So, I held my head high, took a deep breath, and marched on. Saeki was right about the best thing we could being to move forward and that was what I intended to do. Starting of course, with making an effort to not be left in the dark when new information arose such as the new areas being opened.

That said, when I entered the storage room and looked across at the area behind the newly opened second door to the left, I winced and then frowned. It looks essentially identical to the first newly opened area except that it had different furniture. Most of which bore something problematic. Nevertheless, I headed over there for a closer look.

What I noticed immediately was that there was a refrigerated display case on the far end of the room about my size lined with rows of various poisons. Or at least, almost all the rows were labeled as such save for one that had drugs to making people sick and one that contained sleep inducing drugs. One of which seemed to be light blue sticker rack with a dark blue Z that knocked victims out with a skin contact poison if the label was to be believed.

Furthermore, half of the drugs had a skull and crossbones on them. The one that caught my eye the most however, was some brown glass bottle lacking any formal decals. All it had was the word “Lullaby-7” imprinted into it and some sticker on the back that I could see through the bottle but didn’t feel like reading because I was pretty sure it was the instructions, ingredients, and warning. In spite of its name however, it was placed squarely on the shelf with the most potent of poisons according to the shelf labels. And for some reason, I didn't want to test it out.

Additionally, there were two yellow bins to my right when I entered the room. One containing the usual duct tape, and another containing white cloth blindfolds. And to my left, there happened to be a rack which luckily contained nothing more than movie disks split up into four different genres; horror, gore, murder mystery, and comedy. The last of which honestly made me double check to see if the label was correct.

When I saw that it was, I just shook my head and turned around in time to see Yakawa scowling at the sight of the display. It didn’t last long however because when I turned around, the two of only barely avoided running into each other and the end result was that both of us stepped and looked at each other squarely in the eyes.

“Don’t mind me Nishi, I was just looking around. I can’t say that i’m too happy about anything I’ve found so far.” Yakawa said as his scowl faded to a more neutral expression. “That said, I haven’t gone to the summit yet. I actually wanted come here and ask you if you wanted to join me.”

“What about your brother?” I asked.

“He wanted some time to himself.” Yakawa dismissed with the wave of his left hand. “Besides, it isn’t like we do everything together just because we’re brothers. So, do you want to come?”

He didn’t sound imposing when he asked that question and I wasn’t worried about his motive behind inviting to wherever, but I did hesitate for just a moment to recall that I pretty much made the same offer when I was concerned for Eto and silently made a mental note that Yakawa might be doing to same based on his actions last night. Regardless, I smiled and nodded.

“Sure. It might even be better that way.” I replied happily enough. “We should be able to cover ground faster after all. Just lead the way.”

He did. The two of us made our way from the storage past the back hallways, through the area where all the staircases converged, and back to our dorm area. Nothing eventful happened except that we passed by Sasori on our way and that Yakawa opened the door for me when we arrived at the locker room.

From there, it was fairly routine. We each swiped our ElectroIDs to access our coats as usual though when I pulled mine out of my locker and looked over to see if Yakawa was doing to same, I spoke up.

“I guess whoever comes out first will have to wait for the other.” I simply stated. Almost as soon as I did, I felt like an idiot for saying something so obvious.

“I think that goes without saying.” Yakawa replied in a friendly enough tone in spite of how obvious it was. “I doubt you’ll have to wait for me though. I can change pretty quickly. Anyways, see you soon.”

With that, the two of us grabbed our stuff, went to our respective doors, swiped our ElectroIDs, and went inside. The process of changing my clothes was fairly routine for me after that and I imagine that it was routine for Yakawa as well. That said, by the time I re-entered the coat room and put everything away, Yakawa was already there waiting for me in a dark blue parka with light blue gloves, light blue goggles, and brown fur on the trims. It turned out that he really wasn’t kidding about being fast to change clothes.

“So, I was thinking that we should head out to that cave pass.” Yakawa asserted. When I crossed my arms, he was quick to explain himself. A little too quick for his own good. “Everyone else will be taking the lift. I want to know if there’s anything worth searching for in the tunnel passage.”

“I don’t know-” I argued mostly because I wanted to try the lift though somewhat because he seemed a little too insistent on taking the cave route to the top. Something that almost made me wonder if he had an ulterior motive for it. “The ski-lift Saeki found sounds a lot faster.”

“I know that but- well I just wanted take a look was all.” Yakawa defended. “I mean, if you really want to, you can take the lift on the way back.”

*(You? Don’t you mean we?)*

Yep, he was definitely hiding something and it looked like it had something to do with him not wanting to take the ski lift in particular. I didn’t believe it had anything to do with me to begin with, but his comment made that point clear. To be honest, it wasn’t any of business, but I was curious to know why he was avoiding the lift.

Nonetheless, I agreed with him. “Well, I was going to search the cave anyways at some point. I guess I might as well now.”

And with that, the two of us headed to our destination. Only this time, we backtracked towards the storage room area, fastened our goggles and pulled up hoods, headed out the side door, and went east towards the burned down shed. This time when I stepped outside, it wasn’t nearly as cold as I remembered though I could still see my breath when I did. Likewise, the trip to the shed seemed shorter though we both stopped for a brief moment when we saw what was left of the shed. Though the scent of smoke was gone, it was in just as poor of a condition as it was when the fire burned most of it down.

Yakawa didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. His right fist tightened and he frowned when he glanced at the remains of the shed. It was kind of obvious as to why considering the fact that two people are dead because of what happened there. And even though it brought the memory of Naya’s death to mind, it was probably even worse for Yakawa to look at it since he was there when the shed burned down.

“All we can do is honor their memory from here on.” I explained as best as I could. It was obvious that they were on both of our minds after all. “That and find out who put us here. They would have wanted that.”

For a moment, Yakawa just turned around and stared blankly at me. But after a second or two, he nodded and replied. “Yeah, I know. Let's get going. The sooner we get to the summit, the sooner we find the find the person who did this.”

And we did. We went immediately north of the shed, up a steadily increasing incline until we reached an outright cliff way that seemed to expand far to my left and to my right. By that point, we have both calmed down and I had a mild shiver, but luckily, there was relief from the weather right ahead of us. Just like Saeki described, a cave mouth was right in front of us that wasn’t too large to begin with but funnelled inward to a single smooth tunnel passage with a metal stair walkway that had railing on both sides. Finally, the gate that Saeki spoke of appeared to be split apart and rolled up on either side of the cave mouth.

*(At least the tunnel seems to be built correctly.)*

We looked at each other for a brief moment, but after that, we proceeded along the path ahead of us. It was mostly uneventful with Yakawa in the front and me in the back, but I made sure to keep a safe distance from Yakawa in case he fell or actually attempted to harm me though I doubted he would. But one notable about the passage was that the staircase seemed to wind around in a corkscrew that seemed to go on forever. Combined with a relative brisk pace from Yakawa, it was exhausting enough for him to stop when we reached the top in front of a door with a blue card scanner and dark grey concrete wall at the end.

“Hey Nishi, may be frank with you?” Yakawa asked.

I just nodded. He seemed to smile at that.

“Okay then. Well in that case, I’m surprised that you trust me being alone with you like this. Especially after Shiro.” Yakawa explained before making sure to clarify himself when I frowned. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad you’re here and I’m really happy that you trust me. But I am a little surprised.”

“Well, I still have that knife you saw yesterday with me,” I explained calmly enough. I might as well be honest about it. After all, it wasn’t a secret to him that I had it. “Besides that, I know that you aren’t Shiro and I can’t just ignore you guys to hide in a corner. Aside from the fact that I can’t hide from the killing game, I still hope to make friends with you guys.”

“Right-” Yakawa trailed off after he was reminded of the knife. “I know you’ll be careful with that thing and we’ve already talked about it, but I feel like I should warn you one last time. Just be careful. Please.”

“Well I guess I can understand your concern.” I replied with a nod. To be honest, it was still just as sweet but troublesome that some people were concerned that something would happened. But, like before, I forced myself to think of things from their perspective in light of the past two murders before I continued. “I suppose I might be a little concerned if I knew that you were carrying a possible murder weapon like a scalpel or something.”

“Yeah” Yakawa said after a split second as I gave another smile to him. After that, he headed for the card reader, swiped his ElectroID through it, and opened the door for me. “Well, are you ready? We have a whole new area opened up to us and I’d like to find all the clues as to what is going on that we can.”

“I think I’m ready.” I replied with one last glance at Yakawa before heading through the door. Right away, the first thing that I felt was warmth soaking through my jacket as I stepped through the threshold.

Of course, when I did step through the door, I noticed coat closets, on either side of a very short hallway and a T-junction at the end. This time, when I reached the end, the parallel hallway appeared to curve as though it went in a circle. In fact, it probably did because the exterior side of the hallway, which was opposite of the hall that lead to the cave route, was more or less entirely glass windows from my waist up save for the frames. Outside, the area appeared to be rather jagged with rocky mounds jutting out of the ground in several places, but otherwise the snow lightly covered the ground and it looked rather serene. As for the floor walls, and ceiling, the floor seemed to be dark brown hardwood, the walls appeared to be light yellow and the ceiling was painted white. It was about then when Yakawa and I ran into Wakuni who wore dark grey gloves and goggles. On his jacket

“Hey.” Wakuni waved from seemingly out of nowhere. Furthemore, a quick glance at Yakawa told me that it caught him by surprise. “I take it this is the entrance to that semi-secret passage? I mean, I didn’t see you on the lift so I guess it has to be.”

“Pretty much brother.” Yakawa said as he crossed his arms. “How the heck did you beat us up here? We got a head start and everything.”

“Because the lift is faster than walking.” Wakuni answered rather flatly. “It is nice to have this though in case the lift breaks down. Monokuma says it won’t but I have my doubts. Anyways, did you find anything useful?”

“Nothing in particular. Just the fact that Saeki was right about there being a cover on the cave mouth.” Yakawa replied after shaking his head. “Its open now though. Just like how the gate that covered the stairwell to the second floor was opened up earlier.”

As Wakuni put his right hand to his chin in thought, I took the opportunity in their pause to chime in. “So, have you searched the building yet? If you have, I’d like to know what’s in here.”

“Easy enough. For starters, the whole building is just one giant circle” Wakuni replied as he pointed behind himself and toward the path to my right. “I just came that way. Its funny that you mentioned second floors because that way leads to a giant telescope room on the second floor. Now, the other way leads to the only exit on the right at some point, and double doors opposite of it that lead into a dining room complete with stage, kitchen, backroom, and all kinds of fun stuff. But if you keep going down the hallway past both of those, you’ll reach another AV room at the end. I haven’t searched outside much, but overall, it is a pretty nice building. Shall I leave you two to explore it yourselves?”

“You could come with us if you’d like.” Yakawa offered. “I mean, that is if Nishi doesn’t mind. You wouldn’t mind would you Nishi?”

I really wouldn’t mind. After all, I really have been meaning to spend more time with my classmates so the more to a group, the better. I opened my mouth to speak up and say so but before I could, Wakuni just smiled and shook his head.

“I think i’d rather search outside. This doesn’t seem to be the only structure and I want to be prepared in case the worst happens again.” Wakuni admitted a little too freely for Yakawa’s liking based on his expression. Once more, my own thoughts flashed back to Seno and Naya. Yet, neither of us said anything and Wakuni seemed to pick up on it as he just looked away and quickly finished the conversation. “I think I’d better leave now. I’ll see you all around.”

“Goodbye” Yakawa said with a less than enthusiastic wave.

With that, the three of us split up and Yakawa and I headed towards the telescope room that he had mentioned. True to Wakuni’s word, the path curved around until it reached a grey metal staircase with black railings and headed up the stairs. And it was just about then that we reached a thick grey door and I heard Yakawa sigh.

When I looked over at him, he gave me a weary smile and explained. “I know its a bit late but I’m sorry about Wakuni. He thinks another murder is very likely so he’s kind of on edge right now. He isn’t overly worried but he’s concerned for me.”

“Well, I really don’t want to say this, but another murder isn’t out of the question.” I firmly replied in spite of the fact that just saying it seemed to sap me of any joy. “I mean, its entirely possible that Seno’s murder will be the last but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.”

“I know that Nishi. I believe I told you to stay safe.” Yakawa said as he opened the door to the telescope room. After that, he clearly tried to lighten the mood. “Anyways, how about we try not to worry about that right now? The best we can do is be careful and right now, I think we’ll both be safe exploring the telescope room as Wakuni called it.”

I wasn’t too worried about how safe I was at the moment anyways, but I did as he said and stepped through the door. Inside, things appeared to be alot like what I imagined you would find inside a room dedicated to astronomy. The whole area was a circular with a metal floor, concrete walls, and a metal grey domed roof that appeared to fold outwards. Aside from that, the room itself appeared to have a giant telescope mounted in the middle of the room that spanned almost the length of the room itself.

Additionally, there appeared to be several control panels littered with buttons, levers, and monitors to my immediate right just next to the entrance of the room. For the rest of the wall at ground level, there appeared to be whiteboard for writing equations and such if I had to guess. Furthermore, there appeared to be a black metal catwalk about two stories above us that looped around the edge of the room and even crossed it with a bridge just above the telescope. It just so happened that that catwalk had a ladder leading to it on the opposite side of the room from where I was standing. And finally, I noticed that the room felt like outside temperature rather than the temperature of the rest of the building.

Yakawa just ran over to and took a glance at one of the monitors. With a single keystroke, the screens flickered to life. All with useful data about space, yet none with anything that seemed to pertain to our situation save for possibly a way of figuring out where we are being held but even that looked as though it would be difficult to ascertain. And of course, as I walked closer, I noticed that all of the terminals lacked internet access.

*(Go figure.)*

But instead of mentioning it to him since he seemed to notice himself judging by the fact that his shoulders started to sag, I simply offered a suggestion. I might not be cold thanks to that coat upgrade I won earlier, but it still worked as an excuse.

“Hey Yakawa? Can we leave? This place is uh, kind of cold.” I said pressed my arms together to try and help convince the guy. “That and I want to see the rest of the lounge.”

“Yeah.” Yakawa said making no effort to hide the disappointment in his voice as he got up from a terminal seat. “I don’t know what I was expecting but these machines won’t help us escape. They don’t have internet access or anything and I probably think we should leave before Monokuma rubs it in our faces.”

So, we headed out of the room and briskly made our way past the way we came until we reached both that outside door that Wakuni mentioned at the dark brown double doors that Wakuni said would lead into the dinning room area. At was then that Yakawa tried speaking up again.

“Hey Nishi,” Yakawa began. He still sounded somewhat disappointed at our findings in the telescope room but for the most part, he seemed to be normal. “I confess that there’s a question I’ve been meaning to ask you. How are you-”

“Holding up?” I finished before biting my lip. I saw this coming a mile away since he invited me to go with him so when he opened his mouth to apologize, I interrupted again. “I’m still holding up fine. I’m still very unhappy about what happened but I know that i’ll live. How about you? It looked like you didn’t find what you were looking for back there.”

“Heh.” He actually said with a smile. “That was just me being foolish. When I saw a computer terminal, I hoped against all odds that there might be a way to contact the outside world. You see, I haven’t really be able to save anyone since we got here and I really don’t like seeing other people die. I would have been ecstatic if we could stop anyone else from dying. But in the end, all this means is that we’ll have to wait a little longer before we find something that allows us to escape. Speaking of which, where did you say you wanted to search next?”

“AV room.” I replied. “And don’t be too hard on yourself. You have been a ton of help from the time you showed Seno around to now when you’re trying to make sure that I’m okay. The little things all add up you know so don’t give up.”

“Nishi, I just a little disappointed. Not depressed.” Yakawa replied blankly as he started to lead the way. “Nonetheless, I do appreciate that you’re trying to help so thank you.”

We walked a little farther through the halls and it was pretty much the same as the path to the telescope room. However, instead of climbing stairs to a second floor, we simply approached a white door at the end, opened it up, and went inside. And we when did, we found that this AV room was a bit different than the one we had back at the main lodge.

Inside, was a light tan meeting table surrounded with four cushiony black chairs on either sides and one cushiony black chair on each end for ten chairs total. Additionally, there seemed to be a half-white and half-black remote control on the table, a window on the right end of the room, a blank white screen on the left end of the room opposite of the window, and a half-black and half-white projector that hung from the center and pointed at the screen. And to top it all off, Koike and Senji were in the room. The former of which had cyan gloves, had cyan rimmed goggles, and lay between three pulled out chairs like a makeshift couch with a cup of tea next to her on the table while the latter sat down in a fourth chair and just talked to her. The latter of which wore black gloves and black rimmed goggles.

About that time, the two of them noticed us and Koike sat up albeit immediately following by clutching her forehead and wincing. “Hey everyone. Oh hey Yakawa, I was actually wondering where you were.”

“She has acute altitude sickness. So far, the only symptoms she has is a headache and discomfort.” Senji explained before either of us could react. “Apart from a medical checkup which she said she didn’t want, I was actually wondering if you knew any way to help.”

“Well, I don’t currently have medicine with me right now.” Yakawa explained calmly enough despite him appearing to be on the verge of rushing over to Koike before Senji explained what was happening. “I’m also not a pharmacist, but there’s Ibuprofen back at the lodge that would help.”

“So I have to wait.” Koike pouted.

“Unless there’s a medical kit that happens to have something that can help nearby, then yes, your best bet would be to wait until you get back to the lodge. Even then, your symptoms still wouldn’t go away immediately. I know that much from personal experience.” Yakawa continued. “If it were an emergency or you’d let me check your symptoms, then I might be able to rig something together to help you.”

With that, both Yakawa and Koike grumbled for their different reasons and I took the moment to ask Senji something. “So Senji, other than this, how was trip here? And also, did you notice anything interesting?”

“Just the lift and the crossroads that lead here. I’m afraid we’ve spent most of our time here.” Senji responded after taking a quick glance at Koike. “That said, the weather was nice today based on how long we’ve been outside.”

“That’s actually kind of strange if you ask me,” Koike explained. As she did, Yakawa paced close by to her and looked around the room. Regardless, she continued. “It seemed like the weather got worse right before the two murders and cleared up immediately after them.”

For a second or two, I thought about what she said as I recalled the circumstances of the first two murders. The weather was really bad right after Monokuma handed us the newspapers and it was definitely horrible the night that Seno was murdered. It wasn’t fun to remember either of those circumstances but I doubted that I would ever forget them.

*(Huh, she’s right. That’s an odd coincidence.)*

“It does seem that way.” Senji trailed off before he looked back at me. “Anyways, I apologize for not being able to search the premises and I would appreciate it if either of you let us know what you found.”

“We will.” I promised easily enough as I smiled. “Oh, I guess we should get back to searching the place then.”

“I’ll see the both of you around.” Koike said before laying back down preemptively. I felt nothing but pity when she did and I didn’t any more reasons to bother her.

And so, Yakawa and I left the room. Yakawa hesitated and took one last look at Koike, but he joined me quickly after he decided to leave. From there, the two of us traced our steps back to where the entrance to the dining room area was. And with that, the two of us grabbed one door each, took another glance at each other, and pushed the doors open to see the room that was past them.

When we did, what I saw honestly took me back with surprise. It was a more high end dining area. The room appeared to be circular and half the room had a much more polished black tile floor, the walls appeared to be a dark green not too different than other room’s i’ve seen. As for the ceiling, it appeared to be a cross pattern of wooden joists that spanned over the roof just below the actual tiling. Of course, there was also the furniture. I counted a total of nine tables each capable of holding up to six people and all with some dining cloth and some sort of candle in the center of them. Furthermore, there seemed to be rich, red curtains spread evenly around that side of the room. And finally, for the most immediate side of the room, there appeared to be double doors to another kitchen to my immediate right and another pair of doors leading to restrooms to the right of that.

As for the other half of the room, it was an elevated stage area and most of it was obscured by similar drapes to the ones on the other side of the room, but what I did notice was that most of the light in the room was directed towards the aforementioned stage and Sanda happened to be pushing a large white box with slits all over it to the center of the stage all while Machi was protesting. And though it, I noticed that Machi’s gloves and goggles were color coded a dark yellow while Sanda’s were a lighter yellow.

“Cut it out with the sword box!” Machi protested right behind him all while glaring at the box. “You are seriously going to hurt yourself! And then you what happens after that.”

“Have a little faith Machi. I didn’t get into Hope’s Peak for no reason at all. I’ve done this trick so many times I’ve lost count,” Sanda said with a big smile on his face. Apparently, he seemed to be content with what he found. “You know, I’m Yasui would have jumped at the chance to perform here.”

“I’m not Yasui.” Machi flatly replied as she crossed her arms. But the departure from her attitude was brief before she took another annoyed glance at the box. At the same time, Sanda started pulling what looked like actual sixteenth century broadswords out of it and Yakawa started to make his own way across the room.

Sanda must have noticed because he took a brief glance at us and stopped what he was doing before he looked back over at Machi. “What are you worried about anyways? Getting into trouble? Nishi and Yakawa are here to advocate that you didn’t kill me if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I really think you should stop this Sanda.” Yakawa replied fervently as he made his way to the area just in front of the stage. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”

Machi hesitated. “Thats- not why i’m worried about it.”

“Then why are you worried.” Sanda asked inquisitively as he leaned away from the sword box. “Could it be that you really do care about me Machi?”

“Well- no, I couldn’t care less what happens to any of you losers but uh- uh.” Machi started to hesitate more as she continued through her response before she finally dropped it and snapped at me. “You! Explain to Sanda why this is a bad idea!”

I glanced over at Sanda who awaited my response though a little less enthusiastic than before and then I looked back at the sword box as well as the broadswords that lay on top of it. I bit my lip, because despite knowing that Sanda probably could pull this trick off under normal circumstances, Machi was right in that it was an unnecessary risk.

“Machi is right.” I conceded. When I saw the smile from Sanda’s face fade, I looked away from him. “We don't know what Monokuma did to that sword box. I suggest at the very least, you take a closer inspection of the thing before you try to get someone to shoves into it with you inside. You don't want to get hurt you know?”

“Speaking of getting hurt, that actually reminds me.” Yakawa calmly spoke up turning to me. “I’ve asked everyone else, but I don’t remember if i’ve ever asked you if you have any medical allergies. Do you have any that I should know about?”

“Hmm.” I turned away from Sanda and Machi to think about it for a second. I’ve never had any serious injuries but from the minimal doctor’s appointments that I did have, I didn’t recall any allergies that I had. So, after a few seconds, I shook my head. “None that I can think of.”

“Hey, guys.” Sanda spoke up a lot more calmly than before. “Sorry for worrying you guys. I suppose you’re right. I promise to take a closer look at this thing before I ask for anyone’s assistance with it.”

At that, all Machi, Yakawa, and I all breathed a sigh of relief. Of them, Machi’s was the most prominent though even Yakawa was less tense at that announcement. As for myself, I had scarcely even known that it was a concern until I sighed. It was then that I spoke again.

“Where did you even find that thing?” I asked as I looked around the place. “I mean, it doesn’t look like it belongs in the kitchen and I sure hope you didn’t find it in the restrooms.”

“It was backstage.” Sanda said as another smile crossed his face. “Past the curtain behind me, there is a really neat room full of cool props for all sorts of scenes and magic tricks. Like I said before, Yasui would have loved it here. You should check it out.”

“I think we will.” I replied. As I did, I couldn’t help but smile a little. Sanda was in a rather good mood thanks to this discovery and it almost felt contagious. At least, while it lasted. Monokuma would likely be out with the next motive before long.

But I tried not to think about that as Sanda waved goodbye to us and Machi more or less ignored us. As Yakawa and I traversed behind the stage, I just enjoyed the victory that we had at the moment. And one quick look at Yakawa told me that he was smiling too. Regardless, we made it past the curtains to a grey metal backstage door with yet another red card reader without much trouble and Yakawa simply swiped his ElectroID to head inside.

Backstage was unsurprisingly, less spectacular than the previous area. The floor was bare concrete, the walls, were all black, and the ceiling was much like the one in the dining room but less polished. That said, the place was littered with props for both magic tricks and plays, clothes racks, and movable cabinets. It was stored rather haphazardly all over the room, but Sanda could have very well been responsible for that.

“Shall we check the kitchen next?” I asked Yakawa after he seemed to take a quick glance at the door behind him. I thought for a moment about making a quip on how Shiro would have commented on the lack of emergency exits, but the brief memory of what she did only made me shudder so I didn’t. Instead, I continued my current line of dialogue. “I mean, we can check the restrooms but I don’t really see them being of any use.”

“Nah, you’re right Nishi. I’m more interested in the checking the kitchen anyways.” Yakawa said with a shrug. “Besides, it has a lot more hazards that I would like to take inventory of in case something goes wrong.”

I nodded. With that, the two of us headed back out, past the dining room area, and through the double doors that quite frankly, looked very similar to the ones in the cafeteria. Sanda and Machi were too busy talking about something that I didn’t quite hear to bother us and the trip went normally, but Yakawa’s comment made me thinking about something.

*(He’s taking our safety a lot more seriously than I knew. I wonder if he’s always been like this or if this is because of what happened yesterday.)*

Regardless of the reason, my train of thought stopped there when we entered the kitchen. It had red tile floors, white walls, and white ceiling, metal furniture including a prep table and several individual food stations, and in general, appeared to be a lot more professional than the kitchen that we had at the lodge. The equipment all looked higher end as well and if it weren’t for the convenience of eating at the lodge as well as the ease of use in operating the equipment there, I would suggest having our meals here.

*(Until we escape of course.)* I reminded myself. Nothing was more important than making sure that I did not get used to living in this hellish deathtrap that Monokuma called a lodge.

We look around a little after that, but we both quickly finished up and turned around to leave. After all, apart from being more high-end, it was just another kitchen in the end. After that, we more or less headed back the way we came and left the dining room. Finally, the two of us put our hoods up, our goggles on, and headed out into the cold once more. This time, to explore the mountain top.

The air was noticeably colder than inside the building just like how the observation room was colder. Yet, a few steps into the snow proved that it was much warmer than my previous trip outside. Whether this was due to that lattice I won or a general change in temperature, I didn't know.

I looked around of course as Yakawa and I headed away from the building. The entire place was rather jagged and rocky like one would expect from a mountain top but other than that, it really was peaceful and rather well kept. In fact, not only was there a wide smooth, path clearly marked by red flags, but I noticed several other such paths branch off the main one as well. And after a short distance, I noticed a fork in the road where three paths converged along with a tan wooden signpost that bore an arrow pointing towards each path and a round sign on the top to mark its own location. Coincidentally, Eto and Saeki happened to be standing there and talking with Wakuni. And it was then that I saw that Saeki was color coded light purple.

“Actually, yes Wakuni, I have noticed something strange. I haven’t seen a single bird aside from the ones in my room since we first showed up here,” Eto remarked with a slight frown. When nobody responded, she spoke in a much more blunt tone. “Seriously, no matter where we’re being held, there should some signs of wildlife since there are very few places on the planet where no species of bird lives. The fact that there’s none means that something is seriously wrong with wherever we are.”

“It does certainly raise some telling implications about where in the world we actually are.” Saeki hummed while she counted her fingers as if counting places off. It was then when she looked away that she noticed Wakuni and I. “Hey Eto, it appears as if we have company.”

With that, the three of them looked at the two of us. Everyone seemed to smile when they saw us, even Wakuni who had talked to us not too long ago, but Eto seemed to be the happiest of the group and the other one to outright wave to us. It was almost as if she dropped her current concern when we showed up.

“Hey Eto-” Yakawa spoke up calmly. “How do you feel?”

Eto paused for just a second at that. During that time, I though her mood might sour just a bit much like the time I asked her, but she maintained her smile in spite of speaking in a more serious tone.

“Yesterday still hurts, but I’ve had time to think about it like I’ve told some of you before.” Eto replied. At that, she put her hand to her chin in thought for a moment before she continued. “That actually reminds me. I haven’t really thanked you all properly for your support. Especially you two-” she pointed towards Saeki and I. “But really, thank you all.”

“Speaking of which, Saeki, shouldn’t you be with Machi and making sure she doesn't get into trouble?” Wakuni accused as he crossed his arms. “I mean, that’s what we agreed on unless you’ve given up.”

“I don’t wish to smother the girl.” Saeki defended. “Besides that, I have other important business to conduct right now such as searching the place. I don't suppose you would care to join us?”

“Hmm.” Wakuni thought out loud as he looked at Yakawa and I before he looked back at the two. “I might consider it. If you’re searching the other paths like I am then maybe.”

“Speaking of which-” I interrupted. “Where are we?”

“Come on Nishi, I know you can read the signs.” Saeki teased. “We’re at the crossroads. There are three trails that branch off nearby but mainly this is where you go when traversing between buildings.” She pointed behind herself with her right pointer finger. “That way leads to the lift and that is about it.” Finally, she motioned to the remaining path with her thumb. “The other path leads to some weather station. Of course, the path you came from leads to an observatory but I bet you already knew that.”

*(So I guess that’s what we’re calling the building now.)*

“Well, I think we’d better get going.” Eto explained. “You can come with us if you want, but if not, it’s been a pleasure talking to you all.”

I shook my head to the offer and waved goodbye to them. With that, the group split up once more with Wakuni, Eto, and Saeki heading off towards one of the aforementioned trails and Yakawa and I heading off towards the weather station. All the while, I still felt relatively warm compared to my other trips outside. I hated to think it and grumbled when I did, but my mind betrayed me with a simple thought about it nonetheless.

*(Monokuma was right about the coat upgrade being a good prize.)*

The trip to the weather station was more of the same compared to the trip from the observatory actually except the path was slightly narrower and with no trails branching off. I supposed that kind of made sense given the fact that the weather station was only a side attraction to the observatory itself.

When we arrived, the weather station in question appeared to be less grandeur than the observatory but well-kept nonetheless, the entire building had one entrance and went back away from the path only to curve right 90 degrees at the end as though it were a giant L flipped horizontally, the end of which had a window on the side facing us. The interior itself appeared to be made of insulated wood and concrete with a black tile roof that slanted entirely towards us. And finally, there was a large, grey, radar dish on the top of the roof that appeared to be slowly spinning.

Of course, the two of us headed inside the station and the hallway and quickly that the inside was almost as quaint. The floor was a light wooden floor that creaks when stepped on. Furthermore, the walls with white with a round clock opposite of the door was facing and the roof was an equal shade of white plaster. As for furniture, there was a small path on the right side of the room and the left was occupied by a long grey panel full of various controls, three monitors that appeared to measure different weather aspects, and three swivel chairs equipped with six wheeled legs and blue cushioned pads.

“Because of course Monokuma made sure to remove the calendar from the wall.” I heard a sarcastic remark that sounded like Sama from around the corner say. “Can’t have us learning day it is if we’re to be slowly driven insane after all.”

When we moved past that, we saw the extension of the room. The hall was more or less the same but there was a vending machine and a counter on the far end of the room. The latter of which held a coffee machine and disposable coffee cups right next to a spot in the wall that marked a ripped off calendar. Additionally, to the left, there was a brown bookshelf full of weather-related books and a tan personal trash can on the far end. And of course, Sama and Sasori were there. The former was reading a weather book while the latter was sitting on the counter. I also took note that the Sama’s accessories were color coded dark green and Sasori’s were blue.

“Hey guys.” Yakawa called out to them. Both of them looked up but didn't have too much of a reaction to our presence.

“Hello Yakawa and Nishi.” Sasori replied with a hint of disappointment in his voice. “Before you ask, we haven’t found too much. I mean, the coffee is good but why head all the way up here when you can make it in the cafeteria?”

As Sasori smirked at his own joke, Sama rolled her eyes. “We had high hopes for this room though we shouldn’t have. We thought that maybe, getting Machi over here might let us tap into the internet somehow and call for help-”

I winced and looked at Yakawa about the same time he looked at me. Yakawa had a similar disappointing experience and we both knew it. Yet, it only made since that Monobear wasn’t going to go through all the trouble that he did and then slip up by letting us phone our way out of here no matter how convenient that would be. Still, it made me pity Sama.

“And then there’s the matter of the calendar going missing.” Sama continued with a brief but bitter sounding sigh. “It isn’t total loss though luckily. The weather does provide an accurate prediction of the weather so we can better coordinate our escape attempts. Not to mention that there’s a whole bookshelf full of books. I mean, this is kind of huge for me even if they are just scientific weather books.”

As Sama managed to end her speech on a high note, we all heard a cackling sound over the intercom. I don’t know about the others, but I could practically feel my heart sink when I did and knew what it would lead to.

“Ahem.” Monokuma said once over the intercoms. “Attention everyone! I have a new extra special motive waiting for you down here at the lounge! I expect you to be here in twenty minutes no ifs, ands, or buts! That probably means you have to take to the lift to get here on time. And by probably, I mean it does! I’ll see you here!”

Sasori scowled at the monitor and shook his left fist. “I guess if it’s time for another motive then but we have to go. We’ll get punished if we don’t.”

“I know.” I said with a bit of apprehension in my tone. It was bound to happen of course but it never ceased to give me a creeping feeling of distress. “I hope it's something less coercive this time but I’m most worried about someone dying over this.”

“Well considering the last two, that is understandable. But it can’t be helped, we have to go.” Yakawa warned with a frown of his own. “I- I really don’t want to take the lift but its our safest bet so I’ll lead the way.”

Naturally, Yakawa went out the door first just like he promised. After him went Sasori, then myself, and lastly Sama. All with mixed degrees of reluctance though not enough to prevent us from heading towards our destination. I drug my feet past the crossroads and headed down the final trail. Like before, the layout of the path was the same as the layout of the path to the weather station though save for one trail that went off to my left and the edge of the cliff not far off from my left.

When we arrived, the building in question had a weathered grey brick exterior and another black hip roof in addition to being on the edge of the cliff. Other than that, there appeared to be no signs of windows at least on the side of the building that we approached but it made up for it with two cables that appeared to run off the side of the building through an opening in the wall and over the side of the cliff towards the next pole that they were connected to. If I had to guess, that was the wire on which the lift carts or chairs moved. Finally, there was a faded red door that looked as though it led inside.

I noticed Yakawa take a deep breath before opening the door for us. He maintained his demeanor regardless, but something seemed to trouble him and somewhere in the back of my mind, I had a feeling that it wasn’t the motive. Yet, I proceeded through the door like everyone else. And within the time frame of a few seconds, we all poured in.

When Yakawa closed the door behind us, I noticed several things about the lift. The first was that the room had a metal floor, the left side of which covered the ground and the right side of which was divided into two platforms to allow the cable as well as the carts to make a U-turn and head back down the mountain. Aside from that, there was black and yellow caution tape along the floor.

As for the rest of the room, the whites and ceiling were painted white, the former of which was also clearly brick and concrete while the latter was somehow smooth save for the cable and mechanism that moved the lift. Yet the most notable aspect of the walls and ceiling was the fact that there were two open spaces in the wall to my left for the same reason as the divided floor and the roof appeared to be supported by four columns in a square formation. Other than that, the only things of note were a notice on the nearest column that Sama was reading, a light wooden bench on my far left, a black door across from me with the words ‘control room’ imprinted in grey on it, and the fact that almost everyone was already here. Not including Myself, Sama, Yakawa, and Sasori, there was Saeki, Wakuni, Eto, Senji, Koike, and Tanabe who had brown colored gloves and goggle trims.

“Tsk, apparently posting a notice on the wall is enough to ensure public safety according to Monokuma.” Sama criticised without any attempt to hide her disdain as soon as she looked away from the post. “Then again, it is Monokuma.”

“Yeah.” Koike said with a small groan in her voice as she rubbed her forehead. “It’s Monokuma we’re talking about, I’m just glad that this lift isn’t in any worse condition than it currently is in right now.”

“That’s easy to say when we haven’t even ridden in one of the carts yet.” Yakawa said with a growl in his tone. When Koike winced, he immediately backtracked his stated however. “I mean, it's probably perfectly safe because he only wants us to be the ones to kill each other, but still.”

Senji gave a blank, unamused stare at Yakawa, but sighed nonetheless. “I admit I can’t blame you for being concerned Yakawa. These motives have yet to end well. Perhaps we need a distraction while the carts come up,” he turned to Sama. “Sama, what did you find with the safety instructions?”

“Well, they are adequately detailed but that’s really beside the point-” Sama conceded with less irritation than before in her tone, but still enough to be noticeable. “It has the instructions for the safety restraints, instructions on how to open them as well as the door if you need to make an emergency exit, and an explanation on what happens during a power outage. Apparently, the lift cable goes through, for the lack of a better term, an outpost. The lift runs on no less than three power generators but if they all go out, the lift will continue for three minutes on emergency power before it reaches said outpost. You know what? I’m just going to call it a waypoint station.”

“Boo!” Came Monokuma’s voice as he sprung up from out of nowhere. He was so close to Sama that she flinched. If she were any closer to the platforms, she would have fallen off and possibly have been hurt. But she wasn’t and I was sure that Monokuma knew that. “Huh, I thought I’d get more of a reaction than that.”

“You could have killed me!” Sama shouted as she glared at him. “What are you here for anyways? We’re heading down there in like five minutes anyways.”

“If this is about breakfast-” Saeki began with clear concern in her voice before she was cut off by the fake headmaster.

“Oh that? Oh no. We bears don’t hold grudges. When someone wrongs us, we just kill them! It's so much simpler.” Monokuma began in a nonchalant voice. “Anyways, I didn’t come to kill Sama, I came to say she’s right. The people who gave me the lifts spared no expense in ensuring that it works safely and properly. Kind of a waste of money if you ask me but oh well. Anyways, what Sama didn’t tell you was that there is everything you might need at the waypoint station if you ever get stranded there. A latter down to the ground, spare food, extra coat rooms with coats even though I don’t have the lockers set up yet, heating- Upupupu.”

I glared at him and felt my blood boil when he laughed at that. I wasn’t the only one however, the tension in the room was real enough to cut with a butter knife when he said that.

“Stop beating around the bush and let us this over with already.” Wakuni finally said as he shook his right fist at the teddy bear. “Why do we have to go down there anyways? You could have easily called us to the dining room.”

“Well yeah, but that wouldn’t have been fair to everyone at the lodge.” Monokuma defended in a matter-of-fact tone as he crossed his arms.

“What are you talking about?!” Sama growled. If I had to guess, she was still upset over Monokuma’s surprise entrance. “Everyone is up here. I literally saw all the students except for Nishi and Yakawa take the lift up here which means that everyone is here.”

“I’m talking about myself of course! That’s why I set everything up in the lounge and that’s why you’re still expected there in like, ten minutes or so.” Monokuma said as something caught my attention. Behind Monokuma came in several half-black and half-white lift carts that creaked loudly as they swayed from side to side. They did seem to have four seat belts each to their credit though. “Oh, you’re ride’s here. Well I guess I’d better go. I don’t want to keep you waiting after all.”

At that, the animatronic bear disappeared and the rest of us we left to ourselves as the lift carts all pulled in to the station and came to their stops. For a very short while, we all stood there and stared at the thing. My eyes widened in astonishment at how fragile they looked. But eventually, someone spoke up.

“Let’s just get to it.” Eto said with clear apprehension in her tone of voice as she stepped into the closest one. “I mean, we still have a time limit to get to the lounge and I for one really do not want to be late.”

That was enough for everyone apparently because Saeki, Sama, and Sasori piled into the first cart with Eto. After that was Senji, Koike, and Tanabe who went to the one right behind the first group. And finally, Wakuni, Yakawa, and myself headed towards the one of the remaining carts that was closest to us which happened to be in front of the first group. After that, I sat down on what was supposed to be a seat though it felt as hard as the floor and clicked a black strap across waist.

And then, it all started of course. Monokuma must have been secretly operating the controls to the lift somewhere because it inexplicably picked up again and we were off. And when we did, there really wasn’t anything special about the trip. I looked out below the lift as it pulled away from the mountain and passed by the connectors that guided the cable wires. And what I saw was the side of the mountain was surprisingly smooth both in terms of the slope and the surface. It still looked nearly impossible to climb without some form of assistance and the drop already looked lethal, but it wasn’t as far of a drop as I thought it would have been.

Of course, after a few minutes, we passed through the waypoint station as Sama called it. To be honest, I wasn’t sure why it existed, but it didn’t matter because it was here and I didn’t feel like arguing about it. The exterior was much like the exterior of the lift at the top save for a metallic base that held the waypoint station up as far as it was. As for the interior, it was almost the same. The floor was divided into two platforms with the lift track going between them both and like Monokuma said, there was a coat room for each gender in which I guessed the lockers were as well since I didn’t see any from where I was, and a cable switch of sorts. But I also noticed a door that led to a room that did have window next to it from which I could see a couch, refrigerator, and stove. If I had to guess, it was the lounge of the station and there were other useful pieces of furniture inside.

But I didn’t have time for that because our trolley passed through the station and descended further. This time, I noticed, at a much more noticeable speed and rate though nothing threatening. The cart began to sway slightly and the cliff below really started to increase in steepness, but nothing dangerous happened to us.

Of course, I looked over at Yakawa and Wakuni and the former acted as if something were really wrong. Namely, despite trying to play cool, he was breathing much more shallowly, his right hand gripped a metal beam, his left hand gripped the railing, and they both were white-knuckled grips. It was enough to give me a hypothesis and an idea to rock the cart to test said hypothesis. I did so by leaning back just enough to sway it ever so slightly but not enough to make any meaningful difference. Like I thought, Yakawa did his best to avoid cringing but failed.

“You’re afraid of heights, aren’t you?” I guessed to Yakawa. “Is that why you wanted to take the cave passage earlier?”

“Yeah,” he curtly replied. It was rather obvious already, but Yakawa dropped his facade and nodded. “Just, could you stop rocking this thing? Please.”

“Of course, I’m sorry.” I explained earnestly but still with a hint of concern in my tone from the impending motive. It still gave me goosebumps thinking too much about it. “I just wish that you told me earlier.”

With that agreement, the three of us all sat still and silent until we reached the bottom of the lift and headed into a building that looked like a mirror image of the one at the top except for the fact that a control room was replaced with a power station. From there, all we had to do was wait until at came to a complete stop and get out. We did so rather uneventfully but Yakawa looked as if he were going to kiss the ground.

But of course, we didn’t have time, everyone else headed to the lodge and we followed of course. From there, it was the usual routine of making our way back to the lodge past the burned down shed. I noticed a few other people stop by to pay their respects, but apart from that, we made our way into the lodge without incident.

Finally, the group headed to the coat rooms and did the same routine as before. Grab our clothes with our ElectroIDs, swipe into the changing rooms with said ElectroIDs, take turns getting into stalls so that we could change, change, head out, put out coats in our lockers, and head to the lounge. We all did it at mixed speeds and some of us were dragging our feet, but we all did it nonetheless.

And then, there was getting to the lounge. We all slowed down as we drew closer to the door and we all pooled at the entrance before trickling through. My pulse picked and I knew that at least a few other people were nervous about it as well. Koike was sweating before Senji said something to her that I couldn’t quite hear and guided her into the door. Likewise, Sama and Eto were hesitant to step through when Saeki held the door open for them. But in the end, we were all mindful of the time limit so we all made our way inside.

It was only then, after everyone from the lift arrived, that someone spoke up. It was Saeki and her eyes darted around the room as she spoke. “I can’t find Machi Satu or Sanda Iwane. Where are they? I dislike these excursions as much as the next person but there isn’t a lot of time left.”

“I want to believe that Monokuma wouldn’t- punish them for being late-” Koike began as she stared at the door and continued to rub her head like she had at the summit. “But this is Monokuma we’re talking about.”

At that, I sighed, crossed my arms, and waited as well. That was all we could do really after all. And all the while, the clock was ticking for the two and I hated every second. I didn’t want Sanda to be executed and even Machi didn’t deserve something as horrific as that.

But luckily, it didn’t come to that because after a minute, Machi and Sanda burst through the door in an overly dramatic fashion. Both still wore their coats, were panting like dogs, and were sweating profusely, but they were here.

“Did we-” Machi said between breaths. “Frickin make it?”

“You made it! It’s a very close shave, but you made it.” The half-white, half-black teddy bear's voice said from behind the podium on the other side of the room. We all turned to face him and when we did, we noticed a table covered in white cloth with another half-white, half-black cloth over some cubic object that I guessed was the motive. “I must say, I am always pleased by a perfect attendance. If only you put this much effort into killing each other.”

“We’re only- here because we have- to be.” Machi tried to retort but failed thanks to sheer exhaustion. She slumped down in a chair instead before she continued. “Whatever. I’m just- going to rest here for a second.”

“Alrighty then, it's time for your next motive.” Monokuma gleefully said as he leaped off the podium and onto the table next to the thing that I guessed was the motive. “I put a whole extra hour into coming up with this one.”

“Is this going to another one of those, everyone dies if nobody commits a murder scenarios?” I asked as I glared at the bear and the object. My first guess at was that it was some kind of bomb, but there wasn’t any way of knowing so I forced the thought from my mind.

“Oh, no. Not again for this killing game at least. I am a changed bear.” Monokuma replied in what sounded like a half-hearted attempt at being sincere. “You see, my motives up until this point have been metaphorical sticks. I think its past due to offer a salmon or two instead.”

*(Salmon? You mean carrot?)*

“That is why, I have a gift for anyone who can successfully commit a murder and get away with it.” Monokuma continued confirming my suspicions. At that, he dramatically whipped the cloth off the object and chucked it behind him with his right hand. Under it was a glass display case with a brown wooden base and a Monokuma patterned CD inside of it. And to top it off, the CD had a cover that looked like a close up of his face. “If someone graduates the next class trial they will take home a CD containing everything, and I mean everything, related to all past killing games. Bored? It's yours to watch. Want to know why you’re here? The answer’s right here. Watch it alone, watch it with your friends on the outside. I don't care. It even comes with a lifetime warranty. All you have to do is get away with a murder.”

There was a shocked silence at the unveiling of the motive. At least, I was shocked and the room was silent. Perhaps nobody knew what to say to the bear but I know that I for one felt a huge rush of underwhelming. Compared to the last motive, this one wasn’t so bad. In fact, half the class looked at each other confused. That wasn’t to say that I would let my guard down, but it wasn’t as bad as last time.

Senji actually outright said it in a blank, irritated tone. “So, you expect us to commit a murder and get everyone else executed just so that we can watch other people get coerced in and suffer through the same situation as ours?”

Most of the group looked over at Senji at that. If they weren’t confused before, then they sure were confused by the motive now. I doubted it was confusion as to the implications of the motive but rather, for a reason why they would want to watch it. The only person who put their right finger to their chin in what looked like deep thought was Sanda.

“Hey Sama, I know I’m not the only one thinking of how much a documentary would sell for, so why don’t tell us how worthless it is so we can trash this motive.” Sanda suggested with just a hint of a lack of confidence in his own assertion. When Sama frowned and everyone looked at her, there was a pause. After which, he continued. “It is worthless right?”

Sama just crossed her arms and looked away. “I wasn’t thinking about that before you said it Sanda. I know you’re trying to help but look what you’ve done.”

Everyone was silent at that and we looked at each other much like from the first day here all because Sanda burst our bubble. Well, it wasn’t exactly like the first day since Koike got closer to Senji and Machi looked up with exhausted etched all over her face and a ‘how are you not tired’ look at Sanda. But it was mostly the same nonetheless.

“I’ll just leave you to your own then. Toodles!” Monokuma said to interrupt the silence before he likely disappeared. I spared him a quick glance from my usual observation of everyone else and to my surprise, not only did Monokuma disappear, but he took the motive with him. After that, everyone was quiet again.

“You all must realize that this doesn’t guarantee a murder.” Yakawa replied in the most reassuring tone he could probably muster to break up the silence. “The first time, the culprit felt that he had no choice, and the second time, we really did have no choice. I don’t think anyone here is like Shiro and this time it's a bribe, so there doesn’t necessarily have to be a murder. I’m not saying to let our guard down, I’m just saying its not inevitable.”

“Yeah.” Sasori agreed a little too quickly as though he were trying to believe it. “Anyways, it's almost dinner time. Why don’t we all just have dinner, go to bed, and sleep on it? We’ll likely feel better about it in the morning.”

“That’s probably a good idea.” I conceded but with a little less pleasantness in my tone than I wanted to convey.

Nobody argued with Sasori. And so, we all implicitly followed him out of the lounge and to the cafeteria except for Sanda and Machi who went to probably put up their coats. We all went with various degrees of sluggishness and people murmured to each other about what I guessed was the motive, but we followed nonetheless until we found ourselves in the cafeteria. Luckily, other than a few bad thoughts that I had to force from my mind, there were no incidents to worry about.

From there, we all pretty much went to the kitchen and got to cooking our respective dinners though some people had teamed up such as Senji and Koike, Yakawa and Wakuni, and myself, Saeki, and Eto. A few minutes in, when Sanda and Machi showed up, they pretty much did the same thing though Machi was frowning at Sanda the whole time. The rest of the group cooked alone. And at the end of it all, my group wound up making Teriyaki Salmon with some vegetables on the side. I did more of the work than the two of them combined and I couldn’t speak for the other groups, but we got our dinner finished.

And with that, the three of us sat down to our meal about the time that Yakawa, Wakuni, Machi, and Sanda sat down with their separate foods. Machi sat at a different table, but other than that, there didn’t seem to be any problems. I cut a piece of mine and stuffed it in my mouth. It was simple yet it tasted good. Better than most of the times I made it. In spite of everything, it made me smile.

Saeki must have thought so too because she made a comment after her first bite. “I know we helped, I do try to do my best after all. But at the same time, I don’t think that this would have been nearly as successful without your help.”

“Thanks, I’m flattered.” I replied cheerfully enough in spite of everything. Maybe it was because the motive was less inevitable or that I was safe at the moment, but the truth remained that I still wasn’t nearly as upset as the last two times. Regardless, I continued. “Both my parents usually have to work late hours to support the family so I get a lot of time to practice making dinner.”

I stopped at that. There really was no point in telling them just how well my family was off financially. Our prospects weren’t bad, but we were just below the average income and that would probably be enough to scare them about the possibility of me going for the motive. I had no intention of it, but they couldn’t read my mind after all.

That was when I overheard Yakawa grumbled to Wakuni. “You know, it's too bad that Monokuma disappeared with that disk, we could have used it to figure out why we were here. I’m not worried about that aspect of the motive because it's a catch 22 now, but it would have been useful to know.”

I just sighed. *(You’re right Yakawa. It would have been.)*

I had scarcely finished thinking that to myself when the remaining members of the group went to their seats. Senji and Koike of course took their own seat at the end of the table. Coincidentally, they were the last seats at our table and they had the best looking food out of all of the groups. After that, Tanabe, Sama, and Sasori trickled it and sat down at the last table.

Apart from the occasional murmur, the meal was uneventful after that. I looked around and eyed anyone who might have been suspicious, but I didn’t find anything just like I didn’t find anything the last two times. So, I shrugged it off and went about eating my dinner. After all, though the doubt in my classmates was in the back my mind and probably the mind of everyone else here, I knew I was safe now so I needed to enjoy what I had.

And about the time where dinner concluded, an all-too familiar announcement played on the speakers again.

Ding dong, bing bong.

Once again, Monokuma played the announcement over the speakers. “Attention everyone. The time is now 10:00 P.M. It is now officially night time. Goodnight everyone and rest well. You never know what tomorrow will bring.”

“Hmm,” Saeki hummed in a disappointed tone as she looked up at the nearest monitor and I looked at her. “It looks like we’re all finished. Perhaps it's time to get to sleep and follow Sasori’s suggestion? It seemed sound to me.”

I took one look around at the room. It really was already starting to clear out with people returning their plates and whatnot. Then, I looked over to Eto who nodded. Not everyone was ready, but it looked like our group was ready to call it a day.

“Sure.” I conceded before standing and picking up my stuff. “I wouldn't say it's been a horrible day, but I’m ready to call it a day.”

With all of us in agreement, we began the process to head back to our rooms. It was simple like always and nothing significant happened save for the fact that we escorted each other along the way. We headed into the kitchen, put our stuff up, headed back out through the cafeteria, took the front hallway past the AV room to the cross section of staircases, and finally made our way to the dorm area. From there, Eto was the first to make her way into her room and Saeki was the second. Both times, I waved them goodbye.

But at last, I was left to myself and turn in for the night. I headed to my door, swiped my ElectroID, stepped inside, and closed the door behind me. It was only after that that I slumped down leaning against the door, closed my eyes, and let out a sigh. It was a big day, Sama and Yakawa were both disappointed, there was a new motive in play, and in the back of my mind I knew that I still needed to see if Tanabe was doing alright. I would be lying if I said it was the happiest of days, and It could all lead to bad stuff down the road. Of that I was painfully aware.

It was about then when I caught wind of a smell that permeated the room not unlike the stench that filled the incinerator during the last investigation. I opened my eyes, glared at the closet, and drew a sigh. Of course, the smell lingered and I knew that it was going to bug me until I actually did something to clean my clothes. So, I reached into my pocket to confirm that I still had my knife and got up to do what I knew I needed to do.

When I headed to the and picked up the laundry basket, it turned out to be lighter than I expected. Furthermore, I found that it was easier to carry than the one I was used to from my life before coming here. So, I headed over to the door with ease, managed to open it, looked both ways to see if there was anything worth knowing about, and headed down the hallway towards the laundry room.

I didn’t see anyone in the halls and as such, I did not expect to run into any trouble. So, when I opened the door to the laundry room, it came as no surprise that it went without incident. Naturally, when I entered, I looked around. And I did notice a few interesting things. There were six washers and six dryers which alternated and took up the walls save for the one that had the door and the room was well lit and almost cheerful. Other than that, the floor was made of white tiles, the walls were light blue, the ceiling was white, the left corner had a rack with detergents and other chemicals, and last but not least, the laundry cart that Naya used to grab Koike’s shirt so that Yasui could frame her was in the right corner.

I glanced at it, frowned, shook my head, and continued about my business. Namely, grabbing the detergent, loading my stuff into the machine piece by piece, and starting it. Luckily, it was a simple enough device. It only took a few buttons to get started in fact. And then, the machine lit up and whirled to life rather noisily.

That was when I heard the door open at the front of the room. I took a quick glance to my right and turned my head in time to see none other than Tanabe strut in nonchalantly as the door closed behind him. He looked around slowly until his eyes met mine, but otherwise, he didn’t really do anything except for occupy the door.

“Hey Nishi.” He said in what sounded like a tired voice with a weak wave to match. “What are you doing in here?”

“Well, washing my clothes really.” I replied rather bluntly. At that, I put my hands down by my sides with the right one right next to the knife I had. “I don’t see any clothes with you that need to be washed so what are you doing here?”

“Oh, well I saw you leave your room on my way to my own. At night. Right after a motive.” He replied quietly with a scowl before he glared at the laundry cart briefly. “I thought that I would make sure nothing bad happened. I don’t believe that you would try anything but someone else might and well- you never can tell anymore.”

At that, I nodded and moved my right hand away from my knife. From the sound of things, Tanabe wasn’t going to try anything either though I nearly frowned when he basically admitted to following me and successfully stalking me. That was when a thought entered my mind. Not a worried thought, but a more observational one.

*(Come to think of it, he’s been pretty sneaky in the past hasn’t he?)*

“So, you’re worried about the motive then?” I guessed in a more neutral tone as milled over my own thought. To be honest, thinking too much about these motives made me tense so I couldn’t blame him if he was afraid.

Tanabe moved over to the wall, leaned against it, and drew a prolonged nod. “I usually stay under the radar so I’m not concerned with being murdered. But at the same time, I don’t want to see anyone else get murdered. Nobody here deserves that. Now, I know you might be led to believe that the motive hasn’t affected anyone nearly as badly as the last two, and you’d be forgiven for it since nobody thinks they’re going to die if no murder happens this time around, but I’m telling you that some people here could really use the money. Tell me, have you ever had serious family problems before?”

“Yes actually.” I replied as I bit my lip and felt a stir of sympathy for the guy. He raised his eyebrows at that and it was then that I suggested something I didn’t think I would have been so eager to suggest before. “You know, I can cheer you up if want. I’m still the Super High School Level Hypnotherapist and calming people down is one of my most frequent tasks.”

“Heh, no I’m fine, I was just citing an example,” Tanabe said. He still spoke rather quietly but I saw a brief smile creep across his face. “This motive isn’t nearly as tempting as the last one. I’m just listing my concerns and explaining myself is all. And this motive, well, if I didn’t kill someone last time when we were all going to die, then I’m definitely not going to kill someone this time around. I made a promise not to since day one.”

At that, the washer buzzed and stopped. I opened the door, took everything out, and put it in the dryer. With that, I conducted the process of transferring everything to the dryer and starting the machine.

I turned around again to see him sitting on the far right washer on the corner facing me with his left leg rested on a dryer and his right leg hung over the side. And we just waited as the dryer did its job. It considerably less noisily as the washer, but still noticeably loud. Of course, I looked at Tanabe expecting him to continue his story, elaborate on himself, or say something else. But he just sat there quietly and calmly. I could probably never figure a person like him out in such a short time as one laundry room trip, but if I had to guess, I would say he preferred the quiet.

After some time, the dryer buzzed and I pulled everything out to place in the basket. It was all so warm to the touch that I was actually caught off guard. But nonetheless, I got everything into the same basket as before and turned around to leave. And of course, when I did, Tanabe was on the ground once more waiting for me.

“Do you want an escort to your room?” Tanabe asked in a tone that sounded a little warmer than most. “I know it’s a short walk, but I can if you want.”

I just smiled at him. Oddly enough, I felt a little more relaxed with him around this time. “You’re free to follow me if you want but you certainly don’t have to.”

He nodded. And with that, I headed out the door. Unsurprisingly, I made it to my room without anything dangerous happening though there was one particular incident that I noticed when I swiped my ElectroID through the scanner and made my way into my room. Mainly that Tanabe didn’t follow me. My first instinct was the glance at my clothes as the thought rapidly sprung in my mind, but every article of clothing was accounted for.

*(Tanabe?)*

I thought about going back out and even made it to the door when I did, but the thought struck me that if didn’t follow me, then he probably had a good reason. Besides that, I gave him a choice and I couldn’t go back on it now. So, I let go of the door handle, bit my lip, and instead did my usual routine of going to bed. Namely, putting my recorder, knife, and ElectroID back, putting all my clothes away, washing up, put the second recorder back, changing, and turning off the lights. Not necessarily in that order however.

And with that, I slid into bed and closed my eyes. More than a few thoughts raced through my mind as I did like the fact that I definitely should follow up with Tanabe some time and the motive. But, while I was concerned about it, I was able to clear it from my mind without too much trouble. And with that, I let sleep overtake me.

…

Ding dong, bing bong.

I groaned, opened my eyes and just stared at the currently blurring ceiling as Monokuma’s announcement played. “Rise and shine everyone. It is now 7 A.M. It is officially morning. It's time to enjoy another beautiful day here at Newpoint Lodge!”

Once more, I sat up and slowly crawled out of bed but I managed before I stood and inhaled the cold, dry, morning air. I took a quick glance at the door as my vision returned to normal. For a brief moment, the thought of someone being dead entered my mind. But I just shook my head and expelled it. I sincerely doubted that someone was dead because I was sure that I would have been notified otherwise.

*(At least I’d like to think so.)*

I frowned. Not out of fear because it was so implausible and illogical that they would do that, but out of annoyance at the possibility. But I shrugged that off as well and went about my business. Namely, putting the first recorder where it needed to be, grabbing my knife, recorder, and ElectroID, changing, and heading towards the door. Within minutes, I was out and headed to the cafeteria.

Like before, the trip to the cafeteria was largely uneventful though when I looked around the hallways, something about them felt empty even if I wasn’t why. But when I opened the doors to the cafeteria, I got my answer of where everyone was. They were all sitting down at two of the tables in two groups of five with Senji standing up near the window to address everyone. He appeared to be pacing with both hands behind his back before he looked up and noticed me.

I just found a seat across from Saeki who smiled at me when I sat down. I supposed it was the intended seat for me furthermore since there seemed to make a gap between an otherwise occupied area of six seats.

Sanda spoke up after that. “Alright Senji, we’re all here. Can you tell us what’s going on? Some of us are tired of being held up.”

“Right,” Senji replied succinctly with a single nod. “I regret having to say this, but we should be spending the rest of the day together. Somebody, who’s name I am not going to disclose, came to me afraid for their life. They are under the impression that someone is going to die today. And because this is the day after the motive, I believe that it might be a good idea to do this.”

“What?” Machi replied in a flat tone that sounded more like an irritated statement than an actual question. She frowned about the same as well.

Most of the group’s reactions were similar though others looked around to presumably try to tell who Senji was talking about. I myself looked at Tanabe who sat that the far corner of my table and just looked up long enough to notice me and shake his head no. Assuming he was telling the truth, and I had no reason not to believe, then it wasn’t him.

“I guess I understand where you’re coming from,” Sama started as she crossed her arms. “But I don’t see how waiting an extra day will help.”

“Things tend to de-escalate with time,” I responded. “It's a long shot, but if someone really is planning to commit a murder, then it might buy time to find out who and stop it. That or time for the person involved to change their mind which is also a long shot but still one worth taking.”

“Eh, we haven’t done anything as a group other than participate in motives and class trials,” Eto said in a tone that made it sound as if she were one of the people to agree with Senji. “It would be nice to do something else for a change.”

“Well it is only for a day. If it doesn’t work then we don’t have to do it again, but if it does then its worth it,” Yakawa agreed though he did tap his right pointer finger on the table. Most people who were opposed to the idea eased up a bit at that judging by everyone’s physical reactions to what he said. “The only major question is what would we end up doing? We’ve more or less already explored the new area.”

“I don’t actually see why whoever told you can’t just spend the day with you,” Wakuni spouted off to Senji. Apparently, he wasn’t convinced. “To be honest, you’re a cool guy, but I have other things to do.”

Yakawa just glanced at Wakuni with a blank stare but Senji coughed and then spoke up again. “Yes, I do realize that this is an inconvenience but this was their idea and they seemed pretty worried. I obviously won’t force anyone to join us but this is in the name of public safety and quite frankly, we do have a chance to make the most of it.”

“Hm.” Sanda hummed as if he were starting to come around to the idea. “I wouldn’t be opposed to a dinner show at the new dining room. I mean, we could set it up by the end of the today then maybe we could make party arrangements for as early as tomorrow night.”

“Well, I guess that’s as good as a plan as any,” Wakuni said in a slightly more reluctant sounding tone. “Unless anyone else has any ideas.”

I looked around and so did a lot of other people. Really, Sanda’s suggestion sounded like a good enough idea so I personally wasn’t trying to think of an alternative. Though personally, I didn’t like the delay in searching for a way out of here. But in the same token, it hadn’t brought us any luck up to this point so maybe it was time to shift our focus for a bit. Even I had to admit that it was healthy to take breaks every now and then.

“So, it sounds nobody else has any objections,” Senji spoke up after a long period of silence. “For everyone who wants to participate, you can join me at the summit. And well, I apologize for the inconvenience. I just hope that this is worth it.”

*(You and me both Senji.)*

At that, people began to leave towards the doors with varying degrees of hesitation. First was Senji, then Koike obviously. After that was Sanda and Yakawa. Then Sasori, Sama, Wakuni, and Eto, then Tanabe, and finally, Saeki and Machi though the former seemed more like she was waiting on the latter. After that, I was more or less left alone to myself to decide what I was going to do.

Naturally, I headed out and repeated the steps that I knew that some of them at least took. I went to the coat room, did everything needed to change into my coat, made my way to and headed out the side door into the cold air that felt chilling to my skin now not the parts of me covered in the coat, headed past the burned down shed, and even made my way to the lift. Then there, I simply got into a lift cart and waited for it to go up though a thought came to me just before it started.

*(Wait, why was it here, waiting for me?)*

I glanced down into the cart suspiciously but before I could do anything, it kicked to life and I began my ascent up to the summit of the mountain. The cart shook noticeably of course but it wasn’t anything life threatening and there wasn’t anything that could do about it if it was. Within seconds, I was too high up to drop down safely into the snow below if anything went wrong. So, I just looked up at my destination as the cart continued its journey to the waypoint, through the waypoint, and all the way to the top of the mountain.

From there, I waited until the lift cart came into a complete stop and got out. Once more, I looked around and headed out the building towards the trails. After that, I passed by the crossroads, down the main trail to the observatory, and headed inside the building. There wasn’t anything eventful that happened on the way to the observatory, though I did glance off at the trails as I past them and silently wondered if anything useful lay beyond them. And finally, I thought entered my mind as the door to the observatory closed behind me.

*(I still can’t believe that I don’t feel that cold after being outside.)*

And then, I opened the door to the dining room and stepped inside. There really wasn’t too much to see except for the fact that Senji was adjusting the curtains to my immediate left, and Koike and Saeki managing one of the tables. Apparently, the former took some medicine because she didn’t look sick. Additionally, Eto was standing on a table replacing a light if the lightbulb in her hand was anything to go by, Yakawa and Sanda were on stage with the former reading off a list to the latter, and Machi was sitting in a dining room chair, frowning, and looking away from the stage. It wasn’t unusual, but it was an active room. And the room only got more active when Senji’s eyes lit up.

Senji headed over to me. “Nishi, you are a bit late, but including you, everyone showed up. I honestly did not expect this to happen.”

*(Neither did I)*

“Let’s just hope this works out.” I said as I pushed for a smile and refused to give him the sarcastic remark that came to mind. “So, what’s going on and how can I help?”

“Oh that,” Senji said as he once more adopted his normal posture. “Well, everyone is doing their part except for Machi but don’t bother her. Regardless, I am adjusting the curtains in the room and taking the seating arrangement, Eto is checking the lights, Saeki and Koike are checking the tables to make sure each one is adjusted properly with a candle ready to be lit when the time comes, Yakawa and Sanda are talking about the show, Tanabe is somewhere around here making sure the props are ready, Wakuni and Sama are doing a kitchen inventory check, and Sasori has the important job of making sure that Monokuma doesn’t harass us while we work. And if you want to help, you can join Saeki.”

“It sounds like everything is falling into place.” I thought out loud.

“It sure is Nishi, I am sorry if I sounded brash earlier, I confess that I was worried that this plan wouldn’t work out,” Senji said before he let out a sigh and continued. “But it seems as though we are on track to stop the next murder. Assuming that we’re able to determine whether or not the person who came to me is in any actual danger of course.”

“It might help if you told us who came to you,” I responded as my smile dropped at the thought of someone being scared enough for their life to go to Senji. “I think we could all keep an eye on them that way.”

“That isn’t a bad idea Nishi, but I had that idea earlier and I am afraid that wouldn’t solve the problem. It is true that we could protect this one person but any potential culprit could just choose a different victim,” Senji remarked as he gazed around the room and then back at me. “By the way, I believe I’ve mentioned a seating planner? Is there any particular place where you would like to be seated?”

“Up front by some people. Beyond that, I don’t care.” I answered honestly with a shrug.

Senji wrote something down on his seating planner as he spoke. “Alright then. Ms. Toshiro, you will likely be seated next to Yakawa and across from Machi at the front middle table.” At that, he looked up and excused himself before I could say anything. “I should probably get back to the curtains. If you have any complaints, don’t hesitate to come talk to me.”

We dismissed each other, and with that, I headed over to where Saeki and Koike were. Both seemed to be talking to each other though I was barely paying attention to what they were saying. Instead, I looked around the room and tried to determine who may have gone to Senji for help. Obviously, it would likely be someone in the room so that Senji could keep an eye on him or her and Koike seemed like the prime candidate since she was one of the closest to Senji, but I wasn’t certain about any of that.

It was then that Saeki turned towards me a broke my train of thought. “Care to join us Nishi? We were just discussing who might have come to Senji for help. I was just telling Koike about how it wasn’t me and Koike said the same thing.”

“Yeah,” Koike said before biting her lip and continuing in what sounded like a disappointed tone. “It’s kind of disheartening that someone feels like they got a death threat or something the night of the motive. Especially since it’s not even a threat from Monokuma this time.”

“Well, it's better than an actual death,” I tried to reassure her as I looked down at the table. Really, there wasn't anything left to do since literally everything was already in position right down to the silverware and napkins. We I looked up, I forced a smile and continued. “We might very well have a chance to stop a murder from happening this time.”

*(I know I certainly feel safer this time around.)*

“About that,” Saeki began to hum. “I am beginning to wonder if Senji wasn’t referring to himself. This might be an elaborate trick to beat Monokuma’s motive. I know that I for one would like to see that.” At that, she sighed, looked around, and motioned towards the next table. “Regardless, it is time to move on to the next table.”

Of course, we all followed her to the next table. There wasn’t really much to do there either but the tablecloth was a little crooked and it lacked the decorations that already adorned most of the tables. At that, Saeki looked over at Koike who just nodded and headed for the kitchen.

“We ran out of utensils and candles on the last table so she’s just coming with a tray of both.” Saeki explained with a dismissive wave of her right hand. “So, if I may ask, how are you holding up in all of this?”

“Better than last time,” I said without even an attempt to hide my exasperation or stress. “There are some people that I’m worried about, but for the most part, I feel like we can actually beat this motive. I know that hope is a scary prospect in of itself but it's a lot better than knowing that someone is going to die. Besides that, Senji is clearly taking safeguards.”

“Heh, yeah. Senji is a smart guy,” Saeki admitted as she eyed Senji. I took a quick glance myself and noticed that he was indeed dealing with the drapes. “If anyone has the brains to stop a murder from happening, it's definitely you two.”

“Me?” I said as I turned back towards her and raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry to say but that’s exactly what I have failed to do twice now. It really sucks. Especially when you know how to calm people down on a regular basis.”

Saeki’s smile dropped and she opened her mouth to speak. Yet, she waited for ten seconds as if she were thinking of a response before she answered. And when she did, she came up with only a brief response.

“I am sorry about that Nishi,” Saeki said in a more somber tone. “If this is about your talent, then maybe one of these days, someone will give it a try.”

Saeki scarcely finished speaking when Koike came back with all of the utensils necessary for the some more of the tables in her left hand and a bundle of candles in her right one. At that, Saeki stopped to look at Koike who just gave a weak smile back that would have made me frown if I wasn’t keeping up appearances.

*(Alright, Koike is definitely a suspect for being the person who went to Senji for help.)*

“Alright, let's get these tables organized,” I said once more while refusing to explain my thoughts out loud. “I mean, we only so much time to do it.”

They nodded although Saeki bit her lip before we continued. After that, we spent the rest of the time going from table to table, straightening them out, and placing everything meticulously. It was a fairly simple fare though Saeki made sure everything was exact right down to the minute detail and it was trying at times. Koike and I even exchanged glances every now and then and I had the feeling in the back of my mind that Saeki noticed because I snapped back to looking at the table whenever she glanced at me and I was doing that. Luckily though, she never gave us any trouble. In fact, nobody did.

At least, nobody troubled us until the last table at which point Machi just stood up, crossed her arms, and looked at Eto who was standing on top of said table adjusting a lightbulb. It really was a bad method of changing them and I opened my mouth to say about as much but I closed it at the realization that there really weren’t any ladders around her that I knew of so this was literally the only way that she could do it.

In fact, she said as much to Machi. “Honest, I checked backstage for anything else that I could use but there’s nothing there that can reach the roof.”

“Eto, I think it’s time to come down,” Koike pleaded. “I mean, it really isn't safe and I’ve noticed that you’ve been at that particular light for a very long time.”

“I know, I’ve changed the bulb like, three different times but the stupid thing keeps flickering. Eto complained as she kept tampering with the device. “I’m beginning to think that it's a loose wire or something and it's starting to drive me nuts.”

I winced when she mentioned the wires and at that, I spoke up. “Eto seriously, if it is an electrical wire, then all you’re going to do is electrocute yourself. You did your best but now it's time to come down so that we can finish our job.”

“I definitely agree with that sentiment,” Senji’s voice spoke up from behind me. “I think everyone is about finished with their tasks and we will all be convening in a moment. I promise that we can take of the light some other time. But right now, I think everyone will want to hear this. It’s the seating schedule.”

We waited at that. For a good minute as Eto looked down at us in futility. But finally, she sighed and got off the table. And at that, Saeki hastily started to place everything that needed to be placed at the table. Koike meanwhile tried to give Eto what looked like a reassuring pat on the back which made the latter smile.

And throughout it all, I just stood there as everyone else showed up presumably having finished their tasks. Sanda and Yakawa were already here of course. But the next people to arrive were Wakuni and Sama though the former was almost appeared to have a damp spot on his shirt. Then Sasori, and finally, Tanabe showed up. All with mixed expressions but none of them seemed to be upset ones save for what looked like an irritated frown that Sasori had.

It was then, when everything was finished, that Senji finally spoke up. “Alright. Now, I believe we are prepared for the celebration-”

“Can we do it tonight?” Sanda interrupted with a face full of delight and an almost pleading hand gesture. “I insist that I’m ready.”

“Regretfully no. There is still the matter of personal touches and preparing the food unless of course, you are willing to wait. Not to mention that it's surprisingly late and by the time we get to the lodge and prepare dinner, it will be dinner time.” Senji remarked calmly as if he had not been interrupted. I was actually taken back by that and looked around to see if there was a clock with which to confirm that I had lost track of time. “Now as I was saying, I made a seating plan after taking everyone’s preferences into account.”

“Of course, we already know that.” Machi interrupted.

She sounded polite enough but Saeki and Wakuni were watching her and I had a feeling that that was why. In fact, something in the back of my mind told me that Saeki was the only reason that Machi showed up even though the notion seemed odd since the two hadn’t gotten off to a good start before the day Machi hurt herself.

“I am aware of that yes but I haven’t shown you the final results.” Senji replied calmly enough as he reached for a clipboard on the table next to him and turned it around to show us. “Alright, here is how it's going to go. Nishi, Yakawa, Wakuni, Sama, you four will be taking the mid-right table near the front with Nishi and Wakuni sitting in the middle. Eto, Saeki, and Machi will be sitting at the left middle table. Coincidentally, so will Sanda once he’s finished with his performance. Saeki, and later Eto, will be sitting in the middle. On the outskirts, Koike and I will be sitting near the right table in the very back, Tanabe wished for the far right front table, and Sasori wished for the left table in the back. It's kind of strange how everyone chose only one of two possible spots but I am willing to work with it.”

“Right.” Machi replied once more as she looked at the seating planner. “So now that we’re finished and we know where we’ll be sitting, now what?”

“Well, I suppose now we just head back to the lodge and prepare dinner.” Senji remarked. “You likely don’t need to hear this from me but you are all dismissed.”

“About that,” Wakuni began. He rubbed the back of his head and looked away. “I uh- there was an accident in the kitchen involving the sink. It’s under control now but I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to go outside while I’m wet.”

Yakawa gave an audible sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose in what I imagined was frustration at What Wakuni said. “Come on Wakuni. I’ll help you dry off and we’ll figure out what to do from there.”

At that, the group started to trickle out of the room with various speed. Yakawa and Wakuni were the first although Yakawa more or less dragged Wakuni into the kitchen instead of heading out the main door. After that, Machi left out the door, then Sama, then Eto and Saeki headed out the door, then Sanda, then Sasori, then Koike, and finally, Tanabe looked at us for a moment before hurrying off after the rest of the group. I went to follow him, and a hand reached out and grabbed my right hand.

I turned around to see that it was Senji. I tensed up for a second and tugged, but he let go and I relaxed myself again. But the message was clear that he wanted me to stay behind for whatever reason.

“What is it?” I asked calmly enough as soon as I realized that he probably just wanted to talk to me about something urgent or in private. A few guesses came to mind immediately such as the circumstances behind the party, but I kept quiet about them.

“I would like to discuss my progress in organizing the party with you,” Senji confirmed before he took a quick glance at the kitchen and then back at me. “If it is alright with you Nishi, I would appreciate it if we talked on the lift. There are a few things that I appreciate your help with and that means that there are a few secrets that you need to know about.”

I nodded at that. And in reaction, Senji gave another warm smile and headed for the door. Apparently, I was about to find out what was going on. That wasn’t particularly special given that the secret would have likely been disclosed eventually, but it still uplifted me ever so slightly. And so, I followed him outside.

Of course, the trek to the station was fairly uneventful. The sun was still shining though the tip looked as though it were going to touch the horizon in a few minutes and the climate had dropped to where Senji could be seen shivering between breaths and even I felt a cold chill soak through my jacket. I maintained my distanced from Senji and kept my knife close by, but otherwise, nothing happened and we made it both to the lift and into a cart without any trouble. And it was when the engine whirled to life that I finally spoke up again.

“This is about your little search isn’t it?” I guessed as the cart left the station and the wind whistled past me. Even if it didn’t however, I could feel that the wind had picked up. “Have you had any luck with that.”

Senji just shook his head and I could feel my heart sink a little. “There have not been any threats as far as I am aware though perhaps that might be because the motive failed. Either way, I was actually going to discuss it with you. There is a matter in which I could use your help.”

“Yeah,” I began as another cold gust blew past me. I placed my hands other my chest for warmth but maintained a smile. An irritated smile, but a smile. “You mentioned that you were going to tell me everything.”

“I was getting to that,” Senji said as he dropped whatever facade of comfort that he had. “The dinner party was meant to buy time, but that wasn’t its only purpose. You see, two people came to me last night and asked me to help in preventing a murder but I have to confess that nobody actually felt as though their lives were in danger fortunately enough. Regardless, the three of us recruited Sanda after that and it was a party of four consisting of him, myself, Yakawa, and Tanabe. Sanda, obviously, planted the party suggestion as we agreed. And in addition to buying time, our plan was to monitor any missing inventory ahead of time so that if we can know if anything suspicious goes missing. Additionally, we are going to discuss any shifts in behavior though we won’t stage any interventions unless we know someone is going to commit a murder.”

“Wait,” my eyes widened at the realization, “Did Tanabe ever say anything about me? We met in the laundry room the night of the motive and he never followed me back to my room when he offered and I gave him a choice.”

“No, he never mentioned anything like that. I wouldn't worry about it though, Tanabe has always seemed to avoid everyone in some form or fashion. It probably is not good for his mental state, but it isn’t anything unusual,” Senji remarked as he put his hand to his chin in thought. “Anyways, I just wanted to add you to the list of watchers if at all possible. If the party goes without a hitch, then we are going to pretend to dissolve our alliance and the two of us are subsequently going to track the list of supplies afterwards to make sure once and for all that the motive failed. Is that okay with you?”

I bit my lip and thought about it for a good minute as the lift cart passed through the waypoint station and made its final approach to the bottom. Being suspicious of others wasn’t anything that I hadn’t done before and to the best of my knowledge, it did not sound as if Senji actually suspected that anyone was going to commit a murder. And we had a chance to prevent a murder for once, so it never hurt to make one last inventory check. So, against my better judgement, I agreed.

“I will,” I said with a nod.

At that, the lift cart made its way into the station and gradually began to decelerate until it had come to a complete stop. And at that point, I eagerly stepped off the lift cart onto solid ground that didn’t shake in the wind or expose me to what felt like arctic temperature gusts along the side of the mountain which still peppered my coat in snow even as I disembarked.

“I appreciate it Nishi. To be honest though, I do not like keeping secrets from my friends and like Yakawa said when we formed the group, we should remember that we do not hold power over them and make sure not to encroach upon their rights. This group is purely observational and we will only stage an intervention if necessary. But all the same, I am looking forward to the day when it ends.” Senji admitted as he stepped off and brushed his own coat of snow. I earnestly nodded in agreement. “Now let's get inside. It is getting really cold out here.”

And with that, the two of us finished the route to the cafeteria. We passed the burned down shed where I gave it one more passing scowl, headed into the lodge itself through the front door, headed inside, went to the coat room, completed our respective processes to change in our own changing rooms, put everything away, and made our way to the cafeteria. The sun had begun to set by the time we stepped inside the cafeteria. But other than that, nothing of note happened to us on our trip.

We noticed that only five people remained within the cafeteria by the time we were there and they were Koike, Sama, Wakuni, Saeki, and Machi. But we passed them by on our way to the kitchen. After that, the two of us both worked to preparing our own dinners. For myself, it was simple ramen noodles. But I took a quick glance over my right shoulder and noticed Senji working on some fish dinner for himself. My mouth watered, but I kept it to myself. And with that, the preparation of dinner went by faster than I could believe.

After that, I headed out of the kitchen and sat down right next to Wakuni who otherwise seemed to be by himself. He looked at me and subsequently made room on the table for my bowl, but he didn’t say anything. I guess there wasn’t really much to say. At least, he didn’t speak up until Senji came into the room and sat down next to Koike and Sama.

“So, I know the motive is still in play, but I would like to thank you Senji. Today turned out to be a pretty tolerable day,” Wakuni slowly admitted to Senji. After that however, he looked at me. “And you, well I haven’t done much with you today but my brother says you were really nice to him.”

“Much appreciated,” I responded before letting out a sigh. At that, a thought struck me like a train and I took a quick glance over at Wakuni. “Hey Wakuni, how did you and Yakawa get here in light of the sink incident?”

“Oh that,” Wakuni grumbled and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, he insisted that we trade coats and the he braved the trip back after drying it as best as he could. I tried to take it back, but he wouldn’t listen. Anyways, he ran a lot faster than me to get out of the cold but he took the cave passage to get there so now our coats are mixed up in each other’s lockers. We’ll sort it out tomorrow.”

I nodded just in time to stop and take a glance at a speaker as it once again buzzed. With it, I looked down at the dinner bowl and shoveled a few more noodles into my mouth as I tried to shrug off the irritation that came to me.

Ding dong, bing bong.

For another time too many, Monokuma spoke up in his usual happy tone. “Attention everyone. The time is now 10:00 P.M. It is now officially night time. Goodnight everyone and rest well. You never know what tomorrow will bring.”

There wasn’t really anything else to say after that except for the fact that the seven of us all looked at each other and I stole a glimpse at Saeki and Senji while they didn’t notice or at least I didn’t see them notice. Neither looked worried however and that much made sense luckily since the night time announcement was routine. In this case, it was even a good thing since it meant that the group made it through a whole day again without killing someone with a motive in play to boot.

At last, Saeki drew a sigh, got up, and spoke up to the rest of us. “Well, if you need me, I will be getting rest. We have a big day to tomorrow after all and I wouldn’t want to miss the party. So, goodnight everybody.”

“I’m actually heading to my room as well,” I replied as I got up. “But good night Saeki. I hope tomorrow goes well.”

“Better than today at least,” Wakuni chimed in. “Everything went well right up until the end there, but I’m hoping we don’t have to deal with that again.”

And with that, I picked up my own stuff and headed through the double doors into the kitchen. Saeki did the same, but neither of us really had anything else to say. So, I put my stuff up, stepped aside to let her do the same, and headed out the door back to the cafeteria. I did take one last glance over my shoulder for Senji’s sake to see if she really was putting everything up. But unsurprisingly, she was.

About the time that Koike got up, I was headed out the front door from the cafeteria to the hallway. Not much happened after that, but I headed through the hallways, past the front to the AV room and first aid station, to the intersection of various stairways, down to the dorm area, and to my room. Like almost every other time, it was rather uneventful. In fact, it was rather quiet and almost peaceful.

I pulled out my ElectroID and swiped the door lock before pocketing it again. Like so many times before, it clicked open, I reached out to open it, I stepped inside, and I closed the door behind me. And that was it, as far as I was concerned, the day ended without anything worse happening than a few minor inconveniences. I let out a tired sigh.

And then, I did what I always did. I put up my recorders, knife, and ElectroID, I cleaned up, I changed, I turned the lights out, and got into my bed. After that, I closed my eyes and let my thoughts drift.

Of course, there were a lot of thoughts to drift. The party, the plan that either Yakawa or Tanabe came up with, the motive, and out progress in general. But luckily, nothing bad happened today so my eyelids drew heavier with rapid succession. And before I knew it, everything in the world around me gave way to the natural darkness of sleep.

…

At some time in the night, I woke up to a loud howl from outside. My head more or less bobbed instead of turned to the window to confirm my immediate guess. Even though my thought was sluggish at the moment, it was no surprise that it was the snow now blowing against the window at speeds much like those when Monokuma’s temperature motive was in effect. That said, the room still thankfully felt warm and had nothing to do with the weather, so I did not leap to any conclusions.

Instead, I just put my head back onto my pillow and closed my eyes. I did not care to know what time it was, I just felt exhausted. So, I rolled over, and let sleep overtake me again. And though the exact time that it took was unknown, I did know that it did not take long for me to once again visit dreamland.

...

Ding dong, bing bong.

Like clockwork, Monokuma’s voice kicked in at 7:00 A.M. sharp as happy as ever. “Rise and shine everyone. It is now 7 A.M. It is officially morning. It’s time to enjoy another beautiful day here at Newpoint Lodge!”

I opened my eyes and sat up. Not quickly, but not as groggily as the night before. I still felt sluggish like most mornings, but that was the usual. So, I placed my feet on the side of the bed and slid out smoothly until I was once again standing. Then, I took a deep breath of the cold morning air, or cold air period, to help myself wake up.

After that, I stretched my arms for a few a seconds and proceeded to do my daily routine. First, I changed into my normal clothes. Then I hid one of the recorders and pocketed the other. Then, I pocketed my ElectroID and knife. And with a quick check of my inventory, I glanced over at the door.

After that, I simply headed out the door and towards the cafeteria like always. Everything appeared to be normal except that I heard the floorboard creak from footsteps. And by the time I reached the stairs that led out of the dorm area, I nearly ran into Sasori, Yakawa, and Wakuni. Luckily, I stepped to my right just in time, but they all just stared at me for a second or two after that.

All three of them let out a sigh of relief that concerned me though none of that concerned me quite as much as glancing at Yakawa and seeing that he was carrying an emergency medical kit. Something was very wrong to say the least.

*(That can’t be good.)*

“Nishi, you’re alright.” Yakawa said in a tone that sounded a lot more relieved than it should have. At that, he looked at Wakuni. “Will you please go and tell Senji that we found Nishi unharmed?”

“On it,” Wakuni said before he turned around to the right of my room and dashed down the hallway before he turned the left corner that took him out of sight. I took my right hand and pinched my left with it to see if this was a dream.

Yet, the pinch did nothing other than make that part of my arm red. And so, I spoke up to them. “Can someone please explain what’s happening here? The way you’re acting kind of gives the impression that something very bad is happening.”

“Well-” Sasori began hesitantly, he looked away in both directions as if waiting for some sort of escape from answering me. “We did headcount of sorts and you, Koike, and Eto were all missing. We all decided to split up after that so that we could cover ground as quickly as possible. We’re actually headed to the summit.”

“I know this isn’t late for you Nishi,” Yakawa began, “But Koike and Eto both get up quite a bit earlier under most circumstances and some people seemed to be worried. Eto’s probably out for a morning jog and maybe she took Koike with her, but we don’t know.”

About the time Yakawa finished talking, Wakuni came back down the halls with a grim expression on his face. My first guess was a body, but when he approached, he didn’t say anything related to one nor had an announcement played over the intercoms. So, I only supposed that it had to do with the search itself.

“Can I go with you guys then,” I said as my pulse picked up. I knew in the back of my mind that this could have happened again, but I thought Senji and the other party planners had a handle on the situation.

*(Please not again. Please not again.)*

“Of course, you can come.” Yakawa answered with a cold grim smile and as serious of a tone as ever. “I’m worried about what we might find, but you can definitely come. Anyways, we’ve wasted enough time here so we need to get to the summit as soon as possible and the lift should be able to take us there.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a fervent nod. The irony of Yakawa suggesting we take the lift did not fly over my head, but I didn’t care at that point. “Let’s go.”

And we did. The three of us headed to the coat room and quickly pulled out our ElectroIDs to swipe the card readers and get our coats. While I got mine, I noticed Yakawa and Wakuni’s lockers each had a new coat for each of them in addition to the ones that they swapped yesterday. But the possibility of something bad happening to Eto and Koike raced through my mind so I just turned back to my own locker, took my coat out, and closed it.

After that, I used the same ElectroID to get into my changing room. Took a stall, changed, headed out, and put my normal clothes away in the locker again. And when I looked around the room, for once, I wasn’t the last to get changed. Yakawa and Wakuni were already out and staring intently at our two doors. But I had to wait a good thirty seconds before the door to the men’s changing room opened and Sasori stepped out.

“Okay, I’m ready.” Sasori said in a rather rushed manner. He sounded fairly concerned as well which didn’t surprise me considering what happened to the last two missing people.

“Do you think it's possible that this is a misunderstanding?” I risked questioning. Mainly because I wanted to believe that there was an alternative outcome to this search. “Maybe they slept in today?”

“If they did, Senji will sort it out.” Sasori curtly cut in before he headed over to the door. He opened it, but he didn’t seem to be holding it open for anyone other than himself. “Right now, Senji needs us to search the summit in case something did go wrong like we agreed.”

Yakawa and Wakuni nodded and so did I with a slightly higher degree of reluctance. But nevertheless, when he left the room, we followed and Yakawa actually did hold the door open for me. After that, we simply headed down the hallways, past the back of the AV room, past the area where the warehouse and incinerator were, and to the side door.

Then, Sasori opened the door and a chill swept through the air. For me it was a slight chill, but everyone else recoiled. But that didn’t last for long because the air was still and the weather was both sunny and mild. So Wakuni and Yakawa got acclimated quickly enough and pulled up their coat hoods and goggles.

After that, it was the same story as before. We went past the burned down shed and towards the lift. We made a marginal effort to comb both locations, but if Eto or Koike were there, we would have seen them. We didn’t, so we all got into one lift cart that seemed to be waiting for us in particular since there was only one if them available. And as we fastened ourselves in, the thing seemed to creak to life.

The trip could be more simplistic after that. Wakuni, Yakawa, and Sasori were all breathing faster as the lift cart rattled up the side of the mountain, made its way through the waypoint station, and completed its final stretch. In fact, I felt my own heart pounding. Everyone seemed to really think that there was another murder but I didn’t want to lose either of them or go through another class trial. By the time it reached the top, I had my eyes closed and I was taking deep breaths.

I opened them again when the deathtrap of a ride here hissed to a stop. At that, we all eagerly unfastened our seat belts and proceeded to get off. And of course, my mind raced with thoughts of what happened to Eto and Koike, not all of which were pleasant, as well as how we were going to split up. I thought a good guess would probably be that we would decide at the crossroads.

I turned out to be right because we didn’t say anything to each other. Instead, we marched forward with what I knew was collective anticipation of something bad judging by the fact that Yakawa gripped the medical kit tighter than before, Sasori began wringing his hands, and Wakuni seemed to be taking deep breaths as we trekked forward. But, when we all saw what we did at the crossroads, we were all taken back.

Eto Uzuki lay almost face first in the ground though her head was tilted to the right towards the nearest edge of the mountain with her eyes closed and a sad acceptance etched into her face. Her body was frosted over with snow and a few hints of ice starting to form all across her shirt. Additionally, there appeared to be mostly covered footprints that looked as though they could be traced back from the weather station though I couldn’t see that far ahead. Her left arm stretched out towards the path of the lift and her right arm was limp at her side. But what really caught my attention was that she had red marks around her wrists and ankles as though they had been rubbed raw. It hadn’t escaped me that her socks had both been pushed down as well.

But most importantly, there was an arrow. To be exact, a single arrow with a red tail and a metal grey shaft, was lodged in her back slightly to the right of her spine and angled to pierce through her heart. I could not tell what the tip of the arrow was like however since it was embedded in her.

Yet, there was a remarkable lack of blood from the whole ordeal. Unlike when we discovered Naya, there was no pool of blood underneath her body. Or if there was, it was small enough for Eto to cover up. Additionally, there was not so much as a speck of blood to indicate a blood trail from the way that Eto came. And while there was a crimson stain on the back of Eto’s shirt, it was much smaller than the one that pooled around Naya’s chest back when I discovered her. In a way, this one seemed more serene though no less sad.

Our responses were all different of course. Wakuni shook his fists in what I guessed was frustration. Yakawa dart over to the body faster than I had ever seen him and knelt down with the first aid kit though I had my doubts that it would work. Sasori meanwhile, crossed his arms and looked away from the sight. And as for myself, well, I just stared. It was a horrible sight, but I could not look away. I was transfixed by the thing that made me almost sick to my stomach.

And then, the inevitable happened. Monokuma’s voice played over an intercom that I had no idea where to pinpoint. “Attention everyone, a body has been discovered! If I were you, I would head to the crossroads so that you can get ready for the upcoming class trial! See you there chumps!”

I could say beyond a shadow of doubt, that everyone here was displeased by the announcement. In fact, that would be an understatement. Poor Yakawa had it the worst if his past actions and admitted frustration at not being able to save anyone was anything to go by. But I had to admit that I didn’t feel so great either. All Eto wanted was for us to get along. Even more so, it seemed, than to escape. So, when I finally broke free of my stupor, my first thought wasn’t a pleasant one.

*(I’m sorry Eto. I’m sorry that we couldn’t stop this.)*

## Trivia

* The creator does not like recycling the ‘throw a party’ Nevertheless, they did it because the murder required the setup.
* This happens to be the creator’s favorite motive in their story.