"A talking stuffed cat," Mikyoko deadpanned. "A talking stuffed cat. It's alive. It's moving around on its own. This is… This is impossible."

"I have just made the impossible possible, Mewkyoko!" the cat squeaked. It jumped from the counter and landed on a tall eighteen-year-old with blond and black-white hair. He tilted his head up at the cat, politely confused. Mononeko, in turn, pawed at the boy's ruffled hair and tumbled on his face. "Meow. Hi, Nyakarui!"

"Oh… hi?" he hesitantly petted the cat's head. It was metallic, which didn't come as much of a shock to him. He had already deduced it to be some sort of Artificial Intelligence in a machine.

AKARUI AYANE

SUPER HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL ?

"What the hell are you?" Akiyo asked, crossing his arms irritably. "This is too much improbability for one day. My head isn't supposed to be taking this kind of strain in a hotel of all places."

"How 'bout this?" With that, Takahashi slammed the back of the Basketball Player's head with surprising power. Akiyo let out a very rude word and started to squabble with the Soccer Player once more. Mononeko let out a 'nyahahahaha', silencing the two of them.

"Ooh, you humans are allll so funny! You're getting so very comfortable in this place, you know?" It squeaked out. "That's juuuust what I expect from my victims! Nyahahahaha!"

"V-Victims?" Fuyu repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean exactly what I mean, Funyu," Mononeko said. It jumped off Akarui's head and landed on a seemingly seventeen-year-old with bright blue eyes and long flowing white hair. He giggled and reached up to carry the black and white cat in his arms. Mononeko purred contentedly. "Well now, see, at least one of you little dears know how to treat a cat right! Isn't that right, now, Shinyuki?"

"Maybe." Shiyuki smiled.

SHIYUKI KOUKI

SUPER HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL ANALYZER

"Explain that properly," Kirigiri said through gritted teeth. "What do you mean by 'victims'?"

Mononeko let out a cattish sigh. "Why, obviously it means you're all going to die in here, right? I mean, I thought humans these days would at least know something that obvious. Looks like cats are still the better race, isn't it?"

There was a collective gasp in the group.

"D-Die?"

"No way! I don't wanna die!"

"B-But, I… no, I…"

"Explain!" Kirigiri repeated, much forcefully this time. "You're not telling us the entire thing. You're dragging this out a bit too much, don't you think, you giant rip-off of Monokuma?"

"M-Monokuma?" Friday whispered. "Miss Kirigiri, what do you–" He was silenced by her palm.

Rolling its eyes, Mononeko continued. "Monokuma, you say? Bah. He's of the old generation! Cats are better than bears, you know. I just put him in your bedrooms 'cause he looked much cuter stuffed."

Kirigiri balled her fists.

"Alright, alright, nya! You're so impatient, mini-Kirigiri! You ought to be more like your precious daddy, yeah?" Mononeko shook its head. "Anyway. What I mean is that each and every single one of you in here is trapped!" It waved its paws around in the air like a mad cat. "Traaaapped, nya! Means you aren't goin' nowhere outside of here! And you're staying here whether you like it or not…" It grinned, sending shivers down the eighteen teenagers. "… forever."

"Forever?!" Edward exclaimed, backing away in fright. "No way! That's against the law, isn't it? Shouldn't the police be–"

"The police ain't involved in this!" Mononeko angrily stated, jumping up and down in Shiyuki's arms. "They're too incompetent. And I made sure they wouldn't be poking their noses in something like this, I tell you. They're incapable of such things right now, should I say." It let out a 'nyahahaha'. "But that's beside the point, isn't it? You're trapped in this hotel for forever and you aren't getting out ever again!"

Just then did the truth seem to sink in. There was a chorus of yelling and exclamations and panicking – will they ever get out? Will they ever see their families again? Will they live or die? Will they ever see the sun shine again?

"Though… I guess there is one thing." Mononeko leapt out of Shiyuki's arms, the Analyzer looking slightly disheartened. Silence pervaded the lobby once more, all focus entirely on the cat. "You have to kill someone and get away with it. Then maybe you get to see the outside world. Nice deal, nya?" It laughed. "Then, I'm off! See you all, nya!" With that, it jumped back behind the counter and disappeared from sight. Takahashi ran over to look, then confirmed that the cat was indeed nowhere in sight.

The lobby burst into chaos. Kill or be killed? They didn't want that, they just wanted to be rid of this stupid nightmare, they want to go home, they want to see their friends and family they took for granted again, please God, please let us go–

"Stop, now!" A loud, commanding voice echoed throughout the lobby. A few murmuring whispers persevered, but those faded too. Akiyo stepped in front, arms crossed and a sizeable scowl on his face. "Look, panicking and worrying about what's going to happen to your little lives isn't going to do much of anything. Why not talk among ourselves, at least? Surely we have to gather our thoughts first so as to not make rash decisions we will surely regret."

There was another bout of muttering among the other seventeen students, but they eventually gathered in a circle of sorts and started talking.

"How do we know it's true?" Ezakiya asked. "What the cat is saying has no real proof in itself. Perhaps there are several exits in here and this is all just some one big joke."

"A pretty bad joke with no taste, if I say so myself," Mikyoko grumbled. "Who would kidnap eighteen kids, pretend to be a talking stuffed cat, tell everyone we're going to live here forever or die, and then jump out and say," she cleared her throat, then imitated an incredibly high-pitched, squeaky voice. "'Oh, you know, it was all just one big innocent joke, you know! No bad feelings, yeah?'"

Friday, who had been sitting next to her, chuckled nervously and scooted away a bit.

"Alright, then," Annabelle said. "Suppose this is all just one big joke, as you say so yourself. Then, how did the cat manage to just snatch us all from our homes without even giving us a bit of a twitch in our sleep? It seems a little bit too convenient for him, if you ask me. This seems to be a very intricate plan; I don't particularly think he'd rely on luck, you know?"

"Maybe he injected us with some sort of syringe that causes sleep," Kashini suggested. A couple nodded to that statement.

"But our parents would surely have noticed by now," Kato said. "They would have contacted the police and have them find us. Surely they'd have found our location already?"

Edward mulled it over for a bit, before responding. "Then he didn't leave any traces behind, did he? It would be hard for the police to track us down then, right?"

"… I suppose." Kato glowered at him threateningly, causing the Antique Collector to inch away slightly.

There was a clapping coming from the other side as all heads turned to look at Qi. She held up her notebook and the one closest to her, Takahashi, read it out loud. "Uh… 'To sum everything up, it seems as if we have been kidnapped by the controller of the cat. He had injected us with a sleep syringe to not awaken us and brought us to this place with nary a footprint. Our parents must have called for the police and they are searching for us, but they have yet to find us.'"

"That about sums it up, then." Ezakiya nodded.

"Shouldn't we set rules for ourselves?" Naratai suddenly asked. The question had seemingly come from out of nowhere, so many were surprised at the blatant question.

"C… Care to explain yourself, please?" Annabelle prompted, clearly confused.

The Artist shrugged. "Well, it's like… you heard what that cat said, right? That we have to kill someone without being found and get out. Someone might… might actually believe it and, you know… try to kill someone. So to prevent that, we should make up a couple rules to not make that happen. Ever, preferably."

"That's actually an okay plan," Mikyoko said, sounding somewhat surprised.

"What's with your tone of voice?" Naratai asked irritably.

"Anyway, he's right," Friday said hurriedly, steering the topic away from the two glaring teens. "Maybe we should set a curfew for ourselves. And in the morning, we could set up a meeting place to check if everyone's still there."

"Let's use the buffet area!" Takahashi announced, muttering something about how she could squeeze in some training before breakfast. "It's pretty close to the rooms we woke up in, right? So it'll be easy to get there without tripping over air."

"Tripping over air, now…?" Fuyu repeated.

"Well, we would probably still be half asleep."

"Moving on," Akiyo sighed. "You mentioned something about a curfew. How about… no going out between nine pm to seven am? That should do. Then two of us could go and shut off all the lights to signal… what shall we call it? … Nighttime?"

"There are clocks in here, after all," Kato pointed out, gesturing to a high-quality grandfather's clock near the counter. It had a large, golden pendulum that swung from side to side hypnotically. "I can make it sound some kind of alarm to signal… 'Nighttime'."

"Hm… that does sound about right, then," Akiyo said. Straightening, he looked over the seventeen other students, who looked right back at him with varying emotions. "We'll meet together in the buffet area again tomorrow. It's later than I thought." He pointed at the grandfather's clock that showed it was already ten pm. "You all know your room numbers, right? Go to your room and sleep. You'll need it." He let out a tired kind of sigh.

"Why are you acting like our leader, anyway?" Naratai asked. His tone sounded irritated, but he had a genuinely curious look on his face. "We didn't even have a vote or anything."

The Basketball Player looked away. "… Humans need a leader," he said. "If they don't, they panic, and then they lose their sense of direction. So naturally, they need someone to follow, someone who knows what to do. And that someone is clearly me." He scoffed slightly in the last part. "Now hurry up, or God knows what will happen to you."

I return as the SHSL Slacker! Hella. And just one more OC. One more...

Next chapter might be the Free Time chapter. Or not. Who knows.

EDIT: Here's a 1/3 sprite sheet of Kirigiri, Friday, Qi, Fuyu, Akiyo, and Naratai!

/J6 iu Fg a. jp g then add im gu r. com before it. (do remove spaces.)

Marei, 9/2/14