Oh yes I have the next chapter out! I'm such an amazing person, trying to update as quickly but fluently as possible!

(POLL) The poll's out until the next chapter or so!

REPLIES TO COMMENTS:

LadyGlitchy: "Yes! I'm glad I got Tiki's character right!"

HeroNoMore: "Yes all of the characters are so interesting and balanced out! Nice characters, mean, arrogant, gentle, etc! Ooh you got the chapter's title meaning right! For that, you earn a million virtual dollars! And thank you again!"

TigerMasters: "Thank you! To be honest, I was thinking he as a little off, and that I should've portrayed him a bit more! Don't worry, he'll be talking more here! Ooh, the questions are making me even more excited to write this and get on with the free time, and then to the murders!"

Shawdowplayer360: "Oh my gosh Monokuma is that you? XD! Yes, the tension is rising and now a murder shall take place soon! Thank you for the comment!"

Starnightking: "Ha! I got you hooked! Nah, I'm kidding."

Trixielulamoon323: "Monokuma, Monokuma, what would we do without you? And thank you, I'm glad I portrayed the characters well! Like I said, the cast are really balanced and unique, each and all of them! Yup, Aika's such a smart, observant girl!"

Shyjoker: "Hmm right but slightly wrong. No, no, it's not your fault I should've pointed that out! It's an author's job to see what's wrong with their story, and you're telling me what's wrong so everything's fine! It's my fault, not your's! Then again, Constantine isn't a character that's supposed to be liked."

Awesome D.T: "Haha, I thought you wouldn't like her to be portrayed like that! Vio-san... I'm flattered by the nickname! Hmm, as an abridged series, everyone shall dance! Okay, maybe in their free time. Ahahaahaha, don't worry! He won't like her forever... Maybe. Monokuma makes great parties, doesn't he? Oh yeah, you like those characters! Poor Elena, but she's such a cutie so she can handle it! Shizu really is adorable and sweet, and yeah I can see why you'd like Ayano so much! Ahaha, I have a strange taste in who I like... Yup! Just want to keep you readers entertained!"

Nagisa4863: "Great! Because I love Persona! Who's your favorite character in Persona? Yeah, the tension is rising! Thank you for the comment!"

A. Zarko: "Oh gosh I'm so sorry he doesn't get much screen time! Toby's a really nice, interesting character!"

Spontaneous Extempist: "Haha want to keep you entertained! Oh great you have psychic powers teach me your skills! I really like Shizu, she's so cute and awesome! Yeah it's not like the story is all gonna be dark and violent... Aika will use her wonderful SHSL talent to save the world! Er, the students. Yeah, I wanted to not just say their qualities and whatnot...!"

Charming Crescendo: "Thank you! I'm glad I introduced Rina quite well. Hmm... That depends on how good I think it looks like. Yup it's way too early!"

That1guyeveryonehates: "Yes he'll get along with everyone here! Aww! But he's such a interesting guy! Oh really? Awesome! Constantine and Juugo are really interesting characters."

Let's go with this chapter now!

(Ayano Kiyomizu)

For a while, we all stood there. The awkward silence was killing us, but we couldn't do anything about it. Monokuma. Monokuma was alive, and now he's after us. Us students who had nothing but wonderful lives we could've continued if only he didn't invaded our personal lives. What was his goal?

"So..." I started, trying to at least break the cold silence. "What now?"

"You have to ask that?" Toby sighed, obviously stressed out from a couple of minutes ago when that sadistic bear appeared. "I honestly don't know. We could just stand here, shocked. Without a daze. Dead."

Takane grunted, walking towards the exit, then turning to stop and look at his fellow students. "I won't be scared to death like you guys. I will try to find a way to shove Monokuma's words right in his face."

"I hate to say this, but I agree with the muckraker," Constantine said, brushing off the dust on her clothes. Seemingly stubborn as she is, she refused to say Takane's name, but at least she agreed with the rest of his sentence. "It's not like bathing ourselves in fear will get us anywhere. I won't become losers and virgins like you guys are right now."

Tiki stared at Constantine, quite disgusted by her retort. "V-virgins...?"

Rina was too busy worrying about Monokuma to hear Constantine's quite inappropriate joke. "Oh no... What are we going to do?"

"Quite obvious." Tomoe felt the anger rising in his body. "We'll beat Monokuma at his game."

"How do we do that?" I asked, tilting my head in confusion and curiosity.

"We'll do just like the other students did," Takane answered, frowning not at me, but at the thought of knowing that he hasn't have the foggiest idea of how the Hope's Peak Academy students beat Monokuma at his game. He scratched his head. "Which is..."

"Don't act like that!" Elena cried, suprising Takane and everyone else. "If you aren't sure about it, then don't say anything in the first place!"

"Calm down everyone!"

"What are we going to do..."

"Everyone please shut up!"

"Oh no... Why is this happening?"

"Guys!" Aika yelled, annoyed by everyone's negative responses. "Let's not get so down from Monokuma! That's exactly what he wants to see us look like! Sad, fear, and doubtful of one another!"

We all glanced at Aika, then back at one another. We instantly agreed that Aika was right. If we are going to stop Monokuma, we have to be more positive and trustful of one another. Aika was strong, if not optimistic. In my opinion, she would definately survive throughout all the horrible things that I'm feeling we will be going through this time. I smiled, despite the horrible sensation in my stomach. Let's just call it my bad luck intuition.

"See? Ayano's optimsitic about it!" Aika replied as I just noticed how I unconsciously smiled in public. I blushed, shaking my head as Aika grabbed ahold of my arm. Is it just me or am I being constantly pulled? "You're such a great guy, Ayano! Smiling even though you've had such horrible luck!"

"Ah... Don't remind me..." I muttered, letting myself get shoved around by Aika. So, basically, having bad luck is a good thing for you?

Rina glanced at the clock. "It's already been more than five minutes since Monokuma came here to greet us..."

"Really?" Nathan looked shocked and glanced at the clock for further inspection. "Wow! We took that long just standing here?"

CJ shrugged. "Well, I guess that's what happens when we're in so much shock..."

Makoto smiled, rubbing his eyes. "Man! I'm so sleepy though..."

Shizu smiled softly while Constantine rolled her eyes. "It's only eight," she started with an annoyed expression. "I mean, did you not sleep or something? We all apparently..." She stopped. "Slept in class."

Nathan chuckled, crying out loud, "That's a horrible joke!"

"It's not even a joke, you idiot!" Constantine yelled back, Nathan shrugging in response.

"We should investigate the school," Shizu suggested, suddenly making us stop in our tracks. She always had a way of getting attention. "We need to get to know our area better."

"I agree," Kazuho said. He was tall for a thirteen year old kid, being six feet tall! He stared at us, then frowned. "I think we should split up."

Shizu nodded. "The school should have five hallways. I'm not sure if they're all available however. I have this feeling that Monokuma wouldn't want us to sneak into his...privacy."

"Supposed." Paul shrugged. "He should have a room for himself, watching us."

Elena shuddered. "Ew! That's creepy!"

Paul glanced at her awkwardly, giving her a dissatisfied look of annoyance. "It's just my theory."

Shizu continued speaking sternly. "Some of us should investigate the west area, some at the east. If the second hallway is open, half of us can go up there and investigate."

Aika rubbed her chin, acting as though she were a detective finding the conclusion to a case. "Hmm... Then when we should meet?"

"Should we meet back here?" I politely asked.

"I don't want to go here again," Toby bluntly answered. "It's just..." He groaned. "Monokuma's appearance made me sick. I don't want to get reminded."

Aika shrugged, obviously trying to lighten the mood with her carefree personality. "Then where?"

As we tried to come up with an answer, there was a large buzzing noise ringing in the room. We glanced at each other nervously, but then noticed the noise was coming from the edge of the stage. We quietly mumbled to one another.

"S-so..." Tomoe started. "Anyone want to go check?"

"I'm not doing it!" Stellar replied with a worried groan. "You go!"

"I obviously don't want to!" Nathan smiled, then he nudged me in the elbow. "Hey, maybe you can check it out?"

"M-me?!" I asked, startled. Everyone, however, began glaring at me. I frowned, groaning irritably. I can't say no, now can I? I began slowly walking over to the stage. "Fine..." I said, with the hint of utter fear in my voice. What as that buzzing sound? Honestly, whether good or not, I don't want to be the person to figure this case out. Why am I such a nice person?! I cried to myself.

Elena motioned a thumbs up to me. Makoto yawned, stretching his numb arms. Constantine grumbled, waiting for me to get this over with. Paul stared at me curiously. Whatever they were doing this, doing that, and doing what, they are not helping me cure my nervousness at all.

"Just get this over with," I comforted myself, walking all the way to the source of the sound. As the source got closer and closer, it was...a ringing sound? Curiously, I glanced over from the red curtains, and there were...IDs? I quickly snatched one of the IDs from the big, round table, and then activated it. It opened as if it were an iPhone, and it had...my name? I scanned the contents again. There were lists and profiles of the students including our names, SHSL talent, etc. There were also the school rules and maps. What... "G-guys!"

"Yes? Is something wrong?" What I assumed to be Aika's voice, I cried back out to the matchmaker.

"Yes! There's IDs over here!" I cried out as loud as I can. Sheesh. I never really had a loud voice.

One by one, the students quickly dashed over to my side. The first one to appear was Malcolm who merely averted his daze away from me and took one of the IDs at the table. He checked over the contents, letting out a little gasp, then closed it again.

"That's weird," he started, turning to everyone else. "It has all the information on here. I would've expect that Monokuma would've given it to us."

"I think that ringing sound was his own way of letting us find it," Juugo shrugged, staring directly at the ID with disdain. "This has information about everything of the school's locations and places."

Rina awed at the ID as if it were a fun game for everyone. "Woah! They even packed a GPS!"

"Really?" Makoto quickly stared at the ID for a few five seconds, then cried out of amazement. "This is so advanced! Where in the universe did Monokuma get these from? The 3000s?"

Kazuho sighed, merely lacking interest in the ID and focusing for context clues in the list of rules. "We're not in a science fiction show, Makoto."

Shizu looked seriously confused at her ID as she muttered, "The rules... They're confusing."

"You figured that out too?" Kazuho replied, Shizu nodding.

CJ glanced at the rules then frowned. "What does rule number three mean?"

All the rules seemed simple enough to understand, but rule three plainly yet bluntly states: "A fellow culprit can graduate from school, but he or she shall not let anyone figure the culprit's motives." As I looked up while feeling a bit woozy, everyone else had the same exact grim expression on their face.

"What the hell does that mean?" Constantine grumbled, veins popping out of her head. "A fellow culprit can graduate from school, but he or she shall not let anyone figure the culprit's motives? What does that mean?"

CJ scoffed. "Monokuma's obviously trying to pull our leg."

"But really," Tomoe started, a dry lump in his throat. "He's obviously serious about us wanting to kill one another."

"Why wouldn't he be?" Constantine cried, out of her patience. I flinched a bit. Her hotheaded attitude was making me worry about my own health. "Haven't you seen the news about twenty years ago? Of course that sadistic, homicidal bear is damn serious about it!"

Nathan held his hands up, covering Tomoe in the back of him. "Woah! Calm the heck down!"

"Well," Elena started. "We won't kill each other!"

Toby nodded. "Yeah! It's not like killing us would get us anywhere!"

I smiled. We're all alright. We won't kill each other in this state, right? It's not like we hate each other or anything. Even if someone did hate someone, it was too much to kill them, I'm sure of that.

"Upupupu!"

With that annoyingly familiar voice loudly ringing in my head, I nearly jumped my heart off. "GAH!"

Monokuma laughed cruelly. "Did I seriously scared you, Ayano? My, my, you're such a coward!"

Despite Monokuma's sudden entrance, I was more worried about how I sounded when I yelped. "W-What the heck are you doing here?!"

Monokuma did a perky little skip dance, then pointed at me. "Just listening to you stupid people rag on about how you won't kill each other!"

"We're not stupid! You're the one who's stupid!" Elena suddenly cried, her voice rising in anger. "Bud, you won't see anyone killing today, tomorrow, and for the rest of the school year!"

"We won't let you get to us," Juugo calmly stated in response to Elena. "You'll be the one who will come begging for death."

"Oho! I will come to beg," Monokuma started, glaring at Juugo. "When I get bored of you guys not killing each other off!"

"We're all friends here!" Stellar started, despite knowing how we've never talked to each other until a while ago. "It's you versus us students!"

Monokuma grimly smiled. "Don't be so sure of that, Stellar "Rose" Law! I wouldn't consider you guys even close enough to consider each other friends!"

"Why are you here?" Kazuho stated coldly. "Are you here just to piss us off?"

Monokuma tilted his head, pretending to act confused. "Hmmm... Maybe? Maybe not? I'm not so sure myself!"

After Monokuma hysterically giggled to himself, he disappeared without a second to waste. Some students began to glanced at each other, but this time. Only in confusion and anger. Constantine frowned. "What the hell was that?"

Aika was scratching her head. "I have no idea... But that doesn't matter now! We won't kill each other and that's final!"

It was as though repeating the words over and over again helped, in reality, it was a temporary antidote to anxiety. We all had that horrible feeling clinging to us, never leaving, never giving us a break. I shivered as I put my ID into my the pockets of my pants.

"We should examine the area now," Shizu started, ignoring the whole Monokuma's sudden appearance thing a second afterwards. Everyone nodded. "Only this floor is available, so who should go left and who should go right? For me, I'll be looking around the library and the other rooms in the A area."

"I'll join you!" Toby suddenly cried out. "I've been at the library already so I can show you the way!"

"I'll join." CJ shrugged.

Nathan perkily cried, "I wanna join!"

Shizu nodded. "So, there's me, Nathan, CJ, and Toby in the A area. Who wants to go to the B dorms?"

Tiki shyly raised her hand to speak. "I'll go."

And after that, we divided ourselves into groups. Shizu, Nathan, CJ, and Toby were going to investigate the A area, which included the library, dormitories, and the courtroom. Rina, Tomoe, Elena, Malcolm, and Kazuho were heading off to the B area, which we were in. The theaters, the cafeteria, and the gymnasium. In my opinion, it was pretty much the more leisure area. At the C area, the group heading off there were Constantine, Takane (To my dismay. Hope he and Constantine don't argue again), Stellar, and Makoto. And at the D area were the rest of us four: Tiki, Aika, Juugo, Paul, and I.

"When and where should we meet?" Stellar immediately asked before leaving.

"We should meet at the courtroom." Nathan exclaimed. "It feels really, um, what do you call it? More interesting!"

"Whatever." CJ rolled her eyes while ignoring the rest of us. "The courtroom it is."

"We'll meet around a few hours later," Shizu explained. "Around three hours?"

Makoto smiled. "Gotcha."

As soon as we exchanged our goodbyes for now, Juugo leaded us to the D area. On the map on the IDs, the D area had the showers, the changing room, the laboratory, and the nurse's office. After playing a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide where the victor to go first, we all split ourselves up into each rooms. I began my way inside the nurse's office.

There wasn't anything special. Just plain out antidotes for headaches, sicknesses, etc. On the cabinets held files, keys, and thermometers. I began to wonder if one of those keys can open to anything useful in the future, so I borrowed one and snuck it into my pockets. Okay! Back on track. The room was just ordinary as every other doctor's place you've been to. There wasn't anything strange, except maybe the aroma of fresh sliced oranges.

Ah, it smells so good here!

(Tiki Takana)

The laboratory was exactly like those in detective movies. There were chemicals, microscopes, files, and they even had weapons packed inside one of the glass shelves! I wished there were some animals here, I could really use the time to find out more stuff about these creatures... Especially that naked mole rat I founded on the street a few weeks ago. I wonder where it is now?

The laboratory was undeniably big. There were tons of long desks and gray chairs packed, with tool kits on each of the tables. As I further checked into the tool kits, I noticed there were poison, syringes, the most pointiest scissors I've ever seen in my life, various kinds of dangerous chemicals, and even a small dagger hidden in the corner. Curiously, I grabbed one of the tubes filled with strange liquid and shook it around. What is this? Bleach? Acid?

Why do students of Phoenix research these things?

(Paul Davian)

What is the purpose of going into the showers? I shook my head sadly, roaming around boringly in the shower room. As a regular person can see, there was a spa, hot tubs, bath tubs, soap, towels, etc. Really now. Is there any point in examining the showers? I really regret losing that one game of rock, paper, scissors.

I began reflecting back on my group members. Ayano Kiyomizu certainly lived on with his title of bad luck, to his disdain. Juugo Isanami is definately a suspicious person, so I have to be wary of him. Tiki Takana was an awkward girl, but she's...kind enough. Aika Yumiko was an energetic girl. She's so full of optimism and spirits, but I suppose that's not a bad thing.

I sighed, playing with the handful of coins I stole from a strange but somehow rich couple a week ago. I'm so bored.

(Aika Yumiko)

The girls' changing room is really pretty and colorful. There were lockers that had our names on it (I'm not sure if I should be slightly creeped out), and there was even a bench that had wonderfully made wood carvings near each sides of the bench. There were two numerous posters, one about a male Jpop band, and another which seemed to be from a Kpop band.

In each lockers were a pair of shorts, swimsuits, and shirts, seemingly for exercising and swimming. I smiled, suddenly excited that we had a swimming pool here. I wonder where it is?

"Hmmm..." I tilted my hand as I rubbed my chin. "Who should I support as a couple? There's so many options!"

(Juugo Isanami)

I took off my white faceless mask and sighed, fixing my raven hair quickly. There was no point in examining the boys' changing room, is there? The only thing noticeable were the Kpop posters on the middle of the lockers.

I sighed again, sitting down on the bench near the lockers to my left. What was Monokuma's goal? I would've thought he'd already learn his lesson from twenty years ago, and now he's back, the same as ever. Has he ever changed during these decades?

He had the strange feeling that despite everyone's optimistic behavior, Monokuma wouldn't let them have their way.

There was despair trying to stab Juugo in the chest.

Well... That was boring. Next time will be the rest of the characters talking about the area (yes its boring), and now the first day will pass in the next chapter, and then free time!