A/N: Final warning that if you read the original chapter four, which finished with Souda beating up a Monobeast, you need to re-read chapters four and five!


"Now, I would make the usual announcement – but ohhhhh, you bastards are in so much trouble! This isn't gonna be a good day for anyone now!"

Mioda let out a sleepy groan, raising herself from the pillows and stealing a glance at the screen in her cabin. As expected, that awful bear was wailing away, waving its cocktail glass in a fashion it presumed to be threatening. "My poor, poor little Monobeast! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves! You bastards blew it up, in cold blood no less! I nearly spat my pina colada all over the screen!"

This lecture went on for some minutes; and Mioda could imagine that the others had probably tuned out after the first twenty seconds. Monobear was merely telling them all off for something not all of them had done, and so long as he continued to yell and scream, the worst emotion any of them would have felt was irritation. He wasn't about to do anyth–

"–so I've devised a fitting punishment for our five Super–High–School–Level Idiots!"

"Wh–what?!" Mioda stammered, hurriedly rolling out of bed and to her feet. Unfortunately, it wasn't as neat as she would have liked it to be; the sudden flow of blood to her head meant that she swayed a little on the spot, causing the bear to break out into a series of barking laughs.

"Upupupupu! Nothing like a little threat to bring out the slapstick! I think the prize has to go to Souda, though – what a leap!" He paused for thought, and the sound of applause echoed through the loudspeaker. That was probably a recording of applause – Mioda was no stranger to the world of entertainment, and it didn't seem at all likely that Monobear would be applauded by any of the others. Nevertheless, the little bear bowed to his invisible and possibly nonexistent audience, speaking once again. "Well, thankyou! So nice to see my judgement still holds true. Now, I have to thank the Academy–"

Get to the point! Mioda just about shrieked at him. He was dragging out the explanation quite deliberately; milking the tension for all it was worth. He was enjoying their reactions too much to simply get to the point; the guitarist knew that her own expression at the news of her imminent punishment would have been priceless in itself, and the bear was watching sixteen fairly similar reactions; no–one but those five knew what had gone on that night, so the others probably thought they were somehow responsible as well. On and on the bear went, accepting his self–presented Monokuma Medal with no small amount of fanfare. If he had gone on for much longer, Mioda would have cut loose with a cry of "Get on with it!", but someone else must have done it first – for the bear abruptly stopped mid–speech. He let out a loud sigh, shaking his head sadly, then leaned close to the screen, the applause cutting out with a screech of static that made the guitarist's sensitive ears buzz.

"Fiiiiiine, here's the deal – I'm on a tight schedule! I want some good ol'–fashioned entertainment, and you bastards totally destroyed something very dear to me. I was so fond of my little Monobeast, and if you'd actually left behind any remains, I'd totally have cradled 'em! My bear–tears would have had my furry cousins in uprising! I would have gotten an Emmy! So, so, so, because you guys totally ruined my award opportunity – if no–one else is dead in two days, I'm gonna punish five certain idiots! I've got a reeeeeeeallyyyyyyy great punishment for you all, too, all set up! A real whiz–bang of an execution! Dead sure to win an Emmy!"

The screen went black, and Mioda's mouth felt dry; her knees were shaking. If no–one else acted, she would be executed with five of the people she was trying to save. The only way out was for someone else to take her place, yes, but – what kind of a peace would that leave her with? It certainly wouldn't be the perfect peace that Mioda strove for, with everyone living together in her little dollhouse. Someone would be missing; even if the killer was found and dealt with accordingly, the others would surely grieve, the horrible murder hanging over their heads like the fabled sword of Damocles. Mioda had written a song about that particular weapon, and it hadn't exactly been a pretty one. No, no – she absolutely had to foil each and every attempt on someone's life over the next few days.

That said, Mioda could not allow herself to be executed. There simply could be no peace without her influence; as far as she knew, she was the only person capable of creating such a situation, and the only person capable of standing up to that nefarious mind–reader. There just had to be another way out of the situation, a way that no–one had yet considered; she had abilities that no–one else had, abilities no–one could possibly hope to have, and she was determined to use them to get her desired happy ending. She certainly couldn't murder someone, but she couldn't just lie down and die either.

What if someone pretended to lie down and die, then? The idea admittedly appealed to Mioda – perhaps she could force one of her subjects to play dead, barely breathe and never move. All she needed to do was to get Tsumiki to reveal just how much one's heart and breathing rate needed to be slowed down before the person in question would be dead to the world – but then again, controlling such basic functions wasn't something she'd done before. Would the person who found themselves comatose be able to obey her and wake up exactly when she told them to? Once she had started, did she have to order their every shallow breath, or would they continue to breathe on their own? Mioda might have been a rather practical girl, but she didn't exactly want to find the answer to that one out the hard way, accidentally killing someone as she tried to make them play dead.

And so, as she trotted out the door of her cabin and strolled down the path towards the lodge, the guitarist decided that in order to get some answers to her questions, she would have to experiment throughout the day. There was nothing wrong with experimenting; after all, the kerfuffle last night could have been avoided if only she'd had a better handle on Souda and Tsumiki. They'd panicked pretty much because she had; if only they had just stayed where they were, they would never have become involved in the Koizumi – vs – Monobeast situation, and so Mioda would never have jumped in to protect the slaves she was technically responsible for. If only Koizumi had been left alone to handle the situation, only her life would have been on the line now – still not an easy thing for the guitarist to take, but far easier than simultaneously trying to protect and watch over five people at once–

"I'm gonna kill you!"

And at those ominous words from somewhere within the lodge, Mioda broke into a run.


Now, Koizumi knew full well that Kuzuryuu didn't really mean what he'd just yelled in Souda's face, that he was regretting it the instant he'd said it, but that didn't make his threat any less disturbing. There was a deathly silence in the restaurant, broken only by Souda's soft whimper, followed by an outright snarl from the gangster. "Do you hear me? This is all your fault, so you're going down." Small as he was, the guy was nevertheless backing the mechanic towards the tables, and standing near the door of the restaurant with fresh bandages over her injury, Koizumi was in no position to be doing anything about it. If Souda was to, say, go for one of the kitchen utensils laid out on the tables, disaster was quite literally close at hand; and that wasn't what Koizumi needed at all. Not that she really knew what she wanted since that dreadful announcement, but she was sure it didn't involve anyone dying.

A lucky thing, then that the two arguing boys weren't the only ones in the room. At the main table, just behind where Souda was standing, a large, cloth–covered object straightened itself, and sighed, then turned towards the one–sided argument, revealing itself to be Byakuya Togami. The guy stared mournfully one last time at his tower of toast, eggs, and bacon, then as Souda wailed something utterly incomprehensible, decided that he'd heard enough.

"He merely admitted to being one of the five involved," Togami snorted, stepping to the side and then in front of Souda even as he folded his arms; there was nothing but irritation in his mind, irritation adequately reflected in his pose and words. It was almost frightening how precisely he calculated every movement, his every display of emotion carefully gauged, but then again, it did mean that he was every bit in control of his actions as he wanted the others to believe. "That does not mean he was responsible," he added, and Koizumi guessed there'd be some other time to read the big guy properly; her gaze flickered between the lone heir and the two teens he'd positioned himself between: the crybaby, and the aforementioned crybaby's main attacker.

There wasn't much to be said about Souda, since his head was buried between his knees and he kept glancing towards the nearest food–laden table as though that might help him somehow, but of Kuzuryuu, currently trying to peek around Togami's bulk, there was a great deal to be said. For one thing, the guy seemed to be hell–bent on telling the world that he was absolutely a menace, even if he didn't quite believe that himself. Despite his tiny stature in comparison to Togami, he showed the larger teen no respect whatsoever; he clicked his tongue, glaring about the room in a gesture that looked a good deal more aggressive than it was supposed to look, then strutted forwards. "Then what the hell is it supposed to mean?" he spat in the heir's face. "He's got to be one of the ones that's supposed to already get killed, right? Unless he's even stupider than he looks!"

"I don't look stupid!" protested the pink–haired mechanic in the bright yellow jumpsuit, which definitely didn't look silly at all.

Togami sighed, glancing over his shoulder and reminding himself that he should look very, very disgusted with Souda, but he turned back before the mechanic could lift his head and see it. That odd slip of his mental script admittedly surprised Koizumi, but the heir showed no surprise whatsoever, regarding the gangster with nothing but calmness. "Perhaps he is," he said, "but perhaps he is not. I do not think we will be receiving much of an answer from him, however. Wouldn't you agree?"

"If you'd let me at him," hissed Kuzuryuu, "then I'd have him talking, all right–!" Several images flashed into Koizumi's mind of just what he was thinking of doing, and she cringed; they weren't pretty.

"You're not going to extort him!" she snapped, stalking over from where she had been watching the little fight, a few metres away from the restaurant's doorway. Togami looked mildly surprised at her entrance, and Kuzuryuu's venom was quite suddenly directed at her instead of the mechanic. "This isn't some criminal underworld fantasy of yours, okay? We're trapped together on this island, so–"

"Here comes the fuckin' pep talk!" the gangster growled. "And I suppose you want your peaceful desert island fantasy, right? Don't you go lecturing me, hypocrite!" He took a deep breath, then went on, his voice dropping to a quiet hiss that rattled Koizumi far more than his shouting ever had. "Where I come from, extorting is perfectly normal. So, you had better keep a close eye on Crybaby over there, 'cos otherwise you're gonna peek in one day and–"

"Did someone say exorcism?"

And just like that, the dramatic tension was utterly ruined by possibly the most dramatic person on the island, Gundam Tanaka. He had decided to stand smack–bang in the middle of the doorway, the morning sun making his shadow long, and the morning breeze making his purple scarf flap menacingly. Or, at least – that would have been menacing, had not three hamsters been clinging onto the ends. It took him a while to notice that his pets were ruining the whole 'menacing' thing – and the resulting scramble to get them back inside his scarf wasn't exactly menacing, either.

"A–are you mortals deaf, now?" he said, hurriedly cramming two tiny balls of fluff into the folds around his neck and reaching for a third, glaring about the room as though the occupants had somehow been responsible for the hamster disaster. "However, my understanding is that my earlier question was merely a test of your intelligence! I know, for one, that my many ears cannot have deceived me! With ten ears did I hear that yes, an exorcism is definitely required!"

And so, with great strides that set his scarf trailing behind him, Tanaka crossed the room and closed on Souda, who was currently curled up in a ball on the floor. Togami and Kuzuryuu exchanged looks of resignation and got out of the way of the wannabe exorcist, the former returning to his tower of a breakfast while the latter decided to go and sulk in a corner, his back to the others. "Greetings, foul demon!" Tanaka boomed, and Souda clapped his hands over his ears almost immediately. "I, Gundam Tanaka, Ascendant Lord of Ice, Servant to the Mighty Four Dark Gods of Destruction, will now proceed to claim your vile powers for my own use! Your power level cannot come anywhere near that which my Four Dark Ones bear, for their true form is beyond comprehending! Quake before the wrath which you have brought upon yourself, by infesting this ridiculous excuse of a human! Enter this mighty vessel, that pure darkness may be channeled forth– "

Koizumi tuned out somewhere around that point; for all his bravado, volume, and general theatrics, Tanaka wasn't about to get any sort of demon out of Souda any time soon. Nor was he about to undo the brainwashing that presumably was keeping the guy's thoughts hidden from her – that was her job, not his.

Possessed, indeed, the photographer thought, wondering if Tanaka actually believed that –and then realizing with a jolt that she didn't know. She should have known, should have picked up on the answer as soon as Tanaka had glared around the room, as soon as he'd brushed against her on his way to Souda, but she hadn't heard a was a small chance that he was one of those resistant ones the book had mentioned, but – no, they were probably both brainwashed, putting on an ironic little show for the mastermind. The idea made her sick to the stomach; just how far was the puppetmaster going to go with this? Were they watching the whole thing, laughing to themselves?

The photographer turned away in disgust – just in time to catch Mioda and Tsumiki in the doorway. The nurse was doing the usual cringing routine, her mind well and truly in the grip of someone else, though her current position only seemed to be held by the guitarist standing behind her. However, at least she looked like regular Tsumiki, which was more than could be said for Mioda – the guitarist's head was tilted to the side in the fashion of a somewhat confused dog, but a smirk pulled at her lip, and her shoulders shook with silent laughter. It was only for a moment –the girl caught Koizumi's eye almost immediately and looked away, making her way into the restaurant – but it was enough.

Koizumi watched her like a hawk from then on. Of everyone in the room, the guitarist must have been closest to the mastermind, to have that sort of reaction. Therefore, Mioda was in the most need of rescue – she might actually be able to tell the photographer who the mastermind was, or at least give her a clue. Heck, she might even be able to give Koizumi a clue now; Mioda was pretty strong–willed, surely she was fighting the brainwashing right now. Every one of her ridiculous statements could contain some sort of clue–

"Oooh, Byakuya–chan's got a real tower today!" Mioda commented, hopping over to where Togami had managed to gather onto his plate what Koizumi estimated to be half the table's worth of food. "Ibuki hopes it's not compensating for anything, 'mmmmn?"

And as Togami gagged and Souda decided to take a break from screaming at Tanaka and snicker his way instead, Koizumi decided to remind herself that Mioda's statements were earlier described as 'ridiculous' for a reason.