Only a short chapter this time, but at least I managed to get it out fairly quickly by my standards :P

"Gooood morning! It's 7 o'clock! Rise and shine!"

"Let's all strive to do our best today!"

I woke up to the sound of Monokuma's voice. Even though it was our last morning, he had still gone to the effort of making his own morning announcement... kind of unnecessary if you asked me, but it's not like I cared that much either way.

Well, I should make the most of my time while I still can. I willed myself out of bed and managed to get ready in relatively short order, making it to the cafe doors just in time to see Asuka taking her leave. She zealously returned my greeting with her own but didn't stay to chat, heading straight into the gardens.

Figuring she was already finished, I went inside and quickly found myself sitting down at a table across from Juzou. We talked a little bit, but I also couldn't help but overhear three of the girls at the table next to us —Kaede, Nichira, and Mio— discussing something amongst themselves with rather sullen looks on their faces.

"I checked, but it didn't happen on the guy's side… I guess we're pretty lucky it happened so late." Mio was saying, playing with the ribbon around her neck. Admittedly I was curious about what they were talking about, but I thought better of cutting in. From what I could gather… they were complaining about something that happened last night.

"This place clearly wasn't designed by an Ultimate Architect." Kaede replied, frowning. "It was so loud… honestly, who thought it was a good idea to have something that could have killed—"

Of course, just as I was about to hear new information, a loud crackling came out of the speakers. Monokuma was addressing us, but this announcement was strangely bad quality; even before anything had been said, the sound was scratchy and jumbled, reducing sections of it to unintelligible static.

"Attention, attention! —-—-—- has been discovered!"

"After a brief —-—-—-—-—-—-—-, we'll begin —-—-—-—!"

"Huh? What's up with the speakers?" Riley pondered, looking up in confusion. The audible parts of the announcement had been so disjointed it was impossible to guess what it had been about. The morning announcement hadn't been that long ago, and it had been perfectly fine… so what was this one about, and why was it so mangled?

All of a sudden, the morning was starting to lose its pleasantness. Something was very, very odd.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear." Monokuma suddenly appeared from under one of the tables, muttering anxiously to himself. There was something different about him today, too; his body language was agitated and restless, far from the relaxed attitude we'd seen from him so far. Maybe it was just because a toy couldn't express himself the way a human could, but there was something... off about it. His expressionless face was cold, a stark contrast to his antsy voice. "This is terrible, awful, not good at all!"

"Monokuma?" Ayano asked. She watched him guardedly, no doubt concerned by his odd behaviour. "Is something the matter?"

"Wrong? What isn't wrong?" He said cryptically. "In fact, it's so wrong, you had better take a look for yourselves. In the fountain… yes, there's something very wrong."

"Whaddaya mean, 'wrong'? Is it blocked or something?" Juzou queried, but Monokuma wasn't interested in explaining himself further - he dismissed the question with a wave and left.

Of course things would go wrong on the day we were getting out of here. Looking at everyone's faces, nobody really had a clue what was going on but it was clear that this wasn't anything good.

"It sounds more serious than that." Masanori replied, frowning. Taking command of the situation, he stood up and addressed the room in an authoritative voice. "Sounds to me like he wants us to go see for ourselves. We better go check it out."

Nobody objected, so we decided to leave the cafe as a group. I noticed not everyone was here so I hung back a little to check for stragglers, taking a headcount as people walked out the door; by my count, there were two guys and three girls missing. Even after I checked the kitchen and store room, however, I didn't manage to find anyone. It was actually a little surprising; not that I was expecting anyone to lag behind, but apart from Asuka none of the latecomers had turned up at all.

There was nothing else I could do at the cafe, so I quickly left and caught up with everyone hurrying towards the fountain clearing. I heard a few people murmuring to each other, but the definite air of worry put a damper on conversation; personally, I was too absorbed in my own thoughts to even think about talking.

"In the fountain… yes, there's something very wrong."

That's what Monokuma had told us. What could you possibly put into a fountain, and be so bad that we need to see it for ourselves? The question was so strange I couldn't even begin to hazard a guess. I could only head towards our destination, and try to stem the sense of anticipation and dread that was pressing against my chest. Of course, it wasn't far - before I knew it, we had arrived.

As we entered the clearing, the people at the front of the group suddenly stopped. I think someone ahead might have gasped; I could barely hear it over my heart pounding in my ears. Urgently, I wormed past the people blocking my vision… and the moment I was through, suspense gave way to pure shock as my brain registered what greeted me.

Monokuma was right… oh yes, there was plenty wrong. Now I had a full view of the fountain clearing, everything wrong with the picture in front of me was hitting me all at once. The escape machine was still sticking out in all its bizarre glory, of course, and there was the fountain; Asuka, Asahara, and Beatrice were standing close to the rim, but more importantly something had been mixed into its waters, dying the once pristine fluid an ugly pale red. But the worst thing of all was my classmate— no, friend— lying there next to the trio, motionless and slumped over the fountain's edge.

Dead body.

That's the first thought that popped into my head, and it made my stomach turn. The world spun as I felt adrenaline start to course through my veins. He wouldn't be able to breathe face down in the water, so why wasn't he moving? The fountain… he must have been bleeding, because that was his blood mixing with the fountain. It was as if the water had tried to wash away the fluids seeping out of his body, but had only succeeded in dirtying itself.

What's going on? Why is he…?

I wanted to turn away, but the image had already been thoroughly burned into my brain. I knew who was lying there. Those golden clothes glowing softly in the morning light… they were unmistakable, they could only belong to one person—

"Xin…! XIIIIIN!"

Well, it's taken a little while to get into the swing of things... good job if you're managed to stick with it so far, but normal days are now coming to an end. It's murder time!