Ding-dong, ding-dong!

"Good morning, you bastards! Riiise and shine! Get your asses up, we've got a beautiful day ahead of us!"

With a soft click, the monitor turned off and Kazuma groaned. He felt that Monokuma was so very wrong. Knowing that at the end of the day, it'd be time for their families and friends to die, it was rather hard to call today beautiful. However, he found himself proven wrong when he glanced outside.

Despite everything he felt, it was rather nice out that day. The sun was shining and the sky was a vivid blue. Maybe, just maybe, things wouldn't go to hell today? He knew that was asking for a lot, but everyone really did need a day off from worry. He winced as he thought of all the ways that damn bear could finish off his siblings. Those thoughts made him feel nauseated.

Standing up, he felt his body ache. It seemed he was also physically unprepared for the day ahead of him. He grabbed the laptop before he did anything else. Forcing himself to move, he opened his apartment door and stepped out into the hallway. If anyone else was up, they'd already got a move on. All was quiet in the apartment complex. The groggy, aching Kazuma really needed a pick-me-up.

Shuffling down the hall, he journeyed for the cafe. He felt horrible, and would not be surprised if he ended up being the first death. Making his way to the elevator, he pressed the button for floor one. Kazuma inwardly cursed at the fact that he couldn't make time go faster.

Finally he got to the cafe and prepared his coffee, drinking it with a sigh of relief. He started to feel much better. He wasn't sure if he was 'fight through the day' better, but he certainly had enough energy now to at least trudge his way through it. He decided that to start off his day, he should write. Kazuma hadn't been expecting to get so caught up in writing though, his new stories distracting him until he saw that it was 1:15 PM.

Shaking his head, he came out of writer mode, shutting the laptop as he stood up to leave. Walking out of the cafe, he headed towards the balcony for some fresh air. That was when he noticed the balcony was already occupied. The person standing there enjoying the cool breeze was Mamoru Arakawa.

Kazuma shrugged. He had plenty of free time today, why not spend some time talking to a friend? He made his way towards the large balcony, leaning against the railing, enjoying the feel of the cool wind on his face. Mamoru took notice that someone had joined him.

"Who is it?"

"Kazuma."

"Oh. Good afternoon, Kazuma."

"You too."

Mamoru nodded a thank you. With one swift movement of his cane, Mamoru had located a seat and sat down. Kazuma took a seat himself, glancing over at his friend. He couldn't help but be a little curious. He was sure he wasn't the only one who was curious about this either.

"Hey, Mamoru?"

"Yes?"

"I don't want to come off as rude, but I'd just like to ask-"

"If I was born blind or not?"

Kazuma was starting to get a little paranoid, it seemed that a lot of people knew what his questions were before he knew himself. "Yeah, that's what I wanted to know."

"No. I had my vision when I was born."

"How did you lose it?"

"It was when I was rather young. At the age of five, I was in a car accident. I could hear the crunching of metal impacting with things. I could hear the fire raging. I had a sharp pain in my head, and I had no idea what was going on. It wasn't until later that they told me debris had hit and blinded me."

"That sounds really bad," Kazuma winced.

"It must've been if I ended up like this," Mamoru smiled softly. Kazuma could appreciate the mathematician's attempt at dry humor, though he didn't find it funny in the least bit.

"It's nice out today. The wind is warm, the sun is out." Kazuma noted to no one in particular, hearing a content sigh of approval from his friend. It really was nice out, he assumed that Mamoru was on the balcony to get some fresh air.

"Yeah, I agree. It's a day better suited to spend outside than cooped up here in the apartments. I think that I'll head out, if you don't mind. You're free to tag along if you wish."

"Mm, I'll catch up with you later. I'd like to check up on a few others first."

"That's fine with me. I have no real destination, so check the map if you need to find me."

With that, Mamoru headed out, disappearing around the corner. Staying on the balcony a while longer, he saw the mathematician leaving the building. After a few minutes, Misaki came bounding into view. Kazuma decided that he'd spend maybe an hour of his free time talking to her. He checked the time on a wall clock. It was nearly two.

He walked out to the elevator, but it opened before he could push the button. Walking out of it was the daredevil herself. She gave him a grin then brushed past him into the cafe. Kazuma sighed, then turned to follow her in.

"How's it going, Minami?"

"A little boring, actually. Figured I'd hang out with some friends."

Misaki nodded, and they began conversing after a moment. They talked for quite a while, in fact it lasted until around two-thirty. Afterwards, their topics began to dwindle and he began to think on any other things he could talk about.

"Hey, Misaki?"

"Yeah?"

"How'd you get your talent?"

"Well, my parents are psychologists. I really wanted to follow in their footsteps, I was making it by at the top of my class. I was completely devoted to being a great psychologist like them. But then I started getting bullied because of how good I was. I think they may have been jealous of my position or something. Anyway, the bullying got so bad that I snapped and did something really reckless and dangerous. When I did that though, the bullying stopped and everyone was impressed. Hell, I even found it fun. After that, I started doing more and more dangerous things and got bigger and bigger as more people were recognizing how good of a daredevil I was. Then Hope's Peak noticed me and here we are."

Kazuma nodded. He found it hard to believe that such a fun girl like her had been bullied, but he knew that anyone could secretly be a victim. Brushing the thought aside, he looked back up at her. Misaki looked like she was making a huge decision, a look of total focus on her face. He was a little curious.

"You look a little lost in your thoughts there."

"Well, I've got something that I kinda want to tell you." She said. Kazuma looked her in the eyes, well really just eye seeing as she always had her hair covering her left eye, definitely a lot more curious now.

"What is it?"

"Swear you'll tell absolutely no one?"

"I swear."

"Well, you see, a while ago I had an accident."

Kazuma blinked, unsure of where this was going. He thought he had a vague idea, though. "An accident?"

Misaki brushed her hair out of her face and Kazuma could finally see her left eye. Well, not really, seeing as there was still an eyepatch covering it. "Yeah, an accident. My left eye was slashed out in that accident. I've had to wear this eyepatch because I don't want others to get all disgusted. Of course, people seeing the eyepatch isn't too great either, so I just wear my hair over it."

Kazuma was a little stunned. Mamoru was blind, and now he finds out that Misaki only has one eye? He definitely had an easy life compared to his friends. They all had bad things happen to them, whereas the first bad thing to happen to him was being stolen away to this city with everyone else.

"That's horrible!"

"Yeah, but it's not like I can do anything about it. Just gotta deal with it, y'know?"

Kazuma nodded. Wasn't like she could do much else. Suddenly, the daredevil perked up a whole lot more. He wondered what she had suddenly thought of.

"Today seems a little gloomy because it's the last day for the motive, but I've got something that can increase the happiness!"

"Hm? What is it?"

"I figured out a new stunt I could do earlier. I found a bike and a ramp in the vendor stalls, so I dragged 'em over to Serenity Park."

"Oh, so that's what you were doing."

"Yeah! Would you like to be the first person to see it?"

"Sure, why not? I have no reason to say no."

"Well, let's go then!"

Before he could say anything else, Misaki was up out of her seat and racing towards the elevators. Kazuma stood up, following behind her. She yelled out a 'Hurry up!' but he saw no reason why they had to hurry. It wasn't even three yet, they had plenty of time left in the day.

Getting into the elevator, he saw just how much energy the daredevil had now. She couldn't stand still for more than five seconds at a time, she was positively bursting with energy now that she could show off a new trick.

The moment those elevator doors were open, she was gone. She raced through the lobby quickly, leaving Kazuma in the dust. She shouted behind her again, but was already far enough that he couldn't make out what she said. He started up into a run, hoping to catch up to her but knowing he wouldn't.

He began his run to the park, far behind Misaki when suddenly he ran directly into Sumiko. Letting out a yelp of surprise, he landed flat on his ass, staring up at the amused thief. He grumbled under his breath, really wishing she'd announce her presence more instead of constantly sneaking around. She held out her hand and helped him to his feet.

"Y'alright there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"What are ya doing?"

"Well, Misaki said that she had found some stuff she could use to do a much better stunt. I was being nice and agreed to watch it."

When he looked up, he noticed that Sumiko had an odd look on her face. She was looking off into the park, just kind of staring awkwardly.

"What's she doing?"

"Huh?" Kazuma turned to see what exactly Sumiko had been looking at in the park. As his gaze locked on a frozen Misaki, the daredevil let out a shriek calling for them. A horrible feeling of dread was present in the pit of his stomach. They needed to get there and fast.

Sumiko broke into a run, and Kazuma followed suit. The two ran as fast as they could towards Serenity Park. The thief was a lot faster than him however, and she pulled ahead. She made it to Misaki first, and she froze as well. The feeling in the pit of his stomach only got even worse and then he could see why.

He remembered back to their first day in the city. He remembered meeting everyone, talking to them. He remembered getting to know each individual person, seeing their smiling and happy faces. All of those happy moments they had all shared were completely marred by the sight he saw before him. The sight was something he had never wanted to see. The sight was something he had never hoped he'd have to see.

Lying on the ground before Kazuma, Misaki and Sumiko was the bloody, broken body of the Super High School Level Mathematician, Mamoru Arakawa.

(A/N:) Dun dun dun~! Our first victim is poor, sweet Mamoru. Who to kill first was probably one of the hardest decisions, but someone had to go first. Thank you so much to SakuraMoriChan for submitting him, I had fun writing for him and I hope you enjoyed how I portrayed him. Rest in peace, Arakawa-kun! Next chapter is the investigation~