hirowriter - Will they? Who knows :o. I will say I do have one love triangle planned at this point, but I wouldn't expect much in terms of outright shipping of characters.

CaptainPancakes - Welcome back! I forgot to get back to you about your suggestion about the purgatory, so here it is: it got me thinking... and I'm still thinking, lol. You'll have an answer to whether it fits into the canon or not by the end of the story though. Probably :P.

There's only one FTE here, but there will be one next chapter too. Daisuki and Tomoe both got 2 votes, but since Tomoe already has a FTE I'll go with Daisuki.

"Good morning, you bastards! It's 7 am in the morning! Time to wake up!"

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

Opening his eyes and getting out of bed, Kuroda found himself looking forward to the event that had been organised the day before. He was not really one for swimming, but the thought of being able to just mess around with his classmates... it sounded like fun, anyway.

He was in the middle of showering, however, when he realised that they didn't have any swimsuits. After he got out of the shower he searched through his room to make absolutely sure there weren't any swimsuits hidden away, but he found nothing.

After spending a minute wondering what he should do, he eventually decided on leaving the logistics up to Aurora. She had gone swimming after all, he reasoned, so she must have gotten a swimsuit from somewhere...

Shrugging, he left his room and headed off to the cafeteria. He had not gotten far, however, before he ran into Tomoe, who was walking in the opposite direction.

"Tomoe?" He called out, catching her attention. "You're going to Aurora's pool thing, right? It's over this way..."

"Oh, of course I'm going! Swimming is great fun!" She replied cheerfully. "But do you know what else is fun, Kuroda? Explosions!"

He could already tell he wouldn't like where this was heading. "Alright... and what do those two things have to do with each other?"

"Well, I thought... Why not put them together?" Tomoe explained. "It's simple arithmetic. Put two fun things together, and you get twice the excitement!"

He rolled his eyes, silently hoping she was joking. "You're getting explosives. Please tell me you're not serious."

"I never joke around when it comes to explosives, Kuroda." She said, wagging her finger at him. "Besides, I only need teensy little bombs, and we'll get some big waves! It'll be a riot!"

"Yeah... The wrong kind of riot." He deadpanned. "Somehow I doubt Monokuma will appreciate you setting off explosive charges in the pool."

"Aw, don't be like that!" Tomoe waved off his concerns with a grin. "It's not like I'm using my own ones... I'll just use any I find in the storage room. Come help me look!"

"Do you honestly believe Monokuma left bombs lying around?"

"Hey, Akemi found a motorcycle in there. You never know."

"Touché." Conceding defeat, he followed her over to the storage room.

"Nothing. I'm not sure what you were expecting, though..." Kuroda concluded, sounding more relieved that he probably should have.

"Hmm... That bear is more underprepared than I thought..." After one last survey of all the overturned storage crates, Tomoe caught sight of the time. "O-Oh no! We're late, Kuroda!"

"That's what I've been telling you for the past five minutes!"

"Yeah, well... Whatever! Let's hurry!" Grabbing Kuroda by the arm, she started to briskly walk out of the room.

As they quickly made their way through the halls of the academy, Kuroda caught sight of the cafeteria doors. "I'm... I'm not going to have time for breakfast, am I?" He ventured, casting the room a lingering glance as they passed it by.

"Nope!" The engineer sighed in resignation.

Eventually, they arrived at the pool entrance. With a wave Tomoe disappeared into the girl's changing room, and Kuroda soon entered the male one.

As expected, it was deserted, and sitting folded neatly on a seat was what Kuroda presumed was his designated swimwear. Quickly changing into it, he opened the door connecting to the pool...

... Just in time to get sprayed by water from Shunari dive-bombing into the pool.

"Hey, sorry man!" Brushing his dripping hair out of his eyes, the runner swam to the edge of the pool and rested his elbows on it. "How come you're so late, anyway?"

"Blame Tomoe. She dragged me into looking for stuff." He replied.

With a short laugh, Shunari pulled himself out of the water and stood upright. "Well, you're here now. Come try the diving board!"

Obediently following Shunari, Kuroda took in the room around him, dimly noticing that considering there were only 14 of them, they were making an impressive amount of noise.

His attention to was brought up ahead to the diving platform when he heard Rei call something out. Daisuki, standing on the end of the board, was examining the water below him when Aurora suddenly charged, tackling the tall man from behind into the water with a huge splash.

The equestrian moved to the edge of the pool from her spot near to the wall of the room and dropped to her hands and knees, looking into the water with slight concern between her giggles.

Kuroda couldn't help but crack a smile as he watched the two of them resurface. Daisuki shouted something indignantly and began pulling himself straight back onto the diving board with one arm, his other arm keeping a strong hold on the hysterically laughing quarterback.

He looked over at the lifeguard stand where Izanagi was perched, expecting the warden to scold them for such a blatant disregard for pool safety. Suprisingly, however, he did not seem to notice, as he was in the midst of a loud, animated discussion with Miharu.

Judging by the sidelong glances she occasionally sent towards the students currently hanging off the diving board (Daisuki had clambered back on and was in the process of dragging Aurora onto the board with him), he guessed the trivia champion had been put up to the task of distracting him - something she seemed to be pulling off impressively well.

Close by Saito and Takao sat next to each other on the pool's rim, also engaged in a fairly lively conversation. Periodically, one of them would kick water into the air with progressively more force. From what he could see they seemed to be in a competition with each other, but whether it was going by the water's height reached or distance travelled, Kuroda couldn't tell.

Turning to cast a look at the other side of the pool he noticed Tomoe had already settled in, joining Akemi, Ichigo and Hisoka in their mission to create a giant floating structure out of the massive piles of pool equipment Monokuma had provided.

Watching the pile teeter precariously after Akemi accidentally bumped into it a little too hard, he could tell that while the base of the structure was well constructed, the concept of structural integrity had clearly gone out of the window at some point, judging from not only the way it rocked dangerously, but also by the way they were currently randomly throwing the pool floats wherever they would stay on.

After a short search he located the final student - Erika - who was off by herself in a corner, sitting elegantly in a chair and reading a book while holding what appeared to be a martini glass (although he somehow doubted the drink itself was alcoholic).

"My turn! In you go!" With a devious grin Daisuki flung Aurora into the pool, the girl still laughing much too hard to formluate a response, much less resist. Suddenly turning on Rei, he lunged towards her before she could escape, grabbing her wrist and sending her tumbling into the water.

Shunari shook his head disapprovingly. "Even throwing poor Rei in? You're having too much fun with this, Dai- Gyaaah!" Without giving him a chance to finish he was swiftly picked up by the graffiti artist and also deposited into the water.

"How about you, eh? Wanna take a swim?" With no one standing between the two of them, Daisuki advanced on Kuroda.

"Yeah, about that... I think I can get into the pool without any assistance-" He said, backing away slowly.

"I don't wanna hear it! Get in there!" Ignoring his protests Daisuki darted forwards faster than he could react, grabbing him around the waist and effortlessly tossing him into the pool with the others.

"Damn it, Daisuki! What'd I do!?" He yelled indignantly, wiping the water out of his eyes.

"Try not coming late next time, so I don't have an excuse!" The man shouted back, laughing loudly. "Shit, who knew this was so much fun? Now I gotta go throw in Tomoe as well for being late."

"Oh, no! He's on a power trip!" Aurora yelled, making a beeline for the edge of the pool as Daisuki walked off. "Let's go, guys! We have to gang up on him to stop this tyranny!"

The next few hours continued in a similar manner, with even Izanagi joining in after some coaxing. Eventually, however, fatigue started to set in and the students agreed to stop for lunch.

Walking into the change rooms, Kuroda was so worn out by their activities that it took him a second to notice what had changed about the room.

What...? Upon realising it, he could only stare in confusion. Why is...?

From behind him, he could hear similar reactions from the guys behind him.

... Where are my clothes?

"What... What the fuck?" Despite his rude language, Daisuki sounded more bemused than irritated.

"The keys have been left behind..." Ichigo said thoughtfully. "Maybe Monokuma took them for cleaning?"

"Nope! Absolutely not!" Monokuma jumped out of one of the shower stalls without warning, sounding irritated at the prospect. "Who am I, your mother? I wouldn't be caught dead washing any clothes! No... this was the work of one of you bastards!"

"Shit, don't jump out like that!" Daisuki growled. "So someone decided to steal everyone's clothes..."

"You see everything, don't you?" Takao asked, addressing the toy bear. "Surely you could tell us the culprit behind this."

"Upupu... Stealing is not against the rules, as you might recall." Monokuma answered. "If no rules have been broken, there's nothing I can do about it!"

The doctor shrugged. "It was worth a try, I suppose."

"Ah, fuck it! I've got more clothes in my room, anyway." With a dismissive shrug Daisuki picked up his key and walked towards the exit, still dripping wet.

"W-Watch it! You'll get the floor all wet!" The bear protested.

"It's not against the rules, is it?" He received no response from Monokuma, so he headed out into the corridor.

"O-Oooh, that bastard...! Just shutting down your headmaster like that...!" Muttering angrily to himself, Monokuma disappeared into the shower stall he had come out of.

Staying behind with the others to dry off, Kuroda escaped to his room and put on some clothes. After getting dressed (and realising how hungry he actually was), he immediately went to go have lunch.

Once he was close to his destination, however, he was surprised to discover the unlikeliest pair of students possible walking together: Erika and Daisuki, who were also headed towards the cafeteria.

"... Hm. From what you've told me, I believe this was not a prank: there was a specific reason for doing so." Listening in for lack of something better to do, he figured that Daisuki must have told her about the incident beforehand in the changing rooms. "For what purpose...? That remains to be seen."

"Some good did come out of it, however." She continued pleasantly. "Watching you parade around without a shirt on was certainly a positive start to the day."

"Uh... Thanks. I guess." The graffiti artist replied awkwardly, reaching forward to pull open the cafeteria door.

"Heh heh heh... You're welcome." With an elegant laugh she walked into the room, Daisuki close behind.

Considering their exchange back down in the trial room, he had not expected them to be so... civil. Shrugging, he made for the kitchen. He was admittedly a little curious as to what circumstances got them talking to each other, but food was the priority at the moment.

Once he had collected a sufficient amount of food, he returned to the dining area to find a place to sit. No doubt worn out from all the swimming, he noticed that a large portion of the students had opted to quietly sit at tables by themselves to eat.

He hesitated for a moment, wondering who to approach.

=== FREE TIME! ===

-Cafeteria-

-Daisuki-

DAISUKI: Ah, Kuroda...

DAISUKI: I suppose I should apologise for throwing you into the pool earlier...

DAISUKI: But fuck that! I have no regrets!

KURODA: You seem to be in a good mood.

DAISUKI: Of course! Why woun't I be?

KURODA: Well, I saw you talking to Erika...

DAISUKI: Yeah... So what?

KURODA: I mean, it's good you two are getting along...

KURODA: But I thought you didn't like her?

DAISUKI: ...

DAISUKI: Don't get me wrong, I think Erika could still use a good punch or two... She just caught me in a good mood, that's all.

DAISUKI: But enough about that. You wanna hear about something more interesting?

Spend time with Daisuki?

YES / NO

DAISUKI: Alright! We've got a big job coming up soon, so I'll tell you all about it!

DAISUKI: Unless you're a police informant... then I'd have to thrash you.

Over lunch, Daisuki told me all about the exploits he had planned...

KURODA: Being able to pull off such a large scale picture... Your guys must work really well together.

DAISUKI: Heh, it's no big deal... That's just how things work around here.

DAISUKI: Teamwork like ours is hardly out of place. Any family like ours is the same!

KURODA: You're a... family?

DAISUKI: Ha...! Don't look so surprised. I'm not talking about the normal kind of family.

DAISUKI: I mean, there's a few that still know their folks, but the rest of us come from a bad place, you know?

DAISUKI: Blood runs thicker than water... The Red Dragons are the only family I need.

KURODA: Blood brothers, huh...

KURODA: Did you actually, uh, mix blood with each other?

DAISUKI: That's a little archaic, man. No one actually does that any more...

KURODA: R-Right...

DAISUKI: But I guess it's true, in a way. You know why we're called the Red Dragons?

KURODA: No, I don't...

DAISUKI: "Blood red, blood brothers." That's the reason we came up with.

DAISUKI: We might not do it literally, but we all share the same bloody ink.

KURODA: ... Is that why your hair is that colour, too?

DAISUKI: Ahahaha! You can be funny when you want to, Kuroda!

KURODA: (But it was an honest question...!)

DAISUKI: No, that's not why... I was dyeing my hair this colour before I joined the Red Dragons.

DAISUKI: I've always liked the colour red... That's all there is to it.

KURODA: (With those words, Daisuki left...)

KURODA: (I think we've gotten closer.)

After a lazy afternoon mingling with his classmates, Kuroda decided to go to bed early, as he was still worn out from the pool trip.

Returning to his room and leisurely getting ready for bed, without any dreadful news from Monokuma hanging over his head to keep him awake he was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

"This is a school announcement. It is now 10 pm."

"Night time begins now."

"The cafeteria's doors will be locked shortly. You are forbidden to enter it."

"Well then, good night. I wish you all have pleasant dreams..."

Day Six: END

Students Alive: 14

For the record, Erika comes across Daisuke when he's walking back to his room, which is why they were talking. I wanted to put that into the story itself, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without making Kuroda look really nosy... lol.

In other news, the next chapter's FTE is Miharu, so voting is now closed!