["Open video: ?"]

["Opening video."]

...

"Alright... entry number two. This is Nicholas White, and, well, I'm still here."

Nicholas White is seen in the same place as his first entry, running a hand through his hair. He looks distressed.

"Uh. There's been a new development, at least. Monokuma showed us a countdown a few hours ago. He said some 'certain event' is about to happen, in twelve days."

White picks up the camera. Instead of having it face himself, he moves it so to record the television next to his desk. He switches through the channels, until a set of numbers appear on screen. 11:20:42:19.

"Yeah, see? It's even on TV. Eleven days, twenty hours, forty-two minutes, nineteen seconds and counting until this event. He said, uh, what was it..."

White moves the camera back around. He's standing, seemingly deciding not to sit at his desk.

"Oh, yeah. 'You don't know what's coming.' Pretty ominous if you ask me."

White sighs. He goes quiet for nine seconds. During the break, he takes a deep breath, shaking his head in dismay.

"I don't know. I don't even know what to expect. I was attacked last night, too. Some... seven foot tall figure, half black and half white, started choking me out. I shot it-yeah, we have guns now, I already reloaded-and it disappeared. So I don't..."

He trails off, sighing again.

"Everything feels so familiar. Like I've already done this before. This video, it feels like I already f****** recorded it. Just... deja vu every two seconds."

White is catching on, apparently.

"I don't get it. I know I have amnesia. That's obvious. But why would this feel familiar? I don't remember doing this game before, and even if I did, why would the exact same events happen?"

But not enough.

"Agh, shit. I need Kagome on this..."

White stays silent for approximately twelve seconds. He sits back down at his desk.

"I guess that's it. For now. So, um... alright, seeya."

The video ends thereafter.

Final thoughts: Nicholas White is a threat to Ultimate Despair. He always catches on to things quickly. It's not clear when, but White will eventually win his war against Despair.

["End video?"]

["Video ended."]

...

["Create file?"]

["Enter file name: _"}

["File created."]

I had another talk with Kagome Kazuki today. It went down exactly as expected. He comes to Brazil. I invite him into the hangar. I tell him everything. The cigarette in his mouth nearly drops from the shock, but he understands soon enough. We plot for what to do next.

Taichi Nakahara has hacked into Las Despair City's cameras. The countdown's already started. Twelve days, it seems. This game seems to be going Route 4. We already got into the airship, we're gonna be there in about twenty-four hours.

Hopefully we can get the students out of there before anything else happens. Kazuki is saying we should drop soldiers in, a first response team thing before calling in any big guns. Hopefully, this means a Route 16 will happen. But there's just so many other possibilities...

I'm just so tired of this. I don't want to do this anymore.

["Close file?"]

["File closed."]

"So. Twelve days, huh? Wonder what that's all about." William says to the others next to him. The Cheater sits in the hotel's lobby with a few other students, gulping down the contents of an energy drink he found somewhere.

"What did that thing say?" Daiki asks, referring to Monokuma. "'My rule over you will be no longer'?"

"It's a bit concerning." Ryoko says. "What happens then? Why will Monokuma be gone?"

"Maybe he's giving up!" Hikaru exclaims, "He finally realized that I can kick his ass no problem."

"If you're so confident you can get rid of Monokuma, why don't you do it already?" Daiki deadpans.

"...I'm tired right now." Hikaru pouts.

"Right..."

"Man, I don't feel safe anywhere now." William sighs. "Not after last night."

"That's right... you were attacked, yes?" Ryoko says, tilting her head.

"Yup. I'm not looking forward to whatever's happening in twelve days..." William frowns, before turning to Daiki. "Hey, Daiki. Was it you?"

"Was what me?" Daiki asks.

"Who attacked Nicholas and I last night."

"I have better things to do than dress up in a black and white morph suit and choke people..." Daiki facepalms.

"True. You seem the type to choke people without a morph suit. Have the last thing your victims see be your face." William jokes.

"Yeah, pretty much." Daiki shrugs.

They assumed Daiki was just going along with the joke, but Ryoko blinked in confusion upon hearing it. He's a Bounty Hunter, isn't he?

"Haha... indeed." Ryoko laughs nervously.

"You know, that was a dick move." Hikaru says, looking at William.

"Eh? What was?" William asks, confused.

"Running off on Nicholas." Hikaru crosses her arms. "You never leave your friends in danger."

William is quick to reply. "I know. I feel really guilty about it. I panicked."

"Well, don't do it again!" Hikaru glares.

"I won't! Wait- are you implying it might happen again?"

"You never know."

"You at least have a way to defend yourself?" Daiki asks William.

William hesitates. He nods. "I... visited the firing range, earlier."

"What'd you grab?" Daiki asks.

William reaches into his pocket. He grabs the item inside, pulling it out just enough so Daiki can see it, before putting it back.

"A Beretta, eh?" Daiki chuckles. "Over all the smaller ones... you aren't holding back."

"Ooh. The Beretta 92FS, which holds up to sixteen nine by nineteen parabellum rounds. Manufactured in Italy, it's-" Hikaru starts.

"How the hell do you know all that?" William cuts her off, blinking.

"Know what? Guns? I don't know what you're talking about." Hikaru retorts.

"What was your talent again?" Daiki asks.

"Ultimate Volleyball Player. Why? You got a problem with that or somethin'?" Hikaru replies.

"I don't see why a volleyball player would know so much about firearms... you aren't lyin' to us, are you?" Daiki asks, a slight knowing grin on his face.

"Wha..." Hikaru looks at Daiki with widened eyes. "Well, why the hell do you know anything about guns!? You clearly knew it was a Beretta!"

"Cuz I'm a Bounty Hunter, plain and simple. Look, your clothes don't always hide the scars, Hikaru... between that and gun knowledge, c'mon."

With that, William and Ryoko instinctively look toward Hikaru. She was wearing a jacket, but had athletic shorts on-which prompted them to notice the slight scars covering her legs.

"Alright, c'mon Daiki. Leave her alone, she's probably the most innocent soul out of all of us." William frowns.

"Agreed. If she is lying, which you have no proof of, I would assume she has her reasons." Ryoko concedes.

Daiki pauses for a moment. "Meh. That's all fine and well, but when Hikaru reveals her true identity and becomes the next killer, I get to say 'I told you so'."

With that, Daiki gets up out of his seat, walking off to the elevators.

Hikaru is seen typing away at her ElectroID, right after.

Beep beep

Daiki stands in a moving elevator when his ElectroID suddenly goes off. Raising a brow, he takes it out of his jeans' pocket.

A message has been received. [Read] / [Close]

Who the hell's messaging me? he thinks, as he hits the 'read' button.

It's from Hikaru.

Hikaru Momoko: "So. I guess you decided to turn your back on me, Daiki? I hope you know that you're going to regret that. Immensely."

Daiki stares at the message in confusion. But then that confusion turns into a grin. "I see. Got you now, Hikaru."

It started to rain again that evening. Only light showers for now, but the sound of thunder could be heard in the distance every so often. The wind began to pick up as well. Clouds began blocking out the sunlight.

The students had made plans to meet for dinner, again. An hour from now. Monokuma made his presence in the group chat clear, saying he'll cook once again. The pizza from yesterday tasted pretty damned good, so they had no objections. Nicholas exits the shower, quickly throwing some pants on as he notices a message from his ElectroID. Seymour asked to meet with him downstairs, apparently.

Huh. Okay...

Nicholas gets dressed in black slacks, with a white button-down and maroon red tie under the black rainjacket he wore last night. Getting all his things-Beretta and tranquilizer included-he makes his way downstairs.

Seymour's waiting in the lobby, ElectroID in hand. He wore the same bomber jacket, but now had blue jeans and a white t-shirt on. His chain necklace was still there, with his satchel bag still over his shoulder.

"Hey, Seymour. What's up?" Nicholas asks, approaching him.

Seymour gets off the wall he was leaning on. "Nick." he nods, "C'mon. We got time to check something out before dinner."

"Check what out?" Nicholas asks, following as Seymour began making his way to the elevators.

"We're going back to the mall," Seymour replies, "You're gonna see that convenience store for yourself."

"Oh. Right before dinner, though? I'd rather not risk being strangled before I eat..." Nicholas frowns.

"Presumably, there's only a figure in the hospital," Seymour says as he calls for an elevator, "You might get a head attack, but you can deal."

Nicholas sighs. "Okay. How come you want me to see it, though?" he asks.

"Well. Now that the power's back on, I can try to find something that's been nagging at me for a while," Seymour replies, "and there's no way in hell I'm going alone."

"So I'm backup, then."

"Meh. Pretty much."

A few minutes after, the two are in the parking lot. Nicholas pilots their same sports car, heading out of the parking lot and into the next district.

"I really don't like this part." Nicholas murmurs. "Monsters, whispers..."

"Yeah. Blood and the Future Foundation, too." Seymour adds.

"If this is the second district, what the hell is the third going to be like?" Nicholas asks.

"Hopefully we're out of here before we get to find out." Seymour says.

"Agreed." Nicholas nods.

It doesn't take too long before they make it to the mall. Just like how when Rina solved the riddle, the sign was alit with neon colors. With a deep breath, Seymour says "Let's go." and opens his door.

To Seymour's relief and confusion, the whispers had stopped. Nothing. This time around, the whole mall was illuminated as well. Things seemed okay.

Nicholas found himself to not be extremely happy being here. Why did he let Seymour drag him here? He's reminded of Seymour pulling him aside and interrogating him. He doesn't even trust me... tch, I should just turn around and go home.

The two enter the convenience store. Though the whispers were gone, the blood wasn't. It stained the corner between the magazines and the shelves, just like before.

"I don't get it, Seymour." Nicholas says. "What are we gonna find here that you already haven't? I'm sure I've seen everything when you showed me that video."

Seymour raises a brow. "I figured you'd want to take a look. You're the cop, you should want to get info as much as me, if not more?"

"I'm not even a cop." Nicholas retorts. "The badge doesn't automatically mean cop, you know? Jesus, everyone thinks that..."

It's kind of getting on my nerves...

For reasons unknown to Nicholas, he just felt anger rising up inside him.

"...Well." Seymour blinks. He certainly caught the sudden hostility, and was rather surprised by it. "Look up there, Nick. CCTV camera. Maybe that thing recorded what happened here."

"Ah, of course. Gotta get down to the nitty-gritty, don't you Seymour?" Nicholas rolls his eyes. "Like all the other reporters. Can't mind their own fuckin' business."

"Nick. The hell's up with you all of a sudden?" Seymour asks, bluntly. "You're being a bit of a dick, you know?"

"Deal with it." Nicholas glares.

"You weren't like this earlier. Something happen?" Seymour asks.

"No, nothing happened, Seymour..." Nicholas sighs, shaking his head. "Forgive me. It's nothing really, just my literal job is to ensure people's safety and I just let two kids die right before my eyes."

Seymour found this odd. Why would he be feeling guilty about that all of a sudden?

"Not to mention now you're dragging me along so in case the whispers come back you got me to defend you." Nicholas continues. "Just give me some more responsibilities, why don't you?"

"I can defend myself just fine, Nick." Seymour replies, crossing his arms. "If you're gonna be crying the whole time, you can get the hell out of my sight."

"Hey, fuck you." Nicholas suddenly says, advancing toward Seymour. "I'm the one who saved all those hostages at Haneda Airport last month. I led that whole operation. I'm the youngest member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and Special Unit-do you even know what is? You should be treating me with a bit more respect!"

"Fuck your respect!" Seymour shouts. "You wanna talk respect? You wanna talk accomplishments? Come talk to me when you open a closet and find seventeen decapitated heads in there. Including one of the girl you were supposed to take out to lunch. Talk to me when you're in the attic of a serial killer's house and you hear the keys in the door. Talk to me when you have to hide for an hour and a half until the police come!"

"Without people like me, you never would've gotten out of that goddamn attic!"

"I'm sure the force would've been just fine without you!"

The two bicker back and forth. As time went on, the argument only escalated. Spit started flying between mouths. Before long, Nicholas was practically seeing red. And so was Seymour.

The sudden anger was unnatural, but they welcomed it.

Nicholas suddenly shoves Seymour. "You know what? I shouldn't even be here. You don't trust me. You interrogated me. And you were way too eager to tell Rina and Hoshiko about what I said in my video. How do I know you haven't said anything to everyone else? How do I know you haven't gotten everyone against me?"

"I had reason to believe you were suspicious, Nicholas!" Seymour shoots back, "You can ask them yourself, I didn't say a damn word to anyone else. And hold on, do you not trust Rina or Hoshiko?"

Nicholas pauses for a moment. "I do. Which is wrong. I shouldn't trust any of you, I shouldn't..."

Nicholas backs away for a moment. Seymour had his back against one of the shelves, glaring into Nicholas' eyes. Nicholas couldn't hold back this anger.

He'd been taught not to act on impulse, but he's throwing that idea out of the window now.

I can't save these kids.

You know what? They're all just going to die anyhow.

So screw this.

Nicholas paces past Seymour and to the beverages in the back. He opens the refridgerator door, taking out a glass bottle. He now stands at one end of the aisle, with Seymour at the other. The two stared each other down.

Nicholas puts up a finger, and beckons for Seymour to come.

That's all Seymour needed to break out into a sprint.

He dashed toward Nicholas at high speeds, and before he could react, pummeled him into the fridge. The impact alone shattered the glass. Nicholas grunted in pain-Seymour was stronger than he looked-before sending a knee into Seymour's stomach-following up by hitting him over the head with his glass bottle.

Seymour snarls, rearing back as he holds his head. The bottle had broke apart on contact. Nicholas' blunt object now became a sharp one, as the glass left on the bottle were now sharp spikes. A now deadly weapon. Just as Nicholas wants.

Nicholas thrusts forward with his bottle. Seymour dodged, but Nicholas kept advancing. He swung wildly, but Seymour's reflexes were enough to dodge them-most of them. He would find a few nicks and cuts in his arms. Seymour backed away enough that the two were no longer in the aisle.

"Going for the kill, huh Nick?" Seymour asks. "Even after all those words you said last night?"

"I thought there was a chance for us, for all of us!" Nicholas shouts in response, tossing the bottle down to the ground. It breaks, adding to the pile of glass shards. "I now realize, there's not. There's no way we're all getting out of this!"

"You don't know that! If you would just settle down, we could wait for help!" Seymour retorts.

"It's been four days already! If they were coming, they'd be here by now! Four days, Seymour! Ninety-six hours and two victims!" Nicholas growls.

"Four days is nothing! For all we know, help could be on the way!" Seymour yells.

"I'm done waiting. I'm not gonna be here by tomorrow morning. I'm killing you, and I'm getting out of here!"

Next thing they know, a Beretta pistol is in Nicholas' hands.

Seymour suddenly has a look of realization. His eyes widen, as he puts his hands out in front of him. "...Woah, hold on, Nick. Hold on a minute there."

Nicholas pulls back the slide. "I told you. I'm not waiting anymore."

"Nick, I think Monokuma's playing with us again." Seymour replies, "Holy shit. Yeah, he is. Nick, I'm sorry, that wasn't me-I wasn't in control, you aren't either. Monokuma's somehow manipulating us right now."

"I'll have to thank him at the trial, then." Nicholas says, looking down to the gun as he disengages the safety with a click.

"Nick!" Seymour raises his voice. "I'm sorry for attacking you. I wasn't in control. But I am now, and you gotta listen to me. This is what Monokuma wants. He's... I don't know how he's doing it, but he's messing with our emotions, trying to get us to kill each other."

Nicholas extends his arm out. While his left is at his side, his right is straight in front of him with a gun in his hand, Seymour in its sights. "I didn't want it to come to this, Seymour. I'm sorry."

"Nick... we need to find the truth here. That's what we're here for. That's our job. I'm the reporter and you're the police." Seymour says, slowly taking a step toward Nicholas. "Don't make this mistake. If we die, the truth could be lost forever and it's game over. We need to be here for the others."

"Screw them," Nicholas says, shaking his head, "And screw you! I'm done, goddammit!"

With that, Nicholas' finger finds its place on the trigger.

I'm sorry.

Blam!

...

...

A gunshot was heard.

Though, it didn't come from Nicholas' gun.

He didn't pull the trigger. Seymour was still on his feet, in front of him.

Nicholas was practically frozen in time. What? I didn't shoot... where did that come from? Wait, why the hell was I even going to shoot?

Seymour took this opportunity to disarm Nicholas. He quickly dashes forward, grabbing the gun right out of his hand. "Nicholas, you need to stop. That wasn't you. That was someone else. Somebody else just tried killing."

Blam!

A second gunshot brings Nicholas backs to reality. His anger had faded away, and he was back to himself.

"Hooooly shit. What the hell just happened!?" he asks, eyes widening. Mostly in disgust at what he was about to do.

"Nick. Are you back?" Seymour asks.

"I... yeah. I'm sorry. I-okay, no time, we gotta get the hell out of here. That was what, two shots fired?" Nicholas asks, starting to make his way out of the store.

"Yeah. Come on, we gotta run, sounded like it came from downtown." Seymour says, following.

And so, they began moving.

Finally back to reality, Nicholas and Seymour were running on nothing but pure adrenaline. Sure, confusion too, but they can work that out later. To their understanding, Monokuma managed to get rage out of the duo, which caused them to want to kill. According to the two shots fired, they weren't the only ones.

The rain from earlier had turned into a storm. It was pouring like mad, worse than they've seen before. Lightning flashes and thunder roars. Their clothes stuck to them as soon as they made it out of the mall, running to the car. Nicholas fumbles with the keys, hands shaking as he hits the 'unlock' button on the fob. Seymour takes shotgun and Nicholas twists the key in the ignition, as the engine roared to life.

Nicholas put the car into gear, pressing his foot down on the gas. Just as the car made it out of the parking lot, that familiar ringing of a bell was heard throughout the city.

Ding, dong, ding, dong.

A screen in the car's console came to life with the image of Monokuma.

"Attention all students! A body has been discovered! Class trial will begin in a few hours, so please use this time wisely."

"Oh, no fucking way!" Nicholas shouts. "A body!?"

"Aw, shit." Seymour curses. "This is it. This is the second motive."

Nicholas floors it. The spedometer's needle went way up as they speed past the bridge, entering Despair Square. That countdown was still on screen.

"Alright, alright, alright." Nicholas takes a deep breath. "Where did the gunshots come from?"

"Just keep going straight. Near the hotel, probably." Seymour replies.

It was a few minutes between the square and the hotel. The car's speed and the rain did not mix, as they hit a puddle and lost control for a split second-leading them to hit the curb, but no real damage was done. Brushing the impact aside, they kept moving.

"Woah woah woah, Nick, slow down!" Seymour suddenly says. Nicholas hits dead brakes.

"What, what?" Nicholas asks.

"Rina!" he raises his voice. Seymour gets out of the car and starts running on foot, to which Nicholas follows.

In the middle of a random intersection were two people. Rina was seen on top of another student-pounding in the face of one Nori Pazuru.

"Rina, calm down!" Seymour says, running over and grabbing Rina. He picked her up off Nori, restraining her.

"LET ME GO!" Rina suddenly shrieks, fighting back. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Nori gets up, backing away as he wipes blood away from his mouth. "She's gone bonkers, guys!"

"Nicholas, talk to her!" Seymour says, still holding her back.

"Rina, listen to me!" Nicholas goes over in front of Rina. "This isn't you! Monokuma's playing with our emotions, I don't know how, but he's getting us to act like this. He's controlling you!"

"No one's controlling me!" Rina yells back. "I just can't fucking take it anymore! The guilt, just-"

"Guilt? Guilt of what?" Nicholas asks, "We can talk about it, you don't need to do this."

"You know who's still part of my family? Me. And my mom. My brother's dead and so is my dad! I'm the reason he's dead!" Rina answers.

"What do you mean, you're the reason?"

"Avalanche. Killed by an avalanche. The danger report was a moderate, but I just wanted to ski with him, so I told him it was lower... we went, and, and he just..." Rina trails off, breaking down into sobs. She stops fighting back.

"Rina, I'm sorry." Seymour says. "Monokuma's getting out our inner demons. Our secrets, our guilts. You can't let him do this to you."

Rina stays silent.

"...Man, am I glad I'm immune to this." Nori blinks.

"I'm sorry," Rina apologizes. She sniffles, shaking her head. "I'm- I'm okay now."

"Good, good." Seymour lets go of her. "Now, we've got a problem. Did you hear the gunshots?"

"I did," Rina nods, "That way."

She points down the road. The hotel can be seen in the distance. The three get into the car, getting back into the swing of things.

They found a group of people at an intersection a few blocks down, where the gunshots appeared to come from. As they were about to park, their attention is taken to the screen in the console.

Ding, dong, ding, dong.

"Attention all students! A body has been discovered! Class Trial will begin in a few hours, so please use this time wisely."

"Oh my god." Rina says, "Wasn't there an announcement already?"

"That means there's been a second murder," Nicholas says, worriedly.

The car is parked and they make it over to the group. There's three students looking down on the sidewalk, with nothing but pure horror present in their faces.

Nicholas, Seymour, and Rina shuffle through them, reluctantly getting a look at what had their attention.

...

[WARNING: BLOOD/GORE.]

One of the students lay on the road. At first, it couldn't be told who it was.

Because their face was gone.

Instead of a face, there was nothing but a mush of blood and gore. Whatever happened here, the skull was penetrated, leaving for cranial matter and bits of bone to be spread about on the pavement. Blood was splattered all around, and was still pooling up.

Moving down on the body, there was a gaping hole in the chest. It didn't go all the way through, but enough to be able to see the insides.

According to the clothing, they assumed it could only be one person.

This was the end of her story.

Ryoko Tsukatani, the Ultimate Poetess, is dead.

Rina shrieked in terror. Seymour put his hand over his mouth, backing away. Nicholas could only stare.

Is that... really Ryoko?

Nicholas heard the sounds of vomiting from nearby. He had to fight back his own vomit. Ryoko's face... there was nothing to it. Mashed into bits. Not to mention the hole in her chest. Who could do something so vile? Who lacked the humanity to resist this kind of thing?

They looked around, and the coast seemed to be clear. No other bodies, so where's the other one?

As they looked around...

Ding, dong, ding, dong.

"Attention all students! A body has been discovered! Class Trial will begin in a few hours, so please use this time wisely."

"A third- a third body!?" Tennoyama screamed. "What the fuck!?"

"Are you guys okay?" Nicholas quickly asks.

"Yes, we're not angry anymore! But three! N-Nick, I, what the hell do we do!?"

"God." Daiki mutters. "This is insane."

"You... know what this means, don't you?" Annie says, scared. "If this is all the work of one killer, they broke the rules."

"But what's the punishment for breaking the rules?" Seymour murmurs. "If someone breaks the rules, will Monokuma tell us?"

"I don't... I don't know..." Annie replies.

The six all look at one another.

It was going to be a long night.

[A/N: In case this doesn't make sense, here's the gist of what's going on: Monokuma has found a way to use the students' inner demons against them. By manipulating this and their emotions, they lose control and do something they don't want to do.

Anyways! Yeah. I hope you guys like how this case is gonna play out. This has been really interesting. Although, poor Ryoko. Rest in pieces. God, that description was hard to write. Let me know what you thought.

PSISomething [Chapter 11]: Pizza is great, isn't it? Zephyrine is playing a rather interesting role, I recommend you pay attention to her. And yeah, I realized William wasn't getting a lot of spotlight, figured he finally deserved some. As for the war thing: I'm gonna let you know now, this story won't be following the usual format of "5 murders and shit gets real around halfway or later". More like "_ murders and shit gets real right from the beginning".

PSISomething [Chapter 10]: Don't worry about it. As for that creepy scene-awesome. I always figured I'm not the best at writing horror, but it looks like that went down well. Thanks for the reviews.

CaptainQuackin: No need to apologize. Hikaru's like the best honestly. So much fun to write.

ApexUtopia: Yeah, that might be where I got the idea from... shh. Do check those fics out.

Thanks for reading!]