Taro and I stepped outside. Condensation still hung in the morning air, and though the weather was rather frosty, it seemed to be a lot warmer than the previous day. Still, that warmth in the air was all but compensated for by the frigid tension in the air, with suspicion and uneasiness creeping all around us. As I stepped outside, the grass was covered in a layer of light dew, and the droplets of cold water clung to my ankles as I stepped through the grass. It was a source of some discomfort, but it was nothing comparable to the torment we were all enduring otherwise.

Iyona was seated by the lake, and as she stared out across the surface of the water, she skimmed a stone: or at least tried to. The resulting plonk that emanated from the water appeared to be a source of great dissatisfaction for her, as she visibly winced as the noise reached her ears. Kiyoshi was also seated on the bank a fair way to Iyona's right, sitting by some ducks who had taken residence upon the shoreline with a small bag of bread. It seemed that the ducks were definitely trying to avoid Iyona's stone tosses, and so they naturally had begun to gravitate toward Kiyoshi. Kenji had joined her, but he appeared to be standing for some as of yet unknown reason. It was likely to avoid sitting in the condensation on the grass though, so I didn't question it. Instead, I approached Iyona with Taro following me, and decided to talk with her.

"Hey Yona," I said.

"I'm a little busy," Iyona said.

"Plonking rocks?" Taro stated.

Iyona gave him a contemptuous glare, which seemed more cutesy than it was discouraging. Still, she tried once more to throw a rock, and failed. It was relatively clear at this point that whatever skimming she was trying to accomplish, she was failing... miserably so.

"I guess you want to be alone after yesterday and all," I said.

"Sort of," Iyona said. "Yes... maybe... I don't know. I really don't."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

"Talk about the fact that two of us are dead? No, not really. I'd rather not think about it." Iyona asked rhetorically, and then sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, but I don't think even a psychiatrist could help us with what we just went through. I just want to stare at the lake for a while, watch stones plonk, and avoid people for a bit. I've never really been a fan of them anyway."

"You're not a fan of... people?" I asked.

"The people I knew..." Iyona said, and then stopped. She stared up at Taro and I for a bit, before Taro interjected.

"You know, if you have something you want to say, we're here to help," Taro said. "We need to be able to work together here, regardless of what we think of others. That's what I think anyway, don't you?"

Iyona sighed. "I've... never trusted people," Iyona said. "I'm a foster child, and I don't have that loving family you see in the sitcoms who are able to love a child regardless of whether it's theirs or not. I've only been with my new foster family for six months, and my old foster family was far from great to be around. That's why I got into Genealogy in the first place, I was trying to root out answers so I could escape from them. I gave up on my real family though."

"Why?" I asked.

"Relax Hitomi," Taro whispered to me discreetly. "Sometimes, you've got to let people share what they want to in their own time."

Iyona didn't seem to notice Taro whispering too much, either that or she ignored it. Whatever the case, she continued.

"I couldn't find so much as a shred of anything," Iyona said. "After looking for so long, I gave up. Whoever they are, they're probably long dead and they're dead to me anyway: they couldn't help me."

She looked over at the bag she carried with her. Even having supposedly given up on her family, she still stared at the bag, as if whatever it was that it contained might give her the hope she needed to continue.

"I guess though, someone wants me to keep on searching," Iyona said. "I just wish I all knew what it meant."

She unrolled the family tree, and that was when I noticed the empty slot next to her own. The family tree was huge, and filled with blank spaces. However, one in particular stood out to me. Iyona probably knew as well. Connected to her unknown parents by a branch was not only Iyona, but also another blank square which was as of yet unlabelled: Iyona wasn't alone, Iyona had a sibling somewhere out in this wide world. However, whether or not that sibling was here or out there though, we would probably never know. It was anyone's guess as to who it was, and Iyona didn't have the means to research that here.

"You have a sibling?" I asked.

"If I do, I don't know who they are," Iyona replied. "Everything about my family is surrounded in mystery. Even if I knew who they were, there's no way I could trace them. They probably didn't just try to leave me behind, they tried to escape me. Now you know why I hate my talent. The only family I can't find the truth about... is my own."

Iyona stared up at the pair of us.

"Well, I'm going to go back to throwing rocks," Iyona said. "Go find someone else to interrogate. I need to figure out how to not plop these damned rocks."

Iyona threw another stone, with about as much success as the previous one.

"Let's leave Yona for now," Taro said. "She's dealing with all of this in her own way, y'know?"

The two of us left Yona, as she wished. I felt bad the whole time. I'd been struggling with who I was supposed to be, but to not even know where you came from and to have been displaced for all of your adult life was so much worse. I didn't know what to think. I couldn't even possess the remotest understanding of what Iyona had been through, it was incomprehensible to someone like me who was met with no conflict asides petty squabbles between my parents, if that could even really be called conflict. She continued throwing those stones to the surface water. Plonk, plonk, and then finally - a satisfactory "scrick" as a single stone successfully skipped across the surface of the lake. I suppose it pleased her, since she wore an expression of accomplishment as it ricocheted off the surface of the water. With that, we wandered toward Kiyoshi and Kenji.

"Hey Taro," I asked. "What was that you whispered in my ear before?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Taro replied. "It's just a bit of sociology. People generally hate silence, so if you leave open air people are more likely to fill it by saying whatever. Sometimes, not speaking is the best thing you can do when talking, because that makes people talk about things they wouldn't otherwise. It brings you a little closer."

"I suppose you've got a point," I said, then after a bit continued on. "I mean, I have a habit of just trying to de-escalate a situation instead of trying to get to the root cause. I suppose it's because... oh."

That was when I realised that I had fallen for the very same trick that Taro had been explaining only a moment ago. We all have a desire to fill open air, because we fear silence, and I guess it was more ingrained than I'd ever realised.

"See?" Taro said. "Nifty little trick, eh?"

"I suppose," I said. "It feels a little bit shifty instead when use me as an example though."

"Don't worry about it," Taro said. "We all learn from experience, my mentor used to do stuff like that to me all the time."

"You know an awful lot about how people act," I asked. "I guess that's why they call you an Ultimate."

"I've had a lot of experience," Taro said, then paused. I stared down at the ground, then back up at him. "Looks like you're learning the basics, but it's going to take more than that," Taro added after a while.

"I guess so," I said. "Although I was pretty sure using a second-hand trick like that wouldn't have worked anyway."

"I was tempted," Taro replied.

"Does that mean I succeeded?" I asked.

"I'd say you got pretty damn close," Taro said. "Good job."

"Thanks," I said, and smiled a little. We approached Kiyoshi and Kenji. As we noticed them, we were able to observe the expressions on their faces a little better. Kiyoshi looked harrowed, and Kenji looked only slightly better. They seemed to be talking in sign, but I couldn't understand them. I guess with Taro by my side, I was the only one here out of the loop.

"Hey," Taro said to Kiyoshi. "I guess you're worried then?"

"Yeah," Kenji answered on her behalf. "She's still recouping from all that this bear's making us go through. I guess we all are, aren't we?"

"Yeah," I said. "I don't think anything back home could've prepared us for this place."

"Kiyoshi trusts in all of us," Kenji said. "But after what Daigo did, what Hiroyuki said in the trial, how Samuru's been acting, and what Noriko hid from us? I'm not sure I can do the same."

"I understand," Taro said. "Trust is earned, but at least let the rest of us earn your trust. We aren't bad people: we're just in a bad place."

"Of all of us, why Hisoka?" Kenji asked. "I really hoped he could've stayed with us, but Daigo... I can't believe it. What of that escape together? Why? Why did Monokuma have to take it all from us? I can't believe all this..."

Kiyoshi tugged on Kenji's pant legs from her position seated on the ground. She signed something to him, and then pointed to me.

"Kiyoshi... wants to ask you something, Hitomi," Kenji said.

"Huh, what is it?" I asked.

Kiyoshi flipped through her notebook, until she reached a certain page, and then presented it to me. It was a lengthy letter, that she'd obviously written at some point last night, maybe as she tried and failed to get to sleep. She still wore tired eyes as she stared up at me from the ground, presenting the pad to me. I took it and read the page.

"Dear Hitomi," it read. "Thank you for all that you've done for us, and for me especially. I guess even until the end I couldn't believe one of us had really done it. I still believe that the rest of us won't, but I want to ask you something Hitomi. Will you help to protect us from all this? I don't know what to feel, and even now I'm not sure whether I should trust in my own heart, but I know for a fact that I can trust in you and Kenji. I hope that you can trust in me too. Thank you for everything, from Kiyoshi."

Kiyoshi gave off a warm smile as I read through the small note. Kenji turned to me as well.

"She spent all of last night writing that," Kenji said. "She really believes in you, Hitomi."

"I just wished I believed in myself as much as she does," I replied. "But... I'll try my hardest. For everyone."

Kiyoshi nodded.

"Why don't you two shake on it?" Taro suggested. "A bond of trust goes a long way, and there's no doubt we need trust in a place like this."

Kiyoshi put out her hand, and I reached down. I grabbed her hand, and in that single motion I vied to protect her and everyone else here. I did not know whether I would be able to keep that promise in this place though, where something as rudimentary as survival was classified a luxury rather than a basic liberty; yet in that moment, I felt as if maybe I could help her - maybe I could help them all. Kotaro and Kenji stood there by our sides, as our outstretched hands connected, and we shook upon a promise that none of us could even guarantee. Yet, for a moment, I felt a little something. Trust. Amid all this suspicion, Kiyoshi had put her faith in me, and trusted me despite the natural suspicion that everyone else seemed to have. It felt... relieving.

"Well Hitomi, looks like you made a new friend," Taro said. "Good on you."

"Thanks," I replied. "Kiyoshi, if you ever need someone, you can count on me."

Kiyoshi nodded gleefully. She was one of the few people who seemed able to smile here, for whatever reason. It was genuine and heartfelt, and it made me feel as if I was doing something, even if I was convinced otherwise. She truly trusted us all, wholeheartedly and purely. It was a beautiful way to live.

Taro signed something out to Kiyoshi as well, and she smiled. We said goodbye to Kenji, and then we left to find the others. This campsite was laden with little nooks and warrens for people to occupy, and since a large portion of the group was trying to avoid one another, there were a few individuals who had decided to hide themselves in precarious locations to avoid interaction. With everyone becoming suspicious of one another, there was no doubt that many were simply trying to avoid becoming the "next victim", and their inability to understand one another due to the sheer mass of people on this camp did little to aid their troubled hearts. Yet, some of us were taking it harder than most.

Sora was not one of those individuals, but he may as well have been. He sat by the camp border, staring across the field that would bring a gruesome death to any foolhardy individual with the stomach to attempt circumnavigating it. It was a horrid thing to think about, but yet he sat there, looking longingly at those trees within the dead-zone... and beyond it. I guessed that this whole thing was troubling him, but to sit here for most of us was unthinkable. It was either a strength of constitution or or a loss of sanity that drew him here: and I couldn't imagine it being the latter.

"Hitomi, you're here..." Sora said.

"She's not the only one," Taro interjected. "Why're you sitting all the way out here anyway?"

"I guess... I just wanted to think to myself for a little bit," Sora said.

"Isn't this an odd place to think?" I asked Sora.

"I suppose," Sora said. "I was just thinking about the outside. I wonder what our parents are thinking about all this, I wonder if they know about all this, I wonder how worried sick they must be..."

"I don't think I can answer that," I replied.

"I wish someone could, but I know they can't," Sora said.

"I'm sure you'll be able to see them again though, Sora," I said. "We've got to escape together, don't we?"

"I know, and I believe that we'll be able to work together from here on in," Sora said. "But... I can't help but feel as if this hope I have... is a weakness."

"Hope's not a weakness," Taro stated. "In a place like this, all of us need hope. You've got to keep on going, man."

"What good is hope?" Sora said. "Hope tells us that the good guys always win, that villains fall and that human virtue trumps all: hope doesn't tell us that a boy our age with all the world's gifts bestowed upon him could go and... do something like that. I believed. Why did I believe?"

"Because it's better to have faith than to fear the world," I said. "If we can't have faith in someone, we'll never be able to work together... How can we help one another then?"

"I guess you're right," Sora said. "There's a way out of here, I'm sure of it. Otherwise, how would the people running this whole thing come to and from this place? There has to be an underground passage, or a tunnel, or something. We've just got to be resourceful... work towards a mutual goal, right? If we do that... Monokuma can't do anything to us."

"Monokuma hasn't done anything to us," someone said from behind, and I turned around to see who it was. Goro wandered over, with a morbid disappointment on his face. His expression was blank, but his eyes told all as he looked over at us.

"We did this to ourselves," Goro concluded. "Monokuma's a terrible creature, but that same monster was in Daigo. Monokuma was the catalyst, but he was not the cause. Monokuma is evil incarnate, but... he still relies on the evil inside of us all."

"What do you mean?" I asked Goro.

"What do you think I mean?" Goro replied. "Life has taught me never to be an optimist. There's goodness within people, but the evil in the world will always try to overpower it: reality's doing just that. I've seen it all before."

"You think... Monokuma will make it happen again?" I asked.

"I have no doubt," Goro said. "Whoever's piloting that bear, they knew exactly how to push our buttons and play to our weaknesses. If we don't get to know each other's weaknesses, Monokuma will keep playing us for fools until we're made into an eighth of what we were."

"Why would you say that?" Sora replied. "Don't you believe in everyone!?"

"I don't know everyone well enough," Goro stated.

"Can't you tell? We all have something in common here, a desire to escape?" Sora continued. "Isn't that enough to believe in us all?"

"Obviously you don't know... you don't know us all well enough," Goro said. "How can you claim to know us all, when you can't even know that for certain?"

I looked at Goro for a second. He was obviously down at the moment, but more than that, he looked like Daigo had looked. He had that same expression as he had, hiding that secret inside that truly motivated his murder. There was a closeted secret written upon his face that he refused to utter with words.

"What's wrong, Goro?" I asked. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary," he replied.

"Goro, I know that it's hard to tell us," Taro said. "However, if you ever need a shoulder, we're all here for you. I can see that something's eating you up inside, but please... feel free to open up to your friends: all of us."

"I guess... I'll try..." Goro started, then stammered. He coughed into his hand, then after a few seconds he crouched down, coughing continuously and unrelentlessly into the ground. He did not stop. Sitting there on the ground, he continued to cough until it was no longer air he was hacking up, but blood from his windpipe instead.

"Are you okay!?" I exclaimed.

"I'm... fine..." Goro said, as he tried to suppress his coughing fit for a moment. "It's... nothing... new... "

After a while, the coughing fit began to die down, and Goro sat up. He stared at the portion of the ground he had been coughing into, wiped his index finger across some of the red stained grass that had been left behind, and stared at his fingertip.

"Great," Goro said. "Guess it's catching up with me. I'm going to have a drink, so see you then."

With that, Goro left. The three of us sat there for a second, before Sora decided to stand as well.

"I'm going to check if he's okay," Sora said. "Thanks you guys... you really helped to pull me back on my feet."

"No probs," Taro replied. "And tell Goro that if he ever needs to talk to someone about anything, feel free to give me a call. After all, I'm not called a Guru for nothing."

"Yeah," Sora said. "I will."

"See you then, Sora," I said.

"See you," Sora replied. With that he left, and we were left sitting on the grass near the minefield. The wind blew slightly against the mildewed grass, making it float upon the air as if by magic, and the cold air had grown warmer as time had passed. The sky was blue, the grass was no longer discomforting, and it seemed as if I had made a difference by talking to everyone.

Then Taro spoke...


AUTHOR'S NOTES: I guess I've been absent for a while, so sorry about that. I'm committed to ensuring that content comes out at a steady pace, but unfortunately the net has been down for me and university is just starting up once more, so I've got that to look forward to. That being said, the next update will likely be coming out in roughly the next two weeks. I'm trying to reach every character prior to the motive being revealed, so we should get an insight into some of their minds, but in all likelihood I may save a lucky few for post Chapter 2 depending on how much development they've already have.

Anyway, in more important news, I have for the most part finalised the rough plan of Chapter 2. It's all on me now to make it happen, but I've got an idea of what I'm going to do, so you can probably start preparing yourselves to look out for any small yet suggestive clues from this point onwards. I'll see you in two weeks, and apologies for my decreasing pace.