Everything suddenly screeched to a halt as a feeling of dread overtook Sumiko. What the hell was up with this? As if their own situation weren't bad enough, flipping through the file told her that this had happened before! Another group of SHSL students had been locked away and forced to kill one another for Monokuma's sick amusement. It was making Sumiko's blood boil just thinking about it. What the hell was this bear's unnatural obsession with despair? Why did innocent teenagers have to kill each other? More importantly, why was there ever a single game in the first place, let alone two?

As she flipped through the photos of the deaths this first game had, she couldn't help but feel a little sick to her stomach. These poor students had a rough time throughout the entirety of their game. People who were more easily motivated killed and betrayed each other, while everyone else was left to deal with the mess they left behind. Their situations were barely different at all, much the same was happening in the city. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the one girl in particular. Everyone in the city had heeded the warnings and not broken a rule, but this girl had let her anger get the best of her and ended up dying for it. Despite her connections to the event, Sumiko still felt sorry for her. It was a shit situation for sure. It was then she decided on what to do with the file.

She had to let everyone else know, but first she needed some time to think things over. There were so many questions that this new information was bringing to light in her mind, she wanted to consider just what this could mean. How had this been allowed to happen once, let alone twice? She didn't want to think about it for too long, it made her feel sick. Clutching the file tightly, she went to the first person she could think of: Kazuma.

Finding him where he had said he'd be going, Sumiko entered the cafe. Kazuma was staring down into his coffee. He seemed a lot better than he had been the previous day and this morning, but he wasn't completely back together yet. They all needed some time to heal after that hell of a murder. He glanced up from his coffee as the thief approached.

"Oh, hey Sumiko. Decided to join me after all, eh?"

"Sort of. Look, there's somethin' I gotta show you!"

She threw down the file and watched as Kazuma's intrigued expression darkened after reading the name. He gingerly reached out a hand as if it would hurt to touch it, slowly pulling it open. The first thing he saw was a photo of Sayaka Maizono, the Super High School Level Idol, a knife piercing her middle. Sumiko grimaced a little at the sight. The horror novelist continued flicking through it, seeing the grisly images of the students who fell prey to the game.

Leon Kuwata, Chihiro Fujisaki, Mondo Oowada, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Hifumi Yamada, Celestia Ludenberg, Sakura Oogami, Mukuro Ikusaba. The images of their corpses were burning into his retinas as he read about each particular case and how they unfolded. He read about Junko Enoshima, the mastermind behind it all and saw a photo of her execution. There were parts that were blacked out, such as how the world got to such a state on the outside and why they'd been trapped inside of Hope's Peak. He didn't mind that much.

"This is...really important."

"Yeah, which is why I showed ya. Now gimme the damn thing back, we gotta tell everyone else right?" Sumiko held out her hand.

Kazuma nodded, handing her the file. He gave his coffee a lingering look before deciding to just leave it. Standing up, he motioned for her to lead the way. Upon exiting the apartment complex, he glanced around, wondering if the new ward had been opened to them yet. Shaking his head, he got his thoughts back on track. Exploration of the new ward could wait until all the others were aware of what Sumiko had shown him. He glanced over at the girl in question, a sudden wave of guilt falling over him.

He'd let that last motive get to him. He usually carried everyone as a sort of de facto leader during cases, using his abilities in story crafting to put the pieces of the puzzle together. He kept them going through the first two trials, but he threw everything onto Sumiko and the others for this latest one because he let that damn bear get to him. He wouldn't let that happen again. He couldn't afford to slip up like that. Interrupting his thought process was Rei Kaya, glancing over at them with interest.

"What are you guys up to?" She asked.

"Oh, we've got something to show everyone. Could you help us get everyone together?"

Rei went to answer him, but before she could say anything, a familiar and grating voice sounded from behind him. With a loud sigh filled with annoyance and hatred, Kazuma turned around to face Monokuma who was angrily waving his claws at them. Kazuma absolutely had no time or desire to deal with this situation right now.

"What do you want?"

"Where the hell did you kids get that?!"

"Oh, piss off. You wanna know where we got it? From the girl you just executed. If you're thinkin' you're gonna punish someone for this, you already did." Sumiko retorted flatly.

"This is why I can't trust any of you bastards! Sneaking into my apartment and stealing my stuff..."

The bear gave them one last angry wave of his sharp claws before disappearing. Kazuma couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. No one was going to get punished and they were free to show the file to everyone else. He turned, seeing Rei's heightened curiosity. Certainly she had questions after Monokuma showed up to yell at them. He couldn't really blame her, if he hadn't been knowledgeable about the situation at hand, he'd be pretty confused too.

"Look, we'll explain after we get everyone together." He said to her simply, then went on his way while the other two followed.

It wasn't that hard to find everyone. Not only had their numbers dwindled down to ten, but no one had wandered that far after the trial. They were all hanging around the first and second wards, making it plenty easy on the trio to locate them. Afterwards, they all retreated back to the diner, which was starting to become their go-to meeting place. It was convenient and had refreshments, perfect to hold discussion in. At least, in Kazuma's opinion anyway.

"So, what did you have to tell us?" Kaede asked, having seated himself on one of the counter stools.

"Midoriko was able to find a file before she, uh, did what she did." Kazuma started. "Apparently, this isn't the first time this happened. There's been another mutual killing game."

"What?!" Rikiya spluttered. "There are more of these games happening?"

"Well, as far as we know, it's just the one we're in and the one described in this file." He continued. "There could be more, but I hope that's not the case..."

"This is really serious," Rei began, "but I have a question. Did anyone survive that game?"

"Yeah. There were six survivors. They managed to talk the person behind it all into having a grand trial. Figure out the mysteries behind how they got locked away and stuff like that in exchange for their freedom."

"Person behind it?" Israfel questioned. "Does it give a name?"

"The girl who did it is Junko Enoshima."

"You mean the Enoshima who's a really popular model?" Tenri asked. "H-her?"

"Yeah, the very same." Sumiko stated. "Kinda weird though, it's another mutual killin' game involvin' Super High School Level students, but I didn't know any of 'em had been takin' classes."

"I can't believe someone like her would do something so horrible!" Misaki exclaimed. "I mean, you wouldn't think a gyaru would be the person who put that together."

"This is quite concerning, though." Emiko stated. "The file says...and shows...that she was executed at the end of the last trial, but yet another killing game happened."

"Perhaps someone took inspiration from her.." Ami offered. "Maybe that's why we're here."

"A truly horrible possibility." The medium finished.

"Hmm.." Sumiko seemed like she was thinking about something, it was making Kazuma curious. He could plainly see on her face that she was having a troubling thought process. Maybe this was something that he could get her to talk about once everyone else was out of earshot.

"To be fair, you can never truly be sure what a person is like." Kaede stated.

That only seemed to fuel the uncertain look on Sumiko's face. She had this intense look on her face as she slowly glanced around and looked at everyone. There was no telling what she was thinking right now, but it surely wasn't anything positive from the look on her face. As if trying to bring about a distraction for everyone, a voice piped up to cut the silence.

"Oh, while we're here, would anyone like lunch?" Israfel asked, standing by the counter door. "I can make something up real quick."

Everyone seemed to agree and allowed the Angel to head behind the counter and make them something for lunch. As he got to working, Sumiko suddenly felt a little off. She couldn't quite place it but there was a dull throbbing in the back of her head. Just like that, she felt weak, almost slipping out of her seat as the world around her shifted. Suddenly she was walking down a dirty and beaten road.

"Over here! I think this is the way, at least..." The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. There was something a little off about it, or she'd recognize it immediately.

"I just don't get why we had to travel so far."

She could hear a new voice enter the mix. It was familiar in much the same way but she just couldn't figure out who it was. She heard that person breathe in as if about to say something more, but just like that she found herself back in the counter stool, nothing but a bad headache lingering. When she glanced over, she saw Kazuma's eyes on her. She realized then that she must've looked pretty bad going limp like that.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly.

"Yeah, 'm fine."

He sure didn't think so. She'd nearly just collapsed, that wasn't anywhere near fine. Kazuma could do nothing but accept her answer though, she didn't look like she wanted to tell him anything right now. Maybe if he gave her some time, she'd be alright discussing what was on her mind. He sighed, telling Israfel to not prepare anything for him before heading out back into the city. As he felt the golden rays hitting his skin, he looked up into the sunny sky.

"If there were survivors in that game, maybe we can make it out too.."

His thoughts were interrupted as Monokuma's voice rang out through the city. He listened in, already having an idea for what the announcement was for. There was only one thing it really could be at the moment, anyway.

"All right, you thieving bastards! Hope you got an eyeful of that information! Now then, just like always, the new area is open for exploration! Go on ahead and check out your new area!"

Just as he thought, the fourth ward was now open to them. Here's hoping we get something helpful in the new area. That seemed like a bit of a morbid thought since people had to die for this area to open up, but he really was hoping that they could find anything to help them get a better bearing on the situation. They needed it after reading that file. He supposed he might as well head on over. Maybe, just maybe, they could avoid any more death in favor of getting an ending like the other class did.

Maybe there was a good ending in their future.


(A/N:) I'm baaack~! Yeah, okay, I know I said the next thing I would do was finish and post the prologue for Despair's Ruling Class. But you know what? I then realized that it would be a little difficult to write the first and second books at the same time. So instead, Despair's Ruling Class will be pushed back until this one is completed, so I apologize to those who submitted characters to it. It'll just be a lot easier on me to develop plot details and figure out where the storyline I'm creating will go. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the update and I'll see you next time for the exploration of the fourth ward!