RubyLeo: I'm really happy you liked it that much! Real proposing would have been funny…

FireDusk: Haha, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, it was a lot of fun to write. Also it makes me happy that you like the chapters between the trials, I also hate to kill off all your great characters but well, that's the point of it.

This day I decided to spend some time with someone I didn't know so well yet, meaning Tani. Though she had improved her behaviour and became a little bit friendlier she still was by herself most of the time and didn't talk much. From the first day on I had wanted to know why she was hiding her certainly fascinating personality (she was an Ultimate – she had to be fascinating, right?) from us. But so far I had waited that she would open up herself while I spent time with others.

By now I had enough of waiting and just wanted to talk to her. Tani was returning from the swimming pool when I found her, her hair was still wet from swimming. I couldn't really understand why she liked being in the water so much but maybe I would learn.

"Hey, Tani," I said with a smile. "Want to spend some time together?" She simply replied "No" and went away. What a clear rejection…

I quickly went after her. "I don't want to bother you but..." "Then stop followin' me," she interrupted me. "But whatever you have to do, maybe we could do it together," I suggested and as she finally looked at me I tried to smile even nicer. Obviously it had no effect, nothing in her expression changed. "I'd rather stay alone."

"I noticed that," I said. "But I wondered why you rather avoid us. I doubt it's because you're afraid of us." "I'll call ya when I wanna have a therapy session," she replied shortly, before starting to walk away. I could have just let her leave like I usually did but this time I was determined to get to know her better.

"We don't have to talk about you if you don't want to," I said. "Maybe there is something else you want to talk about? And if not, we can just hang around together." "I said no," she repeated and narrowed her eyes. "My, you're annoying. Do you wanna make me angry on purpose?"

"Of course not," I replied with a smile. "I am sorry I'm annoying, I just want to talk a bit." "Then why can't you go an' pester someone else?" she asked frowning.

"Because I want to talk with you and not with someone else," I explained, making her frown even more. "Why?"

Actually I wanted to be the one asking the questions but it was all right, somehow she was even more of a challenge than Hachiku had been. "Because I want to know you better. You're always careful not to let anyone know so much about you and I want to understand why. It would be nice if we could be friends, wouldn't it?"

"You just wanna be friends with everyone, don't ya?" she asked and I wasn't sure if she liked or despised that. "Doesn't everyone want to be friends with people they find interesting?" I carefully asked back.

"Well, I'm not interested in just everyone I meet," she replied. By now we had reached the hostel and without hesitating she entered it. "I like my privacy. If I really like someone it's fine but I won't try to befriend everyone so they think they can just pester me anytime they want." I was fascinated I got her to talk so much.

"I see," I said. "So you don't really like me?" She gave me an Are you serious? look. "Sorry for breakin' your heart but no." "Then we can improve that," I suggested, making her eyebrow twitch slightly. "Listen, there are many others who'd love bein' pestered by ya but not me, 'kay? I don't have a real problem with ya so don't ruin it now."

"All right," I said, entering the corridor with the dorm rooms alongside her. "So, what are you going to do now? Without me?" "None of your business," she snapped.

"You're not going to swim again," I wondered out loud. "But I guess you want to do something else concerning water and fish. Am I right?" She glared at me which wasn't that impressing since she was much smaller than me. "Maybe I'm thinkin' about guttin'," she said and just then I noticed a large scar on one palm of her hands. I already wanted to ask her about that as another door opened and Vivienne looked at us.

"Lewis, I need to tell you something," she proclaimed, making it sound like an order and Tani used the opportunity to escape. "What is it?" I asked, entering her room and she said "We should go to the bathroom." Now, that was unexpected…

"For what?" I asked and she leant a bit forward. "There are no cameras," she whispered, her glossy lips almost touching my ear. Somehow it was difficult to think straight when she was so close. Without another question I followed her into the bathroom where she carefully closed the door and then turned around to me with a somehow excited smile. "I found something Monokuma shouldn't know about!" she explained.

I needed a moment to understand, then I returned her smile and asked "Really? What is it?"

"You know how our waste always vanishes at some time at night, right?" she asked and I nodded. "So I started to keep an eye on that and last night I noticed a giant car outside. It looked like a waste collection car so I followed it and..." "Wait, wait, wait," I interrupted her. "You were following a mysterious car outside? In the middle of the night? All alone?"

"I know it was pretty brave," she said, fanning herself and laughing proudly. Then she dropped the act and said "I meant, I watched it with binoculars. Anyway, I saw it passing the fence." "You mean...?" She nodded eagerly. "Yes! Suddenly there was a gap in the fence and as it opened the car could pass through. If we could get onto this car, maybe we could leave, too!"

Those were amazing news! It would have been great to tell everyone about it but I understood that our plan would be ruined if Monokuma heard that we knew about it. That made me wonder… "Why did you tell me?" I asked. "And not Tokaku for example?"

She blushed slightly. "I don't want her to do anything stupid… I don't know how dangerous it is and I didn't want her to be risky." "You don't think I'd do anything stupid?" I asked and she shrugged. "I thought you'd be more careful." Or maybe she just doesn't care as much when I get into danger…

"So what do you think we should do about it?" she asked and I thought about it for a moment. "I guess we should better watch the situation first. We could go there this night, Monokuma could think we just wanted to do a little walk in the moon light. If I see this by myself I can hopefully think of some plan to escape from here."

And so we had a plan. I knew this could get dangerous but it was definitely worth a try if maybe we could find a way out like this...

Freetime events with Tani are difficult, but they can only improve, right?

Just a little chapter, I know. But I will be quite busy the next month, so I probably won't update as often as usually. And I wanted to give you something you can wonder about until the next chapter!~