"Okay, everyone." Eli's calm yet strong voice pierced through the Cafeteria, and all the friendly chatter started to die down. We all looked to her and Dia - who became our leaders here - and both seemed to be visibly stressed. But if today was anything to go by, I wasn't going to blame them for feeling like that.
"I… I'm not going to sugar coat this. This has been a rough day. For all of us. And we're all in real trouble." These harsh words, true to each letter, sent a shiver down our spines. "I know, we're all strangers here, we have no reason to trust each other, but… that we've all managed to work together today, and tried to find a way out of this… thank you." The jovial atmosphere dried up as she finished, and Dia put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The blonde promptly sat down again, and the older Kurosawa took over.

"Everyone. This situation is far from ideal, but my father and my friends taught me that every hurdle we face can be overcome, through hard work, determination and cooperation. Today, we have all shown these qualities - and I believe it is only a matter of time before we defeat this Monokuma and escape this prison." She spoke powerfully. I already knew she was shrewd, from working with her family business, but it inspired me, at how well she crafted her words - eloquent, and impactful. "The key to our victory is preparation, so we should use this opportunity to-"
"When are we going to have these meetings?" Maki interrupted. "It's possible we could be free from here tomorrow, but Monokuma's made sure we couldn't escape easily. Whatever happens, we need to be ready to make and adapt our plans, both in the short- and long-term."

"Ahh… how about, every morning then, at breakfast?" We all agreed with Dia's suggestion. It made sense, too. Everyone would want to eat when they woke up, so we'd all be together to share any news. "Excellent. As I said before, we should make a report on everything that's happened today, so we can discuss our plans for tomorrow.
"Ruby, Eli, Kanan, Umi, Kotori, Honoka and myself investigated a possible lead towards opening up the vault door over the Main Entrance."

"And you totally failed, riiiight?" A haunting voice, so disturbing, yet so eerily familiar. I didn't even need to turn around to where it came from, to know who it belonged to. Monokuma began to cackle, and the more nervous among us gave out small shrieks. Ruby darted behind her sister, practically shaking in fear. "You must've thought that pulley was such a good idea when you came up with it too! Too bad it all fell apart when you tried it though!" We all stared at the bear, in a mix of fear and anger - and all he did was stare right back. "Oh, don't mind me, guys. Just thought I'd drop by and see what all the fuss was about." He grabbed a chair and put himself onto it, eagerly watching our next move - in a meeting about how to beat him and escape!

"Well, we're in a private meeting right now, so please, could you leave us alone?" Umi insisted, a hint of frustration on her calm voice.

"L-Leave? But, I just got here!" The archer stared right at Monokuma, whose creepy smile never wavered. I grew worried that he would strike back against her, but soon the bear relented. "Fine, fine." He jumped right off the chair and moped out of the Cafeteria. "Sigh. Kids these days, never satisfied…"
I silently admired her for standing up to him.

Eli managed to get everyone's attention back after that… unwelcome interruption, but noted that Monokuma was right - the pulley system had failed, and they can't carry on until they find tools to shape the wood they found. "And even if we find them, if we make a mistake the wood we have now will be useless. Which means we'd need more materials for the pulley itself."

Everyone gave a dejected sigh as she finished. Dia tried to change the topic to see if there were any other leads we could use, but other than the strange photograph which nobody seems to know about, no one could bring up anything substantial.
In other words… we were trapped here. Certainly for the foreseeable future at least.
A silence fell over the table, interrupted by the doctor.

"Well, it's not like he had a reason to lie about it, anyway. In fact, everything he's told us so far has been proven true. We can't leave the Academy, and we can't contact anyone outside of here. Which means he has to be telling the truth about the Killing Game - in which case we have to plan around it." Her coolness was welcome, but the topic… it made it all so unnerving.

"But Maaakiiiii, why do we have to plan round thaaaaaat?" Honoka asked for all of us, in her typical, but muted, enthusiasm. No, we don't want to plan around it. But…

"Because, Honoka, there's a chance that one of us is going to be killed by another of us." She let the silence rest for a second. "We have to accept this, so we should talk about it."

A half-hearted "Yeah," came out of my mouth. Maki was right - we had to accept it, discuss it. But… none of us wanted to. Death. Murder. It felt so… taboo. It didn't bother the redhead, though, who carried on talking.

"It's clear to me that Monokuma doesn't want to hurt or kill us, at least directly. He seems to want us to do that ourselves, and will give us motives to push us to do so."

"Motives?" Riko asked.

"Yes, like the one we received at lunch." Monokuma's offer echoed in my head as she reminded us of it. 'If you get a kill in the next forty-eight hours - then we'll skip the Trial and you can get straight out of here!' "I think he understands he can't force us to do anything, so he'll give us these motives every so often. An extra incentive or reward to kill - in this case, our freedom.

"This isn't going to be the only one we'll get, either. He'll probably give us more over the next few days. Some will be like this one, and others more… direct, and chances are he'll keep throwing them at us until one of us kills - so he can have his Class Trials."

"Okay, stop." Nico interrupted the doctor, with a scowl drawn all over her face. "My god, how can someone so pretty be such an annoying asshole?"

"Annoying? Excuse me? I'm trying to help you and everyone else stay alive over the next few days."

"Yeah, yeah, keep preaching on about how you're gonna be the saviour of this ragtag bunch of kids, who convinced us all to be decent human beings." We all just stared at her as she ranted. Even Maki, who seemed so cool and composed until now, was taken aback. "Look here, princess. No one here is going to kill. No one here is going to be killed. Even you said this 'motive' Monokuma gave us is pure cra-"
"NICO! Language!"
"-p." Dia snapped at her, but the idol simply ignored her and carried on. "Now, I bet everyone here is a good person, and good people don't kill each other - no matter how many of these motives he throws at us. So, yeah, we're in a Killing Game, it sucks ass, but it doesn't mean anyone's gonna get killed, right? So thanks, princess, for your 'expert diagnosis' of our situation, but we don't need it." Nico smugly sat right back down - she had completely shut the doctor down. "It's all gonna be fine. It's all gonna turn up Nico."

"Yeah!" Honoka practically sprung out of her seat. "We don't need to worry about anyone getting killed here cause we're all gonna be friends, right?" Her positivity spread across the table like the sparks that light a bonfire, basking us all in its warmth. This feeling touched us all, lifting our spirits and burning away our fears. This feeling did not touch one person, however. That person asked a question, with a voice I could instantly pick out of a crowd.

"What, you think we're gonna be all best friends here?" It had a colder edge to it than I remember, but it was still recognisable.

You…?!

"Err, yeah?" The ginger seemed confused. Surely friendship was the answer; it always was. And we were a nice bunch as well, I'm sure we'd all get along.

"Then either you're naive, or just an idiot." She replied, cutting deep into her energy, with icy words and a menacing glare.

"Uwaaa?!" Everyone turned to her, utterly shaken - especially Kanan, and especially me. All that was going through my mind at that moment was 'Where did that come from?!'

"There's no way everyone here's going to be friends with everyone else, and if you think there isn't going to be a killing, then you're only kidding yourself."

"B-but… everyone here is really nice! No one's going to… kill each other, and, and you know it!"

"Really? I knew lots of people who were nice as well, and they turned out to be horrible people. Do you think you can trust anyone here? After Monokuma told us we'd have to kill each other? I bet some of you have even got it all planned out already. No, shut up." The argument never left Honoka's lips. "If you guys want to be buddies and all that, fine by me. Just don't get me involved. And don't cry when one of you turns up dead, okay?"

None of us could utter a word in response. In one fell swoop, the energy that Honoka and Nico built up was snuffed out - I imagined a cold wind blowing from You then. My god, how did she end up like this? Where had that sweet, smiling girl gone? It was like she couldn't see how we could work together, as a team. How we could live in hope, and happiness.
It was like… she couldn't see the good in any of us. A far cry from the girl I knew.
"This is pointless. I'm off." She got up and started to leave.

"Where are you going, You? We are not done here." Dia barked at her, but she brushed her aside.

"Well, I'm done." I felt Riko rush past me, and before You could leave she grabbed her arm, a furious expression on her face. She was in one of those moods where if she asked you something she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

"Listen, You. Don't make everyone else suffer because you have. I don't know what happened in your life to make you like this, but-"
"You're right." You caught her mid-sentence, pain(?) and a barely-concealed rage building in her tone. "You don't know!"

I'm not even sure what happened next. There was a squeal, a crash, and I surely must have blinked, because now Riko was pinned to the ground by the sailor - who had her hands pressed to her neck!
I darted up, wanting to help her, but fear kept me still. And quiet. Not a single eye could look away from this dramatic scene, and no voice rose to put it to an end.

"You don't know what I've been through! You wouldn't even begin to understand what happened to me! How… how much I've fucking suffered!" Her hateful tone gave way to something… disturbingly calm. "Tell me, Riko. How much have you suffered? Have you even suffered before? Tell me, Riko." The pianist, pale as a ghost, didn't answer. "I'll take that as a no, then. Typical. Do you want to know how much it hurt me, then?"

"P-please… let m-me go…" She whimpered. Suddenly, my worst fear of the past two years - losing her - rose up. This fear, a beast that once controlled my life, threatened to take it over again.

"Shut up, you bitch!" You savagely pushed her back to the ground and tightened her grip around her neck, and horrible, broken sounds came from Riko's mouth. "You stole her away from me!" She tried to push her off, but her efforts were swept aside and You took both her hands in one of her own and moved them aside. "And I'm going to take her back." Her free hand went back to crushing her throat, and the pianist couldn't fight back any more. She cried, and choked, and her face was turning an unnatural shade of blue.

"YOU, STOP! PLEASE!" I cried out desperately, hoping she'd listen to me. A part of me, though, wondered if she'd even care right now. Her face was contorted in malice, and it seemed her mind was made up. She… she really was going to kill her!

But she did listen to me.

Instantly, her expression softened, and her grip loosened - and slowly, she moved off Riko and stood back up. The pianist, meanwhile, burst out in desperate breaths, save the occasional hacking cough. Our eyes met, mine filled with tears after that dramatic moment, and hers with… no, I couldn't tell if there was any regret. I wondered if she was going to take it back and help the pianist - but suddenly, she hardened up again and turned around.

"If any of you ever mess with me again, I'll kill you." Her threat hung heavy in the air as she walked out of the Cafeteria. We all instantly believed it.
As soon as You had left, Maki and I rushed to Riko's side and helped her up. She was still retching over, and the doctor gently rubbed her back, easing her pain.

"Help me get her to the Infirmary." She ordered. I carefully put an arm around her, while Kanan came round and took the other. "Carefully, now. Don't agitate her too much." We followed Maki's instructions and it wasn't long before the pianist was upright again, although leaning heavily on us. Slowly, we walked out of the Cafeteria, to get her some proper treatment - but as we left, I caught Nico ask something out loud. And it got me wondering, too.
Because You - or at least… the You I knew - she would never have done this. Or acted like this.

"Jeez. What the fuck is wrong with her?"

Back in my dorm room, I lay down on the bed - staring at the ceiling and wondering to myself what just happened.
Riko went back to her room after Maki gave her a clean bill of health. ("There may be some bruising, but other than that you should be okay.") We all decided to leave her for tonight, thinking she'd need some time to herself.
Eli and Dia (and Ruby) caught up with us and told us that the meeting had quickly come to an end after… what happened, and that we'll make tomorrow's plans in the morning. Everyone else was going to bed for tonight, to get ready for the next day.

So… here I am. Lost in my thoughts.

Hope's Peak Academy, the school of our futures… now our prison.
Monokuma, some kind of nightmarish creature, forcing us to… kill, each other…
Behind him, sits the Mastermind, hiding in the shadows, playing with our lives like toys in a box...
And, You… my childhood friend, back from the dead… barely like the girl I knew, and… she almost… Riko…

Sigh… It's a lot to take in for one day.

*ding, dong, ding, dong*

The school bell tolled out, and the robotic bear's voice echoed through the dorm room.

"Attention everyone, attention. This is a school announcement.

"The time is now ten p.m., and Night Hours are now in effect. During Night Hours, the Pool, Kitchen and Cafeteria areas are strictly off-limits, and water has been switched off to keep costs down. We may be government-funded but we still have to balance the books somehow!
"While all of you are free to move around the Academy, please keep in mind that anyone you meet out there may not be so… friendly. So I suggest you rest your tired eyes, and save your energy for tomorrow.
"Goooood night everyone! Pleasant dreams." A wave of static, and then, silence.

I rolled onto my side and forced my eyes shut. It was probably best to get some sleep, anyway. With everything swirling in my head I was worried I wouldn't be able to doze off, so I needed all the rest I could get.
I went out like a light.