I'm finally able to continue the story now! I suppose a few months isn't too bad, no? I still have end of school tests approaching, but those don't start for a couple weeks. Still, they're close! Anyways, I'll be trying to write a bit every day from now on. Hopefully you enjoy it!

Most of us had gathered in the cafeteria as usual, except for Jo, Mary, Rocky... I'm getting tired of listing out who wasn't there every time there's a meeting. However, for once, Robin had actually attended the meeting, sitting attentively at the main table, and before anyone even mentioned his new presence, he had begun the conversation.

"I am proud to announce that I have joined the weapons disposal pact!"

"I didn't know we had a name for it..." Amber mumbled, "But I'm glad that you're being helpful like that!"

"Wait," I started, "How did you even hear about our agreement? You haven't attended any of the meetings where we discussed it..."

"Um," Dan looked towards me, "I asked him to do it because, well, I think if everyone joins the pact, then we'll be s-safe. We're... Yeah, it's all going to be fine."

"Precisely!" Robin resumed his proclamations, "Though revolution is necessarily incredibly violent, it is safer for the time being to co-operate with the plan. Due to my decision, I shall be incinerating my knives in the rubbish compacter, though I don't believe I know who has the keys to it."

Molly sighed forcefully. "I have them, however, I believe we were going to discuss the food shortage first?"

Looking over at the kitchen area, the door had been sealed off with a large, iron barricade. Next to it were two taps, one labelled for water and another for food. The water one had thirteen plastic cups, while the food one had a bowl underneath. Nobody spoke for a moment, as I realised that people were hesitant to go and find out just how much food we'd have to work with.

"Alright, fine, I'll go turn it on." I stood up and walked over to the 'food' tap. Turning it on, a slow stream of fine, bland paste flowed out like a hungover slug. It took about three minutes for the bowl to fill up, as the paste stopped flowing.

"Is... That everything?" Terry murmured, eyes half open. "Surely there must be more-"

"Apparently not!" Robin pointed in the air at nothing in particular. "We must now split the food evenly among the populace with complete attention payed to the justly equal amounts!"

"But... Wouldn't it make more sense to distribute it based on who's doing the highest amount of work?"

"See, that's the sort of thinking that leads to oppression of the good working man..."

"... I'm the only one with a working class job here, anyway." Terry rested his head in his arms upon the table. "At least I don't think Monoyaki said the water would be limited as well..."

Archie stood from his chair, and spoke with a bothered tone. "Speaking of that, I need to go and water my plant, but I'll quickly say that the equal distribution method will probably cause less fighting, which is more important than whether it's any better than equitable distribution." He left afterwards, a slight amount of force to his step.

"I second this." Lucy said, though she hadn't appeared to be paying much attention prior.

"But don't we need someone to figure out the even distribution?" Mia yawned as she spoke. "It'd have to be someone we can trust not to save extra for themselves or something..."

"Terry, then!" Charlotte exclaimed.

"Wait," I stuttered, "didn't he just say that he's against equal distribution? How is he more trustworthy then anyone else?"

"W-well," Dan noted, "he's been consistently reliable through this entire ordeal, I don't think he's the kind of person who'd go against instructions just because he didn't like them... Right, Terry?"

No response from Terry, other than a groan of agreement.

"Hey..." Charlotte pondered. "I was just going on a gut instinct. If everyone actually does want him, maybe they're all planning on giving me less..."

Terry, despite being nearly asleep, split the 'food' evenly, and we ate. It tasted extremely bland. It looked like toothpaste, but I honestly would rather eat toothpaste; at least that would have some amount of flavour. A couple samples were left over to be brought to Mary and Rocky, to encourage them not to steal all our food tomorrow at gunpoint. We figured Jo wouldn't accept the food even if we gave it to him though, just to screw with us, clearly.

The meeting ended not long after, and people began to clear off. As I sat there, it began to set in that I didn't exactly have anything important to do. Nobody was dragging me off anywhere, and there wasn't any major issue that was small enough for me to do anything about. I mean, yesterday's events with Mary and Rocky made me a good deal less anxious about their potential to harm others... And besides, even if they are a danger, seeing that Robin had turned in his weapons, it would probably just be a matter of time before they did as well.

And well, Jo was still unaccounted for, but killing someone would go against his 'do what the mastermind least expects' plan.

Anyway, the point is, I was now free to hang out with whoever I felt like.

Which was Lucy.

She honestly had some sort of magnetic pull, at least on me specifically. It's really hard to explain, but, it's something that your gut just tells you, when you find someone really interesting and likable. I'm not a hundred percent sure if she's likable on an objective scale, but I liked her, so that was good enough for me.

"Hello, Jane." Hang on, she's right in front of me?! She raised her hand to the side of her head and leant against it. "What are you thinking about?"

"U-um, well..." I stuttered for a few moments. "... You, t-to be honest."

She did a slight smirk. "Mm. That is good to hear."

"It is? I'd imagine that I'd be a little creeped out if someone was just thinking of me or something-"

"Hush." She put her gloved finger over her lips for a second, before pulling it away and gesturing towards me. "I assume you'd like to... 'Hang out', no?"

"E-err, yeah! Yeah, exactly!..."

The two of us travelled to the same class room where we hung out last week. I'm not sure why exactly she chose the same place as before, other than basic familiarity and the honest lack of interesting places in the school.

"Jane, what would you like to speak about?"

"Well, anything you'd like to talk about, I guess."

She tilted her head slightly. "But, you wanted to 'hang out', no? I'd have thought you would have something in mind."

"I mean, weren't you the one who asked me though?"

"Well, you were thinking of me anyway."

"Th-that's irrelevant, u-um, let's just focus on finding a topic to speak about."

"Well, we could speak about how you were thinking about me just before. Or, would you rather not?"

"U-um, I..." It was kind of an odd thing to chat about. I don't know why I always kept feeling drawn to her, and why my thoughts were always drifting about when she was on my mind, and why her eyes were so hypnotising, and how she was-

"Do you have a cold?"

"N-no, I don't... Why do you ask?"

"Your cheeks are a bit red.", she pointed out nonchalantly.

"They... Are?" After taking a second to process what she meant, I promptly hid both cheeks with my hands. "W-well maybe I-I am st-starting to get a cold or something, um, I d-don't feel anything yet, b-but maybe I-"

"I could craft a remedy for it..."

"Y-yes! That would be a good idea!... You do know chemistry and all, so you could-"

"Are you sure it's not anything else?" She had a slight smirk as she spoke. While she usually seemed unaware of her surroundings and what others were thinking, I caught on that she was feigning it today. "I mean, if you have no other symptoms... Then there's one cause that seems most likely, Jane."

"I-I-I'm n-n-not ready t-to talk about it!..."

She sighed. "Would you like a drink of water to help you calm down?"

"I-I'm calm! P-perfectly calm! Yeah."

"Okay." She giggled softly. "By the way, Terry said your spoon will be ready by tomorrow night or so."

I completely forgot that Terry was crafting a spoon for me. Or, well, for Lucy, I guess, since I never really asked for one. Still, even if there are plenty of spoons in the cafeteria, it would be impolite not to accept it, since Terry's been putting in so much work for everyone. And plus, since Lucy asked on my behalf, it was almost like a gift from her, which felt... Kind of amazing.

Thing is, I didn't realise I was daydreaming about it right in front of her.

"You look red again, Jane."

"U-uh, no I don't!"

We spent a good while longer talking (or trying to, in my case) until eventually it got late, and we parted ways for the night. As I went to bed that night, it was a bit hard to sleep, since I couldn't focus on any thoughts that didn't involve Lucy in some way. I probably forgot the killing game was even happening that night.

MONOYAKI HOROSCOPE

Sagittarius!

There is a ninety-six percent chance that your nose will be perpetually itchy today. Time to do that big task you've been putting off, and it might even go borderline acceptably for you!

I got out of bed at a slightly faster pace than usual. It wasn't quite possible to put what I felt at the time into words, but I suppose that when I was around Lucy, I sort of ended up acting first and thinking second. Of course, it was probably more important to focus on going about the day trying to keep the group together and the like, but, well...

It was still a bit hard to stop thinking about her.

Nevertheless, I just made my way to the morning meeting as usual.

Going there, it mostly felt the same as the last few. The routine was quickly gaining an air of monotony. Once again, everyone except Mary, Rocky, and Jo. The only real difference was the hunger was beginning to set in now, although it wasn't extremely powerful as it had only been one day. Nevertheless, its presence wasn't exactly welcome. We started with eating our bland paste meal, trying to get rid of as much hunger as possible, though with little success, as I (and I assume the rest of us) barely felt fuller at all. None of us bothered to complain, though, knowing that it'd be a waste of energy.

Except for Molly. "This tastes like rubbish. It's honestly just insulting. If they're only going to give us tiny rations, they can at least make them edible."

"Complaining isn't going to make it taste better.", I noted. "And besides, everyone's eating it anyway. It's, well, by the definition... Edible."

"It could be far less unpleasant is all I'm trying to say!"

Robin promptly stood from his chair, and spoke with a borderline-lecturing tone. "I am not surprised that you in particular, Molly, would be so rejecting of these conditions. After all, being used to your position as a hoarder of unequal wealth, you-"

"I beg your pardon?!", she yelled in return.

"... Position as a hoarder of-"

"I'll have you know that this 'position' was earned by my ancestors through their servitude to the monarchy! House Devon can be traced back to 1066, and nearly a millennia of enlightened service is a clear basis of justification to my standing in society!"

"Nearly a millennia of exploiting workers, actually! Which not only means that your family's possessions would be forfeit, it's also, to put it simply, the complete and utter opposite of good!"

"You surely must be joking! All records of my family depict the peasantry as having willingly offered themselves to-"

"It's not about your family in particular, it's about class dynamics-"

"Well you don't have much class in my honest opinion-"

"Look, can we not?" I sighed. "You two are just going to tire yourselves out doing that, which is bad enough considering the lack of food and-"

"Make him apologise then..." Molly said, slightly less forcefully, with a pout.

"Look..." Robin sat back down. "I am only pointing out the lack of logic behind the disparity of wealth between someone such as yourself, and a good hard working citizen such as, for example, Terry."

As he gestured towards Terry, we finally noticed that the stocky boy's head was laid face down on the table. He didn't even have his arms folded, his head was just lying there. His paste sat on the plate before him, completely untouched.

"Um... Are you alright?" Mia, who was sitting next to Terry, poked him a couple times.

"H-he's..." Dan's breath quickened. "I-is he breathing?!"

"Well," I started, "If he was dead then the body announcement would have played, right?"

"I-I guess, b-but he might be-"

"I'm resting." Terry's voice was muffled by the table, it sounded bland and monotonous. "I'll eat when I can. I'll be in the workshop afterward. You can ask me to do things if you want. I'm going to stop talking now. Tired."

Lucy blinked a few times. "Is the spoon going to be finished tonight?"

Terry nodded slowly, face still down.

"... Alright, err..." I stretched in my chair a bit, then started to get up. "Assuming there isn't much else to discuss, let's just end here before any more weird arguments happen."

"Well, it IS a waste of time, after all." Molly scoffed.

"... Why did you argue with him in the first place then?" I mumbled to myself, too quiet for her to hear, lest she direct her anger towards me instead.

With the meeting over, there wasn't much to do other than wait for the ever-so-useful spoon to be finished. I had the whole day to spend until then, and I didn't exactly have anyone in particular to talk to. I figured it'd be nice to try and talk to whoever was probably socialising the least, since there were a couple people who seemed disconnected from the rest of the group. Outside of the daily meetings and other events, I hadn't ever seen Mia walking around the school, so I wondered if she was just spending all day cooped up in her room. She seemed like the kind of person to do that.

Walking through the dorms, I reached her door, and knocked a couple times. There wasn't any response for a good bit, so I knocked again. As I was beginning to wonder if Mia just wasn't there, she opened the door slightly at a sluggish pace, peeking out.

"... What's the problem?..."

"... Well, there's no problem in particular, I was just wondering if you'd like to spend time together, or something."

"Why would someone wanna do that though?..."

"Err, well..." I paused, and scratched the back of my head. "Is there any reason not to? I mean, if you're against it, you don't have to."

"I'm not against it, just... Don't know why you wanna. I mean, I don't have a second game controller in here, so..."

"It's fine! If you'd like, I could just watch, I guess..."

"... Okay." She opened the door a bit wider and beckoned me in.

Mia's room was the same style as all the other rooms. The lights were off, with the only thing illuminating the room being a bedside lamp and a portable game system on pause, presumably the same one she mentioned earlier.

"Hey, isn't it unhealthy to look at a screen with the lights off?"

She shrugged in response as she sat down on her bed, before promptly grabbing it. "Eh. It's unhealthy to look at a screen no matter what." She yawned. "I'm just more used to this amount of lighting." She started playing the game, which depicted a knight struggling against a huge, spiky dragon. The graphics were highly detailed and realistic.

"... So, do I just sit and watch you play?"

"I guess. I dunno. I've never really had anyone over before..."

"That's..." I frowned. "Actually kinda sad."

"It's fine, I just talk with people online." Her responses slowed as she became more invested in the game. I leaned in a bit to get a closer look. There were some red and blue bars and numbers and pictures and... Well, I couldn't really tell what was going on, since I don't really play video games often.

"So... Are you winning?"

"Nope. Been on this boss for an hour now.", she said with a hint of frustration to her tone.

"I see... I assume there isn't an internet connection here, right?"

"Well, there is one, but the reception's so bad on it that I haven't been able to load anything online anyway. I bet they just put it there to screw with us." Her annoyance was clear in her tone, and it seemed to make her concentrate on the game even harder.

"Well, if that's the case, then you can't download any new games, right? What will you do when you run out of them?..."

She didn't respond, her focus was entirely tethered to the screen. Eventually, she let out a violent yell as the game was quickly obscured by bright red text saying 'YOU'VE PERISHED'. "Crap!... Uh, what were you saying again?"

"Just that you'll probably have to go out and talk with other people once you've completed all the games you own."

"A that's why I'm playing on the highest difficulty. Even if I run out of games, I could probably just mod the ones I already have since I know how to code."

"Ah, I didn't know you could do that." Finally, something decently interesting to talk about. I was certainly surprised that she did anything other then lie around and do nothing...

"I mean, plenty of people can." She rubbed her eyes mid-speech. "I finished a big coding project yesterday, though, so I don't feel like doing any for a while..."

"I mean, considering your talent as an, erm, 'Lazy Student' and all, I would have figured that you wouldn't really bother with doing projects out of your own volition."

She shrugged. "If I feel like doing something, I just sort of do it. I just don't really ever feel like doing homework." Mia started up the game again as she spoke. "There's no point in doing that, anyway..."

I was just sort of left staring at her screen with nothing much more to talk about. "... Can I have a go?"

"... Eh... Maybe..."

Time passed and I ended up leaving before she gave me a turn. After all, it was starting to get a bit late, and I still had to pick up that spoon.

Walking up the stairs to the floor above was much more tiring than before, as the hunger was taking hold over my body, weakening me considerably. Reaching the top of the stairs, I had to rest for five minutes or so... Of course, there was a second flight of stairs I'd have to go up in order to reach the floor where the workshop was, so that probably made me more eager to spend extra time sitting there. Nevertheless, despite all the effort required, I was able to reach the second floor.

As I was sitting at the top of the second set, I heard the school bell go off with the usual accompanying announcement.

"Now it's time to say good night, gooood niiiight, sleeeep tiiiight… Remember, some parts, like the cafeteria, are closed tonight, so watch where you're going!"

Immediately after, the lights shut off, leaving me engulfed in blackness. As it was incredibly dark, it was clear I'd have to wait longer there until my eyes adjusted and I could get a better idea for where I was going.

Sitting there in complete blindness wasn't exactly fun. It was entirely possible that someone could find me, and try to... Well, they wouldn't be able to see me, either.

So I wasn't really in danger, I think.

Once I was able to see clearly again, I traversed to where the woodworking section of the floor was. I could feel the air lose its warmth, implying the heating system had been shut off for areas outside of our dormitories. I moved a bit faster because of it, trying to keep myself warm with motion, though doing so was difficult due to the lack of energy and the ever-increasing urge to eat.

I entered the workshop. The lights were shut off here too, the only source of light being a lamp in the far corner of the room. This lamp sat on a desk near a buzzsaw, and was pointed towards Terry, who sat hunched over the desk on a stool. A light haze rose from in front of him.

Walking towards him took a while, partially due to me paying close attention to not trip over anything in the dark, and partially because the room was rather large anyway; it was almost as if the room stretched further out as I walked further into it. Nevertheless, I reached where Terry was sitting. I'm not entirely sure why I hadn't just called out to him when I walked in, but when I had seen him sitting in the dark alone, it made him seem somewhat threatening. Seeing him up close didn't help. His face was devoid of life, practically frozen in place, with an empty and glazed expression. The haze continuing to rise near him traced down to a cigarette hanging out of his mouth; how he was able to buy a box despite his age, I never asked. His mouse Joan was still with him, sitting on the desk, meandering with its usual energy. She crawled over the handle of a large scythe, with red streaks and a complex adornment across its blade. It sat next to a spoon with an equally detailed adorning pattern along its handle, and a pair of keys on a keyring.

Terry slowly turned his head to me, like a rusty machine that hadn't been oiled in years.

"Your spoon is ready." His voice was lacking in melody, completely monotonous, as he slowly moved his hand towards it.

"... Thanks." I reached to pick it up, only for him to promptly slap my hand out of the way. As I clutched it, trying to numb the pain, he spoke once more.

"No, let me do it..." He sounded reluctant despite his action's violent insistence on it. Slowly, he grasped it, and handed it to me. He then turned back to the desk without a word, at the same pace as before.

I ended up standing there for longer than I intended to, trying to grasp what just happened. I could go on a tirade about how he 'wasn't acting like himself' or something, but that much should be obvious. As I continued to stare at him, he reached into his pocket and brought out a tiny plastic container, and poured out some food paste unto the desk. Joan scampered towards it and started nibbling.

"... This cuts into my share of the food, in case you're wondering." I slowly nodded as he said so. "If you're just going to stand there... It's probably safer for you to leave. I don't want to hurt you, Jane."

"U-uh... Uh-huh." I stood still for a few moments, then, without asking what he meant by 'hurt you', I quickly paced towards the door, and exited.

When I emerged back into the halls, I couldn't see again, as my eyes had adjusted to the lamp light. However, having just walked through there before, I had a general sense of direction, and, motivated by my anxiety, I made my way to the stairs. Along the way, on the same floor, I passed by someone. Their footsteps were obvious, heading in my direction, and as we met, we both kept walking past each other. I couldn't make them out in the darkness.

I almost tripped and fell as I descended the staircase, but my eyes began to readjust once more, so making my way down became easier as time went on. I walked through the first floor and ground floor without anything more happening, and, with a swipe of my Monopad, entered my room.

It was pleasant to be somewhere well lit again. It wasn't enough to offset the anxiety of whatever the hell had just happened. So, too tired and hungry to even try and commit it all to memory, I got into bed, without bothering to change into my pyjamas.

MONOYAKI HOROSCOPE

Capricorn!

Now's the chance to take that big break you've been dreaming of! A nice vacation in some tropical islands can double as both a tropical paradise and a tax haven!

The morning jingle played, signalling the arrival of the next day. The morning went as usual, with me getting out of bed and stuff, and heading to the meeting.

Arriving in the cafeteria, most of the usual people were present. However, scanning over each seat, a new one was empty, specifically, Lucy's. I just figured that she was late, since people started talking without her arrival. I started to space out, thinking about last night. Though I was confused at the time, it now felt quite obvious that Terry's sorry state was due to overworking, lack of sleep, lack of food... I felt really bad for him. Looking at him that morning, however, he looked completely fine. He was upright, attentive, and he even looked healthier, like his skin was smoother or something. There were other unanswered questions about that night, too, such as the person who walked past me on my way back. I tried to figure out who it could have been, and why they were up there... Perhaps they too were going to pick up an item from Terry. Hopefully he didn't end up 'hurting' them, which was an extremely frightening word choice on his part... Thinking about what items were there, there were those keys, Lucy's scythe...

Lucy could have seen Terry that night.

Lucy wasn't at the meeting.

It's a bit hard to recount my thoughts at the time because my basic instincts immediately kicked in.

I practically threw my chair to the ground, and, without saying anything to anyone about where I was going, sprinted out of the room.

I sprinted through the long, empty white halls.

I sprinted up the stairs.

I sprinted through more empty white halls.

I sprinted up more stairs.

It obviously must have taken longer than how I'm describing it, but it felt like it was flying past at that speed, my body hurtling forward as if I had no control over it.

Traversing the top floor within moments, I nearly kicked down the door to the workshop, and...

Lucy was lying face down in a pool of blood. Her cape covered her back like a blanket over a casket. Most of the far corner of the room where she was lying had blood splattered on the walls.

"Attention! A body has been discovered! After a short time allotted for investigation, a class trial will be held to determine the culprit!"

A moment after the announcement ends, Lucy's body, it... It rolled over and groaned. She opened her eyes and noticed me at the door, with her usual glazed expression.

"... Did I faint or something?..."