Chapter 12: Nepgear's First Motive…

As I slowly pulled myself out of bed, I felt a little bit restless. "Another sleepless night, huh?" I said to myself. "Maybe it was from yesterday…"

I felt a little blush appearing on my face. Stop thinking about that! I scold myself.

As that thought crossed my mind, the sound of a doorbell ring in my room. I was a little bit confused on who would be at my door, so I opened it to see an energizing Taka standing firmly in front of the door.

"A fantastic morning, isn't it?!" Taka cheerfully said.

"Um, what are you doing here?" I tiredly asked.

But instead of answering, he replied with: "No matter how intensely the stormy seas may batter me, I will not fall as long as my feet are firmly planted! You agree, right?"

"Um, what are you talking about?" I asked with little confusion.

"And if you can't do it alone, just find someone to support you, and you can support them back!" Taka continued on with passion. "That's how you can overcome any storm!"

I just went full on silent on this since I had zero clue on what he's saying. But luckily, Taka explained himself. "I was thinking about it last night, and….I decided we all need to really come together. And that when I realized, every morning from now on, after the morning announcement, everyone should have breakfast together!"

Huh, that is not a bad idea…

"And now is the beginning of that fateful day!" Taka said with his usual passion. "Please head to the dining hall at your earliest convenience!"

And before I even said anything, Taka quickly walked away. I stood for a moment before saying to myself. "I guess I have to go to the dining hall."

When I walked into the dining hall, I saw that everyone was gathered at the big lunch table. "Everyone, thank you for making this time in your busy schedules to come together." Taka announced.

Leon just scoffed at his side of the table. "I didn't make time for shit. You dragged me here."

But Taka just ignored it. "I know I already mentioned this, but in order to get out of here, it is essential that we all cooperate with each other. And first, is this breakfast meeting to allow us to become friends and to build trust!" He began to get more passionate once again. "So from now on, let's all meet here in the dining hall every morning after the morning announcement!"

He seems really passionate about this… I thought to myself as I took my seat.

"Now then, let's eat!" With that, Taka sat back down on his chair, grabbing his plate.

"You w-want me to eat breakfast with other p-people?" Toko stuttered out. "I've never done that b-before. I'm not s-sure…."

"Yeah, it's been a while for me too." Leon stated.

Before anyone started talking, Junko asked. "Well anyways, Did anyone happen to come up with any clues."

And with that question, no one seemed to be completely silent about it.

"Seriously? Nothing at all?" Junko said in total disbelief. "Anything? It can be about how to get out, or who's doing this, nobody has anything?!"

"…You are going to die." Celeste stated all of the sudden.

"Huh?" Junko was, of course, shocked by that statement.

"If you can't stop yourself from showing weakness in front of others," Celeste explained rather coldly. "You will die."

"W-What the hell?" Junko exclaimed. "Don't even freaking joking about that!"

"I am not joking. Adaptability is survivability." Celeste repeated again. "Did I not say so? So you'd better hurry up and adapt to your new life here."

"Have you gone completely insane?" Junko questioned Celeste as she looked at her side of the table. "Adapt to my new life here? Do you have any idea what you're saying?"

"E-Everyone! Please calm down!" I cut in. "Has anyone got a clue on who's behind this?"

Wait, why am I saying this all of the sudden?

"One thing I can tell you is who's behind all this." Hina declared. "Someone who's totally weird and messed up. Why else would we be trapped here in the first place?"

"Um, okay but…" I suddenly trailed off.

Then Chihiro suddenly spoke up. "Ummmm…"

I turned my head towards her. "What is it?"

"If you think in terms of people who are really abnormal or bizarre," She began explaining. "Do you think maybe the person responsible for all this could be a certain murderous fiend?"

Murderous… fiend?

This got everyone's attention. "A murderous fiend," Makoto repeated. "Chihiro, do you have any idea who might be behind all this?"

"Well, maybe." Chihiro confirmed. "I mean, I can't really be certain, but…."

"Certainty is not the concern right now!" Taka suddenly cut in. "I'll allow whatever remarks you may have!"

"O-Okay." Chihiro responded, but was a little bit startled. "Well, have you guys heard of Genocide Jack?"

That's when Makoto's eyes widened. "You mean that serial killer that's been in the news and all over the internet?"

Genocide Jack? Serial killer? What are they—

Then Byakuya cut in. "The monstrous villain who's murdered scores of victims in brutally bizarre fashions. The word 'bloodlust was left at each murder scene, written in the victim's own blood. Whoever it is, he's like a ghost. He strikes without warning, and disappears without a trace. And on the internet, they started calling him…." He then turns his head towards us. "Genocide Jack. That about covers it, I think."

W-W-What?! There's a killer out there?!

"They say he's claimed over a thousand victims." Hiro said with a disturbed look on his face.

"That's just an urban legend though, right?" Junko asked, also looking a bit disturbed. "I mean even like, ten people would be totally insane."

Over a thousand victims?! I suddenly feel a little freaked out. Yeah this has to be an urban legend, right?

"Anyway," Chihiro spoke up again. "Whoever Genocide Jack really is, he's obviously some kind of super crazy killer."

"And if he really is this 'ultimate' psycho, I wouldn't be surprised if he put together something like this." Mondo stated.

"But like I said, I can't be certain." Chihiro said as she reminded them. "I don't have any evidence or anything. It's just a thought."

"But if they're a killer, isn't that like a killer kind of a problem for us?!" Leon asked, feeling a little bit nervous.

"It's okay!" Hina stated. "Everything's absolutely, positively, one hundred percent without a doubt gonna be okay! Cuz help is gonna be here soon, I'm sure of it!"

"Huh? H-Help?" Toko spoke up.

"We've been stuck in here for a few days, right?" Hina asked. "Nobody's been able to contact us, so I'm sure they're getting worried, I bet they called the police already!"

Suddenly, an evil laugh was heard throughout the dining hall. And then, Monokuma appeared in front of the table. "The police? You're putting your faith in the police?!"

Several of us jumped or yelped, which includes me. "What are you doing here?!" Sakura demanded.

"You guys, seriously," Monokuma seems to ignore Sakura's demand. "Do you understand what role the police exist to fill? All they're good for is being a foil, playing against a villain or anti-hero or evil organization. The bad guys come along and destroy them, and that shows just how badass they really are. Are you sure you wanna rely on such an unreliable group of losers?" Then he started to tempt us. "I mean come on! If you really, REALLY wanna get out of here, all you gotta do is kill!"

Suddenly, Hiro started to laugh, drawing everyone's attention. "Why the hell are you laughing?" Leon questioned in bewilderment.

"I'm just impressed at the total commitment to this whole act." Hiro said, still smiling.

"...You're still going on about that?" Junko asked incredulously.

"So, mister serial killer psycho freak bastard….what the hell do you want?" Mondo growled.

All that Monokuma did was tilting his head in confusion. "Mr. Serialkillerpyschofreakbastard, huh? That's a pretty long name! German, maybe?"

"We know who you really are!" Mondo stated angrily.

Monokuma, however, just turned away in response. "Maybe if I just ignore him, he'll go away…." He murmured loudly to himself, like he's taunting Mondo.

"Hey! Don't ignore me, asshole!" Mondo shouted in anger.

Still ignoring him, Monokuma turned back to us. "Okay, okay, let's get back to business." He stated. "Your life here has already begun and a couple days have gone by, and nobody's killing anybody!" He then hung his head. "I thought all you kids were lazy and selfish, and here you are working together. But I'm totally bored."

Then Makoto glared at Monokuma. "There's nothing you can say that'll make us start killing each other…."

But before he could finish, Monokuma interrupted. "Wait, I think-yes! Ding ding ding! I got it!" He declared. "All the mystery ingredients are right here-right people, right place. So why hasn't anyone killed anyone, yet? That's what I couldn't understand. But I just realized there was one very important piece missing!"

"What are you…" I suddenly spoke up, feeling nervous.

"If you wanna know, I'll tell ya! It's a motive!" Monokuma declared as he giggled in glee. "It's so simple! I just have to give everyone a motive!"

"Motive? What the #^%* are you talking about?" Mondo growled.

Still ignoring him, Monokuma continued on. "Oh, by the way! There's something I want to show you guys!"

"Stop changing the goddamn subject!"

"I have a little video I'd like you all to see." And again, Monokuma ignored Mondo. "Oh, but don't worry. It's not some pervy 'adult' video or anything. Seriously, it's nothing like that!" He assured us. "It's a special video for each of you showing that's going on outside the school."

This got everyone's attention. "Outside of school…?" Makoto said. "What are you talking about?"

"Ooh, Master's important today! Why don't you just watch it and find out?" Monokuma then informed us. "You can go to the A/V room to watch the videos."

Kyoko nodded. "Good, then we can go watch the videos right now. But before we do that, I would like to know…." She then directed her eyes towards him. "What are you? Why would you do something like this? What do you want from us?"

Monokuma tilted his head. "What do I want from you?" He repeated. "Well, if you must know…." He then looked at us menacingly. "Despair. That's all."

A chill suddenly went down my spine. D-Despair?

But then the menacing aura cools down. "If you want to know more than that, you'll have to figure it out for yourselves. Do whatever you need to uncover the mystery hidden within this school. I won't try and stop you. Cuz to be honest, it's entertaining as heck watching you guys search so desperately for answers! So I guess I want some amusement, too."

And with that, he disappeared, laughing along the way. "He's gone," Sayaka said. "And once again, he left before we could find out anything useful."

"Really?" Kyoko questioned rhetorically. "I think we learned something very useful. He has no intention of standing in the way of our pursuit of the truth. Interesting."

"Perhaps," Sakura agreed. "But what about the videos he mentioned? I'm very curious to see what's on it."

"Same here! Okay, so….!" Mondo then scanned around the dining hall, until he put his gaze on me.

"Wait, Why are you…?" I started to say.

He grinned. Hey, Nepgear! Check this out for us, would ya?"

My eyes widen at the request. "But, why?!"

"Cuz you're the closest to the door!" Mondo answered. "That's the rule, right?"

"W-What the— Rule?!" I stuttered out

Mondo then sighed. "Hey, hey," He started mumbling. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" He then began shouting. "HEEEY! You see how passionately I'm begging you?! What's the big deal? Just check it out real quick!"

I thought for a moment. Then I answered shakily. "S-Sure…"

That made Mondo's anger disappear. Awesome, thanks! I owe ya one!"

"Then I'm coming too!" Makoto spoke up.

"Me too!" Sayaka declared. "It's not safe to walk around this place alone."

"Yeah, sure thing. Then we're countin' on the three of ya!" Mondo stated. "If anything happens, just yell and I'll come runnin'!"

We nodded before we walked out of the cafeteria. After walking a few feet away from the dining hall, Sayaka spoke. "I can't decide if Mondo is totally dependable or completely terrible." Sayaka admitted.

Then Makoto spoke up. "Yeah, I'd have to say he's kind of both."

I wanted to refute it but then didn't, since it was kinda true.

When we made our way to the A/V room, we found a cardboard box sitting on one of the video players. When we checked inside, our eyes widened.

"It's…" Makoto began before Sayaka finished the sentence. "...a bunch of DVDs." She then looked at each one of them "And each one has a label on it with someone's names."

"This must be the 'video for each of us' he mentioned." Makoto deduced.

Sayaka nodded in agreement. "I'd better go tell everyone!" With that, Sayaka ran out of the A/V room, leaving both of us alone. While I took one of the DVDs which had my name on it.

Should I look at mine real quick? I looked at Makoto, who was taking his out and putting in a DVD player while putting some headphones on. I guess it won't hurt to try…

I did the exact same thing as Makoto and when the screen turned on. It showed a purple haired girl wearing a white and purple parka dress sitting on a couch, just smiling happily and well… laughing.

Who is that? I thought to myself. But for some reason, she seems familiar…

I was smiling too since she was so familiar like she has been in my life this entire time. But then the scene switched to a destroyed couch, with no one in sight. My face turned from happiness to complete horror.

Where did she go…? I thought to myself. What is going on…?

Suddenly, Monokuma's voice spoke up. "Neptune, the older sister of Nepgear. She looks up to her older sister as an idol; a form of inspiration. But it seems like….something's happened to this sister's well-being! Oh boy, this is bad! What could have possibly happened to this sister's well-being?!"

Then the video switched to a sentence, saying "Look for the answer after graduation".

"N-Neptune…?" The words I muttered felt familiar to me. Suddenly tears flowed down my face as I remembered: I'm a CPU Candidate. My sister, as well as the other CPUs, were captured. We were fighting against CFW Magic and we lost that fight.

What is going on? I thought to myself. Why am I here? Neptune! She's captured! Sis! I have to get out here! I need to get out of here! I need to save her!

"Neptune!" I suddenly yelled out.

That is all for now! She remembers up to the point that she was captured by CFW Magic. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Please Review and Stay Safe!