IV - The Inmate's Ensemble: Daily Life END

Welcome to the Neo World Program…

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…

…

One moment, Kaede's sitting in the computer room with a visor covering her eyes. She blinks once. The next moment, light fills her vision and, suddenly, she's standing in a lounge with obnoxiously orange walls. Two carpets, mosaics of multiple colours lay across the floor, and three couches that don't match the room sit in the centre, flanking a chocolate brown coffee table. On one side of the room, three huge paintings line the wall; the first is of the room itself, the second is of an old man in an apron hovering next to a giant salad, and the third is an abstract piece of random shapes that hurts the eyes if looked at for too long. On the other side of the room stand two large windows surrounded with brightly painted blue frames, making the right-hand side of the room appear even more orange. The glass is frosted, so Kaede can't quite see what lies beyond the building they've spawned in, but whatever it is, it seems to mainly white.

Kaede takes a deep breath. "This is…"

"So this is the Virtual World! I see, I see!" comes Kokichi's voice from her left.

Kaede whirls around. She nearly keels over at the sight of Kokichi with an abnormally large head over a tiny body, grinning from ear to ear. Her gaze drops down to her hands and finds that she too, has the same warped anatomy.

Himiko stamps a stubby little foot. "These graphics are really disappointing! How are these supposed to be better than the real world!" She wilts. "I thought I was gonna look like a sexy supermodel, not a cartoon character…"

"Really?" asks Kokichi. "Cuz I actually think it's an improvement!"

"Nyeh!?"

"It's weird though." Kaito opens and closes his tiny hand. "It's like this is my own body. I can move just like I can on the outside. This is great! I even feel stronger in this world!" His smile falters and he mutters, "As long as we're in here, I won't hafta worry about that stuff…"

"Kaito?" asks Korekiyo.

Kaito moves to scratch his head, but his arm only reaches up to his jawline. "Haha, it's nothing." He sighs. "Just wishful thinking."

In two tunnels of bright light, Maki and Tsumugi are teleported into the lounge. Maki looks around once. Twice. A scowl forms on her otherwise unreadable face. "I've had enough. I want to go back."

Kaede titters. "That was quick."

Tsumugi's eyes light up. "Ohmygosh, you all look so cute!" Tsumugi's hands fly to the sides of her face. "Even I don't look so plain for once, thanks to this avatar. We all look like real-life chibis! It reminds me of that show, that one slice of life anime? Lucky—"

"I see!" Kokichi hums and nods. "I see, I see! So these are our avatars. Riiight, right. I get it now. Kaito, c'mere for a sec!"

Kaito blinks. "Huh? What do you—?"

Kokichi socks him in the jaw.

"OW! The hell was that for!?"

Kokichi nods again. "So you felt that!"

Kaito's eyes widen. "Now that you mention it… yeah, I did!"

"So these avatars can feel genuine pain," muses Korekiyo. "That would imply that our basic senses are connecting from our real bodies to our avatars in here. Fascinating."

"Well, we can see and hear just fine," states Maki. "So it makes sense that we can feel things, too."

"Mhmm!" says Kokichi. "And we can smell too! In fact, I can already smell a certain pig's dirty presence congregating in this very room…"

"Who the fuck are you callin' a pig?!"

As if on cue, three more tunnels of light beam into the room, vanish, and in their places stand Ryoma, Rantaro, and Miu, respectively.

"Man," Miu says. "I haven't been here in ages! I forgot how relaxing it was…"

Ryoma glances around the room, to the other avatars and then to Miu. "The graphics in here are pretty poor..."

"Hey," Miu snarls. "It isn't my fault you look the exact same in here as you do out there, midget! So don't bitch to me about graphics!"

Ryoma's glare darkens. "Care to repeat that…?"

Miu blanches. "N-no, sir!"

"Hmmm…" Rantaro pats himself down. "Right…"

Kaede gingerly moves to stand near him. "Are you all right, Rantaro?"

Rantaro stands straight. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just wanted to see what these 'avatars' are all about." He clears his throat. "So, about these forbidden actions—?"

Maki holds up a hand. "Wait. I want to hear an explanation about the senses." She narrows her eyes at Korekiyo. "What do you mean by our senses connecting from the outside?"

"I can explain that." Miu places her hands on her hips and huffs. "So, basically—"

"It means that this goes beyond the realm of reality!" Kokichi sings. "We are actually connected to our bodies from inside this virtual world!" He throws his tiny hands up behind his back. "And we're all naturals at it! It's like we've been practicing this entire time for this very moment!"

"What do you mean by that?" asks Kaede.

Kokichi smiles sweetly. "I don't know. What do I mean by that, Kaede?"

"AHEM!" Miu coughs into her fist. "Anyways, when your avatar receives any sort of sensory input, electrical signals are sent to your brain. Your brain then reads these signals as if it experienced the input for real, as brains can't tell the difference between what's real and what's not."

"So even if I'm not actually being punched, I feel it because that's what my brain thinks is happening?" asks Kaito.

Miu nods. "Pretty much. You get it now?"

"Oh, I see!" Kokichi beams. "So I could hit Kaito as many times as I want, and it won't leave any bruises!"

Kaito snarls, "I'd like to see you try."

"Um." Kaede takes a step forward. "We have ten minutes before the effects of our bracelets kick in, right? We should start looking for the secret to the outside world as soon as we can."

"But… we don't even know where to start looking, right?" says Tsumugi. "I don't think we'll be done in ten minutes."

"But we have to try!" Kaede stresses. "The sooner we find the hidden clue, the quicker we can get out of here."

"There's a map outside in the hall," Miu states. "But I've gotta give y'all a warning about this world before we start searchin'."

"A warning?" echoes Rantaro. "Man, Miu, you gotta be quicker on the draw with important stuff like that."

Huffing, Miu crosses her arms. "I-I'm plenty quick on the draw, whatever the fuck that means! Not too quick though, or else you wouldn't be able to pull out in time—!"

"Iruma," Ryoma says darkly. "The warning."

Miu shudders. "R-right. It's not exactly a warning, so much as it is a rule but basically, objects are unbreakable in this world."

Kaede blinks. "Objects… don't break?"

Miu nods. "Yep. The program doesn't have any code regarding whether or not objects can break, so in this world, objects are just that. Objects that can't be altered. So if you were to stretch a rubber band in here, it wouldn't snap, it'd just stretch until it can't anymore. Same with your avatars; you can't get injured, but you can still feel pain. Other than that, the physics of this world mirrors the real world!" She pauses for a moment. "O-oh, wait, there's one more thing—"

"There's still more!?" shouts Himiko.

"I-I'm sorry! I haven't been here in a while, okay?!" Miu takes a deep breath. "I-in order to log out of the world…" She points over at the rotary phone sitting by the window. "… you just gotta pick up the phone, clearly state your full name, and your consciousness will be transported back into your real body. Is that clear enough for you fatheads?"

"Can the phone be removed from its place?" asks Rantaro.

"Huh? No, it's stuck there. So you have to use this room to log in and out."

"Right, right." Rantaro nods to himself. "And we always appear here when we log in?"

"Yes, yes. Any other questions, zombie-dick?" Miu makes a flourishing gesture with her hand. "If not, follow me outside, there should be a map of the place out here."

"Nope." Smiling, Rantaro waves his hands. "All done."

"You guys better not cheat by logging out early!" says Kokichi, as the other avatars slowly start to file out of the room one by one. "We need to find the secret to the outside world!"

Kaede sighs. "This isn't a game, Kokichi."

"Hm, you sure about that?" Kokichi taps his chin. "I'm pretty sure Monokuma called this place a Killing Game Simulator, which would make it a game, no?"

"Let's just focus on the task at hand, all right?" asks Rantaro. "C'mon, lets head outside, otherwise we won't get anything done."

When in the hallway, Miu gets straight to explaining the single map hanging on the wall. It shows the mansion, and all of the rooms within: the salon, from which they just left; a dining hall; a bathroom; a kitchen; and a stairway leading to the rooftop.

"Wait, so we can pee in here?" Himiko asks.

Rolling her eyes, Miu scoffs. "Pretty sure the bathroom's just there for show, bug-tits, but feel free to prove me wrong if you want! Though the toilet-paper won't be of any use to you, considering the rule about objects…" Miu falters, and Kaede swears she sees discomfort flicker in her avatar's eyes, but it's gone as soon as it comes.

Miu clears her throat. "A-anyway, this is just the map for the mansion, when you get outside, you'll just have to find your way around."

"So there isn't a map for the outside area?" asks Kaito.

"Well, I was going to implement one, but…" Miu's eyes flick to Kaede's for a brief second. "I uh, didn't have the time to."

Kokichi sneers, "That sounds like a lie." He screws his little chibi face up. "Smells like one too! Ew!"

Miu whips round to make a retort, but a bell akin to a school chime sounding across the building prevents her from doing so.

"Five minutes until NG Bangles are activated."

"We really need to hurry and find that clue," mutters Maki.

"The only other thing you guys should probably know is…" Miu sighs. "Is that the world loops at both ends of the world."

"It… loops?" asks Ryoma.

"Yeah, so…" Miu thinks for a moment. "It works like this. We're currently in the mansion on the right side of the world. If you were to follow the footpath outside, you'll reach the chapel, the building right next door, but if you continue walking, you'll eventually hit the loop, and end up goin' through a loading screen which'll take you to the other side of the river outside."

"So it's like we're inside a video game, loading to the next cutscene!" exclaims Tsumugi.

Miu shrugs. "If you wanna put it like that then yeah, I guess."

"Apologies for the interruption, but we have a more pressing issue at hand," says Korekiyo. "The NG Bangles, and the clue to the outside world hidden within this world."

Kaito rubs his neck. "Geez, where could that clue be hidden… it's gonna be pretty hard to find something when we don't even know what this thing looks like."

Kaede instinctively reaches for her backpack straps, only to realise she isn't wearing it as an avatar. "It's going to be hard to find any clues in this world as it is. We need to split up in order to search as quickly as possible so we can get out of here."

Kokichi jumps on the spot. "Great idea!" With a spring in his step, he starts sauntering towards the door.

"And where do you think you're going?" asks Korekiyo.

Kokichi looks over his shoulder. "Hm? I was gonna investigate alone. There's a load of stuff I wanna check out."

Kaito scowls. "Like hell am I gonna let you go off on your own!"

Pouting, Kokichi childishly stamps his foot. "No way! Since when did I need permission to do anything, Kaito? I can do whatever I want!"

Kaede frowns. "Kaito's right, though. That's not a good idea. What if someone k—" She stops herself just in time, the action on her NG Bangle flashing through her mind. "… T-takes advantage of that, y'know?"

Kokichi stops in his tracks. Sighing, he rolls his eyes. "Okay, fiiine. Ryoma, I choose you!"

Tsumugi frowns. "What is he, a Pokémon?"

"Hmph." Grunting, Ryoma stuffs his hands in his pockets and moves to stand with Kokichi. "Guess it's better than you running off on your own with Yumeno again."

"Nyeh?" says Himiko. "Me?"

"That's true." Maki folds her arms. "Kokichi always finds a way to manipulate Himiko in some shape or form…"

Kokichi gasps. "Me? Manipulate someone? I would never!"

Kaito scratches his neck. "Uh, I don't know if I like the idea of Kokichi being alone with anyone in this place. Maybe I should—"

"Then how about I go with them?" offers Rantaro.

"O-oh," says Kaito. "You want to?"

"Why not?" Rantaro walks to stand beside the pair at the entrance. "There's ten of us here, so we can split into groups of three, three, and four. That way we're all able to keep an eye on one another, right? And no one is left alone with anyone else."

Puffing out his cheeks, Kokichi crosses his arms. "I can't believe I'm being babysat by Rantaro of all people. Tch whatever. Let's get outta here. I wanna explore aaaall the suspicious places before anyone else!" Spinning around on one foot, Kokichi makes no haste in bouncing towards the mansion door and vanishing before anyone can stop him.

"Sure, sure." Rantaro flashes a smile over his shoulder. "We'll take care of him. Let's meet back here in, say, three hours? That should surely be enough time to find something of worth."

Kaede nods. "Sure, we'll see you then."

"All right, best of luck, you guys." Rantaro's face hardens. "And remember, be on your guard." Rantaro moves to step out into the open world, and Ryoma follows suit.

The futuristic whoosh of the pair phasing out into the next area echoes through the mansion. Korekiyo reaches up to hold his hat. Himiko wrings her hands.

Kaede tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. "They'll be fine, guys. Rantaro and Ryoma are strong. They won't be manipulated by Kokichi's antics." She balls her hands into fists. "I just know it."

"One can only hope," says Korekiyo, as the same chime rings throughout the world once again.

"Two minutes until NG Bangles are activated."

"Nyeeeeeh!" Himiko's avatar starts to tremble. "Two minutes, you guys!"

Maki frowns. "Why are you so nervous?"

"N-no, I'm not n-nervous! I-I just…" Himiko snivels. "What if I need to pee… or if I get tired or something - I might accidently trigger my bracelet thingy…"

"It's okay, Himiko!" Kaito exclaims. "I'll carry you!"

"What?" Himiko and Maki say in unison.

"Yeah!" Kaito bends down in front of Himiko, offering his back to her. "Piggybacks technically aren't sitting down, right? So as long as Himiko's with me, she won't get punished!"

"Nyeh!?" Himiko gasps. "You'd do that?"

Kaito grins. "Of course! So long as we're in this world, I feel like I can carry you long enough for us to have a look around the place."

"Mmmm, well if it's Kaito that's doing it…" Himiko breathes a sigh of relief. "Okay… I'll trust you, then." Fumbling with her small avatar body, Himiko clumsily clambers onto Kaito's back and nestles her head as best she can into his neck. "Mnnn…. This is actually comfortable. I could get used to this."

"I wouldn't if I were you," Maki grumbles under her breath.

"All right," says Kaede. "So Kaito and Himiko are another group. I guess they should have another person with them." Kaede turns to Maki. "Do you wanna go?"

Maki crosses her arms and scowls. "Not really, no."

"Aww, Maki-Roll!" says Kaito. "Why not? We'd make an excellent team, the three of us!"

"Because I don't want to," Maki says, her voice icy. "Is that a problem?"

Kaede involuntarily shudders. "N-no, I guess not. I just thought… never mind. In that case, Kiyo?"

"Me?" asks Korekiyo.

Kaede shrugs. "I don't know. Just figured you two guys would be more comfortable hanging around each other, is all." And so you don't get tempted to pull a move on one of the girls, Kaede thinks, only to immediately wince. What am I thinking? Kiyo and I were talking about being friends earlier, and already I'm not trusting him again…

Kaito grins. "Yeah, Kiyo, come with us! With you in our team, we're sure to find the hidden clue before Kokichi's team does!"

Tsumugi grimaces. "Since when was this a race…?"

"Very well. I will join you both." Korekiyo turns back to the others and bows. "Then I shall be taking my leave."

"Thanks, Kiyo," says Kaede. "See you later, okay?"

Korekiyo's eyes crease in a smile. "But of course." He holds out a hand. "The bangles should be activating shortly, so we must all remain cautious of not only our forbidden actions, but of each other. Monokuma is surely watching our each and every move."

"He's right." Kaito narrows his eyes. "Be careful, you guys, all right? Remember, this is Monokuma's game, after all. We have to be in top shape if we're gonna find this hidden clue!"

"Um?" Kaede blinks, but before she can properly reply, Kaito is already gone, with Himiko hanging from his neck, and Korekiyo trailing shortly behind them.

Miu pulls a face. "Well, that was fuckin' weird."

"One minute until NG Bangles are activated."

Kaede takes a deep breath. "This is it." She turns to face the remainder of those in the hallway. "Quickly, no one else has a forbidden action regarding people, right?"

Maki, Tsumugi and Miu look to each other, but no one speaks up.

"Okay, then." Kaede nods. "Does anyone have any suggestions on where we should start?"

"What about the rooftop?" Tsumugi suggests. "I know that it's probably a little too obvious, but if there's one thing I've learnt from playing detective novels, it's that the thing you're looking for is almost always hiding in plain sight!"

Maki shrugs. "I don't see the harm in checking. It's not like we have a time limit. We might be able to see what Kokichi is up to from up there."

"All right then, follow me!" Miu's tiny virtual skirt swings out around her as she turns and heads for the staircase. "If you wanna peek up my skirt while you're at it, go for it!"

To climb the stairs, the quartet had to wait for the different sections of the staircase to load. The staircase, like all the doorways, was too narrow for more than one person to squeeze through.

After a period of time, the quartet make it onto the rooftop. Shivering, Tsumugi wrings her hands. "I-it's freezing up here… Our avatars can even feel the cold?"

Miu grins. "Hehe, you bet! Great, right? We don't need to use birth control here either!"

Tsumugi sighs. "Each time you open your mouth, I feel like you become even more dislikeable… you should be quieter."

"Anyway, we should start searching up here," Maki says. "It shouldn't take too long, it seems like there's only one room up here."

Kaede's eyes land on the brown wooden doors. "Looks like a storage closet." She takes a hold of both doors. Pulls. "Huh? It's not opening."

Miu saunters over. "Uh, lemme see. All the doors in this place only allow one person through at a time – you probably noticed that already, so I'd imagine one of these doors is just for show." She tugs on the left door, and it jutters to the right.

"Oh, it's a sliding door!" Kaede exclaims. "That makes sense." Taking full hold of the doorknob, Kaede uses all her strength to haul the door sideways.

Kaede feels the blood drain from her face. "Oh… oh god…"

The quartet are greeted with stone walls, concrete flooring, and four wooden shelves.

Guns, swords, chainsaws, knives of all shapes and sizes, even polearms and claymores. The four wooden shelves inside the storage closet are absolutely filled to the brim with murderous tools and weapons.

The icy wind howls above them, and the nearby firtrees tremble, heaps of snow landing on the ground with a thud.

"So many weapons," Tsumugi gasps.

"Oh, right." Miu's head falls into her chest. "S-sorry, I never got around to programming out all the weapons and shit."

"It's not your fault, Miu, it's just..." Swallowing the lump in her throat, Kaede takes a deep breath. "We're going to have to keep someone here. Just to be safe, in case…" She trails off. "In case someone decides to… to do that."

"So like, keep watch?" Tsumugi asks. "I… guess I can do that? I feel like I wouldn't be any good at searching for the secret to the outside world anyhow. Knowing me, we might end up searching for hours."

Maki steps away from the binoculars situated nearby. "I can stay too. It'll be safer if there's two people keeping watch."

Tsumugi blanches. "M-Maki!?"

Kaede blinks. "Is there something wrong with Maki staying with you, Tsumugi?"

"I-it's not that, it's just…" Tsumugi's eyes focus elsewhere. "Staying alone with an assassin, outside a room full of deadly weapons…"

Rolling her eyes, Maki sighs. "I can't use my talent in here."

Tsumugi looks up. "What?"

Maki holds out her wrist and switches on her bracelet.

NG CODE: Using your talent.

"I'm the Ultimate Assassin, so I can't kill anyone while we're in this simulator. Besides…" Maki folds her arms. "If you were to end up dead while we were up here, it'd be pretty obvious what had happened, wouldn't it? I'd stand no chance in the class trial."

"I… suppose so…" Nodding, Tsumugi pumps her little fists. "Okay then! We can guard this closet together!" She shivers again. "Please you guys, find that clue soon, or I might just freeze to death!"

Maki turns back to Kaede and Miu. "We can check in the closet and around the rooftop, you guys head back into the mansion and look around there."

Kaede smiles. "Sure thing! Miu, are you ready to go?"

Silence.

"Miu…?"

Miu snaps out of her thoughts. "O-oh! Uh, yeah, sure, whatever." She heads back into the mansion ahead of Kaede.

"You all right?" Kaede asks when she loads into the hallway. "You seemed to be spacing out a lot up there."

"I'm fine," says Miu. "But that rooftop is my fuckin' least favourite place in this entire world. I don't know why, it's not like it's any different to being on the ground outside, and I'm fuckin' fine there!" She sighs. "I don't get it, but I get a weird feeling when I'm up on that roof."

"What kind of feeling is it?" asks Kaede. She loads into the bottom floor of the mansion behind Miu.

"It's like…" Miu takes a breath. "Remember back when Gonta died, and the both of us got that weird feelin' when we saw he'd been asphyxiated?"

A pit swells at the bottom of Kaede's stomach. "I do…"

"Yeah," Miu sighs. "It reminds me of that." She laughs, but Kaede can tell it's half-hearted. "Dunno why I brought that up, sorry."

"It's okay. I'm glad you told me." Kaede places a hand on Miu's back. "We won't go back up there while we're looking, okay?"

Miu snivels. "O-okay… thanks, Kaeds."

Kaede beams. "Of course! That's what friends are for, after all!" She straightens her back. "There's a kitchen and a dining hall in this place too, right? Maybe we should start by checking in there?"

Miu huffs. "Well, it's not like we can do anythin' else except look." Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she stomps past the dining hall, into the kitchen. "Stupid fuckin' Monokuma hiding a clue in here without my permission!"

Kaede starts pulling open the dressing table drawers at the top of the room. "And you don't know what kind of clue could possibly be hidden in here? Could it be an object? Or something else entirely?"

"Fuck no!" Snorting, Miu tosses a wok over her shoulder. "My first thought when Monokuma mentioned a clue to the outside world was a flashback light, but…" Her expressionless chibi face somehow manages to contort. "But the mere thought of codin' something that intricate and specific into a simplistic sim like this one boggles even the mighty Miu Iruma's brain!"

Kaede sighs. "I guess we won't know until we actually find this clue, huh?" She pumps her fists. "But I believe that we can do it! We have four teams out hunting, surely someone has to find something, right?"

Sometime later...

"Kaede…" Miu flops into a heap upon the kitchen tiles. "If you make me search this fuckin' kitchen one more time…!"

"Relax, I wasn't going to." Sighing, Kaede collapses next to her. "It seems like neither of these rooms have anything special hiding in them. We've turned the place upside down."

Miu rolls onto her knees. "So, what do we do now?"

"Hmmm." Kaede presses a hand to her chin. "If Maki and Tsumugi had found anything, one of them would have come down to notify us by now, surely. So that means…" She directs her vision towards the window. "The clue we're looking for must be outside the mansion." Kaede jumps to her feet. "As Tenko would have said, those degenerate males are taking far too long to find what we're looking for. I think what this search needs is a little more oestrogen than just Himiko on the job! What do you say? You in?"

Rolling her eyes, Miu sighs and gets to her feet. "Fine. But only cuz I don't trust you to not get yourself into some fucked up situation on your own."

Kaede smiles at her. "That's sweet of you!"

"Sh-shut up! Let's just hurry up and find this bitch of a clue before the others get there first." Miu stomps past Kaede, through the dining hall and out into the hallway. "I wanna rub it in that Panta gremlin's snotty little face when we rock up with the treasure and he doesn't. I wanna make him beg me for it when we get outta this place!"

Kaede follows Miu out into the hall. "What's with you guys and wanting to find the hint before Kokichi?" Kaede opens the front door. The loading screen flickers on and off before Kaede is outside in the midst of the wintery scenery. After looking around, Kaede spies a building beside the mansion. "So that's the chapel?" As they get closer, Kaede's eyes narrow. "It looks like no ones' come here yet. There aren't any footprints around here." She glances behind her. "Wait, there aren't any coming out of the mansion either!"

Miu whirls round. "Well, duh. The snow here is classified as an object. Like all the other objects in this world, it's unbreakable, so of course there aren't any footprints."

Kaede tilts her head. "So the snow is an object…?"

"Well, it sure as fuck isn't a living thing, is it!?"

"That's true I suppose." Kaede squares her shoulders. "In that case we should probably start by searching in the chapel."

Walking up to the chapel doors, Kaede reaches her hand out, and the loading screen phases her out, then back into the chapel. As she comes too, Kaede blinks as boxes upon boxes of seemingly meaningless clutter filling the pews make up the majority of the chapel. Rolls of wallpaper lean against the sloppily painted walls. Books of seemingly the same story lay strewn across the altar. The illuminated stained glass window sparkles bleakly in the light of the candles flanking it, and Kaede shudders when a cold, eerie breeze drifts past her from Miu loading in behind her. It's then that Kaede catches sight of the organ in the back left corner, and despite the pianist in her aching to investigate, she knows that more important matters need attending to first.

That, and the fact that her avatar doesn't have any fingers to play said organ with.

As soon as Miu comes to, her expressionless face contorts. "Fuck. I forgot I left all this shit here."

"There's so much to unpack here, literally." Kaede moves to pull a piece of Christmas tinsel from the box closest to her. "What even is all this stuff?"

Miu snorts. "Fuck if I know! My guess is that they're all extra assets or some shit that Monokuma didn't fuckin' do anything with!" Grunting, she picks up the first box she sees and tips out the contents. Christmas baubles of all shapes and colours spill out across the floor, and Miu huffs in disgust. "If those bitch-bears think we'll still be in this shithole by the time Christmas rolls around, they're sorely fuckin' mistaken. Tch. The nerve."

Kaede kneels down to dig into her first box. "So you didn't add this stuff?"

"I didn't even make this world, Bakamatsu. Monokuma did for the most part." Huffing, Miu kicks over another box, this time full to the brim with similar smaller boxes. "And he did a fuckin' shitty job at it, too. The amount of spaghetti code I had to get through before I could even remotely begin to make out what was this world was even about was fucking infuriating." She peeks into each individual small box, tossing them over her shoulder when they come up empty. "Fuck," she hisses under her breath. "Where the fuck did I put it?"

Kaede glances up from her work. "Put what?"

"O-oh— that's…!" Miu falters, before slumping her shoulders and sighing. "I guess it doesn't matter now. I hid a cell phone in one of these smaller boxes."

Kaede raises a brow. "A cell phone?"

"Yeah, it has the same purpose as the one in the salon, loggin' people out and shit. I was gonna use it to—" Miu stops herself short. "A-anyways, what were we doing? Secret, right."

Kaede swallows thickly. "To…?"

"Are you really gonna fucking make me say it?" Miu's head falls into her chest. "I was gonna to frame Kork for murder… back when I was plannin' on… y'know…"

"Frame Kiyo!?" Kaede's stomach drops. "Miu…"

"Yeah, I know, I know. I'm a shitty-ass person who almost did somethin' equally as shitty." Miu scoffs at herself. "Can't believe I almost stooped as low as to actually abide by Mono-fucking-kuma's rules—"

"But you didn't go through with it," Kaede points out. "You, you changed your mind, and that's what matters." Her gaze drops back into the box. "I can't even say that much." She clenches her fist around the edges of pixelated cardboard. "If only I hadn't thrown that stupid ball in that stupid vent. If only Shuichi hadn't left, maybe we could've—"

"But he's alive?"

Kaede's eyes snap up. "What?"

"Weedhead. Rantaro. Whatever the fuck you wanna call him." Miu reiterates. "That banana-coated bitch did some voodoo cursed magic shit, and now he's roamin' around with bug-tits and Hoe-ma as we speak." She scoots over and starts rummaging through a third box. "Doesn't that technically make you innocent? 'Cause last time I checked; it doesn't count as murder if your victim isn't dead."

"But he was dead, Miu, and it's because of me that he was!" Kaede growls through gritted teeth. "It doesn't matter if he's alive now, which I still don't get, by the way. He was one-hundred percent dead when I spent the night next to his body after I—" She stops herself short when she hears her bangle tingle. "Oh, that was close."

Miu makes a choking sound. "You slept with his dead body!? I didn't know you were into—"

"Miu!"

"S-sorry!" Miu resumes her rummaging. "But I really don't think it fucking matters, Kaede. I don't think anyone cares, especially now that he's alive."

"I really don't know about that," sighs Kaede. "I just don't have the courage to face him."

"Rantaro?" Miu asks.

Kaede nods. "When he first came back, it took days before I could even look him in the eyes, a-and even now, when he's being so nice to me…" Her eyes well up with tears. "E-every time I see him, I just remember how helpless he looked when he was on the ground by the books." She bows her head. "And when we were in Shuichi's lab he… he…" Kaede chokes back a sob. "He told me he had sisters, Miu! I… I did that to someone who had a family waiting for him… I made my choice without thinking about the possibility of making a mistake… without thinking of the consequences my actions would have on people outside of this academy."

"Man," says Miu. "You've really been goin' through it, huh?" She tosses her hair over her shoulder. "I won't try and pretend like I know how you're feeling, 'cause I still don't get why you're still beating yourself over it now that he's back."

Kaede sighs. "Rantaro might have risen from the dead, but that doesn't mean the burden I'm carrying rose with him."

"So then why don't you just tell him?"

"Huh?"

"Rantar-hoe," Miu says, quickly flipping through a book. "Just 'fess up and tell him what you did. Tell him what really happened that night."

"Tell him I—" Her NG Bangle tinkles, and Kaede promptly shuts her mouth. "I don't know… would that even solve anything?" Closing her eyes, she lowers her head. "I feel like that'd just drive us even more apart, if anything." Rantaro's terrifyingly dark gaze flashes beneath her eyelids. "I don't know if I could handle it…"

"But wouldn't that be good?" Miu tosses the book over her shoulder and reaches for another. "'Cause if he doesn't trust you anymore, won't that distrust mean he'll start keepin' an eye on you?"

Kaede shakes her head. "It's not me I'm worried about. I'll never… do that again. It's… everyone else…" Gritting her teeth, her hands curl tighter around the box in her lap. "I've been trying so hard to prevent something like what happened to Rantaro from happening again, and all I've done is caused more people to die." She meets Miu's eyes. "And caused more people to suffer as a result."

Biting her lip, Miu looks back down into her box. "But you stopped me… I was plannin' on killin' Kokichi and pinning the blame on that sister-fucker Kiyo." She looks back up to Kaede. "But I didn't, thanks to you."

"Miu," Kaede breathes.

"If I had to say…" Miu starts digging into another box. "Out of all of us, you're the one least likely to pull a move on anyone, with all the effort you've been puttin' in to stop these stupid killings, and fuck, even the one person you killed sprung back to life! If that doesn't say somethin' about your determination to change, I don't know what fucking would."

Smiling softly, Kaede presses a hand to her chest. "I think… this is just something I need to figure out on my own, whatever that something is. But I know what you're trying to say, Miu. And I appreciate it. Really, I do." She sighs. "It's… complicated. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I'm sorry too, for bringin' it up." Miu shoves another box aside. "Fuck me, we're never gonna get through shit at this rate. If only I'd had the time to remove shit, I coulda deleted those weapons and we could have an extra two pairs of hands helping us sift through all this fuckin' rubbish."

Kaede shakes her head. "It's better this way rather than… the alternative route this virtual world experience could have gone, y'know?"

"Well, it would have been fucking better than me not knowing what the fuck could be happening out there!" Miu snaps. "In my plan, I was the only one with the upper hand, whereas here… here, everyone's the fuckin' same! We all have the same strength, my fuckin' cell phone is missing so clearly someone's already nicked that and ran off somewhere." Gritting her teeth, Miu's tiny fists tighten around a box. "Fuck this game, fuck this world, and fuck me for thinkin' any of this would work out!"

"Miu. Miu!" Kaede warily approaches Miu's avatar. "Calm down, okay? I'm— I'm sure your phone is in here somewhere, we can look for both the clue, and your phone, all right?"

"That's not the fucking point, Kaede," Miu hisses. "The point is someone's probably plotting my death right about now, and it's probably gonna end up being that fucking gremlin of a chessboard—"

Kaede grabs Miu's shoulders. "Listen, Miu! You're getting worked up again, deep breaths, okay? I know what it's like to be paranoid, untrusting of everything and anyone, but right now you need to calm down. Let's talk calmly again, yeah? Like we were doing before this topic came up."

Scoffing, Miu bats Kaede's arms away. "Yeah, like you know anything about being fucking paranoid."

"Of course I do! We literally talked about it what, two minutes ago? Not even two minutes ago!"

"I wasn't fucking talking about that!"

"Then what did you mean?"

A beat of silence passes. Miu scoots around to grab another box, this time filled to the brim with paper party hats. "Ever since we got here, everyone's stuck to you like you're some fuckin' kind of people magnet. Whereas they've all been steering clear of me since day one, like I'm some sorta deadly virus or some shit. Hell, even Maki's more popular than me. Is it 'cause she's prettier? Because my tits are WAY bigger and juicier than hers, and so is my fucking brain! Like, she doesn't make make any useful shit for people, so why the fuck don't I get a himbo simping after me—?"

Kaede blinks. "Wait, are you talking about Kaito? I didn't know you liked him that way."

Miu makes a choking sound. "Wh-what? No! No, ugh, God, fuck no, I'm just…" Miu's demeanour vanishes in an instant, and she stares at the pink party hat in her hand. "Those two… they remind me of me and Kiibs, when we used to… when he was…"

Kaede places a comforting hand on Miu's back. "I'm sorry."

"He was the only person who appreciated me for who I was," Miu says softly. "Everyone else just asks me to make stuff for them but Kiibo, he… he actually took the time out of his day to spend time with me, y'know? Like, actually get to know me and shit." She shifts in place. "Even you first came to me to reconfigure those cameras for you, but as soon as I was done with 'em, you hopped on your merry way with your little beta— uh, with Shuichi." The stray pieces of Miu's avatar's hair droop lower. "I was hoping you'd come back but… you never did."

"But you came back to me."

Miu glances up. "Huh?"

Kaede gives her a small smile. "But you came to me with Kirumi's motive video, remember? And it was then that we truly started becoming friends. If you hadn't knocked on my door that day, we probably wouldn't be sitting here, right now, having this conversation."

Miu frowns. "But that's because I made the first move."

"Miu," Kaede starts, reaching into a box and pulling out a huge beach ball. "Have you maybe considered that that's how friendships and relationships work?" They may only have eyes in avatar-form, but Kaede can tell Miu's flabbergasted nonetheless. "Yeah," Kaede continues. "I approached Shuichi, well, number one because we woke up in the same locker, but number two because… well…" Cheeks pinkening, Kaede bites back her embarrassment. "Because I was interested in him?"

Ignoring the obvious interest that flashes in Miu's eyes, Kaede goes on, "So don't ever be afraid to make the first move, Miu, that's how friendships are supposed to work. And don't worry about me being more popular than you either because…" Kokichi and his signature smirk flashes through Kaede's brain, and she tightens her hold on the beach ball. "I can assure you that I don't get along with people as well as you think."

Miu rolls her eyes. "Whatever you say, Bakamatsu."

Kaede tosses the ball towards the altar. "I'm being serious, you know." Sighing, she gets to her feet. "Anyway, I'm going to head back over to this side to search. Let me know if you find anything, all right?"

Miu waves a dismissive hand. "Yeah, yeah."

Setting herself back down on the other side of the chapel, Kaede gets back to searching the left side of the chapel anew. Box after box turns up empty. Nothing suspicious catches her eye, but neither does anything that could be considered remotely useful. If the boxes aren't filled with other, smaller boxes, then they contain generic items like party hats; textless books; streamers; tinsel; Christmas baubles; small concrete statues of Miu in… promiscuous poses, that Kaede does her utmost not to comment on; beachballs; surfboards; bikinis; and other mundane beach items not suited to the snow-topped landscape outside. Judging by the stark silence in the chapel, save from the rustling of cardboard across the floor, Kaede assumes Miu's only finding the same kinds of stuff.

When Kaede finishes searching what she thinks is her fiftieth box, she allows herself to look over her shoulder to an equally exhausted Miu. "Find anything?"

Miu shakes her head. "It's all as stale as your vagina over here, Bakamatsu."

Kaede winces at the comparison, but regains her composure just as fast. "Anyway, we should probably head out to compare our findings with everyone." She glances down at her bracelet and her eyes go wide. "Oh, shoot! We're half an hour late!" Jumping up, Kaede races for the door. "C'mon, Miu, we have to get outta here before we—"

"Wait!" With saucer-wide eyes, Miu looks up at her from her place on the floor. "M-my thing… I can't run."

"What?"

Miu holds out her bracelet. "I-I'll get zapped if I try runnin'. Carry me, Kaeds."

"O-oh! Okay!" Kaede jogs back to Miu's side. "I'm not that strong, though. I'm not sure I'll be able to hold you for long."

"Are you callin' me fat?"

"N-no! That's not what I meant!"

Miu huffs indignantly. "It's fine. Anyway, we all have the exact same strength in this world, so if bush-head could carry donkey-lips earlier, then you can carry me too."

"Did you do that?" asks Kaede, lowering herself so Miu can clamber on.

"I did, yeah. T-to make the world fair."

Kaede wonders if that's the real reason, but she doesn't question it. Kaede reaches toward the chapel door, anticipating the loading screen. But instead a while light surrounds her, blinding her entirely.

"What?" Blinking, Kaede glances left, then right, but sees nothing but darkness. "Where am…?" She trails off as a weight presses down onto her head, and her vision slowly returns to her as someone lifts the visor off her head.

Kaede's heart lurches into her throat. "R-Rantaro?"

Rantaro smiles softly. "Welcome back, Kaede."

"I… logged out?" Kaede does a quick scan of the room. "Did I crash or something?"

"Oh, I wouldn't be able to answer that. I'm the only other one out here." Rantaro gestures around to the others, still immersed within the virtual world. "But hey, you got out safe and sound, so that's what matters, right?"

Kaede bites the inside of her cheek. "I guess… Wait, did you get logged out too?"

Chuckling, Rantaro scratches his head. "…You could say that, yeah. But I logged myself out with the phone in the salon. It sounds like you were pulled out against your will."

"Huh…" Kaede frowns down at the visor in her lap. "Then why did I—?"

"Hnnnngh…" comes a whining voice from across the room. "Am I dead? I-is this the afterlife?"

Rantaro whips round. "That voice…

Kaede gasps. "Miu! We were together when… she must have gotten logged out as well!"

"Kaeds," Miu grumbles underneath the visor. "You died too?"

Rolling her eyes, Kaede gets to her feet. Ignoring the tension in her back from being seated for hours, together with Rantaro, she carefully lifts the visor off Miu's head.

Wincing at the light, Miu slowly becomes aware of her surroundings. "Wait… the fuck happened?"

"That's what I was wondering," says Kaede. "It's like we both crashed or something."

"Crashed?" Miu scowls. "No, no. That's impossible. If we crashed we wouldn't have loaded out properly… Someone must have forced us…" Miu bites her lip. "But how the fuck did they know how…?"

"Do what?" Rantaro starts to ask, but the sounds of the others slowly coming back to their bodies stops him in his tracks.

Kokichi's the first to remove his helmet, shaking his head like a wet dog. "Whew! That sure was an experience!" He looks up. "Oh, so you two did get logged out!"

Scoffing, Miu rolls her eyes. "I shoulda known it was you, you little twerp."

"Wait," says Kaede. "Kokichi was the one who logged us out?"

Kokichi tilts his head. "Yes? We agreed to come back to the salon after three hours, right? You three weren't there, so I figured I'd see if saying someone else's name into the phone would log them out." His grin stretches unnaturally. "Guess it did!"

"Wait, us three?" Kaede asks. "But it was only Miu and I-"

"Nyeh..." Visor in her lap, Himiko stretches on her chair out like a cat. "That was tiring." She freezes. "Wait, the bracelets aren't working anymore, right?"

"Well if they were, I'm pretty sure you'd be dead," says Tsumugi.

Grunting, Kaito lifts his visor off. "So, we all made it out okay?"

"Looks like," Ryoma replies. "Shinguuji, did you load out?"

Silence.

"…Shinguuji?"

"Maybe he's still in his loading screen?" Himiko suggests.

"I logged him out before Kaede and Miu, though," Kokichi points out. "By that logic, he should have woken up first, right?"

"Kiyo?" Kaede gently shakes his shoulder. "Hey, Kiyo. Can you hear me?" When Korekiyo still doesn't respond, dread settles in Kaede's stomach. "Can someone help me lift his visor?"

"I'll help," Maki says, swiftly walking around the computer to her.

"All right. Thanks." With bated breath, Kaede slowly, gently lifts the helmet off of the anthropologist with Maki.

Sitting slightly slumped in his chair, arms clasped on his lap, eyes tightly closed. Korekiyo seems to be sleeping peacefully, but there's no mistaking the body in front of Kaede.

The dead body of Korekiyo Shinguuji, the Ultimate Anthropologist.

And then the one voice she despises the most fills the room.

"A body has been discovered!" Monokuma sing-songs. "Everyone, please remain inside the computer room— see how I changed it up 'cause you're all already here? Puhuhuhu, that's what you get when you experience the Body Discovery Announcement Live. Didya like it?"

"Shut the hell up!" Kaito swats Monokuma away when he tries to hand him the Monokuma File.

"No…" Visor clattering noisily to the floor, Kaede drops to her knees in front of Korekiyo. She barely hears the commotion surrounding her as blood roars in her ears. She'd just been talking to him, only earlier on in the evening. She was only just getting to know him. She had finally started getting through to him and now he's sitting in front of her, dead.

Snivelling, Kaede gathers herself, lifting her head, and it's then she spies Korekiyo's NG Bangle still firmly clasped to the wrist nearest her. Sighing, Kaede knows she'll have to examine him sooner or later, and absently reaches over to press the sides of his watch to read the NG Code imprinted on the watch face.

Her eyes quickly scan the text.

And her blood freezes over anew.

NG CODE: Escaping the Neo World Program without killing a single participant.

I've been going through a really really reeeeally rough patch both physically and mentally recently, so uploads might slow down from this chapter onwards. If that's the case, I'm really sorry! (╥﹏╥) But my goal is to get Chapter IV done this year at the absolute minimum, so I will do my best to fulfill that goal! On a plus side, this chapter marks the exact halfway point of the story! It's taken quite a while to get here, but I'm so appreciative of everyone that's stuck with me up until this point, and like I always say, this story WILL be completed! So thanks so much for sticking around! (ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ

... Anyways, tbh, I've had this motive in mind since I came up with this story so I've always wanted to include this NG Code aspect since the reception towards it was always pretty 50/50, and I thought the concept would be interesting to explore, but writing elements that are a little over the top or elements that don't actually happen in the canon has never been my strong point... so I am sorry if the execution of the NG Bangles wasn't up to your expectations. But since it was an important building block in me creating up this AU, it only felt right to include it alongside everything else that's brought this story up to where it is now. I hope this makes sense!

And yes lol most of you guessed the next victim was gonna be (character) from the last chapter - I figured it'd be okay to pull a Kodaka and make the victim suuuuper obvious for once, just because I really wanted him to have that conversation with Kaede before he set off on his way, and I didn't have the opportunity to put it in anywhere else. ;; I promise that the next victim won't be as obvious! It will not be obvious at all, mark my words, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Chapter 29: The investigation begins once again, but not without a spicy little twist on things!