In a hidden part of the academy, Shulk woke up to find himself chained by his wrists. They didn't restrain any movement as he got up.

"Where am I?" He asked in confusion.

"This is the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles." An unknown voice said.

"Who are you? What have you done to Sharla?" The blonde-haired boy demanded to the voice.

The person from the shadows where the voice came from scoffed. "I am the mastermind of the Killing School Semester. As for your friend, she is in the killing game itself."

"What..?"

"I will admit, she's done well so far. Seems like I've underestimated her a bit. But my plans for this game are falling apart more quickly than what I planned because of her. So, I'll be taking some of your fighting skills of yours for myself!" The voice exclaimed as he reached out.

"No, stop! NOOOOOOO!" Shulk screamed as he felt a blue light fly out of his body.

The mastermind laughed manically as they kept consuming his abilities right out of him.

...

Begin Chapter 3: Beware the Most Powerful Traitor

I wasn't sure what to expect the next day especially with the argument I overheard before following Kiyo last night, but when I got to the dining hall the next day after putting on my normal clothes it was clear things had only gotten worse. Kaito was yelling at Angie about something and our group of friends was visibly spilt in two, the sets standing on opposite sides of the hall, but that wasn't what concerned me the most. Keebo was.

He was pink now. Every bit of his previous gentle cyan lighting was gone, leaving only the nearly toxic-looking magenta glow in it's place. Even the glare he gave Kaede was an intense pink rather than his previous desaturated blue, which shook me for reasons I couldn't explain beyond the sweating in fear.

And as around his neck, catching the light despite the shadows there, was Miu's layered necklace he salvaged the night before, clean and repaired, I didn't need to wonder why he did. That was a fair enough warning for what this was about.

Kaede wasn't a good enough leader for us so Angie wanted to take over her responsibilities.

The way the room was divided into two new 'groups' was pretty clear. Those in support of Angie's new leadership were Keebo, Tenko, Tokuko, Kirumi, and Gonta. Those out of mine and Kaede's friends that wanted to keep supporting the pianist's own attempts to protect us were Kokichi, Kiyo, Miyuji, Ryoma, and Kaito's trio of him, Shuichi, and Maki.

Little wonder this would happen the day I would be the last one to arrive, huh? Not that I'd blame anyone here. I thought to myself before going in to stop Kaito and Angie's argument.

"Calm down, both of you! Let's just try to talk this out, OK?" I said. "This is about how Kaede's been leading everyone so far, right? Just tell me what's going on."

"Atua doesn't believe Kaede's been doing a good job at keeping everyone safe. She is good at bringing us together, but only in ways that have better enabled us to turn on each other." Angie explained. "He doesn't feel only Monokuma the Monokubs' motives are at fault for that, as she haven't tried limiting the means for our betrayals. And so He told me Angie should be the one to lead us now, and to make rules to help protect everyone here! We can't keep hoping for her dangerous dream of going back outside Sharla, we've lost enough of us."

"And that's why I'm calling this bullshit! How long do you honestly think we could stay here?!" Kaito yelled. "Have you seen where our food's been coming from? Any medical facilities, or even a goddamn nurses office?! We can't trust anything here to keep us alive in the long term, you idiot!"

The astronaut should know about the dangers of being stuck somewhere without any means of protecting or repairing the resources all of us will be relying on than anyone else here, given his talent and experience. And yet Angie and her supporters kept completely ignoring his warnings and concerns.

"But Atua says it's safe here, and it's not like we have any better options." The artist pointed out. "Without a safer alternative, it's plain to see this is the best course of action we can be taking, isn't it?"

I didn't agree with that so I stepped in. "Tokuko, you're rather wary of cults and con artists, right? Because it's sounding like you should take that advice right now you know, you can't just pretend Kaito's wrong here."

"How could she? She and Angie were both Con Artists already, aren't they?" Kokichi mocked, looking for all to see like a Volff with it's prey as both the artist and the actress glared at him for the pun.

But he's not really OK with what's happening here, is he? This is too dangerous to allow things to keep going on for long, right? I thought.

"Who are you calling a cult?! We are-" Tenko's yelling was interrupted by a familiar shout in unison, minus the deepest voice in the yell.

I didn't know how I got into this situation, but Monophanie went with Angie's group and after getting the 'Magic Key' from them, Monodam lead my group to the fourth floor with a golden hammer in his robotic paw.

Following him soon proved to be a mistake. Not an avoidable one, and not one that was his fault in particular, but it felt like a mistake nonetheless. The fourth floor lived up to the creepier associations with a number a bit too well in my opinion. And that's only speaking from the top of the stairs, we hadn't even been to any rooms yet.

Kiyo's lab is here, isn't it? It's got to be here with this atmosphere and everything, it suits him way too well. Oh boy. I thought to myself as Shuichi let out a startled yell.

Kiyo must have thought the same thing as he went to a set of traditional shoji-style doors, unlike all the others in this academy. Kokichi quickly followed after him while Kaito stayed where he was, sweating and trying not to look at anything around him.

Shuichi and Ryoma were rather amused by this as they tried leading the astronaut down the halls but given the scream, that could not have been from Maki and Kaito dashing back and practically flying back down the stairs, that was clearly a lost cause. It didn't stop an annoyed Maki from following after him to literally drag him back by the arm though, as if in payback for all the times he practically did the same thing for her.

"C'mon Maki Roll, we don't need this many people here, right?! I can go see about the Ninja Scroll or something-" Kaito tried to argue, but the assassin was still having none of his excuses.

"Not a chance. I thought a 'manly' guy like you is supposed to be brave, aren't you?" She asked.

"W-Well... I mean... T-That's why it's good for you and Shuichi to do this alone! It's-"

"Better for you to face your cowardice here then. You are the only one with a problem, idiot." Maki challenged with an air of finality that seemed to shut Kaito up for the most part. Except for some nervous keening noises I could hear as he was being pulled away.

I chose to not draw attention to Kaede and she proves he really wasn't the 'only one with a problem' and instead made my way with her, Miyuji, and Monodam down the hall to a set of three doors.

The pianist opened the first to see what was in it, only to let out a shriek of her own and slam it shut again upon seeing what I could think looked like a ghost in the form of a certain blue Monokub. As Monodam grabbed her hand and made a dash for the anthropology lab along with me and Miyuji, we weren't the only ones.

Me and the vocalist at least found the confused looks on Kokichi and Kiyo's faces hilarious, we settled down when the supreme leader started to laugh at Kaede's own frazzled expression.

"...Might I inquire to what exactly that was about? If you'll pardon my use of the phrase, you look like you've seen a gho-" Kiyo tried to ask, choosing to react more calmly than the local liar. If only his choice of words had been better.

"Don't. Say it. Something was in one of those side rooms, honest!" Kaede tried to explain the best she could.

"INDEED, IT-WAS-MONOKID! BUT-DIFFERENT-THAN-HE-USED-TO-BE!" Monodam exclaimed.

"Please tell me- you're trying to say- you think you say some ghost- of a robotic teddy bear, Kaede. Because this is fucking priceless, you should see your face right now!" Kokichi was barely able to pause his laughter enough to speak, despite the scolding side look Kiyo was giving him for his teasing.

Don't you fucking pretend I don't see you smirking under that mask, Kiyo! You're enjoying this too, aren't you?! I thought.

"S-Shut up! You can go look for yourself then if you don't believe me." The pianist challenged.

"And leave you, Sharla, Miyuji, and Kiyo in his spooooky lab alone together? Ooookie-dokie! You four have fun~"

"I hardly see what you're talking about, the setup they have here is magnificent." Kiyo snarked. "I haven't the foggiest idea where on earth they could have found some of these works, I never expected I'd be able to so much as see them much less be in their presence during my lifetime."

As Kokichi stepped out to investigate Kaede's 'ghost bear', it was almost funny to see Kiyo flit about the room like he was a kid in a candy store. Though hearing him ramble about how there was a book with 'spells' written by the sole survivor of a village, fueled by the fury behind the girl's pen as she wrote, the incredibly heavy dog statue and cage meant for a séance from it, and a genuine katana did nothing to ease Kaede's nerves at all . Not that he noticed in his sheer delight at everything around him or that he's aware of my newly recovered memories.

The supreme leader really should've expected to find the pianist curled up into a ball like the way we saw her, sitting on one on the seats near the bookshelves with her head on her knees, when he got back.

"Uhh, Kiyo I think you broke her. Great, now who's gonna save us from Angie's crazy cultists?! They even have Kirumi, we can't compete with that! All we have is an idiot and scary people! WE'RE DOOOOMED!" The purple-haired boy faux-sobbed with his crocodile tears again as Kiyo sighed.

"Technically we do also have one of the less incompetent and supposedly benevolent of the Monokubs' progeny, but you make a fair assessment." The anthropologist admitted. "They also have Gonta and Tenko among them, which is also concerning as both are as strong as they are gullible I fear. Unless Kaede is back with us now of course?"

"Darn you all to heck, you horrible, horrible people." Kaede replied in a deadpan tone, muffled by her body.

"Nope. Still broken, she can't even curse now." Miyuji said as she sweatdroped in embarrassment.

"...Hmm, I see. Very well then, speaking of curses-" Kiyo's words certainly got Kaede back on her feet.

"NO! NO MORE CURSES. I HEARD ENOUGH TODAY." She yelled as she pointed at him, but he was more amused than anything else. I chalked it up to their height difference.

"There, that appears to have done the trick. My apologies for not seeing sooner how distressed you were becoming, I got rather overzealous you could say." The anthropologist apologized.

Or you could say you were a dick, you jerk! I thought.

"THAT-IS-GOOD-" Monodam saw the enraged glare Kaede gave him and back-pedaled. "I-MEAN-NOT-BEING-INSENSITIVE-TO-YOUR-FRIENDS, THAT-IS-BAD. BUT-THAT-ENJOYING-YOUR-LAB-IS-GOOD! EACH-WAS-TAILORED-FOR-YOU-BASTARDS-AFTER-ALL."

"Is that more or less creepy to hear than everything else here?" Kiyo asked.

The green Monokub did make a good point, those labs were made especially for us to use. That explains how Kaede and Miyuji have the selection of music that they did.

A while later, I told Kaito to gather everyone on this floor and meet up later as I headed to find Angie's group.

It's best to have everyone regroup in the dining hall to see what we'll be doing with this. It's as good a time as any to see what they've found so far too. I thought to myself.